KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.7.16 – part2
- A pure devotee who is engaged in unalloyed devotional service should be understood to be situated on the transcendental platform (sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate).
- The material body certainly consists only of material elements, but when one awakens to Kṛṣṇa conscious understanding, the body is no longer material but spiritual.
- The material body is meant for sense enjoyment, whereas the spiritual body engages in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore, a devotee who engages in the service of the Supreme Lord and who constantly thinks of Him should never be considered to have a material body.
- “Let us therefore offer our obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whose mercy so-called material things also become spiritual when they are engaged in spiritual activity.”
- BG 14.26 – One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
- SB 8.3.3 – The Supreme Godhead is the supreme platform on which everything rests, the ingredient by which everything has been produced, and the person who has created and is the only cause of this cosmic manifestation. Nonetheless, He is different from the cause and the result. I surrender unto Him, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is self-sufficient in everything.
- BG 9.4 – By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.
- Many people cannot understand the inconceivable power of the lord. They refuse to accept the lord.
- BG 7.28 – Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.
- Hence the secret of preaching is to engage people in devotional service which purifies them and brings them to the platform of understanding the knowledge of Krsna.
- BG 7.26 – O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.
- BG 7.25 – I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.
SB 2.7.16 – Part 2
The Personality of Godhead, after hearing the elephant’s plea, felt that the elephant needed His immediate help, for he was in great distress. Thus at once the Lord appeared there on the wings of the king of birds, Garuḍa, fully equipped with His weapon, the wheel [cakra]. With the wheel He cut to pieces the mouth of the crocodile to save the elephant, and He delivered the elephant by lifting him by his trunk.
The lord has unlimited unfathomable powers. The person who does not accept it has no hope to get out of this world.. The lord can hear from that distance and immediately come and save the devotee who is in danger.. Lord blesses one who chants Hare Krsna Mantra,
Narasimha mantra, Brahma Samhita,,, so that even if one loses the human body and gets the animal body they can remember the mantras.. This is all incredulous.. Today we are going to discuss further..
SB 8.3.1
It is imperative, therefore, that all devotees in Kṛṣṇa consciousness practice chanting some mantra. Certainly one should chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, which is the mahā-mantra, or great mantra, and also one should practice chanting cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu or the Nṛsiṁha strotra (ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ).
Every devotee should practice in order to chant some mantra perfectly so that even though he may be imperfect in spiritual consciousness in this life, in his next life he will not forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if he becomes an animal.
SB 8.3.2
The material body certainly consists only of material elements, but when one awakens to Kṛṣṇa conscious understanding, the body is no longer material but spiritual. The material body is meant for sense enjoyment, whereas the spiritual body engages in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore, a devotee who engages in the service of the Supreme Lord and who constantly thinks of Him should never be considered to have a material body. It is therefore enjoined, guruṣu nara-matiḥ: one should stop thinking of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being with a material body. Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīḥ: everyone knows that the Deity in the temple is made of stone, but to think that the Deity is merely stone is an offense. Similarly, to think that the body of the spiritual master consists of material ingredients is offensive. Atheists think that devotees foolishly worship a stone statue as God and an ordinary man as the guru. The fact is, however, that by the grace of Kṛṣṇa’s omnipotence, the so-called stone statue of the Deity is directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the body of the spiritual master is directly spiritual. A pure devotee who is engaged in unalloyed devotional service should be understood to be situated on the transcendental platform (sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate). V imp verse “Let us therefore offer our obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whose mercy so-called material things also become spiritual when they are engaged in spiritual activity.” –
All this confirms that the Lord has the power to transform matter to spirit and spirit to matter. Nobody has that power but Krsna and also 14th chapter…
(sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate)
BG 14.26
One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
BG 17.23
oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo
brahmaṇas tri-vidhaḥ smṛtaḥ
brāhmaṇās tena vedāś ca
yajñāś ca vihitāḥ purā
From the beginning of creation, the three words oṁ tat sat were used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth. These three symbolic representations were used by brāhmaṇas while chanting the hymns of the Vedas and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of the Supreme.
Oṁkāra (praṇava) is the symbolic sound representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmaṇas tri-vidhaḥ smṛtaḥ: the three words oṁ tat sat immediately invoke the Supreme Person. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that He is oṁkāra in all the Vedic mantras (praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu). The Vedic mantras are pronounced beginning with oṁkāra to indicate immediately the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, for example, begins with the words oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. There is no difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, and oṁkāra (praṇava). We should be careful to understand that oṁkāra does not indicate anything nirākāra, or formless. Indeed, this verse immediately says, oṁ namo bhagavate. Bhagavān is a person. Thus oṁkāra is the representation of the Supreme Person. Oṁkāra is not meant to be impersonal, as the Māyāvādī philosophers consider it to be. This is distinctly expressed here by the word puruṣāya. The supreme truth addressed by oṁkāra is puruṣa, the Supreme Person; He is not impersonal. Unless He is a person, how can He control the great, stalwart controllers of this universe? Lord Viṣṇu, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are the supreme controllers of this universe, but Lord Viṣṇu is offered obeisances even by Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā. Therefore this verse uses the word pareśāya, which indicates that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped by exalted demigods. Pareśāya means parameśvara. Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are īśvaras, great controllers, but Lord Viṣṇu is parameśvara, the supreme controller.
SB 8.3.3
The Supreme Godhead is the supreme platform on which everything rests, the ingredient by which everything has been produced, and the person who has created and is the only cause of this cosmic manifestation. Nonetheless, He is different from the cause and the result. I surrender unto Him, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is self-sufficient in everything.
If you want to understand the absolutely unique and inconceivable position of Krsna, he is something that no one else can emulate. Even Lord Shiva and Brahma cannot, Not to belittle them, they are the greatest persons in the universe. The profundity of the verse BG 9.4 is explained in SB 8.3.3
The verse translation itself is just a few 21 words – but it has gigantic and oceanic meaning to it.
BG 9.4
By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.
This is what differentiates the Mayavadis from the devotees.. Separates the men from the boys. This says that Krsna is the cause and the effect. He is the seer and the witness. Besides being everything he is not affected. Shiva and Brahma get affected, but He is never.. He is the maintainer, yet he is independent and is enjoying the past times in the Spiritual world. He is present everywhere and everything and yet He is independent. It is beyond people’s understanding. But devotees can understand the Lord.
To become a preacher you need to understand the limitations of understandings of the people. One needs to be purified before one can understand the Knowledge of krsna.
“Yesam dvanda gatam papam…. “
BG 7.28 – Only such people can understand Krsna. It is a very big qualification..
yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.
BG 7.26
vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana
O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.
BG 7.25
I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.
How can you preach to people – that is impossible to understand. They can only understand if they are purified. This is the secret of preaching to people. The secret is to How to engage people in devotional service? How to get them regularly to come and associate with rightfully situated devotees. Thst is the secret of how to turn a person who cannot understand anything about Krsna into a devotee who can understand.. That is why it is important when people come to temple it is very important to engage them in the service and that is the beginning of their spiritual life..
EXAMPLE: Story – Stewardess in an aeroplane.. SP was in the plane with 2-3 disciples.. SP was eating puffed rice, he gave the leftovers to Sruta Kirti disciple and others. A Stewardess came and looked at devotees eating the remnants of SP. She put her hand on the plate of devotees and just ate it.. This tastes very good, what was it.. She was attracted to SP prasad, grabbed and ate it..
After 1o years one devotee is doing Harinam Sankirtan in a very remote small village in Brazil. He knocks on the door of a house, and the lady opens the door.. He was not expecting people to be receptive.. As soon as she opens the door.. Thelady smiles,, she invites him into the house.. Pictures of Krsna and altar.. From that point on purchased some books and becomes a devotee.. This was amazing.. How a person like that met SP ate prasadam and became devotee. The power he had in purifying people is unimaginable.. They can do things that normal people can never. He spread the whole moment by himself..
BG 9.4
Sarvam Klav idam Brahman
He is omniscient
He is seer and witness
He is the cause and effect
Everything is situated in Him
He is present everywhere in two ways.. Brahman and Paramatma
SB 7.3.33 – Bhagavān, pervades all by His material cosmic manifestation, the spiritual Brahman effulgence, and His personal existence as the Supreme Lord.
SB 1.16.26
On the assertion of the Vedic aphorism sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma, we can understand that the Lord, by the omnipresent rays of His effulgence, called brahmajyoti, is all-pervading inside or outside of everything, like the omnipresent material sky, and thus He is also omniscient.
SB 8.3.17
Lord is not only within the universe but also within the atoms. Thus within every atom the Supreme Lord exists in His Viṣṇu feature as Paramātmā, but all the viṣṇu-tattvas emanate from Kṛṣṇa.
CC ADI 5.88
Yogam Aiswaryam
BG 9.5
And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.
BG 9.4 & BG 9.5 – was vastly explained in SB. which proves the acintya powers of the lord. The lord is simultaneously inconceivably one and different. The devotee accepts the inconceivable powers of the lord. You will run into people who refuse to accept this due to their sins. But when you engage them in DS.. they get purified.. If you tell them they are getting purified they will reject.. Therefore we are undercover agents.. Just like food truck we are engaging people in agnata sukruti..
Krsna is everything and everything is not Krsna.. Krsna is inconceivably great. Everything in this world is finite.. If you become a devotee you can share qualities of Krsna.. Eternity, knowledge, bliss.. To some extent..