Plotinus and the Vedic Conception of God
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapters
Neoplatonism and the Vedic conception
This is Plotinus. Plotinus lived from 204 to 269 A.D. He was not Christian. He's what's called a Neoplatonist, a new Platonist. Much of his philosophy comes from Plato.
But he believed in the theory of emanation: that the soul emanates from the intelligence, what Aristotle called the nous or the intelligence, and the intelligence emanates from the One, what he calls the One, who is omnipresent, transcendental, the cause of all multiplicities.
The Lord of all. So there's a hierarchy in Plotinus of the One, the intelligence, and the individual souls. That one is Vedic conception. Supreme Truth, Absolute Truth, advaya.
So this is our philosophy, that these living entities, though they are of the same quality as the one supreme, but they are fragmental parts, emanation from him.
He has got the same intelligence, same mind, but limited jurisdiction. God is that one who is omnipresent, but we are not omnipresent, but we are present. Omniscient. But we are not omniscient, but we are sentient.
Not that dull matter. In this way, that one has got all spiritual qualities in fullness. We have got the spiritual qualities in minute quantity. That is our constitutional position.
But we are like sparks, and the supreme one is like big fire. When we leave the association of big fire as sparks, we become extinguished. It means our luminescent stuff. That is called māyā, māyā means darkness.
Then we can revive also; again we put with the One and revive our illuminating power, spiritual power, and live this with the Supreme One peacefully, eternal life of bliss. Plotinus
Personal and impersonal features of God
is an impersonalist. He believed that attributing attributes to God limit God. He believes that attributing qualities to God necessarily limit God, so he's an impersonalist. Limit? Limit.
Any attribute or quality is by necessity limiting. This is a typical impersonalist stand. That the one is transcendental, but there's no multiplicity in him. That means impersonal.
Although he is the cause of all multiplicities, he's the cause of all living entities. He himself. Yes, he's the cause of all living entities.
That is a Vedic conception: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām — he is the chief among the eternals, chief among the sentients.
But unless he has those unlimited transcendental qualities, how can he be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, all-powerful? That is not perfection. A perfect conception of the Supreme One: He is unlimited, we are limited.
That is sense — how the Supreme One, who is the cause of everything, can be limited? I do not know what they mean by limit. He cannot be limited by anything.
Even what is impersonal Brahman, the Brahman — sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman. Unlimited. Why is it limited? mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni. Everything is an emanation from him, resting in him.
That is his impersonal conception. Everywhere he is there. And personal is localized. But from the person, the impersonal effulgence comes out. That we understand from the Bhagavad-gītā.
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham — as the big sun shine comes from the localized sun globe. The sun globe is situated in one place, but the rays of the sun are distributed all over the universe.
Similarly, the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth is that by his transcendental rays, prabhā, just as prabhā, prabhā means illumination. It's like the fire has got heat and light. It expands.
So the impersonal feature of the Lord expands unlimitedly. And the personality — it appears that he is limited, but he is unlimited by his energy. That is the perfect conception. brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate.
By His impersonal feature, He is all-pervading; by His localized aspect, He is living everywhere, omnipresent within the heart of all living entities, within the atom; and by His personal, which is served by the devotee.
Wherever the devotee is there, He is present personally. Tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ. That is His omnipresence.
Although He is in Goloka Vṛndāvana, so nobody can calculate how many miles away that planet is, still, when a devotee like Prahlāda is in danger, He is immediately present there. That is the meaning of omnipresence.
Not that because He is millions and trillions of miles away, He cannot give protection to His devotee millions and trillions away from His abode. And that is the meaning of omnipresence.
Yes, you also believe that God is present in all objects, yet remains distinct and transcendental to all created things. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ.
Everything is resting in Me, but I am not present.
Conditioned souls and the evolutionary process
As for the individual souls, some are unembodied and some are embodied. He believes that some are celestial, they are heavenly, and these souls do not suffer. And some, the ones on earth, suffer.
In either case, they are all individuals. That's right. There are souls, individual souls. Nobody can count how many souls are there. So all these souls are as described above.
They have got the same qualities of the One in minute quantity. But some of them are fallen. Just like the fire, there are so many sparks. But one or two may fall down from the fire.
Although the fire... those who are not falling down, they are called nitya-mukta, everlastingly liberated. They are never conditioned.
And those who are fallen within this material world for sense gratification, they are baddha. They are called nitya-baddha, Eternally conditioned.
Eternally means nobody can estimate how long one conditioned soul within this material world is existing here, because the creation is going on perpetually, sometimes manifest, sometimes non-manifest.
But the conditioned soul without Krishna consciousness is continuing to exist in this material world. Before the creation he was there in dormant condition; again, with the manifestation, he comes out. This is going on.
Their condition. And for their deliverance, that one Supreme Personality comes, descends, sends His incarnation, sends His devotee to call him back to home, back to Godhead. That is also going on.
Those who are fortunate, they take to Krishna consciousness and go back to home, back to Godhead.
And those who are unfortunate do not take advantage of the instruction personally given by God, and later on His devotees are engaged to preach, they do not take care. They remain conditioned within this material world.
And material world is created and inherent, and he suffers this annihilation while in this body, while in this material world.
The intelligent living entity, if he's fortunate, he takes to Krishna consciousness and again he goes back to home, back to Godhead.
He believed that the soul is eternal and incorporeal in men, animals, and even in plants. And in this he differed from other philosophers of the time. Why? Because it's accepted. Accepted.
And the soul living in... Yes, that is a fact. He's right. Well, that is basic conclusion. Soul is in all different forms of life. There is soul, part and parcel of God.
How some foolish person can think that an animal has no soul? What is the reason? There is no very strong argument. The animals may be less intelligent. A child may be less intelligent than the father.
That does not mean there's no soul. This gross and doggish mentality, animal mentality, is killing the human civilization. Now they have degraded so much that they think the embryo has no soul.
In this way, man is being put into darker and darkest regions of ignorance. Everyone has... so that is here, uh, we, we, uh, we... we, we get it, Krishna: sarva-bhūteṣu. In different forms of life, the soul is there.
Undoubtedly. That is the real conception of soul. Evolution means it is evolving from one lower grade of body to another higher grade of body.
In this way, by evolution, he comes to the human form of life, and in this human form of life, he can understand the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, that if he likes, he can surrender to the Supreme Lord and go back to home, back to Godhead.
And if he does not, then he remains in this material world, undergoing the tribulations of repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. Corporal body.
Stages of realization and bhakti yoga
Plotinus saw the individual souls returning to God, or the One, through three stages. The first stage is that of asceticism, detaching oneself from the material world.
The second stage, one detaches oneself from the process of reasoning itself—that would be mental speculation.
And in the third stage, the intellect transcends itself into the realm of the unknown, the realm of the One, and he speaks of this as an ecstasy, an involvement, or a transcendence of the ego.
So these are the three stages of God realization that he sets down. That means what we call three stages: karmī, jñānī, yogī.
Karmīs, they are trying to improve their condition by this material science and material advancement of education. And some of them are trying to, uh, go to the heavenly planets by pious activities. These are karmīs.
Jñānīs, they are speculating on the Absolute Truth by their erudition and coming to the conclusion that God is impersonal; when we merge into that impersonal feature, that is our liberation.
And the yogis, they are trying to get some mystic power by practicing mystic yoga system—wonderful power, aṣṭa-siddhi, eight kinds of perfection: to become lighter than the lightest, to become smaller than the smallest, to become bigger than the biggest.
Whatever they like they can get, they can subdue anyone, bring under his control. But real yoga means to see the Supreme within the core of the heart. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ.
In this way there are different processes. They are called karma, jñāna, yoga. But they require endeavor to elevate, and strenuous endeavor, all these practices.
But the supreme process is simply to surrender unto the Supreme One, and He gives our intelligence how to be free from this material entanglement, and that is called bhakti-yoga.
That is very pleasing to execute and without any much endeavor; simply being fully surrendered to the Supreme Lord, he immediately becomes purified from all material contamination, and a little practice of bhakti-yoga makes him completely fit for going back to home, back to Godhead.
Concerning evil, Plotinus feels that matter is evil in the sense that it imprisons the soul, but the cosmos concept is put on all our practically, ninety percent of our concept.
This is the... But the visible cosmos is beautiful and the evil does not arise from the Creator. Yes.
The individuals are being attracted by this illusory energy; he comes here, or since it is not by the desire of the Supreme One, by his personal desire. So God gives him freedom.
So he begins his life from a very exalted position in this material world, sometimes like Brahmā, but on account of material activities he becomes entangled so much so that degradation from the exalted position like that Brahmā comes to become an ant in the stool. Therefore
we find so many species of life. The degradation and elevation is going on, sometimes elevated, sometimes degraded. In this way the individual soul is suffering. That is his suffering material, miserable condition.
When he comes to understand that this kind of degradation and elevation is going on perpetually, "This is my suffering," then at that time he becomes fortunate. Then he seeks after the Supreme One, Krishna.
Spiritual identity and the material body
And by the grace of Krishna he gets a bona fide spiritual master. So by the mercy of both the spiritual master and Krishna, he gets the chance of being engaged in devotional service.
And little effort and sincerity makes him perfect and you go back to home.
Although most of his philosophy is impersonal, his conception of God is mainly impersonal, he writes: "Let us flee then to the beloved fatherland." Here is sound counsel. But what is this flight?
How are we to gain the open sea? The fatherland for us is there whence we have come. There is the Father. So he does have some conception, it seems, of God. He's confused because he is also speculating.
Uh, so these things will remain confused, whether the Absolute Truth is person or imperson. Uh, generally, uh, without uh, spiritual advancement, nobody can understand about the Absolute Truth. Uh, so that doubt continues.
But when there is a question of love between the Absolute and the relative, there must be the personal conception, and actually He is a person, Krishna.
So by the mercy of Krishna, and when he gets in touch with the devotee, his impersonal conception of the Absolute is removed. And then he worships the personal aspect of the Absolute through Krishna and devotee.
That is like his success. Concerning the fall of the soul, Plotinus believes that the human soul never entirely leaves the spiritual realm. Because he is a spiritual being. He's not any product of this material world.
He is part and parcel of the supreme world. But he is embodied by the material elements. And the material elements require change, it becomes old. Just like our shoes, our dress, it becomes old.
I can have one shirt and coat. Uh, but uh, as soon as I change the body, the shirt and coat is no more fitting the body. So I have to change. So material life means to change. It is called jagat. Jagat means changing.
But we are eternal, the same, spiritual.
That this material life is not very, um, happy because it will change, uh, even if we are in a very comfortable condition of life, uh, or in a miserable condition of life, it will change to, uh, better or lower grade of life that is going on.
So in order to save ourselves from the repetition of changing bodies, if we want to remain in our original eternal spiritual form, we must take to Krishna consciousness, and then we are relieved from this, uh, rotten business of repetition of birth and
death. And he says if the souls remain in the intelligible or spiritual realm with the Soul (capital S) or Super Soul, they are beyond harm and share in the Soul's governance.
They are like kings who live with the High King and govern with him, and like him do not come down from the palace. So when the individual soul decides to withdraw, uh, he becomes fragmented, isolated, and weak. When
he decides to withdraw from what he calls the palace of the... withdraw from the material world. When he decides to withdraw from the spiritual realm, from the governance of the High King... Spiritual realm.
Spiritual realm. The spiritual kingdom. Kingdom. Yes. That is his fall down. When he decides to, uh, give up his spiritual, um, life, he falls down into the material life.
And that is the beginning of his material tribulations. And so long as he will maintain a thing of material happiness, the nature's law is that he has to accept a type of material body. There are varieties.
So in all conditions, the spirit soul remains the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. But according to the different body, he, uh, gets different circumstances.
The dog is thinking, on account of the dog's body, that he is a dog. A man is thinking that he is a man on account of the human body.
The same thing: the American is thinking, because the body has been gotten from America, he is thinking "American". Similarly: Indian, Hindu, Muslim, Christian—all these designations are due to the body.
So when he understands that "I am not this body," this is spiritual education. That I am different. I am part and parcel of God, then he becomes liberated impersonally.
And when he makes further advancement and he comes to the platform of understanding the Supreme Truth as the Supreme Person, Krishna, and he engages himself in Krishna's service, that is his actual life.
Krishna is in the spiritual world, in the Vaikuṇṭha planets and the Goloka Vṛndāvana planets. So they can be promoted to any one of them.
And the Vaikuṇṭha planets or Goloka Vṛndāvana planets— then he is happy as an associate of Krishna. He can enjoy life eternally.
Divine governance and the illusory energy
Plotinus conceives of the soul as having basically two parts: a lower part directed toward the body and a higher part directed toward the spiritual. Yeah.
That is, he's prone to fall down because his very minute quantity is small. So there is a tendency to fall down.
And the same example: the small spark of the fire, because it is very small, sometimes it falls down from the fire. So we, being a very small, minute particle of God, we become entangled by this material, external energy.
Just like the example: a less intelligent person in ignorance commits criminal activities and he goes to jail. He is not supposed to go to the jail,
but on account of his little intelligence or ignorance, he commits something which is criminal. The criminality is done by the less intelligent class of human.
Similarly, persons who are coming into this material world, they are less intelligent. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare. They think that they will be able to enjoy life independently without Krishna.
That is less intelligence. Just like a very rich man's son, if he thinks, "I will live independently without being dependent on my father." That is his foolishness.
How can he become happy independently, living aside from the father? The Supreme Father is all-opulent, full of everything, and I am minute only.
So if I live under the care of the father, naturally I live very comfortably, like a rich man's son. But if I prefer, I shall live independently. That is my foolishness.
So only the fools and the rascals, they try to remain independent of Krishna, and they suffer. That is the consequence.
And those who are intelligent, even in the material life, by association of devotees and spiritual opportunities, when it comes to this understanding that "I am son of Krishna..." He claims: ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā.
"I am the father." So, "I am the son of Krishna. And why am I rotting in this way? Let me go back to my father." That is "back to home, back to Godhead" — that is intelligence.
So long a living entity remains a fool, he suffers in this material world, and as soon as he is intelligent enough... They are describing in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta: kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura.
Anyone who is in Krishna consciousness, he is the first-class intelligent man. Without being a first-class intelligent man, nobody can come to Krishna consciousness.
So this training, Krishna consciousness — meaning those who are fortunate, they have come to accept Krishna consciousness — this movement is training them how to know perfectly well that he is, he will be, or he is always very, very happy in Krishna, not without Krishna.
That is Krishna consciousness. And practically we see, anyone who has given up this Krishna consciousness movement, they are not happy. I don't find anyone. In fact, they're not happy. They're rotting in degradation.
That is enough. Listen to you. He believes that the cosmic order awards and punishes everyone according to merit. So this is a form of belief in karma also. Yeah, just like we are discussing Ajāmila.
There, Ajāmila is going to be punished; the Yamadūta is there, the officer is there, he has sent his men to arrest.
So just like it is the father's duty: if the son goes astray in the wrong way, the father is always affectionate. He tries to bring him back again. No, by other, by punishing or some... So this is going on.
Those who are in this material world, they're simply happening, uh, on account of foolishness. So they are punished. This punishment means to correct him, uh, to correct him to the, uh, proper position.
Uh, then this is going on.
Uh, so without being corrected, if one is intelligent enough, he surrenders to Krishna and gains his old constitutional position, and that is the platform of spiritual life of bliss and knowledge.
He uses this following metaphor. He says: "We are like a chorus grouped about a conductor who allow their attention to be distracted by the audience.
If, however, they, that is, we the individual souls, were to turn toward their conductor, they would sing as they should and would really be with him. We are always around the one.
If we were not, we would dissolve and cease to exist. Yet our gaze does not remain fixed upon the one. When we look at it, we then attain the end of our desires and find rest.
Then it is that all discord passes, we dance an inspired dance around it.
In this dance the soul looks upon the source of life, the source of the intelligence, the root of being, the cause of the good, the root of the soul.
All these entities emanate from the one without any lessening, for it is not a material mass." Yes, there's good sense.
The God is individual and the soul is individual, as he has given the, uh, metaphor, an analogy, that the parties of a concert party and conductor, chorus, uh, they're singing in the tune.
Sometimes attention diverted by the audience, uh, it becomes out of the tune. Similarly, when we divert our attention to the illusory energy, then we fall down.
And although we remain the same part and parcel of the Lord, but the influence of the material energy covers us and we identify with the covering elements and, life after life, body is changing, and we are identified with the covering.
This is our miserable condition of material existence. And the first education is that I am not this covering. That is spiritual education. That is the beginning of what we call instruction.
That you are not this body; Arjuna, you are not this body. Why you are taking these bodily concepts of life, your relatives, your family so seriously? It is all foolishness. It is accidental.
You are born in this family and you have got so-called relatives. You are actually spirit, so now you are identifying with this bodily concept of life: "We are members of the Kuru family."
And as soon as this change of bodies takes place, you again enter into the dog's family or cat's family or demigod's family. Again you identify: "I am a dog," "I am a cat," "I am a demigod." So this is our ignorance.
We have to stop this mentality, a bodily concept of life, identify ourselves as a spirit soul, part and parcel of the supreme Spirit, and act according to His direction. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam.
But Kṛṣṇa says if we act, then gradually sarvopādhi- vinirmuktam, we will become immediately freed from all upādhi, designation, and gradually develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
That is the instruction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to spread this knowledge all over the world. Plotinus accounts for the fall of the soul in this way.
He says, "How is it that souls forget the divinity that begot them? This evil that has befallen them has its source in self-will, in being born, in becoming different and desiring to be independent."
Once having tasted the pleasures of independence, they use their freedom to go in any direction, more and more degraded, as I've already explained. He begins his life as Lord Brahmā and goes down as the worm in the stool.
That is his degradation. And again, by nature's way, by evolution, it comes to the human form of life; there is a chance to understand how he has fallen.
And if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness now, then from this life he goes again back to Kṛṣṇa: tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti.
Characteristics of the liberated soul
If he fully becomes strengthened up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everyone has to give up this body. So a devotee will give up this body. But he's not going to accept any more material world.
He is immediately transferred to the spiritual world. Mām eti — he comes to me. That is the advantage. Uh, there's sometimes fools say that "You are also going to die." Yes.
You are going to die, I'm also going to die, that's a fact. But a devotee's death means giving up this body and remain in his original spiritual body. Sometimes it is said: jīvo vā maro vā.
Devotee either is living or is dead, his business is the same. And those who are on the lowest platform of material life, just like the butcher, he is advised: mā jīva mā mara — don't live, don't die.
Because he's living a very abominable life daily, cutting the throats of so many animals. It's not a very nice life. So it is abominable. And as soon as he dies, he's going to suffer.
So his position is, either he lives or he dies, his position is very horrible. And a devotee, either he lives or dies, his business is the same: to serve Krishna. So jīvo vā maro vā is not different for a devotee.
So living or dead, it has no meaning for him. Therefore he is called liberated, jīvan-mukta. Jīvan-mukta means although he is in body, in this body, material world, he is liberated.
Jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate: īhā yasya harer dāsye karmaṇā manasā girā — that is Rūpa Gosvāmī's definition.
A person who is, uh, a certain person engaged in the service of Krishna, karmaṇā — by action, uh, by mind, uh, karmaṇā manasā, by words, is not to be considered possessing anymore a material body.
Jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate — he is already liberated on the spiritual platform, although apparently he moves like a material body. Jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate. And Bhagavad-gītā also: brahma-bhūyāya kalpate.
Sa guṇān samatītyaitān — he is not under the condition of the modes of material nature. He is already in the Brahman platform, brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. Therefore, the Krishna consciousness movement is for life.
Anyone who takes it seriously, uh, he becomes immediately liberated. Because liberation means to be engaged in Krishna's service. This is liberation. We are engaged in māyā's service, that is our bondage.
But service we have to render. We are servant, either māyā servant or Krishna servant. The servant is our constitutional position. Jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says.
Our real identity is eternal servant of Krishna. So even if we are in this material body, if you are engaged in Krishna's service, that is liberation. Hitvānyathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ.
When we give up our otherwise life. Otherwise life means to be engaged in māyā's service as the head of the family, head of the community, head or member of the—so we are designated in so many ways.
So that is our conditional life. And the same service, when we render to Krishna, saṁsevā, we are liberated. Svarūpeṇa. That is mukti.
Mukti, the māyāvādī impersonalists, on account of poor fund of knowledge, they think mukti means no more activity. Why no more activity?
Because the soul is active, and the active soul is within the body, therefore we find these bodily activities. The body itself is not active. The soul is active.
So when he gives up his bodily concept of life, how his activities will be stopped? That is poor fund of knowledge; māyāvādīs cannot understand. The active principle is the soul.
So so long the active principle is within the body, the body is active. And the active principle is gone, the body is a lump of matter. So even while he's liberated from this lump of matter, he must remain active.
And that is explained in bhakti-śāstra, that when he is no more in bodily concept of life, then he remains active. But activity: hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate.
When his senses are completely engaged—Hṛṣīkeśa is another name of Krishna— that is called bhakti. Bhakti means the activities of liberated life.
One may understand or not understand, if he is actually engaged in Krishna's service under the direction of spiritual master, he is liberated.
But if he voluntarily accepts again māyā's service, then he becomes conditioned. This is the secret. Is that—that's the conclusion of Plotinus? That's...