Nomenclature of the Absolute
by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

Shri Krishna Chaitanya, though He came more than four hundred years ago, is present among us when His Words are explained anywhere in this world. His message has little connection with our ordinary ideas. It is something supernatural. It refers to 'transcendence'. There are occasions when many of us also can peep into transcendence, but most of our messages get contaminated with ideas of a worldly nature. Shri Krishna Chaitanya had no ambition to speak anything that would facilitate sensuous activities. Ordinary religionists speak much about things which we grasp by our senses. But Shri Krishna Chaitanya has spoken to us some transcendental words which, although they have affinity to ordinary ideas and things should not be applied to what we find on the mundane plane.

It is necessary first of all to know His standpoint. He spoke on devotional lines. Devotion is not a mental exploitation in which the words which are used take us to a region which is beyond our sensuous scope. But we can see things in that line of devotion only when its language is an adaptation of what we use in connection with what we meet with in this world. On that score we should not equate the words meant for transcendence with the same category meant for mundane things.
In the first place He has not departed from the ideas and hymns of the Vedas, the Shrutis and the Upanishads. He had no ambition to talk anything not supported by the revealed Scriptures. He said that the Transcendental Sound has to come in order to regulate the senses which at present are merely working to get some fruit for us through our actions; but whatever results may come out of our outward acts will be only for our individual purposes; our friends are not profited thereby. So some zealous activities are found among our friends which are concerned with fruitive results. The Transcendental Sound regulates the senses which are always troubling us to secure some riches for ourselves which are not shared by others, and so we have to expect some hostility from friends and foes as well. But He says that the Transcendental Sound Will bring Love, an amplitude of love, uniting us with the Absolute. Though We are likely to be unsteady we should not allow ourselves to be disturbed by sense-satisfying performances. He says that love is the principal subject to be roused up, that love which now lies within us in a dormant condition. We are attracted and deluded by outer features of things which tempt us in a greater or lesser degree and captivate our senses. Such things though appearing enjoyable at the moment seem to trouble us in the long run. What we recognize is perfect peace and real severance from painful sensation. Our predilection is always for what is pleasing to our senses. There are deluding aspects which often hide from us the sight of the inner face. We should be cautious not to accept what is presented by the senses. The senses require regulation. Everything is shifting. We can trace nothing here that is permanent in the world. Time changes everything. The Absolute never changes. This should be realized.
We should hear everything about the Absolute; otherwise we will confuse Him with ordinary things, with perishable things. Our empiric activities will not allow us a permanent standing ground that will not be changed. Our standpoint of the thirtieth year proves false in our fiftieth year. Our growing experience adds more knowledge to our stored-up conceptions. These sometimes undergo a change. This convinces us that what we consider as Truth is really uncertain and as it is meant for the time being only it will not serve us all along.

Man claims a supreme position among the sentient objects who have transactions with the worldly phenomena, entertaining the future hope of a continuity of such conditions even after the transformation of the present tabernacle. Rationalism is associated with man, and according to our needs we entertain hopes of using our discretion in the fittest way as far as possible. We know we are dependent on entities without whom our rational activities cannot find real display. Dependence is an inseparable element in us, though our ego is always exercising a power inherent in us for dispelling all discomforts of the mundane atmosphere. We are endowed with senses and the senses have no other predilections than to secure felicities in every transaction. When we take up an individual case, we find that gratification of our senses is the principal characteristic in our person. And this attitude of many among us often promotes a further desire to seek our own gratification from our co-sharers. When we actually put ourselves in difficulty in search of sensuous pleasures and expect others to help us we should be able to contribute towards social harmony by some effort. If we do not desire to encroach upon our friends and co-sharers we cannot live, but the obligatory social regulations to control our senses dominate our decisions on civic principles. We find ourselves quite restricted in our movements, though non-restriction is felt as a desirable factor for happy life. We now depend upon the Absolute to guide us to a harmonious solution of this position. The pressure of our needs makes us discuss the merits and demerits of the situation in which we are to take cognizance of the very fountain-head of all phenomenal representations. When we are not satisfied with the conception that this universal demonstrative aspect is a holy shelter to supply our needs, we revert to our previous ratiocination for the hidden treasure behind the exoteric manifestations. But the Esoteric Fountain-Head comes up before our vision, always setting Himself free from being handicapped in the phenomenal region. So we are compelled to consider the situation of the Eternal Blissful Knowledge transcending all regions of mental speculations. This Oversoul claims to incorporate pure uncontaminated souls on His Harmonious Plane. Our mental speculations may trouble us by asking why the principal Transcendental object should not incorporate an all-pervading conception of both non-matter and matter, the conception of parts and the whole, and the inclusion of the two ends of specification. On the other hands the very mental speculation would lead us to rank pantheistic speculation where all sorts of phenomenal exclusions are the principal factors. As individuation is a necessary element in me, and as I find such individual situations to be the objects of our reciprocal activities, and as they are numerous and the various positions, experienced in our present phenomenal range, are found to be rapturous, there should be a uniting tie to cement the positions and we often jump into impersonation and dissociative ideas of relativities for a solution. The Personality of the Absolute can then only pacify the unsympathetic jealousy innate in the view of mundane persons. This would thereby lead to that Highest Magnitude Who is free from all mundane restrictions of temporary aspects and locations in a particular limited space. Again, the phenomenal restrictive views should not be imposed on the Personality of a thoroughly Independent Integer. So the Personality of Godhead is to be approached instead of being considered as an accused in the dock for answering our sensuous inspection. We should allow Him to retain Everything His Own. This method of approach is known as unalloyed theism.

The Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya has asked all sections of the people of this world not to tamper or mutilate the Absolute Truth by their crippled attempts at regulating Him, but to approach Him with an absolutely clean and sincere heart in which will be revealed His Own Phase. He can show different Manifestive aspects of His Own consistent with the eligibility of the approachers.
The Supreme Lord has mercifully disclosed the Name of the real object of pure theism as Shri Krishna. The conception of an impersonal God, void of all attributes or all possession of different potentialities is included in Shri Krishna, as being one of His partial Phases where all sorts of sensuous attributes are eliminated.