Srimad Bhavagavatham Class By HH HariVilas Maharaj

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.6.10

1. It is clear from the available description of the body of the Lord (His universal form) that the form of the Lord is distinct from the forms of ordinary mundane conception.
2. He is never a formless void. Ignorance is the back of the Lord, and therefore the ignorance of the less intelligent class of men is also not separate from His bodily conception.
3. Since His body is the complete whole of everything that be, one cannot assert that He is impersonal only. On the contrary, the perfect description of the Lord holds that He is both impersonal and personal simultaneously.
4. The Personality of Godhead is the original feature of the Lord, and His impersonal emanation is but the reflection of His transcendental body.
5. Those who are fortunate enough to have a view of the Lord from the front can realize His personal feature, whereas those who are frustrated and are thus kept on the ignorance side of the Lord, or, in other words, those who have the view of the Lord from the back, realize Him in His impersonal feature.
6. Self-controlled persons who are attached to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa can all of a sudden give up the world of material attachment, including the gross body and subtle mind, and go away to attain the highest perfection of the renounced order of life, by which nonviolence and renunciation are consequential.
7. “When the mind is fixed for understanding the self, it is said to be in samādhi.” Samādhi is never possible for persons interested in material sense enjoyment and bewildered by such temporary things. They are more or less condemned by the process of material energy.
8. Real nonviolence means freedom from envy. Real renunciation means perfect dependence on God. Every living being is dependent on someone else because he is so made. Actually everyone is dependent on the mercy of the Supreme Lord, but when one forgets his relation with the Lord, he becomes dependent on the conditions of material nature.
9. Renunciation means renouncing one’s dependence on the conditions of material nature and thus becoming completely dependent on the mercy of the Lord.
10. Real independence means complete faith in the mercy of the Lord without dependence on the conditions of matter.
11. The Age of Kali was seeking an opportunity to spoil the cultural heritage of the four orders of life, the inexperienced boy gave a chance for the Age of Kali to enter into the field of Vedic culture. Hatred of the lower orders of life began from this brāhmaṇa boy, under the influence of Kali, and thus cultural life began to dwindle day after day.
12. Śṛṅgi, a qualified son of a great brāhmaṇa, attained the required brahminical power both by birth and by training, but he was lacking in culture because he was an inexperienced boy.
13. By the influence of Kali, the son of a brāhmaṇa became puffed up with brahminical power and thus wrongly compared Mahārāja Parīkṣit to crows and watchdogs. To address him like that is the sign of a less-cultured boy.
14. Thus the downfall of the brahminical powers began as they gave importance to birthright without culture. The downfall of the brāhmaṇa caste began in the Age of Kali.

SB 2.6.10

The back of the Lord is the place for all kinds of frustration and ignorance, as well as for immorality. From His veins flow the great rivers and rivulets, and on His bones are stacked the great mountains.
CLASS NOTES: 

In order to defy the impersonal conception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a systematic analysis of the physiological and anatomical constitution of His transcendental body is given here. It is clear from the available description of the body of the Lord (His universal form) that the form of the Lord is distinct from the forms of ordinary mundane conception. In any case, He is never a formless void. Ignorance is the back of the Lord, and therefore the ignorance of the less intelligent class of men is also not separate from His bodily conception. Since His body is the complete whole of everything that be, one cannot assert that He is impersonal only. On the contrary, the perfect description of the Lord holds that He is both impersonal and personal simultaneously. The Personality of Godhead is the original feature of the Lord, and His impersonal emanation is but the reflection of His transcendental body. Those who are fortunate enough to have a view of the Lord from the front can realize His personal feature, whereas those who are frustrated and are thus kept on the ignorance side of the Lord, or, in other words, those who have the view of the Lord from the back, realize Him in His impersonal feature.

“Inorder to defy the impersonal conception of the lord” SP says this because 98 percent of the gurus in India are impersonalists. The ultimate cancel culture has been prevailing. Cancel Krsna, Cancel everything. The only thing accept is the impersonal Brahman. Their understanding of Brahman is wrong. For example this is my body,  Well it is something that is temporary, body is changing. When they identify themselves with something that is temporary that is wrong. The purpose of our life is to understand why we are given this temporary body.  Actually Brahma Jyothi is not impersonal, it is made infinite sparks of light which are living entities. Their understanding is wrong, everything they cancel is wrong. Their understanding is very very limited. Supreme absolute truth is understood through 3 stages. Brahman, paramatma and Bhagavan. Both impersonal and personal exist simultaneously in the Lord. They exist in us too. We have an impersonal attribute, if we own a company, CEO is the person and the company is his expansion. He is present in the company by his authority. He as a person may be present somewhere else. Whether we have a proper understanding or not is the question.

VIrat rupa description is given here. It is illusory, it is not eternal. It is necessary to bring the atheists to the conception of God. 

Modern education understands that things exist, but the understanding of the things is wrong. This is something going on in the age of kali yuga. 

SB 1.18.22

Self-controlled persons who are attached to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa can all of a sudden give up the world of material attachment, including the gross body and subtle mind, and go away to attain the highest perfection of the renounced order of life, by which nonviolence and renunciation are consequential.

So there is a very imp point made in the purport. Real devotees are non envious. Envy is worse than jealousy. 

Drona knew that Arjuna is going to kill him. He still taught him war skills in full. He was non envious of Arjuna. Arjuna was his favorite disciple, he was always focused on pleasing the guru and following his instructions. Drona taught him more than what he taught to his own son Ashwattama.  Duryodhana did not have the same intense focus as Arjuna. Green bird on green tree story. 

BG 2.44

In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.

Samādhi means “fixed mind.” The Vedic dictionary, the Nirukti, says, samyag ādhīyate ’sminn ātma-tattva-yāthātmyam: “When the mind is fixed for understanding the self, it is said to be in samādhi.” Samādhi is never possible for persons interested in material sense enjoyment and bewildered by such temporary things. They are more or less condemned by the process of material energy.

The real solution to all prejudice, discrimination is to see everyone as the soul part and parcel of the lord. 

SB 1.18.22

Real nonviolence means freedom from envy. In this world everyone is envious of his fellow being. But a perfect paramahaṁsa, being completely given up to the service of the Lord, is perfectly nonenvious. He loves every living being in relation with the Supreme Lord. Real renunciation means perfect dependence on God. Every living being is dependent on someone else because he is so made. Actually everyone is dependent on the mercy of the Supreme Lord, but when one forgets his relation with the Lord, he becomes dependent on the conditions of material nature. Renunciation means renouncing one’s dependence on the conditions of material nature and thus becoming completely dependent on the mercy of the Lord. Real independence means complete faith in the mercy of the Lord without dependence on the conditions of matter. This paramahaṁsa stage is the highest perfectional stage in bhakti-yoga, the process of devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

SB 1.18.32

Real experience means – sikshashtakam prayers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu

Culture of Modern education – sense gratification

Culture of KC – I want to use my senses in the service of the lord.

The sage had a son who was very powerful, being a brāhmaṇa’s son. While he was playing with inexperienced boys, he heard of his father’s distress, which was occasioned by the King. Then and there the boy spoke as follows.

Due to Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s good government, even a boy of tender age, who was playing with other inexperienced boys, could become as powerful as a qualified brāhmaṇa. This boy was known as Śṛṅgi, and he achieved good training in brahmacarya by his father so that he could be as powerful as a brāhmaṇa, even at that age. But because the Age of Kali was seeking an opportunity to spoil the cultural heritage of the four orders of life, the inexperienced boy gave a chance for the Age of Kali to enter into the field of Vedic culture. Hatred of the lower orders of life began from this brāhmaṇa boy, under the influence of Kali, and thus cultural life began to dwindle day after day. The first victim of brahminical injustice was Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and thus the protection given by the King against the onslaught of Kali was slackened.

SB 1.18.33

The brāhmaṇas are considered to be the head and brains of the social body, and the kṣatriyas are considered to be the arms of the social body. The arms are required to protect the body from all harm, but the arms must act according to the directions of the head and brain. That is a natural arrangement made by the supreme order, for it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that four social orders or castes, namely the brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas and the śūdras, are set up according to quality and work done by them. Naturally the son of a brāhmaṇa has a good chance to become a brāhmaṇa by the direction of his qualified father, as a son of a medical practitioner has a very good chance to become a qualified medical practitioner. So the caste system is quite scientific. The son must take advantage of the father’s qualification and thus become a brāhmaṇa or medical practitioner, and not otherwise. Without being qualified, one cannot become a brāhmaṇa or medical practitioner, and that is the verdict of all scriptures and social orders. Herein Śṛṅgi, a qualified son of a great brāhmaṇa, attained the required brahminical power both by birth and by training, but he was lacking in culture because he was an inexperienced boy. By the influence of Kali, the son of a brāhmaṇa became puffed up with brahminical power and thus wrongly compared Mahārāja Parīkṣit to crows and watchdogs. The King is certainly the watchdog of the state in the sense that he keeps vigilant eyes over the border of the state for its protection and defense, but to address him as a watchdog is the sign of a less-cultured boy. Thus the downfall of the brahminical powers began as they gave importance to birthright without culture. The downfall of the brāhmaṇa caste began in the Age of Kali. And since brāhmaṇas are the heads of the social order, all other orders of society also began to deteriorate. This beginning of brahminical deterioration was highly deplored by the father of Śṛṅgi, as we will find.

In kali yuga, People see things they have a name for it, but their understanding about it is wrong. Sringi knew that King Praikshit is the best King of the world and his understanding of Pariskhit is wrong and compares him to crows and watchdogs..characterizes him to be a low-class person lower to Brahmanas. 

SB 1.18.34 

The inexperienced brāhmaṇa boy certainly knew that the King asked for water from his father and the father did not respond. He tried to explain away his father’s inhospitality in an impertinent manner befitting an uncultured boy. He was not at all sorry for the King’s not being well received. On the contrary, he justified the wrong act in a way characteristic of the brāhmaṇas of Kali-yuga. He compared the King to a watchdog, and so it was wrong for the King to enter the home of a brāhmaṇa and ask for water from the same pot. The dog is certainly reared by its master, but that does not mean that the dog shall claim to dine and drink from the same pot. This mentality of false prestige is the cause of the downfall of the perfect social order, and we can see that in the beginning it was started by the inexperienced son of a brāhmaṇa. As the dog is never allowed to enter within the room and hearth, although it is reared by the master, similarly, according to Śṛṅgi, the King had no right to enter the house of Śamīka Ṛṣi. According to the boy’s opinion, the King was on the wrong side and not his father, and thus he justified his silent father.

Classless society is possible in KC because they all cooperate without any envy.. 

Brahmana is also a reformative order. They all cooperate to make spiritual progress. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.6.9:

1. Definition of 90 percent of the population in today’s world – A demoniac person, being always against God’s supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so-called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength.
2. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on other bodies and on his own.
3. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead, because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and denies the scriptural authority.
4. He thinks himself independent and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power or wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power.
5. BG 7.3 – Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
6. By diverting attention to so many unwanted things, human energy is spoiled without achievement of spiritual realization, the prime necessity of human life. 
7. The attempt to reach the moon is another example of spoiling energy because even if the moon is reached, the problems of life will not be solved. 
8. The devotees of the Lord are called akiñcanas because they have practically no material assets. Such material assets are all products of the three modes of material nature. They foil spiritual energy, and thus the less we possess such products of material nature, the more we have a good chance for spiritual progress.
9. The material disease is due to hankering after and lording it over material nature. This hankering is due to an interaction of the three modes of nature, and neither the Lord nor the devotees have attachment for such false enjoyment.
10.  The perfect nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛtti is the Supreme Lord because He never becomes attracted by the modes of material nature, whereas the living beings have such a tendency. Some of them are entrapped by the illusory attraction of material nature.
11. Because the Lord is the property of the devotees, and the devotees are the property of the Lord reciprocally, the devotees are certainly transcendental to the modes of material nature. That is a natural conclusion. 
12. Such unalloyed devotees are distinct from the mixed devotees who approach the Lord for mitigation of miseries and poverty or because of inquisitiveness and speculation. The unalloyed devotees and the Lord are transcendentally attached to one another. For others, the Lord has nothing to reciprocate, and therefore He is called ātmārāma, self-satisfied. 
13. Only the self-controlled can gradually be attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Self-controlled means not indulging in sense enjoyment more than is necessary. And those who are not self-controlled are given over to sense enjoyment.
14. Dry philosophical speculation is a subtle sense of enjoyment of the mind. Sense enjoyment leads one to the path of darkness.
15. Self-control is actually achieved not by artificially stopping the senses from material enjoyment, but by becoming factually attached to the Supreme Lord by engaging one’s unalloyed senses in the transcendental service of the Lord.
16. This perfectional stage of sense engagement is called bhakti-yoga. So those who are attached to the means of bhakti-yoga are factually self-controlled and can all of a sudden give up their homely or bodily attachment for the service of the Lord.
17. This is called the paramahaṁsa stage. Paramahaṁsas are naturally qualified with all the good attributes, such as pridelessness, freedom from vanity, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, respectability, worship, devotion and sincerity. All these godly qualities exist in the devotee of the Lord spontaneously.
18. Such paramahaṁsas, who are completely given up to the service of the Lord, are very rare. They are very rare even amongst the liberated souls. Real nonviolence means freedom from envy. In this world, everyone is envious of his fellow being. But a perfect paramahaṁsa, being completely given up to the service of the Lord, is perfectly non envious. He loves every living being in relation to the Supreme Lord.
19. Real renunciation means perfect dependence on God. Every living being is dependent on someone else because he is so made. Actually, everyone is dependent on the mercy of the Supreme Lord, but when one forgets his relation with the Lord, he becomes dependent on the conditions of material nature.
20. Renunciation means renouncing one’s dependence on the conditions of material nature and thus becoming completely dependent on the mercy of the Lord. Real independence means complete faith in the mercy of the Lord without dependence on the conditions of matter.
    
    

SB 2.6.9 TRANSLATION:

O Nārada, the evacuating outlet of the universal form of the Lord is the abode of the controlling deity of death, Mitra, and the evacuating hole and the rectum of the Lord is the place of envy, misfortune, death, hell, etc.

CLASS NOTES:

This is further explained in BG 

BG 16.18 – Good definition of over 90 percent of the population

Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demons become envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in their own bodies and in the bodies of others, and blaspheme against the real religion.

We have to think about the purport that SP has brought to us today – 

A demoniac person, being always against God’s supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so-called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on other bodies and on his own. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead, because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and denies the scriptural authority. He thinks himself independent and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power or wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power.

Now we understand the origin of nervousness. Everything has its origin from Krsna. We were originally with Krsna and we were envious of Him and we were sent to the prison-house – the material world. We are like the Australian criminals banished by England to an island surrounded by water. We are sent to this material world surrounded by our material body. We are entangled by our false ego, subject to birth, death, old age, and disease. We think all this is normal. 99 percent of the population is in the illusion that they are this body.  I am Indian, I am USA, I am homosexual, I am eastern Washingtonian. All these crazy ideas which are never true are believed to be true (illusion). Summarize the material world as a constant search for one’s own identity. Example – Baseball hat. They change the positions. Each position of the baseball hat was an identity.. Each one of the self-identities is wrong as it identifies with the body. Only when you meet a pure devotee you will know your identity… jivera swarup hai krsnera das… Only very very few people know their identity… 

BG 7.3

Manushyanam Sahasresu

Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.

One time a couple is discussing the caskets.. Which casket they like.. The casket is a representation of the attachment to material body. There are caskets ranging from 100 dollars to millions of dollars.

SB 1.8.27 

​​Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such material advancement is called anartha, or things not wanted. Actually this is so. In the present context of material advancement one uses lipstick at a cost of fifty cents, and there are so many unwanted things which are all products of the material conception of life.By diverting attention to so many unwanted things, human energy is spoiled without achievement of spiritual realization, the prime necessity of human life. The attempt to reach the moon is another example of spoiling energy because even if the moon is reached, the problems of life will not be solved. The devotees of the Lord are called akiñcanas because they have practically no material assets. Such material assets are all products of the three modes of material nature. They foil spiritual energy, and thus the less we possess such products of material nature, the more we have a good chance for spiritual progress.

The material disease is due to hankering after and lording it over material nature. This hankering is due to an interaction of the three modes of nature, and neither the Lord nor the devotees have attachment for such false enjoyment. Therefore, the Lord and the devotees are called nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛtti. The perfect nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛtti is the Supreme Lord because He never becomes attracted by the modes of material nature, whereas the living beings have such a tendency. Some of them are entrapped by the illusory attraction of material nature.

Today everyone is glorifying lust. Everyone has pure soul it gets contaminated by the false ego and the material modes..

Because the Lord is the property of the devotees, and the devotees are the property of the Lord reciprocally, the devotees are certainly transcendental to the modes of material nature. That is a natural conclusion. Such unalloyed devotees are distinct from the mixed devotees who approach the Lord for mitigation of miseries and poverty or because of inquisitiveness and speculation. The unalloyed devotees and the Lord are transcendentally attached to one another. For others, the Lord has nothing to reciprocate, and therefore He is called ātmārāma, self-satisfied. Self-satisfied as He is, He is the master of all monists who seek to merge into the existence of the Lord. Such monists merge within the personal effulgence of the Lord called the brahmajyoti, but the devotees enter into the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, which are never to be misunderstood as material.

Radha Raman temple descendant came to Maharaj in Paris and stayed with him. He would do puja every day in the morning. He was the blood descendant of Gopala Bhatta Goswami. He had a picture of Chaitanya Maha Prabhu. It was very special. There is one thing that I own – That white spot on the picture of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the cloth given by lord Chaitanya to Gopala Bhatta Goswami and it was given to me by my grandfathers… That is the only thing I own. Even my body is Radha Ramanas. We can read and understand, we need to act on it. 

SB 1.10.32 – asuras are envious of the lord 

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, although no one’s enemy, engaged four divisions of defense [horse, elephant, chariot and army] to accompany Lord Kṛṣṇa, the enemy of the asuras [demons]. The Mahārāja did this because of the enemy, and also out of affection for the Lord.

SB 1.18.32 – imp verse which talks about the hatred of lower orders of life

This boy was known as Śṛṅgi, and he achieved good training in brahmacarya by his father so that he could be as powerful as a brāhmaṇa, even at that age. But because the Age of Kali was seeking an opportunity to spoil the cultural heritage of the four orders of life, the inexperienced boy gave a chance for the Age of Kali to enter into the field of Vedic culture. Hatred of the lower orders of life began from this brāhmaṇa boy, under the influence of Kali, and thus cultural life began to dwindle day after day. The first victim of brahminical injustice was Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and thus the protection given by the King against the onslaught of Kali was slackened.

Ramanujacharya’s wife  Example – Story of throwing away the food remnants of Ramanujacharya’s Shiksha guru who was sudra. 

Instead of  Guna karma they changed it to janma karma vibhaghasah

SB 1.18.22

Only the self-controlled can gradually be attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Self-controlled means not indulging in sense enjoyment more than is necessary. And those who are not self-controlled are given over to sense enjoyment. Dry philosophical speculation is a subtle sense of enjoyment of the mind. Sense enjoyment leads one to the path of darkness. Those who are self-controlled can make progress on the path of liberation from the conditional life of material existence. The Vedas, therefore, enjoin that one should not go on the path of darkness but should make a progressive march towards the path of light or liberation. 

Self-control is actually achieved not by artificially stopping the senses from material enjoyment, but by becoming factually attached to the Supreme Lord by engaging one’s unalloyed senses in the transcendental service of the Lord. The senses cannot be forcibly curbed, but they can be given proper engagement. Purified senses, therefore, are always engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord. This perfectional stage of sense engagement is called bhakti-yoga. So those who are attached to the means of bhakti-yoga are factually self-controlled and can all of a sudden give up their homely or bodily attachment for the service of the Lord. This is called the paramahaṁsa stage. Haṁsas, or swans, accept only milk out of a mixture of milk and water. Similarly, those who accept the service of the Lord instead of māyā’s service are called the paramahaṁsas. They are naturally qualified with all the good attributes, such as pridelessness, freedom from vanity, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, respectability, worship, devotion and sincerity. All these godly qualities exist in the devotee of the Lord spontaneously. Such paramahaṁsas, who are completely given up to the service of the Lord, are very rare. They are very rare even amongst the liberated souls. Real nonviolence means freedom from envy. In this world everyone is envious of his fellow being. But a perfect paramahaṁsa, being completely given up to the service of the Lord, is perfectly nonenvious. He loves every living being in relation with the Supreme Lord. Real renunciation means perfect dependence on God. Every living being is dependent on someone else because he is so made. Actually everyone is dependent on the mercy of the Supreme Lord, but when one forgets his relation with the Lord, he becomes dependent on the conditions of material nature. Renunciation means renouncing one’s dependence on the conditions of material nature and thus becoming completely dependent on the mercy of the Lord. Real independence means complete faith in the mercy of the Lord without dependence on the conditions of matter. This paramahaṁsa stage is the highest perfectional stage in bhakti-yoga, the process of devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

1928 – Stock market collapse many people committed suicide by jumping from the high rise building because they were completely dependant on the stock market. When a person is dependant on the material nature, everything they collected becomes zero they commit suicide. 

1. A devotee is non envious because he sees everyone equally and he sees himself as a servant and everyone else as Prabhu..  “Dharma pro… nimatsaranam satam…”
2. The viscous competition that happens in this world for existence is very dangerous, we need to be careful. A devotee does not participate in the competition. 
3. Wherever there is envy there is the misfortune

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.6.8:

1. One would cease to generate altogether if there were not, by the grace of the Lord, a coating, a pleasure-giving substance, on the surface of the generative organs. This substance gives a pleasure so intense that it counteracts fully the distress of family encumbrances. 
2. A person is so captivated by this pleasure-giving substance that he is not satisfied by begetting a single child, but increases the number of children, with great risk in regard to maintaining them, simply for this pleasure-giving substance. 
3. This pleasure-giving substance is not false, however, because it originates from the transcendental body of the Lord. In other words, the pleasure-giving substance is a reality, but it has taken on an aspect of pervertedness on account of material contamination. 
4. In the material world, sex life is the cause of many distresses on account of material contact. Therefore, the sex life in the material world should not be encouraged beyond the necessity. 
5. There is a necessity for generating progeny even in the material world, but such generation of children must be carried out with full responsibility for spiritual values. 
6. The degraded form of family restriction by use of contraceptives, etc., is the grossest type of material contamination. Materialists who use these devices want to fully utilize the pleasure potency of the coating on the genitals by artificial means, without knowing the spiritual importance.
7. And without knowledge of spiritual values, the less intelligent man tries to utilize only the material sense of pleasure of the genitals.
8. The Lord is great, and living beings are subordinate to Him. Therefore, the duty of the living being is just to serve Him only. Unfortunately, the illusioned living beings, out of misunderstanding only, become servants of the senses by material desire. This desire is called avidyā, or nescience.
9. And out of such desire the living being makes different plans for material enjoyment centered about a perverted sex life. He therefore becomes entangled in the chain of birth and death by transmigrating into different bodies on different planets under the direction of the Supreme Lord.
10. Unless one is beyond the boundary of this nescience, one cannot get free from the threefold miseries of material life. That is the law of nature.
11. The path of salvation or the path going back to Godhead always forbids the association of women, and the complete sanātana-dharma or varṇāśrama-dharma scheme forbids or restricts association with women.
12. The activities of the world are being carried on by the central attraction of male and female. A male is searching after a mate to his liking, and the female is looking after a suitable male.
13. And as soon as a male is combined with a female, the material bondage of the living being is at once tightly interlocked by sex relation, and as a result of this, both the male’s and female’s attraction for sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth becomes the illusory field of activities, and thus a false but indefatigable attraction for the temporary material existence, which is full of miseries, is manifest.
14. It is said in the Manu-smṛti that lust cannot be satisfied by any amount of sense enjoyment, just as fire is never extinguished by a constant supply of fuel.
15. The advancement of material civilization on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity. Therefore, this lust is the symbol of ignorance by which the living entity is kept within the material world. While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually, that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer.
16. The positive part is – Lust is only the perverted reflection of the love of God which is natural for every living entity. But if one is educated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the very beginning, that natural love of God cannot deteriorate into lust. 
17. When love of God deteriorates into lust, it is very difficult to return to normal condition. Nonetheless, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so powerful that even a late beginner can become a lover of God by following the regulative principles of devotional service. 
18. So, from any stage of life, or from the time of understanding its urgency, one can begin regulating the senses in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service of the Lord, and turn the lust into love of Godhead – the highest perfectional stage of human life.
    
    

SB 2.6.8

From the Lord’s genitals originate water, semen, generatives, rains and the procreators. His genitals are the cause of a pleasure that counteracts the distress of begetting.

CLASS NOTES: 

The genitals and the pleasure of begetting counteract the distresses of family encumbrances. One would cease to generate altogether if there were not, by the grace of the Lord, a coating, a pleasure-giving substance, on the surface of the generative organs. This substance gives a pleasure so intense that it counteracts fully the distress of family encumbrances. A person is so captivated by this pleasure-giving substance that he is not satisfied by begetting a single child, but increases the number of children, with great risk in regard to maintaining them, simply for this pleasure-giving substance. This pleasure-giving substance is not false, however, because it originates from the transcendental body of the Lord. In other words, the pleasure-giving substance is a reality, but it has taken on an aspect of pervertedness on account of material contamination. In the material world, sex life is the cause of many distresses on account of material contact. Therefore, the sex life in the material world should not be encouraged beyond the necessity. There is a necessity for generating progeny even in the material world, but such generation of children must be carried out with full responsibility for spiritual values. The spiritual values of life can be realized in the human form of material existence, and the human being must adopt family planning with reference to the context of spiritual values, and not otherwise. The degraded form of family restriction by use of contraceptives, etc., is the grossest type of material contamination. Materialists who use these devices want to fully utilize the pleasure potency of the coating on the genitals by artificial means, without knowing the spiritual importance. And without knowledge of spiritual values, the less intelligent man tries to utilize only the material sense of pleasure of the genitals.

This explains What keeps us in this material world birth after birth. Subject to laws of nature. When we become envious of Krishna we cannot stay in the spiritual world.  We are placed in the material world through 6 stages governed by the laws of material nature – 

Born, grows, stays, by-products, dwindles, dies. This is inevitable.

Our real identity is to be the eternal servant of Krsna. If we ignore this we are put into the cycle of birth and death. This is unending as long as we engage in mundane sexual activities.

The completion of the sexual act – is to educate the result of it the child about God-consciousness and help them lead a KC life and not contaminate them with modern education and work for these big companies like slaves and have no time for KC. Outsourcing has ruined lives in India. Just to make more money by working in high-tech companies in Bangalore.. They completely ignore spiritual life or they go to phony gurus who give solutions for becoming efficient at work..

SB 1.8.35

The Lord is great, and living beings are subordinate to Him. Therefore, the duty of the living being is just to serve Him only. Unfortunately, the illusioned living beings, out of misunderstanding only, become servants of the senses by material desire. This desire is called avidyā, or nescience. And out of such desire the living being makes different plans for material enjoyment centered about a perverted sex life. He therefore becomes entangled in the chain of birth and death by transmigrating into different bodies on different planets under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Unless, therefore, one is beyond the boundary of this nescience, one cannot get free from the threefold miseries of material life. That is the law of nature.

We are continuously placed in this world due to the influence of material modes. We are completely harassed by the fluctuating modes of material nature. They are never actually pure. Even the mode of goodness is not pure. We go over and over again modes of material nature. Everything we do we are forced to do. We are breathing, blinking eyes, we want to reproduce all these are forced upon us. 

Unless we come in contact with a pure devotee, a spiritual master we will not come out of the modes. But the issue is most of the so-called spiritual masters, Brahmanas are not pure.  Doing this puja and that puja one can advance materially this is what they are advocating. Unless we remove the envy for the lord and go beyond this material world we continue in this cycle of birth and death. Doing puja for material benefit is not the goal of life, that is described in Bhagavad gita. 

BG 18.5

Acts of sacrifice, charity, and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity, and penance purify even the great souls.

All prescribed sacrifices are meant for achieving the Supreme Lord. Therefore, in the lower stages, they should not be given up. Similarly, charity is for the purification of the heart. If the charity is given to suitable persons, as described previously, it leads one to advanced spiritual life.

BG 18.6

All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Pṛthā. That is My final opinion.

Although all sacrifices are purifying, one should not expect any result by such performances. In other words, all sacrifices which are meant for material advancement in life should be given up, but sacrifices that purify one’s existence and elevate one to the spiritual plane should not be stopped. Everything that leads to Kṛṣṇa consciousness must be encouraged. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also it is said that any activity which leads to devotional service to the Lord should be accepted. That is the highest criterion of religion. A devotee of the Lord should accept any kind of work, sacrifice or charity which will help him in the discharge of devotional service to the Lord.

The difference between, Sacriice for material benefit and sacrifice for spiritual benefit is “Mama”

means the result of this sacrifice is for me. (Health, Wealth, business.. ) All these activities keep you in the material world, this is a curse by the modern Brahmanas to the people. It is not a benediction. Why do Brahmanas do this, they do this for money, it is a transaction, You give me money I will do puja by which you get money.  This is a curse. The purpose of human life is to be liberated from human life. If a husband and wife decide to be Krsna Conscious and produce children and teach them to be God-conscious. That is the duty. The goal of this temple is to teach people to serve the Lord. Everyone has an equal chance to develop a spiritual life and eventually go back to godhead. 

Civilized Human Being – Engaged in the quest of understanding how they got into this situation and studies vedas to learn it. BG and SB are the texts to read. BG is the quintessential text. Summarized into 2 imp verses – 

• Daivehesa gunamayi…. BG7.14 . What is impossible to do is possible to do with the surrender to the lord. 
• BG 18.66  – just give up all fabricated dharmas, surrender unto Me. That is the whole message of BG. All bonafide spiritual texts are questions and answers. These are all fundamental questions. Pain and suffering is the main theme of the material world. and the living entity is questioning. At the end of their life, most people are lamenting. 

In SB is explained. 

SB 1.11.36 

Although the queens’ beautiful smiles and furtive glances were all spotless and exciting, and although they could conquer Cupid himself by making him give up his bow in frustration, and although even the tolerant Śiva could fall victim to them, still, despite all their magical feats and attractions, they could not agitate the senses of the Lord.

The path of salvation or the path going back to Godhead always forbids the association of women, and the complete sanātana-dharma or varṇāśrama-dharma scheme forbids or restricts association with women. How then can one be accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is addicted to more than sixteen thousand wives? This question may be relevantly raised by inquisitive persons really anxious to know about the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord. And to answer such questions, the sages at Naimiṣāraṇya have discussed the transcendental character of the Lord in this and in following verses. It is clear herein that the feminine attractive features which can conquer Cupid or even the supermost tolerant Lord Śiva could not conquer the senses of the Lord. Cupid’s business is to invoke mundane lust. The whole universe is moving, being agitated by Cupid’s arrow. The activities of the world are being carried on by the central attraction of male and female. A male is searching after a mate to his liking, and the female is looking after a suitable male. That is the way of material stimulus. And as soon as a male is combined with a female, the material bondage of the living being is at once tightly interlocked by sex relation, and as a result of this, both the male’s and female’s attraction for sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth becomes the illusory field of activities, and thus a false but indefatigable attraction for the temporary material existence, which is full of miseries, is manifest.

We have only 2 choices. That is the limit of our free will –

1. Accept to follow instructions of Krsna –
2. Refuse to follow instructions of Krsna – completely illusioned, working like asses, suffering all kinds of miseries, but accepting miseries because there is some pleasure in the sex life.

One who is intelligent should see why they are suffering and make a choice to get liberated from this bondage by accepting His instructions.

BG 18.73

arjuna uvāca
naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā
tvat-prasādān mayācyuta
sthito ’smi gata-sandehaḥ
kariṣye vacanaṁ tava

Arjuna said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.

Arjuna is saying – That is your real prasad Krsna… I am going to do whatever you instruct Krsna. That is the correct use of our free will  – to follow the instructions of Krsna. 

BG 3.39

Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
It is said in the Manu-smṛti that lust cannot be satisfied by any amount of sense enjoyment, just as fire is never extinguished by a constant supply of fuel. 

#metoo is an example for this. Millions of women are exploited by these powerful men

In the material world, the center of all activities is sex, and thus this material world is called maithunya-āgāra, or the shackles of sex life. In the ordinary prison-house, criminals are kept within bars; similarly, the criminals who are disobedient to the laws of the Lord are shackled by sex life. The advancement of material civilization on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity. Therefore, this lust is the symbol of ignorance by which the living entity is kept within the material world. While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually, that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer.

The Positive part is – Lust is the perverted reflection of the love of God. It is mentioned in BG 3.41

BG 3.41

Lust is only the perverted reflection of the love of God which is natural for every living entity. But if one is educated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the very beginning, that natural love of God cannot deteriorate into lust. 

Mother and father control their own lusty desires. Work with their children to control their lusty desires. The lusty desires begin from puberty.. 

When love of God deteriorates into lust, it is very difficult to return to normal condition. Nonetheless, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so powerful that even a late beginner can become a lover of God by following the regulative principles of devotional service. 

Animals cannot be regulated. Humans can be regulated. Regulative principles – 4 dos and donts. 

So, from any stage of life, or from the time of understanding its urgency, one can begin regulating the senses in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service of the Lord, and turn the lust into love of Godhead – the highest perfectional stage of human life.

Animals cannot do this, they do not have the intelligence or the body to do it. 

Human beings can engage in Tapasya – voluntary renunciation of negative things and voluntary acceptance of positive things. Eating, mating, sleeping and defending is animalistic life. Chanting, hearing SB, BG asking questions, engaging in dev service are the regulated activities of a person who is on the fast track to go back to Godhead.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.6.7 TODAY (07/25/21):

1. For absolute protection from all sorts of fear, as well as for all our needs of life, we must take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, not only in this planet but also in all the upper, lower and heavenly planets.
2. This absolute dependence on the lotus feet of the Lord is called pure devotional service, and it is directly hinted at within this passage.
3. No one should have any kind of doubt in this matter, nor should one be inclined to seek the help of any other demigods, because all of them are dependent on Him only.
4. Everyone, except the Lord Himself, is dependent on the mercy of the Lord; even the all-pervading Supersoul is also dependent on the supreme aspect of Bhagavān, the Personality of Godhead.
5. Anything that does not lead to the perfectional stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be avoided. One should be confident that in all circumstances Kṛṣṇa will protect him from all difficulties. 
6. The pure devotee does not have to worry about the material necessities of life; he need not be anxious, because when he removes the darkness from his heart, everything is provided automatically by the Supreme Lord, who is pleased by the loving devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā.
7. By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.
8. A pure devotee is never deviated from the service of the Lord, despite all difficulties and impediments offered by the illusory energy. Generally, men who have wealth and opulence are famous, but Bali Mahārāja became famous for all time by being deprived of all his possessions. 
9. As the first installment of His special favor, the Lord takes away all the possessions of His devotee. A devotee, however, is never disturbed by such a loss. He continues his service, and the Lord amply rewards him, beyond the expectations of any common man.
10. When a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.
11. “Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord.” 
12. A devotee engaged in the service of Nārāyaṇa is always in equilibrium. A devotee actually lives transcendentally. Although he may appear to have gone to hell or heaven, he does not live in either place; rather, he always lives in Vaikuṇṭha
13. A devotee does not live alone. Of course, everyone lives with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but because the devotee is engaged in His service, he actually does not live in any material condition
14. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays to take birth as an insignificant insect in the association of devotees. Because devotees are engaged in the service of the Lord, anyone who lives with them also lives in Vaikuṇṭha.
15. Everything belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one else possesses anything. This is the real fact
16. A devotee always lives with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, engaging in His service, and therefore he is always transcendental to hellish or heavenly residences.
17. Every devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness should always be afraid of the common man engaged in pursuing material prosperity.
18. Those who are completely established in Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy and who therefore understand the aim of life will never take to the activities of the materialistic dog race. But if a sincere devotee somehow does fall down, the Lord corrects him and saves him from gliding down to the darkest region of hellish life.
19. Bali Mahārāja appreciated how the Lord had saved him from such a bewildered life of ignorance. He therefore said that his intelligence had been stunned. He could not understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead favors His devotees by forcibly stopping their materialistic activities.
20. Success or no success, a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always steady in his determination.
21. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead deprives His devotee of material opulences, this does not mean that the Lord puts him into poverty; rather, the Lord promotes him to a higher position
22. By the association of devotees, the demoniac mentality is vanquished.
23. When a demon associates with devotees engaged in glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he gradually becomes a pure devotee.

SB 2.6.7 TRANSLATION: 

Thus the forward steps of the Lord are the shelter for the upper, lower and heavenly planets, as well as for all that we need. His lotus feet serve as protection from all kinds of fear.

CLASS NOTES: 

For absolute protection from all sorts of fear, as well as for all our needs of life, we must take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, not only in this planet but also in all the upper, lower and heavenly planets. This absolute dependence on the lotus feet of the Lord is called pure devotional service, and it is directly hinted at within this passage. No one should have any kind of doubt in this matter, nor should one be inclined to seek the help of any other demigods, because all of them are dependent on Him only. Everyone, except the Lord Himself, is dependent on the mercy of the Lord; even the all-pervading Supersoul is also dependent on the supreme aspect of Bhagavān, the Personality of Godhead.

This is an extremely important verse, the whole life and the practice of KC depends on the understanding of this verse. In BG Sarva dharman parityajya.. We don’t need anything else other than Krsna’s Mercy… Anukulyena Sankalpasya..The lord is promising the protection of His devotee. Devotees are absolutely sure of the protection from the Lord. If we waiver in that faith we fall down. Everyone is tested by Maya and also by Krsna Himself.

We can die any moment, that is the reality of the material world. Therefore the devotee understanding this, he accepts the verse “Aham sarva papebhyo…moksa..” He knows that Lord is going to protect us in the most difficult situation.

BG 18.66

One may perform a particular occupational duty according to his position in the social order, but if by executing his duty one does not come to the point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all his activities are in vain. Anything that does not lead to the perfectional stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be avoided. One should be confident that in all circumstances Kṛṣṇa will protect him from all difficulties. There is no need of thinking how one should keep the body and soul together. Kṛṣṇa will see to that. One should always think himself as helpless and should consider Kṛṣṇa the only basis for his progress in life. As soon as one seriously engages himself in devotional service to the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, at once he becomes freed from all contamination of material natur

BG 10.11
The pure devotee does not have to worry about the material necessities of life; he need not be anxious, because when he removes the darkness from his heart, everything is provided automatically by the Supreme Lord, who is pleased by the loving devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā. By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.

This is the point, when Prabhupada, surrendered by giving up everything, that is how the movement dynamically grew.  Maharaj Says – “I had a 4 years scholarship to get a master’s degree and I gave it up and started sankirtan going on streets. Sometimes relatives in France used to see me on the streets and shake their heads and say what a waste and they made faces and say you are crazy, That did not deter me” 

This is further explained in SB 8th canto. 

SB 8.21.28

O King, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāmanadeva, then spoke to Bali Mahārāja, the most liberal and celebrated personality whom He had arrested with the ropes of Varuṇa. Bali Mahārāja had lost all bodily luster, but he was nonetheless fixed in his determination.

When one is bereft of all his possessions, he is certainly reduced in bodily luster. But although Bali Mahārāja had lost everything, he was fixed in his determination to satisfy Vāmanadeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Bhagavad-gītā, such a person is called sthita-prajña. A pure devotee is never deviated from the service of the Lord, despite all difficulties and impediments offered by the illusory energy. Generally men who have wealth and opulence are famous, but Bali Mahārāja became famous for all time by being deprived of all his possessions. This is the special mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead toward His devotees. The Lord says, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ. As the first installment of His special favor, the Lord takes away all the possessions of His devotee. A devotee, however, is never disturbed by such a loss. He continues his service, and the Lord amply rewards him, beyond the expectations of any common man.

(BG 2.55) Sthitha Prajna

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

When SP met his Gurudev, he said in the first few minutes of the meeting, he should give up everything and spread the message of KC to the English-speaking world. He thought he is not ready, as he was married and has a child he thought of making money in the business and using that money to spread the Krsna Consciousness. 

The Bhāgavatam affirms that any person who is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or devotional service of the Lord, has all the good qualities of the great sages, whereas a person who is not so transcendentally situated has no good qualifications, because he is sure to be taking refuge in his own mental concoctions. Consequently, it is rightly said herein that one has to give up all kinds of sense desire manufactured by mental concoction. Artificially, such sense desires cannot be stopped. But if one is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then, automatically, sense desires subside without extraneous efforts. Therefore, one has to engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness without hesitation, for this devotional service will instantly help one onto the platform of transcendental consciousness. The highly developed soul always remains satisfied in himself by realizing himself as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. Such a transcendentally situated person has no sense desires resulting from petty materialism; rather, he remains always happy in his natural position of eternally serving the Supreme Lord.

SB 8.21.30

As far as the sun and moon shine with the stars and as far as the clouds pour rain, all the land throughout the universe is in your possession.

SB 8.21.31

Of these possessions, with one step I have occupied Bhūrloka, and with My body I have occupied the entire sky and all directions. And in your presence, with My second step, I have occupied the upper planetary system.

SB 8.21.32

Because you have been unable to give charity according to your promise, the rule is that you should go down to live in the hellish planets. Therefore, in accordance with the order of Śukrācārya, your spiritual master, now go down and live there.

It is said:

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve

na kutaścana bibhyati

svargāpavarga-narakeṣv

api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

“Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord.” (Bhāg. 6.17.28) [ We can serve Krsna even in the hell]

A devotee engaged in the service of Nārāyaṇa is always in equilibrium. A devotee actually lives transcendentally. Although he may appear to have gone to hell or heaven, he does not live in either place; rather, he always lives in Vaikuṇṭha (sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate). 

Vāmanadeva asked Bali Mahārāja to go to the hellish planets, apparently just to show the entire universe how tolerant he was, and Bali Mahārāja did not hesitate to carry out the order. A devotee does not live alone. Of course, everyone lives with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but because the devotee is engaged in His service, he actually does not live in any material condition. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, kīṭa janma hao yathā tuyā dāsa. Thus he prays to take birth as an insignificant insect in the association of devotees. Because devotees are engaged in the service of the Lord, anyone who lives with them also lives in Vaikuṇṭha.

Even in the worst adversity devotee is not affected, he does not give up Devotional service even in the most difficult circumstances. We got arrested many times for doing sankirtan in Paris. We are put in Jail for a day. When we were in Jail we could not do Arti, cook and offer bhoga, we did the whole thing in the jail mentally. In those severe conditions, we can do the service mentally. Vamana deva took away everything from Bali maharaj who thought that he was the owner of everything.

SB 8.21.33

Far from being elevated to the heavenly planets or fulfilling one’s desire, one who does not properly give a beggar what he has promised falls down to a hellish condition of life.

SB 8.21.34

Being falsely proud of your possessions, you promised to give Me land, but you could not fulfill your promise. Therefore, because your promise was false, you must live for a few years in hellish life.

The false prestige of thinking “I am very rich, and I possess such vast property” is another side of material life. Everything belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one else possesses anything. This is the real fact. īśāvāsyam idaṁ samaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat. Bali Mahārāja was undoubtedly the most exalted devotee, whereas previously he had maintained a misunderstanding due to false prestige. By the supreme will of the Lord, he now had to go to the hellish planets, but because he went there by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he lived there more opulently than one could expect to live in the planets of heaven. A devotee always lives with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, engaging in His service, and therefore he is always transcendental to hellish or heavenly residences.

We should never be hesitant in engaging in devotional service. There is no difference between devotional service and Krsna Himself. Krishna has the power to make everything material to spiritual and vice versa. It all depends on our motive.

SB 8.22.11

Only by providence have I been forcibly brought under Your lotus feet and deprived of all my opulence. Because of the illusion created by temporary opulence, people in general, who live under material conditions, facing accidental death at every moment, do not understand that this life is temporary. Only by providence have I been saved from that condition.

Bali Mahārāja appreciated the actions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although all the members of the demoniac families except Prahlāda Mahārāja and Bali Mahārāja considered Viṣṇu their eternal traditional enemy. As described by Bali Mahārāja, Lord Viṣṇu was actually not the enemy of the family but the best friend of the family. The principle of this friendship has already been stated. Yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ: the Lord bestows special favor upon His devotee by taking away all his material opulences. Bali Mahārāja appreciated this behavior by the Lord. Therefore he said, daivena nītaḥ prasabhaṁ tyājita-śrīḥ: “It is to bring me to the right platform of eternal life that You have put me into these circumstances.”

Actually, everyone should fear the so-called society, friendship and love for which he works so hard all day and night. As indicated by Bali Mahārāja by the words janād bhītaḥ, every devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness should always be afraid of the common man engaged in pursuing material prosperity. Such a person is described as pramatta, a madman chasing the will-o’-the-wisp. Such men do not know that after a hard struggle for life one must change his body, with no certainty of what kind of body he will receive next. Those who are completely established in Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy and who therefore understand the aim of life will never take to the activities of the materialistic dog race. But if a sincere devotee somehow does fall down, the Lord corrects him and saves him from gliding down to the darkest region of hellish life.

adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ

punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām

(Bhāg. 7.5.30)

The materialistic way of life is nothing but the repeated chewing of that which has already been chewed. Although there is no profit in such a life, people are enamored of it because of uncontrolled senses. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma. Because of uncontrolled senses, people fully engage in sinful activities by which they get a body full of suffering. Bali Mahārāja appreciated how the Lord had saved him from such a bewildered life of ignorance. He therefore said that his intelligence had been stunned. Stabdha-matir na budhyate. He could not understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead favors His devotees by forcibly stopping their materialistic activities.

Amazing statements. SB is so very enlightening, it explains the truth which is completely opposite to what we think as truth. 

BG 2.56 

Success or no success, a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always steady in his determination.

When you understand that Krsna is testing you, there is no need of fear,.

SB 8.22.31

The Lord continued: Because of his great tolerance, I have given him a place not obtainable even by the demigods. He will become King of the heavenly planets during the period of the Manu known as Sāvarṇi.

Purport

This is the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even if the Lord takes away a devotee’s material opulences, the Lord immediately offers him a position of which the demigods cannot even dream. There are many examples of this in the history of devotional service. One of them is the opulence of Sudāmā Vipra. Sudāmā Vipra suffered severe material scarcity, but he was not disturbed and did not deviate from devotional service. Thus he was ultimately given an exalted position by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Here the word mad-āśrayaḥ is very significant. Because the Lord wanted to give Bali Mahārāja the exalted position of Indra, the demigods might naturally have been envious of him and might have fought to disturb his position. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead assured Bali Mahārāja that he would always remain under the Lord’s protection (mad-āśrayaḥ).

SB 8.22.32

Until Bali Mahārāja achieves the position of King of heaven, he shall live on the planet Sutala, which was made by Viśvakarmā according to My order. Because it is especially protected by Me, it is free from mental and bodily miseries, fatigue, dizziness, defeat and all other disturbances. Bali Mahārāja, you may now go live there peacefully.

SB 8.22.33

O Bali Mahārāja [Indrasena], now you may go to the planet Sutala, which is desired even by the demigods. Live there peacefully, surrounded by your friends and relatives. All good fortune unto you.

Purport

Bali Mahārāja was transferred from the heavenly planet to the planet Sutala, which is hundreds of times better than heaven, as indicated by the words svargibhiḥ prārthyam. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead deprives His devotee of material opulences, this does not mean that the Lord puts him into poverty; rather, the Lord promotes him to a higher position. The Supreme Personality of Godhead did not ask Bali Mahārāja to separate from his family; instead, the Lord allowed him to stay with his family members (jñātibhiḥ parivāritaḥ).

SB 8.22.34

On the planet Sutala, not even the predominating deities of other planets, what to speak of ordinary people, will be able to conquer you. As far as the demons are concerned, if they transgress your rule, My disc will kill them.

SB 8.22.35

O great hero, I shall always be with you and give you protection in all respects along with your associates and paraphernalia. Moreover, you will always be able to see Me there.

SB 8.22.36

Because there you will see My supreme prowess, your materialistic ideas and anxieties that have arisen from your association with the demons and Dānavas will immediately be vanquished.

The Lord assured Bali Mahārāja of all protection, and finally the Lord assured him of protection from the effects of bad association with the demons. Bali Mahārāja certainly became an exalted devotee, but he was somewhat anxious because his association was not purely devotional. The Supreme Personality of Godhead therefore assured him that his demoniac mentality would be annihilated. In other words, by the association of devotees, the demoniac mentality is vanquished.

satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido

bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ

(Bhāg. 3.25.25)

When a demon associates with devotees engaged in glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he gradually becomes a pure devotee.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.6.2 – 6:

1. There are many powerful kings, leaders, learned scholars, scientists, artists, engineers, inventors, excavators, archaeologists, industrialists, politicians, economists, business magnates, and many more powerful deities or demigods like Brahmā, Śiva, Indra, Candra, Sūrya, Varuṇa and Marut, who are all protecting the interest of the universal affairs of maintenance, in different positions, and all of them are different powerful parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. 
2. The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the father of all living entities, who are placed in different high and low positions according to their desires or aspirations.
3. Some of them, as particularly mentioned above, are specifically endowed with powers by the will of the Lord. 
4. A sane person must know for certain that a living being, however powerful he may be, is neither absolute nor independent. 
5. All living beings must accept the origin of their specific power as mentioned in this verse. And if they act accordingly, then simply by discharging their respective occupational duties they can achieve the highest perfection of life, namely eternal life, complete knowledge and inexhaustible blessings. 
6. As long as the powerful men of the world do not accept the origin of their respective powers, namely the Personality of Godhead, the actions of māyā (illusion) will continue to act. 
7. The actions of māyā are such that a powerful person, misled by the illusory, material energy, wrongly accepts himself as all in all and does not develop God-consciousness.
8. The intelligent class of men, therefore, must admit the Lord as the ultimate source of all energies and thus pay tribute to the Lord for His good blessings. 
9. Simply by accepting the Lord as the supreme proprietor of everything, since He is actually so, one can achieve the highest perfection of life. 
10. Whatever a person may be in the estimation of the social order of things, if a person tries to reciprocate a feeling of love towards the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is satisfied with the blessings of the Lord, he will at once feel the highest peace of mind for which he is hankering life after life. 
11. Peace of mind, or in other words the healthy state of mind, can be achieved only when the mind is situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. 
12. The parts and parcels of the Lord are endowed with specific powers for rendering service unto the Lord, just as a big business magnate’s sons are empowered with specific powers of administration. 
13. The obedient son of the father never goes against the will of the father and therefore passes life very peacefully in concurrence with the head of the family, the father. Similarly, the Lord being the father, all living beings should fully and satisfactorily discharge the duty and will of the father, as faithful sons. This very mentality will at once bring peace and prosperity to human society.

SB 2.6.2 TRANSLATION
His two nostrils are the generating centers of our breathing and of all other airs, His smelling powers generate the Aśvinī-kumāra demigods and all kinds of medicinal herbs, and His breathing energies produce different kinds of fragrance.

SB 2.6.3 TRANSLATION
His eyes are the generating centers of all kinds of forms, and they glitter and illuminate. His eyeballs are like the sun and the heavenly planets. His ears hear from all sides and are receptacles for all the Vedas, and His sense of hearing is the generating center of the sky and of all kinds of sound.
The word tīrthānām is sometimes interpreted to mean the places of pilgrimage, but Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that it means the reception of the Vedic transcendental knowledge. The propounders of the Vedic knowledge are also known as the tīrthas.

SB 2.6.4 TRANSLATION
His bodily surface is the breeding ground for the active principles of everything and for all kinds of auspicious opportunities. His skin, like the moving air, is the generating center for all kinds of sense of touch and is the place for performing all kinds of sacrifice.

The air is the moving agent of all the planets, and as such, the generating centers for promotion to the deserving planets, the sacrifices, are His bodily surface and are naturally the origin of all auspicious opportunities.

SB 2.6.5 TRANSLATION
The hairs on His body are the cause of all vegetation, particularly of those trees which are required as ingredients for sacrifice. The hairs on His head and face are reservoirs for the clouds, and His nails are the breeding ground of electricity, stones and iron ores.

The polished nails of the Lord generate electricity, and the clouds rest on the hairs of His head. One can therefore collect all sorts of necessities of life from the person of the Lord, and therefore the Vedas affirm that everything that is produced is caused by the Lord. The Lord is the supreme cause of all causes.

SB 2.6.6 TRANSLATION:
The Lord’s arms are the productive fields for the great demigods and other leaders of the living entities who protect the general mass.

CLASS NOTES: 

There are many powerful kings, leaders, learned scholars, scientists, artists, engineers, inventors, excavators, archaeologists, industrialists, politicians, economists, business magnates, and many more powerful deities or demigods like Brahmā, Śiva, Indra, Candra, Sūrya, Varuṇa and Marut, who are all protecting the interest of the universal affairs of maintenance, in different positions, and all of them are different powerful parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the father of all living entities, who are placed in different high and low positions according to their desires or aspirations. Some of them, as particularly mentioned above, are specifically endowed with powers by the will of the Lord. A sane person must know for certain that a living being, however powerful he may be, is neither absolute nor independent.All living beings must accept the origin of their specific power as mentioned in this verse. And if they act accordingly, then simply by discharging their respective occupational duties they can achieve the highest perfection of life, namely eternal life, complete knowledge and inexhaustible blessings. As long as the powerful men of the world do not accept the origin of their respective powers, namely the Personality of Godhead, the actions of māyā (illusion) will continue to act. The actions of māyā are such that a powerful person, misled by the illusory, material energy, wrongly accepts himself as all in all and does not develop God consciousness. As such, the false sense of egoism (namely “myself” and “mine”) has become overly prominent in the world, and there is a hard struggle for existence in human society. The intelligent class of men, therefore, must admit the Lord as the ultimate source of all energies and thus pay tribute to the Lord for His good blessings. Simply by accepting the Lord as the supreme proprietor of everything, since He is actually so, one can achieve the highest perfection of life. Whatever a person may be in the estimation of the social order of things, if a person tries to reciprocate a feeling of love towards the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is satisfied with the blessings of the Lord, he will at once feel the highest peace of mind for which he is hankering life after life. Peace of mind, or in other words the healthy state of mind, can be achieved only when the mind is situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The parts and parcels of the Lord are endowed with specific powers for rendering service unto the Lord, just as a big business magnate’s sons are empowered with specific powers of administration. The obedient son of the father never goes against the will of the father and therefore passes life very peacefully in concurrence with the head of the family, the father. Similarly, the Lord being the father, all living beings should fully and satisfactorily discharge the duty and will of the father, as faithful sons. This very mentality will at once bring peace and prosperity to human society.

What we are hearing in this section, chapters 5 and 6 is how the material world is created in very step-by-step detail. You cannot find this in any scripture. How this progressive material creation happens is discussed. It all started with the sound vibration. Qualities of tan mantra – Seeing, hearing, touching… 

Maharaj Parikshit is asking question after question to understand the goal of the human form of life. Only in the human form of life who are civilized are able to understand how the creation took place and who is the ultimate creator, maintainer. We are all subject to the laws of nature – birth-death, old age, and disease. Any strategy or technology cannot save us from birth-death old age and disease.  But the lord said in BG 7.14-  daivy hesa guna mayi.. He is giving us an easy way to overcome the overpowering material nature. Simply by chanting, dancing, feasting… 

Chant, feast, engage in Harinam Sankirtan, preaching, giving people a chance to hear. One is not meant to use the body for sense gratification, not for buying big homes, gadgets. All unnecessary things. The soul does not need mating, gadgets, material allurements.. 

We are forced to do things. 

One thing that is not controlled by laws of nature/ karma is surrender to the lord. They regulate everything else. You can be the worst person but you can still surrender to the lord, your laws of karma does not control. 

We chose not to follow the instructions of Krsna. We are under the spell of modes of material nature. We feel we are independent, but we are not. 

Spiritual life is all about self-sufficiency. What you need is to learn how to grow your own food and depend on God. Industrialization ruined the lives of many people and it made people slaves of unnecessary products. When you are free from all illusory sense gratification activities, you can live peacefully, with a little bit of land, chanting, and hearing. 

People find happiness in accumulating things, gadgets, properties, eating exotic food stuff, vacations, exploiting others, so they are searching for happiness by doing these things… This is impossible. They are searching for things in a place where it cant be found. It is like you lost keys somewhere and you are searching somewhere else and you will never find the keys.

We have the free will to accept that the

1. God is the ultimate beneficiary of all our activities and sacrifices
2. God is the supreme proprietor of everything 
3. Krsna, situated in your heart, is the best friend you can have, always waiting for you to turn your attention towards Him. 

At the end of life, you will go back to Godhead. 

Question – Inexhaustible blessings 

Blessing – eternal life, eternal love, eternal reciprocation with the Lord, eternal 

Blessing cannot be temporary, something which is eternal. 

Not only ending, but it is also dynamic, it is always increasing, You will never get bored in spiritual life. Time is not destroying it is aiding everything. In the spiritual world, there is no past, present, and future. There is the eternal present. The soul is eternally happy. 

Inexhaustible blessings – spiritual world

Inexhaustible miseries – material world. 

The material world always goes through 6 stages – created, grows, exists, produces something, dwindles, & dies

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.40 TODAY (07/22/21): 

1. The lower and upper planetary systems are scattered over the complete universe, which occupies an area of two billion times two billion square miles.
2. The modern astronauts can travel only a few thousand miles away from the earth, and therefore their attempt to travel in the sky is something like child’s play on the shore of an expansive ocean.
3. There are innumerable universes beyond the one in which we are put, and all these material universes cover only an insignificant portion of the spiritual sky, which is described as sanātana Brahmaloka.
4. The Supreme Lord very kindly invites the intelligent human beings to return home, back to Godhead in BG 8.16.
5. Beginning from Satyaloka, the topmost planet of the universe, situated just below the eternal Brahmaloka, all the planets are material. And one’s situation in any of the many material planets is still subject to the laws of material nature, namely birth, death, old age and disease. But one can get complete liberation from all the material pangs when one enters into the eternal Brahmaloka sanātana atmosphere, the kingdom of God.
6. Liberation, as contemplated by speculative philosophers and mystics, is possible only when one becomes a devotee of the Lord.
7. Anyone who is not a devotee cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Only by attainment of a service attitude in the transcendental position can one enter into the kingdom of Godhead.
8. In the following verses, Lord Himself is telling us how we can get to His spiritual abode. 
9. BG 11.54 – My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.
10. BG 12.8 – Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.
11. BG 18.65 – Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.
12. BG 18.62 – O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.
13. A living entity should therefore surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in everyone’s heart, and that will relieve him from all kinds of miseries of this material existence. By such surrender, not only will one be released from all miseries in this life, but at the end he will reach the Supreme God. 
14. We understand that only by performing unalloyed devotional service, one can go back to Godhead (Spiritual abode). How this devotional service can be performed is described:  mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ
15. CC Madhya 17.185 – “A devotee’s behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles. The behavior of Mādhavendra Purī Gosvāmī is the essence of such religious principles.”
16.  A sādhu, or honest man, is called a mahājana or a mahātmā. The mahātmā is described thus by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.13)
17. It is those who are devoid of devotional service who sometimes mistakenly accept persons with mundane motives as mahājanas. Sometimes fruitive workers, dry philosophers, nondevotees, mystic yogīs, and persons attached to material opulence, women, and money are considered mahājanas.The only motive must be kṛṣṇa-bhakti, devotional service to the Lord. 
18. “Anyone whose work is not meant for elevating him to religious life, anyone whose religious ritualistic performances do not raise him to renunciation, and anyone situated in renunciation that does not lead him to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead must be considered dead, although he is breathing.”
19. The conclusion is that all pious activity, fruitive activity, religious principles and renunciation must ultimately lead to devotional service
20. There are different types of processes for rendering service. One may serve his country, people and society, the varṇāśrama-dharma system, the sick, the poor, the rich, women, demigods and so on. All this service comes under the heading of sense gratification, or enjoyment in the material world. 
21. It is most unfortunate that people are more or less attracted by such material activity and that the leaders of these activities are accepted as mahājanas, great ideal leaders. Actually they are only misleaders, but an ordinary man cannot understand how he is being misled.
22. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, “One should accept as one’s guide the words of the sādhus, the śāstra and the guru.” A sādhu is a great personality like Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the śāstras are the injunctions of revealed scriptures, and the guru, or spiritual master, is one who confirms the scriptural injunctions. Accepting the guidance of these three is the actual way of following the great personalities (mahājanas) for real advancement in life (mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ).
23. A man covered by illusion cannot understand the proper way; therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, “The behavior of a devotee is the criterion for all other behavior.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself followed the behavior of Mādhavendra Purī and advised others to follow his principles. 
24. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura warns:“Don’t be carried away by the waves of māyā. Just surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and all miseries will end.” 
25. Those who follow social customs and behavior forget to follow the path chalked out by the mahājanas; thus they are offenders at the feet of the mahājanas.
26. We cannot ascertain the real truth simply by following speculators. We have to follow the footsteps of the mahājanas in the disciplic succession. Then our attempt will be successful.
27. “Whatever is spoken by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is an incessant flow of nectar.” Whoever accepts His words as reality can understand the essence of the Absolute Truth.
28. Śrī Mādhavendra Purī was a real mahājana because he understood the Absolute Truth properly and throughout his life behaved like a pure devotee. 
29. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (6.3.20) states that there are twelve mahājanas: Brahmā, Nārada, Śambhu, the four Kumāras, Kapila, Manu, Prahlāda, Janaka, Bhīṣma, Bali, Śukadeva and Yamarāja.
30. To select our mahājanas in the Gauḍīya-sampradāya, we have to follow in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His representatives. His next representative is Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, and the next representatives are the six Gosvāmīs — Śrī Rūpa, Śrī Sanātana, Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and Dāsa Raghunātha. A follower of Viṣṇu Svāmī’s was Śrīdhara Svāmī, the most well known commentator on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He was also a mahājana. Similarly, Caṇḍīdāsa, Vidyāpati and Jayadeva were all mahājanas. The mahajana we follow is Srila Prabhupada.
31. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the śāstras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahājanas advocate.’ ”
    
    

SB 2.5.40 

My dear son Nārada, know from me that there are seven lower planetary systems out of the total fourteen. The first planetary system, known as Atala, is situated on the waist; the second, Vitala, is situated on the thighs; the third, Sutala, on the knees; the fourth, Talātala, on the shanks; the fifth, Mahātala, on the ankles; the sixth, Rasātala, on the upper portion of the feet; and the seventh, Pātāla, on the soles of the feet. Thus the virāṭ form of the Lord is full of all planetary systems.

CLASS NOTES: 

All these planetary systems are scattered over the complete universe, which occupies an area of two billion times two billion square miles. The modern astronauts can travel only a few thousand miles away from the earth, and therefore their attempt to travel in the sky is something like child’s play on the shore of an expansive ocean. The moon is situated in the third status of the upper planetary system, and in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we shall be able to know the distant situation of the various planets scattered over the vast material sky. There are innumerable universes beyond the one in which we are put, and all these material universes cover only an insignificant portion of the spiritual sky, which is described above as sanātana Brahmaloka. The Supreme Lord very kindly invites the intelligent human beings to return home, back to Godhead, in the following verse of the 

BHAGAVAD-GĪTĀ (8.16): [ALTERNATE TRANSLATION]

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ

punar āvartino ’rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya

punar janma na vidyate

Beginning from Satyaloka, the topmost planet of the universe, situated just below the eternal Brahmaloka, as described above, all the planets are material. And one’s situation in any of the many material planets is still subject to the laws of material nature, namely birth, death, old age and disease. But one can get complete liberation from all the above-mentioned material pangs when one enters into the eternal Brahmaloka sanātana atmosphere, the kingdom of God. 

Therefore liberation, as contemplated by the speculative philosophers and the mystics, is possible only when one becomes a devotee of the Lord. Anyone who is not a devotee cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Only by attainment of a service attitude in the transcendental position can one enter into the kingdom of Godhead. Therefore the speculative philosophers, as well as the mystics, must first of all be attracted to the devotional cult before they can factually attain liberation.

BG 8.16 – From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.

The real nature of the material world is suffering. Intelligent people come to the conclusion that one has to get out of this material world. No one is happy. Krsna is training people in 2 ways to go back to Godhead. The first way He is teaching BG and the second way he has employed Maya to take charge. 

Everything material world goes through 6 staging – created, grow, stay, by-products, dwindle and die. This is the law, no one can change it. The whole material world is suffering. It is a hopeless situation. Birth death, old age, and disease we have to go through 8.4 million species. If we remain attached to body and relationships then we remain anchored in the cycle of birth and earth. 

All kinds of yogīs – karma, jñāna, haṭha, etc. – eventually have to attain devotional perfection in bhakti-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, before they can go to Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental abode and never return. Those who attain the highest material planets, the planets of the demigods, are again subjected to repeated birth and death. 

One has to take to devotional service to get out of this cycle of birth and death. In all these verses the lord is inviting to come to the Sanatana Brahma Loka and is providing devotional service as the solution to the cycle of birth, death, old age, and disease. 

BG 11.54 

My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.

BG 12.8 

Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.

BG 18.65

Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

BG 18.62

O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.

A living entity should therefore surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in everyone’s heart, and that will relieve him from all kinds of miseries of this material existence. By such surrender, not only will one be released from all miseries in this life, but at the end he will reach the Supreme God. The transcendental world is described in the Vedic literature (Ṛg Veda 1.22.20) as tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam. Since all of creation is the kingdom of God, everything material is actually spiritual, but paramaṁ padam specifically refers to the eternal abode, which is called the spiritual sky or Vaikuṇṭha.

RG Veda 1.22.20 – Oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam (Ṛg Veda 1.22.20). The lotus feet of Viṣṇu are the supreme devotional platform. The performance of everything on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead assures the perfection of all activity.

BG 5.25 

Those who are beyond the dualities that arise from doubts, whose minds are engaged within, who are always busy working for the welfare of all living beings and who are free from all sins achieve liberation in the Supreme.

BG 5.26 

Those who are free from anger and all material desires, who are self-realized, self-disciplined and constantly endeavoring for perfection, are assured of liberation in the Supreme in the very near future.

Having service, whoever is giving you the opportunities to serve is your best friend. 

HOW TO PERFORM DEVOTIONAL SERVICE

CC MADHYA 17.186  (MEANING MAHA JANA YENA GATHA – THIS IS THE ULTIMATE INSTRUCTION HOW TO ENGAGE IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE WITHOUT MAKING ANY MISTAKES.)

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, “ ‘Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the śāstras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahājanas advocate.’ ”

CC MADHYA 17.185

“A devotee’s behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles. The behavior of Mādhavendra Purī Gosvāmī is the essence of such religious principles.”

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura gives the following commentary on this passage.

DEFINITION OF MAHAJANA/ SADHU/ MAHATMA

A sādhu, or honest man, is called a mahājana or a mahātmā. The mahātmā is described thus by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.13):

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

“O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.”

MATERIAL DEFINITION OF MAHATMA

In the material world, the word mahātmā is understood in different ways by different religionists. Mundaners also come up with their different angles of vision. For the conditioned soul busy in sense gratification, a mahājana is recognized according to the proportion of sense gratification he offers. For instance, a businessman may consider a certain banker to be a mahājana, and karmīs desiring material enjoyment may consider philosophers like Jaimini to be mahājanas. There are many yogīs who want to control the senses, and for them Patañjali Ṛṣi is a mahājana. For the jñānīs, the atheist Kapila, Vasiṣṭha, Durvāsā, Dattātreya and other impersonalist philosophers are mahājanas. For the demons, Hiraṇyākṣa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa’s son Meghanāda, Jarāsandha and others are accepted as mahājanas. For materialistic anthropologists speculating on the evolution of the body, a person like Darwin is a mahājana. The scientists who are bewildered by Kṛṣṇa’s external energy have no relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yet they are accepted by some as mahājanas. Similarly, philosophers, historians, literary men, public speakers and social and political leaders are sometimes accepted as mahājanas. Such mahājanas are respected by certain men who have been described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.19):

“Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils.”

Our mahajana is Srilaa Prabhupada and we have to follow him.

Thus on the material platform animalistic leaders are worshiped by animals. Sometimes physicians, psychiatrists and social workers try to mitigate bodily pain, distress and fear, but they have no knowledge of spiritual identity and are bereft of a relationship with God. Yet they are considered mahājanas by the illusioned. Self-deceived persons sometimes accept leaders or spiritual masters from a priestly order that has been officially appointed by the codes of material life. In this way, they are deceived by official priests. Sometimes people accept as mahājanas those who have been designated by Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura as ḍhaṅga-vipras (imposter brāhmaṇas). Such imposters imitate the characteristics of Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura, and they envy Haridāsa Ṭhākura, who was certainly a mahājana. They make great artificial endeavors, advertising themselves as great devotees of the Lord or as mystic hypnotists knowledgeable in witchcraft, hypnotism and miracles. Sometimes people accept as mahājanas demons like Pūtanā, Tṛṇāvarta, Vatsa, Baka, Aghāsura, Dhenuka, Kālīya and Pralamba. Some people accept imitators and adversaries of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, such as Pauṇḍraka, Śṛgāla Vāsudeva, the spiritual master of the demons (Śukrācārya), or atheists like Cārvāka, King Vena, Sugata and Arhat. People who accept such imitators as mahājanas have no faith in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rather, they accept godless cheaters who present themselves as incarnations of God and cheat foolish people within the material world by word jugglery. Thus many rascals are accepted as mahājanas.

It is those who are devoid of devotional service who sometimes mistakenly accept persons with mundane motives as mahājanas. The only motive must be kṛṣṇa-bhakti, devotional service to the Lord. Sometimes fruitive workers, dry philosophers, nondevotees, mystic yogīs, and persons attached to material opulence, women and money are considered mahājanas. But Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (6.3.25) gives the following statement about such unauthorized mahājanas:

prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ na mahājano ’yaṁ

 devyā vimohita-matir bata māyayālam

trayyāṁ jaḍī-kṛta-matir madhu-puṣpitāyāṁ

 vaitānike mahati karmaṇi yujyamānaḥ

In this material world a person may be famous as a karma-vīra, a successful fruitive worker, or he may be very successful in performing religious duties, or he may be known as a hero in mental speculation (jñāna-vīra), or he may be a very famous renunciant. In any case, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.23.56) gives the following opinion in this matter.

neha yat karma dharmāya na virāgāya kalpate

na tīrtha-pada-sevāyai jīvann api mṛto hi saḥ

“Anyone whose work is not meant for elevating him to religious life, anyone whose religious ritualistic performances do not raise him to renunciation, and anyone situated in renunciation that does not lead him to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead must be considered dead, although he is breathing.”

The conclusion is that all pious activity, fruitive activity, religious principles and renunciation must ultimately lead to devotional service. There are different types of processes for rendering service. One may serve his country, people and society, the varṇāśrama-dharma system, the sick, the poor, the rich, women, demigods and so on. All this service comes under the heading of sense gratification, or enjoyment in the material world. It is most unfortunate that people are more or less attracted by such material activity and that the leaders of these activities are accepted as mahājanas, great ideal leaders. Actually they are only misleaders, but an ordinary man cannot understand how he is being misled.

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya, cittete kariyā aikya: “One should accept as one’s guide the words of the sādhus, the śāstra and the guru.” A sādhu is a great personality like Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the śāstras are the injunctions of revealed scriptures, and the guru, or spiritual master, is one who confirms the scriptural injunctions. Accepting the guidance of these three is the actual way of following the great personalities (mahājanas) for real advancement in life (mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ). A man covered by illusion cannot understand the proper way; therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, dharma-sthāpana-hetu sādhura vyavahāra: “The behavior of a devotee is the criterion for all other behavior.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself followed the devotional principles and taught others to follow them. Purī-gosāñira ye ācaraṇa, sei dharma sāra. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally followed the behavior of Mādhavendra Purī and advised others to follow his principles. Unfortunately, people have been attracted to the material body since time immemorial.

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke

 sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ

yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij

 janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ

“A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers his land of birth worshipable, and who goes to a place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there is to be considered like an ass or a cow.” (Bhāg. 10.84.13) Those who accept the logic of gaḍḍālikā-pravāha and follow in the footsteps of pseudo mahājanas are carried away by the waves of māyā. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura therefore warns:

miche māyāra vaśe, yāccha bhese’,

khāccha hābuḍubu, bhāi

jīva kṛṣṇa-dāsa, e viśvāsa,

ka’rle ta’ āra duḥkha nāi

“Don’t be carried away by the waves of māyā. Just surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and all miseries will end.” Those who follow social customs and behavior forget to follow the path chalked out by the mahājanas; thus they are offenders at the feet of the mahājanas. Sometimes they consider such mahājanas very conservative, or they create their own mahājanas. In this way they ignore the principles of the paramparā system. This is a great misfortune for everyone. If one does not follow in the footsteps of the real mahājanas, one’s plans for happiness will be frustrated. This is elaborately explained later in the Madhya-līlā (chapter twenty-five, verses 55, 56 and 58). It is there stated:

parama kāraṇa īśvare keha nāhi māne

sva-sva-mata sthāpe para-matera khaṇḍane

tāte chaya darśana haite ‘tattva’ nāhi jāni

‘mahājana’ yei kahe, sei ‘satya’ māni

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-vāṇī — amṛtera dhāra

tiṅho ye kahaye vastu, sei ‘tattva’ — sāra

People are so unfortunate that they do not accept the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead, they want to be supported by so-called mahājanas, or authorities. Tāte chaya darśana haite ‘tattva’ nāhi jāni: we cannot ascertain the real truth simply by following speculators. We have to follow the footsteps of the mahājanas in the disciplic succession. Then our attempt will be successful. Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-vāṇī — amṛtera dhāra: “Whatever is spoken by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is an incessant flow of nectar.” Whoever accepts His words as reality can understand the essence of the Absolute Truth.

Anything which takes you away from Krsna is demoniac

No one can ascertain the Absolute Truth by following the philosophy of Sāṅkhya or the yoga system of Patañjali, for neither the followers of Sāṅkhya nor the yogīs who follow Patañjali accept Lord Viṣṇu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead (na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum). The ambition of such people is never fulfilled; therefore they are attracted by the external energy. Although mental speculators may be renowned all over the world as great authorities, actually they are not. Such leaders are themselves conservative and not at all liberal. However, if we preach this philosophy, people will consider Vaiṣṇavas very sectarian. Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī was a real mahājana, but misguided people cannot distinguish the real from the unreal. But a person who is awakened to Kṛṣṇa consciousness can understand the real religious path chalked out by the Lord and His pure devotees. Śrī Mādhavendra Purī was a real mahājana because he understood the Absolute Truth properly and throughout his life behaved like a pure devotee. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved the method of Śrī Mādhavendra Purī. Therefore, although from the material viewpoint the Sanoḍiyā brāhmaṇa was on a lower platform, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu considered him situated on the highest platform of spiritual realization.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (6.3.20) states that there are twelve mahājanas: Brahmā, Nārada, Śambhu, the four Kumāras, Kapila, Manu, Prahlāda, Janaka, Bhīṣma, Bali, Śukadeva and Yamarāja.

To select our mahājanas in the Gauḍīya-sampradāya, we have to follow in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His representatives. His next representative is Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, and the next representatives are the six Gosvāmīs — Śrī Rūpa, Śrī Sanātana, Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and Dāsa Raghunātha. A follower of Viṣṇu Svāmī’s was Śrīdhara Svāmī, the most well known commentator on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He was also a mahājana. Similarly, Caṇḍīdāsa, Vidyāpati and Jayadeva were all mahājanas. One who tries to imitate the mahājanas just to become an imitative spiritual master is certainly far away from following in the footsteps of the mahājanas. Sometimes people cannot actually understand how a mahājana follows other mahājanas. In this way people commit offenses and fall from devotional service.

Women are gurus, siksha gurus. But they are not supposed to be initiating gurus. There are other things also – changing the words of the Guru. Original words of Guru should never be changed. Many things can happen but we have to follow the mahajana – Srila Prabhupada, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Goswamis,… Caitanya Mahaprabhu

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.38 & 39 TODAY (07/21/21):

1. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Brahmaloka is the loka or abode of Brahman, or the Supreme Lord. 
2. In the spiritual sky all the planets are as good as the Lord Himself. The Lord is all spirit, and His name, fame, glories, qualities, pastimes, etc., are all nondifferent from Him because He is absolute.
3. As such, the planets in the kingdom of God are also nondifferent from Him. In those planets there is no difference between the body and the soul, nor is there any influence of time as we experience it in the material world. And in addition to there being no influence of time, the planets in Brahmaloka, due to being spiritual, are never annihilated.
4.  All variegatedness in the spiritual planets is also one with the Lord, and therefore the Vedic aphorism ekam evādvitīyam is fully realized in that sanātana atmosphere of spiritual variegatedness.
5. This material world is only a shadow phantasmagoria of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, and because it is a shadow it is never eternal; the variegatedness in the material world of duality (spirit and matter) cannot be compared to that of the spiritual world.
6. Because of a poor fund of knowledge, less intelligent persons sometimes mistake the conditions of the shadow world to be equivalent to those of the spiritual world, and thus they mistake the Lord and His pastimes in the material world to be one with the conditioned souls and their activities.
7.  Whenever the Lord incarnates, He does so in His full internal potency (ātma-māyā), and less intelligent persons mistake Him to be one of the material creations. 
8. Kṛṣṇa’s superior, spiritual energy is transcendental and eternal. It is beyond all the changes of material nature, which is manifest and annihilated during the days and nights of Brahmā. Kṛṣṇa’s superior energy is completely opposite in quality to material nature. 
9. The virāṭ universal form of the Lord is an imagination for the material world. It has nothing to do with the spiritual world, or the kingdom of God.
10. The Lord has spoken about the peculiarity of His birth: although He may appear like an ordinary person, He remembers everything of His many, many past “births,” whereas a common man cannot remember what he has done even a few hours before. And yet, men often dare claim to be God, or Kṛṣṇa. One should not be misled by such meaningless claims. 
11. Then again, the Lord explains His prakṛti, or His form. Prakṛti means “nature,” as well as svarūpa, or “one’s own form.” The Lord says that He appears in His own body. He does not change His body, as the common living entity changes from one body to another. 
12. Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. 
13. And although His body does not deteriorate like a material body, it still appears that Lord Kṛṣṇa grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth. But astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. Although He is the oldest person in the whole creation – past, present and future. 
14. Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore, it is clear that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence.
15. Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary, common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal, blissful knowledge by His internal potency – and He is never contaminated by material nature. 
16.  The word māyā, or ātma-māyā, refers to the Lord’s causeless mercy, according to the Viśva-kośa dictionary. He is the Lord of all living entities because He performs wonderful and superhuman activities while He is on this earth. 
17. Therefore, the Lord is always the same Absolute Truth and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body.

SB 2.5.38 TRANSLATION
The lower planetary systems, up to the limit of the earthly stratum, are said to be situated in His legs. The middle planetary systems, beginning from Bhuvarloka, are situated in His navel. And the still higher planetary systems, occupied by the demigods and highly cultured sages and saints, are situated in the chest of the Supreme Lord.

SB 2.5.39 TRANSLATION

From the forefront of the chest up to the neck of the universal form of the Lord are situated the planetary systems named Janaloka and Tapoloka, whereas Satyaloka, the topmost planetary system, is situated on the head of the form. The spiritual planets, however, are eternal.

CLASS NOTES:

Many times in these pages we have discussed the spiritual planets situated beyond the material sky, and the description is corroborated in this verse. The word sanātana is significant. This very idea of eternity is expressed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.20), where it is said that beyond the material creation is the spiritual sky, where everything is eternal. Sometimes Satyaloka, the planet in which Brahmā resides, is also called Brahmaloka. But the Brahmaloka mentioned here is not the same as the Satyaloka planetary system. This Brahmaloka is eternal, whereas the Satyaloka planetary system is not eternal. And to distinguish between the two, the adjective sanātana has been used in this case. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, this Brahmaloka is the loka or abode of Brahman, or the Supreme Lord. In the spiritual sky all the planets are as good as the Lord Himself. 

Spiritual world

The Lord is all spirit, and His name, fame, glories, qualities, pastimes, etc., are all nondifferent from Him because He is absolute. As such, the planets in the kingdom of God are also nondifferent from Him. In those planets there is no difference between the body and the soul, nor is there any influence of time as we experience it in the material world. And in addition to there being no influence of time, the planets in Brahmaloka, due to being spiritual, are never annihilated. All variegatedness in the spiritual planets is also one with the Lord, and therefore the Vedic aphorism ekam evādvitīyam is fully realized in that sanātana atmosphere of spiritual variegatedness.

Material World

This material world is only a shadow phantasmagoria of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, and because it is a shadow it is never eternal; the variegatedness in the material world of duality (spirit and matter) cannot be compared to that of the spiritual world. 

Because of a poor fund of knowledge, less intelligent persons sometimes mistake the conditions of the shadow world to be equivalent to those of the spiritual world, and thus they mistake the Lord and His pastimes in the material world to be one with the conditioned souls and their activities. The Lord condemns such less intelligent persons in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.11):

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā

mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto

mama bhūta-maheśvaram

Whenever the Lord incarnates, He does so in His full internal potency (ātma-māyā), and less intelligent persons mistake Him to be one of the material creations. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, therefore, rightly commenting on this verse, says that the Brahmaloka mentioned here is Vaikuṇṭha, the kingdom of God, which is sanātana, or eternal, and is therefore not exactly like the material creations described above. The virāṭ universal form of the Lord is an imagination for the material world. It has nothing to do with the spiritual world, or the kingdom of God.

Very good information about the spiritual world and material world and the difference. No other scripture has this information. Because of the description of what is the spiritual world, 

BG 8.20 

Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.

Kṛṣṇa’s superior, spiritual energy is transcendental and eternal. It is beyond all the changes of material nature, which is manifest and annihilated during the days and nights of Brahmā. Kṛṣṇa’s superior energy is completely opposite in quality to material nature. Superior and inferior nature are explained in the Seventh Chapter.

We are always struggling in this material world due to the dualities. The dichotomy of difference between matter and spirit is bewildering. 

ekam evādvitīyam  – Is maha vakhya of bogus Hindus, Mayavadis and they mix it up with Mayavadis. They are wiping out any variegatedness in spiritual world. Everything has become hodge podge. We need to read the purports very carefully. 

Definition of Yoga, Definition of ekam evadvityam… they teach all these wrong definitions to the kids in school. 

BG 4.6 

ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā

bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi san

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya

sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

ātma-māyayā — by My internal energy.

Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.

The Lord has spoken about the peculiarity of His birth: although He may appear like an ordinary person, He remembers everything of His many, many past “births,” whereas a common man cannot remember what he has done even a few hours before. If someone is asked what he did exactly at the same time one day earlier, it would be very difficult for a common man to answer immediately. He would surely have to dredge his memory to recall what he was doing exactly at the same time one day before. And yet, men often dare claim to be God, or Kṛṣṇa. One should not be misled by such meaningless claims. Then again, the Lord explains His prakṛti, or His form. Prakṛti means “nature,” as well as svarūpa, or “one’s own form.” The Lord says that He appears in His own body. He does not change His body, as the common living entity changes from one body to another. The conditioned soul may have one kind of body in the present birth, but he has a different body in the next birth. In the material world, the living entity has no fixed body but transmigrates from one body to another. The Lord, however, does not do so. Whenever He appears, He does so in the same original body, by His internal potency. In other words, Kṛṣṇa appears in this material world in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. And although His body does not deteriorate like a material body, it still appears that Lord Kṛṣṇa grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth. But astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, He had many grandchildren at home; or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculations. Still He looked just like a young man twenty or twenty-five years old. We never see a picture of Kṛṣṇa in old age because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the whole creation – past, present and future. Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore, it is clear that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence. Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun’s rising, moving before us and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun has set, and when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually, the sun is always in its fixed position, but owing to our defective, insufficient senses, we calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky. And because Lord Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary, common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal, blissful knowledge by His internal potency – and He is never contaminated by material nature. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn yet He still appears to take His birth in multimanifestations. The Vedic supplementary literatures also confirm that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhāgavatam, He appears before His mother as Nārāyaṇa, with four hands and the decorations of the six kinds of full opulences. His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, bestowed upon the living entities so that they can concentrate on the Supreme Lord as He is, and not on mental concoctions or imaginations, which the impersonalist wrongly thinks the Lord’s forms to be. The word māyā, or ātma-māyā, refers to the Lord’s causeless mercy, according to the Viśva-kośa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all of His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another body. He is the Lord of all living entities because He performs wonderful and superhuman activities while He is on this earth. Therefore, the Lord is always the same Absolute Truth and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body. A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in this world. This is explained in the next verse.

Mayavadis say Sat chit ananda and they do not say Vigraha. They are using the same wording and canceling the variegatedness. 

BG 4.5 

The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!

In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.33) we have information of many, many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there:

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam

ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca

vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Kṛṣṇa], who is the original person – absolute, infallible, without beginning. Although expanded into unlimited forms, He is still the same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth. Such eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord are usually not understood by even the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees.”

It is also stated in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.39):

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan

nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu

kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Kṛṣṇa], who is always situated in various incarnations such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and many subincarnations as well, but who is the original Personality of Godhead known as Kṛṣṇa, and who incarnates personally also.”

(BG 4.9) Factual Janma and karma of Krsna

One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.37:

1. The four divisions of human society, namely the intelligent class (the brāhmaṇas), the administrative class (the kṣatriyas), the mercantile class (the vaiśyas), and the laborer class (the śūdras), are all in different parts of the body of the Lord. As such, no one is different from the Lord.
2. To speak for the Supreme Lord means to glorify the Lord by means of propagating the knowledge of the Lord as it is, broadcasting the factual nature of the Lord and the factual position of all other parts of the whole body. 
3. Veda means knowledge, and anta means the end of it. According to Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord is the source of everything (ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ), and thus the end of all knowledge (Vedānta) is to know the Lord, to know our relationship with Him and to act according to that relationship only. 
4. The parts of the body are related to the body; similarly, the living being must know his relationship with the Lord. 
5. Human life is especially meant for this purpose, namely to know the factual relationship of every living being with the Supreme Lord. Without knowing this relationship, human life is spoiled. 
6. Brahmanas – The intelligent class of men, the brāhmaṇas, are therefore especially responsible for broadcasting this knowledge of our relationship with the Lord and leading the general mass of people to the right path.
7. Ksatriyas – The administrative class is meant for protecting the living beings so that they can serve this purpose.
8. Vysyas – The mercantile class is meant for producing food grains and distributing them to the complete human society so that the whole population is given a chance to live comfortably and discharge the duties of human life. The mercantile class is also required to give protection to the cows in order to get sufficient milk and milk products, which alone can give the proper health and intelligence to maintain a civilization perfectly meant for knowledge of the ultimate truth.
9. Sudras – And the laborer class, who are neither intelligent nor powerful, can help by physical services to the other higher classes and thus be benefited by their cooperation.
10. Therefore the universe is a complete unit in relationship with the Lord, and without this relationship with the Lord the whole human society is disturbed and is without any peace and prosperity. 
11. Varṇāśrama-dharma, this system is meant to gradually purify those who are inimical to the Supreme Lord, bringing them back to their constitutional position of love of Godhead. 
12. The virāṭ-rūpa, or the universal form of the Lord, is an imaginary form meant to help the gross materialists gradually understand the position of the Personality of Godhead.
13. The impersonal conception of formlessness is a mere negation of temporary material variety without any concept of the Lord’s spiritual potency.
14. It is understood from this verse that the varṇāśrama-dharma system generated from the universal form of the Lord is a program offered by the Lord to engage the conditioned souls in a complete social and religious system that gradually brings them back home, back to Godhead.
15. One who is engaged in pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is already in a state of liberation, called brahma-bhūta, oneness with the Absolute.
16. Without being one with the Supreme, the Absolute, one cannot render service unto Him. In the absolute conception, there is no difference between the served and the servitor; yet the distinction is there, in a higher spiritual sense.
17. The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior.
18. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā. 
19. Real yoga practice entails meeting the Paramātmā within the heart and then following His dictation. 
20. For one who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically. 
21. No conditioned soul actually knows what is to be done and what is not to be done, but a person who acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is free to act because everything is prompted by Kṛṣṇa from within and confirmed by the spiritual master.

SB 2.5.37 TRANSLATION:

The brāhmaṇas represent His mouth, the kṣatriyas His arms, the vaiśyas His thighs, and the śūdras are born of His legs.

CLASS NOTES:

All living beings are stated to be the parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, and how they are so is explained in this verse. The four divisions of human society, namely the intelligent class (the brāhmaṇas), the administrative class (the kṣatriyas), the mercantile class (the vaiśyas), and the laborer class (the śūdras), are all in different parts of the body of the Lord. As such, no one is different from the Lord. The mouth of the body and the legs of the body are nondifferent constitutionally, but the mouth or the head of the body is qualitatively more important than the legs. At the same time, the mouth, the legs, the arms and the thighs are all component parts of the body. These limbs of the body of the Lord are meant to serve the complete whole. The mouth is meant for speaking and eating, the arms are meant for the protection of the body, the legs are meant for carrying the body, and the waist of the body is meant for maintaining the body. The intelligent class in society, therefore, must speak on behalf of the body, as well as accept foodstuff to satisfy the hunger of the body. The hunger of the Lord is to accept the fruits of sacrifice. The brāhmaṇas, or the intelligent class, must be very expert in performing such sacrifices, and the subordinate classes must join in such sacrifices. To speak for the Supreme Lord means to glorify the Lord by means of propagating the knowledge of the Lord as it is, broadcasting the factual nature of the Lord and the factual position of all other parts of the whole body. The brāhmaṇas, therefore, are required to know the Vedas, or the ultimate source of knowledge. Veda means knowledge, and anta means the end of it. According to Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord is the source of everything (ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ), and thus the end of all knowledge (Vedānta) is to know the Lord, to know our relationship with Him and to act according to that relationship only. The parts of the body are related to the body; similarly, the living being must know his relationship with the Lord. The human life is especially meant for this purpose, namely to know the factual relationship of every living being with the Supreme Lord. Without knowing this relationship, the human life is spoiled. 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF 4 SOCIAL ORDERS

Brahmanas – The intelligent class of men, the brāhmaṇas, are therefore especially responsible for broadcasting this knowledge of our relationship with the Lord and leading the general mass of people to the right path. 

Ksatriyas – The administrative class is meant for protecting the living beings so that they can serve this purpose. 

Vysyas – The mercantile class is meant for producing food grains and distributing them to the complete human society so that the whole population is given a chance to live comfortably and discharge the duties of human life. The mercantile class is also required to give protection to the cows in order to get sufficient milk and milk products, which alone can give the proper health and intelligence to maintain a civilization perfectly meant for knowledge of the ultimate truth. 

Sudras – And the laborer class, who are neither intelligent nor powerful, can help by physical services to the other higher classes and thus be benefited by their cooperation.

Therefore the universe is a complete unit in relationship with the Lord, and without this relationship with the Lord the whole human society is disturbed and is without any peace and prosperity. This is confirmed in the Vedas: brāhmaṇo ’sya mukham āsīd, bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ.

This purport and this verse to help the people who don’t know kRsna understand Him as sum total of creation. Virat rupa which is the imaginary concept of Lord. It will help the less intelligent people to understand something that the Lord has a body encompassing everything and how all living entities fit into that vrat rupa, seeing the unity of all creation. This is a unifying concept.

Some people say that they cannot comprehend that God is a little boy. Some people say that the whole universe is God. There are 4 divisions of society.  Virat Rupa helps less intelligent people who has reservations to accept God as a child or a person. 

One person is the origin of everything. It is very hard to believe this. That this person has no short coming like us. To understand that Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead a step-by-step process is explained here.

Preaching is very hard. One has to understand the level of the ignorance of the person to whom one is preaching. Otherwise you can give a blast of Philosophy and the person gets turned off. We have to be trained to understand the level of ignorance of the person. For us to preach effectively, we need to hear constantly and chant constantly. Then only we can understand the different levels of understanding and be effective preachers. 

Different strategies to preach to different levels of social orders and ashramas is right there is Srimad Bhagavatam. 

All of us have come to this word due to aversion or envy of God. If a husband and wife hate each other how hard it is to bring them together. Similarly, it is so hard to bring an envious soul to love God. 

SB 11.5.2

Śrī Camasa said: Each of the four social orders, headed by the brāhmaṇas, was born through different combinations of the modes of nature, from the face, arms, thighs and feet of the Supreme Lord in His universal form. Thus the four spiritual orders were also generated.

Those who are not spontaneously attracted to the devotional service of the Lord can be gradually purified by observing the varṇāśrama system of four social orders and four spiritual orders. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, the brāhmaṇas are born of the mode of goodness, the kṣatriyas of a combination of goodness and passion, the vaiśyas of a combination of passion and ignorance and the śūdras of the mode of ignorance. Just as the four social orders are born from the face, arms, thighs and feet of the Lord’s universal form, similarly the brahmacārīs are generated from the heart of the Lord, the householder order from His loins, the vānaprasthas from His chest and the sannyāsa order from His head.

A similar verse is found in the Ṛk-saṁhitā (8.4.19), as well as the Śukla-yajur Veda (34.11) and the Atharva Veda (19.66):

brāhmaṇo ’sya mukham āsīd

bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ

ūrū tad asya yad vaiśyaḥ

padbhyāṁ śūdro ’jāyata

“The brāhmaṇa appeared as His face, the king as His arms, the vaiśya as His thighs, and the śūdra was born from His feet.”

It is understood that pure devotional service to the Lord has already been described by two of the Yogendras, Drumila and Āvirhotra. Camasa Muni now describes the system of varṇāśrama-dharma, because this system is meant to gradually purify those who are inimical to the Supreme Lord, bringing them back to their constitutional position of love of Godhead. Similarly, the virāṭ-rūpa, or the universal form of the Lord, is an imaginary form meant to help the gross materialists gradually understand the position of the Personality of Godhead. 

Since the foolish materialist cannot understand anything beyond matter, he is encouraged to see the entire universe as a personal form of the Supreme Lord’s body.

The impersonal conception of formlessness is a mere negation of temporary material variety without any concept of the Lord’s spiritual potency. The impersonal view is another kind of material speculative conception. The Supreme Lord is full of spiritual potencies under the principal headings hlādinī, or unlimited bliss, sandhinī, or eternal existence, and saṁvit, or omniscience. It is understood from this verse that the varṇāśrama-dharma system generated from the universal form of the Lord is a program offered by the Lord to engage the conditioned souls in a complete social and religious system that gradually brings them back home, back to Godhead.

Mayavadi philosophy is even worse than atheists… The lord Himself is giving a program called Virat rupa so people who cannot comprehend the personal form of the lord to understand that lord has form. 

To become a preacher is not a simple thing. There are people 

BG 18.54 (V imp verse)

One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.

To the impersonalist, achieving the brahma-bhūta stage, becoming one with the Absolute, is the last word. But for the personalist, or pure devotee, one has to go still further, to become engaged in pure devotional service. This means that one who is engaged in pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is already in a state of liberation, called brahma-bhūta, oneness with the Absolute. Without being one with the Supreme, the Absolute, one cannot render service unto Him. In the absolute conception, there is no difference between the served and the servitor; yet the distinction is there, in a higher spiritual sense.

Oneness – Ekatma Anupasyati (ISO)

BG 6.6 

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

The purpose of practicing eightfold yoga is to control the mind in order to make it a friend in discharging the human mission. Unless the mind is controlled, the practice of yoga (for show) is simply a waste of time. One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled. The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā. Real yoga practice entails meeting the Paramātmā within the heart and then following His dictation. For one who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically.

Children order of parents

Worker order of Manager 

Citizen order of State laws 

Disciple order of Spiritual master 

Dictation of the lord – Jivera svarupa hai Krishna das 

Chaturvarnam maya srishtam… Guna Karma Vibhagasya… 

In this kali yuga if everyone is sudra then how can we have varnashrama.. 

Gunas can be admin, teacher, worker 

But their lifestyle, habits, are like sudras  or even demons- drinking, illicit sex… 

They can be purified when they meet a devotee.. 

Oneness – Means cooperate following the orders or dictation of lord. 

Cooperation is the main thing in the varnashrama system. 

All plans can be successful if there is cooperation. Ofcourse one has to follow a bonafide world. In the spiritual world everything is cooperation and in the material world everything is non cooperation. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.35 & 36

1. Although the universal form, as imagined by the great philosophers, is one of the features of the Lord, it is more or less imaginary.
2. Virat rupa is not eternal. It is very important to understand what is temporary and what is eternal. 
3. By nature, the body is ever changing, and the soul is eternal. 
4. This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. 
5. Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
6. One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole. 
7. In the Vedānta-sūtras, as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences. The living entities belong to the superior nature,
8. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as the Supreme, and the energy or nature is accepted as the subordinate. The living entities, therefore, are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. 
9. Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gītā for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.
10. The Lord said that because He entered into the material universe by His personal representation, the cosmic manifestation has been made possible and is going on. 
11. Arjuna is completely satisfied to see Him in His personal form of Kṛṣṇa. But Arjuna wants to see the universal form to convince others. He did not have any personal desire for confirmation. 
12. Kṛṣṇa also understands that Arjuna wants to see the universal form to set a criterion, for in the future there would be so many imposters who would pose themselves as incarnations of God.
13. One who claims to be Kṛṣṇa should be prepared to show his universal form to confirm his claim to the people.
14. It is said that one can neither see, hear, understand nor perceive the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, by the material senses. But if one is engaged in loving transcendental service to the Lord from the beginning, then one can see the Lord by revelation.
15.  Every living entity is only a spiritual spark; therefore it is not possible to see or to understand the Supreme Lord. 
16. Arjuna, as a devotee, does not depend on his speculative strength; rather, he admits his limitations as a living entity and acknowledges Kṛṣṇa’s inestimable position. 
17. The word yogeśvara is also very significant here because the Lord has inconceivable power. There is a constant competition between increment and measurement. It is impossible for the living entity to understand. But, If the lord likes, He can reveal Himself by His grace, although He is unlimited.
18. Therefore Arjuna pleads for the inconceivable grace of Kṛṣṇa. He does not give Kṛṣṇa orders. Kṛṣṇa is not obliged to reveal Himself unless one surrenders fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engages in devotional service. Thus it is not possible for persons who depend on the strength of their mental speculations to see Kṛṣṇa.

SB 2.5.35 TRANSLATION

​​The Lord [Mahā-Viṣṇu], although lying in the Causal Ocean, came out of it, and dividing Himself as Hiraṇyagarbha, He entered into each universe and assumed the virāṭ-rūpa, with thousands of legs, arms, mouths, heads, etc.

SB 2.5.36 TRANSLATION

Great philosophers imagine that the complete planetary systems in the universe are displays of the different upper and lower limbs of the universal body of the Lord.

CLASS NOTES:

The expansions of the planetary systems within each and every universe are situated in the different parts of the virāṭ-rūpa (universal form) of the Lord, and they are described as follows.

The word kalpayanti, or “imagine,” is significant. The virāṭ universal form of the Absolute is an imagination of the speculative philosophers who are unable to adjust to the eternal two-handed form of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Although the universal form, as imagined by the great philosophers, is one of the features of the Lord, it is more or less imaginary. It is said that the seven upper planetary systems are situated above the waist of the universal form, whereas the lower planetary systems are situated below His waist. The idea impressed herein is that the Supreme Lord is conscious of every part of His body, and nowhere in the creation is there anything beyond His control.

Why did SP say that the universal form is more or less imaginary because Universal form is not eternal? Sometimes it is there and it is not there. Those who are fixed in devotional service, are mainly concerned with things that are eternal.

Therefore It is said BG 2.16 they are concerned with eternal. So it is important what is eternal and what is temporary. If we do not know we spend time on things that are temporary and waste our lives. 

(BG 2.16) What is eternal and what is temporary

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

Difference between matter and spirit 

There is no endurance of the changing body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of the different cells is admitted by modern medical science; and thus growth and old age are taking place in the body. But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and the mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit.

By nature, the body is ever changing, and the soul is eternal. This conclusion is established by all classes of seers of the truth, both impersonalist and personalist. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (2.12.38) it is stated that Viṣṇu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence (jyotīṁṣi viṣṇur bhuvanāni viṣṇuḥ). The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth.

The body is always changing and the soul is not changing. Although the change in the body is happening on a daily basis, it seems subtle, the change happens.  The process of deterioration is happening.We remember how we were young and this remembrance is the proof that we are different from the body. 

Even the healthiest person is going to die. That is the laws of nature. They are unconquerable. It is irreversible. 

This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole. In the Vedānta-sūtras, as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences. The living entities belong to the superior nature, as it will be revealed in the Seventh Chapter. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as the Supreme, and the energy or nature is accepted as the subordinate. The living entities, therefore, are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gītā for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.

Ordinary living beings have 78 percent of Krishna’s qualities. All these qualities are there only partially in the living entity. 

By studying oneself one can understand 3/4th of Krsna. Emotionally I love a person who is giving and I do not like a person who is always taking. By this, we understand that Krsna also likes His devotee who is always serving Him rather than one who is always asking for something from Krsna. Krishna has feelings, when he hears His devotee appreciating Him he likes it.  SOMEONE says he is a scientist. Does it mean that he understands everything, NO, he understands some part of nature?  Similarly, we can realize up to 78 percent of Godly qualities. That does not mean that we are GOD. We cannot create this material world. 

There are many cycles in nature established by Krsna. We can see them and understand them to a certain degree, but we cannot emulate them. When there is a drought, they will commission big tanker trucks to transport from one place to another. But Krsna does it by evaporation of water by the sun and 100 and millions of water gets transported through the clouds. How a cloud is carrying that much water is an engineering miracle! The whole thing is unbelievable. It is impossible for us to imitate. We can put an airplane that is 10000 pounds in the air using aerodynamics. But Krsna is making huge giant planets in perfect orbits in an incredible amount of time. We cannot imitate few things that Krsna does, but we cannot emulate it. We can understand few things about Krsna by analyzing the world. Whatever we do is a puny facsimile of what He does. 

There are many levels of truth that Krsna is revealing in these purports. When we advance in KC we will start to understand them.     

The Catholics are going along with scientists now and they say that God did it. They say that the Big bang theory was done by God. 

Virat rupa is very interesting. It is more or less imaginary. Lets see what SP says about it in BG 11.3 and 11.4 

BG 11.3

O greatest of all personalities, O supreme form, though I see You here before me in Your actual position, as You have described Yourself, I wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours.

The Lord said that because He entered into the material universe by His personal representation, the cosmic manifestation has been made possible and is going on. Now as far as Arjuna is concerned, he is inspired by the statements of Kṛṣṇa, but in order to convince others in the future who may think that Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary person, Arjuna desires to see Him actually in His universal form, to see how He is acting from within the universe, although He is apart from it. Arjuna’s addressing the Lord as puruṣottama is also significant. Since the Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is present within Arjuna himself; therefore He knows the desire of Arjuna, and He can understand that Arjuna has no special desire to see Him in His universal form, for Arjuna is completely satisfied to see Him in His personal form of Kṛṣṇa. But the Lord can understand also that Arjuna wants to see the universal form to convince others. Arjuna did not have any personal desire for confirmation. Kṛṣṇa also understands that Arjuna wants to see the universal form to set a criterion, for in the future there would be so many imposters who would pose themselves as incarnations of God. The people, therefore, should be careful; one who claims to be Kṛṣṇa should be prepared to show his universal form to confirm his claim to the people.

The statement that we are all Gods is nonsense. If we are God, then we should be able to create this universe. 

BG 11.4

If You think that I am able to behold Your cosmic form, O my Lord, O master of all mystic power, then kindly show me that unlimited universal Self.

It is said that one can neither see, hear, understand nor perceive the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, by the material senses. But if one is engaged in loving transcendental service to the Lord from the beginning, then one can see the Lord by revelation. Every living entity is only a spiritual spark; therefore it is not possible to see or to understand the Supreme Lord. Arjuna, as a devotee, does not depend on his speculative strength; rather, he admits his limitations as a living entity and acknowledges Kṛṣṇa’s inestimable position. Arjuna could understand that for a living entity it is not possible to understand the unlimited infinite. If the infinite reveals Himself, then it is possible to understand the nature of the infinite by the grace of the infinite. The word yogeśvara is also very significant here because the Lord has inconceivable power. If He likes, He can reveal Himself by His grace, although He is unlimited. Therefore Arjuna pleads for the inconceivable grace of Kṛṣṇa. He does not give Kṛṣṇa orders. Kṛṣṇa is not obliged to reveal Himself unless one surrenders fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engages in devotional service. Thus it is not possible for persons who depend on the strength of their mental speculations to see Kṛṣṇa.

There is competition between increment and measurement. Krsna is always expanding. So it is impossible to understand HIm. In the spiritual world , You never get to the end of understanding Krsna. That is why you never get bored. You don’t get bewildered when you come to the class regularly as you learn details and can ask questions. No one can equal Krsna. Regular hearing and chanting are absolutely needed to not get bewildered.