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Hi all, today I would like to touch on an important topic, what the external manifestation of the paramatma is. Ignorance about this topic creates a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings. Today we will analyze a quote from CC Adi . This is the main quotation which establishes the understanding of the Outer Manifestation of the paramatma. CC Adi Since one cannot visually experience the presence of the Supersoul, He appears before us as a liberated devotee. Such a spiritual master is none other than Krishna Himself. It is not possible for a conditioned soul to directly meet Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if one becomes a sincere devotee and seriously engages in devotional service, Lord Krishna sends an instructing spiritual master to show him favor and invoke his dormant propensity for serving the Supreme. The preceptor appears before the external senses of the fortunate conditioned soul, and at the same time the devotee is guided from within by the caittya-guru, Krishna, who is seated as the spiritual master within the heart of the living entity. The next quote where Prabhupada explains in other words what the external manifestation of the parammatma is. Because Krishna is situated in everyone’s heart. Actually, He is the spiritual master, caitya-guru. So in order to help us, He comes out as physical spiritual master. And therefore sдkсдd-dharitvena sama... Spiritual master is representative of Krishna. Krishna sends some sincere devotee to act on His behalf, and therefore he is spiritual master. SB Lecture Rome May 28 1974 Room conversation 23 May 1974 Rome Prabhupada: Therefore God is called caittya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. And the physical spiritual master is God’s mercy. If God sees that you are sincere, He will give you a spiritual master who can give you protection. He will help you from within and without, without in the physical form of spiritual master, and within as the spiritual master within the heart. And so, these quotes establish the following. A guru accessible to the external material senses is a physically present guru. On one of the forums where we discussed the topic of the manifested guru with ritvik followers. One ritvik supporter stubbornly insisted that Prabhupada was present now. Like, he is not different from his image or from the murti. The fact is that being physically present and being present in a murti or image, are two different things. Any acharya is present in his image or murti. But this is on a transcendental level. The conditioned soul is not in the transcendental platform, therefore he cannot be instructed by the image and the murti. The ritviks will say that Prabhupada is physically present in his audio and video recordings. Recordings are separated energy, this has already been discussed. There is no difference between physical records and books. These are all recordings. Prabhupada is not directly involved in the discussion at the moment, this is what distinguishes the recording from direct communication. Therefore, the recordings are not the physical manifestation of the guru.
