Eighty-five percent

Expressions researched:
"eighty-five percent"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Nārāyaṇa is ninety-five percent complete God, and Lord Śiva is eighty-five percent and Kṛṣṇa is cent percent. There is analysis.

Lecture on BG 4.20 -- Bombay, April 9, 1974: Nārāyaṇaṁ devam. Even Śaṅkarācārya, he says, nārāyaṇaḥ avyaktāt paraḥ: "Nārāyaṇa is transcendental. He has nothing to do with this material world." So Vaiṣṇavas also say, yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ. Brahmā, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, they are demigods of this material world. So if one puts Nārāyaṇa even with the label of Brahmā and Rudra, Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā... They are very exalted, big demigods. Lord Śiva is almost like Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is ninety-five percent complete God, and Lord Śiva is eighty-five percent and Kṛṣṇa is cent percent. There is analysis. So yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ, samatvenaiva vīkṣeta. Samatvena, equal "Well, whatever is Nārāyaṇa, that is also Lord Śiva, that is also Lord Brahmā, that is also goddess Kālī." This is Māyāvāda. Because the Māyāvāda philosophy is that "The Absolute Truth is impersonal. That is the final understanding. So because we cannot think of impersonal, meditate upon that, let us imagine some form."