What does panentheism mean?

From Anuj P

Brahma Samhita foreword Para 6 mentions a word – “panantheist“. I tried to look into the dictionary but could not find this word. Can you please tell what does it mean?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Question from Anuj Agarwal Prabhu.
What does panentheism mean? I found this word in the Brahma Samhita, but couldn’t find its meaning in the dictionary. Actually, panentheism refers to the understanding, it’s a philosophy which holds that God pervades all of nature and extends beyond it too. So, panentheism is spelled as P-A-N-E-N-T-H-E-I-S-M.
Sometimes it is misspelled as panentheism, P-A-N-E-N. And then it may not be found in the dictionary sometimes. Now, panentheism is actually the Vedic understanding.
The Gita talks about, there are two aspects of nature. There is God present in nature and God present beyond nature. God’s presence in nature is called as immanence.
And God’s presence beyond nature is called as transcendence. So, for example, when Krishna talks about, in 9.4, So, He’s talking about how He pervades all of material existence. So, in my impersonal form then.
The Paramatma sustains everyone. But I am not in that. The Bhagawan aspect is beyond all that.
So, the Paramatma aspect is indwelling in nature. So, that is immanence. And the Bhagawan aspect is beyond nature in the spiritual world.
That is, that actually what Krishna says in 9.5 next is that I am not situated there. That is referring to the Bhagawan aspect. So, God is pervading nature and transcending nature both.
So, that is the Gita’s understanding of nature of God. And this is referred to as panentheism. And panentheism contrasts with theism and pantheism.
Actually, it synthesizes both of them. Now, the word theism is often equated with the monotheistic traditions of the Abrahamic religions. Although monotheism is there in non-Abrahamic religions also.
Within the Dharmic religions, Vaishnavism is a prominent monotheistic tradition. But often people equate monotheism with the Abrahamic religions. And often in the Abrahamic religions, nature is considered to be profane.
Now again, when I use the word Abrahamic religions, there are hundreds and hundreds of denominations with their own interpretations. So, there are definitely variations in their beliefs. But generally, the idea is that, for example, in mainstream Islam also, as well as in some aspects of Christianity and Judaism, the idea is that nature, matter is profane.
And God is sacred, supremely sacred. So, God never comes in contact with profane matter. And that is why they say God cannot manifest in any form.
And in any way, depiction of God in form is sacrilege. Because God, that is contamination. That’s why they are so violently against deity worship also.
So, now the point is that this idea of theism emphasizes only the otherness, the transcendence of God. And that creates such an indivisible chasm between the world and God, between us and God, that often God appears too remote to be an object of personal devotion. And that’s why these religions often tend to stay at the level of karmakanda, at the level of fear and desire.
Now, this is the problem with conventional theism. And then there is pantheism. Pan means all, pantheism means everything is God.
So, often the Hindu doctrine, Hindu philosophy is misrepresented as pantheism. But it is not pantheism. Pantheism means everything is God, and then anything and everything can be worshipped as God.
But the Vedic understanding if we see is, that God, everything is the energy of God. God can manifest from anywhere. That we see Prahlad Maharaj, for him, stambhe sabhaya namrgam namanusham From stambha, that manifestation of God was neither a human being nor an animal.
It was narasimha manifested. But when God manifested to the pillar, Prahlad did not offer obeisance to the pillar. He did not garland the pillar.
He garlanded and offered prayers and offered obeisances to Narasimhadev. So, everything is the abode of the divine. So, we don’t worship everything in and of itself, but it can manifest the divine.
It is the energy of the divine. In that sense, we consider it as an object of respect and reverence. So, panthees, bahunam janmanamante gyanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvamiti samahatmasu durlabham So, the gyanavan understand vasudevah sarvamiti, but they are not sarvam prapadyate.
They are mam prapadyate. So, everything is God in the sense that everything can manifest God. Everything can remind us of God.
Everything is the energy of God. But God also has his own distinct personality and through that God we need to surrender. So, the Gita’s revelation of God synthesizes conventional theism, where there is indeed a God beyond nature, but also integrates pantheism and this philosophy is called as panentheism.
I didn’t talk much about sarvatma snapanam