Lord Krishna Forum - Krishna Talk

sridatta1 · Joined: 03 Aug 2005 Posts: 627 Location: india

God has not become flesh, but God is in flesh
169. Naanyonya parinaamah taddharmapradarshanaat tadeva.

Translation: There is no inter-conversion between God and the medium but the medium is treated as God due to the exhibition of the characteristic of God by the medium.

Explanation: When it is said that God has become the medium or that the medium has become God, it does not mean that there is a real conversion of one item into another. When the electric current flows in a wire, it does not mean that the current, which is a stream of electrons, is really converted into the solid wire, which is a stream of solid state crystals or the reverse. The wire can be treated as current and you can say that the current has become the wire or that the wire has become the current. This does not mean that there is a real transformation or conversion of the wire into current or the current into the wire. The wire in which the current flows gives a shock and from the experience of this shock, you are saying that the current exists in that wire. Here, the shock is the characteristic of the wire. When the wire exhibits the same characteristic of the current, i.e. shock, we say that the wire has become the current. Similarly, when the medium in which God is present exhibits the unimaginable nature, we can say that the medium has become God, because, the characteristic of God (unimaginable nature) is exhibited by the medium. However, you need not say that the characteristic of God is known, because, as already said above, the unimaginable nature is only the inseparable associated characteristic of God and not His inherent characteristic. However, the inseparable associated characteristic can be treated as the inherent characteristic for all practical purposes.