Why the word ‘summum bonum’ is used to convey ‘ultimate source of all energies’, when the word actually means ‘source of all goodness’?

From Kanai Krishna P

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Kanai Krishna Prabhu.
Why does Srila Prabhupada use the word Samambonam to convey ultimate source of all energies when the word actually means source of all goodness? Answer. Srila Prabhupada uses the word in both senses. Prabhupada sometimes uses the word Samambonam to refer to use the Bhagavatam as the Samambonam for all the Vedic literature.
There he is using it to sense that all that is good in the Vedic literature is present in the highest sense in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Now, eventually Prabhupada uses it to refer to Krishna as Samambonam, absolute truth. We understand that actually everything that is present in this world ultimately comes from Krishna, either directly or indirectly.
So, for example, when Prabhupada is asked about what is the source of evil, Prabhupada says evil simply means the absence of God. Just like shadow is there when sun is present, one turns away from the sun. Ultimately the sun is only the source of the shadow.
Although indirectly, sun doesn’t give darkness, sun gives only light, but when one turns away from the light, one sees the shadow. So similarly, everything that is present in the world, all the energies, the material and the spiritual, they are in the absolute sense good. So when we say source of all goodness, everything is ultimately good.
Even the material world is good. If it is used for the right purpose, we don’t consider as per the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita that the material world is bad, material world is evil, or for that matter the material world is false. So it’s real and it is potentially good.
If we see that it is connected with Krishna and we use it to establish our connection with Krishna by engaging material resource in Krishna’s service. So in the absolute sense, all of existence is good. That’s why the use of the word Samambonam to refer to as equivalent to everything is a valid way of using that word.
Because from the Vedic philosophy’s perspective, everything ultimately comes from the Supreme Lord and everything can be used for the Supreme Lord. And because God is good, everything that comes from him has a good purpose. It is only when we don’t understand its good purpose, then we misuse it for wrong purpose and then it becomes bad.