Understanding the Absolute Truth - an essential subject

Generally, people are convinced of the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Because they do not associate with devotees, they cannot understand that the Absolute Truth can be a person and have personal activities. This is a very difficult subject matter, and unless one has personal understanding of the Absolute Truth, there is no meaning to devotion. Service or devotion cannot be offered to anything impersonal. Service must be offered to a person.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Understanding the Absolute Truth category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 8 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		A brāhmaṇa, or one who is properly qualified to understand the Absolute Truth—that is, one belonging to the most intelligent social order—as well as the devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Muradviṣa, enemy of a demon named Mura, is not subject to the rules and regulations of the state. In other words, upon breaking the laws of the state, everyone can be punished by the government except the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.26.24)



vanipedia.org 		A person in need of money approaches the Lord to ask for some improvement in his monetary condition. Others, who are not in distress or in need of monetary assistance but are seeking knowledge in order to understand the Absolute Truth, also take to devotional service, and they inquire into the nature of the Supreme Lord. This is very nicely described in Bhagavad-gītā (7.16). Actually the path of devotional service is one without a second, but according to the devotees' condition, devotional service appears in multifarious varieties, as will be nicely explained in the following verses. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.7)



vanipedia.org 		Philosophy and science should be engaged to establish the glory of the Lord. Advanced people are eager to understand the Absolute Truth through the medium of science, and therefore a great scientist should endeavor to prove the existence of the Lord on a scientific basis. Similarly, philosophical speculations should be utilized to establish the Supreme Truth as sentient and all-powerful. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.22)



vanipedia.org 		My dear son, Kapila, after all, I am a woman. It is very difficult for me to understand the Absolute Truth because my intelligence is not very great. But if You will kindly explain it to me, even though I am not very intelligent, I can understand it and thereby feel transcendental happiness. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.30)



vanipedia.org 		Similarly, by the eightfold yoga system He appears as the Paramātmā. But in pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or knowledge in purity, when one tries to understand the Absolute Truth, one realizes Him as the Supreme Person. The Transcendence is realized simply on the basis of knowledge. The words used here, paramātmeśvaraḥ pumān, are all transcendental, and they refer to Supersoul. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.32.26)



vanipedia.org 		People are very anxious to understand the Absolute Truth in various ways, especially by experiencing the brahma-jyotir, or Brahman effulgence, by meditation and by mental speculation. But Kapiladeva uses the word mām to emphasize that the Personality of Godhead is the ultimate feature of the Absolute Truth. In Bhagavad-gītā the Personality of Godhead always says mām, "unto Me," but the rascals misinterpret the clear meaning. Mām is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.24.39)



vanipedia.org 		The Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be understood with our material senses. The attempt of the empiric philosophers to understand the Absolute Truth by speculation is always futile because their process of understanding, their objective and the instruments by which they try to understand the Absolute Truth are all material. The Lord is aprākṛta, beyond the creation of the material world. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.7.31)



vanipedia.org 		The material scientist can simply study the partial understanding of the varieties of energies; he can take up one of the energies and try to understand it with limited knowledge, but still it is not possible to understand the Absolute Truth in full by dint of material science. No material scientist can foretell what is going to happen in the future. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.11.23)


Understanding the Absolute Truth - 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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