Srimad Bhavagavatham Class By HH HariVilas Maharaj

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.33:

1. In this verse it is clearly mentioned that the Supreme Personality of Godhead exerts His different energies in the creation; it is not that He Himself is transformed into material creations. He expands Himself by His different energies, as well as by His plenary portions.
2. The chief engineer of material creation is the Lord Himself, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). It is He only who directs the material nature to produce all sorts of moving and nonmoving creations.
3. There are two modes of material creation: the creation of the collective universes done by the Mahā-Viṣṇu, and the creation of the single universe. Both are done by the Lord, and thus the universal shape, as we can see, takes place.
4. BG 9.10 – This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. (Very important verse, modern education rejects this verse, teaches to cancel God and it creates a wedge between God and people.)
5. BG 13.21 – Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.
6. BG 5.15 – Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.
7. The embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Kṛṣṇa consciousness, causes his own bewilderment.  Under the spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is responsible for his conditional existence.
8. Vedanta Sutra confirms that – “The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to.”
9. The material potency is the energy of darkness, or complete ignorance of spiritual activities. In the material potency, the living entity engages himself in fruitive activities, thinking that he can be happy through expansion in terms of material energy. 
10. The men of the present day are almost unaware of their spiritual identity. They think that they are products of the elements of the material world and that everything will end with the annihilation of the body. 
11. Therefore they conclude that as long as one has a material body consisting of material senses, one should enjoy the senses as much as possible. Since they are atheists, they do not care whether there is a next life. Such activities are described in this verse as avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā. 
12. The material energy originally emanates from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Under the guidance or superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the material energy works as if independent, although it is not actually independent.
13. When Śrīla Vyāsadeva, by meditation and self-realization, saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he also saw the separated energy of the Lord standing behind Him (apaśyat puruṣaṁ pūrṇaṁ māyāṁ ca tad-apāśrayam). Vyāsadeva also realized that it is this separated energy of the Lord, the material energy, that covers the knowledge of the living entities (yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam). 
14. To dissipate the ignorance of the human beings who work under the material energy, which is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord comes down to revive their original nature of spiritual activities (yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata). As soon as they deviate from their original nature, the Lord comes to teach them, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: “My dear living entities, give up all material activities and simply surrender unto Me for protection.” (Bg. 18.66)
15. Cārvāka Muni propagated atheist philosophy in India. It is his statement that one should beg, borrow or steal money to purchase ghee and enjoy life (ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet).
16. Thus even the greatest atheist of India recommends that one eat ghee, not meat. No one could conceive of human beings’ eating meat like tigers and dogs, but men have become so degraded that they are just like animals and can no longer claim to have a human civilization.

SB 2.5.33 TRANSLATION

Thus when all these became assembled by force of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,this universe certainly came into being by accepting both the primary and secondary causes of creation.

In this verse it is clearly mentioned that the Supreme Personality of Godhead exerts His different energies in the creation; it is not that He Himself is transformed into material creations. He expands Himself by His different energies, as well as by His plenary portions. In a corner of the spiritual sky of brahmajyoti a spiritual cloud sometimes appears, and the covered portion is called the mahat-tattva. The Lord then, by His plenary portion as Mahā-Viṣṇu, lies down within the water of the mahat-tattva, and the water is called the Causal Ocean (Kāraṇa-jala). While Mahā-Viṣṇu sleeps within the Causal Ocean, innumerable universes are generated along with His breathing. These universes are floating, and they are scattered all over the Causal Ocean. They stay only during the breathing period of Mahā-Viṣṇu. In each and every universal globe, the same Mahā-Viṣṇu enters again as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and lies there on the serpentlike Śeṣa incarnation. From His navel sprouts a lotus stem, and on the lotus, Brahmā, the lord of the universe, is born. Brahmā creates all forms of living beings of different shapes in terms of different desires within the universe. He also creates the sun, moon and other demigods.

Therefore the chief engineer of the material creation is the Lord Himself, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). It is He only who directs the material nature to produce all sorts of moving and nonmoving creations.

There are two modes of material creation: the creation of the collective universes, as stated above, done by the Mahā-Viṣṇu, and the creation of the single universe. Both are done by the Lord, and thus the universal shape, as we can see, takes place.

This is further explained in BG 9.10

BG 9.10

This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

Due to this verse, we can understand how nefarious modern education is. It rejects this verse. Because it creates a wedge between God and people. It cancels God. It teaches that sense gratification is the goal of life. The more you accumulate the more sense gratification you get. 

The more things you got the more prominent you are. Bill Gates house is 130 m dollars and is 60,000 sq ft and due to divorce it is so hard to sell it now. Who will buy it? 

BG 13.21

Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.

Everybody is forced to sleep. For who you are sleeping and for what you are sleeping. If you sleep for Krsna you sleep for 6 hours.  Krishna is not responsible for the actions of the living entities. Most people do not understand this. 

The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are creations of material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state, there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. 

Which body you get depends on how you eat, mate, sleep and defend yourself. People are being forced to eat, sleep mate and defend. But how do they do those things people are deciding. How you do them defines its next birth. People blame God for their actions and reactions. This is further explained in BG 5.15

(BG 5.15) EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON THE DESIRE OF JIVA

Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.

Therefore the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Kṛṣṇa consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience. And, under the spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is responsible for his conditional existence. The Vedānta-sūtras (2.1.34) also confirm this. Vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt tathā hi darśayati: “The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to.”

Modern education teaches to avoid KC, If there is any teaching it is Mayavadi philosophy, that is why so many people in India become atheists. 

CC ADI 7.119

“ ‘The potency of Lord Viṣṇu is summarized in three categories — namely, the spiritual potency, the living entities and ignorance. The spiritual potency is full of knowledge; the living entities, although belonging to the spiritual potency, are subject to bewilderment; and the third energy, which is full of ignorance, is always visible in fruitive activities.’

This is what they teach you in schools, engage in fruitive activities for your own sense enjoyment. Over indulgence in sense gratification. 

The material potency is the energy of darkness, or complete ignorance of spiritual activities. In the material potency, the living entity engages himself in fruitive activities, thinking that he can be happy through expansion in terms of material energy. This fact is prominently manifest in this Age of Kali because human society, not understanding the spiritual nature, is busily expanding in material activities. The men of the present day are almost unaware of their spiritual identity. They think that they are products of the elements of the material world and that everything will end with the annihilation of the body. Therefore they conclude that as long as one has a material body consisting of material senses, one should enjoy the senses as much as possible. Since they are atheists, they do not care whether there is a next life. Such activities are described in this verse asavidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā. (Ignorance manifested by fruitive activities)

The separated energy can be understood from a practical example. I compose books by speaking into a dictaphone, and when the dictaphone is replayed, it appears that I am speaking personally, but actually I am not. I spoke personally, but then the dictaphone tape, which is separate from me, acts exactly like me. Similarly, the material energy originally emanates from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but it acts separately, although the energy is supplied by the Lord. This is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10): mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. “This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings.” Under the guidance or superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the material energy works as if independent, although it is not actually independent.

The scientists will swear to you that everything evolved from amoeba, darwin theory… 

In this verse from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa the total energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is classified in three divisions — namely, the spiritual or internal potency of the Lord, the marginal potency, or kṣetra-jña (the living entity), and the material potency, which is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead and appears to act independently. 

VYASDEVA SEES THE SEPARATED ENERGY BEHIND THE LORD

When Śrīla Vyāsadeva, by meditation and self-realization, saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he also saw the separated energy of the Lord standing behind Him (apaśyat puruṣaṁ pūrṇaṁ māyāṁ ca tad-apāśrayam). Vyāsadeva also realized that it is this separated energy of the Lord, the material energy, that covers the knowledge of the living entities (yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam). 

ATHEISTIC PHILOSOPHY BY CARVAKA MUNI

The separated, material energy bewilders the living entities (jīvas), and thus they work very hard under its influence, not knowing that they are not fulfilling their mission in life. Unfortunately, most of them think that they are the body and should therefore enjoy the material senses irresponsibly since when death comes everything will be finished. This atheistic philosophy also flourished in India, where it was sometimes propagated by Cārvāka Muni, who said:

His theory was that as long as one lives one should eat as much ghee as possible. In India, ghee (clarified butter) is a basic ingredient in preparing many varieties of food. Since everyone wants to enjoy nice food, Cārvāka Muni advised that one eat as much ghee as possible. One may say, “I have no money. How shall I purchase ghee?” Cārvāka Muni, however, says, “If you have no money, then beg, borrow or steal, but in some way secure ghee and enjoy life.” For one who further objects that he will be held accountable for such unauthorized activities as begging, borrowing and stealing, Cārvāka Muni replies, “You will not be held responsible. As soon as your body is burned to ashes after death, everything is finished.”

Catastrophic flood in Europe, unbelievable rioting in South Africa, wildfires in CA, huge drought, anytime war between US and China- See how temporary things are in the material world and how there are things beyond our control.. 

We are trying to be happy and peaceful in this world.

ENTIRE MATERIAL WORLD AND ITS ACTIVITIES ARE REFERRED TO AS AVIDYĀ-KARMA-SAṀJÑĀNYĀ.

This is called ignorance. From the Bhagavad-gītā it is understood that one does not die with the annihilation of his body (na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre). The annihilation of one body involves changing to another (tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ). Therefore, to perform irresponsible activities in the material world is very dangerous. Without knowledge of the spirit soul and its transmigration, people are allured by the material energy to engage in many such activities, as if one could become happy simply by dint of material knowledge, without reference to spiritual existence. Therefore the entire material world and its activities are referred to as avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā.

LORD COMES DOWN TO REVIVE THEIR ORIGINAL NATURE OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES 

In order to dissipate the ignorance of the human beings who work under the material energy, which is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord comes down to revive their original nature of spiritual activities (yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata). As soon as they deviate from their original nature, the Lord comes to teach them, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: “My dear living entities, give up all material activities and simply surrender unto Me for protection.” (Bg. 18.66)

ATLEST EAT GHEE AND NOT MEAT

It is the statement of Cārvāka Muni that one should beg, borrow or steal money to purchase ghee and enjoy life (ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet). Thus even the greatest atheist of India recommends that one eat ghee, not meat. No one could conceive of human beings’ eating meat like tigers and dogs, but men have become so degraded that they are just like animals and can no longer claim to have a human civilization.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.31

1. The living condition in material existence depends more or less on one’s intelligence and powerful living energy. Intelligence to counteract the hard struggle for existence is assisted by the senses for acquiring knowledge, and the living energy maintains himself by manipulating the active organs, like the hands and legs. 
2. But on the whole, the struggle for existence is an exertion of the mode of passion. Therefore all the sense organs, headed by intelligence and the living energy, prāṇa, are different products and by-products of the second mode of nature, called passion. This mode of passion, however, is the product of the air element, as described before.
3. The senses are never to be stopped in their engagements, but one should purify them by engaging them in the pure service of sense gratification of the master of the senses. This is the instruction of the whole Bhagavad-gītā.
4. The senses are never to be stopped in their engagements, but one should purify them by engaging them in the pure service of sense gratification of the master of the senses. This is the instruction of the whole Bhagavad-gītā.
5. Śrīla Prabhupāda: But there is exploitation in the communist countries also. Khrushchev was driven out of power because he was exploiting his position. He was giving big government posts to his son and son-in-law.
6. Śyāmasundara: He was deviating from the doctrine.
7. Śrīla Prabhupāda: But since any leader can deviate, how will perfection come? First the person in the center must be perfect, then his dictations will be correct. Otherwise, if the leaders are all imperfect men, what is the use of changing this or that? The corruption will continue.
8. In our Inter-national Society, I am also holding the superior post: I am sitting in a chair, and you are offering me garlands and the best food. Why? Because you see a perfect man whom you can follow. That mentality must be there. Everyone in the society must be able to say, “Yes, here is a perfect man. Let him sit in a chair, and let us all bow down and work like menials.” Where is that perfect man in the communist countries?
   
   

SB 2.5.31 TRANSLATION

By further transformation of the mode of passion, the sense organs like the ear, skin, nose, eyes, tongue, mouth, hands, genitals, legs, and the outlet for evacuating, together with intelligence and living energy, are all generated.

The living condition in material existence depends more or less on one’s intelligence and powerful living energy. Intelligence to counteract the hard struggle for existence is assisted by the senses for acquiring knowledge, and the living energy maintains himself by manipulating the active organs, like the hands and legs. But on the whole, the struggle for existence is an exertion of the mode of passion. Therefore all the sense organs, headed by intelligence and the living energy, prāṇa, are different products and by-products of the second mode of nature, called passion. This mode of passion, however, is the product of the air element, as described before.

What makes people think about history is the struggle for existence. Farmer depends more or less on the weather. Cold, heat, rain, Pests, animals, bears, Katotes, Bobcats, cougars, fungus, bacteria, people.. Thieves, sabotage, nature, people and natural catastrophic events, earthquakes, floods, tornados, list goes on and on. There is a government ..animals and insects are competing with farmer and so on.. The main thing is there is a struggle for existence. Many philosophers are thinking about how to overcome the struggle for existence. So everyone are working towards – Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha.. Everybody is struggling, especially the competition. Many philosophies have come up. One of them is communism. In the previous purport – 

SB 2.5.30 – The senses are never to be stopped in their engagements, but one should purify them by engaging them in the pure service of sense gratification of the master of the senses. This is the instruction of the whole Bhagavad-gītā.Arjuna wanted first of all to satisfy his own senses by his decision not to fight with his kinsmen and friends, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa taught him the Bhagavad-gītā just to purify Arjuna’s decision for sense gratification. Therefore Arjuna agreed to satisfy the senses of the Lord, and thus he fought the Battle of Kurukṣetra, as the Lord desired.

People come to this world for sense gratification and kRsna creates the facility to engage in SG if that is what they want. But He appoints material nature Durga Devi as incharge of  all who forgot Krsna and wants to be little Krsna. We think that by our intelligence, scientific acumen we can control this struggle. How to organize society so we can overcome the struggle is communism.

Śyāmasundara: Karl Marx contended that philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. His philosophy is often called “dialectical materialism” because it comes from the dialectic of George Hegel—thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. When applied to society, his philosophy is known as communism. His idea is that for many generations, the bourgeoisie [the property owners] have competed with the proletariat [the working class], and that this conflict will terminate in the communist society. In other words, the workers will overthrow the capitalistic class and establish a so-called dictatorship of the proletariat, which will finally become a classless society.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: But how is a classless society possible? Men naturally fall into different classes. Your nature is different from mine, so how can we artificially be brought to the same level?

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that human nature, or ideas, are molded by the means of production. Therefore everyone can be trained to participate in the classless society.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Then training is required?

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: And what will be the center of training for this classless society? What will be the motto?

Śyāmasundara: The motto is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” The idea is that everyone would contribute something, and everyone would get what he needed.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: But everyone’s contribution is different. A scientific man contributes something, and a philosopher contributes something else. The cow contributes milk, and the dog contributes service as a watchdog. Even the trees, the birds, the beasts—everyone is contributing something. So, by nature a reciprocal arrangement is already there among social classes. How can there be a classless society?

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.30:

1. Vaikārika is the neutral stage of creation, and tejas is the initiative of creation, while tamas is the full display of material creation under the spell of the darkness of ignorance.
2. Human society primarily requires food for subsistence, shelter for sleeping, defense for protection, and commodities for satisfaction of the senses. 
3. Manufacture of the “necessities of life” in factories and workshops, excessively prominent in the Age of Kali, is the summit stage of the quality of darkness. Such manufacturing enterprises by human society are in the mode of darkness because factually there is no necessity for the commodities manufactured.
4. By engaging in increasing the artificial needs,human energy is spoiled, because human energy is primarily meant for purifying the senses in order to engage them in satisfying the senses of the Supreme Lord.
5. The Supreme Lord, being the supreme possessor of spiritual senses, is the master of the senses, Hṛṣīkeśa. The Lord is not directed by the dictation of the senses. 
6. But the conditioned souls or the individual living entities are servants of the senses.  They are conducted by the direction or dictation of the senses, and therefore material civilization is a kind of engagement in sense gratification only.
7. The standard of human civilization should be to cure the disease of sense gratification, and one can do this simply by becoming an agent for satisfying the spiritual senses of the Lord
8. The senses are never to be stopped in their engagements, but one should purify them by engaging them in the pure service of sense gratification of the master of the senses. This is the instruction of the whole Bhagavad-gītā. 
9. The Vedas instruct us to get out of the existence of darkness and go forward on the path of light (tamasi mā jyotir gama). The path of light is therefore to satisfy the senses of the Lord. 
10. Misguided men, or less intelligent men, follow the path of self-realization without any attempt to satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord. They artificially try to stop the activities of the senses (yoga system), or they deny the transcendental senses of the Lord (jñāna system).
11. The devotees, however, are above the yogīs and the jñānīs because pure devotees do not try to deny the senses of the Lord, nor do they artificially stop the actions of the senses. But they do voluntarily engage the purified senses in the service of the master of the senses, as was done by Arjuna, thereby easily attaining the perfection of satisfying the Lord, the ultimate goal of all perfection.
12. Can communism take the greed of human nature. Karl Marx said yes. But Srila Prabhupada said unless people are spiritualized the greed will not go away. All organized systems work on the principle of proprietorship. But the real proprietor is the Lord. Hence dictatorship, communism, capitalism, socialism they all will fail at the test of time.

SB 2.5.30

From the mode of goodness the mind is generated and becomes manifest, as also the ten demigods controlling the bodily movements. Such demigods are known as the controller of directions, the controller of air, the sun-god, the father of Dakṣa Prajāpati, the Aśvinī-kumāras, the fire-god, the King of heaven, the worshipable deity in heaven, the chief of the Ādityas, and Brahmājī, the Prajāpati. All come into existence.

CLASS NOTES:

Vaikārika is the neutral stage of creation, and tejas is the initiative of creation, while tamas is the full display of material creation under the spell of the darkness of ignorance. Manufacture of the “necessities of life” in factories and workshops, excessively prominent in the Age of Kali, or in the age of the machine, is the summit stage of the quality of darkness. Such manufacturing enterprises by human society are in the mode of darkness because factually there is no necessity for the commodities manufactured. Human society primarily requires food for subsistence, shelter for sleeping, defense for protection, and commodities for satisfaction of the senses. 

THE SENSES ARE THE PRACTICAL SIGNS OF LIFE, as will be explained in the next verse. 

Human civilization is meant for purifying the senses, and objects of sense satisfaction should be supplied as much as absolutely required, but not for aggravating artificial sensory needs. Food, shelter, defense and sense gratification are all needs in material existence. Otherwise, in his pure, uncontaminated state of original life, the living entity has no such needs. The needs are therefore artificial, and in the pure state of life there are no such needs. As such, increasing the artificial needs, as is the standard of material civilization, or advancing the economic development of human society, is a sort of engagement in darkness, without knowledge. By such engagement, human energy is spoiled, because human energy is primarily meant for purifying the senses in order to engage them in satisfying the senses of the Supreme Lord.

 THE SUPREME LORD, BEING THE SUPREME POSSESSOR OF SPIRITUAL SENSES, IS THE MASTER OF THE SENSES, Hṛṣīkeśa. Hṛṣīka means the senses, and īśa means the master. The Lord is not the servant of the senses, or, in other words, He is not directed by the dictation of the senses, but the conditioned souls or the individual living entities are servants of the senses. They are conducted by the direction or dictation of the senses, and therefore material civilization is a kind of engagement in sense gratification only. The standard of human civilization should be to cure the disease of sense gratification, and one can do this simply by becoming an agent for satisfying the spiritual senses of the Lord. The senses are never to be stopped in their engagements, but one should purify them by engaging them in the pure service of sense gratification of the master of the senses. This is the instruction of the whole Bhagavad-gītā. Arjuna wanted first of all to satisfy his own senses by his decision not to fight with his kinsmen and friends, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa taught him the Bhagavad-gītā just to purify Arjuna’s decision for sense gratification. Therefore Arjuna agreed to satisfy the senses of the Lord, and thus he fought the Battle of Kurukṣetra, as the Lord desired.

THE VEDAS INSTRUCT US TO GET OUT OF THE EXISTENCE OF DARKNESS AND GO FORWARD ON THE PATH OF LIGHT (TAMASI MĀ JYOTIR GAMA). THE PATH OF LIGHT IS THEREFORE TO SATISFY THE SENSES OF THE LORD. Misguided men, or less intelligent men, follow the path of self-realization without any attempt to satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord by following the path shown by Arjuna and other devotees of the Lord. On the contrary, they artificially try to stop the activities of the senses (yoga system), or they deny the transcendental senses of the Lord (jñāna system). The devotees, however, are above the yogīs and the jñānīs because pure devotees do not deny the senses of the Lord; they want to satisfy the senses of the Lord. Only because of the darkness of ignorance do the yogīs and jñānīs deny the senses of the Lord and thus artificially try to control the activities of the diseased senses. In the diseased condition of the senses there is too much engagement of the senses in increasing material needs. When one comes to see the disadvantage of aggravating the sense activities, one is called a jñānī, and when one tries to stop the activities of the senses by the practice of yogic principles, he is called a yogī, but when one is fully aware of the transcendental senses of the Lord and tries to satisfy His senses, one is called a devotee of the Lord. The devotees of the Lord do not try to deny the senses of the Lord, nor do they artificially stop the actions of the senses. But they do voluntarily engage the purified senses in the service of the master of the senses, as was done by Arjuna, thereby easily attaining the perfection of satisfying the Lord, the ultimate goal of all perfection.

This verse puts one in their place and explain things as they are. 

Education is self aggrandizement and selfishness – intended to please ones own senses. Everything is backwards in modern education and modern civilization. There is no country in the world where people are going in the right direction. There is an absolute emergency for spreading KC and stopping this Lemming effect. Can we understand this? The whole Bhagavadgita Gita  is aging to purify the senses to engage the senses in the satisfaction of Krsna the master of all senses. 

Am I working for my own sense gratification or to please Krsna’s sense gratification. 

Arti is serving the senses of the deities. deity is a person they have Mind and senses. Singing nice songs, agarbatti, etc.,  deity is not a statue. How do you see things is important we have to become sastra Chakshu. It is very imp how SP differentiate between yoga, gnana and Bhakti. 

Yogis denies their senses 

Gnani denies senses of Krsna 

Bhakta does not deny his senses or lord’s senses use their sense for sense gratification. 

This is a brilliant analysis by SP. 

unless we hear from SP who distilled the knowledge from Krsna and other acharyas, we will be misled. 

Atah pumbir…. Hari toshanam

All duties of varnasrama are to please Hari. 

Can communism take the greed of human nature. Marx said yes. But Srila Prabhupada said unless people are spiritualized the greed will not go away.

People of Cuba are revolting. 

Is capitalism any better? 

Dictatorship – Dictator is the proprietor

Socialism – State is the proprietor

Capitalism – individuals are are the proprietors

Communism – everyone is the proprietor

(https://prabhupadabooks.com/jsd/7/shortcomings_of_marxism)

Śyāmasundara: Karl Marx contended that philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. His philosophy is often called “dialectical materialism” because it comes from the dialectic of George Hegel—thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. When applied to society, his philosophy is known as communism. His idea is that for many generations, the bourgeoisie [the property owners] have competed with the proletariat [the working class], and that this conflict will terminate in the communist society. In other words, the workers will overthrow the capitalistic class and establish a so-called dictatorship of the proletariat, which will finally become a classless society.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But how is a classless society possible? Men naturally fall into different classes. Your nature is different from mine, so how can we artificially be brought to the same level?
Śyāmasundara: His idea is that human nature, or ideas, are molded by the means of production. Therefore everyone can be trained to participate in the classless society.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: Then training is required?

All of these are greediness and they are not any utopia. It is very clever cheating. 

All organized systems work on the principle of proprietorship. But the real proprietor is the Lord. 

If we have a cheating propensity or tendency of sense gratification, we will be cheated by a bigger cheater. 

Factories or workshops – Absolutely required”” 

Summit dark point of ignorance 

The needs are artificial … 

What Srila Prabhupada is saying is monumental. For us to  adjust our mind to this is very hard. Very interesting and very enlightening

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.26- 29

1. The whole process of creation is an act of gradual evolution and development from one element to another, reaching up to the variegatedness of the earth as so many trees, plants, mountains, rivers, reptiles, birds, animals and varieties of human beings.
2. The quality of sense perception is also evolutionary, namely generated from sound, then touch, and from touch to form.
3. Taste and odor are also generated along with the gradual development of sky, air, fire, water and earth.
4. They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-Viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva.
5. The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent.
6. In the sky there is sound only, in the air there are sound and touch. In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape. 
7. In the earth, however, there are all the above-mentioned qualities with an extra development of odor also. Therefore on the earth there is a full display of variegatedness of life, which originally started with the basic principle of air. 
8. Diseases of the body take place due to derangement of air within the earthly body of the living beings.
9. Mental diseases result from special derangement of the air within the body, and, as such, yogic exercise is especially beneficial to keep the air in order so that diseases of the body become almost nil by such exercises. When they are properly done the duration of life also increases, and one can have control over death also by such practices.
10. A perfect yogī can have command over death and quit the body at the right moment, when he is competent to transfer himself to a suitable planet.
11. The bhakti-yogī, however, surpasses all the yogīs because, by dint of his devotional service, he is promoted to the region beyond the material sky and is placed in one of the planets in the spiritual sky by the supreme will of the Lord, the controller of everything.
12. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is recognized Vedic wisdom,and the system of receiving Vedic knowledge is called avaroha-panthā, or the process of receiving transcendental knowledge through bona fide disciplic succession.
13. For advancement of material knowledge there is a need for personal ability and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master.
14. The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science.
15. The process should not be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current.
16. The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude.
17. This unflinching faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa prepares one to become a student of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and one who hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is sure to attain salvation at the end, as Mahārāja Parīkṣit did.
18. Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as the Mahāpuruṣa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Canto Eleven) in His devotional feature as Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
19. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was always visibly going here and there, searching after the fallen conditioned souls. Caitanya Mahāprabhu would sometimes embrace the conditioned souls on the pretext of religious friendship or ecstasy. But actually, the Lord was touching the bodies of the conditioned souls to pull them out of the ocean of material existence and hurl them into the ocean of ecstatic love of Godhead. 
20. Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the most merciful and munificent incarnation of the Lord, whose mercy surpassed the bounds of mundane discrimination in the matter of caste, color and creed.

SB 2.5.26 -29 TRANSLATION: Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by previous succession the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of duration of life: sense perception, mental power and bodily strength. When the air is transformed in course of time and nature’s course, fire is generated, taking shape with the sense of touch and sound. Since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. As previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound. And water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorous and, as previously, becomes qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound and form respectively.

The whole process of creation is an act of gradual evolution and development from one element to another, reaching up to the variegatedness of the earth as so many trees, plants, mountains, rivers, reptiles, birds, animals and varieties of human beings. The quality of sense perception is also evolutionary, namely generated from sound, then touch, and from touch to form. Taste and odor are also generated along with the gradual development of sky, air, fire, water and earth. They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-Viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva. As such, Lord Kṛṣṇa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the cause of all causes, and this is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) as follows:

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo

mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māṁ

budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent.

In the sky there is sound only, 

in the air there are sound and touch. 

In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and

in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape. 

In the earth, however, there are all the above-mentioned qualities with an extra development of odor also. Therefore on the earth there is a full display of variegatedness of life, which originally started with the basic principle of air. 

Diseases of the body take place due to derangement of air within the earthly body of the living beings. Mental diseases result from special derangement of the air within the body, and, as such, yogic exercise is especially beneficial to keep the air in order so that diseases of the body become almost nil by such exercises. When they are properly done the duration of life also increases, and one can have control over death also by such practices. A perfect yogī can have command over death and quit the body at the right moment, when he is competent to transfer himself to a suitable planet. The bhakti-yogī, however, surpasses all the yogīs because, by dint of his devotional service, he is promoted to the region beyond the material sky and is placed in one of the planets in the spiritual sky by the supreme will of the Lord, the controller of everything.

It goes from subtle to gross. Human body is very precarious and it can end at any moment. It can form a blood clot because the oxygen does not go to that part of the body. The circulation of air in the body is extremely important for maintaining health. Oxygen is the number one need of the body. 

Whenever there is swelling.. When you eat too much there is swelling – intestines swell  – pass air, burp…Oxygen does not go through the bloodstream, you have stroke. 

Yogis maintain the oxygen circulation in their body – Healthy, 

Overeating, constipation – causes distress. Most diseases are caused due to intestinal problems. 

Bhakti yoga surpasses all the yogas.. This is also explained in SB 2.1.10

SB 2.1.10 

That very Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam I shall recite before you because you are the most sincere devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. One who gives full attention and respect to hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam achieves unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord, the giver of salvation.

Hearing and repeating is the basis of Bhakti Yoga.. Hearing and recitation. 

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is recognized Vedic wisdom,[realized knowledge]  and the system of receiving Vedic knowledge is called avaroha-panthā [descending process], or the process of receiving transcendental knowledge through bona fide disciplic succession. For advancement of material knowledge there is a need for personal ability and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master. 

BG 10.10

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science.

Example is Dhruva Maharaj. Very determined to surpass father. Mom tells only Krsna can help you. He leaves the home and goes to forest. 

 The process should not, however, be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current. [Ramakrishna & Vivekananda]  The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude. The idea is that both the spiritual master and the disciple must be bona fide. In this case, the spiritual master, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is ready to recite exactly what he has learned from his great father Śrīla Vyāsadeva, and the disciple, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, is a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is he who believes sincerely that by becoming a devotee of the Lord one becomes fully equipped with everything spiritual. This teaching is imparted by the Lord Himself in the pages of the Bhagavad-gītā, in which it is clearly described that the Lord (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) is everything, and that to surrender unto Him solely and wholly makes one the most perfectly pious man. [Bahunaam Janma Namante….  ]  This unflinching faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa prepares one to become a student of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and one who hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is sure to attain salvation at the end, as Mahārāja Parīkṣit did. 

The professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the pseudodevotees whose faith is based on one week’s hearing are different from Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Śrīla Vyāsadeva explained Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam unto Śukadeva Gosvāmī from the very beginning of the janmādy asya verse, and so Śukadeva Gosvāmī also explained it to the King. Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as the Mahāpuruṣa in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Canto Eleven) in His devotional feature as Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in His devotional attitude, descended to the earth to bestow special favors upon the fallen souls of this Age of Kali. There are two verses particularly suitable to offer as prayers to this Mahāpuruṣa feature of Lord Kṛṣṇa:

[Prayers for the glorification of Caitanya MahaPrabhu]

dhyeyaṁ sadā paribhava-ghnam abhīṣṭa-dohaṁ

tīrthāspadaṁ śiva-viriñci-nutaṁ śaraṇyam

bhṛtyārti-haṁ praṇata-pāla bhavābdhi-potaṁ

vande mahāpuruṣa te caraṇāravindam

tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīṁ

dharmiṣṭha ārya-vacasā yad agād araṇyam

māyā-mṛgaṁ dayitayepsitam anvadhāvad

vande mahāpuruṣa te caraṇāravindam

Caitanya Mahāprabhu lived for twenty-four years in Navadvīpa as a householder and enjoyed immense popularity among both scholars and ordinary persons. His saṅkīrtana movement was completely supported by the local government, even though it was Muslim. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu had the pleasure of marrying the goddess of fortune. No ordinary woman of the material world, no matter how gorgeous she may be, can in any way compare with the beautiful goddess of fortune.

However, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa appearing as a brāhmaṇa, and therefore He is certainly dharmiṣṭhaḥ, or the most religious. Actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always dharmiṣṭhaḥ, whether He appears as a cowherd boy, a great king or a brāhmaṇa, because the Lord Himself is the original source and personification of all religious principles.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained the word māyā-mṛgam as follows. Māyā means one’s so-called wife, children and bank account, which keep one firmly bound up in the material bodily concept of life. The word mṛgam indicates mṛgyati, or “to search out.” Thus, māyā-mṛgam indicates the conditioned living entity, who is always frantically searching for the latest up-to-the-minute sense gratification in the material bodily concept of society, friendship and love. Anvadhāvat indicates that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was always visibly going here and there, searching after the fallen conditioned souls. Caitanya Mahāprabhu would sometimes embrace the conditioned souls on the pretext of religious friendship or ecstasy. But actually, the Lord was touching the bodies of the conditioned souls to pull them out of the ocean of material existence and hurl them into the ocean of ecstatic love of Godhead. Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the most merciful and munificent incarnation of the Lord, whose mercy surpassed the bounds of mundane discrimination in the matter of caste, color and creed.

SB 2.1.11
O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.


The position of pure devotee is absolutely unique and cannot be compared to anything…. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.24 TODAY (07/11/21):

1. Materialistic ego, or the sense of identification with matter, is grossly self-centered, devoid of clear knowledge of the existence of God. And this self-centered egoism of the materialistic living entities is the cause of their being conditioned by the other paraphernalia and continuing their bondage of material existence.
2. This ignorance of the personal feature of the Lord is due simply to ignorance of the mixture of different modes. The impersonalist thus cannot conceive of the Lord’s eternal spiritual form of eternal knowledge, bliss and existence.
3. The reason is that the Lord reserves the right of not exposing Himself to the non devotee who, even after a thorough study of literature like the Bhagavad-gītā, remains an impersonalist simply by obstinacy. 
4. This obstinacy is due to the action of yoga-māyā, a personal energy of the Lord that acts like an aide-de-camp by covering the vision of the obstinate impersonalist. 
5. The self-centered impersonalists, by their gross ignorance, accept the Lord as one of them because of self-centered egoism, even after so-called advancement of knowledge in the Vedānta. 
6. By the will of the Lord, the impersonalist, even after knowing the Brahman and Paramātmā features of the Lord, remains ignorant of His eternal personal feature as ever-existent Nārāyaṇa, transcendental to all material creation.
7. The cause of such gross ignorance is constant engagement by the materialistic man in the matter of artificially increasing material demands. To realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to purify the materialistic senses by devotional service. 
8. The mode of goodness, or the brahminical culture recommended in the Vedic literatures, is helpful to such spiritual realization, and thus the jñāna-śakti stage of the conditioned soul is comparatively better than the other two stages, namely dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti.
9. The whole material civilization is manifested by a huge accumulation of materials, or in other words, raw materials for industrial purposes, and the industrial enterprises (kriyā-śakti) are all due to gross ignorance of spiritual life.
10. In order to rectify this great anomaly of materialistic civilization, based on the principles of dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti, one has to adopt the process of devotional service of the Lord by adoption of the principles of karma-yoga, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.27). 
11. “O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me.”
12. Pure self-realization, as we have several times discussed, is the pure consciousness of admitting oneself to be the eternal servitor of the Lord.
13. This stage of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord without any hopes of emolument from the Lord, or any other way, can be attained when the material senses are purified and the original pure state of the senses is revived. 
14. The mind belongs to the mode of goodness and therefore is called devamaya, or godly. Perfect purification of the mind is made possible when one is fixed in the conviction of being the eternal servitor of the Lord.
15. The process of gradual emancipation by the devotees, although authoritative, is not viable in the present age because of people’s being primarily unaware of yoga practice
16. Lord Śrī Caitanya, therefore, made it easier for the prospective devotee of the present age in the following specific manner. Ultimately there is no difference in the result.
17. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends that the devotee sow the seed of bhakti-yoga in his heart and nurture it by the watering of hearing and chanting the holy name, fame, etc., of the Lord. The simple process of offenselessly chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord will gradually promote one very soon to the stage of emancipation
18. When we speak of hearing and chanting, it means that not only should one chant and hear of the holy name of the Lord as Rāma, Kṛṣṇa (or systematically the sixteen names Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare), but one should also read and hear the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the association of devotees. 
    
    

SB 2.5.24 TRANSLATION

The self-centered materialistic ego, thus being transformed into three features, becomes known as the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance in three divisions, namely the powers that evolve matter, knowledge of material creations, and the intelligence that guides such materialistic activities. Nārada, you are quite competent to understand this.

Materialistic ego, or the sense of identification with matter, is grossly self-centered, devoid of clear knowledge of the existence of God. And this self-centered egoism of the materialistic living entities is the cause of their being conditioned by the other paraphernalia and continuing their bondage of material existence. In the Bhagavad-gītā this self-centered egoism is very nicely explained in the Seventh Chapter (verses 24 through 27). The self-centered impersonalist, without a clear conception of the Personality of Godhead, concludes in his own way that the Personality of Godhead takes a material shape from His original impersonal spiritual existence for a particular mission. And this misleading conception of the Supreme Lord by the self-centered impersonalist continues, even though he is seen to be very interested in the Vedic literatures such as the Brahma-sūtras and other highly intellectual sources of knowledge. This ignorance of the personal feature of the Lord is due simply to ignorance of the mixture of different modes.The impersonalist thus cannot conceive of the Lord’s eternal spiritual form of eternal knowledge, bliss and existence. The reason is that the Lord reserves the right of not exposing Himself to the nondevotee who, even after a thorough study of literature like the Bhagavad-gītā, remains an impersonalist simply by obstinacy. This obstinacy is due to the action of yoga-māyā, a personal energy of the Lord that acts like an aide-de-camp by covering the vision of the obstinate impersonalist. 

This is explained in BG 7.25 

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.

In the prayers of Kuntī in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.8.19) it is said that the Lord is covered by the curtain of yoga-māyā and thus ordinary people cannot understand Him. This yoga-māyā curtain is also confirmed in the Īśopaniṣad (Mantra 15), in which the devotee prays:

hiraṇmayena pātreṇa

satyasyāpihitaṁ mukham

tat tvaṁ pūṣann apāvṛṇu

satya-dharmāya dṛṣṭaye

“O my Lord, You are the maintainer of the entire universe, and devotional service to You is the highest religious principle. Therefore, I pray that You will also maintain me. Your transcendental form is covered by the yoga-māyā. The brahma-jyotir is the covering of the internal potency. May You kindly remove this glowing effulgence that impedes my seeing Your sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge.” The Supreme Personality of Godhead in His transcendental form of bliss and knowledge is covered by the internal potency of the brahma-jyotir, and the less intelligent impersonalists cannot see the Supreme on this account.

Even if you free yourself from Maya there is no guarantee you will see the lord. The mayavadis they free themselves from maya. 

Such a bewildered human being is described as mūḍha, or grossly ignorant, because he is unable to understand the transcendental form of the Lord as being unborn and unchangeable. If the Lord takes a form or material shape from His original impersonal feature, then it means that He is born and changeable from impersonal to personal. But He is not changeable. Nor does He ever take a new birth like a conditioned soul. The conditioned soul may take a form birth after birth due to his conditional existence in matter,but the self-centered impersonalists, by their gross ignorance, accept the Lord as one of them because of self-centered egoism, even after so-called advancement of knowledge in the Vedānta. The Lord, being situated in the heart of every individual living entity, knows very well the tendency of such conditioned souls in terms of past, present and future, but the bewildered conditioned soul hardly can know Him in His eternal form. By the will of the Lord, therefore, the impersonalist, even after knowing the Brahman and Paramātmā features of the Lord, remains ignorant of His eternal personal feature as ever-existent Nārāyaṇa, transcendental to all material creation.

The cause of such gross ignorance is constant engagement by the materialistic man in the matter of artificially increasing material demands. To realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to purify the materialistic senses by devotional service. The mode of goodness, or the brahminical culture recommended in the Vedic literatures, is helpful to such spiritual realization, and thus the jñāna-śakti stage of the conditioned soul is comparatively better than the other two stages, namely dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti. The whole material civilization is manifested by a huge accumulation of materials, or in other words, raw materials for industrial purposes, and the industrial enterprises (kriyā-śakti) are all due to gross ignorance of spiritual life. In order to rectify this great anomaly of materialistic civilization, based on the principles of dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti, one has to adopt the process of devotional service of the Lord by adoption of the principles of karma-yoga, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.27) as follows:

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi

yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya

tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

“O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me.”

We are continuing in more detail about how the living entity is trapped. Although the living entity is eternally full of bliss, knowledge and consciousness. Subtle mind, false ego, intelligence  keep us trapped. 

V IMP – The cause of such gross ignorance is constant engagement by the materialistic man in the matter of artificially increasing material demands.

One thing devotees noticed is that Srila Prabhupada was travelling with very less stuff. One luggage is nothing more, this is the life of the devotee. 

Artificially increasing demands – Chairs, Electronic beds, cars with amenities, we become attached to it. Whereas you dont need all that stuff. Accumulate junk. 

To realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to purify the materialistic senses by devotional service.

Devotional service is using all the junk things in the service of the lord. Some people want to bring junk stuff and give it to the temple. People should not assume that they can dump their junk in the temple. 

Thus the jñāna-śakti stage of the conditioned soul is comparatively better than the other two stages, namely dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti.

Dravya sakti – Things – gadgets, material paraphernalia 

Kriya Sakti – Deep stated meditation you renounce things and meditate only on one thing. That one thing can be light, or Krsna. 

The power of knowledge as opposed to the power of accumulating things or as opposed to the power of meditation on one thing. We are reading SB day after day to understand how we got trapped in this material world. 

(SB 2.2.30) Amazing information

The devotee, thus surpassing the gross and the subtle forms of coverings, enters the plane of egoism. And in that status he merges the material modes of nature [ignorance and passion] in this point of neutralization and thus reaches egoism in goodness. After this, all egoism is merged in the mahat-tattva, and he comes to the point of pure self-realization.

Pure self-realization, as we have several times discussed, is the pure consciousness of admitting oneself to be the eternal servitor of the Lord. Thus one is reinstated in his original position of transcendental loving service to the Lord, as will be clearly explained in the following verse. This stage of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord without any hopes of emolument from the Lord, or any other way, can be attained when the material senses are purified and the original pure state of the senses is revived. It is suggested herein that the process of purifying the senses is by the yogic way — namely, the gross senses are merged in the mode of ignorance, and the subtle senses are merged in the mode of passion. The mind belongs to the mode of goodness and therefore is called devamaya, or godly. Perfect purification of the mind is made possible when one is fixed in the conviction of being the eternal servitor of the Lord. Therefore simple attainment of goodness is also a material mode; one has to surpass this stage of material goodness and reach the point of purified goodness, or vasudeva-sattva. This vasudeva-sattva helps one to enter into the kingdom of God.

We may also remember in this connection that the process of gradual emancipation by the devotees in the manner mentioned above, although authoritative, is not viable in the present age because of people’s being primarily unaware of yoga practice. The so-called yoga practice by the professional protagonists may be physiologically beneficial, but such small successes cannot help one in the attainment of spiritual emancipation as mentioned herein. Five thousand years ago, when the social status of human society was in perfect Vedic order, the yoga process mentioned herein was a common affair for everyone because everyone, and especially the brāhmaṇa and kṣatriya, was trained in the transcendental art under the care of the spiritual master far away from home, in the status of brahmacarya. Modern man, however, is incompetent to understand it perfectly.

Lord Śrī Caitanya, therefore, made it easier for the prospective devotee of the present age in the following specific manner. Ultimately there is no difference in the result. The first and foremost point is that one must understand the prime importance of bhakti-yoga. The living beings in different species of life are undergoing different terms of encagement according to their fruitive actions and reactions. But in the execution of different activities, one who secures some resources in bhakti-yoga can understand the importance of service to the Lord through the causeless mercy of the Lord, as well as that of the spiritual master. A sincere soul is helped by the Lord through meeting a bona fide spiritual master, the representative of the Lord. By the instruction of such a spiritual master, one gets the seed of bhakti-yoga.Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends that the devotee sow the seed of bhakti-yoga in his heart and nurture it by the watering of hearing and chanting the holy name, fame, etc., of the Lord. The simple process of offenselessly chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord will gradually promote one very soon to the stage of emancipation. There are three stages in chanting the holy name of the Lord. The first stage is the offensive chanting of the holy name, and the second is the reflective stage of chanting the holy name. The third stage is the offenseless chanting of the holy name of the Lord. In the second stage only, the stage of reflection, between the offensive and offenseless stages, one automatically attains the stage of emancipation. And in the offenseless stage, one actually enters into the kingdom of God, although physically he may apparently be within the material world. To attain the offenseless stage, one must be on guard in the following manner.

When we speak of hearing and chanting, it means that not only should one chant and hear of the holy name of the Lord as Rāma, Kṛṣṇa (or systematically the sixteen names Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare), but one should also read and hear the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the association of devotees. The primary practice of bhakti-yoga will cause the seed already sown in the heart to sprout, and by a regular watering process, as mentioned above, the bhakti-yoga creeper will begin to grow. By systematic nurturing, the creeper will grow to such an extent that it will penetrate the coverings of the universe, as we have heard in the previous verses, reach the effulgent sky, the brahmajyoti, and go farther and farther and reach the spiritual sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets called Vaikuṇṭhalokas. Above all of them is Kṛṣṇaloka, or Goloka Vṛndāvana, wherein the growing creeper enters and takes repose at the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the original Personality of Godhead. When one reaches the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Goloka Vṛndāvana, the watering process of hearing and reading, as also chanting of the holy name in the pure devotional stage, fructifies, and the fruits grown there in the form of love of God are tangibly tasted by the devotee, even though he is here in this material world. The ripe fruits of love of God are relished only by the devotees constantly engaged in the watering process as described above. But the working devotee must always be mindful so that the creeper which has so grown will not be cut off. Therefore he should be mindful of the following considerations:

1) Offense by one at the feet of a pure devotee may be likened to the mad elephant who devastates a very good garden if it enters.

2) One must be very careful to guard himself against such offenses at the feet of pure devotees, just as one protects a creeper by all-around fencing.

3) It so happens that by the watering process some weeds are also grown, and unless such weeds are uprooted, the nurturing of the main creeper, or the creeper of bhakti-yoga, may be hampered.

4) Actually these weeds are material enjoyment, merging of the self in the Absolute without separate individuality, and many other desires in the field of religion, economic development, sense enjoyment and emancipation.

5) There are many other weeds, like disobedience to the tenets of the revered scriptures, unnecessary engagements, killing animals, and hankering after material gain, prestige and adoration.

6) If sufficient care is not taken, then the watering process may only help to breed the weeds, stunting the healthy growth of the main creeper and resulting in no fructification of the ultimate requirement: love of God.

7) The devotee must therefore be very careful to uproot the different weeds in the very beginning. Only then will the healthy growth of the main creeper not be stunted.

8) And by so doing, the devotee is able to relish the fruit of love of God and thus live practically with Lord Kṛṣṇa, even in this life, and be able to see the Lord in every step.

The highest perfection of life is to enjoy life constantly in the association of the Lord, and one who can relish this does not aspire after any temporary enjoyment of the material world via other media.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.23 TODAY (07/10/21): 

1. The mahat-tattva is the principle of material creation, and when it is agitated by the will of the Supreme at first the modes of passion and goodness are prominent, and afterwards the mode of passion, being generated in due course by material activities of different varieties, becomes prominent, and the living entities are thus involved more and more in ignorance. 
2. Brahmā is the representation of the mode of passion, and Viṣṇu is the representation of the mode of goodness, while the mode of ignorance is represented by Lord Śiva, the father of material activities.
3. Material nature is called the mother, and the initiator for materialistic life is the father, Lord Śiva. All material creation by the living entities is therefore initiated by the mode of passion.
4. With the advancement of the duration of life in a particular millennium, the different modes act by gradual development. In the, as such Age of Kali (when the mode of passion is most prominent) material activities of different varieties, in the name of advancement of human civilization, take place, and the living entities become more and more involved in forgetting their real identity — the spiritual nature. 
5. By slight cultivation of the mode of goodness, a glimpse of spiritual nature is perceived, but due to the prominence of the mode of passion, the mode of goodness becomes adulterated. Therefore one cannot transcend the limits of the material modes, and therefore the realization of the Lord, who is always transcendental to the modes of material nature, becomes very difficult for the living entities, even though prominently situated in the mode of goodness through the cultivation of the various methods. 
6. In other words, the gross matters are adhibhūtam, their maintenance is adhidaivam, and the initiator of material activities is called adhyātmam. In the material world these three principles act as prominent features, namely as raw material, its regular supplies, and its use in different varieties of material creations for sense enjoyment by the bewildered entities.
7. 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.
8. BG 5.22 – Therefore, those who are true yogīs or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.
9. Being thus covered by material energy, one cannot possibly overcome its influence. As previously stated, both the material and spiritual natures, being emanations from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are eternal. The living entities belong to the eternal superior nature of the Lord, but due to contamination by the inferior nature, matter, their illusion is also eternal.
10. Prabhupada Morning Walk July 3, 1975, Denver – When one remembers that this world is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), is a place of misery, then we can go. As long as we shall think, “Oh, it is a very nice place,” we’ll have to remain here. Kṛṣṇa is so kind, “All right, remain in this very nice place.”

SB 2.5.23 TRANSLATION:

Material activities are caused by the mahat-tattva’s being agitated. At first there is transformation of the modes of goodness and passion, and later — due to the mode of ignorance — matter, its knowledge, and different activities of material knowledge come into play.

Material creations of every description are more or less due to the development of the mode of passion (rajas). The mahat-tattva is the principle of material creation, and when it is agitated by the will of the Supreme at first the modes of passion and goodness are prominent, and afterwards the mode of passion, being generated in due course by material activities of different varieties, becomes prominent, and the living entities are thus involved more and more in ignorance. Brahmā is the representation of the mode of passion, and Viṣṇu is the representation of the mode of goodness, while the mode of ignorance is represented by Lord Śiva, the father of material activities. Material nature is called the mother, and the initiator for materialistic life is the father, Lord Śiva. All material creation by the living entities is therefore initiated by the mode of passion. With the advancement of the duration of life in a particular millennium, the different modes act by gradual development. In the , as such Age of Kali (when the mode of passion is most prominent) material activities of different varieties, in the name of advancement of human civilization, take place, and the living entities become more and more involved in forgetting their real identity — the spiritual nature. By a slight cultivation of the mode of goodness, a glimpse of spiritual nature is perceived, but due to the prominence of the mode of passion, the mode of goodness becomes adulterated. Therefore one cannot transcend the limits of the material modes, and therefore realization of the Lord, who is always transcendental to the modes of material nature, becomes very difficult for the living entities, even though prominently situated in the mode of goodness through cultivation of the various methods. 

It shows how dangerous maya is, how difficult it is to transcend the modes.

In other words, the gross matters are adhibhūtam, their maintenance is adhidaivam, and the initiator of material activities is called adhyātmam. In the material world these three principles act as prominent features, namely as raw material, its regular supplies, and its use in different varieties of material creations for sense enjoyment by the bewildered entities.

This whole section called the cause of all causes describes how material creation happens step by step. You cannot understand it by reading any other books. Even in Bible has a very brief mention of creation in genesis. BUt here step by step clear description is provided by Sukhdev Goswami – Vyas dev – Narada… 

We are fortunate to hear this due to the meticulous work of SP translating it into English. What is mentioned here is directly said by Krsna to Brahma.. 

Even though we have Bhakti Shastri, Bhakti Vaibhava, Our knowledge is very piecemeal. Therefore we have to hear from SB everyday verse by verse slowly.. 

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. 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.

BG 5.22

Therefore, those who are true yogīs or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.

BG 7.14
This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead has innumerable energies, and all these energies are divine. Although the living entities are part of His energies and are therefore divine, due to contact with material energy their original superior power is covered. Being thus covered by material energy, one cannot possibly overcome its influence. As previously stated, both the material and spiritual natures, being emanations from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are eternal. The living entities belong to the eternal superior nature of the Lord, but due to contamination by the inferior nature, matter, their illusion is also eternal. The conditioned soul is therefore called nitya-baddha, or eternally conditioned. No one can trace out the history of his becoming conditioned at a certain date in material history. Consequently, his release from the clutches of material nature is very difficult, even though that material nature is an inferior energy, because material energy is ultimately conducted by the supreme will, which the living entity cannot overcome. Inferior, material nature is defined herein as divine nature due to its divine connection and movement by the divine will. Being conducted by divine will, material nature, although inferior, acts so wonderfully in the construction and destruction of the cosmic manifestation. The Vedas confirm this as follows: māyāṁ tu prakṛtiṁ vidyān māyinaṁ tu maheśvaram. “Although māyā [illusion] is false or temporary, the background of māyā is the supreme magician, the Personality of Godhead, who is Maheśvara, the supreme controller.” (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 4.10)

Morning Walk July 3, 1975, Denver
Prabhupāda: Yes. If he desires, he can come again. That option is always there. Just like I remain in India; I come here. And if I like, I may not come. It is my option.
Ambarīṣa: When we get to the spiritual sky, we’ll always be able to remember how horrible it is down here, huh? We’ll always be able to remember how terrible it is in the material world?
Prabhupāda: It is terrible.
Ambarīṣa: Yes, we will be able to remember that.

Prabhupāda: That is intelligence. When one remembers that this world is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), is a place of misery, then we can go. As long as we shall think, “Oh, it is very nice place,” we’ll have to remain here. Kṛṣṇa is so kind, “All right, remain in this very nice place.”

Brahmānanda: You gave the example yesterday of Lord Indra. When he took birth here as a hog, then he didn’t want to leave. He thought it was nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he also thought it is a very nice place.

Kāśīrāma: Queen Kuntī was always praying that the calamities would happen again and again so that she would remember Kṛṣṇa. If the calamities are always happening in the material world, we will realize it is a terrible place to stay.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.22 TODAY (07/09/21): 

1. By the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord, the whole material creation evolves by the process of transformation and reactions one after another, and by the same omnipotency, they are wound up again one after another and conserved in the body of the Supreme.
2. Kāla, or time, is the synonym of nature and is the transformed manifestation of the principles of material creation.
3. Kāla may be taken as the first cause of all creation, and by the transformation of nature different activities of the material world become visible
4. These activities may be taken up as the natural instinct of each and every living being, or even of the inert objects, and after the manifestation of activities there are varieties of products and by-products of the same nature.
5. Originally these are all due to the Supreme Lord.
6. The Vedānta-sūtras and the Bhāgavatam thus begin with the Absolute Truth as the beginning of all creations (janmādy asya yataḥ).
7. SB 2.5.21 – The Lord, therefore, exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature. Nonetheless, He keeps Himself distinct from such creation as the pūrṇam (or complete), and so no one should wrongly think that His personal feature is not existent due to His impersonal unlimited expansions.
8. The lord says that although everything is resting on Him, He is aloof. The planetary systems are floating in space, and this space is the energy of the Supreme Lord. But He is different from space. He is differently situated. This is the inconceivable opulence of the Lord.
9.  “The Supreme Lord is performing inconceivably wonderful pastimes, displaying His energy.” His person is full of different potent energies, and His determination is itself actual fact. In this way the Personality of Godhead is to be understood.
10. We may think of doing something, but there are so many impediments, and sometimes it is not possible to do as we like. But when Kṛṣṇa wants to do something, simply by His willing, everything is performed so perfectly that one cannot imagine how it is being done. 
11. He does not touch this material manifestation. Simply by His supreme will, everything is created, everything is sustained, everything is maintained and everything is annihilated. There is no difference between His mind and Himself (as there is a difference between ourselves and our present material mind) because He is absolute spirit. Simultaneously the Lord is present in everything; yet the common man cannot understand how He is also present personally.
12. He is different from this material manifestation, yet everything is resting on Him. This is explained here as yogam aiśvaram, the mystic power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 2.5.22 TRANSLATION:

(How the material creation takes place)

After the incarnation of the first puruṣa [Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu], the mahat-tattva, or the principles of material creation, take place, and then time is manifested, and in course of time the three qualities appear. Nature means the three qualitative appearances. They transform into activities.

CLASS NOTES:

By the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord, the whole material creation evolves by the process of transformation and reactions one after another, and by the same omnipotency, they are wound up again one after another and conserved in the body of the Supreme. Kāla, or time, is the synonym of nature and is the transformed manifestation of the principles of material creation. As such, kāla may be taken as the first cause of all creation, and by the transformation of nature different activities of the material world become visible. These activities may be taken up as the natural instinct of each and every living being, or even of the inert objects, and after the manifestation of activities there are varieties of products and by-products of the same nature. Originally these are all due to the Supreme Lord. The Vedānta-sūtras and the Bhāgavatam thus begin with the Absolute Truth as the beginning of all creations (janmādy asya yataḥ).

One main point in this purport is the transformation & material activities. This transformation, the mayavadis say that there is no such transformation. At every step Mayavadis are contradicting what Krsna is saying or His devotees. SP gives an example in CC that lemon is a transformation of the energy of a lemon tree.  Vaishnavas say that is the way material creation happens from the external energy. 

Everything goes from subtle to Gross.  Transformation and reactions are rejected by Mayavadis. A lot more about creation is happening in CC ADI Chapter 7. 

Even the inert objects – 

Soul and super soul in living beings

Supersoul in nonliving beings. 

Jagadeesh Chandra bose observed the plants and also inert objects like metals and objects and found that they also have some consciousness. Because they grow and diminish. In the spiritual world is alive. In the material world, everything is also alive even though not understood. 

But their explanation is all illusion. 

BG 4.24 – Everything is an expansion of Krsna’s energy. 

Perverted nature and real nature by the process of KC we can change everything perverted into real nature. 

SB 2.5.21- 

The Lord, therefore, exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature. Nonetheless, He keeps Himself distinct from such creation as the pūrṇam (or complete), and so no one should wrongly think that His personal feature is not existent due to His impersonal unlimited expansions. 

This is impossible for people to understand. The unlimited expansions – first expansion Balaram – … 

And still He is the same and He is aloof and is not involved.. 

The whole material creation sits on the Brahma Jyothi.. These are all very complicated and incomprehensible… Human beings are in limited time and 

Because we cannot do this, we think it is not possible. Because we cannot perceive we think they do not exist. The frog in the well example. The scientists say there is no spiritual world and there is only material world even that they cannot understand. Therefore they are always stuck and self imposed. 

The impersonal expansion is a manifestation of His energy, and He is always in His personal feature despite His innumerable unlimited expansions of impersonal energies (Bg. 9.5-7). For human intelligence it is very difficult to conceive how the whole creation rests on His expansion of energy, but the Lord has given a very good example in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is said that although the air and the atoms rest within the huge expansion of the sky, which is like the resting reservoir of everything materially created, still the sky remains separate and unaffected. Similarly, although the Supreme Lord maintains everything created by His expansion of energy, He always remains separate. This is accepted even by Śaṅkarācārya, the great advocate of the impersonal form of the Absolute. He says nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt, or Nārāyaṇa exists separately, apart from the impersonal creative energy. The whole creation thus merges within the body of transcendental Nārāyaṇa at the time of annihilation, and the creation emanates from His body again with the same unchanging categories of fate and individual nature. The individual living entities, being parts and parcels of the Lord, are sometimes described as ātmā, qualitatively one in spiritual constitution. But because such living entities are apt to be attracted to the material creation, actively and subjectively, they are therefore different from the Lord.

BG 9.5 

And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.

He can be greater than everything and smaller than everything… mutually contradictory and inconceivable qualities. Everything is reconciled by the lord’s infinite energies. It is very impossible for materialists to understand due to their envious… 

Body is a limitation, attachment to the body and material things is self-limiting. How do we handle this transcendental knowledge… Mayavadis reject things, Scientists and materialists reject things all because of their enviousness..  They cancel the abilities of the other person and their position.  They cancel God. They are canceling their own opportunity of becoming God-consciousness. Enviousness of God  = Enviousness of own self. 

The Lord says that everything is resting on Him (mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni). This should not be misunderstood. The Lord is not directly concerned with the maintenance and sustenance of this material manifestation. Sometimes we see a picture of Atlas holding the globe on his shoulders; he seems to be very tired, holding this great earthly planet. Such an image should not be entertained in connection with Kṛṣṇa’s upholding this created universe. He says that although everything is resting on Him, He is aloof. The planetary systems are floating in space, and this space is the energy of the Supreme Lord. But He is different from space. He is differently situated. Therefore the Lord says, “Although they are situated on My inconceivable energy, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead I am aloof from them.” This is the inconceivable opulence of the Lord.

In the Nirukti Vedic dictionary it is said, yujyate ’nena durghaṭeṣu kāryeṣu: “The Supreme Lord is performing inconceivably wonderful pastimes, displaying His energy.” His person is full of different potent energies, and His determination is itself actual fact. In this way the Personality of Godhead is to be understood. We may think of doing something, but there are so many impediments, and sometimes it is not possible to do as we like. But when Kṛṣṇa wants to do something, simply by His willing, everything is performed so perfectly that one cannot imagine how it is being done. The Lord explains this fact: although He is the maintainer and sustainer of the entire material manifestation, He does not touch this material manifestation. Simply by His supreme will, everything is created, everything is sustained, everything is maintained and everything is annihilated. There is no difference between His mind and Himself (as there is a difference between ourselves and our present material mind) because He is absolute spirit. Simultaneously the Lord is present in everything; yet the common man cannot understand how He is also present personally. He is different from this material manifestation, yet everything is resting on Him. This is explained here as yogam aiśvaram, the mystic power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

BG 9.6 & 9.7 explain Krsna’s unique position

If we cannot accept any of these things we cannot 

BG 9.6

In the Upaniṣads it is stated, yad-bhīṣā vātaḥ pavate: “It is out of the fear of the Supreme Lord that the wind is blowing.” (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.8.1) In the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (3.8.9) it is stated, etasya vā akṣarasya praśāsane gārgi sūrya-candramasau vidhṛtau tiṣṭhata etasya vā akṣarasya praśāsane gārgi dyāv-āpṛthivyau vidhṛtau tiṣṭhataḥ. “By the supreme order, under the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the moon, the sun, and the other great planets are moving.” In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.52) also it is stated,

This is a description of the movement of the sun. It is said that the sun is considered to be one of the eyes of the Supreme Lord and that it has immense potency to diffuse heat and light. Still it is moving in its prescribed orbit by the order and the supreme will of Govinda. So, from the Vedic literature we can find evidence that this material manifestation, which appears to us to be very wonderful and great, is under the complete control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This will be further explained in the later verses of this chapter.

The whole kernel of truth is in BG. Much more detail about everything is in SB.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.21

1. The creation and annihilation of the material worlds is a regular action of the Lord just to allow the conditioned souls to play as they like and thereby create their own fate of being differently created again in terms of their independent desires at the time of annihilation.
2. . The process of creation and annihilation is called anādi, or without reference to date regarding the time the creation first took place, because the duration of even a partial creation is 8,640,000,000 years
3. The law of creation is, however, as mentioned in the Vedic literatures, that it is created at certain intervals and is again annihilated by the will of the Lord.
4. The whole material or even the spiritual creation is a manifestation of the energy of the Lord, just as the light and heat of a fire are different manifestations of the fire’s energy. The Lord therefore exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature.
5. For human intelligence it is very difficult to conceive how the whole creation rests on His expansion of energy, but the Lord has given a very good example in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is said that although the air and the atoms rest within the huge expansion of the sky, which is like the resting reservoir of everything materially created, still the sky remains separate and unaffected.
6. Similarly, although the Supreme Lord maintains everything created by His expansion of energy, He always remains separate.
7. The whole creation merges within the body of transcendental Nārāyaṇa at the time of annihilation, and the creation emanates from His body again with the same unchanging categories of fate and individual nature.
8. The aim of all sacrifices should be to please the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. Contact with matter is unavoidable in our present conditioned state, because while performing activities to sustain the body and to accomplish other purposes, we become intimate with material nature. But if we can spiritualize these activities by performing every one of them as a service to Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, then these activities become yajña, or sacrifice.
9. The Vaiṣṇavas say that anything connected with the Lord in devotional service is transcendental. In other words, it is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord Himself, Mādhava. Everything offered in sacrifice to the Absolute, or the Transcendence, becomes absolute, or transcendental.
10. In the Bhagavad-gītā (14.27) Lord Kṛṣṇa says, “And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness.” This verse unequivocally declares that Brahman is Lord Kṛṣṇa’s bodily effulgence. 
11. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of Brahman, devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa establishes the true meaning of sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. 
12. since the performance of sacrifice culminates in the manifestation of real love for Lord Viṣṇu, loving devotional service to Lord Viṣṇu is the very best form of sacrifice. Such a stage can be also described as total absorption in Brahman.
13. Persons who act in this way become progressively detached from matter and attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service. Thus they are able to purify the mirror of their hearts, extinguish the forest fire of material existence, and become situated in their original, spiritual position.
14. They never fall from this stage of consciousness. Fully absorbed in their own transcendental identity, they are the complete masters of their senses. 
15. There are those who live and act in a manner exactly opposite to that of the pure souls,
    who are constantly acting in karma-yoga. Such fruitive workers have no connection with the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. 
16. They cannot cleanse their heart of material contamination. They are slaves of their sensual urges, spending their time in gratifying their senses according to their whims. Yet they shamelessly say that all their actions are prompted by the Supreme Lord.
17. If a person fails to inform himself about the very subtle laws and workings of material nature, and at the same time he argues that all activities are sanctioned and inspired by the Supreme Lord, then he is reducing the Supreme Lord’s position and making Him out to be partial and unjust. 
18. The Lord never favors one and discriminates against another. Factually, He advises everyone to give up all material activities, which are by nature unstable and temporary. 
19. Because of the forgetfulness of God, a man becomes an eternal victim of ignorance, which then colors all his actions.

SB 2.5.21

The Lord, who is the controller of all energies, thus creates, by His own potency, eternal time, the fate of all living entities, and their particular nature, for which they were created, and He again merges them independently

CLASS NOTES:

The creation of the material world, wherein the conditioned souls are allowed to act subordinately by the Supreme Lord, takes place again and again after being repeatedly annihilated. The material creation is something like a cloud in the unlimited sky. The real sky is the spiritual sky, eternally filled with the rays of the brahmajyoti, and a portion of this unlimited sky is covered by the mahat-tattva cloud of the material creation, in which the conditioned souls, who want to lord it against the will of the Lord, are put into play as they desire, under the control of the Lord by the agency of His external energy. As the rainy season appears and disappears regularly, the creation takes place and is again annihilated under the control of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.19). So the creation and annihilation of the material worlds is a regular action of the Lord just to allow the conditioned souls to play as they like and thereby create their own fate of being differently created again in terms of their independent desires at the time of annihilation. The creation, therefore, takes place at a historical date (as we are accustomed to think of everything which has a beginning in our tiny experience). The process of creation and annihilation is called anādi, or without reference to date regarding the time the creation first took place, because the duration of even a partial creation is 8,640,000,000 years. The law of creation is, however, as mentioned in the Vedic literatures, that it is created at certain intervals and is again annihilated by the will of the Lord. The whole material or even the spiritual creation is a manifestation of the energy of the Lord, just as the light and heat of a fire are different manifestations of the fire’s energy. The Lord therefore exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature. Nonetheless He keeps Himself distinct from such creation as the pūrṇam (or complete), and so no one should wrongly think that His personal feature is not existent due to His impersonal unlimited expansions. The impersonal expansion is a manifestation of His energy, and He is always in His personal feature despite His innumerable unlimited expansions of impersonal energies (Bg. 9.5-7). For human intelligence it is very difficult to conceive how the whole creation rests on His expansion of energy, but the Lord has given a very good example in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is said that although the air and the atoms rest within the huge expansion of the sky, which is like the resting reservoir of everything materially created, still the sky remains separate and unaffected. Similarly, although the Supreme Lord maintains everything created by His expansion of energy, He always remains separate. This is accepted even by Śaṅkarācārya, the great advocate of the impersonal form of the Absolute. He says nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktāt, or Nārāyaṇa exists separately, apart from the impersonal creative energy. The whole creation thus merges within the body of transcendental Nārāyaṇa at the time of annihilation, and the creation emanates from His body again with the same unchanging categories of fate and individual nature. The individual living entities, being parts and parcels of the Lord, are sometimes described as ātmā, qualitatively one in spiritual constitution. But because such living entities are apt to be attracted to the material creation, actively and subjectively, they are therefore different from the Lord.

Questions – 

BG 8.17, 8.18, 8.19

There are 3 annihilations – end of brahma day, end of brahma life, end of manu

SB canto 1.9 

There are 8.4 m, species of life of which 430,000 species of humans. Out of which there are very few who are civilized. They follow the yama and niyamas. It is a rare thing in the human body to try to become KC. Most people are enamored by the possibility of dominating and controlling nature. But nature cannot be dominated, it is impossible.  it is energy of Krsna and therefore it is a hopeless endeavor. Living entity is not supposed to be independent and dominate nature. 

Inorder to try and dominate the nature, one has to forge Krsna. In this impossible endeavor they suffer. The only chance to come out of this is to seek the guidance of a bonafide spiritual master. 

No one can escape the laws of nature – Birth, death, old age and disease. People try to escape and end up in suffering, frustration, … Unless we understand how we are illusioned and covered by maya,

Maya has two duties – avaranatmika, prasnatmika

Matter, Knowledge, activity – mundane makes us subject to threefold miseries. Adhibhuta, adhyatmika, adhidaiva.. 

Finally being engaged in activities of sense gratification, we are covered by maya oblivious of what is the purpose of life. 

The way to become free of this enterprise  – The solution is explained in BG 4.24

(BG 4.24) How one can attain spiritual knowledge by performing activities that please the lord

RTW_1.19 

As Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā (4.24),

A person who is fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature.

This verse explains how one can attain spiritual knowledge by performing activities that please the Supreme Lord.

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya propounded the impersonal theory, citing phrases like sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: “By nature everything is Brahman, spirit.” Śaṅkarācārya’s theory has caused great confusion about established scriptural conclusions, but this phrase clearly supports the Gītā verse quoted above.

At this point it is urgent that we discuss how one can perform devotional service for the Supreme Lord’s pleasure. In this regard it is also noteworthy how saintly leaders like King Janaka executed karma-yoga, or devotional service, by performing sacrifice. The aim of all sacrifices should be to please the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. Contact with matter is unavoidable in our present conditioned state, because while performing activities to sustain the body and to accomplish other purposes, we become intimate with material nature. But if we can spiritualize these activities by performing every one of them as a service to Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, then these activities become yajña, or sacrifice. When the Vedic phrase sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma is interpreted in this way, it is acceptable. In other words, when one invokes the spiritual or transcendental or absolute in everything, then matter loses its mundaneness, and then only can one realize the perfect meaning of the phrase sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. The Vaiṣṇavas say that anything connected with the Lord in devotional service is transcendental. In other words, it is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord Himself, Mādhava. Just as iron in long and constant touch with fire loses the characteristics of iron and becomes fiery, so everything offered in sacrifice to the Absolute, or the Transcendence, becomes absolute, or transcendental.

In the Bhagavad-gītā (14.27) Lord Kṛṣṇa says, “And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness.” This verse unequivocally declares that Brahman is Lord Kṛṣṇa’s bodily effulgence. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of Brahman, devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa establishes the true meaning of sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. A sacrifice is properly performed only when all the sacrificial ingredients—the offerings, the fire, the ghee, and so on—become spiritualized, or reach the stage of Brahman, by their contact with Lord Kṛṣṇa. And since the performance of sacrifice culminates in the manifestation of real love for Lord Viṣṇu, loving devotional service to Lord Viṣṇu is the very best form of sacrifice. Such a stage can be also described as total absorption in Brahman.

Persons who act in this way become progressively detached from matter and attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service. Thus they are able to purify the mirror of their hearts, extinguish the forest fire of material existence, and become situated in their original, spiritual position. They exist at a level of realization far above the impersonal realization of the Absolute, for they are free from the contamination of vainly trying to merge with the Supreme and usurping His Absolute position. They never fall from this stage of consciousness. Fully absorbed in their own transcendental identity, they are the complete masters of their senses. They are the perfect persons to rule this universe, if they so desire, and they alone bring good fortune to everyone. The conditioned souls, however, are unable to benefit the world in any way. The purified, rare souls continuously perform karma-yoga and are always in a liberated state. In the Bhagavad-gītā (5.7) it is stated,

One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses is dear to everyone. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.

There are those who live and act in a manner exactly opposite to that of the pure souls, 

who are constantly acting in karma-yoga. Such fruitive workers have no connection with the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, they cannot cleanse their heart of material contamination. They are slaves of their sensual urges, spending their time in gratifying their senses according to their whims. Yet they shamelessly say that all their actions are prompted by the Supreme Lord. Being cheaters and atheists, they speak like this so that their impious acts may be acceptable, and thus they inflict untold misfortunes and calamities on the world.

By contrast, the pure, self-realized souls are constantly absorbed in serving Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet with their body, mind, and words. They never associate with atheistic people. These saintly persons know that although the spirit soul is infinitesimal, it is nevertheless endowed with minute free will at all times. The Supreme Lord is absolutely independent and can exercise absolute free will over all; because the spirit soul is qualitatively the same as the Supreme Lord, the Lord does not annul his minute free will.

The spirit soul unfortunately misuses this God-given minute free will and falls into the dark well of nescience and illusion. Once the spirit soul takes shelter of māyā, the illusory material energy, he develops the material qualities of goodness, passion, and ignorance. The spirit soul loses his original characteristics and develops a new nature, which is controlled by the three modes of material nature, and this continues until such time as he transcends them. 

“New nature” – sense gratification as the purpose of life, movies, books, everything is directing people towards sense gratification.

His actions are prompted accordingly. If it happened in any other way, then material variegatedness would not be visible in this phenomenal world. So if a person fails to inform himself about the very subtle laws and workings of material nature, and at the same time he argues that all activities are sanctioned and inspired by the Supreme Lord, then he is reducing the Supreme Lord’s position and making Him out to be partial and unjust. The Lord never favors one and discriminates against another. Factually, He advises everyone to give up all material activities, which are by nature unstable and temporary. Because of forgetfulness of God, a man becomes an eternal victim of ignorance, which then colours all his actions. The Bhagavad-gītā (5.14) says,

Om – means I have only one desire – desire to please the lord. As soon as you add more things to Om then the desires multiply.. 

The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature.

Therefore all activities except those performed as a sacrifice to Lord Viṣṇu are whimsical actions done of one’s own volition. They are not performed under the Supreme Lord’s direction or sanction. Since such activities stem from the material modes of nature, they are automatically under nature’s total control. The Supreme Lord is merely an impartial and silent witness to such activities.

Sankaracharya came with the theory -sarvam kalam idam dharmam – Cancel, Krsna, Cancel Individuality, ultimate cancel culture of everything. His point was that it is an impersonal theory. He says – Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithyam… His philosophy has caused tremendous confusion about what scriptures actually say and mean. He gave a false interpretation of veda pramanas. The question is how a person can become free from the cycle of birth and death. Only by devotional service under the guidance of shiksha and diksha gurus spiritualize the normal activities. How can we spiritualize our daily activities?

When you realize that everything is Brahman which is the energy of Krsna, everything can be used in the service of the Lord and make it spiritual. Anything connected to Krsna is transcendental. When you take this matter and use it in service of the lord, the spiritual nature of the apara prakriti comes out. When you offer food it becomes spiritual, marble when made a deity becomes spiritual. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.20 TODAY (07/07/21):

1. The impersonalists are covered by the three modes of material nature; therefore, they are unable to approach the transcendental personality of the Lord.
2. In  BG (7.24-25) the Lord has declared very clearly that the impersonalist, who gives more importance to the transcendental rays of the Lord as brahmajyoti and who concludes that the Absolute Truth is ultimately impersonal and only manifests a form at a time of necessity, is less intelligent than the personalist, however much the impersonalist may be engaged in studying the Vedānta.
3. This misconception of the formlessness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is due to the yoga-māyā curtain of the Lord and can be removed only by the Supreme Will, as soon as the conditioned soul surrenders unto Him. 
4. The devotees of the Lord who are transcendental to the three modes of material nature can see the all-blissful transcendental form of the Lord with their vision of love in the attitude of pure devotional service.
5. Yamunacharya states – “By understanding different Vedic literatures, one can come to know Your characteristics, Your form and Your activities, and one can thus understand that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, the demons, the nondevotees, cannot understand You.”
6. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the Personality of Godhead cannot be understood simply by study of the Vedānta literature. Only by the mercy of the Supreme Lord can the Personality of the Supreme be known. 
7. Nondevotees who are engaged in Vedānta and speculation on Vedic literature without any tinge of true Kṛṣṇa consciousness are also less intelligent, and for them it is not possible to understand God’s personal nature. 
8. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated that supreme realization begins from the impersonal Brahman and then rises to the localized Supersoul – but the ultimate word in the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead. 
9. Modern impersonalists are less intelligent, for they do not even follow their great predecessor Śaṅkarācārya, who has specifically stated that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 
10. Impersonalists, not knowing the Supreme Truth, think Kṛṣṇa to be only the son of Devakī and Vasudeva, or a prince, or a powerful living entity. This is also condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.11). Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam: “Only the fools regard Me as an ordinary person.”
11. “Those who are blinded by lusty desires surrender unto the different demigods.” ” those who are devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa go to the Kṛṣṇaloka planet”. Although this is clearly stated, the foolish impersonalists still maintain that the Lord is formless and that these forms are impositions. 
12. When Kṛṣṇa was present there were only a few people who could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was not revealed to the nondevotees and the common man.
13. He was manifest only to His devotees as the reservoir of all pleasure. But to others, to unintelligent nondevotees, He was covered by His internal potency.
14. The fact is that no one can understand Kṛṣṇa without rendering devotional service and without developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness.SB 10.14.29 confirms this.
15. One cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, or His form, quality or name simply by mental speculation or by discussing Vedic literature. 
16. One must understand Him by devotional service. When one is fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, beginning by chanting the mahā-mantra – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare – then only can one understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 

SB 2.5.20

O Brāhmaṇa Nārada, the Superseer, the transcendent Lord, is beyond the perception of the material senses of the living entities because of the above-mentioned three modes of nature. But He is the controller of everyone, including me.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.19

1. Because they are between the internal and external potencies, the eternally transcendental living entities are called the marginal potency of the Lord.
2. Factually, the living entities are not meant to be so conditioned by the material energy, but due to their being affected by the false sense of lording it over the material energy, they come under the influence of such potency and thus become conditioned by the three modes of material nature.
3. This external energy of the Lord covers up the pure knowledge of the living entity’s eternally existing with Him, but the covering is so constant that it appears that the conditioned soul is eternally ignorant. Such is the wonderful action of māyā, or external energy manifested as if materially produced. 
4. By the covering power of the material energy, the material scientist cannot look beyond the material causes, but factually, behind the material manifestations, there are adhibhūta, adhyātma and adhidaiva actions, which the conditioned soul in the mode of ignorance cannot see. 
5. The adhibhūta manifestation entails repetitions of births and deaths with old age and diseases, the adhyātma manifestation conditions the spirit soul, and the adhidaiva manifestation is the controlling system. 
6. These are the material manifestations of cause and effect and the sense of responsibility of the conditioned actors. They are, after all, manifestations of the conditioned state, and the human being’s freedom from such a conditioned state is the highest perfectional attainment.

SB 2.5.19  TRANSLATION
These three modes of material nature, being further manifested as matter, knowledge and activities, put the eternally transcendental living entity under conditions of cause and effect and make him responsible for such activities.

Knowledge – that helps people increase sense gratification 

Activities – activities of sense gratification 

Because they are between the internal and external potencies, the eternally transcendental living entities are called the marginal potency of the Lord. Factually, the living entities are not meant to be so conditioned by material energy, but due to their being affected by the false sense of lording it over the material energy, they come under the influence of such potency and thus become conditioned by the three modes of material nature. This external energy of the Lord covers up the pure knowledge of the living entity’s eternally existing with Him, but the covering is so constant that it appears that the conditioned soul is eternally ignorant. Such is the wonderful action of māyā, or external energy manifested as if materially produced. By the covering power of the material energy, the material scientist cannot look beyond the material causes, but factually, behind the material manifestations, there are adhibhūta, adhyātma and adhidaiva actions, which the conditioned soul in the mode of ignorance cannot see. 

Our ability to see is very highly limited. We live very limited time so we cannot observe eternally.. 

The adhibhūta manifestation entails repetitions of births and deaths with old age and diseases, the adhyātma manifestation conditions the spirit soul, and the adhidaiva manifestation is the controlling system. These are the material manifestations of cause and effect and the sense of responsibility of the conditioned actors. They are, after all, manifestations of the conditioned state, and the human being’s freedom from such a conditioned state is the highest perfectional attainment.

A similar verse like this – BG chapter 13. This cause and effect confuse people. If we read this purports and understand that we are eternally the servitors of Krsna and adjust our lives in such a way that we become steadily Krsna Conscious throughout our life,  that is the ultimate perfection of life. 

BG 13.21

Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.

There is a material cause and an efficient cause. 

Adhibhuta, Adhidaiva, Adhyatmika – These 3 effects condition us. 

In the spiritual world, everything is eternal.  Eternal means there is no beginning and no end. The material world has a beginning and an end. Hence there is a cause and effect. 

The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are creations of material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state, there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world, there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world, everyone is struggling hard to acquire different kinds of pleasures for the body. It might be more clear to state that this body is the effect of the senses. The senses are instruments for gratifying desire. Now, the sum total – body and instrument senses – is offered by material nature, and as will be clear in the next verse, the living entity is blessed or damned with circumstances according to his past desire and activity. According to one’s desires and activities, material nature places one in various residential quarters. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. Once placed in some particular kind of body, he comes under the control of nature because the body, being matter, acts according to the laws of nature. At that time, the living entity has no power to change that law. Suppose an entity is put into the body of a dog. As soon as he is put into the body of a dog, he must act like a dog. He cannot act otherwise. And if the living entity is put into the body of a hog, then he is forced to eat stool and act like a hog. Similarly, if the living entity is put into the body of a demigod, he must act according to his body. This is the law of nature. But in all circumstances, the Supersoul is with the individual soul. That is explained in the Vedas (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.1) as follows: dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyaḥ. The Supreme Lord is so kind upon the living entity that He always accompanies the individual soul and in all circumstances is present as the Supersoul, or Paramātmā.

Real science is eternally true and can be applied to anywhere and anyone..