Amnaya means knowledge that has descended from the transcendental world into this material world for the benefit of all souls. You can call that knowledge ‘spiritual’ or ‘transcendental’ or ‘divine’. The main idea is that it has descended from above; it has not been formed by anything of this world. We can understand everything about who we are (sambandha), what the goal of our life should be (prayojan), and how we can attain that (abhidheya) through amnaya.
How amnaya, revealed knowledge, exists in this world can be understood through the example of the Ganges River. Previously the civilisation of India was called the Ganga-sabhyata, «The civilisation of the Ganges». Everyone throughout India has respect for the Ganges and has faith that Mother Ganges comes down to this world from the lotus feet of the Lord in the transcendental world. As the Ganges comes down through the heavens, Lord Siva takes her on his head, breaks her force, and then allows her to flow gently over the surface of the earth. Everyone understands that the Ganges descends from the Lord’s abode in this way and then flows down from the Himalayas across India to the ocean in the Bay of Bengal, or the Ganga Sagar, as it is known in India. As the Ganges flows across India many dirty things can be found within her waters, but everyone understands that the Ganges never loses her transcendental nature even when she appears dirty materially. Ganges water is understood to come down from the Lord’s lotus feet and to always be fully transcendental. People understand that no matter how dirty her water may appear, the Ganges’ waters spiritual nature is never polluted or removed by anything material. So even though the Ganges appears to be polluted, everyone understands that Ganges water is always spiritually purifying and that even the auspicious breeze blowing off the Ganges brings a spiritual mood of devotion to the conditioned souls of this world.
Through this example of the Ganges we can understand that when amnaya descends into this realm it will never lose its transcendental nature, even though it may mix with our material minds, language, and experience. Still, our intelligence cannot conceive of how the Ganges descends from the transcendental realm or how revealed truth appears in this world. To adjust this we can consider that now in the scientific age so many things exist around us that no one could have conceived of in the past. Only now can we conceive that a signal can be broadcast through the ether, picked up by a receiver, and then played on a television or radio in a distant place. Now in the scientific age we understand that transmission can happen through subtle means. We can learn from the work of the scientists that it is not unreasonable to try to connect with the higher transcendental world just because the medium for our connection with the transcendental plane is not physical. The scientists have shown everyone that clear communication is possible through subtle means. So we only need to discover the proper channel of revelation and how we can make ourselves a proper receiver capable of receiving transmission from the transcendental realm. Then everything will be revealed to us.
Making ourselves proper receivers begins with faith and prayer. When a house is built it is wired so that electricity is available throughout the house. Without electricity a house is dark at night. But when electricity powers the lights within a house, everything can be seen — what is inside the house and what is outside the house. By ourselves, with only our mundane faculties, we are in darkness and cannot imagine the light of divine life. But if we open our hearts and desire that new light appear there, if we pray that our hearts may be clean enough to receive transcendental knowledge, then happily that knowledge will appear within us. As wires carry electricity, so our hearts have the capacity to receive transmissions from the transcendental realm. Faith and prayer from our heart can bring us new life and light from the transcendental world.
Our Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, once visited a group called the Arya Samaj in West India. A man from this group challenged him, «You say that Krishna is infinite, but you also say you can understand Krishna and you have knowledge of Krishna. You are finite. So how can Krishna be infinite? If the finite can know the infinite, then how can it be infinite?» Srila Guru Maharaj quickly responded, «You are right. It is not possible for the finite to know the infinite by its own power. But if Krishna cannot make Himself known to the finite, then He is not infinite. The Infinite must also be able to reveal Himself to the finite, otherwise He is not infinite.» That man could not argue with this and was very happily defeated by Srila Guru Maharaj. There is no question whether Krishna can reveal Himself to us.
The Lord is not powerless. He has the capacity to reveal Himself, and He is merciful. By His mercy Krishna descends to this world to fulfil our prayers in so many different forms. Sometimes He Himself comes with His full transcendental paraphernalia, sometimes He sends His Avatars, and sometimes He sends divinely empowered souls. In all these forms He descends to this world to bestow His affection and divine connection upon the fortunate jiva-souls.
When transcendental knowledge appears in our hearts by the will of Lord Krishna, we will develop the capacity to understand our eternal relationship with Him.1 Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, «Seeing a light bulb shining indicates it is connected to a power source.» When we will see and understand things clearly in our heart we will know we are connected with a source of divine power. It is only necessary for us to give that divine light clear entrance and a clean position in our heart. We are not in control of the flow of revelation, but if we are faithful, submissive, and surrendered, then we can attract revelation’s flow and feel its presence in our hearts. And when the descending flow of transcendental knowledge wants to reveal itself in our hearts it must reveal itself; we will not be able to check it actually.
Still, from our present position, we are not able to understand everything.
nayam atma pravachanena labhyo
na medhaya na bahuna srutena
yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyas
tasyaisa atma vivrnute tanum svam
Our ordinary mental power, intelligence, and learning do not give us entrance into transcendental reality. Only when the Lord reveals Himself in our hearts can we understand Him. This means we can come to know Him only by surrendering to His enlightening power. And whenever we feel the presence of that type of perfect light-connection in our life we must be happy and think that we are proceeding rightly towards our transcendental destiny. As that happens we will begin to understand everything. But until that happens we can’t really understand anything. So, once we have adjusted ourselves to be faithful receivers of the Lord’s revelation, we need to connect with Him through the proper channel in which His enlightening power flows. Once we have prepared ourselves we must try to connect with the Lord and His amnaya through the proper channel. Then everything will be revealed in our hearts. It is sure that through the proper connection with the proper channel, amnaya will appear in our hearts.2 We only need to proceed in our spiritual life with faith, with chastity and sincerity, with love and affection, and try to receive transcendental knowledge through the proper channel.
The proper channel means a connection with a Vedic source. It means Vedic culture, Vedic scriptures, and Vedic saints. Vedic culture means amnaya-parampara, the descending flow of transcendental knowledge through heart-to-heart transmission. Through the channel of amnaya-parampara transcendental knowledge descends from above and flows through this world like the Ganges River. Sometimes people think Vedic culture started when Vedic scriptures were written but this is not the truth. Actually, Vedic culture manifested during the creation of the universe.
At the beginning of creation, Brahma, the first created being within the universe, awoke and found that everything was dark. He could not see anything. Eventually he heard a sound, «Tapa!» In this form of divya-saraswati, transcendental sound vibration, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna initiated Brahma. Krishna Himself acted as the first Guru of everyone in this mundane world by giving consciousness of Himself to Brahma, the creator. Tapa means ‘meditate’. Brahma meditated and Lord Krishna appeared in his heart. After this Brahma could see and also understand what his work was to be. Then he began creating everything within the universe. Later Brahma gave the consciousness he received from Krishna to Narad Rsi, and Narad Rsi gave it to Vedavyas. Vedavyas then distributed that transcendental knowledge to everyone. In this way transcendental knowledge came down into this world at the very beginning of creation and then began to spread from heart to heart.
This process of revelation is called Guru-parampara, or amnaya-parampara, and it is the proper channel to approach the Lord. By hearing from a higher source, from a qualified Guru, serving him, and meditating on his instructions, transcendental knowledge is revealed to a sincere seeker. This is the meaning of ‘proper channel’ and this was the process in the previous ages of the Vedic culture.
There was no writing or scripture involved originally: only hearing, serving, and learning from Sri Gurudev. Someone who could receive transcendental knowledge in this way and also reveal new light about the transcendental world to others was known as a rsi. Srila Guru Maharaj explained that rsi means a ‘research scholar’. This is a very nice expression. It means that someone will only become well-known as a rsi if they have great research capacity, if they are able to reveal new light from the transcendental world that is essential for everyone’s spiritual and material lives.
The discoveries of the great rsis who received light from the transcendental world were later organised and compiled into scriptures by Vedavyas. Vyas, or Vedavyas, is a title which means Veda-vistara-kari, one who spreads Veda by putting it into suitable written form. Veda means the consciousness given by amnaya, revealed knowledge that is essential in the lives of everyone. A Vedavyas is actually a Saktyaves-avatar, an incarnation of the Lord in the form of an empowered jiva-soul who has the capacity to spread amnaya.
Hinduism, Vedic culture, and Indian culture come from the rulings of Vedavyas. All religious groups within India, mostly Hindu groups, still follow Vedavyas’ teachings and the Manu-samhita, the laws of mankind. Krishna Dvaipayan was the name of the rsi who performed the service of compiling the scriptures in the recent age and became known as Vedavyas.3
The discoveries of the rsis were very broad. The rsis understood everything about all aspects of life, both material and spiritual. Krishna Dvaipayan Vedavyas collected all of their research and mixed it with material examples so that the conditioned souls could understand it. Then he divided and presented their research in different scriptures to be taught to students within the schools of Vedic culture. In this way he composed the four Vedas — the Rg-veda, Sama-veda, Yajur-veda, and Atharva-veda — the Ayurveda scripture, and the fifth Veda, the Mahabharata.
These scriptures are so vast; they are huge books. The Mahabharata alone has over one hundred thousand verses in it. We have heard that there is also another part of the Mahabharata found only in heaven that has even more verses. But even within the one hundred thousand verses of our Mahabharata here, there are so many stories; we cannot even conceive how many stories. They are all very sweet, hopeful stories, but sometimes they are mixed with some alloy, some themes which are not purely devotional. Still, they are all related to religion and always give us remembrance of the fundamental questions of life: «Who are you? Why are you suffering in the illusory environment? What is the cause of everything?» All the scriptures are always giving us this consciousness. Questions about who we are and what the goal of our life should be are the fundamental basis of all religious thought.
The Mahabharata presents everything to us, but, along with the other Vedas, it is so vast. We could not finish reading all of the Vedic scriptures even within an entire lifetime. Also, the knowledge given in the Vedas is widely differentiated; there are sections that describe all the different aspects of life. If we try to learn everything just by reading the Vedas ourselves, we become lost in a jungle of knowledge. Considering that this would happen, Vedavyas felt his work was not sufficient. He then composed the one hundred and eight Upanisads.
The Vedas are very big. The Upanisads are much shorter. They present all the ideals found in the Vedas in a much shorter form.4 But the Upanisads are still so many, so Vedavyas finally composed the Vedanta-darsana.
Within the Vedanta-darsana is present the gist of all revealed knowledge and all the previous scriptures. When Vedavyas wanted to give the substance of the whole of Vedic literature in a very short way, he presented the Vedanta-darsana. Within the Vedanta-darsana there are only very short sutras, codes, but there is so much light and so much knowledge within each and every one of them.
Vedavyas wanted to present everything in the sutras of his Vedanta-darsana. He did this, but the sutras contain so much condensed knowledge that they are very difficult to properly understand. Only a very highly qualified person can properly understand the condensed knowledge of the Vedanta-darsana. General persons are not able to understand it. We have seen that now there are also many wrong interpretations of the Vedanta-darsana being presented that were not intended by Vedavyas. These wrong interpretations create confusion and many mistaken theories which lead towards mayavad, illusionism, and nastikavad, atheism.
Vedavyas wanted that everyone would understand the gist of the Vedas through his writings, especially the Vedanta-darsana, and when he saw that this was not happening, he felt unsatisfied. He thought, «I have given so much knowledge to rescue the conditioned souls. I have given so many things for their benefit. Why am I not feeling peace in my heart? Why am I not fully satisfied? Why is my work unsatisfactory? I cannot understand.»
As Vedavyas was thinking in this way his Gurudev, Narad Goswami, came to visit him by the will of Lord Krishna. Vedavyas was very happy to see Narad Goswami. He received him and worshipped him. Then Vedavyas asked him, «Prabhu, why am I unhappy? You know everything, and you can understand why I am unhappy. Please explain this to me.» Narad Goswami said, «Yes, I can explain everything; it is for this purpose that I have come to visit you.»
Then Narad Goswami chastised Vedavyas: «What you have given the conditioned souls is actually not sufficient.
jugupsitam dharma-krte ’nusasatah
svabhava-raktasya mahan vyatikramah
yad-vakyato dharma ititarah sthito
na manyate tasya nivaranam janah
«Jugupsitam dharma-krte ’nusasatah: you have explained religion in khichuri form; everything is mixed together. That is tasteful to the conditioned souls, and they will no doubt enjoy with that. But you have left a puzzle for anyone who wants to transcend this mundane world. They will be frustrated when they try to find the clear path to the spiritual world. The conditioned souls are always active, and they need to know which path is best for them to follow and what their destination should be. Should they follow the path of karma-yoga, the path of action? Jnana-yoga, the path of knowledge? Astanga-yoga, the path of meditation? Karma-misra-bhakti, the path of devotion mixed with action? Jnana-misra-bhakti, the path of devotion mixed with knowledge? This has not been clearly explained.
«What should be their ideal conception? Brahma conception, the conception of the nondifferentiated Absolute? Paramatma conception, the conception of the Supreme Soul? Bhagavat conception, the conception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead? You have not explained these things clearly, and you have not explained what is Supreme. It is necessary for you to clarify this to complete your work and truly benefit the conditioned souls.
«The conditioned souls can’t conceive that their greatest benefit will come to them through service and dedication to the Lord. They only understand exploitation. When they see the bad reactions they receive in the plane of exploitation they seek relief in the plane of renunciation. But there they lose everything; the jiva-souls cannot find the fulfilment of their existence in impersonal liberation. Only in the plane of dedication and service to the Lord is everything existing beautifully in harmony with the jiva-souls’ true nature. You have not explained this to the conditioned souls.»
Narad Goswami continued, «You have already given medicine for rogis, sick men, in the Vedas, Upanisads, and so on, but you have not explained what is nourishing to strong and healthy men. Your duty is to provide nourishment for everyone. You have given the medicine needed to release the conditioned souls from their suffering. You have given them the clue to find relief. But you have not given any nourishment to the healthy persons, liberated souls, who know they are transcendental, have goodwill, and want further nourishment. You are the supreme authority on religion; no one can change, or argue with, your conclusions. But what you have done is wrong and you must correct it.
«You have said, ‘Raso vai Sah: the Supreme is rasa.’ That is very good. But what is that rasa actually? There are so many forms of ecstasy. What is the supreme form of ecstasy? If a jiva-soul enters the emporium of ecstasy, how will he know what he wants and what is best for him? You have not clearly given that knowledge to the jiva-souls. So what have you actually distributed?
«You began the Vedanta-darsana with, ‘Athato Brahma jijnasa: now search for the Supreme.’ But who will understand that this actually means, ‘Search for Sri Krishna — Reality the Beautiful’? Who will understand that Sri Krishna’s divine form coupled with Radharani is the emporium of all ecstasy (raso vai Sah)?»5
In this way, according to the conception of Srila Guru Maharaj, Narad Goswami chastised Vedavyas. Then Vedavyas folded his palms and asked Narad Goswami, «Prabhu, what should I do now?
Narad Goswami said, «Try to give Krishna consciousness to the jiva-souls by describing and distributing Krishna-lila, the divine Pastimes of Sri Krishna. Krishna-lila is not only the property of the mundane world; it is the property of Goloka Vrndavan, the highest realm of the spiritual world. I will give you in four short notes the seed form of that divine play, the gist form of that knowledge. You are qualified; you have the capacity to meditate. Plant these seeds in your heart and meditate, and they will reveal their full form to you. With proper vision you will see everything cleanly and clearly. Then you can express that through your writing and distribute it all over the world. You will be fully satisfied and happy with that.»
Narad Goswami properly and authentically gave the Bhagavat-chatuh-sloki mantram to Vedavyas, that is, transcendental light and knowledge of ananya-bhakti, exclusive devotion.6 Vedavyas meditated and saw Lord Krishna Himself in his heart along with all of His potencies. Then, with inspiration from the chatuh-sloki mantram, plus the twelve verses of chastisement from Narad Goswami, and the idea to write a commentary on his Vedanta-darsana, Vedavyas composed his final work, his supreme scripture — Srimad Bhagavatam.
Within Srimad Bhagavatam four sittings are described in which the Bhagavat’s message — the message which Narad Goswami received from Brahma and Brahma received from Krishna Himself at the beginning of creation — was transmitted. The first sitting was the meeting of Narad Goswami and Vedavyas. The next sitting was the meeting of Vedavyas and his son Sukadev Goswami. The third sitting happened at Sukratala, where Sukadev Goswami spoke to Maharaj Pariksit. The fourth sitting happened at Naimisaranya, where a disciple of Sukadev Goswami, Suta Goswami, spoke to 60,000 rsis who were assembled for a fire sacrifice. After these four sittings Vedavyas collected everything that was expressed, gradually composed Srimad Bhagavatam, and then gave it to the world.
In this way Vedavyas wrote his own commentary on the Vedanta-darsana and clearly explained everything about revealed knowledge for everyone. With full satisfaction in his heart he presented his introduction to Srimad Bhagavatam in a simple way: «This Srimad Bhagavatam is my last will and testament. It contains the highest knowledge — pure Krishna consciousness — and any jiva-soul who can follow its directives will attain the supreme goal of life. They will attain a liberated position, get entrance into the transcendental service world, and happily play with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna in full love, affection, and ecstasy.»
Vedavyas also concluded Srimad Bhagavatam with full satisfaction:
Sarva-vedanta-saram hi srimad-bhagavatam isyate
tad-rasamrta-trptasya nanyatra syad ratih kvachit
«Srimad Bhagavatam contains the gist of all the Vedas, the Vedanta-darsana, and the Upanisads. Anyone who once reads Srimad Bhagavatam will never become attracted to any other scripture; one will only continue without interruption to drink the transcendental nectar of Srimad Bhagavatam.»
Srimad-bhagavatam puranam amalam yad vaisnavanam priyam
«There was something wrong with what I presented previously, but here in Srimad Bhagavatam there is nothing wrong; everything is clean and clear. Srimad Bhagavatam is puranam amalam, the spotless Purana, and, yad Vaisnavanam priyam, all the Vaisnavas have accepted it very dearly within their hearts.»
In this way we can understand,
artho ’yam brahma-sutranam bharatartha-vinirnayah
gayatri-bhasya-rupo ’sau vedartha-paribrmhitah
«Srimad Bhagavatam presents full knowledge of the sutras of the Vedanta-darsana. It is the natural commentary on the Vedanta-darsana, the Mahabharata, and the gayatri-mantram; all knowledge, everything, is presented in Srimad Bhagavatam.»
If you can follow the conception of Srimad Bhagavatam you will understand the gist of all revealed truth, all amnaya.
athapi te deva padambuja-dvaya-
prasada-lesanugrhita eva hi
janati tattvam bhagavan-mahimno
na chanya eko ’pi chiram vichinvan
«O Lord, one who receives even a trace of the grace of Your lotus feet can know Your glory. Without Your grace no one can know You, even after searching for a long time.»
isvarera krpa-lesa haya ta’ yahare
sei ta’ isvara-tattva janibare pare
«One who receives even a trace of the Lord’s grace can understand the Lord.»
3 Garga Rsi’s pranam mantra for Vedavyas:
vadana-kamala-niryadyasya iyusam adyam
pibati jana-varo ’yam patu so ’yam giram me
badara-vana-viharah satyavatyah kumarah
pranata-durita-harah sarnga-dhanv-avatarah
«May Satyavati’s son, Krishna Dvaipayan Vedavyas, the Avatar of Visnu who removes the surrendered souls’ sorrow and enjoys Pastimes in the forest of Badari, he from whose lotus mouth the sadhus drink the original nectar, guide my words.»
4 An archetypal verse from the Upanisads:
tad ejati tan naijati tad dure tad v antike
tad antar asya sarvasya tad u sarvasyasya bahyatah
«The Lord moves, and He does not move. He is far, and He is near. He is within everything, and He is outside of everything.»
yad vai tat sukrtam raso vai sah
«He who is perfect (Brahma) is the embodiment of rasa (Krishna).»
6 The Bhagavat-chatuh-sloki mantram (SB: 2.9.33–36):
aham evasam evagre nanyad yat sad asat param
paschad aham yad etach cha yo ’vasisyeta so ’smy aham
«Prior to creation, only I existed. Nothing else — gross, subtle, or primordial — existed. After creation, only I exist, and after the annihilation only I remain.»
rte ’rtham yat pratiyeta na pratiyeta chatmani
tad vidyad atmano mayam yathabhaso yatha tamah
«Know that which seems to exist without Me or doesnot seem to exist within Me to be My illusion, comparable to a reflection or darkness.»
yatha mahanti bhutani bhutesuchchavachesv anu
pravistany apravistani tatha tesu na tesv aham
«As the material elements exist within all beings, large and small, yet also exist outside of them, so I exist both inside and outside of all beings.»
etavad eva jijnasyam tattva-jijnasunatmanah
anvaya-vyatirekabhyam yat syat sarvatra sarvada
«One who seeks the Absolute should directly and indirectly search for Me, who exist everywhere and always.»