Category:God's Acting
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category explores the dynamic, multifaceted, and entirely transcendental nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's activities. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that although the Supreme Lord has no personal duty to perform and is completely self-sufficient, He nonetheless acts in wonderful ways. He acts indirectly through His diverse material and spiritual energies to create, maintain, and annihilate the cosmic manifestation. He acts from within the heart as the Supersoul, witnessing activities and dictating the path of spiritual progress to sincere devotees. Furthermore, He acts directly by descending into the material world in various incarnations to protect the pious, annihilate demons, and perform captivating pastimes. A crucial point is that God's acting is never contaminated by material qualities or sin; even when He acts in ways that appear contradictory or violent, His actions are absolute and ultimately beneficial for all living entities. Understanding how God acts is the key to escaping impersonalism and returning back to Godhead.
- Acting Through Energies: The Lord does not have to act personally to manage the universe. He acts indirectly through His multifarious energies (such as time and the modes of nature) which execute His will perfectly.
- Transcendental Action: Even when the Lord descends to the material world and acts like a human being, His actions are never contaminated by the material modes. He remains completely transcendental (nirguṇa) and untouched by sin.
- Acting as the Supersoul: Within the heart of every living entity, the Lord acts as the supreme witness and adviser. For the sincere devotee, He dictates exactly how to act to attain the supreme goal of life.
- Purpose of His Acts: The Lord acts primarily to satisfy the desires of His pure devotees and to create a narrative history of transcendental pastimes that attract conditioned souls back to the spiritual world.
- The Absolute Nature of His Acts: Because the Lord is absolute, all His actions are absolute. Even when He acts violently to kill demons, it is an act of supreme mercy that ultimately benefits the slain demons.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God's Acting - The Inconceivable Potencies of the Supreme Lord.
Subcategories
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Pages in category "God's Acting"
The following 98 pages are in this category, out of 98 total.
A
- Above all, the Satyaloka planetary system, where the chief directors of the modes of material nature reside, namely Visnu, Brahma and Siva. This Visnu is known as the Ksirodakasayi Visnu, and He acts as the Supersoul in every living being
- Acting through the heart of Parvati, the Lord, who is situated in everyone's heart, cursed Citraketu in order to end all his material reactions. Citraketu became Vrtrasura in his next life and returned home, back to Godhead
- Although He (God) has no interest in such things, in order to receive our loving service, He agrees to act as He does. We cannot actually offer suitable paraphernalia for the Lord's worship because we are completely ignorant
- Although the Lord acts within time, whether sattva-guna, rajo-guna or tamo-guna is prominent, one should not think that the Lord is under time's control. Time is within His control, for He creates time to act in a certain way
- Although the reflectory energy of the Lord displays various illusions to the eyes of persons with a poor fund of knowledge, the sane person knows clearly that the Lord can act, even from far, far beyond our vision, by His different energies
- Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead has nothing to do, He nevertheless acts; although He is always unborn, He nevertheless takes birth
- Ambika (goddess Durga), who was known as Daksayini (Sati), again accepted Lord Siva as her husband, just as different energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead act during the course of a new creation
B
- Beginning with the Seventh Chapter, the Lord already explained His different energies and how they are acting. Now in this chapter (BG 10) He (Krsna) explains His specific opulences to Arjuna. BG 1972 purports
- By the grace and help of Lord Vasudeva, who is all-pervading, one can engage his senses in devotional service without deviation, just as the Lord acts without deviation
- By the symptoms, how God is acting, how His energies are spread all over the world, if you study the energy of God, then you can see God, you can feel God, you can associate with God, and you become godly, or purified
D
- Devotees always want to see the Lord victorious in varied activities, and therefore, to please Himself and them, the Lord sometimes agrees to act as a human being and perform wonderful, uncommon pastimes for the satisfaction of the devotees
- 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
- Discussed (Sukadeva Gosvami) this act of the Lord's pleasure potency certainly not in relation to sex, but to relish a transcendental taste inconceivable to the mundaners who are after sex life
E
- Envious persons cannot appreciate how wonderfully the Lord creates, maintains and annihilates the universe, but devotees of God can understand this perfectly well. Devotees can see how God is acting behind the wonderful workings of the material nature
- Everything is there: what God is working, how He is acting, what is His address, who is His father, who is His mother - everything. Therefore it is called raja-vidya, king of all knowledge. You get everything, completely, raja-vidya; nothing vague
F
- For everyone but the devotees the Lord's energy acts as external energy. Dhruva Maharaja could understand this fact very nicely, and he could understand also that the energy and the energetic are one and the same
- From the results achieved by the karmis and devotees, one can understand the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who acts differently for the karmis and jnanis than for the devotees
H
- Having entered that cavity (the cave of the heart of this body), the living entity, resting on the chief of the life airs, enjoys the results of activities, and the Supersoul, acting as witness enables him to enjoy them
- He (Lord Ramacandra) fought with demons like Ravana, He carried out the orders of His father, and He remained the faithful husband of mother Sita. Thus there is no comparison to Lord Ramacandra's acting as an ideal king
- He (the Lord) can annihilate everything merely by His will. That is His supremacy. If one argues, "Why does He act in this way?" the answer is that He can do so because He is supreme. No one can question His activities
- He has immense potency, and in various forms, all free from material contamination, He acts wonderfully. He is therefore the Supreme Brahman. I offer my respects to Him
- He is the main pillar in the hall of devotional service erected by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He knew within Himself that He acted as the Supreme Lord Visnu, but externally He was prideless
- His (God's) transcendental energy acts according to His omnipotency. The same energy acts as His external, internal and marginal energies, and by His omnipotency He can perform anything and everything through the agency of any of the above energies
- His (the Lord's) seeing power existed before the material creation; therefore His body is not material. His thinking, feeling and acting are all transcendental
- How the Lord acts is nicely explained in the Visnu Purana: fire is situated in one place, while the heat and light produced by the fire act in many different ways
I
- If you believe Krsna, then the result will be that you can understand God - how He is working, how His energies are acting
- In Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that simply by knowing His transcendental pastimes anyone who understands factually who He is, how He appears and how He acts can be immediately fit for transfer to the spiritual world
- In every transformation, the last finishing touch is the glance of the Lord, who acts as a painter does when he mixes different colors to transform them into a particular color. When one element mixes with another, the number of its qualities increases
- In the Vedic literature (Mundaka Up. 1.1.9) we find that the Absolute Truth knows everything perfectly, but we also learn that not only does He know everything, but He also acts accordingly by utilizing His different energies
- It appears that He is acting, but He is not the actor. He is killing, but He is not the killer. Thus it is understood that only by His inconceivable power is everything happening
- It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita - the Lord dictates from within one who is sincerely engaged in His service, and the Lord acts in such a way that such a person can ultimately attain the supreme goal of life
- It is incorrect to argue that because energy issues from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the actor
L
- Lord has unlimited potencies, and thus He can act as He likes by perfect planning, although personally He has nothing to do. No one is greater than or equal to Him. That is the verdict of the Vedas
- Lord Rsabhadeva was the head of all kings and emperors within this universe, but assuming the dress and language of an avadhuta, He acted as if dull and materially bound
- Lord Sambhu (Siva) was not to be captivated by the external potency, but because Lord Visnu wanted to captivate Him also, He exhibited His internal potency to act the way that His external potency acts to captivate ordinary living entities
- Lord Siva reminded the Lord to act like an affectionate father toward Prahlada Maharaja, who was standing by the Lord's side as an exalted, fully surrendered devotee
O
- O Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, by Your sweet will You appear in various incarnations, millennium after millennium, and act wonderfully, performing uncommon activities that would be impossible for us
- One should not take the plural number of the word isvaranam to mean that there are many Godheads. The fact is that God is one, but He exists eternally and expands Himself in innumerable forms and acts in various ways
- Only through devotional service can one understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His inconceivable potencies, simultaneously acts impersonally and as a person
- Ordinarily they (saintly persons) never want anyone killed. Therefore, although it may appear that Lord Krsna or Prahlada Maharaja acted immorally, in fact they acted in accord with the highest morality
P
- Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate... na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate: in the (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.8 (CC Madhya 13.65, purport)), it is stated that the Supreme Lord does not have to act personally. He has many agents to perform everything for Him
- Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate: (CC Madhya 13.65, purport) the Lord has a multitude of energies, and therefore He acts in multifarious ways. Yet He has a particular name
S
- Seeing the activities of the world, the Acarya (Advaita) felt compassion and began to ponder how He could act for the people's benefit
- Since the Lord is absolute, everything done by Him is good for everyone. But when He descends on earth, He acts for the protection of the devotees and for the annihilation of the impious nondevotees
- Since the Lord is absolute, His acts of violence and nonviolence are both on the absolute platform. There is no difference in such acts of the Lord
- Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sings: "You (God) are now completely independent to act however You like. If You like, You can kill me, and if You like, You can save me. In any case, I am Your eternal servant and You have every right to do whatever You like."
- Such contradictions (as Krsna may act like the gopis and feel separation from Krsna, although He is Krsna Himself) are very difficult to understand unless a devotee strictly follows the Vaisnava philosophy under the direction of the Gosvamis
T
- The brahmanas and Vaisnavas are not greedy for material wealth. An example of this was given by Vamanadeva. Acting as a brahmacari, Lord Vamanadeva wanted only three paces of land
- The demigods offered their prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because He had now appeared in the womb of His devotee Devaki to protect all the devotees harassed by Kamsa and his lieutenants. Thus the Lord acts as satyavrata
- The entire internal energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts under His order. Of course, the material energy also acts by His order, but His direct will is specifically executed through the spiritual energy
- The fact is that ultimately the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. But because He acts through His different potencies, which are impossible for the gross materialists to see, the materialists accept Him as impersonal
- The impersonal view of the Absolute Truth is accepted by less intelligent men, because unless one is engaged in the service of the Lord one cannot understand how the Supreme is acting - one cannot even know the Lord’s name
- The Lord acts only to satisfy the desires of His devotees; otherwise He has nothing to do
- The Lord always acts in favor of the devotees, and therefore ordinary men who are fruitive actors or seekers of salvation may be attracted to the Lord when He acts as protector of the devotees
- The Lord appears, acts and leaves behind Him a narrative history which is as transcendental as He Himself. Every one of us is fond of hearing some wonderful narration, but most stories are neither auspicious nor worth hearing
- The Lord can act any way He likes. He may take away one's opulence, or He may not. There are varieties of forms of life, and the Lord treats them according to the circumstances, as He chooses
- The Lord comes in His original form, with beautiful black hair. And just to expand His transcendental glories, He acts extraordinarily. No one can properly estimate how great He is
- The Lord comes out of His own causeless mercy and acts as He desires, the Vedas and purāṇas are full of descriptions of His different activities so that people in general may naturally be eager to hear and read something about His activities
- The Lord descends on this earth and acts like others in connection with the activities of the world just to create subject matters for hearing about Him; otherwise the Lord has nothing to do in this world, nor has He any obligation to do anything
- The Lord dictates from within to anyone who is sincerely engaged in His service, and the Lord acts in such a way that such a person can ultimately attain the supreme goal of life
- The Lord has no duty to perform to oblige anyone. Nonetheless, He appears to act to protect His devotees or kill His enemies
- The Lord has nothing to do with anyone's protection or destruction, but for the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this material world He apparently has to act either in goodness, in passion or in darkness
- The Lord is also apapa-viddham because sin cannot touch Him. Even if He acts in a way that appears to be sinful, such actions are all-good, for there is no question of His being affected by sin
- The Lord is invisible to the eyes of the common man, but His energies act in various ways
- The Lord is omnipotent - all-powerful or almighty - and He can act as He likes
- The Lord is situated within everyone's heart, and outside as well. Within the heart He is the Supersoul, the incarnation who acts as the adviser and witness
- The Lord was acting freely, as He (Krsna) willed, yet by His practical example (of being under King Yudhisthira's regime as the king of Dvaraka) He taught not to lead a life which goes against the principles of detachment and knowledge
- The Lord's killing or annihilating of the demons is not exactly like the killing of this material world. Although He appears to act within the modes of material nature, He is nirguna, above the modes of nature
- The merciful Lord, out of His causeless mercy, descends to various planets in the material world and acts for the salvation of the conditioned souls. That makes the history and narrations worth reading
- The Supersoul is acting at every moment, but the living entity cannot understand the form and activities of the Supersoul by manipulating his senses
- The Supreme Lord has various potencies, by which He can act very efficiently
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: When the demons took away the jug of nectar, I assumed the form of a beautiful woman to bewilder them by directly cheating them and thus to act in the interest of the demigods
- The various expansions of the Supreme Lord who act to empower the material energy are known as plenary expansions or incarnations. As illustrated by the example of many flames lit from one flame, all these plenary expansions are as good as Visnu Himself
- The very same energy (God's internal energy) then acts to help the purified living being make progress on the path of self-realization
- The word sarva-bhuta-nivasaya further clarifies how Lord Visnu lives in everyone's heart and acts as the direct witness of all the activities of the conditioned soul
- The Yadavas were only partially cognizant of the Lord, but they are also glorious because they had the opportunity to associate with the Lord, who acted as the head of their family, and they also rendered the Lord intimate service
- There is no sufficient means to repay the Personality of Godhead for His act of benediction; therefore, we can simply feel gratitude and pray to the Lord with folded hands
- 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 (SB 8.3.22-24) is a summary description of the SP of Godhead's unlimited potency. That supreme one is acting in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His different potencies
- Thus the Vedic statements describe that the Absolute has no legs, no hands, no eyes, no ears and no mind, and yet He can act through His potencies and fulfill the needs of all living entities
- To generate the universe, the Lord acts indirectly as the purusa and directly as the prakrti
- To understand that Brahman, the Supreme, is conscious is not sufficient. One must know how He consciously acts through His different energies
W
- When an incarnation of Godhead descends on this planet, demigods like the sun-god, the moon-god or the King of heaven, Indra, all join Him. Consequently the incarnation is able to act for the departmental demigods to keep the planetary systems in order
- When He descends, He exhibits superhuman acts just to prove His supreme right, and materialists like Ravana, Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa are sufficiently punished
- When He first appeared before Prthu Maharaja, He was not touching the ground of this earth, but when He was fully satisfied with the behavior and character of King Prthu, He immediately acted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Narayana from Vaikuntha
- When the Lord appears in His original form, He acts to deliver the pious and annihilate the miscreants (BG 4.8). Although He annihilates the demons, He nonetheless benefits them
- When the Lord descends on this planet, He acts in many ways. He kills demons and performs acts not sanctioned by the Vedic principles, that is, acts considered sinful. Even though He acts in such a way, He is never contaminated by His action
- When the Lord wants to take pleasure in pastimes, He comes down to this material world and acts like a human being, thus showing His wonderful, glorious activities to please the devotees
- When there is smoke, you can understand that there is fire, although the fire is hidden; similarly, by the symptoms, how God is acting, how His energies are spread all over the world, if you study the energy of God, then you can see God
- Whenever the Lord descends and acts in this material world, He does so in His spiritual position. Although His activities materially appear different, spiritually they are absolute and nondifferent
- While decorating the body with tilaka, we give protection to the body by chanting twelve names of Visnu. Although Govinda, or Lord Visnu, is one, He has different names and forms with which to act differently
- Who else but You, the SPG, could deliver the earth from within the water? It is not very wonderful for You, however, because You acted most wonderfully in the creation of the universe. By Your energy You have created this wonderful cosmic manifestation
Y
- Yasoda took transcendental pleasure in seeing such activities of the Lord (felling of the arjuna trees) in the very yard of her home. The Lord in any condition is Lord of the universe, and He can act as such in any form, gigantic or small, as He likes
- You're scientist, your explanation from the scientific point of view, how God has entered, how He is acting, that will be very well received by the public. So that will be great service