Lord Brahmā said: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, being beyond birth and death, is eternal. He has no material qualities. Yet He is the ocean of unlimited auspicious qualities. He is subtler than the most subtle, He is invisible, and His form is inconceivable. He is worshipable for all the demigods. Innumerable universes exist within His form, and therefore He is never separated from these universes by time, space or circumstances. He is the chief and the pradhāna. Although He is the beginning, the middle and the end of the material creation, the idea of pantheism conceived by Māyāvādī philosophers has no validity. The Supreme Personality of Godhead controls the entire material manifestation through His subordinate agent, the external energy.
Pantheism
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
The most defective part of worshiping demigods is that it creates a definite conception of pantheism, ending disastrously in many religious sects detrimental to the progress of the principles of the Bhāgavatam, which alone can give the accurate direction for self-realization in eternal relation with the Personality of Godhead by devotional service in transcendental love.
SB Canto 2
In the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that after many hundreds of births, the impersonal philosopher surrenders unto the Personality of Godhead. To acquire such a qualification of God realization in the personal feature, the neophyte impersonalist is given a chance to realize the relation of the Lord in everything by the philosophy of pantheism.
Pantheism in its higher status does not permit the student to form an impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth, but it extends the conception of the Absolute Truth into the field of the so-called material energy. Everything created by the material energy can be dovetailed with the Absolute by an attitude of service, which is the essential part of living energy. The pure devotee of the Lord knows the art of converting everything into its spiritual existence by this service attitude, and only in that devotional way can the theory of pantheism be perfected.
Success of mystic performances is achieved only by the help of the devotional attitude. Pantheism, or the system of feeling the presence of the Almighty everywhere, is a sort of training of the mind to become accustomed to the devotional conception, and it is this devotional attitude of the mystic that makes possible the successful termination of such mystic attempts. One is not, however, elevated to such a successful status without the tinge of mixture in devotional service. The devotional atmosphere created by pantheistic vision develops into devotional service in later days, and that is the only benefit for the impersonalist.
The impersonalists think of the Absolute Personality of Godhead in two different ways, as above mentioned. On the one hand they worship the Lord in His viśva-rūpa, or all-pervading universal form, and on the other they think of the Lord's unmanifested, indescribable, subtle form. The theories of pantheism and monism are respectively applicable to these two conceptions of the Supreme as gross and subtle, but both of them are rejected by the learned pure devotees of the Lord because they are aware of the factual position.
SB Canto 3
The conception of many gods controlling the many departments of material nature is ill conceived of by the foolish pantheist. God is one without a second, and He is the primal cause of all causes. As there are many departmental heads of governmental affairs, so there are many heads of management of the universal affairs.
The first principle to be understood is that this world is a product of the supreme will. There is an identity of this world with the Supreme Lord. This identity is accepted in a misconceived way by the impersonalists; they say that the Supreme Absolute Truth, transforming Himself into the universe, loses His separate existence. Thus they accept the world and everything in it to be the Lord. That is pantheism, wherein everything is considered to be the Lord. This is the view of the impersonalist.
SB Canto 5
The Lord is situated in this universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. He is also situated within every atom. According to the Vedic statement: īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). The Supreme Lord is situated everywhere, and wherever He is situated is His temple. We even offer respects to a temple from a distant place, and all living entities should similarly be offered respect. This is different from the theory of pantheism, which holds that everything is God. Everything has a relationship with God because God is situated everywhere.
SB Canto 8
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
Mahāprabhu thereupon explained all the sūtras in His own way, without touching the pantheistic commentary of Śaṅkara. The keen understanding of Sārvabhauma enabled him to see the truth, beauty and harmony of the arguments in the explanations given by Caitanya, and Sārvabhauma was obliged to utter that it was the first time he had found one who could explain the Brahma-sūtras in such a simple manner. He also admitted that the commentaries of Śaṅkara never gave such natural explanations of the Vedānta-sūtras as those he had obtained from Mahāprabhu.
Message of Godhead
We have to search out our eternal peace and prosperity in the kingdom of God, which is a place other than this mortal world. Even such messiahs and reformers as Lord Buddha—who did not accept the existence of Godhead and preached morality and ethics in the spirit of atheism—and Śaṅkarācārya—who did not accept the Personality of Godhead and preached morality and ethics in the spirit of pantheism—never preached that there is any possibility of attaining eternal peace and prosperity in this material world.
How one can attain to the supreme transcendental knowledge simply by the performance of transcendental service to the Personality of Godhead is explained in the twenty-fourth verse of the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. It is explained there that through performance of work with transcendental results, everything becomes spiritualized. Ācārya Śaṅkara's philosophy of "pantheism," which has spread a perverted interpretation of the Vedānta maxim that the Supreme Spirit is omnipresent, nonetheless has a practical bearing on the above verse.
During our material existence, we have to deal with material objects, if only to keep body and soul together. But in all such material activities we can evoke the spiritual atmosphere, in terms of the Vedantic truth that the Supreme Spirit is omnipresent. This truth is imperfectly explained by the proponents of pantheism, the misconception that everything is the Supreme Spirit simply because the Supreme Spirit is everywhere. Once this misconception is cleared up and if we remember that the Supreme Spirit is indeed omnipresent, we can create a spiritual atmosphere by performing all our activities in relation to the Supreme Spirit, with everything directed by one who is a self-realized soul. Then the whole thing is transformed into spirit.
The enemies of the karma-yogīs—who generally perform all works for self-satisfaction or sense gratification, and who are not in touch with the Supreme Spirit by the transcendental relationship of service—sometimes pose themselves as working according to the desire of the supreme will. As a matter of fact, they are pantheist pretenders, trying to cover their extravagancy by falsely labeling it transcendental service to Godhead. But those who are pure in heart—that is, those who have surrendered everything unto the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead—remain aloof and separate from such easygoing pseudo transcendentalists, while giving them all respects that they may demand.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
If you see Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's devotees, if you chant "Kṛṣṇa..." Kṛṣṇa is not different from the name because He's absolute. He is not different. The word "Kṛṣṇa" and the person Kṛṣṇa, or God Kṛṣṇa, is not different, because everything is Kṛṣṇa. The oneness, the philosophy of monism or pantheism, is perfect. When that oneness comes in understanding Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection. If Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth from whom everything is emanating, then everything is Kṛṣṇa.
He's pūrṇa. Not that because so many things have been taken from Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is finished. This is material life. They cannot conceive of the omnipotency. They accept God is omnipotent, but they cannot understand what is that omnipotency. The omnipotency is that so many things are being manifested by the Kṛṣṇa's energies, but Kṛṣṇa is not lost. Kṛṣṇa is there. We haven't got to worship so many things, pantheism. No. That is not our... Pantheism, the same idea, that "Kṛṣṇa, or the Absolute Truth, has become divided into so many ways; therefore everything combined together is the Absolute Truth," this is the theory of pantheism. But ours is Vedic proposition, that Kṛṣṇa is the cause of everything.
When we cannot understand God, then we come first to the impersonal feature, everywhere, pantheism, which is known as, in philosophical terms, pantheism. There are different, I mean to say, ideas, and philosophical proposition. So this mayā tatam idam. But the pantheists, because the materialist think of limited... (coughs) They think that "God is everywhere. Therefore there is no personal God." No, that is foolish, foolishness. He is everywhere, it is explained here. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "By Me..." Mayā means, "by me." "By Me, or by My energy, I am expanded everywhere."
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to transfer oneself from this external energy to the internal energy. That is the purpose of all Vedic literature. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). To understand God and go back to home, back to Godhead, that is perfection of life. So here we are in the God's energy. There is no doubt. Mayā tatam, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni (BG 9.4). Everything. Bhūtāni means all living entities, anything which has grown. The trees, the plants, the hills, the ocean, the sky—everything is resting in God's energy. Mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ. But it is not that... The pantheists, they think that "If God has expanded in everything, then whatever I worship, that is God's worship." No. That is the... Kṛṣṇa said, "No, that you cannot take."
This we have already explained, that taking himself as the Supreme means, as the part and parcel of the Supreme, if we study myself, then I can understand also what is God. The only difference is: quantitatively, God is great and I am small. Otherwise, so far quality is concerned, that is one. So this ahaṅgrahopāsanam, that is number one. Then next upāsanā, next worship, is ekatvena pṛthaktvena (BG 9.15). Pṛthaktvena means pantheism. Just like there are persons who are worship any demigod as God. Their opinion is that there are different forms of God. So any form we accept as God and worship, we shall be benefited. We shall approach the highest perfection. That is another section. So this can be adjusted that God is everywhere. That... There is no denying this fact because by His energy, He is everywhere.
Just like we are His energy. Living entities, they are superior energy of God. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām. Parām means superior. So we are also energy. So energy and the energetic, they're one. Just like the sun and the sunshine, they're not different. So wherever the sunshine is there, there is sun. You cannot deny that. Wherever the sunshine is there, there is sun. Similarly, wherever the energy of God is there, there is God. So in that way, everything is God. Pṛthaktvena. Everything... Pantheism. These are different processes.
So this Bhagavad-gītā says that those who are trying to make a show of their knowledge, so let them do that. Viśvato-mukham. The universal form, pantheism, monotheism, monism. We have so many theories. But not atheism. You see? So these have come to this point. And sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. Why does He says, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ? Because the path is not very easy. Spiritual path and to attain complete perfection is not very easy, especially in this age.
So practically, they are, according to Bhagavad-gītā they are not directly in touch with the Supreme Lord, but they have taken different paths as ahaṅgrahopāsanam, thinking himself as one with the Lord, pantheism, thinking everything the symbol of God, and thinking the universal form as the Supreme, in different ways.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So Kṛṣṇa is very selfish. He says... Here it is said: sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Anyone who is engaged in hearing Kṛṣṇa's kathā. Kathā means words, messages. So, in the Bhagavad-gītā also, Kṛṣṇa says, mām ekam: "Only unto Me." Ekam. This is required. Although everything is Kṛṣṇa, but according to the pantheist theory we cannot worship everything. Everything is Kṛṣṇa, that's a fact, but that does not mean we have to worship everything; we have to worship Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say, "If everything is Kṛṣṇa, so whatever I worship, I am worshiping Kṛṣṇa." No. That is wrong.
You must know what is Bhagavān, that Bhagavān is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. There are many Bhagavāns. That's all right. Or incarnation of Bhagavān. But Bhāgavata says, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Particularly says that "All the incarnations are described, but at the end, the Bhāgavata points out that 'There are so many Bhagavāns.' " That's all right. Not so many. I mean not everyone. Not pantheism, not like that.
You cannot think that "Because Kṛṣṇa is expanded in so many forms and so many ways, therefore He is finished. There is no more Kṛṣṇa. This form of Kṛṣṇa is māyā." No. That is Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa can expand Himself... Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta-rūpam: you cannot count even. We are also forms of Kṛṣṇa, vibhinnāṁśa. Everything is Kṛṣṇa's form. That pantheism, they take it that "Kṛṣṇa's... Everything is Kṛṣṇa's form. Then where is Kṛṣṇa?"
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Then again, the system of ahaṅgama-pāsanā, pantheism, philosophical speculation, pantheism, monism, atheism, agnosticism, so many isms there are. So if you follow these isms, there is a jata, there is another danger which you will not get any information of the Absolute Truth.
Impersonal conception of Godhead, localized conception of Godhead or universal form of God, pantheism, monism—they are not perfect. If you want to know perfectly, then bhakti... It is stated in everywhere, in all Vedic literatures, evidentially in Bhagavad-gītā, which is present before us, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Everywhere you will find this only way, that devotional service. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55).
In the Vedas it is said that only Nārāyaṇa was before creation. So after creation, all these living entities became Nārāyaṇa. This is their philosophy, that "There is no separate Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa has manifested pantheism. Nārāyaṇa has manifested Himself in so many varieties. And the varieties is closed; then again, Nārāyaṇa remains." So this Māyāvāda sannyāsīs, they address one another as "Nārāyaṇa." And Caitanya Mahāprabhu was also a sannyāsī, so he is addressing Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the supreme Nārāyaṇa, as the chief Nārāyaṇa.
General Lectures
Jagat means this material manifestation. This material manifestation is a one-fourth part demonstration of this whole energy of the Supreme Lord, one-fourth part. So nothing is different from God. But there are certain philosophers, they say, pantheist or monotheist... There are so many theists. They are also be... They believe in the Supreme, but impersonal. But we followers of this Kṛṣṇa philosophy, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, we do not follow that philosophy. What is that philosophy? The other sections, they say that "Because God is distributed all over everywhere, therefore there is no separate existence of God." But we do not say that.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: No, no. The atheists, simply artificially they cover. Naturally he has belief. Naturally he has belief. Even in this primitive stage, as soon as there is something wonderful, natural phenomenon, they offer respects, the primitive man. The man in the jungle, as soon as he sees a big ocean, he offers his respects. As soon as he sees a big mountain, he offers his respects. As soon as there is a thunderbolt... This is called realization of the śakti. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śakti. So this is śakta stage, realization of God by seeing something wonderful. That is śakta stage. Then after this state, śakta, saurīyam. Śakta stage, worshiping the energy of God—everything is energy; then śaktyopāsanam, then śaktasaurīyam, then suryopāsanam, worshiping the sun, because it is the reservoir of all energies according to the material world. Śakta, saurīya then gāṇapatya. The gāṇapatya means that is humanitarian. That energy is distributed-pantheism, humanitarian. Śakta, sauriyam, gāṇapatya, then śaiva, you go on. Then Vaiṣṇava. Impersonal then personalist.
Prabhupāda: So philosophy means advancement of knowledge. So we are making progress in knowledge when our knowledge is actually come to the point of perfection of knowledge, that is understanding of God. God is there, but on account of our foolishness, sometimes we deny the existence of God. That is the most foolish platform of living condition. But sometimes we have vague idea, some imagination, and sometimes impersonal, sometimes pantheistic. In this way different philosophies means they are searching after God, but on account of not being perfect, there are differences of opinion or different conception of God. But actually God is person, and when one comes to that platform—to know God, to talk with Him, to see Him, to feel His presence, even to play with Him—that is the highest platform of God realization. And the relationship is God is the great and we are small. So our position is always subordinate.
Prabhupāda: ...they say that meditation you become God. That meditation can make, manufacture God?
Hayagrīva: Well his, his impersonalist stand leads toward pantheism.
Prabhupāda: This is also kind of meditation, speculating that "God should be like this." What is that? But they cannot define what is that, this.
Prabhupāda: So, so far God is concerned, and undoubtedly He is unlimited and His qualities are unlimited. So His one of the most important quality is called Bhakta-vatsala. He is very much dear to His devotee, Bhakta-vatsala. So He has unlimited devotees and unlimited dealings with them; therefore He is unlimitedly expanded. That is pantheism. But it does not mean because He is unlimitedly expanded, His personality is lost. He is person always, even though He is unlimitedly expanded. That is the Vedic version: pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation).
Prabhupāda: Expansion, that is stated in Bhāgavatam, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "By Me everything is expanded." This very word is used. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4). So expansion is also God, but at the same time in expansion there is no God. "No God" means not in person. The expansion is imperson, but expansion is from the person. Just as a government, this is impersonal, but the governor is person. So government means under the control of the governor. So impersonal expansion of God is controlled by the personal God. This is like pantheism. And pantheism, so I think that because everything is God, that God has no personal existence. Is it not?
Hayagrīva: Spinoza. Spinoza says that "The infinite God must possess infinite attributes." He is saying that God, being the basis of all existence, cannot be described in a material way. He is a pantheist in the sense that he believes in the one substance. However, he believes that God has infinite divine attributes, and only two of these attributes fall within the realm of human experience, and these are thought and extension, or mind and matter.
Prabhupāda: So, so far God is concerned, and undoubtedly He is unlimited and His qualities are unlimited. So His one of the most important quality is called Bhakta-vatsala. He is very much dear to His devotee, Bhakta-vatsala. So He has unlimited devotees and unlimited dealings with them; therefore He is unlimitedly expanded. That is pantheism. But it does not mean because He is unlimitedly expanded, His personality is lost. He is person always, even though He is unlimitedly expanded. That is the Vedic version: pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). He is complete, and if another complete form expands from Him, still He remains complete. He is not lost. The material conception is if one unit, if something is taken from it, then it becomes less of that thing. But God is so complete that you can go on taking from Him unlimitedly, still He remains unlimited. That is pantheist. I think they are impersonalist.
Hayagrīva: Or, as Spinoza would put it, by turning toward God's extensions. He calls them God's extensions.
Prabhupāda: No.
Hayagrīva: Because he is pantheistic.
Prabhupāda: This is..., expansion also we accept. What is called, there is technical name, pracāra (?). Expansion, that is stated in Bhāgavatam, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "By Me everything is expanded." This very word is used. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4). So expansion is also God, but at the same time in expansion there is no God. "No God" means not in person. The expansion is imperson, but expansion is from the person. Just as a government, this is impersonal, but the governor is person. So government means under the control of the governor. So impersonal expansion of God is controlled by the personal God. This is like pantheism. And pantheism, so I think that because everything is God, that God has no personal existence. Is it not?
Hayagrīva: Yes. Pantheists would say that God is eminent in everything.
Prabhupāda: Everything.
Hayagrīva: But has no personal or remote...
Prabhupāda: So that is material thought. That is material thought, because the paper in your hand, if it is made into pieces and thrown, expanding, then the original paper is lost. So this is material conception. But the spiritual conception is that He may expand Himself unlimitedly; still, He remains in His own person.
Prabhupāda: The government is acting with the seed on Majesty's service, but that does not mean Her Majesty is there. This is simultaneously one and different, acintya-bhedābheda. Majesty is there because the order is there, but still personally he is not there. So the, another, that begun already, is that daridra, in daridra Nārāyaṇa is there, but not that daridra is Nārāyaṇa. But he has no vision. He is talking of this daridra-nārāyaṇa. This is mistake. Nārāyaṇa is there undoubtedly, but not that daridra is Nārāyaṇa. This is impersonalism, Māyāvāda mistake. That is pantheism.
Hayagrīva: Pantheism. So when Kṛṣṇa says, "I am sex life according to dharma," then this means that He can be perceived in this way.
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you, just like garbhādhāna ceremony. That is not a secret thing. That garbhādhāna ceremony is that "I am going to beget a child. I am going to have sex with my wife for begetting a Kṛṣṇa conscious child," so that Kṛṣṇa is remembered.
Prabhupāda: So the Hindus, they worship, follow God's instruction. That is they have got in a certain sense. God has said that "Amongst the plants, I am this plant, so worship." They are not worshiping all, every plant.
Hayagrīva: This isn't..., then this difference from the pantheists, who would worship, say, everything.
Prabhupāda: They, they will worship any nonsense, but here it is God consciousness. God has said that "I am this," so "I am...," I will worship. That is God, God consciousness. God has said. He has complete faith in God. Just like praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu: "Of Vedic knowledge I am the oṁkāra." Therefore they follow: oṁ tad viṣṇu paramaṁ para..., every mantra is followed by. How he has known oṁkāra is God? That God has said: praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu. So God is giving instruction how He should be realized. So they are following that. They are realized; they realize actually. And what is the use of speculating? He will never understand God because he is speculating with his limited knowledge. God is unlimited.
Hayagrīva: When Huxley became a Darwinist he rejected a supernatural God and the Bible. In For Argument from Design... He believed in, previously he believed in a Christian God as the designer, but he believed that Darwin's theory gave this Christian conception its death blow. He did not accept a pantheistic God, like Spinoza did, as being identical... Excuse me. He did accept a pantheistic God, like Spinoza did, as being identical with nature. That is, he saw God as nature, and he believed in the divine government of the universe. He believed that the cosmic process is rational, not random...
Prabhupāda: How it becomes rational?
Hayagrīva: ...but he rejected a personal God concerned with morality.
Prabhupāda: That is his defect. The nature is dead body, matter. So how it can be rational? Just like this table is a dead wood. How it can be rational? That is nonsense. The carpenter is rational, who has made the wood in the shape. So he says the nature is rational. Nature is dead matter. How it can be rational? Therefore there is a rational being behind the nature. That is God. This, the wood, is dead. The wood, out of its own accord, cannot become a table. The carpenter is shaping the wood into table. That is rational. Therefore behind the dead nature, the rational being is God. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. I think Mr. Huxley is supposed to have read..., understand he has given some comment on the Ramakrishna Mission Bhagavad-gītā, but he has not studied Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly.
Prabhupāda: So this Thomas Huxley, how he says that the nature has rational, has knowledge? We don't find. A dead stone, maybe big mountain, but has it got rationality? How does he say that the nature has rationality? What is the basis?
Hayagrīva: Well, it's the pantheistic, it's the same pantheistic contention that God is..., God is impersonal and made the tree grow.
Prabhupāda: Maybe. "Impersonal," "personal," that we shall consider, but God is sentient. He is all-pervasive. That is accepted. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4). That's all right. But God is not like the dead matter, who has no sense. We don't find the dead matter has got rationality. The rationality behind the dead matter is God.
Hayagrīva: Well that's one hand, theism. He says, "For pantheism God is eminent in the universe of finite things, a pervading presence."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Presence is just like the water has come from Him. We say the semina of God. The light is coming from God. We say the sun is the eye of God. In this way everything is related, emanation from God. So, so long we do not understand wherefrom these things are coming, it appears God is imperson. But when we understand that "Here is the source of this sky, this air, the light, the water, the land," then He is person. So impersonal feature means a subordinate feature to the person.
Hayagrīva: Now he analyzes theism, which is the personal aspect, and pantheism, the impersonal aspect, and he finds both defective in themselves, and so what is his position? This is his position: "If the question is asked whether the speculative conception of God or Deity which has been advanced here as part of the empirical treatment of space/time, and has appeared to be verified by religious experience belongs to theism or pantheism, the answer must be that it is not strictly referable to either of them. Taken by itself..."
Prabhupāda: That is his mistake. As you have explained that the sky is also with reference to God... The sky is explained as the heart of God, and the water is explained as the semina of God, the moon is explained as the mind of God, the sun is explained as the eyes of God, the land is explained as the foot of God. So everything is with reference to God. So for a person who understands God, there is nothing existing without God. So how God can be separate? That is the fact. So pantheism or any "ism" you take, it has reference with God.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Allen Ginsberg: Actually, what I got into, you were saying so everything stands on "My," Kṛṣṇa's personality. And then there was a twist there: "But I am empty." Is that what you said before? Do you remember? Just about eight minutes ago you concluded the description of the sun and the...
Prabhupāda: Sun globe, sun, and the sunshine.
Kīrtanānanda: Kṛṣṇa says that "Everything is depending on Me and still I am not in them."
Allen Ginsberg: Oh, oh. I guess that's where I... "Everything is depending on Me, yet I am not in them."
Prabhupāda: "Everything is resting on Me. But I am not there." Just like this is Kṛṣṇa. Without Kṛṣṇa it has no existence. But it is not Kṛṣṇa. The pantheist will say "I... Everything is Kṛṣṇa, then I worship this."
Allen Ginsberg: So who is Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa.
Allen Ginsberg: If He's not apprehensible by senses...
Prabhupāda: No. Why not senses? This is Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa. But at the same time... This is the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. Acintya-bhedābheda, simultaneously one and different. That is very easy... Suppose this is gold. But this gold is not the gold mine. There is a difference. It is gold. Similarly, everything is Kṛṣṇa, but still is different from Kṛṣṇa.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bob: So what is the significance of this energy being separated from Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Separated means this is made out of the body of the cow, but is is not cow. That is separation.
Bob: So this earth and all is made out of Kṛṣṇa, but is not Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: It is not Kṛṣṇa. Or you can say, Kṛṣṇa and not Kṛṣṇa simultaneously. That is our philosophy. One and different. You cannot say different because these things without Kṛṣṇa has no existence. At the same time you cannot say, "Then let me worship water. Why Kṛṣṇa?" That the pantheists, they say, that "Because everything is God, so whatever I take, that is God worship." The Rama-Krishna Mission says like that. But that's wrong.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Lord Brockway: ...I would like to ask. I do not belong to any church. I'm attracted to eastern religions and the Hindu religion because they are pantheist, they have a sense of belonging to everyone and everything in all time, and because of that spiritual feeling, service to all. And I find that better than church theology because church theology is so often thinking entirely of personal salvation rather than service to all. And for those reasons I'm attracted to eastern religions. I think the second comment I would make is this, that you have said that if the world is to move towards brotherhood it must be by a recognition of the fatherhood of God, and that all men are the sons of God.
Prabhupāda: Not only men, all living entities.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
O'Grady: You may achieve recognition of the God that's in yourself, of that aspect.
Prabhupāda: When you are God conscious...
O'Grady: Without being pantheistic, you mean?
Prabhupāda: Just Like if you come in front of the sunlight, the sun consciousness is there, which includes your personal conscious... you also see. In the darkness you cannot see. At night you do not see even your hands and legs. But if you come in front of the sun, or light, then you see the sun and see yourself. So without the sunlight, without God consciousness, self consciousness is incomplete. But God consciousness makes self consciousness very clear.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So your back side or front side, they are the same. So similarly... Therefore this pantheism, they say, "Why should we take? This is back side? Everything is God." That is their philosophy. They say that everything is God, pantheism. But that is not perfect knowledge. Everything is God, and again, everything is not God.
Prabhupāda: Yes, spirit is important. But God is fully spirit, He has no material quality. Yes. We have got, in this material condition, difference between the matter and spirit, but God has not so, such thing. He is whole spirit. That is the difference between God...
Jesuit: And also, as a result, the human, you, I, all these, we're all persons separate from one another, distinct from one another, and distinct from God, who is a separate person.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, we admit that.
Jesuit: It's that I haven't understood. Sometimes you get pantheists who talk as though God is made up of a sum total of...
Prabhupāda: That is a theory, that is a theory, that is not fact.
Dr. Patel: That passage, ekatena bahutena bahuda visato mukham(?) That passage comprises all of the philosophies of India.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Pantheism, monism, dualism.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Śrīla Vyāsadeva should not have compiled any Purāṇas other than the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, because a slight deviation from that may create havoc for self-realization. If a slight deviation can create such havoc, then what to speak of deliberate expansion of the separatist idea from the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead? The most defective part of worshiping demigods is that it creates a definite conception of pantheism, ending disastrously in many religious sects detrimental to the progress of the principles of the Bhāgavatam, which alone can give the accurate direction for self-realization in eternal relation with the Personality of Godhead by devotional service in transcendental love.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
In my opinion the whole thesis is based on the philosophy of pantheism and the approach is made by the services of mankind. Religion of love is the true religious idea but if the approach is made through the service of mankind only, then the process is made imperfect, partial and unscientific.
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 7 - 12
The impersonalist or pantheist cannot understand the exceptional opulences of the Supreme Lord nor the manifestations of His divine energies. Both in the material world and in the spiritual world His energies are distributed in every variety of manifestation. Now Kṛṣṇa is describing what can be directly perceived by the common man; thus part of His variegated energy is described in this way.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Devotees know perfectly well that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. They are never pantheists, worshipers of many Gods, for this is against the injunction of the Vedas. Devotees completely believe, with strong faith, that Nārāyaṇa is transcendental and has inconceivable proprietorship of various transcendental potencies.
| Page Title: | Pantheism |
| Compiler: | Archana, ChandrasekharaAcarya, Visnu Murti, Alakananda |
| Created: | 22 of Nov, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=9, CC=1, OB=5, Lec=28, Con=8, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 53 |