Page 5 - History of Tirupathi Balaji and comparison of Sri Vaishnava

emanates from Him directly and indirectly. As the source of everything, God
cannot be understood without being aware of all His emanations which manifest
myriad aspects of His infi nite beauty, knowledge, wealth, strength, fame and
renunciation. Because God is a Person, everything that comes from Him has an
individual identity. Taking the totality of God’s eternal existence as a whole is
considered the Godhead concept.
Lord Krishna, whose original form has two arms holding a fl ute, eternally
resides on the highest planet of the spiritual world call Goloka Vrindaban.
Below Goloka is another part of the spiritual world called Vaikuntha where
the Supreme Lord expands Himself into the Narayana Forms which have four
arms. These Narayana forms are individually present on every one of the infi nite
planets in Vaikuntha. In order to manifest, maintain and wind down the material
universes, Lord Krishna further expands His Vishnu forms which exactly
resemble Narayana except that they are in the material world. The Vishnu forms
are present in every universe and also in every atom of the universe and in the
heart of every living being in each of the infi nite number of material universes.
To understand that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead
requires that one accept the Lord has inconceivable potencies. He is personally
present everywhere in the spiritual and material universes by His infi nite
expansions such as the Narayana forms in the spiritual world and Vishnu forms
in the material world. Thus, it is impossible to be equal to or greater than Lord
Krishna.
Therefore, the term Godhead is used so that one may understand the
infi nite personal expansions of the Lord by which He is inconceivably one and
many at the same time. The concept of Lord Krishna’s personal expansions is
inconceivable because it is beyond the ability of any living being including the
chief demigods like Brahma and Siva to emulate the Lord or even to conceive
at one time and place His infi nite and simultaneous expansions. There are Vedic
histories about Brahma and Siva who were bewildered by the inconceivable
potencies of the Lord. Lord Krishna says, “Neither the hosts of demigods nor
the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the
source of the demigods and sages.” (Bg 10.2)
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s purport on this important verse
follows: As stated in the Brahma-samhita, Lord Krishna is the Supreme Lord. No one is
greater than Him; He is the cause of all causes. Here it is also stated by the Lord that He
is the cause of all the demigods and sages. Even the demigods and great Vedic sages cannot
understand Krishna; they can understand neither His name nor His personality, so what
is the position of the so-called scholars of this tiny planet? No one can understand why the
Supreme God comes to earth as an ordinary human being and executes such wonderful,
uncommon activities. One should know, then, that scholarship is not the qualifi cation
necessary to understand Krishna. Even the demigods and the great sages have tried to
understand Krishna by their mental speculation, and they have failed to do so. (Purport to
Bg 10.2)

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