(Think of the param satyam as something like a hotel with infinite rooms, all occupied—purna, “No Vacancy.” At noon, the guest occupying Room 1 checks out. As he leaves, the bellboy blows a whistle. All the rooms’ doors open: The guest in Room 2 moves into Room 1, the guest in Room 3 moves to Room 2, and so on, ad infinitum. Thus, even though a guest checked out, the hotel remains full. It will remain full if ten, a hundred, a thousand , a million, or even an infinite number of guests check out.)

This is the “concept of the Absolute Truth,” that from which everything comes. It differs from the concept of ishvara or “god.” Ishvara means a controller. In that sense, even local controllers—the CEOs of SEPTA, PECO and Comcast, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, the mayor of Philadelphia, the governor of Pennsylvania, and so on—are all minor ishvara , teeny gods with minuscule controlling power. And, according to the Vedas, there are superior gods who administer the universe—not petty bureaucrats but mighty cosmocrats.

Whatever we see here, in the effect, must also be there, in the ultimate cause. The param satyam has produced myriad personal controllers. Therefore the ultimate personal controller, the parameshvara, is in the Absolute Truth itself. The Upanishads describe the param satyam as simultaneously personal and impersonal.

Prabhupada coined the phrase “Supreme Personality of Godhead” to express more accurately the concept of Krishna. The word “god” by itself is, strictly speaking, inadequate. A “god” is a being that may or may not exist. “Godhead” however, denotes the Absolute Truth, param brahman, the uncreated, self-sustaining origin of everything. “Personality of Godhead” denotes the personal feature of the unlimited Godhead. The one Personality of Godhead exists simultaneously in many transcendent forms—Krishna, Rama, Nrisimha, Narayana, Vamana and so on.

Some argue that the limitless nature of the Absoute Truth precludes personhood, since personhood or individuality entails limits and boundaries. They forget to consider that it would also be a limitation to exclude personhood. There must be somehow pesonality without limitation. For this reason, Vedic thought understands the one Personality of Godhead to be ananta rupam, expanded in unlimited forms simultaneously.

Among all these forms, Krishna is particularly denoted “the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

One last consideration: Should I find myself wondering whether the Personality of Godhead exists or not, then I should understand that I do not grasp the concept of the Absoute Truth. I am thinking of Godhead as if it were simply one more contingent, dependent being: like me, or my laptop, or my city. My Dell laptop exists, but it might not; Ravindra Svarupa dasa exists, but might very well not; this City of Brotherly Love exists but might not have. My current controllers—Mayor Nutter, Governor Rendell, President Obama, Lord Indra, Lord Brahma—are all there, but might not have been. But the final controller, the Personality of Godhead, the ultimate source of all energies, exists in a different way from all these other beings. He exists so fully or truly that he has not even the possibility of not existing.

If we simply understand the concept of the Absolute Truth, we must recognize that its mode of existence—existing without even the possibility of not existing—is different from ours.

(Perhaps some readers have recognized in the last paragraphs a version of “the ontological argument for the existence of God.” This argument has generated much controversy, yet it seems to me that Prabhupada’s distinction between the concepts of God and of the Absolute Truth clarifies the argument and helps resolve some of the controversy. When one understands the argument as dealing with the concept of Godhead or Absolute Truth, rather than the concept of God, its particular force becomes more evident, at least to me. To me, there are sound and persuasive arguments that there must be an Absolute Truth, and that the Absolute Truth must be a person. I’ve outlined them above. That the person is blue-complexioned, flute-playing, peacock-feather-wearing Krishna—or any expansions—cannot be shown by reason and logic. Only pareshanubhava, direct perception of the Lord, will disclose these concrete particulars. On the other hand, if one studies the Supreme Personality of Godhead as encountered by Narada, Vyasa, Uddhava, Caitanya, and so on, one can say: “This is our idea of the supreme person. Can anyone offer a description of any greater?”)

(This article has been previously published on Ravindra Svarupa Dasa’s weblog So It Happens)

Author: Ravindra Svarupa Dasa ( William H. Deadwyler) in Wikipedia. The author holds a PhD in Religion from Temple University, Philadelphia.

Website of Ravindra Svarupa Dasa where visitors can listen to his lectures, etc www.rsdasa.com

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