God created means

Expressions researched:
"God created means" |"god created"

General Lectures

God created means before the creation, God was there.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, January 19, 1969:

So God created. Try to understand what is the position of God. God created means before the creation, God was there. Just like if you say that "Mr. such and such has constructed this building," that means before the construction of the building, Mr. such and such was living, was existing. So "God created" means God is not one of the beings who were created. He is beyond creation. Therefore one great stalwart ācārya of India, Śaṅkarācārya, whose name you might have heard, he says, nārāyaṇaḥ para avyaktāt, avyaktāt anya-sambhavaḥ: "Nārāyaṇa, God, the Supreme Lord, He is beyond this creation. He's not one of the created beings." You try to understand. God said, "Let there be creation," and there was creation: "Yes." His word is sufficient. His word is sufficient. You can take practical example. In your country you can understand this nice example. During the fall, all of a sudden, all the leaves of the tree, they fall down. There is no more leaf. And again, during the beginning of spring, the, immediately everything becomes green. Now, how this is happening? If you decorate one tree, if you want to take out all the leaves of a tree, it will take months together. And if you want to decorate one tree without leaves, it will take months together. But you can see that within a few days all leaves are fallen down, and within a few days all leaves are coming out. So why don't you believe that simply by word of God there may be creation, there may be destruction? That is sufficient. He doesn't require any engineering. Simply that vibration is sufficient. Śabdāt pravṛttiḥ.

We say, "God created." "God created" means before creation, God was existing. "God created"—this very word suggests that before this creation of this cosmic manifestation, God was existing. Therefore God is not under this creation. If God is under this creation, then how He can create?

Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969:

Sanātana means eternal. There is no history of its beginning, or there is no end—that is called sanātana, eternal. Eternal means which has no end, no beginning. Nobody knows where it has begun and where it has ended. Nobody knows. Just like the Vedic religion is called sanātana-dharma because nobody can trace out when this Vedic religion begun. Therefore it is called sanātana-dharma. Every religion in our present experience, it has got a history. Your Christian religion, it has got a history, two thousand years old. Buddhist religion, it has got a history, 2600 years. Muhammadan religion, it has got a history, one thousand years. But if you trace out Vedic religion, you cannot find out the history, date. There is no date. You cannot find out. No historian can give. So therefore it is called sanātana-dharma. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says that "There is another nature, which is sanātana." Sanātana means there is no history of its creation or... But this material creation, as you know... We say, "God created." "God created" means before creation, God was existing. "God created"—this very word suggests that before this creation of this cosmic manifestation, God was existing. Therefore God is not under this creation. If God is under this creation, then how He can create? He becomes one of the object of the material creation. So God is not under creation. He is the creator. Before creation, He was existing. That is called sanātana. That means He is also sanātana. And there is a spiritual nature, sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets also. And there are innumerable spiritual living entities also. And some of them, those who are not fit to live in that spiritual world, they are, I mean to say, sent to this material world. The same idea is expressed in Milton's Paradise Lost.