The Hare Krishna Movement

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Here is another word for your vaisnava vocabulary, acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. I was always facinated by this word because its meaning is inconceivable; simultaneous oneness and difference. Srila Prabhupada uses the example of the sun and the sunshine. The sunshine is not different from the sun as it is the engery of the sun, but when the sunshine is shinning in your room you cannot say the sun is in you room. Hence, one and different simultaneously. So similarly, God and His creation are one and different simultaneously One and Different.

Another example Srila Prabhupada uses is a drop of water from the ocean, has the same qualities as the ocean, in quality but not in quanitity. As living entities or as parts of God’s energy, we’re also equal in quality with God, but there’s a vast difference in quantity.

Achintya-bhedabheda-tattva refers to the inconceivable and simultaneous oneness and difference of the Supreme Person and His energies. This is one of the key points of theistic philosophy taught by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. As parts of God’s energy, we’re also equal in quality with God, but there’s a vast difference in quantity. We’re each infinitesimal sparks of spiritual energy, and the Supreme Person, Krishna, is the infinite, supreme source of all energies.

Achintya-bhedabheda-tattva describes the relationship between the Supreme Lord and His energies, including individual souls, as both one with and different from Him simultaneously. This principle is beyond human comprehension, hence the “inconceivable” aspect.

From a lecture at a Christian Monastery – Melbourne April 06, 1972