The Three Dimensional Aspect of God

A concise summary of Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 2

The Spirit Soul is fully satisfied by inquiring about the Supreme Lord’s activities and adventures.

The topmost occupation that brings welfare to humanity is to develop devotion to the Supreme Lord by meditating on his incarnations, activities, and adventures. Human beings can awaken spiritual knowledge and achieve material detachment simultaneously through the execution of devotional service. All occupational duties executed by humans should ultimately progress one towards the topmost occupation; otherwise, those duties are a useless labor. It is the topmost occupation, devotion to the Lord alone that leads one towards liberation from material bondage.

One should only desire a healthy life and focus his efforts on his inquiry about the ultimate reality, God. The enlightened souls inform that God is realized in three aspects for the seekers:

• Brahman: Spiritual Energy and is formless. Some Vedantic schools address this formless spiritual energy as Siva

• Paramatma: Super Soul; commonly referred to as Universal Consciousness. Vedas mostly address the Super Soul as Vishnu

• Bhagavan: Supreme Person; An eternal manifestation of Spiritual Energy and has a Spiritual Form. This eternal manifestation in the Vedas is sometimes addressed as Vasudeva Krishna and some other times as Narayana

It is to be understood that all 3 aspects of God are non-different from each other just like the moon appears differently during the new moon, waning moon, and full moon phases. When a complete incarnation of the Supreme Person such as Sri Krishna finishes his playful activities on the Earth, he becomes unmanifest from our human perception but eternally manifests for those with spiritual perception. A corollary of sunset and sunrise can be used to describe this phenomenon. When the Sunsets in our region, the same Sun rises in another region

When one continually hears, chants, and glorifies the activities of the Supreme Person and his incarnations, then one’s karma is extinguished as well as sinful nature is destroyed. The Supreme Person takes personal responsibility for mind purification and control for those who are engaged in hearing about his activities and chanting his names; thus helping one ultimately overcome the passion and ignorance and come to the platform of goodness. While situated in such a state, lust, desire, and hankering disappear from one’s heart.

The Supreme Person assumes qualitative forms of Hari, Hara, and Brahma for the purpose of material creation. Those who are serious about liberation are encouraged to worship the eternal manifestations of God. The beneficiary of all sacrifices, rituals, and yogic practice is the Supreme Person, Vasudeva Krishna as described in the Vedic scriptures. For example, every ritual is concluded with “Sri Krisharpanam Astu”

The Supreme Person descends to Earth from time to time as incarnations to attract and enlighten those human beings in a state of goodness through his activities, teachings, etc.