Category:God - As He Is
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains a profound theological truth: while the Supreme Lord is absolutely unlimited and therefore impossible to understand entirely, He can still be known exactly as He is. This realization, however, is not available to mundane scholars, mental speculators, or impersonalists. The absolute prerequisite for understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead is liberation, which in the Vaiṣṇava tradition means attaining perfect spiritual vision through pure devotional service, or bhakti. Through this loving service, under the guidance of a bona fide guru, a devotee's dormant spiritual consciousness is awakened. Only then is the Lord pleased to reveal Himself. While the Māyāvādīs fail to see His eternal form because of their desire to merge into His existence, the pure devotees retain their individuality to associate with Kṛṣṇa face to face, ultimately returning to the spiritual world to serve Him eternally.
- The Unlimited Lord: Because we have limited, conditioned senses, it is impossible for anyone—even exalted demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva—to understand God one hundred percent.
- The Supreme Process of Devotion: As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, the only way to pierce the veil of illusion and understand the Supreme Lord as He is is through unalloyed bhakti-yoga.
- Liberation Means Perfect Vision: One cannot see or understand God with material eyes; true liberation is not a void, but the attainment of perfect, purified vision to see the Lord's eternal form.
- Personalism vs. Impersonalism: The Māyāvādī philosophers are blocked from seeing Kṛṣṇa because they wish to lose their identity, whereas the Vaiṣṇavas retain their individuality to serve Him directly.
- The Qualification to Preach: A bona fide guru or preacher is one who has directly realized Viṣṇu as He is and can subsequently impart that ultimate truth to sincere disciples.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Without Being Liberated, One Cannot Understand God as He Is.
Pages in category "God - As He Is"
The following 48 pages are in this category, out of 48 total.
A
- A bhakta not only realizes Him (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) as He is but also associates with the Personality of Godhead face to face
- A real preacher cannot be bogus; he must first of all realize Lord Visnu as He is. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (BG 4.34), upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah: "one who has seen the truth can impart knowledge."
- A Vaisnava wishes to worship God as He is and retain his separate individuality to serve Him, whereas the Mayavadi impersonal philosopher wishes to lose his individuality and merge into the existence of the Supreme
B
- By development of pure devotional service one can factually know the Lord as He is and thus be trained in the bona fide service of the Lord and be allowed to enter into the direct association of the Lord in so many capacities
- By rendering such (constant) devotional service (to Krsna with love) only, and not by merely acquiring a bulk of discriminative knowledge, can we know the Supreme Lord as He is
I
- If God is all-pervading, like the power of electricity, He can manifest Himself at any place within His creation. When He is within we cannot see Him, but when He is without He is seen by everyone, although very few know Him as He is
- In Bhagavad-gita it is confirmed that only a devotee can understand Him (The Supreme Personality of Godhead) as He is. Bhaktya mam abhijanati: (BG 18.55) One can understand Me only by devotional service, not otherwise
- In the samadhi stage one can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His partial form as Paramatma, or as He is. Samadhi is described in authoritative yoga scriptures, such as the Patanjali-sutras, to be a transcendental pleasure
- It is impossible for the Lord to be known perfectly as He is, even by such liberated persons as Siva or Brahma, so what to speak of other demigods or men in this world
O
- One can become a brahmana and see the Lord as He is
- One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God
- One has to wait for the mercy of the Lord before one can either render service unto Him or know Him as He is
- One should know the Lord as much as can be known by our limited knowledge. It is impossible for the Lord to be known perfectly as He is
- One who does not know God as He is considers the demigods to be supreme. Such people are less intelligent. A devotee offers respects to the demigods, but he knows that the Supreme Lord is Krsna. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam - SB 1.3.28
- Our policy, therefore, should be to hear the original, as it is. Then it will be effective. Sravanam kirtanam visnoh: (SB 7.5.23) Visnu should be heard as He is. Then one can meditate upon Visnu and remember Him - smaranti
S
- Since a devotee engages in philosophical research to understand the Supreme Person as He is his activities may thus appear to be like those of a mental speculator, but actually he is trying to understand the spiritual nature and transcendental activities
- So that requires little intelligence, that anyone who is preaching the holy name of God, he is also God. Anyone who preaches the glories of God, he is also God
- Someone worships the Lord out of inquisitiveness to know Him as He is, and someone wants to know the Lord as a philosopher can know Him, by the research work of his wisdom
- Someone worships the Supreme Lord because of bodily or mental distress, someone else worships the Supreme Lord because he is in need of money, someone else worships the Lord out of inquisitiveness to know Him as He is
- Srjami means that the Lord manifests Himself as He is. BG 1972 purports
T
- The Bhagavad-gita (BG 18.55) declares, bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah - One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service
- The devotee who is pure and advanced realizes God as He is, Maharaja Pratiha did so, and due to his direct realization of Lord Visnu, he propagated self-realization and became a preacher
- The inquisitive man and the philosopher do not pray to God for amelioration of mundane problems. They pray for the ability to know Him as He is, and they try to reach Him through science and logic. Such pious men are generally known as theosophists
- The Lord affirms in Bhagavad-gita (BG 18.54-55): One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God
- The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 7.26) that He knows everything, past, present and future, but that no one but a devotee knows Him as He is
- The oneness of understanding that the Supreme Lord is spiritual and that in full spiritual realization one can understand what He is - Supreme Personality of Godhead - is called kaivalya, or, in the language of Patanjali, realization of spiritual power
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not appear as an ordinary child; He appears as He is. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, He appears by His own internal potency, atma-maya
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead remains as He is, even though directing His energy, which makes the diverse cosmic manifestation work so wonderfully
- The symptoms of the Lord's activities are all mentioned in the sastras, and after one understands them one can accept the Lord as He is
- The Vedas personified, prayed to the Lord as follows, "My dear Lord, it is very difficult to understand spiritual knowledge. Your appearance here just as You are, is to explain to us this most difficult subject of knowledge of the spirit"
- There are different processes of understanding the Absolute Truth, but if a person wants to understand the Supreme Lord as He is, he has to take to the process of bhakti-yoga
- This very conception of the impersonalists and so-called yogis checks them from seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He is. The Lord, therefore, is always beyond the sight of such nondevotees
- Those persons who were unable to see God as He is remained attached to material hankerings & were not able to go back home, back to Godhead. When the Lord passed beyond the vision of all, He did so in His original eternal form, as stated here - SB 3.2.11
- To mitigate His (God's) devotees' material pangs, He descends as He is, yet He is not infected by material qualities
W
- We belong to the Vaisnava philosophical school, Vaisnava. Vaisnava means we want to worship God as He is, and we keep our separate identity eternally to serve Him
- We may say that we have understood God, but it is not possible to understand Him as He is, because we have limited senses, and He is unlimited
- We take God as He is. It is not image of God, but God Himself. He has come here in the form which you can see. God is everywhere, but unfortunately we haven't got eyes to see Him
- When a living entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the spiritual world, he can hear and speak to Him face to face, and he can understand the Supreme Personality as He is. BG 1972 purports
- When one is engaged in devotional service, there is no scope for his senses to be engaged otherwise. In such full Krsna consciousness, one can understand the Supreme Lord as He is
- When the dormant propensity for bhakti is awakened, one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He is. Bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah
- When the Supreme Personality of Godhead incarnates, He does not need any help from the external energy, for He appears as He is by His own potency. The spiritual potency is also called maya
- Without being liberated, one cannot understand God as He is. It is not possible, because he has no perfect vision. Liberated means perfect knowledge, perfect vision. That is liberation