The head is the prelude to the heart, not the substitute

Our innermost need is the need to love and be loved. All our faculties including our intellectual faculty are meant to fulfill that innermost need.

Gita wisdom indicates how the head can serve as the prelude to the heart, provided the seeker doesn’t let it become a substitute. The Bhagavad-gita (09.15) outlines three kinds of seekers who worship Krishna indirectly through knowledge: those who conceive the Absolute as one with them, as manifested diversely in various demigods or as manifested in the universe.

Gita wisdom describes how such conceptions attain perfection in the revelation of the Absolute Truth as the all-attractive Supreme Person, Krishna. The ninth chapter (09.1909.26) outlines through comparison the evolution from demigod worship to Krishna worship by understanding his supreme position. The tenth and eleventh chapters respectively outline how Krishna is the underlying truth manifested in the opulences of this world and as the awe-inspiring Universal Form. And the twelfth chapter (12.05 – 12.07) indicates, again by comparison, how the personal conception is superior to the impersonal conception.

This outline expands on the Gita’s earlier emphatic declaration (07.19) that the perfected intellectuals understand Krishna to the Ultimate Reality, the object of wholehearted surrender. The head that helps the heart identify its supreme object of love is the perfect head. Such a head plays a vital role in discerning authentic spirituality from its shallow or pseudo counterparts. But that role is subsumed in the larger role of the heart, for the heart alone enables one to experientially connect with Krishna through our gamut of emotions all centered on love. Those who let the head substitute the heart miss this ultimate nectar of love. But those how let the heart take over after following the head’s lead initially and offer their love to Krishna wholeheartedly relish existence’s supreme fulfillment.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09 Text 15

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