KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.16
- The functions of the mind are thinking, feeling and willing. When the mind is materialistic, it acts for the material advancement of knowledge, destructively ending in the discovery of nuclear weapons.
- The mind has to be manipulated by good and unalloyed intelligence.
- When the mind acts under spiritual urge, it acts wonderfully for going back home, back to Godhead, for life in complete bliss and eternity.
- Perfect intelligence is to render service unto the Lord.
- One should be intelligent enough to understand that the living being is, in all circumstances, a servant of the circumstances
- Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and nervousness.
- Even while executing such dictations of different temperaments, he is perpetually unhappy. When one actually feels this and turns his intelligence to inquiring about it from the right sources, he gets information of the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
- The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane. “Therefore the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally.
- When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction.
- We have to first see with our ears and then see with our eyes as instructed by our acharyas and gurus. When we see with our eyes without having heard by the ears what needs to be seen, we see for our enjoyment.
- In material education, we are taught to be the seer and not the seen. Whatever we see is for our enjoyment. A person comes to the temple to see the deity, what they see is simply another object of enjoyment like movie, game…etc., They are not seeing Krsna. That type of seeing is condemned by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. One always has to be the seen and Lord is the only seer.
- “For man, the mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation. (Amṛta-bindu Upaniṣad 2)
- The mind which is always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation.
- When the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā. For one who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically.
- The mind must admit some superior dictation and follow it. The effect of controlling the mind is that one automatically follows the dictation of the Paramātmā, or Supersoul.
- This transcendental position is at once achieved by one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotee of the Lord is unaffected by the dualities of material existence, namely distress and happiness, cold and heat, etc. This state is practical samādhi, or absorption in the Supreme.
- Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless.
- “No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.”
- No one can become Kṛṣṇa conscious simply by mundane scholarship. One must be fortunate enough to associate with a person who is in pure consciousness.
- By transcendental knowledge one can remain steady in his convictions, but by mere academic knowledge one can be easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. It is the realized soul who is actually self-controlled, because he is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa.
- A Kṛṣṇa conscious person has realized knowledge, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, because he is satisfied with pure devotional service.
SB 2.2.16 TRANSLATION:
Thereafter, the yogī should merge his mind, by his unalloyed intelligence, into the living entity, and then merge the living entity into the Super self. And by doing this, the fully satisfied living entity becomes situated in the supreme stage of satisfaction, so that he ceases from all other activities.
CLASS NOTES:
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MIND ARE THINKING, FEELING, AND WILLING. When the mind is materialistic or absorbed in material contact, it acts for material advancement of knowledge, destructively ending in the discovery of nuclear weapons.
BUT WHEN THE MIND ACTS UNDER SPIRITUAL URGE, it acts wonderfully for going back home, back to Godhead, for life in complete bliss and eternity. Therefore the mind has to be manipulated by good and unalloyed intelligence.
PERFECT INTELLIGENCE IS TO RENDER SERVICE UNTO THE LORD.
One should be intelligent enough to understand that the living being is, in all circumstances, a servant of the circumstances. Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and enviousness. Even while executing such dictations of different temperaments, he is perpetually unhappy. When one actually feels this and turns his intelligence to inquiring about it from the right sources, he gets information of the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
THE LORD AND HIS SERVICE ARE IDENTICAL, BEING ON THE ABSOLUTE PLANE.
“Therefore the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally. When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction. In his pure, unalloyed state, the living being attains the stage of full bliss, labdhopaśānti, and ceases all material hankerings.
This purport has very subtle points in it that are difficult to understand for most people. One needs to understand what is meant by –
“Therefore the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally. When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction.” This is highly philosophical point. This is explained by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur – The difference between Goloka Darsana and Jagat Darshana and is summarized as Dhrig Dhrista Vichara. The analysis of the seer and seen.
Dhrsta – Seer
Dhrisya – Seen
This is the fundamental question discussed by the mayavadis and the vaishnavas. There is a world of difference between their understanding of who is the seer and who is the seen.
In material education, we are taught to be the seer and not the seen. Whatever we see is for our enjoyment. A person comes to the temple to see the deity, what they see is an object of enjoyment. That type of seeing is condemned by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.
One who asks his Guru to show him Bhagavan, never hears the sweet intruction coming from the flute of Krsna. They will neve
By your instructions please purify me and give me the eyes by which I may see you
We should see with our ears. First vani then vapu. We have to first see with our ears and then see with our eyes as instructed by our acharyas and gurus. When we see with our eyes without having heard by the ears what needs to be seen, we see for our enjoyment. Then it becomes seeing with Worldly vision. They are not seeing Krsna they are simply seeing another object of enjoyment like going to a movie, watching a television. They are the seer and what they see is the enjoyed. SBST says – I see the status – spirit of enjoyment. Deity sees me as my uncovered self. That is the darshan of the lord.
Difficulties occur when one thinks that HE who is to be served should serve oneself.
I went to see Jagannath, I went to see a tree, I Went to see a sadhu… means nothing if one has not developed the question of Who am I?
Without faith, one cannot have the Darshana of the Lord.
Jagat Darshan,
10 Nov 1936 Lecture by Bhakti Sidhanta Saraswati.
SB is not dealing with Dharma Artha Kama Moksha, it is talking about devotional service.
Non-devotees cannot understand the BG or SB.
BG 6.5
One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.
“For man, the mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.
BG 6.6
The purpose of practicing eightfold yoga is to control the mind in order to make it a friend in discharging the human mission. Unless the mind is controlled, the practice of yoga (for show) is simply a waste of time. One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled. The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā. Real yoga practice entails meeting the Paramātmā within the heart and then following His dictation. For one who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically.
BG 6.7
Actually, every living entity is intended to abide by the dictation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is seated in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā. When the mind is misled by the external, illusory energy, one becomes entangled in material activities. Therefore, as soon as one’s mind is controlled through one of the yoga systems, one should be considered to have already reached the destination. One has to abide by superior dictation. When one’s mind is fixed on the superior nature, he has no alternative but to follow the dictation of the Supreme. The mind must admit some superior dictation and follow it. The effect of controlling the mind is that one automatically follows the dictation of the Paramātmā, or Supersoul. Because this transcendental position is at once achieved by one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotee of the Lord is unaffected by the dualities of material existence, namely distress and happiness, cold and heat, etc. This state is practical samādhi, or absorption in the Supreme.
BG 6.8
Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless. This is stated as follows:
ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi
na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ
sevonmukhe hi jihvādau
svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ
“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.234)
This Bhagavad-gītā is the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No one can become Kṛṣṇa conscious simply by mundane scholarship. One must be fortunate enough to associate with a person who is in pure consciousness. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person has realized knowledge, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, because he is satisfied with pure devotional service. By realized knowledge, one becomes perfect. By transcendental knowledge one can remain steady in his convictions, but by mere academic knowledge one can be easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. It is the realized soul who is actually self-controlled, because he is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. He is transcendental because he has nothing to do with mundane scholarship. For him mundane scholarship and mental speculation, which may be as good as gold to others, are of no greater value than pebbles or stones.
That is why so many people who came to Krsna Conscious, are not able to steady in KC. They are stuck with academic knowledge, their vision is that they are the seers. Krishna should see the devotee