KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.1.38
- One who seriously desires liberation should concentrate his mind on the Virat rupa form of the Lord because there is nothing more than this in the material world.
- The goal of yoga is to fix one’s mind on Lord Krsna whether it is Virat Rupa form or Personal form of Krsna.
- Material nature is only an order-carrying agent of the Lord.
- Lord’s appearance in the material world as one of us is also His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls.
- He is transcendental to all material conceptions, but by His unbounded mercy upon His pure devotees, He comes down and manifests Himself as the Personality of Godhead.
- Materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engrossed with atomic energy and the gigantic situation of the universal form, and they offer respect more seriously to the external phenomenal feature of material manifestations than to the noumenal principle of spiritual existence.
- The materialistic philosophers and scientists think of everything in terms of their own experience. Because they are unable to accept the personal feature of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is kind enough to demonstrate the virāṭ feature of His transcendental form.
- Sukhdev Goswami concludes that there is nothing beyond this gigantic feature of the Lord. None of the materialistic thoughtful men can go beyond this conception.
- Each and every item of the material manifestation entails a part of the body of the gigantic form, and thus the flickering mind can be fixed in the Lord only and nothing else.
- This process of concentrating on the different bodily parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord.
- Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord.
- This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.
- When Kṛṣṇa comes He has no needs, for He is pūrṇa, ātmārāma. Nonetheless, He descends to this material world to protect the devotees and vanquish miscreants
- This is the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotees also have the same mission.
- One who executes this mission of para-upakāra, performing welfare activities for people in general, is recognized by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as being very, very dear to Him.
- Similarly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised this para-upakāra, and He has especially advised the inhabitants of India:“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.” (Cc. Ādi 9.41) On the whole, the duty of a pure Vaiṣṇava devotee is to act for the welfare of others.
- You simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you become guru. To become guru is not… But if you want to be a bluffer, cheater, then you can talk all nonsense. But if you actually talk only Kṛṣṇa’s words, then you become a guru. It is not very difficult.
SB 2.1.38 Translation:
I have thus explained to you the gross material gigantic conception of the Personality of Godhead. One who seriously desires liberation concentrates his mind on this form of the Lord, because there is nothing more than this in the material world.
CLASS NOTES: Material nature is only an order-carrying agent of His
In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10), the Supreme Personality of Godhead has verily explained that the material nature is only an order-carrying agent of His. She is one of the different potencies of the Lord, and she acts under His direction only. As the supreme transcendental Lord, He simply casts a glance over the material principle, and thus the agitation of matter begins, and the resultant actions are manifested one after another by six kinds of gradual differentiations. All material creation is moving in that way, and thus it appears and disappears in due course.
Less intelligent persons with a poor fund of knowledge cannot accommodate the thought of this inconceivable potency of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, by which He appears just like a human being (Bg. 9.11).His appearance in the material world as one of us is also His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls. He is transcendental to all material conceptions, but by His unbounded mercy upon His pure devotees, He comes down and manifests Himself as the Personality of Godhead.
Materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engrossed with atomic energy and the gigantic situation of the universal form, and they offer respect more seriously to the external phenomenal feature of material manifestations than to the noumenal principle of spiritual existence. NOUMENOL- Exists but we cannot see, electro magnetic waves atoms, you can only know them by their work. For example, you have a maid, she comes when you are not there and she cleans the home. Once you come back and see the house clean, you know that maid came and cleaned the home. The seasons are cycling one after the other., renewal of spring every year, rising and setting of the sun, the child growing… .. This proves that something exists but you might not be able to see it with eyes… The transcendental form of the Lord is beyond the jurisdiction of such materialistic activities, and it is very difficult to conceive that the Lord can be simultaneously localized and all-pervasive because the materialistic philosophers and scientists think of everything in terms of their own experience.
Obviously, it is a very limited level. They try and put God in their limited level. Two fish looking at the moon. One fish asks the other what is that shining in the sky, the other says it is a fish. The fish asks why it is shiny. The other fish says it is a shiny fish. The fish says now I understand. The Atheist says there is no God. Bringing everything to our level of consciousness is the work of less intelligent people.
Because they are unable to accept the personal feature of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is kind enough to demonstrate the virāṭ feature of His transcendental form, and herein Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī has vividly described this form of the Lord. He concludes that there is nothing beyond this gigantic feature of the Lord. None of the materialistic thoughtful men can go beyond this conception of the gigantic form.
Therefore whether you meditate on one part of Virat rupa or all parts of Virat rupa you gradually become Krsna Conscious. It is the strategy to preach to atheists or impersonalists.The minds of materialistic men are flickering and constantly changing from one aspect to another. Therefore, one is advised to think of the Lord by thinking of any part of His gigantic body, and by one’s intelligence, only one can think of Him in any manifestation of the material world — the forest, the hill, the ocean, the man, the animal, the demigod, the bird, the beast or anything else. Each and every item of the material manifestation entails a part of the body of the gigantic form, and thus the flickering mind can be fixed in the Lord only and nothing else
This process of concentrating on the different body parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord. The whole point of yoga is to fix the mind on Krsna, whether it is Virat rupa or the personal form
Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord.
When we realize that God is everywhere, there is nowhere we can hide or be private. We can’t get away, He is witnessing everything we think and everything we do. Body of the ant, body of the plant everything is sacred to the devotee of the lord and for a nondevotee they are not because devotee sees everything relation to the Lord.
This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.
Srila Prabhupada in his purports is explaining how everyone in this world can cooperate and work towards one common goal – everything belongs to Krsna and everything should be used in the service of Krsna. People are being misled due to improper education, it is making people separated than united. Kali-yuga will get so bad that every home becomes a country, It has its own borders and flags and currency, No unity at all..
(ISO 5) hymns of ĪśopaniṣadThe Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
Here is a description of some of the Supreme Lord’s transcendental activities, executed by His inconceivable potencies. The contradictions given here prove the inconceivable potencies of the Lord. “He walks, and He does not walk.” Ordinarily, if someone can walk, it is illogical to say he cannot walk. But in reference to God, such a contradiction simply serves to indicate His inconceivable power. With our limited fund of knowledge, we cannot accommodate such contradictions, and therefore we conceive of the Lord in terms of our limited powers of understanding. For example, the impersonalist philosophers of the Māyāvāda school accept only the Lord’s impersonal activities and reject His personal feature. But the members of the Bhāgavata school, adopting the perfect conception of the Lord, accept His inconceivable potencies and thus understand that He is both personal and impersonal. The bhāgavatas know that without inconceivable potencies there can be no meaning to the words “Supreme Lord.”
An athiest and a mayavadi cannot accommodate the inconceivable potencies of the lord. We see it everyday, yet people deny it due to envy and ignorance. As long as we try and bring God to our level we become atheists. A devotee is defined as Paraupakari, one who acts for the true welfare of others. One of the best descriptions for a devotee is Paraupakara. This is the major theme. Why does devotee act like that, because Krsna also is Paraupakari. He shows the Virat rupa to help the atheists and impersonalists to gradually come to the platform of devotional service. he does not have to do that. He explains how the virat rupa actually exists in the real way. He does not ignore devotees. Prabhupada talks about this in SB 10.8.4(SB 10.8.4) ParaupakaraAs factually stated by Nanda Mahārāja, Garga Muni, being a devotee, had no needs. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa comes He has no needs, for He is pūrṇa, ātmārāma. Nonetheless, He descends to this material world to protect the devotees and vanquish miscreants (paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām). This is the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotees also have the same mission. (BG 18.69)One who executes this mission of para-upakāra, performing welfare activities for people in general, is recognized by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as being very, very dear to Him (na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ).
Similarly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised this para-upakāra, and He has especially advised the inhabitants of India:
“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.” (Cc. Ādi 9.41) On the whole, the duty of a pure Vaiṣṇava devotee is to act for the welfare of others.
BG 9.3 lecture – Toronto (https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/760620bgtor/)
So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to enlighten people so that they can accept these principles of Bhagavad-gītā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mission is para-upakāra. And He advises everyone, especially Indians, to become a guru. He said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] = “Every one of you, you become a guru and try to deliver the persons where you are living.” “So how can I become guru?” “Yes, it is very easy.” “What is that?” Yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128], then you become guru. You simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you become guru. To become guru is not… But if you want to be a bluffer, cheater, then you can talk all nonsense. But if you actually talk only Kṛṣṇa’s words, then you become a guru. It is not very difficult.
This is the message of Krsna, Lord Caitanya and all Vaishnava acharyas. Simply repeat what Krsna said in Bhagavadgita and become a guru. It is important we understand what the aim of life is – to learn Bhagavadgita and teach it to others and acting for the true welfare of others. Do not become a miopic speculator to bring the Lord to your own level. BG 9.11 – The whole world is controlled by the Lord. That is why everything, works, everything is predictable, every year there is the repetition of season, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle that is functioning and working in a predictable way.
This purport today is very important. – This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.