Srila Prabhupada, New York, July 25, 1966: […] There are three kinds of transcendentalists. What are they? The impersonalist and the localized yogi and the devotees. There are three kinds of transcendentalists. What are the impersonalists? Impersonalists means this jnani, those who are trying to understand what is Brahman and try to negativating this material world, neti neti: “This is not Brahman. Brahman is separate from this matter.”
They are called jnanis. And there are yogis. Yogi means those who are trying to focus all attention to the Supersoul which is within our heart. That is called yoga system. And yogi, jnani, and bhakta, devotees. Those who are focusing all their concentration on the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna. So these three are classes of… They are all transcendentalists.
They are not materialists. Materialists, they are concerned with this matter only. They are very much attached to lord it over this material nature and enjoy life. That’s all. That is the short description of the materialist. But the transcendentalists, they are above these attached people. They are detached, but they have got three conception of transcendental idea. That is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam,
vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate [Bhag. 1.2.11]
Tattva, tattva, the Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is nondual. And that Absolute Truth is experienced in three ways. What are they? Now, Brahman, the all-pervading, impersonal feature, Brahman. And brahmeti paramatmeti. Paramatmeti means the Supersoul. Brahmeti paramatmeti and bhagavan iti. Bhagavan iti means the Personality of Godhead. Now these three conception of life have been analyzed in various places, and I will give you a short description.
Just like the sun. You see the sun every morning. What do you see? You see the sunshine. One feature is the sunshine. Another feature is the sun disc and another feature is if you are able to go into the sun planet you see something else. That we have got no experience, but we can see that sunshine and the localized sun disc.
But what is there within the sun planet, nobody has explained so far material science is concerned, but from Vedic literature we have got information of the sun planet also, that there is a supreme deity which is known as the sun-god, and all the inhabitants there, they have got their body of fire, and the whole planet is fiery. Full Lecture
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