Transcendental Logic

We have already established the need and necessity for a logic of transcendental spiritual life, if only because two-valued Aristotelian materialistic logic is, by definition, incapable of reasoning about transcendental objects. Transcendental objects may possess and embrace qualitative dichotomies, such as oneness and difference, simultaneously. Therefore to reason properly about transcendental objects, such as the soul, we need to establish a logic on the same level.

For example, the individual spirit soul is simultaneously one with and different from the Supreme Lord. He is qualitatively similar to, but quantitatively far different from the Lord. This violates the ‘law of the excluded middle’ of Aristotelian logic, which states that a thing is always either the same as, or different from another thing.

However, in life we often experience things that are neither one thing nor another, yet somehow both. For example, the shoreline of a lake or river is a thing that is neither the river nor the shore, but exists on the margins of both; the time of sunset, which is neither day nor night. Similarly, the spirit soul is on the margins of the material and spiritual energies. At least in the conditioned state, he is neither fully material nor fully spiritual, but something of both.

There are many other spiritual topics that require transcendental logic to understand and reason about. To ordinary Aristotelian logic, they may appear contradictory; yet if we test them, they are proved to be factual. For example, that we can see God through the ear may seem to be a nonsensical proposal, but to those who chant the Holy Name of the Lord regularly with faith, it is a daily experience.

At first, transcendental logic may seem arbitrary, belief-based or even foolish. Yet those judgments are made on a platform of material consciousness, material logic. When we attain the transcendental (brahma-bhuta) state ourselves, we see them for what they are. The biases and limitations of others’ intelligence do not affect our own.

Transcendental logic is based on the full realization of the spiritual nature of the living entity as independent of this material body. It is not mere belief or faith, but testable hypotheses of conscious spiritual experience that anyone can duplicate and confirm. We each possess the necessary laboratory equipment to verify the secrets of the soul. Anyone can chant the Holy Name of the Lord—om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, or any other authorized Visnu mantra—and experience the sweet taste of spiritual advancement, and attain the highest perfection of yoga through this potent method.

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