DWT 6: Defining the Absolute Truth
vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
bhagavān iti śabdyate
Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.
The Absolute Truth is both subject and object, and there is no qualitative difference there. Therefore, Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān are qualitatively one and the same. The same substance is realized as impersonal Brahman by the students of the
As explained in the first verse of the First Chapter of the
As mentioned above, the analogy of the sun and the sunshine is helpful for understanding Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, the three aspects of the Absolute Truth. In one sense there is no difference between these three terms, just as there is in one sense no difference between the sunshine, the sun globe, and the sun-god, Vivasvān. All of them are light. The inhabitants of the sun globe, led by Vivasvān, possess bodies made of fire, and therefore everything on the sun is glowing. From a great distance we see the sun as a glowing globe, and the sunshine is the glow.
So, Brahman is like the sunshine, Paramātmā like the localized sun globe, and Bhagavān like the sun-god. They are one in the sense that they are all the pure light of the Absolute Truth, but still there is a difference: If you stand in the sunshine, that does not mean you have reached the sun globe or seen the predominating deity of the sun, Vivasvān. Similarly, the different means for understanding the Absolute Truth produce different realizations. One who tries to understand the Absolute simply by mental speculation may ultimately realize the impersonal Brahman, and one who tries to understand the Absolute through meditative yoga practice may be able to realize Paramātmā, but one who practices
There are many philosophers who are trying to find the original source of everything. The scientists are also trying to find that original source. They have concluded that everything originates from matter—this is the modern theory of chemical evolution. But although the theory of the so-called scientists is that everything, including life, comes from matter, they have not been able to produce life from chemicals.
mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
"O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread."
So, we should understand that Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, is the last word in the Absolute Truth. In the
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
The Brahman effulgence is Kṛṣṇa's bodily glow, known as the
If we try to understand the Absolute Truth by dint of our speculative strength, then we can at most approach only up to the impersonal feature, just as if we try to understand the sun by our personal strength we can at most see the sunshine. But if we want to study the sun globe or understand the predominating deity of the sun, that is a different thing. For that, simply coming into the sunshine will not help you: you'll need some process by which you can go to the sun globe and meet the sun-god. Similarly, you can understand the impersonal Brahman by dint of your speculative knowledge, but you cannot understand the Paramātmā, the expansion of the Lord situated in everyone's heart, or Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the origin of Brahman and Paramātmā.
The fact is that knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, includes everything. Therefore the
Here is another example: Suppose you see a mountain from a great distance. You will simply see some cloudy, vague shape. But if you approach the mountain, you will see the same mountain much more distinctly, with its greenish color and massive form. And if you actually climb the mountain, you will find so many animals, men, houses, trees, and so on. The object is the same, but it appears different from different angles of vision.
So understanding Kṛṣṇa means understanding Brahman and Paramātmā as well, but we must understand Kṛṣṇa in truth. As He says in the
janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so 'rjuna
"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna." Here the word
How to achieve that understanding is explained in the next verse.