Founder's Lecture

Melbourne—April 23, 1976

The Original Source of Everything

Lord Krsna explains that He is everything but everything is not Him.

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina mat-sthani sarva-bhutani na caham tesv avasthitah

"By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them."

—Bhagavad-gita 9.4

SOMETIMES people foolishly question, "Can you show me God?" Here God is giving the answer. Maya tatam idam sarvam: "I am everywhere. If you have eyes to see, you can see Me." God is everywhere; otherwise how can He be God? God means great, but we do not know how great He is. We simply say, "God is great," but we have no idea how God is great. That is explained in the Vedic literature: He is great because He is everywhere.

In the material world there are innumerable universes. You cannot count the stars and planets. Every night you see them, but can you count them? No, that is not possible. The universe in which our earth is situated is only one universe. Earth is a tiny planet, and it is one out of many millions of planets. We cannot even calculate everything about this one planet. That is the greatness of God's creation. You cannot count even your own hairs. You claim, "This is my hair." Can you count it? No. That is the greatness of God's creation. God is present everywhere, and everything is innumerable, beyond our counting capacity.

God is situated outside and inside. Otherwise, how can He be God? You are here, but you are not in your apartment. But God is in His apartment and He is everywhere. That is God.

Rascals claim, "I am God." What kind of God are you? Are you spread everywhere? We should not accept such a cheap "God."

God's description is there in the sastra, the Vedic scriptures:

eko 'py asau racayitum jagad-anda-kotim yac-chaktir asti jagad-anda-caya yad-antah andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham- govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

"He is an undifferentiated entity, as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him, and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore." [Brahma-saṁhitā 5.35] One portion of God is the Paramatma, the Supersoul. In His Supersoul feature God is present in innumerable universes. Jagad-anda means the universe. Anda means egg. The shape of the universe is like that of an egg. God maintains the millions and millions of universes by one portion of Himself, the Paramatma, or Ksirodakasayi Visnu. This is a great science. God expands Himself in so many ways, and for the material world He is expanded as the Purusa Avataras: Karanodakasayi Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu, and Ksirodakasayi Visnu.

Universes from God's Breath

Karanodakasayi Visnu is lying within the Causal Ocean, and from His breathing the universes are coming out. This is God. Because He is in a sleeping condition, Karanodakasayi Visnu is an expansion of God. He is not the original God. The original God is Krsna. But He can expand Himself. That is God.

Just have some idea what God is. As Karanodakasayi Visnu, He is sleeping within the ocean. As soon as there is a question of sleeping, there is breathing also. The bubbles that come out as He breathes are expanding as universes. When He exhales, innumerable universes come into form, and when He inhales, all of them become annihilated.

This is the nature of the material world: It comes into existence at a certain date, it remains for some time, it gives so many by-products, it expands, it dwindles, and then it is finished. Everything material follows this progression. Your body is like that, my body is like that, the whole universe is like that.

Here Krsna says, maya tatam idam sarvam. He is speaking of His impersonal expansion. When we cannot understand God, then we come first to the impersonal feature, or the idea that God is everywhere. In philosophical terms this is called pantheism. The pantheists think, "God is everywhere. Therefore there is no personal God." No, that is foolish. Maya means, "by Me." Krsna is saying, "By My energy I am expanded everywhere."

This idea is similar to the sun and the sunshine; as soon as the sun is risen, the sunshine is expanded. The other day, while coming here, we saw how within a second the sun arose from the sea. Or it looked like that. Immediately, within a second, the whole world became illuminated. What is this illumination? It is the expansion of the sun as sunshine. But because the expansion is there that does not mean the sun globe is finished. The sun globe is there, and within the sun globe the sun god, or the predominating personality of the sun globe, is there. His name is also known to us. His name is Vivasvan.

In America the President's name is Ford. Those who are intelligent know when they see him, "Oh, you are the President." Similarly, each planet has a president, a chief person. And their names are recorded in the Vedic literature.

In the Bhagavad-gita (4.1) you'll find that millions of years ago Krsna met the sun god and spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Him. Imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam. We have to take information from the right source. Then we are aware of everything.

How is God expanded everywhere? Take this example: According to the scientists, the sun is 93,000,000 miles away, and immediately, within a second, its sunshine is expanded all over the universe. So if this is possible for an ordinary material thing like the sun, just imagine God's potency. Krsna, God, is fully spiritual. How spiritually powerful He is that He can expand Himself all over the universes! This is a thoughtful consideration.

Where is the difficulty in understanding when Krsna says, maya tatam idam sarvam: "I am expanded everywhere"? There is no difficulty—if we are sane persons. We can see that in one universe there is one sun and it is so powerful, and there are innumerable universes and innumerable suns. How powerful must be the one who created all these suns! This calculation is common sense. If one sun, which is material, is so powerful that for millions and millions of years it is giving its energy—heat and light—and still it is so bright and powerful and its temperature is so high—then how powerful is God, the Creator. You can just imagine.

When Krsna says, maya tatam idam sarvam—"I pervade everything"—He is not speaking out of false pride. It is a fact. We simply must have the brain to understand. In every particle, every atom, there is the presence of God. That is stated in the sastra. Andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham [Brahma-saṁhitā 5.35]. Paramanu means the atom. God is within the atom. God is within you also. God is outside; God is within. Outside, we see the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. What are these five elements? Expansions of God's energy. We see practically that the sunshine is the cause of this universe. Within the sunshine all the planets have grown, and on each, due to the sunshine, the vegetables are growing. When there is no sunshine, the leaf falls down. As soon as the sunshine is there, the colorful fruits and flowers and leaves come out. Everything is due to the sunshine.

The Shining of God's Body

The supreme sun is Krsna. God has His effulgence—the shining of His body. That is called the brahmajyoti. From the brahmajyoti innumerable universes are generated. Therefore God is the cause of all creation. He doesn't have to personally manufacture each universe. He is so powerful that in His effulgence, in His shining, innumerable universes are created. And in each universe there are many millions and millions of stars and planets.

These are the descriptions in the Vedic literature, from which we have to learn these things. You cannot speculate by your tiny effort, with limited power and perception. You have to understand from authoritative statements. That is called Veda. Veda means perfect knowledge, and if you study the Vedas, then you get perfect knowledge of everything. And the cream of the Vedic knowledge is here in the Bhagavad-gita. If you read Bhagavad-gita carefully, then you get all the knowledge perfectly.

Here Krsna is speaking of His impersonal expansion. You cannot see God in person in this expansion. Sometimes people foolishly ask, "Can you show me God?" God is there. You have to make your eyes qualified to see Him. For example, God is here in the temple, but somebody is thinking, "This is not God. This is a statue or an idol. They are worshiping an idol." Supposing it is an idol, if God is everywhere, why is He not in the idol? What is the argument? If God is everywhere, then why is He not the idol? God has that power. And actually this is not an idol. This is God's energy.

Three Energies of God

The same example: The sunshine is everywhere, so originally the sunshine is the cause of everything. Similarly, God's effulgence is the cause of material things also. That is explained in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gita. God's energies have been summarized as three: external energy, internal energy, and marginal energy. The external energy is this material manifestation. Similarly, there is an internal energy: the spiritual world manifestation. And in between them there is another energy, called the marginal energy, tatastha.

We living entities are the marginal energy. That means we can live either in this external energy or in the internal energy. At the present moment we are living in the external energy. But this external energy is also Lord Krsna's energy, God's energy. It is not different from Him. We are captivated by the external energy. But the external energy is not permanent. The internal energy is permanent. The spiritual world is permanent, and we are also permanent.

The Krsna consciousness movement is meant to transfer oneself from the external energy to the internal energy. That is the purpose of all Vedic literature. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bhagavad-gita 15.15]. To understand God and go back home, back to Godhead, is the perfection of life. Here, we are in God's energy. There is no doubt. Mat-sthani sarva-bhutani: "All living beings are in Me." Bhutani means all living entities, anything that has grown. The trees, the plants, the hills, the ocean, the sky—everything is resting on God's energy.

Na caham tesv avasthitah: "I am not in them." It is not as the pantheists think. They think, "If God has expanded in everything, then whatever I worship is worship of God." No. Krsna says, "No, you cannot take it like that."

The same example: The sunshine is not different from the sun, but because the sunshine has entered your room, that does not mean the sun has entered your room. If you try to understand, then you'll understand that God is everywhere but, still, He is not everywhere. This is His inconceivable power.

Therefore, if we want to worship God, then we have to worship His name, form, qualities, pastimes, and so on. Then we shall realize that God is a person, the Supreme Being, and that He has all the propensities we have. Because we are part and parcel of God, we can study God's personality from our personality, just as we can study the father by the symptoms of the son. This is a crude example. Whatever propensities we have, where are they coming from? They are coming from God.

Therefore in the Vedanta-sutra (1.1.2) it is said, janmady asya yatah: "Everything is emanating from God." The original source of everything is God. So by studying ourselves we can study the nature of God. The difference is only that He is huge, the greatest, and we are small particles, but the qualities are the same. Take a drop of ocean water. The chemical composition is the same as the ocean's. The taste is the same. Similarly, we are a small sample of God, but God is great. That is the difference between a living entity and God.

If we understand this philosophy, then it is not difficult to understand God, and then we can reestablish our original relationship with Him. And if we act accordingly, then our life is successful.

Thank you very much.