śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
Year 3 & 16 Issue 2
Posted: 5 March, 2010 & 12 March, 2023
Dedicated to
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Inspired by and under the guidance of
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
The Science of the Attractive Reality
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
We are now interested in the acquisition of all kinds of worldly facilities. We find it useful to study those sciences that deal with the objects we wish to acquire. But we need not remain confined to such investigation. We are fit to be attracted, also, by the science of supra-mundane reality. We are attracted by One who is existence, knowledge and bliss. He attracts us in different degrees, for He has given us the fitness to be attracted in different measures.
We are subject to His attractiveness. We can endeavour to attain realization of the science of reality to the extent that we are attracted to Him. There are many persons who are not exclusively engrossed in the acquisition of worldly facilities. Many wish to progress in the direction of the supreme function, the supreme facility, the supreme object of desire, the supreme position which frees us from all illusion. Different persons try to do so in different degrees. The language of a person is affected by the progress that he makes. It progresses towards the spiritual realm in proportion to his advancement. Such a person can respond to questions regarding the supreme goal in the proper spirit.
Persons who are possessed of mixed aptitude are always subject to the fourfold defects. Such is the condition of all those who admire worldly facility. The quest for Kṛṣṇa is free from the fourfold defects. Those with mixed aptitude can know nothing of such a quest. Although we also know this fact, we nevertheless cherish the inclination to approach such people, since we want to be enlightened in our quest for the Truth by both the positive and negative method.
We have sought contact with the spiritually inclined because we know that we shall be gainers by such contact. Such contact helps in our search for Kṛṣṇa, which is based on the analytic and synthetic methods. It is our greatest desire to succeed in this quest.
We know that this procedure also has its difficulties. The mixed aptitude is really opposed to absolute emancipation into the supreme function, the supreme need and the supreme goal. Its nature, as well as its language, is equally opposed to the quest for the Truth. And those of mixed aptitude are bound to try to baffle our purpose. We know this. We also know that, despite all of this, there is no objection to seeking contact with an entity so hostile to our purpose if our intention is to accept that portion from it which is our due.
* * *
There are non-spiritual Purāṇās, non-spiritual Pañcarātras and non-spiritual philosophical systems along with non-spiritual darśana-śāstra. All of these are full of varieties of injunctions in the midst of narratives about useful and harmful activities. But they also contain much instruction for the propagation of real good and the suppression of evil. The great sages of old also studied those works. They were not thereby prevented from attaining the object of their desire. We have felt assured by knowledge of this fact.
Our purpose is to search for Kṛṣṇa. We have to consider in this connection two subjects: (1) Kṛṣṇa and (2) the search for Kṛṣṇa.
The word kṛṣṇa has an ordinary meaning which is intelligible to all of us. This meaning is supported by history and the conditioned intellect of man, and this meaning leaves us ignorant of the Truth. We shall not accept this meaning. On the contrary we shall know the real, indivisible Truth Himself.
There is a meaning which can enlighten us regarding the Truth. The ordinary meaning of the word kṛṣṇa is an entity which is different from Kṛṣṇa. It is something that is enveloped by the deluding energy of Kṛṣṇa. It is an object which is comprehensible to the other gross senses besides the ear. It is a product of our sensuous perception. We shall not defile the name Kṛṣṇa by accepting this meaning.
From The Gaudiya Volume 26, Number 5
Adapted by the Rays of The Harmonist team
