Understanding & Practice of Parama-Jnana, The Absolute Knowledge: A Synopsis

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Cărucandra Dăsa (formerly known as Chandrakant P. Giri, Ph.D) is an initiated disciple of His Holiness Gopala Krishna Goswami Maharaja. He has been conducting courses on Gaudiya Vaisnava scriptures for over two decades. Thus far, he has completed Bhagavad-Gita, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Sri Isopanishad, Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya- Caritamṛta, all Six-Sandarbhas, Sri Brhad- & Laghu-Bhagavatam tas, Sri Gopala-tapani-Upanisad, Manah-Siksa, Sri Ujjvala-Nilamani, Sri Radha- Tattva, Sri Gopala Campu. Launch of Sri Narada Bhakti Sutra & Sri Madhurya Kadambhini & Sri Jaiva Dhrma are scheduled throughout 2023. One may refer to https://bhaktishastra.com for previous recordings and upcoming course or email him at chandrakant.giri@gmail.com

In 2020, at 77, he earned his master's in philosophy, science, and religion from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Crazy maybe, but he now aspires to make his 2nd Ph.D. at 79!

This book is an essay on Absolute Knowledge (Parama-Jnana) written by him 25 years back which provides an overview of important topics described by Lord in Srimad Bhagavat Gita. He has applied concept of Critical Thinking and analysis which aims to inspire reader to go back and read Srimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is authored by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna consciousness (ISKCON). A copy of "Srimad Bhagavat Gita As It Is" is available online on https://vedabase.com. It may also be purchased from nearest ISKCON centers or online stores.

[NOW WITH AN ADDED ELEMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING]

That incident alarmed me to seek spiritual initiation from my spiritual master, but I did not have much hope for that possibility. Based on my meager scriptural knowledge at the time (ante Nārāyaṇa smrtiḥ), I took refuge in whatever intelligence the Lord had endowed me.

How did I earn Guru Maharaja's attention to my cause? My intense greediness/eagerness [laulyam] to get initiated prompted me to study his mood using my intelligence. Through Krsna, we get introduced to our prospective guru, and thru guru only, we attain Krsna. Thereby I figured out how he served his guru. His pranama-mantra happens to be "Prabhupadasya sähityama..." Prabhupada ordered him to renounce this lucrative job of being a general manager of the Pepsi cola company, get married to a devotee woman even though he did not want to marry, return to India, and translate his books into several regional languages, and then distribute in India and abroad. All these he did in the prime of his youth when he was in Canada.

That is when the idea flashed in my mind to write this essay on Absolute Knowledge despite my limited knowledge of Bhagavad- Gita at the time. I gathered enough courage to submit that essay with a degree of apprehension at his lotus feet. My would-be spiritual master was so pleased with it that not only did he invest the time out of his preaching schedule to read this synopsis written by an absolute novice like me, but he also initiated me within a month in our Potomac Temple in the suburb of Maryland, USA, on Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day (May 25, 1997).

Moreover, he gave me an order at my initiation, which was even more significant. I paraphrase it here: "Cărucandra, I want you to learn the Gaudiya scriptures and then teach others." This year, I would celebrate a silver jubilee to that fateful occasion in my spiritual life. And to this day, the divine couple has mercifully allowed me to keep my word to my Guru. Carrying out his order remains the very mission of my life balance.

At my U.S. FDA office, we organized a journal club named Kṛṣṇa-Jñānārthi-Sabha. It means a congregation assembled to acquire Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The primary purpose of our club was to learn from each other through interactive discussions; thereby, all of us would hopefully make spiritual progress. This interactive interaction will undoubtedly (at least in my mind) provide us with the necessary incentives to study the revealed scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita and the Bhāgavatam, which should be a step forward in the right direction. We decided on a topic for discussions about the subject of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We would prepare a short write-up on the topic and distribute it to all the members for subsequent discussion.

One of the club members proposed a topic for discussion, namely jñāna. To me, it sounded too broad. When I asked him, he explained that there could be many types of jñānas, such as ajñāna (spiritual ignorance), vijñāna (realized knowledge), Parama-jñāna (the absolute knowledge), etc. For obvious reasons, the jñāna I chose to write for the discussion group happened to be on Parama-jñāna. Lord Krsna has spelled it out in great detail in His teachings to Arjuna in Bhagavad-Gitā. He characterized it as the king of knowledge, the most secret of all secrets, and when known, nothing further shall remain to be known. This transcendental knowledge is not only the purest, eternal, and easy to practice but also the only knowledge by which we can become liberated from the vicious cycles of repeated birth and death in material existence.

What I have attempted to do here is to write a synopsis of the Absolute Knowledge based on my study and understanding of Prabhupada's Bhagavad-Gitä-As-It-Is. At the very outset, I told my fellow club members I did not have special qualifications or devotional experience to undertake this challenging assignment. Thus, it was not without trepidation that I decided to make this attempt knowing well that our club's interactive discussion format will probably make up for my apparent deficiencies in terms of lack of adequate qualifications and experience.

There was another reason for me to undertake this assignment as well. About three years ago, I had an opportunity to present copies of Prabhupada's Bhagavad-Gita-As-It-Is to a select eighteen of my friends. I felt they might benefit from this transcendental knowledge. However, to my disappointment, I found out later that hardly anyone had bothered to read even a portion of this supernatural literature. Among the primary reasons given to me was a lack of enough time on their part and that it was too long to read. I could only surmise that this was perhaps because of spiritual ignorance on their part. We are all spiritually ignorant unless and until we meet a devotee of the Lord, and we already had embarked on the spiritual journey way back in our previous lives.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages