Returning to the Eternal Religion 265

is the nature of that Supreme Being? Is He a dead stone or a living entity?
That is also explained. Janmddy asya yato ’nvaydd itaratas carthesv
abhijnah svarat [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1]: the Supreme Being is fully
cognizant of everything, directly and indirectly. Unless He is fully cog-
nizant of everything, He cannot be God. Then the question that you
raised comes, Who taught God? And that is also answered. Svarat: He is
fully independent. He does not need to take lessons from anyone. That is
God. If one needs to take lessons from others, he is not God. Krsna
spoke the Bhagavad-gita, and He did not have to learn it from anyone. I
had to learn it from my spiritual master, but Krsna did not have to learn it
from anyone. One who does not need to take lessons from others is God.
Mr. O’Grady: Where does human love come in?

Srila Prabhupada: Everything is coming from God. Being part and
parcel of God, we manifest partial love because the original love is there
in Him. Nothing can exist if it is not in God; therefore love is there in
God.

Mr. O’Grady: And manifestations of love are manifestations of God?
Srila Prabhupada: Unless the loving propensity is there in God, how can
we manifest it? A son born of a particular father has the symptoms of the
father. Because the loving propensity is in God, we have that same
propensity.

Mr. O’Grady: Maybe love is generated in you by the need.

Srila Prabhupada: No, there is no question of ‘‘maybe.”’ We are defin-
ing God in absolute terms. Janmddy asya yatah: God is He from whom
everything has emanated. The fighting propensity is also there in God,
but His fighting and His loving are absolute. In the material world we ex-
perience that fighting is just the opposite of loving, but in God the fight-
ing propensity and the loving propensity are one and the same. That is
the meaning of ‘‘absolute.’’ We learn from the Vedic scriptures that
when the so-called enemies of God are killed by God, they attain
liberation.

Mr. O’Grady: Is it possible to arrive at this understanding of God alone?
Srila Prabhupada: No. Therefore we have cited this verse: tad-
viinanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet. The word abhigacchet means
‘*must.’’ It is not possible alone. In Sanskrit grammar this is called the
vidhilin form of a verb, and this form is used when there is no choice. The
word abhigacchet means that one must approach a guru. That is the Vedic
version. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita you will find that Arjuna was
talking to Krsna, but when he saw that things were not being resolved, he
surrendered himself to Krsna and accepted Him as his guru.
