KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.4.23 TODAY (06/16/21):
- The devotee always thinks of himself as instrumental for anything successfully carried out, and he declines to take credit for anything done by himself.
- The godless atheist wants to take all credit for activities, not knowing that even a blade of grass cannot move without the sanction of the Supreme Spirit, the Personality of Godhead.
- The truths described in the Vedic literatures are not theories of mundane imagination, nor are they fictitious, as the less intelligent class of men sometimes think.
- The Lord is Himself the father of the Vedānta knowledge, and it is He only who knows the factual purport of the Vedānta philosophy. So there is no greater truth than the principles of religion mentioned in the Vedas.
- Such Vedic knowledge or religion is disseminated by authorities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī because he is a humble devotional servitor of the Lord who has no desire to become a self-appointed interpreter without authority. That is the way of explaining the Vedic knowledge, technically known as the paramparā system, or descending process.
- The intelligent man can see without mistake that any material creation (whether one’s own body or a fruit or flower) cannot beautifully grow up without the spiritual touch.
- The source of all truths is the Supreme Spirit, and not gross matter, as wrongly conceived by the gross materialist.
- We get information from the Vedic literature that the Lord Himself first entered the vacuum of the material universe, and thus all things gradually developed one after another.
- Similarly, the Lord is situated as localized Paramātmā in every individual being; hence everything is done by Him very beautifully.
- The sixteen principal creative elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, and the eleven sense organs, first developed from the Lord Himself and were thereby shared by the living entities. Thus the material elements were created for the enjoyment of the living entities.
- The beautiful arrangement behind all material manifestations is therefore made possible by the energy of the Lord, and the individual living entity can only pray to the Lord to understand it properly.
- Since the Lord is the supreme entity, different from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the prayer can be offered to Him. The Lord helps the living entity to enjoy material creation, but He is aloof from such false enjoyment.
- Śukadeva prays for the mercy of the Lord, not only for being helped personally in presenting the truth, but also for helping others to whom he would like to speak.
- The Vedic knowledge was first impregnated within Brahmā, and it appears that Brahmā distributed the Vedic knowledge. Brahmā is undoubtedly the speaker of the Vedic knowledge, but actually, he was inspired by the Lord to receive such transcendental knowledge, as it directly descends from the Lord.
- The Vedas are therefore called apauruṣeya, or not imparted by any created being. Before the creation, the Lord was there (nārāyaṇaḥ Paro ’vyaktāt), and therefore the words spoken by the Lord are vibrations of transcendental sound.
- No mundane scholar can translate or reveal the true import of the Vedic mantras (hymns). They cannot be understood unless one is inspired or initiated by the authorized spiritual master. The original spiritual master is the Lord Himself, and the succession comes down through the sources of paramparā, as clearly stated in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā.
- So unless one receives the transcendental knowledge from the authorized paramparā, one should be considered useless (niṣphalā matāḥ), even though one may be greatly qualified in the mundane advancements of arts or science.
- Bhishma Pitamaha says – SB 1.9.18 – This Śrī Kṛṣṇa is no other than the inconceivable, original Personality of Godhead. He is the first Nārāyaṇa, the supreme enjoyer. But He is moving amongst the descendants of King Vṛṣṇi just like one of us, and He is bewildering us with His self-created energy.
- Brahmaji says – SB 10.14.14 – Are You not the original Nārāyaṇa, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nārāyaṇa is Your expansion, and He is called Nārāyaṇa because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Māyā.
- Although Lord Brahmā was born from Lord Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā now understands that Nārāyaṇa is Himself a mere expansion of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
- Krsna Himself is saying – BG 10.8 – I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.
- Let’s say we do believe that Krsna is the supreme, can we convince our children or another person about this? That is the real test of the devotee to be a convincing credible person in the eyes of mundane people. That is the beginning of spiritual life – accepting Krsna as the supreme personality of Godhead. There is plenty of evidence that Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead.
- The strength to convince others comes with following the regulative principles strictly – regularly hearing, chanting, and serving. That is the sign of a potent devotee. Just going along is ok, but the real goal set by Srila Prabhupada is to have an army of preachers.
SB 2.4.23 TRANSLATION:
May the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who enlivens the materially created bodies of the elements by lying down within the universe, and who in His puruṣa incarnation causes the living being to be subjected to the sixteen divisions of material modes which are his generator, be pleased to decorate my statements.
CLASS NOTES:
A DEVOTEE NEVER TAKES CREDIT FOR ANYTHING DONE BY HIMSELF.
As a fully dependent devotee, Śukadeva Gosvāmī (unlike a mundane man who is proud of his own capability) invokes the pleasure of the Personality of Godhead so that his statements may be successful and be appreciated by the hearers. The devotee always thinks of himself as instrumental for anything successfully carried out, and he declines to take credit for anything done by himself. The godless atheist wants to take all credit for activities, not knowing that even a blade of grass cannot move without the sanction of the Supreme Spirit, the Personality of Godhead. Śukadeva Gosvāmī therefore wants to move by the direction of the Supreme Lord, who inspired Brahmā to speak the Vedic wisdom.
THE TRUTHS DESCRIBED IN THE VEDIC LITERATURE ARE NOT THEORIES OF MUNDANE IMAGINATION, NOR ARE THEY FICTITIOUS, AS THE LESS INTELLIGENT CLASS OF MEN SOMETIMES THINK.
The Vedic truths are all perfect descriptions of the factual truth, without any mistake or illusion, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī wants to present the truths of creation not as a metaphysical theory of philosophical speculation, but as the actual facts and figures of the subject, since he would be dictated to by the Lord exactly in the same manner as Brahmājī was inspired. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), the Lord is Himself the father of the Vedānta knowledge, and it is He only who knows the factual purport of the Vedānta philosophy. So there is no greater truth than the principles of religion mentioned in the Vedas. Such Vedic knowledge or religion is disseminated by authorities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī because he is a humble devotional servitor of the Lord who has no desire to become a self-appointed interpreter without authority. That is the way of explaining the Vedic knowledge, technically known as the paramparā system, or descending process.
THE INTELLIGENT MAN CAN SEE WITHOUT MISTAKE THAT ANY MATERIAL CREATION (WHETHER ONE’S OWN BODY OR A FRUIT OR FLOWER) CANNOT BEAUTIFULLY GROW UP WITHOUT THE SPIRITUAL TOUCH.
The greatest intelligent man of the world or the greatest man of science can present everything very beautifully only insofar as the spirit life is there, or insomuch as the spiritual touch is there. Therefore the source of all truths is the Supreme Spirit, and not gross matter, as wrongly conceived by the gross materialist. We get information from the Vedic literature that the Lord Himself first entered the vacuum of the material universe, and thus all things gradually developed one after another. Similarly, the Lord is situated as localized Paramātmā in every individual being; hence everything is done by Him very beautifully. The sixteen principal creative elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, and the eleven sense organs, first developed from the Lord Himself and were thereby shared by the living entities. Thus the material elements were created for the enjoyment of the living entities. The beautiful arrangement behind all material manifestations is therefore made possible by the energy of the Lord, and the individual living entity can only pray to the Lord to understand it properly.
Since the Lord is the supreme entity, different from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the prayer can be offered to Him. The Lord helps the living entity to enjoy material creation, but He is aloof from such false enjoyment. Śukadeva prays for the mercy of the Lord, not only for being helped personally in presenting the truth, but also for helping others to whom he would like to speak.
This is a statement of extreme humility by Sukhdev Goswami. This is the spiritual process. The whole process of BG and SB is to convince that we are not the greatest thing that happened in the material universe. It is to make us realize that we are insignificant. To admit that we are greater than someone is like poison. Durga Mata defeats the great personalities in history. A devotee does not fall into the trap of false ego. He is convinced that he is not this body and he is the soul. All these things are happening we have a soul not because we have a body. The 3 modes of material nature forces us to do things. The devotee accepts the transcendental knowledge the materialist never accepts. The materialist is never happy, never satisfied there is no chance at all. The beginning of the change of heart is when we begin to develop an association with pure devotees. The pure devotee in spite of all the circumstances he continues his service. It is that stability and consistency..
They are not perturbed by the incidents like car accidents, layoffs, ….
Many people get disturbed because of these and they are completely under the control of Maya, they are in anxiety and distress. The transcendental knowledge begins… “Vedic knowledge is impregnated into the heart of Brahma … as said in the Previous verse…
SB 2.4.22
“The Vedic knowledge was therefore first impregnated within Brahmā, and it appears that Brahmā distributed the Vedic knowledge. Brahmā is undoubtedly the speaker of the Vedic knowledge, but actually, he was inspired by the Lord to receive such transcendental knowledge, as it directly descends from the Lord. The Vedas are therefore called apauruṣeya, or not imparted by any created being. Before the creation, the Lord was there (nārāyaṇaḥ Paro ’vyaktāt), and therefore the words spoken by the Lord are vibrations of transcendental sound. There is a gulf of difference between the two qualities of sound, namely prākṛta and aprākṛta. The physicist can deal only with the prākṛta sound, or sound vibrated in the material sky, and therefore we must know that the Vedic sounds recorded in symbolic expressions cannot be understood by anyone within the universe unless and until one is inspired by the vibration of supernatural (aprākṛta) sound, which descends in the chain of disciplic succession from the Lord to Brahmā, from Brahmā to Nārada, from Nārada to Vyāsa and so on. No mundane scholar can translate or reveal the true import of the Vedic mantras (hymns). They cannot be understood unless one is inspired or initiated by the authorized spiritual master. The original spiritual master is the Lord Himself, and the succession comes down through the sources of paramparā, as clearly stated in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. So unless one receives the transcendental knowledge from the authorized paramparā, one should be considered useless (niṣphalā matāḥ), even though one may be greatly qualified in the mundane advancements of arts or science.
(nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt) was spoken by Shankaracharya as a commentary of Bhagavadgita.. Gita Bhasya
Imagine if there is a recording of Jesus Christ talking sermons… it would be worth millions of dollars. There are 3000 recordings of Prabhupada. Every day we should hear the lecture and chanting of Srila Prabhupada. That is the transcendental sound. Anything which takes away from Krsna is Maya. What is Maya, what is Krishna, what is dev service, what is selfish service….
The fact that we are not learning is because we are not able to communicate this transcendental sound to the kids. One has to follow the regulative principles, regularly hearing, chanting, and serving will have the shakti to convince others. That is the sign of a potent devotee. Just going along is ok, but the real goal is to have an army of preachers… that was Srila Prabhupada’s goal in starting ISKCON, KC. Regulative hearing, chanting is the highest thing. We need to prioritize our life. What is 1st most imp thing, second most imp thing, What is rubbish? There should not be any rubbish.
Bhishma Pitamaha Says – One of the 12 Mahajans says –
SB 1.9.18
This Śrī Kṛṣṇa is no other than the inconceivable, original Personality of Godhead. He is the first Nārāyaṇa, the supreme enjoyer. But He is moving amongst the descendants of King Vṛṣṇi just like one of us, and He is bewildering us with His self-created energy.
Even Brahmaji says that Sri Krsna is the Supreme –
SB 10.14.14
Are You not the original Nārāyaṇa, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nārāyaṇa is Your expansion, and He is called Nārāyaṇa because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Māyā.
This is an existential question – Who do we believe – Brahma is saying that Narayana is coming from Krsna. We do see people who say Narayana is the supreme… they are dogmatically saying it.
Dogmatic – strong belief even when there is strong evidence of contradiction
Brahma, Yudhistra Maharaj – are Mahajans who are saying this. Which authority we are going to accept. That is the fundamental question as far as knowledge goes..
Knowledge begins when you accept an authority… If you say bad things about a person, something sticks…
Nazis propagandists who were working for Hitler said – If you want to tell a lie tell a big lie and keep repeating it. Eventually, people will believe it. This is the technique is used by demons.. This technique was started long back in history. Cancel culture is not new, Mayavadis started it. Even in the time of Lord Rama, there were impersonalists. One of them tried to convince Lord Rama to not follow the orders of His father. This Mayavadi philosophy has been there from the beginning of time.. It is the ultimate cancel culture… Eventually, the dummies begin to believe it. Despite the evidence of acharyas.
BG 10.8
I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.
We believe that Krsna is supreme, can we convince our children or another person about this? That is the real test of the devotee to be a convincing credible person in the eyes of mundane people. That is the beginning of spiritual life – accepting Krsna as the supreme personality of Godhead. There is plenty of evidence that Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead.
SB 10.14.14
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Two, text 30, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments on this verse as follows: “This statement which is from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.14) was spoken by Lord Brahmā in his prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa after the Lord had defeated him by displaying His mystic powers. Brahmā had tried to test Lord Kṛṣṇa to see if He was really the Supreme Personality of Godhead playing as a cowherd boy. Brahmā stole all the other boys and their calves from the pasturing grounds, but when he returned to the pastures he saw that all the boys and calves were still there, for Lord Kṛṣṇa had created them all again. When Brahmā saw this mystic power of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s, he admitted defeat and offered prayers to the Lord, addressing Him as the proprietor and seer of everything in the creation and as the Supersoul who is within each and every living entity and is dear to all. That Lord Kṛṣṇa is Nārāyaṇa, the father of Brahmā, because Lord Kṛṣṇa’s plenary expansion Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, after placing Himself on the Garbha Ocean, created Brahmā from His own body. Mahā-Viṣṇu in the Causal Ocean and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Supersoul in everyone’s heart, are also transcendental expansions of the Supreme Truth.”
If we accept Krsna is the seer, and we are the seen, – We will believe whatever He is saying because is the ultimate seer and whatever he says is the absolute truth.
If we accept that we are the seer then we can never know the truth…we see according to our misconceptions and speculative mind.
In his commentary on this verse, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has elaborately explained the expansion of the Viṣṇu, or Nārāyaṇa, incarnations from the original form of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The essence is that although Lord Brahmā was born from Lord Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā now understands that Nārāyaṇa is Himself a mere expansion of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
There are many people saying Narayana is the source… we also have Vaishnavas who are spewing out misinformation. We accept our acharyas as our authority… We also accept the Alwars as our authorities and Ramanujacharya as our acharya, because they have the same opinion as expressed by Narottama Das Thakur, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswathi Thakur, Srila Prabhupada… King Kulasekara, Godadevi say Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead. In Spite of all the evidence, people who say that Narayana is the supreme God, are dogmatic. They reject the statement of Brahma, Bhishma, They reject the statement of Krsna Himself. Unless we get clarity on this, we cannot overcome our weak faith.