CC daily 94 – M 6.85-87 – Scholarship is not the qualification for knowing God

Thank you Madhya Leela chapter 6 text 85-86 they are grouped together here Sarvambhattacharya is being addressed here by Gopinathacharya and Gopinathacharya speaks here that yad yapi jagadguru tumi shastra gyanavan prithvite nahi pandita tomare samaan ishwarera kripaleshe nahi kato mate ateva ishwar tattva naapara janite yad yapi jagadguru tumi although you are the spiritual master of the whole you are a great teacher jagadguru it does not necessarily have to mean the spiritual master of the whole world it is a title given in the tradition to somebody who is very learned so you are as learned as if you are the spiritual master of the whole world and here Gopinathacharya is showing deference to the position of Sarvambhattacharya by acknowledging that yes you are the jagadguru you are extremely learned with scholarship and fame that will deem you as jagadguru but still yad yapi jagadguru tumi shastra gyanavan and you also know shastra gyanavan so its not just ordinary knowledge you have knowledge of shastra and still after that prithvite nahi pandita tomare saman and he goes on and says factually speaking he was not just great but prithvite when he says he is not jagadguru what it literally means is that its not that he has initiated disciples all over the world but he was capable of doing that in the sense that he was a great scholar and he says that all over the world there is no scholar equivalent to you prithvite nahi pandita tomare saman as equally there is no scholar in the whole world ishwarera kripaleshe nahi kato mate ishwarera so ishwarera kripaleshe nahi kato mate that actually you have not got even a fraction of the mercy of the lord and therefore because you have not understood the you have not got the mercy of the lord so you are not able to understand the ishwar tattva although the ishwar is present right now in your own house Prabhupada added this in his translation that although there is nothing specific about the ishwar being in his own house but the contrast is striking over there and Prabhupada adds it to drive home the point that a seeker is ready to go out of his home and go all over the world to search for god but suppose god resides in the seeker's own house and the seeker does not recognize that this is god what a great misfortune that would be and such is the misfortune that unfortunately characterizes Sarumatacharya so although Gopiacharya giving deference to Sarohoma for his learning and position does not directly say that he is unfortunate but he says that actually you have not understood the lord's position you have not understood the lord because you have not received his mercy so it is said and then although it is a strong statement that you don't understand normally if you say something like this to a scholar you don't understand that scholar may get agitated and say that what do you think you think you are a bigger scholar than me that you can understand and I can't understand so he is speaking the truth but he is speaking as softly as possible and he is saying that actually it is not your fault what I am saying is I am not pointing out your fault I am simply telling the wording of scripture that you are a great pandit I am not demeaning your scholarship but scholarship is not not the qualification for knowing the absolute truth that just by panditya that one cannot get knowledge about Ishwara it is not required in this way for every particular activity there is a particular process to be followed a particular qualification that is required suppose a person wants to travel by a flight and then when the person is entering the flight please show your boarding pass so don't you know that I am a I am a PhD from IIT oh that is good but please show your boarding pass oh you don't know that I actually got a not just a PhD I got a gold medal that's good but please show your boarding pass oh you don't know that I am so selfless that I helped over a hundred students to do their studies to help them complete their assignments I was not just actually myself I have so many other students that is good but please show your boarding pass when one wants to get on to a flight the other things are all ok but then what is required for climbing on to the flight is a boarding pass if the boarding pass is not there then one will not be able to get into the flight and one will not be able to go wherever one wants to go so so whatever the other qualifications are there they are good but they are not relevant for this particular activity for boarding a flight similarly here it is being said that actually it's not your fault but scholarship is not the qualification for knowing Ishwar Tattva so yes you have scholarship that is like flashing your IIT degree the IIT gold medal to a ticket to the flight attendants or the flight captain saying that let me enter the flight that doesn't work so he is saying that yes you are a scholar I mean you are a scholar but scholarship is not the qualification for knowing the absolute truth that is one cannot know the absolute truth what this means and in this way he sticks to his point but minimizes minimizes the problem that might come why that and then Prabhupada quotes several verses here from the Upanishads making the same point about how the absolute truth cannot be known by mere scholarship Nayam Atma Pravachanena Labhyo Namedhaya Nabhauna Ashruthena Yame Vaishya Vruna Tethena Labhyastha Saishatma Vruna Tethanuma Tanum Swam so Nayam Atma Pravachanena Labhya it's not that one can attain a lot of Pravachan Namedhaya not by intelligence Nabhauna Ashruthena not just by hearing from different people Yame Vaishya Vruna Tethena Labhyastha actually only when one is selected by that person then one can know him Saishatma Vruna Tethanuma Tanum Swam then when he selects someone what is the select means that he gives mercy to someone of course we can do something to get that mercy but it is his mercy that enables us to know him it is not our doing those things that enable us to know him so yes hearing from others and even giving Pravachanena one may oneself give talks or one may hear talks or one may study a lot whichever way it is if only when these activities are done to please the lord and they please him and he bestow his mercy then one can know him otherwise one cannot know him Naishatarke Namatir Aapaneya Prabhupada also goes further from the Katha Upanishad Prauktanye Naivas Sugyanaya Prestha Yam Tum Aapasat Tirtir Patasi Tvadrunnubhuyanna Chikeha Prashta so Naishatarke Namatir Aapaneya one cannot know the lord by Tarka this is not the way to know the lord so the Upanishads are quite clear although the Upanishads are themselves very scholarly books but even while giving difference to scholarship they also talk about the element that is beyond scholarship and it is significant that these verses are coming in Upanishads not in the Puranas because sometimes those who are Vedantists they don't accept the thought of the Puranas so here Prabhupada is embellishing the argument which Gopinathacharya is making and he is stating that actually you cannot know the absolute truth simply by scholarship you need something more following the absolute truth and that something more is the mercy of the lord and because you do not have the mercy of Sarovarma that's why despite your scholarship you are not able to know the absolute truth see how it moves forward this kind of thing moves forward in our next talk.