One who has not reached to that point, to realize Kṛṣṇa, it is to be understood that his knowledge is still imperfect. But these persons who have got imperfect knowledge, they are passing as Vedāntists and knows everything. They do not know. Kṛṣṇa therefore says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19): "These impersonalists, the so-called Vedāntists, the so-called men of knowledge, after many, many births . . ." Because it is not so easy to understand Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person. They'll have to wait for thousands of births to understand Kṛṣṇa. They'll have to wait. Although they are very much proud of their knowledge, we know where they are: partial realization. Of course, they are also in the same field. But they'll not understand the Supreme Person.
Those who understood, the great sages in the beginning, in the beginning of the creation, munayaḥ, great, great sages, Marīci, Ātreya, Vasiṣṭha and others, so they worshiped the Supreme Person, bhagavantam, not the impersonal feature. Impersonal, actually, there is . . . there cannot be any worship of the impersonal feature, Brahman. It is simply accepting some trouble.
Kleśaḥ adhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām (BG 12.5). It is simply troublesome. But unfortunately, these impersonalists have spread all over the world. They have no sharp brain to understand the Supreme Person, and they are misguiding the whole population that either impersonalism or voidism. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi.
But this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is against this. We are giving directly the name and address and the activities, everything, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are trying to find out the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. Anvayāt and abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means conscious. And what kind of conscious? What kind of knowledge? Sva-rāṭ.
Our, my knowledge, your knowledge is received from others. Without . . . the Vedāntists . . . the Vedāntists, they also receive their knowledge from another Vedāntist—the so-called Vedāntists. Vedāntists are . . . real Vedāntists are the Vaiṣṇavas. And the impersonalist Vedāntists, because their knowledge is not perfect, therefore their knowledge of Vedānta is also imperfect, because they do not know anything about the Supreme Person.
- āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
- patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
- (SB 10.2.32)
This is the version of Vyāsadeva. The . . . because they neglect the Supreme Person. Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. The Vedāntists . . . there are many Vedāntists in Vṛndāvana, but they do not come to see the temple, because they think themselves that they have become Kṛṣṇa. That is the Vedānta . . . so-called Vedānta philosophy conclusion.
But Bhāgavata says that vimukta-māninaḥ. "They are thinking that they have become liberated." That is their concoction. Māninaḥ. If somebody thinks that, "I have become the richest man in the world," although he has nothing to show . . . to become richest man, there must be some symptoms. But if a poor man says that, "I am the richest man in the world," so one should test him, whether he has got the complete riches of the world.
So simply thinking, concocting, is one thing, and fact is another. Fact is that we are tiny, part and parcel of the Absolute Truth. But we are not actually absolute; we are relative, relative truth. On the existence of the Absolute Truth we are existing, but we have no independent existence, neither we have got independent knowledge. We are all dependent.
The independent knowledge, Absolute Truth, is Kṛṣṇa. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. That is the beginning of Vedānta-sūtra. Therefore, bhejire munayo 'thāgre bhagavantam adhokṣajam (SB 1.2.25). Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, beyond the sense perception. This impersonal concept of the Absolute Truth is in negation of the material duality. But that is not absolute knowledge. Absolute knowledge is that when we reach bhagavantam adhokṣajam.
Sattvaṁ viśuddham. His existence is viśuddha, not contaminated. Our existence in this material existence, this is not viśuddha. This is contaminated by the modes of material nature. But His existence is viśuddha. Even Śaṅkarācārya, he says, in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā: nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt. Vyaktāvyakta. There are two material features: manifested and nonmanifested. Śaṅkarācārya agrees that Nārāyaṇa . . . as soon as he says: "Nārāyaṇa," he means the person, person, the Supreme Person.
Paraḥ avyaktāt: He's transcendental. His person is not the same person, personality, as we have got. There, that is . . . para means that is adhokṣajam, beyond our sense perception. So . . . and there are so many other evidences. Kṛṣṇa says that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7), "There is no more superior existence than Myself." Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8): "I am the origin." Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This verse, this code, is explained by Kṛṣṇa Himself, that "I am the origin of everything." And Arjuna, who understood Kṛṣṇa, he said, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān puruṣam (BG 10.12). He accepted the Absolute Truth a puruṣa, a person.