KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.35 TODAY (05/02/21):
- People often ask – Lord is not visible to our eyes, how can one either surrender unto Him or render transcendental loving service unto Him?.
- Actually, the Lord is not perceivable by our present materialized senses, but when one is convinced of the presence of the Lord by a practical service attitude, there is a revelation by the Lord’s mercy, and such a pure devotee of the Lord can perceive the Lord’s presence always and everywhere.
- He can perceive that intelligence is the form-direction of the Paramātmā plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead.
- The presence of Paramātmā in everyone’s company is not very difficult to realize, even for the common man. It can be realized through reason and perception.
- You are a person – One can perceive one’s self-identification and feel positively that he exists.
- There is a seer and a seen- He may not feel it very abruptly, but by using a little intelligence, he can feel that he is not the body. Just by using intelligence he can distinguish and separate his self from other things that he sees. So the natural conclusion is that the living being, either man or beast, is the seer, and he sees besides himself all other things. So there is a difference between the seer and the seen.
- The seer has no power to see or to move independently –Now, by a little use of intelligence we can also readily agree that the living being who sees the things beyond himself by ordinary vision has no power to see or to move independently. All our ordinary actions and perceptions depend on various forms of energy supplied to us by nature in various combinations. This conclusively proves that the ordinary living being has no independent power of perception or of motion, and as we undoubtedly feel our existence being conditioned by nature’s energy, we conclude that he who sees is spirit, and that the senses as well as the objects of perception are material.
- The seer is the spirit and the seen is the matter – The spiritual quality of the seer is manifest in our dissatisfaction with the limited state of materially conditioned existence. That is the difference between spirit and matter. No matter has ever developed the power of seeing or moving in any part of the world. Therefore it is definite that matter and spirit are two different identities, and this conclusion is arrived at by the use of intelligence.
- The seer is dependant on the intelligence of the superior being (Supreme Self Paramatma)- The things which are seen by a little use of intelligence cannot be animate unless we accept someone as the user of or director of the intelligence. So a living being is dependent on intelligence or the direction of a superior being. Such intelligence is all-pervading. Every living being has his intelligence, and this intelligence, being the direction of some higher authority, is just like a father giving direction to his son. The higher authority, who is present and residing within every individual living being, is the Superself or Paramatma.
SB 2.2.35 TRANSLATION: The Personality of Godhead Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is in every living being along with the individual soul. And this fact is perceived and hypothesized in our acts of seeing and taking help from intelligence.
CLASS NOTES:
It is a very important purport explains how you can convince, atheist, demon, pseudo scientist that Paramatma exists. Pay attention to this purport if you want to become an expert preacher.
The general argument of the common man is that since the Lord is not visible to our eyes, how can one either surrender unto Him or render transcendental loving service unto Him?
here is a practical suggestion given by Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī as to how one can perceive the Supreme Lord by reason and perception.Actually the Lord is not perceivable by our present materialized senses, but when one is convinced of the presence of the Lord by a practical service attitude, there is a revelation by the Lord’s mercy, and such a pure devotee of the Lord can perceive the Lord’s presence always and everywhere. He can perceive that intelligence is the form-direction of the Paramātmā plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead.
Practical service attitude – regular service to the lord
Revelation by the mercy of the lord.
We have intelligence, we also see that there is superior intelligence, as in the universe, everything is organized, …By Reason and perception we will know the presence of Supreme intelligence in this purport. The way our acharyas and Srila Prabhupada have constructed this simple logical chronological step-by-step process of reason and perception that is easy for even a common man to understand is mind-blowing.
The presence of Paramātmā in everyone’s company is not very difficult to realize, even for the common man. The procedure is as follows.
- You are a person – One can perceive one’s self-identification and feel positively that he exists.
- There is a seer and a seen – He may not feel it very abruptly, but by using a little intelligence, he can feel that he is not the body. He can feel that the hand, the leg, the head, the hair and the limbs are all his bodily parts and parcels, but as such the hand, the leg, the head, etc., cannot be identified with his self. Therefore just by using intelligence he can distinguish and separate his self from other things that he sees. So the natural conclusion is that the living being, either man or beast, is the seer, and he sees besides himself all other things. So there is a difference between the seer and the seen
- The seer has no power to see or to move independently – Now, by a little use of intelligence we can also readily agree that the living being who sees the things beyond himself by ordinary vision has no power to see or to move independently. All our ordinary actions and perceptions depend on various forms of energy supplied to us by nature in various combinations. Our senses of perception and of action, that is to say, our five perceptive senses of (1) hearing, (2) touch, (3) sight, (4) taste and (5) smell, as well as our five senses of action, namely (1) hands, (2) legs, (3) speech, (4) evacuation organs and (5) reproductive organs, and also our three subtle senses, namely (1) mind, (2) intelligence and (3) ego (thirteen senses in all), are supplied to us by various arrangements of gross or subtle forms of natural energy. And it is equally evident that our objects of perception are nothing but the products of the inexhaustible permutations and combinations of the forms taken by natural energy. As this conclusively proves that the ordinary living being has no independent power of perception or of motion, and as we undoubtedly feel our existence being conditioned by nature’s energy, we conclude that he who sees is spirit, and that the senses as well as the objects of perception are material.
Natural energy – earth, water, air, fire, ether, mind, intelligence, false ego – fundamental elements that expand into 24 elements. Our seeing is limite, unless there is light we cannot see. Our seeing is dependant on light. By seeing Sun can we understand that the sun is 93 thousand million miles? No we cannot perceive that. Can we see with our hands, legs no… Can we see with our intelligence, yes if our intelligence is sharp we can see with it. When someone is dead, why is that we are unable to bring him back to life? Every sense that was working, stops working.
- The seer is the spirit and the seen is the matter, Matter and Spirit are two different identities – The spiritual quality of the seer is manifest in our dissatisfaction with the limited state of materially conditioned existence. That is the difference between spirit and matter. There are some less intelligent arguments that matter develops the power of seeing and moving as a certain organic development, but such an argument cannot be accepted because there is no experimental evidence that matter has anywhere produced a living entity. Trust no future, however pleasant. Idle talks regarding future development of matter into spirit are actually foolish because no matter has ever developed the power of seeing or moving in any part of the world. Therefore it is definite that matter and spirit are two different identities, and this conclusion is arrived at by the use of intelligence.
Matter is not revolting and saying we want freedom. Only the living entity wants freedom and expresses dissatisfaction.
- The seer is dependent on the intelligence of the superior being (Supreme Self Paramatma)- Now we come to the point that the things which are seen by a little use of intelligence cannot be animate unless we accept someone as the user of or director of the intelligence. Intelligence gives one direction like some higher authority, and the living being cannot see or move or eat or do anything without the use of intelligence. When one fails to take advantage of intelligence he becomes a deranged man, and so a living being is dependent on intelligence or the direction of a superior being. Such intelligence is all-pervading. Every living being has his intelligence, and this intelligence, being the direction of some higher authority, is just like a father giving direction to his son. The higher authority, who is present and residing within every individual living being, is the Superself.
Alan Turing said that computers will equal or surpass human beings and it will evolve to become a human. People trick others with their language. Korean scientist claimed that he cloned the dog, later on they came to know that he was a hoax.
Knowledge only begins when you accept the authority and has nothing to do with facts. Then the authority gives us the facts. Krishna is our authority. If you accept a scientist as authority you will end up arong facts.
There is a doctor Rosenberg, who is studying how to improve the immune system of a person. The truth is if you have a good immune system, even if you get sick you can cure it naturally.
Electronic accelerator – was built with millions, billions of dollars – God particle…
Superior intelligence – manufacturer of train set
Dependent intelligence – kid who is operating the remote of the train set.
Highest intelligence is Paramatma, below that, demigods, humans, animals, birds…
Bird makes nest… with the intelligence – a complicated construction
Bee is making a beehive – They have limited intelligence to do these and the higher intelligence paramatma gives them direction.