No Enjoyment Without Varieties
Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that the fundamental nature of the spirit soul is to seek pleasure, and pleasure is intrinsically linked to variety. While materialistic existence offers only temporary and frustrating experiences, the solution is not to negate existence into a void. By studying his teachings, we learn that the supreme spiritual reality is never without varieties, but is instead full of eternal, blissful diversity.
Variety is the Mother of Enjoyment
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the fundamental nature of the spirit soul is to seek pleasure. True pleasure, however, is impossible to experience in a void, because dynamic interactions and diverse manifestations are the very foundation of happiness.
- Ananda, pleasure, means varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. Without varieties . . . just like we prepare from grains, sugar, ghee, hundreds of varieties. If you simply give grain, ghee and sugar, it will not be enjoyable.
- We are all anandamaya, joyful. Therefore there must be varieties. Without varieties, there is no joy. Simply hackneyed, one thing, "Brahman, Brahman, Brahman," nobody likes it.
- The mentality is that "Without varieties we cannot enjoy." Variety is the mother of enjoyment.
The Mayavadi Misconception
Frustrated by the miseries of the material world, impersonalists and voidists conclude that the ultimate reality must be devoid of all attributes. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that this is a severe misunderstanding, as the Absolute Truth possesses boundless spiritual diversity.
- Nirakara: all kinds of akara, or forms, nirvisesa. Visesa means with varieties, and nirvisesa means without varieties. This is Mayavada philosophy: finish this visesa, the varieties.
- The Absolute Truth is not without variety. Just as there is material variety, there is spiritual variety. Because the Mayavadi philosophers are seeing the Absolute Truth from a distance, they think that the Absolute Truth has no variety.
- Their (the Mayavadi philosophers) philosophy is zero philosophy. That is also no information of the spiritual world. Buddha philosophy and Mayavada philosophy, sunyavadi, nirvisesa, without varieties, or zero.
Falling from the Impersonal Brahman
Merging into the impersonal spiritual effulgence does not provide eternal satisfaction. Because the soul inherently desires activity, residing in a state devoid of spiritual diversity inevitably leads one to fall back into the material realm.
- He (mayavadi sannyasi) feels inconvenience without varieties of life. The Bhagavata says, "Their intelligence is not clean." "Although they rise up to the brahma-jyotir," patanty adho tatah, - they again come back.
- Without variety he (the spirit soul) cannot remain there (in the brahma-jyoti) for very long. He has to come. But because he has no information of the spiritual varieties, he is bound to come back to this material variety.
- If you take simply the impersonal Brahman, sky, you cannot stay there. Aruhya krcchrena patanty adhah (SB 10.2.32). So without varieties, simply impersonal conception of Brahman will not make you happy.
The Fullness of Spiritual Variety
The supreme destination is the eternal spiritual world, where the Supreme Lord engages in endless pastimes. Places like Vṛndāvana are never empty; they are eternally full of divine, blissful varieties that perfectly satisfy the soul's desire for enjoyment.
- Krsna consciousness means if you practice here, following the inhabitants of Vrndavana either as gopi or as cowherd boy or as flowers, trees, water. . . Vrndavana is not vacant. It is full of varieties. Without varieties, there is no enjoyment.
- Whenever we speak of Krsna, we refer to His devotees also, for He is not alone. He is never nirvisesa or sunya, without variety, or zero. Krsna is full of variety, and as soon as Krsna is present, there cannot be any question of void.
- Whether one accepts the spiritual sky as being without variety or void, there is none of the spiritual bliss which is enjoyed in the spiritual planets, the Vaikunthas or Krsnaloka.
Conclusion
Śrīla Prabhupāda masterfully defeats the philosophies of voidism and impersonalism by establishing the eternal necessity of spiritual variety. Because the living entity is constitutionally joyful (ānandamaya), existence in a featureless brahmajyoti cannot sustain the soul's natural desire for pleasure, ultimately forcing a return to the material world. True liberation is not the cessation of variety, but the purification of it. By entering the transcendental realm of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the soul engages in eternal, blissful loving service, experiencing an unlimited array of spiritual varieties that completely satisfy the heart's deepest yearning for enjoyment.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Without Varieties. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.