KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.4.7
- The Supreme Lord is the chief eternal being amongst all other eternal individual beings (nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām). He maintains innumerable other individual living beings (eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān).
- All living entities, both in the conditioned state and in the liberated state, are maintained by the Almighty Supreme Lord.
- Such maintenance is effected by the Lord through His different expansions of Self and three principal energies, namely the internal, external and marginal energies.
- The unconditioned marginal potency acts in the spiritual kingdom, and the Lord, by His different plenary expansions, maintains them in different transcendental relations displayed in the spiritual sky.
- The one Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself in many (bahu syām), and thus all diversities are in Him, and He is in all diversities, although He is nevertheless different from all of them. (acintya-bhedābheda-tattva)
- The process of thinking of Kṛṣṇa, is very easy. The Lord is puruṣa, a person – we think of the person Rāma and the person Kṛṣṇa. And whether one thinks of Rāma or of Kṛṣṇa, what He is like is described BG 8.9
- BG 8.9 – One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.
- Intelligent persons, avoiding useless argument and speculation, should accept what is stated in scriptures like the Vedas, Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and follow the principles they set down. This will lead one to understanding.
- Pure devotees accept and know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore they completely surrender unto Him and engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service of the Lord.
- In conditioned life we are committing sins at every step, even without knowing it. The reason we are sinning unknowingly is that we have been in ignorance from our very birth. Despite so many big, big universities, none of them is teaching ātma-tattva, the science of the soul.
- The human being is given all facilities for a comfortable life by the laws of nature because the human form of life is more important and valuable than animal life.
- Why is man given a better life than that of the swine and other animals? Why is a highly placed government servant given better facilities than those of an ordinary clerk? The answer is that a highly placed officer has to discharge duties of a higher nature. Similarly, the duties human beings have to perform are higher than those of animals, who are always engaged in simply feeding their hungry stomachs.
- This foolishness will continue until one comes to the platform of understanding self-realization. One continues to be foolish like an animal and is subjected to transmigration from one body to another in different species of life. This is the result of ignorance.
- We are given this human form of life not to work hard like asses, swine and dogs but to attain the highest perfection of life.
- We should work to dissipate our ignorance through the cultivation of transcendental knowledge. Whether you are pious or impious, you have to enter into the womb of some mother. And that tribulation is very severe. Whether you take birth in a very rich and aristocratic family or from an animal womb, the pangs of birth, old age, disease, and death continue.The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant to give you an opportunity to solve these four problems
- The material world is sometimes compared to an ocean, and the human body is compared to a solid boat designed especially to cross this ocean. The Vedic scriptures and the ācāryas, or saintly teachers, are compared to expert boatmen, and the facilities of the human body are compared to favorable breezes that help the boat ply smoothly to its desired destination.
- If, with all these facilities, a human being does not fully utilize his life for self-realization, he must be considered ātma-hā, a killer of the soul. Śrī Īśopaniṣad warns in clear terms that the killer of the soul is destined to enter into the darkest region of ignorance to suffer perpetually
SB 2.4.7 TRANSLATION:
Kindly describe how the Supreme Lord, who is all-powerful, engages His different energies and different expansions in maintaining and again winding up the phenomenal world in the sporting spirit of a player.
CLASS NOTES:
- the Supreme Lord is described as the chief eternal being amongst all other eternal individual beings (nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām)
- the one Supreme Lord maintains innumerable other individual living beings (eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān).
So all living entities, both in the conditioned state and in the liberated state, are maintained by the Almighty Supreme Lord. Such maintenance is effected by the Lord through His different expansions of Self and three principal energies, namely the internal, external and marginal energies. The living entities are His marginal energies, and some of them, in the confidence of the Lord, are entrusted with the work of creation also, as are Brahmā, Marīci, etc., and the acts of creation are inspired by the Lord unto them (tene brahma hṛdā). The external energy (māyā) is also impregnated with the jīvas, or conditioned souls. The unconditioned marginal potency acts in the spiritual kingdom, and the Lord, by His different plenary expansions, maintains them in different transcendental relations displayed in the spiritual sky.
- So the one Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself in many (bahu syām), and thus all diversities are in Him, and He is in all diversities, although He is nevertheless different from all of them.
That is the inconceivable mystic power of the Lord, and as such everything is simultaneously one with and different from Him by His inconceivable potencies (acintya-bhedābheda-tattva).
Yesterday we learnt that – “Only when one knows Lord Kṛṣṇa’s greatness can one firmly put one’s unflinching faith in Him; “ That is why this question is asked by Parikshit Maharaj to Sukhdev Goswami. Lord is maintaining both a phenomenal and numinous world. We can hear about the greatness of the Supreme Lord from BG 8 and 9th chapters
BG 8.9
One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.
The process of thinking of the Supreme is mentioned in this verse. The foremost point is that He is not impersonal or void. One cannot meditate on something impersonal or void. That is very difficult. The process of thinking of Kṛṣṇa, however, is very easy and is factually stated herein. First of all, the Lord is puruṣa, a person – we think of the person Rāma and the person Kṛṣṇa. And whether one thinks of Rāma or of Kṛṣṇa, what He is like is described in this verse of Bhagavad-gītā.
- The Lord is kavi; that is, He knows past, present and future and therefore knows everything.
- He is the oldest personality because He is the origin of everything; everything is born out of Him.
- He is also the supreme controller of the universe, and
- He is the maintainer and instructor of humanity.
- He is smaller than the smallest. The living entity is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair, but the Lord is so inconceivably small that He enters into the heart of this particle. Therefore He is called smaller than the smallest. As the Supreme, He can enter into the atom and into the heart of the smallest and control him as the Supersoul.
- Although so small, He is still all-pervading and is maintaining everything.
- By Him all these planetary systems are sustained. We often wonder how these big planets are floating in the air. It is stated here that the Supreme Lord, by His inconceivable energy, is sustaining all these big planets and systems of galaxies.
- The word acintya (“inconceivable”) is very significant in this connection. God’s energy is beyond our conception, beyond our thinking jurisdiction, and is therefore called inconceivable (acintya). Who can argue this point?
- He pervades this material world and yet is beyond it. We cannot comprehend even this material world, which is insignificant compared to the spiritual world – so how can we comprehend what is beyond? Acintya means that which is beyond this material world, that which our argument, logic and philosophical speculation cannot touch, that which is inconceivable.
Therefore intelligent persons, avoiding useless argument and speculation, should accept what is stated in scriptures like the Vedas, Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and follow the principles they set down. This will lead one to understanding.
BG 9.11
Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.
- Supreme Personality of Godhead, although appearing like a human being, is not a common man. The Personality of Godhead, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the complete cosmic manifestation, cannot be a human being. He is the original Supreme Personality, as is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā.
- He is the original Supreme Personality, as is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā.
- Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller; there are many controllers undoubtedly, both in the material and spiritual world, but Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller (īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ), and His body is sac-cid-ānanda, nonmaterial.
- His body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge
- Kṛṣṇa’s body is a symbol of complete knowledge and bliss, that He is the proprietor of everything that be and that He can award liberation to anyone
- The appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in this material world is a manifestation of His internal energy. He is the master of material energy.
- The material energy, although very powerful, is under His control, and whoever surrenders unto Him can get out of the control of this material energy.
- controller of all the atoms and of the gigantic manifestation of the universal form
- a form like that of a human being can simultaneously control the infinite and the minute.
- although He is controlling the infinite and the finite, He is apart from all this manifestation
Although the foolish cannot imagine how Kṛṣṇa, who appears just like a human being, can control the infinite and the finite, those who are pure devotees accept this, for they know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore they completely surrender unto Him and engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service of the Lord.
LAWS OF NATURE
BREAKING THE BONDS OF KARMA
REASON FOR SINNING – IGNORANCE FROM OUR VERY BIRTH
In conditioned life we are committing sins at every step, even without knowing it. The reason we are sinning unknowingly is that we have been in ignorance from our very birth. This ignorance is prominent despite so many educational institutions. Why? Because despite so many big, big universities, none of them is teaching ātma-tattva, the science of the soul. Therefore people remain in ignorance, and they continue to sin and suffer the reactions.
SB 5.5.3 – As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmātmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body.
THIS FOOLISHNESS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ONE COMES TO THE PLATFORM OF UNDERSTANDING SELF-REALIZATION.
Otherwise, all these universities and institutions for imparting knowledge are a continuation of that same ignorance and foolishness. Unless one comes to the point of asking “What am I? What is God? What is this world? What is my relationship with God and this world?” and finds proper answers, one continues to be foolish like an animal and is subjected to transmigration from one body to another in different species of life. This is the result of ignorance.
we do not know what kind of miseries we will have to suffer in our next life because of our sinful activities. So if one does not begin cultivating transcendental knowledge, then one’s life is very risky. we should work to dissipate our ignorance through cultivation of transcendental knowledge.
You cannot get transcendental knowledge at schools. They think it is bogus and they are laughing at it… BG 13.8 – Amanitvam… adambitvam… “Anything beyond these is ignorance.. “ Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there maybe is ignorance.”
This is a serious indictment of modern civilization.
ANYTHING YOU DO OUTSIDE THE FIELD OF KṚṢṆA CONSCIOUS ACTIVITIES ENTANGLES YOU IN THE MODES OF NATURE.
But one who performs pious activities is also entangled. But whether you are pious or impious, you have to enter into the womb of some mother. And that tribulation is very severe. That we have forgotten. Whether you take birth in a very rich and aristocratic family or from an animal womb, the pangs of birth, old age, disease, and death continue.
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant to give you an opportunity to solve these four problems – birth, old age, disease, and death. But if you continue to act sinfully and eat sinfully, then these miseries will continue. Otherwise, you can nullify your sinful reactions by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, as He states in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66)
Part of surrendering to Kṛṣṇa is being careful not to eat anything that has not been offered to Him. That should be our determination. Even if we have committed some sin, by eating prasādam, food offered to Kṛṣṇa, we will counteract it. If we surrender to Kṛṣṇa in this way, He will protect us from sinful reactions. That is His promise.
This is also explained in
ISO Mantra 3 & 12 of ISO
Mantra 3
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.
HUMAN LIFE IS DISTINGUISHED FROM ANIMAL LIFE DUE TO ITS HEAVY RESPONSIBILITIES.
Those who are cognizant of these responsibilities and who work in that spirit are called suras (godly persons), and those who are neglectful of these responsibilities or who have no information of them are called asuras (demons).
INTELLIGENT HUMAN BEINGS MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THE SOUL OBTAINS A HUMAN FORM AFTER AN EVOLUTION OF MANY MILLIONS OF YEARS IN THE CYCLE OF TRANSMIGRATION.
The material world is sometimes compared to an ocean, and the human body is compared to a solid boat designed especially to cross this ocean. The Vedic scriptures and the ācāryas, or saintly teachers, are compared to expert boatmen, and the facilities of the human body are compared to favorable breezes that help the boat ply smoothly to its desired destination. If, with all these facilities, a human being does not fully utilize his life for self-realization, he must be considered ātma-hā, a killer of the soul. Śrī Īśopaniṣad warns in clear terms that the killer of the soul is destined to enter into the darkest region of ignorance to suffer perpetually.
Darkest region of ignorance – Universities… Feminists are the crazy people – who support the abortion of foetus… anti manism, Men are taught to be irresponsible… the more sex you have the more man you are… that is the opposite of the truth. Where can you get the real education… of the soul…
THE HUMAN BEING IS GIVEN ALL FACILITIES FOR A COMFORTABLE LIFE BY THE LAWS OF NATURE BECAUSE THE HUMAN FORM OF LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE THAN ANIMAL LIFE.
Why is man given a better life than that of the swine and other animals? Why is a highly placed government servant given better facilities than those of an ordinary clerk? The answer is that a highly placed officer has to discharge duties of a higher nature. Similarly, the duties human beings have to perform are higher than those of animals, who are always engaged in simply feeding their hungry stomachs. Yet the modern soul-killing civilization has only increased the problems of the hungry stomach. When we approach a polished animal in the form of a modern civilized man and ask him to take interest in self-realization, he will say that he simply wants to work to satisfy his stomach and that there is no need of self-realization for a hungry man. The laws of nature are so cruel, however, that despite his denunciation of the need for self-realization and his eagerness to work hard to fill his stomach, he is always threatened by unemployment.
WE ARE GIVEN THIS HUMAN FORM OF LIFE NOT TO WORK HARD LIKE ASSES, SWINE AND DOGS BUT TO ATTAIN THE HIGHEST PERFECTION OF LIFE.
If we do not care for self-realization, the laws of nature force us to work very hard, even though we may not want to do so. Human beings in this age have been forced to work hard like the asses and bullocks that pull carts. Some of the regions where the asuras are sent to work are revealed in this mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad. If a man fails to discharge his duties as a human being, he is forced to transmigrate to the asurya planets and take birth in degraded species of life to work hard in ignorance and darkness.