Category:God's Actions
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category focuses on the transcendental, absolute, and often inconceivable nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's actions. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that unlike the conditioned souls who are forced to act by the modes of material nature and suffer the reactions of karma, the Lord is entirely independent. He has no personal duty to perform, yet He acts effortlessly through His multifarious energies to create, maintain, and annihilate the cosmic manifestation. His actions are absolute (nirvikāra); therefore, whether He acts violently to kill a demon or affectionately to protect a devotee, both actions yield the same supreme spiritual benefit. To the mundane eye, His actions may appear contradictory or bewildering, but to the pure devotee, they are perfectly orchestrated displays of His causeless mercy. Furthermore, the Lord acts intimately from within the heart as the Supersoul, dictating the path of perfection for those who sincerely surrender to Him.
- Free from Reaction: The Supreme Lord is transcendental to all material laws of action and reaction. Even when He performs actions that appear violent or sinful, He remains completely uncontaminated (apāpa-viddham).
- Effortless Execution: God does not need ingredients, machinery, or labor to act. His supreme will is executed systematically and perfectly by His diverse energies, without any personal endeavor.
- The Absolute Nature of His Acts: Because the Lord is absolute, everything He does is all-good. A demon killed by Him attains the same ultimate spiritual destination as a yogī who performs lifetimes of austerity.
- Simultaneous Action: The Lord's actions are incredibly efficient; in a single stroke, He can fulfill multiple purposes—such as killing Hiraṇyakaśipu, saving Prahlāda, and keeping Lord Brahmā's promise intact.
- Inner Dictation: For the sincere devotee, the Lord takes direct action from within the heart, acting as the caitya-guru to guide the soul back to the spiritual world.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God's Actions - The Transcendental and Inconceivable Acts of the Supreme.
Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
G
K
Pages in category "God's Actions"
The following 60 pages are in this category, out of 60 total.
A
- Advaita Acarya is a separate expansion of Him. He always engages in devotional service with His thoughts, words and actions
- All the great, learned sages present realized that although they considered the action of Lord Balarama improper, the Lord was immediately able to compensate with greater profits
- All these actions of the Lord appear to be contradictory, although there is no contradiction in the routine activities of the Lord. Therefore it is better to see them as they are and not attempt to explain them
- Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very difficult to approach, He is very near to us because He lives within our hearts. As soon as God understands that one is seeking His favor by fully surrendering, naturally He immediately takes action
- An authorized spiritual master is as good as Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Hari is free to act as He likes, the empowered spiritual master is also free
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita, although He acts equally to everyone because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and because all living entities are His sons, He is especially inclined to those engaged in devotional service
B
- Bali Maharaja appreciated the actions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although all the members of the demoniac families except Prahlada Maharaja and Bali Maharaja considered Visnu their eternal traditional enemy
- By illusory action of prakrti, even dead matter is caused to move by the cooperation of living energy of the Lord, and the material world appears like a dramatic performance to the ignorant eyes
F
- First of all we must receive the information from authorities; then we can speak the truth. One first has to learn how to describe the Absolute Truth, Bhagavan - His actions, His mercy and His compassion upon all living beings
- For the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is no change. It is simply that a by-product results from His inconceivable powers of action. In other words, a relative truth - a by-product - is produced out of the Supreme Truth
- For the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is no change. It is simply that a by-product results from His inconceivable powers of action. In other words, a relative truth is produced out of the Supreme Truth
H
- He (God) is called nirvikara, "without activity." He has nothing to do. He is so great that He does not perform action personally, but His energies act. The brahmanas and ksatriyas, and anything that we see, are different energies acting upon one another
- He (God) is never the subject of reactions for any of His acts. He is transcendental to all such conceptions of actions and reactions
- He (Krsna) displayed full responsibility in every action of His different transcendental pastimes
- He (Krsna) kept His servant's promise intact. The demon (Hiranyakasipu) was also killed, and the promise given by . . . benediction given by Brahma, everything . . . that is the action of the Supreme Personality. In one stroke He is doing so many things
I
- If an insignificant spider is so powerful as to act according to its will, why can't the Supreme Being act by His supreme will in the creation, maintenance and destruction of the cosmic manifestations?
- If one understands the Vaisnava philosophy, which explains how He is present everywhere and how He acts everywhere, to worship the Supreme or to realize Him is not at all difficult. Realization of the Lord is possible only in the association of devotees
- If the Lord is able to change the reactions of one's past deeds, then certainly He is not Himself bound by any action or reaction of His own deeds. He is perfect and transcendental to all laws
- If you want to know in detail how great He is, to what extent He greatly is, how the actions of His greatness are going on, how His activities of greatness are going on, then you read BG
- In the liberated state the living being is helped by the spiritual nature in the voluntary loving service of the Lord. There is no incongruity or inebriety in His actions
- In the material world, if we want to manufacture an earthen pot, we need the ingredients, a machine and also a laborer. But we should not extend this idea to the actions of the Supreme Lord, for He can create anything in a moment
- It is said that when Brahma and the other demigods go to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Svetadvipa, they cannot directly see Him, but their prayers are heard by the Lord, and the needful action is taken. This we have seen in many instances
L
- Lord Brahma prayed: My Lord, You are unlimited, and You possess unending potencies. No one can estimate or calculate Your prowess and wonderful influence, for Your actions are never polluted by the material energy
- Lord Siva acts on behalf of Lord Visnu. When the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (BG 14.4) that He is the father of all living entities (aham bija-pradah pita), this refers to actions performed by Lord Visnu through Lord Siva
M
- Maharaja Pariksit still found the allurement of mundane family life so strong that he had to be detached by a plan of the Lord. Such direct action is taken by the Lord in the case of a special devotee
- Mundane violence and nonviolence have nothing to do with the Lord's acts. A demon killed by Him attains the same result as one who attains liberation after many, many births of penance and austerity
- My dear Lord, You are self-determined and are the Supreme Personality of Godhead for all living entities. For them You created this material manifestation, & although You are one, Your diverse energies can act multifariously. This is inconceivable to us
N
- No one can calculate the Lord exactly; every action of the Lord is bewildering to the common man. He cannot be understood by the Vedic knowledge, but He can be easily understood by the pure devotees because they are intimately related with Him
- No one can surpass the acts of the Supreme Lord. The demigods were also advised not to try to counteract this incident, because it was ordered by the Lord
O
- O Narada, although the potencies of the Lord are unknowable and immeasurable, still, because we are all surrendered souls, we know how He acts through yogamaya potencies
- One gopi told her friend: "It appears that Lord Krsna, the enemy of the demon Agha, has released from His mouth a whirlwind which is acting on your head and is gradually proceeding to do the same to the other lotus-eyed gopis"
S
- Since the Lord is absolute, deep meditation upon Him is as good as yogic trance. The Lord is nondifferent from His name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and specific actions
- Since the Lord says that He is suhrdam sarva-bhutanam (BG 5.29), the well-wisher of all living entities, how could He act with partiality by killing demons? These questions arose in the heart of Pariksit Maharaja, and he inquired from Sukadeva Gosvami
- Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always merciful, even when it appears that He has killed a demon, or even when He apparently becomes angry toward a devotee, His actions are always auspicious
- Srila Madhvacarya warns: (rudrasya yasaso) Lord Visnu was competent to rectify the situation, (of consuming poison) but in order to give credit to Lord Siva, who later drank all the poison and kept it in his neck, Lord Visnu did not take action
- Srila Sridhara Svami has verified that Lord Visnu appears in the Age of Kali but does not act as He does in other ages
- Such penance (by which one can see the Personality of Godhead face to face) is the internal potency of the Lord and is nondifferent from Him. Such acts of internal potency are exhibited by nonattachment for material enjoyment
T
- The action of the internal potency (of God) is also described in this verse (SB 4.3.23) as apavrtah, free from any covering
- The actions of the Lord to favor His devotees are not disqualifications but signs of His natural affection
- The creation and annihilation of the material worlds is a regular action of God just to allow the conditioned souls to play and create their own fate of being differently created again in terms of their independent desires at the time of annihilation
- The demigods are devotees of the Lord for the sake of material possessions, but although the demons apparently do not have the SPG on their side, He always acts as their well-wisher by depriving them of their positions of false prestige
- The duty of human society is to accept the path of action enunciated by the Supreme Lord
- The example of the player cited in this verse is quite appropriate, for the Supreme Will is absolutely free to do whatever He likes, and because He is all-perfect, there is no mistake in any of His actions or reactions
- The law of gravitation, the so-called scientists' imagination, does not act when Urukrama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, acts
- The Lord can fulfill many purposes through one action. Thus the killing of Hiranyakasipu and the saving of Prahlada were enacted simultaneously to prove the truthfulness of the Lord's devotee and the fidelity of the Lord Himself to His own purpose
- The Lord creates this material world and impregnates the material energy with the living entities who will act in the material world. All these actions have a divine plan behind them
- The Lord does not create this material world at anyone's request, and therefore He 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
- The Lord is reciprocally respondent to His devotees. When He sees that a devotee is completely sincere in getting admittance to the transcendental service of the Lord and has thus become eager to hear about Him, the Lord acts from within
- The material world is becoming more and more godless, and consequently everything is in a disturbed condition. If this continues, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will certainly take action, as He did in the case of Hiranyakasipu
- The Personality of Godhead, or the Paramesvara Parabrahman, according to the srutis has nothing to do. He has no equal. Nor does anyone excel Him. He has unlimited potencies & His every action is carried out systematically in His natural and perfect ways
- The soul is extremely dear to everyone, and similarly the Supersoul is also dear to everyone. Thus there cannot be any faulty action on the part of the Supersoul
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not, however, require to be under disciplinary action to become leader, as we see in the activities of Lord Krsna
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always inclined toward His pure devotees, and by His action it is clear that liberation is not very important for the devotees
- There is no incongruity or inebriety in His (God's) actions. All are on the path of Absolute Truth. Bhismadeva correctly estimated the inconceivable actions of the Lord
- These are the activities of maya, and since maya is also an agent of the Lord, it is indirectly the action of the Lord
- This manifests His (the Lord) full independence to act in any way, and it does not mean that He is an ordinary living entity forced to take birth in a certain type of womb
- Those who are demons cannot understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead floated the earth on water, but to devotees of the Lord this is not a very wonderful act
U
- Udasina, neutral, does not mean that God takes no action. Rather, it means that He is not personally affected. For example, a court judge is neutral when two opposing parties appear before him, but he still takes action as the case warrants
- Upon seeing the ecstatic loving symptoms manifest in Madhavendra Puri, the priest was struck with wonder. He could understand why Krsna had become so much obliged to him, and he saw that Krsna's action was befitting