10.10 – Love is the ultimate knowledge – and is the way to the ultimate knowledge

Love reigns supreme. Not just in matters of the heart, but also in matters of the head. This is the sweet and supreme insight of the Bhagavad-gita.

The head when used to its full potential leads us to the heart. We can study various subjects, but the subject that matters most to our heart is love, whom should I love and how. The ultimate knowledge is not the knowledge of how to analyze matter or to access a formless pervasive spirit devoid of all emotions. The ultimate knowledge is knowledge of the all-attractive Supreme Person, Krishna, who longs for our love and for whose love we long, even if we don’t realize it at present. When we use our intellectual faculty perfectly, we conclude with love – the central faculty of the heart. We are all meant to love, love Krishna and love all living beings in relationship with him. In this spiritual selfless love we find life’s highest fulfillment.

Not only does the head used to its full potential lead to the heart. Also the head can be used to its full potential only when guided by the heart. Krishna is the Absolute Truth, the infinite whom the finite is always inadequate to know. Nonetheless, the finite can know the infinite when the infinite chooses to reveal himself by his grace. The finite can beseech and attract that grace by humble and sincere devotion. He then gives us the intelligence to come closer to him, as the Bhagavad-gita (10.10) confirms. Only when we direct our love towards Krishna can we begin to know his true glory and beauty.

Thus love for Krishna is the highest fruit of knowledge. And the same love from its budding stage onwards paves the way to that knowledge.

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To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.