Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

Lord Krishna Chaitanya is the combined personality of the predominating and predominated Moieties of the Absolute. We, individual souls, are endowed with a mixed aptitude. Our consciousness possesses a two-fold potentiality. It takes cognisance of the material categories. It is open to the influence of the spiritual as distinguished from the mundane. Lord Chaitanya is our only support and the source of our animation. He is the only Object of our worship. As a matter of fact every activity of ours owes its possibility and existence to His initiative and works as a corollary of his activities. Lord Chaitanya displays the pastime of seeking Himself. All through His Manifestation He is found most anxiously devoted to the exclusive quest of the Absolute Godhead, His predominating Moiety, viz., Krishna. We, His eternal proteges, are conditioned to follow His lead in this matter. If we do so we shall be doing the right thing. By doing so we would obtain the knowledge of the realm of the Absolute. We would no longer have to remain penned within the narrow material scope of three dimensions. But we are hampered by our mixed aptitude. We have the option of meddling with the material as well as the spiritual. As soon as we indulge this mixed aptitude by mistaking it to be our real function we are obstructed by the process. We find ourselves forth-with subjected more or less to the handicaps of insurmountable disqualifications. These disqualifications have been analysed and classified into four groups. They are liabilities to (1) blunder (2) inadvertence, (3) deception and (4) grossness of the senses. These are very serious defects. They make it impossible for us to obtain even a glimpse of the transcendental. Hence there arises the imperative necessity of seeking the help of those who are free from those defects.

Our present sense-function does not give us any knowledge of the whole Truth. On the contrary it always keeps us away from the Full, the Eternal, the Blissful. We are prevented from all access to uninterrupted existence, uninterrupted knowledge and uninterrupted bliss. These constitute the Reality to be gained by the exercise of our present facilities. We obtain instead the so-called knowledge of the things of this world. We perceive only matter. We can imagine the condition of material negation. But neither of these is the Reality proper. We cannot avoid the consideration of distinctions. But it is not possible to entartain [sic] any proposition regarding distinctive entities except under the operation of the four-fold defects mentioned above. It is, however, incumbent on us to try to be perfectly free from those defects. The method based on sense-experience is useless for this end. It can never free us from those defects.

Those who live on the resources of the mind express themselves in language. The vocabulary used by them is more or less defective and mutually conflicting. The experience of the moment is different from true experience. We try to gain admission in the realm of true experience. We desire to make progress in such experience. It is our purpose thereby to gain the love of the Real Entity. This is the supreme goal.

We are now interested in the acquisition of all kinds of worldly facilities. We find it useful to study those sciences that deal with objects that we wish to acquire. But we need not remain confined to such investigation. We are fit to be attracted also by the science of supermundane reality. We are attracted by One who is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. He attracts us in different degrees. He has given us the fitness to be attracted in different measures. We are subject to His attraction. We can endeavour to attain to realisation of the science of reality to the extent of His attraction. There are many persons who are not exclusively engrossed in the acquisition of worldly facilities. Many wish to progress in the direction of the supreme function, the supreme facility, the supreme object of desire, the supreme position which frees us from all illusion. Different persons try to do so in different degrees. The language of a person is affected by the progress that he makes. It progresses towards the spiritual realm in the proportion of his advance. Soch [sic] a person can respond to questions regarding the supreme goal in the proper spirit. We formulated a number of questions on the subject. We approached those persons who are spiritually inclined with those questions. We hoped for reasonable response from them.

Persons who are possessed of mixed aptitude are always subject to the fourfold defects. Such is the condition of all those persons who set store by worldly facility. The quest after Krishna is free from the fourfold defect. Persons with the mixed aptitude can know nothing of such quest. We also know this. But we nevertheless cherish the inclination to approach them. We want to be enlightened in our quest of the truth by the positive as well as negative method. We had sought this contact with the spiritually inclined as we know that we shall be gainers by such contact. Such contact helps in our quest of Krishna which is based on the analytic and synthetic methods. It is our greatest desire to succeed in the quest.

We know that such procedure has also its difficulties. The mixed aptitude is really opposed to the quest of the truth. It is opposed to absolute emancipation, to the supreme function, the supreme need and the supreme goal. Its nature as well as its language is equally opposed to the quest of the truth. They are found to try to baffle our purpose. We know this. We also knew that all this notwithstanding, there is no objection to seek contact with an entity that is so hostile to our purpose. He intended to accept that portion from it which is our due.

There are non-spiritual Puranas, non-spiritual Pancharatras and non-spiritual philosophical systems and non-spiritual Darshana Shastras. All these are full of varieties of injunctions in the midst of narratives of useful and harmful activities. But they also contain much instruction for the propagation of real good and suppression of evil. The great sages of old times also studied those works. They were not thereby prevented from attaining the object of their desire. We have felt assured by the knowledge of this fact.

Our purpose is to search for Krishna. We have to consider in this connection two subjects, viz., (1) 'Krishna' and (2) 'His Search'.

The word 'Krishna' has an ordinary meaning which is intelligible to all of us. This meaning is supported by History and the conditioned intellect of man. This meaning leaves us ignorant of the truth. We shall not accept this meaning. On the contrary we shall know the real, indivisible Truth Himself. There is a meaning which can enlighten us regarding the Truth. The ordinary meaning of the word 'Krishna' is an entity which is different from Krishna. It is something that is enveloped by the deluding energy of Krishna. It is an object which is comprehensible to the other gross senses besides the ear. It is a product of our sensuous perception. We shall not defile the word Krishna by accepting this meaning.

All the different languages derived from Brahmi, Kharausti, Shanki and Puskarasadi, etc. are the sources of the knowledge which men have gained through the senses of these words. They are guided by the secondary meaning. They are more or less different to the primary meaning of those words. Such desire to attain any visible object of this world by means of such words should be considered as opposed to the supreme goal. There are different words in the different languages to signify the real Truth. These words are the products of intellectual speculation. They point to the Truth. But all those terms are subject to knowledge gained through the senses. Therefore they are entities limited by three dimensions. None of those terms can attain to the level of the transcendental entity.

The word 'Krishna' points to the real Truth. The real truth is not identical with the secondary meaning Himself. The word Krishna is not used to convey any allegorical sense. The word 'Krishna' uttered by the soul desirous of the supreme goal cannot accommodate the meaning that is productive of ignorance. The meaning or words is narrowed by the eye, the nose, the tongue, the skin and the mind. This narrow meaning expresses other than Brahman (the great undefined nourishing Principle), Paramatma (the supreme Soul) or Bhagavan (the supreme Person possessed of all power). The word "Krishna" points to no such narrow meaning. Such words as 'adhokshaja' (transcendental) aprakrita (non-mundane) and atindriya (supersensuous) etc., are the products of negative speculation. By their means it is possible to draw a picture that exists only in the imagination of man. Such performances are different from the real Truth. They retain the power of producing ignorance, which makes them different from the Truth. The adulterated quality of physical space affects such words. They are hereby separated from the real Entity. They contribute to the elaboration of that entity by the conceptions of the relative and the numerical. The Brihadaranyaka speaks of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of the complete whole. But those processes do not destroy the unity of the whole.

All diversity exists by the divisions of object and subject. Mental speculation is based on preference for absence of all distinction. Mental speculation fulfills its purpose by this distinctive achievement. There is no possibility of the elimination of the triple limiting envelope by its means. The truth of the Divinity has His existence in the indivisible cognitive principle. Therefore he does not obstruct the enlightening process of words. The modes of investigation represented by the schools that worship Rudra and Brahma respectively, express a gross kind of difference from the mode of the Vaishnavas. Such procedure is obstructive of indivisible knowledge. It is necessary to consider these speculations with thoroughness and with a dispassionate mind. If we do not do so there will arise a variety of obstacles, in regard to object of meditation, the meditator and the process of meditation. It is necessary to try to remove these obstacles. It is necessary to get rid of them permanently. It is not reasonable to depend on eclipsed knowledge for the purpose of temporary relief. The sun moves in the course in space in due order of time. If the sun is worshipped the object of our worship is an obstacle to our indivisible knowledge. It is not possible to acquaint a person with the nature of the word 'Krishna' by means of language that is conditioned by the triple quality of the phenomenal world. The Name Krishna is identical with the possessor of the Name, the word Krishna is identical with the object expressed by the same. Yet the two are also inconceivably distinct from one another. It is necessary to be able to realise the true nature of this inconceivable simultaneous difference and non-difference. Till we are in a position to realise it, our weak speculation can never enable us to understand the distinctiveness of the inconceivable.

The word 'quest' signifies a movement which finally merges into the significance of progressive realisation. Till then the object of 'quest' is allowed to drift away on the tide of unchecked imagination. It does not become available for the practice of the process of real quest. It is necessary for attaining such apprehension that the seeker of the Truth feels himself under His protection. When this is so the process of quest no longer goes astray from indivisible knowledge who is Vasudeva. Then also the process of quest loses its difference from the activity of realisation. The process of quest involves the clear apprehension of relationship with the object of search. It is this which in the subsequent stage becomes known as Bhakti of the stage of endeavour. It is Bhakti which supplies us with the clue to the love of Hari. Love of Hari is the complete, constant and exclusive activity of realisation. Love of Hari is realised as the one thing needful.

There are many obstacles in the way of the search of the Truth. Those obstacles serve to eclipse the real nature of the seer of the truth, of the search, and of the object of search. It is the enlightening potency of words which alone is able to destroy all those obstacles. Therefore it is only when the ephemeral manifestation of the deluding potency of words is resolved into their enlightening function that it does not allow the individual soul to become severed from the indivisible knowledge, the supremely true Entity. It also does not promote the perversion of the oneness of the cognitive principle. On the contrary it tears up by the root the blunder of the speculative theory of undifferentiated cognition. Shri Chaitanyadeva is this one-ness of the subject and object of the indivisible knowledge. Nityananda is the manifestation of this oneness. He is the manifesting aspect of the indivisible knowledge Himself. These two are like the Sun and the Moon. They reveal the cognitive potency of the spiritual soul. Bhakti bestows the quality of oneness and love of Krishna. These two potencies of bestowing oneness and producing the pleasure of the indivisible knowledge are located in Shri Chaitanya.

In this world we construct various structures by means of our cognitive and active sense-organs. Among these sense-organs the organ of speech is the parent of the hearing of sound. The organ of speech may not be wholly established in the line of the heard transcendental Sound. In such a case there will appear conflict with the heard Divine Sound, which leads astray the other four senses. This is to be distinguished from words free from all limitation which remove the obstructive filth that blocks the path of the auricular cavity. It dissipates the limited perceptual word. By such operation the path of transcendental hearing is not prejudicially affected. There is a ten-fold process of rectifying the defects of the physical body produced by semen in the mother's womb. This satisfies the speculative function of the mind. By such purifactory process our sensuous knowledge is enriched. It may produce indifference to indivisible transcendental knowledge. In such a case it mistakes entities possessing relationship with Godhead for things of this phenomenal world. Under such misapprehension it may renounce such entities by the deluding power of the real entity leading them away from the truth and making them place more reliance upon the nonspiritual reflection of the realm of true cognition.

In the demonstration of teaching, there are two parties, viz., the 'teacher' and the 'taught'. We find a reciprocal relation between the aforesaid two. The position of the taught has a special signifinance [sic] in that he has to pay his attention to the words and observe the deeds of the teacher as well as perceive the true goal of his attempts. If he is found to be negligent to receive anything from the teacher, he will simply miss the real bearings of the taught. His function as a recipient would vary according to the nature, capacity and degree of whole-hearted attention. When his nature is under consideration we find that he must own himself as a follower of an elevationist or a salvationist or a devotee. By availing himself of the teachings he is expected to make up for his inadequacies by rectifying this wrong notions and assimilating the essence of the knowledge he is going to receive. He can regulate his mentality by any addition to or deduction from his store of intuition.

The teachings of a teacher are, therefore, meant for enriching, regulating and inviting the impulse of reception of the taught in order to enable the latter to make further progress. If he has an irreverent mood, he will prove himself to be a callous and non-susceptible agent. If he proves himself quite worthy of receiving the teachings and enriching himself, he would be deemed fit for undertaking further mental training. But some amount of diffidence may hamper him in his putiful [sic] advance.

The theme of teaching has different phases. The teaching that merely elevates the mental power of the audience will no doubt differ from that which seeks to lift us above the phenomenal existence by the process of meditation and shakes off the three mundane positions of the observer, observation and observed. The devotional teachings need not follow any of the two methods that have victimised both elevationists and salvationists. So the teachings of a devotee should neither help any aspiration of these two classes nor advocate their cause. Devotional teaching has already disclosed the fact that any knowledge secured from finite objects could not possibly lead to the Absolute position in a realm where no temporal phenomena are seen to be working. Such dealing with the existence of a field of fourth to infinate demensions [sic] should not be restricted to be brought under intra-mundane speculations. Devotional teaching never subscribes to the policy of altruistic misapprehension for living peacefully in a plane of shifting phenomena. The devotional method does not, however, deviate at all from altruism when it shows a transcendental temperament of the cognisance of the Absolute. The altruistic views of pedants of the atheistic school cannot protect the futile predicament of intra-sentient beings who are very busy to show their predominating influence over devotional thought. Devotional teaching should never confine its theme to the restricted horizon of elevationists and so-called transcendentalists who are ambitious to restrict their activities in every way by annihilating their egoistic intra-mundane attempts.

As regards the position of a true teacher we have observed that he is never expected to be the possessor of mere mental speculations concerned with phenomena or noumena. The teacher should be unprejudiced and should not be challenged for any seeming fault of his in thought, word or deed. The teacher of some particular department of phenomena or noumena should never be recognised as participating in any teaching of transcendental observation. The unprejudiced nature of a true preceptor who has no other function but to remain eternally under the banner of the Absolute is to impart the ever-existing unshaky position of the Absolute knowledge enriched with Ever-Blissful enthusiasm.

The All-Blissful Ever-Existing Absolute has emanated the rays of knowledge which can disclose the true transcendental position of the Fountain-head. So the taught should invoke Him to delegate such power to him in order to enable his progressive march in the region of the Absolute Personality where the significance of the First Person has preponderance over the transcendental manifestations of Infinitude. The Fountainhead of Infinitude, the Fountainhead of Infinite Wealths, viz., All-Majesty, All-Prowess, All-Godness, All-Beauty, All-Knowledge and All-Dissociations with flesh and mind, grants the prayers of different actors on this stage of the world who take initiative in the temporal region of space and time. The personality of Godhead has awarded full facility to them in their sojourn of limited knowledge in proportion to their amount of knowledge, eligibility and praying capacity. When we turn to the various activities of seekers of different limited treasures, we observe that those prayer-mongers who want to dove-tail themselves with the object of their prayer are also endowed in proportion to their capacity for enabling them to discover such partial manifestation of the Personal Absolute. So our much-coveted treasures will store for us our respective goals in proportion to our acquisitions. But a true devotee is not satisfied with having the boons from an empiricist whose impoverished knowledge is found to seek for the satisfaction of personal selfish wants merely. And those who are content to pose their location in Infinity are found to enervate themselves in a frenzied mood, while a devotee is always found to disapprove of their intoxicated demeanour in engaging themselves in the futile chase of temporal soapbubbles. So we do not find any frenzied disposition in a devotee like that in an elevationist or a salvationist.

The essential devotional activities of an unalloyed soul become entirely nugatory in the mentalities of atheists and are often enshrouded with the intellectual activities of agnostics and sceptics, as the latter are always found to hinge their flexibilities of speculation on their imperfect and restricted sensuous knowledge only. A true devotee can be able to see easily the alloyed activities or the so-called knowledge which passes by the name of nescience helping its victims in their march towards a fabricated manifestation of a temporal plane known as 'paradise'. This may be termed the second group where the frenzied ignorance of the aforesaid group is eliminated. Next when we come to examine the third group who are trying to dismiss all intra-mundane thoughts they are seen as located in a peculiarly hallucinating non-manifestative sphere of their self and we may undoubtedly say that this is a self-deception tantamount to an Alnascarian disposition. The owner of the astral and physical bodies has been, by the abuse of his free-will, obligated to remain in a sleeping condition when he has delegated his powers, during his conspicuous activities in the mundane world, to the two different covers which claim to be owned by him.

A true devotee never submits to any high-sounding reasonings of Elevationists or Salvationists when he is truly realising his own self as a conciliatory ancillary fragment of a particular manifesting Energy, the position of which is on the geometrical line between the mundane phenomena and the transcendental manifestations. So a devotee is not expected to indulge in the method of the so-called speculative philosophers of the world. The oft-disfigured sublime views and the eternal theme of the Vedanta do not go to prove any hallucinative imposition of different sexological questions to be associated with the Ever-Existing Blissful Knowledge. No variety of the knowledge of Finitude must intoxicate and cripple the transcendental march of the presumptuous owner of this world of three dimensions.

Whenever any inclination is observed in a sojourner for a conception of the Absolute, these sexological questions check his activities, but when his activities are scrutinised they are found to be in a particular chamber of a neuter aspect or a male or female aspect of that Object. The Personality of [sic] the Absolute Ecstatic Knowledge can only be had if the true discernment of the real self shakes off by his free will all finite temporal conceptions.

Being fully empowered through the mercy of the All-Blissful, the owner of all intra-mundane speculations can easily shake off the chains of the habit of measuring transformable things. An unalloyed soul can only get rid of his deluding conceptions of physico-mental shields. The eternal devotee is emancipated from non-realistic ideas by the causeless help of the Absolute, or in other words, is set free by his love for the latter. No clutches or prisoner's restrictions should be imposed on him like those that are necessary to be put on Elevationists and Salvationists. He has now got the unconditional mercy from the Supreme Fountainhead and he need not be compelled to be classed as a prisoner of the physico-mental.

So Shri Krishna Chaitanya has disclosed the Transcendental Manifestation which can be approached only by a theist who is confident of his realisation of the Ever-Existing Ecstatic Absolute Transcendent, as he has absolutely no reliance on the seeming activities of a temporal mundane observer, observation and observed. The theist can then approach Shri Krishna as Arjuna did when the latter played his part in the Great Mahabharata War. The elevationist and salvationist warriors had been combating with their physical and mental powers in order to predominate over each other. But the Song of Shri Krishna relieved them from all such gross and subtle undertakings. The War of the Mahabharata has shown us the contending positions of physical and mental heroes busily engaged in this region of mundane speculations. The Mahabharata has disclosed the fact of different positions of elevationists and salvationists, viz., their positions, deeds, and their final goals.

We have got the true comparative idea in the literary expression of the word "Excellent" i.e., one who has excelled all the rest of the members generally of his community. There can be no question when the final result is designated by the word "excellent". We need not again put that to a controversy. A transcendental harmonising plane would tell us, through transcendental Sounds, that the manifestations in the regions of three dimensions are not to be confused with those in the Manifestive Region of Shri Vaikuntha which in the preamble cannot welcome any challenge of an empiricist when the region itself is endowed with spirit and not with deformed and mutable matter. So, as devotees we have no discussion with an empiricist or a challenger in a mundane measurement, and the position of a devotee need not, therefore, be degraded to the position of an elevationist or a salvationist.

When we finish the perusal of the Mahabharata which includes the "Mokshadharma", "Sanatsujatiyam" and the "Bhagavat Gita", we can safely be entrusted with dealing with the transcendental book which is revered by both Bhagavatas and Sattwata Pancharatrikas. The best scripture of the Bhagavatas (devotees) is the Bhagavatam which is a narrative offered by Shri Suta Goswami to Shri Shaunaka and a legion of sages who sat for such a valuable teaching in Naimisaranya. The present Book of Shrimad Bhagavatam has incorporated all true Pancharatrika views and is known as the true commentary of the Aphorisms of Badarayana that go on to show the connecting link and consistency of apparently conflicting Mantras of the Vedas.

The physical aspect of the Vedas would lead people to base their exploits upon the Physico-mental endowments of the Vedas but not upon the permanent and unalloyed knowledge of the Absolute. In order to give men relief from the clutches of physico-mental exploiters some impersonalists have jumped into the pacification of mundane meddlings which the Bhagavatam does not advocate. We see therefore that Bhagavatas incorporate all Pancharatrikas.

The supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya has encouraged His followers to learn Bhagavatam in an unalloyed mood. Though the Excellent Teachings of the Full Manifested Transcendent Absolute have been narrated through the medium of words, still a devotee may often engage himself in the outward manifestations which might be dissuading agents for entangling him in the temporal world. So the seeming realisation of Archa (Transcendental Image) of the Icongraphised Transcendentalism need not betray a real 'sadhaka'; nor should the symbolised Transcendental words bring the same into a controversial position.

The most important and crucial point of the Shrutis has been ignored by the Impersonalists. So they could not make any progress when they impirically perused and interpreted the Mantras of the Vedas. The Super-Excellent Teacher by His Super-Excellent Teachings has given the best and greatest facilities to His disciples who will, in no time, turn out to be serving Agents of the Super-Excelent, [sic] Transcendental Teacher, Who is Himself identical with the concept of the Supreme Godhead. By the word "Super-Excellent" the graduation in the Transcendental Region has been found to reach the climax.

In the conversation of Ramananda and the Supreme Lord, we find the Predominated Aspect of the Transcendental Absolute was giving replies to the interrogatories of the Supreme Lord. The true comparative studies of the different positions of devotees could only be made by submitting unconditionally our ownership of intellectual and physical store to the very Fountain-head. We shall then be classed as occupying different stages of devotion. We shall then find that the song of Shri Krishna Ye Yathaa Maim Prapadante [1] could not be mutilated by our mandane [sic] speculationists in their degraded unethical views of approaching Him. We are told of five different Rasas by the erudite professors of Aesthetics in our perusal of Transcendental literature by our spiritual senses which have no ambition whatsoever to meddle with mundane reciprocal situations. The Transcendental Supreme Fountainhead of Absolute Knowledge - Shri Krishna Chaitanya - has disclosed the different moods of predominating "Rasamaya" and predominated "Rasikas". So the Transcendental Super-Excellence of His Teachings would never be available to mundane sages or impersonalists until they absolutely submit to the ending exhortation of the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna in the Gita. [2]

In courting, therefore, the Love of Shri Krishna Chaitanya we must not be busy with equipping ourselves with troublesome acquisitions of imperfect manifestations, but simply undergo an operation to remove our cataract by the beneficial spike of all His good Teachings. We need not be troubling ourselves with the physical enquiries in order to enable ourselves to indulge in Anthropomorphism or to have recourse to Apotheosis. The unconditional surrender to Shri Krishna or Shri Krishna Chaitanya and to His true functioning of our handicapped organs of senses and enable us to scrutinise the aspects of the different subjects of our knowledge. As true and sincere devotees our spiritual culture would never allow us to indulge in our mental activities as we do in Economics, History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Inconagraphy, Archaeology, Chiromancy and Palmistry, different branches of the Vedas, altruism, utilitarianism and other allied subjects. It we take any one or the whole group of the above subjects for examining Shri Krishna Chaitanya, all our labour would be fruitless and take us not an inch nearer to the Supreme Lord. It is Transcendental finite ego to approach the Transcendental Blissful Infinite.

We should be ready to receive the Transcendental Sounds instead of the mundane sounds that are found in the Lexicons. Ordinary sound is examined by the other senses also. We reserve the right of examining every mundane sound that enters our ear with the aid of the four other senses. If the latter do not admit its validity, it is summarily rejected. These senses are not fit to scrutinize the validity of Transcendental Sounds. Our previous experience will show which sounds should be examined. If they aim at anything of this world, we should have every opportunity of examining them by our other senses. Our previous experience will decide whether they are to be welcomed.

But when the Transcendental Sound makes His appearance, we must not put ourselves into the challenging mood and suppose that there is any other face. The two sounds are quite distinct from one another. The mundane sound is meant for entities which have figure, odour, taste, etc. Heat, for example can be perceived by the sound produced. But it is the seeming feature which need not tally with the actual snbstratum. [sic] So, there is a distinct difference between the two sounds.

All Transcendental Sounds go to show One Object, the Absolute. Wherever there is any deviation, that is liable to vanish. Absolute Sound has got His peculiar phase and should be welcomed at all costs. We are vitally interested in that thing. The very description of Transcendental Sound will tell us that the Sound is identical with the Object, Qualities and Activities and is entirely distinct from Mundane sounds and that the Transcendental Sound is equipped with all cogent potencies that will regulate all other senses.

Mundane sound is invigorating to the senses and enables us to come in contact with the world. When our attempt is for the Absolute, we run no risk. When we want the sound to come to us, we ignore the Absolute, we do not receive the Transcendental Sound. The Transcendental Sound is strictly restricted to the Thing. So the Absolute is to be determined when we determine our self. Any distorted view will not allow us to approach the Absolute.

First of all, we should examine our self. If we think we are mind and the external body, the Transcendental Sound will have no effect on us. It would be a mundane sound. The sound himself would tell us that the external body is a garment of the inner astral body and both of them are the two wrappers of the soul who, in his dormant condition, incorporates these two which do not determine his own real nature. The external body is perishable; the internal body is transformable. Our mind in the morning, is different from our mind at noon and so on. It is changed with the rolling of time.

We cannot rely on the mind and our mental speculation. All of us are busy in making our mind control everything relating to ourselves. This does not admit the conception of the Absolute. The mental conceptions are all changeable. The property must not be confounded with the proprietor. Our external body is our property. It is perishable and there is no certainty of its retention. In Egypt, the body was preserved. The process was thought necessary for the reawaking of the soul. The materialists see the externality of things. They observe that the combination of material particles produces animation. So, the external is scrutinised by the materialistic sciences.

But the idea propounded by intellectual people is that knowledge is eclipsed and obscured by the interception of ignorance (vivartavada i.e., wrong conception of things which deludes us in regard to the Truth). The background of time and space intercepts our visual range. Chinmatra or perfect knowledge is required in order to know what we are. This view is different from that of the materialists who want to establish all knowledge as identical with the background of our conceptions. One party thinks that the spirit comes out of these things by a process analogous to that of effervescence. The other party holds that knowledge is impeded by the material molecules that form the opaque mass which disturbs and prevents us from examining the entity. This gives rise to the conception of Immanence. There is an inner face in regard to which we are liable to be deluded by the operation of the external face.

In the first place, we should undertake to determine the nature of the self. We should know that we are eternal. Had our life been of a few days duration, our prospects would be very dark, indeed. It is the idea of the Semites that this is the only life we have. According to them, the conception of metempsychosis is a hallucination to dissuade us from the immediate necessity of learning the Absolute Truth.

The empiric truth is to be carefully distinguished from the Absolute. It is analogous to the distinction between the glow-worm and fire or between the mirage and water. The outward feature is not to be trusted. Lime-water outwardly resembles milk. The apparent face is not identical with the Immanence, the soul or the substratum. In determining the self it is necessary to find our real position. Are we products of material things? Are we the Oversoul? This problem requires to be solved as we shall leave the external body after a time.

When the question of 'Time' is brought forward we find that, we are eternal. When we attend to the problem of 'Knowledge' we find that our mixed ignorance cannot give us any relief. The soul should be blissful. We do not require unpleasant things. The external body and astral body do not serve our purpose. If they were our sole concern life would be troublesome and we would necessarily be pessimists. There is an optimistic view to oppose pessimism. If both are discarded we would know what we are. It would result in our considering that we are part and parcel of the Absolute liable to foreign invasion. Incorporation with the world requires to be severed for the realisation of our permanent situation.

Shri Krishna Chaitanya has told us that we are part and parcel of the "Tatastha - Shakti" (Marginal Potency) of the Absolute Who has got numerous potencies. These potencies are classifiable into departments. The human soul is situated in an intermediate position as distinct from the Bahiranga-Shakti (External Potency) which is perishable and that Antaranga-Shakti (Internal Potency) which is eternal. The external potency offers the reflected intercepted view of the Activities of the Absolute. This supplements the system of Vishistadvaita (Distinctive Monism) or rather that system is given some additional knowledge by the introduction of the Tatastha-Shakti (Marginal Potency).

We are not substratum. Had we been part and parcel of Godhead there would be no misery. As we are realists we cannot think that we should turn idealist, that we should suppose everything to be simply a deluding feature and that observed objects are nothing but delusions and that we should consider ourselves to be the Oversoul. But it is not so. We are not the substance. We are potency. The position of the Jiva is a part of the Tatastha-shakti (Marginal Potency) that can enjoy, cease to enjoy and go back to his original position. In the devotional mood he can offer his services to the Absolute instead of picking up servants from this world which is the plight of the deceptive brain. These are but baits and traps and will not lead us to the Absolute. We are not part and parcel of the substantive entity Godhead but of His Tatastha-Shakti to serve the Absolute. The determination of the self will lead us to that very thing.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Gita IV.11

[2] G. XVIII.66