NITAAI-Veda.nyf > Soul Science God Philosophy > Your Best Friend > Most Confidential Knowledge > The Absolute Truth |
The Absolute Truth - A Conclusive Understanding
God: One Person Called by Different Names
By definition, God is the supreme being and is the greatest as
regards any quality, attribute, characteristic etc. In other words. there is no
one equal to or greater than God in any quality, attribute or characteristic. For each of His qualities,
God has a name.
For example, when we call God as 'almighty', it means that there
is no one mightier than Him. And when we call Him as •omnipotent it means that
God is all potent: He has unlimited varieties of potencies and there is also no limit to the
extent of His potencies. The sun may be called as 'sun' by an Englishman, as
sooraj' by a Hindi speaking person and as soorya' by a Sanskrit speaking person, yet when they speak these various
names, they all refer to the same object - the sun. Similarly, God is called by
different names like: 'Jehovah'meaning 'The Almighty', 'Allah' meaning 'The Greatest' , 'Rama' meaning 'The Reservoir
of All Pleasure' and so on by different people according to their cultures,
languages etc. All these names undoubtedly refer to the same supreme person - God, but each of these names refer
only to a specific quality of God. A simple definition of God is: 'janmady asya
yatah' 'God is the one from whom everything emanates' (Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1) He is therefore the source
of all qualities. Is there any name of God that encompasses all His qualities?
The equivalent word in Sanskrit for God is 'Bhagavan' and the
meaning of the word 'Bhagavan' is explained by the great authority, Parashara
Muni, the father of the great sage Vyasadeva, as follows: The Supreme Personality of Godhead
who possesses (1) all riches, (2) all strength, (3) all fame, (4) all beauty,
(5) all knowledge, and (6) all renunciation is called Bhagavan. (Bhaga means 'opulence' and 'van' means 'one who
possesses') There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very
beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much detached, but no one can claim that he possesses all riches,
all strength etc. entirely except God. The presence of one or more of these
opulences in a person even in a minute quantity makes him at-ractive in the eyes of others. As God possesses al these
wonder-ul qualities in full, He is naturally the most attractive person, the
all-attractive person^ The equivalent Sanskrit word for 'all attractive'
is 'Krishna'. Hence Krishna is the name
which gives the most complete description of God.