Can we conclude that ‘God’ refers to Lord’s role in material world and ‘Absolute Truth’ conveys the idea of Lord in touch with spiritual energy?

From Kanai Krishna P

In introduction to first canto of SB, Srila Prabhupada speaks of difference between God and Absolute Truth. Can we conclude that ‘God’ refers to Lord’s role in material world and ‘Absolute Truth’ conveys the idea of Lord in touch with spiritual energy?

Thank you question from Kanai Krishna Prabhu in introduction the first canto Prabhupada speaks of difference between God and absolute truth can we conclude that God refers to Lord’s role in material world and absolute truth conveys the idea of Lord in touch with spiritual energy answer not necessarily generally the way Prabhupada talks about this difference and Ravindra Siruprabha’s written article about this which is also published in back to God and there’s article on his blog also where he explores this difference further the way Prabhupada is using it he is saying the word God refers to a controller cosmic controller so some people may believe that there is a controller some people may think that there is no controller so that’s why the conception of God can be said to be a matter of belief some people believe in it some people don’t believe in it but when we talk about absolute truth essentially that refers to the source of everything so ultimately there has to be an absolute truth atheists also they believe that their atheism is absolute truth materialists believe that matter is the absolute truth so by absolute truth generally that which is the source of everything that which is the underlying basis of everything that is conveyed so the Bhagavatam talks about it the Bhagavatam doesn’t start by saying Ishwara it starts with janmadi asthyata hanvai ditrata charate ishvabhigyan svarat so it is saying that actually that absolute that which is the source of everything janmadi asthyataha now it’s interesting Prabhupada equates janmadi asthyataha with sarvakaranam karanam in many places now sarvakaranam karanam is the cause of all causes so actually janmadi asthyataha is janmaadi this refers to the various such changes that happen in matter birth growth maintenance deterioration reproduction and destruction so all these come from the absolute truth so that means in the material existence there is matter and time space and time or matter and time you could call it and everything that happens therein is coming from the supreme law so janmadi asthyataha conveys more of the time sense of change sarvakaranam karanam conveys it more holistically also it is used in terms of the one thing coming from another source of everything so it is this is in terms of things sarvakaranam karanam often that is the way it is used and janmadi asthyataha talks in terms of events but either way the point is that the bhagavatam it says dhimahi let us meditate on that absolute truth that absolute truth is the source of everything the cause of all causes so now when we say cause of all causes that will include the material energy and the spiritual energy so god in touch with his spiritual energy will not be the absolute truth if we want to talk about that we will have to use the more precise word bhagavan so bhagavan svayam is primarily in touch with the spiritual energies occasionally he manifests in the material world even then he remains transcendental so paramatma as god is more in touch with the material energy in the sandarbha jiyugoswami describes that when the absolute truth is conceived without any energies that is the brahman conception when the absolute truth is conceived with material energies that is the paramatma conception and the absolute truth is conceived with material and spiritual energies that is the bhagavan conception so here jiyugoswami explains and prabhupada court is in an isopanishad purport how the bhagavan conception is the most complete conception of the absolute truth and overall the point of this discussion is that the bhagavan conception is the highest and and prabhupada is using the word absolute truth what is he referring to now bhagavan when we say the word bhagavan doesn’t correlate directly with god god is just a controller and bhagavan is yeah bhagavan is much much more than the controller so we could roughly equate the word absolute truth with bhagavan and prabhupada says bhagavan is the last word in the absolute truth so the absolute truth includes brahman, paramatman, bhagavan but it is not that brahman, paramatman, bhagavan are three different things they are adwai tattva they are the one thing and jiyugoswami explains in his commentary of the so in his commentary to that verse he explains that that same non-dual truth adwai tattva manifests as bhagavan, paramatman, and brahman and that adwai tattva is krishna so in that sense there are many bhagavan manifestations vishnu is also bhagavan and arayana and ram is also bhagavan but krishna is bhagavan swayam and he is the adwai tattva so the absolute truth refers to the source of everything that means the source of brahman, paramatman, and bhagavan also the source of spiritual energy and the source of material energy source of everything so when prabhupada is using the word god and absolute truth he’s simply making a point of philosophical differentiation between the concept of a controller and the concept of the source of everything and when we try to map this nomatology these knowledge nomenclature god and absolute truth on the vedic nomenclature that is brahman, paramatman, and bhagavan we realize that the vedic conception is much more profound and intricate and that’s why we cannot map the two very easily from one to another so roughly we could say the conception of god could equate with paramatman because in the most of the abrahamic religions where god is talked about generally people talk of god mainly in terms of the way he interacts with this world how he blesses how he protects there is very little talk about god’s own life in his own kingdom so that that conception of god interacting with the world is more of a paramatman conception and absolute truth it could be equated with bhagavan but more precisely as per yuga swami’s analysis we could equate absolute truth with krishna and he’s the original manifestation of bhagavan and in that sense absolute truth is the source of everything and krishna is the source of everything the source of all material and spiritual energies and all the manifestations of god also all the forms of bhagavan also thank you