Posted on: 26 May 2021
Please enlighten us about the meaning of ‘Purnamadah…’ verse.
[Śrī Manikantha asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi, when listening to Guru Gītā have come across a śloka. Kindly please give enlightenment on this, below is śloka
Oṃ Pūrṇamadaḥ Pūrṇamidaṃ
Pūrṇāt Pūrṇamudacyate |
Pūrṇasya Pūrṇamādāya
Pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate || Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi.]
Swāmi Replied:- The above verse means that the absolute God is unimaginable. God is unimaginable from all sides (Pūrṇamadaḥ…). God is remaining in His original place without any trace of reduction, when He expresses Himself as an incarnation in another place. The God in the original place and the God in another place as incarnation are the same original due to His unimaginable nature (Pūrṇāt…). Even if you deduct God from God, the original God remains in the original place and the same original God appears in the new place without reduction by such deduction (Pūrṇasya…Avaśiṣyate). This is the interpretation of this verse in theism.
Some atheists misinterpret this verse by taking the meaning of Pūrṇam as zero because any number of zeroes by addition or subtraction is zero only. This verse can be thus interpreted in the way of atheism also, who feel that God is zero since God does not exist as per them.
When God is unimaginable, neither you can say Him as a quantity or as a quality. Unimaginable may also mean not existing. Therefore, the unimaginable God becomes imaginable and visible quantity having divine qualities by merging with an imaginable and visible medium called Avatāra or incarnation or Saguṇa Brahman. The unimaginable God is called as Parabrahman or Nirguṇa Brahman. The existence of unimaginable God in the imaginable and visible medium is proved by His expressed unimaginable events called miracles. Hence, the existence of unimaginable God is proved and can’t be treated as zero. The Veda clearly says that the existence of unimaginable God is proved through the unimaginable events called miracles (Astītyevopalabdhavyaḥ…- Veda).