Bhagavad Gita Today July 12, 2019

Why things are the way they are, and what we can do about it.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 7.7

TRANSLATION

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. All things rest upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

PURPORT (excerpt):


Why things are the way they are, and what we can do about it.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 7.7

TRANSLATION

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. All things rest upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

PURPORT (excerpt):

There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person.

That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-samhita: isvarah paramah Krishnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah; that is, the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Krishna, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge. These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes.

The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.10): tato yad uttarataram tad arupam anamayam/ ya etad vidur amrtas te bhavanti athetare duhkham evapiyanti. “In the material world Brahma, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahma there is the Transcendence, who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world.”