Answer
God is the owner of all power. He is the proprietor of all energies. When we speak of power, it includes everything — even matter. Matter is nothing but condensed energy of the Lord. These energies belong to Him, yet they are also inseparable from Him because they emanate from Him. Thus, there is simultaneous oneness and difference: the energies are different from the Lord, yet not separate from Him. With these energies, the Lord performs His pastimes.
The living entity, being part and parcel of God, also has power, but that power is limited and given by Krishna for a particular function. For example, if a king owns a vast estate, he may assign an employee to manage ten acres. The employee exercises free will and manages that portion, but he knows the real owner is the king. Similarly, the entire material existence is Krishna’s estate. This is not figurative — it is a reality. The whole creation, even Brahman, belongs to Him. Within this estate, different living entities, including demigods, are given limited authority and free will to handle power.
Impersonal philosophy reduces everything to merging into Brahman, but then it cannot explain why creation exists at all. For whose purpose is this variegatedness? The personal understanding explains that this material variety is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world’s variegatedness. There is man here because there is form in the spiritual world; there are women, cows, birds, forests, mountains, and relationships here because they exist in their pure form there. The beauty we experience in nature — mountains, forests, oceans — gives pleasure because it reflects the original beauty of the spiritual world.
Similarly, loving relationships in this world are temporary reflections. We experience love, but it ends, and we begin to ask: where is permanent love? These experiences act as samples, encouraging us to seek the original, eternal reality. Just as a sample leads one to purchase the full product, the material world provides hints that direct us toward spiritual fulfillment.
Power exists both here and there. In the material world, power is handled in a self-centered way — this is called lording it over. In the spiritual world, power is handled in a Krishna-centered way — this is called surrender. What is possible in the material world cannot be imposed on the spiritual world, but the mood of the spiritual world can be practiced here. Through pure devotional service, one can create a spiritual atmosphere even while living in this world. However, material consciousness cannot exist in the spiritual world.
By hearing and reading Bhagavatam, we gradually understand the personal nature of reality. The descriptions of beauty, relationships, and opulence are not illusion; they indicate the nature of absolute spiritual pleasure. Human life is especially valuable because only in this form can we understand these symbols of higher rasa. Ultimately, perfection of life means perfection of relationship — rasa — with Krishna. Even in the conditioned state, the goal of life is to develop that relationship. For a sadhaka and a pure devotee the expression may differ, but the fact remains the same: everyone is eternally related to Krishna.
