Category:God in the Material World
Theme Analysis
The appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the material world is a profound mystery to the conditioned soul. According to Śrīla Prabhupāda, the word avatāra specifically means "one who descends." When the Lord or His representatives come to the material world, they descend from the superior, spiritual nature. They are never forced to take birth by the laws of karma, nor are they subject to old age, disease, and death. Because the Lord descends by His own internal potency, His body remains entirely transcendental and is never composed of the three modes of material nature (sattva, rajas, and tamas).
Less intelligent persons and Māyāvāda philosophers completely misunderstand this divine descent. Because Kṛṣṇa appears to take birth and act like a human being, or because He sometimes assumes the form of a boar or a fish, foolish people conclude that He has accepted a material body. However, the Lord is apāpa-viddham—uncontaminated. Just as the sky exists within the body but remains unaffected by it, the Supreme Lord enters the material world as the Supersoul and as various incarnations, yet remains completely aloof and transcendental. Even strict impersonalists like Śaṅkarācārya admit that Nārāyaṇa does not belong to this material world.
The primary reason for the Lord's descent into the material world is His causeless mercy. As declared in the Bhagavad-gītā, He appears to execute the much-needed mission of annihilating the miscreants and protecting the faithful devotees. Furthermore, He descends to enact glorious pastimes, accompanied by eternal associates like Hanumān or the servants in Dvārakā. These pastimes are meticulously recorded in literatures like the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam specifically for the benefit of conditioned souls.
Understanding the true nature of God's presence in the material world is the key to liberation. The Lord explicitly promises that anyone who truly comprehends the transcendental nature of His appearance and activities in this material world will not take birth here again. Upon leaving their current body, they will immediately attain His eternal, spiritual abode.
- Transcendental Descent: Avatāra means one who descends; the Lord enters the material world by His internal potency, never accepting a temporary material body.
- Unaffected by Matter: Although the Lord is present everywhere within the material world, He remains completely uncontaminated by the modes of material nature.
- The Causeless Mercy: The Lord descends to annihilate demons, protect devotees, and enact pastimes that provide a path of liberation for conditioned souls.
- The Key to Liberation: Simply understanding the transcendental nature of the Lord's appearance and activities in the material world guarantees one's return back to Godhead.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God in the Material World - The Transcendental Descent of the Supreme Lord.
Subcategories
This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
Pages in category "God in the Material World"
The following 64 pages are in this category, out of 64 total.
A
- Although He (Krsna) appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. BG 1972 purports
- Although the moon appears to be located in the branches of a tree, it is actually situated very far away. Similarly, none of the avataras, or incarnations, of Krsna are within this material world, but they are visible by the causeless mercy of the Lord
- Although the sky exists in space, it also enters within the body. Similarly, the Supreme Lord, who is the cause of the material energy, lives within the material world as well as beyond it
- Although the SP of Godhead comes into the material world, He is unaffected by the modes of material nature. This is confirmed in Isopanisad. Apapa-viddham: He is not contaminated. This same fact is described here (in SB 8.3.18). Guna-sanga-vivarjitaya
- Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears as an incarnation within this material world, He is unaffected by the modes of material nature
- As declared in Bhagavad-gita, the Lord appears in the mortal world to execute His much-needed mission of killing the miscreants and giving protection to the suffering faithful
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita, the Lord is always in a transcendental position, even when He is within the material world. But ignorant men consider the Lord one of the great personalities of the world, and thus they are misled by the illusory energy
- As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 4.9): One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna
- Avatara means "one who descends." All the incarnations of the Lord, including the Lord Himself, descend on the different planets of the material world as also in different species of life to fulfill particular missions
B
- Because a material body can be neither omnipotent nor omniscient, the Lord's body is surely not material. The Mayavada theory that the Personality of Godhead comes within this material world with a material body cannot be supported by any means
- Besides these two (fallible and infallible classes of beings), there is the greatest living personality, the Lord Himself, who has entered into these worlds and is maintaining them. BG 15.17 - 1972
E
- Either in the Bhagavad-gita or in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the pastimes of the Lord in the material world are delineated for the benefit of those men with a poor fund of knowledge
- Even if He (God) is visible in the material world, the exhibition is only of His internal energy, for He is above the good and bad conceptions of this material world
- Even this material world, which is conducted under the modes of material nature, is caused by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who also has an intimate relationship with the material world
- Even when He comes to this material world, He comes as the same unborn; therefore in the Fourth Chapter it is said that the Lord, by His internal potency, is not under the inferior material energy, but is always in the superior energy. BG 1972 purports
- Everything is controlled by the supreme kala, a forceful representative of the Lord within the material world. Thus Yudhisthira should not be sorry for the inconceivable action of time
G
- God and His representative also come to help. As stated previously, they descend upon the material world from the superior nature and are not subject to the laws of birth, old age, disease and death
- Govinda is partially exhibited as antaryami, the Supersoul, who enters this material world (andantara-stha) and who is also within the atom
H
- He (the Supreme Person) is present both in the spiritual and material world. Although He is far, far away, still He is near to us. These are the statements of Vedic literature. BG 1972 purports
- He is not attached to the activities of the material world through His senses. Indeed, in performing His pastimes in this material world, He is just like the unattached air
I
- In each of His (God's) three features - Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan - the Lord is present everywhere in the material world. Yet He remains aloof, busy with His transcendental pastimes in His supreme abode
- In the creation of the material world the Supreme Lord undoubtedly assumes a gigantic body, and living entities also get bodies, big or small, according to necessity
- In the material world the fish or the hog may be considered lower than the man, but when the Lord appears as a fish or hog, He is neither of them in the material conception
- In the material world, wherever the Lord is personally present is to be understood as being the spiritual world. For example, the Lord is worshiped in the temple by pure devotees. The temple is therefore to be understood as being the spiritual world
- In the nineteenth and twentieth incarnations, the Lord advented Himself as Lord Sri Balarama and Lord Sri Krsna in the family of Vrsni (the Yadu dynasty), and by doing so He removed the burden of the world
- It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita by the Lord that His so-called birth in the material world and His activities are all transcendental
M
- Maharaja Pariksit said: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is eternally situated in His transcendental position, yet He descends to this material world and manifests Himself in various incarnations
- My Lord, You are the supreme one, but by Your different energies You appear differently in the spiritual and material worlds. You create the total energy of the material world by Your external potency, & after creation You enter within the material world
O
- One may conclude that from the BG alone one can have the essence of the Vedas, for it is spoken by Krsna, the SPG, who descends upon this material world from the antimaterial world in order to give complete information of the superior form of energy
- One should understand, through the transparent medium of the spiritual master, that the living entities' relationships with the Lord are directly and indirectly existing everywhere, even in this material world
S
- Since all living entities are minute sparks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the Supreme Soul in both the material and spiritual worlds
- Sometimes personally, sometimes by an incarnation and sometimes by authorizing a living being to act on His behalf - the Supreme Lord appears in this material world
- Sometimes the same Vaikuntha forms of the Lord are in the material world also by His grace as Sri Rama, Sri Krsna, Sri Narasimhadeva, etc., and thus the pure devotees also worship them
- Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard, "I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is always manifested as reality even within this material world, which is considered by some to be false"
T
- The appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in this material world is a manifestation of His internal energy. He is the master of the material energy
- The conception of the virat universal form of the Lord, as appearing in the material world, is imaginary. It is to enable the less intelligent (and neophytes) to adjust to the idea of the Lord's having form
- The creation of the material world can therefore be taken as one of the pastimes of the Lord; it is called one of the Lord's pastimes because He creates this material world whenever He desires
- The living being and the Supreme Lord appear in this material world under different circumstances. One can easily understand these different circumstances if one understands how the Lord's different potencies work
- The Lord appeared in His original form, with ornaments and weapons in His hands. Although this ever-existing form is not visible in the material world, He nonetheless appeared in this form
- The Lord descends from His abode to this world, and therefore He is called avatara, which means "one who descends."
- The Lord enjoyed His pastimes, both in this world and in other worlds (higher planets), specifically in the association of the Yadu dynasty. At leisure hours offered by night, He enjoyed the friendship of conjugal love with women
- The Lord is infallible in the material world because He is the supreme spiritual person. Similarly, the jivas, who are part and parcel of the Lord, can also become infallible
- The Lord says that any person who simply understands His transcendental activities and His appearance and disappearance in this material world becomes liberated, and that after quitting his present body he at once reaches His abode
- The Lord's supremacy is equal in both the spiritual and material worlds, but the spiritual world is called the kingdom of God, and the material world is called the kingdom of maya. Maya refers to that which is not actually fact
- The Lord, being infallible, is not forced by material nature to take birth in this material world. He appears in order to reestablish the perfect order of religious principles and to vanquish the demoniac influence in human society
- The merciful Lord, out of His causeless mercy, descends to various planets in the material world and acts for the salvation of the conditioned souls. That makes the history and narrations worth reading
- The most auspicious constellation of stars takes place during the appearance of the Lord in this material world, and it is specifically called jayanti, a word not to be abused for any other purposes
- The same God is represented by the Deity in this material world, which is only one quarter of His creation
- The servant devotees in Gokula are Raktaka, Citraka, Patraka and so on. In Dvaraka there are servants like Daruka, and in the Lord's pastimes in the material world there are servants like Hanuman
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is actually the supreme spiritual master. The Supreme Lord knows everything about the suffering of the conditioned soul, and therefore He appears in this material world
- They mistake the Lord and His pastimes in the material world to be one with the conditioned souls and their activities. The Lord condemns such less intelligent persons in the Bhagavad-gita
- This lotus flower is the universal virat form, or the gigantic form of the Lord in the material world
W
- When He (God) manifests His eternal transcendental form in the material world, He does so by His internal potency
- When the Lord (Krsna) descends on this material world by His all-merciful energy, He plays like a human being, and therefore it appears that the Lord is partial to His devotees only, but that is not a fact
- When the Lord Himself appears as an incarnation within this material world, He is not allured by the material atmosphere, and He has nothing to do with material activity, yet by His example He teaches the common man how to become a devotee
- When the Supreme Lord appears or descends as an incarnation within this material world, He does not accept a body made of the three modes of material nature - sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna
- When the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears in this material world, He is not affected by the modes of material nature
- Whenever the Personality of Godhead descends to this mortal world, He is accompanied by His confidential servants
- Whenever there is a need of material creation, the transcendental Personality of Godhead accepts forms in the material world for creation, maintenance and destruction
- Without His (the Supreme Lord's) presence within the material world, the cosmic body could not develop, just as without the presence of the spirit within the physical body, the body could not develop