3

This is in reference to Text 11 of Chapter 9 from Bhagavad Gita. I have 'Bhagavad Gita As It is'. I often come across this term 'supreme personality of godhead'and Lord Krishna is associated with this term. I often think of a person when I come across the term "supreme personality of god head".

Edit:

My question is not about "what is Param Bhramha". My question relates to the usage of specific term in a book and how should it be interpreted.

KurioZ7
  • 251
  • 4
  • 7
  • 1
    You can see this answer http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6691/3500 – The Destroyer Oct 28 '15 at 07:12
  • 2
    Possible duplicate of What is Param Brahma? – The Destroyer Oct 28 '15 at 10:05
  • Yes basically Supreme Personality of Godhead refers to the Supreme God. According to ISKCON the Supreme being is Lord Krishna. According to Vaishnavas the Supreme Being is Lord Vishnu. According to Shaivites the supreme Being is Lord Shiva. According to Advaita, the term Supreme Being implies duality, for the notion of Supreme only arises when there is more than one. However according to Advaita, there is only one, and it is called Brahman. He takes up different attributes due to the Maya/Avidya of the devotee, thus the devotee calls Him Shiva, Vishnu or God as per his own inclinations. :) – Sai Oct 28 '15 at 14:10

1 Answers1

4

The Bhagavad Gita As It Is is a translation by a dualist commentator who believes that the highest form of God is a Person. Other translators, notably qualified non-dualists and non-dualists, do a slightly different translation of this verse. Swami Gambhirananda translates the verse in the following manner:

Not knowing My supreme nature as the Lord of all beings, foolish people disregard Me who have taken a human body.

and Swami Nikhilananda:

Fools disregard Me when I assume a human form; for they are unaware of My higher nature as the Supreme Lord of all beings.

It is best to reference several translations and see which you are most comfortable with.

Swami Vishwananda
  • 24,140
  • 2
  • 34
  • 78
  • 1
    Actually Prabhupada isn't a pure dualist, he believes in Achintya Bheda Abheda, simultaneous oneness and difference. But yeah, he does believe the supreme being is a person. He thinks Bhagavan is superior to Paramatma, which is superior to Brahman. – Keshav Srinivasan Oct 28 '15 at 12:19
  • 1
    Ignoring the ISKON interpretation, I have always found Achintya Bheda Abedha very close to Advaita. In fact, in my personal view, the name itself is trying to capture the Truth from Paramarthika dasa as well as from Vyavaharika. Therefore, ideally, there should not be any dispute between them and Advaita! :-) – Nithin Sridhar Oct 28 '15 at 17:31
  • @NithinSridhar If you go beyond the name and look at Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda, you'll find that it's like half-way in between Ramanujacharya's Visistadvaita and Madhvacharya's Dvaita. The philosophy is strongly opposed to Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita philosophy. – Keshav Srinivasan Oct 29 '15 at 04:34
  • @NithinSridhar In any case, a lot of names of Vedantic philosophies are misleading. Like Vallabhacharya's philosophy is called "Shuddhadvaita" or pure non-dualism, but non-dualism wouldn't be a very good term to describe it. – Keshav Srinivasan Oct 29 '15 at 04:39
  • Yet, the basic premise of Achintya Bheda Abheda that the ultimate reality is Abheda yet it itself manifests as Bheda and this whole thing is beyond empirical analysis- Achintya.

    This premise is not very different from Advaita, though differences exist in other aspects like Advaita believes in Vivaranavada, where as others believe in Parinama etc.

     – Nithin Sridhar Oct 29 '15 at 04:47
  • Are you all saying that there is not "one correct meaning" of this verse, and that different people have different interpretations. Why do you need to read different interpretations to get and average understanding? Personally, this does not sound very good, because, every time I will now read any interpretation, I will have this in the back of mind that .."oh this person is saying this..is it correct!".. – KurioZ7 Oct 29 '15 at 05:02
  • @Kurio27 There is one correct meaning, it's just that different people have different opinions about what the correct meaning is. In any case, the only solution I can suggest is that you read a bunch of different commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, using this site, and see for yourself which best captures the original meaning. – Keshav Srinivasan Oct 29 '15 at 13:22
  • @KeshavSrinivasan All are correct. Different people saw the same truth differently. Arjuna saw the eye of bird, 2nd person saw the whole bird, 3rd person saw the bird and the tree. All 3 saw different things and yet all of them were right. – Pinakin Nov 24 '15 at 11:41
  • @ChinmaySarupria I just profoundly disagree with that sentiment; I think some people are simply wrong. – Keshav Srinivasan Nov 24 '15 at 12:45