By B. V. Tripurari Swami http://www.swami.org/sanga

Question:      In the same Q&A discussion, you wrote, 'the cultural bias through which the absolute truth manifests'? Aren't Vedic statements absolute truth?

Answer:     Truth expresses itself in accordance with time and circumstances. We have to understand what the spirit of the truth is and know that it expresses itself differently at different times. For example, if I say women are less intelligent in a society where women are not educated, this may be true. But the same statement would not be true in a society where women are educated. Some parts of the sastra are spoken in accordance with time and circumstance. Other sections are true in all circumstances

Bhaktivinoda Thakura taught that there are two aspects to scripture, 'artha-prada' and 'paramartha-prada.' The former refers to scriptural subject matter that deals with the phenomenal world, medicine, logic, music, history, cosmology, cultural considerations, etc. The latter refers to transcendence, theology, mysticism, etc. Artha-prada is temporal knowledge, whereas paramartha-prada is eternal, spiritual knowledge. According to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, artha-prada subject matter is thus subject to human scrutiny and is not absolute. It is that which can be adjusted in accordance with time and circumstances. But that which is divine, on the other hand, is beyond human reasoning. It is the fundamental spiritual truth of sastra and not subject to human speculation.

The relationship between artha-prada sections of sastra and paramarth-prada sections is basically one of form and substance. The spiritual substance of the Bhagavatam is couched in a Puranic cultural and historic setting. The Puranic histories, cultural considerations, cosmology, etc., is the form which carries the substance of eternal spiritual knowledge - this substance is the truth about Krsna , his saktis, the soul, etc. One who can draw out the substance or essence of scripture, distinguishing between its artha-prada and paramartha-prada sections, is a saragrahi Vaisnava, a paramahamsa.