During my recent visit to Finland Krsnagi devi (Kaisa Lekha) spoke with me about an idea she had for a new comic book—a small brochure she wanted to publish for an upcoming event in the world of comics where she is a highly respected artist. She told me that she had always been fascinated with the lila of Matsya Avatara depicted in the Bhagavata. Therein Visnu appears to the rishi and devotee Satyavrata in the form of a fish (matsya) and reveals himself to his devotee by outgrowing every container Satyavrata puts him in. Eventually Matsya in a huge form saves the Vedas and the devoted from rains and rising waters of devastation. It is the Bhagavata’s version of Noah’s Arc or its version of Al Gore’s oracle on global warming written long before either of these stories were told.

However, Matsya saves the world in a more significant sense than the arc of Noah is said to have done or Al Gore’s wake up call hopes to do. Matsya saves the world by saving the Veda. In other words Visnu preserves revelation and the world continues to have the opportunity to arrive at comprehensive knowledge, or the love that tells all—prema being the prayojana and farthest reaching purport of revelation. When Krsangi asked me for suggestions on what points she might bring out in he comic, I stressed the importance of revelation, reminding her that this was essentially the message of the lila.

In order to know perfectly and thus be perfectly happy, we must fold our hands and pray. We must, that is, approach the end of perfect knowledge through a perfect means. If you love someone, they will tell you all of their secrets. In the language of Swami B.R. Sridhara Deva, the finite can never know the infinite unless the infinite reveals itself to the finite. Krsangi’s husband, Kamalaksa, cited Kurt Godel, arguably the past century’s most brilliant mathematician, who proved that human thought is less (weaker) than that which is possible. He proved that there are truths that can be known that connot be mathematically proven, and thus that there are truths that lie beyond the limits of reason. The math is simple enough, but we suffer from divided interest. To the extent that we try to know for our own purpose, we will never know perfectly. It is only when we desire to know how we may be best utilized for the purpose of the Absolute that we can approach perfect knowing and be perfectly happy.