Category:Becoming an Impersonalist
Theme Analysis
This analysis explores the psychological and philosophical reasons why spiritual seekers often fall into the trap of becoming an impersonalist. Śrīla Prabhupāda diagnoses this tendency as a reaction to material suffering; unable to utilize the senses properly for God, the conditioned soul attempts to kill the senses and the mind entirely, seeking a "mindless and senseless" existence. Philosophically, this arises from a "poor fund of knowledge"—specifically, the inability to conceive how the Supreme Lord can create the universe and pervade it while remaining a distinct Person. Śrīla Prabhupāda refutes this using the analogy of the spider, which creates a web from its own body yet remains a distinct entity. The analysis establishes that impersonalism is a preliminary stage, noting that while many impersonalists have advanced to become devotees, a pure devotee never degrades to the status of an impersonalist.
- The Psychology of Escape: The desire to become impersonal is often a desperate attempt to escape the misery of material variety by negating variety altogether.
- The Spider Analogy: Just as a spider creates a web without losing its identity, God creates the cosmic manifestation without becoming impersonal.
- Incomplete Knowledge: Impersonalism results from studying Vedānta without the guidance of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or a bona fide guru.
- The One-Way Street: History shows impersonalists can elevate to devotion (like the Kumāras), but a devotee never descends to impersonalism.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Mindless and Senseless – The Psychology and Flaw of Becoming an Impersonalist.
Pages in category "Becoming an Impersonalist"
The following 23 pages are in this category, out of 23 total.
A
- A devotee must know the importance of simultaneously understanding Vedanta philosophy and chanting the holy names. If by studying Vedanta one becomes an impersonalist, he has not been able to understand Vedanta
- As soon as one has material desires, one cannot properly use his senses, intelligence, mind etc. on for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of God. Mayavadi philosophers want to become impersonal, senseless and mindless, but that is not possible
D
- Dhruva Maharaja realized that the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, acts through His different energies, not that He becomes void or impersonal and thus becomes all-pervading
- Do not misunderstand that after the variegatedness of the material world being finished, everything becomes impersonal, that is nonsense. Try to understand Bhagavad-gita nicely
I
- If Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda and Advaita had exhibited Their all-powerful Visnu potencies within this material world, people would have become greater impersonalists, monists & self-worshipers than they had already become under the spell of this age
- If one tries to understand Vedanta philosophy and the Upanisads without studying Srimad-Bhagavatam, one will be bewildered and, construing a different meaning, will gradually become an atheist or an impersonalist
- In the beginning, these yogis (the followers of the Patanjali system) accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they ultimately give up this idea in order to become impersonal
S
- Sastra says that simply by understanding that "This is false, and I'll have to become away from these false engagements," so without knowledge of Krsna, such elevators, they become impersonalists and voidists, to make negative this material enjoyment
- Sometimes people are under the impression that the soul is different from the body & that when the body is finished, or one is liberated from the body, the soul remains in a void and becomes impersonal. But actually that is not the fact. BG 1972 purports
- Such people (who are interested in material promotion engage in ritualistic religious ceremonies) generally become impersonalists. They are interested in worshiping Lord Siva or goddess Durga, but their return is one hundred percent materialistic
T
- The impersonalists misunderstand the statements of Srimad-Bhagavatam to mean that the Lord entered His own effulgence and therefore become impersonal. But the Lord is a person, and His devotees are persons
- The transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is different from material manifestations, and it is above the reactions of matter. Unless one scientifically understands the spiritual form of the PG, one becomes an impersonalist
- There are many instances in the transcendental histories of the world of an impersonalist who has later become a devotee. But a devotee has never become an impersonalist
- These impersonalists, they cannot think of that a person can be so unlimitedly powerful. Therefore they become impersonalist. They cannot think of. The impersonalists, they cannot imagine...
- This very fact (a devotee never become an impersonalist) proves that on the transcendental steps, the step occupied by a devotee is higher than the step occupied by an impersonalist
U
W
- When one becomes very much advanced in so-called education, he becomes impersonalist, voidist. So Srimad-Bhagavatam, through Prahlada Maharaja's authority, is condemning
- When the cobweb is manufactured by the saliva of the spider, the spider does not become impersonal. Similarly, the creation and manifestation of the material or spiritual energy does not render the creator impersonal