'Causarum Cognitio:' Parama Karana Narayana

Causarum Cognitio (‘Seek Knowledge of Causes’).

The philosophers sought to know the supreme cause or the cause of all causes (parama karana). What is that entity from which all other entities derived meaning; what is that supreme entity—is it time, is it material nature, is it vital air, is it mind or is it some other entity,  even greater and ontologically even higher? Madhavadeva says in his Nama Ghosa, ‘parama karana narayana;’ the supreme pure personality who is the shelter of all beings and indeed, of all categories of existence, is the cause of all causes.

Now, as Krsna or Narayana is the cause of all causes, if one does not know Him, then, in a certain sense, one cannot be said to really know anything (as all causes emanate from Him). On a similar line, if one knows Krsna, the cause of all causes, then one may be termed as knowing everything.

As Krsna is the ultimate cause, He is represented in each of the material realms—manomaya, pranamaya, etc.—as personally handling and interacting with each of the material entities; although, in reality, He may not do so literally but may do so only from the point of view of ultimate cause—as the highest entity in the ladder of cause and effect.