Who Is Supreme: God Or Adiparashakti?

[Kum. Thrylokya asked (as part of the satsaṅga on December 19, 2020.): Swāmi, I have learned from Your knowledge that the three Divine Mothers who are the wives of Lord Brahmā, Lord Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva represent the creation. But in one of the ślokas of the Annapūrṇāṣṭakam, I have also learned that it is the Divine Mother who gives power to all the Gods including the Trimūrtis (the Divine Trinity consisting of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva). This seems to contradict Your concept that the Trimūrtis derive their power directly from the unimaginable God. I am confused. Kindly clarify my doubt. How to correlate both these statements?]

Unimaginable God and Mediated God

Swāmi replied: Ādiparāśakti is the mediated unimaginable God. The mediated God or an Incarnation can result in two ways. (1) The first way is when the unimaginable God merges with the form of Datta to become the first Energetic Incarnation. This is the case of the perfect merging of God and the medium, which results in a monistic Incarnation. (2) The second way is when the energetic medium remains separate without merging with God and God Datta remains very close to that medium. This is the case of a dualistic incarnation. Remember that the unimaginable God directly merged only with the first energetic form to become God Datta. For all subsequent Incarnations, God Datta alone merges with the respective energetic and material media to form the various Energetic and Human Incarnations respectively. The unimaginable God does not directly merge with the other energetic or material media to form the subsequent Incarnations. Now, the point is whether Ādiparāśakti is a monistic or dualistic Incarnation. If you take Ādiparāśakti to be the unimaginable power of the unimaginable God, in that case, Ādiparāśakti herself is the unimaginable God because two unimaginable items cannot coexist. In that case, Ādiparāśakti is identical with the unimaginable God. If you take Ādiparāśakti to mean a soul with a form in which the unimaginable God merged, then Ādiparāśakti becomes the monistic Incarnation. In that case, She should indeed be called God Datta because the first monistic Energetic Incarnation is God Datta.

Source of Unimaginable Power

The source of the unimaginable power can only be the unimaginable God present in God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti (both are the same). Always remember that whatever be the name or form of the medium of God, the inner unimaginable God present in that medium alone gives the unimaginable power. Suppose you take Ādiparāśakti to be a subsequent Incarnation formed after God Datta. Again, that subsequent Incarnation can be monistic or dualistic. Whether it is a monistic or dualistic Incarnation, it is the unimaginable God who alone gives unimaginable powers to the Incarnation. The unimaginable God may be merged with the medium of a devoted being to become a monistic Incarnation or the unimaginable God might be closely associated with that medium (devoted being), without actually merging with it. If you take Ādiparāśakti to be a dualistic Incarnation formed after God Datta, then God Datta, who is most closely associated with Her gives His unimaginable power to Her. When I say that God Datta gives the unimaginable power, it again means that the unimaginable God present in God Datta alone gives unimaginable power to any Incarnation.

The unimaginable God is beyond gender and can be called God (male gender) or Ādiparāśakti (female gender). There will be no confusion if you stick to the original unimaginable God (male) or the original unimaginable Ādiparāśakti (female). You must always remember two important points: (1) Other than the unimaginable God (absolute reality), everything else is only the external medium. That unimaginable God can also be called the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti. The unimaginable God and the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti are one and the same entity because the former is the possessor of the unimaginable power and the latter is the unimaginable power itself. (2) The original absolute reality called the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti is non-mediated, but it becomes mediated by merging with a relatively-real part of the imaginable creation. All of creation is relatively real with respect to the unimaginable God, who alone is the absolute reality. If actual merging between the unimaginable God and the medium takes place, the result is a monistic Incarnation. If actual merging does not take place, the result is a dualistic incarnation. Both these types of Incarnations are one and the same because in both the cases, it is the original unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti that gives unimaginable powers to them.

You need not wonder how a dualistic incarnation can have unimaginable powers when the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti did not merge with that medium. Even though actual merging is absent, the unimaginable God or unimaginable Ādiparāśakti is very closely associated with the medium and gives the power, whenever the medium (devoted being) wishes. In the case of a dualistic incarnation, the devotion of the medium (devotee) towards God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti is so high that the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti acts as the servant of that medium (devotee). Goddess Sarasvatī, Goddess Lakṣmī and Goddess Gaurī are such dualistic incarnations. Goddess Ādiparāśakti can be taken to mean God Datta or even the original unimaginable God.

The whole confusion is due to the fanatic attitude of the followers towards a certain gender and nothing else. At the original level, the unimaginable God as the possessor of unimaginable power and Ādiparāśakti as the unimaginable power itself become only one unimaginable item called either the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti. At the level of the first Energetic Incarnation, the unimaginable God has merged with it and it is called God Datta by male fanatics. The same God Datta is called Goddess Ādiparāśakti by female fanatics.

Conclusion

1. There is only one unimaginable entity that can be called the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti.
2. The first mediated form of the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti in an energetic body can either be called God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti.
3. Goddess Sarasvatī, Goddess Lakṣmī and Goddess Gaurī are the dualistic incarnations of God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti having the same power as the monistic Incarnation.
4. A devotee need not aspire to become a monistic Incarnation which is of a lower status, when there is every possibility of becoming a dualistic incarnation, which is of a higher status. In a monistic Incarnation, the soul becomes equal to God due to the merging. In a dualistic Incarnation, the soul becomes the master of God even while remaining in his or her original status of a devotee and even though there is no merging with God.
5. Goddess Sarasvatī, Goddess Lakṣmī and Goddess Gaurī along with God Brahmā, God Viṣṇu and God Śiva derive their unimaginable powers from the same unimaginable entity, which can either be called the unimaginable God or the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti. They derive those unimaginable powers through that unimaginable entity present in God Datta, who is also known as Goddess Ādiparāśakti. All the above six divine forms are the subsequent Energetic Incarnations that resulted after the formation of the first Energetic Incarnation called God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti. In fact, God Datta or Goddess Ādiparāśakti alone entered and merged or associated with these subsequent six divine forms.
6. Whether the Incarnation is energetic or human, the unimaginable power exhibited by that Incarnation directly comes from the unimaginable God, who is also called the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti.
7. In the case of an imaginable item, you can find a marginal superficial difference between the possessor of the power (sun) and its power (sunlight). But in the case of the unimaginable domain, any number of unimaginable entities result only in one unimaginable entity. Hence, the unimaginable God, who is the possessor of the unimaginable power and the unimaginable Ādiparāśakti, who is the unimaginable power must be one and the same.
8. The quarrel between the philosophy of Vedanta which supports the unimaginable God and the philosophy of Śakti (Śāketya) is foolish because it is only due to gender-based fanaticism.

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