The reason for God's descension can only be attributed to His causeless merciful nature. God descends on Earth out of love and compassion for His children.
When God descends on Earth, He takes a name, has a form, spends time with His devotees, visits places, and performs delightful
The reason for God's descension can only be attributed to His causeless merciful nature. God descends on Earth out of love and compassion for His children.
When God descends on Earth, He takes a name, has a form, spends time with His devotees, visits places, and performs delightful pastimes. However, only a few elevated souls are able to avail the benefit of His divine association during His descension.
Once He departs for His divine abode, His saints tell us all about His glories. Taking the support of these stories, numerous other souls increase their love for God and thus attain Him.
Taking the support of these stories, numerous other souls. While living in this material world which is full of trials and tribulations they increase their love for God and thus attain Him.
Many saints like Tulsi das, Meera bai, Nanak, Tukaram etc have attained God using these as aides to increase their love for Him.
One might however wonder, how does God leaving behind His name, form, attributes, pastimes, and abodes benefit us the mortal beings?
Good question. Let's examine how
First, if God were not to take a form and descend, we would have no choice but to worship God without a form, which is extremely difficult if not impossible. The path of jnan instructs us to worship formless God. The prerequisite to tread on the path of jnan is to be completely detached from the worldly matters.
So the question arises - what does completely detached mean? How do the people completely detached from the world behave?
The scriptures answer this question by declaring that one must be so detached that even if they were to lose everyone in their family, entire wealth, job and all their belongings, all at the same time they don't even bat an eyelid. They must remain completely unperturbed.
Only then, does a person qualify to tread on the path of gyan. As you can imagine, it is nearly impossible for any jeev, and that too before they start on the path of devotion!
Second, formless God has no name, form, attributes or pastimes. How can a living being with a form focus on the formless God? Lord Krishna says in the Gita 12.5, human beings have a form and hence it is natural for them to love things with a form. So, it is almost impossible for them to love a formless entity like the Impersonal form of God.
Third, during his descension, God exhibits His attractive attributes like his graciousness and subservience to his devotees. These divine attributes are so appealing that they captivate the minds of the devotees and give them hope.
For example, when Lord Krishna was just 6 days old, the demoness Pootna attempted to kill Him by feeding him poisoned milk, but considering Pootna to be His mother, Lord Krishna blessed her with a place in His divine abode Golok. Hearing of such extreme graciousness, one gets inspired and motivated, thinking if Pootna could be accepted, then I too have some hope.
So, God descends to bestow His ever-increasing divine love bliss, attaining which is the highest goal of human life. If it was not for God’s descension, how could one know about the personal form of God and how could the vast majority of humans, who do not qualify to follow the path of jnan, cross the ocean of Maya and attain God realization?
In other words, God-realization appears impossible for an ordinary person. It is only because of His merciful nature, God descends in a human form, behaves like us to uplift us, imparts to us the knowledge that He is formless, yet reveals Himself in countless forms. All His forms are divine, exhibiting ever-new, ever-increasing bliss. He also tells us that constant remembrance of His divine names, pastimes and forms enables one to traverse the ocean of Maya.
Tulsidas, Soordas, and Meera Bai are all examples of such people who were attracted by the leelas, and qualities of God.
Meera bai and many others used the all-attractive qualities of God to attain Him.
They became deeply devoted to God and spent their lives singing His praises and narrating stories about his pastimes. People continue to use God’s names, form, pastimes, attributes and abodes as aides to realize Him.
So His descension is an act of grace and grace alone. While He is on Earth He does all those things described in the previous 2 articles. But those are secondary reasons. The primary reason is to grace the souls.
What next?
Now the question arises: Shri Krishna descended on Earth 5000 years ago. How did people attain God before His descension? We will explore this in the next edition.
There are 8.4 million species on Earth. Among them, the human form of life is the only one in which spiritual practice is possible to rid ourselves of sorrow and attain eternal happiness. This human life is so rare that even celestial gods long for it. This human form
There is nothing special in any idol of God. An idol, whatever substance it is made from, cannot think for itself, nor does it know anything. It is, after all, an inert object. This being the case, what will anyone get by worshipping it? This is a very common question,
Why would the supreme personality of God feel the need to steal?
Vedas declare that Shri Krishna is the supreme divine personality. He is often portrayed as mischievous, particularly through the stories where He is known to steal butter from the gopis - the cowherd maidens of Braj. This behavior
Question
Shri Krishna was born only about 5000 years ago. How did people become God-realized before He descended? Also, when he was born only 5000 years ago how can He be the Supreme Father?
Answer
According to the Vedas, Shri Krishna is the Supreme Father. His most recent descension was
The reason for God's descension can only be attributed to His causeless merciful nature. God descends on Earth out of love and compassion for His children.
When God descends on Earth, He takes a name, has a form, spends time with His devotees, visits places, and performs delightful pastimes. However, only a few elevated souls are able to avail the benefit of His divine association during His descension.
Once He departs for His divine abode, His saints tell us all about His glories. Taking the support of these stories, numerous other souls increase their love for God and thus attain Him.
Many saints like Tulsi das, Meera bai, Nanak, Tukaram etc have attained God using these as aides to increase their love for Him.
One might however wonder, how does God leaving behind His name, form, attributes, pastimes, and abodes benefit us the mortal beings?
Good question. Let's examine how
First, if God were not to take a form and descend, we would have no choice but to worship God without a form, which is extremely difficult if not impossible. The path of jnan instructs us to worship formless God. The prerequisite to tread on the path of jnan is to be completely detached from the worldly matters.
So the question arises - what does completely detached mean? How do the people completely detached from the world behave?
The scriptures answer this question by declaring that one must be so detached that even if they were to lose everyone in their family, entire wealth, job and all their belongings, all at the same time they don't even bat an eyelid. They must remain completely unperturbed.
Only then, does a person qualify to tread on the path of gyan. As you can imagine, it is nearly impossible for any jeev, and that too before they start on the path of devotion!
Second, formless God has no name, form, attributes or pastimes. How can a living being with a form focus on the formless God? Lord Krishna says in the Gita 12.5, human beings have a form and hence it is natural for them to love things with a form. So, it is almost impossible for them to love a formless entity like the Impersonal form of God.
Third, during his descension, God exhibits His attractive attributes like his graciousness and subservience to his devotees. These divine attributes are so appealing that they captivate the minds of the devotees and give them hope.
For example, when Lord Krishna was just 6 days old, the demoness Pootna attempted to kill Him by feeding him poisoned milk, but considering Pootna to be His mother, Lord Krishna blessed her with a place in His divine abode Golok. Hearing of such extreme graciousness, one gets inspired and motivated, thinking if Pootna could be accepted, then I too have some hope.
So, God descends to bestow His ever-increasing divine love bliss, attaining which is the highest goal of human life. If it was not for God’s descension, how could one know about the personal form of God and how could the vast majority of humans, who do not qualify to follow the path of jnan, cross the ocean of Maya and attain God realization?
In other words, God-realization appears impossible for an ordinary person. It is only because of His merciful nature, God descends in a human form, behaves like us to uplift us, imparts to us the knowledge that He is formless, yet reveals Himself in countless forms. All His forms are divine, exhibiting ever-new, ever-increasing bliss. He also tells us that constant remembrance of His divine names, pastimes and forms enables one to traverse the ocean of Maya.
Tulsidas, Soordas, and Meera Bai are all examples of such people who were attracted by the leelas, and qualities of God.
They became deeply devoted to God and spent their lives singing His praises and narrating stories about his pastimes. People continue to use God’s names, form, pastimes, attributes and abodes as aides to realize Him.
So His descension is an act of grace and grace alone. While He is on Earth He does all those things described in the previous 2 articles. But those are secondary reasons. The primary reason is to grace the souls.
What next?
Now the question arises: Shri Krishna descended on Earth 5000 years ago. How did people attain God before His descension? We will explore this in the next edition.
Read Next
Foundations of Devotion
There are 8.4 million species on Earth. Among them, the human form of life is the only one in which spiritual practice is possible to rid ourselves of sorrow and attain eternal happiness. This human life is so rare that even celestial gods long for it. This human form
Demystifying Idol Worship
There is nothing special in any idol of God. An idol, whatever substance it is made from, cannot think for itself, nor does it know anything. It is, after all, an inert object. This being the case, what will anyone get by worshipping it? This is a very common question,
Why did Krishna steal?
Why would the supreme personality of God feel the need to steal? Vedas declare that Shri Krishna is the supreme divine personality. He is often portrayed as mischievous, particularly through the stories where He is known to steal butter from the gopis - the cowherd maidens of Braj. This behavior
Father of all was born 5000 years ago?
Question Shri Krishna was born only about 5000 years ago. How did people become God-realized before He descended? Also, when he was born only 5000 years ago how can He be the Supreme Father? Answer According to the Vedas, Shri Krishna is the Supreme Father. His most recent descension was