The Sixty-Four Qualities of Lord Sri Krishna
There has been some confusion in the minds of some of our readers lately how God can manifest different degrees of His potencies in His different incarnations. They find it undemocratic that one form of Godhead would display more qualities of Godhead than another form of Godhead. But the Supreme Lord is not obliged to be democratic. As the supreme controller and as the original fountainhead of all that exists, He has the free choice to distribute His qualities in varying percentages to His various forms as He sees fit.
It was mentioned several days ago in the "Answers According the Vedic Version" section of "Thought for the Day" that the four-armed Vishnu (Narayana) has 97% of the qualities of God. (This was a mistake of our typist. The actual number is 93.75%.) This distinction between Narayana and Krishna has become a controversy for some of our readers, who have protested against our making such distinctions. They think that we are arbitrarily making some judgment based on personal whim or bias. But this is not a fact. We are strictly speaking according to the conclusion of the Vedic literatures as confirmed by Srila Rupa Goswami.
Srila Rupa Goswami, who is a eternal associate of the Lord Sri Krishna in the spiritual world, descended along with Him 500 years ago when Sri Krishna came to this material world in the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He lived as a simple mendicant in Sri Vrindavan Dham in India, and after thoroughly researching the Vedic scriptures compiled many transcendental literatures for the deliverance of the suffering humanity. Chief amongst these is the Bhakti-Rasamrita Sindhu, in which he has the listed 60 qualities of Lord Narayana as follows:
(1) beautiful features of the entire body
(2) marked with all auspicious characteristics
(3) extremely pleasing
(4) effulgent
(5) strong
(6) ever youthful
(7) wonderful linguist
(8) truthful
(9) talks pleasingly
(10) fluent
(11) highly learned
(12) highly intelligent
(13) a genius
(14) artistic
(15) extremely clever
(16) expert
(17) grateful
(18) firmly determined
(19) an expert judge of time and circumstances
(20) sees and speaks on the authority of Vedas, or scriptures
(21) pure
(22) self-controlled
(23) steadfast
(24) forbearing
(25) forgiving
(26) grave
(27) self-satisfied
(28) possessing equilibrium
(29) magnanimous
(30) religious
(31) heroic
(32) compassionate
(33) respectful
(34) gentle
(35) liberal
(36) shy
(37) the protector of surrendered souls
(38) happy
(39) the well-wisher of devotees
(40) controlled by love
(41) all-auspicious
(42) most powerful
(43) all-famous
(44) popular
(45) partial to devotees
(46) very attractive to all women
(47) all-worshipable
(48) all-opulent
(49) all-honorable
(50) the supreme controller.
(51) changeless
(52) all-cognizant
(53) ever fresh
(54) sac-cid-ananda (possessing an eternal blissful body)
(55) possessing all mystic perfections.
(56) He has inconceivable potency.
(57) Uncountable universes generate from His body.
(58) He is the original source of all incarnations.
(59) He is the giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills.
(60) He is the attractor of liberated souls.
Srila Rupa Goswami describes that all these transcendental qualities are manifest wonderfully in Supreme Lord. He also states that besides these sixty transcendental qualities, Krishna has four more, which are not manifest in the Narayana form of Godhead, what to speak of the demigods or living entities. They are as follows.
(61) He is the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes (especially His childhood pastimes).
(62) He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Godhead.
(63) He can attract all living entities all over the universes by playing on His flute.
(64) He has a wonderful excellence of beauty which cannot be rivaled anywhere in the creation.
With the addition of these four exceptional qualities which are found only in Krishna, to total comes to sixty-four. Srila Rupa Gosvami gives evidences from various scriptures about all sixty-four qualities present in the person of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna.
The simple math is that if we divide sixty by sixty-four, we come out with 93.75%.
Each form of the Lord is defined with so many different qualities in our scriptures. This as I understand is to make a common man realize that his personal traits / qualities match with some God's specialty, so that the Self in him is to be considered the all powerful identity with the God.
In your explanation, you had given a reference of Srila Rupa Goswami's scripture, in which he considers Lord Krishna as Bhagavan, the Supreme Godhead possessing all qualities and in which he grades Lord Narayana as having less qualities. This is far from logical and is Rupa Goswami's perception only.
Anyway, thanks for your time and explanation.
With Pranams
Your student
You have stated that the distinction made between Lord Narayana and Lord Krishna is Rupa Goswami's perception only, that is it not logical. But, if I may beg to humbly point something out to you. This is your perception only.
An eternal associate of the Lord such as Srila Rupa Goswami, who has descended along with the Lord from the spiritual world for the purpose of delivering the fallen, conditioned souls is not subject to the four defects of material existence. His teachings are not his mere perceptions based on speculative knowledge. They are true without any tinge of defect.
In this connection it is stated in the Svetasvatara Upanisad:
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
"Only unto those great souls who have unflinching faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." --Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23
In this Kali Yuga it is sometimes hard for us to put our full faith in the words of the bona fide spiritual master. This is because we have been repeatedly cheated by so many bogus so-called spiritual masters. We have to be very careful when we do come into contact with a bona fide not to judge him with our own conditioned consciousness. If we do this, it is a great offense against an exalted soul and greatly hinders our spiritual progress.
So kindly apply your intelligence to understand the sublime subtleties of the transcendental science that are being so kindly revealed to us by Srila Rupa Goswami.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
It was mentioned several days ago in the "Answers According the Vedic Version" section of "Thought for the Day" that the four-armed Vishnu (Narayana) has 97% of the qualities of God. (This was a mistake of our typist. The actual number is 93.75%.) This distinction between Narayana and Krishna has become a controversy for some of our readers, who have protested against our making such distinctions. They think that we are arbitrarily making some judgment based on personal whim or bias. But this is not a fact. We are strictly speaking according to the conclusion of the Vedic literatures as confirmed by Srila Rupa Goswami.
Srila Rupa Goswami, who is a eternal associate of the Lord Sri Krishna in the spiritual world, descended along with Him 500 years ago when Sri Krishna came to this material world in the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He lived as a simple mendicant in Sri Vrindavan Dham in India, and after thoroughly researching the Vedic scriptures compiled many transcendental literatures for the deliverance of the suffering humanity. Chief amongst these is the Bhakti-Rasamrita Sindhu, in which he has the listed 60 qualities of Lord Narayana as follows:
(1) beautiful features of the entire body
(2) marked with all auspicious characteristics
(3) extremely pleasing
(4) effulgent
(5) strong
(6) ever youthful
(7) wonderful linguist
(8) truthful
(9) talks pleasingly
(10) fluent
(11) highly learned
(12) highly intelligent
(13) a genius
(14) artistic
(15) extremely clever
(16) expert
(17) grateful
(18) firmly determined
(19) an expert judge of time and circumstances
(20) sees and speaks on the authority of Vedas, or scriptures
(21) pure
(22) self-controlled
(23) steadfast
(24) forbearing
(25) forgiving
(26) grave
(27) self-satisfied
(28) possessing equilibrium
(29) magnanimous
(30) religious
(31) heroic
(32) compassionate
(33) respectful
(34) gentle
(35) liberal
(36) shy
(37) the protector of surrendered souls
(38) happy
(39) the well-wisher of devotees
(40) controlled by love
(41) all-auspicious
(42) most powerful
(43) all-famous
(44) popular
(45) partial to devotees
(46) very attractive to all women
(47) all-worshipable
(48) all-opulent
(49) all-honorable
(50) the supreme controller.
(51) changeless
(52) all-cognizant
(53) ever fresh
(54) sac-cid-ananda (possessing an eternal blissful body)
(55) possessing all mystic perfections.
(56) He has inconceivable potency.
(57) Uncountable universes generate from His body.
(58) He is the original source of all incarnations.
(59) He is the giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills.
(60) He is the attractor of liberated souls.
Srila Rupa Goswami describes that all these transcendental qualities are manifest wonderfully in Supreme Lord. He also states that besides these sixty transcendental qualities, Krishna has four more, which are not manifest in the Narayana form of Godhead, what to speak of the demigods or living entities. They are as follows.
(61) He is the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes (especially His childhood pastimes).
(62) He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Godhead.
(63) He can attract all living entities all over the universes by playing on His flute.
(64) He has a wonderful excellence of beauty which cannot be rivaled anywhere in the creation.
With the addition of these four exceptional qualities which are found only in Krishna, to total comes to sixty-four. Srila Rupa Gosvami gives evidences from various scriptures about all sixty-four qualities present in the person of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna.
The simple math is that if we divide sixty by sixty-four, we come out with 93.75%.
Answers According to the Vedic Version
Challenge: Grading Lord Narayana is Far From Logical...
Thank you very much for your detailed and explanatory mail.Each form of the Lord is defined with so many different qualities in our scriptures. This as I understand is to make a common man realize that his personal traits / qualities match with some God's specialty, so that the Self in him is to be considered the all powerful identity with the God.
In your explanation, you had given a reference of Srila Rupa Goswami's scripture, in which he considers Lord Krishna as Bhagavan, the Supreme Godhead possessing all qualities and in which he grades Lord Narayana as having less qualities. This is far from logical and is Rupa Goswami's perception only.
Anyway, thanks for your time and explanation.
With Pranams
Your student
Response: Try to Understand the Sublime Subtleties of the Transcendental Science...
The atma, or the real self who resides within the body, is the same with God in quality, but quantitatively different. Just like because you are from India you are considered to Indian, but you are not considered to be India. India has many major cities scattered throughout it. It is not that those Indian cities are scattered throughout you. So in the same way, the individual being since he is part of God is considered "Godian" (possessing the qualities of God--namely eternity, knowledge, and bliss) but is not considered to be God Himself. I sincerely hope that this is clear to you.You have stated that the distinction made between Lord Narayana and Lord Krishna is Rupa Goswami's perception only, that is it not logical. But, if I may beg to humbly point something out to you. This is your perception only.
An eternal associate of the Lord such as Srila Rupa Goswami, who has descended along with the Lord from the spiritual world for the purpose of delivering the fallen, conditioned souls is not subject to the four defects of material existence. His teachings are not his mere perceptions based on speculative knowledge. They are true without any tinge of defect.
In this connection it is stated in the Svetasvatara Upanisad:
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
"Only unto those great souls who have unflinching faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." --Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23
In this Kali Yuga it is sometimes hard for us to put our full faith in the words of the bona fide spiritual master. This is because we have been repeatedly cheated by so many bogus so-called spiritual masters. We have to be very careful when we do come into contact with a bona fide not to judge him with our own conditioned consciousness. If we do this, it is a great offense against an exalted soul and greatly hinders our spiritual progress.
So kindly apply your intelligence to understand the sublime subtleties of the transcendental science that are being so kindly revealed to us by Srila Rupa Goswami.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Comments
Post a Comment