Category:Eternal Associates of God
Theme Analysis
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is never alone; He is eternally surrounded by His loving associates who share in His transcendental bliss. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that these associates (nitya-siddhas) are eternally liberated souls residing in the spiritual world, Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrndavana. They are distinct from the eternally conditioned souls (nitya-baddhas) of the material world. When the Lord descends to earth to perform His pastimes, He brings these associates with Him, just as a king travels with his entourage. These associates include the gopis, the cowherd boys, Nanda, Yasoda, the Pandavas, and the confidential followers of Lord Caitanya. By following in the footsteps of these perfect souls, a devotee can attain the same perfection (svarupa-siddhi) and enter the eternal family of the Lord.
- Nature of Associates: They are eternally liberated, possessing spiritual bodies full of opulence and knowledge.
- Descent: They appear in the material world by the Lord's will to assist in His mission, not due to karma.
- Variety: They serve in different rasas: servitude, friendship, parenthood, and conjugal love.
- The Goal: The devotee aspires to regain their original spiritual body and serve in the constant association of the Lord.
- Distinction: While some associates like the Pandavas may act in the material world, they are always transcendental to the modes of nature.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Eternal Associates of God.
Subcategories
This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
Pages in category "Eternal Associates of God"
The following 74 pages are in this category, out of 74 total.
1
A
- A pure devotee desires only to engage in loving service to the Lord in the constant association of the Lord and His eternal associates, as stated in the previous verse (SB 6.11.25) - dasanudaso bhavitasmi
- According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, Smara (Cupid, or Kamadeva) is one of the eternal associates of Lord Krsna. Jiva Gosvami has explained this very elaborately in his treatise Krsna-sandarbha
- After the mind is completely absorbed in Krsna consciousness, one can enter the planet known as Goloka Vrndavana. To enter the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to understand Krsna
- All the Vaisnava associates of the Lord were present, including Nityananda Prabhu, Haridasa Thakura, Srivasa Thakura, Gadadhara Pandita, Mukunda, Jagadananda, Murari and Vakresvara
- All these gopis were going to offer Krsna their presentations because the gopis are eternal associates of the Lord. Now the gopis were more jubilant because of the news of Krsna's appearance in Vrndavana
- All these trees and birds and beasts were pious living entities born in the transcendental abode of Vrndavana just to give pleasure to the Lord and His (Krsna's) eternal associates, the cowherd boys
- As soon as one is freed from all the dirt of material contamination, as Maharaja Yayati was, one's original position as an associate of the Lord is revealed. This is called svarupa-siddhi, or personal perfection
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita (BG 4.9), after giving up his body, a devotee does not again receive a material body, but goes back to Godhead and receives a spiritual body resembling those of the Lord's eternal associates whose activities he followed
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (4.8), the Lord and His eternal associates, who are also liberated souls like the Lord, come down on this earth at certain intervals
- Associates of the Lord are eternally liberated souls, and they cannot bear the separation of the Lord even for a moment because of intense affection for the Lord. Thus the inhabitants of the city of Dvaraka were in a mood of dejection
H
- He (who is surcharged with transcendental love of Godhead) can see the Personality of Godhead in His own abode, Goloka, enjoying eternal pastimes with His eternal associates, who are also expansions of His transcendental existence
- He (Yamaraja) is surely among the most confidential representatives of the Lord. Such confidential posts are offered to great devotees of the Lord who are as good as His eternal associates in the spiritual sky
I
- In pastimes His (Krsna's) associates like the Pandavas and Bhisma are constant eternal companions. So Bhismadeva never forgot the beautiful feature of the Lord as Partha-sarathi, which even Arjuna could not see
- In the Bhavisya Purana it is said, "In such a ceremony, if even a candala (dog-eater), simply out of curiosity, sees the Lord on the cart, he becomes counted as one of the associates of Visnu"
- In the city of Dvaraka the following devotees are known as Krsna's close associates: Uddhava, Daruka, Satyaki, Srutadeva, Satrujit, Nanda, Upananda and Bhadra. All of these personalities remain with the Lord as His secretaries
- In the inner portion of Gokula there is an elaborate arrangement for Sri Krsna's residence with His eternal associates such as Nanda and Yasoda. That transcendental abode exists by the energy of Sri Baladeva, who is the original whole of Sesa, or Ananta
- In the material world, Krishna also has eternal associates, such as Arjuna and Kunti Devi
- Innumerable Vaikuntha planets, which are just like different rooms of a treasure-house, are all there, filled with all opulences. Those unlimited planets house the Lord's eternal associates, who are also enriched with the six opulences
- Instead of relishing activities of the cinema artists, one can turn his attention to the activities of the Lord with His eternal associates like the gopis and Laksmis
- It is also said that Vasudeva and Devaki, in their previous birth as Sutapa and Prsni, underwent a severe type of penance to get the Lord as their son, and as a result of such austerities the Lord appeared as their son
- It is to be concluded that Jagannatha Misra and Sacimata are nitya-siddhas, ever-pure associates of the Lord. Their hearts are always uncontaminated, and therefore they never forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead
N
- Nanda, Sunanda, Jaya, Vijaya, Prabala, Bala, Kumuda, Kumudaksa, Visvaksena, Patattrirat (Garuda), Jayanta, Srutadeva, Puspadanta and Satvata were all associates of Lord Visnu. They were as powerful as ten thousand elephants
- Nitya-siddha-bhakta indicates the eternally liberated associates of the Lord. Such devotees enjoy the company of the Lord in four relationships - as servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover
S
- Since the appearance and disappearance of the Lord and His eternal associates are transcendental, one should not be bewildered by the external features of appearance and disappearance
- Smrti means regulative, the law book, the statute book. Married life is there. We are preaching the cult of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He also married. All the five associates of Lord Caitanya, they also married. Krsna also married. So marriage is not bad
- Sometimes they (eternal associates of the Lord) come by the order of the Lord - not to hold any administrative post, but to associate with the Lord in person or to propagate the message of God in human society
- Sri Ananta Acarya is one of the eternal associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Previously, during the advent of Lord Sri Krsna, Ananta Acarya was Sudevi, one of the eight gopis
- Sri Krsna Caitanya, who was outwardly very fair, with a complexion like molten gold, simultaneously manifested His eternal associates, opulences, expansions and incarnations
T
- That is his pastime to show us how a little boy can become maha-bhagavata, how a little boy can be the eternal associate of Krsna, and how he can preach. That is Prahlada Maharaja
- The annihilation of the Yadu dynasty was a material show created by the Supreme Lord; otherwise the Lord and the members of the Yadu dynasty are all eternal associates
- The associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were many, but none of them should be considered lower or higher
- The associates of the Lord are far more numerous than the living entities who have forgotten the Lord due to material association
- The demigods said: Let Maharaja Nimi live without a material body. Let him live in a spiritual body as a personal associate of the S P of Godhead, and, according to his desire, let him be manifest or unmanifest to common materially embodied people
- The devotee has to follow in the footsteps of the eternal associates of Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana
- The devotee in this material world who executes loving service in pursuance of the activities of those eternal associates (like Nanda and Yasoda) with Krsna also attains the same post when he is perfected
- The devotees under the guidance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu aspire to reach the topmost spiritual planet, known as Goloka Vrndavana, the residence of Lord Sri Krsna and His eternal associates
- The difference between the Pandavas and Vidura is that the Pandavas are eternal associates of the Lord, the Personality of Godhead, whereas Vidura is one of the administrative demigods in charge of the Pitrloka planet and is known as Yamaraja
- The eternal associates of the Lord in Vrndavana have described this as follows
- The followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s way of devotional service are eternal associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and perfect knowers of the Absolute Truth
- The godly living beings who are all residents of the planets in the spiritual sky are eternal associates of God in different spiritual planets called Hari-dhama and Mahesa-dhama
- The idea in this verse is that the devotee is desiring to personally fan the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That means that he is desiring to become the personal associate of the Supreme Lord
- The impersonalist's explanation of the word aham in the four verses of the original Bhagavatam - aham evasam evagre etc. - is refuted here (in SB 3.7.37). The Lord and His eternal associates remain after the dissolution
- The internal devotees or potencies are all eternal associates in the pastimes of the Lord
- The Lord and His associates appear and disappear by the will of the Lord. They are not subjected to the laws of material nature
- The Lord and His eternal associates appeared on earth to help the administrative demigods in eradicating the burden of the world. He called for some of the confidential demigods to appear in the Yadu family and serve Him in His great mission
- The Lord and the devotee, they are on the same status. Every one of them. Lord, His name, His form, His quality, His associates, His paraphernalia. Everything, they are absolute
- The Lord reciprocated the feelings of the inhabitants of the forest of Vrndavana. When there was rainfall, the Lord took shelter at the feet of the trees or in the caves & enjoyed the taste of different fruits with his eternal associates the cowherd boys
- The Lord's detachment from household life does not indicate detachment from His (Krsna's) eternal associates, the transcendental cowherd damsels. But the Lord desired to end His so-called attachment to the three modes of material nature
- The members of the Yadu family who were engaged in supplementing the pastimes of the Lord are no other than His eternal associates, and so also Maharaja Yudhisthira and his brothers and mother, etc
- The six goswamis are not all eternal associates of Krishna. Only Rupa and Raghunath Goswami are eternal associates. You know there are two kinds of living entities: nityamukta or eternal associates of the Lord, and nityabaddha or eternally conditioned
- The spiritual sky is not void. There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and in each of them the Lord, by His innumerable expansions, predominates, and the pure devotees who are there also live in the same style as the Lord and His eternal associates
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme individual person, and Arjuna, the Lord's eternal associate, and all the kings assembled there (at the battlefield of Kuruksetra) are individual, eternal persons. BG 1972 purports
- The word svarupa refers to sarupya-mukti - going back home, back to Godhead, and remaining the Lord's eternal associate, having regained a spiritual body exactly resembling that of the Lord, with four hands, holding the sankha, cakra, gada and padma
- The “falldown” of Jaya and Vijaya occurred in a particular millennium; they do not come down in every millennium to act as demons. To think that some associates of the Lord fall down from Vaikuntha in every millennium to become demons is incorrect
- There are the eternal associates, the associates who have become perfect by devotional service, and those who are practicing devotional service and are called sadhakas, of whom there are two varieties
- These eternal associates of the Lord relate with Him in the higher statuses of friendship, parenthood, and consorthood
- They (a class of men who are not very authorized) imagine that they have become associates of the Lord simply by thinking of themselves like that. This external behavior is not at all according to the regulative principles
U
- Uddhava is one of the eternal associates of the Lord, and a plenary portion of Uddhava was one of the eight Vasus in the days of yore
- Upon seeing the Visnudutas, Ajamila gave up his material body at Hardwar on the bank of the Ganges. He regained his original spiritual body, which was a body appropriate for an associate of the Lord
W
- When bhava ecstasy is intensified, it is called maha-bhava. The symptoms of maha-bhava are visible only in the bodies of eternal associates like the gopis
- When Krsna exhibits His transcendental pastimes within the material world in some of the universes, not only the eternal associates of Krsna come but also those who are being promoted to that status from this material world
- When the Lord descends on the earth, His eternal associates also come with Him, just as the entourage of a king accompanies him
Y
- You are all being inspired just how to portray the Lord and His associates for the devotees' eyes, so everyone who sees to these transcendental pictures will turn to become devotees - that is our aim
- You should know that Arjuna and Kunti Devi are not in Krishna Loka. They are eternally associated with Krishna only in the material world
- Your good self is one of the eternal associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whose sake the Lord, while going back to His abode, left instructions with me