KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.2.9 -12
- The impersonalist is doubtful about the personal feature of the Lord, and therefore he always tries to meditate upon something which is not objective.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the most beautiful person amongst all others, and Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes every part of His transcendental beauty, one after another, in order to teach the impersonalist that the Personality of Godhead is NOT an imagination by the devotee for the facility of worship, but is the Supreme Person in fact and figure.
- The Lord’s magnanimous pastimes and the glowing glancing of His smiling face are all indications of His extensive benedictions. One must therefore concentrate on this transcendental form of the Lord, as long as the mind can be fixed on Him by meditation.
- The process of meditation recommended herein is bhakti-yoga or the process of devotional service after one is liberated from the material conditions. Jñāna-yoga is the process of liberation from material conditions.
- Therefore bhakti-yoga includes jñāna-yoga. The process of pure devotional service simultaneously serves the purpose of jñāna-yoga because liberation from material conditions is automatically achieved by the gradual development of pure devotional service.
- These effects of bhakti-yoga are called anartha-nivṛtti. Things that are artificially acquired gradually disappear along with the progress of bhakti-yoga. Meditation on the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead, the first processional step, must show its effect by anartha-nivṛtti.
- The grossest type of anartha which binds the conditioned soul in material existence is sex desire, which is summarized in three headings, namely profit, adoration, and distinction.
- The sex desire is diminished along with its various forms by the process of bhakti-yoga because bhakti-yoga automatically, by the grace of the Lord results in knowledge and renunciation, even if the devotee is not materially very well educated.
- Knowledge – means knowing things as they are, and if by deliberation it is found that there are things which are at all unnecessary, naturally the person who has acquired knowledge leaves aside such unwanted things
- Vairagya – This stage of knowledge is called vairāgya, or detachment from unwanted things. A transcendentalist is required to be self-sufficient and should not beg from the rich blind persons to fulfill the bare necessities of life.
- Śukadeva Gosvāmī has suggested some alternatives for the bare necessities of life, namely the problem of eating, sleeping and shelter, but he has not suggested any alternative for sex satisfaction. One who has the sex desire still with him should not at all try to accept the renounced order of life.
- Purification – means getting free gradually from sex desire, and this is attained by meditation on the person of the Lord as described herein, beginning from the feet.
- One should not try to go upwards artificially without seeing for himself how much he has been released from the sex desire. Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura clearly defines the import of purification as cessation from sex indulgence.
- One should be free from all kinds of sex desire before he tries to make a show of recital of Bhāgavatam. Those who are still entrapped by sex indulgence should never progress to meditation above the feet of the Lord; therefore recital of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by them should be restricted to the first and second cantos of the great literature.
- One must complete the purificatory process by assimilating the contents of the first nine cantos. Then one should be admitted into the realm of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
- Śraddhā (Faith) is the beginning of everything. And to create faith, Kṛṣṇa has explained about Himself in the whole Bhagavad-gītā. So one who is fortunate, after reading Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly, he’ll have a strong faith in Kṛṣṇa. If you have failed to achieve this status of faith, then there is no question of progress.
- By the slow process of devotional service, under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of one’s individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations that result in void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the abode of the Supreme Lord.
Description of Paramatma is given in the verses SB 2.2.9 – SB 2.2.12.
SB 2.2.9 TRANSLATION
His mouth expresses His happiness. His eyes spread like the petals of a lotus, and His garments, yellowish like the saffron of a kadamba flower, are bedecked with valuable jewels. His ornaments are all made of gold, set with jewels, and He wears a glowing headdress and earrings.
SB 2.2.10 TRANSLATION
His lotus feet are placed over the whorls of the lotuslike hearts of great mystics. On His chest is the Kaustubha jewel, engraved with a beautiful calf, and there are other jewels on His shoulders. His complete torso is garlanded with fresh flowers.
The ornaments, flowers, clothing and all the other decorations on the transcendental body of the Personality of Godhead are identical with the body of the Lord. None of them are made of material ingredients; otherwise, there would be no chance of their decorating the body of the Lord. As such, in the paravyoma, spiritual varieties are also distinguished from the material variegatedness.
Sukhdev Goswami is teaching the difference bet the spiritual world and the material world. In the spiritual world, everything is spiritual. Even the flowers decoration and the jewels are nondifferent from the Lord.
SB 2.2.11 TRANSLATION
He is well decorated with an ornamental wreath about His waist and rings studded with valuable jewels on His fingers. His leglets, His bangles, His oiled hair, curling with a bluish tint, and His beautiful smiling face are all very pleasing.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the most beautiful person amongst all others, and Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes every part of His transcendental beauty, one after another, in order to teach the impersonalist that the Personality of Godhead is not an imagination by the devotee for facility of worship, but is the Supreme Person in fact and figure. The impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth is but His radiation, as the sun rays are but radiations from the sun.
We of course, have been programmed by nonsense education to believe everything material is the reality. The overwhelming pressure to understand that source of everything is material is putting the living entity to take birth over and over again through the 8.4 million species.
SB 2.2.12 TRANSLATION
The Lord’s magnanimous pastimes and the glowing glancing of His smiling face are all indications of His extensive benedictions. One must therefore concentrate on this transcendental form of the Lord, as long as the mind can be fixed on Him by meditation.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMPERSONALISTS AND DEVOTEES
In Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is said that the impersonalist undergoes a series of difficult programs on account of his impersonal meditation. But the devotee, due to the Lord’s personal service, progresses very easily. Impersonal meditation is therefore a source of suffering for the impersonalist. Here, the devotee has an advantage over the impersonalist philosopher. The impersonalist is doubtful about the personal feature of the Lord, and therefore he always tries to meditate upon something which is not objective. For this reason there is an authentic statement in the Bhāgavatam regarding the positive concentration of the mind on the factual form of the Lord.
Impersonalists are meditating on something which cannot be conceptualized. You cannot conceptualize a light. Buddhists meditate on nothing. There is nothing to conceptualize it. If you look at the sun every day at the high point, it will blind you. The mayavadis and impersonalists become blind of the knowledge.
BHAKTI YOGA INCLUDES GNANA YOGA
The process of meditation recommended herein is bhakti-yoga or the process of devotional service after one is liberated from the material conditions. Jñāna-yoga is the process of liberation from material conditions. After one is liberated from the conditions of material existence, i.e., when one is nivṛtta, as previously stated herein,(SB 2.2.6, third line) or when one is freed from all material necessities, one becomes qualified to discharge the process of bhakti-yoga. (The person has to become self-sufficient, only depend on Krsna in the heart) Therefore bhakti-yoga includes jñāna-yoga. In other words, the process of pure devotional service simultaneously serves the purpose of jñāna-yoga because liberation from material conditions is automatically achieved by the gradual development of pure devotional service.
The young boys in the past time of the lord attained that state after many many births.
THESE EFFECTS OF BHAKTI-YOGA ARE CALLED ANARTHA-NIVṚTTI.
Things that are artificially acquired gradually disappear along with the progress of bhakti-yoga. Meditation on the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead, the first processional step, must show its effect by anartha-nivṛtti.
Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.4.15-16)
ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-
saṅgo ‘tha bhajana-kriyā
tato ‘nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt
tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ
athāsaktis tato bhāvas
tataḥ premābhyudañcati
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ
prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ
“In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization. This will bring one to the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. In the next stage, one becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction, the neophyte devotee begins the process of devotional service. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in self-realization, and acquires a taste for hearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This taste leads one further forward to attachment for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is matured in bhāva, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is called prema, the highest perfectional stage of life.” In the prema stage there is constant engagement in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. So, by the slow process of devotional service, under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of one’s individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations that result in void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the abode of the Supreme Lord.
We are so attracted to our attachments, we can only get detached by – associating with genuine sadhus and hearing from genuine sadhus vedic literature.
GROSSEST TYPE OF ANARTHA _ IS SEX DESIRE
The grossest type of anartha which binds the conditioned soul in material existence is sex desire, and this sex desire gradually develops in the union of the male and female. When the male and female are united, the sex desire is further aggravated by the accumulation of buildings, children, friends, relatives and wealth. When all these are acquired, the conditioned soul becomes overwhelmed by such entanglements, and the false sense of egoism, or the sense of “myself” and “mine,” becomes prominent, and the sex desire expands to various political, social, altruistic, philanthropic and many other unwanted engagements, resembling the foam of the sea waves, which becomes very prominent at one time and at the next moment vanishes as quickly as a cloud in the sky.
BHAKTI-YOGA LEADS TO GRADUAL EVAPORATION OF THE SEX DESIRE
The conditioned soul is encircled by such products, as well as products of sex desire, and therefore bhakti-yoga leads to gradual evaporation of the sex desire, which is summarized in three headings, namely profit, adoration, and distinction.
The sex desire is diminished along with its various forms by the process of bhakti-yoga because bhakti-yoga automatically, by the grace of the Lord, effectively results in knowledge and renunciation, even if the devotee is not materially very well educated.
DEFINITION OF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge means knowing things as they are, and if by deliberation it is found that there are things which are at all unnecessary, naturally the person who has acquired knowledge leaves aside such unwanted things. When the conditioned soul finds by the culture of knowledge that material necessities are unwanted things, he becomes detached from such unwanted things.
This comes only through the association of Sadhus and hearing from them.
DEFINITION OF VAIRAGYA
This stage of knowledge is called vairāgya, or detachment from unwanted things. We have previously discussed that the transcendentalist is required to be self-sufficient and should not beg from the rich blind persons to fulfill the bare necessities of life. Śukadeva Gosvāmī has suggested some alternatives for the bare necessities of life, namely the problem of eating, sleeping and shelter, but he has not suggested any alternative for sex satisfaction.
Ex: King comes and asks the sadhu under a moringa tree to come and stay in his palace. Sadhu says I don’t need anything else than the shade of the tree and the leaves of the tree. To maintain yourself you just need few good things… Bare necessities..
RENOUNCED ORDER OF LIFE
One who has the sex desire still with him should not at all try to accept the renounced order of life. For one who has not attained to this stage, there is no question of a renounced order of life. So by the gradual process of devotional service under the guidance of a proper spiritual master, and following the principles of the Bhāgavatam, one must be able at least to control the gross sex desire before one accepts the renounced order of life factually.
Association of genuine sadhus
Hearing SB and BG from them
DEFINITION OF PURIFICATION
So purification means getting free gradually from sex desire, and this is attained by meditation on the person of the Lord as described herein, beginning from the feet. One should not try to go upwards artificially without seeing for himself how much he has been released from the sex desire. Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura clearly defines the import of purification as cessation from sex indulgence.
VILIFICATION OF BHAGAVATAM
The smiling face of the Lord is the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and there are many upstarts who at once try to begin with the Tenth Canto, and especially with the five chapters which delineate the rāsa-līlā of the Lord. This is certainly improper. By such improper study or hearing of Bhāgavatam, the material opportunists have played havoc by indulgence in sex life in the name of Bhāgavatam. This vilification of Bhāgavatam is rendered by the acts of the so-called devotees; one should be free from all kinds of sex desire before he tries to make a show of recital of Bhāgavatam.
Those who are still entrapped by sex indulgence should never progress to meditation above the feet of the Lord; therefore recital of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by them should be restricted to the first and second cantos of the great literature. One must complete the purificatory process by assimilating the contents of the first nine cantos. Then one should be admitted into the realm of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
LECTURE BY SRILA PRABHUPADA ON BG 6.47 DEC 12TH 1972
https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/721212bgahm/
So the yoga system means always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That is samādhi. (Definition of Yoga)
Dictionary meaning of Yoga – a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.
We are living in the world of words that mean nothing. Is yoga a Hindu thing? Does Krsna say He is Hindu. We cannot get education in the schools.
Five thousand years ago, when this yoga system was discussed between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, Arjuna frankly admitted that this system was very difficult for him. He thought of himself as a gṛhastha and a military man, so concentration of the mind and sitting in a posture and looking on the point of the nose, so many systems —find out a secluded place, alone, and observing so many rules and regulation, āsana, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, prāṇāyāma—so he thought it difficult for him. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, in order to encourage him, that although he could not practice the aṣṭāṅga-yoga system, still there was no cause of disappointment. He concluded, therefore,
apasvibhyo ‘dhiko yogī
jñānibhyo ‘pi mato ‘dhikaḥ
karmibhyaś cādhiko yogī
tasmād yogī bhavārjuna [Bg. 6.46]
yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ [Bg. 6.47]
ŚRADDHĀ IS THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING. FAITH.
This is the conclusion, that “Of all yogīs, who is always thinking of Me, śraddhāvān…” Without being śraddhāvān… Śraddhā is the beginning of everything. Faith, śraddhā, respect. If you have no respect for Kṛṣṇa, if you have no faith in Kṛṣṇa, there is no advancement of spiritual life or yoga life. The beginning of spiritual life is śraddhā, faith. Ādau śraddhā. faith has been described by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī as… viśvāsa. So he explains:
‘śraddhā’-śabde-viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya, sudṛḍha niścaya
kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya
[Cc. Madhya 22.62]
This is the śraddhā. Śraddhā means firm faith.
So unless one has got faith. Why one should consider himself that “I must be completely surrendered to Kṛṣṇa,” unless one has got faith? Therefore faith is the beginning. And to create faith, Kṛṣṇa has explained about Himself in the whole Bhagavad-gītā. So one who is fortunate, after reading Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly, he’ll have a strong faith in Kṛṣṇa. If you have failed to achieve this status of faith, then there is no question of progress.
If someone new comes to the temple – they will be happy because they have been greeted like a family. They are surprised to get a gift, for their kids, and themselves. They get Introduced to other devotees. This is called personalism… As soon as a person walks in they need to be greeted respectfully… They develop respect by the friendly welcome… The atmosphere of the temple also speaks what we are. If they walk into the shoe room and it is a complete mess… water on the floor near the washbasins it is a big NO-NO…. These are enough to convince them not to come again… We have to be conscious of all these things… Shoe room is the first thing they get into… Unless we pay attention we are failing… One time we had our old temple, one lady walked in and she saw the curtains and she said she is not coming back as the curtains are no clean… Everything in the temple is holy in the temple and has to be clean. Bathroom, kitchen, altar everything has to be first class. They say wow …
Respect and appreciation are the beginning of faith. I am going to make this my temple and come with my kids…
People who walk past dirt that means they have no understanding of no KC. They don’t understand how to preach – organized, clean, regulated…