Category:God's Material Nature
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda elucidates the science of God's material nature, explaining that it is one of the Lord's divine energies. Commonly known as māyā or Durgā, this inferior material nature is never blind or independent; rather, it functions strictly under the intelligent direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The entire cosmic manifestation is set into motion when Mahā-Viṣṇu casts His transcendental glance over this dormant material energy, thereby impregnating it with the conditioned souls. Because the Supreme Lord is the creator and ultimate controller of the material nature, He is never subject to its stringent laws. Conversely, the conditioned living entities, who falsely attempt to conquer nature through science and material advancement, remain tightly within its grip. The only possible way to escape the crushing laws of material nature is to voluntarily surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the supreme master of all energies.
- The Inferior Energy of the Lord: The material nature is the inferior, external energy of the Supreme Lord, and it acts intelligently strictly under His supreme direction.
- The Glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu: The dormant material nature is activated and the cosmic manifestation begins only when Mahā-Viṣṇu casts His transcendental glance over it.
- The Supreme Controller: As the creator of material nature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is never under the control of māyā; He remains the absolute master of all energies.
- Surrendering to Overcome Illusion: Conditioned souls cannot conquer material nature through mundane science or personal endeavor; liberation is achieved exclusively by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Understanding God's Material Nature.
Subcategories
This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
Pages in category "God's Material Nature"
The following 46 pages are in this category, out of 46 total.
E
- Electrified by the power of the Lord, the material nature at once creates innumerable universes, just as in due course a tree decorates itself with innumerable grown fruits
- Even accepting that in the future one will be as good a controller of material nature as the Supreme Being, then why is one now under the control of material nature?
I
- If I am creator of something, so I cannot be under that particular thing which is created. It is logical. So therefore, because the Supreme Brahman, or Bhagavan, is the creator of this material nature, He cannot be under the control of maya
- In the Vedanta-sutras it is confirmed that the Lord is never partial to any living entity. The living entity is responsible for his own acts. The Lord only gives him facilities, through the agency of material nature, the external energy. BG 1972 purports
- It is in the form of Maha-Visnu that the Lord manifests the material universes. Just as a husband and wife combine to beget offspring, Maha-Visnu combines with His wife maya, or material nature
M
- Maitreya said: Eternal time is the primeval source of the interactions of the three modes of material nature. It is unchangeable and limitless, and it works as the instrument of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for His pastimes in the material creation
- Material nature is connected with the Personality of Godhead by His glance over her and nothing more
- Material nature is ever existing in its subtle form as the energy of the Lord, but it sometimes manifests this nonexistent or temporarily existent nature, the cosmos
- Material nature, the external energy of the Supreme Lord, is also known as Durga, or the female energy that protects the great fort of this universe. The word Durga also means fort
- My dear Lord, I am also the creation of one of Your energies, composed of the three modes of material nature. Consequently I am bewildered by Your activities. Even the activities of Your devotees cannot be understood, and what to speak of Your pastimes
O
- Of the three principal agents controlling the three modes of material nature, Visnu is the Almighty; even though He is within material nature for the purpose of maintenance, He is not controlled by the laws of material nature
- Only by Your (Lord Visnu's) presence can one understand the transcendental nature of Your Lordship, who are the controller of material nature - SB 10.2.35
S
- Since He is aloof from the material emanations, He is free from their interactions and is Lord of material nature. You should therefore engage in His devotional service, thinking yourself qualitatively one with Him
- Srila Sridhara Svami confirms that a part of the material nature, after being initiated by the Lord, is known as the mahat-tattva
T
- The Bhagavad-gita says that one can be freed from the control of the material nature by surrendering unto the Supreme Lord, but if there is no surrender, then the living entity will never be able to control the material nature
- The external energy, or material nature, works under the superintendence of the time factor as the Lord Himself, and that is why material nature appears to have produced so many wonderful things in the cosmic manifestation
- The Lord can speak through His breathing, and He can impregnate by His eyes. In fact, it is said that He glanced over material nature and thus fathered all living entities. BG 1972 purports
- The Maha-Visnu, throws His glance over prakrti, or material nature, but the Purusottama existed even before that. The Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad therefore confirms the statement of the Bhagavad-gita that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Person (Purusottama)
- The material nature full of physical laws is one of My different energies; therefore it's neither independent nor blind. Because I'm transcendentally all-powerful, simply by My glancing over material nature, the physical laws of nature work so wonderfully
- The material nature has no separate existence without the Lord. Therefore, setting aside the Supreme Lord as the cause of all causes is the logic of aja-gala-stana-nyaya, or trying to milk the nipples on the neck of a goat
- The material nature is one of the energies of the Lord (BG 7.4). The material nature is inferior in comparison to the living entities, the superior nature. The superior nature and inferior nature of the Lord combine to manifest all universal affairs
- The material nature is one of the energies of the Lord, and she can work under the direction of the Lord (adhyaksena)
- The material nature produces the moving and standing manifestations of the material world after being contacted by the supreme father, and not independently
- The material nature, known as maya, is both the material and efficient cause of the cosmos, but in the background the Lord is the consciousness for all activities
- The material nature, the cosmic manifestation and the living entities, are but different energies of the Lord (fire)
- The mind by which the Lord thinks, feels and wills is transcendental, and the eyes by which He glances over material nature are also transcendental
- The personified Vedas praying, "You (Visnu) are the controller of the three material qualities. Demigods and persons advanced in spiritual knowledge always hear and chant about Your transcendental pastimes"
- The scientist is trying to avoid God, independent by science. That is not possible. We are under the grip of the material nature. Material nature means the agent of Krsna
- The sun is the eye of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually, everything is created by the universal body of the Supreme Godhead. Material nature is simply the supplier of materials
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead can do anything and everything He likes, because He is not under the control of the material nature; indeed, material nature is controlled by Him
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the origin of the cosmic manifestation, is covered by the wonderful activities of material nature, just as outer space or the illumination of the sun and moon is sometimes covered by clouds or dust
- The unmanifested state of material nature, pradhana, is being explained. The Lord says that when the unmanifested material nature is agitated by the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it begins to manifest itself in different ways
- The whole thing (system of creation) is controlled ultimately by the Supreme Lord, and there is no independence either of the material nature or of the living entity
- The word anujnata, indicating that the whole sequence of events was arranged by the Lord, is significant. These particular pastimes of the Lord are not a manifestation of His external energy, or material nature
- There are two kinds of nature, namely the material nature and the spiritual nature, or the external and internal potencies of the Lord. The material nature is called apara, or inferior, and the spiritual nature is called superior or transcendental
- There is one Supreme Person who is the progenitor of this cosmic manifestation and whose energy acts as prakrti, or the material nature, dazzling like a reflection
- This cosmic manifestation, which comes from the unmanifest material nature of the Supreme Lord, sometimes appears and again disappears
- Transcendence is not at all static, but full of dynamic variegatedness. He (God) is distinct from the material nature, which is complicated by the three modes of material nature. He is parama, or the chief. Therefore He is absolute
W
- We can simply understand that behind the activities of material nature is the Supreme Lord, by whose indications everything takes place, although we cannot see Him. Even without seeing Him, we should offer Him our respectful obeisances
- We have already discussed many times that the material energy is controlled by the Lord. The Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.10) confirms this controlling power of the Lord over the material nature
- When the Lord throws His transcendental glance over the material nature, then only can the material nature act, as a father contacts the mother, who is then able to conceive a child