Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.20–23

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting, etc.]

parāvareṣu bhūteṣu brahmānta-sthāvarādiṣu bhautikeṣu vikāreṣu bhūteṣv atha mahatsu ca

guṅeṣu guṅa-sāmye ca guṅa-vyatikare tathā eka eva paro hy ātmā bhagavān īśvaro 'vyayaḥ

pratyag-ātma-svarūpeṅa dṛśya-rūpeṅa ca svayam vyāpya-vyāpaka-nirdeśyo hy anirdeśyo 'vikalpitaḥ

kevalānubhavānanda- svarūpaḥ parameśvaraḥ māyayāntarhitaiśvarya īyate guṅa-sargayā [SB 7.6.20-23]

[07:11]

Translation: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the supreme controller, who is infallible and indefatigable, is present in different forms of life, from the inert living beings [sthāvara], such as the plants, to Brahmā, the foremost created living being. He is also present in the varieties of material creations and in the material elements, the total material energy and the modes of material nature [sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa and tamo-guṅa], as well as the unmanifested material nature and the false ego. Although He is one, He is present everywhere, and He is also the transcendental Supersoul, the cause of all causes, who is present as the observer in the cores of the hearts of all living entities. He is indicated as that which is pervaded and as the all-pervading Supersoul, but actually He cannot be indicated. He is changeless and undivided. He is simply perceived as the supreme sac-cid-ānanda [eternity, knowledge and bliss]. Being covered by the curtain of the external energy, to the atheist He appears nonexistent."

Prabhupāda: So this is the description of the Absolute Truth. [to Svarūpa Dāmodara:] You can explain in your own way. Just stand up and explain. They'll be glad. The Absolute Truth, explanation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The Absolute Truth?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can explain in your scientific way. [laughter]

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We impose that, ah...

Prabhupāda: Stand up and say. They'll be glad to hear. [laughter]

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We make a prerequisite, saying that in order to understand the difference between life and matter, the basic requirement is to have some understanding of the Absolute Truth. Just like in mathematics and physics and in chemistry, there are certain axioms from which the knowledge... [break] ...and theories are produced from these axioms. [indistinct] Similarly, if one would accept Absolute Truth, the axiom of the truth, in order to understand the basic meaning of God, the difference between life and matter, the requirement is very scientific process, they say axioms, actions that can be proven. They say the Absolute Truth cannot be proven by [indistinct]. So we take Absolute Truth source of everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the Bhagavad-gītā, the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṅa, is explaining Himself. Absolute Truth is the ultimate end, Vedānta. The subject matter of knowledge is Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So we have got this human form of life to inquire about the Absolute Truth. Jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam [SB 11.3.21].

[Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.]

Unless one is jijñāsuḥ, inquisitive, there is no need of accept a so-called fashionable guru. To accept guru is not a fashion, style, that "Everyone has guru; I'll have a guru." No. The śāstra says, tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam: One should accept guru when he is inquisitive, jijñāsuḥ. What about? Śreyaḥ uttamam, the Absolute, or the auspicity, beyond this material world. Uttamam. Tamaḥ means darkness, ignorance.

So here, our position in this material world: darkness. We are simply speculating in so many ways what is the ultimate cause. There are so many philosophers, but they are speculating only, without any definite knowledge. So śāstra says that speculative knowledge will not be successful at any time. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām [Bs 5.34].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṅāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.]

Manaso, by mental speculation, muni-puṅgavānām. One who speculates, he is called muni. So muni-puṅgava. Puṅgava means the most exalted muni, if he simply speculates about the Absolute Truth, how many years? Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara.

Just like people are now going in the outer space to find out some shelter in the moon planet, in the Mars planet, similarly, if you want to find out the Absolute Truth or the abode of the Absolute Truth... The description is there in the śāstra:

goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni tale ca tasya devī-maheśa-hari-dhāmasu teṣu teṣu te te prabhāva-nicayā vihitāś ca yena govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.43]

The topmost planet in the spiritual sky is the..., called Goloka. That is Kṛṣṅa's place. Goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni. And below this there are Vaikuṅṭha-dhāmas, unlimited number of Vaikuṅṭha-dhāmas. Goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni tale ca tasya devī-maheśa. Devī-dhāma. This is called Devī-dhāma, this material world. And Maheśa-dhāma, the Śivaloka. And devī-maheśa, hari-dhāmasu. Hari-dhāmasu means Vaikuṅṭha. So these are the different status of dhāma. We cannot calculate, estimate even this Devī-dhāma. This is called Devī-dhāma. This material world is called Devī-dhāma. It is controlled by Devī, goddess Durgā.

sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.44]

[The external potency Māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.]

So this Devī-dhāma is being controlled by the most powerful energy, Durga. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka. But she's acting as chāyeva, a shadow of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is also summarized in the Bhagavad-gītā:

mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

So in this way, if we study through the śāstra, everything is there. If you want to find out the Absolute Truth, how? Śāstra cakṣuṣāt: through the śāstras, through the Vedic knowledge, you'll find the Absolute Truth. If we actually accept that Veda means knowledge... Vetthi veda vida jñāne. Veda means knowledge, jñāna. So Veda-anta, the last, last phase of knowledge. The last phase of knowledge is the Absolute Truth. You have to go up to that. So that Absolute Truth, if you go on speculating, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo [Bs 5.34], that will not be possible. Śata-vatsara-sampragamyo, by hundreds and hundreds of years, if you go on with speed... What is that speed? Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi. Aeroplane, airplane, vāyor athāpi. And what is the speed? Vāyor athāpi. Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara sampragamyo vāyor athāpi. Manaso vāyu: by the speed of air and mind. Mind is very speedy. You are sitting here, you can immediately remember ten thousand miles away, it is so speedy. So even by the mind's speed you cannot, by going over the space, koṭi-śata-vatsara, many millions of years still it remains unknown. So this is not the way to understand the Absolute Truth, but if we accept the Vedic process, avaroha panthā, when the knowledge comes from the Absolute Truth, then it is possible.

So we Kṛṣṅa conscious, I mean to say, devotees, we try to understand the Absolute Truth by the grace of the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya [Bg 7.7]:

[O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.]

"I am the Supreme." Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

In this way, if we try to understand Kṛṣṅa as He is speaking, as they are stated in the śāstra, as it is accepted by the ācāryas, then we can have some trace of the Absolute Truth. Just like Kṛṣṅa says,

athavā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat [Bg 10.42]

[But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.]

The expansion of the Absolute Truth, how it is working, so Kṛṣṅa summarized before Arjuna that this material world, material world... Ekāṁśena sthito jagat, this material world. What is that material world? This material world, we see only one universe to our vision. Similarly, there are millions of universes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jadad-aṅḍa koṭi [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

Jagad-aṅḍa means one universe, and in each universe, koṭiṣu aśeṣa. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi-koṭisv aśeṣu vibhūti-bhinnam [Bs 5.40]. There are millions of planets, and each planet is different from here. That is God's creation. So all this together, ekāṁśena sthito jagat, this material world is one-fourth part exhibition of God's creation. And three-fourths' part is in the Vaikuṅṭhaloka, spiritual world. So by speculation, by our research, it is impossible, but we can get a glimpse of knowledge of the Absolute Truth when we receive it through the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṅa. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]