Dear Guruji and sincere devotees, Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
The absolute and relative point of view: I have thought about this for quite a while. It comes back to us in so many ways and it causes so many confusions and contradictions when we are not able to differentiate between the two. The following is simple, complicated, and deep, all at the same time. I hope some of it will resonate in your hearts because it has the ability to shed more light in our understanding. Of course we can choose camps and fight on either side of understanding, but after sunset the camps are free to visit each other and can exchange insights beyond the contradiction.
To me all contradictions in the Vedas can be seen for what they are by just understanding the difference between the relative and absolute point of view. Actually when we are able to use our intelligence in a distinguished way the so-called contradictions seize to exist and all we perceive is one big harmony. Lord Gauranga Krishna never promotes any contradictions and always induces supreme love and harmony. Whenever we find ourselves on either side of a relative or absolute point of view we have to develop the ability to see all sides. A coin is round when seen from the top and oval when seen from the side. We cannot say the coin is exclusively round or oval. Both are true. Slightly tilted and turned the coin has even more shapes. All are true. An intelligent person accepts that there are more shapes to the coin and accepts all of them as true. An unintelligent person only acknowledges certain shapes and rejects others. When I only accept the oval shape and you only accept the round shape we can fall prey to extremism and then we are more than likely ending up having a war over that.
Let’s take a very sensitive subject under Vaisnavas; we have never been in the spiritual world as opposed to we have fallen down from the spiritual world. We see both stements and it seems many devotees are divided into camps over it. In the following I will prove that both statements are 100% true within the context of point of view.
The absolute point of view is the Lord’s point of view. In the eternity of His realm there is no past and future, there is only the eternal present. So the nitya siddhas (eternally liberated souls) are eternally in the present and never fall down into the relativity of past and future. Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura says that there is no birth or death for the nitya siddhas. Sometimes they descend to the material world with the Lord and return to His abode with Him. The eternally liberated souls are never bound by karma and thus do not take birth in the material world (Sri Caitanya-Bhagavata Antya-lila 10.172).
The nitya baddhas (eternally conditioned souls) seem to be trapped forever in this material world. They have forgotten their position as eternal servant of the Lord and they have come under the spell of the relative point of view. Relative means containing past, present and future with rarely the awareness being on the present: predominately struggling with the past or dreaming about the future. The absolute spiritual world can never be dragged into the relative material world and although the Lord and His devotees appear in the relative world They remain, at all times, in Their absolute nature.
The nitya siddhas are always totally aware of their absolute nature and they don’t even know about the existence of relativity. The nitya baddhas are always totally trapped within the relativity and are not aware of the absolute nature. The marginal souls occupy a unique position in which they are allowed to have perception of both worlds: relative and absolute. They can chant the holy Names of the Lord and attain total perception of the absolute and regain their original position as servant of the Lord. The devotee who is 24/7 absorbed in the Lord’s Names and pastimes only sees the absolute world and is in fact already back in the spiritual world. For such a devotee the relative world stops to exist as a perception of reality. The non-devotees remain having the perception of the relative world dominated by a past and future, however they are sometimes given the golden opportunity to have a glimpse into the absolute world of the Lord. They become so fascinated with that glimpse that they start to try to find that again and again and when they are so fortunate to come in contact with the devotee of the Lord their perception of their original position as servant of the Lord is awakened. Marginal souls are in this unique position because they can experience a shift in perception from relative to absolute.
This brings us to the simple understanding that from the relative point of view the soul has fallen from the spiritual world. Because when our eternal position is to be a servant of the Lord there must be somehow a point in time in which we retired of being a servant of the Lord. And from the absolute point of view we can never have been fallen from the spiritual world because the eternal present isn’t defined by any consideration of past and future. From the relative point of view we have never been in the spiritual world with the Lord. From the absolute point of view we have always been with the Lord. When we cling to one point of view these conclusions seem to contradict each other but when we consider both, the relative and absolute point of view, there is no contradiction.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura says that ‘what the unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Lord says is all true and is independent of any consideration of unwholesome pros and cons’. So we should never play speculative games with our acharyas’ realizations and we are always open to see all points of view before we come to a hasty ‘unwholesome’ conclusion. And when we don’t understand it we should follow Sridhara Maharaja’s advice: ‘Why asking about the most difficult thing to understand and why not try to understand the easiest thing? That is: how to become Krishna conscious and go back to Godhead.’ We better avoid forming an opinion and choosing ‘camp’ when we have not the capacity to distinguish the truth from different angles. Pure devotees avoid endless discussions that seem to ‘loop’ and recognize this trap of maya’s, however sometimes in their compassion they clean up the whole trap so others will not fall in them.
Lord Gauranga Krishna states that our constitutional nature is that all living beings are eternal servants of the Lord. So to say that conditioned souls have never been in the spiritual world is absurd. The Lord is absolute, His nature is absolute and therefore everything He says is absolute. When a living being is in a conditioned state that doesn’t take away his eternal absolute nature: he is just overshadowed with the concept of past and future and has adopted a relative perception. From the absolute point of view that living being is now eternally conditioned and when liberated there was never a departure. Coming and going, birth and death, are relative perceptions and simply don’t exist within the spiritual world.
Captured within relative perception we can never get a perfect picture of the absolute. In other words we can never ‘drag’ the absolute into the relative. However the absolute can easily ‘contain’ the relative. For instance in the spiritual world the ecstasy of love between the Lord and His devotees are always increasing. That means that what is now the topmost experience of love is the next moment overwhelmed by an even higher experience of love. Although we think of progress in terms of past and future it is not of the same nature as in the spiritual world. Like the seasons are all simultaneously existing within the spiritual world and still the Lord and His devotees can enter them in sequences. What is possible in the spiritual world is endless and full of wonder, surprise and anticipation and way beyond the ordinary relativity of the conditioned world. The events and dealings within the spiritual world are truly within the unique nature of the absolute.
I fully understand that the above is philosophical and is not necessary for understanding the highest ecstasy of a loving relationship with the Lord. In fact you don’t have to know any philosophy to behold the Lord in blissful realization. However I felled compelled to write about the absolute and relative point of view to clear up a seemingly deep rooted discussion under Vaisnavas about the soul’s position. All are true and just need the understanding of the different perspectives they originate from.
Nityananda Nityananda Gauranga Gauranga Hare Krishna Hare Krishna!
Daaso’smi, Hadai Nityananda dasa
- What is NITAAI Yoga
- Who is God
- The Spiritual Creation
- The Material Creation
- The Soul and Supersoul
- The Gross and Subtle Bodies
- Time
- Karma
- Reincarnation
- Heaven and Hell
- Prophecy
- Bhakti Yoga Philosophy
- The Eternal Dharma or Religion
- Worship of Tulasi
- Deity Worship
- Offering of Food
- Ekadashi Fasting from Grains
- Vegetarianism
- Visiting Holy Abodes
- Sadhu Sanga
- The Four Regulative Principles
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