Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān

Krishna Kshetra Swami's audio

Morning lecture form ?r? Caitanya-carit?m?ta delivered in Goloka Dhama 15th October 2017 ?r? Caitanya-carit?m?ta ?di-l?l? CHAPTER TWO Text 10 prak??a-vi?e?e te?ha dhare tina n?ma brahma, param?tm? ?ra svaya?-bhagav?n Synonyms prak??a — of manifestation; vi?e?e — in variety; te?ha — He; dhare — holds; tina — three; n?ma — names; brahma — Brahman; param?tm? — Param?tm? (Supersoul); ?ra — and; svayam — Himself; bhagav?n — the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Translation In terms of His various manifestations, He is known in three features, called the impersonal Brahman, the localized Param?tm? and the original Personality of Godhead. Purport ?r?la J?va Gosv?m? has explained the word bhagav?n in his Bhagavat-sandarbha. The Personality of Godhead, being full of all conceivable and inconceivable potencies, is the absolute Supreme Whole. Impersonal Brahman is a partial manifestation of the Absolute Truth realized in the absence of such complete potencies. The first syllable of the word bhagav?n is bha, which means “sustainer” and “protector.” The next letter, ga, means “leader,” “pusher” and “creator.” Va means “dwelling” (all living beings dwell in the Supreme Lord, and the Supreme Lord dwells within the heart of every living being). Combining all these concepts, the word bhagav?n carries the import of inconceivable potency in knowledge, energy, strength, opulence, power and influence, devoid of all varieties of inferiority. Without such inconceivable potencies, one cannot fully sustain or protect. Our modern civilization is sustained by scientific arrangements devised by many great scientific brains. We can just imagine, therefore, the gigantic brain whose arrangements sustain the gravity of the unlimited number of planets and satellites and who creates the unlimited space in which they float. If one considers the intelligence needed to orbit man-made satellites, one cannot be fooled into thinking that there is not a gigantic intelligence responsible for the arrangements of the various planetary systems. There is no reason to believe that all the gigantic planets float in space without the superior arrangement of a superior intelligence. This subject is clearly dealt with in the Bhagavad-g?t? (15.13), where the Personality of Godhead says, “I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit.” Were the planets not held in the grip of the Personality of Godhead, they would all scatter like dust in the air. Modern scientists can only impractically explain this inconceivable strength of the Personality of Godhead. The potencies of the syllables bha, ga and va apply in terms of many different meanings. Through His different potent agents, the Lord protects and sustains everything, but He Himself personally protects and sustains only His devotees, just as a king personally sustains and protects his own children, while entrusting the protection and sustenance of the state to various administrative agents. The Lord is the leader of His devotees, as we learn from the Bhagavad-g?t?, which mentions that the Personality of Godhead personally instructs His loving devotees how to make certain progress on the path of devotion and thus surely approach the kingdom of God. The Lord is also the recipient of all the adoration offered by His devotees, for whom He is the objective and the goal. For His devotees the Lord creates a favorable condition for developing a sense of transcendental love of Godhead. Sometimes He does this by taking away a devotee’s material attachments by force and baffling all his material protective agents, for thus the devotee must completely depend on the Lord’s protection. In this way the Lord proves Himself the leader of His devotees...