KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.9.34 – Part 2 :
- Misconceiving one thing for another thing is called illusion. For example, accepting a rope as a snake is illusion, but the rope is not false.
- The rope, as it exists in the front of the illusioned person, is not at all false, but the acceptance is illusory.
- The wrong conception of accepting this material manifestation as being divorced from the energy of the Lord is illusion, but it is not false.
- And this illusory conception is called the reflection of the reality in the darkness of ignorance.
- Anything that appears as apparently not being “produced out of My energy” is called māyā
- The influence of the illusory energy, the reflection of light in the darkness, can be removed only by the mercy of the Lord.
- The living entity is not independent. One should not think himself independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- The individual is always under the Lord’s control. Therefore one’s duty is to surrender.
- In the material world, the light of the sun is also not independent, nor is that of the moon. The real source of light is the brahmajyoti, which diffuses light from the transcendental body of the Lord, and the same light is reflected in varieties of light: the light of the sun, the light of the moon, the light of fire, or the light of electricity.
- So the identity of the self as being unconnected with the Supreme Self, the Lord, is also illusion, and the false claim “I am the Supreme” is the last illusory snare of the same māyā, or the external energy of the Lord.
- All the laws act according to Krsna’s desire. If God so desires, a rock may fall into the water, but the water will not give way. The rock will simply float. Since God is the ultimate supreme, this is possible. Whatever God wills will come into effect.
- A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness certainly sees Lord Kṛṣṇa everywhere, and he sees everything in Kṛṣṇa. That is the true vision of oneness.
- Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature, but in each and every instance he is conscious of Kṛṣṇa, knowing that everything is a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa’s energy.
- Nothing can exist without Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is the Lord of everything – this is the basic principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the development of love of Kṛṣṇa – a position transcendental even to material liberation.
- Lord Kṛṣṇa never disappears from the sight of the devotee, nor does the devotee ever lose sight of the Lord. In the case of a yogī who sees the Lord as Paramātmā within the heart, turns into a pure devotee and cannot bear to live for a moment without seeing the Lord within himself.
SB 2.9.34 – 1/11/22
O Brahmā, whatever appears to be of any value, if it is without relation to Me, has no reality. Know it as My illusory energy, that reflection which appears to be in darkness.
BG 18.61
Realistic understanding of who we are and how we are situated.
īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
Arjuna was not the supreme knower, and his decision to fight or not to fight was confined to his limited discretion. Lord Kṛṣṇa instructed that the individual is not all in all. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, or He Himself, Kṛṣṇa, as the localized Supersoul, sits in the heart directing the living being. After changing bodies, the living entity forgets his past deeds, but the Supersoul, as the knower of the past, present and future, remains the witness of all his activities. Therefore all the activities of living entities are directed by this Supersoul. The living entity gets what he deserves and is carried by the material body, which is created in the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. As soon as a living entity is placed in a particular type of body, he has to work under the spell of that bodily situation. A person seated in a high-speed motorcar goes faster than one seated in a slower car, though the living entities, the drivers, may be the same. Similarly, by the order of the Supreme Soul, material nature fashions a particular type of body to a particular type of living entity so that he may work according to his past desires. The living entity is not independent. One should not think himself independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The individual is always under the Lord’s control. Therefore one’s duty is to surrender, and that is the injunction of the next verse.
Dialectic Spiritulism – pg 198
Syamasundara dasa: Does the body ever affect the soul?
Srila Prabhupada: The soul is unaffected by the body, but the body is helping the soul to fulfill its desires. I am using this microphone to serve my purposes, but this microphone is not influencing me. It is not that this microphone wills that I dictate this or that. The body is a combination of atoms. If Krsna is within the atoms, the monads of the atoms and the monad in the body are different. If the monad is a small united particle, Leibnitz is speaking of the Supersoul. Although the Supersoul appears innumerable, it is in actuality one. As stated in isopanishad: yasmin sarviir]-i bhutiiny iitmaiviibhud vijiinatal], tatra ko mohal], kal], soka ekatvam anupa5yatal], “One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things, and there is no illusion or anxiety for him.” (Isopanishad 7) Although we find the Supersoul all-pervasive, there is but one. Krsna says in Bhagavad-gitii: samam sarve�u bhute�u ti�thantam parame5varam vina5yatsv avinasyantam yal], pasyati sa pasyati “One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees.” (Bg. 13.28) The devotee always sees all things in Krsna, and Krsna in all things. That is the true vision of oneness.
We see things as they are with the purports of Srila Prabhupada. We get the help of Senior devotees to understand Srila Prabhupada.Although SP purports are all self evident.
We cannot understand or control all the functions of the body.. There is a combined action here – the soul and the super soul.
Manmana bhava mad bhakto
Sarva dharman parityajya
Sarva guhyatam mama..
ISO 7 Mantra – Oneness and the difference. Everything is the energy of the lord. But we can never be equal to the lord. There are similarity and difference. Fire and sparks of the fire, drop of water from the ocean and the ocean.
This is how we can understand the difference between soul and the super soul.
We also agree to that, but why use the example of clocks? Why not analyze the relationship between the body and the soul? You cannot consider them separately, because they are combined. The fallacy of this analogy is that two individual clocks are not combined at any point.
You cannot consider the body and soul as completely separate entities working independent of one another. It is stated in the Vedic sastras that the soul is the master of the body; therefore you cannot say that the body is working independently. If I tell my body to place this hand here, my hand will move to this spot. It is not that suddenly my hand moves without my desire.
In Sanskrit, this argument is called kakatalryanyaya. Once, when a crow flew into a tal tree, the fruit on that tree immediately fell to the ground. One observer said that the crow lighted on the tree first, and then the fruit fell, and the other observer said that the fruit fell before the crow could light. This kind of argument has no value. We say that if Krsna so desires, a stone can float on the water, despite the law of gravitation. Although the law of gravitation is working here, there are so many huge planets floating in space. All these laws act according to Krsna’s desire. By the law of gravitation, all these planets would have fallen into the causal ocean and hit the Garbhodakasayi Vishnu in the head because He is lying on that ocean. But by His order all these planets are floating in space. Similarly, if God so desires, a rock may fall into the water, but the water will not give way. The rock will simply float. Since God is the ultimate supreme, this is possible. Whatever God wills will come into effect.
Both Krsn and the living entity are spiritual. Ultimately, everything is spiritual because everything is Krsna’s energy. If Krsna is the original cause, matter can be changed into spirit, and spirit into matter. Electricity may be used to heat or to cool, but in either case, the original energy is electricity. Similarly, the original cause is Krsna; therefore He has the power to change matter into spirit, or spirit into matter.
CROW AND TAL TREE EXAMPLE is related to SB 2.9.34
In the previous verse it has already been concluded that in any stage of the cosmic manifestation — its appearance, its sustenance, its growth, its interactions of different energies, its deterioration and its disappearance — all has its basic relation with the existence of the Personality of Godhead. And as such, whenever there is forgetfulness of this prime relation with the Lord, and whenever things are accepted as real without being related to the Lord, that conception is called a product of the illusory energy of the Lord. Because nothing can exist without the Lord, it should be known that the illusory energy is also an energy of the Lord. The right conclusion of dovetailing everything in relationship with the Lord is called yoga-māyā, or the energy of union, and the wrong conception of detaching a thing from its relationship with the Lord is called the Lord’s daivī māyā, or mahā-māyā. Both the māyās also have connections with the Lord because nothing can exist without being related to Him. As such, the wrong conception of detaching relationships from the Lord is not false, but illusory.
Misconceiving one thing for another thing is called illusion. For example, accepting a rope as a snake is illusion, but the rope is not false. The rope, as it exists in the front of the illusioned person, is not at all false, but the acceptance is illusory. Therefore the wrong conception of accepting this material manifestation as being divorced from the energy of the Lord is illusion, but it is not false. And this illusory conception is called the reflection of the reality in the darkness of ignorance.
The reflection of light in the darkness – One looks at the glass door in the darkness.. one can see the reflection of oneself . Dark one. During the day you may not see your reflection. When it is dark outside you can see that there is some reflection..
Are we the reflection? No there is a difference between us and the reflection.
Anything that appears as apparently not being “produced out of My energy” is called māyā. The conception that the living entity is formless or that the Supreme Lord is formless is also illusion. In the Bhagavad-gītā (2.12) it was said by the Lord in the midst of the battlefield that the warriors standing in front of Arjuna, Arjuna himself, and even the Lord had all existed before, they were existing on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, and they would all continue to be individual personalities in the future also, even after the annihilation of the present body and even after being liberated from the bondage of material existence. In all circumstances, the Lord and the living entities are individual personalities, and the personal features of both the Lord and living beings are never abolished; only the influence of the illusory energy, the reflection of light in the darkness, can, by the mercy of the Lord, be removed. In the material world, the light of the sun is also not independent, nor is that of the moon. The real source of light is the brahmajyoti, which diffuses light from the transcendental body of the Lord, and the same light is reflected in varieties of light: the light of the sun, the light of the moon, the light of fire, or the light of electricity. So the identity of the self as being unconnected with the Supreme Self, the Lord, is also illusion, and the false claim “I am the Supreme” is the last illusory snare of the same māyā, or the external energy of the Lord.
Anytime you see anything separate from Krsna, it is illusory or maya..
Morning walk – Svaroop Damodar Maharaj
Paramahaṁsa: If this mist of material nature is temporary, then why bother to disentangle oneself from something transitory?
Prabhupāda: Why do you take covering? You may, walk naked?
Paramahaṁsa: No.
Prabhupāda: Why do you take covering? You know everything will be cleared after few hours. Why do you cover?
Paramahaṁsa: It is dangerous now.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, why do you take this step to avoid this?
Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: It’s uncomfortable. It’s not natural.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the Māyāvāda theory = that everything will come automatically; why do you bother? That is nonsense.
Karandhara: They will not be able to be so philosophical in their next lives when they’re a dog.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?
Karandhara: The Māyāvādīs will not be able to be so philosophical in their next lives when they’re dogs or cats.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: They have to have a human body in order to enjoy that philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Their philosophy is that there is only one—God. So cats and dogs, that is God’s līlā, His… That is their rascal philo… God is making pastimes, līlā, by becoming a dog. That is their rascal philosophy. Daridra-nārāyaṇa, the Vivekananda’s philosophy. Nārāyaṇa has become daridra, poor. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So with chemists we have no quarrel if they begin from light. They’re beginning from darkness. That is our contention. We say, “Begin from light.” And they say, “No, begin from darkness.” Because they’re in darkness. One who is in the darkness, from darkness if he goes to light, he thinks that the darkness is the beginning.
Prabhupāda: No, no comparison. It is practical. Suppose you have been in darkness for millions of years, and when you come to the light you think that “Oh, from darkness the light has come.” Light, when it becomes dimmed, that is darkness. Not that darkness, light has come.
Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: Darkness cannot exist without light.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Or in the light there is no darkness. When the light is dimmed, that is darkness. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dimmed, that is material.
SP is saying in this morning walk that – We should not be fooled by mayavaids and scientists who want to separate everything from Krsna. Therefore anything which seems to be separate from Krsna is Krsna’s illusory energy..
BG 6.30
For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.
A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness certainly sees Lord Kṛṣṇa everywhere, and he sees everything in Kṛṣṇa. Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature, but in each and every instance he is conscious of Kṛṣṇa, knowing that everything is a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa’s energy. Nothing can exist without Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is the Lord of everything – this is the basic principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the development of love of Kṛṣṇa – a position transcendental even to material liberation. At this stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, beyond self-realization, the devotee becomes one with Kṛṣṇa in the sense that Kṛṣṇa becomes everything for the devotee and the devotee becomes full in loving Kṛṣṇa. An intimate relationship between the Lord and the devotee then exists. In that stage, the living entity can never be annihilated, nor is the Personality of Godhead ever out of the sight of the devotee. To merge in Kṛṣṇa is spiritual annihilation. A devotee takes no such risk. It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.38):
“I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of Śyāmasundara, situated within the heart of the devotee.”
At this stage, Lord Kṛṣṇa never disappears from the sight of the devotee, nor does the devotee ever lose sight of the Lord. In the case of a yogī who sees the Lord as Paramātmā within the heart, the same applies. Such a yogī turns into a pure devotee and cannot bear to live for a moment without seeing the Lord within himself.