Sophia = wisdom

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<center>Bhagavad Gita As It Is

Chapter 7. Knowledge of the Absolute

</center>

 

TEXT 16

 

 

catur-vidha bhajante mam

janah sukrtino 'rjuna

arto jijnasur artharthi

jnani ca bharatarsabha

 

 

 

SYNONYMS

 

catuh-vidhah--four kinds of; bhajante--render services; mam--unto Me; janah--persons; su-krtinah--those who are pious; arjuna--O Arjuna; artah--the distressed; jijnasuh--the inquisitive; artha-arthi--one who desires material gain; jnani--one who knows things as they are; ca--also; bharata-rsabha--O great one amongst the descendants of Bharata.

 

TRANSLATION

 

O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me--the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.

 

PURPORT

 

Unlike the miscreants, these are adherents of the regulative principles of the scriptures, and they are called sukrtinah, or those who obey the rules and regulations of scriptures, the moral and social laws, and are, more or less, devoted to the Supreme Lord. Out of these there are four classes of men--those who are sometimes distressed, those who are in need of money, those who are sometimes inquisitive, and those who are sometimes searching after knowledge of the Absolute Truth. These persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service under different conditions. These are not pure devotees because they have some aspiration to fulfill in exchange for devotional service. Pure devotional service is without aspiration and without desire for material profit. The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu defines pure devotion thus:

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama

 

"One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krsna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service."

 

When these four kinds of persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service and are completely purified by the association of a pure devotee, they also become pure devotees. As far as the miscreants are concerned, for them devotional service is very difficult because their lives are selfish, irregular and without spiritual goals. But even some of them, by chance, when they come in contact with a pure devotee, also become pure devotees.

 

 

Those who are always busy with fruitive activities come to the Lord in material distress and at that time associate with pure devotees and become, in their distress, devotees of the Lord. Those who are simply frustrated also come sometimes to associate with the pure devotees and become inquisitive to know about God. Similarly, when the dry philosophers are frustrated in every field of knowledge, they sometimes want to learn of God, and they come to the Supreme Lord to render devotional service and thus transcend knowledge of the impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramatma and come to the personal conception of Godhead by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His pure devotee. On the whole, when the distressed, the inquisitive, the seekers of knowledge, and those who are in need of money are free from all material desires, and when they fully understand that material remuneration has nothing to do with spiritual improvement, they become pure devotees. As long as such a purified stage is not attained, devotees in transcendental service to the Lord are tainted with fruitive activities, and they search after mundane knowledge, etc. So one has to transcend all this before one can come to the stage of pure devotional service.

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Some may be wondering about sophia, why I would name this thread lie dat. It is because sophia means not only wisdom, but maturity. We read in this heaviest of heavy verses from my guru maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, that of the four reasons, the four types of devotees who approach bhakti yoga, only the wise (jnani--one who knows things as they are) is able to make progress and continue. The miserable person, once the temporary misery subsides, will leave. The needy will leave once their needs are met, the inquisitive ones will inquire about more and more, but the wise will take full refuge in this science.

I named this thread in honor of the Queen of Magdalia, Mary, who is also known as Sophia. I have no intent of making this a Jesus topic, although Lord Jesus Christ invokes such wisdom, as specifically embodied in the form of Mary of Magdalia. Mary was not needy, she was a queen. She was not in misery, she had it all, she was not in the guru supermarket looking for a fashionable religion to cloak herself in. She offered obiesancies to her guru, lord Jesus Christ, in a most exempliary way, not worried about the discriminating eyes of those watching, not concerned about the false opinions of others, and probably not caring at all about how she is misrepresented as a harlot by the mysogenists of the false church that bears the name of her Master. Because She has approached this science from the point of jnani--one who knows things as they are. It is quite notable that the one similarity between that so called new testament and the gaudiya vaisnavism is the act of Guru-Puja she performed in her meeting with Lord Jesus Christ, the annointing with oils, the washing of feet (with her tears of joy, no less). Her utter wisdom made her the only disciple that did not leave his side, while Simon Peter and the others were in hiding, too fearful to even admit that they knew Lord Jesus. It was the queen of Magdalia that took his form from the cross, wrapped his transcendental form in silks, it was the Queen of Magdalia who first observed his defeat of the agents of Lord Yamaraja.

Wisdom is also the realm of King Solomon, the very last ruler of the entire world. As he was leaving, he noted his vanity as useless, noted duality as two sides of the same useless coin, and sang of the Divine Couple, noting variegatedness og the realm of Godhead.

But now this is out of the way, perhaps we should discuss the sole mainstay of devotional service to the Supreme Lord. There are four who come, but only one will stay. So, it is the duty of the miserable, the poverty stricken and the inquisitive to develop sophia, wisdom, jnana, immediately, before we leave.

Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

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MAGDALENE IMAGES GALLERY

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When these four kinds of persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service and are completely purified by the association of a pure devotee, they also become pure devotees. As far as the miscreants are concerned, for them devotional service is very difficult because their lives are selfish, irregular and without spiritual goals. But even some of them, by chance, when they come in contact with a pure devotee, also become pure devotees.

 

And herein lies my best hope.