KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.1.30
- Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras’. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.
- We must accept the description of the śāstras and concentrate more on the form of the virāṭ-rūpa than on common sense.
- All material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature. They are meant for fruitive results, which cause bondage in the material world.
- All the living entities who are in the material world are struggling very hard for existence. For them the Lord, after creation of the material world, gave the Vedic wisdom advising how to live and get rid of the material entanglement. The Upaniṣhads mark the beginning of transcendental life.
- By tolerating dualities one can becomes free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness when one is fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa.
- As long as one is in material, conditioned life, strict discipline is required in the matter of moral and immoral activities.
There are no sexual activities in the spiritual world. The transactions between lover and beloved in the spiritual world are pure transcendental love and unadulterated bliss. - The activities of the sahajiyās simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind.
- Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādṛśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa.
- But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvāmīs.
- Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, in his prayers to the Gosvāmīs, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs: “When I shall be eager to understand the literature given by the Gosvāmīs, then I shall be able to understand the transcendental love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”
- Unless one is trained under the disciplic succession of the Gosvāmīs, one cannot understand Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.
- Neophytes will be able to understand these affairs only after being elevated by regulated devotional service under the expert guidance of the spiritual master. Then they will be competent to hear of the love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.
- The conditioned souls are naturally averse to understanding the spiritual existence of the Lord, and if they try to know the transcendental nature of the Lord’s pastimes being absorbed in materialism, they are sure to blunder like the sahajiyās.
- By understanding the conjugal love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman.
- One who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection.
- If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers.
- If one is attracted by servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, one will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future.
- One who sees the greatness of Kṛṣṇa in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy.
- If one is not attracted by the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, one is sure to be attracted to material enjoyment, and becomes implicated in the clinging network of virtuous and sinful activities and continues material existence by transmigrating from one material body to another.
- Only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can one achieve the highest perfection of life.
SB 2.1.30 TRANSLATION
The sphere of outer space constitutes His eye pits, and the eyeball is the sun as the power of seeing. His eyelids are both the day and night, and in the movements of His eyebrows, Brahmā and similar supreme personalities reside. His palate is the director of water, Varuṇa, and the juice or essence of everything is His tongue.
CLASS NOTES:
(SB 2.1.30) Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete.
To common sense the description in this verse appears to be somewhat contradictory because sometimes the sun has been described as the eyeball and sometimes as the outer space sphere. But there is no room for common sense in the injunctions of the śāstras. We must accept the description of the śāstras and concentrate more on the form of the virāṭ-rūpa than on common sense. Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras’. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.
If something seems contradictory it is because we do not have information about it. However there is nothing contradictory in vedas we need to be patient. We need to focus on the virat rupa. Virat rupa is encompassing the past, present, future… obviously we will be having difficulty in understanding the description of the sastras, but the key is to focus on the form of Virat rupa. In schools today they are taught to question everything, they are excluding themselves from the possibility of understanding the Lord.
People question everything because – for them Everything has to be rational, by their own false ego they want to observe everything on theri own and use their speculation to understand things.
Bonafide verses and purports, cannot be rejected by our own imperfect theories.
Mayavadis say Krsna has a material body like us. This misinterpretation is purposefully done so that Krsna can be brought to mundane level. Famous line of reasoning – everything has a cause. So Krsna also has to have a cause. We say Krsna has the cause of all causes. Atheists want to bring God down to the human level – they do it through word jugglery, …
Speculators use broad logic and reasoning. Most of the time it is false logic and reasoning. Yamaraj is perfect Brahmana. Brahmana will not touch stool. If I want to escape I will smear stool on my body, as Yamaraj will not touch me. That is through lame logic and reasoning. Yamraj does not need to touch to take him away. We have avoid these false reasoning and speculation to avoid being misled.
Therefore the premise does not have dimensions. Point has infinite density. All …
Unless one is engaged in devotional service one cannot be guarded against these false theories. One might think devotional service is for less intelligent people. That is not true. Lord Caitanya, the lord Himself in a devotees mood has introduced it.
We can waste our entire life believing things which are not true and deny ourselves the possibility of going back to Godhead.
Our scope time and space module increases exponentially when we hear transcendental subjects.
Most of the time is spent in small rooms. We measure times in seconds, days and years we do not measure in terms of yogas. When we hear about Virat rupa it is almost impossible for them to understand. We are so limited, by time,and space. When we hear about Krsna expanding into catur vyuha.. Narayana… these gigantic manifestations are beyond our manifestation.
What limits us the most – the sense gratification. The reason we came to this world is for sense gratification. Even though we are Das and Dasi we want to be prabhu, masters.
(CC ADI 4.33) MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO BE FIXED IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE TO THE LOTUS FEET OF THE LORD, EVEN THOUGH I MAY CONTINUE TO TAKE BIRTH HERE LIFE AFTER LIFE
King Kulaśekhara has written similarly, in his book Mukunda-mālā-stotra (5):
nāsthā dharme na vasu-nicaye naiva kāmopabhoge
yad bhāvyaṁ tad bhavatu bhagavan pūrva-karmānurūpam
etat prārthyaṁ mama bahu-mataṁ janma-janmāntare ’pi
tvat-pādāmbho-ruha-yuga-gatā niścalā bhaktir astu
“I have no attraction for performing religious rituals or holding any earthly kingdom. I do not care for sense enjoyments; let them appear and disappear in accordance with my previous deeds. My only desire is to be fixed in devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord, even though I may continue to take birth here life after life.” This is the same as nadhanam nasundarim….
(BG 2.45) FREE FROM ALL DUALITIES AND FROM ALL ANXIETIES FOR GAIN AND SAFETY, AND BE ESTABLISHED IN THE SELF.
The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self.
All material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature. They are meant for fruitive results, which cause bondage in the material world.
(BG 2.45) THE VEDAS DEAL MOSTLY WITH FRUITIVE ACTIVITIES TO GRADUALLY ELEVATE THE GENERAL PUBLIC FROM THE FIELD OF SENSE GRATIFICATION TO A POSITION ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL PLANE.
Arjuna, as a student and friend of Lord Kṛṣṇa, is advised to raise himself to the transcendental position of Vedānta philosophy where, in the beginning, there is brahma-jijñāsā, or questions on the supreme transcendence. All the living entities who are in the material world are struggling very hard for existence. For them the Lord, after creation of the material world, gave the Vedic wisdom advising how to live and get rid of the material entanglement.
(BG 2.45) THE UPANIṢADS MARK THE BEGINNING OF TRANSCENDENTAL LIFE.
When the activities for sense gratification, namely the karma-kāṇḍa chapter, are finished, then the chance for spiritual realization is offered in the form of the Upaniṣads, which are part of different Vedas, as the Bhagavad-gītā is a part of the fifth Veda, namely the Mahābhārata.The Upaniṣads mark the beginning of transcendental life.
(BG 2.45) BY TOLERATING DUALITIES ONE CAN BECOME FREE FROM ANXIETIES REGARDING GAIN AND LOSS.
As long as the material body exists, there are actions and reactions in the material modes. One has to learn tolerance in the face of dualities such as happiness and distress, or cold and warmth, and by tolerating such dualities become free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness when one is fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa.
We decided to engage in fruitive activity. There is no limit on how much we want.
fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa. – We have to trust Krsna words and interested in serving the lord.
(CC ADI 4.34)THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SAHAJIYĀS SIMPLY LOWER ONE DEEPER INTO THE MATERIAL CONTAMINATION OF THE SENSES AND MIND.
Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service.The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be ordinary affairs.The rāsa dance is arranged by Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency yogamāyā, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person.Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādṛśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa.
But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvāmīs. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, in his prayers to the Gosvāmīs, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs:
rūpa-raghunātha-pade ha-ibe ākuti
kabe hāma bujhaba se yugala-pīriti
“When I shall be eager to understand the literature given by the Gosvāmīs, then I shall be able to understand the transcendental love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.” In other words, unless one is trained under the disciplic succession of the Gosvāmīs, one cannot understand Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. (Most of the Sri Vaishnava cannot understand Radha Krsna and they do not agree that there is Goloka Vrndavan)
(CC ADI 4.35)
Here the use of the verb “bhavet,” which is in the imperative mood, tells us that this certainly must be done. Noncompliance would be abandonment of duty.
IN THE EXPERT GUIDANCE OF SPIRITUAL MASTER EVEN NEOPHYPTES WIIL BE COMPETENT TO HEAR THE LOVING AFFAIRS OF SRI RADHA AND KRSNA
This imperative is applicable to pure devotees. Neophytes will be able to understand these affairs only after being elevated by regulated devotional service under the expert guidance of the spiritual master. Then they too will be competent to hear of the love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.
AS LONG AS ONE IS IN MATERIAL, CONDITIONED LIFE, STRICT DISCIPLINE IS REQUIRED IN THE MATTER OF MORAL AND IMMORAL ACTIVITIES.
The absolute world is transcendental and free from such distinctions because there inebriety is not possible. But in this material world a sexual appetite necessitates distinction between moral and immoral conduct.
BY UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT RASAS BETWEEN KRSNA AND HIS DEVOTEES ONE IS FREED FROM THE GRIP OF SO CALLED MATERIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND ATTACHMENTS
But by understanding the conjugal love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman. Similarly, one who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection. If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers. If he is attracted by servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, he will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future. Similarly, one who sees the greatness of Kṛṣṇa in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy. If one is not attracted by the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, one is sure to be attracted to material enjoyment, thus to become implicated in the clinging network of virtuous and sinful activities and to continue material existence by transmigrating from one material body to another. Only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can one achieve the highest perfection of life.