Bhagavad-gītā for Everyone

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Сообщение Jayanti » 07 фев 2021, 19:46

TEXT 48

O best of the Kuru warriors, no one before you has ever seen this universal form of Mine, for neither by studying the Vedas, nor by performing sacrifices, nor by charities or similar activities can this form be seen. Only you have seen this.

PURPORT

Since Kṛṣṇa revealed this form, it became available to all who are on the same level as Arjuna - to the devotees of God.

It is impossible to see the universal form with the help of ordinary religiosity, similarly it is impossible to elevate to the level of spontaneous devotion with the help of religiosity, and the method of sādhana-bhakti alone does not guarantee such an elevation too. But it would be wrong to think that this is not an accessible goal at all or a goal that will be achieved through some kind of "spiritual profitable connections" from some guru who says that only he can give a rasa of spontaneous love for God. Śrīla Prabhupāda has opened the door to the world of spontaneous devotion for everyone, and in it highest rasa, but knowledge and following are necessary. The spiritual master initiates the student into the beginning of spiritual life (including through the study of the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda), into the general principles of devotional service, and further leads him higher and higher in the stages of spiritual life.

TEXT 49

Your mind has been perturbed upon seeing this horrible feature of Mine. Now let it be finished. My devotee, be free from all disturbance. With a peaceful mind you can now see the form you desire.

PURPORT

God is all that exists, and any His quality is immeasurable for the atomic soul. The vision of gigantic forms of power overwhelmed Arjuna, but one must understand that God does not enjoy domination over souls. As conditioned souls, we want to dominate others and feel happy when we are able to do this in any of the shperes. Every conditioned soul feels happiness when he is recognized as special, superior, when he is stronger, more beautiful, smarter or richer than others. The entire material world follows mainly only this one impulse. But God, being infinite and primordial, does not feel happiness in dominating over souls. God has no desire to show Himself how good He is, because He is completely self-sufficient and the recognition of Him by the atomic soul is of little value. Also, we know Him too little to appreciate Him and He understands that very well.

Only a fallen soul feels happiness when he can manifest his (in fact, imaginary) superiority over others, but God shows His superiority in order to benefit others and not for the sake of demonstrating His own dominance. Being completely self-sufficient and limitless, He has no impulse to prove His superiority. The souls, being themselves in a fallen position and wishing to surpass others, ascribe this desire to Him. After all, being omnipotent, God could make each and every one to worship Him, but He obviously does not. God gives only good to everyone. The souls, His tiny particles, are the objects of His blessings, and it makes no sense to simply show His superiority to them for many reasons. The liberated souls worship God out of love and not for some materialistic reasons or because He is greater than them.

God is not the “big boss” that everyone should serve because they are less or weaker than Him. God is absolute and has such opulences that the attention of the atomic soul does not really matter for Him. To put it bluntly: everything that a soul could do for God, including its recognition of Him, does not matter much for God. Nevertheless, the relationship of devotion and the development of knowledge are important. A relationship with God is a relationship of love and knowledge of Him. The soul admires the supreme splendor of God, His supreme power, admires the qualities of God. The soul experiences delight, happiness, love even only from the realization of the qualities of God, and without having reciprocity from Him too, since that is what He is.

Therefore, Kṛṣṇa did not show anyone His universal form full of power, irresistible strength and terrifying to everyone. God has no desire to dominate souls, such aspirations are far below His position, and He does not engage in dominance for the sake of dominance. The souls leave Him for the world of matter, and He does not interfere with their stupid plans to build their empire here. Limited souls are happy to be recognized by others; recognition and glory are central things to those who live within matter, but God has no such interests. Also, general religious recognition does not have special significance for God, but it is necessary first of all for us, for our spiritual development.

Stupid souls sometimes glorify, sometimes curse God, but if they do not develop spiritually, such glorifications and curses have no value. Motivated devotion to God can be the beginning of spiritual life, but in most cases, without gaining selflessness, such devotion leads nowhere. Within the material world, people are under the impression that by adopting this or that religion, they will certainly reach the spiritual world, but acting within the religion mainly for themselves or for the sake of mercantile goals, most of such souls do not achieve liberation.

When souls adopt some kind of religion or worship God under the pressure of circumstances such as danger, illness, as well as out of the desire for material luck and money, such worship is temporary without spiritual development, and further most of these souls fall down due to lack of interest in God and spiritual science. Also, the acceptance of religion out of a desire for prestige is of little value. Specifically: the use of spiritual knowledge, religious position, attributes of religion for the sake of personal prestige; build of temples of "eternal unfading glory" of one's religion, but in reality - for one's own personal glory; worship God for money, a good family, health or any other materialistic purpose. As long as the soul's desire is to settle within the matter, including under the pretext of religiosity, he will remain within the matter.

This is the reason why God generally does not reward anyone with anything material, including often worsening the image of a devotee, rather than improving it. What prevents any religious person from understanding the personal existence of God? What kind of intelligence do they use that they cannot understand this? Why do millions of people mechanically worship God for thousands of years, but are unable to understand generally not complicated things? Because all these religions and all these people are mainly self absorbed. They outwardly show one or another religiosity, but inwardly their goal is simply the continuation of material life, which they do. Such people follow religion only outwardly and in fact do not develop spiritually, so most of them remain in the matter.

Only a tenth of all materialistic believers (including priests, sannyāsī, gurus and the like) will gradually get liberation, while the rest fall down into matter, in fact, forever. But this is their desire, because no one has prevented them to know God properly. This is not a decision of God, this is their own decision. If a crow is attached to a peacock's tail, it will not become a peacock, just as those who have only outwardly worshiped God continue to be materialists, with the corresponding result. Such materialistic religiosity, in fact, has nothing to do with religion itself (Christianity, Islam, Vaiṣṇavism and Buddhism), but is a part of the material world, material existence.

When people use spiritual knowledge only for their own selfish interests, only for the sake of glorifying themselves or for the sake of their own well-being within the matter, then all such preaching and religiosity belong to the world of matter. The criterion of religion is the understanding and realization of God in His three aspects, and when the faithful or devotee cognize God, he gets out of the influence of matter of all kinds. Basically, it turns out that people feel a general uplift being within religion, then they use that uplift for personal goals and thus all their spiritual development comes to a dead end. Some faithful are engaged in temple worship, having almost no knowledge of God, while others speculate on the scriptures, creating their own concepts or, again, striving for personal prestige. Still others, who understand the scriptures and practice to some extent, do not preach or preach for selfish purposes, and they also remain under the influence of the material world.

The two extreme tendencies of religious materialism are either to try to artificially renounce the matter and sinfulness or to disregard the rules and regulations and declare everything spiritual. When a human is a mūḍha, or an animal, he tries to reduce the whole religion to a single position or to external rules, while other mūḍhas declare all the matter to be spiritual, which is also wrong. Although religious materialism mitigates the situation in general both individually and for the whole society, nevertheless, even bring liberation to a part of such materialists, is not of high value.

Lord Caitanya said quite bluntly that even the liberation of the entire universe is of little value in terms of advanced spiritual life. What then can be said about the liberation of a handful of materialists? On the other hand, the desire for liberation and materialistic religion can be the beginning of the spiritual path, so they can be embodied to some extent. Although the main method of spiritual development is to preach to the masses of people, the result of such a preaching should be the realization of God by the preacher himself, which is more important than even the spiritualization of the whole world. One pure devotee under the control of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is more important than even the liberation of the entire universe, because knowledge of God is infinitely superior to all these worlds and their inhabitants. Of course, such a devotee can liberate everyone, but one must understand that the goal of devotional service is to cognize God, His supreme, infinite attractiveness, His shining qualities, to perfect the eternal connection with Him and not anything else.

In the spiritual world, among others, there are an infinite number of living entities who like our local materialists also do have no developed interest in God, being absorbed only in their own happiness in their relationships with Him (including the devotees of Kṛṣṇa-līlā). Therefore, Lord Caitanya, along with His pure devotees, conducts eternal preaching within the matter, because the matter in this sense is the purest place, free from any kind of greed (since in fact there are no values ​​inside the matter), a place filled with all kinds of austerity and privations, which is the most favorable situation for cognition of God. Therefore, our preaching should ultimately be aimed at creating such pure devotees who could constantly improve on this path, knowing God more and more. This kind of devotion, cognition of God, has value, unlike all kinds of materialistic religions, which can hardly give liberation to a small number of people.

The material world is essentially eternal and the soul is transcendental. A myriad of souls sometimes rise, sometimes fall, sometimes become religious, sometimes manifest the nature of demons. Birds, animals, insects, human - souls are eternally mixed in different forms of life. The material world appears and again disappears into nonexistence. It seems that this Sun is eternal, but later it begins to grow burning everything around it, and then it disappears itself where there is neither space nor time. The demigods enjoy and provide life to foolish souls, the demons seek primacy and dominion over the entire world. This happens forever without reaching any result. Some living entities break out of this trap to the real Sun and light, all the rest swarm around here forever, like worms, eating each other.

No, no one here is in a hurry to God, alas. How futile our efforts are! Nevertheless, getting to know God more and more, we are fascinated by Him Himself, and when we already know God, others can also be attracted to Him through us. By realizing God, a devotee can eventually understand that only God Himself, almighty and beyond the control of anyone, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, has value. His face is embodied beauty, this is an eternal exudation of beauty, attractive and indescribable exudation, and all kinds of qualities are in Him alone. We are looking for beauty - and He is the source of all beauty, we are looking for strength - and He is the source of all strength. He is the source of all strength, beauty, all knowledge, renunciation and various wealth. Unlimited by nothing, He creates unlimited wealth and creations.

Foolish souls try to gain influence in the world of matter, while this element destroys everything in its path. The material world is the underworld where everyone suffers in one way or another, but in such a short moment of human life, a person can see the real Sun, or Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Whatever we are looking for, these are all in Him alone, whatever we see in the spiritual world or in the matter, only He is important - the magnificent, incomparable with anyone or anything, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

In fact, there are no rules in His religion, just as there are no rules for God Himself. There is only one rule: an interest in the knowledge of God and further preaching in this regard are necessary. Every living being seeks to express himself and speak, but the perfection of knowledge and speech is a conversation about the all-attractive Truth. It is said that for the present time there is only one method of spiritual development - saṅkīrtana (preaching), but in reality this is not a method of the present time, it is an eternal method and the highest perfection of religion at any time and in any place, including in the spiritual world. Foolish souls fall into the matter to portray their dominance, but the devotees of Lord Caitanya come here for eternal perfection and for gaining His supreme protection.

TEXT 50

Sañjaya said to Dhṛtarāṣṭra: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, while speaking thus to Arjuna, displayed His real four-armed form, and at last He showed him His two-armed form, thus encouraging the fearful Arjuna.

PURPORT

Similarly, when God appeared before Vāsudeva and Devakī, He first revealed the four-armed form in order to make the whole world understand His divine nature. The Tattvavādī do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the original form of God because of their materialism, at the same time there are many devotees who only formally accept Kṛṣṇa without first realizing the greatness of God. Spiritual life is a science and if one does not go through all the stages properly, one may be mistaken. Therefore, often disputes about the nature of God have a material basis and not a spiritual one; devotees argue rather to prove their personal rightness and their alleged superior position, than to be interested in God and His supreme position. All this is the result of the formal acceptance of religion within a particular tradition, when people do not understand a spiritual subject and are not interested to study it, professing only a certain cliche, for example, that God is Christ, or God is Kṛṣṇa, or that the Lord Viṣṇu is God.

TEXT 51

When Arjuna thus saw Kṛṣṇa in His original form, he said: Seeing this humanlike form, so very beautiful, my mind is now pacified, and I am restored to my original nature.

PURPORT

People are created in the image and likeness of the original form of God, so it is not He Who is like us, but we are like Him. If Kṛṣṇa were an ordinary person, how would He show both the four-armed form and the universal form? Atheists will say that all this is fiction, however, apart from the demonstration of forms, Kṛṣṇa has explained all the principles of the matter and the spiritual life.

Any type of knowledge is based on listening. No person can personally discover all the scientific categories, he basically just listens, assimilating the knowledge that has already been acquired by others, and checking an insignificant part of the acquired material. Many people have not been to all continents of our planet, have not visited Mars or the Moon, have not seen a molecule or an atom, however, they accept these things as existing on the basis of hearing and logic, within the framework of modern education. In the same way, we hear about God and then we check everything with the help of logic and spiritual practice.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 13 фев 2021, 18:06

TEXT 52

The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, the form which you are now seeing is very difficult to behold. Even the demigods are ever seeking the opportunity to see this form which is so dear.

PURPORT

God is mostly known in greatness, and few people know about God in the two-handed form of Kṛṣṇa who manifests the diversity of relationships. The demigods also know God mainly in greatness, in His four-armed form, therefore they crave to see the pastimes in which Śrī Kṛṣṇa is engaged. These pastimes are more confidential because due to materialism people may consider them analogous to human activities.

From the point of view of the average believer, God must be great. Most believers are materialistic and attached to sensual activities, their families and the similar, so when they are told that God has friendship, parenting, and conjugal relationships, they are intimidated by the similarity of God's actions to their material conditioning. From their point of view, God is only great and what He does in the spiritual world, they find it difficult to answer or guess.

Although everyone in the material world is actively developing various types of relationships with each other, it is difficult for people to understand that this is a reflection of spiritual life. Materialists prefer not to think of God in this way, because their earthly attachments are more important to them. They are mainly engaged in fruitful activities and they remember God only from time to time, and it does not occur to them that the relationship with God is much more interesting than illusory material relations. Therefore knowledge of Kṛṣṇa is mostly hidden from both human beings and the demigods.

The point here is that when people are too attached to material relationships, in this case it will be difficult or impossible for them to understand a close relationships with God. Nowadays the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa is spread everywhere, but even after become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, such people cannot attain Him because they retain many personal attachments. Thus, claiming the supreme position of Kṛṣṇa or the attractiveness of spontaneous relationships, in fact they do not attain Kṛṣṇa and do not perceive Him, which is what this verse says. Therefore, have become devotees, believers generally only theoretically know or imagine how beautiful He is. If a person does not really perceive God, then, reading the lines of this verse, he should be aware of this and, without having mature qualifications, one should not declare that Vaiṣṇavism is above all.

Kṛṣṇa says that even the demigods find it difficult to see Him. What to say about people, and especially about people in the age of Kali? Therefore Lord Caitanya came to preach the mood of separation from God which is the best method of spiritual development and also the supreme spiritual rasa.

TEXT 53

The form which you are seeing with your transcendental eyes cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. It is not by these means that one can see Me as I am.

PURPORT

The method of sādhana-bhakti leads to Vaikuṇṭha, to the knowledge of Lord Nārāyaṇa, but one can attain Goloka Vṛndāvana only through spontaneous devotion. Nevertheless, the method of sādhana-bhakti is an unconditional and necessary stage. By performing sādhana - by reading the scriptures, chanting the holy name, preaching - the devotee is gradually purifies and then, by blessing, elevates even higher. Materialists and those who are not intelligent always profess some extremes. Some of them say “one just need to love”, the second say “one only need a rasika-guru who will give rasa”, and still others follow the nominal sādhana, caring only about the outward side. Spiritual life requires intelligence and following all divisions of spiritual science in the right direction.

It is necessary not only to follow but to follow correctly, not just read the scripture but to understand it correctly, not just preach but preach well and very well. Just a general external following will not make anyone successful, all these prescriptions must be well followed, just as when preparing dishes, people carefully observe all the proportions of ingredients, temperature, type of dishes and cooking time. If already, it is necessary to observe so many conditions even when preparing an ordinary food, so what can we say about the development of spiritual life which is much more complex and sophisticated?

Therefore, living for themselves, people often do everything at random in the spiritual life, reducing everything to rituals or to a few quotations from the scripture. Everything is mostly done in line with one's own greatness, the greatness of one's religion or one's guru, which actually instantly spoils all devotion. By placing their own greatness at the top of everything, such believers further only prove their superiority, using the scriptures, acting in the spirit of selfishness and materialism. Thus all their devotion becomes defiled, becomes impure and gives almost no spiritual fruit.

Spontaneous devotion is not attained by sādhana-bhakti. This means that it is not achieved by studying Vaiṣṇava scriptures, observing principles and other rules, donating money, worshiping an altar or worshiping in a temple. However, this does not mean that sādhana is unnecessary, it creates the initial basis of spontaneous devotion, it begins to form a movement towards the higher rasas. Sādhana forms the basis of the highest types of devotion, but by itself it cannot give them.

Reading these verses, again, everyone should be aware that, following one or another sādhana, devotees generally do not perceive God. There is a certain illusion among people when, reading these verses, they think how fortunate and exalted they are in worshiping Kṛṣṇa, but such worship does not yet connect them with Kṛṣṇa, this is the truth. And such a general worship of God cannot connect them to God in feelings of spontaneous love, this is the next truth. Kṛṣṇa clearly says here that just by following the religious rules, no one can reach Him in a spontaneous relationship, and we see this practically.

Some gurus say they can give spontaneous love for God, but mostly all this is a lie and such gurus themselves are not at the level of spontaneous love. The guru mainly teaches the realization of the greatness of God, because without realizing the greatness, no one can enter the superior rasas of Kṛṣṇa-lila. The guru, even realizing his own svarūpa, cannot elevate the disciple until he reaches a certain maturity in the realization of the greatness of God. None of the disciples of all these false gurus attain any rasa, they cannot even get rid of materialism, let alone something higher.

Kṛṣṇa clearly says here that by following external methods or religious rules, no one can see Him as He is, and in fact we see the truth of these words. By worshiping for decades in the temple or performing various austerities, observing fasts, taking sannyāsa or donating large amounts of money and property, no one can attain God in His supreme two-handed form.

Sādhana is a precondition, but in itself it is not a means to reach God. Without following sādhana (hearing, chanting, and preaching), a devotee will not develop, but the very fact of hearing and chanting does not automatically lead to spontaneous love. There is no rule that by chanting specific amount of time a day or chanting specific amount of years, a devotee will attain spontaneous love. No amount of time and no amount of rules can guarantee the attainment of spontaneous love or the attainment of Kṛṣṇa as He stands before Arjuna.

Therefore, everyone should be aware of what the situation is and understand that, despite all our efforts, the higher spheres of spiritual life are still inaccessible to us as before. A devotee should generally think that he has no possibility to reach Kṛṣṇa and that is indeed the case, this is what is being said in this verse. Śrīla Prabhupāda says the same:

"Not sambhoga. Vipralambha. Vipralambha-sevā: "Oh, I am so wretched, I could not serve Kṛṣṇa. How I can see Kṛṣṇa? It is not possible." In this way. That is the teaching of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

"But even though I do not see Him, neither it is possible for me to see Him..." Means: "What I am? I am insignificant person. Why Kṛṣṇa come and see me?" This is right."

This is the true path and true teaching. First, a person must become honest, this honesty is the basis of all purity. "Who am I that God should come to me?" This is exactly the main truth. And not be proud of yourself, your religion, your materialistic guru who lives on your money. "Who am I? In fact, I am just a nonentity and I understand this much better than anyone who knows me. Since I am a nonentity, then even more I should get up and go to fulfill the main order of Lord Caitanya. What happens when I perform it? Am I reaching for God? Year after year I try to study well and do everything, but I am still spiritually undeveloped, this is my problem."

This is the true śaraṇāgati. "Without giving me audience, You kill me, You break my heart; still, You are my Lord, You are my worshipable Lord, nobody else." This is love. This is love."

If a person reaches God, then he will be qualified, and those who do not reach God must follow that path, the path of separation from God. Lord Caitanya came specially in this age of Kali to preach separation, because in the age of Kali practically nobody reaches God directly. However, Lord Caitanya preaches separation not exactly because He cannot teach people in another way, He is God, He could raise people by any other method, but He Himself comes to experience a feeling of separation and it is more pleasant for Him to see His surroundings in this very mood.

Lord Caitanya is the original God and once a day of Brahma He could easily transforme the entire age of Kali into Satya-yuga, but Lord Caitanya comes to experience separation from God, not a meeting. The Age of Kali, with its gloomy surroundings and the disqualification of people, is better suited as a setting for this sublime feeling. To show His power, Lord Caitanya creates ten thousand years of the Golden Age within Kali-yuga which, however, is less important, much more important are His feelings of separation. His feelings of separation are an ocean of sorrow, an ocean of grief, and an ocean of His eternal transcendental happiness.

TEXT 54

My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.

PURPORT

When a person gradually completely surrenders to God, then God reveals Himself to him. It is not that this is some kind of bargaining, but if a person is busy with his own affairs, then even receives some blessings, he simply will not be able to appreciate them. Therefore, the spiritual life matures gradually as the devotee spiritualizes himself more and more. At the beginning we are ready to sacrifice a little, but as the devotee develops, he surrenders himself more and more to God. Sometimes this is not an easy process because we also have some significant attachments. God gradually helps us by removing them. When the faithful wants to maintain his materialistic attitude, he may not be disturbed, but for those who are dear to God, God can very thoroughly do patronage, ridding them of everything superfluous. This happens as part of enhancing the devotee's preaching and as caring for him, because ultimately everyone in the material world will be forced to lose everything.

TEXT 55

My dear Arjuna, one who is engaged in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, who is friendly to every living entity, certainly comes to Me.

PURPORT

To treat people kindly means to preach to all of them. There is only one good thing - the knowledge of God; until a person does not know about God, he will inevitably suffer life after life. The living entities bewildered by the matter do not value the spiritual knowledge, most of them are shut out from God busy with their own affairs. Even the official religions are not too interested in the knowledge about God, following one or another religious dogma.

True religion, or God-realization, solves all problems in human society. The realization of God brings contentment, peace, and order into the life of society. However, institutionally organized religions are not effective now, so the method of saṅkīrtana-yajña, or the method of chanting the names of God together, has been given for humanity. Saṅkīrtana means both chanting the holy name and studying the scripture, therefore, with the help of it, any person, regardless of his location and environment, can develop spiritually and achieve the highest goal of life.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 13 фев 2021, 18:35

Chapter 12. Devotional Service

TEXT 1

This human life is destined to perfectly solve all the key problems, the main one of which is the problem of death. But most people don't care.

PURPOR of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:

Kṛṣṇa has now explained about the personal, the impersonal and the universal and has described all kinds of devotees and yogīs. Generally, the transcendentalists can be divided into two classes. One is the impersonalist, and the other is the personalist. The personalist devotee engages himself with all energy in the service of the Supreme Lord. The impersonalist engages himself not directly in the service of Kṛṣṇa but in meditation on the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested.
We find in this chapter that of the different processes for realization of the Absolute Truth, bhakti-yoga, devotional service, is the highest. If one at all desires to have the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he must take to devotional service.
Those who worship the Supreme Lord directly by devotional service are called personalists. Those who engage themselves in meditation on the impersonal Brahman are called impersonalists. Arjuna is here questioning which position is better. There are different ways to realize the Absolute Truth, but Kṛṣṇa indicates in this chapter that bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to Him, is highest of all. It is the most direct, and it is the easiest means for association with the Godhead.
In the Second Chapter the Lord explains that a living entity is not the material body but is a spiritual spark, a part of the Absolute Truth. In the Seventh Chapter He speaks of the living entity as part and parcel of the supreme whole and recommends that he transfer his attention fully to the whole. In the Eighth Chapter it is stated that whoever thinks of Kṛṣṇa at the moment of death is at once transferred to the spiritual sky, Kṛṣṇa's abode. And at the end of the Sixth Chapter the Lord says that out of all the yogīs, he who thinks of Kṛṣṇa within himself is considered to be the most perfect. So throughout the Gītā personal devotion to Kṛṣṇa is recommended as the highest form of spiritual realization. Yet there are those who are still attracted to Kṛṣṇa's impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence, which is the all-pervasive aspect of the Absolute Truth and which is unmanifest and beyond the reach of the senses. Arjuna would like to know which of these two types of transcendentalists is more perfect in knowledge. In other words, he is clarifying his own position because he is attached to the personal form of Kṛṣṇa. He is not attached to the impersonal Brahman. He wants to know whether his position is secure. The impersonal manifestation, either in this material world or in the spiritual world of the Supreme Lord, is a problem for meditation. Actually, one cannot perfectly conceive of the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore Arjuna wants to say, "What is the use of such a waste of time?" Arjuna experienced in the Eleventh Chapter that to be attached to the personal form of Kṛṣṇa is best because he could thus understand all other forms at the same time and there was no disturbance to his love for Kṛṣṇa. This important question asked of Kṛṣṇa by Arjuna will clarify the distinction between the impersonal and personal conceptions of the Absolute Truth.

TEXT 2

The Blessed Lord said: He whose mind is fixed on My personal form, always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith, is considered by Me to be most perfect.

PURPORT

A devotee can gradually realize that God is a Person. At first it may be difficult for us to understand how, being a Person, God is simultaneously all-pervading or the Creator of everything. Our material life and devotional service will go in parallel - we will periodically forget about God by becoming absorbed in the matter, but over time the periods of falling into material life will become less and less. Eventually, the devotee realizes Brahman or the all-pervading Spirit, and further he understands or sees how the Supersoul, being present everywhere, maintains this world. Then the devotee realizes the almighty God Who has His own kingdom in the boundless world, and even higher is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Transcendental devotion or transcendental faith means the realization of oneself as a soul and the realization of God. When a devotee is sufficiently purified, he can focus on God in His various forms, thinking about Him directly or indirectly by understanding the connection of everything with God. Such transcendental devotion to God can eventually reach the level of spiritual feelings. An ordinary faith most often means materialism, so knowledge is always needed, it will become the basis of spiritual life. Some kind of faith can be the beginning of spiritual life, but further knowledge is necessary which, based on experience, will turn into convictions, into a direct understanding of the truth in practice.

Strong devotion or deep feelings means that a person is sufficiently purified, strength and depth arise when the main material contamination is gone. Sometimes a devotee externally may not look very different from an ordinary people, but the answer is that when he performs external actions, he is not attached to them, but is internally focused on God. The most powerful method of spiritual life is the preaching of the spiritual message (saṅkīrtana), it can capture the mind and senses of a person completely. Until one has reached spiritual maturity, nothing can be as powerful as preaching, but even if devotee has reached a spontaneous relationship, he still continues to preach. One who gradually gives everything completely to God in this way, becomes one who has reached the highest stage of perfection.

Everyone has many material attachments, but when one cultivates spiritual life, they gradually weaken. The body also destroyed year by year and, in fact, this is also a good factor. Materialists are worried about the disintegrating body, but the devotees are even inspired by this.

We do not have a global vision, we see everything narrowly, locally, it is often difficult for us to understand the whole situation, so a devotee does not claim to be fully understanding, but simply fulfills the instructions of God, realizing His presence. Māyā, the matter, is a formidable force that rules everything here, but a devotee sees māyā as a reflection of the greatness of God. In the mood of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, any adversity only increases the spiritual feelings. The dark ocean of the material world can be really terrifying, but over time, ascending higher and higher, a devotee sees in it the supreme poetry of the spiritual world.

TEXTS 3-4

But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, and immovable - the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth - by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.

PURPORT

Those who worship Brahman and the Supersoul, after many lifetimes can attain devotional service to God. The Brahmavādi are those who worshiping Brahman do not deny that God has a personal nature, and the Māyāvādī do not accept God as a person.

Nowadays, in the age of Kali, any beliefs among people are usually formal. Some consider themselves a Buddhist, others consider themselves philosophers, agnostics, faithful or atheists, but in most cases all this is immature, external in nature. Such attribution of oneself to one or another category of people or adherence to one or another worldview are most often just forms of hobbies, without any serious background and practice. People in the age of Kali choose philosophy like a product in a store: what they like, from their point of view, is the truth. They often do not even really know the subject that they profess or have only theoretical knowledge of it. Therefore, it happens that, for example, a person seems to profess Vaishnavism, then goes to Christianity, and then becomes a Buddhist and goes to Tibet. Such things happen due to a lack of knowledge, experience, and convictions.

The Bhagavad-gītā gives complete knowledge, this knowledge describes the whole truth completely - Brahman, Paramātmā, and the Personality of Godhead. Until a person rises to the level of realized knowledge or direct perception of truth, he will always wander in the mind, his position will be unstable. Those who have cognized Brahman to some extent are rare people, but preach to them is not easy. People who have cognized Brahman have a certain value, because they can further understand that God is immaterial and is beyond the radiance of Eternity. But an ordinary people who worship the Personality of Godhead also become more advanced by gradually realizing His greatness.

When a person directs his attention to the Personality of Godhead, he can automatically realize Brahman and Supersoul as a side effect, however, the separate cultivation of Brahman and Supersoul awareness also has spiritual value. After all, we use all the authoritative methods that could bring us closer to God-realization.

TEXT 5

For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progrese in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.

PURPORT

Worshiping the impersonal aspect is difficult because it is unnatural. The soul is used to contemplate qualities, so it is easier for us to focus on spiritual qualities than on the impersonal and unmanifested. But as long as a person is conditioned by material concepts, he considers any qualities to be manifestations of matter. As a rule, jñānī deny the worship of deities or icons, considering it to be material images for the unintelligent. However, if God is present everywhere, why should we deny His presence in the icon?

The impersonalists are very much inspired by the idea of ​​universal unity and brotherhood. It seems to them that this is the most beautiful and sublime philosophy, although in reality the universal merger in peace and friendship is just a continuation of the idea of ​​material life. The impersonalists think this idea is very harmonious and desirable for everyone, but in fact, it is a primitive idea. The impersonalists consider the faithful who worship a personal God to be ignorant, unintelligent, not understanding the Supreme Truth which, in their opinion, is exclusively impersonal.

Impersonalists consider any religion to be only a preliminary practice and see themselves at the height of perfection - all this is a form of ignorance and selfishness. They believe that perfection will come when all religions merge into one religion or when all accept the idea of ​​universal unity. They build temples of "the unity of all religions" and often think that in the future humanity will transform into a superior race and everyone will bring happiness to each other. Impersonalism in this vein is simply the next phase of materialism.

Real impersonalists study Vedānta, perform austerities to control the mind and, of course, they understand that matter is imperfect. They want to merge with the great Eternity, which is a form of spiritual suicide, but this position is higher than material life. Impersonalism is the absence of spiritual intelligence and experience, it is only the first step in spiritual science. On the other hand, criticism of impersonal ideas by the faithful who are not aware either of God or Brahman is also groundless.

Buddhism is also one of the branches of impersonalism, and in modern Buddhism, in fact, there is no coherent system, therefore, within the framework of this one trend, quite different views can coexist. At the same time, since the ultimate goal of Buddhists is emptiness, śūnya, from this point of view it does not matter who has what views, since any view is only an expression of imperfection. Therefore, Buddhists, like any school of jñāna, produce a large number of ideas and theories. Among the Christian denominations, Protestants are closest to impersonalism, who mostly also deny form and rituals and are also prolific on ideas, since their main focus is on the study of scripture (jñāna).

Until the impersonalist meets a pure devotee, either personally or in the form of a scripture, he is unlikely to change his view of spiritual life, since he perceives any idea or form only as a manifestation of illusion, he considers it ignorance. Sometimes such impersonalists accept the worship of Deities or demigods as a preliminary stage - "until they have fully realized oneness." Impersonalism is a dangerous philosophy for immature devotees because a Māyāvādī, relying on some Brahman realization, can confuse the faithful who accepts God as a Person.

The Māyāvāda philosophy is given by Lord Śiva, and its power is such that even an experienced devotee can fall down by reading it or communicating about these topics. The entire Western world is flooded with impersonalism in various forms - as a denial of traditions, religions, the existence of good and evil. Thus, the society is degrading from year to year, blurring its ideas about the commandments and principles of culture, equating the ugly and meaningless with the beautiful and meaningful. Impersonalism, Buddhism, and materialism are combined nowadays and are the main contamination of the age of Kali. Therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda's praṇāma contains the words "nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi" - "one who preaches in the countries of impersonalism and Buddhism."

As long as a devotee is not aware of both Brahman and the Personality of Godhead at the same time, he is always in a dangerous situation, retaining the possibility of falling under the influence of Māyāvāda. If a devotee sees the great Brahman, realizing himself as a soul and at the same time realizing the Personality of Godhead, he has no chance to fall under the influence of impersonalism. The happiness of realizing God and God Himself is much higher and more attractive than the boundless Eternity. For example, the awareness of one's insignificance against the background of the power of God is much stronger than the idea of ​​merging with God or the idea of ​​considering oneself as God. Fools revel in the thought that they are God or that they will become God, but God is so great that the happiness of seeing Him overshadows this unreasonable desire of the soul to become God or to consider itself God. Even if one gains control over the entire universe, the happiness of such domination cannot be compared to the happiness of seeing the Almighty Personality.

People who live inside matter have mostly undeveloped and limited consciousness, so even their most boldest assumptions about the attractiveness of God are usually far from reality. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of believers who call themselves Christians, Vaiṣṇavas, gurus, swamis and so on, are fascinated by the recognition of people, power, money, followers and cannot perceive God. Without realizing God, they also fall into the Māyāvāda philosophy, meditating with delight on their own greatness. These kinds of mental emissions cover their consciousness even much more than ordinary physical emissions.

But God is attractive not only in His infinite greatness, He is also attractive in close relationships, which is a further development of the realization of God's greatness. By realizing God in the rasas of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, the devotee becomes even more attracted to Him. Of course, a pure devotee has no developed material interests, his only occupation and concern is the selfless preaching of spiritual science. In the process of such preaching, the devotee becomes even more purified and thus reaches an even higher stage of God consciousness, beginning to understand the most complex and mysterious Personality, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This is the highest development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 15 фев 2021, 03:17

TEXTS 6-7

For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Pṛthā, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

PURPORT

Those who thus surrendered to God will certainly achieve liberation quickly. Now we are trying to come to such consciousness, and God and the spiritual master are teaching us this step by step. The ultimate outcome of life, the highest level, is described here. However, such self-surrender does not imply only blind faith and general worship of God. A person who knows little about God, but at the same time shows firm piety, can ascend to paradise or even receive liberation, nevertheless, the general worship of God, without the development of knowledge, speaks of his ignorance. When a person truly devotes everything to God, he develops knowledge too. Devotion without knowledge gives rise to fanaticism, which can lead to insults to other religions or to impersonalism.

There are many believers in the world who defend their religion or their faith before others; who strive to firmly follow the canons of religion; but without knowledge, or intelligence, they become fanatics. Such fanatics earnestly "defend" their religion or fight against materialism, while remaining essentially materialists or impersonalists themselves. Outwardly such believers are devoted to God, but the lack of knowledge indicates their material motivation. Have no knowledge, they are afraid of discussion, and their battle against materialism is ultimately also ineffective.

Have adopted a particular religion, such materialistic believers feel an inner uplift and basically mix religiosity with their egoism, considering themselves to be right and in the highest position. By worship Christ, Allah, Buddha, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu, Śiva or other expansions of God and experience the general happiness of Brahman, materialistic believers do not doubt the truth of their religion. Although they worship God as personality, their position is actually impersonal. Such "strong faithful" people mostly follow the external prescriptions of religion, without distinguishing between the contexts of the scripture. Although sometimes such devotion to God can be accompanied by renunciation, but the lack of knowledge indicates the motivation of these people, and most of them are all karmīs.

On the other hand, formal knowledge also changes little, and until a person is at the level of his own egoism, he studies and applies the scripture only in the same egoistic way. Knowledge means at least to be self-realized. When a person is self-realized, then various kinds of materialistic motives begin to subside naturally. Those who follow only blind faith and cult should add the development of knowledge, and those who are already developing knowledge should make this process not formal, otherwise such development of knowledge will remain on the karmic level of self-exaltation or exaltation of their religion.

By and large, there is not much difference between impersonalists and materialistic believers. This is exactly the reason why materialistic believers can fall under the influence of the Māyāvāda. The materialist, although he accepts God as a Person, ultimately seeks only his own happiness, but so does the impersonalist too. The materialists chant the mantra, chant the holy name feeling the impersonal uplift, and on the basis of such a general uplift, they deify their religion, their guru, and themselves. Brahman, the universal happiness, is eternally spread everywhere, and it does not take much intelligence to understand such a simple fact. Such happiness is not belong to a particular religion or a particular person, it is present forever, anywhere and everywhere.

The materialists, by worshipping God, and the Māyāvādīs, by worshipping the impersonal, are only take their first step in the spiritual life. The former speak of the uniqueness of their religion, while the latter speak of the conventionality of all religions as a whole. The former seek their own superiority through the worship of God as a Person, the latter seek the same thing, but on the basis of impersonalism. Therefore, both of these categories have the same goal, hence materialistic believers can easily fall under the influence of Māyāvāda.

A person experiences enthusiasm in his work, in creativity, in relationships, in love, in worship in the temple, in the study of philosophy, in recreation, in enjoying nature, events, food – all these are different forms of manifestation of the same nature of the soul. Is it difficult to understand? Whether one thinks of the temporal or the eternal, there is the immutable nature of Brahman behind both. Frustration, pain, fear - all these are also the reverse side of the desire for eternal happiness of everyone. The functioning of the body and of all the bodies in the universe, the capacity for perception, all kinds of senses – all these are manifestations of the soul, either direct or more indirect. Is it so hard to understand or see? Is this a very complex science? After years of worshiping some form of God or years of studying the scriptures, is it so difficult for a person to understand the general universal nature of Brahman?

What then are all these people doing in religion if they cannot understand the elementary things? They are only engaged in the search for their greatness and improvement in the world of matter. In the material world, they were looking for only their own greatness, and when they come to religion, they do the same. When a person, being in religion, seeks only his own greatness and well-being, he will not understand anything. Neither the study of the scriptures, nor the chanting of the mantra, nor the millennial temple worship bring almost nothing to such people, since their goal is themselves. The holy name is powerful, so partially spiritualizing themselves, they ascend, for example, to paradise and then fall down again from there. If one cannot even understand the nature of Brahman, the initial position, then what can one understand at all?

A religious materialist may worship God fervently, but this verse describes a much higher level than blind following, general faith, worship, or fanatical devotion to God. Real devotion always gives intelligence and understanding, and in this verse Krsna speaks of those who are truly devoted to Him, no longer having any extraneous motives, such people certainly easily achieve liberation. On the level of liberation, there are also devotees of Lord Caitanya who preach life after life in the material world. Although the devotees live in the material world, still they are always beyond birth and death.

TEXT 8

Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.

PURPORT

Devotees think of God according to their position - as Brahman, Paramātmā, or Bhagavān. Thus the consciousness and life of the devotee are spiritualized. God is eternal, and one comes to peace in contact with the eternal. The Supersoul controls the entire material nature and tells us every step, and God controls devotional service, and of course the ultimate goal of a devotee is to achieve such dependence on God. When we want it and act accordingly, He will gradually occupy, use us and our understanding and relationships with Him will increase. Thus, the faithful is in the all-pervading Spirit, or in Eternity, follow the instructions of the Supersoul or the instructions of God Himself.

All problems are solved through awareness of oneself and God and those problems that are not solved due to this, perhaps, should not be solved. Material nature is simply grinds everything. The movement of the giant chakra of time both moves everything and puts an end to everything, and only those who are spiritually disposed experience its influence on themselves to the least extent. Thus, those who are connected with God and think about Him are in Him forever.

TEXT 9

My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga In this way you will develop a desire to attain to Me.

PURPORT

The regulative principles are mainly the study of the scripture, chant the holy name, and preaching. Those who do not have a developed interest in spiritual knowledge are more focused on temple worship and various rituals; this also spiritualizes life, but less effectively. Temple worship is primarily intended for beginners to attract them with the form of God, but in Western countries this approach is not always effective, because in the Western world rites and rituals can alienate many people rather than attract them. Westerners sometimes find it difficult to accept the conventions of temple worship, which is not always a disadvantage. On the other hand, rites work well as a method of fighting against Western impersonalism.

Nevertheless, we are primarily consciousness, not the body, and therefore the most effective for us in the spiritual life is what directed directly at consciousness. Having no spiritual experience, the majority of neophytes in all religions, as a rule, see rites and pilgrimages as important; since they are the simplest, therefore these things are more widespread. There should always be a balance in the spiritual life, but when there is little reason, people are prone to various kinds of extremes: for example, they sometimes put the temple worship first, sometimes completely reject it. This approach is unfavorable.

TEXT 10

If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.

PURPORT

Kṛṣṇa gives the opportunity to serve all categories of people: if one cannot follow the basic principles directly, then he can devote his activities to God. When a person performs, for example, his usual work, but at the same time thinks about God or does this work for God, thus he devotes his activity to Him. A person may similarly dedicate his work, family, creativity or more directly contribute to the preaching of the spiritual life. All this can be done within the framework of any religion - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Vaiṣṇavism. By dedicating his efforts and time to God, a person can gradually realize the eternal nature of God and the temporality of the material world. When a person devotes himself more and more to God, he is automatically freed from everything else, and even if he is engaged in some material activity, the consequences of it will be minimized.

Therefore, if the people of the Earth devote their activities to God, they will become more benevolent and peaceful. Everything destroys by lust, the desire for personal well-being and domination. When everyone is focused only on their own good, this leads to an increase in confrontation between all, aggression and the like. In general, people can understand this moment and try to solve the problem by introduce some cultural rules or profess , for example, the concepts of communism or liberality, however, if there is no spiritual understanding and spiritual practice, lust will be present in society to a large extent and, despite the good intentions, will act destructively. God is the center of everything, so unless a person or humanity really puts Him at the center of their lives, they will suffer from the inevitable problems.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 16 фев 2021, 19:27

TEXT 11

If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.

PURPORT

When a person cannot devote himself to God, then at least he must try to renounce the fruits of labor or the results of all his actions; this will make him more peaceful. A person can also seek satisfaction in himself, in the soul. As a rule, when a person is satisfied, everything is enough for him, but those who are seized by lust can never stop, everything will always be insufficient for them. Thus people waste their lives running back and forth in search of money, in search of entertainment. Helping others and various pious deeds are also refer to the sacrifice of the fruits of labor.

TEXT 12

If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.

PURPORT

The method of karma-yoga is placed here higher than knowledge and meditation, because formal knowledge or attempts at some kind of meditation, as a rule, are weaker than attachment to the results of activities. Usually people devote themselves to obtaining the fruits of labor - where to get money, how to support a family - and in their spare time they can read scripture or try to meditate. Since the consciousness of such people is mainly absorbed in improving their living conditions, work, rest and so on, then renunciation of the fruits of labor is more relevant. The varṇāśrama system also belongs to the category of renunciation of the fruits of labor or regulates the activities of people.

TEXTS 13-14

One who is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor, who is free from false ego and equal both in happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intelligence are in agreement with Me - he is very dear to Me.

PURPORT

God gives protection to people with brahmanical qualities. Realizing God, everyone naturally becomes satisfied and manifests the qualities described above. The bottom line is that God likes those who do not try to dominate other people. When a devotee does not try to dominate others, does not try to become a great authority, guru for others, but constantly preaches from person to person, this opens the way for him to spiritual elevation. The tendency to dominate is one of the main diseases of the material world, materialists cannot live peacefully at all, they constantly need to invent something and try to control others.

This is a general description of good qualities, still, when we preach, we sometimes have to disturb people and act quite purposefully. However, this is the order of God to preach, so we must to preach, but the preaching should not be self-serving.

TEXT 15

He for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not dirturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, is very dear to Me.

PURPORT

Preaching to others, a person leads them to eternity and happiness, therefore such activity is always absolute and has no consequences - if it is performed unselfishly, without the desire for material fruits, without the desire to gain glory, that is, without selfish motives. The preaching will always disturb others to some extent, but this is a higher principle than external brāhmaṇism.

Because of attachments, we experience happiness and sorrow, as well as fear and anxiety, however, gradually purifying, a person begins to distinguish between the main and the secondary, understand the temporality of life, and understand that only spiritual knowledge is good.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 18 фев 2021, 21:53

TEXT 16

A devotee who is not dependant on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, is very dear to Me.

PURPORT

The Bhagavad-gītā describes the path of the most efficient person. Materialists also want to achieve independence, freedom, intelligence, and happiness, but without knowledge of God, they get only an external imitation of that. Devotional service is always a combination of inspiration and effort, because it is difficult for us to be constantly inspired. Even when a person has ascended to the spiritual level, it takes some effort to maintain this level. Preaching also requires constant effort, sometimes everything goes joyfully and easily, but sometimes it takes a lot of work.

Those who have reached maturity in direct relationships (sambhoga), they are directly happy and are like the heavenly singers of happiness, but the happiness of vipralambha is of a different nature, it is like an irresistible darkness which is heavy, sometimes frightening, but full of supreme love. It is impossible to resist it. An ācārya of this level can only speak in a thesis, outwardly showing almost no feelings, but the concentration of His spiritual feelings, which are invisible to us, is such that everyone falls under their influence. Vipralambha blows everything away like a storm. Since vipralambha is a higher mood, it can also absorb the unlucky sambhogis who try to get in its way, and instead of "enjoying the feast of life" they will have to comprehend this higher feeling.

Therefore, the preaching of the highest level ācārya is like a hammer blows against materialists, demons, and all who stand in the way of such preaching. Vipralambha gradually makes the devotee unshakable while standing under its onslaught, the devotee becomes more and more unbending. Such a devotee considers himself to be the lowest, the worst, and in spite of this, he still continues to make efforts. There is nothing higher in the relationship with God and there is no closer connection with Him. There is no dearer devotee for Him. Such a devotee thinks that he has lost everything but he still loves and partakes this love with Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, His love which is like the ocean.

In Kṛṣṇa-līlā, the devotees barely survived the separation from God, but Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches such love in eternity, this is the highest concentration of all rasas, all rasas fade in compare with such love. The ācārya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, writes on various topics, but He is imbued with this supreme mood. Listen to all His bhajans, He sings only about this. Therefore, following even some initial principles, we gradually elevate to the heights of spiritual life. We need to know just enough about Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to feel the separation from Them - this is the pinnacle of preaching. The Gosvamis of Vṛndāvana have experienced love for Godhead, but what is that love?

He rādhe vraja-devīke ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ
śrī-govardhana-kalpa-pādapa-tale kālindī-vanye kutaḥ
ghoṣantāv iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair mahā-vihvalau
vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

“Queen of Vrindavana, Radharani! O Lalita! O son of Nanda Maharaja! Where are You all now?"

Therefore, when the ācārya, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is in such feelings, He becomes indestructible only by the power of this love alone. This is not even the power of God's greatness, this is higher.

The mood of absolute separation is unknown in the spiritual world because it is not manifested there. Also, in Gaura-līlā itself, very few people fully understood this topic. Nevertheless, we have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a pure devotee, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and develop spiritually by learning the innermost part of the spiritual moods (rasas). Now, thanks to Śrīla Prabhupāda's preaching, the whole science of devotional service and its culmination have become available to the entire world. The people of Kali-yuga are stupid and materialistic, yet the ācārya is adamant in preaching the message of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

TEXT 17

One who neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, is very dear to Me.

PURPORT

A devotee is indifferent to material activities because he is absorbed in preaching and God. When he experiences higher-order happiness, he becomes indifferent to ordinary values. When a devotee feels happiness from God realization, he lives by this, so neither ordinary happiness nor sorrow affects him. Also, the main goal of a devotee is preaching, so a devotee is not internally bound with everyday affairs although he participates in them - he works, he can have a family, and so on.

Such neutrality towards the material world begins at the level of Brahman - when a person understands the relativity of any material phenomena and feels the eternal happiness of Brahman. Everyone's goal is happiness, but when we get unlimited happiness, renunciation comes naturally. The position of the devotees of God is even higher: behind Brahman lies the immeasurable greatness of God.

A devotee can become aware of himself as Brahman, further elevate to the realization of greatness, and alternatively, when the devotee is balanced at the junction of "Brahman - the greatness of God", the realization of greatness gradually begins to dominate. Some want to get happiness by surrounding themselves with temporary things or temporary connections; others want to experience happiness from the recognition of other people and from the feeling of their own greatness. Such an approach cannot be called anything except stupidity. We need to realize the eternal greatness of the soul, gain the recognition of God and not the recognition of some people in the material world.

God clearly says here that those who have become neutral to the matter are very dear to him. God Himself is neutral to the matter and to all events here. Sometimes people think that spiritual life is the absence of problems in life. Sometimes God does really help, but a much better position is when a devotee does not view the external changes in life as a favor or disfavor of God. God is above the material world and one must attain Him Who is beyond the matter and beyond all its changes, and thus become transcendent to any changes of mind, body, and external environment.

TEXT 18-19

One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equiposed in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn't care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, is very dear to Me.

PURPORT

When a person is happy with spiritual knowledge, connection with God, and preaching, he often imperceptibly to himself, deepens his neutrality towards all kinds of matter. The main desire of everyone in the material world is the desire for fame and personal domination, but have got rid of the desire for fame and domination, the person will be satisfied and thus he becomes invulnerable. Almost every action people perform for some benefit or for the sake of personal glory, to be praised or recognized as special. A person flourishes when he is praised and falls into despondency or anger when he is scolded; the fastest way to get rid of such tendencies is through preaching. Constant preaching gradually removes all defilements, but the preaching should be selfless. Preaching is the only worthwhile thing in this world, and if we talk about devotion to God, then preaching is the only true devotion.

When a person is engrossed in God and preaching, then various physical situations such as heat and cold, begin to affect him less. When the senses are occupied and engrossed in spiritual science and preaching, the person will always be happy and will notice less and less difficulties of various kinds. To be silent means to always talk about God. A devotee is not interested in ordinary news or he understands any news in terms of God-realization and preaching. Therefore, whatever a devotee talks about, it will always be associated with God and in the highest sense it will mean material silence.

By preaching from day to day, the devotee gains happiness and support of a higher order, so he ceases to worry about the future and the affairs of his family. As a rule, everything develops in a natural way for a preacher - he is not rich, but he is not poor, he becomes influential, but at the same time independent. If a lot money comes in, he uses it mainly for publish and distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. A pure devotee does not see the difference between poverty and wealth, but wealth is always used to expand the preaching.

To focus on developing knowledge means that the devotee sees everything in direct perception. He sees the modes of nature at work, he directly realizes Brahman and the greatness of God, he sees how all the rasas of Kṛṣṇa-līlā are manifested in a distorted form everywhere within matter, and he knows these rasas in their pure, uncontaminated form. A pure devotee understands the supreme position of the mood of separation from God, he also understands that he is under the control of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and always tries to strengthen this connection. To establish oneself in knowledge means put into practice the main points of the scripture.

TEXT 20

He who follows this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engages himself with faith, making Me the supreme goal, is very, very dear to Me.

PURPORT

Spiritual feelings begin with common faith (or with the development of knowledge) and develop to direct God realization. At first, a devotee is inspired by spiritual life generally, impersonally, but as spiritual development progresses, everything takes on more specific features. Initial faith or devotion to God is guided by knowledge, which in its development leads to the realization of God. The more a devotee realizes God, the less he becomes influenced by material nature. As a devotee progresses, he devotes himself more and more to preaching, he understand the spiritual life in many details and shades.

Devotional service is not like sectarianism where a single statement of the scripture is at the head of everything and the guru is a festive icon who gives general lectures. Devotional service is the God-realization and preaching from person to person. A devotee has no problem except the problem of preaching and the problem of how to convey the spiritual message to the people. There is no question of the fact that, realizing God, a person will be busy only with himself or with his petty household affairs.

Knowing in direct perception both the impersonal aspect of God and God as a Person, a devotee is well versed in this topic and can practically direct the impersonalists on the path of devotional service. There are different categories of people to whom we preach. The first is the materialists, the second is the impersonalists, the third is the materialistic believers, the fourth is the sahajiy (those who consider their materialistic love a rasa), the fifth is those who recognize God only in greatness (Tattvavādī, Christians and others), the sixth are those who who has realized Brahman, the greatness of God, or his own rasa of Kṛṣṇa-īlā. Although those who have realized God in various degrees are transcendentalists, they should be guided higher towards the realization of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and towards the preaching as the ultimate expression of devotion to God.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 21 фев 2021, 20:12

Chapter 13. Nature, the Enjoyer, and Consciousness

TEXTS 1-2

Arjuna said: O my dear Kṛṣṇa, I wish to know about prakṛti [nature], Puruṣa [the enjoyer], and the field and the knower of the field, and of knowledge and the end of knowledge. The Blessed Lord then said: This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.

PURPORT

We live in the world of matter, therefore knowledge about the structure of matter is always relevant for everyone. Puruṣa in the highest sense is God, but sometimes the soul is also called puruṣa. The true enjoyer is God, but the soul can also be called the enjoyer because he has such an inclination. The field is a material body and the soul is one who knows this field. Every soul in matter has a certain type of body with a certain set of feelings. Thus, the soul learns the world through a specific set of senses and organs of action. The impersonalists say the world exists only in the perception of our senses and in the mind, but the external world exists independently of our mind and senses; the mind and senses are just an instrument of perception.

Indeed, by perceiving the world with through a specific set of senses, a person receives relative knowledge that depends on a specific type of perception. Fish see the world in one way and bees see it in another way. People brought up in a religious tradition see the world connected with God, while atheists believe that everything arose by chance. However, in addition to such relative, conditioned perception, there are objective things, and the first of them is the soul. The first quality of the soul is eternity, and we see how everyone does not want to grow old, get sick, and die. People want to live forever and be forever young or people dream of how humanity will conquer the entire universe and will also exist forever. Since the soul is eternal, we are attracted by any phenomena that remind us of eternity and greatness.

Thus, the soul is eternal and everyone can be convinced of this on their own, having ascended to the level of Eternity, which in different traditions is called differently - Brahman, nirvana, the Holy Spirit. Each of us is a soul, or spirit, and this is an eternal category that does not depend on the mind and senses. I existed in the past, I exist now, and I will exist always and forever. The soul is eternal, but he is disturbed by changes in the body such as old age, illness, and death. Leaving one body, the soul receives the next one; and if it is difficult for us to learn about past and future lives, then it is much easier to make sure of the eternity of the soul.

The soul is eternal and he shines eternally. This radiance of the soul is further manifested through a specific body, senses, and mind and a person scatters his attention all over the world - over various objects and situations. If instead of such scattering, the personality focuses on the soul, on himself, thus he will understand that both eternity and happiness come from the soul himself and are not connected with the mind, senses, and the external world. Mystic yogīs not only attain the realization of the eternity of the soul, but the growing influence of the soul energy makes their body so firm and strong that such yogīs can live for hundreds of years or be under water and in the snow. All this is a practical fact of the power of the soul, however, the goal of yoga is not to make own physical body strong, but to realize the eternity of the soul and then go further and understand that God is behind the whole world.

Thus, knowledge begins with the cognition of the external nature, then comes the cognition of the body (including the senses, mind, and intelligence) as the field of activity of the soul, and higher is the soul himself or the knower of the field. In the highest sense, knowledge is the understanding of not relative, but absolute categories, begging with the soul. Also, if a person is engaged in cognition of only external nature, including the physical body, and does not understand that the mind and senses, along with the physical body, are independent parts of the material body (field) and an instrument of cognition, then what objectivity can we talk about?

Have come to an understanding of the relativity of all material knowledge, a person should pass to the knowledge of absolute categories, and the first person who can be cognized by him is himself, that is, everyone can cognize himself. This is the meaning of the expression "Know thyself." One need to understand: who I am myself. If the body is constantly changing, but I still feel myself the same person, then I am unchangeable, aren't I? Next, one need to adopt one of the spiritual methods in order to deepen this understanding and achieve awareness of oneself as an immortal soul.

TEXT 3

O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion.

PURPORT

The soul knows only his own body, but the Supersoul knows all the bodies in the entire universe at the same time. Have realized himself as a soul, then the person should think: “Who is my source? Obviously, I exist eternally, but there must be a source of me, since I am as a soul in fact dependent." The impersonalists say the soul is self-sufficient and the soul is the source of himself, the impersonal Brahman is the source of everything. Which begs the question, if the soul is his own source, or God, how does he fall under the influence of matter, or illusion? The soul falls under the influence of illusion, hence the illusion surpasses the soul. However, since each of us is a personality, therefore, at the origins of the illusion there is also a Personality that surpasses both the illusion and the soul. The soul is under the control of the body and the laws of the material world, but he has not created either the body or the material world.

Therefore, has realized oneself as a soul, one should ask, "Who is the source of the soul and what is His nature?" It is not so difficult to understand the nature of God: everyone within the matter strives for domination in various forms, therefore, our source is the One who has the real domination. Where does the desire for domination come from in the soul, which he does not actually possess? Who established the laws that we see everywhere and that are precise and inexorable? Thus, after the cognition of the soul, we move on to the cognition of God who is an absolute non-dual reality, like the soul.

The soul is eternal and God is also eternal. Who created God? But "eternal" means that nobody created Him, there is no moment of origin. We exist eternally as a part of God, God exists eternally as a complete whole. In the highest sense, the soul is eternally unborn, without a beginning, and God also has no beginning, but we are atomic and He is Omnipresent. God is the supreme reality that rules over the whole world, He is the One who established the law of cause and effect. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" - this is the fundamental law of the world or the law of karma, the law of fate. By doing actions, everyone receives the consequences of these actions. For example, by studying at school, a person gets an education, and by committing a crime, a person goes to prison or he will be punished in the next birth. We only know our own body, but God, as the creator of all bodies, knows them all, which He talks about in this verse.

Thus, there are two who know the body, two persons - the soul and God. The soul cannot create or maintain a body; God creates the bodies of all living beings and He also knows all of them. The soul has a local, limited consciousness, but the consciousness of God is unlimited. The soul feels, thinks, and desires because God has these qualities, but the soul feels and desires in an atomic scale, while God's thoughts and desires encompass everything that exists. What are the desires of God? God has no desires within the matter, He has no desire to dominate over atomic souls, He does not impose Himself on anyone. Everyone who lives in the material world can accept the idea of ​​God's existence or reject it, and God does not persecute those who reject Him.

People suffer while living in matter, but such suffering is a consequence of their own actions and not the desire of God. If a person acts on his own, at his own discretion, he receives the consequences of his own deeds. Someone will say if God is omnipotent, why would He not make peace in the whole world and stop wars, strife, disease, and death? But in this case, souls will lose their independence to act and live as they want. Act independently, souls cause a reaction back to themselves, but this is their choice and such is their longing. We try to somehow admonish people, but most of them do not want to hear about God or their knowledge about God is such that in reality most of the so-called belivers live as they want, at best following a few unimportant rules.

God created the world of matter for a separate life from Him, and since souls themselves are not able to maintain their independence, God created many universes and also bodies for each of the rebellious souls. However, He Himself is not interested in the existence of the material world and calls everyone to return to the eternal spiritual world. Here He explains that knowledge is the understanding of material nature, soul, and God.

TEXT 4

Now please hear My brief description of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, whence it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are.

PURPORT

God explains all these principles globally and fundamentally. Modern science says that bodies formed themselves in the process of evolution. But in a world dominated by decay or destruction, evolution is impossible. The universe is constantly being destroyed, this is a practical fact, and thus, at the beginning of creation the universe was at he its best. It is absurd to suppose that such complex bodies of living beings arose by themselves. Even a cell has a very complex structure that could not arise on its own. Having been born, the child in a few years already begins to walk and talk; no mixing of chemicals can give such a result. Or, for example, millions of tiny insects which can walk, fly, eat, and defend themselves are born in nature - this is simply absurd to explain their abilities by mixing atoms.

Scientists take ready-made bodies and manipulate them. They manipulate genes or grow some organs from ready-made cells, but they are not able to create life on their own. Scientists take ready-made bodies or ready-made cells and simply change their mode of life, but they cannot create a living being. Scientists promise eternal life to everyone, but ultimately science, as always, will only worsen people's health. For example, antibiotics advertised as a panacea lead to the fact that harmful bacteria are constantly modified and there are already some that are no longer treated with any known antibiotics.

David Rockefeller had his heart transplanted seven times, but in the end he still died of heart failure. Even if scientists achieve a life expectancy of 200 or 300 years, this does not fundamentally change anything. Presently they advertise genetic engineering, however, as always, they are unaware of the side effects.

Modern science, speaking about the accidental appearance of bodies, speaking about evolution, signs in its failure as a science and in fact demonstrates its unscientific nature. Almost all modern methods of chemical treatment and genetic engineering will eventually bring more and more suffering to people. By and large, almost all science nowadays is just making money when people are given a cure for one disease, provoking the occurrence of other diseases. As regards to transplantation, there is a criminal activity when healthy people are killed in order to transplant their organs to sick people and make money from it. Various scientific barbarities are spreading more and more widely, and ordinary people become hostages of scientist-killers.

Devotees need to realize themselves as a soul in order to be convinced of his existence, and they also need to understand the impossibility of evolution on the level of logic and common sense. There can be no faith in this matter, it must be a clear understanding. Having switched to the ideas of faith, religion gave way to fraudulent scientists and other crooks.

TEXT 5

That knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in various Vedic writings - especially in the Vedānta-sūtra - and is presented with all reasoning as to cause and effect.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is the highest authority in explaining this knowledge. Still, as a matter of course, learned scholars and standard authorities always give evidence from previous authorities. Kṛṣṇa is explaining this most controversial point regarding the duality and non-duality of the soul and the Supersoul by referring to Scriptures, the Vedānta, which are accepted as authority. First, He says, this is according to different sages. As far as the sages are concerned, besides Himself, Vyāsadeva, the author of the Vedānta-sūtra, is a great sage, and in the Vedānta-sūtra duality is perfectly explained. And Vyāsadeva's father, Parāśara, was also a great sage, and he writes in his books of religiosity: "aham tvaṁ ca athānye..." "We-you, I and various other living entities - are all transcendental, although in material bodies. Now we are fallen into the ways of the three modes of material nature according to our different karma. As such, some are on higher levels, and some are in the lower nature. The higher and lower natures exist due to ignorance and are being manifested in an infinite number of living entities. But the Supersoul, which is infallible, is uncontaminated by the three qualities of nature and is transcendental." Similarly, in the original Vedas, a distinction between the soul, the Supersoul and the body is made, especially in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad.

There is a manifestation of the Supreme Lord's energy known as annamaya by which one depends simply upon food for existence. This is a materialistic realization of the Supreme. Then there is prāṇamaya; this means that after realizing the Supreme Absolute Truth in foodstuff, one can realize the Absolute Truth in the living symptoms, or life forms. In jñānamaya the living symptom develops to the point of thinking, feeling, and willing. Then there is Brahman realization and the realization called vijñānamaya by which the living entity's mind and life symptoms are distinguished from the living entity himself. The next and supreme stage is ānandamaya, realization of the all-blissful nature. Thus there are five stages of Brahman realization, which is called brahma puccham. Out of these the first three-annamaya, prāṇamaya, and jñānamaya-involve the fields of activities of the living entities. Transcendental to all these fields of activities is the Supreme Lord, who is called ānandamaya. In the Vedānta-sūtra also the Supreme is called ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is by nature full of joy, and to enjoy His transcendental bliss, He expands into vijñānamaya, prāṇamaya, jñānamaya, and annamaya. In this field of activities the living entity is considered to be the enjoyer, and different from him is the ānandamaya. That means that if the living entity decides to enjoy, in dovetailing himself with the ānandamaya, then he becomes perfect. This is the real picture of the Supreme Lord, as supreme knower of the field, the living entity, as subordinate knower, and the nature of the field of activities.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 27 фев 2021, 04:06

TEXTS 6-7

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions-all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions.

PURPORT

The five great, or gross, elements are the solid state of matter, liquid, fiery, gaseous, and space. The whole world is made up of these five elements, but in addition to them, the concept of material elements also includes senses, mind, intelligence, and false ego. Modern science studies only the five great or large elements, believing that senses, mind, and intelligence arise from a combination of gross matter.

Engineers and technologists create computers from gross matter, that is, calculating machines, and they think that this can be proof of the origin of the mind and senses from gross matter. Nevertheless, the computer does not feel or think anything. The computer is created by people and simply mechanically reproduces the programs put into it by human. With the help of a computer, people simulate primitive processes, but they cannot create senses in a computer or the ability to think independently. Presently there is the concept of artificial intelligence, however, of course, a machine cannot have any intelligence, a machine follows a program embedded in it by a human.

It is impossible to explain the origin of mind and feelings from gross matter. The mind and senses are clearly superior to the gross body, for example, the human body cannot fly, but the senses may want to fly. The human gross body is quite limited, but with the help of the mind and intellect, the capabilities of the body can be greatly expanded. However, such increase in possibilities is not only the result of the actions of one mind, but the structure of the material world also allows us to do this. Initially, people do not know what will happen with certain actions, they try, set up an experiment, record the results of the experiment and then use it. Thus, various physical effects are embedded within matter and people only study them and, if possible, use them for their own purposes. The presence of laws and regularities points to God - if there are any laws in the state, then someone has established them.

If everything in the universe is ordered, based on law, has a construction, then someone has established such an order, that is, there is a cause for all of this. If we have the mind and the senses, then the mind and the senses must also be in the original cause. Even if we assume that the mind and senses appear as a result of the interaction of gross elements, this means that such a possibility is inherent in the elements initially, otherwise how did it arise? It is impossible to say that something arise random when we see laws everywhere. Our ability to think and feel is local, but the original ability to think and feel must be global. Out of the global senses, mind, and intelligence, there are many small local senses, minds, and intelligences arise - these are obvious facts and logic. An intelligent human creates a computer that has a complex structure and simulates the processes of thinking, similarly, the nature or God create many bodies that have a structure, senses, and thinking.

Therefore, mind, intelligence, senses, and ego are included in the concept of the elements of creation. The five great or gross elements make up the gross body and the five senses, mind, intelligence, and ego make up the subtle body. Five senses are associated with five gross elements: vision is associated with the element of fire, hearing - with space, the sense of taste - with the liquid state of matter (water), the sense of touch is associated with a gaseous substance (air), and the sense of smell is associated with the solid state of matter (earth). The sense of smell functions only where there are elements of the earth, the sense of taste - where there are elements of water, vision is possible only in the presence of elements of fire, the sense of touch or the nervous system perhaps only when there is a movement of subtle air currents in the body, the sense of hearing perceives sound, sound can spread only if there is space.

Based on the analysis of five gross elements and five senses (as well as five sense objects), the stages of the origin of the universe are easily proved. First, space and sound arise, then the expansion of space forms gas in the universe, fire arises from gas (for example, our Sun is the reaction of hydrogen and helium gases), water arises from fire (oxidized hydrogen or other types of water), and from the movement of water is formed earth or the roughest elements. The entire creation is also permeated by intelligence or has a construction, the creation is not chaotic, it has a structure and based on laws.

The first gross element of creation is space, ether, which corresponds to the object of the senses - sound, and the sense - hearing. As the initial element, space is present in all other elements, and sound, vibration, waves can spread through the other four elements - air, fire, water, and earth. Since sound is the primary element, thinking is best expressed through sound or speech. Also, by sound and speech all other elements can be controlled. With the help of sound (or text) the whole world is described, various plans, concepts, schemes, and technologies are created by sound, therefore sound takes the most important place in both material and spiritual life.

Next air (gas) arises along with a tactile sense, the sense of touch. We see that the nervous system plays a central role in the life of all living beings. The nervous system (or air currents) spreads its influence over the entire body of any living being, including humans. Any living being always has one or another tactile perception, even if they do not have vision, for example. The nervous system is one of the main factors in a person's life which controls all the organs of the body, and pleasant sensations or pain are transmitted through the nervous system too.

Next arise: vision, which is completely controlled by fire, the ability to taste, controlled by water, and the sense of smell, controlled by earth. Thus, there are five gross elements; five objects of the senses - sound and others; five senses - hearing and others; together with the five organs of cognition - the ear and others; and then five organs of action - the tongue (speech), hands and feet (the physical body as an organ of action), organs of excretion and reproduction, are connected with each other.

The senses embodied in the organs of perception and action are above the gross elements. But the soul is even higher, since the body and all material senses act because they are filled with the energy of the soul, which manifests himself through the mind, intelligence, and five senses. The energy of the soul is universal, the soul can act without a body, and without being embodied in the mind and senses. The soul is transcendental. When he becomes attached to the body, he is only restrained by it.

The senses in contact with the objects of the senses give rise to desire and hatred, happiness and grief. The soul is used to enjoy the eternal objects in the eternal spiritual world and experience eternal happiness, but once the soul gets into matter, he begins to strive for material happiness, but such happiness is illusory and essentially is not happiness at all. People are always in the dream of happiness, in the pursuit of happiness, but as such, happiness does not exist here.

The unification of various elements of creation is also considered in the description of the material world. The scripture lists the elements of creation, but it also speaks about the general unification of all these elements into a single whole as part of creation. If we consider the soul is not related to the world of matter, then the description of the totality of all elements or their combination, which made separately without considering the soul, is quite appropriate. Have studied all the elements separately, one can eventually understand their complete unification with each other, which is the final stage of studying the material world.

Further in the verse, the signs of life and beliefs are listed, which already concerns the manifestation of consciousness within dead matter. So the material world as a field of activity of the soul is described as a whole, as a system. Beliefs arise from true knowledge and practical experience, and the beliefs formation completes the process of cognition.

As for the unmanifest, this is the stage of existence of the material world when it all goes into an unmanifested state. The world is either manifest, unfolding in itself all the described elements, or unmanifest during the sleep of Mahā-Viṣṇu. This stage of unmanifested is also described as an element of creation, as a part of complete description of the structure of the entire material world. The unmanifest state can be understood as the existence of Brahman, but all the elements of matter disappear, being temporary, and at the moment of the next creation they arise again from the radiance of the body of God. The structure of the world is cit-śakti; in the unmanifested form the elements are "stored" as the eternal knowledge of God, and in the manifested form the elements are re-created from the eternal "matter" of Brahman during the next creation.

Thus, the unmanifested is something that, from our point of view, does not exist, is completely absent, since the elements of creation in an unmanifested form are not stored anywhere. The material creation is temporary and illusory in this sense. The unmanifested (the elements of matter in the period of the destruction of the universes) does not exist, but in fact the material world as the plan of God exists eternally and creates from the "matter" of the all-pervading Brahman. Therefore, all the elements of the material world can be considered as non-existent, but at the same time eternally existing - this is the concept of illusion.

Material illusion is the continuation of the development of spiritual illusion (intensification of the illusion). Spiritual illusion is created for the beginning of cognition of God and for a close relationship with God; it is eternal and quite real, only partially illusory showing the position of God, where in one case His greatness is hidden (Goloka), in the other case His special attractiveness is hidden and God is manifested only in His pure greatness (Vaikuntha). At the lowest point of being of infinite Vaikuntha, God takes on a special form, Maha-Vishnu, and creates the material world for souls longing for personal dominion without God. Thus, the creation of the material world is the last stage in the development of illusion, where the concept of the temporality of life and the absence of God appears. The being of the world and the being of God cannot be temporary, but being omnipotent, He creates this type of creation.

There is nothing below the existence of the material world (or it is surrounded by infinite Brahman and Vaikuṇṭha), but within matter the gradation of the fall continues infinitely, going into infinitesimal forms of being with less and less obviously manifested signs of life in living entities. Since God is infinite, then every phenomenon created by Him is also infinite. Although the material world is temporary and all its forms are limited, yet all of them are still infinite directly or indirectly. The number of universes is infinite, the number of conditioned souls within each of them is infinite, the time of existence of the material world is infinite, although it is cyclically created and destroyed. Also, each form inside the world is relatively infinite - one can endlessly move on the surface of any sphere or planet and all these planets and atoms can rotate endlessly. In accordance with the energy conservation law, all kinds of energies are also eternal, they only transform into different types. Any object or distance can be divided into infinitely small parts or infinitely reduced in size. Similarly, the process of the soul's falling can be endless, and in this sense, any universe has no bottom, it is bottomless. The universe has no limits either in the direction of growth - it merges with the infinite brahmajyoti, nor in the direction of decreasing - it has no bottom or has no limits in the degree of falling the soul, it forms an endless abyss.

God, being the Absolute, the supreme, unlimited Truth, creates both the infinite worlds of eternal life and the world of infinite degradation. However, since the degradation of the soul is impossible in the highest sense, the world of degradation is illusory or temporary, but this does not mean that all souls will finally be saved. Those souls who have no desire to communicate with God gradually fall into the darkness of matter and remain there forever, not realizing themselves either during the existence of the manifested universe or during the period of sleep in the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu. However, this temporary illusory creation becomes the playground of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, where the endless darkness of matter becomes a decoration and indirect expression of His supreme feelings of love. The endless degradation of the soul or the endless darkness of the material world manifests itself as an analogy to God's infinite feelings of separation.

Thus, in the spiritual sense, the world of matter is the highest manifestation of the feelings of God and His highest creation that surpasses even the spiritual world. The material world is like a small but most valuable diamond in the infinite number of God's creations. The entire spiritual world shines like the Sun, but the world of matter is a special, unusual jewel, it shines in a special, most exquisite way. It can be called a dark, black diamond, or it can be called a jewel with the moonlight shine, or it can also be called a golden Moon. Black, shimmering with gold, is the most exquisite color that attracts the most exalted, pure devotees. According to dialectics, the world of matter attracts two categories of souls - the most fallen and the most exalted.

Lord Caitanya is the omnipotent creator of both spiritual and material worlds, the original Personality of Godhead, but in order to understand this, one should consistently go through the entire path of elevation. Only general worship of Him as God, recognition of Him as God are not a sufficient qualification for His real realization. People have no interest in spiritual science, therefore they only accept the process of temple worship or general study of the scriptures, or they are busy with themselves, incorrect, do not preach - it will be difficult for such people to understand God or it will be impossible for them to understand Him at all, even in many lifetimes. Materialistic believers make some kind of simplified scheme, they are too lazy to investigate the details of spiritual science. Instead of trying to know God, they do a temple cult, a guru cult, or are busy with their own affairs with an admixture of religiosity. All this is far from a developed spiritual life, and, accordingly, how can such people understand God, the most outstanding Personality?

TEXTS 8-12

Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth-all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.

PURPORT

This is one of the central points of the Bhagavad-gītā, it describes the process of attaining knowledge. Generally, knowledge means getting out of the influence of the body, and not just studying the material world and the body as such. As long as the personality is influenced by the mind and body, he is simply inside the mind and body, use their limited functions. But in order to attain knowledge, one must get out of such influence, cognize God and the soul. At the same time, this escape makes it possible to study the matter, because a person being in a liberated state, objectively sees the whole picture and mechanisms operating inside the matter.

Thus, the process of cognition is not a study of the elements as such, but a practical way out from under the influence of matter. A person who develops true knowledge manifests certain qualities described in these verses.

Spiritual knowledge begins with humility. A person who considers himself knowledgeable or the most intelligent cannot develop. To begin the process of cognition, you need some kind of humility, a certain recognition of your ignorance. When a person thinks he already knows everything, how then will he start learning? Therefore, the first quality of one who have knowledge is humility, but humility also means inquisitiveness, thoughtfulness, perseverance on the spiritual path. Humility in the highest sense is following the instructions of the scripture; one should not confuse humility with downtroddenness and blind faith in something.

The next quality is lack of pride, vanity, or desire for fame. Humility is the beginning of the learning process, and the striving for fame is the main contamination of the material world. A vain person is always busy with himself and he can never understand the essence of phenomena. Vanity blinds a person, makes him biased, vanity binds him. Vanity in religion has exactly the same effect of plunging into ignorance as ordinary vanity. When a devotee wants to become glorified, famous, initiated, brāhmaṇa, sannyāsī or guru just to be worshiped - all these are obstacles in spiritual life.

Humility is the main quality of the development of knowledge and vanity is the most important contamination, therefore both of them are considered at the very beginning of the enumeration of the qualities of knowledge. Thus, true knowledge means that a person does not have a desire for personal fame, but seeks the truth. Such people are happy with the knowledge of truth and God, and not with their own glory; this is a very important point. It is quite difficult to get rid of the desire for fame, but it is possible in the process of spiritual cognition and preaching from person to person.

To avoid violence means preaching first. Until a person is not engaged in preaching, he will somehow be guilty of violence. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes about this in his commentary on these verses:

"Nonviolence is generally taken to mean not killing or destroying the body, but actually nonviolence means not to put others into distress. People in general are trapped by ignorance in the material concept of life, and they perpetually suffer material pains. So, unless one elevates people to spiritual knowledge, one is practicing violence. One should try his best to distribute real knowledge to the people, so that they may become enlightened and leave this material entanglement. That is nonviolence."

Devotees also try to minimize the usual violence among others by giving up meat, etc., but nowadays the whole world is imbued with violence. Scientific and technical activities destroy all nature simultaneously in all directions and man, using technical goods, participates in this. The state takes taxes, then makes various types of weapons and wages wars. Almost any state can not also ensure legal justice now, therefore any ordinary citizen bears a certain responsibility for all types of violence in society - physical, moral violence, spreading false knowledge and others. Simply living in any state, working, paying taxes, taking and giving money, buying something, communicating with people, everyone becomes engaged in an endless chain of violence, becoming its accomplice to varying degrees.

But even if one leaves any state and social system, one will not be able to purify himself with the help of renunciation alone, because this will also make one guilty of violence - non-distribution of spiritual knowledge. Materialistic believers want to renounce, "to leave all worldly things", become a monk, sannyāsī, settle in a monastery, in a temple, in a holy place and so on. While all such sannyāsīs, gurus and monks sit in monasteries and Maths, preach only within their sects, preach for the sake of money and popularity, pleasing people, materialists are actively acting, destroying the nature and consciousness of people, therefore, all these "renounced" and sectarian gurus carry responsibility for such activities of materialists and get a reaction. Arjuna also wanted to leave the battle, but God told him that it was not right and explained why.

Anyway, by participate in state and social life (or avoid it), a person becomes associated with a huge amount of violence of all kinds, therefore, without preaching, it is very difficult or even impossible to avoid reactions for such kind of activity. When a devotee goes to preach from person to person, he not only performs an act of nonviolence, but can also be purified of all his own sins committed over an infinite number of lives. Therefore saṅkīrtana, or preaching, is in the first among the means of purification. Just chanting a mantra or reading the scriptures is not enough to achieve the highest perfection, so any devotee should preach as much as possible, constantly improving its quality.

The next quality of knowledge is tolerance. In the material world, there are always certain problems, it is also necessary to learn to restrain feelings, all this requires tolerance. Tolerance is necessary for spiritual elevation. Although the spiritual life is blissful in nature, a person must have enough tolerance to reach the spiritual level. We should not deceive anyone by saying that spiritual life is always full of happiness - spiritual life is full of happiness, but until a person reaches the level of spiritual happiness, he needs to perform quite a lot of austerities. Although spiritual life happy in all phases, nevertheless it is not an easy path in general. Tolerance also means the ability to endure insults and dishonor. In the mood of separation, tolerance also plays a major role, therefore it is mentioned in the Śikṣāṣṭaka.

Simplicity means that a devotee has no materialistic goals and goals of dominating others, either in the material world or in the spiritual society. When a person is not burdened with materialistic goals, the search for fame or power, he will always be simple and open. Those who have selfish interests will always be entangled with envy, cunning, duplicity; openness and simplicity are impossible there. Therefore, simplicity arises over time, with the spiritual development; generally everyone is conditioned and only over the years they will be able to get rid of materialistic goals. It is one thing when a person seems to be simple and open, having nothing, and another thing, when such opportunities appear and he becomes famous or rich, in which case he can become thoroughly entangled in his domination over time. Therefore intelligent devotees are simple and can easily give up all kinds of opulence, domination, and fame. In fact, devotees dominate only by order from above, but this also implies that the devotee has no personal interests.

As for cleanliness, then the main type of cleanliness is inner purity, which is achieved by developing knowledge, chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, preaching and renouncing the fruits of labor. Inner purity is also sincerity, purposefulness, good intelligence, spiritual intuition, dependence on God. “The pure in heart shall see God” - a person who is pure inwardly achieves spiritual success, but one should not neglect external purity either.

Approaching a bona fide spiritual master means studying Śrīla Prabhupāda's books as the path of our devotional service. We study only Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and do not study books of the other ācāryas, because this is not necessary. Some say Śrīla Prabhupāda taught only initial understanding and they come to finish his training - such people are materialists and cheaters. Quite a big number of various false gurus have already tried to "finish" what Śrīla Prabhupāda had begun, as a result, they themselves became finished along with their sects. A spiritual master is one who has realized Brahman, the greatness of God, and Bhagavān, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The spiritual master also practically knows all the rasas of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, but he preaches from the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda, leading the disciples to the ultimate goal of devotion - to Lord Caitanya.

Steadiness means that a person clearly understands material and spiritual existence. If a person understands the temporality of matter and the eternity of spirit, then how can he give up spiritual practice? Have accepted spiritual practice, one must understand that all and any material acquisitions will only increase suffering. Many modern gurus have taken on disciples for the sake of money and fame, but ultimately all kinds of suffering fell upon them, and after death most of them will be punished. Steadiness, or constancy, also means devotion to God and cognition of God. When a person is constant, he is devoted to God in happiness and unhappiness, in success and in failure. Such constancy is based on knowledge, on two types of knowledge: positive - about the spiritual nature, and negative - about the material world. A devotee always hones his spiritual understanding and devotion to God by preaching, and the development of knowledge alone without preaching will always be incomplete.

Self-control, self-discipline, or selfpossession is also based on knowledge and on preaching. By developing knowledge, a person understands what is good and what is bad; by preaching, he gradually becomes free from any kind of influence on him. We must restrain ourselves and our feelings not just for the sake of external religiosity, but for the sake of knowing God. Without a positive spiritual development, it is difficult to restrain feelings and mostly impossible. Self-discipline means that a devotee makes a feasible commitment and follows it, but eventually it is important to know God and preach spiritual science all over the world.


Renunciation of the objects of sense gratification means the devotee does not strive for any significant goals within matter and basically minimizes his everyday life. In practice, it looks like this: a devotee preaches all his free time and, accordingly, forgets he needs to improve his living conditions. Renunciation basically means being absorbed in the studying of spiritual science, preaching, various difficulties associated with preaching, and against this background, a devotee forgets he needs to get married, earn more money, have an external image and the like. To this we will be told that the preacher should set an example with his life, family, money, and so on, but we do not follow such ideas, we preach spiritual science and are looking for those who are interested in spiritual science and not in external surroundings.

A false ego is the identification of oneself with the body and striving for fame and domination. The soul receives a material body and lives in matter simply out of the desire to dominate others and out of the desire to gain recognition from others. The true ego is aspiration to know spiritual science, spiritual categories, and to preach. There is no alternative to preaching. Just to live piously in a family Means to remain in ignorance, or to chant a mantra in seclusion is also ignorance. If a person does not preach, this means only one thing: a lack of developed interest in spiritual life and God.

A person cannot help but communicate and speak, so if he does not preach, then māyā has a very great influence on him. Having started preaching, one must learn selflessness, because with the help of preaching one can also cultivate one's false ego. Preaching at least activates the personality and when one preach from person to person, it will be difficult to bask in the rays of one's own glory and significance, since most people are unlikely to appreciate us as a great person. However, even if one receive some recognition, one must continue to learn the essence and not think of oneself as an exalted one, and, of course, one cannot make money from preaching.

Ideally, a person should realize himself as a spirit, soul, realize Brahman, then elevate to the level of realization of the greatness of God. When a personality realizes himself as a soul, he understands the meaninglessness of material life, and when he understands the greatness of God, he becomes happy and satisfied. Many people write about the rasas of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, but for most people the greatness of God is actually more relevant, because by realizing the greatness of God, the devotee becomes pure. A person strives for his own greatness only for one reason: he does not realize the greatness of God. Therefore, the root of spiritual development is God-realization and preaching.

Everyone should also understand that life in the material world in all its phases is a source of suffering. One should not build all one's spiritual life on the fear of suffering and death, but it is quite necessary to understand these things. When a person understands that everything in the world is temporary, he looks at things soberly. Materialists answer this: "So, shall we lie and die now?" - however, a person who understands the temporality of everything is simply acts more practical. If everything is temporary, why waste yourself on trifles? It is better to do something more substantial. Is this approach bad? To take from life the most important, the most necessary, is not this a sign of reason? And conversely, to turn a blind eye to imminent death, can this be called the presence of common sense? Thus, everyone should understand the temporality of life and everyone should start to solve this problem; this problem is solvable. Therefore, the understanding the temporality of life also belongs to the category of knowledge.

The family is not an obstacle in spiritual life, if it does not interfere with the preaching. Altar worship, study of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and programs can be organized within the family. Also, husband and wife can preach on the streets from person to person. It is believed that the best preacher is a sannyāsī, but a householder in the quality of his preaching may be no different from a sannyāsī or even better than any sannyāsī. Besides, nowadays it is a time when there are many free women everywhere, and in marital status it is easier to preach from person to person than in sannyāsī status. Therefore, the family is not an obstacle, but one should realize that the family, like everything in the material world, is temporary. The scripture does not say that it is necessary to leave the family, it says that one should not have excessive attachment to the family. In general, a person can live with or without a family, this is not so important. Everyone can act according to their own inclinations - some devotees may have a family, others may be brahmacārī or unmarried preachers, that will be correct behavior.

If a person is balanced, going through pleasant and unpleasant events, this will make him much more stable and truly happy. One way or another, everyone is forced to somehow experience grief, but one should not be too happy about material happiness. There is no point in grieving too much, but there is no point in being too happy. Rather, a person needs to start thinking about God, and thus materialistic happiness and suffering will become less noticeable. When a devotee lives by focus on God and preaching, he experiences a constant uplift that is transcendental to ordinary happiness and sorrow. A devotee experiences all kinds of emotions, but this is already connected with the eternal, connected with God.

When a devotee preaches everywhere, he begins to see all areas of life in terms of preaching. The preacher, in fact, has nothing to renounce, because he uses any situation in the context of preaching. For example, seeing beautiful girls on the street, ordinary people are attracted by them and the faithful have to avoid thinking about the opposite sex, but a devotee goes to such girls, preaching to them and offering Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. The preaching is higher than lust, so by constantly preaching, the devotee rises above lust and feels a higher level of happiness. By putting his senses in spiritual life and preaching, a devotee is always satisfied, peaceful, or more actively happy according to his temperament. Therefore, whatever a devotee sees, he sees everything in the key of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and in the key of preaching - politics, economics, social life, even concerts and any other events he sees in the key of preaching. Using any topic, one can write articles about God, publish leaflets, newspapers and one way or another talk about God to everyone.

The first devotees of the USSR went through great austerity, preaching and going to prison for this; nowadays the situation is much easier. It is important for us to teach people spiritual knowledge, and there is no particular need for them to go to some organization or start to worship some guru. It is necessary to teach people, because without knowledge, any form of worship, in fact, has neither strength nor effectiveness.

Constant and unalloyed devotion arises from knowledge, attachment to God, or renunciation of the fruits of activity. Cleanliness means understanding the contexts of scripture and matching them correctly; cleanliness also means that a devotee does not seek money, religious or worldly fame, and women. By understanding the temporality of nature and the eternity of God, the devotee gradually becomes constant and unshakable. The greatness of God capture the imagination, while māyā, constantly changing, brings endless suffering to everyone. By increasing devotion to God and passing through all the trials of māyā, the devotee inevitably becomes steadfast and stable. As he becomes more and more aware of God, he naturally increases his devotion to Him and feels more and more happiness, which can be expressed in all moods.

Resorting to solitary places. Śrīla Prabhupāda uses this expression to denote this quality, but in the ISKCON edition we find: "aspiring to live in a solitary place." In the synonyms for the Sanskrit "sevitvam" Śrīla Prabhupāda uses "aspiring" (from the verb "aspire" - "to strive, to rush, to dream of"), and in the verse itself - "resorting" (from the verb "resort" - "to appeal, to contact, to visit, to often visit"). Accordingly, quality is described in the verse as "resorting to solitary places," that is, visiting solitary places. ISKCON editors of the English text apparently decided it was wrong, so they not only replaced "resorting" with "aspiring" in the verse, but also added their own, as a result it turned out "aspiring to live in a solitary place". Obviously, to live in a secluded place and to visit secluded places are two different actions.

Generally, real solitude implies the realization of God, otherwise no solitude is possible. The so-called religious people want to seclude from the general mass of people simply by going to live in a deserted place, but since they are not spiritually developed, their desires only intensify in such places and instead of solitude and peace they get a restless mind which is constantly bombarded with various desires. True solitude is the realization of God, such solitude does not depend on the place and is possible in any situation. Living far from society, all sorts of monks and ascetics spend their lives fighting with senses, never have learned anything about God. What is the value of such solitude? Sometimes devotees can chant a mantra in seclusion, but then they preach. The head of all bhajanānandī, Haridāsa Ṭhākura, gives just such an example.

The desire for solitude also means that a devotee is not inclined to accept self-worship. We actively preach, but when it comes to fame, we try to avoid it, and this almost always succeeds to some extent. We preach everywhere - on the streets, in squares, in parks, in factories, in offices, at concerts, in libraries, on the Internet, but we do not have and do not develop any connection with these places. And when fame comes towards a devotee, he thinks about how to avoid it. Anyone who wants to glorify us must study and accept the preaching as the essence of their lives. When they become intelligent and stable, this is the best result and true glory.

Religious people often want to live “piously”, directly detaching themselves from everything “worldly”, which ultimately makes them unhappy and sectarian. We must not shy away from the mundane, but go everywhere with a preaching, such is the true detachment from the masses of people. Aloofness or detachment from the masses of people mean that a devotee is not affected by various vicissitudes, and not that he begins to avoid everyone.

Any external activity is meaningless without self-realization, and the philosophical search for truth provides guidelines in spiritual life. One should not think that the philosophical search for truth is jñāna and the lower level; the philosophical search and logic continue to operate even above the sphere of Goloka. Even the highest aspects of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu can be understood by philosophical search and logic. Philosophy and reasoning do not uplift us in themselves, but they guide us. On the other hand, philosophy combined with spiritual feelings is the essence of spiritual life - bhaktivedanta. Therefore, philosophy is always relevant, both at the initial levels of spiritual life and at the highest levels of the spiritual world. Spiritual philosophy is not an ordinary philosophy, it is eternal, therefore the philosophical search for the Absolute Truth, or comprehension of various qualities of the Supreme Truth, goes on always and forever.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 27 фев 2021, 21:54

TEXT 13

I shall now explain the knowable, knowing which you will taste the eternal. This is beginningless, and it is subordinate to Me. It is called Brahman, the spirit, and it lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.

PURPORT

The beginning of spiritual life is the cognition of Brahman, or the all-pervading spirit. There is a energy conservation law in the world, from which one can understand that energy is eternal. Energy does not disappear anywhere and only changes its form forever. Although the material world is annihilated, then it is reborn to life again, and so it goes on forever. The forms of matter change, but all this rests on eternity, on the eternal indestructible spirit. How can a person be sure of this? On oneyself. Everyone gravitates towards eternity and eternal life, and people want to embody this in their bodies, which is impossible. Nevertheless, such a desire is natural, since we ourselves are a part of eternity; the soul, spirit, our consciousness is eternal. Although the mind is filled with images and feelings, even with a little concentration, one can begin to realize oneself - the eternal immortal soul.

Thus, God explains in this verse that the beginning of knowledge is in the cognition of eternity, of which we ourselves are a part. If everyone were not eternal, where would the longing for eternal life come from? Therefore, eternity can be understood indirectly through many examples, and it can also be understood directly by reaching self-realization.

TEXT 14

Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes and faces, and He hears everything. In this way the Supersoul exists.

PURPORT

Everyone of us is eternal, but must there be a source of everyone? Eternity, or the soul, is not material, it has no beginning, no end, no middle, no edge. Eternity is boundless and it is the ultimate happiness. However, we are as souls clearly not all-pervading, we did not create this world, we do not support it, therefore, there is some superior force that does this. Each soul or whole eternity have a source called the Supersoul, the universal soul or God. I am, I am real, I am eternal, but I am part of the Supersoul or Superconsciousness, which pervades the whole world with Himself. Just as my consciousness permeates my body, the consciousness of the Oversoul permeates this entire universe with Itself. My consciousness spreads throughout my body and I feel every cell of my body, similarly, the Supersoul is aware of the whole world.

The Supersoul is one Personality, but because He is everywhere, sometimes it seems He has many heads and faces. As the Sun is reflected in various bodies of water, so it may seem to us there are many Supersouls. God expands Himself into everyone's heart, so it seems that His hands, feet, eyes, faces, ears are everywhere. God sees everything, hears everything, knows everything, and supports the entire universe, giving everyone the fruits of his actions. Once we used to think about it theoretically, but now we know practically that God knows our every thought, our every deed. One can see or imagine the Supersoul in many forms or as one Person, this is not so important.

Have realized oneself as a soul, as Brahman, then one should begin to comprehend the greatness of the Supersoul or the greatness of God who controls this world. Realizing the greatness of God, the devotee becomes even happier than realizing pure eternity. "Everywhere Your eyes and faces and You are all alone, Almighty God!" No one can compare with Him in greatness, strength, and beauty. The devotee becomes even more happy in this way.

Any authoritative scripture speaks of the greatness of God. Maybe God is described there in a few verses, but with their help one need to focus on Him. Awareness of God is revealed when we think about Him, give Him our feelings, thinking and activity, where thinking and feelings should be the center. Cognition of God occurs when a person gradually spiritualizes his life, thinking about God in different ways. Realize, for example, the power of God, a devotee can think about it over and over again, surrendering himself as a soul to Him. "O unbounded power!" Realization of the greatness of God is the supreme blissful nature, and thus, absorbed in Him, the devotee walks on the path of eternal happiness.

TEXT 15

The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, yet He is without senses. He is unattached, although He is the maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of nature, and at the same time He is the master of all modes of material nature.

PURPORT

The Supersoul is the source of material senses, but God Himself has spiritual senses unrelated to matter. The soul actually also has spiritual senses related with God, but in the world of matter, these senses are covered by material elements and manifest as material one. The yoga process means to direct material senses to God and spiritualize them, to return the senses and consciousness to their initial position, to the state in which they were before our fall. The more one is connected with God, the happier one becomes. God is outside of matter and the soul associated with Him gradually also becomes free.

When a devotee's mind, intelligence, and senses are directed towards God, he gets out of the influence of māyā, no matter what happens in his life. At the same time, focusing on God does not make a person limited, on the contrary, such a person understands what is happening better and better. God is also the center of this world, and the devotee shows ever better intelligence and ever clearer mind. So, true religiosity enlightens the devotee, makes him happy and intelligent. Also, by constantly engaged in preaching, enlightening people, the devotee becomes experienced in this, experienced in communication and in all areas of life. Thus, a devotee associated with God is the most intelligent, free and enlightened person.

God has a body, but it is a transcendental body that spreads its consciousness and power to all worlds, both spiritual and material. Possessing superpowers, God knows everything that exists, but within matter He does not interfere with the activities of souls, giving them freedom. When the soul realizes the meaninglessness of material life and gradually surrenders himself to God through the process of developing knowledge and preaching, he gets out of the influence of matter and eventually reaches the eternal spiritual world where nothing is limited.

Śrīla Prabhupāda in his translations for the noun "Supersoul" uses the pronoun "He" to indicate that the Supersoul is masculine. In the Russian language, the noun “soul” refers to the feminine gender, and therefore, by analogy, “Supersoul” is also considered a feminine noun. To be precise, the Supersoul, or God, is, of course, He, not She, but in accordance with the specifics of the Russian language God turned out to be “She” in this case. Since it is customary for Russian speakers that the Supersoul is "She", we have translated this noun as having a feminine gender, although in the English text "He" is used for it everywhere.

God is the master and the supreme primordial man, God is always "He'' and His various energies are "She" or whatever He commands. It is wrong to speak of God in the feminine gender, but on the other hand, God is transcendental and has no relation to any sexes. From a spiritual point of view, both options are correct, because in the highest sense the Supersoul has no gender. Also, the original Personality of Godhead is both a source and an energy at the same time, in this sense, the use of the words "He" and "She" in relation to God can also be correct.

TEXT 16

The Supreme Truth exists both internally and externally, in the moving and nonmoving. He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. Although far, far away, He is also near to all.

PURPORT

Everything is inside God and God is also inside everything, while God does not touch matter. God is an all-pervading Personality, He Himself, or His consciousness, extends to all spiritual and material worlds. Our senses, mind, and intelligence are microscopic reflections of His senses. The soul, consciousness, or personality, being spiritual in nature, is able to perceive God by purifying his senses, mind, and intelligence. Purification of the senses means the development of knowledge about God, remembering about God, preaching, and dedication all activities to God. Everyone wants to love someone, everyone is looking for some kind of protection, but reasonable people develop love for God and seek the protection of God by following His instructions, the main of which is preaching.

There are many faithful in the world who declare their commitment to God, but it is necessary to develop knowledge and preach, enlighten people. Without preaching, the cognition of God and purification is very difficult, so although there are billions of faithful people, all of them are mostly actively engaged in the process of material life, while following just a couple of rituals or rules, which is not enough for mature spiritual development. All these billions of people have to start developing knowledge and then start preaching. Only spiritual knowledge and preaching can change the world; no reverence, churches, pilgrimages, and external religiosity are capable of this.

The knowledge is necessary, an understanding of who is God necessary, why it is necessary to follow some principles, when it is needed to follow the principles, and when it is not. Also it is needed an understanding what the meaning of temple worship is, why evolution is impossible, what is the danger of modern civilization. It is necessary that people become educated and not just perform some rituals which, in fact, is sectarianism. Convictions are needed so that a person understands and applies what he understands in his life. There are two billion faithful people on the planet, all these two billion must understand that evolution is impossible and preach it. The idea of ​​evolution must be destroyed, eradicated; it is the idea of ​​evolution and impersonalism that are killing the world and people now. It is also unallowable to burn oil, use nuclear energy, use machines, but all this can be stopped not by giving up machines, but by preaching. We must fight, not sitting in the village, but preaching in the city, preaching to scientists and all reasonable and unreasonable people.

It is necessary to disseminate not sectarianism like "our God is Kṛṣṇa, and our God is Allah", but to preach scientifically. The problem is not that God is Kṛṣṇa or God is Allah, the problem is the lack of spiritual practice and preaching, and attachment to the fruits of labor. God is not Kṛṣṇa (Allah, Jehovah, etc.) for people, their God is they themselves, their family, work and so on; such an attitude can only be changed by preaching.

Allah is God in greatness. Allah, Jehovah - this is a description of God in greatness. If a person realizes any form of God - Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Allah or Jehovah - he will immediately become happy and immediately all his problems will be over. If a person realizes any form of God - Matsya, Kūrma, Nṛsiṁha, Rāma or others, he immediately becomes enlightened and gets rid of all contaminations. Right there, immediately. He will lose the idea of ​​his own greatness, personal fame, personal power, the desire for a special family, money, a good car and everything else. A person may have a family and a car, but his consciousness should be occupied with a preaching and not with a family or a car which can even kill him in the end. People read Bhāgavatam like sleepy flies, they do not understand what it is about. They sometimes open their mouths like a half-dead fish to talk to someone about God, and the rest of the time they devote to themselves and their false greatness. Including almost all types of gurus or professional "spiritual masters" are busy with their fame and earnings. All such people will be born again and again.

Have realized the greatness of God, a person can further achieve spontaneous devotion of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, but trying to understand close relationships with God without realizing His greatness is materialism.

Therefore, one should try to realize God in all His aspects and constantly preach or think about how to preach. A non-preaching faithful person should be considered a materialist, while preaching should be aimed at developing knowledge among people and not at the formation of religious churches, sects, and societies for worshiping materialistic gurus.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 27 фев 2021, 22:06

TEXT 17

Although the Supersoul appears to be divided, He is never divided. He is situated as one. Although He is the maintainer of every living entity, it is to be understood that He devours and develops all.

PURPORT

God is present in everyone as the Supersoul and gives advises to everyone individually. Similarly, in the personal rasa relationships, God can eternally be with every soul, although there are an infinite number of such souls. God creates this world, maintains it, and destroys it. The fact that the demigods create, maintain, and destroy the world is a formality, an external convention, but in reality all this is done by God. Sometimes, when considering the process of creation, the emphasis is on the demigods in order to make it clear that God does not touch matter, but in the highest sense, of cause, He creates.

Our body is also formed under the control of the Supersoul. The Supersoul and consciousness are the main factor in the body, not a mixture of chemical elements. Sometimes a person falls ill with a fatal disease, but he prays to God and recovers; this proves that the main factor in the body is the Supersoul and not something else. Nevertheless, the meaning of religion is not in miracles, but in the development of knowledge and realization of God; this is not so important whether the body is sick or healthy. Also, any body is temporarily and ultimately sentenced to death, and it is necessary to develop the consciousness of God whether we live or die.

The supremacy of the Supersoul over everything is obvious. The Supersoul is also the source of intelligence, but when people are absorbed in the desire for the fruits of action, the manifestation of their intelligence becomes difficult. If a person is engross with any game or any activity and at the same time ask him to do math in his mind, it will be difficult for him to do it. In the same way, when a person constantly thinks about himself, his family, earnings and so on, his intelligence is hidden by this. Therefore, one of the central places of religion is the renunciation of the fruits of labor, but even more effective is preaching. In ordinary life, we sometimes think of God, then we forget Him, and when a person preaches, he thinks of God constantly and his senses will inevitably be drawn into devotional service (devotional service is mainly listening to spiritual science, realizing of what has been heard, and then repeating what has been heard and realized). In the case of preaching, a person is forced to think, to look for arguments concerning spiritual knowledge, and eventually his senses and intelligence will become completely occupied by God.

When a person just begins to preach, in fact, he has only a theory, but preaching occupies him and gradually connects his life with God practically. Thus, the theory gradually becomes a reality for a person and moves to the level of conviction, which, as a rule, is much more difficult to achieve only with temple worship, study of the scriptures, and chanting a mantra.

TEXT 18

He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is unmanifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone's heart.

PURPORT

Matter itself is darkness, and all kinds of light come from God, or from the spiritual world. The Sun is the main source of light, then the Sun's light is transformed like plants and other forms of life. From this point of view, light is the source of life. Sound, information, creation of structure - this is the initial cause of creation, and light is its further continuation. Light, or fire, is contained in all bodies and in many objects. For example, we do not see fire in a tree, but it is there. Similarly, we do not see Brahman which is the basis of everything, but He is everywhere or the Supersoul is also everywhere.

Everyone needs to realize the all-pervading aspect of God. In fact, it is not so difficult to do. Both light and darkness are based on the all-pervading Absolute Truth. Having realized Brahman, one must go higher and understand that God is behind everything. His body is not material, He has a transcendental body, otherwise where did the bodies and forms of the material world come from? An impersonal cause could not create qualities, it is obvious that the Personality is behind the bodies and qualities. Our bodies are temporary and full of imperfections, but His body is eternal and filled with supreme beauty and supreme power. If the body of God was not beautiful and powerful, where would the striving for beauty and power come from in people? The impersonalists will say to this that the concept of beauty is conditional and relative - one finds beautiful what others perceive as ugly - nevertheless the principle of beauty is basic and dominant. Imperfect senses perceive beauty in different ways, but beauty as a principle is at the head of the world, because God is at the head of the world.

Beauty, strength or influence through beauty and strength are at the core of any activity. Girls want to be beautiful, men want to be strong - this is how these two principles of one God spread everywhere. Men want to see female beauty and girls want the protection of a men's strength, from physical strength to wealth and intellect, but in their true form, such qualities are found in God. Therefore, every soul must turn to Him and gradually come out from the darkness of matter to the eternal light of the spiritual world.

TEXT 19

Thus the field of activities [the body], knowledge, and the knowable have been summarily described by Me. Only My devotees can understand this thoroughly and thus attain to My nature.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:

The Lord has described in summary the body, knowledge and the knowable. This knowledge is of three things: the knower, the knowable and the process of knowing. Combined, these are called vijñānam, or the science of knowledge. Perfect knowledge can be understood by the unalloyed devotees of the Lord directly. Others are unable to understand. The monists say that at the ultimate stage these three items become one, but the devotees do not accept this. Knowledge and development of knowledge mean understanding oneself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are being led by material consciousness, but as soon as we transfer all consciousness to Kṛṣṇa's activities and realize that Kṛṣṇa is everything, then we attain real knowledge. In other words, knowledge is nothing but the preliminary stage of understanding devotional service perfectly.

TEXT 20

Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.

PURPORT

Although the material world is created or has a beginning, and every thing in matter, respectively, also has a beginning and an end, but all material nature as a whole is eternal. The world is created and destroyed eternally, all forms within the world are also eternal, although they constantly go through creation and destruction. The possibility of creation within matter is also given to people by God - for example, the production of electricity became possible due to a certain structure, the arrangement of this world. People extract electricity or other energies because there is such a possibility, otherwise they could not do it.

Therefore, like the soul, material nature in the highest sense is also eternal, but since material bodies are temporary, the souls suffer being in them. Everyone tries to prolong life and fight disease and death, but the real solution to the problem is to cognize oneself as a soul and then begin to cognize God.

The cause of matter is the soul. When the soul wants to dominate, God creates the material world where souls are located on different planetary systems, depending on the degree of righteousness or sinfulness. The more righteous the soul is (real righteousness is knowledge about God), the higher he elevates in the structure of the material world, the longer and happier life he has; and the less righteous the soul is, the more violence he commits or the higher his desire for domination, the lower he falls within the universe. The soul cannot create anything, therefore, when the soul wants to live independently of God, God, agreeing with such a desire, creates the material world.

Both the soul and matter are eternal, but the presence of the soul inside matter is unnatural and painful for he. Therefore, God tells Bhagavad-gītā so that we understand these things and aim to return to the spiritual world. Since God creates matter and the soul is also a part of Him, He knows the whole situation in detail and describes to us the most important, fundamental points. Thus, spiritual knowledge includes knowledge about the nature, about the material body as a part of nature, about the soul himself as knowing the field (the body and nature), and about the Supersoul who is also knowing the field, knowing everything about our body, senses, mind, intelligence, fate (desires and actions of the soul that form his path) and about the bodies of all living beings of all creation, since He is their creator.
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