Cognizant - an essential subject

The Bhāgavata explains that the Absolute Truth is cognizant of everything, abhijñaḥ. He has become cognizant as He is svarāṭ, fully independent. He has no need to learn. His knowledge is so perfect without taking knowledge from anybody. That is real God.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Cognizant category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 11 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		By full cognizance it is meant that one should know about his own constitutional position as well as the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. According to Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, in this verse Lord Viṣṇu is describing Himself, or the Paramātmā. The Paramātmā is always distinguished from the embodied soul as well as the material world. Therefore He has been described as para. That para, or Supreme Personality of Godhead, is eka, meaning "one." The Lord is one, whereas the conditioned souls embodied within the material world exist in many varieties of form. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.20.7)



vanipedia.org 		Since the complete whole, or the Absolute Truth, is the source of everything, nothing is independent of Him. In one sense, everything that exists is the body of the Absolute Truth. Any action or reaction of a part of a body becomes a cognizable fact to the embodied soul. Similarly, since the creation is the body of the Absolute Truth, then everything in the creation is known to the Absolute, both directly and indirectly. (Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23)



vanipedia.org 		The material activity of the living being is beginningless, but it can be rectified by transferral into the spiritual quality. Thus it can cease its material qualitative reactions. Both the Lord and the living entity are cognizant, and both have the sense of identification, of being conscious as a living force. But the living being under the condition of material nature, called mahat-tattva, misidentifies himself as being different from the Lord. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.27)



vanipedia.org 		Lord Brahmā is the first living being, who directly learned the Vedic wisdom from the Lord (tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1)). Therefore, who can be a more learned Vedāntist than Lord Brahmā? He admits that in spite of his perfect knowledge in the Vedas, he was unable to know the glories of the Lord. Since no one can be more than Lord Brahmā, how can a so-called Vedāntist be perfectly cognizant of the Absolute Truth? (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.6.35)



vanipedia.org 		The living entities are predominated Brahman, whereas the Supreme Lord is the predominating Absolute. As soon as we forget this clear fact, we are at once in illusion, and thus we are put into threefold miseries, as one is put into dense darkness. The clear consciousness of the cognizant living being is God consciousness, in which one bows down unto Him in all circumstances. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.11.6)



vanipedia.org 		To be fully absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa means clearance of material dirts or hankerings. As a very rich man has no hankerings for small petty things, so also a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is guaranteed to pass on to the kingdom of God, where life is eternal, fully cognizant and blissful, naturally has no hankerings for petty material things. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.6.27)



vanipedia.org 		A pure devotee of the Lord, being cognizant of the facts of the particular time, object and circumstances, always desires to expand the number of devotees of the Lord in various ways. Such expansions of transcendental service may appear to be material to the materialist, but factually they are expansions of the causeless mercy of the Lord towards the devotee. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.34)



vanipedia.org 		To spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one need only be cognizant of the science of the spirit soul. It does not matter whether one is a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, sannyāsī, gṛhastha or whatever. If one simply understands this science, he can become a spiritual master. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 8.128)



vanipedia.org 		One should not think that he is the proprietor, benefactor, friend or enjoyer. He should always be cognizant that the real enjoyer is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; that is the basic principle of bhakti-yoga. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.27.5)



vanipedia.org 		Only the devotees of the Lord can know Him to a considerable extent, and no one else can know Him at all, so the devotees are perfectly cognizant of all spiritual knowledge. The Personality of Godhead is the last word in Absolute Truth. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.39)



vanipedia.org 		In the material world we have no experience of eternity, bliss and fullness of knowledge. But in the spiritual world, because of the complete absence of the qualitative modes, everything is eternal, blissful and cognizant. Everything can speak, everything can move, everything can hear, and everything can see in fully blessed existence for eternity. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 5.22)


Cognizant - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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