10 Jan 2016
Reply From Shri Datta Swami to Questions from Mr. Anil:
[2016-01-10] 12) ISKCON devotees argue that Krishna came in a special body only and not as a human being. They mention ‘Transcendental body’. Kindly give your response to this.
Such statement shows the extreme love of ISKCON devotees towards Krishna. They are unable to tolerate the death of the body of Krishna. Gopikas jumped into fire on hearing the death of the body Krishna. Hence, I appreciate the devotion of ISKCON devotees towards Krishna. But, the truth is different and harsh. We have to accept the truth even if it is very harsh. The death of a body is inevitable once its birth happened. The Bhagavatam says that the dead body of Krishna was lying in the forest and Arjuna cried seeing the fate of such divine body and performed the last ceremony with the highest pain. The concept of any human incarnation is that the unimaginable God enters the human devotee selected by Him for a specific programme and identifies Himself with the devotee. By this, the human being becomes God for all the practical purposes. But, still, the dualism between the human being and God is always maintained in all the times. Due to the truth of this dualism only, God leaves the human body at the time of its death. Of course, the energetic body along with unimaginable God goes up. This means that the energetic incarnation leaves the human incarnation. The God leaves the human body as energetic incarnation. In the death of the body of a human being also, the individual soul leaves the human body surrounded by the energetic body. Thus, the concept is one and the same from top God to the bottom soul. The Prime Minister goes to his house in his car. The peon from the Prime Minister's office goes to his house in an auto. Both the car and auto are vehicles only. Both the Prime Minister and peon are human beings only. Of course, in the concept, God is unimaginable and soul is imaginable. We have to understand the limitation of the simile everywhere. The individual soul after spending some time in the upper worlds like hell and heaven comes down to the new human body leaving its previous energetic body, which vanishes immediately. In the case of God, God again comes into the human body as a next human incarnation. Yet, God in the previous energetic form as energetic incarnation is eternal in the upper worlds. God existing in the energetic incarnation and God entering the new human body are one and the same and God is not divided here. This miracle is possible in the case of unimaginable God. The Gita says that He is undivided and at the same time divided in different incarnations (Avibhaktam Vibhakteshu...). This is possible for the unimaginable God, Who is beyond the space. This is not possible for the soul, which is only a small drop of cosmic energy having quantitative considerations being imaginable with spatial dimensions.
Jesus also followed the same procedure and became energetic incarnation as seen by devotees after death. The devotees with excess love said that the physical body of Jesus disappeared miraculously in the cave. We appreciate the extreme love of such pure devotees towards Jesus. But, the truth is according to the laws of nature only, which need not be disclosed by Me here since I do not want to hurt such extreme love of devotees. Every fanatic devotee tries to show a speciality in the case of his own human incarnation. In such case, the specialities of all human incarnations, being the same, become the law of nature! When Jesus told that He will come again, it means 1) That He will come again as another new human incarnation in future and 2) That He will come again as energetic incarnation after death as seen by the devotees. Since matter and energy are different forms only, both human and energetic bodies are cotton and silk dresses only. He comes again in silk dress leaving the cotton dress. The energetic incarnation of every human incarnation is eternal (unlike the energetic body of the soul) and can appear again before the crying deserving devotees. In the case of human being, the departed soul also can appear in the energetic body having the same form of the previous gross body as ghost. But, this is limited up to a limited time span existing up to re-birth of the soul through new human body. This is the difference between unimaginable (God) and imaginable (soul) domains.
Lord Krishna also stated in the Gita that He will come again and again as human incarnation. This means that God comes again and again as human incarnation whenever and wherever there is a need (yadayadahi- Gita). Several human incarnations simultaneously exist in different areas since this is not impossible for God being beyond space involving divisions. He explained the process of human incarnation also in the Gita. The unimaginable God by His unimaginable power takes over an imaginable human body and takes birth using the unimaginable power called Maya (Prakrutim Svaam Adhishthaya...). He speaks about His birth (Janma Karmacha..., Sambhavaami...). He also says that birth is always associated with death (Jatasyahi...). The resulting concept is that the human body taken by God has birth as well as death. The human being becomes ghost for some time after death where as the human incarnation becomes eternal energetic incarnation after the death of the human body. In the case of this eternal energetic incarnation, death of human body followed by birth of energetic form does not follow re-birth of human form due to the will of omnipotent God in the case of human incarnation. In the case of human beings, death of human body follows birth of energetic form following re-birth of the human body and this is also the will of God that framed such law of nature. If ISKCON devotees call this energetic body as transcendental body, it is common with every human incarnation. However, let us respect the devotion of every devotee without much exposure of the bitter truth. Some Christian devotees say that the meaning of the return of Jesus climbing a cloud takes place only once in future. We agree such return on the cloud since God is omnipotent. But, Who are you to put restrictions to God that He will come once only in future. He will come at any time, whenever He likes. This shows complete independence of the God regarding His return. The Gita says that whenever it is required, He will come (Yada Yadaahi...). The statement that He will come again cannot be restricted to one time or two times or three times etc. He may come once or several times depending on His will. The word again is stated once only in the Bible and several times in the Gita. He can come on the cloud also and we do not deny such possibility in the case of the unimaginable God. What we say is that the full independence of God can give the possibilities of His return from one (again- Bible) to several (again and again- Gita). He may return once in the end of the world or many times before the end of the world. The full independence of His status should never be touched by binding Him to your mental rules.
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