We can know that God exists just like we know that a government, made of people, exists when we see traffic lights and just like we know an artist exists when we see a painting or just like we know that parents exist (or did exist) when we see a child. We know that this God must be intelligent beyond our imagination, and that this God must be a person, because only a person has intelligence. In the material world we see that to put a small satellite into the orbit so much effort goes in. There is a control room and scientists monitor the orbit of the satellite. So there is a human brain behind the feat. Similarly just imagine how many planets are moving around in the universe. And each one is keeping its orbit. Imagine if the sun were to change its orbit one day - what a catastrophe it would be. Everyday it rises and sets on time. So there is a brain behind it. And that is God.

How do scientists, when discovering artifacts of an old civilization, determine whether or not what they find is from humans or nature? There is always a clear indication of an intelligent, personal creator in the creation. Similarly, there is ample evidence in nature of an intelligent person behind it. How could God be less than His creation which includes so many individuals, not only humans? The impersonal idea defies common sense and observation, although Krishna has His impersonal aspects, also.

The impersonal brahman effulgence is one aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, but it is only a partial representation of the Lord and is ultimately a subordinate emanation from His personal feature. Thus if one stops at the impersonal understanding of the Absolute Truth, his or her knowledge of God remains incomplete.
The Lord has two other features known as Paramatma and Bhagavan. In His Paramatma feature the Supreme Lord exists within each and every atom of His creation and also within the hearts of every living being In this way he pervades and supports the entire universe.

This feature of the Lord is also a subordinate emanation from His eternal, original personal form. The word Bhagavan indicates the personal form of the Lord, which is the ultimate source of all other existences and energies, and all other aspects and manifestations of Godhead. That is why Krishna is described as the "Supreme Personality" of Godhead.

This personal feature of the Lord is most sublime and therefore the Lord is known as Krishna, or He who is "all-attractive". To deny the Lord His beautiful personal feature, by which He reciprocates in loving exchange with all living beings who desire His association, is insulting because it denies the Lord all of the most attractive and appealing aspects of personal existence. With our tiny brains and limited understanding, we may not be able to comprehend how it is that the Supreme Lord can maintain His eternal, individual form and personality, while simultaneously expanding into everything else.

But this poor fund of knowledge is no reason to deny the Lord's unlimited, transcendental form.

Certainly not. You are limiting God by saying that He doesn't have a form. God is the source of all that exists, and since the source cannot emanate that which it doesn't possess we can understand that the Supreme Lord has His own.
That form, however, is not limited as our material forms are. God has a spiritual form and from that form the whole creation, spiritual and material, is coming.


"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth and substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses, in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane". (Brahma-samhita 5.32)
He has an impersonal aspect and a personal aspect.
God's original supreme form is that of Sri Krishna, as confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.28), 'krsnas tu bhagavan svayam' : "Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead Himself".

Lord Krishna's disappearance is presented in the 30th and 31st chapters of Canto 11 of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. To briefly summarize, the Lord entered the forest and sat down in meditation. A hunter-devotee thought His lotus foot was the face of a deer and fired an arrow which grazed the Lord's foot. The hunter then came before Krishna and begged forgiveness for his offense.
Showing His four-armed form, encircled by His personified weapons and symbols, He blessed the hunter and sent him to the spiritual world. The Lord then sent His weapons, symbols and His divine chariot to the spiritual world with His chariot driver Daruka. And then, in the view of Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and all the demigods, Lord Krishna ascended back into the spiritual world Himself.

According to the teachings of the Vedas and the opinions of authorities on the spiritual subject, Lord Krishna has descended in the Kali Yuga as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who appeared five hundred years ago to inaugurate the sankirtana movement which Srila Prabhupada brought to the Western world in 1966 in the form of this Hare Krishna movement.
It is said that people who are actually intelligent will take advantage of this movement to obtain spiritual knowledge and participate in the public glorification of the name, form, pastimes and qualities of the Supreme Lord. In this way they will get, and help to give others, relief from the unfortunate state of affairs in this modern society in the age of Kali.

When Lord Krishna comes to this world He exhibits transcendental activities. He is exhibiting the activities from the spiritual world here. To be really the friend of all living entities Krishna has time for unlimited living entities. Not that in the spiritual world we have to make an appointment and can see Him every one billion years for two seconds.

In order to be always with us in the material world He expands himself as the Supersoul in everyone's heart and accompanies us through millions of forms, trying to convince us to come home. In the Spiritual world there is no 'paramatma' feature. Instead, Krishna expands Himself there into unlimited forms according to the nature of the souls there to communicate with them all the time.
And just like in the spiritual world Krishna expands Himself in so many forms to give us His association all the time, so when He comes down He exhibits the nature of the spiritual world by expanding Himself in so many husbands (in Dvaraka) or so many lovers (in Vrindavan) or so many dancers as there were in kirtan parties (as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri).
This is the superexcellent power and mercy of the Supreme Lord. What concern for each and every one! What incomparable kindness to all! Yet in our mundane conception we mistake the wonderful exhibits of His kindness to be mundane. With our impure mind we are misunderstanding His wonderful activities by projecting our mundane conceptions on Him.

Yes, it is true that God can do anything. But He will not interfere with our minute independence, He will not impose Himself on the living being. Our suffering in this world is due to the misuse of our own independence. We are going to have to face our own responsibilities in this regard and stop blaming God. The sufferings we are currently undergoing are like the suffering of the dreamer in a nightmare. Ultimately they have no reality nor do they affect the soul who is simply undergoing the dreamlike conditions of material life due to his misidentification of the self with the material body.
One might still say that while the dreamer dreams his sufferings are very real to him. True. But there is another purpose to our sufferings. They are meant to gradually move us in the direction of inquiring into the problems of life and into our relationship with God. The ultimate suffering of the living being is the feeling of incompleteness and dissatisfaction that the part must feel unless it is in proper relation to the whole.
We are all suffering in this world due to the fact that we have voluntarily separated urselves from God and thus we will always feel unfulfilled, incomplete and unsatisfied, no matter how much we attempt to enjoy this world, because we are functioning artificially outside of our loving relationship with God.

The Lord as devotee

Lord Chaitanya appeared in Mayapur, West Bengal, more than 500 years ago. He is an incarnation of Lord Krishna who descended to this material world for two purposes, to spread the chanting of the holy names of God to deliver all the people from their material bondage, and to simultaneously taste the nectar of pure love of God, Krishna, as it was tasted by His topmost devotee, Srimati Radharani, who is the internal energy of Krishna.
In His early life, Lord Chaitanya played the part of an ordinary scholar with enormous knowledge and talent, while hiding the truth of His incarnation. However, when the time was right, He manifested Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His devotees who chanted together with Him His holy names in the topmost ecstasy of love of God.
After His 24th year, He accepted the renounced order of life, sanyasa, and left His home in Mayapur to travel throughout India to convert all the people to lovers of God. He would transform anyone, be he an atheist, rascal, or worse, as well as the pious and good, to the platform of love of Godhead. Lord Chaitanya did not consider whether the recipients of love of God were worthy or not, He indiscriminately bestowed what no other incarnation of God ever gave before, pure love of the Lord.
After traveling and preaching for six years, when all the people were absorbed in love of Godhead, He resided in Jagannatha Puri for twelve years and intensely tasted the love that His pure devotees have for Him. Although He is Krishna Himself, He accepted the mood and color of Srimati Radharani, His spiritual counterpart, and thought of Himself as His own devotee. Thus, although He is God Himself, He always was absorbed in the mood of His topmost devotees and thus He relished the highest love of Krishna together with His confidential associates.
Lord Chaitanya started the sankirtana movement which continues to this day in the form of this ISKCON society. He established the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna, hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare / hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. It is due to the movement of Lord Chaitanya that the people of this world can have some idea of the highest position of love of God.

One may rightly ask, "If I am originally a pure servant of God, then why did I come to the material world in the first place? If there is no ignorance in the spiritual world, then why did I leave that wonderful place and come here, where I am suffering repeated births and deaths?"

Every living being, either in the material or spiritual world, has free will. Because we are minute parts of the Supreme, we have minute quantities of His qualities. One of Krishna's qualities is independent free will. He does whatever He likes, whenever He likes, and it is always perfect. He is never bound by the reactions of His decisions, because He is transcendental to the material nature.
Because we do not possess the same quantity of free will as Krishna, we can sometimes do what we like and sometimes not. Further, whenever we act, we have to suffer or enjoy the reactions of that decision.
Every living being in the spiritual world loves Krishna. This is the nature of the spiritual world. However, that love is not forced. For example, if I were to hold a gun to your head and say, "Love me," you would naturally say, "Oh yes, I love you". But that would have no meaning.
You cannot force anyone to love another person, for love comes from within naturally when the proper conditions arise. Therefore, Krishna does not force the living entities to love Him, for that would not be real love and it would not be satisfying to the Supreme Lord, who knows everything that is going on in the hearts of the living entities. Krishna is satisfied only by pure, natural, and spontaneous love, without any traces of self-motivated desire.

Therefore Krishna endows each and every living entity with free will. With this free will, one can love Krishna or one cannot love Krishna. The choice is entirely up to the living entity.

Those living beings who love Krishna are situated in the spiritual world, whereas those living beings who don't love Krishna are situated in the material world.

Those who don't love Krishna, or who have become envious of the Lord's position as the Supreme Enjoyer, cannot remain in the spiritual world for a moment. If it so happens that a living entity becomes envious of the Lord for some reason, then he immediately falls from the spiritual world, for no envy of the Lord exists in the spiritual world. Remember, the choice to love Krishna or not exists in each of us eternally.

Envy comes as the opposite of love, for it is created from hatred. Hatred and love are very closely related, and each of us has experience how we can become immediately envious of others, even if our intelligence has not yet accepted that emotion. Therefore, when the living entity feels enviousness for the Lord, he immediately turns into a competitor of the Lord and desires to enjoy as the Lord enjoys.

This is not possible in the spiritual world because everyone there is considering themselves as enjoyed by the Lord; they never want to become the enjoyers themselves. Because this desire to become the competitor of the Lord as the enjoyer is spiritual (as all desires in the spiritual world come from the spiritual platform, since all the living entities there are completely spiritual), it must be immediately satisfied.

Every desire in the spiritual world is immediately satisfied, because that is the nature of the spiritual world. But since the desire to be the Lord oneself is not possible to satisfy in the spiritual world, as Krishna is the enjoyer and there cannot be any competitor there, one comes to the material world in order to attempt to fulfill that desire.

The material world is a marvelous place, because here the Lord has created the grand illusion that we can become God and enjoy the creation independently of Him. Krishna has created this illusion out of love for us, the fallen souls. It is not in our power to create such a facility, which can be likened to a playground created by the father for the sake of his small children.

Only Krishna can create such a facility, and He does so just to allow us souls the opportunity to think ourselves God and try to enjoy the material energy. The only problem is that this so-called enjoyment is simply illusory and cannot remain for long. Everything here is temporary and full of misery.

Why has Krishna created a world that is temporary and full of misery? The answer is simple: Because He does not want us to stay here. He wants us to find out that we have made a mistake in coming to the material world and to thus return to our original home, the spiritual world.

Therefore He orders the material energy to push the conditioned souls toward frustration so that they will some day again turn toward the Lord, who is within their hearts as the Supersoul of all beings, and surrender unto Him. The Lord says that anyone who thus surrenders unto Him will quickly return to Him.

The Lord also assists the living entities by sending His pure devotees to speak the knowledge of the spiritual world to them to again awaken them to their real position. He also presents the Vedic literatures to open their eyes with transcendental knowledge.

He is so concerned for the living entities that He periodically descends from the spiritual world Himself in order to display His transcendental pastimes and attract the conditioned souls back to His eternal abode.

One may also ask, If I had full knowledge in my spiritual position -- for we say that the soul is eternally full of knowledge and bliss -- why did I come to the material world, knowing that it is a place of suffering? The answer is again simple.

One is full of knowledge in the same way that a small glass is full of water. When the glass is filled with water, we say that it is full. However, no sane person would accept that all the water in the world is in that glass. Only a small portion of the water is in the glass.

Since we are quantitatively different from the Lord, we can conclude that our quantity of bliss and knowledge is much smaller than that of the Lord. However, since we are smaller receptacles of knowledge, we can easily be full of knowledge according to our smaller capacity.

This does not mean that we possess all knowledge, but rather only a small portion of knowledge, although enough to fulfill all our needs in relationship with Krishna.

Therefore the living entity, covered by envy, cannot recognize that he will suffer in the material world, just as a lusty person does not consider the results of his actions as he rushes forward to satisfy his lusty desires. Covered by lust, the living entity forgets his original knowledge and enters into the material domain to try to satisfy his desires

The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare / hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare is the sublime method for reviving our transcendental consciousness. As living spiritual souls, we are all originally Krishna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now adulterated by the material atmosphere. The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called maya, or illusion.

Maya means "that which is not." And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws.

When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, he is said to be in illusion. We are trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of our eternal Krishna consciousness.

Chanting the maha-mantra is the transcendental process for reviving this original, pure consciousness. By chanting this transcendental vibration, we can cleanse away all misgivings within our hearts. The basic principle of all such misgivings is the false consciousness that I am the lord of all I survey.

Krishna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original, natural energy of the living entity. When we hear this transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. This simplest method of meditation is recommended for this age, Kali-yuga. By practical experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum.

In the material concept of life we are busy in the matter of sense gratification, as if we were in the lower, animal stage. A little elevated from this status of sense gratification, one is engaged in mental speculation for the purpose of getting out of the material clutches.

A little elevated from this speculative status, when one is intelligent enough, one tries to find out the supreme cause of all causes -- within and without. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence, he is then on the transcendental plane.

This chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is enacted from the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness -- namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It is automatic, from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification.

Even a child can take part in the chanting and dancing. Of course, for one who is too entangled in material life, it takes a little more time to come to the standard point, but even such a materially engrossed man is raised to the spiritual platform very quickly.

When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy on hearers, and as such this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non devotees should be avoided. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.

The word hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words krishna and rama are forms of addressing the Lord Himself. Both krishna and rama mean "the supreme pleasure," and hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to hare in the vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord.

The material energy, called maya, is also one of the multi-energies of the Lord. And we, the living entities, are also the energy, marginal energy, of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy.

When the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises; but when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the superior energy, hara, it is established in its happy, normal condition.

These three words, namely hare, krishna, and rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His energy, to give protection to the conditioned soul.

This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother's presence. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the Lord Father's grace, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

No other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as the chanting of the maha-mantra.



"In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." (Brhan-naradiya Purana 38.126)

In three out of the four ages (namely Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga and Dvapara-yuga) people had the honor to be able to understand transcendence through the path of disciplic succession. However, in the present age, people have no interest in the disciplic succession. Instead, they have invented many paths of logic and argument. This individual attempt to understand the supreme transcendence (called the ascending process) is not approved by the Vedas.

The Absolute Truth must descend from the absolute platform. He is not to be understood by the ascending process.

The holy name of the Lord is a transcendental vibration because it comes from the transcendental platform, the supreme abode of Krishna. Because there is no difference between Krishna and His name, the holy name of Krishna is as pure, perfect and liberated as Krishna Himself.

krte yad dhyayato visnum
tretayam yajato makhaih
dvapare paricaryayam
kalau tad dhari-kirtant

"Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Vishnu, in Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices and in Dvapara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.52)

Academic scholars have no entrance by means of logic and other argument into the understanding of the transcendental nature of the holy name of God. The single path in understanding the transcendental nature of hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare / hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare is the chanting of these names with faith and adherence. Such chanting will release one from designated conditions arising from the gross and subtle bodies.

In this age of logic, argument and disagreement, the chanting of Hare Krishna is the only means for self-realization. Because this transcendental vibration alone can deliver the conditioned soul, it is considered to be the essence of the Vedanta-sutra, as it is stated by Lord Brahma in the Kalisantarana Upanisad that the essence of all Vedic literature is the chanting of these holy names of Krishna:

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare
iti sodasakam namnam
kali-kalmasa-nasanam
natah parataropayah
sarva-vedesu drsyate

"These sixteen words of the Hare Krishna mantra are especially meant for counteracting the sins of the age of Kali. To save oneself from the contamination of this age there is no alternative but to chant this maha-mantra. After searching through all the Vedic literatures one cannot find a method of religion for this age so sublime as the chanting of Hare Krishna."

According to the material conception, there is duality between the name, form, quality, emotions and activities of a person and the person himself, but as far as the transcendental vibration is concerned, there is no such limitation, for it descends from the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there is no difference between the name of the person and the quality of the person.

Of course in the material world there is a difference. Because the Mayavadi philosophers cannot understand this, they cannot utter the transcendental vibration.

In the Narada-pancaratra it is stated:

eso vedah sad-angani
chandamsi vividhah surah
sarvam astaksarantahstham
yac canyad api vanmayam
sarva-vedanta-sararthah
samsararnava-taranah

"All Vedic rituals, mantras and understanding are compressed into eight words: hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare."

Generally a human being is interested in religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation, but love of God is above all these.

A bona fide spiritual master chants the holy names and the transcendental sound vibration enters into the ear of the disciple, and if a disciple follows in the footsteps of his spiritual master and chants the holy name with similar respect, he actually comes to worship the transcendental name.

When the transcendental name is worshiped by the devotee, the name Himself spreads His glories within the heart of a devotee. The chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it gradually establishes its supremacy above everything in the world.

The devotee who chants it becomes transcendentally situated in ecstasy and sometimes laughs, cries and dances in his ecstasy. Sometimes the unintelligent put hindrances in the path of chanting this maha-mantra, but one who is situated on the platform of love of Godhead chants the holy name loudly for all concerned.

As a result, everyone becomes initiated in the chanting of the holy names. By chanting and hearing the holy names of Sri Krishna, a person can remember the forms and qualities of Sri Krishna.