KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.26- 29
- The whole process of creation is an act of gradual evolution and development from one element to another, reaching up to the variegatedness of the earth as so many trees, plants, mountains, rivers, reptiles, birds, animals and varieties of human beings.
- The quality of sense perception is also evolutionary, namely generated from sound, then touch, and from touch to form.
- Taste and odor are also generated along with the gradual development of sky, air, fire, water and earth.
- They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-Viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva.
- The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent.
- In the sky there is sound only, in the air there are sound and touch. In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape.
- In the earth, however, there are all the above-mentioned qualities with an extra development of odor also. Therefore on the earth there is a full display of variegatedness of life, which originally started with the basic principle of air.
- Diseases of the body take place due to derangement of air within the earthly body of the living beings.
- Mental diseases result from special derangement of the air within the body, and, as such, yogic exercise is especially beneficial to keep the air in order so that diseases of the body become almost nil by such exercises. When they are properly done the duration of life also increases, and one can have control over death also by such practices.
- A perfect yogī can have command over death and quit the body at the right moment, when he is competent to transfer himself to a suitable planet.
- The bhakti-yogī, however, surpasses all the yogīs because, by dint of his devotional service, he is promoted to the region beyond the material sky and is placed in one of the planets in the spiritual sky by the supreme will of the Lord, the controller of everything.
- Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is recognized Vedic wisdom,and the system of receiving Vedic knowledge is called avaroha-panthā, or the process of receiving transcendental knowledge through bona fide disciplic succession.
- For advancement of material knowledge there is a need for personal ability and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master.
- The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science.
- The process should not be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current.
- The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude.
- This unflinching faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa prepares one to become a student of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and one who hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is sure to attain salvation at the end, as Mahārāja Parīkṣit did.
- Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as the Mahāpuruṣa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Canto Eleven) in His devotional feature as Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
- Caitanya Mahāprabhu was always visibly going here and there, searching after the fallen conditioned souls. Caitanya Mahāprabhu would sometimes embrace the conditioned souls on the pretext of religious friendship or ecstasy. But actually, the Lord was touching the bodies of the conditioned souls to pull them out of the ocean of material existence and hurl them into the ocean of ecstatic love of Godhead.
- Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the most merciful and munificent incarnation of the Lord, whose mercy surpassed the bounds of mundane discrimination in the matter of caste, color and creed.
SB 2.5.26 -29 TRANSLATION: Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by previous succession the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of duration of life: sense perception, mental power and bodily strength. When the air is transformed in course of time and nature’s course, fire is generated, taking shape with the sense of touch and sound. Since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. As previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound. And water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorous and, as previously, becomes qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound and form respectively.
The whole process of creation is an act of gradual evolution and development from one element to another, reaching up to the variegatedness of the earth as so many trees, plants, mountains, rivers, reptiles, birds, animals and varieties of human beings. The quality of sense perception is also evolutionary, namely generated from sound, then touch, and from touch to form. Taste and odor are also generated along with the gradual development of sky, air, fire, water and earth. They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-Viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva. As such, Lord Kṛṣṇa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the cause of all causes, and this is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) as follows:
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent.
In the sky there is sound only,
in the air there are sound and touch.
In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and
in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape.
In the earth, however, there are all the above-mentioned qualities with an extra development of odor also. Therefore on the earth there is a full display of variegatedness of life, which originally started with the basic principle of air.
Diseases of the body take place due to derangement of air within the earthly body of the living beings. Mental diseases result from special derangement of the air within the body, and, as such, yogic exercise is especially beneficial to keep the air in order so that diseases of the body become almost nil by such exercises. When they are properly done the duration of life also increases, and one can have control over death also by such practices. A perfect yogī can have command over death and quit the body at the right moment, when he is competent to transfer himself to a suitable planet. The bhakti-yogī, however, surpasses all the yogīs because, by dint of his devotional service, he is promoted to the region beyond the material sky and is placed in one of the planets in the spiritual sky by the supreme will of the Lord, the controller of everything.
It goes from subtle to gross. Human body is very precarious and it can end at any moment. It can form a blood clot because the oxygen does not go to that part of the body. The circulation of air in the body is extremely important for maintaining health. Oxygen is the number one need of the body.
Whenever there is swelling.. When you eat too much there is swelling – intestines swell – pass air, burp…Oxygen does not go through the bloodstream, you have stroke.
Yogis maintain the oxygen circulation in their body – Healthy,
Overeating, constipation – causes distress. Most diseases are caused due to intestinal problems.
Bhakti yoga surpasses all the yogas.. This is also explained in SB 2.1.10
SB 2.1.10
That very Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam I shall recite before you because you are the most sincere devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. One who gives full attention and respect to hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam achieves unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord, the giver of salvation.
Hearing and repeating is the basis of Bhakti Yoga.. Hearing and recitation.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is recognized Vedic wisdom,[realized knowledge] and the system of receiving Vedic knowledge is called avaroha-panthā [descending process], or the process of receiving transcendental knowledge through bona fide disciplic succession. For advancement of material knowledge there is a need for personal ability and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master.
BG 10.10
To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science.
Example is Dhruva Maharaj. Very determined to surpass father. Mom tells only Krsna can help you. He leaves the home and goes to forest.
The process should not, however, be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current. [Ramakrishna & Vivekananda] The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude. The idea is that both the spiritual master and the disciple must be bona fide. In this case, the spiritual master, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is ready to recite exactly what he has learned from his great father Śrīla Vyāsadeva, and the disciple, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, is a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is he who believes sincerely that by becoming a devotee of the Lord one becomes fully equipped with everything spiritual. This teaching is imparted by the Lord Himself in the pages of the Bhagavad-gītā, in which it is clearly described that the Lord (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) is everything, and that to surrender unto Him solely and wholly makes one the most perfectly pious man. [Bahunaam Janma Namante…. ] This unflinching faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa prepares one to become a student of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and one who hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is sure to attain salvation at the end, as Mahārāja Parīkṣit did.
The professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the pseudodevotees whose faith is based on one week’s hearing are different from Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Śrīla Vyāsadeva explained Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam unto Śukadeva Gosvāmī from the very beginning of the janmādy asya verse, and so Śukadeva Gosvāmī also explained it to the King. Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as the Mahāpuruṣa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Canto Eleven) in His devotional feature as Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in His devotional attitude, descended to the earth to bestow special favors upon the fallen souls of this Age of Kali. There are two verses particularly suitable to offer as prayers to this Mahāpuruṣa feature of Lord Kṛṣṇa:
[Prayers for the glorification of Caitanya MahaPrabhu]
dhyeyaṁ sadā paribhava-ghnam abhīṣṭa-dohaṁ
tīrthāspadaṁ śiva-viriñci-nutaṁ śaraṇyam
bhṛtyārti-haṁ praṇata-pāla bhavābdhi-potaṁ
vande mahāpuruṣa te caraṇāravindam
tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīṁ
dharmiṣṭha ārya-vacasā yad agād araṇyam
māyā-mṛgaṁ dayitayepsitam anvadhāvad
vande mahāpuruṣa te caraṇāravindam
Caitanya Mahāprabhu lived for twenty-four years in Navadvīpa as a householder and enjoyed immense popularity among both scholars and ordinary persons. His saṅkīrtana movement was completely supported by the local government, even though it was Muslim. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu had the pleasure of marrying the goddess of fortune. No ordinary woman of the material world, no matter how gorgeous she may be, can in any way compare with the beautiful goddess of fortune.
However, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa appearing as a brāhmaṇa, and therefore He is certainly dharmiṣṭhaḥ, or the most religious. Actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always dharmiṣṭhaḥ, whether He appears as a cowherd boy, a great king or a brāhmaṇa, because the Lord Himself is the original source and personification of all religious principles.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained the word māyā-mṛgam as follows. Māyā means one’s so-called wife, children and bank account, which keep one firmly bound up in the material bodily concept of life. The word mṛgam indicates mṛgyati, or “to search out.” Thus, māyā-mṛgam indicates the conditioned living entity, who is always frantically searching for the latest up-to-the-minute sense gratification in the material bodily concept of society, friendship and love. Anvadhāvat indicates that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was always visibly going here and there, searching after the fallen conditioned souls. Caitanya Mahāprabhu would sometimes embrace the conditioned souls on the pretext of religious friendship or ecstasy. But actually, the Lord was touching the bodies of the conditioned souls to pull them out of the ocean of material existence and hurl them into the ocean of ecstatic love of Godhead. Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the most merciful and munificent incarnation of the Lord, whose mercy surpassed the bounds of mundane discrimination in the matter of caste, color and creed.
SB 2.1.11
O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.
The position of pure devotee is absolutely unique and cannot be compared to anything….