Is the Absolute Truth just a stream of consciousness for jnanis and a Person for bhaktas?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Question from Radhikesh Prabhu Is Brahman just a stream of consciousness for the jnanis and a person for bhaktas how are both conceptions simultaneously true Answer As Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita In 4.11 he says that I reciprocate to people according to how they surrender to me so when a jnani desires to merge into the oneness of the absolute truth which the jnanis think is the absolute truth then Krishna reciprocates with them accordingly if they are brahmavadis, if they are not offensive to Krishna’s form that means they just know about the impersonal absolute and they want to enter into the impersonal absolute so now in this case essentially what happens is that Krishna reciprocates with their desire by obscuring perception of other things for them so that means is the absolute truth just a stream of consciousness definitely not the absolute truth is as we know having a three level manifestation there is the all pervading effulgence which can be likened to a stream of consciousness but that stream of consciousness is coming from a source and that source is Bhagawan and Bhagawan is a person and Bhagawan also manifests in localized manifestations as Paramatma so now let’s focus on the two, Brahman and Bhagawan those who desire to merge into the infinity of the one consciousness then Krishna reciprocates by making them no longer aware of the personal dimension so just like we say in this world also that is primarily applying to materialists who can’t perceive spiritual reality but this 7.25 in the Bhagavad Gita comes immediately after 7.24 which is talking about impersonals so they think I was they think Krishna was impersonal before and has become personal now so now the point here and Krishna says so immediately after Krishna says that I am not manifest to everyone so his illusory energy just as the illusory energy makes covers people in this world and can make them materialists who don’t care for God or atheists who don’t believe in God similarly the illusory energy can cover even the impersonalists and make them think that there is no personal dimension to the absolute truth so essentially it is the absolute truth it does have a manifestation as all pervading stream of consciousness but to say that the absolute truth is just a stream of consciousness that is a misconception and just as there can be misconception in which people misidentify with the body and think that I am a male or a female or whatever similarly there can be by the maya hekti of the lord, the misconception by which the impersonalist think that I have merged into the infinite, into the one stream of consciousness so then because normally in the conscious experience there is the perceiver, there is the perceived and there is the perception that perception is a stream of consciousness so by the illusory energy the perceived and the perceiver both that consciousness becomes obscured for the jnanis and they conceive only the stream of consciousness and they think that they have merged that stream so that is made by, that arrangement is made by the lord to reciprocate with their desire so that is also an illusion but that is not exactly a material illusion in the sense that there is no matter, there is no matter in the brahman but still it is an illusion and it is not exactly a spiritual illusion because spiritual illusions like this done by yoga maya in the spiritual world is meant to increase the remembrance of Krishna for example Yashodamayi, she can relate with Krishna much more intimately and intensely when she sees Krishna not as the absolute truth but as her child so that is the spiritual forgetfulness of Krishna’s position so the brahmava, those who go to brahman and seek the brahman, they are in an intermediate position where there is an illusion according to their desires by which they conceive of the absolute truth as impersonal so it is not that are the both conceptions real? No, that is a that is a reduction of the conception of the absolute truth to a level of self-contradiction now to say that the absolute truth is personal for the personalist and impersonal for the impersonalist is that correct? It is correct in terms of the reciprocity of the absolute truth it is not correct in terms of the complete understanding of the absolute truth the absolute truth has a personal aspect and the impersonalist see the absolute truth as impersonal, that does not mean that the absolute truth no longer is a personal aspect there is a personal aspect and brahmano the personal aspect is the higher aspect but the impersonalist don’t perceive it so it is not that both are real in the sense that the absolute truth is only impersonal for the impersonalist and only personal for the personalist, no, as devotees we understand that Krishna has both aspects and as devotees we acknowledge the impersonal aspect of Krishna but we focus on the personal aspect the impersonalists are not like that they are not acknowledging Krishna’s personal aspect and focusing on the impersonal aspect rather their philosophy makes them think that the personal aspect itself is a product of illusion and that is an illusion thank you Hare Krishna