Category:God Is Lord Sankarsana
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category establishes the divine identity and cosmic function of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, the first expansion of Vāsudeva in the original quadruple manifestation (catur-vyūha) of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is a direct viṣṇu-tattva, completely non-different from Lord Kṛṣṇa in knowledge, opulence, and power. He is known as the predominating Deity of the living entities (jīvas) and the original source of the material creation, from whom Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu expands. Furthermore, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa assumes the form of Lord Ananta Śeṣa, supporting the countless planetary systems upon His hoods through what modern scientists describe as the law of gravity. At the time of cosmic dissolution, the fire of devastation emanates from Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa's mouth through Lord Śiva. Śrīla Prabhupāda strongly refutes the impersonalist philosophers, like Śaṅkarācārya, who falsely claim that Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is an ordinary living entity created through material cause and effect, affirming instead that He is the supreme, uncreated reservoir of all existence.
- The First Quadruple Expansion: Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is the direct expansion of Lord Vāsudeva within the catur-vyūha. He is the original source from which all other puruṣa-avatāras, including Mahā-Viṣṇu, expand.
- The Predominating Deity of Jīvas: Because all living entities rest within His body during the annihilation of the universe and are generated from Him during creation, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is recognized as the ultimate shelter of all jīvas.
- The Supporter of the Planets: Expanding as the thousand-headed Lord Ananta Śeṣa, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa sustains the entire cosmic manifestation, keeping the planets in orbit through the spiritual energy known materially as gravity.
- Refuting Impersonalism: Pure Vaiṣṇavas reject the Māyāvādī misconception that Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is an ordinary living entity or a product of material generation. He is eternally the Supreme Personality of Godhead, free from all material flaws.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God Is Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa - The Source of All Living Entities.
Pages in category "God Is Lord Sankarsana"
The following 105 pages are in this category, out of 105 total.
A
- A summary of creation is given in this verse (SB 5.17.22-23). From Sankarsana, Maha-Visnu expands, and from Maha-Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu expands
- Adi-caturbhuja, the original expansions from Baladeva, are Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna & Aniruddha. All of Them are visnu-tattvas, or nondifferent Personalities of God. In the incarnation of Rama, these expansions appeared for particular pastimes
- All the above statements by the Lord apply to different plenary portions of the Lord, namely His expansions such as Sankarsana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Narayana
- Although there is no question of creation as far as the spiritual world is concerned, the spiritual world is nonetheless manifested by the supreme will of Sankarsana. The spiritual world is the abode of the pastimes of the eternal spiritual energy
- Among these expansions (Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha), Vasudeva is considered the origin of the material nature. Therefore Sankaracarya says that Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha must be creations of that original cause
- Ananta, Sankarsana, belongs to the second catur-vyuha, or quadruple expansion. This is the opinion of experienced commentators
B
- Because He (the son of Rohini) will manifest extraordinary bodily strength, He will also be known as Bala. Moreover, because He unites two families - Vasudeva's family and the family of Nanda Maharaja - He will be known as Sankarsana - SB 10.8.12
- Because Sankarsana appears in order to increase love of Krsna, He is known as Baladeva. One may take auspicious strength from Him to become a devotee of the Lord, and therefore He is also known as Balabhadra
- Because this forgetfulness (of demoniac living entities) is created by Sankarsana, He is sometimes called tamasi
- Bees intoxicated by the honeylike fragrance of the tulasi flowers hum very sweetly around the garland, which thus becomes more and more beautiful. In this way, the Lord enjoys His very magnanimous pastimes
- By His (God's) spiritual energy Sesa Naga sustains all the planetary globes upon His invisible hoods. Sesa Naga is popularly known as Sankarsana, or - that which keeps balance by the law of magnetism
E
F
- For a detailed refutation of Sankaracarya’s arguments attempting to prove Sankarsana an ordinary living being, one may refer to Srimat Sudarsanacarya’s commentary on the Sri-bhasya, which is known as the Sruta-prakasika
- For the dissolution of the creation, He (Sankarsana) exhibits Himself as the Supersoul in Rudra, in Adharma (the personality of irreligion), in sarpa (snakes), in Antaka (Yamaraja, the lord of death) and in the demons
- From Baladeva is Sankarsana, from Sankarsana is Narayana, from Narayana there is the second Sankarsana, and from this Sankarsana the Visnu purusa-avataras
- From Vasudeva, who is the primary expansion, come Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha in that order
H
- He (Sankarsan) is the infinite living entity, and ordinary living entities are infinitesimal. Therefore He is never to be considered an ordinary living being, for that would be against the conclusion of the authorized scriptures
- He (Sankarsana) is an infallible plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Visnu category, and He is beyond the creation of material nature. He is the original source of the living entities
- He (Sankarsana) is the shelter of everything. He is wonderful in every respect, and His opulences are infinite. Even Ananta cannot describe His glory
- He (Sankarsana) is vibhu-caitanya, the greatest. He is directly the cause of the cosmic manifestation and the infinitesimal living beings
- He did not need the help of the earthly planet. Being the incarnation of Lord Visnu, Prthu Maharaja possessed the power of Sankarsana, which is explained by the scientists as the power of gravitation
- He pleases His personal associates, the heads of the demigods, by the sweet vibrations emanating from His mouth. Dressed in bluish garments and wearing a single earring, He holds a plow on His back with His two beautiful and well-constructed hands
- His (Baladeva's) other name is Sankarsana, who is also the plenary portion of Sri Baladeva. Because He is as powerful as Lord Krsna and can bestow spiritual power to the devotees, He is therefore known as Baladeva
I
- I surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Rama, who is known as Sankarsana in the midst of the catur-vyuha. He possesses full opulences and resides in Vaikunthaloka, far beyond the material creation - CC Adi 1.8
- I surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Rama, who is known as Sankarsana in the midst of the catur-vyuha. He possesses full opulences and resides in Vaikunthaloka, far beyond the material creation - CC Adi 5.13
- If Sankarsana is understood to represent the living entities created from the body of Vasudeva, the living entities would have to be noneternal
- In all Vaisnava literature it is said that worshiping these quadruple forms (Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha) is as good as worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vasudeva, who in His different expansions, complete in six opulences
- In answer to Sankaracarya's commentary on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.43, it must be said that the original Visnu of all the Visnu categories, which are distributed in several ways, is Mula-sankarsana. Mula means - the original
- In commenting on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.42, Sankaracarya has claimed that Sankarsana is a jiva, an ordinary living entity, but there is no evidence in any Vedic scripture that devotees of the Lord have ever said that Sankarsana is an ordinary living entity
- In each creation, the living entities are given a chance to close their business as conditioned souls. When they misuse this opportunity and do not go back home, back to Godhead, Lord Sankarsana becomes angry
- In former days Lord Siva and other demigods took shelter of the lotus feet of Sankarsana. Thus they immediately got free from the illusion of duality and achieved unequaled and unsurpassed glories in spiritual life
- In some millenniums Lord Ramacandra and His brothers appear as incarnations of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, and in other millenniums They appear as incarnations of Narayana, Sesa, Cakra and Sankha
- In that (spiritual) sky innumerable planets float, and these are called Vaikunthalokas. In every Vaikunthaloka, Narayana presides with His four expansions: Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Vasudeva - CC Intro
- In the Padma Purana it is said that in the spiritual world the Lord personally expands in all directions and is worshiped as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha
- In the spiritual sky there are four directions, corresponding to east, west, north and south, in which Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna are situated. The same forms are also situated in the material sky
- It has been said that Pradyumna, the mind, was produced from Sankarsana. But if Sankarsana were a living entity, this could not be accepted, because a living entity cannot be the cause of the mind
- It is said that the blazing fire from the mouth of Sankarsana rages for one hundred years of the demigods, or 36,000 human years
- It is to be accepted that Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are as good as Lord Vasudeva, for They all have inconceivable power and can accept transcendental forms like Vasudeva
L
- Lord Maha-Visnu, who is lying on the Causal Ocean, is a manifestation of Sankarsana. He is the original Personality of Godhead who glances over the material and efficient causes of the cosmic manifestation
- Lord Rama is the original Vasudeva, and His brothers were Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Aniruddha is also the cause of Maha-Visnu, from whose breathing the Rg Veda appeared. All this is nicely explained in the Markandeya Purana
- Lord Ramacandra and His brothers, Laksmana, Bharata and Satrughna are incarnations of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha respectively
- Lord Sankarsana is Lord Balarama. Being the predominator of the creative energy, He creates both the material and the spiritual world
- Lord Sankarsana is the ocean of unlimited spiritual qualities, and thus He is known as Anantadeva. He is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Lord Sankarsana is the predominating Deity of this false conception - in which one thinks himself the supreme enjoyer
- Lord Sankarsana, with His thousands of raised hoods, began to radiate an effulgence from the glowing stones on His head
- Lord Siva prayed to Lord Sankarsana, "My dear Lord, please liberate all Your devotees from material life and bind all the nondevotees to the material world. Without Your mercy, no one can be released from the bondage of material existence"
- Lord Sri Krsna is the svayam-rupa Personality of Godhead, and all other forms of Godhead, beginning from Sri Baladeva, Sankarsana, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna and Narayana are Lord Sri Krsna's plenary portions and integrated parts
O
- One should understand that Sankaracarya’s statement that Sankarsana is born as a jiva is completely against the Vedic statements
- One who is actually a worshiper of Lord Siva as a devotee of Sankarsana can be released from false, material ego
- Originally Lord Ramacandra is the incarnation of Vasudeva, Laksmana is the incarnation of Sankarsana, Bharata is the incarnation of Pradyumna, and Satrughna is the incarnation of Aniruddha, expansions of the Personality of Godhead
P
- Pradyumna, the third manifestation, appears from Sankarsana. Those who are especially intelligent worship this Pradyumna expansion of Sankarsana as the principle of the intelligence
- Previous to the appearance of Lord Krsna, this original Sankarsana will appear as Baladeva, just to please the Supreme Lord Krsna in His transcendental pastimes - SB 10.1.24
S
- Sankara says that he does not attempt to argue that portion of the devotees’ understanding, but he must protest the idea that Sankarsana is produced from Vasudeva, Pradyumna is produced from Sankarsana, and Aniruddha is produced from Pradyumna
- Sankaracarya can't accept devotees' idea that Sankarsana, Pradyumna & Aniruddha are equally as powerful as the PofG, full in the 6 opulences of knowledge, wealth, strength, fame, beauty & renunciation, & free from the flaw of generation at a certain point
- Sankaracarya has tried to prove that Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna & Aniruddha expand through cause & effect. He has compared Them with earth & earthen pots. That is completely ignorant, for there is no such thing as cause & effect in Their expansions
- Sankaracarya says (sutra 43) that devotees think that Pradyumna, who is considered to represent the senses, has sprung from Sankarsana, who is considered to represent the living entities. But we cannot actually experience that a person can produce senses
- Sankarsana has invested Anantadeva with all the potencies of sustenance
- Sankarsana is also Visnu, but from Him all other Visnus expand. This is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita 5.46
- Sankarsana is the first expansion of Vasudeva, and because He appears by His own will, He is called svarat, fully independent. He is therefore infinite and transcendental to all limits of time and space. He Himself appears as the thousand-headed Sesa
- Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are never born, but They can manifest Themselves in various incarnations before the eyes of pure devotees. This is the conclusion of all Vedic literature
- Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are, respectively, the predominating Deities of all living entities, the total mind and the total ego
- Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha have all the potent features of the absolute Personality of Godhead, according to the revealed scriptures, which contain undeniable facts that no one can refute
- Sankarsana, the fourth expansion, is certainly transcendental, but because his activities of destruction in the material world are in the mode of ignorance, He is known as tamasi, the Lord's form in the mode of ignorance
- Sankarsana, the second expansion, is Vasudeva’s personal expansion for pastimes, and since He is the reservoir of all living entities, He is sometimes called jiva
- Sesa Sankarsana, who holds all the planets on His heads, expands Himself in different bodies to render service to Lord Krsna
- Sri Sankarsana, who is an incarnation of Visnu in the spiritual sky known as the greater Vaikuntha, is the chief of the quadruple incarnations and is the original incarnation of a devotee
- Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said to Maharaja Pariksit: My dear King, approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Patala lives another incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of Lord Visnu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Sankarsana
- Srila Rupa Gosvami has refuted the charges directed against the devotees by Sripada Sankaracarya regarding their explanation of the quadruple forms Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha
T
- That original Personality of Godhead, named Sankarsana, first lies down in the river Viraja, which serves as a border between the material and the spiritual world. As Karanodakasayi Visnu, He is the original cause of the material creation
- The annihilator, Rudra, is born from Sankarsana and the ultimate fire to burn the whole creation
- The beauty of Sankarsana is greater than that of innumerable full moons radiating light beams. He is worshipable as the principle of ego
- The designation of Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha as ‘jiva,’ ‘mind’ and ‘ego’ are never contradictory to the statements of the scriptures
- The eleven Rudras, expansions of Lord Siva, come out of Lord Sankarsana's eyebrows due to His angry mood, and all of them together devastate the entire creation
- The entire material world is situated on the hoods of Lord Sankarsana. From His forehead He transmits to Lord Siva the power to destroy this material world
- The followers of the Pancaratric principles do not accept any differences in knowledge and qualities between Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The devotees accept all these expansions to be one
- The gross material elements are earth, water, fire, air and ether, and the subtle material elements are mind, intelligence and ego. All of them are controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha
- The Lord in His different features (Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna and Sankarsana) maintains both the gross and subtle material elements of this world
- The Lord is situated in everyone's heart as Sankarsana, and when a demon thinks himself one with the Supreme Lord, the Lord keeps him in that darkness
- The Lord of Svetadvipa has immense potency for creation and destruction. Sri Nityananda Prabhu, being Baladeva Himself, the original form of Sankarsana, is the original form of the Lord of Svetadvipa
- The Sankarsana of the quadruple form descends with Lord Rama as Laksmana
- The Sankarsana of the second group of quadruple forms appears as Rama, taking with Him Sesa, who bears the global spheres
- The scientists' law of gravity is a partial explanation of Lord Sankarsana's energy. The name "Sankarsana" has an etymological relationship to the idea of gravity
- The Sesa who bears the globes is a potent incarnation of Sankarsana, and therefore He is sometimes also called Sankarsana. The bedstead feature of Sesa always presents himself as an eternal servitor of the Lord
- The Upanisads declare, nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam: (Katha Upanisad 2.2.13) He (Sankarsana) is the supreme living entity among all the living entities
- The Visnu who lies on the Causal Ocean is an incarnation of Lord Sankarsana, and, accordingly, the emotion of being a devotee is always present in His heart
- Then as Sankarsana, He (God) annihilates the cosmic manifestation. Yet despite the creation, maintenance and destruction of the cosmos, the Lord is not affected
- Then they smile beautifully and look upon the Lord's lotus face, which is beautified by reddish eyes rolling slightly from intoxication and delighted by love for His devotees
- These members (Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha) of the quadruple manifestation are never to be considered ordinary living beings. Each of Them is a plenary expansion of the Absolute Godhead
- These terms (jiva, mind and ego) identify these Deities (Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha), just as the terms ‘sky’ and ‘light’ sometimes identify the Absolute Brahman
W
- What is known as law of gravitation, that is mentioned in the Vedic scriptures as sankarasa, who is supposed to be supporting all these planets in the air
- When He (The Supreme Personality of Godhead) is realized as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha - the Caturvyuha, who are beyond the three forms of Visnu - He is the Vaikuntha Narayana
- When it is said that Sankarsana is jiva, this indicates that He is the predominating Deity of the living entities. Similarly, Pradyumna is the predominating Deity of the mind, and Aniruddha is the predominating Deity of the ego
- When one is actually on the platform of vidya, he can personally understand the Personality of Godhead in His forms like those of Lord Rama, Lord Krsna and Sankarsana
- When the cosmic creation is annihilated, the living entities, who are indestructible by nature, rest in the body of Maha-sankarsana. Sankarsana is therefore sometimes called the total jiva
- With reference to the Visnu-dharmottara, the Laghu-bhagavatamrta explains that Rama is an incarnation of Vasudeva, Laksmana is an incarnation of Sankarsana, Bharata is an incarnation of Pradyumna, and Satrughna is an incarnation of Aniruddha
- Without the Supreme Personality of Godhead's energy, dull matter cannot create the cosmic manifestation. Its power does not arise from the material energy itself but is endowed by Sankarsana
- Worshiping the expansions for pastimes, such as Nrsimha, Rama, Sesa and Kurma, promotes one to the worship of the Sankarsana quadruple. From that position one is raised to the platform of worshiping Vasudeva, the Supreme Brahman