If we all are parts of God then is God the sum total of all beings?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
What does it mean that we are part and parcel of Krishna? Does it mean that God is the sum total of all living beings? And how does serving God lead to happiness amongst living beings? God is not the sum total of all living beings Rather he is his own independent self existence But we are his parts That means God is the whole and the whole is greater than the parts How does that work out? It means God pervades all of existence but he extends beyond his world also So pantheism is the idea that everything is God But the Bhagavad Gita’s understanding is not pantheism, it is called panentheism Panentheism means God pervades the world and he extends beyond the world So God is not the sum total of all living beings He has his own self existence And having the self existence we are all connected with him as his parts So how does serving God lead to satisfaction of all living beings? Actually when we serve Krishna we basically use our abilities and our talents in a constructive way In a mood of contribution So at one level as I gave the example conceptually when we satisfy the stomach When the hand satisfies the stomach It is not only the hand that is satisfied, all the parts of the body are satisfied So like that when we are serving Krishna We may not be specifically serving each person But we are contributing to the whole in a constructive way Say there is a hospital In that hospital there are many patients Now if there is one particular nurse or one particular medical staff They do their job well Now their job may be to take care of one particular patient But they just do that job well by that They are contributing to the effective functioning of the hospital And through that effective functioning of the hospital Then say the other doctors who are there They don’t have to worry too much about small small crises that come about because of carelessness And doctors can serve, take care of the patients better So when we play our part It is not that we directly contribute to serving everyone But indirectly we contribute to the harmony that indirectly helps everyone Sarvabhutahitairataha So it is said that the spiritualist in this way by serving Krishna Is actually engaged in the service of all living beings