Three Aspects of God

6.1 Three Aspects of God

According to Vedanta, there are three aspects of Absolute Truth or God. All these aspects form the foundation of Supreme Reality. These are:

vadanti tattattvavidastattvam yajjnanamadvayam

brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavaniti sabdyate

Translation: Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman (the Attributeless Absolute), Paramatma (the Indwelling Supersoul), or Bhagavan (the Supreme Lord Himself).30

(i) Brahman or Brahmajyoti - Impersonal Effulgence of the Lord

The impersonal effulgence of the Supreme Lord's transcendental body is brahman or brahmajyoti and it is beyond cause and effect. This is also evident from the Sri Isopanisad mantra:

hiranmayena patrena satyasyapihitam mukham

tat tvam pusann apavrinu satya-dharmaya dristaye

Translation: "O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee."31

Einstein's conception of a cosmic religion is very close to this idea of impersonal aspect of God or brahmajyoti. He said, "Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discerning concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion."32 He also stated, "My God created laws. . . . His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."33

(ii) Paramatma Feature - Inspiration and Guidance for all Living Beings

Paramatma is the partial expansion of the Supreme Person. This Paramatma feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is responsible for inspiration, discovery, creativity and for the movement of all living entities. In Bhagavadgita, the Lord says, "I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness."

Each and every living entity has been given a free will. Paramatma is responding and guiding each and every living entity in the universe according to the desires and activities of the individual living entities. In our day-to-day activities we can feel a seemingly inexplicable guidance, what is sometimes described as intuition or inspiration. This guidance is something more than mere algorithmic process. This happens often, when we are deeply contemplating on a problem. And solution comes like a flash without any connection to the line of thought that we have been contemplating. Many renowned scientists, mathematicians, artists, poets, etc., have reported their experience of inspiration. According to Vedanta this is an act of the Lord seated in the heart of everyone as Paramatma.

Otto Loewi, a German physiologist who won the Nobel prize in 1936 for his work on the chemical transmission of nerve impulses, had the idea that there might be a chemical transmission of the nervous impulse rather than an electrical one - which was the commonly held belief. But he was at a loss on how to prove it. He let the idea slip to the back of his mind until seventeen years later he had the following moment of inspiration. He recalled, "The night before Easter Sunday of that year I awoke, turned on the light, and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at 6 o'clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. The next night, at 3 o'clock, the idea returned. It was the design of an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis of chemical transmission that I had uttered 17 years ago was correct. I got up immediately, went to the laboratory, and performed a single experiment on a frog's heart

according to the nocturnal design."34 Loewi had proved his point. The result of the experiment became the foundation for the theory of chemical transmission of the nervous impulse. According to Vedanta such inspiration comes from Paramatma. In a similar manner, all the moment-to-moment activities of all living beings - from microorganisms to man are all guided by the Paramatma feature of the Supreme Lord.

iii) Bhagavan - The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Object of Love

The Srimadbhagavatam describes Lord Sri Krishna as the Supreme origin of everything. All other forms of the Lord are subjective portions of Lord Krishna,35 the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Brahma, the first created cosmic living being defines Isvara, God, as the Supreme original Personality (Adipurusa). His transcendental body is made of three spiritual elements, sat (eternity), cit (knowledge) and ananda (bliss),

saccidanandavigraha. He is the origin of everything, animate and inanimate, and is the cause of all causes. He is the Supreme Controller and the prime mover of all cosmic manifestation. He has Universal Consciousness and He is the well-wisher of every living being. He is beyond the perception of the material senses. However, His symptoms are visible in the effects (products) of His creation. He is Supreme Eternal among all eternals and Supreme Consciousness among all consciousness. He is realized by His devotees

who have completely exhausted all the experiences of the material nature and is accomplished by the practice of the ninefold paths of Bhaktiyoga. This is the goal of dvaita vedantis or vaisnava vendantis.

There is a Big Vision behind this creation - to establish the transcendental connection between the ignorant living entity and the Supreme Lord, Bhagavan. This relationship is carried out through bhakti, the devotional yoga. The seed of bhakti is in all living entities but due to the covering of material desire it does not get fructified so easily. The material world is created by the Supreme Lord with this Big Vision to bring living entities to the platform of pure bhakti and ultimate happiness. The role and importance of bhakti in human life as well as in scientific research work is of paramount importance.

William D. Phillips, a Nobel Laureate physicist from the University of Maryland, USA, expresses remarkably, "Many subscribe to a belief in what is sometimes called 'Einstein's God', an embodiment of the intelligence and order behind creation, but not a personality who cares about and interacts with the creation. … My belief (is) in a personal God, a God who is both the creator of the universe and is intimately concerned with the welfare of the creatures of that universe. 'Einstein's God' is not nearly enough for me. I believe in a God who wants good things for us, and who wants and expects us to care for our fellow creatures. I believe that God wants genuine, loving relationships with us, and wants us to have such relationships with each other."36 His statement supports the Vaisnava Vedantic view of God in Hinduism.

6.2 God's Attributes

According to Vedanta, God has three kinds of internal potency or energy, namely, the (i) Sandhini-sakti, or existential potency, (ii) Samvit-sakti, or cognitive potency and the (iii) Hladini-sakti or pleasure potency. This is also confirmed in the Visnu Purana (1.12.69). In the Bhagavata-sandarbha (103) Srila Jiva Goswami explains these transcendental attributes of God elaborately. (CC Adi 4.60) The living beings are also endowed with these attributes in different degrees.

The Absolute Truth, God is the transcendental Reality (cit-svarupa) possessing all these attributes in full. The manifestation of these internal potencies or energies of the Lord is the inconceivable variegated spiritual world (cit-jagat), the manifestation of the marginal energy of the Lord comprises the living entities, and the manifestation of the external energy of the Lord is the material cosmos. (CC Adi 4.62 purport)

Thus Brahman, the Absolute Truth includes these four principles - the Supreme Godhead Himself, His internal energy, His marginal energy and His external energy.

The form of the Lord (svayam-rupa) and the expansions of His form (vaibhava-prakasa) are directly enjoyers of the internal energy in the spiritual world. The external manifestation, the material energy, provides the material bodies of all the conditioned living entities.

In order to manifest the physical universe God manifest Himself as three expansions called purushaavatars, namely Mahavisnu, Garbhodakshayi Visnu, and Khirodakshayi Visnu to fulfill the desires of every living being according to the karma of every being. Maha Visnu is the source of all physical universes and Garhodakshayi Visnu enters in each universe and Ksirodakshayi Visnu enters into each living being as paramatma and guides every living being from microorganisms to human beings to demigods. In this way the whole material world is run and maintained.

Thus the cosmic creation and dissolution go on periodically according to the Big Vision of the Supreme Lord. The creation of this physical universe is the facility given to conditioned living beings by God in order to get liberated from false conception of life (materialism).

According to ancient vedic culture, religious principles are directly given by God to guide the human beings - dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam (Srimadbhagavatam 6.3.19) The essence of all religions consists of morality, ethics, humility and love of God. Spiritual or religious life is a must for every human being which provides moral codes of living in order to be released from the bondage of worldly life and will thus be qualified to return to the spiritual world. All these will be achieved by developing the sambhadajnana- the knowledge of relationship of individual being with God knowing that the living being is fully dependent on the mercy of Supreme Godhead as a conscious spiritual particle or spiriton of God, the sincere human being can transform himself to become a sincere servant of God. Thus the next step which is to adopt abhidheya - which culminates in unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord - which consists of nine devotional activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshipping, praying, obeying, maintaining friendship and surrendering everything - which will lead to proyojna - attaining the highest goal of life, which is love of God. Further works in this connection will be presented elsewhere.

Thus by developing the understanding of God's existence and by purifying one's heart by devotional service to the Lord, an individual life, community, nations and the entire world can all live together in harmony and peace. A God-centered life is, therefore, the solution to all the problems of material struggle.

7. Universe - A Brief Overview of its Origin, Maintenance, and Dissolution

In this section, we will very briefly examine the Vedantic cosmology (please refer to author's article in Savijnanam-Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm, Journal of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, Vol. 2 for a more detailed description of Vedantic cosmology). Vedantic cosmology describes that the universe is maintained for a specific period before it is wound up. At the beginning of each cycle of creation of the universe, Lord Brahma, the first created cosmic living being is born. A day of Brahma is called a kalpa and one kalpa consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages, called Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. The same number comprises one night of Brahma and he lives one hundred such years and then dies. Satyayuga lasts 1,728,000 years; Tretayuga lasts 1,296,000 years; Dvaparayuga lasts 864,000 years; and Kaliyuga lasts 432,000 years.

Thus one hundred years of Lord Brahma equal 311 trillion and 40 billion earth years. According to Vedantic cosmology, our universe starts with the birth of Lord Brahma and he is at present a little more than 50 Brahma-years old.

Thus our present universe started about 155.522 trillion (155.522 x 10^12) years ago and will end in 155.518 trillion (155.518 x 10^12) years and just after that a new cycle of creation will begin again.37 According to modern cosmologists, our universe began around thirteen to fifteen billion (13-15 x 10^9) years ago. Thus in the Vedic time scale, the universe is an order of 104 times older than that reported by modern cosmologists.

During the life of each universe, according to the karma of the conscious living beings, some living forms will manifest in certain periods of the different kalpas and some may not. Also, at the end of each day of Brahma, a partial annihilation of the universe takes place, bringing catastrophes in which a whole group of living forms can disappear. At the end of the life of Lord Brahma, that is, at the end of each 311,040 billion years, a total or complete annihilation takes place. Thereafter, creation begins again. Thus, in the Vedantic account of cosmology, it is reasonable to assume that one will be unable to find a systematic account of universal or global history in fossil records. In the Vedantic model, the disappearance of the giant lizards, or dinosaurs, which is still a mystery to Western science, is not unreasonable.

8. Hinduism and Modern Issues such as Bioethics, Abortion and Euthanasia

Today the entire world is facing a great dilemma with regard to the values and ethics of human actions. We are faced with many questions in the fields of biotechnology and bioengineering. Vedanta has a lot to contribute in this direction. The biomedical issues like abortion and organ transplantation cannot be resolved unless we have a deeper understanding of life. As described above, according to Vedanta, material life begins at the moment of conception. Life is sacred and human life is very rarely obtained. Thus

Vedanta does not encourage killing at any stage of life, starting from the moment of conception. Hence, the issues like abortion, etc., are easily resolved in Vedanta. Moreover, as mentioned above, the Vedic literature provides purificatory process of garbhadhana-samskara to obtain a good child and thus good population for peace and happiness of human race.

Vedanta proclaims that the problems of unrest, political, social, communal and even religious are all due to the lack of spiritual qualities among the people. It thus provides varnasrama system, the most scientific culture for attainment of spiritual life. This system consists of four divisions of occupation and four orders of human life for training and acquiring of spiritual qualities. The four orders of life as brahmacari (celibate

student), grihastha (household life), vanaprastha (retired life) and sannyasi (renounced life) are to be followed by all, irrespective of the occupational division. Thus it will be very important to undertake scientific research how to have good children in the world.

Vedanta also mentions that everything belong to God and one must not encroach upon another's share.38 This understanding can guide one to not involve in unnecessary killing certain groups of trees, animals, birds, fish, and so on beyond the limits of his quota for food or self-defense. This will protect us from ecological disasters and various other problems.

9. Synthesis of Science and Religion in Hinduism for Solving Difficult Issues

In Vedanta there has always been harmony between science and religion because their domains and relationships are clearly defined and understood. Science deals with external or material knowledge (apara vidya) - knowledge of matter and its particles, like atoms and quarks whereas true religion deals with internal or spiritual knowledge (para vidya) - knowledge of the spirit, or seer. The first one deals with the changing, temporary, and external reality whereas the later deals with the changeless, eternal, and transcendental reality. Both these categories of knowledge are important, complementary, and extremely

useful.

In Hinduism the complimentary relationship between science and religion is quite close. As we can infer knowledge of an object from its shadow, so by apara vidya, or material knowledge or science, we can understand something about the existence of para vidya, or spiritual knowledge. One does not negate the other. From his experiences while studying the atom, Max Born, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, proclaimed, "I saw in it [the atom] the key to the deepest secrets of nature, and it revealed to me the greatness of creation and the Creator."39 The author refers to this as a view of synthesis of Science and religion. Thus it is conceivable that many unsolved issues in biology, physics, cosmology, etc., can be resolved by the synthesis of science and religion in Hinduism.

10. Concluding Remark:

The author has made a humble attempt in this article to present a glimpse of Hinduism. The Vedantic literature, which is the essence of Hinduism is extremely vast and has immense potential in providing deep insights for resolving many of the issues in various fields of science, such as life and consciousness studies, cosmology, etc. It also gives a broad view of the science of God and religion. It is interesting to note that almost 60 years ago Erwin Schrödinger, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics had a serious interest in Vedanta. He used to read Vedantic literatures called the Upanisads and saw the need to bring in the Vedic concepts into modern science. Thus it may be quite worthwhile for scientists, students and scholars in general to investigate many of the concepts in the Vedantic literatures.

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