Smart Quote of the Day, September 21, 2020

“Just as the illumination of a fire, which is situated in one place, is spread all over, the energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Parabrahman, are spread all over this universe.”

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This is from the Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.12.8

[This chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam is entitled, “The Mohini-murti Incarnation Bewilders Lord Siva.” It describes how Lord Siva was bewildered upon seeing the beautiful Mohini-murti incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and how he later came to his senses. In today’s verse, Lord Siva is offering Lord Krishna some words of praise.]

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, Your Lordship alone is the cause and the effect. Therefore, although You appear to be two, You are the absolute one. As there is no difference between the gold of a golden ornament and the gold in a mine, there is no difference between cause and effect; both of them are the same. Only because of ignorance do people concoct differences and dualities. You are free from material contamination, and since the entire cosmos is caused by You and cannot exist without You, it is an effect of Your transcendental qualities. Thus the conception that Brahman is true and the world false cannot be maintained.

PURPORT (excerpt):

Actually, everything is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore everything is spiritual, but those who are not advanced in proper knowledge make distinctions because of the interactions of the three modes of material nature.

In this regard, Srila Jiva Gosvami says that although the sun is the only light, the sunshine, which is exhibited in seven colors, and darkness, which is the absence of sunshine, are not different from the sun, for without the existence of the sun such differentiations cannot exist. There may be varied nomenclature because of different conditions, but they are all the sun.

The Puranas therefore say:

Just as the illumination of a fire, which is situated in one place, is spread all over, the energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Parabrahman, are spread all over this universe.” (Vishnu Purana 1.22.53)

Materially, we can directly perceive the sunshine spreading itself according to different names and activities, but ultimately the sun is one. Similarly, sarvam khalv idam brahma: everything is an expansion of the Supreme Brahman. Therefore, the Supreme Lord is everything, and He is one without differentiation. There is no existence separate from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Read the full Purport

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