Source of power

Expressions researched:
"source of power" |"source of the power" |"source of the powerful"

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

One must have the spiritual strength which is infused by Balarāma, or Saṅkarṣaṇa. Ananta, or Śeṣa, is the source of the power which sustains all the planets in their different positions.

Krsna Book 2: In the Upaniṣads it is stated, nāyam ātmā bala-hīnena labhyaḥ. The purport is that one cannot attain the supreme platform of self-realization without being sufficiently favored by Balarāma. Bala does not mean physical strength. No one can attain spiritual perfection by physical strength. One must have the spiritual strength which is infused by Balarāma, or Saṅkarṣaṇa. Ananta, or Śeṣa, is the source of the power which sustains all the planets in their different positions. Materially this sustaining power is known as the law of gravitation, but actually it is a display of the potency of Saṅkarṣaṇa. Balarāma, or Saṅkarṣaṇa, is the source of spiritual power, or the original spiritual master. Therefore Lord Nityānanda Prabhu, who is also the incarnation of Balarāma, is the original spiritual master. And the spiritual master is the representative of Balarāma, the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who supplies spiritual strength. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is confirmed that the spiritual master is the manifestation of the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

The rascals, they do not understand this. They simply see the power. But behind the power there is the power-maker, the source of power.

Lecture on SB 1.8.38 -- Los Angeles, April 30, 1973: So the sunshine is working because the sun globe is there, the sun-god is there. Similarly, the material energy is working. This cosmic manifestation made of earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and ego, these are the eight ingredients of this material manifestation. So these eight material elements, they are energies, separated energies. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. And, because the energetic is there behind this energy... Just like electric power. We are using electric power, but behind this electric power there is the powerhouse and there is the engineer who is producing the power. The rascals, they do not understand this. They simply see the power. But behind the power there is the power-maker, the source of power. They do not understand it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and says that "I am the power-maker. I am behind this power." Kṛṣṇa personally comes, because we have no eyes to see Kṛṣṇa, neither we can understand Kṛṣṇa. He therefore comes.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

The manifestation of power we always find in relation with a source of power

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Sir Alistair Hardy: That's a great problem in biology, how did life arise from the inorganic matter.

Revatīnandana: Quite a problem. We don't agree. We think that it didn't.

Sir Alistair Hardy: No? I say, that's...

Prabhupāda: Life came from life; matter also came from matter, er, life. That is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādyasya yataḥ. And it is explained in Bhagavad-gītā: Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ [Bg. 10.8]. So there is no difficulty.

Sir Alistair Hardy: But life may have arisen from the inorganic by the breathing in of the Divine into it. And there's no doubt that our bodies are material, but within our bodies is this divine, what I call the "divine flame" in one of my (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Why not the "divine person?" Wherefrom flame comes?

Revatīnandana: He says, now how to find out the Divine Person from whom the flame comes? Just like you were talking about how God is a manifestation of power, in your statement. But the manifestation of power we always find in relation with a source of power. Just like the sunlight is a manifestation of the power, and this great power of the sunlight, they're tapping it for electricity and so many things now, but that sunlight is not an independent entity. It's dependent on the source.

Prabhupāda: And Veda also, points out, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

They still can't explain the actual source of power that activates those chemicals.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Paraṁ vijāyate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Just see how small animal it is, and how freely it is going. Let them manufacture a small animal like this with chemicals. It has got all the symptoms of animal. It has got the desire. It has thinking, feeling, willing, then eating, sleeping, mating. Everything is there. And as such, the anatomic physiology is there, within such a full stop. Everything is there. If you check them going here, they'll protest. And wherefrom they are coming? Where they are going? Just see how small it is. You cannot see even with naked eyes, so small. But it has all life symptoms. And they say there is no soul.

Rāmeśvara: No, it is some wonderful chemical mixture that they have not discovered yet, very mysterious chemistry. It is all based on this idea of a study of genes and chromosomes, genetics. They have so many words for describing how it happens.

Prabhupāda: Jugglery, word jugglery.

Rāmeśvara: DNA, RNA.

Hari-śauri: But they still can't explain the power force that activates them. They still can't explain the actual source of power that activates those chemicals.

Prabhupāda: They cannot. It is not possible.

Correspondence

1973 Correspondence

When we speak of power, it means there must be a source of the powerful, for example we may speak of the electric power, so immediately it suggests that there must be a source of power, the power house, and the power house is being conducted by some engineer.

Letter to Sir Alistair Hardy -- Bhaktivedanta Manor 28 July, 1973: Therefore the right conclusion is, the problem of the human society at the present moment is to understand God, or as you say, the supreme power. When we speak of power, it means there must be a source of the powerful, for example we may speak of the electric power, so immediately it suggests that there must be a source of power, the power house, and the power house is being conducted by some engineer. So ultimately there is a living force, a living entity. He is Generating the power by mechanical arrangement, and we can experience his power in so many ways. You have tried to explain in your book "The findings of such research might spark off a new phase in religious history, people might be induced to try the experiment of approaching this power in their own way, not by prayer or the alteration of physical events or for national safety or material aims, but for spiritual strength and guidance for a better way of life, or perhaps how best to deal with some difficulty. This is indeed very good.