The Pure Devotee Conquers the World

The pure devotee conquers the world within by fully engaging all of his senses including the mind in the service of Krishna. And he conquers the world without through his perfect example and his powerful words by attracting the entire world to take the process of Krishna consciousness. Therefore he is called a goswami, one who has fully conquered his senses, and jagad-guru, one who can deliver the entire universe.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Srila Prabhupada--Spiritual Master of the Universe

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Why I Unsubscribed: I Believe that God is Formless

I have dropped out of your course because I do not subscribe to the view that it is impossible for God to be formless. A formless God assumes form for the benefit of humanity. This is my personal belief.

T.P.K.

Answer: Beliefs Are Imperfect. Vedic Knowledge is Perfect.

We are all certainly free to believe in whatever choose to believe in. But such believing does not make a thing true. I may be an owl philosopher who believes that there is no such as daytime because I never opened my eyes to the sunlight. But this does not mean that daytime does not exist. Similarly I may believe that God is formless because I never took the time and trouble to carefully study the Vedic scriptures and the teachings of the great acharyas who guided the Vedic civilization for thousands of years, which clearly state that God's original feature is with form. But this does not mean that God is formless.

Nowadays it is very commonly misunderstood that God is formless and that His form is simply an illusory manifestation to help those who are in illusion to connect with Him on an elementary level before they become advanced enough to realize His higher impersonal, formless nature. But this is simply not true. It is repeatedly confirmed throughout the Vedic literatures that His actual nature is with form. For example, it is stated in the Brahma-samhita:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

"Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes."

So it is not that Krishna comes out of formlessness. Rather it is just the opposite. There is a formless aspect of God known as the impersonal Brahman. Krishna declares in the Bhagavad-gita that this impersonal, formless Brahman is coming out from Him:

brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham

"I am the basis of the impersonal formless Brahman."

If you think that you are bigger authority than Lord Krishna or Lord Brahma, you can continue to think that the form of God is manifested out of formlessness. But if you are humble enough to realize that you are not on the level of Krishna, Brahma, and the great Vedic authorities, then you may consider that your belief may be based on ignorance rather than on actual facts.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari