Trinity

Expressions researched:
"trinity"

SB Canto 4

SB 4.7.40, Translation and Purport:

The personified Vedas said: We offer our respectful obeisances unto You, the Lord, the shelter of the quality of goodness and therefore the source of all religion, austerity and penance, for You are transcendental to all material qualities and no one knows You or Your actual situation.

In the material world there is the trinity of the three material qualities. Lord Viṣṇu has accepted the superintendence of the quality of goodness, which is the source of religion, knowledge, austerity, renunciation, opulence, etc. Because of this, actual peace, prosperity, knowledge and religion can be attained when the living entities are under the control of the quality of goodness in the material world. As soon as they are subjected to the control of the other two qualities, namely passion and ignorance, their precarious conditional life becomes intolerable.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 7.9.11-13 -- Hawaii, March 24, 1969:

So these three departments are there. So for creative department of this material world, Lord Brahma; for maintenance department, Lord Viṣṇu Himself; and for destruction, Lord Śiva. These are the guṇa avatāras, three, trinity. One is creating, one is maintaining...

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is representative of God, son of God. That's all.

Young woman (1): Do you believe in the blessed trinity?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you believe in the blessed trinity?

Prabhupāda: I do not know what is that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Father, son, and holy ghost.

Madhudviṣa: Holy spirit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Holy spirit.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not?

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is just like his philosophy of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. So he says, "Therefore it is perfect."

Prabhupāda: He may think it. Everyone thinks that way, (that) his philosophy is perfect.

Śyāmasundara: He says that even higher than religion is philosophy because you can approach God through pure concept or thought, pure thought, and reach God.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā is combination of religion and philosophical thought.

Philosophy Discussion on Origen:

Hayagrīva: Origen ascribed to the doctrine of the Trinity. In the Trinity, God the father is Supreme, God the son, who's called the logos, L-O-G-O-S, which is Greek for word, is subordinate to the father, and he brings the material world into existence.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Hayagrīva: The son. God the son brings the material world into existence. God the father is not the direct creator; it is the son who is the direct creator. The Ho... The third aspect of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit, and he is in turn subordinate to the, to the son. So these Holy Spirits, they liken unto the...

Philosophy Discussion on Origen:

Hayagrīva: Like Brahmā, the perfect son. And then there's the Holy Spirit, that is all-pervasive. And all three of these aspects are divine and co-eternal. They exist..., they've always existed within the Trinity of God. They've always existed simultaneously.

Prabhupāda: So our conception is—"our" means Vedic conception—that Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: (BG 10.8) "I am the origin of everyone." Either you call the son or the Holy Ghost, it doesn't matter, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the origin.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Allah akbar. So what is the conception of God of the Christian?

Priest: As you said, it's impersonal, trans-personal, what we explain by that Trinity. It's a relationship. It's a pure relationship.

Prabhupāda: Yes, relationship means that He must be a person.

Priest: No.

Prabhupāda: Why? Otherwise how you can...

Priest: It is beyond a person.

Prabhupāda: Beyond the person... Just like we have got experience: when you call relation, then relation means we consider master and servant. This is also one relation.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Śrutakīrti: There's the word "logos," "logo." "Logos" is here. It means "word, or second person of a trinity."

Prabhupāda: No, no. "Logy."

Śrutakīrti: "Logy" is not here.

Pañcadraviḍa: Logic.

Prabhupāda: Logic.

Śrutakīrti: Logic is here. "Scheme of or trustees (?) on, science of reasoning..."

Prabhupāda: That... That...

Śrutakīrti: "...chain of reasoning, arguments, logical..."

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Jesuit: I mean God is all-loving?

Prabhupāda: Yes. When you say "Great," He's great in every respect.

Jesuit: Good. Do you... In Christianity we have the trinity, the Father, Son and the relationship of love between them which we call three persons in one God...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jesuit: In your understanding of God...

Prabhupāda: God, God and His love towards us... Because we are sons of God, therefore Father has natural love for sons, therefore God comes. God sends His son or representative to canvass that "You come to God, you'll be happy there."

Jesuit: Who was the son He sent?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Just like Jesus, we say "son of God." So...Prabhupāda: If... Suppose your son, you have got this body, so your father must have body.

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Judah: Yes. Well, you see, the Roman Catholics, if we were to consider this then again, would say that the son of God is one with God and the Holy Spirit as the Trinity...

Prabhupāda: And again, the description of the son.

Dr. Judah: Yes, the three are one.

Prabhupāda: That is all right, but who is God? What is the definition of God? Just like king. We can describe, "King means who has got a big kingdom, a large tract of land. He is ruling over it," some description. So what is the definition of God in that...?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: What church is he with?

Lekhaśravantī: It's the Holy Trinity Church.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Catholic?

Lekhaśravantī: Maybe it is. I'm not so educated in all these things.

Hari-śauri: I think it's Catholic.

Prabhupāda: So we shall have to go there? No.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: Yes. But there's a lot of nice threes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Brahma, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara. Three worlds, śaṅkha, martya, padma. Trinity. These are nice things.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Putaparti is in Andhra. "His contemporary avatāra rests in the trinity of Sirti Baba, Sai Baba, and Prem Baba to come. So Satya Sai Baba, the second of the triple incarnation, asserted in the course of a marathon interview to add, 'In my present avatāra, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity.' "

Prabhupāda: So, to whom we shall address this letter?

Pradyumna: Well, it depends where we want to send it for publishing. To this or to another magazine.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Sivananda -- New York 19 April, 1968:

Regarding the Christian's Trinity, I believe it is called God, the Holy Ghost, and the son. Person in Krishna Consciousness accepts this by the name Visnu, Paramatma, and Jiva. God is a Person, the holy spirit or the supersoul is a person, and the living entity is also a person. Also, Mary is the representation of the energy of God. Either as internal energy Radharani or as external energy Durga, the energy of Godhead can be considered the mother of the living entities. But there is no clash between the Bible and the Vedas, simply some people formulate their personal ideas and cause quarrelings. Nobody can say the Bible was meant for the same class of men as the Bhagavad-gita. And Bhagavad-gita is the ABC's of spiritual knowledge.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- San Francisco 3 April, 1969:

I think from Columbus I will have to go to New Vrindaban, and after staying a few days there, I shall come back to New York. If there is call from London, I shall go there from New York. About Trinity College lectures, I think I can stay in Hartford for the days I have to lecture there, and the fees may be charged $100 per lecture as the New York City College has offered. I do not know if they will agree to this, but I think we should not make the fees very cheap.