If scripture gives knowledge in goodness, how can it help us know what is beyond goodness?
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Transcript
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If scripture is also understood, not just knowledge in goodness, then how can by scripture we understand something which is beyond goodness, that is the soul and the God? No, scripture doesn’t give knowledge only in goodness. I said that rather than scriptural knowledge, it is scriptural knowledge which is the ultimate purpose of scripture.
But relatively speaking there can be various levels of knowledge. And scripture gives us knowledge about goodness by which we can understand Atma Tattva. But scripture gives us knowledge beyond also.
That’s why from Sattva Guna we can get knowledge broadly of Atma Tattva and infer the existence of goodness. But, Krishna can be known only by Bhakti. Not even by other religious processes can Krishna be known.
He can only be known by Bhakti. So, knowledge in goodness is like the take-off point. Just as if somebody is living in a city where one has never seen an aircraft flying.
One may think that flying is never possible at all. When the Wright brothers made the first aircraft, they had to bear a huge amount of skepticism. Nobody said, is it not possible to fly? So then, unless one has come to an aircraft where one has actually seen an airplane taking off, one will not even consider the possibility.
But just being at the airport and seeing the aircraft take-off, that alone is not enough. One has to board the aircraft oneself and take-off if one wants to go into the sky. So, coming to the airport and seeing the aircraft take-off is like coming to the mode of goodness.
Below the mode of goodness, it’s like away from the airport, one may not even accept the possibility that one can fly in the sky. So like that, one may not even consider that there can be some higher spiritual reality beyond the material reality when one is caught in the mode of goodness. So, goodness acts like the take-off platform.
But ultimately, one has to raise one’s consciousness even beyond goodness if one wants to perceive Krishna. And one wants to perceive Atma as a tangible reality. Because what one sees in goodness, is that one gets a generic sense of spiritual nature.
But a specific understanding of the individual soul, that requires going beyond goodness towards transcendence. So goodness is the take-off point. And goodness gives us the foundation by which we can strive for transcendence.
But goodness is not the same as transcendence. 2.45 Krishna says that go beyond three modes and situate yourself in the spiritual platform. So bhakti is the easiest way by which we can rise from whatever mode we are in to goodness and through goodness to transcendence.