Question : I have a query, which I want to humbly put forward to you for clarification. The Lord is supreme and complete, “purna”. So anything emanating from `purna’ will also be `purna’. Like 1+1=1, or 1-1=1. My question is – why are the jivas and material energy not complete or as powerful as the Lord? I know that this point is not linked with the `purna’ analogy so the question is foolish. But still I am not able to convince myself. Can you kindly clarify this foolish doubt of mine?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
This is an important question, thank you for asking it!
A common similar question to the one you are asking is “If God is perfect, then how is it possible that the material world and living entities, which have come from Him, be full of imperfections?” Your question is related, but slighly different: “Both living entities and materal creation exhibit incompleteness. How is this possible, since they emanate from the Complete Whole, and are said to be themselves complete?”
Living entities and material nature, since they are connected to the Supreme source of everything, are not imperfect; they are all complete and perfect. But quantitatively we are infinitesimal (anu) while the Lord is infinite (vibhu), just as a drop of ocean water is to the ocean. Thus, our completeness is a dependent reality, whereas the Lord’s completeness is a fully independent reality. By carefully noting these two distinct types of ‘completeness’, you will find the answer to your puzzle or doubt.
We are complete, but dependently complete. To clarify this understanding, let us take an example that Srila Prabhupada often quoted, ie. the relationship between one’s finger and the body. The finger is a complete functional unit, but it is complete only as long as it is connected to the body. It cannot detach itself from the body and somehow act as a separate entity, equal in completeness to the body; rather it becomes dysfunctional when so detached. In the same way the living entity, though never equal to the Lord, has been provided with everything he needs for complete and wholesome existence in relation to the Supreme. Imperfections and scarcity and all other types of incompleteness result from forgetfulness of that relationship with God, which in turn is caused by deliberate misuse of our tiny free will.
Similarly, the completeness of this created realm is experienced in fullness when we direct our free will completely in relation to God. More exactly, this realm becomes as good as Vaikuntha, if and only if our minute free will is connected in pure devotion to the will of the Supreme.
In summary, the concept of purna is to be understood in a qualitative sense. We are NOT quantitatively equal to God, as your question points out. But qualitatively, all emanations from the Absolute are of the same absolute nature, due to their being part of the absolute. When the tiny soul’s consciousness is directed away from Krishna, recognition of his qualitative oneness with the Supreme becomes covered. Instead, he experiences illusion, ie the sense of incompleteness. Illusion becomes mistaken for reality, by this error of consciousness. Once again, we see that our ‘completeness’ is of a dependent nature. That is our spiritual identity.
