Category:God As a Father
Theme Analysis
The concept of God as the Supreme Father is foundational to almost every major world religion. Śrīla Prabhupāda confirms that this is a factual reality; as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord is the seed-giving father of all living entities. He impregnates material nature simply by His glance, without the need for physical intercourse, and because we are His children, we inherit His qualities, including His form and a minute degree of His supreme independence. A crucial implication of this universal fatherhood is that God is the father of all species—including animals, birds, and insects. Therefore, the slaughter of animals is a criminal act against the Supreme Father, who is deeply pained by the violence committed against His lesser children, and it guarantees strict punishment by material nature.
However, Śrīla Prabhupāda introduces a profound paradigm shift unique to Vaiṣṇava philosophy. While worshiping God as a father is valid, it is not the highest perfection of love. When we approach God as a father, we naturally take on the mentality of a dependent asking for provisions ("give us our daily bread"). This relationship is based on extracting necessities. The superior conception is to accept God as a son. A parent loves their child without any expectation of a salary or return; they simply want to give, nurture, and protect. Thus, the ultimate spiritual evolution involves transitioning from constantly bothering the Supreme Father for material benefits to selflessly offering Him our pure, unmotivated service.
- The Universal Seed-Giver: The Supreme Lord is the original father of all grades of living entities, impregnating material nature simply by His transcendental glance.
- Universal Brotherhood and Animal Rights: Because God is the father of the lamb as well as the human, animal slaughter is a revolt against the will of God and brings severe karmic punishment.
- Inherited Divine Qualities: As parts and parcels of the Supreme Father, living entities inherit His characteristics, including His bodily form (having two hands) and a minute fraction of His independence.
- Taking vs. Giving: The standard religious conception of God as a father often involves asking for material necessities, whereas the Vaiṣṇava conception of God as a child fosters pure, unmotivated, and selfless love.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: The Universal Father - Understanding Our Eternal Relationship with God.
Subcategories
This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total.
Pages in category "God As a Father"
The following 32 pages are in this category, out of 32 total.
A
- A devotee is never as eager to see the Lord as he is to render service to Him. Yet the Lord does appear before His devotee, for He is just like an affectionate father, who is more eager to see his son than the son is to see him
- Accept the father, the bona fide father. Take protection from Him. He is able to give you everything. Why you are suffering? What is the logic
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita, every living entity - regardless of whether he be human, demigod, animal, bird, bee or whatever - is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord & the living entity are intimately related like father & son
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord is Himself the father of the Vedanta knowledge, and it is He only who knows the factual purport of the Vedanta philosophy. So there is no greater truth than the principles of religion mentioned in the Vedas
B
- Because we are sons of God, therefore God has got two hands, you have got also two hands. Just like your father has got two hands and you have got two hands, so you are made according to the body of your father
- Because you are son of God - God has got full independence, almighty - therefore you have acquired the quality of your father. You have got little independence. So God does not interfere with your little independence
- Brahma is directly the son of the father and was not put into the womb of a mother. Therefore he is known as atma-bhu
F
- Factually the Lord is the father of all living entities, but out of transcendental affection and love between the Lord and His devotees, the Lord takes more pleasure in becoming the son of a devotee than in becoming one's father
- Forgetting our father, forgetting our God, we are criminal within this material world. Therefore our only business is how to get out of this prison house and go back to home, back to Godhead
I
- If they are actually theologians, why they should not hear? Jesus Christ says that he's the son of God. But why not of the father. And what is this?
- If we go on eating meat, then we revolt against the will of God, because God is the father of all living entities
- In every religion, God is accepted as the supreme father. The Christian religion also, they say, "O father, give us our daily bread." So God is accepted, actually He is the father
O
- O King, during the eighth manvantara, the great personalities Galava, Diptiman, Parasurama, Asvatthama, Krpacarya, Rsyasrnga and our father, Vyasadeva, the incarnation of Narayana, will be the seven sages
- One who is simply taking from father, "O God, give us our daily bread," and He is supplying, and eating and enjoying sense enjoyment, he is not real son. The real son is he who sacrifices his life for glorifying his father
- Ordinary men want God as their father, but that is not very pleasing to Krsna because the son always bothers the father - Give me this, give me this, give me this
T
- The almighty Lord, being very kind to the living entity, as the father is kind to the son, fulfills the living entity's desire for his childish satisfaction
- The Christian conception of God as the Supreme Father is not very perfect because if we conceive of God as a father, our position will be to take things from Him
- The concept of accepting God as a son is superior to the concept of accepting God as a father. There is a distinction
- The conception of accepting God as child is better conception than to accept God as father, because from father we simply take away
- The Lord being the father, all living beings should fully and satisfactorily discharge the duty and will of the father, as faithful sons. This very mentality will at once bring peace and prosperity to human society
- The Lord can speak through His breathing, and He can impregnate by His eyes. In fact, it is said that He glanced over material nature and thus fathered all living entities. BG 1972 purports
- The Lord does appear before His devotee, for He is just like an affectionate father, who is more eager to see his son than the son is to see him. There is no contradiction in such a quantitative difference in affection
- The relationship with God or Krsna as son is better than the relationship with Krsna by one who thinks, - If I accept God as my father, then my business will be to ask for my necessities from the father
- The sruti mantras say that God impregnates material nature with the seeds of living beings simply by casting His glance at her. He does not need any other kind of intercourse with mother nature to beget the living beings in her womb & become their father
- The supreme father has no other father. Every one of the living entities of all grades, up to Brahma, the original creature of the universe, is begotten by a father, but He, the Lord, has no father
- The varieties of living entities are mentioned in this list, and, with no exception from the topmost planet down to the lowest planet of the universe, all of them in different species of life are created by the Almighty Father, Visnu
- This philosophy is only in Vaisnava philosophy: to accept God as son. In other religions, they accept God as father; but here is a philosophy they accept God as son