Although the Absolute Truth is one, personal realization of the Absolute Truth is in three features: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. There is a very important verse in the Esoteric Teaching:
vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11]
Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan are the same transcendental object, but as He is seen in three stages of realization.
A sphere is a three-dimensional object. But if we project a sphere onto a line, it looks like a line. That is because a sphere is three-dimensional, but the line is one-dimensional. Similarly, if we project a sphere onto a plane, it looks like a plane figure—a circle or ellipse—because the plane is two-dimensional. We can only see it as a sphere in three dimensions.
So the stage of Brahman realization is impersonal realization, one-dimensional realization of the Absolute Truth. Impersonal realization is one-dimensional. Last time we discussed how Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental body is sat-cid-ananda: eternal and full of consciousness and bliss. Three dimensions: sat, cit and ananda.
Impersonal Brahman realization is realization of the sat feature, the eternity feature of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental body. Paramatma realization is realization of sat and cit or consciousness feature, and Bhagavan realization is full realization of sat, cit and ananda or the unlimited transcendental pleasure of Kṛṣṇa’s personal form.
The example is given in the Esoteric Teaching of the sun, the sun globe, and the sunshine. They are one, but understanding the sunshine is less advanced than understanding the sun globe. Similarly, understanding of the sun globe is less advanced than understanding the personality of the sun god who is the controller of the sun globe.
This is a very nice example. The sunshine, the sun globe and the sun god are, in one sense, one; but still, the sun globe is less than the personality of the sun, the sun god; and the sunshine is less than the sun globe, although they are one. This is called acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, or inconceivably, simultaneously one and different. This acintya-bhedabheda-tattva philosophy is the philosophy of the Esoteric Teaching.
So Brahman realization is realization of the Absolute Truth, but it is partial. The Supreme Lord is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah. Vigrahah means bodily form: He is a person. But He is not a person like us. He is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah.
isvarah paramah Kṛṣṇah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah
sarva-karana-karanam“Kṛṣṇa 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.” [Brahma-samhita 5.1]
Vigraha means person. So Govinda, Kṛṣṇa is a person, Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11]. There are three features of realization of the Absolute Truth. The first stage of realization, beginning realization, is impersonal Brahman. The more advanced stage of realization is Paramatma realization. And the ultimate realization is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. These are the three stages of realization of the Absolute Truth.
So when He is called Brahman, this is His impersonal feature of eternal existence. When He is called Hrsikesa, master of the senses, it is His Paramatma feature of unlimited consciousness, dwelling within the heart of every living entity as the witness. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita:
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ’rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.61]
Isvara is the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Isvara means the Supreme controller. So the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa. As we just read, isvarah paramah Kṛṣṇah [Brahma-samhita 5.1].
Every one of us is a controller. We control our body, our society, our business, our car. There are different kinds or levels of controller. So in that sense everyone is isvara. But Kṛṣṇa is the supreme isvara. Supreme means that nobody controls Him, but He controls everyone. That is Supreme. Here we are controller, but we are also controlled by somebody else in a superior position. Therefore we cannot be called supreme controller. The only supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore the great saintly persons, beginning with Brahma, have declared that isvarah paramah Kṛṣṇah: [Brahma-samhita 5.1] “The Supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa.” He controls even Brahma, adi-kavaye. In the Invocation of the Esoteric Teaching it is said, tene brahma hrdaya adi-kavaye. Tene brahma, He instructed Brahma in sabda-brahma, Vedic knowledge, hrdaya, through the heart. That is Hrsikesa, or the indwelling Paratama form of Kṛṣṇa.
Brahma was the first living being in this universe. So how is it that he could be instructed by somebody else? The Paramatma is always there within the heart of the living entity as Hrsikesa. Hrsikesa means controller of the senses. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gita,
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.15]
So knowledge is coming from Paramatma, and forgetfulness also. If you want to forget Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will give you such covered intelligence that you will forget Him forever.
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
ye yatha mam prapadyante
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah“As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha.”[Bhagavad-gita 4.11]
Kṛṣṇa is satisfying everyone’s desire as the eternal Friend within the heart. He knows our every desire. The atheist class, the demons or less intelligent class of men, desire to forget Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa gives them such intelligence that he can speak many volumes of atheistic nonsense. But they are getting that intelligence from Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa gives everyone the chance that “Whatever you want to do, you can do. I will give you intelligence. So if you want to become atheist, then I will give you intelligence how to become first-class atheist. And if you want to become self-realized, then I will give you that kind of intelligence.”
buddhi-yogam dadami tam
yena mam upayanti te
tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding of the Absolute Truth by which they can come to Me.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.10]
So you may claim that “Every one of us is God,” but nobody can claim that “We are supreme; I am Supreme God.” That is not possible. Kṛṣṇa alone can claim that:
mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya“My dear Dhananjaya, there is no personality superior to Me.” [Bhagavad-gita. 7.7]
And then He proved it by displaying His Universal Form to Arjuna and all the warriors assembled there in the battlefield. So God cannot be manufactured. God is God, and we are all subservient to Him. We cannot display the universal form; we cannot perform all the superhuman activities that Kṛṣṇa performed.
So God cannot be manufactured by so-called meditation and mystic power. You can get some of the insignificant powers by mystic yoga; but you do not know how much more powerful than you is God. You do not know. Therefore when a foolish person gets little power, he thinks that he has become God. He does not know how much powerful God is.
So therefore sastra says that “You may be god in your own atmosphere, in your own jurisdiction. You may think that you are God.” And everyone thinks like that. “But the Supreme God is Kṛṣṇa.” In the Upanisads it is said that God is also a person like you and me:
nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman“Among all the eternal, conscious beings, there is one who supplies the needs of everyone else. The wise souls who worship Him in His abode attain everlasting peace. Others cannot.” [Katha Upanisad 2.2.13]
But His personality is different from your personality, from my personality. What is that difference? Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman: “He supplies all the necessities of all other personalities.” That is the difference. God is supplying us food. This conception is there in the Bible, “God, give us our daily bread.”
Accepting that we are getting all our necessities from God is intelligent. At least, he has approached God, he is thinking of God. But one day when he becomes advanced, he will not ask any more. He knows that “Why shall I bother God? He is already supplying everyone food, so why shall I ask Him for food? My food is also there. All my necessities are there. Let me serve Him.”
That is higher intelligence: “Why shall I ask food from God? God is supplying food to the cats, dogs, ants, elephants and whales, and he will not supply me? And especially when I engage myself in His service?” This is spiritual intelligence.
bahunam janmanam ante
jnanavan mam prapadyate
vasudevah sarvam iti
sa mahatma su-durlabhah“After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.19]
So we are not meant to beg the necessities of life from God or from anyone else. God is automatically supplying the necessities of every living being. We are meant to engage in transcendental service to God. That is the difference between the beginning of spiritual life and the advanced stages: the beginner wants to get something from God, but the advanced devotee simply wants to serve God.
So if you serve God beginning from chanting His Holy Name—om namo bhagavate vasudevaya—or any name of God, then gradually you will progress from the stage of Brahman realization, through Paramatma realization, to Bhagavan realization. Each stage is a new dimension of understanding of God. This is the path of the Esoteric Teaching.
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