Question: How to identify the Truth and the process to attain it, despite hearing so many versions of Higher Truth which differ from one another, yet each one seems to have merit?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
The following verse was spoken by Yudhiñöhira Mahäräja in the Mahäbhärata, Vana-pärva (313.117), in response to a question presented to him by the Yakña, who came out of a lake to test him; the Yakña’s question was almost identical with the question raised by a St Louis University student during the Thursday evening class: “How to identify the Truth and the process to attain it, despite hearing so many versions of Higher Truth which differ from one another, yet each one seems to have merit?”
tarko ‘pratiñöhaù çrutayo vibhinnä
näsäv åñir yasya mataà na bhinnam
dharmasya tattvaà nihitaà guhäyäà
mahäjano yena gataù sa panthäù
“Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the çästras (authorized scripture) confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahäjanas (‘the great souls’) advocate.”
Next question: “How am I to determine who is a mahäjana (‘a great soul’)?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam provide us with those guidelines.
1. A list of the universally standard set of mahäjanas is found in SB 6.3.20
“Lord Brahmä, Bhagavän Närada, Lord Çiva, the four Kumäras, Lord Kapila, Sväyambhuva Manu, Prahläda Mahäräja, Janaka Mahäräja, Grandfather Bhéñma, Bali Mahäräja, Çukadeva Gosvämé and I myself (Yamaräja) know the real religious principle.”
2. The principle of mahäjana is found in BG 9.13
mahätmänas tu mäà pärtha
daivéà prakåtim äçritä
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jïätvä bhütädim avyayam
‘O son of Påthä, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible
