Yet it must be understood that although rajasika and tamasika Puranas do not speak extensively on the Absolute Truth, this does not mean that they give no valid knowledge at all. If this was the case why would acaryas such as Madhva and Baldeva cite from Puranas such as Skanda, Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahma-vaivarta etc which are not sattvika by nature?
The Puranas in the lower modes may also give some insight into the Absolute Truth, although not to the same extent as the sattvika Puranas. Vaishnava Sampradayas app — with attractive layout for the all-attractive one! It is the one stop app to know about all the genuine sampradayas! Whether or not God has a form is a perennial philosophical question with arguments on both sides. The way we pray to God, the way the saints address God in their devotional prayers, it seems that God is a person whom we are calling by our prayers.
But then God is said to be unlimited. Will his being a person not limit him? To reconcile these two sides, we need to first understand the definition of God. The Vedanta-Sutra 1. Janmady asya yatah. Another ancient text, the Brahma-Samhita 5.
This concise definition of God is essentially in agreement with the understanding of God given by all the theistic traditions of the world. So, if God is the source of everything that we see in this world, then God himself should possess the essential attributes of everything, else he would be lesser than his creation.
In this world, there exist both personal beings and impersonal forces, so both these aspects should be present in God. If God were not a person, then he, who by definition is the Complete Being, would be incomplete. Another simpler way of putting this is: if we as the children of God are persons, how can our father, God, not be a person? So, those who say that God is not a person are actually limiting him, by divesting him of what his creation has.
Vedic wisdom helps us understand that what causes limitation is not form, but matter. Due to the very nature of matter, all material objects are limited, whether they have form or not. But God is not material; he is entirely spiritual.
Spirit has characteristics different from matter; that which is spiritual has the potential to be unlimited, irrespective of whether it has form or not. This is how, due to his being spiritual, God is a person with a form and is still unlimited.
The Vedic scriptures assert that God has a form, but go further by giving vivid descriptions of his form. Wearing a peacock feather, colored minerals, sprigs of flower buds, and a garland of forest flowers and leaves, He was dressed just like a dramatic dancer. He rested one hand upon the shoulder of a friend and with the other twirled a lotus. Lilies graced his ears, his hair hung down over his cheeks, and his lotuslike face was smiling.
Similarly, another important scripture, the Brahma-samhita 5. While the Vedic scriptures do say that, but that is not all that they say. Often, the very same scriptures that say that God is nirguna also say that he is saguna. Consider this verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam 8. This verse contains two words relevant for our discussion: arupaya without form and uru-rupaya having many forms.
Are such Vedic descriptions self-contradictory? Not at all. In fact, the Vedic tradition teaches a higher principle that harmonizes such contradictions. How is this contradiction to be reconciled? The Vedic tradition contains a special pramana method of acquiring knowledge called arthapatti postulation that is used for reconciling contradictory statements by postulating a third statement. In addition to the standard three methods of acquiring knowledge pratyaksha, anumana and shabda, Jiva Goswami in his Sarva-Samvadini gives seven more ways.
Arthapatti is one of them To see how arthapatti works, consider the two contradictory statements:. Ravi does not eat food during the day 2. Ravi is growing fat. The arthapatti to reconcile these two statements would be: Ravi eats at night. Similarly, the arthapatti to reconcile the statements about God having and not having a form is: God has no material form, but has a spiritual form.
The same principle applies to the descriptions of God as nirguna. There are also verses describing him as saguna. So, the nirguna description implies that he has no material qualities and the saguna description conveys that he has spiritual qualities.
These seemingly contradictory descriptions serve the vital purpose of challenging our preconceptions and stimulating us to rise to a higher understanding. Consider the following Ishopanishad verse mantra 8 :. This verse describes God as akayam having no body and then as ashnaviram having no veins. If God has no body, why is there a need to describe that he has no veins? The Ishopanishad wants us to rise to the higher understanding that God has a special kind of body that has no veins.
A body is that which:. None of these apply to God, whose body and soul are nondifferent, who has no karmic past, who is never degraded and whose body is eternal.
Because we tend to superimpose our material conceptions on God, the scriptures sometimes use negative words like akayam to emphasize that God does not have any body — like ours. Material forms are temporary, so attraction to them leads only to eventual frustration.
We are all children or servants or parts or emanations from God; whatever way different religions word our relationship with him, the essential point is that we are dependent on him and subordinate to him. We are persons and have forms; if God is a formless person, then he would become lesser than us. Can the whole be less than the part? Obviously not. So this argument is both illogical and non-scriptural. People may come up with many such fallacious arguments.
It is because the human mind cannot grasp how God can have a form and still be unlimited. People try to imagine God as all-pervading and then try to figure out how a form can be imposed on that all-pervasive being. But form is not a quality imposed on God like red paint is a quality imposed on an artificial rose made from white paper.
Rather, form is an inherent quality of God, like the red color is an inherent quality of a natural rose. The inherent quality of an object is called as its vishesha and has been elaborately analyzed by the great saintly scholars in the Vedic tradition, especially Madhvacharya and Baladeva Vidyabhushana.
Srila Jiva Goswami has compiled the classic philosophical treatise, the Sat-Sandarbha, based on the teachings of Srimad Bhagavatam as explained by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In this book, he elaborately analyzes a sutra-like succinct verse from the Shrimad Bhagavatam 1. The all-pervading energy Brahman : What quantum physicists call as the one energy-sea that underlies everything in the universe, what the mystics refer to as the impersonal oneness of all things and beings, the Vedic scriptures explain that to be Brahman, the all-pervading energetic effulgent light.
The inner guide Paramatma : Many spiritual traditions talk about an aspect of God immanent within us. What the Christian tradition refers as the empowering Holy Spirit, the Vedic scriptures call as the Paramatma, the inner guide who mediates the interactions between the spiritual soul and the material body. The supreme person Bhagavan : Saints throughout history have lovingly connected with God as the Supreme Person.
That Lord whom Moses called Jehovah, whom Jesus referred to as his father in heaven, whom Mohammed praised as Allah, the Vedic scriptures reveal as Krishna, God manifesting as the all-attractive transcendental Supreme Person. Three rural students arrive one night at a railway platform with their teacher eager to have their first sight of a train. When the train finally comes into the station, the third student sees the train in its fullness with its driver and multiple compartments and passengers and, with the encouragement of his teacher, even meets and befriends the driver.
Analogically, the bright front-light of the train represents the effulgent spiritual substratum, Brahman and the engine with its concrete shape represents the localized, personalized divine substance, the Paramatma. Thus, a proximate, holistic vision reveals a three-in-one Absolute Truth that integrates both the immanent and transcendent aspects as well as the personal and impersonal features. This discussion is just a small sample of the rigorous logical and scriptural analysis through which the acharyas exemplary devotee-scholars like Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya, Jiva Goswami, Baladeva Vidyabhushana and Srila Prabhupada have established unequivocally that God is a person with a transcendental form.
Reference : How can the unlimited have a form? In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna demonstrated his godhood by displaying to Arjuna his universal form , wherein lay everything and everyone Including Shiva, Brahma and all other deities in existence: the planets, stars and universes as well as all living beings — celestial, terrestrial and sub-terrestrial.
If those who claim to be God cannot similarly display that they are the source of everything, we can safely reject their claim to godhood. Sometimes the word Bhagwan is also used for great personalities like Brahma, Shiva, Narada, Indra but in Reality It is used in the secondary Sense because they possess some of the qualities of Krishna to a certain extent, especially Lord Shiva. See Brahma Samhita 5.
Only for lord Vasudeva, it can be used in primary sense. For others, it is used only in a secondary sense. To persons ignorant of Your actual transcendental position, You appear as part of the material world, manifesting Yourself by the expansion of Your inconceivable energy.
The syllable krish refers to the all-attractive quality of Krishna, and the syllable na refers to His spiritual bliss. When the verb krish is added to the affix na , it becomes the word Krishna, indicating the Supreme Truth. Rig Veda 7. All other gods occupy positions that are in between.
Lord Narayana is the greatest knowledge Mahajneya , the soul of the world Visvatma and the best refuge parayana. Narayana is the most effulgent Parajyoti , Narayana is the Super soul Paramatma.
Narayana is the best of those who meditate Paradhyata and the best of meditations Paradhyana. The son of Devki i. In Hindu scripture, Lord Vishnu is seen with a dark complexion and the one with four hands. Lord Vishnu holds Padma lotus flower in the lower left hand, the kaumodaki gada in his lower right hand, Panchajanya Sankha in his upper left hand and one of the most powerful weapon, Sudarshana Chakra in the upper right hand.
In Hinduism, Lord Vishnu is represented in two positions:. Lord Vishnu is called by various names like Narayana , Hari etc. According to an ancient text of Hinduism, Rig Veda, the greatness of Lord Vishnu is numerous times with other gods of Hinduism.
The greatness of Lord Vishnu is unparalleled and always returns to earth when they are in great danger from Rakshyas demons. Lord Vishnu has incarnated on the earth from time to time to eradicate the evil forces and to restore the peace, order and Dharma and also to liberate the worthy devotees from the cycle of births and deaths.
According to Hinduism and Vaishnavism , Lord Vishnu had numerous incarnations avatar but there are specifically 10 incarnations which are called Dashavatara. These ten avatars of Lord Vishnu are as follows: Matsya, The Fish: In Satya Yuga , Lord Vishnu takes the form of fish Matsya in order to save Manu , a progenitor of humanity, and the seven sages from the great disaster of deluge.
Lord Vishnu took this form in order to bear the weight of the mount Mandara which Demons and Gods used as the churning staff. So Lord Vishnu incarnated in the form of the boar to defeat this evil demon and lifted the earth above the cosmic ocean.
It was said that the battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksha lasted one thousand years. So in order to restore peace and order in these three worlds, Lord Vishnu took this form of a dwarf, Vamana. Shiva engaged him in battle and pierced his heart, but Andhaka was able to recover and strike Shiva with his mace.
The blood that fell on the ground from the wound gave rise to the eight forms of Bhairava. Vishnu is the Supreme God in Vaishnavism sect of Hinduism. God is ONE. Sharabha kills Narasimha first and then kills Varaha, allowing Vishnu to reabsorb the energies of both his fierce forms.
Finally, Sharabha defeats Vishnu. Supreme God has uncountable divine powers. When God is formless, He is referred to by the term Brahman. This is almighty God, whose three main forms are Brahma; the creator, Vishnu, the sustainer and Shiva, the destroyer. Hindus believe in many Gods who perform various functions; like executives in a large corporation.
In Hinduism, god is sometimes visualized as a male god such as Krishna left , or goddess such as Lakshmi middle , androgynous such as Ardhanarishvara a composite of Shiva — male — and Parvati — female right , or as formless and genderless Brahman Universal Absolute, Supreme Self as Oneness in everyone.
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