VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Canto 11
Jñâna Yoga or the Denomination and the Real
This chapter briefly summarizes the process of jñāna-yoga, which previous chapters described in detail.
Every created thing in this universe is a material product of the three modes of nature, is subject to sensory perception, and is essentially unreal. Actually, the designations of "good" and "bad" that we assign to the various objects and activities of this world are all superficial. It is better to avoid condemning or praising anything of this world, because doing so simply entangles one in matter and deprives one of the higher goals of spiritual life. Hidden within every object of the material universe is the spirit soul, who underlies both the causes and products of manifest existence. One should see things in this light and thus move about the material world in a mood of detachment.
As long as there is a relationship between the bodily senses, which are comprised of matter, and the soul, which is the reality, one will continue in false consciousness. Although material existence is unreal, those who lack discrimination remain entangled in the cycle of birth and death because of their absorption in sense gratification. All the phases of material life — such as birth, death, sorrow and happiness — belong not to the soul but to the materialistic false ego. By learning to distinguish between the soul and its opposite, matter, one can destroy this false identification.
There is a single Absolute Truth present at the beginning and at the end of this world. During its interim, or maintenance, phase the cosmic manifestation is also founded upon the same Absolute Truth. This Absolute, Brahman, exists everywhere, both positively by its manifestations and negatively by its aloofness. Brahman is unique in being self-sufficient, whereas this world is the expansion of Brahman produced through the material mode of passion.
By the mercy of a bona fide spiritual master, one can understand the Absolute Truth and come to appreciate the nonspiritual nature of the material body and its extensions. Desisting from engagement in material sense enjoyment, one then becomes satisfied in the ecstasy of the self. Just as the sun remains untouched by the coming and going of clouds, the discriminating, liberated person remains unaffected by the activities of his senses. Nevertheless, until one becomes perfectly fixed in bhakti-yoga, pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord, one should carefully avoid contacting material sense objects. An aspiring devotee may meet various obstacles and fall down, but in his next life he will continue his practice by dint of what he has already accomplished in devotional service. He will never again become bound up by the laws of karma. The man who is liberated and established in discrimination will under no circumstances seek false enjoyment by indulging in material sense gratification. He knows that the soul is changeless and that any contrary conception imposed on the pure self is sheer illusion.
If, during the immature stage of spiritual practice, one suffers physical disease or other disturbances, the Vedas enjoin that he should certainly take proper measures to eradicate the problem. The prescribed remedies for lust and the other enemies of the mind are meditation on the Supreme Lord and sańkīrtana, the loud chanting of His names. The remedy for the disease of false ego is rendering service to the Supreme Lord's saintly devotees.
By practicing yoga, some nondevotees keep their bodies youthful and fit, and may even achieve mystic perfections or long life. But these attainments are actually worthless, because they are perfections only of the material body. An intelligent person is therefore uninterested in this kind of process. Rather, by taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, an aspiring devotee who is seriously dedicated to the Lord rids himself of all disturbances and becomes empowered to attain the highest perfection, the full bliss of spiritual life.
11.28.1
(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'When one understands that the world, this combination of matter and person, is based upon one and the same reality, one should refrain from praising and criticizing someone else's nature and activities.
Material situations and activities appear to be good, passionate or ignorant according to the interaction of the modes of nature. These modes are produced by the illusory potency of the Lord, which is itself not different from its master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So a devotee of the Lord remains aloof from the illusory, temporary manifestations of material nature. At the same time, he accepts material nature as the potency of the Lord and thus essentially real. The example may be given that modeling clay is shaped by a child into various playful forms such as tigers, men or houses. The modeling clay is real, whereas the temporary shapes it assumes are illusory, not being actual tigers, men or houses. Similarly, the entire cosmic manifestation is modeling clay in the hands of the Supreme Lord, who acts through māyā to shape the glaring temporary forms of illusion, which absorb the minds of those who are not devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
11.28.2
asaty abhiniveśataḥ
(2) He who praises or criticizes someone else's nature and actions quickly looses grip on that what is his own interest because he gets entangled in a self-created reality.
A conditioned soul desires to lord it over material nature and thus criticizes another conditioned soul whom he considers inferior. Similarly, one praises a superior materialist because one aspires to that superior position, in which one may dominate others. Praising and criticizing other materialistic people are thus directly or indirectly based on envy of other living entities and cause one to fall down from sva-artha, one's real self-interest, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The words asaty abhiniveśataḥ, "by absorption in the temporary, or unreal," indicate that one should not adopt a concept of material duality and praise or criticize other materialistic persons. Rather, one should praise the pure devotees of the Supreme Lord and criticize the mentality of rebellion against the Personality of Godhead, by which one becomes a nondevotee. One should not criticize a low-class materialist, thinking that a high-class materialist is nice. In other words, one should distinguish between the material and the spiritual and should not become absorbed in good and bad on the material platform. For example, an honest citizen distinguishes between the life of civil freedom and that of imprisonment, whereas a foolish prisoner distinguishes between comfortable and uncomfortable prison cells.
rather than trying to separate conditioned souls by materialistic distinctions, one should bring them together to chant the holy names of the Lord and propagate the sańkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya. A nondevotee, or even an envious third-class devotee, is not interested in uniting people on the platform of love of Godhead. Instead he unnecessarily separates them by emphasizing material distinctions like "communist," "capitalist," "black," "white," "rich," "poor," "liberal," "conservative" and so on. Material life is always imperfect, full of ignorance and disappointing in the end. Rather than praising and criticizing the high and low features of ignorance, one should be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, on the spiritual platform of eternity, bliss and knowledge.
11.28.3
taijase nidrayāpanne
(3) A person aware of the objective diversity is just [as unaware of the one reality] as an embodied soul whose senses overcome by sleep within the physical encasement experience the illusory [of a dream] or the deathlike of having lost consciousness.
The material senses are described here as taijasa because they are born of false ego in the mode of passion. Impelled by false ego, one dreams of the material world without the Personality of Godhead and makes plans to lord it over nature, to exploit her resources. Modern atheistic scientists have developed this false ego to a fine art and imagine themselves great heroes conquering the obstacles of nature and moving forward toward inevitable omniscience. Such dreamy materialists are repeatedly stunned by the crushing reactions of the laws of nature, and their arrogant, agnostic civilizations are repeatedly annihilated by world wars, natural disasters and violent shifts of the cosmic situation.
On a simpler level, all conditioned souls are captivated by sex attraction and thus bound to the illusion of material society, friendship and love. They imagine themselves to be wonderful enjoyers of the material nature, which suddenly turns against them and kills them just like the "tamed" animal that suddenly turns on its master and kills him.
11.28.4
dvaitasyāvastunaḥ kiyat
(4) How can one distinguish between good and bad with this material duality that belongs to the realm of our imagination? Musing over it with our mind and expressing it in words we do not cover the truth [*].
The actual truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained, and in whom everything merges to rest. Material nature is the reflection of the Absolute Truth, and by the interaction of the material modes of nature the innumerable varieties of matter appear to be separate, independent truths. Māyā, illusion, distracts the conditioned soul from the Absolute Truth and absorbs his mind in the glaring manifestation of matter, which ultimately is nondifferent from the Absolute Truth, being an emanation from Him. The sense of good and bad as separate from the Supreme Lord is like the good and bad dreams experienced by a sleeping person. Good and bad dreams are equally unreal. Similarly, material good and evil have no permanent existence separate from the Personality of Godhead.
The Supreme Lord is the well-wisher of every living entity, and therefore execution of His order is good, whereas disobeying His order is bad. Lord Kṛṣṇa has created a perfect social and occupational system called varṇāśrama-dharma, and the Lord has further given perfect spiritual knowledge in Bhagavad-gītā and other literatures. Execution of Lord Kṛṣṇa's order will bring complete social, psychological, political, economic and spiritual success to human society. We should not foolishly look for so-called good outside the orders of the Personality of Godhead. Such orders are called the laws of God and constitute the essence, or substance, of religion
11.28.5
chāyā-pratyāhvayābhāsā
yacchanty ā-mṛtyuto bhayam
(5) Shadows, echoes and mirages, though mere projections, create motives [in people]; the same way the body and all of its material conceptions create fear until the day one dies.
Although shadows, echoes and mirages are mere reflections of real substances, they create strong emotions in persons falsely accepting them as real. In the same manner, a conditioned soul is seized by such emotions as fear, lust, anger and hope because of his illusory perception of himself as the material body, mind and false ego. By practical example it is thus shown that even illusory objects may cause highly emotional reactions. Ultimately our emotions should be absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is eternal truth. Fear is forever vanquished when one takes shelter of the Lord's lotus feet. One can then enjoy the pure emotions of liberated life.
11.28.6-7
hriyate haratīśvaraḥ
tasmān na hy ātmano 'nyasmād
anyo bhāvo nirūpitaḥ
(6-7) The Supreme Soul who alone creates the universe and is created as its Lord, protects and is protected as the Self of all Creation and withdraws and is withdrawn as the Controller. Accordingly no other entity can be ascertained as existing apart from Him, and thus has this threefold appearance established within the Supreme Self and consisting of the modes no [other or independent] basis; know that the threefold [of the seen, the seeing and the seer according to resp. the tamas, the rajas and the sattva quality] is a construct of the illusory energy [under the influence of Him in the form of Time, see also B.G. 14: 19].
The Absolute Truth, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, expands His external potency and thus creates the material cosmos. As with the sun globe and its expanded rays, the Lord and His expanded potency are simultaneously one and different. Although to conditioned souls material duality seems to be based on the modes of nature, the entire material manifestation is actually nondifferent from the Lord and is of one ultimately spiritual nature. The modes of nature create sense objects, demigods, human beings, animals, friends, enemies and so forth. But in reality, everything is simply an expansion of the potency of the Supreme Lord.
Foolishly, the conditioned soul tries to lord it over material nature, but the Lord Himself, being nondifferent from that nature, is its only true proprietor. In several places the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has given the example of the spider spinning its web by expanding thread from its own mouth. Similarly, through His own potency the Lord manifests the material world, maintains it and eventually withdraws it within Himself. Although the Lord is the unique Supreme Personality of Godhead, above everyone and everything, He is simultaneously and inconceivably nondifferent from everything. Therefore it is the Lord Himself who is manifested when the Lord creates, it is the Lord Himself who is maintained when the Lord maintains, and it is the Lord Himself who is withdrawn at the time of annihilation.
Although the Lord is nondifferent from both His spiritual abode and His material creation, still the spiritual abode, Vaikuṇṭha, is always superior to the material manifestation. Both matter and spirit are energies of the Lord, yet the spiritual energy is molded into the eternal forms of bliss and knowledge, whereas the temporary forms of matter are symbols of ignorance and frustration for the conditioned souls who covet them. The Supreme Lord is Himself the reservoir of all pleasure and is thus dear to His devotees. The presumption that the Lord cannot give us complete pleasure is due to our misidentifying Him as a product of the material modes of nature. As a result, we pursue false happiness in the deadly embrace of māyā and thus deviate from our eternal loving relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa.
11.28.8
(8) Someone who fixed in the knowledge as laid down and realized by Me knows about this, does not blame or praise [in looking for another cause], he freely wanders the earth just like the sun does [see B.G. 2: 57, 13: 13, 13: 32, 14: 22-25].
Every living entity emanates from the Supreme Lord and is thus naturally full of realized knowledge. But when one becomes attached to praising or criticizing material good and bad for one's personal sense gratification, one's expert knowledge of the Lord becomes covered. A pure devotee should neither love nor hate any aspect of material illusion; he should rather accept whatever is favorable for serving Kṛṣṇa and reject whatever is unfavorable, following the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master.
11.28.9
pratyakṣeṇānumānena
nigamenātma-saḿvidā
ādy-antavad asaj jñātvā
niḥsańgo vicared iha
(9) When one from direct perception, logical deduction, scriptural truth and one's self-realization knows that the inessential has a beginning and an end, one should move around in this world free from attachment [see also B.G. 2: 16].'
there are two main material dualities. The first duality is that one sees material good and bad, beautiful and ugly, rich and poor, and so on. The second is that one sees the entire material world as separate from or independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The first duality, that of opposites, is subject to dissolution by the influence of time, and the second duality, that of separateness, is merely a hallucination. One who is firmly convinced of the temporary, illusory nature of this world moves about freely, without attachment. Although engaging in all types of devotional service for the Lord, such a person is never entangled and remains cheerful and satisfied in spiritual consciousness.
11.28.10
saḿsṛtir draṣṭṛ-dṛśyayoḥ
kasya syād upalabhyate
(10) S'rî Uddhava said: 'O my Lord, who is it actually who carries the experience of this [changing] material existence? It is not precisely the [unchanging] soul, the seer who is self-aware, nor does it belong to the body, the seen that [changing itself] has no experiencing self of its own.
Since the living entity is pure spirit soul, innately full of perfect knowledge and bliss, and since the material body is a biochemical machine without knowledge or personal consciousness, who or what is actually experiencing the ignorance and anxiety of this material existence? The conscious experience of material life cannot be denied, and thus Uddhava asks Lord Kṛṣṇa this question to elicit a more precise understanding of the process by which illusion occurs.
11.28.11
dehaḥ kasyeha saḿsṛtiḥ
(11) The inexhaustible soul, free from the modes, is pure, self-luminous and uncovered just like a fire, while the material body is like firewood that is without understanding. To which of the two belongs the experience of a material life in this world?'
The words anāvṛtaḥ and agni-vat are significant here. Fire can never be covered with darkness because by nature fire is illuminating. Similarly, the spirit soul is svayaḿ-jyotiḥ, or self-luminous, and thus the soul is transcendental — he can never be covered by the darkness of material life. On the other hand, the material body, like firewood, is by nature dull and unilluminated. In itself it does not have any awareness of life. If the soul is transcendental to material life and the body is not even conscious of it, the following question arises: How does our experience of material existence actually take place?
11.28.12
yāvad dehendriya-prāṇair
saḿsāraḥ phalavāḿs tāvad
apārtho 'py avivekinaḥ
(12) The Supreme Lord said: 'As long as the soul is attracted to the body, the senses and the vital force, his material existence, which carries its fruit in due course, will nevertheless be meaningless because of a lack of discrimination.
PURPORT
Here the word sannikarṣaṇam indicates that the pure spirit soul voluntarily connects himself with the material body, considering this a most fruitful arrangement. Actually, the situation is apārtha, useless, unless one uses one's embodied situation to engage in the loving service of the Lord. At that time one's connection is actually with Lord Kṛṣṇa, not with the body, which becomes a mere instrument for executing one's higher purpose.
11.28.13
arthe hy avidyamāne 'pi
(13) Even though material substance has no real existence [because of its impermanence], the material condition [as for its constituent elements] does not cease to be and one has, like in a dream contemplating the objects of the senses, to face the consequent disadvantages [compare 3.27: 4, 4.29: 35 & 73, 11.22: 56, B.G. 2: 14].
This same verse and other very similar verses occur elsewhere in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Third Canto, Chapter twenty-seven, verse 4; Fourth Canto, Chapter twenty-nine, verses 35 and 73; and Eleventh Canto, Chapter twenty-two, verse 56. In fact, this verse completely explains the essence of illusion.
11.28.14
(14) That [dream] what brings the one who is not awake in his sleep many undesirable experiences, will certainly not confound the one who awakened though.
Even a liberated soul must observe material objects while living in this world. But being awake to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he understands that sensory pains and pleasures, like dreams, are without substance. Thus the liberated soul is not bewildered by illusion.
11.28.15
(15) Lamentation, elation, fear, anger, greed, confusion, hankering and such is seen upon the birth and death of one's identification with the body [ahankâra] and does not depend on the soul [that doesn't take birth or die, see 11.22: 12, 11.23: 50-56, 11.25: 30].
False ego is the pure soul's illusory identification with the subtle material mind and the gross material body. As a result of this illusory identification, the conditioned soul feels lamentation for things lost, jubilation over things gained, fear of things inauspicious, anger at the frustration of his desires, and greed for sense gratification. And so, bewildered by such false attractions and aversions, the conditioned soul must accept further material bodies, which means he must undergo repeated births and deaths. One who is self-realized knows that all such mundane emotions have nothing to do with the pure soul, whose natural propensity is to engage in the loving service of the Lord.
11.28.16
(16) Falsely motivated dwelling within the self of the material body, the senses, life-air and the mind, the living being assumes his form according to the gunas and the karma. He is then, depending the way he relates to the thread constituted by the greater of nature, described with different names when he under the strict control of Time wanders about in the ocean of matter.
False ego, which causes the living entity to suffer material existence, is here described in detail as the illusory identification with the material body, senses, life air and mind. The word kāla refers directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who imposes the limiting segments of time upon the conditioned souls, keeping them tightly bound under the laws of nature. Liberation is not an impersonal experience; liberation is attainment of one's eternal body, senses, mind and intelligence in the association of the Personality of Godhead. We can revive our eternal, liberated personality, free from the contamination of false ego, by dedicating ourselves to the loving service of the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When the pure spirit soul accepts the false ego, he must undergo material suffering. One automatically conquers the false ego by accepting oneself, in pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to be the eternal servant of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
11.28.17
jñānāsinopāsanayā śitena
cchittvā munir gāḿ vicaraty atṛṣṇaḥ
(17) This without a firm basis being represented in the many forms of the mind, the speech, the life force, the gross body and fruitive actions, will, with the sword of transcendental knowledge that was sharpened in worship, be cut down by a sober sage who walks the earth free from desires.
The word bahu-rūpa-rūpitam, "perceived in many forms," also indicates that the false ego is manifest in the belief that one is a demigod, a great man, a beautiful lady, an oppressed worker, a tiger, a bird, an insect and so on. By the influence of false ego, the pure soul accepts some material covering to be his ultimate self, but such ignorance can be removed by the process described in this verse.
11.28.18
pratyakṣam aitihyam athānumānam
(18) Spiritual knowledge [entails] the discrimination [of spirit and matter and is nourished by], scripture and penance, personal experience, historical accounts and logical inference. [It is based upon] that which is there equally in the beginning and in the end of this [creation] and which is the same in between, knowing the Time and Ultimate Cause [of brahman, the Absolute Truth, see also B.G. 10: 30, 33, 11: 32 and kâla].
Material scientists and philosophers are desperately searching for the ultimate material cause or principle, which is described here as kāla, the time factor. The material process of cause and effect takes place entirely within a sequence of time; in other words, the time factor is the motivating impetus for material cause and effect. This time factor is a manifestation of the Supersoul, the form of the Supreme Lord that pervades and supports the cosmic manifestation. The method for acquiring knowledge is scientifically described here, and those who are serious, reasonable scholars will take advantage of the transcendental epistemology revealed here by the Lord.
11.28.19
(19) Like gold alone being present before it is processed, when it is processed and in the final product of the processing, I am present in the disguise of the different modes [of processing] of this creation.
Gold is manufactured into many types of jewelry, as well as into coins and other luxurious products. But at each stage — before manufacture, during manufacture, during utilization and afterward — the essential reality is gold. In the same way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the essential reality — both the dynamic and the ingredient cause of everything. All throughout the material creation, the Lord is simply setting into motion His own potency, which is not different from Him.
11.28.20
samanvayena vyatirekataś ca
(20) My dearest, this spirit of condensed knowledge in its three conditions [of wakefulness, sleep and unconscious sleep], constitutes, manifesting itself in the form of the modes as the causing [of rajas], the caused [of tamas] and the causer [of sattva, compare 11.22: 30], the fourth factor [the 'gold'] which as an independent variable stands for the single truth of each of them.
As stated in Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.15), tam eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaḿ/ tasya bhāsā sarvam idaḿ vibhāti: "Everything radiates its illumination in pursuance of His original illumination; His light illuminates everything in this universe." As thus described, the entire range of perception, cognition and sensitivity is an insignificant expansion of the perception, cognition and sensitivity of the Personality of Godhead.
11.28.21
(21) That what was absent before, is absent afterwards, and isn't there [independently] in between, is but a designation; whatever that was created and is known by something else, is actually only that something else; that is how I see it.
Although all material products, such as our own bodies, are temporary and thus ultimately false, the material world is a real manifestation of the Lord's potency. The basic substance, or reality, of this world is the Personality of Godhead Himself, whereas the temporary designations imposed by the conditioned souls are illusion. Thus we consider ourselves American, Russian, British, German, Indian, black, white, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and so forth. In fact, we are the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord, but by attempting to exploit the Lord's inferior material potency we have become entangled in illusion. Everything should be properly defined in terms of the Personality of Godhead, who is the essential reality of this and all other worlds.
11.28.22
avidyamāno 'py avabhāsate yo
(22) The spiritual reality of God as established in its own light manifests the Absolute Truth as the variety of the senses, their objects, the mind and the transformations. For that reason is this creation, that because of the mode of rajas is subject to modification, self-luminous, even though it is not really there [see also siddhânta].
The total material nature, pradhāna, is originally undifferentiated and inert, but later it undergoes transformation when the Supreme Lord, through His time agent, glances upon it and activates the mode of passion. Material transformation thus takes place and is exhibited as the Lord's inferior energy. In contrast, the Supreme Lord's personal abode possesses eternal variety, which is the self-luminous, internal opulence of the Absolute Truth and is not subject to material creation, transformation or annihilation. The material world is in this way simultaneously one with and different from the Absolute Truth.
11.28.23
parāpavādena viśāradena
svānanda-tuṣṭo 'khila-kāmukebhyaḥ
(23) When one this way by discriminating logic has achieved clarity about the Absolute of the Spiritual Truth, one must expertly speak against and cut with the doubt regarding the Self and satisfied in one's own spiritual happiness desist from all lusty [unregulated] matters [see B.G. 3: 34].
11.28.24
(24) The body made of earth is not the true self, nor are the senses, their gods or the life air, the external air, water, fire or a mind only interested in food; nor are the intelligence, material consciousness, the I that thinks itself the doer, the ether, the earth, material things or the restraint.
11.28.25
samāhitaiḥ kaḥ karaṇair guṇātmabhir
(25) What's the merit of him who properly ascertained my identity and in his concentration managed to direct his - by the modes controlled - senses perfectly? And what on the other hand would be the blame for him who is diverted by his senses? Would the sun care about being covered by clouds or a sky clearing up?
A pure devotee of the Lord is considered eternally liberated, because he has perfectly understood the Lord's transcendental personality and abode and is always engaged in serving the Lord's mission within this world. Although superficially such a devotee may appear agitated by events in the material world while engaged in the Lord's mission, this does not change his exalted status as the Lord's eternal servitor, just as the exalted status of the sun is not changed even when the sun is apparently covered by clouds.
11.28.26
tathākṣaraḿ sattva-rajas-tamo-malair
(26) Just as the sky is not affected by the coming and going qualities of the air, fire, water and earth or by the qualities of the seasons [of heat and cold], is likewise the Imperishable Supreme elevated above the influence of the natural modes of sattva, rajas and tamas that are responsible for the fact that he who takes his body for the true self is caught in the material world [see also 1.3: 36, 3.27: 1, B.G. 7: 13].
The word ahaḿ-mateḥ here indicates the conditioned living entity, who becomes manifest with the false ego of a particular material body. By contrast, the Personality of Godhead is unaffected by the modes of nature, and thus He is never covered by a material body and never subject to false ego. As described here, the Lord is eternally infallible and pure.
11.28.27
(27) Nevertheless, until by firmly being rooted in My bhakti-yoga one has banned the impurity of the mind of passion, one must eliminate the attachment associated with the qualities that belong to the deluding material energy [see B.G. 7: 1, 14 and **].
The word tathāpi in this verse indicates that even though the material nature is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord (as elaborately described in this chapter), one who has yet to conquer material desire should not artificially associate with material things, declaring them to be nondifferent from the Lord. Thus one aspiring to be Kṛṣṇa conscious should not loosely associate with women, claiming them to be nondifferent from the Personality of Godhead, for by such imitation of the most advanced devotees one will become a sense gratifier. A neophyte devotee who presumes himself liberated is impelled by the mode of passion to become falsely proud of his position, and thus he neglects the actual process of devotional service to the Lord. One must have firm and steady engagement in the loving service of the Lord, under the direction of higher authorities; then advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be easy and sublime.
11.28.28
(28) The same way as a disease that was imperfectly treated turns back time and again and brings a man trouble, the mind that was not purified of its contamination of karma will torment the imperfect yogi who [still] is of all kinds of attachments.
Sarva-sańgam refers to one's stubborn attachment to material objects of so-called enjoyment, such as children, wife, money, nation and friends. One who increases his attachment to children, wife and so on, although supposedly performing devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, is understood to be either a kuyogī, as described in this verse, or a bewildered neophyte who has failed to properly treat the disease of the heart called material attachment. If one has repeated relapses into material attachment, he has failed to eradicate the darkness of ignorance from his heart.
11.28.29
kuyogino ye vihitāntarāyair
manuṣya-bhūtais tridaśopasṛṣṭaiḥ
(29) Imperfect yogis who are commanded by impediments in the form of the human beings [family members, disciples etc., see e.g. S'rî S'rî S'ikshâshthaka-4] sent by the thirty gods [see tridas'a] will, on the strength of their perseverance in their previous life once more [in a new life] engage in the practice of yoga, but never again be entangled in fruitive labor [see also 11.18: 14, B.G. 6: 41-42].
Sometimes sannyāsīs and other spiritual teachers are bewildered by flattering followers and disciples sent by the demigods to embarrass spiritual leaders who are lacking complete spiritual knowledge. Similarly, spiritual progress is sometimes checked by attachment to one's bodily relatives. Although an imperfect transcendentalist may fall down from yoga practice in this life, he will resume it in the next life on the strength of his accumulated merit, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā. The words na tu karma-tantram indicate that a fallen transcendentalist does not have to pass through the lower stages of fruitive activity and gradually be promoted to the practice of yoga. Rather, he will immediately resume his yoga practice at that point at which he left it. Of course, one should not presume to fall back on the facility offered here but should try to become perfect in this lifetime. Sannyāsīs, especially, should remove the knot of lust from their hearts and should avoid falling into the clutches of flattering followers or female disciples sent by the demigods to expose a so-called spiritual leader who is imperfect in Kṛṣṇa conscious knowledge.
11.28.30
(30) A normal living being who has to experience the consequences of his fruitive labor, remains, impelled by this or that impulse, in that position until the moment he dies. But someone intelligent is, despite of being situated in the material position, not that [fickle], because he with the experience of the happiness he found gave up his material desire.
through association with family and friends the knot of material attachment becomes very tight. Thus the reactions of fruitive work bind one more and more in the cycle of material defeat. But a learned person, one who is in touch with the Supreme Lord within his heart, realizes the ultimate frustration of material work and the danger of entering the womb of a pig or dog in a future life as the result of sinful activities. One on the platform of self-realization does not regard himself as an enjoyer of the world. Rather, he regards the entire cosmos as simply an insignificant expansion of the Lord's potency — and himself as the Lord's humble servant.
11.28.31
(31) He whose consciousness is fixed in the true self doesn't give it a moment's thought whether he is standing, sitting, walking or lying down, urinating, eating food or doing whatever else that manifests from his conditioned nature.
11.28.32
svāpnaḿ yathotthāya tirodadhānam
(32) Someone intelligent doesn't take anything else for essential. Whenever he sees the not really [independently] existing things of the senses, he from his logic denies them their separateness, so that they are like the things of a dream that lose their value when one wakes up.
A sane person can clearly distinguish between a dream experience and his real life. Similarly a manīṣī, or intelligent person, can clearly perceive polluted material sense objects to be creations of the Lord's illusory energy and not factual reality. This is the practical test of realized intelligence.
11.28.33
(33) Material ignorance which under the influence of the modes of nature assumes many forms is by the conditioned soul taken for an inextricable part of himself, but the ignorance ends by simply developing His vision, My best one. The soul on the other hand is not something one accepts or leaves behind.
It is emphasized here that the eternal self is never assumed or imposed as a material designation, nor is it ever abandoned. As explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, the soul is eternally the same and does not undergo transformation. The modes of nature, however, create the gross material body and subtle mind as a result of one's previous fruitive activities, and these gross and subtle bodies are imposed upon the soul. Thus the living entity can neither assume nor reject the soul, which is an eternal fact. Rather, he should give up the gross ignorance of material consciousness by cultivating spiritual knowledge, as indicated here.
11.28.34
(34) When the sun rises is the darkness in the human eye expelled, but that rising is not creating the things that are seen then. Similarly a thorough and adroit search for the true of Me puts an end to the darkness of someone's intelligence [while that search itself is not the reason why his soul exists].
11.28.35
mahānubhūtiḥ sakalānubhūtiḥ
yeneṣitā vāg-asavaś caranti
(35) This selfluminous, unborn, immeasurable Greatness of Understanding who is aware of everything is the One Without a Second in whom words find their closure, and by whom impelled the speech and the life airs move.
The Supreme Lord is self-luminous, self-manifested, whereas the individual living entity is manifested by Him. The Lord is unborn, but the living entity, because of material, designative coverings, takes birth in conditioned life. The Lord is immeasurable, being all-pervasive, whereas the living entity is localized. The Supreme Lord is mahānubhūti, the totality of consciousness, whereas the living entity is a tiny spark of consciousness. The Lord is sakalānubhūti, omniscient, whereas the living entity is aware only of his own limited experience. The Supreme Lord is one, whereas the living entities are innumerable. Considering all these contrasts between the Lord and ourselves, we should not waste time like the foolish material scientists and philosophers, who struggle to find the origin of this world by their insignificant mental speculation and word jugglery. Although one may discover some of the gross laws of material nature through material research, there is no hope of achieving the Absolute Truth by such petty endeavors.
11.28.36
(36) Whatever the notion of duality the self might have is but a delusion to the unique soul, as it indeed has no basis outside of that very self [compare 7.13: 7].
As explained in verse 33 of this chapter, the eternal self is neither assumed nor lost, since every living entity is an eternal reality. The word vikalpa, or "duality," here refers to the mistaken idea that the spirit soul is partly composed of matter in the form of the gross body or subtle mind. It is thus that foolish persons consider the material body or mind to be an intrinsic or fundamental component of the self. In fact the living entity is pure spirit, without any tinge of matter. Consequently the false ego, which is generated by the false identification with matter, is a mistaken identity imposed upon the pure spirit soul. The sense of ego, or "I am" in other words, the sense of one's individual identity — comes from the spirit soul, because there is no other possible basis for such self-awareness. By studying one's false sense of ego, one can analytically understand that there is a pure ego, which is expressed by the words ahaḿ brahmāsmi, "I am pure spirit soul." One can easily understand in a similar way that there is a supreme spirit soul, the Personality of Godhead, who is the omniscient controller of everything. Such understanding in Kṛṣṇa consciousness constitutes perfect knowledge, as described here by the Lord.
11.28.37
(37) The dualistic, imaginative interpretation [in terms of good and bad, see also 11.21: 16] by so-called scholars of this in names and forms perceivable duality which unmistakably consists of the five elements, is in vain [see also 5.6: 11].
Material names and forms, subject as they are to creation and annihilation, have no permanent existence and so do not constitute essential, fundamental principles of reality. The material world consists of variegated transformations of the potency of God. Although God is real and His potency is real, the particular forms and names that temporarily or circumstantially appear have no ultimate reality. Gross ignorance occurs when the conditioned soul imagines himself to be material or a mixture of matter and spirit. Some philosophers argue that the eternal soul in contact with matter is permanently transformed and that the false ego represents a new and permanent reality of the soul. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī replies that spirit is the living, superior energy of the Lord, whereas matter is the inferior, unconscious energy of the Lord, and that these two energies thus possess opposite qualities, as with light and darkness. The superior living entity and inferior matter therefore cannot possibly merge into a common existence, since they eternally possess opposite and incompatible characteristics. The hallucination of a mixture of matter and spirit is called illusion; it becomes specifically manifest as false ego, which identifies with a specific material body or mind created by illusion. Clearly those scientists or philosophers who are embedded in gross ignorance cannot be real scientists and philosophers. The simple criterion of spiritual self-awareness unfortunately eliminates a huge percentage of modern so-called scientists and philosophers, who bury their foolish noses in the Lord's material energy, without any knowledge of or interest in the Lord Himself.
11.28.38
upasargair vihanyeta
tatrāyaḿ vihito vidhiḥ
(38) The body of the yogi who with a lack of experience tries to engage in the practice of yoga, may be overcome by rising disturbances. In that case is the following the prescribed rule of conduct:
Having described the process of cultivating knowledge, the Lord now gives instructions to the yogī whose body may be disturbed by disease or other impediments. Those inferior yogīs who are attached to the body and bodily exercises are often incomplete in their realization, and thus the Lord here offers them some assistance.
11.28.39
yoga-dhāraṇayā kāḿścid
āsanair dhāraṇānvitaiḥ
tapo-mantrauṣadhaiḥ kāḿścid
(39) Some disturbances may be overcome by postures [âsanas] combined with concentration [dhâranâ], penance [tapas, see ***], mantras and medicinal herbs.
11.28.40
kāḿścin mamānudhyānena
nāma-sańkīrtanādibhiḥ
yogeśvarānuvṛttyā vā
(40) Some of the inauspicious matters can be overcome step by step by constantly thinking of Me [Vishnu-smarana], by the celebration of My names and such [japa, sankîrtana] and by following in the footsteps of the masters of yoga [see also B.G. 6: 25].
by meditation on the Supreme Lord one can overcome lust and other mental disturbances, and by following in the footsteps of great transcendentalists one can overcome hypocrisy, false pride and other types of mental imbalance.
11.28.41
vidhāya vividhopāyair
(41) Some [yogis] make their self-controlled bodies suitable by fixing themselves on the youthful with the help of various methods and try that way to be perfect in their material control [siddhis].
The process described here is meant to fulfill one's material desires, not to bring one transcendental knowledge. Therefore this process cannot be accepted as devotional service to the Lord, according to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. Despite all such mystic perfections, the material body will ultimately die. Actual eternal youth and happiness are available only on the spiritual platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
11.28.42
tad-āyāso hy apārthakaḥ
antavattvāc charīrasya
phalasyeva vanaspateḥ
(42) By the ones who enjoy a good condition that is not honored though, convinced as they are that such an endeavor is quite useless, because the body, like the fruit of a tree, will perish anyway [see also 11.15: 33].
The example given here is of a tree that seasonally bears fruit. The fruit exists for a very short time, whereas the tree may exist for thousands of years. Similarly, the spirit soul is eternal, whereas the material body, even when preserved as long as possible, is destroyed relatively quickly. The body should never be equated with the eternally existing spirit soul. Those who are actually intelligent, who actually have spiritual knowledge, are not interested in material mystic perfections.
11.28.43
(43) Someone with a devoted mind does not value it highly to practice yoga regularly with the purpose of realizing a healthy body, he who is devoted to Me gives up on the yoga [for that purpose, *4].
A devotee of the Lord keeps his body fit by eating nourishing Kṛṣṇa prasādam, by maintaining a clean and regulated life, free from unnecessary anxiety, and by chanting and dancing before the Deity of the Lord. When a devotee is sick, he accepts medical treatment by normal methods, but beyond this there is no need to absorb one's mind in the physical body in the name of so-called yoga practice. Ultimately one must accept the destiny that has been ordained by the Lord.
11.28.44
vicaran mad-apāśrayaḥ
nāntarāyair vihanyeta
niḥspṛhaḥ sva-sukhānubhūḥ
(44) The yogi following this process of yoga will, freed from desires having taken to the shelter of Me, not be disheartened by obstacles and [thus] experience the happiness of his soul.'
m of all the Upaniṣads, with the conclusion that pure devotional service to the Lord is the real means of ultimate liberation. In this regard Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura emphasizes that although haṭha-yogīs and rāja-yogīs try to make progress along their prescribed paths, they confront obstacles and often fail to achieve their desired goals. However, one who surrenders to the Supreme Lord will certainly be victorious on his spiritual path back home, back to Godhead.
Thus end of the Eleventh Canto, Twenty-eighth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Jñāna-yoga."
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Swamyjis, Philosophers, Scholars and Knowledge Seekers for the collection)
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