Unmanifested (Letters)

Expressions researched:
unmanifest |unmanifestation |unmanifested |unmanifesting |"not manifested" |"not manifest" |"not manifesting" |"not manifestation" |"no manifestation" |nonmanifestation |nonmanifested |nonmanifest

1970 Correspondence

I think by unmanifest God he means impersonal Brahman. This is quite natural for persons who try to understand God by their own endeavor.

Letter to Syamasundara -- Los Angeles 24 April, 1970: I am glad to learn that George is chanting now Hare Krishna with you, and that will make him advanced. You write to say that George is still not convinced that there is not something beyond the form or body of Krishna. He is thinking that beyond Krishna there is an unmanifest God. These are all vague questions. I think by unmanifest God he means impersonal Brahman. This is quite natural for persons who try to understand God by their own endeavor.

When the sun is visible it is called prakata, and when the sun is not visible that is called aprakata or unmanifested. Nonmanifested therefore does not mean there is no existence, but the terms are used in relation to the visibility or nonvisibility to the limited conditioned souls.

Letter to Syamasundara -- Los Angeles 14 May, 1970: Regarding your question about the term "unmanifest in the Bhagavad-gita 8/21, there are two words in Sanskrit—aprakata which means "unmanifest or "nonmanifest and prakata which means "manifest. Krsna's Lila in Vrndavana is prakata or manifest Lila, and the same is going on eternally in the spiritual realm which is known as aprakata or nonmanifest. Actually Krsna's planet and Krsna's pastimes are going on eternally, and the same is manifested before the conditioned souls at certain intervals, that is to say once in one day of Brahma, exactly as the sun is visible for 12 hours once in a 24 hour cycle of day and night. When the sun is visible it is called prakata, and when the sun is not visible that is called aprakata or unmanifested. Nonmanifested therefore does not mean there is no existence, but the terms are used in relation to the visibility or nonvisibility to the limited conditioned souls.

"There is another eternal nature which is transcendental to this manifest and nonmanifest matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is." "(B.G. 8.20) "

Letter to Krsna dasa -- Calcutta 6 October, 1970: The next point is philosophy without religion is mental speculation. No one can manufacture a system of religion. Religion is the Law of God and no one but God or empowered representatives of God can put forward religious formulas. Therefore, because every living entity is the eternal fragmental part and parcel of God, it is practical that by simply accepting the authorized statements of bona fide scripture without mental speculation or fashionable interpretation one fulfills the mission of human life very easily and goes back to home, back to Godhead. "There is another eternal nature which is transcendental to this manifest and nonmanifest matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. (B.G. 8.20) "It is the highest destination, going, no one ever returns from that, My Supreme Abode." (B.G. 8.21) So although the Russians may be very much advanced by throwing sputniks into the outer space, they are missing the real point—Krsna Consciousness, the science of God. Although there are so many departments of knowledge, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, etc., the science of God is still to be introduced. When the scientist philosopher medical man will get the opportunity to study systematically what is God, what are His energies, what is my relationship, how to approach Him, then only there will be paradise. But paradise in the present condition of life in ignorance of God is parasite in temporary paradise.