Category:God's Impersonal Feature
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category establishes the nature, purpose, and limitations of the Supreme Lord's impersonal feature. The Absolute Truth, though ultimately a Supreme Person, expands Himself as the all-pervading, impersonal Brahman effulgence and the cosmic universal form (virāṭ-rūpa). The material manifestation rests upon this inexplicable, impersonal feature (avyakta-mūrti). However, Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that realizing this impersonal aspect is merely the first, incomplete step in spiritual life. It is often the maximum reach for dry empiric philosophers (jñānīs) and those frustrated by material existence. Because it is impossible to concentrate the mind or exchange loving relationships with something formless, the path of meditating on the impersonal feature is declared in the Bhagavad-gītā to be exceedingly troublesome (kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām) and fraught with uncertainty. Due to the lack of transcendental bliss (ānanda) in this feature, many who merge into it eventually fall back down into material varieties. Therefore, pure Vaiṣṇavas reject the troublesome pursuit of the impersonal feature, recognizing it merely as the bodily rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and focus exclusively on reviving their eternal, blissful relationship with His original, personal form.
- The All-Pervading Energy: The impersonal feature (avyakta-mūrti) is the expansion of the Lord's energy by which He pervades the entire universe. The complete cosmic creation rests upon this unmanifested, formless feature.
- An Incomplete Realization: The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases. The impersonal Brahman is the lowest, incomplete realization. It is subordinate to the localized Paramātmā and the ultimate Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- The Troublesome Path: The Bhagavad-gītā confirms that trying to advance spiritually by meditating on the unmanifested, impersonal feature is extremely difficult and troublesome because the mind cannot fix itself on something formless.
- The Consequence of Frustration: Those who pursue the impersonal feature are often motivated by frustration with material life. However, because the impersonal realm lacks active spiritual pleasure, they often fall back down to material engagements.
- The Devotee's Perspective: Pure Vaiṣṇavas acknowledge the impersonal feature as the glowing rays of the Lord's body, but they do not bother pursuing it. Their ultimate goal is to see the Lord face-to-face and engage in His loving service.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God's Impersonal Feature - The All Pervading Expansion.
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
K
Pages in category "God's Impersonal Feature"
The following 85 pages are in this category, out of 85 total.
A
- According to the Bhagavatam (1.2.11) there are three levels of transcendentalists: the self-realized knowers of the impersonal Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth
- Actually this philosophy (of Karma-mimamsa) stresses the impersonal feature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Because Lord Caitanya did not like such impersonalism, He rejected it
- After all, both the impersonal and the personal feature of the Supreme Lord are beyond our material conception
- All devotees who think of the Paramatma within the heart worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the temple Deity. They also understand the impersonal features of the Lord and His bodily rays, the Brahman effulgence
- All phenomenal manifestations, as well as the effulgence of the body of Vasudeva, are His impersonal features, whereas He eternally exists in His transcendental form called sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah distinct from all conceptions of the material ingredients
- Although the impersonal feature of the Absolute is an expansion of the rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He does not need to take care of the impersonalists who enter the brahmajyoti
- An appreciation of the greatness of the Lord is called santa-rati. This is attachment not to the personal feature but to the impersonal feature. Generally, one in this stage is attached to the Paramatma feature of the Supreme
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita: For those whose minds are attracted to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied - BG 12.5
B
- Because of having developed pure devotional service, the Bhattacarya did not like the word mukti-pade, which refers to the impersonal Brahman feature of the Lord
- By His (God's) impersonal feature He is all-pervading Brahman, by His localized feature He is present in everyone's heart as the Supreme Soul
D
E
- Elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 12.5) the Lord confirms, kleso ’dhikataras tesam avyaktasakta-cetasam: For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome
- Even the Lord's impersonal feature and all-pervading localized feature cannot be on an equal level with the Supreme Personality of Godhead
F
- Finally there is the jnana-kanda, which recommends activities that enable one to reach the Absolute Truth and realize His impersonal feature in order to become one with Him. But the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth is not the last word
- For the less intelligent beginners, meditation on the impersonal feature, the virat-rupa, or universal form of the Lord, will gradually qualify one to rise to personal contact
- For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progrese in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied. BG 12.5 - 1972
H
- He (the Lord) is what He is and does not agree to be a subject of their (foolish people's) speculations, which perpetually lead them to conclude that His impersonal feature is supreme
- His (the empiric philosopher's) attachment to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord makes him unfit to rise to that transcendental stage of vasudeva understanding
I
- If the Lord takes a form or material shape from His original impersonal feature, then it means that He is born and changeable from impersonal to personal. But He is not changeable. Nor does He ever take a new birth like a conditioned soul
- If you don’t get a shelter in another platform or planet, you come down again. You can't remain there. Similarly, in impersonal feature we cannot remain, & why we remain in the impersonal nature? Because we have no information of the Supreme Personality
- Impersonal Brahman is a feature of the Absolute distinct from the material variegatedness, just as light is a conception distinct from its counterpart, darkness
- In all ways the confidential part of spiritual knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, and not His impersonal Brahman feature
- In His (God's) impersonal feature, He is the rays of His transcendental body
- In His impersonal feature (Brahman) the Supreme Lord is everywhere, inside and outside: as the Supersoul (Paramatma) He is inside everything, from the gigantic universal form down to the atoms and electrons
- In the material world, although the Lord is all-pervasive in His impersonal feature, the living entities have forgotten their Krsna consciousness to a greater or lesser degree, just as sparks sometimes fall from a blazing fire
- It is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.4), maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina: Lord Krsna is spread all over the universe in His impersonal feature. Everything is resting on Him, but that does not mean that everything is He Himself
- It is remarked by the Lord Himself that those who are attached to this impersonal feature of the Lord suffer a very troublesome task because no one can concentrate on the impersonal feature
K
- King Pariksit's question was, Which is the ultimate target of Vedic knowledge - this concentration on the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth or concentration on the personal feature
- Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.4), maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina: "In My impersonal feature I pervade this entire universe." Thus the avyakta-murti, the impersonal feature, is certainly an expansion of Krsna's energy
O
- One cannot fix one's mind upon an impersonal something. Bhagavad-gita therefore says, kleso dhikataras tesam avyaktasakta-cetasam: For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome
- One path involves worshiping different demigods for promotion to the planets of the demigods, and another involves realizing the Absolute Truth and His impersonal feature and becoming one with Him
- One should have his ultimate aim of realization not in the impersonal feature but in the personal feature of the Absolute Truth
- One should not take up this troublesome path of self-realization (understanding impersonal feature of the Supreme) because there is uncertainty in the ultimate result. BG 1972 purports
- One who does not understand the Vedic principles simply stresses the impersonal material features of the Supreme Absolute Truth and thus incorrectly calls the Absolute Truth impersonal
- One who engages in pure devotional service has no desire to improve himself - except in the service of the Lord. In such devotional service there cannot be any worship of the impersonal or localized features of the Supreme Lord
P
- People who are attached to the impersonal feature of the Lord are obliged to take great trouble, yet nevertheless they cannot understand the Absolute Truth
- Persons who are addicted to the impersonal feature of the Lord, whether in meditation or otherwise, are all pilgrims to hell
- Persons who are unable to pin their faith on the personal feature of the Absolute are given a chance to associate with His virat-rupa, or the cosmic impersonal feature of the Lord
- Practically he (Sukadeva Gosvami) was thrown from the impersonal conception of the Absolute, thinking within himself that he had simply wasted so much time in devoting himself to the impersonal feature of the Supreme
R
- Real transcendental pleasure is realized in the glorification of the transcendental Lord, and not in the feeling of being situated in His impersonal feature
- Regarding the personal and impersonal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth, the personal forms exhibited by the Lord in His different plenary expansions are all for the benediction of all the universes
S
- Santa-bhakti-rasa devotees generally relish the impersonal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since their taste of transcendental bliss is incomplete, it is called aghana, or not concentrated
- Since the potent and potencies are identical, even the conception of His impersonal cosmic feature helps the conditioned soul to associate with the Lord indirectly and thus gradually rise to the stage of personal contact
- So there is no place for impersonal features in the transcendental world as there are impersonal features in the material world. Whenever there is cetana, or knowledge, the personal feature comes in
- So this is the position. So because they cannot remain in that impersonal feature they come down again to these material varieties of life. That is called envious
T
- The Absolute Truth is one, advaya-jnana, without any duality, but according to our capacity, we realize the Absolute Truth from three different angles of vision. So one of them is realization of God in His impersonal Brahman feature
- The complete manifestation of the cosmic situation is an expansion of the Lord Himself in His impersonal feature. All things are situated in Him only, yet He is not in them
- The cosmic impersonal feature of the Lord is a feature of His unlimited potencies
- The dry speculators, however, because of their following the principles of austerity and penance, can have knowledge of the impersonal features of the Lord to some extent, but there is no chance of their understanding His ultimate form as Govinda
- The four sages Sanat-kumara, Sanatana, Sanandana & Sanaka are described as actually sincere devotees. Although they had heard from their father, Brahma, about the personal feature of the Lord, only the impersonal feature - Brahman - was revealed to them
- The impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth is not the highest. Above the impersonal feature is the Paramatma feature, and above this is the personal feature of the Absolute Truth, or Bhagavan
- The impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth is not the last word. Above the impersonal feature is the Paramatma
- The impersonal feature of the Absolute, the Brahman effulgence, is but the rays of the personal body of Krsna. These rays of the personal body of Krsna are cast all over the creation of the Lord
- The impersonal feature of the Lord is the abode of great oceans, and His belly is the resting place for the materially annihilated living entities. His heart is the abode of the subtle material bodies of living beings
- The impersonalist gives stress to the impersonal form or feature of the Lord and does not believe in the original personality of the Lord, but the Vaisnavas accept the original form of the Lord, of whom the impersonal form is merely one of the features
- The impersonalist Mayavadi philosophers want to establish the Absolute Truth as impersonal, but this is in contradiction to Vedic literature
- The impersonalists, who are actually more attracted by the impersonal feature of the Lord, are only superficially attracted by the Lord's personal activities
- The karmis, under the direction of Vedic instructions, try to elevate themselves to higher planetary systems. The jnanis try to merge into the existence of Brahman, the impersonal feature of the Lord
- The Lord exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature
- The Lord has both impersonal and personal features. The impersonalists have no idea of the personal feature of the Lord, but Lord Brahma and the members of his disciplic succession want to see the Lord in His personal form
- The Lord is not impersonal in His abode, which is always nirasta-kuhakam, as stated in the very beginning of the Bhagavatam. Therefore both the impersonal and personal features of the Lord are acceptable, as mentioned in the revealed scriptures
- The Lord's impersonal feature is existent in the material world because by material senses or material eyes the Lord cannot be seen or perceived. One has to spiritualize the senses before one can expect to see or perceive the Supreme Lord
- The material manifestation is therefore the objective manifestation of the Supreme Lord and exhibits His impersonal feature so much adored by impersonalist philosophers
- The personified Vedas continued their prayers, "Dear Lord, Your impersonal feature is explained in the Vedas. You have no hands, but You can accept all sacrifices offered to You. You have no legs, but You can walk more swiftly than anyone else"
- The Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is one, and He is spread everywhere by His impersonal feature. This is clearly expressed in Bhagavad-gita
- The Supreme Lord is eternally distinguished from the living entities by His internal potency, although He is also understood in His impersonal feature by self-realized intelligence
- The universal form of the Lord, or the impersonal feature of the Lord known as the brahmajyoti, is clearly explained here and compared to the radiation of the sun
- The word aham indicates a person. As explained in the Vedas (Katha Upanisad): the Lord is the supreme eternal among innumerable eternals and the supreme living being among the innumerable living beings. God is a person who also has impersonal features
- There are others also, who perform sacrifices in the worship of demigods, and still others who sacrifice to the Supreme Brahman, or the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord. BG 1972 purports
- They (Muslims) accepted only the Lord’s impersonal feature. Generally they recite and explain this portion only. Although the transcendental body of the Lord is worshipable, most of them are unaware of this
- This cosmic manifestation is separated from the Supreme Lord as material energy by means of kala, which is the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Lord
- Those who are frustrated and are thus kept on the ignorance side of the Lord, or, in other words, those who have the view of the Lord from the back, realize Him in His impersonal feature
- Those who are impersonalists and are unable to render any loving service to the Lord have been advised to meditate upon His impersonal feature, the virat-rupa, or universal form
- Those who are in the Vaisnava sampradaya of Brahma always want to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are eager to realize the Lord's personal feature, not the impersonal feature
- Those who are too much after wealth and women can rectify their leanings only by constant remembrance of Visnu in His potential impersonal feature
- Through the principles of religion, one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Brahman (the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord) and Paramatma (the localized aspect of the Lord)
- Transcendental loving affairs of the Lord are unimaginable to empiricists involved in the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth
U
- Ultimately the Vedas recommend activities by which one can reach the Absolute Truth and realize His impersonal feature in order to become one with Him
- Unfortunately, materially affected conditioned souls are all more or less averse to topics of the Supreme Lord because some of them do not believe in the existence of God and some of them believe only in the impersonal feature of the Lord
- Usually they describe the Lord's impersonal aspect, but they hardly know that the Lord's personal feature is worshipable. They are undoubtedly lacking this knowledge
W
- When the empiric philosopher tries to approach the Absolute Truth, he can reach only as far as the impersonal feature of Godhead, without knowing anything about the Lord's transcendental pastimes
- Who worship the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth & regard the forms of the demigods as temporary, sacrifice their individual selves in the supreme fire & thus end their individual existences by merging into the existence of the Supreme. BG 1972 p