VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Chapter 5
Nârada Concludes His Teachings to Vasudeva
In this chapter the destination of persons who are inimical to the worship of Lord Hari, who are unable to control their own senses and who are not peaceful is examined, along with the different names, forms and modes of worship of the Personality of Godhead in each yuga.
From the face, arms, thighs and feet of the primeval person Lord Viṣṇu are born (correspondingly and in order of the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance) the four varṇas — brāhmaṇa and so on — and also the four different āśramas. If the members of the four varṇas and four āśramas do not worship Lord Śrī Hari, who is Himself directly the origin of their own creation, they will simply fall down. Among these classes, women and śūdras, who generally have no contact with the hearing and chanting of hari-kathā, are on account of their very ignorance special candidates for the mercy of great souls. The members of the other three varṇas, becoming fit for achieving the lotus feet of Hari by second birth through Vedic initiation (śrauta-janma), nevertheless become confused by concocted interpretations of the Vedas. Presuming themselves to be great scholars, although not understanding the essential meaning of karma, they become flatterers of other deities in their greed for fruitive results and ridicule the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are fixed in family life, attached to mundane gossip and indifferent to the devotional service of Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas. They are maddened by material opulences and pleasures, devoid of real discrimination and intelligence and always function on the mental platform. But such attachment to family life and so on is most natural for the mass of people, even though it is against the best advice of śāstra. To become disentangled from such life in all respects is the principal teaching of the Vedas. Real wealth is that conducive to the faithful execution of the duty of the soul, not that which exists simply for selfish sense gratification. As a consequence of the desire to indulge the senses, men and women couple together to produce children. Engaging in animal slaughter apart from that necessary for performance of sacrifice, these human animals themselves suffer violence in the next life. If because of excessive greed for one's own pleasure one commits violence against living beings. he is also attacking Lord Śrī Hari, who is present in the bodies of all living entities as the Supersoul. Opposed to Lord Vāsudeva, ignorant self-cheaters completely carry out their own ruination and enter into hell.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Hari, accepts in each of the different yugas various colors, names and forms and is worshiped by various prescribed processes. In Satya-yuga the Supreme Lord is white in complexion, has four arms, dresses as a brahmacārī, is known by such names as Haḿsa and is served by the practice of meditational yoga. In Tretā-yuga He is red in color and four-armed, is the personification of sacrifice, is characterized by the symbols of the sacrificial spoon, ladle, etc., is called by such names as Yajña and is worshiped by Vedic sacrifices. In Dvāpara-yuga He is of dark blue complexion, wears a yellow garment, is marked by Śrīvatsa and other signs, has such names as Vāsudeva and is worshiped in His Deity form by the regulations of the Vedas and tantras. In Kali-yuga He is golden in color, is accompanied by associates who are His primary and secondary limbs and His weapons, is absorbed in kṛṣṇa-kīrtana and is worshiped by the performance of sańkīrtana-yajña. Since in Kali-yuga all the goals of human life can be achieved simply by the glorification of the holy name of Lord Śrī Hari, those who can appreciate the real essence of things praise Kali-yuga. In Kali-yuga many people in South India (Draviḍa-deśa), in places where the Tāmraparṇī, Kṛtamālā, Kāverī and Mahānadī rivers flow, will be dedicated to the devotional service of the Supreme Lord.
Persons who give up all false ego and take full shelter of Lord Hari are no longer debtors to the demigods or anyone else. The Personality of Godhead, Śrī Hari, appears in the hearts of devotees who know no other shelter than Him and causelessly drives away all evil desires from the devotees' hearts. Videharāja Nimi, having heard elaborate descriptions of bhāgavata-dharma from the mouths of the nava-yogendras, offered worship to them with a satisfied mind. They then disappeared.
Devarṣi Nārada thereupon instructed Vasudeva about the ultimate shelter of devotional service. He told Vasudeva that although Lord Kṛṣṇa had become his son, having appeared in this world to free the earth of its burden, he still should not think of Lord Kṛṣṇa as his child, but rather as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even by meditating upon Kṛṣṇa in a spirit of enmity, such kings as Śiśupāla attained an equal status to Him. So to attempt to say anything more about the perfect achievement of great souls such as Vasudeva, who enjoy intimate loving relations with Kṛṣṇa, would be a useless endeavor.
11.5.1
śrī-rājovāca
bhagavantaḿ hariḿ prāyo
ka niṣṭhāvijitātmanām
(1) The honorable king [Nimi] said: 'O you perfect in the knowledge of the soul, what is the destination of those who, as good as never worshiping the Supreme Personality of Hari [see also 11.3: *4], with their lusts not at peace are out of control with themselves?'
In the Fifth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto, Camasa Ṛṣi describes the inauspicious path of those who are unfavorable to the devotional service of Lord Viṣṇu, and the sage Karabhājana explains the yuga-dharmāvatāras, the incarnations of the Lord who present the authorized process of religion for each different age.
In the previous chapter it was explained that although the demigods place obstacles in the path of the Lord's devotees, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord the devotees are able to place their feet on the head of such obstacles and thus pass beyond them to the supreme destination. However, for the nondevotees there is no such facility. As soon as the conditioned soul becomes indifferent to the devotional service of the Supreme Lord, he is immediately attracted by the temporary varieties of matter and becomes a slave of inauspicious desires. Thus the conditioned soul, devoid of devotion for the Lord, completely forgets the transcendental bliss of the spiritual world, which is enjoyed in five transcendental rasas. Although the devotees are not overcome by the sense gratification offered by the demigods, the demigods themselves become absorbed in material form, taste and smell. And similarly, those who are nondevotees also become bound by material form, taste and other sense perceptions, such as the sensuous experience of sex life. Thus they remain hovering in a dreamlike state, imagining different types of material sense gratification, and forget their eternal relationship with the Personality of Godhead. Videharāja Nimi now inquires from Camasa Muni about the goal attained by such bewildered persons.
11.5.2
mukha-bāhūru-pādebhyaḥ
puruṣasyāśramaiḥ saha
guṇair viprādayaḥ pṛthak
(2) S'rî Camasa said: 'From the face, arms, thighs and feet of the Original Person were by the modes of nature [in different combinations *] the four spiritual orders [or âs'ramas] and vocations [or varnas] headed by the brahmins generated [see also B.G. 4: 13].
Those who are not spontaneously attracted to the devotional service of the Lord can be gradually purified by observing the varṇāśrama system of four social orders and four spiritual orders. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, the brāhmaṇas are born of the mode of goodness, the kṣatriyas of a combination of goodness and passion, the vaiśyas of a combination of passion and ignorance and the śūdras of the mode of ignorance. Just as the four social orders are born from the face, arms, thighs and feet of the Lord's universal form, similarly the brahmacārīs are generated from the heart of the Lord, the householder order from His loins, the vānaprasthas from His chest and the sannyāsa order from His head.
A similar verse is found in the Ṛk-saḿhitā (8.4.19), as well as the Śukla-yajur Veda (34.11) and the Atharva Veda (19.66):
brāhmaṇo 'sya mukham āsīd
"The brāhmaṇa appeared as His face, the king as His arms, the vaiśya as His thighs, and the śūdra was born from His feet."
It is understood that pure devotional service to the Lord has already been described by two of the Yogendras, Drumila and Āvirhotra. Camasa Muni now describes the system of varṇāśrama-dharma, because this system is meant to gradually purify those who are inimical to the Supreme Lord, bringing them back to their constitutional position of love of Godhead. Similarly, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form of the Lord, is an imaginary form meant to help the gross materialists gradually understand the position of the Personality of Godhead. Since the foolish materialist cannot understand anything beyond matter, he is encouraged to see the entire universe as a personal form of the Supreme Lord's body. The impersonal conception of formlessness is a mere negation of temporary material variety without any concept of the Lord's spiritual potency. The impersonal view is another kind of material speculative conception. The Supreme Lord is full of spiritual potencies under the principal headings hlādinī, or unlimited bliss, sandhinī, or eternal existence, and saḿvit, or omniscience. It is understood from this verse that the varṇāśrama-dharma system generated from the universal form of the Lord is a program offered by the Lord to engage the conditioned souls in a complete social and religious system that gradually brings them back home, back to Godhead.
11.5.3
na bhajanty avajānanti
sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ
(3) Any member of them who, not of worship, has a low opinion of the Original Person who is the very best of their soul and the Supreme Controller, will, having strayed from his position, fall down [see B.G. 16: 23].
11.5.4
striyaḥ śūdrādayaś caiva
te 'nukampyā bhavādṛśām
(4) There are many people who are far removed from the talks about the Destroyer [of the sin; the Lord] and never think of the glories of the Infallible One; they, falling in the category of the women [compare 5.17: 15] and s'ûdras and such, are the ones deserving the mercy of personalities like you.
11.5.5
śrautena janmanāthāpi
(5) Even then do also the intellectuals, the nobles and the traders, who [by initiation] got access to the Lord His lotus feet, get bewildered in being committed to [all kinds of] philosophies [see also 5.6: 11, B.G. 2: 42-43].
11.5.6
(6) Ignorant about the matters of karma do they who factually lack in experience but arrogantly consider themselves very learned, enchanted by the beauty of language express themselves in flattering entreaties [to the demigods] by which they get bewildered [see also B.G. 9: 3].
The words karmaṇy akovidāḥ refer to those who are ignorant of the art of performing work in such a way that there will be no future bondage. This art is described in Bhagavad-gītā: yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaḿ karma-bandhanaḥ [Bg. 3.9]). Work must be performed for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, otherwise work is the cause of future bondage in the cycle of repeated birth and death. The word stabdhāḥ, "puffed up by false pride," indicates that although ignorant persons do not know the art of working properly, they do not inquire from learned devotees, nor do they accept the advice of the Lord's own men. Being infatuated by the fruitive results offered in the Vedas, such mūrkhas, or fools, think, "We are learned Vedic scholars; we have understood everything perfectly." Thus they are attracted to such Vedic statements as apāma somam amṛtā abhūma ("We have drunk the soma juice and now we are immortal"), akṣayyaḿ ha vai cāturmāsya-yājinaḥ sukṛtaḿ bhavati ("For one who executes the cāturmāsya sacrifice there is inexhaustible pious reaction"), and yatra noṣṇaḿ na śītaḿ syān na glānir nāpy arātayaḥ ("Let us go to that material planet where there is no heat, no cold, no diminution and no enemies"). Such foolish persons are unaware that even Lord Brahmā, the creator of the universe, will die at the end of universal time, what to speak of materialistic followers of the Vedas who jump like frogs to the different celestial planets, seeking the highest standard of sense gratification. Such bewildered Vedic scholars dream of frolicking with the Apsarās, the gorgeous society girls of the heavenly planets who are expert in singing, dancing and in general stimulating uncontrollable lusty desires. Thus, those who are carried away by the heavenly phantasmagoria offered in the karma-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas gradually develop an atheistic mentality. Actually, the entire universe is meant to be offered to Lord Viṣṇu as sacrifice. The conditioned soul can thereby gradually elevate himself to the eternal kingdom beyond the hallucination of material sense gratification. However, being puffed up by false pride, the materialistic followers of the Vedas remain perpetually ignorant of the supremacy and beauty of Lord Viṣṇu.
11.5.7
(7) Full of passion and perverted in their desires are they angry like snakes, deceitful and conceited and do they sinfully make fun of those dear to Acyuta.
11.5.8
yajanty asṛṣṭānna-vidhāna-dakṣiṇaḿ
(8) As worshipers of women they speak amongst each other in their homes encouraging and worshiping sex as the very best thing; without any regard for the distribution of food and gifts in gratitude [to the spiritual leaders and their following], think they of their own livelihood only and kill they, oblivious to the consequences, the animals [see also B.G. 16].
11.5.8
yajanty asṛṣṭānna-vidhāna-dakṣiṇaḿ
(9) With their intelligence blinded by the pride based on their opulence, special abilities, lineage, education, renunciation, beauty, strength and performance of rituals, do they hard-hearted deride the saintly dear to the Lord, nor do they respect the Controller Himself [see also e.g. 1.8: 26, 4.2: 24, 4.31: 21, 5.1: 12, 7.15: 19, 8.22: 26 and also B.G. 2: 42-43].
The attractive qualities exhibited by the conditioned soul originally belong to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the reservoir of all attractive qualities. The moonshine is actually the reflected effulgence of the sun. Similarly, the living entity reflects for a brief time a particular quantity of the Lord's opulences. Not knowing this, atheistic persons become intoxicated by such reflected opulences, and thus blinded, they condemn themselves more and more by criticizing the Lord and His devotees. They are unable to understand how they have become abominable, and it is difficult to prevent them from going to hell.
11.5.10
sarveṣu śaśvat tanu-bhṛtsv avasthitaḿ
(10) The Soul of the most worshipable Controller who alike the ether is eternally situated in all embodied beings, is the Ultimate Controller glorified by the Vedas, but the unintelligent don't take heed; they rather go on discussing the topics of their whimsical pleasures.
11.5.11
(11) The indulgence in sex and the consumption of meat and alcohol one always finds in the conditioned living being and are verily by no command of scripture endorsed; what in regard of these is prescribed for [respectively] the marriage, the sacrifice and the ritual use of wine, is there to the end of their cessation [see also 1.17: 38-39].
11.5.12
(12) The only wealth that matters is to reap the fruit of one's dharma [the righteousness with nature, the religiosity] from which there is the knowledge combined with the wisdom and the subsequent liberation. But from ones family life has one no eye for the insurmountable power of death over one's body [see also 3.30: 7, 7.6: 8, 4.29: 52-55 but also 4.22: 10].
11.5.13
tathā paśor ālabhanaḿ na hiḿsā
(13) It is enjoined that wine should be taken by smelling it and that likewise an animal should be killed as prescribed and not in wanton violence [with large-scale animal slaughter]; the same way is sexual intercourse there for conquering [the urges of procreation, like with defecating] and not so much for the sensual pleasure [B.G. 7: 11]; for this purest notion of one's proper duty, do they [the unintelligent] have no understanding [see also 7.15].
11.5.14
(14) Those who have no knowledge of these facts and very unholy presumptuously consider themselves saintly, do harm to innocently trusting animals; upon leaving their bodies will those animals eat them [compare 5.26: 11-13 and 4.25: 7-8].
11.5.15
mṛtake sānubandhe 'smin
(15) Envying their own True Self, their Lord and Controller living [in their own body and] in the bodies of others, do they, who in their affection are fixed on their own mortal frame and all its relations, fall down.
11.5.16
(16) Those who [thus] have not achieved the emancipation [of moksha] but did transcend the gross foolishness, are dedicated to the three goals of pious living [the ritual, an income and regulated desires], but are, not for a moment being of reflection [working too hard], factually [on the way of] killing themselves [see also the purushârthas, 10.2: 32].
11.5.17
(17) These murderers of their own self who miss the peace, in their ignorance think to know but do, failing to perform their duty, suffer the destruction of all their hopes and dreams by time.
There is a similar verse in Śrī Īśopaniṣad (3):
asuryā nāma te lokā
andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ
tāḿs te pretyābhigacchanti
"The killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance."11.5.18
tamo viśanty anicchanto
(18) Those who turned their face away from Vâsudeva enter, as is arranged by the illusory energy of the Supreme Soul, unwillingly the darkness leaving behind their homes, children, friends and wives.'
11.5.19
śrī rājovāca
(19) The honorable king said: 'In what time did the Supreme Lord have what color and what form and by what names and what processes is He worshiped; please speak about it in our presence.'
It has been clearly established in the previous verses that human life is spoiled if one does not surrender unto the Supreme Lord and engage in His loving devotional service. Therefore the King is now requesting the sages to give specific details about the worship of the Lord because this devotional process has clearly been described as the only practical means of delivering the conditioned soul.
11.5.20
nānā-varṇābhidhākāro
nānaiva vidhinejyate
(20) S'rî Karabhâjana replied: 'In these [yugas] named Krita [or Satya], Tretâ, Dvâpara and Kali is the Lord, having different complexions [see also 10.26: 16], names and forms, similarly by various processes worshiped.
11.5.21
jaṭilo valkalāmbaraḥ
kṛṣṇājinopavītākṣān
bibhrad daṇḍa-kamaṇḍalū
(21) In Satya-yuga is He white, has He four arms, matted locks, a tree bark garment, a black deerskin, a sacred thread, aksha-seed prayer beads and carries He a rod and a waterpot.
11.5.22
(22) The human beings then are peaceful, free from envy, kind to all, equipoised and as well of austerity as of mind and sense control in their worship of the Lord.
In Satya-yuga the Supreme Lord incarnates as a four-armed brahmacārī described in the previous verse and personally introduces the process of meditation.
11.5.23
haḿsaḥ suparṇo vaikuṇṭho
dharmo yogeśvaro 'malaḥ
īśvaraḥ puruṣo 'vyaktaḥ
paramātmeti gīyate
(23) Thus is He variously celebrated as Hamsa ['the Swan'], Suparna ['Beautiful Wings'], Vaikunthha ['the Lord of the Kingdom of Heaven'], Dharma ['the Maintainer of the Religion'], Yoges'vara ['the Controller of the Yoga'], Amala ['the Immaculate One'], Îs'vara ['the Supreme Controller'], Purusha ['the Original Person'], Avyakta ['the One Unmanifest'] and Paramâtmâ ['the Supersoul'].
The sage Karabhājana Muni is replying to Videharāja Nimi's questions about the varieties of the Lord's incarnations. In Satya-yuga the Lord's color is white, and He wears tree bark and a black deerskin as an ideal meditative brahmacārī. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained the Lord's various names in Satya-yuga as follows. Those who are self-realized know this supreme reality of the Personality of Godhead as Paramātmā, Those souls who are situated in the religious system of varṇāśrama glorify Him as the haḿsa who is transcendental to all the varṇas and āśramas. Persons absorbed in gross matter consider Him to be Suparṇa, "the beautifully winged" basis of the conceptions of cause and effect who flies within the subtle sky of the soul, as described in Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Persons accustomed to wandering within this universe of subtle and gross matter created by the Lord's illusory potency chant His name Vaikuṇṭha. Persons deprived of the power of transcendental meditation (dhāraṇā), who are thus subject to falling from the path of religion, glorify Him as Dharma, or religion personified. Those who are forced to submit to the illusory modes of material nature and whose minds are uncontrolled and disturbed glorify Him as the most perfectly self-controlled Yogeśvara. Persons tainted by a mixture of the modes of passion and ignorance call Him Amala, or the uncontaminated. Persons devoid of potency call Him Īśvara, and those who consider themselves to be under His shelter chant His glories by the name Uttama Puruṣa. Those who know that this material manifestation is only temporary call Him Avyakta. In this way, in Satya-yuga Lord Vāsudeva appears in various four-armed transcendental forms, and the jīva souls worship Him, each by their own particular process of devotional service. Therefore the Supreme Lord has many different names.
11.5.24
sruk-sruvādy-upalakṣaṇaḥ
(24) In Tretâ-yuga has He a red complexion, four arms, wears He three belts [according the initiations for the first three varnas], has He golden locks and has He, as the personification of the three Vedas, the sacrificial laddles [**] and such as His symbols.
The sruk is a particular implement for pouring ghee in sacrifices. It is about an arm's length long and is made of a particular type of wood called vikańkata. The sruk has a rodlike handle and a spout with a shallow groove at its tip that resembles a swan's beak. Its front part is a carved-out spoon the size of a fist. The sruva is another implement used in sacrificial oblations. It is made of khadira wood, is smaller than the sruk and is used to pour ghee into the sruk. It is also sometimes used instead of the sruk to pour ghee directly into the sacrificial fire. These are the Lord's symbols in Tretā-yuga, when the Lord incarnates to introduce the yuga-dharma of yajña, or sacrifice.
11.5.25
(25) In that time do the human beings who as see kers of the Absolute Truth are fixed in their religiosity, worship Him, Hari, the Godhead within all the Gods, with the rituals of sacrifice of the three Vedas [see also 1.16: 20].
The residents of the earth in Satya-yuga are described as having all good qualities. In Tretā-yuga human society is described as dharmiṣṭhāḥ, or thoroughly religious, and brahma-vādinaḥ, or faithfully seeking the Absolute Truth through the Vedic injunctions. However, it should be noted that all of the exalted qualities of the people of Satya-yuga are not mentioned in this verse. In other words, in Satya-yuga people are automatically perfect, whereas in Tretā-yuga people are inclined to become perfect through performing Vedic sacrifice. In Tretā-yuga human society is not automatically Kṛṣṇa conscious, as it was in Satya-yuga, but people are still highly inclined to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and thus they strictly follow the Vedic injunctions.
11.5.26
viṣṇur yajñaḥ pṛśnigarbhaḥ
sarvadeva urukramaḥ
vṛṣākapir jayantaś ca
urugāya itīryate
(26) In Tretâ-yuga the Lord is glorified by the names of Vishnu ['the All-pervading One'], Yajña ['the Lord of Sacrifice'], Pris'nigarbha [the son of Pris'ni, 10.3: 32], Sarvadeva ['God of All Gods'], Urukrama ['He of Transcendental Feats'], Vrishâkapi [the Memorable One Rewarding who Dispels the Distress'], Jayanta ['the All-victorious'] and Urugâya ['the Most Glorified'].
Pṛśnigarbha refers to Kṛṣṇa's incarnation as the son of Pṛśni-devī and Prajāpati Sutapā. Vṛṣākapi indicates that if the living entities simply remember the Lord, He is inclined to shower all benedictions upon them, thus satisfying their desires and removing their miseries. Since the Lord is always victorious, He is called Jayanta.
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