Today is Guru Purnima where we celebrate Gurudev, who opens the eyes of conditioned souls to their real identity. From Gurudev we learn what is our present position and how to understand that, and what is the ultimate goal in life and how to achieve that. From the previous sloka we recall that the highest activity of life is to discharge our duties for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead. From this sloka we learn what that highest activity is, namely: constantly hearing, glorifying, remembering and worshipping the Lord. Bhakti Madhava Puri discusses these elements in detail, pointing out that such activities are inherent in all societies, including ants and bees.
Maharaj finishes today’s sanga with a discussion of knowledge. Everyone has the capacity to know, but what is the purpose of knowing? In the modern conception, knowledge is gained to better defend the self, to improve the chances for survival, but that knowledge is always changing. On the other hand, transcendental knowledge does not change, but it can only be gained from Guru. One must have love for Guru and want to serve…not just dutiful service, but beautiful service.
Continuing with the overview of the Vaisesika philosophy, Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaj discusses the remaining 5 of the 7 categories of reality.
Action (karma) is viewed in the Vaisesika school as physical movement. Whereas quality is the static character of things, such as gravity or inertia, action is their dynamic character.
Generality (samanya) is the essence of the common characteristics that unite different entities into one class–men, horses, puppies, etc. Also translated as universality, it is similar to the Grecian concept of eternal forms.
Uniqueness (visesa) is the opposite of generality, the characteristics of any given thing which distinguishes it from everything else. Everything in the world is accompanied by uniqueness in the sense that we can point out “that” chair, “that” insect, etc.
Inherence (samavaya) is a permanent relation between two entities, one of which inheres in the other. Quality or action is inherent to a substance, but the substance is not inherent to the quality or action; there is color in cloth, but no cloth in color.
Nonexistence (abhava) is negative in contrast to the first six categories, which are positive. Providing an interesting and useful contrast with the logical positivism of modern-day philosophy, the Vaisesika school postulates two kinds of non-existence with several subcategories which are discussed in more detail in the full text.