“Teachings
of Lord Kapila”
by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada.
TEXT 9
ya adyo bhagavan
pumsam
isvaro vai bhavan
kila
lokasya tamasandhasya
caksuh surya ivoditah
TRANSLATION
You are the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, the origin and Supreme
Lord of all living
entities. You have arisen to disseminate the rays of
the sun in order to
dissipate the darkness of the ignorance of the
universe.
PURPORT
Kapila Muni is
accepted as an incarnation of the Supreme
Personality of
Godhead, Krsna. Here the word adya means "the origin of
all living
entities," and pumsam isvarah means "the Lord (isvara) of the
living entities"
(isvarah paramah krsnah). Kapila Muni is the direct
expansion of Krsna,
who is the sun of spiritual knowledge. The sun
dissipates the
darkness of the universe, and when the light of the
Supreme Personality
of Godhead comes down, it at once similarly
dissipates the
darkness of maya. We have our eyes, but without the light
of the sun, our eyes
are of no value. Similarly, without the light of
the Supreme Lord, or
without the divine grace of the spiritual master,
one cannot see things
as they are.
In this verse,
Devahuti also addresses her son as Bhagavan.
Bhagavan is the
Supreme Person. If we could just use a little common
sense we could
understand that an organization requires a leader.
Without a leader, we
cannot organize anything. Foolish philosophers say
that the universe
automatically came into being by nature. They say that
in the beginning
there was a chunk, and this cosmic manifestation came
out of that chunk of
matter. But where did this chunk come from? The
fact is that there
must be a brain, a leader, behind anything organized.
We have information
of this leader from the Vedas: nityo nityanam
cetanas cetananam.
The Supreme Lord is eternal, and we are also eternal.
But the Supreme Lord
is one, and we are many. The Supreme Lord is very
great, and we are
very small. He is all-pervading and infinite, and we
are finite and
infinitesimal. Even if we analyze the creation, we will
find that not
everyone is on the same level. One person is more
intelligent or
opulent than another. If we analyze things in this way,
we will come to the
demigods, and among them we will find that the most
important demigod is
Lord Brahma. He is the original creature within
this universe, yet he
is not the most intelligent being. It is said that
in the beginning,
Brahma received knowledge from the Supreme Personality
of Godhead.
Recently newspapers
are reporting that faith in a personal God is
diminishing. This
means that people are becoming more and more foolish.
This is natural in
Kali-yuga, for as the age of Kali progresses, bodily
strength, memory and
mercy diminish. We actually see that the present
generation is not as
strong as the previous. People also have short
memories. We also
understand that sometimes people are killed while
other people pass by,
not caring. Thus mercy is also diminishing.
Because everything is
diminishing, God consciousness is diminishing
also; therefore it is
natural to receive news that faith in a personal
God is diminishing.
In Bhagavad-gita (7.15), one who does not accept a
personal God is
described as a mudha, a fool.
na mam duskrtino
mudhah
prapadyante
naradhamah
mayayapahrta jnana
asuram bhavam asritah
"Those
miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind,
whose knowledge is
stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic
nature of demons, do
not surrender unto Me."
Actually, people
today do not even know the meaning of God, so
there is no question
of surrender. There are also those who are
scholarly and well
educated, but their knowledge is taken away by maya,
illusion. Although
they may superficially hold degrees, they have no
real knowledge. They
are also asuras, demons who simply defy God,
saying, "I am
God, you are God. Why are you searching for God? There are
many Gods loitering
in the street. Take care of them." Therefore it is
not surprising that
newspapers report that faith in a personal God is
decreasing. Nonetheless,
God is a person. Ya adyo bhagavan. Lord Brahma
also worships Krsna
by saying, govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. He
says, "I worship
that original person, Govinda." Adi-purusam, Krsna, has
no one preceding Him;
therefore He is called original. It is said that
Krsna was born of
Vasudeva, but this simply means that Krsna accepted
Vasudeva as His
father. Sri Krsna deals with His devotees in different
relationships, or
rasas--santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya.
We all have some
relationship with Krsna, but presently that is
covered. Therefore we
have to revive it. Simple appreciation of the
Supreme is called
santa-rasa. When one appreciates the Supreme fully, he
wishes to render some
service, and that is called dasya. When one
becomes more intimate,
he becomes a friend of Krsna's, and that is
called sakhya. When
one is more advanced, he wants to render service to
Krsna as a father or
a mother, and this is vatsalya. Being a father or a
mother means serving
the son. The Christian conception of God as the
Supreme Father is not
very perfect because if we conceive of God as a
father, our position
will be to take things from Him. Everyone wants to
take something from
the father. One is always saying, "Father, give me
this. Father, give me
that." However, accepting the Supreme Lord as
one's son means
rendering service. Yasodamayi got Krsna as her son, and
she was always
anxious that He not be in danger. Thus she was always
protecting Him.
Actually Krsna protects the entire universe, but Yasoda
was giving protection
to Krsna. This is Vaisnava philosophy. Yasoda
became mad when she
saw Krsna taken away by the Trnavarta demon.
However, Krsna became
so heavy that the demon could not fly in the sky,
and thus the demon
fell to the earth and died. Yasoda immediately said,
"God has saved
my Krsna!" She then began to thank some other God, some
devata. She did not
know that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. If she had
thought of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, the
relationship between mother and son would have been
destroyed. Therefore
Krsna was playing just like an ordinary child, and
mother Yasoda was
treating Him as her son. Krsna's friends, the cowherd
boys, did not
consider Him the Supreme Lord either. The gopis even used
to chastise Krsna. If
a devotee can have such a relationship with Krsna,
why should he want to
become one with God? It is better to be God's
father, God's
controller. This is bhakti-marga, the path of devotional
service. A devotee
does not want to be equal to God or one with God. He
simply wants to
render service.
ln order to
understand the Absolute Truth, we have to understand
the meaning of
Bhagavan. Devahuti was not an ordinary woman. She was the
wife of Kardama Muni,
a great yogi. She had obviously learned something
from her husband, for
had she not been very exalted, how could Bhagavan
Kapiladeva have
become her son? Everyone should know what is Bhagavan
and take lessons from
Bhagavan. Lord Kapila is Bhagavan, and He
personally instructed
His mother in Sankhya philosophy. By this
knowledge we can
develop or awaken our dormant love for God. Then we can
see God when our eyes
are anointed with love for Him. Indeed, we can see
God everywhere and at
all times. We will see God and nothing but God. We
will see God not only
within our hearts. If we go to the ocean, we will
see God. If one is a
little thoughtful, he will see that the great ocean
stays in its place.
The ocean has received its orders not to go beyond
such and such a
limit. Any intelligent man can see God while walking
down the beach.
However, this requires a little intelligence. People who
are asses, mudhas,
duskrtis, cannot see God, but those who are
intelligent can see
God everywhere because God is omnipresent. He is
within the universe
and within our heart, and He is even within the
atom. Why are we
saying that we cannot see Him? God says, "Try to see Me
in this way, but if
you are too dull, then try to see Me another way."
What is the easy way?
Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita, "I am the taste
of water." Is
there anyone who has not tasted water? He also says, "I am
the light of the
sun." Is there anyone who has not seen sunshine? Then
why are people
saying, "I have not seen God"? First of all we have to
try to see God. It is
as easy as ABCD. When we see God everywhere, we
will see the personal
God. Then we will understand.
Bhagavan pumsam
isvarah. Bhagavan is isvara, the controller. We are
not independent. No
one can actually say, "I am independent." We are
bound tightly by the
modes of material nature, and yet we are thinking
that we are
independent. This is simply foolishness. Therefore it is
said that all the
people in the material world are blinded by the
darkness of
ignorance. When people are blind, out of their ignorance
they say, "There
is no God. I cannot see God." Then God comes as Krsna
or Kapiladeva and
says, "Here I am. See My features. I am a person. I
play the flute and
enjoy Myself in Vrndavana. Why can't you see Me?"
Thus God comes,
explains Himself and leaves behind His instruction,
Bhagavad-gita. Still,
people are so foolish that they claim not to
understand God. If we
try to see God through the instructions given to
Devahuti by Lord
Kapila, our lives will be successful.
TEXT 10
atha me deva sammoham
apakrastum tvam
arhasi
yo 'vagraho 'ham
mametity
etasmin yojitas tvaya
TRANSLATION
Now be pleased, my
Lord, to dispel my great delusion. Due to my
feeling of false ego,
I have been engaged by Your maya and have
identified myself
with the body and consequent bodily relations.
PURPORT
Maya is the false ego
of identifying one's body with one's self and
of claiming things
possessed in relationship with the body. In Bhagavadgita,
Fifteenth Chapter,
the Lord says, "I am sitting in everyone's
heart, and from Me
comes everyone's remembrance and forgetfulness."
Devahuti has stated
that false identification of the body with the self
and attachment for
bodily possessions are also under the direction of
the Lord. Does this
mean that the Lord discriminates by engaging one in
His devotional
service and another in sense gratification? If that were
true, it would be an
incongruity on the part of the Supreme Lord, but
that is not the
actual fact. As soon as the living entity forgets his
real constitutional
position of eternal servitorship to the Lord and
wants instead to enjoy
himself by sense gratification, he is captured by
maya. This capture
leads to the consciousness of false identification
with the body and
attachment for the possessions of the body. These are
the activities of
maya, and since maya is also an agent of the Lord, it
is indirectly the
action of the Lord. The Lord is merciful; if anyone
wants to forget Him
and enjoy this material world, He gives him full
facility, not
directly but through the agency of His material potency.
Therefore, since the
material potency is the Lord's energy, indirectly
it is the Lord who
gives the facility to forget Him. Devahuti therefore
said, "My
engagement in sense gratification was also due to You. Now
kindly get me free
from this entanglement."
By the grace of the
Lord one is allowed to enjoy this material
world, but when one
is disgusted with material enjoyment and is
frustrated, and when
one sincerely surrenders unto the lotus feet of the
Lord, then the Lord
is so kind that He frees one from entanglement.
Krsna says,
therefore, in Bhagavad-gita, "First of all surrender, and
then I will take
charge of you and free you from all reactions of sinful
activities."
Sinful activities are those activities performed in
forgetfulness of our
relationship with the Lord. In this material world,
activities for
material enjoyment that are considered pious are also
sinful. For example,
one sometimes gives money in charity to a needy
person with a view to
get back the money four times increased. Giving
with the purpose of
gaining something is called charity in the mode of
passion. Everything
done here is done in the modes of material nature,
and therefore all
activities but service to the Lord are sinful. Because
of sinful activities
we become attracted by the illusion of material
attachment, and we
think, "I am this body." I think of the body as
myself and of bodily
possessions as "mine." Devahuti requested Lord
Kapila to free her
from that entanglement of false identification and
false possession.
In asking this,
Devahuti is accepting her son, Kapila, as her guru.
He consequently tells
her how to solve all material problems. Material
life is nothing but
sex attraction. pumsah striya mithuni-bhavam etam
(SB. 5.5.8). Material
life means that men are after women and women are
after men. We find
this not only in human society but in bird, dog, cat
and demigod society.
As soon as people join to satisfy their sex desire,
the attraction
becomes greater and greater. An apartment is needed for
privacy, and then one
has to earn a livelihood and acquire some land.
Without children,
married life is frustrated, and of course the children
have to be educated.
Thus one becomes entangled in material life by
creating so many
situations, but at the time of death Krsna comes and
takes away
everything--house, land, wife, children, friends, reputation
and whatever. Then we
have to begin another life. It is not that we
simply die and finish
everything. We are living eternally; the body is
finished, but we have
to accept another body out of the 8,400,000 forms.
In this way, our life
is going on, but we are thinking in terms of wife,
children, and so
forth. This is all illusion.
In any case, we will
not be allowed to stay here, and although we
are attached to all
this, everything will be taken away at death.
Whatever post we are
occupying--be it president or Lord Brahma--we are
occupying
temporarily. We may be here five years, ten years, one hundred
years or five million
years. Whatever, our position is limited. Our
position in the
material world is not eternal, but we are eternal. Why,
then, should we be
illusioned by the noneternal? By nature we are part
and parcel of Krsna,
and Krsna is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha. In order to
transcend the
darkness of material life and go to the world of light, we
need to approach a
guru. It is for this reason that Devahuti is
approaching Lord
Kapiladeva.
In the morning, when
the sun arises, the darkness of night
immediately goes
away. Similarly, when God or His incarnation comes, the
darkness of material
life is dissipated. When Krsna, the Supreme
Personality of
Godhead, came, Arjuna's illusion was dispelled. He was
thinking, "Why
should I fight with my relatives?" Actually the whole
world is going on
under this conception of "my" and "mine." There are
fights between
nations, societies, communities and families. People are
thinking, "Why
are you interfering with my business?" Then there is a
fight. Because of
illusion, we do not consider these situations
temporary. On a
train, people may argue and fight over a seat, but one
who knows that he
will only be on the train for two or three hours
thinks, "Why
should I fight? I shall only be here for a short while."
One person thinks in
this way, and the other person is ready to fight,
thinking that his
seat is permanent. No one will be allowed to stay
within this material
world; everyone will have to change his body and
position, and as long
as one remains here, he will have to fight and
struggle for
existence. This is the way of material life. We may
temporarily make some
compromises, but ultimately the material world is
full of misery.
We are very much
attached to this material world, but according to
the Vedic system,
renunciation is compulsory, for when one reaches the
age of fifty, he
renounces his family life. Nature gives warning, "You
are now past fifty.
That's all right. You have fought in this material
world. Now stop this
business." Children play on the beach and make
houses out of sand,
but after a while the father comes and says, "Now,
my dear children,
time is up. Stop this business and come home." This is
the business of the
guru--to teach his disciples detachment. The world
is not our place; our
place is Vaikunthaloka. Krsna also comes to remind
us of this. The
dharma, or order, of the Supreme Person is to become His
devotee and always
think of Him. Krsna says:
man-mana bhava
mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam
namaskuru
"Engage your
mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and
worship Me."
(Bg. 9.34)
In this way, Krsna
opens the door, but we unfortunately do not
accept Him. Krsna
tells Arjuna, "Because you are My friend, I am
revealing to you the
most confidential dharma." What is that? "Simply
surrender unto
Me." This is the dharma taught by the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, and
Krsna's incarnation and His devotee will teach the same
dharma.
We are all after
happiness, but we do not know how to enjoy
happiness. We want to
enjoy our senses, but it is not possible with
these covered false
senses. The senses must be opened, and that is the
process of
purification. We are thinking of ourselves according to so
many false material
identifications, but we should take Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu's advice:
jivera `svarupa' haya--krsnera `nitya-dasa.' We
must come to
understand, "I am the eternal servant of Krsna." After all,
our senses are
employed for the satisfaction of somebody--either for
ourselves or for
someone else. That is kama, krodha, lobha and matsara--
illusion. If we are
not serving our own lusty desires (kama), we are
serving anger
(krodha). If I am the master of anger, I can control my
anger, and if I am
the master of my desires, I can control my desires.
In any case, I am a
servant, and my service should be transferred to
Krsna. That is the
perfection of life.
If we are situated in
the transcendental position (bhakti), we can
understand Krsna,
Krsna cannot be understood by mental speculation;
otherwise He would
have said that He could be understood by jnana, karma
or yoga. However, He
clearly says, bhaktya mam abhijanati: "Only by
devotional service
can I be understood." If we want to know Krsna as He
is, we have to accept
the process of bhakti. It is this bhakti process
that Kapiladeva will
reveal to Devahuti.
TEXT 11
tam tva gataham
saranam saranyam
sva-bhrtya-samsara-taroh
kutharam
jijna-sayaham
prakrteh purusasya
namami
sad-dharma-vidam varistham
TRANSLATION
Devahuti continued: I
have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because
You are the only
person of whom to take shelter. You are the ax which
can cut the tree of
material existence. I therefore offer my obeisances
unto You, who are the
greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire
from You as to the
relationship between man and woman and between spirit
and matter.
PURPORT
Sankhya philosophy,
as is well known, deals with prakrti and
purusa. Purusa is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead or anyone who
imitates the Supreme
Personality of Godhead as an enjoyer, and prakrti
is nature. In this
material world, material nature is being exploited by
the purusas, or the
living entities. The intricacies in the material
world of the
relationship of the prakrti and purusa, or the enjoyed and
the enjoyer, give
rise to samsara, or material entanglement. Devahuti
wanted to cut the
tree of material entanglement, and she found the
suitable weapon in
Kapila Muni. The tree of material existence is
explained in the
Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita as an asvattha tree
whose root is upward
and whose branches are downward. It is recommended
there that one has to
cut the root of this material existential tree
with the ax of
detachment. What is the attachment? The attachment
involves prakrti and
purusa. The living entities are trying to lord it
over material nature.
Since the conditioned soul takes material nature
to be the object of
his enjoyment, and he takes the position of the
enjoyer, he is
therefore called purusa.
Devahuti questioned
Kapila Muni, for she knew that only He could
cut her attachment to
this material world. The living entities, in the
guises of men and
women, are trying to enjoy the material energy;
therefore in one
sense everyone is purusa because purusa means
"enjoyer,"
and prakrti means "enjoyed." In this material world both socalled
men and women are
imitating the real purusa; the Supreme
Personality of
Godhead is actually the enjoyer in the transcendental
sense, whereas all
others are prakrti.
In Bhagavad-gita,
matter is analyzed as apara, or inferior nature,
whereas beyond this
inferior nature there is another, superior nature--
the living entities.
Living entities are also prakrti, or enjoyed, but
under the spell of
maya, the living entities are falsely trying to take
the position of
enjoyers. That is the cause of samsara-bandha, or
conditional life.
Devahuti wanted to get out of conditional life and
place herself in full
surrender. The Lord is saranya, which means "the
only worthy personality
to whom one can fully surrender," because He is
full of all
opulences. If anyone actually wants relief, the best course
is to surrender unto
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is
also described here
as sad-dharma-vidam varistham. This indicates that
of all transcendental
occupations, the best is eternal loving service
unto the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Dharma is sometimes translated
as
"religion," but that is not exactly the meaning. Dharma actually
means "that
which one cannot give up," "that which is inseparable from
oneself." The
warmth of fire is inseparable from fire; therefore warmth
is called the dharma,
or nature, of fire. Similarly, sad-dharma means
"eternal
occupation." That eternal occupation is engagement in the
transcendental loving
service of the Lord. The purpose of Kapiladeva's
Sankhya philosophy is
to propagate pure, uncontaminated devotional
service, and
therefore He is addressed here as the most important
personality among
those who know the transcendental occupation of the
living entity.
As pointed out
before, Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, is
everyone's real shelter (saranam saranyam). Everyone is
seeking shelter
because we are all constitutionally servants. Originally
we are servants of
God; therefore it is our nature to take His shelter.
Some seek an
occupation or the service of a great man; others seek the
service of the
government or whatever. In any case, the ultimate shelter
is Krsna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Being Krsna's incarnation,
Kapiladeva is also a
shelter. Krsna has unlimited forms and unlimited
incarnations. It is
said in Srimad-Bhagavatam that His incarnations are
expanding
continuously, like waves in the ocean. Indeed, we cannot even
count them. In
Brahma-samhita it is said: Advaitam acyutam anadim
ananta-rupam. In
India there are many thousands of temples, and within
these temples there
are arca-vigrahas, Deities. All these Krsnas are
nondifferent; they
are one. Krsna resides in Vaikuntha and also in the
temple. The Krsnas
are not different, although they are ananta,
unlimited. Krsna is
also the witness within everyone's heart, and He is
seeing all of our
activities. We cannot hide anything from Him, and we
receive the results
of our karma because the witness is Krsna Himself
within the heart.
How, then, can we avoid Him? Without Krsna's
permission, we cannot
do anything. Why does Krsna give us permission to
do something wrong?
He does so because we persist. Actually He does not
tell us to do
anything other than surrender unto Him. We want to do
something, and Krsna
may sanction it, but we go ahead and do it at our
own risk. Krsna is
not responsible. However, we should know that without
the sanction of
Krsna, we cannot do anything. That is a fact. Actually
we are constitutionally
servants of Krsna. Even though we may declare
ourselves
independent, we are not. Rather, we are servants falsely
declaring that we are
independent. Self-realization is understanding
that we are dependent
on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Caitanya
Mahaprabhu says:
ayi nanda-tanuja
kinkaram
patitam mam visame
bhavambudhau
krpaya tava
pada-pankaja
sthita-dhuli-sadrsam
vicintaya
"My dear Lord
Krsna, son of Maharaja Nanda, I am Your eternal
servant, but somehow
or other I have fallen into this ocean of
nescience. Please
pick Me up from this ocean of death and place Me as
one of the atoms at
Your lotus feet." (Siksastaka 5) Because we are
under illusion,
Devahuti says: sva-bhrtya-samsara-taroh kutharam. In
Bhagavad-gita
(15.1-4), material existence is likened unto a banyan tree
with its roots upward
and its branches below. The roots of this banyan
tree are very strong,
but they can be cut with an ax (kutharam). By
taking shelter of
Krsna's lotus feet, we can cut the strong root of
material existence.
Because we have given up Krsna's service, we have
become servants of so
many things. We are obliged to serve our parents,
wife, children,
country and so forth. We are indebted to many people and
to the demigods who
give heat and light. Although we are not paying the
bill, we are taking
advantage of the sunlight and the sun's heat. If we
take advantage of
electricity, we have to pay the bill, but we don't pay
the sun bill. This
means that we are actually indebted to the sun-god,
Vivasvan. Similarly,
the King of heaven, Indra, is supplying water in
the form of rain.
Rascals say that all this comes about by nature, but
they do not know that
nature is controlled. If we don't pay our debts by
performing
sacrifices, there will certainly be a scarcity. All of these
things are coming
from the Supreme Father, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, but we are
thinking that they are coming from nature, and we
are utilizing them
without caring whether we pay the bill or not. It is
all right to use our
father's property, but at the present moment we are
not acting as our
Father's sons; we are maya's sons. We do not care for
our Father; however,
nature is nonetheless working under His direction.
If we do not care for
Him, nature will reduce her supply, for nature
will not allow demons
to flourish. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (16.19):
tan aham dvisatah
kruran
samsaresu naradhaman
ksipamy ajasram
asubhan
asurisv eva yonisu
"Those who are
envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among
men, are cast by Me
into the ocean of material existence, into various
demoniac species of
life."
Demons are always
subject to be punished, and great demons like
Ravana and
Hiranyakasipu are personally punished by the Lord. Otherwise,
ordinary demons are
punished by the laws of material nature. Krsna does
not need to come to
punish the petty demons, but when there are great
demons like Ravana,
Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa, the Lord comes as Lord
Ramacandra, Lord
Nrsimhadeva or Sri Krsna to punish them. If we do not
want to be punished,
we have to follow the rules and regulations (saddharma).
Dharma means
"the laws given by God." Dharmam tu saksad
bhagavat-pranitam.
The laws are given by Bhagavan and are written in
books like
Manu-samhita and other Vedic literatures. According to the
law, we have to obey
the government, and according to dharma, we have to
obey Krsna, God. We
cannot manufacture our laws at home, and we cannot
manufacture dharma.
If one tries, he is simply cheating the public. Such
false dharmas are
kicked out of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.1.2): dharmah
projjhita. The real
dharma is set forth by Sri Krsna when He says:
sarva-dharman
parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja (Bg.18.66). All other
dharmas3 are simply
forms of cheat- ing. We must accept the principles
of Bhagavad-gita,
which constitute the ABC'S of dharma. Actually, we
only have to accept
the principle of surrender unto Krsna, but this
acceptance comes
after many, many births. It is not very easy, for only
after many births of
struggle does one come to his real perfection and
surrender unto Krsna.
At this time he understands perfectly that
Vasudeva, Krsna, is
everything. This is the greatest lesson of Bhagavadgita,
Everything is Krsna's
energy, and whatever we see is but an
exhibition of two
types of energy. Everyone knows that the sun has two
types of energy--heat
and light. Similarly, Krsna has an external energy
and an internal
energy, and He also has a marginal energy, which is a
mixture of the other
two. The external energy is this material world,
the internal energy
is the spiritual world, and the marginal energy is
the living entity.
The living entity is marginal because he can remain
in the material world
or the spiritual world. Bhagavad-gita describes
two types of living
entities, ksara and aksara, those living in the
material world and
those in the spiritual world. Those who have fallen
into the material
world are attracted by the tree of samsara, the banyan
tree of material
existence described in Bhagavad-gita (Fifteenth
Chapter).
It is essential that
we disassociate ourselves from this tree by
detachment. Cutting
down this tree is very difficult, but it is possible
with the weapon of
detachment. There is a Bengali proverb that states:
"I'll catch the
fish, but I will not touch the water." That type of
intelligence is
required. In America we see many old men on the beach
who have retired from
their business to waste their time trying to catch
fish. They are not
very cautious, and they touch the water. However, we
have to live in this
material world in such a way that we do everything
for Krsna but do not
touch the water of the material world. In this way,
we will have no
attachment to things of this material world. We may have
many great temples,
but we should not be attached to them. It is for
Krsna's sake that we
construct temples, but we must understand that the
temples are Krsna's
property. Our mission is to teach people that
everything belongs to
Krsna. Only a thief will occupy something
belonging to another
and claim it to be his.
The Krsna
consciousness movement preaches that everything belongs
to Krsna and that
everything should be utilized for Krsna's benefit. He
is the beneficiary of
everything, and it is to our benefit that we come
to this knowledge.
Isavasyam idam sarvam. If one realizes that
everything belongs to
Krsna, one becomes the greatest mahatma. Being a
mahatma does not mean
that one wears a big beard and a particular type
of dress. No, this
awareness must be there. Whatever we have should be
offered to Krsna. If
we have first-class food, we should offer it to
Him. If we have
nothing, we can offer Him a leaf, a flower, a little
water or fruit. This
can he collected by anyone anywhere without having
to pay money. As Sri
Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita (9.26):
patram puspam phalam
toyam
yo me bhaktya
prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah
"If one offers
Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or
water, I will accept
it."
The point is that we
should offer something to Krsna with devotion.
It is not that Krsna
is hungry and is asking for food. No, He is feeding
everyone, supplying
everyone with all the necessities: eko bahunam yo
vidadhati kaman
(Katha Upanisad 2.2.13). What, then, is He requesting?
He is asking for
bhakti, devotion, because He wants us to love Him. We
are suffering in this
material world, entangled in the tree of material
existence, moving
from one branch to another, and because of this we are
suffering. Krsna does
not want us to suffer, jumping like monkeys from
branch to branch. We
must come to Him and surrender to Him. When we come
to this knowledge, we
become perfect in knowledge. When we take shelter
at the lotus feet of
Krsna, we are no longer debtors to anyone. Na
kinkaro nayam rni
(SB. 11.5.41). Krsna assures us, aham tvam sarvapapebhyo
moksayisyami:
"I'll give you all relief." (Bg. 18.66) This is
what we actually
want. Therefore Devahuti herein takes shelter of
Kapiladeva and tells
Him, "You are the ax capable of making me
detached." When
our attachment to the material world is severed, we
become free. Bhakti
is the means by which we can develop this
detachment.
Vairagya-vidya-nija-bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is the science
of detachment. This
verse was composed by Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya when
he understood that
Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was a great logician,
and he composed a
hundred verses to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, wherein he
tells the Lord:
vairagya-vidya-nija-bhakti-yogasiksartham
ekah purusah puranah
sri-krsna-caitanya-sarira-dhari
krpambudhir yas tam
aham prapadye
"Let me take
shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri
Krsna, who has
descended in the form of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to
teach us real
knowledge, His devotional service, and detachment from
whatever does not
foster Krsna consciousness. He has descended because
He is an ocean of
transcendental mercy. Let me surrender unto His lotus
feet." (Cc.
Madhya 6.254)
When a person
advances in bhakti-yoga, he will automatically become
detached from
material attractions. There are many American and European
boys and girls in
this Krsna consciousness movement who have been born
in countries where
they can enjoy a good deal of material affluence, but
they consider this
material happiness and affluence like garbage in the
street. Because they
are devotees of Vasudeva, they are no longer
attached to these
material things. This is the result of bhakti-yoga,
which enables one to
be detached from material enjoyment. That
detachment is the
sign that one is advancing in bhakti-yoga. Bhaktih
paresanubhavo viraktir
anyatra ca (SB. 11.2.42). That is the test of
advancing in bhakti.
If we are advanced, we are no longer attached to
material enjoyment.
It is not that we think ourselves great devotees and
then go ahead and
enjoy material things. As stated in Bhagavad-gita
(5.22):
ye hi samsparsaja
bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te
ady-antavantah
kaunteya
na tesu ramate budhah
"An intelligent
person does not take part in the sources of misery,
which are due to
contact with the material senses. O son of Kunti, such
pleasures have a
beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not
delight in
them." When one sees something superior, he immediately
rejects that which is
inferior. Actually we cannot bring all this about
by our own endeavor;
therefore we have to take shelter of Krsna, and He
will help. Since our
only business is to take shelter of Krsna, Devahuti
says, "I am
taking shelter of You so that You can cut my attachment to
this material life.
Why should You do this? Because I am Your eternal
servant."
Bhaktivinoda Thakura says,
anadi karama-phale, padi 'bhavarnavajale,
taribare na dekhi
upaya. If we are thrown into the ocean, there is
a great struggle,
even if we may be very great swimmers. There is no
peace in this
material world, however expert we may be in dealing with
it. There is nothing
but struggle. We cannot live here peacefully. It is
not possible. Even if
we are nonviolent and hurt no one, there will be
trouble. However, if
somehow or other we manage to reach the shore, we
will find peace.
There is peace even if we are an inch out of the water.
Tava
pada-pankaja-sthita-dhuli sadrsam vicintaya (Siksastaka 5). If
somehow or other we
become one of the particles of dust at Krsna's lotus
feet, we will be
liberated.
We may be a Hindu or
a Muslim or a Christian for fifty or sixty
years, or at the
utmost one hundred, but again we have to take birth and
be something else. We
are thinking in terms of these religious
designations, which
are called asad-dharma, meaning that they may change
at any moment. But
what is our real dharma? Real dharma is sad-dharma,
that which will not
change, and this sad-dharma necessitates
surrendering unto
Krsna. This dharma will continue eternally. There are
many propounders of
sad-dharma, but actually the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is the best
propounder because He knows the reality. It is
therefore said of the
Gosvamis: nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau saddharma-
samsthapakau. Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu's direct disciples, the
Gosvamis, tried to
establish sad-dharma, and we are trying to follow in
their footsteps by
establishing real dharma throughout the world with
this Krsna
consciousness movement.
“Teachings of Lord
Kapila” by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada.
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Chapter Seven
Lord Kapila Begins to
Explain Self-realization
TEXT 12
maitreya uvaca
iti sva-matur
niravadyam ipsitam
nisamya pumsam
apavarga-vardhanam
dhiyabhinandyatmavatam
satam gatir
babhasa is-
at-smita-sobhitananah
TRANSLATION
After hearing of His
mother's uncontaminated desire for
transcendental
realization, the Lord thanked her within Himself for her
questions, and thus,
His face smiling, He explained the path of the
transcendentalists,
who are interested in self-realization.
PURPORT
Devahuti has
surrendered her confession of material entanglement
and her desire to
gain release. Her questions to Lord Kapila are very
interesting for
persons who are actually trying to get liberation from
material entanglement
and attain perfection. Unless one is interested in
understanding his
spiritual life, or his constitutional position, and
unless he also feels
inconvenience in material existence, his human form
of life is spoiled.
Only a foolish man does not care for the
transcendental
necessities of life and simply engages like an animal in
eating, sleeping,
defending and mating. Lord Kapila was very much
satisfied by His
mother's questions because the answers stimulate one's
desire for liberation
from the conditional life of material existence.
Such questions are
called apavarga-vardhanam. Those who are actually
spiritually
interested are called sat, or devotees. Satam prasangat. Sat
means "that
which eternally exists," and asat means "that which is not
eternal." Unless
one is situated on the spiritual platform, he is not
sat; he is asat. The
asat stands on a platform which will not exist, but
anyone who stands on
the spiritual platform will exist eternally. As
spirit soul, everyone
exists eternally, but the asat has accepted the
material world as his
shelter, and therefore he is full of anxiety.
Asad-grahan, the
desire to enjoy matter, is the cause of the soul's
being asat. Actually,
the spirit soul is not asat. As soon as one is
conscious of this
fact and takes to Krsna consciousness, he becomes sat.
Satam gatih, the path
of the eternal, is very interesting to persons who
are after liberation,
and His Lordship Kapila began to speak about that
path.
Those who are sat are
thus transcendentalists advanced in spiritual
life, and when they
hear questions from those who want to understand
spiritual life, they
become very happy. Transcendentalists are not
interested in worldly
talks. Indeed, worldly talks are very disgusting
to them, and they
avoid the company of those who talk about nonsensical
worldly affairs. Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised His disciples: gramyakatha
na sunibe. The word
gramya refers to that pertaining to one's
village, society or
neighborhood. People are interested in talking about
gramya-katha.
Newspapers, for instance, are filled with gramya-katha.
There is no spiritual
understanding in them. In the United States there
are many newspapers,
and simply to publish the New York Times many trees
have to be killed.
Now there is a paper scarcity. Why are they uselessly
killing trees just
for gramya-katha? They are only interested in making
a profit.
There is, however,
another kind of katha--krsna-katha. There are
literatures which may
be nicely presented from the literary point of
view, but if there is
no glorification of the Supreme Lord, they are
useless.
na yad vacas
citra-padam harer yaso
jagat-pavitram
pragrnita karhicit
tad vayasam tirtham
usanti manasa
na yatra hamsa
niramanty usikksayah
"Those words
which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who
alone can sanctify
the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered
by saintly persons to
be like unto a pilgrimage for crows. Since the
allperfect persons
are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do
not derive any
pleasure there." (SB. 1.5.10)
Worldly literatures
are like places where crows take pleasure. In
the bird society,
there are crows and swans, and crows are interested in
places where filthy
things are thrown. However, swans prefer nice clear
water with lotus
flowers, and it is in such places that they take their
pleasure. Similarly,
there are men who are like crows and men like
swans. That is a
natural division. According to an old English proverb,
Birds of a feather
flock together. Crows mix with crows, and swans mix
with swans. Since
devotees are like swans (hamsas), a most advanced
devotee is called
paramahamsa. The paramahamsas are not interested in
subjects fit for
crows. A person who is interested in inquiring about
transcendental
subjects, krsna-katha, makes a paramahamsa very glad.
Therefore Kapiladeva
was very glad to hear that His mother was eager to
receive information
on how to be delivered from material bondage:
atha me deva sammoham
apakrastum tvam
arhasi
yo 'vagraho 'ham
mametity
etasmin yojitas tvaya
"Now be pleased,
my Lord, to dispel my great delusion. Due to my
feeling of false ego,
I have been engaged by Your maya and have
identified myself
with the body and consequent bodily relations." (SB.
3.25.10)
Caitanya Mahaprabhu
advised His disciples never to eat palatable
food, never to talk
about village topics and never to read ordinary
novels, poems and
newspapers. One may ask, "How is it that in the modern
age these Europeans
and Americans of the Krsna consciousness movement do
not take interest in
newspapers?" Newspapers are very popular in the
West. Each day the
papers are published in three or four editions, and
they are all selling.
However, these American boys and girls who have
come to Krsna
consciousness have stopped reading newspapers. They do not
know what is
happening from day to day, and it does not matter. All of
this is a waste of
time. It is better that they read literatures like
Srimad-Bhagavatam and
Bhagavad-gita. Why waste one's valuable time?
Kapiladeva was very
glad that His mother was interested only in
spiritual
advancement. This material world is called pavarga, and to
nullify it is called
apavarga. In this material world, people are
laboring very hard
simply to earn some money. This creates a hellish
situation, and this
is the way of material life. People have become so
dull that they do not
understand the meaning of liberation. They have
become just like
animals. If an animal is informed that there is such a
thing as liberation,
how will he understand it? lt is not possible.
Similarly, at the
present moment, human beings have become exactly like
animals. They do not
know the meaning of apavarga, liberation. Yet there
was a time when
people understood that human life was meant for
apavarga. The
questions are raised by Devahuti, and the answers are
given by Kapiladeva.
That is apavarga-vardhanam. As far as material
maintenance is
concerned, the sastras never stress it. Rather, they say
that one's maintenance
will come automatically. God gives food to
animals, birds and
aquatics. Why should He not give it to one who is
interested in
apavarga? Unfortunately people have no faith, and
therefore good
association is required.
People should not
waste their time associating with crows; they
should associate with
swans. When garbage is thrown out, crows and dogs
come to see what is
there, but no sane man will go. Those who are
interested in trying
to get pleasure out of this material world are
actually chewing the
chewed. punah punas carvita-carvananam (SB.
7.5.30). If one picks
up a piece of sugarcane which has already been
chewed, he is a fool.
We must know that the juice has aiready been taken
out of that
sugarcane. What will one get by chewing it? However, there
are animals who are
simply interested in chewing the chewed. Material
life means chewing
the chewed. A father educates his son to earn a
livelihood, get
married and settle down, but he himself already knows
that by doing this he
has not become satisfied. Why, then, is he
engaging his son in
this same business? A real father is one who does
not allow his son to
chew the chewed. pita na sa syaj janani na sa
syat... na mocayed
yah samupeta-mrtyum: one should not become a father
or a mother unless
one is able to save his children from the impending
clutches of death.
(SB. 5.5.18) That is the duty of the father and
mother. How can this
be done? A father and mother should educate their
son in Krsna
consciousness. Then he can be saved. They should educate
the son in such a way
that there is no pavarga. If we do not go forward
to liberation, we
promote a civilization of cats and dogs. Eating,
sleeping, mating,
defending, fearing and dying are all experienced by
cats and dogs, but
human life is meant for another purpose. Of course we
have to maintain the
body; it is not that we should neglect it. But we
should not
unnecessarily engage in the maintenance of the body.
yasyatma-buddhih
kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu
bhauma ijya-dhih
yat tirtha-buddhih
salile na karhlicij
janesv abhijnesu sa
eva go-kharah
"A human being
who identifies this body made of three elements as
the self, who
considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen,
who considers the
land of his birth as worshipable, and who goes to a
place of pilgrimage
simply to take a bath rather than meet men of
transcendental
knowledge there, is to be considered like a cow or an
ass." (SB.
10.84.13)
From the Vedas we can
receive education of all kinds. On a mango
tree, there are
ripened mangoes and green mangoes. The Srimad-Bhagavatam
is the ripened mango
of the desire tree of Vedic knowledge: nigamakalpa-
taror galitam phaam.
If the mango is tasted by the parrot, it
becomes doubly tasty.
The word suka means parrot, and Sukadeva Gosvami
spoke Srimad-Bhagavatam.
It is therefore more relishable from his lips.
nigama-kalpa-taror
galitam phalam
suka-mukhad
amrta-drava-samyutam
pibata bhagavatam
rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika
bhuvi bhavukah
"O expert and
thoughtful men, relish Srimad-Bhagavatam, the mature
fruit of the desire
tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips
of Sri Sukadeva
Gosvami. Therefore this fruit has become even more
tasteful, although
its nectarean juice was already relishable for all,
including liberated
souls." (SB. 1.1.3) It is regrettable that in lndia,
where these
literatures are available, people are not interested. They
are interested in
Marxist literature but not Srimad-Bhagavatam, and this
is India's
misfortune.
When a student hears
spiritual subjects attentively, the spiritual
master becomes very
happy. Kapiladeva was very happy to see His mother
eager to understand
spiritual subject matters. He therefore thanked His
mother for her
inquiry.
Generally people are
interested in things that give immediate
pleasure. We want to
taste something tasty to the tongue, regardless of
whether it is edible
or not. Hogs very readily eat stool, and they do so
without
discrimination. They have no idea of tapasya, penance. When one
engages in spiritual
realization, one has to undergo tapasya. However,
this has been made
very easy by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Ceto-darpanamarjanam
bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam.
All we have to do is spare a
little time and chant
Hare Krsna, but we are not even ready for this
much tapasya. Krsna
is more interested in leading us down the path of
liberation than we
are in going. He has given us a very simple method:
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam. We need only chant Hare
Krsna. To perfect
this chanting of Hare Krsna, there is no hard-and-fast
rule. Simply by
chanting, we will attain perfection. Being contaminated
by Kali-yuga,
however, we are unfortunate and therefore we have no
attraction to the
holy names of Krsna. Thus when Kapiladeva or His
representative sees
someone a little interested, he becomes very glad
and thanks him. When
Kapiladeva saw His mother interested, He thanked
her from within, not
openly.
Kapiladeva was very
glad, and He began to speak. Kapiladeva was an
incarnation of God
and was a young boy; therefore His face was very
beautiful. When He
answered this question, He became even more
beautiful, and He
smiled because He was pleased at His mother's
question. Krsna is
also very beautiful, but when a devotee serves Him
and comes to Him, He
becomes even more beautiful. When a devotee with
all his heart and
soul serves Krsna, dresses Him in nice garments and
gives Him a flower,
Krsna smiles. If you can get Krsna to smile upon you
just once, your
life's goal is fulfilled.
Thus smiling,
Kapiladeva began to enlighten His mother.
TEXT 13
sri-bhagavan uvaca
yoga adhyatmikah
pumsam
mato nihsreyasaya me
atyantoparatir yatra
duhkhasya ca sukhasya
ca
TRANSLATION
The Personality of
Godhead answered: That yoga system which relates
to the Lord and the
individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate
benefit of the living
entity, and which causes detachment from all
happiness and
distress in the material world, is the highest yoga
system.
PURPORT
In the material
world, everyone is striving for some material
happiness, but as
soon as we get some material happiness, there is also
material distress. In
the material world one cannot have unadulterated
happiness. Any kind
of happiness one has is contaminated by distress
also. For example, if
we want to drink milk, we have to bother to
maintain a cow and
keep her fit to supply milk. Drinking milk is very
nice; it is also
pleasure. But for the sake of drinking milk one has to
accept so much
trouble. The yoga system, as here stated by the Lord, is
meant to end all
material happiness and material distress. The best
yoga, as taught in
Bhagavad-gita by Krsna, is bhakti-yoga. It is also
mentioned in the Gita
that one should try to be tolerant and not be
disturbed by material
happiness or distress. Of course, one may say that
he is not disturbed
by material happiness, but he does not know that
just after one enjoys
so-called material happiness, material distress
will follow. This is
the law of the material world. Lord Kapila states
that the yoga system
is the science of the spirit. One practices yoga in
order to attain
perfection on the spiritual platform. There is no
question of material
happiness or distress. It is transcendental. Lord
Kapila will
eventually explain how it is transcendental, but the
preliminary
introduction is given here.
The attempt in this
material world to maximize happiness and
minimize distress is
called the struggle for existence. Generally yoga
is practiced to
acquire some material profit. There are eight kinds of
yogic perfection
(siddhis): anima, laghima, prapti, isitva, vasitva,
mahima, prakamya and
kamavasayita. A real yogi can become smaller than
the smallest, lighter
than the lightest and bigger than the biggest.
Whatever he wants he
can produce immediately in his hand. He can even
create a planet.
These are some of the yoga-siddhis, but here it is
stated that the
supreme yoga system does not aim at material happiness
or relief from
distresses caused by material inconvenience. Everyone is
trying to get out of
material distress and gain some happiness. In any
case, when something
is material, there is only so-called happiness and
so-called distress.
For instance, there may be fireworks going on, and
this may be happiness
for someone but distress for us. Some people are
thinking that these
fireworks are very enjoyable, and we are thinking
that they are very
inconvenient. That is the material world. On one side
there is happiness,
and on the other side there is distress. Both
happiness and
distress are actually illusions. In summer, water is
happiness, but in
winter it is distress. The water is the same, but at
one time it brings
happiness and at another time it brings distress.
When a son is born,
he brings happiness, but when he dies, he brings
distress. In either
case, the son is the same.
This material world
is the world of duality, and we cannot
understand happiness
without distress or distress without happiness.
This is therefore
called the relative world. Spiritual happiness is
above these
dualities, and that spiritual happiness is the perfection of
yoga. Yoga
adhyatmikah. Yoga is the happiness of the soul, and the
individual soul can
be happy when it is with the Supersoul, the Supreme
Soul. Nityo nityanam
cetanas cetananam. There is the Supreme Soul, or
the supreme living
being, and there are many individual souls,
individual beings. We
are many, but the principal living being is one,
Krsna. He is the
fire, and we are the sparks from that fire. The sparks
are illuminated when
they are with the original fire, but if the sparks
no longer associate
with the original fire, they are extinguished.
Similarly, our real
happiness is in enjoying with the Supreme Being.
Happiness is being in
His company. Krsna is not alone, but is always
with His friends,
either the gopis or the cowherd boys, or with His
mother and father. We
never find Krsna alone. He may be with Radharani
or with His devotees.
He is like a king or president. When one says that
the king or president
is coming, it is understood that he is not coming
alone. He comes with
His secretaries, ministers and many others.
The word yoga means "connection,"
and atma means "soul" and
sometimes
"mind" or "body." The material body has nothing to do with
the
Supreme Being because
the Supreme Being is completely spiritual. He has
no material covering.
One who thinks that Krsna, the Supreme Being, has
a material covering
is himself covered by maya. Krsna does not say that
He comes as an
ordinary living being. Rather, His advent is totally
transcendental. Janma
karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah (Bg.
4.4). We therefore
have to learn how Krsna takes His birth, which is not
ordinary. If it were
ordinary, why should we observe the Janmastami
ceremony? His birth
is divyam, divine. Everything about Krsna is divine,
and if we think that
Krsna is like us, we immediately become mudhas,
fools. In the words
of Bhagavad-gita (9.11):
avajananti mam mudha
manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto
mama bhuta-mahesvaram
"Fools deride Me
when I descend in the human form. They do not know
My transcendental
nature and My supreme dominion over all that be."
Actually Krsna is the
original Supreme Being, the original spirit
soul. We are simply
minute parts and parcels of Krsna. If we connect
with Krsna, we are
illuminated just as Krsna is illuminated. If we fall
down from Krsna, our
spiritual power and illumination are extinguished.
The word yoga means
connecting or linking with that original source.
Yoga is the Sanskrit
word meaning "connection," and viyoga means
"disconnection."
Kapiladeva is
referred to as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Bhagavan
makes no mistakes. Narayanah paro 'vyaktat: even
Sankaracarya says
that "Bhagavan, Narayana, does not belong to this
material world."
When we speak of Bhagavan, or when the sastras refer to
Bhagavan, we refer to
Him who is above material understanding. As stated
here, sri-bhagavan
uvaca. It does not say vyasadeva uvaca or kapiladeva
uvaca. Similarly, in
Bhagavad-gita, Vyasadeva says, sri-bhagavan uvaca.
Bhagavan refers to
Him who is above the defects of this material world.
Bhagavan is not
subject to the four deficiencies of the living entities.
Being imperfect,
living entities are illusioned and subject to commit
mistakes. They also
have the tendency to cheat others. When one who has
no knowledge tries to
become a teacher or preacher, he is actually
cheating others.
Since we ourselves do not possess perfect knowledge, we
simply try to teach
what Sri Bhagavan says. We do not manufacture our
own teachings.
So-called scholars and learned men manufacture their own
teachings and give
their opinions. In the West especially, we find much
philosophical
speculation and mental gymnastics, but such philosophy can
never be perfect. We
have to take our ideas from Bhagavan; then they
will be perfect. We
read Bhagavad-gita because it is perfect. There is
no mistake in it;
there is no illusion in it; there is no cheating in
it. Nor is it
delivered by one whose senses are imperfect. Krsna says in
Bhagavad-gita (7.26):
vedaham samatitani
vartamanani carjuna
bhavisyani ca bhutani
mam tu veda na
kascana
"O Arjuna, as
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything
that has happened in
the past, all that is happening in the present, and
all things that are
yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me
no one knows."
God knows everything,
but we do not know what is God. That is our
position. Our
position is not knowing. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese
,rjuna tisthati (Bg.
18.61). Isvara, God, Krsna, is situated in
everyone's heart.
Sarvasya caham hrdi sannivistah: "I have entered into
everyone's
heart." (Bg. 15.15) The Supreme Lord refers not only to the
hearts of human
beings but to those of animals and everything else.
andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham
govindam adi-purusam
tam aham bhajami
(Brahma-samhita 5.35)
The Supreme Lord is
within the atom as Paramatma, and therefore He
is also within the
individual soul. Being within everything, He knows
everything. Since He
knows everything, we have to take lessons from Him.
If we take what
Bhagavan says as perfect knowledge, we receive perfect
knowledge. For
receiving this knowledge, there is a disciplic succession
(parampara), which is
described in Bhagavad-gita (4.2):
evam
parampara-praptam
imam rajarsayo viduh
"This supreme
science was thus received through the chain of
disciplic succession,
and the saintly kings understood it in that way."
This Krsna
consciousness philosophy is very easy because we do not
manufacture ideas. We
take the ideas and the words delivered by the
Supreme Person,
Krsna, or His incarnation or representative. His
representative does
not say anything which Krsna Himself does not say.
It is very easy to be
a representative, but one cannot be a
representative of
Krsna if one tries to interpret Krsna's words in a
whimsical way.
There is no authority
superior to Sri Krsna, and if we stick to
this principle, we
can become gurus. We don't need to change our
position to become a
guru. All we have to do is follow in the disciplic
succession stemming
from Sri Krsna. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has advised:
amara ajnaya guru
hana tara' ei desa (Cc. Madhya 7.128). Caitanya
Mahaprabhu instructed
people to learn from Him and then go teach people
within their own
villages. One may think, "I am illiterate and have no
education. I was not
born in a very high family. How can I become a
guru?" Caitanya
Mahaprabhu says that it is not very difficult. Yare
dekha, tare kaha
`krsna'-upadesa: "Simply speak whatever Krsna speaks.
Then you become a
guru." Whoever speaks what Krsna has not spoken is not
a guru but a rascal.
A guru only speaks what Krsna has spoken. This is
the sastric
injunction.
sat-karma-nipuno
vipro
mantra-tantra-visaradah
avaisnavo gurur na
syad
vaisnavah sva-paco
guruh
"A scholarly
brahmana expert in all subjects of Vedic knowledge is
unfit to become a
spiritual master without being a Vaisnava, but a
person born in a
family of a lower class can become a spiritual master
if he is a
Vaisnava." (Padma Purana)
People are in
darkness, and they have to be enlightened. We have
finally come from the
animal kingdom to the human form, and now this
human form gives us the
opportunity to get out of the cycle of birth and
death. The mission of
this Krsna consciousness society is to awaken
people to their
original consciousness. Jiva jaga, jiva jaga, goracanda
bale. The word
goracanda refers to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who tells the
living entity,
"Get up! Get up! How long will you continue to sleep?"
Kata nidra yao
maya-pisacira kole. The same is stated here. It is the
prime business of
human beings to connect again with the Supreme Soul.
The purpose of yoga
is to awaken to Krsna consciousness and connect
oneself again with
Krsna. That is adhyatmika-yoga. Yoga does not mean
showing some mystic
magic. The supreme yogi is described by Sri Krsna
Himself in
Bhagavad-gita (6.47):
yoginam api sarvesam
mad-gatenantaratmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo
mam
sa me yuktatamo matah
"And of all
yogis, he who always abides in Me with great faith,
worshiping Me in
transcendental loving service, is most intimately
united with Me in
yoga and is the highest of all."
There are many yogis
and many different types of yoga systems, and
all of these are
discussed in Bhagavad-gita. There is hatha-yoga, karmayoga,
jnana-yoga and
raja-yoga; however, the real yoga system is meant
for reviving our
connection with Krsna. Here it is said: yoga adhyatmikah
pumsam. Adhyatmikah:
we are living entities, souls. It is not that
we are disconnected
from Krsna, but we have simply forgotten Him. It is
not possible to be
disconnected, but it is possible to be covered. In
the words of Krsna in
Bhagavad-gita (7.25):
naham prakasah
sarvasya
yogamaya-samavrtah
mudho 'yam
nabhijanati
loko mam ajam avyayam
"I am never
manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I
am covered by My
eternal creative potency [yogamaya]; and so the deluded
world knows Me not,
who am unborn and infallible."
There is yoga, and
there is yogamaya. Yogamaya means forgetfulness.
First of all we have
to understand what is the soul. At the present
moment, people are in
such darkness that they do not even understand the
soul. Therefore
Bhagavad-gita (2.13) first of all teaches what the soul
is:
dehino 'smin yatha
dehe
kaumaram yauvanam
jara
tatha
dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na
muhyati
"As the embodied
soul continually passes in this body from boyhood
to youth to old age,
the soul similarly passes into another body at
death. The
self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." The
word dehi means
"the proprietor of the body." We are thinking, "I am
this body," but
actually this is not so. We are the proprietors of the
body, and that is the
real understanding of the self. We do not say, "I
am this finger"
or "I am this hand." Rather, we say, "This is my finger,
this is my head, this
is my leg, etc." Similarly, the same can be said
about the entire
body. "This is my body." This means that I am the
proprietor of this
body. The body has been given by maya, the material
energy.
prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani
sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate
"The bewildered
spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes
of material nature,
thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are
in actuality carried
out by nature." (Bg. 3.27)
The living entity
receives different types of bodies according to
karma. One living
entity may receive a cat body, another a dog body, and
so forth. Why are
there so many different bodies? Why not one kind of
body? The answer to
this is also given in Bhagavad-gita (13.22):
karanam guna-sango
'sya
sad-asad-yoni janmasu
"It is due to
his association with the modes of material nature.
Thus he meets with
good and evil among various species."
Because the soul
within the body associates with the three modes of
material nature
(goodness, passion and ignorance), he receives different
types of bodies. One
doesn't have to aspire for his next body; one need
only rest assured that
it will be a different body. On the other hand,
Krsna does not say
what kind of body one will be awarded. That depends
on qualification. If
one associates with the mode of goodness, he is
elevated to the
higher planetary systems. If he associates with the mode
of passion, he
remains here. And if one associates with the mode of
ignorance and
darkness, he goes down to lower life forms--anmals, trees
and plants. This is
the proclamation of Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita
(14.18):
urdhvam gacchanti
sattva-stha
madhye tisthanti
rajasah
jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha
adho gacchanti
tamasah
"Those situated
in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the
higher planets; those
in the mode of passion live on the earthly
planets; and those in
the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish
worlds."
There are 8,400,000
species of life, and all of these arise from
one's association
with the modes of nature (karanam guna-sango 'sya).
And, according to the
body, one undergoes distress and happiness. One
cannot expect a dog
to enjoy the same happiness that a king or rich man
enjoys. Whether one
enjoys this or that happiness or suffers this or
that distress, both
distress and happiness are due to the material body.
Yoga means
transcending the distress or happiness of the material body.
If we connect
ourselves with Krsna through the supreme yoga, we can get
rid of material
happiness and distress arising from the body.
Reconnecting with
Krsna is called bhakti-yoga, and Krsna comes to
instruct us in this
supreme yoga. In essence, He says, "Just revive your
connection with Me,
you rascal. Give up all these manufactured yogas and
religions and just
surrender unto Me. That is Krsna's instruction, and
Krsna's
representative, the incarnation or the guru, says the same
thing. Although
Kapiladeva is an incarnation of Krsna, He acts as the
representative of
Krsna, the guru. If we just accept the principle of
surrender unto Krsna,
we will become actually transcendental to socalled
material happiness.
We should not be captivated by material
happiness or
aggrieved by material distress. These are causes for
bondage. Material
happiness is not actual happiness. It is actually
distress. We try to
be happy by obtaining money, but money is not very
easily obtained, and
we have to undergo a great deal of distress to get
it. However, we
accept this distress with the hope of getting some false
happiness. If we
purify our senses, on the other hand, we can come to
the spiritual
platform. Real happiness lies in engaging our senses to
satisfy the senses of
Krsna. In this way our senses are spiritualized,
and this is called
adhyatmika-yoga or bhakti-yoga. This is the yoga that
Lord Kapiladeva is
herein expounding.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of H H Swamy Prabhupada
ji for the collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth,
lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
spiritual path and also this is purely a non-commercial blog)
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