Introduction

Everyone is searching for rasa, pleasure. The status of rasa is the highest. As persons we have our subjective existence, but rasa, pleasure, has His supersubjective existence. He is a person. He is akhila rasamrta-murtih: the reservoir of all pleasure. He is Krishna. Rasa is Krishna. There cannot be rasa in any other place but Krishna. He is the fountainhead of all different types of rasa. So, by the nature of our constitution we have to search after Krishna.

In the Brahma-sutra it is said, "Inquire after the supreme cause of this world. Search!" From where has everything come? How is everything maintaining its existence? By whom? And ultimately, where does everything enter after death? That is brahma, spirit, the most fundamental plane from where everything springs up, remains, and ultimately enters.

Where is brahma? The Brahma-sutra advises us to inquire after the prime cause, the biggest, the all-accommodating. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replaced that, Srimad-Bhagavatam replaced that with Krishnanusandhana: the search for Sri Krishna.

Brahma-jijnasa, the search for spirit, is a dry thing. That is only the exercise of your thinking faculty, a jugglery of reason. Leave that behind. Begin the search for Sri Krishna and quench the thirst of your heart. Rasa jijnasa, raso vai sah. The things acquired by your reason won't satisfy you. Jnana, knowledge, cannot really quench your thirst, so instead of brahma-jijnasa accept Krishnanusandhana and begin the search for Sri Krishna.

Where is Krishna? Our real want will be satisfied only by getting the service of Krishna; not by anything else. We want to satisfy the innermost demands of our hearts. We don't care to know where we are or what is controlling everything, but we really want to quench our thirst for rasa, for madhurya, for sweetness. We must search neither for knowledge nor for the controller of this world; we must search after rasa, anandam, after beauty and charm.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srimad-Bhagavatam have taught us what to beg for, what to pray for, what to want. They have taught us, "If you beg, beg for Krishna, not for anything else." So, the fate of the Vaisnavas, the students of the Bhagavata and the followers of Mahaprabhu, is sealed in the search for Sri Krishna. We want nothing else but Krishna.

The Vedas say, srnvantu visve amrtasya putrah: "O, you sons of nectar, sons of the nectarean ocean sea: please listen to me. You were born in nectar; you were born to taste nectar, and you must not allow yourselves to be satisfied by anything but nectar. So, however misguided you may be for the time being, awake! Arise! Search for that nectar, that satisfaction." The Vedas tell us, "Om!" Om means a big "Yes!" "What you are searching for, that is! Don't be disappointed." The Vedas say that the object of our inner search exists. The common search of all your hearts is existing, and your thirst will be quenched. By your constitution you are meant for that and you deserve that, so don't be afraid; don't be cowed down. It is already given in your being. And you can never be satisfied with anything else. So prepare yourself, after your long search, to receive that long missing nectar in its full form and quality. Awake! Arise! Search for your fortune and you cannot but have that. It is your birthright. It is the wealth of your own soul. It cannot but be within you. You have no other business, no other engagement but Krishnanusandhana, the Search for Sri Krishna: Reality the Beautiful.

Contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Krishna Consciousness: Love and Beauty
• Saints, Scriptures, and Gurus
• Fossilism vs. Subjective Evolution
• Origin of the Soul
• Knowledge above Mortality
• Six Philosophies of India
• Beyond Christianity
• Levels of God Realization
• The Krishna Conception
• The Hare Krishna Mantra
• Service of the Holy Name
• Nectar of the Holy Name
• Reality the Beautiful
• Explanation of Math Logo