VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
11.23.28
nirvedaś cātmanaḥ plavaḥ
(28) The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality who comprises all the gods and who, satisfied with me, led me to this condition of detachment, constitutes assuredly the boat to carry the soul [see also 11.17: 44].
The brāhmaṇa could understand that the demigods, who award different types of sense gratification as the result of one's fruitive activities, cannot bestow the highest benefit in life. When the brāhmaṇa lost all his property he could understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who comprises all the demigods, had given him the highest perfection, not by awarding sense gratification but by saving him from the ocean of material enjoyment. Being thus deprived of the opportunity to cultivate religiosity, wealth, sense gratification and liberation, the brāhmaṇa became detached, and transcendental knowledge awakened within his heart.
11.23.29
so 'haḿ kālāvaśeṣeṇa
śoṣayiṣye 'ńgam ātmanaḥ
apramatto 'khila-svārthe
(29) With the time remaining I will, in order to live in peace with myself, not [longer] being bewildered about my real interest, restrict my body to the minimum.
11.23.30
devās tri-bhuvaneśvarāḥ
(30) May the gods, the controllers of the three worlds be pleased with this. Was it not Khathvânga who achieved the spiritual abode in a single moment?'
The brāhmaṇa of Avantī thought that although he was an old man who might die at any moment he could follow the example of Mahārāja Khaṭvāńga, who achieved the Lord's mercy in a single moment. Mahārāja Khaṭvāńga, as described in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, fought valiantly on behalf of the demigods, and they offered the king any benediction he might desire. Khaṭvāńga Mahārāja chose to find out the remaining duration of his life, which unfortunately was a single moment. The king therefore immediately surrendered to Lord Kṛṣṇa and achieved the spiritual world. The brāhmaṇa of Avantī desired to follow this example; with the blessings of the demigods, who are all devotees of the Lord, he hoped to become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious before giving up his body.
11.23.31
ity abhipretya manasā
śānto bhikṣur abhūn muniḥ
(31) The Supreme Lord said: 'Thus making up his mind became the most pious brahmin from Avantî, untying the knots in his heart, a peaceful and silent mendicant.
11.23.32
saḿyatātmendriyānilaḥ
asańgo 'lakṣito 'viśat
(32) He wandered the wide world alone and inconspicuous, and entered, with his self, senses and vital air therewith controlled [see tri-danda], its cities and villages to live on charity.
11.23.33
(33) Seeing him appearing as an old, dirty beggar, was he by the low-class people dishonored with many an insult, My dear.
11.23.34
darśitāny ādadur muneḥ
(34) Some of them took his triple staff away, his begging bowl, his waterpot and his seat, and some took his prayer beads and his torn rags. Showing them to him they offered them back, and then again took them away from the sage.
11.23.35
(35) And when he at the shore of the river wanted to enjoy his share of the food he had acquired by his begging, urinated the grave sinners upon it and spat they on his head.
11.23.36
(36) He who in accord with the vow of silence didn't speak, they would beat up and deride with their words saying: 'This one is a thief'; thus speaking they bound him in ropes while some shouted thereto: 'Tie him up, bind him!'
11.23.37
kṣipanty eke 'vajānanta
(37) Some criticized him committing insults like: 'This one is a religious hypocrite, a cheater who, having lost his wealth after his family threw him out, now has taken to this profession'.
11.23.38-39
taḿ babandhur nirurudhur
(38-39) 'See how this person as powerful and steadfast as a solid mountain, in his silence pursuing his goal, is as firmly determined as a duck'. Some ridiculed him speaking thus, while others passed foul air and, binding him in chains, kept the twice-born one captive like a pet animal.
11.23.40
bhoktavyam ātmano diṣṭaḿ
(40) Thus subjected to all that was caused by other living beings, by higher powers and by himself [see kles'a], he understood that whatever came his way befell him because it was his destiny.
Many cruel persons harassed the brāhmaṇa, and his own body caused him suffering in the form of fever, hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc. The higher forces of nature are those that cause excessive heat, cold, wind and rain. The brāhmaṇa realized that his suffering was due to his false identification with his material body, and not to the interaction of his body with external phenomena. Rather than try to adjust his external situation, he tried to adjust his Kṛṣṇa consciousness and thus realize his actual identity as eternal spirit soul.
11.23.41
agāyata narādhamaiḥ
(41) Being insulted by lowly people who tried to get the better of him, he sang, keeping firm to his duty and fixed in goodness, the following song [see also B.G. 18: 33].
11.23.42
(42) The brahmin said: 'These people are not the cause of my happiness or distress, nor can I blame the demigods, my body, the planets, my karma or the time. It is, according to the standard authorities [the s'ruti] nothing but the mind that is the cause. The mind causes someone to rotate in the cycle of material life.
11.23.43
(43) The mind giving evidence of the activity of the modes is very strong because of them and thus gives rise to the different sorts of white [goodness], red [passion] and black [ignorance] activities that lead to the conditions [the societal classes] that correspond with the same colors.
11.23.44
(44) The Supersoul not involved and golden [radiating in its own light] exists along with the struggling mind, My friend, and looks down upon the mind that, with the image of the world it carries, embraces the objects of desire. It is in that engagement with the modes of nature that the spark of God that is the individual soul gets entangled in attachment.
11.23.45
(45) Charity, doing one's duty, the niyama, the yama and the hearing [from the scripture], pious works and the purification by vows all entail the subduing of the mind. Therewith the supreme of yoga, the absorption of the mind [samâdhi], constitutes the purpose of the activities.
11.23.46
(46) Tell me what the use is of rituals and such for someone whose mind has been pacified in the perfectly being fixed in charity and assorted processes? And [inversely] how can one occupy oneself with these processes of charity and such when one has lost one's way with a mind not under control?
11.23.47
(47) Since time immemorial everything else, the [senses and their] gods for example, has fallen under the control of the mind and the mind has never fallen under the control of any other [one but the Supreme One]. As fearsome as a god [Aniruddha] it is accordingly stronger than the strongest - indeed is He who can bring that mind under control the God of gods [see also B.G. 6: 35-36, *].
11.23.48
(48) Failing [when one is worldly engaged] to subdue that difficult to conquer enemy [see B.G. 6: 6] who in its urges being so unmanageable is tormenting and striking, do some therefore completely bewildered create useless quarrels and are thus with the mortals in this world friends, neuters and rivals.
Falsely identifying oneself as the material body, and accepting bodily expansions such as children and grandchildren to be one's eternal property, one completely forgets that every living being is qualitatively one with God. There is no essential difference between one individual being and another, since all are eternal expansions of the Supreme Lord. The mind absorbed in false ego creates the material body, and by identification with the body, the conditioned soul is overwhelmed by false pride and ignorance, as described here.
11.23.49
mamāham ity andha-dhiyo manuṣyāḥ
(49) Having accepted the material body as a part of their mind, in the sense of 'I' and 'mine', wander human beings blinded in darkness in their intelligence bewildered by this hard to overcome illusion of 'this I am' and 'that is someone else'.
11.23.50
(50) Asserting that [adhibhautika] these or those people would be the cause of my happiness and distress, one may wonder what room there is for the soul in this conception; happiness and distress belong to the earth [and not to the soul]. With whom is one to be angry when the tongue happens to be bitten by one's own teeth?
11.23.51
(51) If one says that [adhidaivika] the gods would be responsible for the suffering, then how would that suffering be related to the soul when that pain is fully subject to change [while the soul is not]. With whom should the living being be angry when a limb of his own body hurts another limb?
11.23.52
(52) If the soul itself [adhyâtmika] would be the cause of one's happiness and distress, it is not possible that joy and grief would be caused by another nature apart from one's own. For nothing exists separately from the soul. Such a claim would be false. But can one be angry [with oneself or the soul] when there is no happiness or distress [in the witnessing soul, see B.G. 2: 14]?
Because a dead body does not feel pleasure or pain, our happiness and distress are due to our own consciousness, which is the nature of the soul. It is not, however, the original function of the soul to enjoy material happiness and suffer material distress. These are produced by ignorant material affection and enmity based on false ego. Our involvement in sense gratification drags our consciousness into the material body, where it is shocked by the inevitable bodily pains and problems.
On the spiritual platform there is neither material happiness nor distress because there the living consciousness is fully engaged, without personal desire, in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. This is the actual position of happiness, aloof from false bodily identification. Rather than uselessly becoming enraged with others for one's own foolishness, one should take to self-realization and solve the problems of life.
11.23.53
(53) If the planets would be the cause of happiness and distress, how would that relate to the soul who is unborn? The heavenly bodies relate to that what is born, as they [the astrologers] say. A planet is only troubled by other planets. With whom should the living being, when regarded as distinct from its [heavenly] body, be angry now?
11.23.54
(54) If we assume karma to be the cause of happiness and distress, what does that karma then mean to the soul? For sure with the animating person on the one hand and this animated body endowed with consciousness [on itself] not alive on the other hand, neither of the two are the root cause of the karma of course. What is left to be upset about then?
11.23.55
(55) If we say that time would be the cause of happiness and distress, then what for the soul in that idea; the soul belongs to time, the way fire doesn't burn the flames or the snow is not [harmed by cold] - with whom to become angry when there is no duality with the supreme [see also B.G. 18: 16 and timequotes]?
11.23.56
(56) Not by anyone, anywhere or by any means there is for him, [the spiritual soul] superior of transcendence, the influence of the duality to which the false ego arises that shapes one's material existence. He who awakens to this intelligence has nothing to fear from other living beings.
The brāhmaṇa has refuted six specific explanations of the happiness and distress of the living entity, and now he refutes any other explanation that might be given. On the basis of false ego, the bodily covering factually overwhelms the spirit soul, and thus one falsely enjoys and suffers that which has no real relationship with oneself. One who can understand this sublime teaching of the brāhmaṇa, spoken by the Lord to Uddhava, will never again suffer the terrible anxiety of fear within the material world.
11.23.57
adhyāsitāḿ pūrvatamair maharṣibhiḥ
tamo mukundāńghri-niṣevayaiva
(57) By the worship of the feet of Mukunda I will cross over the hard to overcome ocean of material nescience. I am certain of this thanks to the foregoing great seers [or âcâryas] who are anchored in the worship of the Soul Supreme [see also B.G. 6: 1-2].'
11.23.58
(58) The Supreme Lord said: 'With his wealth destroyed getting detached, leaving home, free from moroseness traveling the earth and still being insulted by rascals, the sage unswerving in his duties sent this song up.
11.23.59
puruṣasyātma-vibhramaḥ
mitrodāsīna-ripavaḥ
(59) As for that what causes happiness or distress to the individual soul there is nothing besides the mind. It is the mind that bewildered out of ignorance created a material life of friends, neuters and enemies [see also 10.32: 17-22, B.G. 9: 29].
Everyone is working hard to please their friends, defeat their enemies and maintain the status quo with neutral parties. These relations are certainly based on the material body and do not exist beyond the body's inevitable demise. They are called ignorance, or material illusion.
11.23.60
(60) Therefore in all respects, My best, bring with an intelligence absorbed in Me the mind under control and thus connected have the complete [the marriage, the comprehension] of yoga [see also S'rî S'rî S'ikshâshthaka-verse 1].
11.23.61
dhārayañ chrāvayañ chṛṇvan
dvandvair naivābhibhūyate
(61) Whosoever with full attention meditates on, makes others listen or listens himself to this [song] based upon the knowledge of the Absolute as sung by the mendicant, will for certain never be overwhelmed by the dualities.'
The Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī took shelter of the devotional service of the Lord and thus could overcome the illusory potency of his worshipable object, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He himself meditated upon and heard this song, and also taught it to others. Having received the Lord's mercy, he enlightened other conditioned souls with transcendental intelligence so that they could also follow in the footsteps of the devotees of the Lord. Religion actually means to become a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord in loving service. Those who are trying to enjoy the material world or merely renounce it to avoid personal inconvenience cannot actually understand love of Godhead, in which the only objective is the satisfaction of the Lord.
Thus end of the Eleventh Canto, Twenty-third Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "The Song of the Avantī Brāhmaṇa."
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Swamyjis, Philosophers, Scholars and Knowledge Seekers for the collection)
No comments:
Post a Comment