There is Only One God and He is Male<\/p>\n
Paramadyala Nityananda Das: When addressing a particular audience, we may feel there is justification for saying God is both Male and Female. But for a serious theological discussion, we must first agree on the definition of God.<\/p>\n
Whether one is a theist or not, in cultures dominated by monotheism, the word God denotes the highest being, the ultimate controller, and the creator of everything. Common intuition tells us there can only be one highest being. Two highest beings is a contradiction in terms. This is agreed upon by all monotheistic theologians, any intelligent philosopher, and the Vaishnava Acarya\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Srila Prabhupada extensively elaborated on this fact: krishnas tu bhagavan svayam:<\/p>\n
All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists. (Translation SB 3.28).<\/p>\n
The summum bonum Krishna is one without a second\u2026Learned scholars in transcendental subjects have carefully analyzed the summum bonum Krishna to have sixty-four principal attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some percentages of these attributes. But Sri Krishna is the possessor of the attributes cent per cent. (Purport SB 3.28).<\/p>\n
Krishna has multifarious potencies.<\/p>\n
3.6.38<\/p>\n
The pure devotees of the Lord take shelter of the para prakriti, the internal potency of the Lord called Lakshmidevi, Sitadevi Srimati Radharani or Srimati Rukminidevi, and thus they become actual mahatmas, or great souls (SB 3.6.12).<\/p>\n
The jivas, the living entities, are mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita as the Lord’s superior nature, or para prakriti and so also it is mentioned in the Vishnu Puruna. (SB 2.10.13).<\/p>\n
Thus, the living being is also identical with the Lord. But he is never equal or superior to the Personality of Godhead. The Lord and the living beings are all individual persons\u201d (Purport SB 1.5 20).<\/p>\n
The difference between the internal potency (comprised of Radharani and her expansions) and the marginal potency (the infinitesimal individual souls) is a detailed subject, and there are different perspectives in other sampradayas. The point here is, all the potencies are described as \u201cnondifferent\u201d, \u201cidentical\u201d and \u201cone\u201d with Krishna, but we must remember the difference. None of these are the complete whole, in themselves. Only Krishna, the blackish boy with the peacock feather, can be described as the summum bonum. A principal aspect of this is that He, alone, has no origin other than Himself:<\/p>\n
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. (BS 5.1).<\/p>\n
The analogy of the Sun and the sunshine is often used to explain oneness and difference. The Sun is not the temporal origin of the Sunshine. As soon as there is a Sun there is sunshine. The difference is, the Sun is the cause of the sunshine, but the sunshine cannot be the cause of the Sun. Similarly, all Krishna energies exist eternally, they are identical to Him, but He alone is the cause of all causes.<\/p>\n
We are strictly monotheists. Krishna alone is God (the origin of all, the complete whole) and Krishna is unambiguously male. This is a cardinal aspect of our philosophy. If it becomes obscured, the movement is in trouble. We do not change the message: The message changes us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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