Predominating and Predominated Entities

 

sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!

Year 6, Issue 2
Posted: 1 April 2013

Predominating and Predominated Entities

by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

A “predominating” entity enjoys the objects under its jurisdiction. In the mundane world, there are countless such predominating entities, which are suited to the purpose of an equal number of reciprocal “predominated” entities. There is a correspondence between the relationships in this relative manifestation and the relationships in the Absolute manifestation, and this correspondence enables us to trace out the original position in the Absolute, wherein knower, knowledge and known do not undergo transformation, nor shift their position because of some separate, outward agency. Space, time, and even our individual activities prove to be impediments; but it is impossible for us to carry such defective and undesirable natures into the region of transcendence, regardless of our escapades with suppositions of anthropromorphism.

The very feature of dissimilarity is traced back solely to the singular, original position of the predominating part of the transcendental manifestation. And the only interruption to that singularity is in the rapturous positions of various entities from the predominated part of that transcendental manifestation, which emanated out of the contradicting situations among them. The Absolute is the Consort of the Spouse. He is the Son of the subservient known as parents. He is the only object of friendship of all the entities. He is the Master of all the dependants and is the only manifestation of all neutrality. The Absolute exercises His prerogative influence over all the manifestations who are but reciprocally emanated for His Pastimes. There is no occasion for any dissension that could create any disturbance not in conformity with the Absolute Volition.

No entity can lurk outside His visual range; no sound can keep itself away from His aural reception; no pleasant scent can resist his nasal enjoyment; no relish can impede His tongue; and no heat or cold can claim to stand against Him, for our position has assured us of our subservient situation. If we can first secure our position as an infinitesimal part of the Absolute, then no method based in the belief that everything is purely ‘one’ can ever lead us to shake off our innate, eternal service to Him. And likewise, no method based in the belief that we are many entirely separate parts will ever be capable of making us fall away from the Absolute, deluded by the hallucinatory cognition of identifying ourselves as Absolute.

Had we been firm in that understanding, we may never have been captivated by our senses. The suicidal commitment to annihilate our differentiated cognition, volition and emotion shall never be able to relieve us from the realistic pangs of this world. Only by being helped by the association of the Manifested Absolute shall we be relieved.

Inebriated with our sensual comforts, we may swell like a frog if we want to inflate ourselves with the pedantic exploits of our impoverished Gnosticism. Our judgement will never be purified if we claim to have a phenomenal position. So the Supreme Lord Sri Caitanyadeva has told us to minimize our selfish entity in this world instead of fruitlessly maximizing ourselves in an effort to become identical with the entire Absolute, which is never our own position. We are transcendental but different, atomic phases of the Absolute, so we should not masquerade in worldly, transitory garments of limited space, time and non-Absolute individuality.

Our mental speculation has been found to discern the positions of two planes: one wherein relativities are nourished and one wherein they are checked. But when we speak of un-vitiated knowledge free from the mundanity of the sensible world, we need not apply the zoomorphic or anthropomorphic imprudence that leads us to manufacture things instead of approaching the eternally existent manifestations in truth.

Mutilation or mutation may have some lien in worldly phenomena, but there is no possibility of giving a jolt that can shake the absolute position of the transcendence. Hence we need not confuse mind with the soul. The soul is never disturbed by phenomenal objects, which have incremental or decremental value associated with them. The Absolute reserves the right to not come under the jurisdiction of the sensible world. So the rigours of phenomenal experience cannot be imposed on the eternal Manifestation. Neither the decadent Hellenic disposition nor the temperament of Hebraic law shall occupy the transcendental atmosphere, as they are serviceable only for our purposes here.

In the personality of the Absolute, conflicting thoughts, which are the outcome of mental exploits, do not predominate over Him, as is the case within the scope of our own mental horizon. Savants of different ages and different countries have formulated many scholastic views in their efforts to answer, according to their whims, the great epistemological and cosmological questions. But these views have very little value when realization of the Absolute begins to play within the soul of the unalloyed servant.

Adapted from The Gaudiya
by the Rays of The Harmonist team

Rays of The Harmonist On-line; Year 6, Issue 2, "Predominating and Predominated Entities", by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License to ensure that it is always freely available. You may redistribute this article if you include this license and attribute it to Rays of The Harmonist. Please ask for permission before using the Rays of The Harmonist banner-logo.