(Part Four of an essay by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Click here for PART ONE)
This param bhāvam or transcendental nature of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is unknowable to the unlucky four classes of men as aforesaid. Some of them who are influenced by asurabhāva or demoniac nature especially consider that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is no better than an ordinary man and the extraordinary qualities that He possessed can be acquired by any ordinary man, or in other words, any one and every one can become a Śrī Kṛṣṇa or more than Him. But the mahātmās who are graced by Śrī Kṛṣṇa know Him otherwise. Such mahātmās know Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality bhūtamaheśvaram, while the asuras or rakṣasas (like Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu) who defy Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Being above everthing and thereby are baffled in their speculative work, frustrated in their hopes, befooled in their search of knowledge thus remain entrapped by the illusory laws of material nature which they are unable to conquer by any amount of speculative method. [margin note: (Nobody is at or above: (aśrama urdhva))] These asuras and mahātmās are definitely distinguished in the Bhagavad-gītā in so many words, as in Chapter 9, Texts 12-14:
moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo
mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ
rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva
prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate
"Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.
O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.
Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion." [Bg. 9.12-14]
The whole purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to reveal Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead as He is. The whole theme of Bhagavad-gītā is to preach the surrendering process of all living beings unto the Lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, because all living beings are His parts and parcels, and without this surrendering process, nobody can conquer the indefiable laws of Nature. Material existence of all living beings means a perpetual struggle struggle for existence and a continued fight with Prakriti without any success. [margin note (as done by induction)] Advancement of material science has undoubtedly discovered many weapons by the Asuras to fight with the laws of Nature, but without full surrender unto the Lord Kṛṣṇa, nobody can get relief from such perpetual struggle for existence. The fittest person who shall survive this struggle is one who has completely surrendered unto the Will of Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead. This fact is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the following words:
daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
"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." [Bg. 7.14]
man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo 'si me
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
"Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.
"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." [Bg. 18.65-66]
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te
teṣām evānukampārtham
aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ
nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho
jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā
"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.
The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.
To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance." [Bg. 10.8-11]
There are certain extraordinarily learned prospective mahātmās who try to understand Śrī Kṛṣṇa by the ascending process of acquiring knowledge, but such process is not only defective, but also troublesome. Such learned scholars attain the Lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa after many, many births and deaths. Such would-be mahātmās are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā as follows:
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ
"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." [Bg. 7.19]
avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ
manyante mām abuddhayaḥ
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mamāvyayam anuttamam
"Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme." [Bg. 7.24]
avyakto 'kṣara ity uktas
tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim
yaṁ prāpya na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha
bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā
yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
"That which the Vedantists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns—that is My supreme abode.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him." [Bg. 8.21-22]
jñāna-yajñena cāpy anye
yajanto mām upāsate
ekatvena pṛthaktvena
bahudhā viśvato-mukham
"Others, who engage in sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form." [Bg. 9.15]
kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām
avyaktāsakta-cetasām
avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ
dehavadbhir avāpyate
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi
mayi sannyasya mat-parāḥ
ananyenaiva yogena
māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate
teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā
mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt
bhavāmi na cirāt pārtha
mayy āveśita-cetasām
"For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.
But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotinal service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Prtha—for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death." [Bg. 12.5-7]
Preaching of Bhagavad-gītā is not, therefore, a proposition of mental speculation and putting in different mental interpretations of speculative empiric philosphers. It is one without a second concrete fact for the amelioration of the sufferings of humanity especially and animality generally. It must be presented in the bona fide method of spreading the knowledge, strictly in the line of transcendental chain of disciplic succession. Oṁ Tat Sat.
CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE
(Part Two of "Interpertations of Bhagavad-gita" by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, click here for part one, you may also click here for Part Three)
A transcendental source of knowledge which was coming down in a chain of disciplic succession for millions of years before the battle of Kurukṣetra must have been studied by various scholars of the period, but still, we don't find more than one edition or interpretation of the Bhagavad-gītā as represented by Śrī Arjuna; but during the last two hundred years, we have so many interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā by different speculators. This advancement of speculative activities by different mundaners without any reference to the chain of disciplic succession, are all mala fide interpretations, and spread of such mala fide knowledge on the so-called basis of the Great Book of Knowledge, will do more harm than good to the people.
We find also in the last chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, that the Personality of Godhead has persistently advised that the essence of Bhagavad-gītā must not be disclosed to a person at any time who has not undergone any disciplinary method of austerity and penances, who is not a devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is unwilling to accept the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and, lastly, one who actually envies Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. The śloka which instructs the above procedure runs as follows:
idaṁ te nātapaskāya
nābhaktāya kadācana
na cāśuśrūṣave vācyam
na ca māṁ yo 'bhyasūyati
"This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me." [Bg. 18.67]
So, according to Bhagavad-gītā, the following four classes of readers are incompetent to understand the principle of Bhagavad-gītā, and therefore they are not able to make any bona fide interpretations whatsoever. They are:
1. Ordinary men who have no training in austerity or penance.
2. Those who are not devotees of Godhead but are either mundane workers, mundane philosophers or mundane mystics.
3. Those who do not come in the line of disciplic succession like Vivasvān, Manu, Ikṣvāku, Arjuna, etc.
4. Those who disbelieve Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Absolute Personality of Godhead.
And, these unlucky four classes of men are described in the Bhagavad-gītā as (a) Narādhamāḥ the lowest class of men, (b) mūḍhāḥ non-intelligent men of society, (c) māyayāpahṛta-jñānā persons who have sufficient mundane education, but they are robbed of essential knowledge by the illusory energy or māyā, and (d) the asuras who disbelieve in the very existence of Godhead. The śloka which describes the above fact runs as follows:
na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ
"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me." [Bg. 7.15]
These four mala fide classes of men have done tremendous harm to the society by making mala fide interpretations of the Bhagavad-gītā according to their limited sensual perceptions, and the result is that the whole atmosphere has been surcharged with mala fide poisons, which are eating the vital necessities of life. We can very well imagine how this process can do harm if we compare it partially with adulterated foodstuff or adulterated medicines. Foodstuff and medicines are concerned with the material body only, but the knowledge which is administered in the Bhagavad-gītā is concerned with spirit soul. In the very beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, the identity of the material body and the spirit soul has been elaborately explained, and the specific instruction of Bhagavad-gītā has always been stressed for the benefit of the spirit soul. The subject matter of the material body and mind has not been neglected in Bhagavad-gītā, but on the contrary, it has been nicely coordinated with the necessities of the spirit soul; but more importance and attention has been drawn on the subject matter of the spirit soul. Therefore, if we protest so much against spread of adulterated foodstuff and medicines which are concerned with the temporary material body only, we have to protest more vigorously against the spread of adulterated interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā because that concerns to the eternal vital power of the spirit soul.
avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible." [Bg. 2.17]
For ordinary class of men, the Bhagavad-gītā has enjoined "śāstra-vidhi", i. e. such men have been advised to follow the instructions as have been enjoined in the authentic scriptures. Because the outlaws who are reluctant to follow the instructions of the scriptures cannot ever be successful in all their attempts, and as such they cannot have any peace and prosperity or be elevated to the spiritual or transcendental plane. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā as follows:
yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
vartate kāma-kārataḥ
na sa siddhim avāpnoti
na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim
"He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination." [Bg. 16.23]
Such ordinary men, when they manufacture spiritual procedure of austerity or penances for any such pseudo-spiritualistic method, do so according to the mundane quality they might have acquired in the course of their mundane activities. The mundane qualities being divided into three categories, such pseudo-spiritualistic methods are also divided into three categories, namely sattvic (mode of goodness), rajasic (mode of passion) and tamasic mode of ignorance). This is described as follows in the Bhagavad-gītā, namely, (Ch. 17.1-10):
arjuna uvāca
ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa
sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
tri-vidhā bhavati śraddhā
dehināṁ sā svabhāva-jā
sāttvikī rājasī caiva
tāmasī ceti tāṁ śṛṇu
sattvānurūpā sarvasya
śraddhā bhavati bhārata
śraddhā-mayo 'yaṁ puruṣo
yo yac-chraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ
yajante sāttvikā devān
yakṣa-rakṣāṁsi rājasāḥ
pretān bhūta-gaṇāṁś cānye
yajante tāmasā janāḥ
aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ
tapyante ye tapo janāḥ
dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ
kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ
karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ
māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
tān viddhy āsura-niścayān
āhāras tv api sarvasya
tri-vidho bhavati priyaḥ
yajñas tapas tathā dānaṁ
teṣāṁ bhedam imaṁ śṛṇu
āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-
sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā
āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ
kaṭv-amla-lavanāṭy-uṣṇa
tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā
duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ
yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ
pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ
bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam
"Arjuna inquired: O Krsna, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kinds—in goodness, in passion or in ignorance. Now hear about this.
O son of Bhārata, according to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired.
Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.
Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride and egoism, who are impelled by lust and attachment, who are foolish and who torture the material elements of the body as well as the Supersoul dwelling within, are to be known as demons.
Even the food each person prefers is of three kinds, according to the three modes of material nature. The same is true of sacrifices, austerities and charity. Now hear of the distinctions between them.
Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.
Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.
Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness." [Bg. 17.1-10]
(TO BE CONTINUED . . .)
click here for part one
click here for part three
