KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.9.35 – Part 5:
- Although the Lord is present in every atom, the Supreme Personality of Godhead may not be visible to the dry speculators; still the mystery is unfolded before the eyes of the pure devotees because their eyes are anointed with love of Godhead.
- And this love of Godhead can be attained only by the practice of transcendental loving service of the Lord, and nothing else. The vision of the devotees is not ordinary; it is purified by the process of devotional service.
- The Lord can award anyone and everyone liberation (mukti) from the bondage of material existence, yet He rarely awards the privilege of love of Godhead, as confirmed by Nārada (muktiṁ dadhāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam).
- Those engaged in getting the Lord’s favor attain liberation from the Lord very easily, but He does not very easily give the opportunity to render direct service unto Him. (SB 5.6.18)
- Directly or indirectly, it is proved that bhakti-yoga is the basis for the supreme relationship with the Supreme Lord. It is far superior to liberation. For a pure devotee of the Lord, mukti is automatically attained.
- This transcendental devotional service of the Lord is so wonderful that the occupation keeps the deserving devotee always rapt in psychological activities, without deviation from the absolute touch.
- As touchstone is rarely found, a pure devotee of the Lord is also rarely to be seen, even amongst millions of liberated souls (koṭiṣv api mahāmune).
- Unless the dirt within the core of one’s heart is cleansed away, one cannot become a pure devotee. Therefore the word su-durlabhaḥ (“very rarely found”) is used in this verse. Not only among hundreds and thousands, but among millions of perfectly liberated souls, a pure devotee is hardly ever found. Therefore the words koṭiṣv api are used herein.
- Śrīla Madhvācārya gives the following quotations from the Tantra Bhāgavata: “There are ninety million demigods and seventy million sages, who are all called nārāyaṇāyana, devotees of Lord Nārāyaṇa. Among them, only a few are called nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa.”
- “The difference between the siddhas and nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇas is that direct devotees are called nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇas whereas those who perform various types of mystic yoga are called siddhas.”
- If one is fortunate enough to have received the knowledge in the transcendental disciplic succession, surely he will have the chance to understand the mystery of the Lord and that of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sound incarnation of the Lord.
- [The Laws of Nature] We cannot be desireless. We cannot be silent. But our desires and our activities can be
purified. That is real knowledge. We should desire only to serve Krsna. That is purification of desire. Instead of trying to be still and silent, we should dovetail our activities in Krsna’s service. As living entities, we have activities, desires, and a loving propensity, but they are being misdirected. If we direct them into Krsna’s service, that is the perfection of education. - [The Laws of Nature] So education is required, but if it is simply materialistic–if it is devoid of Krsna consciousness–it is very, very dangerous. That is the teaching of the Isopanisad.
SB 2.9.35 – 1/19/22
O Brahmā, please know that the universal elements enter into the cosmos and at the same time do not enter into the cosmos; similarly, I Myself also exist within everything created, and at the same time I am outside of everything.
Last 2 paras – extremely imp to understand the goal of life.
Therefore, although He is present in every atom, the Supreme Personality of Godhead may not be visible to the dry speculators; still the mystery is unfolded before the eyes of the pure devotees because their eyes are anointed with love of Godhead. And this love of Godhead can be attained only by the practice of transcendental loving service of the Lord, and nothing else. The vision of the devotees is not ordinary; it is purified by the process of devotional service. In other words, as the universal elements are both within and without, similarly the Lord’s name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage, etc., as they are described in the revealed scriptures or as performed in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, far, far beyond the material cosmic manifestation, are factually being televised in the heart of the devotee. The man with a poor fund of knowledge cannot understand, although by material science one can see things far away by means of television. Factually, the spiritually developed person is able to have the television of the kingdom of God always reflected within his heart. That is the mystery of knowledge of the Personality of Godhead.
The Lord can award anyone and everyone liberation (mukti) from the bondage of material existence, yet He rarely awards the privilege of love of Godhead, as confirmed by Nārada (muktiṁ dadhāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam).
SB 5.6.18
rājan patir gurur alaṁ bhavatāṁ yadūnāṁ
daivaṁ priyaḥ kula-patiḥ kva ca kiṅkaro vaḥ
astv evam aṅga bhagavān bhajatāṁ mukundo
muktiṁ dadāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam
Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, the Supreme Person, Mukunda, is actually the maintainer of all the members of the Pāṇḍava and Yadu dynasties. He is your spiritual master, worshipable Deity, friend, and the director of your activities. To say nothing of this, He sometimes serves your family as a messenger or servant. This means He worked just as ordinary servants do. Those engaged in getting the Lord’s favor attain liberation from the Lord very easily, but He does not very easily give the opportunity to render direct service unto Him.
Someone may be a liberated soul, but they still might not have received the highest perfection of life.
If one becomes void of all material desires.. Then they not only are liberated but they do they are given the opportunity to serve the lord..
While instructing Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī thought it wise to encourage the King because the King might be thinking of the glorious position of various royal dynasties. Especially glorious is the dynasty of Priyavrata, in which the Supreme Lord Ṛṣabhadeva incarnated. Similarly, the family of Uttānapāda Mahārāja, the father of Mahārāja Dhruva, is also glorious due to King Pṛthu’s taking birth in it. The dynasty of Mahārāja Raghu is glorified because Lord Rāmacandra appeared in that family. As far as the Yadu and Kuru dynasties are concerned, they existed simultaneously, but of the two, the Yadu dynasty was more glorious due to the appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Mahārāja Parīkṣit might have been thinking that the Kuru dynasty was not as fortunate as the others because the Supreme Lord did not appear in that family, neither as Kṛṣṇa, Lord Rāmacandra, Lord Ṛṣabhadeva or Mahārāja Pṛthu. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja was encouraged by Śukadeva Gosvāmī in this particular verse.
The Kuru dynasty may be considered more glorious due to the presence of devotees like the five Pāṇḍavas, who rendered unalloyed devotional service. Although Lord Kṛṣṇa did not appear in the Kuru dynasty, He was so obligated to the Pāṇḍavas’ devotional service that He acted as a maintainer of the family and spiritual master of the Pāṇḍavas. Although He took birth in the Yadu dynasty, Lord Kṛṣṇa was more affectionate to the Pāṇḍavas. By His actions, Lord Kṛṣṇa proved that He was more inclined to the Kuru dynasty than the Yadu dynasty. Indeed, Lord Kṛṣṇa, indebted to the Pāṇḍavas’ devotional service, sometimes acted as their messenger, and He guided them through many dangerous situations. Therefore Mahārāja Parīkṣit should not have been saddened because Lord Kṛṣṇa did not appear in his family. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always inclined toward His pure devotees, and by His action it is clear that liberation is not very important for the devotees. Lord Kṛṣṇa easily gives one liberation, but He does not so easily give one the facility to become a devotee. Muktiṁ dadāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam. Directly or indirectly, it is proved that bhakti-yoga is the basis for the supreme relationship with the Supreme Lord. It is far superior to liberation. For a pure devotee of the Lord, mukti is automatically attained.
Confidential – it is not kept secret, but it is very hard to understand this. As long as one has even one material desire one cannot even understand this.
There are millions and billions of jivas.. Billions of universes, vaikuntas,, in that gigantic number .. But only few get an opportunity to render direct service to the Lord… in Goloka..
This transcendental devotional service of the Lord is so wonderful that the occupation keeps the deserving devotee always rapt in psychological activities, without deviation from the absolute touch.
That means what is going on in the mind. That means no material desires..
Thus love of Godhead, developed in the heart of the devotee, is a great mystery. Brahmājī previously told Nārada that the desires of Brahmājī are never unfulfilled because he is always absorbed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord; nor has he any desire in his heart save and except the transcendental service of the Lord.
When one purifies the mind, purges the mind of all the material desires and fantasies and replaces that only with desires to please Krsna and actually engaging in unalloyed devotion only with the intention to please Krsna and Guru, at that time the spiritual television turns on.
That is the beauty and mystery of the process of bhakti-yoga. As the Lord’s desire is infallible because He is acyuta, similarly the desires of the devotees in the transcendental service of the Lord are also acyuta, infallible.
Increasing the chanting, hearing, prasadam distribution… only for pleasing Krsna and Guru.. all the desires of the devotee will become true there is no self interest.. There is only selfless service..
This is very difficult, however, for the layman to understand without knowledge of the mystery of devotional service, as it is very difficult to know the potency of touchstone. As touchstone is rarely found, a pure devotee of the Lord is also rarely to be seen, even amongst millions of liberated souls (koṭiṣv api mahāmune).
A devotee like Srila Prabhupada is very rare.. He did it and he left it to his disciples to continue not being attached to it.. He went back to Krsna engaging in transcendental pastimes of the lord, with pure devotees desires to please Krsna and his guru.
SB 6.14.5:
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives the following purport to this verse. Simply desiring mukti, or liberation, is insufficient; one must become factually liberated. When one understands the futility of the materialistic way of life, one becomes advanced in knowledge, and therefore he situates himself in the vānaprastha order, unattached to family, wife and children. One should then further progress to the platform of sannyāsa, the actual renounced order, never to fall again and be afflicted by materialistic life. Even though one desires to be liberated, this does not mean he is liberated. Only rarely is someone liberated. Indeed, although many men take sannyāsa to become liberated, because of their imperfections they again become attached to women, material activities, social welfare work and so on.
Jñānīs, yogīs and karmīs devoid of devotional service are called offenders. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī: one who thinks that everything is māyā instead of thinking that everything is Kṛṣṇa is called an aparādhī, or offender. Although the Māyāvādīs, impersonalists, are offenders at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, they may nonetheless be counted among the siddhas, those who have realized the self. They may be considered nearer to spiritual perfection because at least they have realized what spiritual life is. If such a person becomes nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa, a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, he is better than a jīvan-mukta, one who is liberated or perfect. This requires higher intelligence.
There are two kinds of jñānīs. One is inclined to devotional service and the other to impersonal realization. Impersonalists generally undergo great endeavor for no tangible benefit, and therefore it is said that they are husking paddy that has no grain (sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinaḥ). The other class of jñānīs, whose jñāna is mixed with bhakti, are also of two kinds — those who are devoted to the so-called false form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and those who understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead as sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, the actual spiritual form. The Māyāvādī devotees worship Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu with the idea that Viṣṇu has accepted a form of māyā and that the ultimate truth is actually impersonal. The pure devotee, however, never thinks that Viṣṇu has accepted a body of māyā; instead, he knows perfectly well that the original Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. Such a devotee is actually situated in knowledge. He never merges in the Brahman effulgence:
As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32):
ye ’nye ’ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
“O Lord, the intelligence of those who think themselves liberated but who have no devotion is impure. Even though they rise to the highest point of liberation by dint of severe penances and austerities, they are sure to fall down again into material existence, for they do not take shelter at Your lotus feet.” Evidence of this same point is also given in Bhagavad-gītā (9.11), wherein the Lord says:
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram
“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.” When rascals (mūḍhas) see that Kṛṣṇa acts exactly like a human being, they deride the transcendental form of the Lord because they do not know the paraṁ bhāvam, His transcendental form and activities. Such persons are further described in Bhagavad-gītā (9.12) as follows:
moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo
mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ
rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva
prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ
“Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demoniac and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.” Such persons do not know that Kṛṣṇa’s body is not material. There is no distinction between Kṛṣṇa’s body and His soul, but because less intelligent men see Kṛṣṇa as a human being, they deride Him. They cannot imagine how a person like Kṛṣṇa could be the origin of everything (govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi). Such persons are described as moghāśāḥ, baffled in their hopes. Whatever they desire for the future will be baffled. Even if they apparently engage in devotional service, they are described as moghāśāḥ because they ultimately desire to merge into the Brahman effulgence.
Those who aspire to be elevated to the heavenly planets by devotional service will also be frustrated, because this is not the result of devotional service. However, they are also given a chance to engage in devotional service and be purified. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.17):
śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi
vidhunoti suhṛt satām
“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”
Unless the dirt within the core of one’s heart is cleansed away, one cannot become a pure devotee. Therefore the word su-durlabhaḥ (“very rarely found”) is used in this verse. Not only among hundreds and thousands, but among millions of perfectly liberated souls, a pure devotee is hardly ever found. Therefore the words koṭiṣv api are used herein. Śrīla Madhvācārya gives the following quotations from the Tantra Bhāgavata:
nava-koṭyas tu devānām
ṛṣayaḥ sapta-koṭayaḥ
nārāyaṇāyanāḥ sarve
ye kecit tat-parāyaṇāḥ
“There are ninety million demigods and seventy million sages, who are all called nārāyaṇāyana, devotees of Lord Nārāyaṇa. Among them, only a few are called nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa.”
nārāyaṇāyanā devā
ṛṣy-ādyās tat-parāyaṇāḥ
brahmādyāḥ kecanaiva syuḥ
siddho yogya-sukhaṁ labhan
The difference between the siddhas and nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇas is that direct devotees are called nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇas whereas those who perform various types of mystic yoga are called siddhas.
Out of all kinds of perfections attained by the process of knowledge, yoga perfection in devotional service is the highest of all and the most mysterious also, even more mysterious than the eight kinds of mystic perfection attained by the process of yogic performances. In the Bhagavad-gītā (18.64) the Lord therefore advised Arjuna about this bhakti-yoga:
sarva-guhyatamaṁ bhūyaḥ
śṛṇu me paramaṁ vacaḥ
“Just hear from Me again about the most confidential part of the instructions in Bhagavad-gītā.” The same was confirmed by Brahmājī to Nārada in the following words:
idaṁ bhāgavataṁ nāma
yan me bhagavatoditam
saṅgraho ’yaṁ vibhūtīnāṁ
tvam etad vipulīkuru
Brahmājī said to Nārada, “Whatever I have spoken to you about the Bhāgavatam was explained to me by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and I am advising you to expand these topics nicely so that people may easily understand the mysterious bhakti-yoga by transcendental loving service to the Lord.”
When there is transcendental service of the lord, there is no vacation. Nithyam bhagavata sevaya.. They never want to be separated from devotional service..
It is to be noted here that the mystery of bhakti-yoga was disclosed to Brahmājī by the Lord Himself. Brahmājī explained the same mystery to Nārada, Nārada explained it to Vyāsa, Vyāsa explained it to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and that same knowledge is coming down in the unalloyed chain of disciplic succession. If one is fortunate enough to have received the knowledge in the transcendental disciplic succession, surely he will have the chance to understand the mystery of the Lord and that of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sound incarnation of the Lord.
Brahmaji was given the eyes by the lord to see Krsna.. To see the kingdom of the God. …
ISO 9
andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti
ye ’vidyām upāsate
tato bhūya iva te tamo
ya u vidyāyāḿ ratāḥ
Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
Alternate translation of this verse is in The Laws of Nature Compilation – (http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/e-books/Laws_of_Nature.pdf)
The Isopanisad states, “Those who are engaged in the culture of nescience
shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. ” There are two kinds of
education, material and spiritual. Material education is called jada-vidya. Jada
means “that which cannot move,” or matter. Spirit can move. Our body is a
combination of spirit and matter. As long as the spirit is there, the body is
moving. For example, a man’s coat and pants move as long as the man wears them.
It appears that the coat and pants are moving on their own, but actually it is
the body that is moving them. Similarly, this body is moving because the spirit
soul is moving it. Another example is the motorcar. The motorcar is moving
because the driver is moving it. Only a fool thinks the motorcar is moving on
its own. In spite of a wonderful mechanical arrangement, the motorcar cannot
move on its own.
Since they are given only jada-vidya, a materialistic education, people think
that this material nature is working, moving, and manifesting so many wonderful
things automatically. When we are at the seaside, we see the waves moving. But
the waves are not moving automatically. The air is moving them. And something
else is moving the air. In this way, if you go all the way back to the ultimate
cause, you will find Krsna, the cause of all causes. That is real education, to
search out the ultimate cause.
So the Isopanisad says that those who are captivated by the external
movements of the material energy are worshiping nescience. In the modern
civilization there are big, big institutions for understanding technology, how a
motorcar or an airplane moves. They are studying how to manufacture so much
machinery. But there is no educational institution for investigating how the
spirit soul is moving. The actual mover is not being studied. Instead they are
studying the external movements of matter.
When I lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I asked the
students, “Where is the technology to study the soul, the mover of the body?”
They had no such technology. They could not answer satisfactorily because their
education was simply jada-vidya. The Isopanisad says that those who engage in
the advancement of such materialistic education will go to the darkest region of
existence. Therefore the present civilization is in a very dangerous position
because there is no arrangement anywhere in the world for genuine spiritual
education. In this way human society is being pushed to the darkest region of
Existence.
In a song, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has declared that materialistic
education is simply an expansion of maya. The more we advance in this
materialistic education, the more our ability to understand God will be
hampered. And at last we will declare, “God is dead.” This is all ignorance and
darkness.
So, the materialists are certainly being pushed into darkness. But there is
another class–the so-called philosophers, mental speculators, religionists, and
yogis–who are going into still greater darkness because they are defying Krsna.
They are pretending to cultivate spiritual knowledge, but because they have no
information of Krsna, or God, their teachings are even more dangerous than those
of the outright materialists. Why? Because they are misleading people into
thinking they are giving real spiritual knowledge. The so-called yoga system
they are teaching is misleading people: “Simply meditate, and you will
understand that you are God.” Krsna never meditated to become God. He was God from His very birth. When He was a three-month-old baby, the Putana demon
attacked Him–and Krsna sucked out her life air along with her breast milk. So
Krsna was God from the very beginning. That is God.
The nonsense so-called yogis teach, “You become still and silent, and you
will become God.” How can I become silent? Is there any possibility of becoming
silent? No, there is no such possibility. “Become desireless and you will become
God.” How can I become desireless? These are all bluffs. We cannot be
desireless. We cannot be silent. But our desires and our activities can be
purified. That is real knowledge. We should desire only to serve Krsna. That is
purification of desire. Instead of trying to be still and silent, we should
dovetail our activities in Krsna’s service. As living entities, we have
activities, desires, and a loving propensity, but they are being misdirected. If
we direct them into Krsna’s service, that is the perfection of education.
We don’t say that you should not become advanced in material education. You
may, but at the same time you should become Krsna conscious. That is our
message. We don’t say that you shouldn’t manufacture motorcars. No. We say, “All right, you have manufactured these motorcars. Now employ them in Krsna’s
service.” That is our proposal.
So education is required, but if it is simply materialistic–if it is devoid
of Krsna consciousness–it is very, very dangerous. That is the teaching of the Isopanisad.
ISO 9 Purport
This mantra offers a comparative study of vidyā and avidyā. Avidyā, or ignorance, is undoubtedly dangerous, but vidyā, or knowledge, is even more dangerous when mistaken or misguided. This mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad is more applicable today than at any time in the past. Modern civilization has advanced considerably in the field of mass education, but the result is that people are more unhappy than ever before because of the stress placed on material advancement to the exclusion of the most important part of life, the spiritual aspect.
As far as vidyā is concerned, the first mantra has explained very clearly that the Supreme Lord is the proprietor of everything and that forgetfulness of this fact is ignorance. The more a man forgets this fact of life, the more he is in darkness. In view of this, a godless civilization directed toward the so-called advancement of education is more dangerous than a civilization in which the masses of people are less “educated.”
Of the different classes of men – karmīs, jñānīs and yogīs – the karmīs are those who are engaged in the activities of sense gratification. In the modern civilization, 99.9 percent of the people are engaged in the activities of sense gratification under the flags of industrialism, economic development, altruism, political activism, and so on. All these activities are more or less based on satisfaction of the senses, to the exclusion of the kind of God consciousness described in the first mantra.
In the language of the Bhagavad-gītā (7.15), people who are engaged in gross sense gratification are mūḍhas – asses. The ass is a symbol of stupidity. Those who simply engage in the profitless pursuit of sense gratification are worshiping avidyā, according to Śrī Īśopaniṣad. And those who play the role of helping this sort of civilization in the name of educational advancement are actually doing more harm than those who are on the platform of gross sense gratification. The advancement of learning by a godless people is as dangerous as a valuable jewel on the hood of a cobra. A cobra decorated with a valuable jewel is more dangerous than one not decorated. In the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya (3.11.12), the advancement of education by a godless people is compared to decorations on a dead body. In India, as in many other countries, some people follow the custom of leading a procession with a decorated dead body for the pleasure of the lamenting relatives. In the same way, modern civilization is a patchwork of activities meant to cover the perpetual miseries of material existence. All such activities are aimed toward sense gratification. But above the senses is the mind, and above the mind is the intelligence, and above the intelligence is the soul. Thus the aim of real education should be self-realization, realization of the spiritual values of the soul. Any education which does not lead to such realization must be considered avidyā, or nescience. And to culture such nescience means to go down to the darkest region of ignorance.
According to the Bhagavad-gītā (2.42, 7.15), mistaken mundane educators are known as veda-vāda-rata and māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. They may also be atheistic demons, the lowest of men. Those who are veda-vāda-rata pose themselves as very learned in the Vedic literature, but unfortunately they are completely diverted from the purpose of the Vedas. In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) it is said that the purpose of the Vedas is to know the Personality of Godhead, but these veda-vāda-rata men are not at all interested in the Personality of Godhead. On the contrary, they are fascinated by such fruitive results as the attainment of heaven.