Bhagavatam-daily 305 – 11.13.38 – Krishna questions the question before answering the question

Thank you here the Lord is now finally answering directly the question that the sages had asked that question was who are you? and he replies that I am the Supreme Lord I am Vishnu and he says in this way I have explained to you the confidential purpose of Samkhya Yoga so the Kumaras the full context of this discussion is that Uddhava had asked Krishna what is the ultimate purpose of Yoga Krishna had said that I will record a discussion a similar discussion that had taken place between a similar question had been asked by the Kumaras to Brahma and Brahma being unable to answer had prayed to Vishnu and Vishnu had appeared in the form of Hamsa now when Hamsa had appeared the Kumaras had not seen this particular manifestation of the Lord before and so they had asked him who are you? and by answering that question the by answering that question the Lord had first pointed out how the question itself would become incoherent if it were asked from the foundation of atheism of monism in the material or spiritual realism and so he said that he then goes on to explain how one should stay detached from material existence and thus transcend the illusions that characterize this level of existence so the issue here is to recognize that we are all at our own level fighting against illusions and even when the Lord comes in front of us we do not recognize his identity and that may happen not just for people who are of outright demonian mentality like the Supreme like Guru Vrindavan who saw Krishna and saw the and said that and after seeing it he declared that this was just Vishnu this was just some magic display and he was not impressed by magic displays so now it was due to defiance he just had no desire to surrender to the Supreme and here is not recognizing the Lord was because of defiance in the case of the Kumaras was it defiance? not exactly they had certain preconceptions and the Lord wanted to address those preconceptions and that is what he does in this conversation so his purpose in addressing the preconceptions is to teach how one can become elevated by questioning one’s question sometimes when we ask a question should we think that getting the answer to our question will enlighten us so for example here the Kumara had asked a question who are you? and the Lord could well have straight away answered that question and he does answer this question towards the end of this conversation but the relevant point is that instead of answering the question his focus remains on transcending on challenging and countering the misconceptions that the Kumaras might have had and thus he questioned the foundation of that conversation so sometimes trying to answer questions at the same level of consciousness at the same level of understanding that the questioner is that does not that does not lead to deeper understanding so yes of course the speaker is at a high level and the audience is at a low level just like if a person is in the 50th story of a building and the person who wants to meet that person is at the ground floor and they both are screaming the meeting will not be very satisfactory so for a meeting for a one to one meeting the person may well come down from the 50th story to the ground floor and that is good but of course after coming to the ground floor the person in the 50th floor invites the person back up and takes the person up then a person also rises upwards especially if the person is not able to find the stairs or find the knees to rise up so like that the spiritual master is at a high level of understanding, realization, perception the seeker is at a high level and the speaker comparatively speaking is at a lower level and the seer is meant to help the seeker rise to a higher level sometimes the seeker may not be open minded so for that the seer needs to come down to the seeker’s level and he will raise the seeker up presently in a way that is illuminating and uplifting for the seeker but at the same time it may well be that if the seeker is too convinced of the rightness of one’s position then the seer may well say that the ground on which you are standing that itself is having a weak foundation and it may collapse therefore if you don’t want to collapse just move it with your hand come over that whole structure come elsewhere and rise upward so sometimes that kind of it’s not just a matter of simple lifting or raising or taking a person up it’s also sharing wisdom may also be a matter of convincing the person that the current level of comprehension, the current level of conception is incoherent self-contradictory, illogical and other way intellectually unsustainable and then the person will agree to rise similarly here when Krishna speaks to the Kumaras he shows how the very act of asking questions is rendered incoherent after asking questions about identity is rendered incoherent with monistic misconception and after pointing this out then he answers this specific question about his own identity