All-powerful (CC and other books)

Expressions researched:
"All-powerful"

CC Preface and Introduction

CC Introduction:

As living entities, we perform many activities, but we have a tendency to fall down into material nature. God has no such tendency. Being all-powerful, He never comes under the control of material nature. Indeed, material nature is but one display of His inconceivable energies.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.49, Purport:

This awakening of divine consciousness enthralls a devotee, who thus relishes his eternal transcendental mellow. Such an awakening is awarded only to those convinced by devotional service about the transcendental nature of the Personality of Godhead. They know that the Supreme Truth, the all-spiritual and all-powerful person, is one without a second and has fully transcendental senses.

CC Adi 1.61, Purport:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is one without a second, and therefore He is all-powerful. He has inconceivable energies, of which three are principal. The devotee is considered to be one of these energies, never the energetic. The energetic is always the Supreme Lord.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

“The two kinds of senses are the ten external senses and the one internal sense, the mind. Thus there are eleven senses. According to Kapila, material nature is eternal and all-powerful. Originally there is no spirit, and matter has no cause. Matter itself is the chief cause of everything. It is the all-pervading cause of all causes."

CC Adi 6.28, Purport:

Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda also manifested the same principle, although They also belong to the category of Viṣṇu. If Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda and Advaita Prabhu had exhibited Their all-powerful Viṣṇu potencies within this material world, people would have become greater impersonalists, monists and self-worshipers than they had already become under the spell of this age.

CC Adi 12.35, Purport:

Everyone knows, however, that Vāmanadeva was not at all poverty-stricken. His begging from Mahārāja Bali was a device to favor him. When Mahārāja Bali actually gave the land, Vāmanadeva exhibited His all-powerful position by covering the three worlds with three steps. One should not accept the so-called daridra-nārāyaṇas as incarnations, because they are completely unable to show the opulence of the genuine incarnations of God.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 4.164, Translation:

"If the sandalwood pulp is smeared over the body of Gopīnātha, then Gopāla will be cooled. After all, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely independent; His order is all-powerful."

CC Madhya 8.206, Translation:

“"The pastimes of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are self-effulgent. They are happiness personified, unlimited and all-powerful. Even so, the spiritual humors of such pastimes are never complete without the gopīs, the Lord"s personal friends. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is never complete without His spiritual potencies; therefore unless one takes shelter of the gopīs, one cannot enter into the company of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Who can be interested in Their spiritual pastimes without taking their shelter?’"

CC Madhya 10.169, Translation:

“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu purified me by taking away my deerskin. This is proof that He is all-pervasive and all-powerful and that I am subordinate to Him."

CC Madhya 12.68, Purport:

The logic of nagna-mātṛkā states that if a person is not elevated on such and such a date, he cannot become an exalted devotee overnight, as it were. This particular instance offers evidence to contradict that theory. On the previous day, the boy was simply an ordinary prince, and the next day he was counted as one of the topmost devotees of the Lord. This was all made possible by the causeless mercy of the Lord. The Lord is omnipotent—all-powerful or almighty—and He can act as He likes.

CC Madhya 15.169, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu here informed Vāsudeva Datta that since Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful, He can immediately deliver all conditioned souls from material existence. In essence, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “You desire the liberation of all kinds of living entities without discrimination.

CC Madhya 22.95, Purport:

Kṛṣṇa is very kind to His devotees. He is always grateful, and He never forgets the service of a devotee. He is also completely opulent and all-powerful. Why, then, should one take shelter of a demigod and leave Lord Kṛṣṇa's shelter? If one worships a demigod and leaves Kṛṣṇa, he must be considered the lowest fool.

CC Madhya 25.103, Purport:

Spiritual knowledge means fully understanding the Absolute Truth in three features—impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā and the all-powerful Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ultimately when one takes shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engages in the Lord's service, the resultant knowledge is called vijñāna, special knowledge, or the practical application of spiritual knowledge.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter Intoduction:

Although this is true in that both God and ourselves are immortal, there is a difference. As living entities, we perform many activities, but we have a tendency to fall down into material nature. God has no such tendency. Being all-powerful, He never comes under the control of material nature. Indeed, material nature is but one display of His inconceivable energies.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 1:

The Supreme Lord is cognizant and all-powerful, and by His causeless mercy He empowers a living entity to receive His mercy. Being under the spell of conditional life, people in general are averse to rendering devotional service and practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In fact, most people are unaware of the principal teachings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness regarding one's eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the ultimate goal of life, which is to return home, back to Godhead.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 11:

The real goal of devotional service is love of Godhead, and although a person may desire material benefits from Kṛṣṇa, the Lord, being all-powerful, considers the person's position and gradually liberates him from a materially ambitious life and engages him more in devotional service. When one is actually engaged in devotional service, he forgets his material ambitions and desires.

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 22:

If one takes account of only one universe, he will find so many combinations of wonderful things within, because there are innumerable planets, innumerable residences and places of demigods. The diameter of the universe is four billion miles, and it is infested with many unfathomable regions known as Pātālas, or lower planetary systems. Although Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all this, He can always be seen in Vṛndāvana, exhibiting His inconceivable potencies. So who can adequately worship such an all-powerful Lord, possessed of such inconceivable energy?

Nectar of Devotion 23:

There is a nice statement in the Kūrma Purāṇa about these contradictory traits of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is stated there that the Supreme Person is neither very fat nor very thin; He is always transcendental to material qualities, and yet His bodily luster is blackish. His eyes are reddish, He is all-powerful, and He is equipped with all different kinds of opulences. Contradictory traits in Kṛṣṇa's person are not at all surprising; one should not consider the characteristics of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be actually contradictory.

Nectar of Devotion 42:

When the Pāṇḍavas were banished by Duryodhana and forced to live incognito in the forest, no one could trace out where they were staying. At that time, the great sage Nārada met Lord Kṛṣṇa and said, "My dear Mukunda, although You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the all-powerful person, by making friendship with You the Pāṇḍavas have become bereft of their legitimate right to the kingdom of the world—and, moreover, they are now living in the forest incognito.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 7:

Some were listening to the statement of the small children, but others said, "How can you believe the statements of these children?" The cowherd men and women could not understand that the all-powerful Personality of Godhead was lying there as a baby and that He could do anything. Both the possible and impossible were in His power.

Krsna Book 23:

The morning passed, and the cowherd boys were very hungry because they had not eaten breakfast. They immediately approached Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma and said, "Dear Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, You are both all-powerful; You can kill many, many demons, but today we are much afflicted with hunger, and this is disturbing us. Please arrange for something that will mitigate our hunger."

Krsna Book 25:

The Sāṁvartaka was ordered by Indra to go over Vṛndāvana and inundate the whole area with an extensive flood. Demonically, Indra thought himself to be the all-powerful supreme personality. When demons become very powerful, they defy the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead.

Krsna Book 25:

The cows especially, being much aggrieved from the heavy rain, bowed down their heads, and taking their calves underneath their bodies, they approached the Supreme Personality of Godhead to take shelter of His lotus feet. At that time all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana began to pray to Lord Kṛṣṇa. "Dear Kṛṣṇa," they prayed, "You are all-powerful, and You are very affectionate to Your devotees. Now please protect us, who have been much harassed by angry Indra."

Krsna Book 59:

There is nothing impossible for Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; He is all-powerful, omnipresent and imperishable, and as such there is nothing wonderful in this pastime. All the palaces of the more than 16,000 queens of Kṛṣṇa were filled with suitable gardens, furniture and other paraphernalia, of which there is no parallel in this world.

Krsna Book 60:

There are many philosophers who propound a concept of the Absolute Truth in which God cannot do this or that. They deny the incarnation of God, or the Supreme Absolute Truth in human form. But actually the fact is different: God cannot be subject to our imperfect sensual activities. He is the all-powerful, omnipresent Personality of Godhead, and by His supreme will He can not only create, maintain and annihilate the whole cosmic manifestation but also descend as an ordinary human being to execute the highest mission.

Krsna Book 60:

“My dear all-powerful son of Vasudeva, Your statement that You have taken shelter within the water of the ocean, being afraid of all the great princes, is quite unsuitable, for my experience with You contradicts this. I have actually seen that You kidnapped me forcibly in the presence of all these princes."

Krsna Book 63:

You have unlimited potencies. No one can surpass Your potencies, and thus You are the Lord of everyone. Generally people consider Lord Śiva the most powerful personality in the material world, but Lord Śiva is not all-powerful; You are all-powerful. This is factual. You are the original consciousness, or knowledge. Without knowledge, or consciousness, nothing can be powerful.

Krsna Book 68:

They all exchanged words of reception by asking one another about their welfare, and when such formalities were finished, Lord Balarāma, in a great voice and very patiently, submitted before them the following words for their consideration: “My dear friends, this time I have come to you as a messenger with the order of the all-powerful King Ugrasena. Please, therefore, hear the order with attention and great care. Without wasting a single moment, please try to carry out the order."

Krsna Book 68:

Dear Lord, please consider us most foolish. Our intelligence was bewildered and not in order. Therefore we have come before You to beg Your pardon. Please excuse us. You are the original creator, sustainer and annihilator of the whole cosmic manifestation, and still Your position is always transcendental. O all-powerful Lord, great sages speak about You. You are the original puppeteer, and everything in the world is just like Your toy.

Krsna Book 79:

He descended exactly like a human being and behaved in that way for His own purposes; we can only explain His activities as the Lord's pastimes. No one can even estimate the extent of the unlimited demonstrations of His pastimes because He is all-powerful. Lord Balarāma is the original Viṣṇu; therefore anyone remembering these pastimes of Lord Balarāma in the morning and evening will certainly become a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus his life will be successful in all respects.

Krsna Book 88:

Here another question may be raised: If the Supreme Lord is all-powerful, why should He try to reform His devotee by putting him in distress? The answer is that when the Supreme Personality of Godhead puts His devotee in distress, it is not without purpose. Sometimes the purpose is that in distress a devotee's feelings of attachment to Kṛṣṇa are magnified.

Krsna Book 89:

After addressing Arjuna in this way, Lord Kṛṣṇa called for His transcendental chariot. He mounted it along with Arjuna and proceeded north. Lord Kṛṣṇa, the all-powerful Personality of Godhead, could have brought the child back without effort, but we should always remember that He was playing the part of a human being.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.8:

There are sufficient scriptural proofs to substantiate that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth. Even scriptures like the Bible or the Koran, declare that the Absolute Truth is the all-powerful, all knowing Supreme Person. Throughout the Vedic literature, that Supreme Person is declared to be Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

There is no estimation of our circumambulation and the concomitant distress resulting from such travel life after life for illusory, material happiness, which is compared to the will o' the wisp. In the capacity of a false enjoyer, without any obedience to the supremely powerful Lord, the living soul searches for permanent happiness life after life, but he does not know where the real happiness is. Therefore, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that no one knows that his ultimate goal of self-realization is to reach Viṣṇu, the all-powerful Godhead.

Message of Godhead 2:

If the leaders do not recognize the existence of the all-powerful Viṣṇu, who is simultaneously both the supreme transcendental personality and the impersonal spirit existing everywhere, then what will ordinary men understand about Him? He is the supreme enjoyer of everything that be, and thus none of us, however great we may be, can be the enjoyer of the universe and its paraphernalia.

Message of Godhead 2:

Such pure-in-heart transcendentalists know that although the living entity is very insignificant, he is part and parcel of the Absolute Truth and so has a proportionate measure of independence. And although the Personality of Godhead is all-powerful, He never interferes with this little freedom that the living entity enjoys. Thus the living entity sometimes becomes conditioned by the modes of nature, simply by abusing his small measure of independence that he is entitled to enjoy.

Light of the Bhagavata

Light of the Bhagavata 5, Purport:

The real light in life is the Vedic knowledge. Bhagavad-gītā affirms that the purpose of the Veda is to know the all-powerful Personality of Godhead. But in this age of quarrel there are quarrels even over the point of the existence of Godhead. In the godless civilization of the age of quarrel there are countless religious societies, them trying to banish God from religion.

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 8, Purport:

The sun extracts moisture from many untouchable places on the earth, yet it remains pure. In fact, it purifies obnoxious things by virtue of its sterilizing powers. If the sun, which is a material object, is so powerful, then we can hardly begin to imagine the purifying strength of the all-powerful Lord.

Sri Isopanisad 9, Purport:

If God were ever entrapped by māyā, māyā would be more powerful than God. Such men say that God is all-powerful, but they do not consider that if He is all-powerful there is no possibility of His being overpowered by māyā. These self-made "Gods" cannot answer all these questions very clearly; they are simply satisfied to have become "God" themselves.

Sri Isopanisad 15, Purport:

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the author, Śrīla Vyāsadeva, has established that one will describe the Supreme Truth as Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān according to one's realization of Him. Śrīla Vyāsadeva never states that the Supreme Truth is a jīva, an ordinary living entity. The living entity should never be considered the all-powerful Supreme Truth. If he were the Supreme, he would not need to pray to the Lord to remove His dazzling cover so that the living entity could see His real face.

Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 2, Purport:

The Lord's birth on the face of the earth is certainly very mysterious, and therefore it is difficult for ordinary men to believe in His birth. How can the all-powerful Lord take birth, seemingly like an ordinary man? The matter is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.6), where the Lord says,

ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, by My transcendental potency I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." From the śāstra we learn that the Lord takes birth not only in the family of human beings but also in the families of demigods, aquatics, animals, and so on.

Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)

Narada Bhakti Sutra 3, Purport:

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.87.30) the personified Vedas pray to the Lord, "O supreme eternal, if the living entities were equal with You and thus all-pervading and all-powerful like You, there would be no possibility of their being controlled by Your external energy, māyā." Therefore, the living entities should be accepted as fragmental portions of the Supreme. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7) when the Lord says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ: "The living entities are My fragmental portions, eternally."