If one can understand the relationship between knowledge and love, then one will see that there is no discord between them. The original feelings of a soul are one’s constitutional duties. These original feelings expand in two ways: 1) they expand in the form of knowledge of an object and its characteristics, and 2) they expand through the realization of rasa. Another name for the first way is jïäna, or speculative knowledge, which is naturally dry and troublesome. Another name for the second way is préti, or love.
In the relationship between jïäna and préti, we see a proportionate increase in one, relative to the respective decrease in the other. As jïäna increases, préti decreases, and as préti increases, jïäna decreases. When jïäna attains its highest platform, then the original feelings of the soul become one. This platform is dry and totally devoid of happiness. When préti attains its highest platform, the original feelings of the soul are not lost, rather they become alive in the subjects of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana, and they then expand the rasa of love.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam Himself gives the best examples of the dynamic interaction between these three principles of Sambandha-Abhideya-Prayojana
“Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things—these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 11.2.42
Prayojana and Sambandha within Abhidheya
‘ A person advanced in devotional service sees within everything the soul of souls, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Çré Kåñëa. Consequently he always sees the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the cause of all causes and understands that all things are situated in Him.” (S.B. 11.2.45)’
Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya 25.129
“By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Çré Kåñëa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.2.7
“Whatever work is done here in this life for the satisfaction of the mission of the Lord is called bhakti-yoga, or transcendental loving service to the Lord, and what is called knowledge becomes a concomitant factor.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.5.35
“While performing duties according to the order of Çré Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one constantly remembers Him, His names and His qualities.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam1.5.36
“…the man whose mind has been enlivened by contact with devotional service to the Lord gains positive scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead in the stage of liberation from all material association.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.2.20
Sambandha and Abhidheya within Prayojana
“By rendering devotional service, one gradually rises to the platform of love of Godhead. That is the chief goal of life. On the platform of love of Godhead, one is eternally engaged in the service of the Lord”
Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya 25.104
“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.”
Bhagavad-gétä 10.10-11
“…Only by devotional service is the Supreme Truth, Kåñëa, pleased, and by His inconceivable energy He can reveal Himself to the heart of the pure devotee. The pure devotee always has Kåñëa within his heart; 105 and with the presence of Kåñëa, who is just like the sun, the darkness of ignorance is at once dissipated. This is the special mercy rendered to the pure devotee by Kåñëa…everything is provided automatically by the Supreme Lord, who is pleased by the loving devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad-gétä.”
Bhagavad-gétä 10.11 p.
Prayojana and Abhidheya within Sambandha
“A person who is searching after the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, most certainly search for it up to this, in all circumstances, in all space and time, and both directly and indirectly.”
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.2.36
“That is the last of the four seed-verses of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, classified as acintya-bhedabheda-laksanam showing the inconceivable nature of the inseparable sambandha-abhidheya-prayojana. Çréla Prabhupäda in his purport demonstrates that tattva-jïäna is one with and different from abhidheya, direct engagement in pure devotional activity and ultimately inseparable with prayojana, the result of abhidheya. In short – the Absolute Truth is personal, not impersonal. He reveals Himself as the pure ecstasy the devotees experience as they engage in the process He gives to find Him everywhere at all times, directly and indirectly. That process, indicated by the Lord in this last verse of the catuh-sloki is inseparable from the Absolute Truth; or conversely, without that process, the Absolute Truth is unknowable. That process, that Absolute Truth, is prema-bhakti.”
Suhotra Swami
“Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead without doubting, is the knower of everything. He therefore engages himself in full devotional service to Me, O son of Bharata.”
‘…the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Kåñëa consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gétä, this fact is being stressed at every step.’
Bhagavad-gétä 15.19 & purport
