So, it is not from any qualification on our side that the Absolute can be caught. Whomever He chooses to make Himself known to will know Him. This is explained in the Upanisads: He cannot be known by lectures or discussions, by sharp memory or vast intelligence, or by genius or supernatural intellect. One may have extensively studied all the revealed scriptures, but that is no qualification. Krishna reserves all independence on His side. There is only one way by which He can be known: whomever He chooses to make Himself known to can know Him. Otherwise all rights are reserved there by His sweet will.
How can we draw His sweet will? That is the question. How we can tackle His sweet will. That can only be done through saranagati, surrender, by increasing our negative side. We must think, «I am so poor; without Your grace, I can’t live.» We must think like this to try to arouse pity within His heart. We must appeal to His understanding that we are in extreme need of Him and that without His grace we can’t live. Only such a sincere feeling of necessity can draw His attention to us. Otherwise, we have no possibility for capturing Him. So, the negative approach has been recommended for capturing Him. Our exclusive prayer is that we are the most needy and sincere. That alone can draw His attention towards us. And that is not an opinion or speculation, it is a fact. It is reality.
I once met a scholarly sannyasi in Badarik Ashram who posed as an atheist in the course of our discussion. He argued, «What is the evidence that God or the soul exists?» Then I quoted a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam (11.22.34):
atmaparijnana-mayo vivado
hy astiti nastiti bhidartha-nisthah
vyartho ‘pi naivoparameta pumsam
mattah paravrtta-dhiyam sva-lokat
I explained to him that although atma, spirit, is self-effulgent, there is a constant quarrel between two opposing parties. One party says, «God exists!» The other says, «God does not exist!» Srimad Bhagavatam says that the atma is self-effulgent, but still we find that one class of men say, «He exists, we see Him, He can be seen», and another says, «He has never existed.» This quarrel has no end because one of the parties hasn’t got the eye to see what is self-evident. This quarrel is a useless waste of time, but still it will never stop; it will continue forever. Why? Because there are those who have the eyes to see God and those who have no eyes to see Him or their own self. One of these classes of men has deviated from God consciousness. There is a barrier between them and God consciousness, between them and self-consciousness. So, the disagreement will only continue on account of their ignorance.
Those who have eyes to see will say, «The sun exists; there is the sun.» And those who have no eyes will say, «No, no, there is no sun.» This argument will continue forever, but that does not mean that the sun is not existing. It can show itself.
An analogy has been given in this connection. A boy is born in a dungeon, a dark prisonhouse. And he grows up there without any experience of sunlight. One of his friends from outside the prison would come and visit him. One day, the boy’s friend said, «Let us go see the sun. Come with me, I shall show you.» The boy replied, «Yes, I shall go», but he began to take a lantern with him. His friend remarked, «It is not necessary to take the lantern.» The boy said, «What do you say! Do you think that I am a fool? Can anything be seen without the help of a lantern? I am not a fool!» Then his friend forcibly took him by the hand and showed him the sun. The boy said, «Oh, this is the sun! By its light everything can be seen.»
The soul is like that. God is like that. He is seen by His own light, and it is only by His light that we can see anything. He is self-effulgent. By His own light He can show Himself to others. He is the source of all knowledge. This is the proper conception of Godhead. He is automatically existing. He cannot be seen by our knowledge, just as the sun cannot be seen by the help of any other light. It is not necessary that we try to acquire God consciousness through intellect or knowledge. Knowledge of God is independent. It can come and go of its own accord. And if He comes to me, everything comes to me. But nothing can force Him to come within our vision. The sun cannot be taken into your dungeon, but you have to go to the sun and see things by its grace; in the same way, the Lord is self-effulgent. He can be seen only by His own light.
Intellectualism is a disqualification. We are interested in jnana-sunya-bhakti, knowledge-free devotion. Affection, attraction, sympathy — these things are all the outcome of having a heart. The scientists feel that animals have no real brain, no intelligence. Yet we see that even without much of a brain, an animal can live, but without a heart, none can live. As the brain is a representation of a computer, the animals have no real computer to calculate. Animals may follow intuitive knowledge, and so they can work unconsciously. And we can see that intuition can go above brain calculation. So, many birds and beasts can understand that an earthquake is coming, but so far, no human calculation can understand precisely when an earthquake will come. There are many things that our brain cannot feel, cannot catch, whereas even the animals can get some clue about them beforehand. And after a long and deep research, men cannot find what is beyond their reason. The position of reason and intellect is explained in Srimad Bhagavatam (10.14.3):
jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva
jivanti san-mukharitam bhavadiya-vartam
sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir
ye prayaso ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyam
«Hatefully rejecting any attempt in the intellectual line, we must nurture a submissive spirit within ourselves and try to live our lives in association with topics about the Lord. Of course, this does not mean any topics about the Lord; they must come from a genuine source. And it does not matter what position we hold at present. Whoever wholeheartedly attends to the teachings of His divine agents by thought, word, and deed can conquer Him who is otherwise invincible.»
This is the path of realisation recommended by the Srimad Bhagavatam, which condemns the path of intellectual attainment:
sreyah srtim bhaktim udasya te vibho
klisyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
tesam asau klesala eva sisyate
nanyad yatha sthula-tusavaghatinam
«O Lord, those who want to have a clear conception of You through their intellect find their attempts useless. Their endeavors end only in frustration, like those who try to beat rice from an empty husk» (SB: 10.14.4). So jnan, knowledge, is like an empty husk. Energy and knowledge are only outer aspects. The real substance, the rice, is devotion — love. That is the tasteful thing within. Other things are covers (jnana-karmady-anavrtam). But what is within the cover is tasteful, eternal, auspicious, and beautiful: satyam, sivam, sundaram. Beauty is reality, ecstasy is reality; everything else is only an outer cover. If we concern ourselves too much with the cover, we cannot get the substance within. Then, our life becomes a disappointment:
naiskarmyam apy achyuta-bhava-varjitam
na sobhate jnanam alam niranjanam
kutah punah sasvad abhadram isvare
na charpitam karma yad apy akaranam
«Mere retirement is not considered to be fulfilment in anyone’s life. Although in the stage of liberation, no contamination of death, birth, disease, and infirmity are to be found, still that cannot be considered perfection. Then what to speak of karma, a laborious life of work which is not done for the satisfaction of Krishna?» (SB: 1.5.12)
The only thing that can give fulfilment in both labour and rest is Krishna: He is the harmonising principle of both. If work is done as a service for Krishna, then our labour is converted into gold: it is no longer iron. And only if renunciation is related to divine service does it have any value.