“One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.55)

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भक्त्या माम् अभिजानाति
यावान् यश् चास्मि तत्त्वतः
ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा
विशते तद्-अनन्तरम्

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti
yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ
tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā
viśate tad-anantaram

Saintly people associated with the Vedic tradition tend to chuckle whenever they hear that someone has figured out everything there is to be known. When there is the final word, when the science is finally settled, when the time for the debate has reached its conclusion. We are now supposed to accept this conclusion, though the past is littered with one revision after another. Sometimes the entire idea has to be scrapped in order to make room for the latest hypothesis.

And that is all these conclusions can be. They are the result of speculation. The saintly person understands the limitations to man’s power of discovery. In the grand scheme of things, a few decades is nothing. It is like a tiny blip on the charted timeline, beginning from an arbitrary point in time such as the beginning of the creation. As Shri Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, the people who actually know time, vidah-janah, do so in the context of a kalpa, which is one day of the creator.

सहस्र-युग-पर्यन्तम्
अहर् यद् ब्रह्मणो विदुः
रात्रिं युग-सहस्रान्तां
ते ऽहो-रात्र-विदो जनाः

sahasra-yuga-paryantam
ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ
rātriṁ yuga-sahasrāntāṁ
te ‘ho-rātra-vido janāḥ

“By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.17)

If I was in diapers only a few decades ago, what can I really know? Even if I have time to consume the most popular works of modern science, accepting the observations, believing in the results to the experiments, reconciling that there is no need for further exploration, what have I really gained? What do I really know, when this creation is vast to the level of infinity?

That description applies to both time and space. They are infinite. I can travel back in time, but there will always be a beginning to that beginning. Going in the other direction, there is always something later on. The Sanskrit terms anadi and ananta prevent these limitations. These words are negations of the terms that refer to limitation or demarcation.

Is all hope lost, then? Is the pursuit of knowledge futile? Are we destined to failure in trying to understand this world? Should we resign ourselves to a perpetual state of ignorance? The wise understand their limitations and work within those parameters. They will never understand the infinite glories of the creation, which represent but a spark of the splendor of the Almighty, but they can use that lack of perfection as an entryway towards a higher mode of living.

यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा
तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोऽशसम्भवम्

yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ
śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā
tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṁ
mama tejo-’ṁśa-sambhavam

“Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 10.41)

I may not understand the unexplainable infinity, but the origin of everything does. I may not know the nuances and the scientific basis to the inviolable laws of His creation, but it is His creation, after all. He understands. He knows what is going on. Not every person knows how to fly a plane, but they don’t have to. If they extend faith and trust in an expert pilot, that is sufficient for reaching the proper destination.

If we are actually interested in knowing God, there is only one way. That way is devotion. The discipline in the formal sense is known as bhakti-yoga. The individual soul uniting with the Supreme Soul. One plus one. Jiva with Paramatma. The means of this union is devotion. One aspect to devotion is appreciation.

We may not know the entire creation, but we can appreciate the fact that we do not know. We cannot believe that the planets remain suspended in space, but we don’t have to know how that happens. We don’t understand the intelligence embedded in the seed of the plant, so specific that there will only be one kind of fruit produced after contact with the soil, water, and sunlight. We don’t know so many things, but we can appreciate that the Supreme Lord does know.

We can read sacred texts such as Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavata Purana to gain further insight into the source of the infinite. We may not believe so many of the historical tales, but nothing is out of the realm of possibility. We have never met someone who can literally be broken in half due to a strange way in which they were born. We have never seen such a person literally split in two during a conflict, but the Supreme Lord can make these impossibilities a reality. He knows the science to everything, and so he can guide a devotee like Bhima on how to proceed.

“Lord Krishna immediately picked up a twig from a tree and, taking it in His hand, bifurcated it. In this way He hinted to Bhimasena how Jarasandha could be killed. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is omnipotent, and if He wants to kill someone, no one can save that person. Similarly, if He wants to save someone, no one can kill him.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 17)

In Closing:

Despite acumen shown,
Still so much unknown.

To remain that way,
Despite centuries to stay.

Because only the Supreme holding,
Of past and future unfolding.

Even for how Jarasandha to split,
Now my foolishness to quit.

Categories: bhagavan

Tags: bhagavad-gita, bhakti, dailyprompt, poem, poems, poetry, yoga