God v/s Demigods

Hare Krishna Friends,

Let us understand who is a Demigod to understand the difference between God and Demigods.

Demigods are the representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna and are present to manage the affairs of the universe or this world.

Just like we have the Prime Minister and along with him so many ministers and parliament members.

These Members manage various portfolios like; Defence, Finance, Home Ministries, etc.

But all these MP’s are under the control of the Prime Minister.

This is the kind of difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna and the Demigods.

Briefly, the main difference between God and Demigods is that the demigods are many, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is only one.

?Na Dwitiya? there is no Second one.

There are 33 crore demigods!

Just to run this universe.

Chiefly there are eight and under them, their secretaries, their subordinates, etc., to manage all affairs.

Sri Krishna is the Yajna-Purusha

The Supreme Lord, who is also known as the Yajna-Purusha, or the personal beneficiary of all sacrifices, is the master of all the demigods, who serve Him just as the different limbs of the body serve the whole.

Demigods like Indra, Chandra, and Varuna are appointed officers who manage material affairs, and the Vedas direct sacrifices to satisfy these demigods so that they may be pleased to supply air, light, and water sufficiently to produce food grains.

When Lord Krishna is worshipped, the Demigods, who are the different limbs of the Lord, are also automatically worshipped

therefore there is no need to separately worship the Demigods.

A perfect analogy for this can be seen in our Indian Democratic Government,

We have one Prime Minister, Under him many MP’s and under them so many MLA’s, so many secretaries,

all of them just to run a little state, and together one country!

You can imagine to run the affairs of the whole universe, department of air, department of water, department of light, department of knowledge, department of wealth, finance ministries, heat and energy dissipating, and

then there is water supply, so all these departments are held by specific demigods, whereas the Supreme Lord is only one i.e. Lord Sri Krishna.

All the demigods are described in the Bhagavad-Gita to be part and parcel of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna having different grades of power to manage this material world.

The demigods are different parts of the body of the Supreme Lord.

Not only are demigods parts of the Supreme Lord, but ordinary living entities are too.

Regardless of the situation, if one knows that both the demigods and all living beings are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, his knowledge is perfect.

But if he does not understand this, he achieves different planets where the demigods reside but this is not the same destination, the devotee of Sri Krishna reaches.

The results achieved by the demigods’ benedictions are perishable because they are within the material world planets.

All results achieved by worshipping demigods are perishable, and such worship is performed by the less intelligent living entity.

The pure devotee engaged in devotional service of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna achieves eternal blissful existence that is full of knowledge.

The Supreme Lord is unlimited; His favour is unlimited; His mercy is unlimited. Therefore, the mercy of the Supreme Lord upon His pure devotees is unlimited.

Demigods are the devotees of Lord Krishna.

The greatest benediction a demigod can offer anyone is to provide them with devotional service to Lord Krishna.

Lord Shiva:

Lord Shiva is unlimitedly glorious.

Lord Shiva is in fact far above the other demigods like Indra and Brahma.

The others are all jivas; they are conditioned living beings empowered in various ways to carry out the administration of the material world.

But Lord Shiva is above all of them.

He is the expansion of Lord Vishnu Himself.

The Brahma-Samhita explains with an example how Lord Shiva is the expansion of Lord Vishnu.

It says that Lord Vishnu is like milk whereas Lord Shiva is like yogurt.

There is no difference between yogurt and milk.

Still, milk is the original substance, of which yogurt is a transformation.

According to the Shrimad Bhagavatam (12.13.16),

Lord Shiva is the greatest of all Vaishnavas or devotee of Lord Vishnu.

The relationship between Lord Vishnu and His devotees is very intimate and sublime, and especially so with the greatest of His devotees, Lord Shiva.

In a spirit of transcendental love, Lord Krishna, although the Supreme Lord, takes the role of a charioteer for a devotee like Arjuna, or a dependent child for a devotee like Yashoda.

In this way, the Lord becomes the devotee of His devotee.

Similarly, at Rameshwaram and elsewhere, the Lord acts as the devotee of His most exalted devotee Lord Shiva.

Lord Brahma:

Lord Brahma was born from the lotus that sprung from the navel of Maha Vishnu.

Therefore lord Vishnu is his father, Lord Brahma is deemed as being the creator of the universe,

but technically he is the engineer of the universe,

maha Vishnu has already created the elements for creation, Brahma’s job is to engineer them into the universe.

Lord Brahma is a jivatma which means that anyone of us also can one day become a Brahma because even Brahma is mortal.

Jesus Christ:

In Christianity, though it is widely believed that Christ is the son of god, there are a few sects that believe that Christ is God.

However, Christ taught everyone the Love of God, his father.

Christ is respected as being a Spiritual Guru in both Hinduism and Islam and is mentioned as being a pure devotee of the lord.

Disciplic Succession was also advised in the bible by the verse ?no man cometh unto the Father except by the path of the son? in this verse, the word ?son? does not refer to Jesus alone

however, it refers to the Teacher of that time.

The ?Guru? for any qualified teacher is the son of God

we are all gods’ children.

om tad vishnoh paramam padam sada

pashyanti surayo diviva chakshur-atatam

Sura means the demigods. It is given in the Rig Vedas, that all the 33 crore demigods are always looking at the lotus feet of Supreme Lord Vishnu or Krishna.

The demigods always worship the Supreme as obedient servants whereas the Supreme Lord is Supremely worshipable.

The Srimad Bhagavatham describes:

yam brahma varunendra-rudra-marutah stunvanti divyaih stavair

vedaih sanga-pada-kramopanisadair gayanti yam sama-gah-(SB-12.13.1)

This verse says yam whom Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra and Maruthaha, etc. Etc. stunvanti-divyaye-stavaye means with beautiful prayers, with folded hands are worshipping that Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. vedayeh-sanga-pada-kramo-pani-shadair gayanti-yam-samagah, the 4 Vedas and the Upanishads are all glorifying Him(Krishna) alone.

 

Intrigued? Want to know more?

One may cleanse himself daily by taking a bath in water, but if one takes a bath even once in the sacred Ganges water of Bhagavad-gita, for him the dirt of material life is altogether vanquished.

Bhagavad Gita Mahatmaya ? Glorification of Bhagavad Gita