Todays Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.22 Class("Enlivening To The Self") By Srila Prabhupada,November 2, 1972, Vrndavana

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text-051Dedicated to my dear friend Nitaipada Swami Maharaja.

"Enlivening To The Self"

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.22

November 2, 1972, Vrndavana

 

listen

 

 

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Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.

 

ato vai kavayo nityam

bhaktim paramaya muda

vasudeve bhagavati

kurvanty atma-prasadanim

 

Translation: "Therefore all transcendentalists have been rendering loving

service with great delight to Lord Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, from time

immemorial because such devotional service is enlivening to the self."

 

Prabhupada:

 

ato vai kavayo nityam

bhaktim paramaya muda

vasudeve bhagavati

kurvanty atma-prasadanim

 

Bhaktim atma-prasadanim. Devotional service is atma, means self, or mind

also, even body... Atma means the body, the mind and the self also. So

atma-prasadanim means if you want to satisfy your mind, if you want to satisfy

your self, or even you want to satisfy your body... We are living in three

stages: bodily concept of life, mental concept of life and spiritual concept of

life. Those who are grossly in ignorance, they are thinking in terms of bodily

concept of life; those who are little more advanced, they are thinking in terms

of mental or psychological concept of life; and those who are still more

advanced, they are thinking in terms of spiritual concept of life. The spiritual

concept of life, as it is described before: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam [sB

1.2.11]. Tattvam means truth. The truth is spirit, not this matter. Matter is

truth, subordinate to spirit. On the basis of spirit, the matter grows, just

like our body has grown on the basis of our spiritual existence.

 

So spiritual realization is the ultimate goal of our life. Jivasya

tattva-jijnasa nartho yas ceha karmabhih. We have discussed these verses

previously. This human form of life, jivasya tattva-jijnasa... Jijnasa, about

the truth, inquiry about the truth, that is the main business of the living

entity. But lower than human being -- animals, birds, beasts, trees, aquatics,

insects -- they have no privilege to inquire about the Absolute Truth. It is in

the human form of life one can inquire about the Absolute Truth. Athato brahma

jijnasa. So when one is actually inquisitive about the Absolute Truth, he

realizes three transcendental subject: brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti

sabdyate.

 

So ultimately one has to reach to the platform of Bhagavan, Vasudeva.

Vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah [bg. 7.19]. One who reaches to the

point of understanding Vasudeva, he is the perfect mahatma. Vasudevah sarvam iti

[bg. 7.19]. According to Vedic description, mahatma means one who has reached to

the point of Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who has

reached... All of them are transcendentalists, kovidah, men of knowledge, but

one who has reached to the point of understanding Vasudeva, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, he's called mahatma. Mahatma is a very common word in

India. Any saintly person is called a mahatma. But according to Vedic

description, a mahatma is he who has reached to the point of understanding

Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

In another place it is stated:

 

mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimuktes

tamo-dvaram yositam sangi-sangam...

 

There are two ways. Our life, they are going in two ways. One way is

liberation, and the other way is bondage. Just like you have seen the reel. The

reel is rolling. One way it is rolling to roll the thread, and another it is

giving way to the thread. Similarly, we can lead in two ways, our life, either

towards liberation or towards darkness of bondage. This, our human life, by

gradual evolutionary process, we come to the human form of life. Now we can move

it two ways, either towards liberation or towards bondage. We do not know,

modern education. There is no such information what is called bondage and what

is called liberation. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanah. Na te viduh svartha-gatim

hi visnum [sB 7.5.31]. They do not know. There is no such education, that

students may understand what is Visnu, what is God, what he is, what is his

relationship with God, Visnu. These things are unknown to the modern

educationist.

 

The sastra therefore says,

 

andha yathandhair upaniyamanas

te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni-baddhah

 

Uru-damni-baddhah. Uru means very strong. Damni means rope. Just like if

your hands and legs are tied very strongly, it is very difficult for you to

move. Similarly, by the laws of nature, every living entity is bound up very

strongly, isa-tantryam, by the laws of the Supreme Lord. We are bound up. We

cannot deviate. We cannot violate the laws of nature. Everyone can experience. A

little violation, little deviation from the laws of nature, we accept some

suffering. That is our daily experience. Suppose we are eating, but if we eat

little more than we digest... The laws of nature is that you can eat as much as

you can digest. But if you eat more than you can digest, immediately, by the

laws of nature, you suffer from indigestion. You cannot violate. Daivi hy esa

gunamayi mama maya duratyaya [bg. 7.14]. Nobody can violate the laws of nature.

 

So we have discussed how to get out of the laws of nature --

mukta-sangasya jayate. Mukta-sanga means one who has become freed from the three

modes of material nature. After being freed from the laws of material nature or

by the three modes of material nature, then we can talk of vasudeva-bhakti. But

one can become free from this bondage of material nature simply by devotional

service to Vasudeva. That is being stressed in this chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam

from the very beginning.

 

vasudeve bhagavati

bhakti-yogah prayojitah

janayaty asu vairagyam

jnanam ca yad ahaitukam

[sB 1.2.7]

 

If we simply learn how to render devotional service to Vasudeva, Krsna,

Krsna consciousness, vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogah prayojitah. This is

actually translated into English as Krsna consciousness. Everything for Krsna.

So that Krsna consciousness, if we take to Krsna consciousness, then janayaty

asu vairagyam. Asu, very soon, one becomes detached from this material bondage.

Janayaty asu vairagyam jnanam ca. And jnana, knowledge, real knowledge.

 

In the material knowledge, that is the cause of bondage. Bhaktivinoda

Thakura has said,

 

anitya samsare moha janamiya

jada-vidya jato mayara vaibhava

 

Material knowledge, advancement of material knowledge, means more and more

bondage. And advancement of spiritual knowledge means more and more liberation.

But our problem is how to liberate ourselves from this material bondage. We are

bound up. Just like I am a spirit soul, you are spirit soul, but we are put into

this material bondage. Because we are in material bondage, therefore we have no

freedom. People do not understand this. Just like spirit soul is described as

sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means the spirit soul can go anywhere he likes. But due to

this material bondage, because we have this material body, we are checked. Even

we cannot go to the other planet. But we have got instances... Just like Narada

Muni. Narada Muni is traveling all over the universes, not only within the

material world, but in the spiritual world, because he has got spiritual body.

There is no material bondage.

 

These are very subtle matter, but one can realize if he meditates upon it.

The yogis, they can, because they become, by yogic process, they become a little

free from this material body, therefore they can transfer from one place to

another very quickly. Even those yogis who are on this material platform, on

this planet, they travel very quickly. There are many yogis still in India who

take bath in four places daily in the, early in the morning. They take bath in

Jagannatha Puri, in Ramesvaram, in Hardwar. In this way, four places they take

bath. There are some books about the yogis. These things are written there. And

actually we met some yogis and they said how quickly they can go from one place

to another. That we can understand from our experience. Just like the mind. Mind

is so swift that in a second the mind can reach thousands of miles away.

 

So the spirit soul is still more subtle. And the speed of spirit soul is

very, very great. Just like in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, tyaktva deham punar

janma naiti mam eti kaunteya [bg. 4.9]. Tyaktva deham. "Just after giving up

this body, he immediately comes to Me in the spiritual world." These are the

Vedic statement. You can try to understand. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti:

[bg. 4.9] we accept another body immediately after death. It is said just like

go forward, when the first step, you find it is secure, you take up the second

step. Similarly, as soon as the next body is arranged by superior arrangement,

we give up this body and enter into another gross body. Immediately. Immediately

we are transferred to a mother's womb for manufacturing another gross body. This

is the law.

 

So here Krsna says, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti [bg. 4.9]. If the

living entity does not enter into another gross body, then where does he go? So

Krsna says, mam eti. "He comes to Me." Now just imagine what is the speed of

spirit soul, just after leaving this body after death, he immediately goes to

Goloka Vrndavana, or at least where Krsna is there. Mam eti. Krsna's nitya-lila,

that has been described in the Caitanya-caritamrta, how Krsna's nitya-lila is

going on. Krsna is present in a bhauma-lila in one of the universes every time.

The Lord Caitanya has given the example as the movement of the sun. The sun is

moving, and the twenty-four hours into sixty minutes, into sixty seconds...

The... All these time changes are there, every time. Just like our sunrise was,

say, at six-thirty, or six. This six thirty, passed here, but somewhere else it

is now six-thirty. Again when it will pass six-thirty there, in somewhere else

there will be six-thirty. Similarly Krsna is passing from one universe to

another, and when He's visible in this universe, we find Krsna's appearance

 

SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ AND OR HEAR THE REST OF THIS CLASS GO TO

 

http://www.prabhupadavani.org/Bhagavatam/text/051.html

 

WHERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR FROM THE LOTUS LIPS OF SRILA PRABHUPADA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much. (end)

 

Please Read" Krsna Consciousness the Matchless Gift,"To understand How

Srila

 

http://krsnajoe.tripod.com

 

Prabhupada,Brought this Vaisnava Philosophy, to the English Speaking

Countries,at the Late age of 69 and Pennyless,on the order of His Spiritual

Master ,Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Mararaja! All Glories to

Gurudeva,Your servant ,Jaya Kesava Dasa

 

This Class is used with Permission of

 

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International 2005

 

 

 

 

 

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© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with permission.