God's Explaining - The Supreme Authority on the Absolute Truth
A major flaw in modern philosophical and scientific inquiry is the reliance on the ascending process of knowledge—attempting to understand the infinite universe through finite, imperfect human senses. When people speculate about the nature of God, they end up with thousands of contradictory conclusions. The Vedic literatures provide a much more logical and perfect approach: the descending process. If you want to know about God, you must hear from God Himself. Śrīla Prabhupāda continuously emphasizes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not leave humanity in the dark. Out of His causeless mercy, He personally descends to explain the ultimate realities of existence. By understanding how the Lord explains Himself, studying His direct instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā and the Sāṅkhya philosophy, and approaching His teachings through devotion, we can permanently eradicate material speculation and achieve true enlightenment.
The Supreme Authority of the Lord's Explanation
It is a simple but profound truth that only the creator of a complex system can perfectly explain how it works. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that because God is unlimited, our tiny speculative powers are completely useless; we must rely exclusively on the explanations provided by the Supreme Lord Himself.
- As soon as we hear the word "God," there is a meaning to it. If we receive that meaning and explanation of "God" from God Himself, then it is perfect. But if we speculate about the meaning of "God," it is imperfect.
- About Kapiladeva it is said, kapilas tattva-sankhyata: "Kapila, the Supreme Person," "He can explain what is Absolute Truth." Kapilas tattva-sankhyata bhagavan. Without Bhagavan, nobody knows what is the actual position of the Ultimate Truth.
- If you want to know God, you can know Him when He explains Himself. Otherwise, you cannot speculate. God is unlimited, and your speculative power is limited.
- Krsna is explaining Himself. God is explaining what is God. That is real knowledge. If you speculate on God, it is not possible. You cannot understand.
Explaining Through the Bhagavad-gītā
When the pristine knowledge of self-realization was lost to the world, the Supreme Lord did not send a mundane philosopher to guess at the truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Lord Kṛṣṇa personally descended to re-explain the supreme science of yoga directly to His intimate friend and devotee, Arjuna.
- God comes as Krsna or Kapiladeva and says, "Here I am. See My features. I am a person. I play the flute and enjoy Myself in Vrndavana. Why can't you see Me?" Thus God comes, explains Himself and leaves behind His instruction, Bhagavad-gita.
- In due course of time the authorized succession was broken and just to reestablish the true spirit of the knowledge, God again explained the same knowledge to Arjuna, who was a bona fide candidate for understanding due to his being a pure devotee of God.
- By mental speculation one cannot ascertain what is religion or self-realization. Therefore, out of causeless mercy to His devotees, the Lord explains directly to Arjuna what action is and what inaction is.
- Even the intelligent are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. Now I shall explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all sins.
Lord Kapiladeva Explaining Sāṅkhya-Yoga
To deliver the conditioned souls from the entanglement of material nature, the Lord appeared as the great sage Kapila Muni. Śrīla Prabhupāda details how Lord Kapiladeva systematically explained the ancient Sāṅkhya philosophy to His mother, Devahūti, providing a perfect analytical pathway out of material misery.
- My appearance in this world is especially to explain the philosophy of Sankhya, which is highly esteemed for self-realization by those desiring freedom from the entanglement of unnecessary material desires.
- How one can can get out of the miserable condition of material life is stated in Sankhya philosophy, and the Lord Himself is explaining this sublime system.
- This path of self-realization, which is difficult to understand, has now been lost in the course of time. Please know that I have assumed this body of Kapila to introduce and explain this philosophy to human society again.
- Here we find that although Kapila Muni is the Lord Himself and is capable of manufacturing a new doctrine for His mother, He nevertheless says, "I shall just explain the ancient system which I once explained to the great sages."
Relishing the Explanations Through Devotion
Although the Lord has personally explained the Absolute Truth, this knowledge remains locked away from those who approach it with a challenging or academic spirit. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Lord's explanations can only be fully unlocked by practicing bhakti-yoga and hearing from the authorized disciplic succession.
- Krsna says at the conclusion of Bhagavad-gita (18.55), bhaktya mam abhijanati: if one actually wants to understand Krsna and one's relationship with Him, one must take to this process of bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga as explained by Lord Kapiladeva is sankhya-yoga.
- The knowledge of the self and Supreme Self is very confidential and mysterious, but such knowledge and specific realization can be understood if explained with their various aspects by the Lord Himself.
- The whole matter is explained by the Lord Himself, and one who has no approach to the Lord in His personal feature can rarely understand the purport of Srimad-Bhagavatam without being taught by the bhagavatas in the disciplic succession.
- Of the different processes recommended for disentanglement from material life, the one personally explained and accepted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead should be considered all-perfect. That process is the performance of duties by which love for the Supreme Lord develops.
Conclusion
The ultimate solution to all philosophical confusion and material suffering is to abandon the futile process of mental speculation and simply listen to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly clarifies, because God is infinite and our senses are painfully limited, any attempt to guess the nature of the Absolute Truth is inherently imperfect. The only perfect knowledge is the knowledge that the Lord explains Himself. Out of His boundless, causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord descends into the material world specifically to dispel the darkness of ignorance. When the authorized disciplic succession was broken, Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared to perfectly explain the science of action, inaction, and devotion directly to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gītā. Similarly, when the ancient Sāṅkhya philosophy was lost to the world, the Lord incarnated as Kapila Muni to systematically explain the process of disentanglement to His mother, Devahūti. These explanations are the supreme authority; whatever process of self-realization is personally explained and accepted by the Lord must be considered all-perfect. However, simply reading these texts with a mundane, academic mind will not reveal their secrets. The knowledge of the self and the Supreme Self is deeply confidential. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that one can only truly understand the Lord's explanations when one approaches them with a submissive heart, engages in the process of bhakti-yoga, and learns from the pure devotees situated within the unbroken disciplic succession.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God's Explaining. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.