God is the greatest and the most energetic. The living entities, jiva-tattva, can achieve perfection in life by realizing that they represent God’s energy and that He is the only controller. Hearing that God is great is one thing, but actually realizing this fact is another. The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, make a distinction between theoretical knowledge, jnana, and practical knowledge, vijnana. In order to help us truly understand God’s greatness and strength, the Vedas provide various descriptions of the Lord. These descriptions are necessary because people tend to understand concepts more clearly when comparisons are used.
Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, directly expands Himself into Lord Vishnu, or Narayana. Narayana then expands Himself into various incarnations which appear on earth. Through the activities performed by the many different incarnations, the Lord receives a variety of names. In fact, devotees often recite the thousand names of Lord Vishnu (Shri Vishnu-sahasra-nama-stotram) as a means of prayer. One thousand names seem like a lot, but as stated before, God’s glories are actually limitless. These names serve as a foundation for understanding the true nature of the Lord. For example, one of Krishna’s names is Keshava, meaning the killer of the Keshi demon. This name refers to a specific pastime of the Lord. Another name is Achyuta, meaning one who is infallible. Parameshvara means the supreme controller or supreme ishvara, and Rama means one who gives pleasure. When reading the epic Mahabharata, one will often find that Lord Krishna is directly referred to many different names. The Pandava brothers and other associates purposefully addressed Krishna with different names depending on time and circumstance. The name Krishna itself means one who is all-attractive. These names and activities of the Lord exist to help the devotees understand and remember Him.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” (Tenth amendment to the Constitution)
As venerable a document as the Constitution was, the Founders still realized that the rights of man could never be completely enumerated. For this reason, they declared that any right or power not specifically mentioned in the Constitution would automatically be granted to the people. This essentially meant that if an activity wasn’t specifically mentioned in the Constitution, then the Congress had no right to regulate it, meaning freedom belonged to the people.
This same principle holds true with the Vedas and Lord Krishna. Through the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, and other Vedic texts, we get a short list of the qualities, names, forms, and pastimes of the Lord, but this list is by no means complete. By default, God automatically possesses any power not specifically mentioned in the Vedas. This fact is easily forgotten by people living on this earth. To remind us of His greatness, the Lord personally appears here from time to time.
This was the case during the Treta Yuga when Lord Krishna incarnated as a kshatriya warrior named Rama. In the above referenced statement, the Rakshasa demon Akampana is explaining to Ravana how Rama had just killed 14,000 Rakshasas all by Himself in the forest of Janasthana. At the time, Rama was roaming the forests of India with His wife, Sita Devi, and His younger brother, Lakshmana. Rakshasas are a race of demons who are usually atheistic. Ravana was their leader and was so powerful that no one could defeat him in battle.
“Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.23)
People generally worship the Gods for material rewards. For example, young girls and boys pray to Lord Shiva and his wife, Parvati, to reward them with a nice spouse when they grow older. Others pray to Lord Ganesha to remove their obstacles in life. This type of worship certainly isn’t bad, but the rewards received are temporary. Lord Vishnu, or God Himself, can never be worshiped in this manner. One can ask Him for material things, but He will only provide what is good for His devotees. The demigods are just the opposite. They are required to grant benedictions to anyone who pleases them, regardless of the worshiper’s intentions. This was the case with Ravana. He prayed to Lord Brahma and Shiva to grant him many material benedictions. He received ten heads and a fighting prowess that made him feared throughout the world. Ravana’s biggest mistake was that he thought the demigods were the limit to celestial power. Thinking that he had outsmarted them by receiving benedictions from them, Ravana believed he was God and that no one could ever defeat him.
Rama proved Ravana to be wrong in the worst possible way. When he heard of Rama’s extraordinary feat of killing 14,000 Rakshasas, Ravana thought that Rama must have had some help. For devotees, Rama’s feat was certainly great, but not surprising at all. God’s powers are limitless. Lord Rama is a direct incarnation of Vishnu, meaning He is just as good as God Himself. Rama was the kindest, sweetest, and most compassionate person. At the same time, as a fighter, He was the most skilled. God is simultaneously the most peaceful and the most violent. His violence is directed towards the miscreants such as Ravana and His peaceful nature is bestowed upon His adherents, the devotees. The choice is ours as to which side of God we wish to associate with.