Your best friend the absolute truth

-->

I received a letter from a gentleman that I met at the ISKCON Delhi temple last week. I have placed the gist of his letter and my feeble response on this post.

Dear Guara Nitai Das,

It was very nice talking to you on Sunday and listening to your words of wisdom
about Krishna Bhakti.

Prabhu, what is mean't by the absolute truth according to the quote from Resuming in
Delhi in your blog Truth and Beauty through Bhakti.

"The scene here reinforces my conviction that when the absolute truth is presented without selfish or ulterior motives it is attractive to everyone sincerely seeking truth."

Hare Krishna,

Atul

********************************************************************** Atul,

I hope that you are well!

Thank you for your mail.

Well, what did you think when you first read that word "absolute truth", Is there even such a thing that can be characterized as an/the absolute truth? Or when I discuss the absolute truth am I just carelessly speaking about the "absolute truth" from my point of view? If I was speaking about the absolute merely from my own point of view only or the speculative point of view of my friends, colleagues and mentors then it would have to be referred to as relative truth.

Discussions and descriptions of the absolute truth can fill unlimited amounts time and space. The Srimad Bhagavatam describes that this type of discussion, if practiced under appropriate guidance, are truly satisfying to the mind, intelligence and soul. Questions such as the one you ask, ‘What is the meaning of the “absolute truth”’ are according to authoritative Vedic literatures the best of all types of questions. In the opening verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Suta Goswami, before answering similar questions asked of him, glorifies these types of inquiries. He says in Canto 1 Chapter 2 Verse 25:

“O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are worthy because they relate to Lord Kṛṣṇa and so are of relevance to the world's welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of completely satisfying the self.

I like the smell of the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, ginger, and other spices when they are cooked in ghee. I have experienced others who smell this part of the cooking and think that it smells horrid! Instead, they may like the smell of pigs flesh being burnt over the fire. In the same way we may try to extend this situation to everything we experience. Is there any one thing that is satisfying and brings bliss or at least satisfaction to every living entity who comes in contact with it. Modern philosophers would generally say "no there is not, therefore everything (taste, smell, etc) is relative." This means that there is no one thing that can satisfy every living entity. Taking this idea of the relative world even further we would say that we all have different goals in life, different morals that direct us towards those goals and ultimately a different conception of what will truly satisfy and enlighten us.

One of the conclusions that some people come up with is that the absolute truth is something that cannot have any qualities, like form, personality, knowledge or any other perceivable quality that we can see, imagine or experience in this world. The result is an empty concept of voidism, nothingness or simply a denial the existence of an absolute truth. These conclusions are natural for those materially conditioned souls who have not received and understood the absolute truth from a tattva-darsi or a knower of the absolute truth.

When students or teachers who actually blessed with knowledge and realization of the absolute truth speak about spiritual qualities, the mind and intelligence of those conditioned by false ego (ahankara) tend to rebel. This is a natural reaction for most conditioned entities, The only qualities that people have experienced are qualities exhibited by material nature. As a result we tend to project that conception on the absolute! We ask "How can the perfect God have a form and qualities? That would be limiting and disqualify Him from being the absolute truth. How can the Supreme Personality of Godhead have names, friends, activities and all of those things that we have experienced here in matter". Or even "I see a picture of the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna and I do not feel enlightened or attracted" These are all common and reasonable objections.

Let us take a look at a description of one of the absolute truth's inconceivable qualities. This verse is the invocation verse of the Sri Isopanisad:

om purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udacyate

purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

This verse is a bit of a tongue twister but please do not let that distract you from the profundity of the statement. This quality of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is inaccessible to even the most erudite mind and intelligence. It is saying that the complete whole or the Supreme Person emanates other items (complete units) from itself and it does not lose anything. Say, for example, you have a nice carob chip cookie in your hand and there are many hungry kids around. If you were to take a piece of that cookie off of the original then the cookie would be reduced in size and quantity. If you are magnanimous you will keep giving away pieces of the cookie until it is completely gone! The manifestation of the cookie as a complete whole would no longer be in existence Also, the hungry kids only have smaller portions of the original cookie. None of them are able to enjoy the entire cookie. The absolute truth however has the capability to produce “complete units” (like complete cookies) without reducing the original in any way.

These complete units may be characterized into three basic types: 1. (matter), insentient substances of various qualities and characteristics 2. (spiritual) dependent and eternally individual living entities of various characteristics, (us) and 3. (spiritual) Himself and with the exact same potencies and qualities as Himself. According to the Visnu Purana these are the three types of energies that “emanate” from the absolute truth. In the Bhagavad Gita (verses 7.4-7) Krishna Himself gives clear description of these three categories. :

Catagory 1. BG 7.4 Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego — all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.

Catagory 2. BG 7.5 Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.

Catagory 3. BG 7.6 & BG7.7 All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

The crux of the problem for the layman, apart from lack of desire to know the absolute truth, is an incomplete or totally absent conception of the above mentioned primary energies of the absolute truth. You will notice that category 1 is a material quality while qualities 2 and 3 are regarded as spiritual energies. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna begins His spiritual instructions by distinguishing between the material energy and the spiritual energy (BG 2.12-BG 2.30). Th Bhagavad Gita is considered to be that ABC's of spiritual thought in the sense that it lays the foundation for further spiritual practice and understanding. That is why Krishna gives these instructions first. It is the foundation for the foundation!

The qualities of this spiritual nature are eternal, fully cognizant and full of bliss. The qualities of matter are just the opposite, temporary manifestations, entirely insentient, and full of suffering. As spiritual living entities we are not in our natural state when we identify with this material body. No one wants to die, no one wants to be dumb, and no one desires unhappiness. That is natural because that is the nature of the soul! The problem is that we are looking for satisfaction of our desires in dull matter only. Only when we learn to properly associate with the Lord through His devotees and by chanting His name (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare) will we begin to experience the spiritual nature. We may have a theoretical understanding of spirit in the beginning but after time Krishna gradually allows you to experience the true bliss of the soul. And by the way that bliss is ever increasing and it never gets stale.

Here are some comments by Srila Prabhupada on the previously quoted Sri Isopanisad verse:

* When one realizes the Supreme Person, he realizes these aspects of the Absolute Truth in their completeness. Vigrahah means "form." Thus the Complete Whole is not formless. If He were formless, or if He were less than His creation in any other way, He could not be complete. The Complete Whole must contain everything both within and beyond our experience; otherwise He cannot be complete.

* The Complete Whole, the Personality of Godhead, has immense potencies, all of which are as complete as He is. Thus this phenomenal world is also complete in itself. ….

*….All facilities are given to the small complete units (namely the living beings) to enable them to realize the Complete Whole. All forms of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the Complete Whole…..

The soul is pleasure seeking so it must turn somewhere for that pleasure. It is only when we begin to taste some of that spiritual realization and bliss that we can naturally give up the material conceptions. These realizations allow us to tread the tangible road map towards the natural joy of the soul. The greatest self realized souls come to the point where personally experiencing spiritual bliss is not their purpose in acting. Instead they act to give that bliss to others. Indeed, selflessness is the litmus test for genuine realization of the absolute truth. Ironically, in that state of selfless consciousness the bliss and realization of the practitioner increases unlimitedly. Every living entity who properly approaches the absolute truth with sincerity and submission will ultimately be attracted to the absolute truth Sri Krishna.

Krishna and His energies which are inconceivably both different and non-different is the absolute truth. Ecstatic selfless loving interactions between the spiritual energies and the Sri Krishna is the means and the goal of life for every living entity. Absolutely.