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Anthropomorphism

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 4.12, Purport:

The Supreme God is one—Kṛṣṇa—and the demigods are delegated with powers to manage this material world. These demigods are all living entities (nityānām) with different grades of material power. They cannot be equal to the Supreme God—Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa. Anyone who thinks that God and the demigods are on the same level is called an atheist, or pāṣaṇḍī. Even the great demigods like Brahmā and Śiva cannot be compared to the Supreme Lord. In fact, the Lord is worshiped by demigods such as Brahmā and Śiva (śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33)). Yet curiously enough there are many human leaders who are worshiped by foolish men under the misunderstanding of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. Iha devatāḥ denotes a powerful man or demigod of this material world. But Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not belong to this world. He is above, or transcendental to, material creation. Even Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, the leader of the impersonalists, maintains that Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, is beyond this material creation. However, foolish people (hṛta-jñāna (BG 7.20)) worship the demigods because they want immediate results. They get the results, but do not know that results so obtained are temporary and are meant for less intelligent persons. The intelligent person is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he has no need to worship the paltry demigods for some immediate, temporary benefit.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.1.20, Purport:

The doctrines of anthropomorphism and zoomorphism are never applicable to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, or the Personality of Godhead. The theory that a man becomes God by dint of penance and austerities is very much rampant nowadays, especially in India. Since Lord Rāma, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu were detected by the sages and saints to be the Personality of Godhead as indicated in revealed scriptures, many unscrupulous men have created their own incarnations. This process of concocting an incarnation of God has become an ordinary business, especially in Bengal. Any popular personality with a few traits of mystic powers will display some feat of jugglery and easily become an incarnation of Godhead by popular vote. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was not that type of incarnation. He was actually the Personality of Godhead from the very beginning of His appearance. He appeared before His so-called mother as four-armed Viṣṇu. Then, at the request of the mother, He became like a human child and at once left her for another devotee at Gokula, where He was accepted as the son of Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā Mātā. Similarly, Śrī Baladeva, the counterpart of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, was also considered a human child born of another wife of Śrī Vasudeva. In Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that His birth and deeds are transcendental and that anyone who is so fortunate as to know the transcendental nature of His birth and deeds will at once become liberated and eligible to return to the kingdom of God.

SB 1.9.41, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is clearly stated that to meditate upon the impersonal feature of the Supreme is very difficult. It is practically no meditation or simply a waste of time because very seldom is the desired result obtained. The devotees, however, meditate upon the Lord's factual form and pastimes, and therefore the Lord is easily approachable by the devotees. This is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (12.9). The Lord is nondifferent from His transcendental activities. It is indicated also in this śloka that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, while actually present before human society, especially in connection with the Battle of Kurukṣetra, was accepted as the greatest personality of the time, although He might not have been recognized as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The propaganda that a very great man is worshiped as God after his death is misleading because a man after his death cannot be made into God. Nor can the Personality of Godhead be a human being, even when He is personally present. Both ideas are misconceptions. The idea of anthropomorphism cannot be applicable in the case of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.5.10, Purport:

The Supreme Lord is always the Supreme, and as we have tried to establish many times in these purports, no living being, even up to the standard of Brahmā, can claim to be one with the Lord. One should not be misled when people worship a great man as God after his death as a matter of hero worship. There were many kings like Lord Rāmacandra, the King of Ayodhyā, but none of them are mentioned as God in the revealed scriptures. To be a good king is not necessarily the qualification for being Lord Rāma, but to be a great personality like Kṛṣṇa is the qualification for being the Personality of Godhead. If we scrutinize the characters who took part in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, we may find that Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was no less a pious king than Lord Rāmacandra, and by character study Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was a better moralist than Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa asked Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira to lie, but Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira protested. But that does not mean that Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira could be equal to Lord Rāmacandra or Lord Kṛṣṇa. The great authorities have estimated Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira to be a pious man, but they have accepted Lord Rāma or Kṛṣṇa as the Personality of Godhead. The Lord is therefore a different identity in all circumstances, and no idea of anthropomorphism can be applied to Him. The Lord is always the Lord, and a common living being can never be equal to Him.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.13.35, Purport:

There is a class of miscreants who are known in the words of Bhagavad-gītā as veda-vādī, or so-called strict followers of the Vedas. They do not believe in the incarnation of the Lord, what to speak of the Lord's incarnation as the worshipable hog. They describe worship of the different forms or incarnations of the Lord as anthropomorphism. In the estimation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam these men are miscreants, and in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15) they are called not only miscreants but also fools and the lowest of mankind, and it is said that their knowledge has been plundered by illusion due to their atheistic temperament. For such condemned persons, the Lord's incarnation as the gigantic hog is invisible. These strict followers of the Vedas who despise the eternal forms of the Lord may know from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that such incarnations are personified forms of the Vedas. Lord Boar's skin, His eyes and His bodily hair holes are all described here as different parts of the Vedas. He is therefore the personified form of the Vedic hymns, and specifically the Gāyatrī mantra.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 6:

Pūtanā’s understanding is very significant. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is situated in everyone's heart. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that He gives one necessary intelligence, and He also causes one to forget. Pūtanā was immediately aware that the child whom she was observing in the house of Nanda Mahārāja was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. He was lying there as a small baby, but that does not mean He was less powerful. The materialistic theory that God-worship is anthropomorphic is not correct. No living being can become God by undergoing meditation or austerities. God is always God. Kṛṣṇa as a baby is as complete as He is as a full-fledged youth. The Māyāvāda theory holds that the living entity was formerly God but has now become overwhelmed by the influence of māyā. Therefore Māyāvādīs say that presently he is not God but when the influence of māyā is taken away he again becomes God. This theory cannot be applied to the minute living entities. The living entities are minute parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; they are minute particles or sparks of the original fire. So these sparks can be covered by the influence of māyā, but the original fire, Kṛṣṇa, cannot. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even from the beginning of His appearance in the house of Vasudeva and Devakī.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.8:

Although a person may call himself a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, if he considers Kṛṣṇa a human being or thinks that He started off as a human being and then evolved into God (as is now in vogue, with so many "incarnations" mushrooming), then such a person is not a devotee but an imposter. One often comes across monists and pseudo-devotees posing as Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotees, but eventually they try to usurp Kṛṣṇa's position. They want to be Lord Kṛṣṇa themselves. Persons with such insidious desires are totally bewildered. If a fruitive worker thinks that Lord Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary mortal, he does not attain the goal of his fruitive work—elevation to the heavenly planets. And if an anthropomorphist happens to be a jñānī, an empirical philosopher, then he also fails to achieve the goal of his pursuit of knowledge—liberation from the material modes.

Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 2, Purport:

Those with a poor fund of knowledge cannot accept the idea that the Lord appears in person on the face of the earth. Because they are not conversant with the intricacies of the Lord's transcendental position, whenever such people hear about the appearance of the Lord, they take Him to be either a superhuman being born with a material body or a historical personality worshiped as God under the influence of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. But the Lord is not the plaything of such fools. He is what He is and does not agree to be a subject of their speculations, which perpetually lead them to conclude that His impersonal feature is supreme. The supreme feature of the Absolute Truth is personal—the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The impersonal Brahman is His effulgence, like the light diffused by a powerful fire. The fire burns in one place but diffuses its warmth and light all round, thus exhibiting its different energies. Similarly, by means of His variegated energies the Supreme Lord expands Himself in many ways.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 4.24-34 -- New York, August 12, 1966:
Now, those who have been in India, perhaps you have seen the goddess Kālī. The goddess Kālī, before the goddess Kālī a goat sacrifice is offered. But the Vedic principle says that if you want to take flesh, then you must sacrifice the goat before the goddess Kālī and then you can take. And that prescription is also very difficult because on the dark moon night the goat has to be sacrifice and there are so many paraphernalia and the mantra, the hymns chanted there... The goat is, I mean to, whispered within the ear that "The man who is sacrificing you, he will be responsible for your life, and for yourself, you are going to get the next life as human being without waiting for the evolutionary process." The animals... There is an evolutionary process. That is accepted in Darwin's theory also, anthropomorphism. What is that? Anthropology, yes. Not anthropomorphism. Anthropology. Anthropology, there is evolutionary process. So that is accepted in the Vedic literature also.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.29 -- Los Angeles, April 21, 1973:

The Māyāvādī philosophy is like that. It is called anthropomorphism. They say that: "Because the... The Absolute Truth is imperson, but because we are persons, we imagine that Absolute Truth also person." Just the opposite. Actually that is not the fact. We have got this personal form as reflection of God. So in the reflection, if the original person is benefited, the reflection is also benefited. That is the philosophy. The reflection is also benefited.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 Excerpt -- Los Angeles, August 14, 1972:

Man is made after God. We are imitation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not imitation of us. The atheist class, they think that "They have painted a form of God according to one's own feature of the body." What is called? Anthropomorphism. But that is not the fact. Here in this material world we are getting different types of forms of body, 8,400,000's. When we get this human form of body, it is just imitation of Kṛṣṇa's body. Kṛṣṇa has got two hands; we have got two hands. Kṛṣṇa has got two legs; we have got two legs. But the difference of this body and Kṛṣṇa's body is stated in this verse: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti (Bs. 5.32). Here, with our hands, we can catch something but we cannot walk. But Kṛṣṇa can walk with His hands. Or with our legs we can simply walk, but we cannot catch something. But Kṛṣṇa can catch also. With our eyes we can see, but we cannot eat. But Kṛṣṇa can see with His eyes and eat also and hear also. That is the explanation of this verse. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti: (Bs. 5.32) "Each and every limb has got the function of the other limbs." That is called Absolute. He is not dependent. He is not dependent. Just like if we have lost our sight, we become dependent; no more we can see. But Kṛṣṇa can see with His hand, with His leg. Try to understand. Therefore He is Absolute. This is the meaning of Absolute. Everything is complete. Pūrṇam adaḥ. Pūrṇa means complete. So atheist will say that "You offer foodstuff. Where Kṛṣṇa eats? The foodstuff is still there." But they do not know that simply by seeing, Kṛṣṇa can eat. And because He is complete, He eats and again keeps the thing complete. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). He can take everything complete, again it remains complete. Just like when we take food, we finish it. No more. But Kṛṣṇa can eat; at the same time, the things may remain as it is. Otherwise where is the difference between ourself and Kṛṣṇa? That is the difference.

Festival Lectures

Sri Vyasa-puja -- London, August 22, 1973:

My dear sons and daughters, I am so much obliged to you that you have become so enthusiastic for offering Vyāsa-pūjā. Now try to understand. Several times we have explained why this function is called Vyāsa-pūjā. I have already explained in the morning, this offering worshiping, one may think that this man is teaching his disciples man-worshiping, anthropomorphism. But it is not man-worshiping. One should not misunderstand. Vyāsadeva is the original spiritual master. Original spiritual master is Kṛṣṇa. From Kṛṣṇa, Brahmā was initiated, Lord Brahma. Tene brahma hṛdāya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ. It is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when Brahmā was created, it was all darkness within the universe. He could not understand what is the purpose of his becoming there. Then he engaged himself in tapasya, and he was initiated from within.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968:

So how we can transfer into that kingdom of light? The whole human civilization is based on these principles. The Vedānta says, athāto brahma jijñāsā. Atha ataḥ. "Therefore you should now inquire about Brahman, the Absolute." "Therefore now" means... Every word is significant. "Therefore" means because you have got this human body—"therefore." And ataḥ means "hereafter." "Hereafter" means you have passed through many, many lives, 8,400,000 species of life. Aquatics—900,000. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. This is the... Darwin has taken the idea of evolution from this Padma Purāṇa. You won't find any philosophy, any doctrine in the world which is not found in the Vedic literature. It is so perfect, everything is there. So the anthropomorphism or—what is called?—anthropology... Anthropology of Darwin is there in the Padma Purāṇa. It is very nicely described. Darwin cannot explain what are the number of the species of different, but Padma Purāṇa states that there are 900,000 species of life within water, within the ocean. And above the ocean, as soon as the ocean water is dried up, the land is coming out, immediately the vegetation begins. Different types of plants and trees then come out. So jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Two millions, lakṣa-viṁśati, twenty hundred thousand. That is two million? Anyway... Sthāvarā lakṣa. Sthāvarā means those who cannot move. There are different types of living entities. The trees, the plants, they cannot move. The other type of living entities, just like the birds, the beasts, the human being, they can move. So sthāvarā and jaṅgama. Jaṅgama means those who can move, and sthāvarā means those who cannot move.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: These Māyāvādī philosophers, they create God. Anthropomorphism. What is that anthropomorphism.

Satsvarūpa: To imagine that God has a form. Man imagines God, not that God exists originally, but man imagines God based on his own form.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anthropomorphism it is called. They create a form, but that is not the fact. God has His eternal form. That I explained. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha means form. And it is sac-cid-ānanda, means eternal, full of knowledge and... Just like Kṛṣṇa is speaking Bhagavad-gītā. People are accepting, because that is real knowledge. And nobody reads other books so carefully. And this Bhagavad-gītā is read all over the world. All big, big scholars, big, big philosophers, theologists, they read. Because that is real knowledge. That is the proof. It is real knowledge. Cit. Sac-cid. And one who is giving real knowledge, it is natural conclusion, he has got eternal body. We cannot give real knowledge because we forget. As we change our body, we forget. Just like at night we dream, but we forget the body, this body. In another body we go to some dreamland. So because we change body therefore we forget. And because Kṛṣṇa is giving knowledge perfect, past, present and future, therefore it means that He has got eternal body. This is the proof. One should understand everything with logic. Is it not? We forget because we have no eternal body. Last birth, what I was, what you were, we have forgotten, because changed body. Death means forgetting. So because Kṛṣṇa is giving perfect knowledge of past, future and present, therefore it is to be understood that He has got eternal body. And eternal body means there is no misery. Misery means janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), to take birth, to die... (aside:) (Hare Kṛṣṇa.) And to suffer from disease, to suffer from old age. These are the miseries. So because Kṛṣṇa hasn't got this temporary body, therefore He is not suffering from these things. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, you will see always, young man. You will never see Kṛṣṇa's picture as old man, because He is eternal body. This is the conclusion.

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Atreya Ṛṣi: Sunnier than London. Very close to London.

Dhanañjaya: Not cold like London ever.

Prabhupāda: There is snow. (break) ...and Darjeeling. (break)

Atreya Ṛṣi: Anthropomorphic.

Prabhupāda: Anthropomorphic. That means man worship.

Satsvarūpa: They deify a man. He's a man but the people make him as a god.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has said like that? Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā manuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). So why they do not deify others? Only Kṛṣṇa. There were many big, big men. All the Pāṇḍavas were very big men. Kṛṣṇa was contemporate to the Pāṇḍavas. Why Kṛṣṇa was picked up, and not the Pāṇḍavas? What is the reason?

Yogeśvara: The Pāṇḍavas were the devotees of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, no. This Anthropomorphism cannot be applied.

Satsvarūpa: Their activities were not so great.

Prabhupāda: Well, nobody's activities can be greater than God's activities.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Anthropomorphis... What is called? Anthropology.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: University of Avidyā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Chuckles) Right you are. Avidyāra bhore. Kota nidrā jāo māyā avidyāra bhore.

Pañcadraviḍa: Psychiatrists.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All Western adventure to keep people in darkness. And that is going on. Now it will be smashed by the next war. Next war will come very soon.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So persons who we preach to and give the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to...

Prabhupāda: Then let.... If anyone hears very attentively, that means he's innocent. He should be given attention. And one who says, "Why Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān? Ramakrishna Bhagavān." Oh, that's rascal, immediately. Take him, rascal. That's all. Finished. Created God. Huh? This Ramakrishna Mission has created God. God cannot be created. God is God. This is anthropomorphism. Is it not?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Right. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Zoomorphism.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). So on the whole, people are in darkness. And that is going on as advancement. This is the only institution to give them some light. There is no doubt about it. All in the darkness. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are in darkness, and some leader comes, he is also in the darkness, and both of them fall into the ditch. This is going on. Do you agree to this point? Otherwise you cannot become good preacher. You must yourself, must be convinced that actually this is the position. All these rascals, scientists, philosophers, politicians—they're all in darkness, and they're misguiding people. That's all. One of the first-class rascal in darkness is your Darwin. He's in favor of Darwin's theory. Another first-class demon is that Freud. (laughter) These are the guides of the modern civilization. Anthropomorphism. No? What is called?

Gargamuni: Anthropology?

Prabhupāda: Anthropology.

Jayapatākā: Now the latest demon is the one who says the population theory, overpopulation.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tathā vinoda(?). I have done on reality. I want to establish reality, not imagination. What is the use of giving some imaginative idea, just like this rascal Darwin? Everything rascal. No practical value. And he has written volumes of books, and people are accepting: "From monkey, man has come. That's all." But monkey is there; man is there. Where monkey is extinct? The whole theory is absolutely bogus, and people have accepted it. I never believed that. Anthropo... Anthropomor... No? The...?

Upendra: Anthropomorphism.

Prabhupāda: And... What do you call, this science?

Śatadhanya: Anthropology.

Prabhupāda: Anthropology. Anthropology we believe; as it is stated in the Vedas, we believe, one after another. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarāḥ... That is the... The soul is changing. So there is no question of... "Survival of the fittest." Nonsense. Who is fit?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one except the devotee is fit.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is dying. Who is the fittest?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The devotee is alone eternal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore the devotees, they do not know. They are all rascals, animals. But here, this statement, "fittest," who is fittest?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really no one.

Prabhupāda: Still the theory is going on, "Survival of the fittest."

Page Title:Anthropomorphism
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:25 of Apr, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=4, CC=0, OB=3, Lec=5, Con=7, Let=0
No. of Quotes:20