In the material world people want these three things: dhanam, janam and sundarīṁ kavitā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye. "Then mukti? You take mukti?" "No." Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4): "I don't want to finish My repetition of birth and death also." That is called mukti. Mukti means stopping the repetition of birth and death. So those who are hankering after . . . the jñānīs, the jñānī-sampradāya, they want to merge into the existence of the Supreme Lord. But that merging is possible in the brahma-jyotir. Brahmajyoti.
The Absolute Truth is divided into three. Actually, He is not divided. Because He is absolute, He cannot be divided. But according to the, I mean to say, realizer, somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as impersonal Brahman, somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as localized Paramātmā, and somebody is realizing Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, most beautiful, lovable object. So the Bhāgavata Purāṇa says, vadanti tat tattva vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). There is no difference between Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. It is only the different features of realization.
If you want to realize the Absolute Truth by your imperfect senses . . . we should always know that our senses are always imperfect. Just like we are very much proud of seeing with my own eyes. We say sometimes, challenge, "Can you show me God? Can you show me this or that?" But we do not know how much imperfect are our eyes. We are seeing every day the sun, but we are seeing it just like a disk. But actually the sun is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this planet. We cannot see. If there is . . . immediately there is darkness, we cannot see. Unless there is light, sunlight or electric light or moonlight, we cannot see. We cannot see our eyeballs. We cannot see the eyelid, nearest. Longest, longest we cannot see; nearest we cannot see. Therefore we should not be very much proud of our seeing directly, direct perception.
So direct . . . anyone who is trying to understand the Absolute Truth by direct perception, he can rise up to the impersonal Brahman understanding, not more than that. And those who are trying to understand the Absolute Truth within his heart, just like yogīs . . . dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The yogī, by meditation, being in samādhi, they are seeing the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, within the heart. Dhyānāvasthita. And those who are devotees, they are seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Arjuna is seeing, personally, face to face: Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the origin of everything. As it is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1).
What is Absolute Truth? This human form of life is meant for understanding what is Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is human form of life. The cats and dogs cannot inquire about what is Brahman. That is not possible. This human form of life, they can inquire. Inquisitiveness. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. And immediately reply, the Vedānta-sūtra, "Brahman, the Absolute Truth, is that which is the source of everything." Janmādy asya. Now that reply is given by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
- (BG 10.8)
Budhā. Budhā means one who is actually in knowledge, one who is actually in understanding. Such person, he knows that Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything, janmādy asya yataḥ. The Vedānta-sūtra gives hint that "Absolute Truth is that which is the original source of emanation of everything." That Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa. He says further, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7): "Beyond Me, there is no other superior authority or truth." So in another place Kṛṣṇa says:
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
"Out of many million of person, one is interested how to make this life, human life, successful." Everyone is interested how to enjoy senses, sense gratification. But that is the business of the animals. The animals, they do not know anything beyond their sense gratification. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca, sāmānyam etad paśubhiḥ narāṇām (Hitopadeśa).