Pancopasanam means

Expressions researched:
"Pancopasana means" |"Pancopasanam means"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Pañcopāsanam means that the Absolute Truth is impersonal. You can imagine as person like this. This is pañcopāsanam.

Morning Walk -- March 29, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why you recommended Pañca-upāsana?

Indian man (4): I don't understand that.

Prabhupāda: That is the impersonalist.

Indian man (3): (indistinct) bhakti.

Indian man (4): I don't know... Why...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, no...

Indian man (2): Pañcarātra...

Prabhupāda: Pañcopāsanam means that the Absolute Truth is impersonal. You can imagine as person like this. This is pañcopāsanam. Sādhu kanam hita taya brāhmaṇa rūpa kalpana, kalpana.(?) "You just imagine one form." But Vaiṣṇava, he's not like that. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.

Indian man (3): It says in the śāstra, Veda ca rasa...

Prabhupāda: When the question of śāstra comes, shall I read Bhagavad-gītā or this?

Indian man (4): All this things should be read together, because they are complimentary to each other. Everybody needs to...

Prabhupāda: We have no time to read the complimentary...

Indian man (4): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: ...then what he'll read?

Indian man (4): Tathā śrīmad-bhagavad-gītā iti.

Prabhupāda: It is not possible that everyone has to read all the corollaries. The one, main... Bhagavad-gītā you read and learn, that I am stressing. That I am stressing.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Pañcopāsana means the ultimate, Absolute Truth is impersonal and Śaṅkarācārya recommended that you cannot worship the impersonal, so you conceive a personal form.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prof. Hopkins: And the Alavars, the Alavars of Tamil Nadu.

Prabhupāda: Alavar.

Prof. Hopkins: Alavar.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is also Vaiṣṇava.

Prof. Hopkins: You would accept their teachings also?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Prof. Hopkins: So the real question then is Vaiṣṇavas and others.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Hopkins: The central teaching...

Prabhupāda: Vaiṣṇava and non-Vaiṣṇava.

Prof. Hopkins: Vaiṣṇava and non-Vaiṣṇava. So it's not a question of sectarian differences within Vaiṣṇavism. (break) And you would see the worshipers of Śiva as impersonalists?

Prabhupāda: Impersonalists.

Prof. Hopkins: You would see... All of them.

Prabhupāda: The Śaivites, the Śaṅkarācārya.

Prof. Hopkins: Śaṅkarācārya, I know he is.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śaṅkarācārya's theory is the ultimate, the Absolute Truth is impersonal. And one can imagine a personal form for the benefit of the worshiper.

Prof. Hopkins: But there are some worshipers of Śiva who would be personalists.

Prabhupāda: No.

Prof. Hopkins: You would deny that.

Prabhupāda: They are all impersonalists. They are pañcopāsana. Pañcopāsana means the ultimate, Absolute Truth is impersonal and Śaṅkarācārya recommended that you cannot worship the impersonal, so you conceive a personal form. So that he recommended five: the sun-god, Lord Śiva, Durgā, and Gaṇeśa, and? What else? And Viṣṇu.

Prof. Hopkins: Viṣṇu. Pañca (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: But after you are per..., become, you are perfect, then you merge into the impersonal. That is Śaṅkara.

Prof. Hopkins: You would see all worshipers of Śiva as following basically that idea.

Prabhupāda: No, there are devotees. Just like we, we offer all respect to Lord Śiva. We consider Śiva as the best of the Vaiṣṇavas. Vaiṣṇavānām yathā śambhu. And we have got sampradāya from Śiva. He is considered one of the authority of Vaiṣṇavism.

Prof. Hopkins: So you would, you would include...

Prabhupāda: Our conception of Śiva is different.