KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.31 -32
- The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme Person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literature. But His personality is different from what we can conceive.
- Those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Lord’s transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, certainly see Lord’s lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.
- When Śrī Kṛṣṇa was personally present on the face of the globe, not everyone could see Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision. This necessary qualification is developed by the process of devotional service only, beginning with hearing about the Lord from the right sources.
- When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way.
- One must hear about the Lord from the very beginning, as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any other scriptures, and that will help the hearer attain perfection by progressive development.
- According to Vedic assertion, this material creation is the result of the Lord’s casting a glance over the material energy, which is described herein as the most alluring illusory energy.
- Although the queens’ beautiful smiles and furtive glances were all spotless and exciting, and although they could conquer Cupid himself by making him give up his bow in frustration, and although even the tolerant Śiva could fall victim to them, still, despite all their magical feats and attractions, they could not agitate the senses of the Lord.
- This is because the Lord is all-perfect ātmārāma, or self-sufficient. He does not require anyone’s extraneous help for His personal satisfaction.
- The queens could not satisfy the Lord by their feminine attractiveness, but they satisfied Him by their sincere affection and service.
- Being satisfied by their unalloyed service only, the Lord reciprocated the service just like a devout husband. Otherwise, He had no business becoming the husband of so many wives.
- This unalloyed affection for the Lord is never to be compared to mundane lust. It is purely transcendental. And the grave dealings, which the queens displayed in natural feminine ways, were also transcendental because the feelings were expressed out of transcendental ecstasy.
- Lord appeared like a mundane husband, but factually His relation with His wives was transcendental, pure, and unconditioned by the modes of material nature.
- Those who are on the path of salvation for going back home, back to Godhead, are especially advised by all scriptural instruction to become free from the paraphernalia of material attraction (Attraction to the opposite, sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth). And that is possible only by the association of the devotees of the Lord, who are called the mahātmās.
SB 2.1.31
They say that the Vedic hymns are the cerebral passage of the Lord, and His jaws of teeth are Yama, god of death, who punishes the sinners. The art of affection is His set of teeth, and the most alluring illusory material energy is His smile. This great ocean of material creation is but the casting of His glance over us.
SB 2.1.32
Modesty is the upper portion of His lips, hankering is His chin, religion is the breast of the Lord, and irreligion is His back. Brahmājī, who generates all living beings in the material world, is His genitals, and the Mitrā-varuṇas are His two testicles. The ocean is His waist, and the hills and mountains are the stacks of His bones.
CLASS NOTES:
(SB 2.1.31)
ACCORDING TO VEDIC ASSERTION, THIS MATERIAL CREATION IS THE RESULT OF THE LORD’S CASTING A GLANCE OVER THE MATERIAL ENERGY, WHICH IS DESCRIBED HEREIN AS THE MOST ALLURING ILLUSORY ENERGY. The conditioned souls who are allured by such materialism should know that the material temporary creation is simply an imitation of the reality and that those who are captivated by such alluring glances of the Lord are put under the direction of the controller of sinners called Yamarāja. The Lord smiles affectionately, displaying His teeth. The intelligent person who can grasp these truths about the Lord becomes a soul fully surrendered unto Him.
The most alluring illusory material energy is His smile – this alluring material energy is present in the material world and also in the spiritual world. One takes away from the Lord and another brings closer to the Lord.
(SB 1.11.36) QUEENS’ BEAUTIFUL SMILES AND FURTIVE GLANCES COULD CONQUER CUPID AND COULD NOT AGITATE THE SENSES OF THE LORD
Although the queens’ beautiful smiles and furtive glances were all spotless and exciting, and although they could conquer Cupid himself by making him give up his bow in frustration, and although even the tolerant Śiva could fall victim to them, still, despite all their magical feats and attractions, they could not agitate the senses of the Lord.
It is clear herein that the feminine attractive features which can conquer Cupid or even the super most tolerant Lord Śiva could not conquer the senses of the Lord. Cupid’s business is to invoke mundane lust.
Cupid was himself captivated by the grave and exciting dealings of the goddesses of fortune, and he voluntarily gave up his bow and arrow in a spirit of frustration.
Such was the beauty and attraction of the queens of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Yet they could not disturb the transcendental senses of the Lord.
This is because the Lord is all-perfect ātmārāma, or self-sufficient. He does not require anyone’s extraneous help for His personal satisfaction. Therefore, the queens could not satisfy the Lord by their feminine attractiveness, but they satisfied Him by their sincere affection and service. Only by unalloyed transcendental loving service could they satisfy the Lord, and the Lord was pleased to treat them as wives in reciprocation. Thus being satisfied by their unalloyed service only, the Lord reciprocated the service just like a devout husband. Otherwise, He had no business becoming the husband of so many wives. He is the husband of everyone, but to one who accepts Him as such, He reciprocates. This unalloyed affection for the Lord is never to be compared to mundane lust. It is purely transcendental. And the grave dealings, which the queens displayed in natural feminine ways, were also transcendental because the feelings were expressed out of transcendental ecstasy. It is already explained in the previous verse that the Lord appeared like a mundane husband, but factually His relation with His wives was transcendental, pure, and unconditioned by the modes of material nature.
Manifestation of Material Existence
The whole universe is moving, being agitated by Cupid’s arrow. The activities of the world are being carried on by the central attraction of male and female. A male is searching after a mate to his liking, and the female is looking after a suitable male. That is the way of material stimulus. And as soon as a male is combined with a female, the material bondage of the living being is at once tightly interlocked by sex relation, and as a result of this, both the male’s and female’s attraction for sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth becomes the illusory field of activities, and thus a false but indefatigable attraction for the temporary material existence, which is full of miseries, is manifest.
Those who are, therefore, on the path of salvation for going back home, back to Godhead, are especially advised by all scriptural instruction to become free from such paraphernalia of material attraction. And that is possible only by the association of the devotees of the Lord, who are called the mahātmās.
(SB 2.1.32) THE SUPREME LORD IS NOT IMPERSONAL
The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme Person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literatures. But His personality is different from what we can conceive.
When the Lord is described as impersonal, therefore, it should be understood that His personality is not exactly the type of personality found within our imperfect speculation. One can, however, worship the Lord even by seeing the hills and mountains or the ocean and the sky as different parts and parcels of the gigantic body of the Lord, the virāṭ-puruṣa. The virāṭ-rūpa, as exhibited by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, is a challenge to the unbelievers.
There is a description of the complete body of the Virat Rupa. He has all the bodily parts as might be found in the human body. But he does not have the human type of body. To understand this one has to read the purports of SB.
Now we see that the human body is the microcosmic representation of creation. If we understand our body then we can understand how this creation works. It is only if we use the body in Krsna’s service then it is the perfection of life. Srila Prabhupada said that he put everything in 1st canto. If we carefully study just SB Canto 1 we have all the knowledge.
(SB 1.8.36) ONE CAN SEE THE LOTUS FEET OF THE LORD ONLY WHEN ONE CONTINUOUSLY HEARS, CHANTS, AND REPEATS TRANSCENDENTAL ACTIVITIES OF THE LORD.
O Kṛṣṇa, those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, certainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.
Even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision.
The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa cannot be seen by our present conditional vision. In order to see Him, one has to change his present vision by developing a different condition of life full of spontaneous love of Godhead.
When Śrī Kṛṣṇa was personally present on the face of the globe, not everyone could see Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Materialists like Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Kaṁsa, Jarāsandha and Śiśupāla were highly qualified personalities by acquisition of material assets, but they were unable to appreciate the presence of the Lord. Therefore, even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision.
This necessary qualification is developed by the process of devotional service only, beginning with hearing about the Lord from the right sources.
The Bhagavad-gītā is one of the popular literatures which are generally heard, chanted, repeated, etc., by the people in general, but in spite of such hearing, etc., sometimes it is experienced that the performer of such devotional service does not see the Lord face to face. The reason is that the first item, śravaṇa, is very important. If hearing is from the right sources, it acts very quickly. Generally people hear from unauthorized persons. Such unauthorized persons may be very learned by academic qualifications, but because they do not follow the principles of devotional service, hearing from them becomes a sheer waste of time. Sometimes the texts are interpreted fashionably to suit their own purposes. Therefore, first one should select a competent and bona fide speaker and then hear from him. When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way.
There are different transcendental activities of the Lord, and each and every one of them is competent to bestow the desired result, provided the hearing process is perfect.
But sometimes people, in an unauthorized hearing process, take more interest in hearing about His dealings with the gopīs. Such an inclination indicates the lusty feelings of the hearer, so a bona fide speaker of the dealings of the Lord never indulges in such hearings. One must hear about the Lord from the very beginning, as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any other scriptures, and that will help the hearer attain perfection by progressive development
One should not, therefore, consider that His dealings with the Pāṇḍavas are less important than His dealings with the gopīs. We must always remember that the Lord is always transcendental to all mundane attachments. In all the above-mentioned dealings of the Lord, He is the hero in all circumstances, and hearing about Him or about His devotees or combatants is conducive to spiritual life. It is said that the Vedas and Purāṇas, etc., are all made to revive our lost relation with Him. Hearing of all these scriptures is essential.
Regular hearing – 3 times a day, besides all other devotional activities.
(SB 1.18.31)
Upon returning, he began to contemplate and argue within himself whether the sage had actually been in meditation, with senses concentrated and eyes closed, or whether he had just been feigning trance just to avoid receiving a lower kṣatriya.
Repentance comes in the mind of a good soul as soon as he commits something wrong.
According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, the plan was made by the will of the Lord, and by the will of the Lord the situation of frustration was created. The plan was that for his so-called misdeed the King could be cursed by an inexperienced brāhmaṇa boy infected by the influence of Kali, and thus the King would leave his hearth and home for good. His connections with Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī would enable the presentation of the great Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is considered to be the book incarnation of the Lord.
This book incarnation of the Lord gives much fascinating information of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, like His rāsa-līlā with the spiritual cowherd damsels of Vrajabhūmi. This specific pastime of the Lord has a special significance because anyone who properly learns about this particular pastime of the Lord will certainly be dissuaded from mundane sex desire and be placed on the path of sublime devotional service to the Lord.
The pure devotee’s mundane frustration is meant to elevate the devotee to a higher transcendental position. (Frustration that Maharaj Parikshit is important, when people who are not devotees who get frustrated they seek revenge, Whereas a devotee’s frustration, elevated him to a higher transcendental position)
(There are situations we are going to be in, we are placed in those by the Lord, they are for purification, so one becomes much more serious about devotional service)