Readings in Vedic Literature
A book by Satsvarupa das Goswami
1977, 1998 current edition
RVL: Preface
Preface
My plan to write this book
grew out of encouragement from professors in whose classes I taught while
touring as a lecturer for the Los Angeles Center for Vedic Studies. In
November, 1973, Dr. Alton Becker invited me to speak before the faculty and
students of the Center for South and Southeastern Studies, at the University of
Michigan. My paper proposed a fresh attitude toward Vedic studies: an attempt
to appreciate the Vedic knowledge on its own merits, as it exists apart from
the interpretations of empirical Western scholarship. Dr. Becker found the
viewpoint enlivening and advised me to develop it further. From conversations
with college students who knew only the current Vedic textbooks, I became
convinced that students of Vedic literature would be more enthusiastic if they
could believe that the literature they were studying was not merely a
hodgepodge of myths, but could actually give them a new and coherent view of
life. My travels led me to meet with Vedic scholars such as Dr. Edward Dimock
(University of Chicago), Dr. Thomas Hopkins (Franklin and Marshall College),
and Dr. Joseph O’Connell (University of Toronto). All of these gentlemen saw my
outline, and they confirmed that this book would be useful as a foundation for
Vedic studies.
My own interest in the
Vedic tradition began in 1966. In that year I met His Divine Grace A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, who in the previous year had arrived in the
United States to teach Vedic culture. I had received a B.A. in English
literature from Brooklyn College, and I was doing graduate work toward a career
as a writer. But I decided instead to devote my life to studying the Vedas, and
in September, 1966, Çréla Prabhupäda accepted me as his çiñya (disciple). I
have been a personal secretary to Çréla Prabhupäda since 1970, and in 1972 I
received the sannyäsa order of life (awarded for scholarship and renunciation).
Overall, for the last ten years I have been studying the Vedic literature, writing
articles about it, and lecturing in United States colleges on behalf of the
Center for Vedic Studies.
The attempt herein is to
present a Vedic textbook and anthology for undergraduates that allows them to
hear a great tradition speak for itself.
Satsvarupa das Goswami
RVL 1: What Are the Vedas ?
1. What Are the Vedas ?
Madhva, one of the
principal teachers of Vedic philosophy, commenting on the Vedänta-sütra
(2.1.6), quotes the Bhaviñya Puräëa as follows:
åg-yajuù-sämärtharväç ca
bhärataà païcarätrakam
müla-rämäyaëaà caiva
veda ity eva çabditaù
puräëäni ca yänéha
vaiñëaväni vido viduù
“The Åg Veda, Yajur Veda,
Säma Veda, Atharva Veda, Mahäbhärata [which includes the Bhagavad-gétä], Païcarätra,
and the original Rämäyaëa are all considered Vedic literature.… The Vaiñëava
supplements, the Puräëas, are also Vedic literature.” We may also include
corollary literatures like the Saàhitäs, as well as the commentaries of the
great teachers who have guided the course of Vedic thought for centuries
Some scholars say that
only the original four Vedas—Åg, Atharva, Yajur, and Säma—are genuine Vedic
literatures.1 The Vedas themselves, however, do not support this view, nor do
the most prominent Vedic teachers, including Çaìkara, Rämänuja, and Madhva. The
Chandogya Upaniñad (7.1.4) mentions the Puräëas and Itihäsas, which are
generally known as histories, as the fifth Veda: itihäsa-puräëaù païcamaù vedänäà
vedaù. And Bhägavata Puräëa (1.4.20) confirms, “The historical facts and
authentic stories mentioned in the Puräëas are called the fifth Veda
In any case, to be
accepted as Vedic, a literature must maintain the same purpose as the original
Vedic texts. The Vedic scriptures (çästras) comprise a harmonious whole with a
harmonious conclusion (siddhänta). Consequently, we may accept as a bona fide
Vedic writing any work that expands on the Vedic siddhänta without changing its
meaning, even if the work is not one of the original scriptures. In fact, the
Vedic tradition necessitates further authoritative works that convey the Vedic
message according to time and place. However, to be genuine, these extensions
of Vedic literature must strictly conform to the doctrines of the Vedas, the
Puräëas, and the Vedänta-sütra.
Vedic literature is neither
dead nor archaic. Nevertheless, any literature—be it ancient or modern—must be
considered non-Vedic if it deviates from the Vedic siddhänta Thus Buddhism,
Jainism, and Sikhism, though definitely outgrowths of Vedic literature, are not
considered Vedic. Even the conception of Hinduism is alien to the Vedic
conclusion, as we shall see later.
The Vedic scriptures are
vast in scope. The Åg Veda alone contains 1,017 hymns, the Mahäbhärata consists
of 110,000 couplets, and the eighteen chief Puräëas contain hundreds of
thousands of verses. We may ask, “Why do these writings exist? Where did they
come from? Who wrote them?” The present book searches out the answers to our
questions in the Vedic çästras themselves.
RVL 1.1: The Purpose of the Vedic Literature
The Purpose of the Vedic Literature
As its main purpose, the
Vedic literature imparts knowledge of self-realization and, therefore,
liberation (mokña) from suffering. Generally, scholars agree that the goal of
Indian thought is to attain the truth, “the recognition of which leads to
freedom.”3 “Every Indian system seeks truth, not as academic, ‘knowledge for
its own sake,’ but to learn the truth which shall make all men free.”4 Indeed,
Indian thought strives not for information but for transformation.5 Bhagavad-gétä
describes knowledge as “accepting the importance of self-realization, and
philosophical search for the Absolute Truth.”6 Yet if people think they are
progressing on the path of material happiness, they will not seek to transform
themselves. Hence, another important realization—janma-måtyu-jarä-vyädhi-duùkha-doñänudarçanam:
“perception of the evil of birth, death, old age, and disease” (Bhagavad-gétä
13.9). Uncompromisingly, the Vedic literature asserts that despite its apparent
joys, material life means suffering. Vedic knowledge purports to free the
sincere inquirer from that suffering.
According to Bhagavad-gétä
(Bg. 8.16), “From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest,
all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place.” Apart
from the repeated miseries of birth, old age, disease, and death, the Vedic
writings describe another threefold set of miseries: miseries arising from the
body itself, miseries inflicted by other living entities, and miseries arising
from natural disturbances (such as severe cold, heat, flood, earthquake, or
drought). Vedic teachers argue that even if these latter miseries were absent,
no one could find happiness in the material world—the forces of time and death
force everyone to leave his position. Indeed, the Sanskrit description of the
earth is Måtyuloka, place of death. It is also duùkhälayam (a place of
miseries) and açäçvatam (temporary) (Bg. 8.15).
On hearing this sweeping analysis
of life in the material world, Albert Schweitzer termed the Vedic philosophy “world-
and life-negation.”7 Others have stated that the Vedas teach pessimism and
fatalistic resignation. But when we view the Vedas closely, we can discern that
they teach quite the opposite; they propose that the purpose of human life is
not to resign oneself to a temporary and miserable world, but to strive for
permanent happiness. For people who follow the Vedic formula, life means an
opportunity to attain victory over death. In the Vedic conception, a person
negates life precisely when he identifies the illusory body with the self and
considers the temporary world to be all-in-all. Such a person misses the
opportunity afforded a human being—the opportunity to inquire about the
Supreme.
The first verse of the Vedänta-sütra
(athäto brahma-jijïäsä) is both a declaration and an invitation to everyone: “Now,
therefore, let us inquire into the Absolute Truth.”8 The Vedas urge that people
take to the path of liberation. In one Bengali devotional song we find, “Lord
Gauräìga is calling, ‘Wake up, sleeping souls! How long will you sleep on the
lap of the witch called Mäyä [material illusion]?’ ”9
The Vedas describe
liberation as a special prerogative granted to human beings and not to the
lower species. For this reason the human body is compared to a boat by which
one can cross the ocean of transmigration. A good Vedic instructor who has
learned the Vedas is like a competent captain, and the Vedic hymns are like
favorable breezes. If a person doesn’t cross the ocean and attain eternal
liberation, he is considered unintelligent, for Vedic philosophy denies the
importance of any knowledge that does not lead to the cessation of sufferingThe
Garga Upaniñad advises, “He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of
life as a human and who quits the world like a cat or a dog, not understanding
the science of self-realization.”10
RVL 1.2: The Origin of the Vedas
The Origin of the Vedas
The Båhad-äraëyaka Upaniñad
(2.4.10) informs us, “The Åg Veda, Yajur Veda, Säma Veda, Atharva Veda, and
Itihäsas [histories like the Mahäbhärata and Puräëas] are all breathed out by
the Absolute Truth. Just as one’s breath comes easily, these arise from the
Supreme Brahman without any effort on His part.”11 According to the Vedic
tradition, the Vedas are absolute and self-authoritative. They depend on
nothing but themselves for explanation. This very principle comes from the
mouth of Çré Kåñëa in Bhagavad-gétä (3.15): brahmäkñara-samudbhavam. “The Vedas
are directly manifested from the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
The commentator Çrédhara Svämé (Bhävärthadépikä 6.1.40) points out that the
Vedas are supremely authoritative because they arise from Näräyaëa Himself. Jéva
Gosvämé notes that the Vedic scripture Madhyandina-çruti attributes all the
Vedas (Säma, Atharva, Åg and Yajur), as well as the Puräëas and Itihäsas, to
the breathing of the Supreme Being. Finally, the Atharva Veda states that Kåñëa,
who in the beginning instructed Brahmä, disseminated Vedic knowledge in the
past.
Thus, as we have seen, the
Vedic scriptures delineate their own origin. The scriptures describe themselves
as apauruñeya, meaning that they do not come from any materially conditioned
person but from the Supreme (a source transcendental to mundane duality). Vedic
knowledge was imparted to Brahmä at the dawn of creation. Brahmä then
instructed Närada, whose realizations appear throughout Vedic literature.
Vedic knowledge is
considered eternal, but because the material cosmos is constantly in flux,
Vedic teachings constantly need reassertion. Although the material cosmos is
also considered eternal, it goes through stages of creation, maintenance, and
annihilation. Formerly the Vedas came down by word of mouth, but later the sage
Vyäsadeva compiled all the Vedic çästras in written form. In a separate chapter
we shall examine Çréla Vyäsadeva’s role and the history of the compilation of
the Vedas. We shall also consider how scholars try to understand the origins
and history of the Vedic literature through the empiric method.
RVL 1.3: The Vedic Process of Learning
The Vedic Process of Learning
We can see in the Vedic
verses an inexorable link between the substance of Vedic knowledge and the
means for receiving it (between the Vedic message, we could say, and the Vedic
medium)In contrast with Western conceptions, Vedic epistemology favors the
process called çabda (hearing from Vedic literature), out of three possible
knowledge-gaining processes.
The first process, pratyakña
(empiric sensual perception), depends on correction from outside sources. For
example, to our eyes the sun may seem no larger than a coin, but from
scientific calculation we learn that our senses mislead us—the sun is many
times larger than the earth.
The second
knowledge-gaining process, anumäna (theories based on evidence), cannot give
knowledge of what is beyond the range of proof. Charles Darwin’s theories and
much of archaeology and anthropology rely upon such inductive conjecture (“It
may have been like this, or perhaps it was like this”). According to the Vedas,
anumäna cannot independently lead to perfect knowledge. The Vedas assert that
objects beyond material nature cannot be known experimentally. These objects
are therefore called acintya. That which is acintya cannot be known by
speculation or by argument but only by çabda, the process of hearing from Vedic
literature.
Indeed, çabda, the third
knowledge-acquiring process, is considered the most reliable and important.
For, since human beings are limited and imperfect, their perception, theories,
and speculations cannot be perfect. With the exclusion of çabda, the Vedas
estimate all knowledge to be defective in four ways. First, regardless how
bright or precise a person may be, the Vedas affirm that he cannot escape
mistakes—“to err is human.” Second, a human being is subject to illusion. For
instance, the çästras mention that every materially conditioned being is under
the illusion that the body is the self. Whatever his position in the world, a
person is under illusion if he thinks of himself in terms of nationality,
religion, race, or family. (A person’s first step in transcendental knowledge,
according to the Vedas, is realizing that his identity is beyond the temporary
material body.) Third, every person has limited or imperfect senses. For
instance, in a darkened room he cannot see his hand before his face. Finally,
the Vedas maintain, everyone has a tendency to cheat. For example, a man who
presumes to instruct others although defective himself is actually cheating,
because his knowledge is imperfect.
Vedic knowledge is çabda,
knowledge through hearing from higher authority, and it is therefore considered
perfect. The Indian scholar Mysore Hiriyanna writes, “The Vedänta never
dispenses with reason, and the Upaniñads are themselves full of arguments. All
that is questioned is the final validity of reason in matters which do not come
within its purview.”12 To cite a traditional example, if a child wants to know who
his father is, he should ask his mother. He may make a survey of the male
population, but much more simply, he can ask his mother, the natural authority.
In other words, if a person can accept information given by an authority, he
does not have to take the trouble to research independently. The çabda method,
by which we accept authority, is imperative when we inquire about subject
matter beyond the purview of the senses and reason. We may note that in the
Vedic conception authority has no Western-styled negative connotations. The
term refers not to a dictator but to a deliverer of primary knowledge. For
instance, Shakespeare himself is naturally the authority par excellence on the
works of William Shakespeare.
Aural reception of
transcendental knowledge from authority is the Vedic standard. Whereas material
knowledge pertains to things within the material universe, transcendental
knowledge pertains to things beyond this universe. The Vedas point to a supreme
original truth unknowable either by direct perception (pratyakña) or by the
inductive method (anumäna). When, by aural reception from authority, a person
gains transcendental information, he becomes completely fulfilled and happy. He
transcends the dualities of the material world. On the other hand, when he
follows the empiric tradition, he comes to regard anything outside sensual
perception or induction as faith, dogma, intuition, or belief. He concludes, as
does A. B. Keith, “Such knowledge as is not empirical is meaningless and should
not be described as knowledge.”13
The Vedic philosophers
claim that çabda (hearing from an authority) opens up a realm of knowledge
beyond scientific methodology. They hold çabda to be the only process by which
we can know what is unknowable in our present conditioned state. To know his
father, a child has no other recourse than to ask his mother. This is a matter
not of faith, dogma, or feeling, but simply of hearing from one who knows. If a
person can learn from someone who has received perfect knowledge, he can get free
from all misery. “Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual
master,” the Gétä (4.34) enjoins. “Inquire from him submissively and render
service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because
he has seen the truth.” In the Vedic tradition, only the person who has “seen
the truth” can be the ideal teacher, the guru. In addition, the Muëòaka Upaniñad
(1.2.12) enjoins that a sincere student has to approach the ideal guru to
receive transcendental knowledge and enlightenment.
RVL 1.4: The Guru and Paramparä
The Guru and Paramparä
To learn more about çabda,
we should examine the Vedic conception of the teacher (guru) and the student (çiñya).
Not only must the student turn to Vedic literature for perfect knowledge, but
also he must receive knowledge personally from a qualified teacher with whom he
has a special relationship. Technically the word guru means “heavy,” and the
qualified guru must be heavy, or grave, with knowledge. Anyone who is
bewildered by the problems of existence must approach a spiritual master for
knowledge. Thus Bhagavad-gétä presents the ideal teacher-student relationship.
Faced with doing battle against his friends and relatives, Arjuna breaks down.
A noted psychologist has commented that Arjuna experiences “ontological
anxiety,” that he loses sight of his identity and his duty. Therefore, he
approaches his guru, Kåñëa (who is accepted throughout the Vedas as the Supreme
Person, the knower and compiler of the Vedas). “I have lost all composure,”
Arjuna says. “Please instruct me” (Bg. 2.7). Later, Lord Kåñëa tells Arjuna
that everyone should accept a bona fide spiritual master.
In the Muëòaka Upaniñad
(1.2.12) we find tad-vijïänärthaà sa gurum eväbhigacchet samit-päëiù çrotriyaà
brahma-niñöham:
In order to learn the
transcendental science, one must submissively approach a bona fide spiritual
master, who is coming in disciplic succession and is fixed in the Absolute
Truth. 14
Hiriyanna writes that this
Vedic view is not difficult to appreciate. “For self-effort, however valuable
in itself, is not an adequate means of grasping a truth so profound.… The
living voice of a teacher who firmly believes in what he teaches has certainly
a better chance of producing conviction than the written word.”15
Thus, the message of the
Vedas descends through the spiritual master. As we have mentioned, the Vedas
maintain that knowledge gained by sense perception or speculation can never
enable the student to reach the highest goal. Vedic truth reaches the student
by the descending process, from the Vedas and through the guru. This chain of
transmission is called guru-paramparä, the disciplic succession. In Bhagavad-gétä
(4.2) Kåñëa tells Arjuna, evaà paramparä-präptam: “This supreme science
[bhakti-yoga, knowledge through devotional service] was thus received through
the chain of disciplic succession.” Thus, the student’s relationship is not
just with his own spiritual master but also with the spiritual master of his
spiritual master and the spiritual master of that master and so on, in an
unbroken chain of masters. The chain of masters in which a particular guru
hears and speaks the truth is called his sampradäya. For instance, in the
Brahma-sampradäya, Vedic knowledge descends from Brahmä, and in the Kumära-sampradäya
it descends from the Kumära Åñis (sages). In the Vedic conception, these
sampradäyas began at the creation of the universe and endure to the present
moment in the person of the student’s own guru. Thanks to the consistency of
the transmission, all the previous gurus are present in the teachings of the
present spiritual master. The student receives the pure Vedic message in the
same way he might receive a mango from a number of men sitting on the branches
of a mango tree. The man at the top of the tree picks the fruit and hands it
down carefully to the man below. Thus, it comes down from man to man and
reaches the man on the ground, undamaged and unchanged.
One may question whether a
line of teachers can accurately pass the message from one to another without change
or addition. But not anyone can presume to speak Vedic knowledge in succession
from the past teachers—only a perfect guru. The Vedic process assures that the
transmission remains pure by assuring the qualifications of the transmitter.
RVL 1.5: The Qualifications of the Guru
The Qualifications of the Guru
Since the guru must
transmit the truths of Vedic knowledge perfectly, he plays a crucial role.
Consequently, the Vedas admonish the prospective disciple to acquaint himself
with the qualifications of a bona fide guru. Regrettably, in recent years many
Indian and Western teachers at variance with the Vedic version have undermined
the guru’s credibility. Now we have professional gurus who charge fees for
secret mantras and allow their students to disregard all the Vedic regulative
austerities, who teach yoga as gymnastic exertion and maintain that the purpose
of yoga is material well-being, and who defy the Vedas by declaring themselves
or everyone to be God, and so on. It is little wonder that when we hear the
word guru, we are skeptical.
Nevertheless, according to
the Vedic version, the guru-çiñya relationship is an eternal verity that a
person can realize only if he sincerely approaches a bona fide guru. It is therefore
necessary to first understand the symptoms of a bona fide guru—that is, of a
spiritual master who has received and can impart pure knowledge. Rüpa Gosvämé,
a sixteenth-century Vedic philosopher and disciple of Kåñëa Caitanya, lists in
his Upadeçämåta six symptoms of a guru: “Any sober person who can tolerate the
urge to speak, the mind’s demands, the reactions of anger, and the urges of the
tongue, belly, and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.”16
The spiritual master is also
an äcärya, one who teaches by personal example. Intellectual brilliance
notwithstanding, a man of dubious personal character, who is attached to
selfish gratification and self-interest, cannot be a spiritual master. Çré Kåñëa
Caitanya stated, äpani äcari’ bhakti karila pracära: “First become perfect, and
then you can teach.”17 In other words, the guru must be a svämé, or master of
the senses, and not a slave to their dictates. No one should assume the titles
of guru, svämé, and sannyäsé (renounced monk) whimsically. The candidate must
actually demonstrate the qualities of guru, svämé, and sannyäsé.
By definition, the guru
imparts instructions consonant with the teachings of Vedic literature. He does
not deviate from Vedic teachings through mental speculation, nor is he an
atheist, a mundane politician or a humanitarian. He maintains that spiritual
knowledge is the ultimate welfare for humanity; therefore he himself lives a
life that demonstrates detachment from material pleasure. In other words, he
must be blissfully united with the Supreme. Vedic literature admits that such a
person is sudurlabha, very rarely found (Bg. 7.19).
For his part the guru
himself has to be a çiñya (student) of a genuine spiritual master in the
disciplic succession. There is also a checks-and-balance system called guru-çästra-sädhu.18
The teachings of guru must correspond with the teachings of sädhu (the previous
spiritual masters in the disciplic succession), which, in turn, must all
correspond with the direct meanings of çästra (the scripture).
RVL 1.6: The Qualifications of the Disciple
The Qualifications of the Disciple
A student must also be
qualified, and his basic requirements come to light in Bhagavad-gétä. The
disciple must “inquire from the guru submissively and render service unto him”
(Bg. 4.34). Faith in the guru is of utmost importance and qualifies one for
initiation. The Çvetäçvatara Upaniñad (6.23)19 states:
yasya deve parä bhaktir
yathä deve tathä gurau
tasyaite kathitä hy arthäù
prakäçante mahätmanaù
“Only unto those great
souls who have implicit faith in the Supreme and the spiritual master are all
the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.”
Faith in the guru is the
subject matter in a narration about Çré Kåñëa from the Bhägavata Puräëa (10.80).
When recalling His boyhood pastimes, Kåñëa recollects that when He once went to
collect fuel for His guru, He and His friend were lost in the forest during a
great rainstorm and spent all night wandering about. In the morning, when the
guru and other disciples finally found Kåñëa, the guru was very pleased, and he
blessed Kåñëa:
It is very wonderful that
You have suffered so much trouble for me. Everyone likes to take care of his
body as the first consideration, but You are so good and faithful to Your guru,
that without caring for bodily comforts You have taken so much trouble for the
satisfaction of the spiritual master. It is the duty of the disciple to
dedicate his life to the service of the spiritual master. My dear best of the
twice born, I am greatly pleased by Your action, and I bless You: may all Your
desires and ambitions be fulfilled. May the understanding of the Vedas which
You have learned from me always continue to remain in Your memory, so that at
every moment You can remember the teachings of the Vedas and quote their
instructions without difficulty. Thus You will never be disappointed in this
life or in the next.20
Kåñëa recalled the
incident in this way:
Without the blessings of
the spiritual master, no one can be happy. By the mercy of the spiritual
master, and by his blessings, one can achieve peace and prosperity and be able
to fulfill the mission of human life.21
Obviously, the faith
described herein is not simply intellectual agreement on some theological
matter. Rather, the disciple must completely surrender himself bodily and
mentally as the servant of the guru and take up the guru’s instructions as his
life’s mission. It is, then, no overstatement that “selection of a guru is more
significant than the selection of a spouse.” 22
The Vedas stress the need
for such complete commitment. After all, the guru acts as the disciple’s
savior. He alone can impart Vedic knowledge and thus liberation. The disciple
therefore owes a debt to his guru, who has personally lifted him out of
conditioned ignorance and blessed him with the perfection of eternity, bliss,
and knowledge. In his turn, the guru must execute his duties humbly as a
servitor of the Supreme and of his own guru in the disciplic succession.
If one satisfies his guru
by sincere service and actually understands the Vedic conclusion, he receives
initiation as a brähmaëa. A brähmaëa is a learned person who is responsible
enough to enlighten others. In India there are many smärta-brähmaëas, or
caste-conscious brähmaëas, who insist that one cannot be elevated to
brahminical status unless he is born in a brähmaëa family. This brähmaëa-by-birth
conception is decidedly non-Vedic. One scholar writes, “In the Çrémad
Bhagavad-gétä-parvädhyäyäù of the Mahäbhärata, Väsudeva-Kåñëa says in very
clear terms that the classification of the people into four varëas (castes) is
based on guëa-karma, i.e. spiritual quality and conduct.”23
There is a popular story
in the Chändogya Upaniñad about a boy named Satyakäma who approached a guru for
enlightenment. “Are you the son of a brähmaëa?” the guru asked. The boy said
that he didn’t know who his father was. The guru then asked him to inquire from
his mother, but the boy’s mother frankly told him that since she had known many
men, she wasn’t sure who his father was. The boy then returned to the guru and
said, “My mother doesn’t know.” Pleased with the boy’s honesty, the spiritual
master concluded, “You are a brähmaëa.”24
According to the Vedic
standard, anyone can be elevated by training. In the Hari-bhakti-viläsa of Sanätana
Gosvämé, it is stated that one who is properly initiated certainly becomes a brähmaëa,
just as bell metal can be turned into gold when mixed with mercury. In the
Seventh Canto of the Bhägavata Puräëa (7.11.35), Närada tells King Yudhiñöhira
that if one has the qualities of a brähmaëa, he must be accepted as a brähmaëa.
Thus, birth in a particular family, race, or religion is not an essential
qualification for a çiñya.
Most important among a
disciple’s qualifications are faith, service, and submissive inquiry. Yet the
disciple should not follow his guru blindly. In Bhagavad-gétä Arjuna asks a
series of probing questions, and Çré Kåñëa replies with philosophical reasoning
and references to çästra and sädhu.
In the Vedic tradition the
importance of the guru-çiñya relationship cannot be exaggerated. Indeed, the
Padma Puräëa stresses that it is impossible to gain spiritual knowledge without
a guru: “Unless one is initiated by a bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic
succession, the mantra that one has received is without any effectContinually
the çästras accentuate the inestimable value of association with a saintly
person. A moment’s association is said to be more valuable than thousands of
lifetimes without that association. A çiñya’s eagerness to hear from the guru
is itself a great qualification. After hearing, if he obediently carries out
the instructions of the spiritual master, the disciple automatically advances
beyond liberation, to the ultimate stage of love of God.
It is necessary that the çiñya,
like his guru, live according to the high moral standards set forth in the çästras.
Çaìkara states that a student of philosophy must meet the following essential
conditions: the student must have the strong will to inquire into the
difference between matter and spirit, he must renounce all personal demands and
self-interest, and he must restrain his mind and sensesUnless he can give up
all material pleasure and be detached from sorrow as well, he cannot qualify
for transcendental life. As Kåñëa confirms in Bhagavad-gétä (2.41), “Those who
are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one.…The
intelligence of those who are irresolute is many branched.” Traditionally, a
disciple must give up the “four pillars of sin”: meat-eating, illicit sex,
gambling, and intoxication.26
RVL 1.7: Summary
Summary
We have described the
purpose, the origin, and the process of Vedic knowledge according to the
statements of the Vedas themselves. The Vedic follower accepts the çästras as
the words of the supreme person (éçvara, Näräyaëa), hence as axiomatic truths.
In other words, there is no need to verify those truths that the Vedas have
already set forth. Further, the follower should understand the cause of all causes
not by material knowledge or independent mental conjecture but by hearing
faithfully from an authorized spiritual master. The sublime secrets of
spiritual life passed on from guru to çiñya are open to everyone, regardless of
social caste or birth. To become a candidate for spiritual knowledge, the
follower must observe the regulations for purification set forth by the
guruThese are the basic precepts of the Vedas regarding the acquisition of
transcendental knowledge.
RVL 2: The
Empirical Approach to Vedic Literature
2. The Empirical Approach to Vedic Literature
In Chapter One we have
discussed some of the principles of Vedic learning handed down by the disciplic
succession of Vedic teachers. We should also note that in the last two hundred
years virtually all Western universities have taken a critical-historical, or
empirical, approach. Hinduism and Indian philosophy have become popular
subjects in many colleges, and there has arisen a community of established
Sanskritists and Indologists. However, if we compare the empirical version of
Vedic knowledge with the version of the Vedas themselves, we often find the two
at opposite poles. Empiric scholars rarely discuss this conflict. They assume,
usually correctly, that readers will accept the empiric version because of the
scholar’s reputation for probing research and analysis. When discrepancies
become obvious, the empiric scholars usually represent their own views as the
objective picture of Vedic civilization.
Yet these conflicts raise
a number of questions. Why do some scholars reject the explanations of the
Vedic literature’s origin, purpose, and transcendental nature as received from
both the texts themselves and the traditional Vedic scholars? Why is the Vedic
literature’s description of itself necessarily unacceptable? Is it simply that
the empiric scholars doubt that the Vedas or the äcäryas are what they say they
are? The Vedas claim divine origin, and the scholars deem their origin
mythological. The Vedas propose to elevate man from suffering and grant him
liberation, but the scholars suppose that studying the Vedas for spiritual
purposes is unscholarly. Although the Vedas warn that the Vedic teachings are
transcendental to material investigation, scholars reject such injunctions as
esoteric taboos and proceed to analyze the Vedas in an empirical spirit. They
frankly regard the Vedas as mythology and assign themselves to the task of
demythologizing.
The Vedas affirm that
Vedic knowledge must be heard from a spiritual master in the disciplic succession,
but the scholar who writes books about the Vedas is not a guru, nor does his
scholarly conscience allow him to accept such an approach. Moreover, the
scholar surveys the guru from what he considers a superior, more objective and
academic vantage point. The Vedas maintain that one must observe strict moral
standards and perform austerities before understanding Vedic literature, but
scholars consider such things to be unnecessary.
What is the best way to
study the Vedas? Should we give credence, after all, to what the Vedas say
about themselves? Before deciding, we should know something about the
substantiality of empiric Vedic scholarship.
RVL 2.1: Empirical Tools
Empirical Tools
The tools used by empiric Indologists
are the scientific standards of history, anthropology, archaeology, philology,
and related disciplines. Since Indological studies began, in the eighteenth
century, the research in every field has become increasingly sophisticated.
However, the scholars agree that their critical reconstruction of the origin
and nature of Vedic culture is highly uncertain.
RVL 2.2: History
History
Empiricists generally
place great importance on understanding historical development, but for the
Vedic period there is no history aside from the çästras. For thousands of years
the early Indians kept no such histories, and as O. L. Chavarria-Aguilar writes
in his book Traditional India, “A more unhistorical people would be difficult
to find.”1 A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy informs us, “A historical
treatment of Indian philosophy has not been taken up by the great Indian
thinkers themselves.”2 Ancient Rome had its Livy and ancient Greece its
Herodotus, but India had no great historian to record the Vedic period.
According to modern Indologists, the Indian’s lack of interest in history was
not due to a primitive inability to keep records; rather, he accepted the
historical version of the çästras as sufficient.
Scientific historians
choose not to accept the historical validity of the çästras; their alternative
is to begin the official history of India with the death of Buddha, in 483 BIn
any case, this is the earliest date empirically settled. Scholars concede that
the Vedic period began thousands of years before Christ, but as for the dating
of even approximate periods, “everywhere we are on unsafe ground.”3
Nevertheless, scholars have reconstructed various historical periods which they
theoretically assign to the thousands of unaccounted years. Pioneer Indologist
Max Muller devised a system of classifying the Vedic civilization into periods
called “Chandas, Mantra, Brähmaëa, and Sütra,” and a number of scholars have
concurred.4 Others have also given their own divisions. Radhakrishnan, for
instance, looks upon the broad divisions of Indian history as Vedic, Epic, Sütra,
and Scholastic.5 Handbooks on Vedic history differ on specific dates by as much
as one or two thousand years. Indeed, Moriz Winternitz, one of the most
respected chronologists, argues that any attempt to reconstruct the Vedic
period is unscientific. He writes, “The chronology of the history of Indian
literature is shrouded in truly terrifying darkness.”6 Winternitz somewhat
pointedly notes that it would be pleasant and convenient, especially when preparing
a handbook on Vedic literature, to divide the literature into three or four
periods and assign dates and categories. “But every attempt of such a kind is
bound to fail in the present state of knowledge, and the use of hypothetical
dates would only be a delusion, which would do more harm than good.”7 He states
that it is even better not to assign dates to the oldest period of Indian
literary history. Using discoveries by related field workers and conducting
further research into the texts, successive generations of historians continue
to develop new pictures of the Vedic past. However, Winternitz quotes a pioneer
American Sanskritist who years ago said, “All dates given in Indian literary
history are pins set up to be bowled down again.”8 Winternitz remarks, “For the
most part this is still the case today.”9 We may thus conclude that there is
simply no history of the original Vedic civilization in India, at least none
that is acceptable in the strict sense of empiric history.
RVL 2.3: Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, of course, is
especially suitable for finding out about ancient cultures. But what was true
for Vedic historical records is also true for archaeological finds, which to
date give us no clear picture of Vedic civilization. Of course, many of the
geographical sites mentioned in the scriptures are still known, and according
to tradition many of the temples in India have been maintained for thousands of
years, but these sites have not yielded solid archaeological evidence.
Archaeologists and
anthropologists cannot accept the çästric version that Vedic civilization
flourished in India long before fifty thousand years ago—the date which
scientists assign as the earliest possible appearance of homo sapiens on earth.
Consistently the çästras mention that Vedic literature was written down at the
beginning of the age of Kali some five thousand years ago, and that
philosophers, yogés, and åñis lived many millions of years ago. Although
empiricists most often discount such sophistication in ancient humanity, they
do admit that “the history of the human race is being rewritten with new dating
processes and with exciting discoveries around the world.”10 The general trend
in the rewriting of human history is to push the theoretical date from the
beginning of advanced human civilization further and further back into what has
become known as prehistory. As far as the archaeology of India is concerned,
the excavations of cities and temples have produced no conclusive empirical
data about the Vedic culture’s first appearance.
Western archaeology got
its start in India early in the nineteenth century, when the surveyors of the
East India Company found many temples, shrines, old coins, and inscriptions
written in dead scripts. In the 1830’s the edicts of Emperor Açoka were
deciphered, and thus Indian civilization was dated at 300 B.C In the twentieth
century, work began on a large scale. The most famous archaeological
discoveries relating to the prehistoric period took place under the supervision
of archaeologist Sir John Marshall, who in the 1920’s uncovered the cities of
Harappa and Mohenjaro, located in what is now Pakistan. These were the cities
of an efficient, urban social community, now called the Indus civilization,
which has been dated at 3,000 B.C.11 Though a fabulous find for archaeology,
Harappa has contributed but little to our understanding of the ancient Vedic
period. If it was hoped that the discoveries at Harappa and Mohenjaro might
throw some light on the Vedas, this hope was not fulfilled. Among the artifacts
found at Harappa was a small figure of a seated man who might be Çiva, but this
is not definite.
Linguistic research and
interpretation of the Åg Veda have given rise to a hypothesis linking the Indus
civilization with the origin of the Vedas. As the story has it, the peaceful
Dravidians (the name of the original people of Harappa) were invaded by the
Aryan barbarians, who brought with them their tales of Indra (Åg Veda). This
account enjoys wide currency in books, but it is by no means a scientific
conclusion.12 Rather, it is a hypothetical creation set forth to explain what
would otherwise be inexplicable. About the Indus civilization, one Indologist
comments, “We do not know for certain who the authors of the remarkable
civilization were; it is another of those mysteries that make the scholar’s
life at once interesting and somewhat frustrating.”13 As for the theory that
the Dravidians met their demise under Indra’s hordes of plundering Aryans, H.
P. Rowlinson writes, “A number of scholars have pointed the finger of
accusation at the Aryans…but the guilt of those immigrants is far from
established.”14 Thus, although scholars favor various theories, archaeological
finds like those of the Indus civilization have to date given evidence
insufficient for reconstructing the period in which the Vedic scriptures were
composed.
Archaeology gains
considerable scientific veracity by allying with other disciplines, such as
atomic physics (which produced the carbon 14 dating process). Will
archaeologists one day find something that will actually solve the Vedic
riddles once and for all? Anthropologist Julian H. Steward writes, “Facts exist
only as they are related to theories, and theories are not destroyed by facts—they
are replaced by new theories which better explain the facts.”15 In other words,
we might say, although archaeologists intend to find out much more, they may
never know for sure.
Whatever facts and
theories the future may hold, archaeology, the empiricist’s main hope, has thus
far failed to penetrate the darkness that shrouds the Vedic period; the prime
record of Vedic culture is, of course, oral tradition. Hence, in the very area
where archaeology alone can give the empiricist knowledge, we can seriously
question whether archaeology is even relevant. “Religion is a mental or
spiritual phenomenon in which the sacred or supernatural word plays an
important part. Obviously this essential expression of religion cannot be
investigated archaeologically—the remains are wordless.”16
RVL 2.4: Linguistic Research
Linguistic Research
As we would expect,
research has spread to still other disciplines. In fact, among the most
important tools in Indological research is the study of linguistics. In the
late eighteenth century, linguists in India made a comparative study of
Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin and concluded that the languages were so similar in
vocabulary and grammar that they must have come from a common ancestral tongue.
In 1786, Sir William Jones theorized that Sanskrit and other languages had “sprung
from some common source which perhaps no longer exists.”17 This language
received the name proto-Indo-European. Although there is no clear evidence that
this language was ever spoken, linguists reconstructed a proto-Indo-European
language with the help of archaeologists, who contributed evidence on who might
have spoken it and where. Stuart Piggot writes: “The location of a possible
Indo-European homeland and the identification of the culture implied by the
linguistic evidence with a comparable archaeological phenomenon, has been a
matter of debate since the idea was first formulated in the last century.”18
>From a hypothetical language, a hypothetical human community emerged, its
members called Indo-Europeans. Because words like “horse” and “father” were
prominent in the vocabulary of proto-lndo-Europeans, the scholars constructed a
community of farmers who had domesticated the horse and in whose society the
father was dominant.19 Also, the scholars ascribed to them a religion and
rites, although no one can say for certain where these people lived. In a
recent history of India we find this assessment:
The aboriginal home of the
Aryans [the Indo-Europeans are supposed to be the predecessors of the Aryans
who invaded India] is again a controversial point, and in the face of the
hopeless chaos of conflicting views, it seems impossible to come to any
definite conclusion. The most probable theory seems to be that the Aryans
migrated into India from outside, the exact region from where they came being
still a point of discussion.20
Professor of linguistics
Ward Goddenaugh pointed out that chauvinism and racism definitely entered into
historical European interpretations of Indo-European origins. Thus, scholars
arbitrarily compiled data to prove that the Aryan forefathers came from
Europe.21
Despite limited
information, linguists tend to construct hypotheses. The prominent Sanskritist
A. B. Keith once remarked that by taking the linguistic method too literally,
one could conclude that the original Indo-Europeans knew about butter but not
milk, snow and feet but not rain and hands.22
Already, it appears, the
discipline known as linguistic paleontology has fallen out of favor with
scholars. In 1971, the eminent linguist Winifred Lehmann asserted, “Clearly,
the linguistic paleontologists had overextended themselves to the point of
elimination.”23 Dr. Lehmann insists that language cannot be used as a primary
source for reconstructing an earlier culture. Still, linguistic theories about
the origin and cultural background of the Vedas continue to figure prominently
in academic accounts of the Vedic period.
In order to date ancient
languages, in recent decades Morris Swadesh has devised a linguistic method
known as glottochronology. This method arose from the theory that over the
millennia, changes in the vocabulary of a language tend to occur at a regular,
measurable rate. Scholars have used this method to date the oral tradition of
the Vedas as well as the appearance of specific literatures. However, linguists
themselves report that “no matter how much the technique is refined, the only
dating that it can yield will be of the likelihood variety.”24
Glottochronologists have worked out graphs indicating areas in which there is a
ninety-percent likelihood that a particular specimen of language can be
assigned a correct date. The greater the time period in which the literature
might have appeared (thousands of years for Vedic literature), the greater the
variance in ascribing the approximate date. The variance grows so great as to
be no more than an educated guess. Linguistic critic Charles Hockett writes, “Obviously
it is not helpful to find that, though the most likely date of an event is
forty thousand years ago, the nine-tenths confidence level defines a span
running from ninety thousand years ago to a date ten thousand years in our own
future.”25 Although regarded as highly imperfect, glottochronology is the best
working tool available today for dating ancient languages. It has not, however,
revealed anything definite about the origin and real purport of the Vedic
literature.
Summary
As we have marked,
empirical evidence for the Vedic period seems scanty and fragmentary; the
scholars have few hard facts on which to base mature or reliable
conclusionsAccordingly, their full and elaborate picture of Vedic history seems
hypothetical and conjectural. Of course, drawn as it is from arduous
historical, archaeological, and linguistic research, the hypothetical picture surely
merits consideration. At the same time, it appears, Indologists would do well
to remember that an offlcial photograph is one thing, a hypothetical picture
quite another.
Actually, Western scholars
have never assessed the Vedic çästras on their own merit. The first studies of
the Vedas, for example, were clouded by less than objective motivations. In the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, pioneer Indologists such as Sir
William Jones, Horace H. Wilson, Theodore Goldstuker, and Sir M. Monier-Williams
approached the Vedic culture with a view to replacing it with Christian
culture.26 This naturally tainted their investigation of Vedic literature.
While the missionary motive declined, an effort was made by the American
transcendentalist school (Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc.) to
appreciate the Vedas as they are. It would be fair to say, however, that the
empirical-historical method eclipsed this endeavor before it could shine forth.
And because the Vedic system is intrinsically beyond the range of empirical
investigation, modern Indologists have also been unable to study the Vedas on
the literature’s own terms. Thus, it may be appropriate to hear what the Vedas
say about themselves. As opposed to the fragmented, highly theoretical, or at
best partial appreciations of the Vedas by Western scholars, this approach will
aid us in understanding the wide range of Vedic literatures as a sublime and
cohesive whole.
RVL 3: Essential Elements of Vedic Thought
3. Essential Elements of Vedic Thought
Although he may be
unacquainted with Sanskrit, a new student of Vedic literature needs to
understand many Sanskrit terms. Simply memorizing words in a glossary cannot
fill that need; the Vedas themselves prescribe that to understand the meanings
of such terms as Bhagavän, Paramätmä, and Brahman, the student must become
transcendentally situated, or realized. He must know from personal experience
the distinction between matter (jaòa) and spirit (Brahman), and the nature both
of illusion (mäyä) and of the supreme controller (éçvara). Since some words,
such as dharma and rasa, have no real English equivalents, the student’s need
for personal experience and realization becomes so much greater.
To get a clear
understanding, the student should first learn the simple, literal meaning of
the Sanskrit terms. By avoiding allegorical interpretations and speculation, he
will avoid needless confusion. In other words, the student makes easier
advancement if he accepts the direct meaning given in the çästras rather than
the indirect meanings set forth by imperfect commentators. Vedic literature is
not difficult to understand if the student learns the terms of the çästras in
their original meanings.
RVL 3.1: The Three Aspects of the Absolute
The Three Aspects of the Absolute
The Vedic literatures
discuss three aspects of the Absolute Truth: Brahman, Paramätmä, and Bhagavän.
The Upaniñads focus upon Brahman; the yoga systems, upon Paramätmä; Bhagavad-gétä
and the Puräëas, upon Bhagavän. Bhägavata Puräëa (1.2.11) states that all three
aspects are actually one, seen from different angles of vision: “Learned
transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance
Brahman, Paramätmä or Bhagavän.”1
1) Brahman
Brahman refers to the
impersonal, all-pervasive aspect of the Absolute Truth. The multifarious
manifestations of the cosmos—moving and nonmoving matter, atoms, bodies,
planets, space—are not ultimate causes in themselves, nor are they eternalof
them come from the eternal Brahman. The Vedänta-sütra (1.1.2) clearly states,
janmädy asya yataù: “The Supreme Brahman is the origin of everything.”2 The Muëòaka
Upaniñad (2.2.10–12) offers elucidation:
Brilliant is It, the light
of lights—
That which knowers of the
soul do know!
The sun shines not there,
nor the moon and stars;
These lightnings shine
not, much less this (earthly) fire!
After Him, as He shines,
doth everything shine.
This whole world is
illumined with His light.
… before,… behind, to
right and left,
Stretched forth below and
above.3
Radhakrishnan writes that
Brahman “cannot be defined by logical categories or linguistic symbols. It is
the incomprehensible nirguëa [“qualityless”] Brahman, the pure Absolute.”4
The Båhad-äraëyaka Upaniñad
(3.9.26) describes the Brahman philosophers as searching for the root of
existence in the components of matter but finding only neti neti: “That self is
not this, not that.”5 When one realizes Brahman, he knows the impersonal spirit
in all things.
2) Paramätmä
Ätmä means “self.” Thomas
Hopkins writes, “Ätman was distinguished from the gross physical body; it was
the inner self, the principle or energy that gave man his essential nature.”6
Vedic philosophy regards the self as eternal and individual; it is not
destroyed when the body is destroyed. On the battlefield of Kurukñetra, Kåñëa
has only encouragement for Arjuna:
Never was there a time
when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any
of us cease to be… For the soul [ätmä] there is never birth nor death. Nor
having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal,
ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.7
The ätmä, individual soul,
is distinct from the Paramätmä (the Supersoul or oversoul, an identity beyond
the ätmä). The word parama means “supreme and transcendental,” and, as the Kaöha
Upaniñad (1.2.20) has it, the Paramätmä and the ätmä are like two birds sitting
on a tree:
Both the Supersoul [Paramätmä]
and the individual atomic soul [jéva-ätmä] are situated on the same tree of the
body within the same heart of the living being; only one who has become free
from all material desires as well as lamentations can, by the grace of the
Supreme, understand the glories of the soul.8
Awareness of one’s eternal
relation with the Paramätmä is the goal of the mystic añöäìga-yoga taught by
Pataïjali (the author of the Yoga-sütra). According to Bhagavad-gétä, “That
Supersoul [Paramätmä] is perceived by some through meditation.…”9 Perfection in
meditation results in the yogic trance called samädhi:
The stage of perfection is
called trance, or samädhi, when one’s mind is completely restrained from
material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one’s
ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self.
In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and
enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never
departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater
gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst
of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising
from material contact.10
This realization occurs
when the mystic sees the transcendental form of God within his heart. Although
only genuine mystics can see the Supersoul, He is seated in the hearts of all
living beings, whether they realize or not. “I am seated in everyone’s heart,
and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.”11 The Paramätmä guides
the embodied soul, witnesses his activities, and awards him the results of his
actions. “The Supersoul enters into the bodies of the created beings who are
influenced by the modes of material nature and causes them to enjoy the effects
of these by the subtle mind.” [SB 1.2.33]
Knowing that the Supersoul
is present with each soul in each and every material body, the Paramätmä-realized
yogé sees all beings equally. “The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge,
sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brähmaëa, a cow, an elephant, a dog
and a dog-eater [outcaste].” [Bg. 5.18] Indeed, the unified vision of the Paramätmä-realized
yogé extends to all aspects of existence. “Such a person is situated in
transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles,
stones or gold—as the same.… He is a perfect yogé who, by comparison to his own
self, sees the true equality of all beings, both in their happiness and
distress, O Arjuna.” 14
3) Bhagavän
Bhagavän realization is the
theistic vision of the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Person possessed of
inconceivable attributes.15 Paräçara Muni defines Bhagavän as the Supreme
Person possessing infinite beauty, knowledge, strength, fame, wealth, and
renunciation. Although the concept of creation suggests many great
personalities (or demigods), in the fullest sense the word bhagavän applies
only to the Supreme Being, the Godead Himself.
Bhagavän is the highest
feature of the Absolute. He is the Supreme Brahman (Parabrahman) and the source
of the Paramätmä. As we have noted previously, the Vedänta-sütra (1.1.2) states
that the Absolute Truth is the source of all emanations (janmädy asya yataù).
Further, the Vedänta and the Puräëas state that, as the source of everything,
the Absolute must possess intelligence and consciousness. These latter
attributes imply personality, and the supreme personal feature of the Absolute
Truth is termed Bhagavän. Whereas Brahman is devoid of material qualities or
attributes, Bhagavän possesses transcendental qualities. All beings rest in
Brahman, and Brahman itself rests in the Supreme Person. The Vedas regard
Brahman as the effulgence (brahmajyoti) of the transcendental body of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Brahma-saàhitä (5.1) postulates that Bhagavän
is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaù, the personal form of eternity, full knowledge, and
full bliss.16
Impersonal Brahman
manifests only the sat (eternity) feature of the Absolute. Brahman is to Bhagavän
as the sunshine is to the sun. The sunshine is the sun’s effulgence, and has no
independent existence apart from the sun. Paramätmä manifests the sat and cit
(knowledge) aspects of the Absolute, but Bhagavän alone fully manifests the
sat, cit, and änanda (bliss) aspects. Thus, Bhagavän is the full embodiment (vigraha)
of sac-cid-änanda.
Prefacing each of Lord Kåñëa’s
statements in Bhagavad-gétä is the phrase çré-bhagavän uväca—“The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said.” Further, the Gétä establishes that Bhagavän, Kåñëa,
is the ultimate truth: “There is no truth superior to Me.” [Bg. 7.7] Brahma-saàhitä
makes a similar confirmation, Éçvaraù paramaù kåñëaù sac-cid-änanda-vigrahaù: “The
supreme controller is Kåñëa, who has a transcendental form of eternity, bliss,
and knowledge.”18 And the Bhägavata Puräëa (1.3.28) indicates that all avatäras
proceed from the Supreme Bhagavän (Kåñëa).19
In one sense God, or
Bhagavän, has no name; yet His activities garner Him many names. The name Kåñëa,
meaning “all-attractive,” is fundamental because, by Paräçara Muni’s definition,
the Supreme Person must be all-attractive or all-opulent. To enact various
pastimes (lélä) for His pleasure and to create and maintain, Bhagavän Kåñëa
expands into forms such as Näräyaëa, Väsudeva, and Mahä-Viñëu. The name Kåñëa
(the all-attractive) also implies Viñëu (the all-pervasive). The name Bhagavän
(the all-opulent) implies the names éçvara (supreme controller) and puruña
(supreme enjoyer). Rüpa Gosvämé’s Laghu-bhägavatämåta has this to say about the
names given the Absolute:
According to the intimate
relationships between Çré Kåñëa, the primeval Lord, and His devotees, the Puräëas
describe Him by various names. Sometimes He is called Näräyaëa; sometimes
Upendra [Vämana], the younger brother of Indra, the King of Heaven [upa-indra];
and sometimes Kñérodakaçäyé Viñëu. Sometimes he is called the thousand-headed Çeña
Näga and sometimes the Lord of Vaikuëöha.20
When the inquirer realizes
Bhagavän, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he simultaneously realizes
Brahman and Paramätmä. For we have seen that, far from being separate one from
another, the three aspects of the Absolute are all present within Bhagavän
1) Cit
Cit-çakti is the spiritual
energy of the Absolute Truth. Bhagavän, the Supreme Person, is the energetic
source, and through His internal cit potency He manifests the eternal kingdom
of God and His eternal liberated associates. “Just as mäyä builds this mundane
universe with the five material elements, so the spiritual (cit) potency has
built the spiritual world.”21 The spiritual universe is known as Vaikuëöha, “the
place without anxiety.” Bhagavad-gétä describes this separate universe as that
eternal nature which remains even after the annihilation of the material
universe.
Yet there is another
nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and
unmanifested matter. It is supreme, and it is never annihilated. When all in
this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. That supreme abode is
called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one
goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode. [Bg. 8.20-21]
The spiritual universe,
Vaikuëöha, is eternal; that is to say, it is exempt from the strict laws of the
material world, wherein all living entities suffer birth, old age, disease and
death. When Bhagavän enters the material universe as an incarnation (avatära),
He is never subjected to the material laws, but remains situated in His
internal spiritual potency (cit).
2) Jéva
The verbal root jév means “to
live, be, or remain alive,” and the noun jéva refers to the individual living
being, or soul. According to the Vedic analysis, the living being (jéva) is
separate from the body, yet, within each and every body (including those of
men, beasts, birds and plants), an individual soul (jéva) resides. Individual
consciousness is the symptom of the jéva’s presence.
Although the body is
perishable, the jéva is eternal. “Know that which pervades the entire body to
be indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.”23 The Bhägavata
Puräëa describes the size of the jéva: “There are innumerable particles of
spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion
of the hair.”24 Clearly, the jéva defies perception by the material senses.
According to the Vedic
conception, consciousness does not arise from a material combination; it is the
symptom of the jéva’s presence within the body. When the jéva leaves the body,
consciousness also leaves, and the body perishes. It is the jéva that is the
real self, but in contact with matter, it becomes conditioned. “The empirical
individual, the jéva, is self-limited by the body and senses.”25 Originally the
jéva is a spiritual part of the Supreme Bhagavän and shares His qualities of
sac-cid-änanda in minute portions. The jéva’s constitutional position is
subordinate to that of the Supreme Bhagavän. Although the Supreme Bhagavän
never falls within the control of the material energy, the jéva, out of
delusion and a misuse of his free will, falls under the control of the material
energy and forgets his relationship with the Supreme Bhagavän. Desiring to be
an independent enjoyer, the jéva enters the material world. The jéva’s fall
from his constitutional position provides the gist, of course, for Western
narratives such as Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Although the jéva in the
material world suffers in many ways, he remains under the spell of material
nature (mäyä). Actually the jéva soul has nothing to do with the material
world, but because of mäyä (illusion) he acts to satisfy himself through the
material senses. If he has not attained liberation from his material bodily
confinement by the time of universal annihilation, he returns to the body of
the Supreme Viñëu and takes birth again, in the next creation, to act out his
desires (karma). When the jéva attains liberation, he goes to the brahmajyoti
or even to Vaikuëöha, the spiritual planets where the Supreme resides in His
complete, personal form. Real liberation for the jéva is to attain his original
spiritual identity (svarüpa), for in his eternal form the jéva can associate
with Bhagavän, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
3) Mäyä
Material illusion is
called mäyä. Mäyä means “unreality, deception, forgetfulness”—“that which is
not.” Under the influence of mäyä, a man thinks that he can be happy within the
temporary material world. As the deluding energy of the Supreme, mäyä acts not independently
but under His direction. “It is by illusion (mäyä) the other (jéva) is
confined. One should know that Nature is illusion (mäyä) and that the mighty
Lord is the illusion-maker.”26
Mäyä’s power is such that
although a man may be suffering manifold miseries, he will think himself happy.
“The cause of man’s suffering and impotence is mäyä, under whose influence he
forgets his divine nature.”27 When the jéva identifies with the body, he
develops thousands of desires and then attempts to fulfill them. It is the
nature of the material world that the more the jéva tries to exploit the
material situation, the more he is bound by maya’s complexities. Acting under
the influence of mäyä, the jéva subjects himself to the law of karma (cause and
effect).
As for the origin of mäyä,
Bhagavän Kåñëa states, “This divine energy of Mine [mäyä], consisting of the
three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” [Bg. 7.14] The Vedas
further enjoin: “Although mäyä [illusion] is false or temporary, the background
of mäyä is the supreme magician, the Personality of Godhead, who is Maheçvara,
the supreme controller.”29
In sum, mäyä is a
delusion, a trick, a mirage that bewilders a person into thinking that
eternality and happiness abide in the activities of the material world (which
in actuality is temporary and miserable). Even a highly educated or intelligent
man may be under the spell of mäyä; Bhagavad-gétä designates such a person as mäyayäpahåta-jïäna,
“one whose knowledge is stolen by mäyä.”30 Vedic literature purports to free
all beings from the clutches of mäyä. “To be delivered from this illusion which
has somehow come to dominate the race of man is the end of all endeavor.”31
According to Bhagavad-gétä, it is very difficult for the jéva to break free
from the bondage of mäyä: “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three
modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have
surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” [Bg. 7.14]
RVL 3.3: Karma
Karma
Western science and
philosophy commonly hold that the law of causality governs all action and
events in the universe, that there can be no actions or events without
corresponding causes, at least on the material platform. The Vedic literature
calls this law of cause and effect the law of karma. From time immemorial, the
jéva has been acting in the material world and enjoying or suffering the
reactions of his actions. His actions bring about his transmigration from one
material body to another. In other words, the jéva takes off and puts on bodies
just as one takes off old and useless garments and puts on new ones. As the jéva
transmigrates, he suffers or enjoys the results of his past activities (karma).
In one sense, all karma is
bondage. Even pious activities, or “good karma,” bind a person to the wheel of
transmigration. One has to be freed from all karma if he is to transcend saàsära,
repeated birth and death. The jéva creates his own karma out of his particular
desires to enjoy this world in different ways. Thus, neither Bhagavän nor
material nature is responsible for the karma of the jéva; he makes his own
destiny. According to the jéva’s activities (and under the supervision of the
Supreme), material nature simply awards the jéva his next body to carry out his
desires. Freedom from the great chain of karma comes through knowledge. “As the
blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge
burn to ashes all reactions [sarva-karmäëi] to material activities.” [Bg. 4.37]
This “fire of knowledge” refers to the jiva’s awareness of his constitutional
position as the eternal servant of the Supreme. When one surrenders to Bhagavän,
he transcends all past, present, and future karma.
The jéva cannot become
free from karma merely by refraining from action. The Vedas portray the soul as
eternally and irrevocably active. “It is indeed impossible for an embodied
being to give up all activities. Therefore, it is said that he who renounces
the fruits of action [karma-phala-tyägé] is he who has truly renounced.” [Bg.
18.11] In other words, one has to learn the art of working without accruing
karma.
In Bhagavad-gétä, Bhagavän
Kåñëa explains this art of karma-yoga in detail. Briefly, one who performs his
activities as a sacrifice to the Supreme Bhagavän avoids karma, bondage within
the material world. Such refined, sacrificial activity is called akarma, that
is, action without reaction. The Närada-païcarätra explains that the art of
karma-yoga is håñékeëa håñékeça-sevanam: “serving the Lord of the senses with
one’s senses.” It is the function of the guru to teach his students this
elusive art of akarma, action without reaction.
RVL 3.4: Saàsära
Saàsära
Saàsära means repeated birth
and death, or transmigration. As a result of karma, a person may take his birth
in a family of wealthy merchants or in a family of insects. The Padma Puräëa
delineates that there are 8,400,000 species, and that the fallen jéva has to
undergo birth in every one of them. After evolving through many thousands of
births, the jéva at last reaches the human form, a chance to cultivate
self-realization for his ultimate liberation from the cycle of saàsära.
RVL 3.5: Guëas
Guëas
Literally, the word guëa
means “rope.” There are three guëas (modes of material nature)—goodness
(sattva), passion (rajas), and ignorance (tamas)—which bind one to nature like
three strong ropes. Consequently, the material world of mäyä is sometimes
called tri-guëa-mayé.
The jéva attains different
bodies according to the guëas in which he has acted in the past, and each body
in turn induces him to act according to its predominant guëa. Let us consider a
man influenced by the mode of goodness (as, for example, a philosopher, a physician,
or a poet). This man lives with a sense of knowledge and, therefore, happiness.
By cultivating knowledge of the material world, he makes his life pleasant;
bound to that pleasant feeling by the rope of mundane goodness, he does not
attempt spiritual elevation. As long as a person is attached to an advanced
state of material happiness and works simply to improve material conditions, he
cannot attain liberation (though he may continue to attain bodies in the mode
of goodness). Whatever his material opulence, he nonetheless faces the
inevitable fourfold miseries of birth, old age, disease, and death
Bhagavad-gétä describes
the mode of passion (rajo-guëa) as being “born of unlimited desires and
longings.” [Bg. 14.7] Typifying this guëa are sexual attraction and enjoyment.
The jéva hankers for sex, and on achieving his desires he forms a hard knot of
attachment to material life. Gradually, his gross desires expand into subtler
longings for honor, family enjoyment, money, and so forth. The jéva has to work
hard constantly to acquire and maintain these things. According to the Vedic
analysis, the achievements of great materialistic civilizations spring from
rajo-guëa.
Lastly, tamo-guëa, the
mode of ignorance, conditions the jéva to laziness and excessive sleep and,
generally, to dejection and dependence on intoxicants. “The result of this mode
is madness.” [Bg. 14.8]
At any given time, not one
mode alone but some combination of the modes influences the jéva’s actions. At
one time, rajas may dominate over tamas; at another, sattva over rajas; at
still another, tamas over rajas; and so forth. At the moment of death, a jéva
in the mode of goodness transmigrates to a body in the higher planets, a jéva
in the mode of passion transmigrates to a body in a middle planet like the
earth, and a jéva in the mode of ignorance transmigrates to a body in the
animal species. [Bg. 14.14]
Everything in the material
world arises from interacting mixtures of the modes of nature. “The guëas are
the primal elements which combine in different proportions to constitute all
objects of the world.”38 Like a puppet, the jéva seems to dance but in fact
dangles on these three ropes, tri-guëa-mayé. The çästras explain everything in
terms of the guëas—including types of faiths, determination, the kind of food
one eats, and the kind of charity one performs. The transcendentalist is one
who can rise above the modes. An important difference between Bhagavän, the
supreme soul, and the jéva soul, the infinitesimal soul, is that Bhagavän is
never under the influence of the guëas. At all times He is their master,
whereas the jéva falls under their influence. By following the Vedic
injunctions, the jéva can gradually transcend the three material modes and
attain his pure transcendental consciousness. Hence, Kåñëa exhorts Arjuna in
Bhagavad-gétä to “rise above these modes” by turning to the Supreme. [Bg. 2.45]
RVL 3.6: Puruña and Prakåti
Puruña and Prakåti
Puruña (referring to
Bhagavän, the Supreme Lord) means the supreme predominator and enjoyer. Prakåti
means the predominated nature. The living beings (jévas) and the material
energy (mäyä) are, respectively, higher and lower forms of prakåti. Puruña
corresponds to the male (the enjoyer); and prakåti corresponds to the female
(the enjoyed). Both, of course, enjoy the relationship.
The Çvetäçvatara Upaniñad
(6.7) describes the puruña aspect of the Absolute Truth in this way: “We know
Him who is the Supreme Lord of lords, the Ruler of rulers.”40 Bhagavän Kåñëa
affirms, “Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know
for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution.” [Bg. 7.6] The puruña is
the cause of all causes, the energetic source of all energies. Even when the jéva
attains liberation, he cannot assume the position of the whole, of the puruña,
because the jéva is an eternally fragmental part of the puruñaBhägavata Puräëa
(S.B. 10.87.30) sums up the situation:
O Supreme Eternal! If the
embodied living entities were eternal and all-pervading like You, they would
not be under Your control. But if the living entities are accepted as minute
energies of Your Lordship, they are at once subject to Your supreme control.
Therefore real liberation entails surrender by the living entities to Your
control, and that surrender will make them happy. In that constitutional
position only can they be controllers. Therefore, men with limited knowledge
who advocate the monistic theory that the Supreme and the living entities are equal
in all respects are actually misleading themselves and others.42
Since the supreme puruña
alone is all-predominant, the independent controller and enjoyer, He is called
asamaurdhva, “the greatest of all.” By learning to meditate on the puruña or
Puruñottama (supreme living being) in His various manifestations as Näräyaëa, Kåñëa,
Väsudeva, and Viñëu, the conditioned jéva will attain purification and the
supreme liberation from transmigration.
RVL 3.7: Parä prakåti and Aparä prakåti
Parä prakåti and Aparä prakåti
There are two types of
prakåti: parä prakåti and aparä prakåti. The jéva is called parä, or superior,
prakåti: the jéva is above the inferior energy, dead matter, which is called
aparä prakåti. The jéva is also called the marginal energy, because, although
purely spiritual, he comes sometimes under the influence of aparä prakåti (mäyä)
and sometimes under the influence of the spiritual energy.
Bhagavän Kåñëa describes
the energies of the Supreme in this way:
Earth, water, fire, air,
space, mind, intelligence, and false ego—altogether these eight comprise my
separated material energies [prakåti]. Besides this inferior nature, O
mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living
entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the
universe.43
The jivas “sustain the
universe,” for they are the superior energy (parä prakåti) working within
matter (aparä prakåti). The jévas can manipulate matter for their enjoyment. Of
itself, aparä prakåti (earth, water, fire and so on) has no potency to generate
the innumerable manifestations within the universe. The activities of the
universe result from the active jévas moving inert matter. Thus, the Vedic
version opposes the conception of a universe operating mechanistically, without
any spiritual touch. Because they are the superior spiritual energy, the jévas
can create many things; but in no case are they the supreme puruña. Thus, they
cannot create matter out of nothing; nor can they create life from matter. They
can only manipulate what they have received.
The jéva simply imitates
the real puruña, who is Bhagavän, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because
in reality the jéva is not the puruña, by imitating the puruña he brings
endless trouble on himself. In material life, every jéva thinks, “I am t=e puruña,
the lord, the enjoyer.” This is called illusion (mäyä). The jéva does have a
certain degree of controlling power, but in all cases this is limitedThe Vedic
literatures advocate that the jéva abandon his futile attempt to become God by
manipulating aparä prakåti.
RVL 3.8: Brahmä—Çiva—Viñëu
Brahmä—Çiva—Viñëu
There are many
misconceptions current about the “Hindu trinity” of Brahmä, Çiva, and Viñëu. Generally,
dictionaries define Brahmä as “the chief member of the Hindu trinity,”44 and
other sources describe a triumvirate Godhead with all gods being equal. The
very term “trinity” suggests an attempt to apply Christian theology to Vedic
literature in the manner of the early Christian missionaries. The pioneer
Indologist Sir William Jones once made this comment:
Very respectable natives
have assured me that one or two missionaries have been absurd enough, in their
zeal for the conversion of the Gentiles, to urge that the Hindus were even now
almost Christians because their Brahmä, Viñëu, and Maheça [Çiva] were no other
than the Christian trinity; a sentence in which we can only wonder whether
folly, ignorance, or impiety predominates. 45
In any case, the Vedas do
not support these widespread theories. All three personalities are classified
as guëa-avatäras, controllers of the modes of nature. Brahmä creates the
material universe and controls the mode of passion. Viñëu maintains the
universe and controls the mode of goodness, and Çiva destroys the universe and
controls the mode of ignorance.
Brahmä, a very powerful jéva,
is the first living being born in the universe. His life endures for the entire
life-span of the universe, and when the universe is annihilated, he dies.
Compared to humans, his life span is long indeed:
By human calculation, a
thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahmä’s one day. And such also
is the duration of his night. When Brahmä’s day is manifest, this multitude of
living entities come into being, and at the arrival of Brahmä’s night they are
all annihilated. [Bg. 8.17]
Yet Brahma-saàhitä
compares Brahmä to a jewel whose brilliance merely reflects the light of the
sun.47 Brahmä creates the cosmos under the direction and inspiration of Bhagavän,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Çiva is in charge of the
destruction of the universe at the time of annihilation. He is also in charge
of the tamo-guëa (the mode of ignorance), although we should not conclude that
he is ignorant. One of his names is Äçutoña, which indicates that he is easily
pleased. Çiva accepts worshipers among the most fallen beings, including ghosts
and demons, who worship him for material benedictions (which are easy to
obtain). Bhägavata Puräëa (S.B. 12.13.16) states, vaiñëavänäà yathä çambhuù: Çiva
is the greatest Vaiñëava [devotee of Viñëu].” In Padma Puräëa, Çiva makes this
remark to his wife:
My dear Parvaté, there are
different methods of worship, and, out of all, the worship of the Supreme Person
[Bhagavän] is considered the highest. But even higher than the worship of the
Supreme Bhagavän is the worship of His devotees. 48
Viñëu is an expansion of
Bhagavän Kåñëa, the source of all incarnations. There are many expansions of Viñnu,
and all are the one Supreme Person, Bhagavän. One Viñëu expansion maintains the
universe and controls sattva-guëa, the mode of goodness. Of the three guëa-avatäras,
Viñëu is the only one who can award liberation from saàsära (harià vinä naiva såtià
taranti). It is therefore imprecise to regard devotion to Brahmä or Çiva as
providing commensurate benefit; for from the platform of tamas and rajas one
can hardly realize the Absolute Truth. The mode of goodness serves as a
springboard from which one can transcend all the modes and realize his pure
relationship with the supreme transcendental Bhagavän. Since Brahmä and Çiva
are expansions of Viñëu, we can appreciate Louis Renou’s observation, “In fact,
as a religion in the strict sense of the term, Hinduism can almost be
summarized as Viñëuism.”49
RVL 3.9:Çruti and Småti
Çruti and Småti
Vedic authorities accept
three sources of Vedic knowledge, called prasthäna-traya. Çruti-prasthäna
refers to the four Vedas and the Upaniñads. Nyäya-prasthäna refers to the Vedänta-sütra,
and småti-prasthäna refers to the Puräëas, Bhagavad-gétä, and Mahäbhärata. Some
empiric scholars argue that whereas çruti is acceptable, småti is not. They
contend that the Vedas (çruti) constitute original knowledge and that the Puräëas
are recent collections of imaginary stories. Others say that Vedänta (nyäya or
logical argument) can be accepted, but not the Puräëas (småti). Indeed, they
even question whether småti—which includes Bhagavad-gétä—can be acceptable as
Vedic authority.
We have already pointed
out that the äcärya Madhva deems that the Vedas, Vedänta, Puräëas, and Mahäbhärata
are Vedic çästra and that whatever these literatures enunciate is valid
evidence. The äcärya Çaìkara also accepts Bhagavad-gétä and compares the Gétä
to a cow that delivers the essence of the Vedas and the UpaniñadsGosvämé, in
his Kåñëa-sandarbha, quotes from çruti that aitihäsya-puräëa (historical Puräëas)
must be accepted especially for this age. Rüpa Gosvämé, in his Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu
(1.2.101), postulates that by adhering to the çrutis alone one is simply
mouthing the words of the scriptures and not understanding or practicing them.
It is the empiric
scholars, not the äcäryas, who contest the authority of småti. The four
original Vedas are çruti—they came down orally. (Çruti means “hearing”; småti
means “remembering” [what was originally spoken].) Whereas çruti is compared to
the mother, småti is compared to the sister; after a child hears from his
mother, he again learns from the descriptions given by his sister. One cannot
deny the authority of Bhagavad-gétä or Bhägavata Puräëa simply because they are
småti. The Vedic teacher Väcaspati Miçra states in the Bhämaté that this would
be çruti-småti-virodhaù: in conflict with both the çruti and the småti. Çaìkara,
Rämänuja, and Madhva presented småti as valid evidence and wrote commentaries
on Bhagavad-gétä. As we shall see in the next chapter, Vedic literature stands
as a single, comprehensive whole meant for transcendental understanding. When
we reject major portions, the Vedic literatures appear incomplete, incoherent,
and inconclusive. Consequently, the Vedic tradition prompts the student of
these literatures to hear the çästra from a fully realized äcärya (guru).
RVL 4: Vedic Literature—Siddhanta and History
4. Vedic Literature—Siddhanta and History
The word siddhänta means “conclusion.”
We might ask whether the Vedic literature actually has a siddhänta. Does a
comprehensive theme unite the many books? If the purpose is ultimately one, why
do the çästras appear to present many different philosophies? Why do they
stress so many different forms of worship and meditation? Do the çästras
themselves give a plausible history of the Vedic literature?
Generally, scholars base
their answers to these questions upon the historical order in which they
believe the books appeared. Thus, there has arisen the theory that the Åg Veda
appeared before the Upaniñads and the Puräëas. As hundreds and thousands of
years passed and people’s attitudes changed, different philosophies and sects
are supposed to have developed. Many scholars conclude that around 200 B.C.
monotheism arose. From this view it appears that Vedic literature comes from=no
single master plan.
Vedic literature, h=wever,
has its own version of the Vedic siddhänta and history. To understand the Vedic
version, we have simply to let the writings speak for themselves.
RVL 4.1: The Vedic Siddhänta
The Vedic Siddhänta
Where should we look for
the Vedic siddhänta? Is there any one work epitomizing and clarifying the
different thematic strains, their relative positions and conclusions? Clearly,
such a compendium of the Vedas would have to be authoritative and acceptable to
all schools of thought. And clearly, of all works, Bhagavad-gétä best meets
these qualifications. For this reason alone the Gétä has become the best known
and most frequently translated of all Vedic writings. Here, indeed, is an
instance in which the academic scholars and Vedic äcäryas agree. Çaìkara described
the Gétä as “an epitome of the essentials of the whole Vedic teachings.” Rämänuja
put the keystone of his entire philosophy in his Gétä-bhäñya (commentary on
Bhagavad-gétä). Çrédhara Svämé declared, “The Gétä, which issued from the
lotuslike lips of Padmanäbha Himself [Bhagavän Kåñëa] must be well assimilated;
what is the use of the multiplicity of other scriptures?”1 Thomas Hopkins
observed, “The greatness and continuing importance of the Gétä lies in its
success in achieving a complex and multipurpose synthesis.”2 The prominent Gétä
commentator His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda writes that
the Gétä is “the essence of Vedic knowledge. Because Bhagavad-gétä is spoken by
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one need not read any other Vedic
literature.”3 He adds that if one is so fortunate as to read the Gétä without
motivated interpretation, he surpasses all studies of Vedic wisdom and all
scriptures.
It is also of this great
work that Louis Renou writes, “For almost everyone the Bhagavad-gétä is the
book par excellence.”4 Ananda K. Coomerswamy describes the Gétä as “a
compendium of the whole Vedic doctrine to be found in the earlier Vedas, Brähmaëas
and Upaniñads, and being therefore the basis of all later developments, it can
be regarded as the focus of all Indian religion.”5 About two hundred years ago,
translations began appearing in the West, and, among others, Immanuel Kant,
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Aldous Huxley have accepted the Gétä
as their introduction to Vedic wisdom.
Within its seven hundred
verses, Bhagavad-gétä contains the main issues of Vedic philosophy. If one
reads the Gétä in the proper spirit, he can gain Vedic knowledge through the
natural process of çabda. In the Gétä the crisis-ridden disciple Arjuna accepts
Kåñëa as his spiritual master. Arjuna is a warrior, and his dialogue with Kåñëa
takes place just before a huge battle is to begin on the field of Kurukñetra.
Seeing his friends and relatives on the other side, Arjuna suddenly loses his desire
to fight and becomes confused about his duty. Bhagavän Kåñëa then begins to
give His instructions, which are consonant with the totality of Vedic
knowledge. Indeed, Kåñëa often alludes to and even quotes çästras such as the
Vedänta-sütra.
If we use Bhagavad-gétä as
a guide to the siddhänta of all the çästras—if it is, as Çaìkara says, “the
epitome of essentials”—we may next ask, “What is the essence of Bhagavad-gétä?”
Not a difficult question, really. For Kåñëa repeatedly declares the highest yogé
to be he who is exclusively devoted in love to Bhagavän, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Kåñëa affirms that this doctrine of devotion to and
love for the Supreme is “the most confidential part of the Vedic scriptures.”
[Bg. 15.19] In the final verses Kåñëa concludes that Arjuna should abandon all
other dharmas and simply surrender unto Him. “I shall deliver you from all
sinful reaction. Do not fear.” [Bg. 18.66]
The student should not
confuse the Kåñëa of Bhagavad-gétä with the “rural, sectarian god” envisioned
by many scholars. Of the Gétä’s Bhagavän Kåñëa, Hopkins writes, “Kåñëa has been
revealed as the Supreme Lord [in the Bhagavad-gétä], identified with the Vedic
Brahman and Puruña and with the universal form of Viñëu. He is the culmination
of all the religious forms of the Vedas.”8 Ainslee Embree comments, “Throughout
the Gétä is the assumption that transcending and completing the disciplines of
work and knowledge is the way of devotion to Kåñëa as the Supreme Lordsurrender
to Him, men find the final end they seek—the realization of their true self. It
is this emphasis on devotion that has made the Gétä the scripture that appeals
most directly to the heart of the Indian people.”9
When we turn to the
history of the compilation of the çästras, we can see how the great themes of
Bhagavad-gétä resound harmoniously throughout the entirety of Vedic literature.
RVL 4.2: Vedic History
Vedic History
We have already pointed
out that there is no accurate empirical reckoning of Vedic literature’s oral
tradition. Moriz Winternitz concludes, “Vedic literature extends from an
unknown past (say x) to 500 B.C.’’10 However, it is generally admitted that the
teachings are indeed very ancient and were committed to writing centuries after
their actual composition. Dr. Radhakrishnan writes, “An historical treatment of
Indian philosophy has not been taken up by the great Indian thinkers
themselves.”11 This was because the Vedic äcäryas themselves saw no need for
further investigation, since the scriptures substantiate the basic history of
their origin as follows: (1) The oral tradition began simultaneous to the
cosmic creation, when the Supreme Being spoke Vedic knowledge to the first
living being, Brahmä.12 (2) Vyäsadeva, a powerful literary incarnation of
Bhagavän, recorded the Vedas at the beginning of the Kali millennium, some five
thousand years ago.
Bhägavata Puräëa (S.B.
1.4.17–25) describes the sage Vyäsadeva in this way:
The great sage, who was
fully equipped in knowledge, could see through his transcendental vision the
deterioration of everything material due to the influence of the age
[Kali-yuga]. He could see also that the faithless people in general would be
reduced in duration of life and would be impatient due to lack of goodness.… He
saw that the sacrifices mentioned in the Vedas were means by which the people’s
occupations could be purified. And to simplify the process he divided the one
Veda into four in order to expand them among men.… The historical facts and
authentic stories mentioned in the Puräëas are called the fifth Veda. After the
Vedas were divided into four divisions, Paila Åñi became the professor of the Åg
Veda, Jaimini the professor of the Säma Veda, and Vaiçampäyana alone became
glorified by the Yajur Veda. The Sumantu Muni Äìgirasa … was entrusted with the
Atharva Veda … and Romaharñana was entrusted with the Puräëas and historical
records. All these learned scholars, in their turn, rendered their entrusted
Vedas unto their many disciples, grand-disciples, and great-grand-disciples,
and thus the respective branches of the followers of the Vedas came into being.
Thus, the great sage Vyäsadeva … edited the Vedas so they might be assimilated
by less intellectual men. Out of compassion, the great sage thought it wise
that this would enable men to achieve the ultimate goal of life. Thus, he
compiled the great historical narration called the Mahäbhärata for women,
laborers, and friends of the twiceborn [unqualified relatives of brähmaëas].13
According to this version,
the çästras are not the works of many hands over thousands of years. Of course,
scholars disagree with this account because it contradicts our present
conception of ancient civilizations, but the followers of the Vedas accept the çästric
statements as correct. Whatever version one accepts, a significant question
remains. If the çästras are harmonious, why do they appear to highlight
different aspects of the Absolute Truth? Bearing this question in mind, we now
look at different parts of the Vedas themselves.
The Four Vedas
The word veda means “know”
and denotes divine knowledge. The Vedas are mainly hymns, chanted by priests,
in praise of the gods. For many centuries these hymns were not written down.
The Åg Veda, “the Veda of praise,” consists of 1,017 hymns arranged in ten
books. Most of the verses are in praise of Agni, the god of fire, and Indra,
the god of rain and the heavens. Their use is confined to those trained in the
disciplines of spiritual life. Known as the “sacrificial Veda,” the Yajur Veda
contains instructions for performing sacrifices. The Säma Veda is the “Veda of
chants” and consists of 1,549 verses, many of which also appear, in different
contexts, within the Åg Veda. In particular, the Säma Veda praises the heavenly
beverage, soma. The Atharva Veda contains chants and rites, often for healing
sickness. Although the Vedic rituals are challengingly intricate, many scholars
pass them off as savage incantations. Seeking to correct this view, Ainslee
Embree writes, “Vedas means ‘hymns.’ They are not, then, the spiritual
outpourings of the heart of primitive men at the dawn of history, as has
sometimes been suggested; they are the achievement of a highly developed
religious system.”14
Generally, people are
attracted to the karma-käëòa portion, which deals mainly with fruitive activity
for elevation to heavenly planets. It is stated that if one wants such material
opulence one must perform the Vedic sacrifices. Ignorant of the actual Vedic
siddhänta, many people have thought the karma-käëòa portions to be the
ultimate.
The four Vedas encourage
satisfaction of material desires through worship of the demigods. For instance,
one who desires sex should worship the heavenly king Indra, and one who desires
good progeny should worship the great progenitors called the Prajäpatis. One
who desires good fortune should worship Durgädevé, and one who desires power
should worship Agni, the god of fire. One who aspires for money should worship
the Vasus, and one who desires a strong body should worship the earth. In any
case, the Vedic literature depicts the demigods not as imaginary but as
authorized agents of the supreme will who administer universal affairs. The
functions of nature do not go on willy-nilly; for each aspect there is a
personality in charge. Indra, for instance, allots rainfall, and Varuëa
presides over the oceans.
We should note, however,
that none of these gods—they number some thirty-three million—are ever equated
with Bhagavän, the Supreme. Sacrificial hymns offered to the demigods generally
conclude with the words oà tat sat. Åg Veda (1.2.22.20) states, oà tad visnoù
paramaà padaà sadä paçyanti sürayaù: “The demigods are always looking to that
supreme abode of Viñëu.”15 Bhagavad-gétä gives confirmation:
oà-tat-sad iti nirdeço
brahmaëas tri-vidhaù småtaù
brähmaëas tena vedäç ca
yajïäç ca vihitäù purä
From the beginning of
creation, the three syllables oà tat sat have been used to indicate the Supreme
Absolute Truth [Brahman]. They were uttered by brähmaëas while chanting the
Vedic hymns and during sacrifices, for the satisfaction of the Supreme. [Bg.
17.23]
The three words oà tat sat
indicate the Absolute Truth, the Supreme, Bhagavän (Viñëu). These words are
uttered to assure the perfection of the sacrifice. Some scholars are surprised
to find that the Puräëas describe Lord Viñëu (or, Lord Kåñëa) as the highest
aspect of the Absolute Truth when supposedly the Vedas do not stress the point.
And consequently many scholars conclude that Viñëu grew in popularity over the
centuries. But actually the Vedas do stress the words oà tat sat, oà tad viñëoù.
Whenever someone worshiped a demigod (Indra or Varuëa or whomever) he made
obeisances to Viñëu for success. In Bhagavad-gétä, Kåñëa asserts that the
benefits of the demigods are in actuality “bestowed by Me alone.” [Bg. 7the
four Vedas deal mainly with material elevation, and because Viñëu is the Lord
of liberation from material illusion, most sacrifices are to the demigods and
not to Viñëu. Yet by reciting oà and oà tad viñëoù, even t=e followers of the
karma-käëòa acknowledge Viñëu as the ultimate benefactor.
In Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa
criticizes the followers of the four Vedas who do not know the ultimate purpose
of sacrifice—veda-väda-ratäù pärtha nänyad astéti vädinaù:
Men of small knowledge are
very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various
fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth,
power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life,
they say that there is nothing more than this. [Bg. 2.42]
The Vedic siddhänta
established in Bhagavad-gétä corresponds to that of the four Vedas, although in
the Vedas it is not so thoroughly developed. Nonetheless, there are many
references in the four Vedas to the supremacy of the Supreme Bhagavän. Atharva
Veda makes this statement: “The Supreme Person desired to create living
entities, and thus Näräyaëa created all living beings. From Näräyaëa, Brahmä
was born. Näräyaëa created all the Prajäpatis [the patriarchs]. Näräyaëa
created Indra.”19 Also, yo brahmäëaà vidadhäti pürvaà yo vai vedäàç ca gäpayati
sma kåñëaù: “It was Kåñëa who in the beginning instructed Brahmä in the Vedic
knowledge and who disseminated Vedic knowledge in the past.”20 The Vedas
specify, brahmaëyo devaké-putraù: “The son of Devaké, Kåñëa, is the Supreme
Personality.”21 We also find, “In the beginning of the creation there was only
the Supreme Personality Näräyaëa. There was no Brahmä, no Çiva, no fire, no
moon, no stars in the sky, no sun. There was only Kåñëa, who creates all and
enjoys all.”22
Bhagavän Kåñëa assessed
the four Vedas in this way:
The Vedas mainly deal with
the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O
Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from
all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self. [Bg. 2.45]
Although the karma-käëòa
portions of the Vedas give direction for material aggrandizement, the Vedas are
actually meant for elevation to transcendental life. When the karma-käëòa
activities of sense gratification are finished, the chance for spiritual
realization is offered in the form of the Upaniñads.
RVL 4.4: The Upaniñads
The Upaniñads
The Upaniñads are a
collection of 108 philosophical dissertations. The word upa-ni-ñat means “sit
closely” and refers to the disciple sitting closely beside his guru in order to
receive transcendental Vedic wisdom. Thus, the Upaniñads mark the beginning of
transcendental life.
The Upaniñads’ main
contribution is that they establish the Absolute as nonmaterial. The Upaniñads
describe Brahman as eternal, unmanifest reality from which all manifestations
issue and in which they rest. Being inconceivable to material senses, Brahman
is described as nirguëa (without qualities) and rüpa (formless). In the words
of Båhad-äraëyaka Upaniñad (3.9.26), Brahman “is incomprehensible, for it is
not comprehended.”24 Thus, the wisdom of the Upaniñads clearly transcends the
karma-käëòa portions of the four Vedas, for “the religious aim is no longer the
obtaining of earthly and heavenly happiness by sacrificing correctly to the
gods, but the release, as a result of true knowledge, from rebirth by
absorption in the Brahman.”25 Although the Upaniñads emphasize meditation upon
the impersonal Brahman, they do not contradict the siddhänta epitomized in
Bhagavad-gétä; the Upaniñads do not deny that the Absolute Truth has
personality. While denying that the Godhead has material personality, the Upaniñads
do assert the Godhead’s spiritual personality. For instance, the Çvetäçvatara
Upaniñad (3.19) clearly explains that the Absolute Truth has no material legs
and hands but has spiritual hands with which He accepts everything offered to
Him; and that, similarly, Bhagavän has no material eyes, but He does have
spiritual eyes that see all. Further, although He has no material ears, He
hears all, and, possessing all-perfect spiritual senses, He knows past,
present, and future.
There are many similar
Vedic hymns establishing the Supreme Absolute Truth as a person beyond the
material world. For instance, the Hayaçérña Païcarätra explains that although
every Upaniñad first presents the Supreme Brahman as impersonal, at the end the
personal form of Bhagavän emerges. As Éça Upaniñad indicates, the Supreme
Absolute Truth is eternally both impersonal and personal. The invocation of the
Båhad-äraëyaka Upaniñad states, “That [Supreme Being] is the whole—this
[universe] is the whole. From the whole the whole comes forth.”26 Çvetäçvatara
Upaniñad (3.8) states, “I know the great Puruña, who is luminous, like the sun,
and beyond darkness.”27 The Aitareya Upaniñad (1.1.2) describes the supreme
controller as the energetic cause of the creation: “He created these worlds.…”28
The Praçna Upaniñad (6.3) corroborates. The Kaöha Upaniñad affirms, “The
Eternal among the eternals, the Consciousness among all consciousnesses …
bestows the fruits [of activities to all the] jévas.…”29
In addition to Brahman and
Bhagavän realization, the Upaniñads also speak about realization of the
intermediate, localized form, the Paramätmä (Supersoul). The Muëòaka, Çvetäçvatara,
and Kaöha Upaniñads state that within the heart of every living entity there
reside both the individual atomic jéva and the Supersoul, the Paramätmä. They
are like two birds sitting in the tree of the body. One of the birds (the
individual jéva) is eating the fruit of the tree (that is, enjoying the
senses), and the other bird (Paramätmä) is simply witnessing. The jiva’s
forgetfulness of his relationship with the Paramätmä causes him to change his
position from one tree to another (the process of transmigration). Both the Kaöha
and Çvetäçvatara Upaniñads give a further comment: Although the two birds are
in the same tree, the bird that is eating is fully engrossed as the enjoyer of
the fruits of the tree. If, in some way or other, he turns his face to his
friend, who is the Lord, and recognizes His glories, he is at once delivered
from all anxieties.30
Throughout the Upaniñads
we see that the individual jéva and the Paramätmä, the Supersoul, retain their
separate individuality, although they attain a kind of oneness when the jéva
agrees to act according to the Paramätmä’s will. Whatever the case, neither the
Supreme Paramätmä nor the individual jéva ever loses individuality. This is
important, because as we will later see, the concept of bhakti stressed in
Bhagavad-gétä is lost if the jéva becomes one with the Supreme Brahman in all
respects. In bhakti, a loving relationship develops between the individual jéva
and the Supreme Person, Bhagavän. In no instance should we confuse the jéva
with the supreme puruña. If one confuses these or attempts to merge them into
one, he loses the ultimate siddhänta of the Vedic literature.
By describing the
antimaterial quality (nirguëatva) of the Absolute, the Upaniñads prepare the
way for a proper understanding of the transcendental personality (Bhagavän) who
possesses all spiritual opulences and is the ultimate object of all meditation
and bhakti (devotion).
RVL 4.5: Vedänta-sütra
Vedänta-sütra
Vedänta-sütra consists of codes
revealing the method of understanding Vedic knowledge, and it is the most
concise form of all Vedic knowledge. According to the Väyu and Skanda Puräëas, “A
sütra is a code that expresses the essence of all knowledge in a minimum of
words. It must be universally applicable and faultless in its linguistic
presentation.”31
Scholars know the Vedänta-sütra
by a variety of names, including (1) Brahma-sütra, (2) Çäréraka, (3) Vyäsa-sütra,
(4) Bädaräyaëa-sütra, (5) Uttara-mémäàsä and (6) Vedänta-darçana. There are
four chapters (adhyäyas) in the Vedänta-sütra and four divisions (padas) in
each chapter. Thus, Vedänta-sütra is known as çoòaça-pada because it contains
sixteen divisions of codes. The theme of each division is fully described in
terms of five different subject matters (adhikaraëas), which are technically
called pratijïä, hetu, udäharaëa, upanaya, and nigamana. Every theme must
necessarily be explained with reference to pratijïä, or a solemn declaration of
the purpose of the treatise. At the beginning of the Vedänta-sütra there is the
solemn declaration of purpose, athäto brahma-jijïäsä: “Now is the time to
inquire about the Absolute Truth.” Reasons (hetu) must be expressed, examples
(udäharaëa) must be given in terms of various facts, the theme (upanaya) must
gradually be brought nearer for understanding, and finally it must be supported
by authoritative quotations (nigamana) from the Vedic çästras.
According to the great
lexicographer Hemacandra (also known as Koçakära), Vedänta comprises the
purport of the Upaniñads, which are themselves part of the Brähmaëa portions of
the Vedas.32 As Professor Apte describes in his dictionary, the Brähmaëa
portion provides the rules for employing hymns at various sacrifices and gives
detailed accounts of the hymns’ origins.33 (The mantra portion, on the other
hand, contains the hymns themselves.) So Hemacandra said that the Vedänta-sütra
forms the supplement of the Vedas. Since Veda means “knowledge,” and anta means
“the end,” Vedänta provides the proper understanding of the Vedas’ ultimate
purpose. We may again note that the Upaniñads, which are themselves parts of
the Vedas’ Brähmaëa portion, support the knowledge given in the codes of the
Vedänta-sütra.
RVL 4.6: The Histories (Itihäsas)
The Histories (Itihäsas)
The histories, or Itihäsas,
are supplementary Vedic literatures. They include the Mahäbhärata and the Puräëas.
Because the Vedic rituals are hard to understand and the Vedänta-sütra is
compressed and highly philosophical, the histories offer Vedic knowledge in the
form of stories and historical incidents. The Chändogya Upaniñad refers to the
Mahäbhärata and Puräëas as the fifth Veda.34
The Vedic äcäryas consider
the stories in the Puräëas to be actual histories, not just of this planet but
of many planets within the universe. Undoubtedly, some of the historical data
taken from other planets does not accord with life on this planet (for example,
fabulously long life spans or the ability to fly without mechanical aid). But
there is no reason for regarding the Puräëas as later additions. What may be
incomprehensible is not necessarily inauthentic. A. Embree writes, “The Puräëas
… were depicting their understanding of the universe, where the supernatural
was commonplace, miraculous births were ordinary.”35 Followers of the Puräëas
argue that considering the situations of different planets and differences in
time and circumstance, one should not find the Puräëas difficult to understand.
In other words, “It is high time that the scholars give up their prejudices and
give the Puräëas a due place as a source on ancient Indian history.”36
Advocates of the Puräëas argue that the great åñi Vyäsadeva did not inject
imaginary tales in his literature. Vyäsadeva and the great äcäryas contemporary
to and following him—Çukadeva, Süta, Maitreya, and, more recently, Rämänuja and
Madhva—accepted the Puräëas as authentic Vedic literature.
The Puräëas mainly deal
with the superhuman activities of Bhagavän and His various incarnations in
various ages. Also chronicled are the activities of the sages and devotees of
Bhagavän. Although there is no strict historical chronology to these Puranic
stories, the Vedic äcäryas do not consider them imaginary. Modern historians
look in vain for a key to understanding them, and ultimately frustrated, the
historians at last offer theories about their compilation.
The Mahäbhärata, the story
of “the greater kingdom of Bhäratavarña,” describes the history of the ancient
world empire. Comprising some 100,000 four-line stanzas, the Mahäbhärata is the
longest poem in world literature, and Vedic tradition certifies it as the work
of Vyäsadeva. This epic relates how the pious Päëòavas overthrew the demoniac
dynasty of the Kurus. The Kurus cheated the Päëòava brothers of their right to
the throne, exiled them to a forest, and on their return denied them their
land. The work centers on the ensuing eighteen-day battle between the sons of
Kuru and their cousins, the sons of Päëòu. Sometimes called the “Veda of Kåñëa,”
the Mahäbhärata highlights Bhagavän Kåñëa—especially in its main segment,
Bhagavad-gétä.
There are eighteen major
Puräëas, six composed for people in the mode of ignorance, six for those in the
mode of passion, and six for those in the mode of goodness. Of all the Puräëas,
the Bhägavata Puräëa is foremost and most widely read. Also, the Bhägavata Puräëa
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam) is considered the most direct commentary on the Vedänta-sütra,
since Vyäsadeva is the author of both.
As its main subject
matter, the Bhägavatam portrays Bhagavän Kåñëa and His associates and devotees.
The other Puräëas also delineate different methods by which one can worship the
demigods, but Bhägavatam discusses only the Supreme Bhagavän. Its opening verse
(janmädy asya yataù) corresponds to the opening verse of Vedänta-sütra and
indicates that Vyäsadeva is writing directly about the Absolute Truth, the
source of all emanations.37 Since it centers on the worship of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Bhagavän Çré Kåñëa, one may say that Çrémad-Bhägavatam
transcends the karma-käëòa sections of the Vedas (dealing with sacrifices for
material gain), the jïäna-käëòa sections (dealing with philosophical
inquiries), and the upäsanä-käëòa sections (dealing with demigod worship). Çrémad-Bhägavatam
(1.2.6) itself defines the highest path in this way: “That religion is best
which causes its followers to become ecstatic in love of God, which is
unmotivated and free from material impediments, for this only can satisfy the
self.”38
Sometimes the bhakti path
indicated by this verse draws the criticism that it is intended for those who
cannot pursue higher philosophy. But according to the Bhägavatam itself
(S1.2.12), real bhakti must be based on a realization of all Vedic literature
(in other words, bhakti must develop in pursuance of Vedänta philosophy): “The
Absolute Truth is realized by the seriously inquisitive student or sage who is well-equipped
with knowledge and who has become detached by rendering devotional service and
hearing the Vedänta-sütra.”39
As George Hart writes, “The
Bhägavata Puräëa is among the finest works of devotion ever written, being
equalled in my opinion only by other works in the Indian language.”40
Nonetheless, one must understand Çrémad-Bhägavatam in the light of Vedänta
philosophy. Vedänta-sütra explains the Absolute Truth through impeccable logic
and argument, and Çrémad-Bhägavatam is an elaborate commentary upon the Vedänta-sütra.
Generally, professional reciters of Çrémad-Bhägavatam dwell upon the räsa-lélä
section, which describes Kåñëa’s famous dance with the damsels of Våndävana.
Taken out of context, this section (Tenth Canto, Chapters 29-35) actually becomes
an obstacle to one’s understanding of Bhagavän Kåñëa and the Vedic siddhänta.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam takes up
where Bhagavad-gétä leaves off. Bhagavad-gétä affirms that if one knows about
the transcendental appearance and activities of Bhagavän Kåñëa, he can be
liberated from the cycle of birth and death. [Bg. 4.9] Çrémad-Bhägavatam begins
with the acknowledgement of Bhagavän Kåñëa as the cause of all causes and then
goes on to narrate the transcendental pastimes from Kåñëa’s appearance to His disappearance.
Thus, Çrémad-Bhägavatam is sometimes called the postgraduate study of
Bhagavad-gétä.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam centers
on Bhagavän Kåñëa as the ultimate Vedic and Vedäntic conclusion. Since only
Bhagavän Kåñëa exhibits the complete features of the Godhead, He is confirmed
as the source of all incarnations, including the expansions of Viñëu. Ete cäàça-kaläù
puàsaù kåñëas tu bhagavän sväyam—Bhagavän Kåñëa is the summum bonum. That is Bhägavatam’s
predominant theme.42 Now let us see how this siddhänta corresponds to the
teachings of the äcäryas.
RVL 5: The Teachings of the Acaryas
5. The Teachings of the Acaryas
An äcärya is a teacher of
Vedic knowledge. He imparts the teachings of the çästras and himself lives by
those teachings. For centuries the äcäryas have guided the destiny of the Vedic
culture. Generally, people trust the instructions of the Vedic äcäryas because
these teachers afford perfect examples in their own actions. In addition, the
care of the Vedic paramparä (the passing down of Vedic knowledge) has always
been entrusted to the äcäryas; therefore, they are the personal representatives
of that knowledge. Although an äcärya speaks according to the time and
circumstance in which he appears, he upholds the original conclusion, or siddhänta,
of the Vedic literature.
Çaìkara
Çaìkara (A.D. 788-820) was
a Shaivite (follower of Çiva) born in an orthodox South Indian brähmaëa family.
When still a young boy, he became an ascetic and, it appears, compiled his two
major works (Viveka-cuòämaëi and Çäréraka-bhäñya). He traveled widely over
India and died in the Himalayas at age thirty-two.
At the time Çaìkara
appeared, Buddhism had received the patronage of the Indian emperor Açoka and
had thus spread throughout India. Çaìkara sought to reform and purify religious
life by reasserting the authority of the Vedic scriptures, which Buddha had
completely rejected.
Çaìkara’s interpretation
of Vedic literature is known as advaita-vedänta (nondualistic Vedänta) because
he posited that the jéva is identical with God. Although there are many çästric
statements describing the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Person and the jévas as
His subordinate, eternal parts, Çaìkara taught that the jévas are themselves
the Absolute Truth (Parabrahman) and that there is ultimately no variety,
individuality, or personality in spiritual existence. He taught that the
supposed individuality of both the Supreme Being and the jéva is false.
In denying the plurality
of jévas, Çaìkara differed from all orthodox Vedic schools. Further, Çaìkara
held that questions about the origin of the cosmos are unanswerable and that
the nature of mäyä is inexplicable. To account for the Vedic verses describing éçvara,
the Supreme Person, as the cause of all causes, Çaìkara developed a twofold
theory of Brahman. For him, there were two aspects of Brahman—the pure
impersonal Brahman and the Brahman manifest in the universe as the Lord. In
order to arrive at this conclusion, Çaìkara reinterpreted or rejected most of
the Vedic småti, and he pointedly contradicted Bhagavad-gétä and the Puräëas by
equating jéva and Bhagavän. Ostensibly, Çaìkara accepted the authority of
Bhagavad-gétä, but his interpretations of the verses opposed the clear siddhänta
of the Gétä.
Thus, Çaìkara’s philosophy
is sometimes considered a compromise between theism and atheism. Since it would
have been impossible to restore the Vedic literature’s theistic conception just
after the Buddhists’ complete atheism, Çaìkara made a logical compromise to fit
the time and circumstance. His interpretations resemble Buddhism, but he rested
his case on the authority of Vedic literature. Çaìkara lived only thirty-two
years, but wherever in India he traveled, his philosophy prevailed and Buddhism
bowed.
Over a long Period, Çaìkara’s
Säréraka-bhäñya was for many the definitive rendition of Vedänta, and for some
scholars (notably Radhakrishnan and Moore in A Source Book in lndian
Philosophy) it remains so. Troy Organ expresses another viewpoint:
This line of thought has unfortunately
been given support by many philosophers of the West who have been advised that
nondual Vedänta is a true picture and the supreme development of Hinduism. This
must be written off as a form of special pleading of a noble and brash form of
living Hinduism.1
RVL 5.2: Rämänuja
Rämänuja
Rämänuja (A.D. 1017-1137)
was a South Indian brähmaëa who taught and traveled widely. For a time he was
the chief priest of the Vaiñëava temple of Çré Raìga, in southern India. This temple
is located on an island at the confluence of the Käveré and Kolirana rivers,
near Tricinapallé, in the district of Taïjora. Rämänuja wrote three major
commentaries: Vedärtha-saìgraha (on the Vedas), Çré-bhäñya (on Vedänta-sütra),
and Bhagavad-gétä-bhäñya (on the Bhagavad-gétä). He is best known for his
robust presentation of Vaiñëavism (worship of Viñëu, or Bhagavän) and for his
opposition to the impersonal monism of Çaìkara.
Rämänuja expounded viçiñöädvaita,
or qualified nondualism. He taught that there is a difference between
Parabrahman (Supreme Brahman) and the jévas (eternally fragmentary souls). Not
accepting Çaìkara’s elimination of the loving relationship (bhakti) between the
Supreme and the jévas, Rämänuja sought to expose Çaìkara’s philosophical
contradictions and his defiance of the Vedic siddhänta. On the other hand, Rämänuja
accepted the Vedic statements concerning the qualitative oneness of the Supreme
and the jévas. He thus presented his philosophy of qualified oneness by giving
logical reasons to show that the Absolute includes both what is changing (the
material world and the jévas caught up in saàsära) and what is changeless (the
transcendental Lord).
By way of analogy, Rämänuja
discussed the relation between the body and the soul: just as the jéva controls
his body, God controls the material world and the jévas within it; just as the
body is an instrument for the jéva, the material cosmos is an instrument for
God. After liberation, the self exists eternally in a spiritual body; whereas
the soul experiences events, the material body simply determines the kind of
experiences the soul goes through. Rämänuja also described that the body and
soul cannot be separated; either materially every living body has a self (ätmä),
or by his karma every self has a certain type of body. After liberation, the
self also exists eternally in a spiritual body. The soul experiences, but the
body doesn’t, although the body determines the kind of experiences the soul
goes through. By the analogy of inseparable body and soul, the Supreme Lord is
understood to be both Supreme Soul and the cosmos. In this way, adhering to
Vedic principles, Rämänuja explained the variegated material world as part of
the Absolute Truth. The eternal, unchanging nature of the Absolute (that is, of
the Supreme Lord) does not contradict His maintaining the changing material
world. Rämänuja taught that through God’s grace the jéva can transcend the
material world and attain the eternal abode of Viñëu.
RVL 5.3: Madhva
Madhva
Like Rämänuja, Madhva
(A.D. 1239–1319) belonged to the Vaiñëava tradition and devoted himsel= to
combating Çaìkara’s impersonal philosophy. Madhväcärya’s Pürëaprajïa-bhäñya
establishes a type of Vedänta philosophy called çuddha-dvaita (pure dualism).
In his teachings Madhva describes three entities—the Supreme Lord, the jéva,
and the material world. Even more emphatically than Rämänuja, Madhva maintained
that God and the jévas are eternally distinct. Whereas Çaìkara had described
the Lord as the material cause of the cosmos, Madhva accepted the direct
meaning of the småti-çästras and held that the Lord is transcendental to the
material world, which is the product of His inferior energy (aparä prakåti). In
other words, God is distinct from His material creation. At the same time, the
jévas are also distinct from matter, for they are the superior, spiritual
energy of the Lord.
Madhva maintained that
although the jévas are superior to matter, they are distinct from the Lord and
are His servitors. Whereas the Lord is independent, the jévas are totally
dependent on Him. Madhva taught that the Lord creates, maintains, and
annihilates the cosmos, and at the same time, in His original eternal form as
Bhagavän Kåñëa, the Lord remains superior to manifest and unmanifest matter. In
addition, Madhva explained that each person molds his own karma, and that
through bhakti one can eliminate all his karma and return to his original
position of serving the Lord in the eternal spiritual world.
Caitanya
In the late sixteenth
century, with the advent of Kåñëa Caitanya, in Bengal, Rämänuja’s and Madhva’s
theistic philosophy of Vaiñëavism (worship of Viñëu, or Bhagavän) reached its
climax. Caitanya’s philosophy of acintya-bhedäbheda-tattva completed the
progression to devotional theism. Rämänuja had agreed with Çaìkara that the
Absolute is one only, but he had disagreed by affirming individual variety
within that oneness. Madhva had underscored the eternal duality of the Supreme
and the jéva: he had maintained that this duality endures even after
liberation. Caitanya, in turn, specified that the Supreme and the jévas are “inconceivably,
simultaneously one and different” (acintya-bheda-abheda). He strongly opposed Çaìkara’s
philosophy for its defiance of Vyäsadeva’s siddhänta.
In rejecting
impersonalism, Caitanya said that it clouds the Vedic literature’s
meaningexplained the direct meaning of the çästras as devotion (bhakti) to
Bhagavän Kåñëa. Thus, Caitanya made an unprecedented contribution. Here was the
possibility of a devotional relationship between God and man. Rüpa Gosvämé, an
early disciple, described Caitanya’s unique gift: “O most munificent
incarnation! You are Kåñëa Himself appearing as Çré Kåñëa Caitanya Mahäprabhu.…
You are widely distributing pure love of Kåñëa. We offer our respectful
obeisances unto you.”2
We know more about Kåñëa
Caitanya than about the earlier äcäryas, thanks to such biographical sources as
Çré Caitanya-caritämåta (A.D. 1616), by Kåñëadäsa Kaviräja Gosvämé. Caitanya
(A.D. 1486–1534) was born in Navadvépa, Bengal. He took the renounced order
(sannyäsa) at the age of twenty-four. His spiritual master, Éçvara Puré, was a
disciple of Mädhavendra Puré who came in the line of Madhva. Caitanya’s
immediate followers (the six Gosvämés: Rüpa, Sanätana, Jéva, Gopäla Bhaööa,
Raghunätha Bhaööa and Raghunätha däsa) compiled extensive Sanskrit literatures
and thus documented Caitanya’s philosophical system according to Vedic
evidence. Himself, Caitanya wrote only eight verses, on the ecstasy of devotion
to Kåñëa. His disciples understood Caitanya to be Bhagavän Kåñëa Himself
appearing in the form of a devotee.
Some observers have
charged Caitanya with introducing an erotic element into bhakti philosophy.
What Caitanya actually taught was that the original and pure sex psychology
exists in the person of the Absolute Truth, Bhagavän Kåñëa. The pure exchange
of pleasure between the Supreme Bhagavän and His liberated servitors is
characteristic of the highest spiritual relationship. This exchange is not
tainted by mundane sex and cannot even be understood by a person still affected
by material desire. When conditioned jévas try to understand the loving affairs
of Bhagavän Kåñëa, they misconstrue Bhagavän Kåñëa as a mundane “god of love.”
Himself a sannyäsé noted for strict avoidance of women and worldly affairs,
Caitanya pointed out that the jéva’s relationship with Bhagavän Kåñëa is
eternally pure and transcendental. His personality demonstrated conjugal
longing for Kåñëa. Further, Caitanya taught that this conjugal mood is one of
five original relationships between the jévas and Bhagavän. Finally, in
Caitanya’s view anyone can attain transcendental devotion to Bhagavän (God) if
he absorbs himself in chanting Bhagavän’s names.
RVL 6: Impersonalism
Versus Theism
6. Impersonalism Versus
Theism
In his Vedänta commentary Çäréraka-bhäñya,
Çaìkara accepts the Vedic principle that beyond matter there is eternal,
spiritual existence. Yet he insists that this existence is impersonal. So, as
some have observed, Çaìkara at once accepts and rejects Vedic literature.
RVL 6.1: Basic Tenets of Çaìkara’s Vedanta Commentary:
Basic Tenets of Çaìkara’s Vedanta Commentary:
1) The Absolute Truth As
Impersonal
According to the Vaiñëava äcäryas,
the Absolute Truth would be incomplete without personality. Vedänta-sütra
proposes, athäto brahma-jijïäsä: “Let us inquire into the Absolute Truth.” Then
Vedänta-sütra defines the Absolute Truth thus: janmädy asya yataù: “The
Absolute Truth is that from which everything is emanating.” So the Vaiñëava äcäryas
deduce that the Absolute Truth, the source of all cosmic variety (living
beings, planets, space, time, and so on) must also possess the qualities that are
emanating. One such quality, of course, is personality. In other words, the
Absolute Truth, or the complete whole (oà pürëam), must possess all the
qualities of its parts.l The Vaiñëavas thus accept the threefold aspects of
Brahman, Paramätmä, and Bhagavän (as defined in Chapter Three).
However, Çaìkara portrays
the impersonal Brahman as ultimate, to the exclusion of Paramätmä and Bhagavän.
He asserts that eternal existence is devoid of form, senses, activity, and individual
consciousness. He disregards the Vedic account of a positive spiritual
relationship between the liberated jéva and the Supreme Brahman, Parameçvara.
Some Çaìkarites maintain
that a novice may think of the Absolute Truth as a person to facilitate
meditation. In any case, Çaìkarites maintain that ultimately Brahman is
formless. For Çaìkara and the Çaìkarites, the empirical world is an illusion,
and Brahman alone is truth. Çaìkara advertised nirguëa (qualityless) Brahman as
the only reality, but even the Upaniñads, which stress the impersonal Brahman,
affirm the spiritual form, name, and personality of the Absolute Truth.
In Bhagavad-gétä Bhagavän
Kåñëa affirms that He is the source of everything material and spiritual and
that Brahman rests in Him.2 The Çaìkarites interpret the aham (“I”) of
Bhagavad-gétä to refer to the impersonal Brahman, but the Vaiñëava theists
contend that aham directly refers to the person Bhagavän. In other words, aham
has a specific meaning and is not a vague term subject to interpretation.
Whereas the Vaiñëava
followers of Vedänta embrace the philosophical method called mukhya-våtti
(explanation by direct meaning), the Çaìkarite philosophers employ the method
called gauna-våtti (explanation by indirect meaning). Mukhya-våtti means exact
dictionary definition, whereas gauna-våtti, when misapplied, degenerates into
word jugglery. The Vaiñëavas argue that if one accepts the Vedic authority on
its own terms (as emanating from Näräyaëa Himself), there will be no scope for
fanciful interpretation or indirect meaning. They consider the Vedic çästras to
be apauruñeya, above the four defects of illusion, error, and so on; but Çaìkara
boldly implies that in some of Vedänta-sütra’s codes, Vyäsadeva betrays a poor
understanding of logic and grammar. On this basis, Çaìkara changes prefixes and
suffixes in the original codes in order to make them consistent with the
philosophy of Çäréraka-bhäñya.
The Çaìkarites try to
negate material distress by merging with Brahman and extinguishing individual
existence. Thus, according to the Vaiñëava theists, the Çaìkarites deny the jéva
the opportunity to enjoy eternal variegated pleasure on the spiritual platform.
For Çaìkara, after one becomes free from all material desires and realizes his
spiritual identity he can merge with Brahman. According to the Vaiñëava
theists, the jéva cannot remain merged in Brahman eternally. Äruhya kåcchreëa
paraà padaà tataù patanty adho ’nädåta-yuñmad-aìghrayaù: Although by severe
austerities impersonalist philosophers attain liberation from material
activities and rise to Brahman, they must come down again to the material world
due to having imperfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth.3 The Vaiñëavas contend
that because the personal identity of the jéva is eternal, the jéva must either
take up personal relationships birth after birth in material bodies or
transcend material life and reestablish himself in his eternal personal
relationship with the Supreme Bhagavän. In other words, the Vaiñëavas contend
that eternal mokña is not possible outside one’s personal relationship with the
Supreme Bhagavän.
2) Ätmä and Brahman Are
One
Çaìkara gave great
emphasis to the Sanskrit phrase tat tvam asi (“You are that also”), which
alludes to the jéva’s qualitative oneness with the Supreme. To support his
monistic interpretation, Çaìkara concluded that the living entity (ätmä or jéva)
is equal in every respect to the Supreme Brahman. He therefore defined
liberation (mokña) in terms of the jéva’s abandonment of his illusory sense of
individuality and his subsequent merging into Brahman. Vedic literature does
affirm that the jéva is not the body and that the sense of material
individuality is due to mäyä’s influence. All transcendentalists proclaim ahaà
brahmäsmi: “I am not the body; I am spirit soul,” as stated in the Båhad-äraëyaka
Upaniñad (1.4.10). The theists, however, maintain that although the jéva is
spirit, he is not identical in all ways with the all-pervading, omniscient
Parabrahman. They maintain that although all jévas are Brahman, Bhagavän is the
principal eternal amongst eternals (nityo nityänäm) and is beyond both the
fallible and infallible.4 This is the philosophy of acintya-bhedäbheda-tattva,
simultaneous oneness and difference. For the theist, the jévas are one in
quality with the Supreme Brahman, but His quantity is infinite and theirs
infinitesimal.
Çaìkara posited that all
such distinctions are products of illusion and are false because the only truth
is Brahman, the impersonal Absolute. Vaiñëava theists maintain that to
substantiate this point, Çaìkara repeatedly defied the çästric siddhänta.
Madhva elaborated the eternal distinction between the finite spirit soul and
the Supreme Spirit and contested the theory of an impersonal Absolute in great
detail. Rämänuja likened the supreme éçvara to a great fire and all the
individual jévas to sparks in that fire. The theists maintain that the Vedic
literature makes a clear distinction between the jévas and the Supreme, who are
one in quality but not in quantity. The Vaiñëavas liken the individual jéva to
a gold earring made of gold but at the same time distinct from the reservoir of
gold, the gold mine. The theists maintain that Bhagavän Kåñëa proclaims
eternal, spiritual individuality in Bhagavad-gétä when He tells Arjuna, “Never
was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the
future shall any of us cease to be.” [Bg. 2.12]
The Vaiñëavas also
maintain that bliss (änanda) cannot exist outside a relationship. The Vedänta-sütra
(1.1.12) states änandamayo ’bhyäsät, which intimates that the Supreme Absolute
is blissful in His loving exchanges with His parts and parcels. Richard Lannoy
writes, “According to the bhakti mystics, perfect identity of ätman with
Brahman in a state of pure isolation precludes the further possibility of a
relation of love to God and can only lead to a condition of spiritual
sterility.”6
Çaìkara also encouraged
worshiping the deity form of various demigods (five in particular) for
realizing the ultimate equality of the living being and the Supreme Lord. By
worshiping a form composed of material energy, Çaìkara believed, one could
realize the quality of Brahman behind the various forms. For Çaìkara, worship
was a passing process meant to elevate one to impersonal unity. Of course, the
Vaiñëava theists reject this position. They believe that one cannot equate the
Supreme Bhagavän with the demigods or with one’s own self (ätmä). They
distinguish between worship of the self, worship of the demigods, and worship
of the Supreme Bhagavän. They cite the twelfth and thirteenth mantras of Éça
Upaniñad to substantiate this position.7
The Vaiñëava theists argue
that if the ätmä were actually the same as the Supreme, the ätmä could never
fall into the illusion of material identity. In other words, “If I am Brahman,
the greatest, why am I covered by ignorance?” Since the Vedic literatures do
not admit that the Supreme is subject to such delusion, the Vaiñëava theists
call the Çaìkarites Mäyävädés, indicating that they have inadvertently stated
that mäyä (illusion) covers the potency of the Supreme. The theists maintain
that it is impossible for the Supreme Bhagavän to be illusioned.
3) The Theory of
Emanations Denied
Çaìkara denied that the
Absolute Truth is the source of the material cosmos. In his refutation of Vyäsadeva’s
original pariëäma-väda (the theory of the emanation of all existences from the
Supreme Brahman), Çaìkara said that if the Absolute Truth expanded into the jévas,
the universes, and all-pervading souls, His original nature would change. Since
the Absolute Truth must be changeless, He cannot expand into different
energies. In other words, if one tears a piece of paper into many pieces, the
paper no longer exists as an individual entity. The Vaiñëava theists counter by
citing the acintya-çakti, the inconceivable potencies of the Absolute.
According to the Vedic version, the Supreme possesses inconceivable potencies
by which He can distribute Himself throughout the universe as all-pervasive
energy and yet remain the complete whole. In the words of Éça Upaniñad, “Because
He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him,
He remains the complete balance.”8
The Vaiñëava äcäryas
maintain that the Supreme Brahman must exist both as infinite whole and also as
finite parts. If He were only infinite, He could not be perfectly complete to
reciprocate with His parts in transcendental bliss. If the puruña were formless
and one, He would be like a king without subjects. Thus, the Vaiñëava äcäryas
hold that the Supreme Bhagavän is the energetic source of all energies (janmädy
asya) and that His energies are constantly changing, or transforming. Through
his indirect interpretation, Çaìkara contended that if the Absolute Truth were
in any way transformed, His oneness would be no more. The Vaiñëava theists
point out that Çaìkara contradicts Vyäsadeva: according to the latter’s
version, it is the by-product or energy of the Supreme that is transformed, and
not the Supreme; the Supreme always remains whole and complete. Thus, in the
Vaiñëava view, Çaìkara’s alteration of the theory of emanations was an attempt
to establish impersonalism by discrediting the Vedic conception.
4) The Theory of Illusion
Çaìkara substituted for
pariëäma-väda his own vivarta-väda, or theory of illusion. Maintaining that the
material world has no reality, he stated brahma satyaà jagan mithyä: “Brahman
is real; the universe is false.” Çaìkarites often give the example that seeing
the world as real is like mistaking a rope for a snake, but Vaiñëavas object
that the nonreality of the material cosmos is not substantiated by Vedic çästra.
In Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa explicitly states that material nature is His “divine
energy” and is under His control. Practically speaking, the conditioned soul
has to deal with the material world; he cannot simply say that it does not
exist. For the Vaiñëavas, the universe has a dual purpose. The jévas can enjoy
their senses under the spell of mäyä, and eventually they can see their folly,
reform, attain liberation, and finally return to their spiritual nature. The
material world is a stage for this drama. It is real in that it is the energy
of the Supreme, and it is illusory in that it is temporary. A mirage presupposes
the existence of real water. A rope mistaken for a snake presupposes the
existence of a real snake. The conditioned jévas mistakenly consider the
material world their real home, but the Vaiñëavas maintain that their eternal
home of friendship and love is the spiritual world of the Supreme Bhagavänhis Gétä-bhäñya,
Çaìkara himself called Bhagavän Kåñëa transcendental to the material cosmos (näräyaëaù
paro ’vyaktät). But rallying around the theory of illusion and virtually
rejecting the supremacy of Bhagavän, the Çaìkarites (Mäyävädés) have created a
subtle form of atheism garbed as Vedic knowledge.
Although the Çaìkarites do
not accept the original Vedänta-sütra without Çaìkara’s commentaries, there are
a number of other major commentaries to Vedänta, including those of Rämänuja
and Madhva and the acintya-bhedäbheda-tattva of Caitanya. Apart from these, as
the Vaiñëavas point out, the most direct commentary on Vedänta-sütra comes from
its author, Vyäsadeva. That is the Bhägavata Puräëa. Supportive evidence is
found in the Garuòa Puräëa: sarva-vedänta-säraà hi çré-bhägavatam iñyate.
RVL 6.2: The Real Çaìkara
The Real Çaìkara
The Padma Puräëa discloses
that Çaìkara is an incarnation of Lord Çiva. In that work, Lord Çiva makes this
intimation to his wife Pärvaté:
My dear wife, hear my
explanations of how I have spread ignorance through Mäyäväda philosophy. Simply
by hearing it, even an advanced scholar will fall down. In this philosophy,
which is certainly very inauspicious for people in general, I have
misrepresented the real meaning of the Vedas and recommended that one give up
all activities in order to achieve freedom from karma. In this Mäyäväda
philosophy I have described the jévätmä and Paramätmä to be one and the same.
The Mäyäväda philosophy is impious. It is covered Buddhism. My dear Pärvaté, in
the form of a brähmaëa in Kali-yuga I teach this imagined Mäyäväda philosophy.
In order to cheat the atheists, I describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead
to be without form and without qualities. Similarly, in explaining Vedänta I
describe the same Mäyäväda philosophy in order to mislead the entire population
toward atheism by denying the personal form of the Lord.9
Naturally, the question
arises, “Why would Lord Çiva do such a thing?” According to the çästras, he was
simply following orders. In the Çiva Puräëa, the Supreme Bhagavän told Lord Çiva,
“In Kali-yuga, mislead the people in general by propounding imaginary meanings
from the Vedas to bewilder them.”10
Thus, the Vedas indicate, Çaìkara
took up the impersonalist guise so that he could discharge the duty given him
by the Supreme Lord: to discredit the Buddhists and to reassert Vedic
authority. Within his lifetime, Çaìkara revealed a number of times that he was
actually a highly advanced devotee of the Supreme Bhagavän. He never denied the
spiritual form known as sac-cid-änanda-vigraha, the eternal, all-blissful form
of knowledge existing before the material creation. Indeed, in the very first
verse of his Gétä-bhäñya, he asserts that Näräyaëa, the Supreme Bhagavän, is
transcendental to the material creation. In his Meditation on the Bhagavad-gétä,
he writes, namo ’stu te vyäsa: “Salutations to thee, O Vyäsa. Thou art of
mighty intellect, and thine eyes are as large as the petals of the full-blown
lotus. It was thou who brightened this lamp of wisdom, filling it with the oil
of the Mahäbhärata.”11 He describes Bhagavän Kåñëa as the guru of the universe
and teacher of all the worlds and offers his obeisances, kåñëäya gitämåta-duhe
namaù: “Salutations to thee, O Supreme Lord, for Thou art the milker of the
ambrosia of the Gétä.’’12 As Çaìkara also points out, vedaiù säìga-pada-kramopaniñädaiù:
it is Bhagavän Kåñëa “whose glories are sung by the verses of the Vedas, of
whom the singers of the Säma sing, and of whose glories the Upaniñads proclaim
in full choir.”13
There are also a number of
works, such as Prayers for Kåñëa, in which Çaìkara discloses his knowledge of
bhakti-yoga in relation to Bhagavän. One of his last statements has become
famous:
bhaja govindaà bhaja
govindaà
bhaja govindaà müòha-mate
sampräpte sannihite käle
na hi
na hi rakñati òukåì-karaëe
He is saying, “You
intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda.
Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not save you at the time of
death.” This was Çaìkara’s last advice; it was for all those who would become
confused by intellectual wrangling and miss the actual Vedic siddhänta.
7. The Vedic Social Philosophy
RVL 7.1: Hinduism
Hinduism
As Ainslee T. Embree has
noted, the words “Hindu” and “Hinduism” are not found in the Vedic literature:
The physical setting is the
land known to the Western world since ancient times as India, a word borrowed
by the Greeks from the Persians, who, because of the difficulty they had with
the initial “s” called the great Sindhu River (the modern Indus) the “Hindu.”
It was this word that came to be applied by foreigners to the religion and
culture of the people who lived in the land watered by the two rivers, the
Indus and the Ganges, although the people themselves did not use the term.1
Of course, “Hindu” and “Hinduism”
have come into very wide use, and every dictionary defines Viñëu as “the Hindu
god,” although no äcärya or scripture ever used the word. “Hindu religion” is
also the name applied to describe all kinds of social, cultural, nationalistic,
and religious activities, many of which are non-Vedic. To denote genuine Vedic
society, the çästras use the word “Aryan.” For the followers of the Vedas,
human advancement meant advancing toward spiritual realization, and a community
with spiritual goals was known as an Aryan community. The Aryan social
institution became known as varëäçrama-dharma, which arranges society in eight
groupings. We shall now examine Vedic social philosophy in the practical terms
of varëäçrama-dharma.
The God-centered Society
Sociologist Pitirim
Sorokin might describe varëäçrama society in his own terminology as an “ideational
culture,” that is, a culture whose world view is primarily metaphysical instead
of sensate or sensual. The first mantra of Iça Upaniñad provides this
ideational culture’s basic idea:
Everything animate or
inanimate within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should
therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside
as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they
belong.2
This is the motto of the éçäväsya,
God-centered, society. Éça refers to the Supreme Absolute Person, Bhagavän.
According to this view,
the jévas do not own anything. Nor can the community or state assume ownership.
As Éça Upaniñad explains, nature has designated for each species an allotment
ample both for survival and for peace and happiness. By instinct, animals
adhere to these natural regulations in their eating, sleeping, mating, and
defending, but human beings have the unique propensity to enjoy and possess
things beyond their natural allotment. The Vedas direct man to follow the
natural regulations. Varëäçrama-dharma upholds that by divine arrangement
everyone will receive his necessities, and that there will be no scarcity,
provided that humanity lives in its natural, sane condition.
Houston Smith points out
that religions have to become socially active if they are to remain relevant,
but that they must not break away from “religion’s earlier concerns” if they
are to remain religious.3 According to the conception of éçäväsya, found in Éça
Upaniñad, both material needs and transcendental aspirations find fulfillment
in a God-centered society. There was no problem of hunger or unemployment under
the rule of the Vedic räjarñis (saintly kings), nor was there heavy
industrialization that created artificial needs. The goal of the éçäväsya
society was not merely peaceful material life but full opportunity for all to
attain liberation from saàsära.
RVL 7.3: Dharma—Artha—Käma—Mokña
Dharma—Artha—Käma—Mokña
Vedic literature
prescribes religion (dharma), economic development (artha), sense gratification
(käma), and liberation (mokña). A society is not considered civilized if it
does not pursue these goals in a regulated fashion. The Bhägavata Puräëa (S.B.
4.22.34) clarifies:
Those who strongly desire
to cross the ocean of nescience must not associate with the modes of ignorance
[tamas] because hedonistic activities are the greatest obstructions to
realization of religious principles, economic development, regulated sense
gratification and, at last, liberation. The Vedic literature describes eating,
sleeping, mating, and defending as being common to the human being and the
animal. Dharma, however, is the human being’s special prerogative. 4
Those who desire material
gain execute pious activities and perform religious functions recommended in
the Vedas. Petitioning God for material benefit may not be pure bhakti, but it
is a common phenomenon. The Vedas encourage recognition of Bhagavän’s
proprietorship, and artha, economic development, as the goal of religion in the
material context. Economic gain is necessary for increased sense gratification
(käma), and liberation from material life (mokña) becomes attractive when one
is disillusioned with the temporary happiness of sense gratification. Of the
four activities, liberation is considered most important. “Out of the four
principles—namely, religion, economic development, sense gratification, and
liberation—liberation has to be taken very seriously. The other three are
subject to destruction by the stringent law of nature—death.”5
RVL 7.4: Varëäçrama-dharma
Varëäçrama-dharma
The Vedic literature
confirms that varëäçrama-dharma has been existing since time immemorial. It
proceeds not from man but from Bhagavän Kåñëa Himself, who states in Bhagavad-gétä,
cätur-varëyam mayä såñöaà guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù: “According to the three modes
of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human
society were created by Me.” [Bg. 4.13] In other words, the varëäçrama system
has existed from the dawn of civilization. The Viñëu Puräëa explains further:
varëäçramäcäravatä
puruñeëa paraù pumän
viñëur ärädhyate panthä
nänyat tat-toña-käraëam
“The Supreme Personality
of Godhead, Lord Viñëu, is worshiped by the proper execution of prescribed
duties in the system of varëa and äçrama. There is no other way to satisfy the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. One must be situated in the institution of the
four varëas and äçramas” (Viñëu Puräëa 3.8.9).7
The four varëas (social
orders) include (1) the brähmaëas, teachers and spiritual advisors; (2) the kñatriyas,
administrators and warriors; (3) the vaisyas, farmers and businessmen; and (4)
the çüdras, laborers and craftsmen. These varëas are not political or social
factions; they are natural categories to be found in every human civilization.
According to the Vedic
conception, in every community throughout the world there are intellectuals
(those motivated by goodness, or sattva-guëa), militarists and politicians
(those motivated by passion, or rajo-guëa), farmers and businessmen (those
motivated by both passion and ignorance), and common laborers (those motivated
by ignorance, or tamo-guëa). The advocates of varëäçrama-dharma maintain that
although the system may deteriorate into hereditary casteism, its original form
emanates from the Supreme Bhagavän and is therefore sound and congenial. In
fact, society becomes successful only when these natural orders cooperate for
spiritual realization. The Bhägavata Puräëa (S.B. 1.2.13) says this: “it is
therefore concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve, by discharging
his prescribed duties [dharma] according to caste divisions and order of life,
is to please the Lord Hari [the Supreme Bhagavän].”8
In addition to the four
varëas, there are four äçramas, or spiritual orders. These are (1) brahmacarya
(celibate student life), (2) gåhastha (married householder life), (3) vänaprastha
(retired life), and (4) sannyäsa (renounced life).
The Aryans regarded the
varëäçrama institution as the ideal material instrument by which mankind could
rise to the spiritual platform. If everyone pleased God by his occupational
service, there would be peace and prosperity in society, and the individual
could finally attain mokña. As varëäçrama-dharma exists in its present corrupt
form in India, people claim to be brähmaëas and kñatriyas by birth alone, even
though they may not personally possess the qualities of brähmaëas or kñatriyas
In Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa specifically states that He created the four orders
according to guëa and karma, not according to birth. By these criteria, it is
safe to say that in the present age of Kali a pure varëäçrama-dharma society
has not yet existed.
According to the Vedic
literature, in ages past the varëäçrama-dharma was not simply a token
conception but a worldwide system. Its most important ingredient for success
was a strong, pious king who accepted advice from the brähmaëas. The Vedic
histories relate that kings such as Påthu, Prahläda, Dhruva, Rämacandra, Yudhiñöhira
and Parékñit ruled ideally for thousands of years. But, as foretold in the çästras,
the present age of Kali has corrupted the pure varëäçrama-dharma outlined in
the Vedic literature.
RVL 7.5: Duties in the
Four Social Orders
Duties in the Four Social
Orders
In the Vedic conception,
the social body is analogous to the human body, or to the body of éçvara
(Bhagavän). Accordingly, the brähmaëas are the head, the kñatriyas the arms,
the vaiçyas the waist, and the çüdras the legs. In the social body, as in any
other body, all parts are important, and no one neglects any part, yet the
brain is especially important because it delivers information to the other
parts.
Among the brahminical
qualities, the çästras mention control of the mind and the senses, tolerance,
simplicity, cleanliness, knowledge, truthfulness, devotion, and faith in the
Vedic wisdom. The brähmaëas were teachers of all departments of Vedic
knowledge, priests of Vedic functions, and recipients of charity. There is
nothing in these descriptions to support Max Weber’s view that the brähmaëa was
“similar … to the ancient sorcerer.”9 Weber creates an occult, primitive aura
around the brähmaëa, whom he consistently described as using “magic” and “charisma.”10
According to varëäçrama
philosophy, the brähmaëa was not a strange, spell-casting wizard but a
gentleman of perfect behavior and genuine spiritual knowledge. Lannoy has this
to say:
The spiritually perfected
individual, however, is probably as widely idealized in India today as he ever
was, even if few live up to the model. Nothing of comparable mass appeal has
replaced him as the symbolic hub of the social wheel.11
Bhagavad-gétä also
outlines the duties of the kñatriya (warrior and administrator): “Heroism,
power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity and
leadership.…” [Bg. 18.43] The kñatriyas protected the helpless and gave gifts
in charity. Although they were learned in the çästras, they never assumed the
position of teachers. Their duty was to fight for a righteous cause. In
Bhagavad-gétä, for instance, Arjuna did not want to fight, but Kåñëa urged him
to fight because it was his duty as a kñatriya.
The çästra also describes
the duties of the vaiçyas and çüdras: “Farming, protection of cows, and
business are the qualities of work for the vaiçyas, and for the çüdras, there
is labor and service to others.” [Bg. 18.44] According to Vedic çästra, the cow
is associated with Bhagavän Kåñëa and His pastimes and is also one of man’s
seven mothers. Therefore, by Aryan standards cow-killing is barbaric. As a king
protects his human subjects, the vaiçyas protect the cows. The vaiçya is
primarily an agriculturalist who raises grains and vegetables in village farms
and tends cow herds. Vedic society was not advanced in industry and
urbanization. According to the Vedic conception, one can live happily with a
little land for growing his grains and grazing his cows. In this way, one’s
economic problems are solved. For the vaiçyas, wealth meant not money but cows,
grain, butter, and milk. Apparently these people were accustomed to jewelry,
fine clothing, and even gold, and they often exchanged these things for
agricultural products.
The çüdras rendered
service to the other three classes. Çüdras were men without propensities for
intellectual, military, or mercantile life. Nonetheless, in Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa
assures that every social order can attain the supreme goal: “Those who take
shelter in Me, although they may be of lower birth—women, vaiçyas [merchants]
as well as çüdras [workers]—can approach the supreme destination.’’ [Bg. 9.32]
According to his karma,
the jéva attains a body situated in the modes of nature. Spiritually, the caste
distinctions—as well as all other material distinctions—do not exist. At the
same time, such material distinctions enable everyone in society to engage fully
in serving and satisfying the Supreme Bhagavän.
RVL 7.6: Duties in the Four Spiritual Orders
Duties in the Four Spiritual Orders
The first order one enters
is brahmacarya, celibate student life. According to the Vedic teacher Yäjïavalkya,
“The vow of brahmacarya helps one to abstain from sex indulgence in works,
words, and mind—at all times, under all circumstances, and in all places.”
Therefore, one observes brahmacarya from childhood, when he has no knowledge of
sex. At age five, children go to gurukula, the residence of the spiritual
master, and the master trains them in the strict discipline of brahmacarya.
Brahmacäré training forms
one’s character for his whole life. During these early years, the spiritual
master takes note of the student’s propensities and determines the varëa for
which he is best suited. When a boy reaches twenty-five, he may leave brahmacäré
life and the protection of the spiritual master in order to get married and
take up household life. The idea is that, having undergone brahmacäré training,
he will in no circumstance become the victim of unrestricted sex.
The Vedic moralist Cäëakya
Paëòita says that the educated man sees every woman except his own wife as his
mother, he sees others’ property as garbage in the street, and he treats
everyone as he would like to be treated himself.
In the Vedic conception,
restriction of sex is vital, because the sex drive is the most binding material
desire. Because of sex attachment, one returns to the material world and
undergoes material miseries in lifetime after lifetime. To be sure, the varëäçrama
system does accommodate the jéva’s deep-rooted desire for sense gratification.
In essence, the varëäçrama system provides a life pattern in which one can
satisfy his desires and in which also, through regulation, one can gradually
detach himself from material bondage.
The gåhastha (householder)
has some license for sense pleasure not allowed in the other three äçramas, but
everything is regulated so that he can fulfill his desires and yet become
spiritually purified. In a gåhastha marriage, sex is allowed only for producing
good children. Although the gåhastha-äçrama provides license for sex pleasure,
the Vedas enjoin that one should not become a mother or father unless one can
free his dependents from death. Purification of the child’s existence begins at
the time of conception in the mother’s womb. In the garbhädhäna-saàskära
ritual, the parents express their intention to beget a child, and they perform
a ceremony to purify their consciousness prior to conception.
The third äçrama is called
vänaprastha, or retired life. Even if one is ideally situated in the gåhastha-äçrama,
one is advised to free oneself from all family connection at the age of fifty
in order to prepare for the next life. Vänaprastha is an intermediate stage
between gåhastha life and complete renunciation. In the vänaprastha-äçrama, the
husband and wife discontinue sexual relations, but the wife may remain with the
husband as his assistant. Ideally, they travel together to holy places of
pilgrimage such as Hardwar, Håñékeça, Våndävana, and Puré. By traveling to
these sanctified places, the vänaprasthas become detached from their home,
family, and business affairs. Finally, the man breaks all family connections
and takes up sannyäsa, the renounced order.
The sannyäsé is the
spiritual master of all the varëas and äçramas, and one who follows the Vedic
injunctions is duty-bound to show him respect. Because he is the embodiment of
renunciation, the sannyäsé is held in the highest esteem. If one is prepared to
take sannyäsa, he approaches a sannyäsé and asks to receive the renounced order
by Vedic ceremony. After he formally takes sannyäsa, he shaves his head, wears
simple saffron robes, and carries a sannyäsé’s staff (daëòa). He is considered
civilly dead, and his wife, left in the charge of her older children,
officially becomes a widow.
However, family ties are
so strong that the new sannyäsé is first allowed to live in a cottage some
distance from his home and accept food sent by his family. Hence, kuöécaka is
the first of the four progressive stages of sannyäsa (kuöécaka means “one who
lives in a cottage”). In the second stage (bahüdaka) one no longer accepts food
from home, but goes to another village to preach Vedic knowledge. At this time
he secures his meals by begging from door to door. In the third stage (parivräjakäcärya)
the sannyäsé places himself completely at the mercy of the Supreme Bhagavän and
travels extensively to give spiritual instruction to whomever he meets. In the
final stage (paramahaàsa, or “swanlike man”) one has completely realized
himself as the eternal servant of the Supreme Bhagavän and is able to instruct
others in the art of bhakti-yoga, love of God.
The sannyäsé who remains
alone and constantly meditates on the Supreme Bhagavän is called bhajanänandé.
The sannyäsé who accepts disciples is called goñöhy-änandé. Of the goñöhy-änandé
sannyäsé, Bhagavän Kåñëa makes this appraisal: “For one who explains the
supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the
end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me
than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.” [Bg. 18.68-69]
Taking into account people’s
various positions in the modes of material nature, varëäçrama-dharma provides a
scientific arrangement to elevate everyone. The ultimate goal of Vedic culture
is surrender to the Supreme Bhagavän, and this surrender is the siddhänta
governing Vedic literature and tradition.
RVL 8: Readings: ÇRÉ ÉÇA UPANIÑAD
8. ÇRÉ ÉÇA UPANIÑAD
INVOCATION. The
Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely
perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly
equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also
complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many
complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
1. Everything animate or
inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One
should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set
aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to
whom they belong.
2. One may aspire to live
for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that
sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to
this way for man.
3. The killer of the soul,
whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the
faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.
4. Although fixed in His
abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all
others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one
place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in
excellence.
5. The Supreme Lord walks
and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within
everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
6. He who sees everything
in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all entities as His parts and parcels
and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything, never hates any thing nor any
being.
7. One who always sees all
living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a
true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?
8. Such a person must
factually know the greatest of all, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond
reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher
who has been fulfilling everyone’s desire since time immemorial.
9. Those who engage in the
culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of
ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
10. The wise have
explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a
different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.
11. Only one who can learn
the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can
transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessing
of immortality.
12. Those who are engaged
in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and
still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.
13. It is said that one
result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that
another result is obtained by worshiping that which is not supreme. All this is
heard from the undisturbed authorities who clearly explained it.
14. One should know
perfectly the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental name, as well as
the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and
animalsWhen one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic
manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal
life of bliss and knowledge.
15. O my Lord, sustainer
of all that lives, Your face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Please
remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.
16. O my Lord, O primeval
philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of
the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind—please remove the
effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You
are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.
17. Let this temporary
body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of
air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and, because You are
the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.
18. O my Lord, powerful as
fire, omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances and fall on the ground at
Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and, since
You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to
my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.
RVL 9: Readings: BHAGAVAD-GÉTÄ
9. BHAGAVAD-GÉTÄ
RVL 9.1: Observing the Armies
on the Battlefield of Kurukñetra
1/ Observing the Armies
on the Battlefield of Kurukñetra
Comparing the opposing
armies.
1. Dhåtaräñöra said: O Saïjaya,
after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at
Kurukñetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?
2. Saïjaya said: O King,
after looking over the army arranged in military formation by the sons of Päëòu,
King Duryodhana went to his teacher and spoke the following words.
3. O my teacher, behold
the great army of the sons of Päëòu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent
disciple the son of Drupada.
4. Here in this army are
many heroic bowmen equal in fighting to Bhéma and Arjuna: great fighters like
Yuyudhäna, Viräöa and Drupada.
5. There are also great
heroic, powerful fighters like Dhåñöaketu, Cekitäna, Käçiräja, Purujit, Kuntébhoja
and Çaibya.
6. There are the mighty
Yudhämanyu, the very powerful Uttamaujä, the son of Subhadrä and the sons of
Draupadé. All these warriors are great chariot fighters.
7. But for your information,
O best of the brähmaëas, let me tell you about the captains who are especially
qualified to lead my military force.
8. There are personalities
like you, Bhéñma, Karëa, Kåpa, Açvatthämä, Vikarëa and the son of Somadatta
called Bhüriçravä, who are always victorious in battle.
9. There are many other
heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. All of them are
well equipped with different kinds of weapons, and all are experienced in
military science.
10. Our strength is immeasurable,
and we are perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhéñma, whereas the strength of
the Päëòavas, carefully protected by Bhéma, is limited.
11. All of you must now
give full support to Grandfather Bhéñma, as you stand at your respective
strategic points of entrance into the phalanx of the army.
12. Then Bhéñma, the great
valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew
his conchshell very loudly, making a sound like the roar of a lion, giving
Duryodhana joy.
13. After that, the
conchshells, drums, bugles, trumpets and horns were all suddenly sounded, and
the combined sound was tumultuous.
14. On the other side,
both Lord Kåñëa and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses,
sounded their transcendental conchshells .
15. Lord Kåñëa blew His
conchshell, called Päïcajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhéma, the
voracious eater and performer of herculean tasks, blew his terrific conchshell,
called Pauëòra.
16–18. King Yudhiñöhira,
the son of Kunté, blew his conchshell, the Anantavijaya, and Nakula and
Sahadeva blew the Sughoña and Maëipuñpaka. That great archer the King of Käçé,
the great fighter Çikhandé, Dhrñöadyumna, Viräöa, the unconquerable Sätyaki,
Drupada, the sons of Draupadé, and the others, O King, such as the mighty-armed
son of Subhadrä, all blew their respective conchshells.
19. The blowing of these
different conchshells became uproarious. Vibrating both in the sky and on the
earth, it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhåtaräñöra.
20. At that time Arjuna,
the son of Päëòu, seated in the chariot bearing the flag marked with Hanumän,
took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows. O King, after looking at the
sons of Dhåtaräñöra drawn in military array, Arjuna then spoke to Lord Kåñëa
these words.
Arjuna overwhelmed,
refuses to fight, and gives his reasons.
21–22. Arjuna said: O
infallible one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see
those present here who desire to fight and with whom I must contend in this great
trial of arms.
23. Let me see those who
have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhåtaräñöra.
24. Saïjaya said: O
descendant of Bharata, having thus been addressed by Arjuna, Lord Kåñëa drew up
the fine chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties.
25. In the presence of Bhéñma,
Droëa and all the other chieftains of the world, the Lord said: Just behold, Pärtha,
all the Kurus assembled here.
26. There Arjuna could
see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers,
teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his
fathers-in-law and well-wishers.
27. When the son of Kunté,
Arjuna, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives, he became
overwhelmed with compassion and spoke thus.
28. Arjuna said: My dear Kåñëa,
seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I
feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.
29. My whole body is
trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gäëòéva is slipping from my hand,
and my skin is burning.
30. I am now unable to
stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I see
only causes of misfortune, O Kåñëa, killer of the Keçi demon.
31. I do not see how any
good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Kåñëa,
desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.
32–35. O Govinda, of what
avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for
whom we may desire them are now arrayed on this battlefield? O Madhusüdana,
when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law,
grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives are ready to give up their lives
and properties and are standing before me, why should I wish to kill them, even
though they might otherwise kill me? O maintainer of all living entities, I am
not prepared to fight with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let
alone this earth. What pleasure will we derive from killing the sons of Dhåtaräñöra?
36. Sin will overcome us
if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons
of Dhåtaräñöra and our friends. What should we gain, O Kåñëa, husband of the
goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?
37–38. O Janärdana,
although these men, their hearts overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing
one’s family or quarreling with friends, why should we, who can see the crime
in destroying a family, engage in these acts of sin?
39. With the destruction
of dynasty, the eternal family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of
the family becomes involved in irreligion.
40. When irreligion is
prominent in the family, O Kåñëa, the women of the family become polluted, and from
the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Våñëi, comes unwanted progeny.
41. An increase of
unwanted population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for
those who destroy the family tradition. The ancestors of such corrupt families
fall down, because the performances for offering them food and water are
entirely stopped.
42. By the evil deeds of
those who destroy the family tradition and thus give rise to unwanted children,
all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are devastated
43. O Kåñëa, maintainer of
the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those who destroy family
traditions dwell always in hell.
44. Alas, how strange it
is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts; driven by the desire to
enjoy royal happiness, we are intent on killing our own kinsmen.
45. Better for me if the
sons of Dhåtaräñöra, weapons in hand, were to kill me unarmed and unresisting
on the battlefield.
46. Saïjaya said: Arjuna, having
thus spoken on the battlefield, cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on
the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief.
2/ Contents of the Gétä Summarized
Arjuna surrenders to Kåñëa
for instruction.
1. Saïjaya said: Seeing
Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusüdana,
Kåñëa, spoke the following words.
2. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They
are not at all befitting a man who knows the value of life. They lead not to
higher planets but to infamy.
3. O son of Påthä, do not
yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty
weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy.
4. Arjuna said: O killer
of enemies, O killer of Madhu, how can I counterattack with arrows in battle
men like Bhéñma and Droëa, who are worthy of my worship?
5. It would be better to
live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great
souls who are my teachers. Even though desiring worldly gain, they are
superiors. If they are killed, everything we enjoy will be tainted with blood.
6. Nor do we know which is
better—conquering them or being conquered by them. The sons of Dhåtaräñöra,
whom if we killed we should not care to live, are now standing before us on
this battlefield.
7. Now I am confused about
my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this
condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am
Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.
8. I can find no means to
drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to
dispel it even if I win a prosperous, unrivaled kingdom on earth with
sovereignty like the demigods in heaven.
9. Saïjaya said: Having
spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of enemies, told Kåñëa, “Govinda, I shall not
fight,” and fell silent.
Kåñëa instructs: one
should not grieve for the real self which is eternal.
10. O descendant of
Bharata, at that time Kåñëa, smiling, in the midst of both the armies, spoke
the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna.
11. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for
what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living
nor for the dead.
12. Never was there a time
when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any
of us cease to be.
13. As the embodied soul
continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul
similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered
by such a change.
14. O son of Kunté, the
nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in
due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer
seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must
learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
15. O best among men
[Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is
steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation.
16. Those who are seers of
the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is
no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have
concluded by studying the nature of both.
17. That which pervades
the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy
that imperishable soul.
18. The material body of
the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to
an end; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.
19. Neither he who thinks
the living entity is the slayer nor he who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for
the self slays not nor is slain.
20. For the soul there is
neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come
into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing
and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
21. O Pärthä, how can a
person who knows that the soul is indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable
kill anyone or cause anyone to kill?
22. As a person puts on
new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material
bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.
23. The soul can never be cut
to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor
withered by the wind.
24. This individual soul
is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is
everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the
same.
25. It is said that the
soul is invisible, inconceivable and immutable. Knowing this, you should not
grieve for the body.
26. If, however, you think
that the soul [or the symptoms of life] is always born and dies forever, you
still have no reason to lament, O mighty-armed.
27. One who has taken his
birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again.
Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.
28. All created beings are
unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest
again when annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?
29. Some look on the soul
as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing,
while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.
30. O descendant of
Bharata, he who dwells in the body can never be slain. Therefore you need not
grieve for any living being.
Why Arjuna must fight.
31. Considering your
specific duty as a kñatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement
for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for
hesitation.
32. O Pärtha, happy are
the kñatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for
them the doors of the heavenly planets.
33. If, however, you do
not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you will certainly incur sins
for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter.
34. People will always
speak of your infamy, and for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than
death.
35. The great generals who
have highly esteemed your name and fame will think that you have left the
battlefield out of fear only, and thus they will consider you insignificant.
36. Your enemies will
describe you in many unkind words and scorn your ability. What could be more
painful for you?
37. O son of Kunté, either
you will be killed on the battlefield and attain the heavenly planets, or you
will conquer and enjoy the earthly kingdom. Therefore, get up with determination
and fight.
38. Do thou fight for the
sake of fighting, without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain,
victory or defeat—and by so doing you shall never incur sin.
How to act without
reaction.
39. Thus far I have
described this knowledge to you through analytical study. Now listen as I
explain it in terms of working without fruitive results. O son of Påthä, when
you act in such knowledge you can free yourself from the bondage of works.
40. In this endeavor there
is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect =ne
from the most dangerous type of fear.
41. Those who are on this
path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the
Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.
42–43. Men of small
knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which
recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets,
resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense
gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this.
44. In the minds of those
who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are
bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to
the Supreme Lord does not take place.
45. The Vedas deal mainly
with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become
transcendental to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all
anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self.
46. All purposes served by
a small well can at once be served by a great reservoir of water. Similarly,
all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the purpose behind
them.
47. You have a right to
perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action.
Never consider yourself the cause of the result of your activities, and never
be attached to not doing your duty.
48. Perform your duty
equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity
is called yoga.
49. O Dhanaïjaya, keep all
abominable activities far distant by devotional service, and in that
consciousness surrender unto the Lord. Those who want to enjoy the fruits of
their work are misers.
50. A man engaged in
devotional service rids himself of both good and bad actions even in this life.
Therefore strive for yoga, which is the art of all work.
51. By thus engaging in
devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from
the results of work in the material world. In this way they become free from
the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all miseries [by going
back to Godhead].
52. When your intelligence
has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to
all that has been heard and all that is to be heard.
53. When your mind is no
longer disturbed by the flowery language of the Vedas, and when it remains
fixed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the divine
consciousness.
The symptoms of one in
transcendental consciousness.
54. Arjuna said: O Kåñëa,
what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in
transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit,
and how does he walk?
55. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: O Pärtha, when a man gives up all varieties of
desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when
his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said
to be in pure transcendental consciousness.
56. One who is not
disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is
happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of
steady mind.
57. In the material world,
one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain, neither praising
it nor despising it, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge.
58. One who is able to
withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within
the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.
59. The embodied soul may
be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains.
But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in
consciousness.
60. The senses are so strong
and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man
of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them.
61. One who restrains his
senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me,
is known as a man of steady intelligence.
62. While contemplating
the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such
attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
63. From anger, complete
delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is
bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down
again into the material pool.
64. But a person free from
all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative
principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.
65. For one who is thus
satisfied [in Kåñëa consciousness], the threefold miseries of material
existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one’s intelligence
is soon well established.
66. One who is not
connected with the Supreme [in Kåñëa consciousness] can have neither
transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no
possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
67. As a boat on the water
is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the roaming senses on which the
mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.
68. Therefore, O
mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly
of steady intelligence.
69. What is night for all
beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of
awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.
70. A person who is not
disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the
ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace,
and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.
71. A person who has given
up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has
given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego—he alone can
attain real peace.
72. That is the way of the
spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one
is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.
RVL 9.3: Karma-yoga
3/ Karma-yoga
Not renunciation alone,
but action in devotion brings freedom
1. Arjuna said: O Janärdana,
O Keçava, why do You want to engage me in this ghastly warfare, if You think
that intelligence is better than fruitive work?
2. My intelligence is
bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. Therefore, please tell me decisively
which will be most beneficial for me.
3. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes
of men who try to realize the self. Some are inclined to understand it by
empirical, philosophical speculation, and others by devotional service.
4. Not by merely
abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation
alone can one attain perfection.
5. Everyone is forced to
act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of
material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even
for a moment.
6. One who restrains the
senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes
himself and is called a pretender.
7. On the other hand, if a
sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins
karma-yoga [in Kåñëa consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.
8. Perform your prescribed
duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s
physical body without work.
Sacrifice for Viñëu.
9. Work done as a
sacrifice for Viñëu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this
material world. Therefore, O son of Kunté, perform your prescribed duties for
His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.
10. In the beginning of
creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods,
along with sacrifices for Viñëu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by
this yajïa [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything
desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”
11. The demigods, being pleased
by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and
demigods, prosperity will reign for all.
12. In charge of the
various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance
of yajïa [sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys
such gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a
thief.
13. The devotees of the
Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered
first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment,
verily eat only sin.
14. All living bodies
subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by
performance of Yajïa [sacrifice], and yajïa is born of prescribed duties.
15. Regulated activities
are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is
eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.
16. My dear Arjuna, one
who in human life does not follow the prescribed cycle of sacrifice thus
established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for
the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.
17. But for one who takes
pleasure in the self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is
satisfied in the self only, fully satiated—for him there is no duty.
18. A self-realized man
has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he
any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other
living being.
19. Therefore, without
being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty,
for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme.
20. Kings such as Janaka
attained perfection solely by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just
for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.
The leader must act as an
example.
21. Whatever action a
great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by
exemplary acts, all the world pursues.
22. O son of Påthä, there
is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I
in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything—and yet I am engaged
in prescribed duties.
23. For if I ever failed
to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Pärtha, certainly all
men would follow My path.
24. If I did not perform
prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the
cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of
all living beings.
25. As the ignorant
perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act,
but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.
26. So as not to disrupt
the minds of ignorant men attached to the fruitive results of prescribed
duties, a learned person should not induce them to stop work. Rather, by
working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of
activities [for the gradual development of Kåñëa consciousness].
27. The spirit soul
bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities
that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.
28. One who is in
knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the
senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in
devotion and work for fruitive results.
29. Bewildered by the modes
of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in material activities
and become attached. But the wise should not unsettle them, although these
duties are inferior due to the performers’ lack of knowledge.
30. Therefore, O Arjuna,
surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires
for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.
31. Those persons who
execute their duties according to My injunctions and who follow this teaching
faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions.
32. But those who, out of
envy, do not regularly follow these teachings are to be considered bereft of
all knowledge, befooled, and ruined in their endeavors for perfection.
33. Even a man of
knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he
has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?
34. There are principles
to regulate attachment and aversion pertaining to the senses and their objects.
One should not come under the control of such attachment and aversion, because
they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
35. It is far better to
discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties
perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better
than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.
Lust, the great enemy of
the world.
36. Arjuna said: O
descendant of Våñëi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly,
as if engaged by force?
37. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact
with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which
is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.
38. As fire is covered by
smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb,
the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.
39. Thus the wise living
entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of
lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
40. The senses, the mind
and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust
covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
41. Therefore, O Arjuna,
best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin
[lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and
self-realization.
42. The working senses are
superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still
higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence
43. Thus knowing oneself
to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O
mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual
intelligence [Kåñëa consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this
insatiable enemy known as lust.
RVL 9.4: Transcendental
Knowledge
4/ Transcendental
Knowledge
The disciplic succession.
1. The Personality of
Godhead, Lord Çré Kåñëa, said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga
to the sun-god, Vivasvän, and Vivasvän instructed it to Manu, the father of
mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikñväku.
2. This supreme science
was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly
kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was
broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.
3. That very ancient
science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because
you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the
transcendental mystery of this science.
Kåñëa speaks of His
transcendental nature and His mission.
4. Arjuna said: The
sun-god Vivasvän is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand that in the
beginning You instructed this science to him?
5. The Personality of
Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all
of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!
6. Although I am unborn
and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of
all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original
transcendental form.
7. Whenever and wherever
there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a
predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.
8. To deliver the pious
and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of
religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.
9. One who knows the
transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving
the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal
abode, O Arjuna.
10. Being freed from attachment,
fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many
persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all
attained transcendental love for Me.
11. As all surrender unto
Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son
of Påthä.
12. Men in this world
desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods.
Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.
13. According to the three
modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions
of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this
system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable.
14. There is no work that
affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this
truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of
work.
15. All the liberated
souls in ancient times acted with this understanding of My transcendental nature.
Therefore you should perform your duty, following in their footsteps
The intricacies of action.
16. Even the intelligent
are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. Now I shall
explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all
misfortune.
17. The intricacies of
action are very hard to understand. Therefore one should know properly what
action is, what forbidden action is, and what inaction is.
18. One who sees inaction
in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the
transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.
19. One is understood to
be in full knowledge whose every endeavor is devoid of desire for sense
gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker for whom the reactions of
work have been burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.
20. Abandoning all
attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied and independent, he
performs no fruitive action, although engaged in all kinds of undertakings.
21. Such a man of
understanding acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up
all sense of proprietorship over his possessions and acts only for the bare
necessities of life. Thus working, he is not affected by sinful reactions.
22. He who is satisfied
with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not
envy, who is steady both in success and failure, is never entangled, although
performing actions.
23. The work of a man who
is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in
transcendental knowledge merges entirely into transcendence.
24. A person who is fully
absorbed in Kåñëa consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because
of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is
absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature.
Divisions of sacrifice.
25. Some yogés perfectly
worship the demigods by offering different sacrifices to them, and some of them
offer sacrifices in the fire of the Supreme Brahman.
26. Some [the
unadulterated brahmacärés] sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the
fire of mental control, and others [the regulated householders] sacrifice the
objects of the senses in the fire of the senses.
27. Others, who are
interested in achieving self-realization through control of the mind and
senses, offer the functions of all the senses, and of the life breath, as
oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
28. Having accepted strict
vows, some become enlightened by sacrificing their possessions, and others by
performing severe austerities, by practicing the yoga of eightfold mysticism,
or by studying the Vedas to advance in transcendental knowledge.
29. Still others, who are
inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, practice by
offering the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and the
incoming breath into the outgoing, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping
all breathing. Others, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath
into itself as a sacrifice.
30. All these performers
who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reactions, and,
having tasted the nectar of the results of sacrifices, they advance toward the
supreme eternal atmosphere.
31. O best of the Kuru
dynasty, without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this
life: what then of the next?
32. All these different
types of sacrifice are approved by the Vedas, and all of them are born of
different types of work. Knowing them as such, you will become liberated.
33. O chastiser of the
enemy, the sacrifice performed in knowledge is better than the sacrifice of
material possessions. After all, O son of Påthä, all sacrifices of work
culminate in transcendental knowledge.
Approach a spiritual
master and learn the truth.
34. Just try to learn the
truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and
render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you
because they have seen the truth.
35. Having obtained real
knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such
illusion, for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but
part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine.
36. Even if you are
considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the
boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of
miseries.
37. As a blazing fire
turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes
all reactions to material activities.
38. In this world, there
is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is
the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the
practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due
course of time.
39. A faithful man who is
dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to
achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme
spiritual peace.
40. But ignorant and
faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God
consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither
in this world nor in the next.
41. One who acts in devotional
service, renouncing the fruits of his actions, and whose doubts have been
destroyed by transcendental knowledge, is situated factually in the self. Thus
he is not bound by the reactions of work, O conqueror of riches.
42. Therefore the doubts
which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the
weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhärata, stand and fight.
RVL 9.5: Karma-yoga—Action
in Kåñëa Consciousness
5/ Karma-yoga—Action in
Kåñëa Consciousness
Which is better?
Renunciation or work in devotion?
1. Arjuna said: O Kåñëa,
first of all You ask me to renounce work, and then again You recommend work
with devotion. Now will You kindly tell me definitely which of the two is more
beneficial?
2. The Personality of
Godhead replied: The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good
for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than
renunciation of work.
3. One who neither hates
nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such
a person, free from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is
completely liberated, O mighty-armed Arjuna.
The goal of both is the
same.
4. Only the ignorant speak
of devotional service [karma-yoga] as being different from the analytical study
of the material world [Säìkhya]. Those who are actually learned say that he who
applies himself well to one of these paths achieves the results of both.
5. One who knows that the
position reached by means of analytical study can also be attained by devotional
service, and who therefore sees analytical study and devotional service to be
on the same level, sees things as they are.
6. Merely renouncing all
activities yet not engaging in the devotional service of the Lord cannot make
one happy. But a thoughtful person engaged in devotional service can achieve
the Supreme without delay.
7. One who works in
devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses is dear to
everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is
never entangled.
8–9. A person in the
divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling,
eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that
he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving,
or opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses
are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them.
10. One who performs his
duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is
unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.
11. The yogés, abandoning
attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence and even with the senses, only
for the purpose of purification.
12. The steadily devoted
soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the result of all activities
to Me; whereas a person who is not in union with the Divine, who is greedy for
the fruits of his labor, becomes entangled.
13. When the embodied
living being controls his nature and mentally renounces all actions, he resides
happily in the city of nine gates [the material body], neither working nor
causing work to be done.
14. The embodied spirit,
master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce
people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by
the modes of material nature.
15. Nor does the Supreme
Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are
bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.
16. When, however, one is
enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his
knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime
17. When one’s
intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one
becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus
proceeds straight on the path of liberation.
The sage sees with equal
vision.
18. The humble sages, by virtue
of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brähmaëa, a cow,
an elephant. a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].
19. Those whose minds are
established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of
birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are already
situated in Brahman.
20. A person who neither
rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something
unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the
science of God, is already situated in transcendence.
21. Such a liberated
person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance,
enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys
unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.
22. An intelligent person
does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the
material senses. O son of Kunté, such pleasures have a beginning and an end,
and so the wise man does not delight in them.
23. Before giving up this
present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and
check the force of desire and anger, he is well situated and is happy in this
world.
24. One whose happiness is
within, who is active and rejoices within, and whose aim is inward is actually
the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains
the Supreme.
25. Those who are beyond
the dualities that arise from doubts, whose minds are engaged within, who are
always busy working for the welfare of all living beings, and who are free from
all sins achieve liberation in the Supreme.
26. Those who are free
from anger and all material desires, who are self-realized, self-disciplined
and constantly endeavoring for perfection, are assured of liberation in the
Supreme in the very near future.
27–28. Shutting out all
external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the
two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils,
and thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the transcendentalist
aiming at liberation becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is
always in this state is certainly liberated.
The peace formula.
29. A person in full
consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all
sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and
the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the
pangs of material miseries.
RVL 9.6: Dhyana-yoga
6/ Dhyana-yoga
To be a yogé one must
renounce sense gratification.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works
as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true
mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.
2. What is called
renunciation you should know to be the same as yoga, or linking oneself with
the Supreme, O son of Päëòu, for one can never become a yogé unless he
renounces the desire for sense gratification.
3. For one who is a
neophyte in the eightfold yoga system, work is said to be the means; and for
one who is already elevated in yoga, cessation of all material activities is
said to be the means.
4. A person is said to be
elevated in yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts
for sense gratification nor engages in fruitive activities.
Controlling the mind.
5. One must deliver
himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the
friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.
6. For him who has
conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed
to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.
7. For one who has
conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained
tranquillity. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and
dishonor are all the same.
8. A person is said to be
established in self-realization and is called a yogé [or mystic] when he is
fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person
is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether
it be pebbles, stones or gold—as the same.
9. A person is considered
still further advanced when he regards honest well-wishers, affectionate
benefactors, the neutral, mediators, the envious, friends and enemies, the
pious and the sinners all with an equal mind.
10. A transcendentalist
should always engage his body, mind and self in relationship with the Supreme;
he should live alone in a secluded place and should always carefully control
his mind. He should be free from desires and feelings of possessiveness.
The rules and goals of
yoga practice.
11–12. To practice yoga,
one should go to a secluded place and should lay kuça grass on the ground and then
cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high
nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogé should then sit
on it very firmly and practice yoga to purify the heart by controlling his
mind, senses and activities and fixing the mind on one point.
13–14. One should hold one’s
body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of
the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely
free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me
the ultimate goal of life.
15. Thus practicing
constant control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic
transcendentalist, his mind regulated, attains to the kingdom of God [or the
abode of Kåñëa] by cessation of material existence.
16. There is no
possibility of one’s becoming a yogé, O Arjuna, if one eats too much or eats
too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.
17. He who is regulated in
his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material
pains by practicing the yoga system.
18. When the yogé, by
practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in
transcendence—devoid of all material desires—he is said to be well established
in yoga.
19. As a lamp in a
windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is
controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent self
20–23. In the stage of
perfection called trance, or samädhi, one’s mind is completely restrained from
material mental activities by practice of yoga. This perfection is
characterized by one’s ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish
and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless
transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established
thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there
is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken,
even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from
all miseries arising from material contact.
24. One should engage
oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be
deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material
desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides
by the mind.
25. Gradually, step by
step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained
by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the self alone and
should think of nothing else.
26. From wherever the mind
wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw
it and bring it back under the control of the self.
27. The yogé whose mind is
fixed on Me verily attains the highest perfection of transcendental happiness.
He is beyond the mode of passion, he realizes his qualitative identity with the
Supreme, and thus he is freed from all reactions to past deeds.
28. Thus the
self-controlled yogé, constantly engaged in yoga practice, becomes free from
all material contamination and achieves the highest stage of perfect happiness
in transcendental loving service to the Lord.
A true yogé sees Kåñëa.
29. A true yogé observes
Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized
person sees Me, the same Supreme Lord, everywhere.
30. For one who sees Me
everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to
Me.
31. Such a yogé, who
engages in the worshipful service of the Supersoul, knowing that I and the
Supersoul are one, remains always in Me in all circumstances.
32. He is a perfect yogé
who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in
both their happiness and their distress, O Arjuna!
Arjuna rejects the yoga
practice.
33. Arjuna said: O Madhusüdana,
the system of yoga which You have summarized appears impractical and
unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady.
34. For the mind is
restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Kåñëa, and to subdue it, I
think, is more difficult than controlling the wind.
35. Lord Çré Kåñëa said: O
mighty-armed son of Kunté, it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the
restless mind, but it is possible by suitable practice and by detachment.
36. For one whose mind is
unbridled, self-realization is difficult work. But he whose mind is controlled
and who strives by appropriate means is assured of success. That is My opinion.
What happens to one who
tries but fails in yoga?
37. Arjuna said: O Kåñëa,
what is the destination of the unsuccessful transcendentalist, who in the
beginning takes to the process of self-realization with faith but who later
desists due to worldly-mindedness and thus does not attain perfection in
mysticism?
38. O mighty-armed Kåñëa,
does not such a man, who is bewildered from the path of transcendence, fall
away from both spiritual and material success and perish like a riven cloud,
with no position in any sphere?
39. This is my doubt, O Kåñëa,
and I ask You to dispel it completely. But for You, no one is to be found who
can destroy this doubt.
40. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: Son of Påthä, a transcendentalist engaged in
auspicious activities does not meet with destruction either in this world or in
the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil
41. The unsuccessful yogé,
after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living
entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich
aristocracy.
42. Or [if unsuccessful after
long practice of yoga] he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists who
are surely great in wisdom. Certainly, such a birth is rare in this world.
43. On taking such a
birth, he again revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he
again tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O
son of Kuru.
44. By virtue of the
divine consciousness of his previous life, he automatically becomes attracted
to the yogic principles—even without seeking them. Such an inquisitive
transcendentalist stands always above the ritualistic principles of the
scriptures.
45. And when the yogé
engages himself with sincere endeavor in making further progress, being washed
of all contaminations, then ultimately, achieving perfection after many, many
births of practice, he attains the supreme goal.
46. A yogé is greater than
the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker.
Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yogé.
The highest of all yogés.
47. And of all yogés, the
one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself, and
renders transcendental loving service to Me—he is the most intimately united
with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.
RVL 9.7: Knowledge of
the Absolute
7/ Knowledge of the
Absolute
Hear from Me and know Me
in full.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: Now hear, O son of Påthä, how by practicing yoga in full
consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free
from doubt.
2. I shall now declare
unto you in full this knowledge, both phenomenal and numinous. This being
known, nothing further shall remain for you to know.
3. Out of many thousands
among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved
perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
4. Earth, water, fire,
air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight
constitute My separated material energies.
5. Besides these, O
mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises
the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior
nature.
6. All created beings have
their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is
spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the
dissolution.
Kåñëa speaks for Himself.
7. O conqueror of wealth,
there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are
strung on a thread.
8. O son of Kunté, I am
the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable oà in the
Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.
9. I am the original
fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that
lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.
10. O son of Påthä, know
that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the
intelligent, and the prowess of all powerful men.
11. I am the strength of
the strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which is not contrary
to religious principles, O lord of the Bhäratas [Arjuna].
12. Know that all states
of being—be they of goodness, passion or ignorance—are manifested by My energy.
I am, in one sense, everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes
of material nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me.
The world is deluded by
the modes of nature.
13. Deluded by the three
modes [goodness, passion and ignorance], the whole world does not know Me, who
am above the modes and inexhaustible.
14. This divine energy of
Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to
overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.
Four kinds of men who
approach God.
15. Those miscreants who
are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by
illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender
unto Me.
16. O best among the Bhäratas,
four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me—the distressed,
the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge
of the Absolute.
17. Of these, the one who
is in full knowledge and who is always engaged in pure devotional service is
the best. For I am very dear to him, and he is dear to Me.
18. All these devotees are
undoubtedly magnanimous souls, but he who is situated in knowledge of Me I
consider to be just like My own self. Being engaged in My transcendental
service, he is sure to attain Me, the highest and most perfect goal.
19. After many births and
deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be
the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.
The worship of demigods.
20. Those whose
intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and
follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own
natures.
21. I am in everyone’s
heart as the Supersoul. As soon as one desires to worship some demigod, I make
his faith steady so that he can devote himself to that particular deity.
22. Endowed with such a
faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demigod and obtains his desires.
But in actuality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone.
23. Men of small
intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary.
Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My
devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.
Worship of the Supreme
Lord.
24. Unintelligent men, who
do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa,
was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their small
knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and
supreme.
25. I am never manifest to
the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency,
and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.
26. O Arjuna, as the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the
past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to
come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.
27. O scion of Bharata, O
conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by
dualities arisen from desire and hate.
28. Persons who have acted
piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are
completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage
themselves in My service with determination.
29. Intelligent persons
who are endeavoring for liberation from old age and death take refuge in Me in
devotional service. They are actually Brahman because they entirely know
everything about transcendental activities.
30. Those in full
consciousness of Me, who know Me, the Supreme Lord, to be the governing
principle of the material manifestation, of the demigods, and of all methods of
sacrifice, can understand and know Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even
at the time of death.
RVL 9.8: Attaining the
Supreme
8/ Attaining the
Supreme
Arjuna inquires, Kåñëa
replies.
1. Arjuna inquired: O my
Lord, O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive
activities? What is this material manifestation? And what are the demigods?
Please explain this to me.
2. Who is the Lord of
sacrifice, and how does He live in the body, O Madhusüdana? And how can those
engaged in devotional service know You at the time of death?
3. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called
Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyätma, the self. Action pertaining
to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called
karma, or fruitive activities.
4. O best of the embodied
beings, the physical nature, which is constantly changing, is called adhibhüta
[the material manifestation]. The universal form of the Lord, which includes
all the demigods, like those of the sun and moon, is called adhidaiva. And I,
the Supreme Lord, represented as the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied
being, am called adhiyajïa [the Lord of sacrifice].
Remember Me at the time of
death.
5. And whoever, at the end
of his life, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My natureOf
this there is no doubt.
6. Whatever state of being
one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunté, that state he will attain
without fail.
7. Therefore, Arjuna, you
should always think of Me in the form of Kåñëa and at the same time carry out
your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your
mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.
8. He who meditates on Me
as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in
remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Pärtha, is sure to reach Me.
9. One should meditate
upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the
oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the
maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is
inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He
is transcendental, beyond this material nature.
10. One who, at the time
of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and, by the strength of yoga,
with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord in
full devotion, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
11. Persons who are
learned in the Vedas, who utter oàkära and who are great sages in the renounced
order enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy. I
shall now briefly explain to you this process by which one may attain
salvation.
12. The yogic situation is
that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the
senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the
head, one establishes himself in yoga.
13. After being situated
in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable oà, the supreme
combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and
quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets.
14. For one who always
remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Påthä, because of
his constant engagement in devotional service.
15. After attaining Me,
the great souls, who are yogés in devotion, never return to this temporary
world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest
perfection.
The material world is
miserable.
16. From the highest
planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery
wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O
son of Kunté, never takes birth again.
17. By human calculation,
a thousand ages taken together form the duration of Brahmä’s one day. And such
also is the duration of his night.
18. At the beginning of
Brahmä’s day, all living entities become manifest from the unmanifest state,
and thereafter, when the night falls, they are merged into the unmanifest
again.
19. Again and again, when
Brahmä’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival
of Brahmä’s night they are helplessly annihilated.
But Kåñëa’s abode is
eternal
20. Yet there is another
unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested
and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in
this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.
21. That which the Vedäntists
describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme
destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns—that
is My supreme abode.
22. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed
devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and
everything is situated within Him.
23. O best of the Bhäratas,
I shall now explain to you the different times at which, passing away from this
world, the yogé does or does not come back.
24. Those who know the
Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the influence
of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment of the day, during the
fortnight of the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in
the north.
25. The mystic who passes
away from this world during the smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning
moon, or the six months when the sun passes to the south reaches the moon
planet but again comes back.
26. According to Vedic
opinion, there are two ways of passing from this world—one in light and one in
darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes
in darkness, he returns.
27. Although the devotees
know these two paths, O Arjuna, they are never bewildered. Therefore be always
fixed in devotion.
28. A person who accepts
the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from
studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices, giving charity or pursuing
philosophical and fruitive activities. Simply by performing devotional service,
he attains all these, and at the end he reaches the supreme eternal abode.
RVL 9.9: The Most
Confidential Knowledge
9/ The Most
Confidential Knowledge
Kåñëa will now reveal the
highest knowledge.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall
impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which
you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.
2. This knowledge is the
king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge,
and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the
perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.
3. Those who are not
faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemiesTherefore
they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.
Everything is Kåñëa, but
He is still beyond everything.
4. By Me, in My
unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but
I am not in them.
5. And yet everything that
is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the
maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part
of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.
6. Understand that as the
mighty wind, blowing everywhere, rests always in the sky, all created beings
rest in Me.
7. O son of Kunté, at the
end of the millennium all material manifestations enter into My nature, and at
the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I create them again.
8. The whole cosmic order
is under Me. Under My will it is automatically manifested again and again, and
under My will it is annihilated at the end.
9. O Dhanaïjaya, all this
work cannot bind Me. I am ever detached from all these material activities,
seated as though neutral.
10. This material nature,
which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunté,
producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is
created and annihilated again and again.
Fools deride Him.
11. Fools deride Me when I
descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the
Supreme Lord of all that be.
12. Those who are thus
bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded
condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their
culture of knowledge are all defeated.
13. O son of Påthä, those
who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine
nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.
14. Always chanting My
glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these
great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.
15. Others, who engage in
sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one
without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form.
Everything comes from Kåñëa.
16. But it is I who am the
ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the
transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering.
17. I am the father of
this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of
knowledge, the purifier and the syllable oà. I am also the Åg, the Säma and the
Yajur Vedas.
18. I am the goal, the
sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear
friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the
resting place and the eternal seed.
19. O Arjuna, I give heat,
and I withhold and send forth the rain. I am immortality, and I am also death
personified. Both spirit and matter are in Me.
20. Those who study the
Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me
indirectly. Purified of sinful reactions, they take birth on the pious,
heavenly planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights.
21. When they have thus
enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities
are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek
sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only
repeated birth and death.
22. But those who always
worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to
them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.
23. Those who are devotees
of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son
of Kunté but they do so in a wrong way.
24. I am the only enjoyer
and master of all sacrifices. Therefore, those who do not recognize My true
transcendental nature fall down.
25. Those who worship the
demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship the ancestors go
to the ancestors; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among
such beings; and those who worship Me will live with Me.
Devotion to Kåñëa is the
highest truth.
26. If one offers Me with
love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.
27. Whatever you do,
whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you
perform—do that, O son of Kunté, as an offering to Me.
28. In this way you will
be freed from bondage to work and its auspicious and inauspicious results. With
your mind fixed on Me in this principle of renunciation, you will be liberated
and come to Me.
29. I envy no one, nor am
I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in
devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.
30. Even if one commits
the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be
considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination.
31. He quickly becomes
righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunté, declare it boldly that My
devotee never perishes.
32. O son of Påthä, those
who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaiçyas
[merchants] and çüdras [workers]—can attain the supreme destination.
33. How much more this is
so of the righteous brähmaëas, the devotees, and the saintly kings. Therefore,
having come to this temporary, miserable world, engage in loving service unto
Me.
34. Engage your mind
always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship
Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.
RVL 9.10: The Opulence
of the Absolute
10/ The Opulence of the
Absolute
God is the Supreme
Transcendence.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: Listen again, O mighty-armed Arjuna. Because you are My dear
friend, for your benefit I shall speak to you further, giving knowledge that is
better than what I have already explained.
2. Neither the hosts of
demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every
respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages.
3. He who knows Me as the
unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds—he only,
undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
4–5. Intelligence,
knowledge, freedom from doubt and delusion, forgiveness, truthfulness, control
of the senses, control of the mind, happiness and distress, birth, death, fear,
fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame
and infamy—all these various qualities of living beings are created by Me alone.
6. The seven great sages
and before them the four other great sages and the Manus [progenitors of
mankind] come from Me, born from My mind, and all the living beings populating
the various planets descend from them.
7. One who is factually
convinced of this opulence and mystic power of Mine engages in unalloyed
devotional service; of this there is no doubt.
The four summary verses of
the Gétä.
8. I am the source of all
spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who
perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all
their hearts.
9. The thoughts of My pure
devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they
derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and
conversing about Me.
10. To those who are
constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which
they can come to Me.
11. To show them special
mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge
the darkness born of ignorance.
Kåñëa is the essence of
all manifestations.
12–13. Arjuna said: You
are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the
Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the
unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Närada, Asita, Devala and Vyäsa
confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.
14. O Kåñëa, I totally
accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons,
O Lord, can understand Your personality.
15. Indeed, You alone know
Yourself by Your own internal potency, O Supreme Person, origin of all, Lord of
all beings, God of gods, Lord of the universe!
16. Please tell me in
detail of Your divine opulences by which You pervade all these worlds.
17. O Kåñëa, O supreme
mystic, how shall I constantly think of You, and how shall I know You? In what
various forms are You to be remembered, O Supreme Personality of Godhead?
18. O Janärdana, again
please describe in detail the mystic power of Your opulences. I am never
satiated in hearing about You, for the more I hear the more I want to taste the
nectar of Your words.
19. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations,
but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless.
20. I am the Supersoul, O
Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the
middle and the end of all beings.
21. Of the Ädityas I am Viñëu,
of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts I am Maréci, and among the stars
I am the moon.
22. Of the Vedas I am the
Säma Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am
the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness].
23. Of all the Rudras I am
Lord Çiva, of the Yakñas and Räkäasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], of the
Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of mountains I am Meru.
24. Of priests, O Arjuna,
know Me to be the chief, Båhaspati. Of generals I am Kärtikeya, and of bodies
of water I am the ocean.
25. Of the great sages I
am Bhågu; of vibrations I am the transcendental oà. Of sacrifices I am the
chanting of the holy names [japa], and of immovable things I am the Himälayas.
26. Of all trees I am the
banyan tree, and of the sages among the demigods I am Närada. Of the Gandharvas
I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila.
27. Of horses know Me to
be Uccaiùçravä, produced during the churning of the ocean for nectar. Of lordly
elephants I am Airävata, and among men I am the monarch.
28. Of weapons I am the
thunderbolt; among cows I am the surabhi. Of causes for procreation I am
Kandarpa, the god of love, and of serpents I am Väsuki.
29. Of the many-hooded Nägas
I am Ananta, and among the aquatics I am the demigod Varuëa. Of departed
ancestors I am Aryamä, and among the dispensers of law I am Yama, the lord of
death.
30. Among the Daitya
demons I am the devoted Prahläda, among subduers I am time, among beasts I am
the lion, and among birds I am Garuòa.
31. Of purifiers I am the
wind, of the wielders of weapons I am Räma, of fishes I am the shark, and of
flowing rivers I am the Ganges.
32. Of all creations I am
the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the
spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth.
33. Of letters I am the
letter A, and among compound words I am the dual compound. I am also
inexhaustible time, and of creators I am Brahmä.
34. I am all-devouring
death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be. Among women
I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and
patience.
35. Of the hymns in the Säma
Veda I am the Båhat-säma, and of poetry I am the Gäyatré. Of months I am Märgaçérña
[November-December], and of seasons I am flower-bearing spring.
36. I am also the gambling
of cheats, and of the splendid I am the splendor. I am victory, I am adventure,
and I am the strength of the strong.
37. Of the descendants of
Våñëi I am Väsudeva, and of the Päëòavas I am Arjuna. Of the sages I am Vyäsa,
and among great thinkers I am Uçanä.
38. Among all means of
suppressing lawlessness I am punishment, and of those who seek victory I am
morality. Of secret things I am silence, and of the wise I am the wisdom.
39. Furthermore, O Arjuna,
I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being—moving or
nonmoving—that can exist without Me.
40. O mighty conqueror of
enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. What I have spoken to you
is but a mere indication of My infinite opulences.
41. Know that all opulent,
beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.
42. But what need is
there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself
I pervade and support this entire universe.
RVL 9.11: The Universal
Form
11/ The Universal Form
Arjuna requests to see the
Lord’s cosmic form.
1. Arjuna said: By my
hearing the instructions You have kindly given me about these most confidential
spiritual subjects, my illusion has now been dispelled.
2. O lotus-eyed one, I
have heard from You in detail about the appearance and disappearance of every
living entity and have realized Your inexhaustible glories.
3. O greatest of all personalities,
O supreme form, though I see You here before me in Your actual position, as You
have described Yourself, I wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic
manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours.
4. If You think that I am
able to behold Your cosmic form, O my Lord, O master of all mystic power, then
kindly show me that unlimited universal Self.
5. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, O son of Påthä, see now My opulences, hundreds
of thousands of varied divine and multicolored forms.
6. O best of the Bhäratas,
see here the different manifestations of Ädityas, Vasus, Rudras, Açviné-kumäras
and all the other demigods. Behold the many wonderful things which no one has
ever seen or heard of before.
7. O Arjuna, whatever you
wish to see, behold at once in this body of Mine! This universal form can show
you whatever you now desire to see and whatever you may want to see in the
future. Everything—moving and nonmoving—is here completely, in one place
8. But you cannot see Me
with your present eyes. Therefore I give you divine eyes. Behold My mystic
opulence!
Revelation of the
universal form.
9. Saïjaya said: O King,
having spoken thus, the Supreme Lord of all mystic power, the Personality of
Godhead, displayed His universal form to Arjuna.
10–11. Arjuna saw in that
universal form unlimited mouths, unlimited eyes, unlimited wonderful visionsThe
form was decorated with many celestial ornaments and bore many divine upraised
weapons. He wore celestial garlands and garments, and many divine scents were
smeared over His body. All was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding.
12. If hundreds of
thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might
resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form.
13. At that time Arjuna
could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the
universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands.
14. Then, bewildered and
astonished, his hair standing on end, Arjuna bowed his head to offer obeisances
and with folded hands began to pray to the Supreme Lord.
15. Arjuna said: My dear
Lord Kåñëa, I see assembled in Your body all the demigods and various other
living entities. I see Brahma sitting on the lotus flower, as well as Lord Çivä
and all the sages and divine serpents.
16. O Lord of the
universe, O universal form, I see in Your body many, many arms, bellies, mouths
and eyes, expanded everywhere, without limit. I see in You no end, no middle
and no beginning.
17. Your form is difficult
to see because of its glaring effulgence, spreading on all sides, like blazing
fire or the immeasurable radiance of the sun. Yet I see this glowing form
everywhere, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs.
18. You are the supreme
primal objective. You are the ultimate resting place of all this universe. You
are inexhaustible, and You are the oldest. You are the maintainer of the
eternal religion, the Personality of Godhead. This is my opinion.
19. You are without
origin, middle or end. Your glory is unlimited. You have numberless arms, and
the sun and moon are Your eyes. I see You with blazing fire coming forth from
Your mouth, burning this entire universe by Your own radiance.
20. Although You are one,
You spread throughout the sky and the planets and all space between. O great
one, seeing this wondrous and terrible form, all the planetary systems are
perturbed.
21. All the hosts of
demigods are surrendering before You and entering into You. Some of them, very
much afraid, are offering prayers with folded hands. Hosts of great sages and
perfected beings, crying “AII peace!” are praying to You by singing the =edic
hymns.
22. All the various
manifestations of Lord Çiva, the Ädityas, the Vasus, the Sädhyas, the Viçvedevas,
the two Açvins, the Maruts, the forefathers, the Gandharvas, the Yakñas, the
Asuras and the perfected demigods are beholding You in wonder.
23. O mighty-armed one,
all the planets with their demigods are disturbed at seeing Your great form,
with its many faces, eyes, arms, thighs, legs, and bellies and Your many
terrible teeth; and as they are disturbed, so am I.
24. O all-pervading Viñëu,
seeing You with Your many radiant colors touching the sky, Your gaping mouths,
and Your great glowing eyes, my mind is perturbed by fear. I can no longer
maintain my steadiness or equilibrium of mind.
25. O Lord of lords, O
refuge of the worlds, please be gracious to me. I cannot keep my balance seeing
thus Your blazing deathlike faces and awful teeth. In all directions I am
bewildered.
26–27. All the sons of Dhåtaräñöra,
along with their allied kings, and Bhéñma, Droëa, Karëa—and our chief soldiers
also—are rushing into Your fearful mouths. And some I see trapped with heads
smashed between Your teeth.
28. As the many waves of the
rivers flow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into
Your mouths.
29. I see all people
rushing full speed into Your mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing
fire.
30. O Viñëu, I see You
devouring all people from all sides with Your flaming mouths. Covering all the
universe with Your effulgence, You are manifest with terrible, scorching rays.
31. O Lord of lords, so
fierce of form, please tell me who You are. I offer my obeisances unto You;
please be gracious to me. You are the primal Lord. I want to know about You,
for I do not know what Your mission is.
32. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and
I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you [the Päëòavas],
all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain.
33. Therefore get up.
Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing
kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasäcé,
can be but an instrument in the fight.
34. Drona, Bhéñma,
Jayadratha, Karëa and the other great warriors have already been destroyed by
Me. Therefore, kill them and do not be disturbed. Simply fight, and you will
vanquish your enemies in battle.
35. Saïjaya said to Dhåtaräñöra:
O King, after hearing these words from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the
trembling Arjuna offered obeisances with folded hands again and again. He
fearfully spoke to Lord Kåñëa in a faltering voice, as follows.
Arjuna offers prayers.
36. Arjuna said: O master
of the senses, the world becomes joyful upon hearing Your name, and thus
everyone becomes attached to You. Although the perfected beings offer You their
respectful homage, the demons are afraid, and they flee here and there. All
this is rightly done.
37. O great one, greater
even than Brahmä, You are the original creator. Why then should they not offer
their respectful obeisances unto You? O limitless one, God of gods, refuge of
the universe! You are the invincible source, the cause of all causes,
transcendental to this material manifestation.
38. You are the original
Personality of Godhead, the oldest, the ultimate sanctuary of this manifested
cosmic world. You are the knower of everything, and You are all that is
knowable. You are the supreme refuge, above the material modes. O limitless
form! This whole cosmic manifestation is pervaded by You!
39. You are air, and You
are the supreme controller! You are fire, You are water, and You are the moon!
You are Brahmä, the first living creature, and You are the great-grandfather. I
therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You a thousand times, and again
and yet again!
40. Obeisances to You from
the front, from behind and from all sides! O unbounded power, You are the
master of limitless might! You are all-pervading, and thus You are everything!
41–42. Thinking of You as
my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kåñëa,” “O Yädava,” “O my friend,”
not knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or
in love. I have dishonored You many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the
same bed, or sat or ate together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of
many friends. O infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.
43. You are the father of
this complete cosmic manifestation, of the moving and the nonmoving. You are
its worshipable chief, the supreme spiritual master. No one is equal to You,
nor can anyone be one with You. How then could there be anyone greater than You
within the three worlds, O Lord of immeasurable power?
44. You are the Supreme
Lord, to be worshiped by every living being. Thus I fall down to offer You my
respectful obeisances and ask Your mercy. As a father tolerates the impudence
of his son, or a friend tolerates the impertinence of a friend, or a wife
tolerates the familiarity of her partner, please tolerate the wrongs I may have
done You.
Arjuna is frightened and
requests the Lord to again reveal His original form.
45. After seeing this
universal form, which I have never seen before, I am gladdened, but at the same
time my mind is disturbed with fear. Therefore please bestow Your grace upon me
and reveal again Your form as the Personality of Godhead, O Lord of lords, O
abode of the universe.
46. O universal form, O
thousand-armed Lord, I wish to see You in Your four-armed form, with helmeted
head and with club, wheel, conch and lotus flower in Your hands. I long to see
You in that form.
47. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, happily have I shown you, by My
internal potency, this supreme universal form within the material world. No one
before you has ever seen this primal form, unlimited and full of glaring
effulgence.
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 charity,
nor by pious activities, nor by severe penances can I be seen in this form in
the material world.
49. You have been
perturbed and bewildered by seeing this horrible feature of Mine. Now let it be
finished. My devotee, be free again from all disturbances. With a peaceful mind
you can now see the form you desire.
50. Saïjaya said to Dhåtaräñöra:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa, having spoken thus to Arjuna,
displayed His real four-armed form and at last showed His two-armed form, thus
encouraging the fearful Arjuna.
51. When Arjuna thus saw Kåñëa
in His original form, he said: O Janärdana, seeing this humanlike form, so very
beautiful, I am now composed in mind, and I am restored to my original nature.
52. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, this form of Mine 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.
Only by devotional service
can one know Kåñëa.
53. The form 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.
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.
55. My dear Arjuna, he who
engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive
activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the
supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being—he
certainly comes to Me.
12/ Devotional Service
Personal worship is better
than impersonal.
1. Arjuna inquired: Which
are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in
Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the
unmanifested?
2. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always
engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by
Me to be most perfect.
3–4. But those who fully
worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses,
the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, 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.
5. For those whose minds
are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme,
advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always
difficult for those who are embodied.
Stages of devotional
service.
6–7. But those who worship
Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without
deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having
fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Påthä—for them I am the swift deliverer
from the ocean of birth and death.
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.
9. My dear Arjuna, O winner
of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow
the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to
attain Me.
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.
11. If, however, you are
unable to work in this consciousness of Me, then try to act giving up all
results of your work and try to be self-situated.
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.
The characteristics of a
pure devotee.
13–14. One who is not
envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself
a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and
distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional
service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me—such a
devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.
15. He for whom no one is
put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anyone, who is equipoised in
happiness and distress, fear and anxiety, is very dear to Me.
16. My devotee who is not
dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without
cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some result, is very dear to
Me.
17. One who neither
rejoices nor grieves, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both
auspicious and inauspicious things—such a devotee is very dear to Me.
18–19. One who is equal to
friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold,
happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contaminating
association, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn’t care for
any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and who is engaged in devotional
service—such a person is very dear to Me.
20. Those who follow this
imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engage themselves
with faith, making Me the supreme goal, are very, very dear to Me.
RVL 9.13: Nature, the
Enjoyer, and Consciousness
13/ Nature, the
Enjoyer, and Consciousness
The field and the knower
of the field.
1–2. Arjuna said: O my
dear Kåñëa, I wish to know about prakåti [nature], puruña [the enjoyer], and
the field and the knower of the feld, and of knowledge and the object of
knowledge.
The Supreme Personality of
Godhead said: This body, O son of Kunté, is called the field, and one who knows
this body is called the knower of the field.
3. O scion of Bharata, you
should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand
this body and its knower is called knowledge. That is My opinion.
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.
5. That knowledge of the
field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various
sages in various Vedic writings. It is especially presented in Vedänta-sütra
with all reasoning as to cause and effect.
6–7. The five great
elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and 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.
The items of knowledge.
8–12. Humility;
pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide
spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; 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; detachment; freedom from entanglement with
children, wife, home and the rest; evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant
events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary
place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of
self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I
declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.
The soul and the
Supersoul.
13. I shall now explain
the knowable, knowing which you will taste the eternal. Brahman, the spirit,
beginningless and subordinate to Me, lies beyond the cause and effect of this
material world.
14. Everywhere are His
hands and legs, His eyes, heads and faces, and He has ears eyerywhere. In this
way the Supersoul exists, pervading everything.
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 the modes of material
nature.
16. The Supreme Truth
exists outside and inside of all living beings, the moving and the nonmovingBecause
He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know.
Although far, far away, He is also near to all.
17. Although the Supersoul
appears to be divided among all beings, 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.
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.
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.
How the living entities
transmigrate.
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.
21. Nature is said to be
the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the
cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.
22. The living entity in
material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of
nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets
with good and evil amongst various species.
23. Yet in this body there
is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor,
who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.
24. One who understands
this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the
interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not
take birth here again, regardless of his present position.
25. Some perceive the
Supersoul within themselves through meditation, others through the cultivation
of knowledge, and still others through working without fruitive desires.
26. Again there are those
who, although not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship the
Supreme Person upon hearing about Him from others. Because of their tendency to
hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.
27. O chief of the Bhäratas,
know that whatever you see in existence, both the moving and the nonmoving, is
only a combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field.
28. One who sees the
Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands
that neither the soul nor the Supersoul within the destructible body is ever
destroyed, actually sees.
29. One who sees the
Supersoul equally present everywhere, in every living being, does not degrade
himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination.
30. One who can see that
all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature,
and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees.
31. When a sensible man
ceases to see different identities due to different material bodies and he sees
how beings are expanded everywhere, he attains to the Brahman conception.
32. Those with the vision
of eternity can see that the imperishable soul is transcendental, eternal, and
beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, O Arjuna,
the soul neither does anything nor is entangled.
33. The sky, due to its
subtle nature, does not mix with anything, although it is all-pervading.
Similarly, the soul situated in Brahman vision does not mix with the body,
though situated in that body.
34. O son of Bharata, as
the sun alone illuminates all this universe so does the living entity, one
within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.
35. Those who see with
eyes of knowledge the difference between the body and the knower of the body,
and can also understand the process of liberation from bondage in material
nature, attain to the supreme goal.
RVL 9.14: The Three
Modes of Material Nature
14/ The Three Modes of
Material Nature
Goodness, passion and
ignorance.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: Again I shall declare to you this supreme wisdom, the best of
all knowledge, knowing which all the sages have attained the supreme
perfection.
2. By becoming fixed in
this knowledge, one can attain to the transcendental nature like My own. Thus
established, one is not born at the time of creation or disturbed at the time
of dissolution.
3. The total material
substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that
I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of
Bharata.
4. It should be understood
that all species of life, O son of Kunté, are made possible by birth in this
material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.
5. Material nature
consists of three modes—goodness, passion and ignorance. When the eternal
living entity comes in contact with nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes
conditioned by these modes.
6. O sinless one, the mode
of goodness, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one
from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode become conditioned by a
sense of happiness and knowledge.
7. The mode of passion is
born of unlimited desires and longings, O son of Kunté, and because of this the
embodied living entity is bound to material fruitive actions.
8. O son of Bharata, know
that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied
living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep,
which bind the conditioned soul.
9. O son of Bharata, the
mode of goodness conditions one to happiness; passion conditions one to
fruitive action; and ignorance, covering one’s knowledge, binds one to madness.
10. Sometimes the mode of
goodness becomes prominent, defeating the modes of passion and ignorance, O son
of Bharata. Sometimes the mode of passion defeats goodness and ignorance, and
at other times ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is
always competition for supremacy.
11. The manifestations of
the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are
illuminated by knowledge.
12. O chief of the Bhäratas,
when there is an increase in the mode of passion the symptoms of great
attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, and uncontrollable desire and
hankering develop.
13. When there is an
increase in the mode of ignorance, O son of Kuru, darkness, inertia, madness
and illusion are manifested.
14. When one dies in the
mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets of the great sages.
15. When one dies in the
mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and
when one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom
16. The result of pious
action is pure and is said to be in the mode of goodness. But action done in
the mode of passion results in misery, and action performed in the mode of
ignorance results in foolishness.
17. From the mode of
goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops;
and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion.
18. Those situated in the
mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode
of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the abominable mode of
ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.
19. When one properly sees
that in all activities no other performer is at work than these modes of nature
and he knows the Supreme Lord, who is transcendental to all these modes, he
attains My spiritual nature.
20. When the embodied
being is able to transcend these three modes associated with the material body,
he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can
enjoy nectar even in this life.
21. Arjuna inquired: O my
dear Lord, by which symptoms is one known who is transcendental to these three
modes? What is his behavior? And how does he transcend the modes of nature?
22–25. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: O son of Päëòu, he who does not hate illumination,
attachment and delusion when they are present or long for them when they
disappear; who is unwavering and undisturbed through all these reactions of the
material qualities, remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the
modes alone are active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness
and distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with
an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the undesirable; who is
steady, situated equally well in praise and blame, honor and dishonor; who
treats alike both friend and enemy; and who has renounced all material
activities—such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.
26. One who engages in
full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the
modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
The Supreme Brahman rests
in Kåñëa.
27. And I am the basis of
the impersonal Brahman, which is immortal, imperishable and eternal and is the
constitutional position of ultimate happiness.
RVL 9.15: The Yoga of
the Supreme Person
15/ The Yoga of the
Supreme Person
The banyan tree of the
material world.
1. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: It is said that there is an imperishable banyan tree that has
its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns.
One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.
2. The branches of this
tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material
nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going
down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.
3–4. The real form of this
tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends,
where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must
cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter,
one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there
surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began and
from whom everything has extended since time immemorial.
Kåñëa’s abode.
5. Those who are free from
false prestige, illusion and false association, who understand the eternal, who
are done with material lust, who are freed from the dualities of happiness and
distress, and who, unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person
attain to that eternal kingdom.
6. That supreme abode of
Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who
reach it never return to this material world.
The struggling jévas.
7. The living entities in
this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned
life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the
mind.
8. The living entity in
the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to
another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again
quits it to take another.
9. The living entity, thus
taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and
sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular
set of sense objects.
10. The foolish cannot
understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what
sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose
eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.
11. The endeavoring
transcendentalists, who are situated in self-realization, can see all this
clearly. But those whose minds are not developed and who are not situated in
self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to.
The Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
12. The splendor of the
sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the
splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also from Me.
13. I enter into each
planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby
supply the juice of life to all vegetables.
14. I am the fire of
digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of
life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.
15. I am seated in
everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By
all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedänta, and I am
the knower of the Vedas.
16. There are two classes
of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every living
entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every living entity is called
infallible.
17. Besides these two,
there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable
Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them.
18. Because I am
transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am
the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that
Supreme Person.
19. Whoever knows Me as
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is the knower of
everything. He therefore engages himself in full devotional service to Me, O
son of Bharata.
20. This is the most
confidential part of the Vedic scriptures, O sinless one, and it is disclosed now
by Me. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know
perfection.
RVL 9.16: The Divine
and Demoniac Natures
16/ The Divine and
Demoniac Natures
The divine nature.
1–3. The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said: Fearlessness; purification of one’s existence;
cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of
sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence;
truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquility; aversion to
faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness;
gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude;
cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honor—these
transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with
divine nature.
The demoniac nature
4. Pride, arrogance,
conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance—these qualities belong to those of
demoniac nature, O son of Påthä.
5. The transcendental qualities
are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage.
Do not worry, O son of Päëòu, for you are born with the divine qualities.
6. O son of Påthä, in this
world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called the divine and the
other demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities.
Now hear from Me of the demoniac.
7. Those who are demoniac
do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness
nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them.
8. They say that this
world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced
of sex desire and has no cause other than lust.
9. Following such
conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no
intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the
world.
10. Taking shelter of
insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the
demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the
impermanent.
11–12. They believe that
to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until
the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds
of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by
illegal means for sense gratification.
13–15. The demoniac person
thinks: “So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my
schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and
more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be
killed. I am the lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful
and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is
none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give
some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.” In this way, such persons are deluded
by ignorance.
16. Thus perplexed by
various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, they become too strongly
attached to sense enjoyment and fall down into hell.
17. Self-complacent and
always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes proudly
perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations.
18. Bewildered by false
ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demons become envious of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is situated in their own bodies and in the bodies
of others, and blaspheme against the real religion.
19. Those who are envious
and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the
ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.
Three gates to hell
20. Attaining repeated
birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of Kunté, such persons can
never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of
existence.
21. There are three gates
leading to this hell—lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these
up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul.
22. The man who has
escaped these three gates of hell, O son of Kunté, performs acts conducive to
self-realization and thus gradually attains the supreme destination.
23. He who discards
scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither
perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.
24. One should therefore
understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the
scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may
gradually be elevated.
RVL 9.17: The Divisions
of Faith
17/ The Divisions of
Faith
Faith according to the
three modes.
1. Arjuna inquired: O Kåñëa,
what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture
but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in
passion or in ignorance?
2. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied
soul, one’s faith can be of three kinds—in goodness, in passion or in
ignorance. Now hear about this
3. O son of Bharata,
according to one’s existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a
particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith
according to the modes he has acquired.
4. Men in the mode of
goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons;
and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.
5–6. Those who undergo
severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing
them out of pride and egoism, who are impelled by lust and attachment, who are
foolish and who torture the material elements of the body as well as the
Supersoul dwelling within, are to be known as demons.
7. Even the food each person
prefers is of three kinds, according to the three modes of material nature. The
same is true of sacrifices, austerities and charity. Now hear of the
distinctions between them.
Food, sacrifice, austerity
and charity in the modes.
8. Foods dear to those in
the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and
give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty,
wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.
9. Foods that are too
bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the
mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.
10. Food prepared more
than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and
putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those
in the mode of darkness.
11. Of sacrifices, the
sacrifice performed according to the directions of scripture, as a matter of
duty, by those who desire no reward, is of the nature of goodness.
12. But the sacrifice
performed for some material benefit, or for the sake of pride, O chief of the
Bhäratas, you should know to be in the mode of passion.
13. Any sacrifice
performed without regard for the directions of scripture, without distribution
of prasädam [spiritual food], without chanting of Vedic hymns and remunerations
to the priests, and without faith is considered to be in the mode of ignorance.
14. Austerity of the body
consists in worship of the Supreme Lord, the brähmaëas, the spiritual master,
and superiors like the father and mother, and in cleanliness, simplicity,
celibacy and nonviolence.
15. Austerity of speech
consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not
agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.
16. And satisfaction,
simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the
austerities of the mind.
17. This threefold
austerity, performed with transcendental faith by men not expecting material
benefits but engaged only for the sake of the Supreme, is called austerity in
goodness.
18. Penance performed out
of pride and for the sake of gaining respect, honor and worship is said to be
in the mode of passion. It is neither stable nor permanent.
19. Penance performed out
of foolishness, with self-torture or to destroy or injure others is said to be
in the mode of ignorance.
20. Charity given out of
duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a
worthy person is considered to be in the mode of goodness.
21. But charity performed
with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruitive results, or
in a grudging mood, is said to be charity in the mode of passion.
22. And charity performed
at an impure place, at an improper time, to unworthy persons, or without proper
attention and respect is said to be in the mode of ignorance.
Oà tat sat.
23. From the beginning of
creation, the three words oà tat sat were used to indicate the Supreme Absolute
Truth. These three symbolic representations were used by brähmaëas while
chanting the hymns of the Vedas and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of
the Supreme.
24. Therefore,
transcendentalists undertaking performances of sacrifice, charity and penance
in accordance with scriptural regulations begin always with oà, to attain the
Supreme.
25. Without desiring
fruitive results, one should perform various kinds of sacrifice, penance and
charity with the word tat. The purpose of such transcendental activities is to
get free from material entanglement.
26–27. The Absolute Truth
is the objective of devotional sacrifice, and it is indicated by the word sat.
The performer of such sacrifice is also called sat, as are all works of
sacrifice, penance and charity which, true to the absolute nature, are
performed to please the Supreme Person, O son of Påthä.
28. Anything done as
sacrifice, charity or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Påthä, is
impermanent. It is called asat and is useless both in this life and in the
next.
RVL 9.18: Conclusion—The
Perfection of Renunciation
Conclusion—The
Perfection of Renunciation
The purpose of
renunciation.
1. Arjuna said: O
mighty-armed one, I wish to understand the purpose of renunciation [tyäga] and
of the renounced order of life [sannyäsa], O killer of the Keçi demon, master
of the senses.
2. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: The giving up of activities that are based on material desire
is what great learned men call the renounced order of life [sannyäsa]. And giving
up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation [tyäga].
3. Some learned men
declare that all kinds of fruitive activities should be given up as faulty, yet
other sages maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never
be abandoned.
4. O best of the Bhäratas,
now hear My judgment about renunciation. O tiger among men, renunciation is
declared in the scriptures to be of three kinds.
5. Acts of sacrifice,
charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed,
sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls.
6. All these activities
should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They
should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Påthä. That is My final
opinion.
Prescribed duties should
not be renounced.
7. Prescribed duties
should never be renounced. If one gives up his prescribed duties because of
illusion, such renunciation is said to be in the mode of ignorance.
8. Anyone who gives up
prescribed duties as troublesome or out of fear of bodily discomfort is said to
have renounced in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation
of renunciation.
9. O Arjuna, when one
performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces
all material association and all attachment to the fruit, his renunciation is
said to be in the mode of goodness.
10. The intelligent
renouncer situated in the mode of goodness, neither hateful of inauspicious
work nor attached to auspicious work, has no doubts about work.
11. It is indeed
impossible for an embodied being to give up all activities. But he who
renounces the fruits of action is called one who has truly renounced.
12. For one who is not
renounced, the threefold fruits of action—desirable, undesirable and mixed—accrue
after death. But those who are in the renounced order of life have no such
results to suffer or enjoy.
The five factors of
action.
13. O mighty-armed Arjuna,
according to the Vedänta there are five causes for the accomplishment of all action.
Now learn of these from Me.
14. The place of action
[the body], the performer, the various senses, the many different kinds of
endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul—these are the five factors of action.
15. Whatever right or
wrong action a man performs by body, mind or speech is caused by these five
factors.
16. Therefore one who
thinks himself the only doer, not considering the five factors, is certainly
not very intelligent and cannot see things as they are.
17. One who is not
motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills
men in this world, does not kill. Nor is he bound by his actions.
Three kinds of knowledge,
actions, and workers.
18. Knowledge, the object
of knowledge, and the knower are the three factors that motivate action; the
senses, the work and the doer are the three constituents of action.
19. According to the three
different modes of material nature, there are three kinds of knowledge, action
and performer of action. Now hear of them from Me.
20. That knowledge by
which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all living entities, though
they are divided into innumerable forms, you should understand to be in the
mode of goodness.
21. That knowledge by
which one sees that in every different body there is a different type of living
entity you should understand to be in the mode of passion.
22. And that knowledge by
which one is attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge
of the truth, and which is very meager, is said to be in the mode of darkness.
23. That action which is
regulated and which is performed without attachment, without love or hatred,
and without desire for fruitive results is said to be in the mode of goodness.
24. But action performed
with great effort by one seeking to gratify his desires, and enacted from a
sense of false ego, is called action in the mode of passion.
25. That action performed
in illusion, in disregard of scriptural injunctions, and without concern for
future bondage or for violence or distress caused to others is said to be in
the mode of ignorance.
26. One who performs his
duty without association with the modes of material nature, without false ego,
with great determination and enthusiasm, and without wavering in success or
failure is said to be a worker in the mode of goodness.
27. The worker who is
attached to work and the fruits of work, desiring to enjoy those fruits, who is
greedy, always envious, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow, is said to be in
the mode of passion.
28. The worker who is always
engaged in work against the injunctions of the scripture, who is materialistic,
obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, and who is lazy, always
morose and procrastinating is said to be a worker in the mode of ignorance.
Three kinds of understanding
and determination.
29. O winner of wealth,
now please listen as I tell you in detail of the different kinds of
understanding and determination, according to the three modes of material
nature.
30. O son of Påthä, that
understanding by which one knows what ought to be done and what ought not to be
done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and
what is liberating, is in the mode of goodness.
31. O son of Påthä, that
understanding which cannot distinguish between religion and irreligion, between
action that should be done and action that should not be done, is in the mode
of passion.
32. That understanding
which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under
the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction,
O Pärtha, is in the mode of ignorance.
33. O son of Påthä, that
determination which is unbreakable, which is sustained with steadfastness by
yoga practice, and which thus controls the activities of the mind, life and
senses is determination in the mode of goodness.
34. But that determination
by which one holds fast to fruitive results in religion, economic development
and sense gratification is of the nature of passion, O Arjuna.
35. And that determination
which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and
illusion—such unintelligent determination, O son of Påthä, is in the mode of
darkness.
Three kinds of happiness.
36. O best of the Bhäratas,
now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness by which the
conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all
distress.
37. That which in the
beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which
awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of
goodness.
38. That happiness which
is derived from contact of the senses with their objects and which appears like
nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion
39. And that happiness
which is blind to self-realization, which is delusion from beginning to end and
which arises from sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of
ignorance.
40. There is no being
existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary systems,
which is freed from these three modes born of material nature.
41. Brähmaëas, kñatriyas,
vaiçyas and çüdras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures
in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.
Duties of the four orders of
life.
42. Peacefulness,
self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and
religiousness—these are the natural qualities by which the brähmaëas work.
43. Heroism, power,
determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity and leadership
are the natural qualities of work for the kñatriyas.
44. Farming, cow
protection and business are the natural work for the vaiçyas, and for the çüdras
there is labor and service to others.
45. By following his
qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how
this can be done.
46. By worship of the
Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can
attain perfection through performing his own work.
47. It is better to engage
in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to
accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed
according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions.
48. Every endeavor is
covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should
not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kunté, even if such work is
full of fault.
49. One who is
self-controlled and unattached and who disregards all material enjoyments can
obtain, by practice of renunciation, the highest perfect stage of freedom from
reaction.
Attaining perfection by
devotion to the Supreme Person.
50. O son of Kunté, learn
from Me how one who has achieved this perfection can attain to the supreme
perfectional stage, Brahman, the stage of highest knowledge, by acting in the
way I shall now summarize.
51–53. Being purified by
his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the
objects of sense gratification, being freed from attachment and hatred, one who
lives in a secluded place, who eats little, who controls his body, mind and
power of speech, who is always in trance and is detached, free from false ego,
false strength, false pride, lust, anger, and acceptance of material things,
who is free from false proprietorship, and who is peaceful—such a person is
certainly elevated to the position of self-realization.
54. One who is thus
transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes
fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally
disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional
service unto Me.
55. One can understand Me
as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And
when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the
kingdom of God.
56. Though engaged in all
kinds of activities, My pure devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal
and imperishable abode by My grace.
57. In all activities just
depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service,
be fully conscious of Me.
58. If you become
conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditioned life by My
grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false
ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost.
59. If you do not act
according to My direction and do not fight, then you will be falsely directed.
By your nature, you will have to be engaged in warfare.
60. Under illusion you are
now declining to act according to My direction. But, compelled by the work born
of your own nature, you will act all the same, O son of Kunté.
61. The Supreme Lord is
situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all
living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
62. O scion of Bharata,
surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace
and the supreme and eternal abode.
63. Thus I have explained
to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do
what you wish to do.
64. Because you are My
very dear friend, I am speaking to you My supreme instruction, the most
confidential knowledge of all. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit
65. Always think of Me,
become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come
to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.
The conclusion of the Gétä.
66. Abandon all varieties
of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful
reactions. Do not fear.
67. This confidential
knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or
engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me.
68. For one who explains
this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and
at the end he will come back to Me.
69. There is no servant in
this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.
70. And I declare that he
who studies this sacred conversation of ours worships Me by his intelligence
71. And one who listens
with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reactions and attains to
the auspicious planets where the pious dwell.
72. O son of Påthä, O
conqueror of wealth, have you heard this with an attentive mind? And are your
ignorance and illusions now dispelled?
73. Arjuna said: My dear Kåñëa,
O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your
mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to
Your instructions.
74. Saïjaya said: Thus
have I heard the conversation of two great souls, Kåñëa and Arjuna. And so
wonderful is that message that my hair is standing on end.
75. By the mercy of Vyäsa,
I have heard these most confidential talks directly from the master of all
mysticism, Kåñëa, who was speaking personally to Arjuna.
76. O King, as I
repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Kåñëa and Arjuna, I
take pleasure, being thrilled at every moment.
77. O King, as I remember
the wonderful form of Lord Kåñëa, I am struck with wonder more and more, and I
rejoice again and again.
78. Wherever there is Kåñëa,
the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer,
there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and
morality. That is my opinion.
(end of Bhagavad-gita)
RVL 10: Readings: BHÄGAVATA PURÄËA
10. BHÄGAVATA PURÄËA
(Summary Study)
RVL 10.1: ADVENT OF LORD KÅÑËA
Once the world was
overburdened by the unnecessary defense force of different kings, who were
actually demons but were posing themselves as the royal order. At that time,
the whole world became perturbed, and the predominating deity of this earth,
known as Bhümi, went to see Lord Brahmä to tell of her calamities due to the
demoniac kings. Bhümi assumed the shape of a cow and presented herself before
Lord Brahmä with tears in her eyes. She was bereaved and was weeping just to
invoke the lord’s compassion. She related the calamitous position of the earth,
and after hearing this, Lord Brahmä became much aggrieved, and he at once
started for the ocean of milk, where Lord Viñëu resides. Lord Brahmä was
accompanied by all the demigods headed by Lord Çiva, and Bhümi also followed. Arriving
on the shore of the milk ocean, Lord Brahmä began to pacify Lord Viñëu, who
formerly saved the earthly planet by assuming the transcendental form of a
boar.
In the Vedic mantras,
there is a particular type of prayer called Puruña-sükta. Generally, the
demigods offer their obeisances unto Viñëu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
by chanting the Puruña-sükta. It is understood herein that the predominating
deity of every planet can see the supreme lord of this universe, Brahmä,
whenever there is some disturbance in his planet. And Brahmä can approach the
Supreme Lord Viñëu, not by seeing Him directly, but by standing on the shore of
the ocean of milk. There is a planet within this universe called Çvetadvépa,
and on that planet there is an ocean of milk. It is understood from various
Vedic literatures that just as there is the ocean of salt water within this
planet, there are various kinds of oceans in other planets. Somewhere there is
an ocean of milk, somewhere an ocean of oil, and somewhere there is an ocean of
liquor and many other types of oceans. Puruña-sükta is the standard prayer
which the demigods recite to appease the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kñirodakaçäyé
Viñëu. Because He is Iying on the ocean of milk, He is called Kñirodakaçäyé Viñëu.
He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, through whom all the incarnations
within this universe appear.
After all the demigods
offered the Puruña-sükta prayer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they
apparently heard no response. Then Lord Brahmä personally sat in meditation,
and there was a message transmission from Lord Viñëu to Brahmä. Brahmä then
broadcast the message to the demigods. That is the system of receiving Vedic
knowledge. The Vedic knowledge is received first by Brahmä from the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, through the medium of the heart. As stated in the
beginning of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, tene brahma hådä: the transcendental knowledge
of the Vedas was transmitted to Lord Brahmä through the heart. Here also, in
the same way, only Brahmä could understand the message transmitted by Lord Viñëu,
and he broadcast it to the demigods for their immediate action. The message
was: the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth very soon
along with His supreme powerful potencies, and as long as He remains on the
earth planet to execute His mission of annihilating the demons and establishing
the devotees, the demigods should also remain there to assist Him. They should
all immediately take birth in the family of the Yadu dynasty, wherein the Lord
will also appear in due course of time.
The Supreme Personality of
Godhead Himself, Kåñëa, personally appeared as the son of Vasudeva. Before He
appeared, all the demigods, along with their wives, appeared in different pious
families in the world just to assist the Lord in executing His mission. The
exact word used here is tat-priyärtham, which means the demigods should appear
on the earth in order to please the Lord. In other words, any living entity who
lives only to satisfy the Lord is a demigod. The demigods were further informed
that the plenary portion of Lord Kåñëa, Ananta, who is maintaining the
universal planets by extending His millions of hoods, would also appear on
earth before Lord Kåñëa’s appearance. They were also informed that the external
potency of Viñëu (Mäyä), with whom all the conditioned souls are enamored,
would also appear just to execute the purpose of the Supreme Lord.
After instructing and
pacifying all the demigods, as well as Bhümi, with sweet words, Lord Brahmä,
the father of all Prajäpatis, or progenitors of universal population, departed
for his own abode, the highest material planet, called Brahmaloka.
The leader of the Yadu
dynasty, King Çürasena, was ruling over the country known as Mathurä (the
district of Mathurä) as well as the district known as Çürasena. On account of
the rule of King Çürasena, Mathurä became the capital city of all the kings of
the Yadus. Mathurä was also made the capital of the kings of the Yadu dynasty
because the Yadus were a very pious family and knew that Mathurä is the place
where Lord Çré Kåñëa lives eternally, just as He also lives in Dvärakä.
The son of Çürasena was
Vasudeva, and Kåñëa was to appear as the son of Vasudeva. Vasudeva married
Devaké, whose father Devaka, contributed an opulent dowry. The newly married
couple were being driven home in a chariot in a grand procession led by Kaàsa,
Devaké’s brother. Suddenly Kaàsa heard a voice from the sky which announced to
him that the eighth child born of his sister and brother-in-law would kill him.
Being of demoniac mentality, Kaàsa immediately tried to kill his sister, but
Vasudeva persuaded him to spare her, and promised they would surrender to him
whatever children were born.
Later the sage Närada
visited Kaàsa and informed him that in his past life he had been killed by Viñëu
and that the prediction of the child who would kill him referred to Lord Viñëu,
who was to take birth as the son of Devaké.
Kaàsa then decided to
imprison both Devaké and Vasudeva. Within the prison shackled in chains,
Vasudeva and Devaké gave birth to a male child year after year, and Kaàsa,
thinking each of the babies to be the incarnation of Viñëu, killed them one
after another.
When Devaké was pregnant
for the seventh time, an expansion of Kåñëa known as Ananta appeared within her
womb. Kåñëa, the Supreme Lord, then ordered His internal mystic potency, Yogamäyä,
to transfer Ananta to the womb of Rohiné, another of Vasudeva’s wives who was—due
to the persecutions of Kaàsa—residing in Våndävana at the house of King Nanda
and Yaçodä. He then informed Yogamäyä that she would be born as the daughter of
Nanda and Yaçodä.
RVL 10.2: BIRTH OF LORD KÅÑËA
BIRTH OF LORD KÅÑËA
When the time was mature
for the appearance of the Lord, the constellations became very auspicious. The
astrological influence of the star known as Rohiëé was also predominant because
this star is considered to be very auspicious. Rohiëé is under the direct
supervision of Brahmä. According to the astrological conclusion, besides the
proper situation of the stars, there are auspicious and inauspicious moments
due to the different situations of the different planetary systems. At the time
of Kåñëa’s birth, the planetary systems were automatically adjusted so that
everything became auspicious.
At that time, in all
directions, east, west, south, north, everywhere, there was an atmosphere of
peace and prosperity. There were auspicious stars visible in the sky, and on
the surface in all towns and villages or pasturing grounds and within the mind
of everyone there were signs of good fortune. The rivers were flowing full of
waters, and lakes were beautifully decorated with lotus flowers. The forests
were full with beautiful birds and peacocks. All the birds within the forests
began to sing with sweet voices, and the peacocks began to dance along with
their consorts. The wind blew very pleasantly, carrying the aroma of different
flowers, and the sensation of bodily touch was very pleasing. At home, the brähmaëas,
who were accustomed to offer sacrifices in the fire, found their homes very
pleasant for offerings. Due to disturbances created by the demoniac kings, the
sacrificial fire altar had been almost stopped in the houses of brähmaëas, but
now they could find the opportunity to start the fire peacefully. Being
forbidden to offer sacrifices, the brähmaëas were very distressed in mind,
intelligence and activities, but just on the point of Kåñëa’s appearance,
automatically their minds became full of joy because they could hear loud vibrations
in the sky of transcendental sounds proclaiming the appearance of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
The denizens of the
Gandharva and Kinnara planets began to sing, and the denizens of Siddhaloka and
the planets of the Cäraëas began to offer prayers in the service of the
Personality of Godhead. In the heavenly planets, the angels along with their
wives, accompanied by the Apsaräs, began to dance.
The great sages and the
demigods, being pleased, began to shower flowers. At the seashore, there was
the sound of mild waves, and above the sea there were clouds in the sky which
began to thunder very pleasingly.
When things were adjusted
like this, Lord Viñëu, who is residing within the heart of every living entity,
appeared in the darkness of night as the Supreme Personality of Godhead before
Devaké, who also appeared as one of the demigoddesses. The appearance of Lord
Viñëu at that time could be compared to the full moon in the sky as it rises on
the eastern horizon. The objection may be raised that, since Lord Kåñëa
appeared on the eighth day of the waning moon, there could be no rising of the
full moon. In answer to this it may be said that Lord Kåñëa appeared in the
dynasty which is in the hierarchy of the moon; therefore, although the moon was
incomplete on that night, because of the Lord’s appearance in the dynasty
wherein the moon is himself the original person, the moon was in an overjoyous
condition, so by the grace of Kåñëa he could appear just as a full moon.
In an astronomical
treatise by the name Khamäëikya, the constellations at the time of the
appearance of Lord Kåñëa are very nicely described. It is confirmed that the
child born at that auspicious moment was the Supreme Brahman or the Absolute
Truth.
Vasudeva saw that
wonderful child born as a baby with four hands, holding conchshell, club, disc
and lotus flower, decorated with the mark of Çrévatsa, wearing the jeweled
necklace of kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, appearing dazzling like a
bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet bedecked with the vaidürya stone,
valuable bracelets, earrings and similar other ornaments all over His body and
an abundance of hair on His head. Due to the extraordinary features of the
child, Vasudeva was struck with wonder. How could a newly born child be so
decorated? He could therefore understand that Lord Kåñëa had now appeared, and
he became overpowered by the occasion. Vasudeva very humbly wondered that
although he was an ordinary living entity conditioned by material nature and
was externally imprisoned by Kaàsa, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead,
Viñëu or Kåñëa, was appearing as a child in his home, exactly in His original
position. No earthly child is born with four hands and decorated with ornaments
and nice clothing, fully equipped with all the signs of the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Over and over again, Vasudeva glanced at his child, and he
considered how to celebrate this auspicious moment: “Generally, when a male
child is born,” he thought, “people observe the occasion with jubilant celebrations,
and in my home, although I am imprisoned, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
has taken birth. How many millions and millions of times should I be prepared
to observe this auspicious ceremony!”
When Vasudeva, who is also
called Änakadundubhi, was looking at his newborn baby, he was so happy that he
wanted to give many thousands of cows in charity to the brähmaëas. According to
the Vedic system, whenever there is an auspicious ceremony in the kñatriya king’s
palace, the king gives many things in charity. Cows decorated with golden
ornaments are delivered to the brähmaëas and sages. Vasudeva wanted to perform
a charitable ceremony to celebrate Kåñëa’s appearance, but because he was
shackled within the walls of Kaàsa’s prison, this was not possible. Instead,
within his mind he gave thousands of cows to the brähmaëas.
When Vasudeva was
convinced that the newborn child was the Supreme Personality of Godhead
Himself, he bowed down with folded hands and began to offer Him prayers. At
that time Vasudeva was in the transcendental position, and he became completely
free from all fear of Kaàsa. The newborn baby was also flashing His effulgence
within the room in which He appeared.
Vasudeva then began to
offer his prayers: “My dear Lord, I can understand who You are. You are the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul of all living entities and the
Absolute Truth. You have appeared in Your own eternal form, which is directly
perceived by us. I understand that because I am afraid of Kaàsa, You have
appeared just to deliver me from that fear. You do not belong to this material
world; You are the same person who brings about the cosmic manifestation simply
by glancing over material nature.”
The Lord spoke to Devaké
and Vasudeva: “I appeared in this Viñëu form just to convince you that I am the
same Supreme Personality of Godhead again taken birth. I could have appeared
just like an ordinary child, but in that way you would not believe that I, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, have taken birth in your womb. My dear father
and mother, you have therefore raised Me many times as your child, with great
affection and love, and I am therefore very pleased and obliged to you. And I
assure you that this time you shall go back home, back to Godhead, on account
of your perfection in your mission. I know you are very concerned about Me and
afraid of Kaàsa. Therefore I order you to take Me immediately to Gokula and
replace Me with the daughter who has just been born to Yaçodä.”
Having spoken thus in the
presence of His father and mother, the Lord turned Himself into an ordinary
child and remained silent.
Being ordered by the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva attempted to take his son from the
delivery room, and exactly at that time, a daughter was born of Nanda and Yaçodä.
She was Yogamäyä, the internal potency of the Lord. By the influence of this
internal potency, Yogamäyä, all the residents of Kaàsa’s palace, especially the
doorkeepers, were overwhelmed with deep sleep, and all the palace doors opened,
although they were barred and shackled with iron chainsThe night was very dark,
but as soon as Vasudeva took Kåñëa on his lap and went out, he could see
everything just as in the sunlight.
In the Caitanya-caritämåta
it is said that Kåñëa is just like sunlight, and wherever there is Kåñëa, the
illusory energy, which is compared to darkness, cannot remain. When Vasudeva
was carrying Kåñëa, the darkness of the night disappeared. All the prison doors
automatically opened. At the same time there was thunder in the sky and severe
rainfall. While Vasudeva was carrying his son Kåñëa in the falling rain, Lord Çeña
in the shape of a serpent spread His hood over the head of Vasudeva so that he
would not be hampered by the rainfall. Vasudeva came onto the bank of the Yamunä
and saw that the water of the Yamunä was roaring with waves and that the whole
span was full of foam. Still, in that furious feature, the river gave passage
to Vasudeva to cross, just as the great Indian Ocean gave a path to Lord Räma
when He was bridging over the gulf. In this way Vasudeva crossed the River
Yamunä. On the other side, he went to the place of Nanda Mahäräja situated in
Gokula, where he saw that all the cowherd men were fast asleep. He took the
opportunity of silently entering into the house of Yaçodä, and without
difficulty he exchanged his son for the baby girl newly born in the house of Yaçodä.
Then, after entering the house very silently and exchanging the boy with the
girl, he again returned to the prison of Kaàsa and silently put the girl on the
lap of Devaké. He again clamped the shackles on himself so that Kaàsa could not
recognize that so many things had happened.
Mother Yaçodä understood
that a child was born of her, but because she was very tired from the labor of
childbirth, she was fast asleep. When she awoke, she could not remember whether
she had given birth to a male or female child.
RVL 10.3: KAÀSA BEGINS HIS PERSECUTIONS
KAÀSA BEGINS HIS PERSECUTIONS
After Vasudeva adjusted
all the doors and gates, the gatekeepers awoke and heard the newborn child
crying. Kaàsa was waiting to hear the news of the child’s birth, and the
gatekeepers immediately approached him and informed him that the child was
born. At that time, Kaàsa got up from his bed very quickly and exclaimed, “Now
the cruel death of my life is born!” Kaàsa became perplexed now that his death
was approaching, and his hair stood on end. Immediately he proceeded toward the
place where the child was born.
Devaké, on seeing her brother
approaching, prayed in a very meek attitude to Kaàsa: “My dear brother, please
do not kill this female child. I promise that this child will be the wife of
your son; therefore don’t kill her. You are not to be killed by any female
child. That was the omen. You are to be killed by a male child, so please do
not kill her. My dear brother, you have killed so many of my children who were
just born, shining as the sun. That is not your fault. You have been advised by
demoniac friends to kill my children. But now I beg you to excuse this girl.
Let her live as my daughter.”
Kaàsa was so cruel that he
did not listen to the beautiful prayers of his sister Devaké. He forcibly
grabbed the newborn child to rebuke his sister and attempted to dash her on the
stone mercilessly. This is a graphic example of a cruel brother who could
sacrifice all relationships for the sake of personal gratification. But
immediately the child slipped out of his hands, went up in the sky and appeared
with eight arms as the younger sister of Viñëu. She was decorated with a nice
dress and flower garlands and ornaments; in her eight hands she held a bow,
lance, arrows, bell, conchshell, disc, club and shield.
Seeing the appearance of
the child (who was actually the goddess Durgä), all the demigods from different
planets like Siddhaloka, Cäraëaloka, Gandharvaloka, Apsaroloka, Kinnaraloka and
Uragaloka presented her articles and began to offer their respective
prayers>From above, the goddess addressed Kaàsa: “You rascal, how can you
kill me? The child who will kill you is already born before me somewhere within
this world. Don’t be so cruel to your poor sister.” After this appearance, the
goddess Durgä became known by various names in various parts of the world.
Kaàsa became very fearful
and released Vasudeva and Devaké from prison. But the next day his demoniac
ministers convinced him that he should try to remove the danger to his life by
killing all children who had been born within ten days and to persecute the brähmaëas
and Vaiñëavas. Baby Kåñëa, however, was living incognito in Våndävana as the
son of Nanda, and He thus escaped the persecutions of Kaàsa. He began to
perform miraculous pastimes, even as an infant. Thus giant demons such as Pütanä
and Tåëävarta, sent to kill infants, were killed by Kåñëa in displays of His
supreme power. Meanwhile Vasudeva did not reveal that he was the father of Kåñëa,
but he encouraged Nanda to raise the child with all care.
VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL FORM
After this incident,
Vasudeva asked his family priest Gargamuni to visit the place of Nanda Mahäräja
in order to astrologically calculate the future life of Kåñëa. Gargamuni was a
great saintly sage who underwent many austerities and penances and was
appointed priest of the Yadu dynasty. When Gargamuni arrived at the home of
Nanda Mahäräja, Nanda Mahäräja was very pleased to see him and immediately
stood up with folded hands and offered his respectful obeisances. He received
Gargamuni with the feeling of one who is worshiping God or the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. He offered him a nice sitting place, and when he sat
down, Nanda Mahäräja offered him a warm reception. Addressing him very
politely, he said: “My dear brähmaëa, your appearance in a householder’s place
is only =o enlighten. We are always engaged in household duties and are
forgetting our real duty of self-realization. Your coming to our house is to
give us some enlightenment about spiritual life. You have no other purpose to
visit householders.” Actually a saintly person or a brähmaëa has no business
visiting householders, who are always busy in the matter of dollars and cents.
If it is asked, “Why don’t the householders go to a saintly person or a brähmaëa
for enlightenment?” the answer is that householders are very poor-hearted.
Generally householders think that their engagement in family affairs is their
prime duty and that self-realization or enlightenment in spiritual knowledge is
secondary. Out of compassion only, saintly persons and brähmaëas go to
householders’ homes.
Nanda Mahäräja addressed
Gargamuni as one of the great authorities in astrological science. The
foretellings of astrological science, such as the occurrence of solar or lunar
eclipses, are wonderful calculations, and by this particular science, a person
can understand the future very clearly. Gargamuni was proficient in this
knowledge. By this knowledge one can understand what his previous activities
were, and by the result of such activities one may enjoy or suffer in this life.
Upon this request,
Gargamuni replied, “Vasudeva has sent me to see to the reformatory performances
of these boys, especially Kåñëa’s. I am their family priest, and incidentally,
it appears to me that Kåñëa is the son of Devaké.” By his astrological calculation,
Gargamuni could understand that Kåñëa was the son of Devaké but that He was
being kept under the care of Nanda Mahäräja, which Nanda did not know.
Indirectly he said that Kåñëa and Balaräma were both sons of Vasudeva. Balaräma
was known as the son of Vasudeva because His mother, Rohiëé, was present there,
but Nanda Mahäräja did not know about Kåñëa. Gargamuni indirectly disclosed the
fact that Kåñëa was the son of Devaké. Gargamuni also warned Nanda Mahäräja
that if he would perform the reformatory ceremony, then Kaàsa, who was
naturally very sinful, would understand that Kåñëa was the son of Devaké and
Vasudeva. According to astrological calculation, Devaké could not have a female
child, although everyone thought that the eighth child of Devaké was female. In
this way Gargamuni intimated to Nanda Mahäräja that the female child was born
of Yaçodä and that Kåñëa was born of Devaké, and they were exchanged. The
female child, or Durgä, also informed Kaàsa that the child who would kill him
was already born somewhere else. Gargamuni stated, “If I give your child a name
and if He fulfills the prophecy of the female child to Kaàsa, then it may be
that the sinful demon will come and kill this child also after the name-giving
ceremony. But I do not want to become responsible for all these future
calamities.”
On hearing the words of
Gargamuni, Nanda Mahäräja said, “If there is such danger, then it is better not
to plan any gorgeous name-giving ceremony. It would be better for you to simply
chant the Vedic hymns and perform the purificatory process. We belong to the
twice-born caste, and I am taking this opportunity of your presence. So please
perform the name-giving ceremony without external pomp.” Nanda Mahäräja wanted
to keep the name-giving ceremony a secret and yet take advantage of Gargamuni’s
performing the ceremony.
When Gargamuni was so
eagerly requested by Nanda Mahäräja, he performed the name-giving ceremony as
secretly as possible in the cowshed of Nanda Mahäräja. He informed Nanda Mahäräja
that Balaräma, the son of Rohiëé would be very pleasing to His family members
and relatives and therefore would be called Räma. In the future He would be
extraordinarily strong and therefore would be called Balaräma. Gargamuni said
further, “Because your family and the family of the Yadus are so intimately
connected and attracted, His name will also be Saìkarñaëa.” This means that
Gargamuni awarded three names to the son of Rohiëé—namely Balaräma, Saìkarñaëa,
and Baladeva. But he carefully did not disclose the fact that Balaräma also
appeared in the womb of Devaké and was subsequently transferred to the womb of
Rohiëé. Kåñëa and Balaräma are real brothers, being originally sons of Devaké.
Gargamuni then informed
Nanda Mahäräja, “As far as the other boy is concerned, this child has taken
different bodily complexions in different yugas (millennia). First of all He
assumed the color white, then He assumed the color red, then the color yellow,
and now He has assumed the color black. Besides that, He was formerly the son
of Vasudeva; therefore His name should be Väsudeva as well as Kåñëa. Some
people will call Him Kåñëa, and some will call Him Väsudeva. But one thing you
must know: This son has had many, many other names and activities due to His
different pastimes.”
Gargamuni gave Nanda Mahäräja
a further hint that his son would also be called Giridhäré because of His
uncommon pastimes of lifting Govardhana Hill. Since he could understand
everything past and future, he said, “I know everything about His activities
and name, but others do not know. This child will be very pleasing to all the
cowherd men and cows. Being very popular in Våndävana, He will be the cause of
all good fortune for you. Because of His presence, you will overcome all kinds
of material calamities, despite opposing elements.”
Gargamuni continued to
say, “My dear King of Vraja, in His previous births, this child many times
protected righteous persons from the hands of rogues and thieves whenever there
was a political disruption. Your child is so powerful that anyone who will
become a devotee of your boy will never be troubled by enemies. Just as
demigods are always protected by Lord Viñëu, the devotees of your child will
always be protected by Näräyaëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This child
will grow in power, beauty, opulence—in everything—on the level of Näräyaëa,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore I would advise that you protect
Him very carefully so that He may grow without disturbance.”
Gargamuni further informed
Nanda Mahäräja that because he was a great devotee of Näräyaëa, Lord Näräyaëa
gave a son who is equal to Him. At the same time he indicated, “Your son will
be disturbed by so many demons, so be careful and protect Him.” In this way,
Gargamuni convinced Nanda Mahäräja that Näräyaëa Himself had become his son. In
various ways he described the transcendental qualities of his son. After giving
this information, Gargamuni returned to his home. Nanda Mahäräja began to think
of himself as the most fortunate person, and he was very satisfied to be
benedicted in this way.
A short time after this
incident, both Balaräma and Kåñëa began to crawl on Their hands and knees. When
They were crawling like that, They pleased Their mothers. The bells tied to
Their waist and ankles sounded fascinating, and They would move around very
pleasingly. Sometimes, just like ordinary children, They would be frightened by
others and would immediately hurry to Their mothers for protection. Sometimes They
would fall into the clay and mud of Våndävana and would approach Their mothers
smeared with clay and saffron. They were actually smeared with saffron and
sandalwood pulp by Their mothers, but due to crawling over muddy clay, They
would simultaneously smear Their bodies with clay. As soon as They would come
crawling to Their mothers, Yaçodä and Rohiëé would take Them on their laps and,
covering the lower portion of their saris, allow Them to suck their breasts.
When the babies were sucking their breasts, the mothers would see small teeth
coming in. Thus their joy would be intensified to see their children grow.
Sometimes the naughty babies would crawl up to the cowshed, catch the tail of a
calf and stand up. The calves, being disturbed, would immediately begin running
here and there, and the children would be dragged over clay and cow dung. To
see this fun, Yaçodä and Rohiëé would call all their neighboring friends, the
gopés. Upon seeing these childhood pastimes of Lord Kåñëa, the gopés would be
merged in transcendental bliss. In their enjoyment they would laugh very
loudly.
Both Kåñëa and Balaräma
were so restless that Their mothers Yaçodä and Rohiëé would try to protect Them
from cows, bulls, monkeys, water, fire and birds while they were executing
their household duties. Always being anxious to protect the children and to
execute their duties, they were not very tranquil. In a very short time, both Kåñëa
and Balaräma began to stand up and slightly move on Their legsKåñëa and Balaräma
began to walk, other friends of the same age joined Them, and together they
began to give the highest transcendental pleasure to the gopés, specifically to
mother Yaçodä and Rohiëé.
All the gopé friends of Yaçodä
and Rohiëé enjoyed the naughty childish activities of Kåñëa and Balaräma in Våndävana.
In order to enjoy further transcendental bliss, they all assembled and went to
mother Yaçodä to lodge complaints against the restless boys. When Kåñëa was
sitting before mother Yaçodä, all the elderly gopés began to lodge complaints against
Him so that Kåñëa could hear. They said, “Dear Yaçodä, why don’t you restrict
your naughty Kåñëa. He comes to our houses along with Balaräma every morning
and evening, and before the milking of the cows They let loose the calves, and
the calves drink all the milk of the cows. So when we go to milk the cows, we
find no milk, and we have to return with empty pots. If we warn Kåñëa and Balaräma
about doing this, They simply smile charmingly. We cannot do anything. Also,
your Kåñëa and Balaräma find great pleasure in stealing our stock of yogurt and
butter from wherever we keep itWhen Kåñëa and Balaräma are caught stealing the
yogurt and butter, They say, ‘Why do you charge Us with stealing? Do you think
that butter and yogurt are in scarcity in our house?’ Sometimes They steal
butter, yogurt and milk and distribute them to the monkeys. When the monkeys
are well fed and do not take any more, then your boys chide, ‘This milk and
butter and yogurt are useless—even the monkeys won’t take it.’ And They break the
pots and throw them hither and thither. If we keep our stock of yogurt, butter
and milk in a solitary dark place, your Kåñëa and Balaräma find it in the
darkness by the glaring effulgence of the ornaments and jewels on Their bodies.
If by chance They cannot find the hidden butter and yogurt, They go to our
little babies and pinch their bodies so that they cry, and then They go away.
If we keep our stock of butter and yogurt high on the ceiling, hanging on a
swing, although it is beyond Their reach, They arrange to reach it by piling
all kinds of wooden crates over the grinding machine. And if They cannot reach,
They make a hole in the pot. We think therefore that you’d better take all the
jeweled ornaments from the bodies of your children.”
On hearing this, Yaçodä
would say, “All right, I will take all the jewels from Kåñëa so that He cannot
see the butter hidden in the darkness.” Then the gopés would say, “No, no don’t
do this. What good will you do by taking away the jewels? We do not know what kind
of boys these are, but even without ornaments They spread some kind of
effulgence so that even in darkness They can see everything.” Then mother Yaçodä
would inform them, “All right, keep your butter and yogurt carefully so that
They may not reach it.” In reply to this, the gopés said, “Yes, actually we do
so, but because we are sometimes engaged in our household duties, these naughty
boys enter our house somehow or other and spoil everything. Sometimes being
unable to steal our butter and yogurt, out of anger They pass urine on the
clean floor and sometimes spit on it. Just see your boy now—He is hearing this
complaint. All day They simply make arrangements to steal our butter and
yogurt, and now They are sitting just like very silent good boys. Just see His
face.” When mother Yaçodä thought to chastise her boy after hearing all the
complaints, she saw His pitiable face, and smiling, she did not chastise Him
Another day, when Kåñëa
and Balaräma were playing with Their friends, all the boys joined Balaräma and
told mother Yaçodä that Kåñëa had eaten clay. On hearing this, mother Yaçodä
caught hold of Kåñëa’s hand and said, “My dear Kåñëa, why have You eaten earth
in a solitary place? Just see, all Your friends, including Balaräma, are
complaining about You.” Being afraid of His mother, Kåñëa replied, “My dear
mother, all these boys, including My elder brother Balaräma, are speaking lies
against Me. I have never eaten clay. My elder brother Balaräma, while playing
with Me today, became angry, and therefore He has joined with the other boys to
complain against Me. They have all combined together to complain so you will be
angry and chastise Me. If you think they are truthful, then you can look within
My mouth to see whether I have taken clay or not.” His mother replied, “All
right, if You have actually not taken any clay, then just open Your mouth. I
shall see.”
When the Supreme
Personality of Godhead Kåñëa was so ordered by His mother, He immediately
opened His mouth just like an ordinary boy. Then mother Yaçodä saw within that
mouth the complete opulence of creation. She saw the entire outer space in all
directions, mountains, islands, oceans, seas, planets, air, fire, moon and
stars. Along with the moon and the stars she also saw the entire elements,
water, sky, the extensive ethereal existence along with the total ego and the
products of the senses and the controller of the senses, all the demigods, the
objects of the senses like sound and smell, and the three qualities of material
nature. She also could perceive that within His mouth were all living entities,
eternal time, material nature, spiritual nature, activity, consciousness and
different forms of the whole creation. Yaçodä could find within the mouth of
her child everything necessary for cosmic manifestation. She also saw, within
His mouth, herself taking Kåñëa on her lap and having Him sucking her breast.
Upon seeing all this, she became struck with awe and began to wonder whether
she were dreaming or actually seeing something extraordinary. She concluded
that she was either dreaming or seeing the play of the illusory energy of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. She thought that she had become mad, mentally
deranged, to see all those wonderful things. Then she thought, “It may be
cosmic mystic power attained by my child, and therefore I am perplexed by such
visions within His mouth. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose energy bodily self and bodily
possessions are conceived.” She then said, “Let me offer my respectful
obeisances unto Him, under whose illusory energy I am thinking that Nanda Mahäräja
is my husband and Kåñëa is my son, that all the properties of Nanda Mahäräja
belong to me and that all the cowherd men and women are my subjects. All this
misconception is due to the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. So let me pray
to Him that He may protect me always.”
While mother Yaçodä was
thinking in this high philosophical way, Lord Kåñëa again expanded His internal
energy just to bewilder her with maternal affection. Immediately mother Yaçodä
forgot all philosophical speculation and accepted Kåñëa as her own child. She
took Him on her lap and became overwhelmed with maternal affection. She thus
began to think, “Kåñëa is not understandable to the masses through the gross
process of knowledge, but He can be received through the Upaniñads and the Vedänta
or mystic yoga system and Säìkhya philosophy.” Then she began to think of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead as her own begotten child.
RVL 10.5: THE KILLING OF THE AGHÄSURA DEMON
THE KILLING OF THE AGHÄSURA DEMON
Once the Lord desired to
go early in the morning with all His cowherd boy friends to the forest, where
they were to assemble together and take lunch. As soon as He got up from bed=
He blew a buffalo horn and called all His friends together. Keeping the calves
before them, they started for the forest. In this way, Lord Kåñëa assembled
thousands of His boy friends. They were each equipped with a stick, flute and
horn as well as lunch bag, and each of them was taking care of thousands of
calves. All the boys appeared very jolly and happy in that excursion. Each and
every one of them was attentive for his personal calves. The boys were fully
decorated with various kinds of golden omaments, and out of sporting
propensities they began to pick up flowers, leaves, twigs, peacock feathers and
red clay from different places in the forest, and they began to dress
themselves in different ways. While passing through the forest, one boy stole another
boy’s lunch package and passed it to a third. And when the boy whose lunch
package was stolen came to know of it, he tried to take it back. But one threw
it to another boy. This sportive playing went on amongst the boys as childhood
pastimes.
When Lord Kåñëa went ahead
to a distant place in order to see some specific scenery, the boys behind Him
tried to run to catch up and be the first to touch Him. So there was a great
competition. One would say, “I will go there and touch Kåñëa,” and another
would say, “Oh, you cannot go. I’ll touch Kåñëa first.” Some of them played on
their flutes or vibrated bugles made of buffalo horn. Some of them gladly
followed the peacocks and imitated the onomatopoetic sounds of the cuckoo.
While the birds were flying in the sky, the boys ran after the birds’ shadows
along the ground and tried to follow their exact courses. Some of them went to
the monkeys and silently sat down by them, and some of them imitated the
dancing of the peacocks. Some of them caught the tails of the monkeys and
played with them, and when the monkeys jumped in a tree, the boys also
followed. When a monkey showed its face and teeth, a boy imitated and showed
his teeth to the monkey. Some of the boys played with the frogs on the bank of
the Yamunä, and when, out of fear, the frogs jumped in the water, the boys
immediately dove in after them, and they would come out of the water when they
saw their own shadows and stand imitating, making caricatures and laughing.
They would also go to an empty well and make loud sounds, and when the echo
came back, they would call it ill names and laugh.
As stated personally by
the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gétä, He is realized
proportionately by transcendentalists as Brahman, Paramätmä and the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Here, in confirmation of the same statement, Lord Kåñëa,
who awards the impersonalist Brahman realization by His bodily effulgence, also
gives pleasure to the devotees as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who
are under the spell of external energy, mäyä, take Him only as a beautiful
child. Yet He gave full transcendental pleasure to the cowherd boys who played
with Him. Only afler accumulating heaps of pious activities, those boys were promoted
to personally associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Who can
estimate the transcendental fortune of the residents of Våndävana? They were
personally visualizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, He whom
many yogés cannot find even after undergoing severe austerities, although He is
sitting within the heart. This is also confirmed in the Brahma-saàhitä. One may
search for Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, through the pages of the
Vedas and Upaniñads, but if one is fortunate enough to associate with a
devotee, he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. After
accumulating pious activities in many, many previous lives, the cowherd boys
were seeing Kåñëa face to face and playing with Him as friends. They could not
understand that Kåñëa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they were
playing as intimate friends with intense love for Him.
When Lord Kåñëa was
enjoying His childhood pastimes with His boy friends, one Aghäsura demon became
very impatient. He was unable to see Kåñëa playing, so he appeared before the
boys intending to kill them all. This Aghäsura was so dangerous that even the
denizens of heaven were afraid of him. Although the denizens of heaven drank
nectar daily to prolong their lives, they were afraid of this Aghäsura and were
wondering, “When will the demon be killed?” The denizens used to drink nectar
to become immortal, but actually they were not confident of their immortality.
On the other hand, the boys who were playing with Kåñëa had no fear of the
demons. They were free of fear. Any material arrangement for protecting oneself
from death is always unsure, but if one is in Kåñëa consciousness, then
immortality is confidently assured.
The demon Aghäsura
appeared before Kåñëa and His friends. Aghäsura happened to be the younger
brother of Pütanä and Bakäsura, and he thought, “Kåñëa has killed my brother
and sister. Now I shall kill Him along with all His friends and calves.” Aghäsura
was instigated by Kaàsa, so he had come with determination. Aghäsura also began
to think that when he would offer grains and water in memory of his brother and
kill Kåñëa and all the cowherd boys, then automatically all the inhabitants of
Våndävana would die. Generally, for the householders, the children are the life
and breath force. When all the children die, then naturally the parents also
die on account of strong affection for them.
Aghäsura, thus deciding to
kill all the inhabitants of Våndävana, expanded himself by the yogic siddhi
called mahimä. The demons are generally expert in achieving almost all kinds of
mystic powers. In the yoga system, by the perfection called mahimä-siddhi, one
can expand himself as he desires. The demon Aghäsura expanded himself up to
eight miles and assumed the shape of a very fat serpent. Having attained this
wonderful body, he stretched his mouth open just like a mountain cave. Desiring
to swallow all the boys at once, including Kåñëa and Balaräma, he sat on the
path.
The demon in the shape of
a big fat serpent expanded his lips from land to sky; his lower lip was
touching the ground, and his upper lip was touching the clouds. His jaws
appeared like a big mountain cave, without limitation, and his teeth appeared
just like mountain summits. His tongue appeared to be a broad traffic way, and
he was breathing just like a hurricane. The fire of his eyes was blazing. At
first the boys thought that the demon was a statue, but after examining it,
they saw that it was more like a big serpent lying down in the road and
widening his mouth. The boys began to talk among themselves: “This figure
appears to be a great animal, and he is sitting in such a posture just to
swallow us all. Just see—is it not a big snake that has widened his mouth to
eat all of us?”
One of them said, “Yes,
what you say is true. This animal’s upper lip appears to be just like the
sunshine, and its lower lip is just like the reflection of red sunshine on the
ground. Dear friends, just look to the right and left hand side of the mouth of
the animal. Its mouth appears to be like a big mountain cave, and its height
cannot be estimated. The chin is also raised just like a mountain summit. That
long highway appears to be its tongue, and inside the mouth it is as dark as a
mountain cave. The hot wind that is blowing like a hurricane is his breathing,
and the fishy bad smell coming out from his mouth is the smell of his
intestines.”
Then they further
consulted among themselves: “If we all at one time entered into the mouth of this
great serpent, how could it possibly swallow all of us? And even if it were to
swallow all of us at once, it could not swallow Kåñëa. Kåñëa will immediately
kill him, as He did Bakäsura.” Talking in this way, all the boys looked at the
beautiful lotus-like face of Kåñëa, and they began to clap and smile. And so
they marched forward and entered the mouth of the gigantic serpent.
Meanwhile, Kåñëa, who is
the Supersoul within everyone’s heart, could understand that the big statuesque
figure was a demon. While He was planning how to stop the destruction of His
intimate friends, all the boys along with their cows and calves entered the
mouth of the serpent. But Kåñëa did not enter. The demon was awaiting =åñëa’s
entrance, and he was thinking, “Everyone has entered except Kåñëa, who has
killed my brothers and sisters.”
Kåñëa is the assurance of
safety to everyone. But when He saw that His friends were already out of His
hands and were lying within the belly of a great serpent, He became momentarily
aggrieved. He was also struck with wonder how the external energy works so
wonderfully. He then began to consider how the demon should be killed and how
He could save the boys and calves. Although there was no factual concern on Kåñëa’s
part, He was thinking like that. Finally, after some deliberation, He also
entered the mouth of the demon. When Kåñëa entered, all the demigods, who had
gathered to see the fun and who were hiding within the clouds, began to express
their feelings with the words, “Alas! Alas!” At the same time, all the friends
of Aghäsura, especially Kaàsa, who were all accustomed to eating flesh and
blood, began to express their jubilation, understanding that Kåñëa had also
entered the mouth of the demon.
While the demon was trying
to smash Kåñëa and His companions, Kåñëa heard the demigods crying, “Alas,
alas,” and He immediately began to expand Himself within the throat of the
demon. Although he had a gigantic body, the demon choked by the expanding of Kåñëa.
His big eyes moved violently, and he quickly suffocated. His life-air could not
come out from any source, and ultimately it burst out of a hole in the upper
part of his skull. Thus his life-air passed off. After the demon dropped dead,
Kåñëa, with His transcendental glance alone, brought all the boys and calves
back to consciousness and came with them out of the mouth of the demon. While Kåñëa
was within the mouth of Aghäsura, the demon’s spirit soul came out like a
dazzling light, illuminating all directions, and waited in the sky. As soon as
Kåñëa with His calves and friends came out of the mouth of the demon, that
glittering effulgent light immediately merged into the body of Kåñëa within the
vision of all the demigods.
The demigods became
overwhelmed with joy and began to shower flowers on the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Kåñëa, and thus they worshiped Him. The denizens of heaven began to
dance in jubilation, and the denizens in Gandharvaloka began to offer various
kinds of prayers. Drummers began to beat drums in jubilation, the brähmaëas began
to recite Vedic hymns, and all the devotees of the Lord began to chant the
words, “Jaya! Jaya! All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
When Lord Brahmä heard
those auspicious vibrations, which sounded throughout the higher planetary
system, he immediately came down to see what had happened. He saw that the
demon was killed, and he was struck with wonder at the uncommon, glorious
pastimes of the Personality of Godhead. The gigantic mouth of the demon
remained in an open position for many days and gradually dried up; it remained
a spot of pleasure pastimes for all the cowherd boys.
The killing of Aghäsura
took place when Kåñëa and all His boy friends were under five years old.
Children under five years old are called kaumära. After five years up to the
tenth year they are called paugaëòa, and after the tenth year up to the
fifteenth year they are called kaiçora. After the fifteenth year, boys are
called youths. So for one year there was no discussion of the incident of the
Aghäsura demon in the village of Vraja. But when they attained their sixth
year, they informed their parents of the incident with great wonder. The reason
for this will be clear in the next chapter.
For Çré Kåñëa, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is far greater than such demigods as Lord Brahmä,
it is not at all difficult to award one the opportunity of merging with His
eternal body. This He awarded to Aghäsura. Aghäsura was certainly the most
sinful living entity, and it is not possible for the sinful to merge into the
existence of the Absolute Truth. But in this particular case, because Kåñëa
entered into Aghäsura’s body, the demon became fully cleansed of all sinful
reaction. Persons constantly thinking of the eternal form of the Lord in the
shape of the Deity or in the shape of a mental form are awarded the
transcendental goal of entering into the kingdom of God and associating with
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So we can just imagine the elevated
position of someone like Aghäsura, into whose body the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Kåñëa, personally entered. Great sages, meditators and devotees
constantly keep the form of the Lord within the heart, or they see the Deity
form of the Lord in the temples; in that way, they become liberated from all
material contamination and at the end of the body enter into the kingdom of
God. This perfection is possible simply by keeping the form of the Lord within
the mind. But in the case of Aghäsura, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
personally entered. Aghäsura’s position was therefore greater than the ordinary
devotee’s or the greatest yogé’s.
Mahäräja Parékñit, who was
engaged in hearing the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kåñëa (who saved the
life of Mahäräja Parékñit while he was in the womb of his mother), became more
and more interested to hear about Him. And thus he questioned the sage Çukadeva
Gosvämé, who was reciting Çrémad-Bhägavatam before the King.
King Parékñit was a bit
astonished to understand that the killing of the Aghäsura demon was not
discussed for one year, until after the boys attained the paugaëòa age. Mahäräja
Parékñit was very inquisitive to learn about this, for he was sure that such an
incident was due to the working of Kåñëa’s different energies.
Generally, the kñatriyas
or the administrative class are always busy with their political affairs, and
they have very little chance to hear about the transcendental pastimes of Lord
Kåñëa. But while Parékñit Mahäräja was hearing these transcendental pastimes, he
considered himself to be very fortunate because he was hearing from Çukadeva
Gosvämé, the greatest authority on the Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Thus being requested
by Mahäräja Parékñit, Çukadeva Gosvämé continued to speak about the transcendental
pastimes of Lord Kåñëa in the matter of His form, quality, fame and
paraphernalia.
RVL 10.6: THE STEALING OF THE BOYS AND CALVES BY BRAHMÄ
Lord Kåñëa brought His
friends to the bank of Yamunä and addressed them as follows: “My dear friends,
just see how this spot is very nice for taking lunch and playing on the soft
sandy Yamunä bank. You can see how the lotus flowers in the water are
beautifully blown and how they distribute their flavor all around. The chirping
of the birds along with the cooing of the peacocks, surrounded by the
whispering of the leaves in the trees, combine and present sound vibrations
that echo one another. And this just enriches the beautiful scenery created by
the trees here. Let us have our lunch in this spot because it is already late
and we are feeling hungry. Let the calves remain near us, and let them drink
water from the Yamunä. While we are engaged in our lunch-taking, the calves may
engage in eating the soft grasses that are in this spot.”
On hearing this proposal
from Kåñëa, all the boys became very glad and said, “Certainly let us all sit
down here to take our lunch.” They then let loose the calves to eat the soft
grass. Sitting down on the ground and keeping Kåñëa in the center, they began
to open their different boxes brought from home. Lord Çré Kåñëa was seated in
the center of the circle, and all the boys kept their faces toward Him. They
ate and constantly enjoyed seeing the Lord face to face. Kåñëa appeared to be
the whorl of a lotus flower, and the boys surrounding Him appeared to be its
different petals. The boys collected flowers, leaves of flowers and the bark of
trees and placed them under their different boxes, and thus they began to eat
their lunch, keeping company with Kåñëa. While taking lunch, each boy began to
manifest different kinds of relations with Kåñëa, and they enjoyed each other’s
company with joking words. While Lord Kåñëa was thus enjoying lunch with His
friends, His flute was pushed with.in the belt of His cloth, and His bugle and
cane were pushed in on the left-hand side of His cloth. He was holding a lump
of foodstuff prepared with yogurt, butter, rice and pieces of fruit salad in
His left palm, which could be seen through His petallike finger joints. The
Supreme Personality of Godhead, who accepts the results of all great
sacrifices, was laughing and joking, enjoying lunch with His friends in Våndävana.
And thus the scene was being observed by the demigods in heaven. As for the
boys, they were simply enjoying transcendental bliss in the company of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead.
At that time, the calves
that were pasturing nearby entered into the deep forest, allured by new
grasses, and gradually went out of sight. When the boys saw that the calves
were not nearby, they became afraid for their safety, and they immediately
cried out, “Kåñëa!” Kåñëa is the killer of fear personified. Everyone is afraid
of fear personified, but fear personified is afraid of Kåñëa. By crying out the
word “Kåñëa,” the boys at once transcended the fearful situation. Out of His
great affection, Kåñëa did not want His friends to give up their pleasing lunch
engagement and go searching for the calves. He therefore said, “My dear
friends, you need not interrupt your lunch. Go on enjoying. I am going
personally where the calves are.” Thus the Lord immediately started to search
out the calves in the caves and bushes. He searched in the mountain holes and
in the forests, but nowhere could He find them.
At the time when Aghäsura
was killed and the demigods were looking on the incident with great surprise,
Brahmä, who was born of the lotus flower growing out of the navel of Viñëu,
also came to see. He was surprised how a little boy like Kåñëa could act so
wonderfully. Although he was informed that the little cowherd boy was the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, he wanted to see more glorified pastimes of the
Lord, and thus he stole all the calves and cowherd boys and took them to a
different place. Lord Kåñëa, therefore, in spite of searching for the calves,
could not find them, and He even lost His boy friends on the bank of the Yamunä
where they had been taking their lunch. In the form of a cowherd boy, Lord Kåñëa
was very little in comparison to Brahmä, but because He is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, He could immediately understand that all the calves and
boys had been stolen by Brahmä. Kåñëa thought, “Brahmä has taken away all the
boys and calves. How can I alone return to Våndävana? The mothers will be
aggrieved!”
Therefore in order to
satisfy the mothers of His friends as well as to convince Brahmä of the
supremacy of the Personality of Godhead, He immediately expanded Himself as the
cowherd boys and calves. In the Vedas it is said that the Supreme Personality
of Godhead expands Himself in so many living entities by His energy. Therefore
it is not very difficult for Him to expand Himself again into so many boys and
calves. He expanded Himself to become exactly like the boys, who were of all different
features, facial and bodily construction, and who were different in their
clothing and ornaments and in their behavior and personal activities. In other
words, everyone has different tastes; being an individual soul, each person has
entirely different activities and behavior. Yet Kåñëa exactly expanded Himself
into all the different positions of the individual boys. He also became the
calves, who were also of different sizes, colors, activities, etc. This was
possible because everything is an expansion of Kåñëa’s energy. In the Viñëu Puräëa
it is said, parasya brahmaëaù çaktiù: Whatever we actually see in the cosmic
manifestation—be it matter or the activities of the living entities—is simply
an expansion of the energies of the Lord, as heat and light are the different
expansions of fire.
Thus expanding Himself as
the boys and calves in their individual capacities, and surrounded by such
expansions of Himself, Kåñëa entered the village of Våndävana. The residents
had no knowledge of what had happened. After entering the village, Våndävana,
all the calves entered their respective cowsheds, and the boys also went to
their respective mothers and homes.
The mothers of the boys
heard the vibration of their flutes before their entrance, and to receive them,
they came out of their homes and embraced them. And out of maternal affection,
milk was flowing from their breasts, and they allowed the boys to drink it.
However, their offering was not exactly to their boys but to the Supreme
Personality of Godhead who had expanded Himself into such boys. This was
another chance for all the mothers of Våndävana to feed the Supreme Personality
of Godhead with their own milk. Therefore not only did Lord Kåñëa give Yaçodä
the chance to feed Him, but this time He gave the chance to all the elderly gopés.
All the boys began to deal
with their mothers as usual, and the mothers also, on the approach of evening,
began to bathe their respective children, decorate them with tilaka and
ornaments and give them necessary food after the day’s labor. The cows also,
who were away in the pasturing ground, returned in the evening and began to
call their respective calves. The calves immediately came to their mothers, and
the mothers began to lick the bodies of the calves. These relations between the
cows and the gopés with their calves and boys remained unchanged, although
actually the original calves and boys were not there. Actually the cows’
affection for their calves and the elderly gopés’ affection for the boys
causelessly increased. Their affection increased naturally, even though the
calves and boys were not their offspring. Although the cows and elderly gopés
of Våndävana had greater affection for Kåñëa than for their own offspring,
after this incident their affection for their offspring increased exactly as it
did for Kåñëa. For one year continually, Kåñëa Himself expanded as the calves
and cowherd boys and was present in the pasturing ground.
As it is stated in the
Bhagavad-gétä, Kåñëa’s expansion is situated in everyone’s heart as the
Supersoul. Similarly, instead of expanding Himself as the Supersoul, He
expanded Himself as a portion of calves and cowherd boys for one continuous
year.
One day, when Kåñëa, along
with Balaräma, was maintaining the calves in the forest, They saw some cows
grazing on the top of Govardhana Hill. The cows could see down into the valley
where the calves were being taken care of by the boys. Suddenly, on sighting
their calves, the cows began to run towards them. They leaped downhill with
joined front and rear legs. The cows were so melted with affection for their
calves that they did not care about the rough path from the top of Govardhana
Hill down to the pasturing ground. They began to approach the calves with their
milk bags full of milk, and they raised their tails upwards. When they were
coming down the hill, their milk bags were pouring milk on the ground out of
intense maternal affection for the calves, although they were not their own
calves. These cows had their own calves, and the calves that were grazing
beneath Govardhana Hill were larger; they were not expected to drink milk
directly from the milk bag but were satisfied with the grass. Yet all the cows
came immediately and began to lick their bodies, and the calves also began to
suck milk from the milk bags. There appeared to be a great bondage of affection
between the cows and calves.
When the cows were running
down from the top of Govardhana Hill, the men who were taking care of them
tried to stop them. Elderly cows are taken care of by the men, and the calves
are taken care of by the boys; and as far as possible, the calves are kept
separate from the cows, so that the calves do not drink all the available milk.
Therefore the men who were taking care of the cows on the top of Govardhana
Hill tried to stop them, but they failed. Baffled by their failure, they were
feeling ashamed and angry. They were very unhappy, but when they came down and
saw their children taking care of the calves, they all of a sudden became very
affectionate toward the children. It was very astonishing. Although the men
came down disappointed, baffled and angry, as soon as they saw their own
children, their hearts melted with great affection. At once their anger,
dissatisfaction and unhappiness disappeared. They began to show paternal love
for the children, and with great affection they lifted them in their arms and
embraced them. They began to smell their children’s heads and enjoy their
company with great happiness. After embracing their children, the men again
took the cows back to the top of Govardhana Hill. Along the way they began to
think of their children, and affectionate tears fell from their eyes.
When Balaräma saw this
extraordinary exchange of affection between the cows and their calves and
between the fathers and their children—when neither the calves nor the children
needed so much care—He began to wonder why this extraordinary thing happened.
He was astonished to see all the residents of Våndävana so affectionate for
their own children, exactly as they had been for Kåñëa. Similarly, the cows had
grown affectionate for their calves—as much as for Kåñëa. Balaräma therefore
concluded that the extraordinary show of affection was something mystical,
either performed by the demigods or by some powerful man. Otherwise, how could
this wonderful change take place? He concluded that this mystical change must
have been caused by Kåñëa, whom Balaräma considered His worshipable Personality
of Godhead. He thought, “It was arranged by Kåñëa, and even I could not check
its mystic power.” Thus Balaräma understood that all those boys and calves were
only expansions of Kåñëa.
Balaräma inquired from Kåñëa
about the actual situation. He said, “My dear Kåñëa, in the beginning I thought
that all these cows, calves and cowherd boys were either great sages and
saintly persons or demigods, but at the present it appears that they are
actually Your expansions. They are all You; You Yourself are playing as the
calves and cows and boys. What is the mystery of this situation? Where have
those other calves and cows and boys gone? And why are You expanding Yourself
as the cows, calves, and boys? Will You kindly tell Me what is the cause?” At
the request of Balaräma, Kåñëa briefly explained the whole situation: how the
calves and boys were stolen by Brahmä and how He was concealing the incident by
expanding Himself so people would not know that the original cows, calves, and
boys were missing.
While Kåñëa and Balaräma
were talking, Brahmä returned after a moment’s interval (according to the
duration of his life). We have information of Lord Brahmä’s duration of life
from the Bhagavad-gétä: 1,000 times the duration of the four ages, or 4,300,000
X 1,000 years, comprise Brahmä’s twelve hours. Similarly, one moment of Brahmä
is equal to one year of our solar calculation. After one moment of Brahmä’s
calculation, Brahmä came back to see the fun caused by his stealing the boys
and calves. But he was also afraid that he was playing with fire. Kåñëa was his
master, and he had played mischief for fun by taking away His calves and boys.
He was really anxious, so he did not stay away very long; he came back after a
moment (of his calculation). He saw that all the boys, calves and cows were
playing with Kåñëa in the same way as when he had come upon them, although he
was confident that He had taken them and made them lie down asleep under the
spell of his mystic power. Brahmä began to think, “All the boys, calves and
cows were taken away by me, and I know they are still sleeping. How is it that
a similar batch of cows, boys and calves is playing with Kåñëa? Is it that they
are not influenced by my mystic power? Have they been playing continually for
one year with Kåñëa?” Brahmä tried to understand who they were and how they
were uninfluenced by his mystic power, but he could not ascertain it. In other
words, he himself came under the spell of his own mystic power. The influence
of his mystic power appeared like snow in darkness or the glowworm in daytime.
During the night’s darkness, the glowworm can show some glittering power, and
the snow piled up on the top of a hill or on the ground can shine during the
daytime. But at night the snow has no silver glitter; nor does the glowworm
have any illuminating power during the daytime. Similarly, when the small
mystic power exhibited by Brahmä was before the mystic power of Kåñëa, it was
just like snow or the glowworm. When a man of small mystic power wants to show
potency in the presence of greater mystic power, he diminishes his own
influence; he does not increase it. Even such a great personality as Brahmä,
when he wanted to show his mystic power before Kåñëa, became ludicrouswas thus
confused about his own mystic power.
In order to convince Brahmä
that all those cows, calves and boys were not the original ones, the cows,
calves and boys who were playing with Kåñëa transformed into Viñëu forms.
Actually, the original ones were sleeping under the spell of Brahmä’s mystic
power, but the present ones, seen by Brahmä, were all immediate expansions of Kåñëa,
or Viñëu. Viñëu is the expansion of Kåñëa, so the Viñëu forms appeared before
Brahmä. All the Viñëu forms were of bluish color and dressed in yellow
garments; all of Them had four hands decorated with club, disc, lotus flower
and conchshell. On Their heads were glittering golden jeweled helmets; They
were bedecked with pearls and earrings, and garlanded with beautiful flowersOn
Their chests was the mark of Çrévatsa; Their arms were decorated with armlets
and other jewelry. Their necks were smooth just like conchshell, Their legs
were decorated with bells, Their waists decorated with golden bells, and Their
fingers decorated with jeweled rings. Brahmä also saw that upon the whole body
of Lord Viñëu, fresh tulasé buds were thrown, beginning from His lotus feet up
to the top of the head. Another significant feature of the Viñëu forms was that
all of Them were looking transcendentally beautiful. Their smiling resembled
the moonshine, and Their glancing resembled the early rising of the sun. Just
by Their glancing They appeared as the creators and maintainers of the modes of
passion and ignorance. Viñëu represents the mode of goodness, Brahmä represents
the mode of passion, and Lord Çiva represents the mode of ignorance. Therefore
as maintainer of everything in the cosmic manifestation, Viñëu is also creator
and maintainer of Brahmä and Lord Çiva.
After this manifestation
of Lord Viñëu, Brahmä saw that many other Brahmäs and Çivas and demigods and
even insignificant living entities down to the ants and very small straws—movable
and immovable living entities—were dancing, surrounding Lord Viñëu. Their
dancing was accompanied by various kinds of music, and all of Them were
worshiping Lord Viñëu. Brahmä realized that all those Viñëu forms were
complete, beginning from the aëimä perfection of becoming small like an atom,
up to becoming infinite like the cosmic manifestation. All the mystic powers of
Brahmä, Çiva, all the demigods and the twenty-four elements of cosmic manifestation
were fully represented in the person of Viñëu. By the influence of Lord Viñëu,
all subordinate mystic powers were engaged in His worshipwas being worshiped by
time, space, cosmic manifestation, reformation, desire, activity and the three
qualities of material nature. Lord Viñëu, Brahmä also realized, is the
reservoir of all truth, knowledge and bliss, and He is the object of worship by
the followers of the Upaniñads. Brahmä realized that all the different forms of
cows, boys and calves transformed into Viñëu forms were not transformed by a
mysticism of the type that a yogé or a demigod can display by specific powers
invested in him. The cows, calves and boys transformed into viñëu-mürtis, or Viñëu
forms, were not displays of viñëu-mäyä or Viñëu energy, but were Viñëu Himself.
The respective qualifications of Viñëu and viñëu-mäyä are just like fire and
heat. In the heat there is the qualification of fire, namely warmth; and yet
heat is not fire. The manifestation of the Viñëu forms of the boys, cows and
calves was not like the heat, but rather the fire—they were all actually Viñëu.
Factually, the qualification of Viñëu is full truth, full knowledge and full
bliss. Another example can be given with material objects, which are reflected
in many, many forms. For example, the sun is reflected in many waterpots, but
the reflections of the sun in many pots are not actually the sun. There is no
actual heat and light from the sun in the pot, although it appears as the sun.
But the forms which Kåñëa assumed were each and every one full Viñëu. Satya
means truth; jïäna, full knowledge; and änanda, full bliss.
Transcendental forms of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His person are so great that the
impersonal followers of the Upaniñads cannot reach the platform of knowledge to
understand them. Particularly, the transcendental forms of the Lord are beyond
the reach of the impersonalist who can only understand, through the study of
Upaniñads, that the Absolute Truth is not matter and that the Absolute Truth is
not materially limited potency. Lord Brahmä understood Kåñëa and His expansion
into Viñëu forms and could understand that, due to expansion of energy of the
Supreme Lord, everything movable and immovable within the cosmic manifestation
is existing.
When Brahmä was thus
standing baffled in his limited power and conscious of his limited activities
within the eleven senses, he could at least realize that he was also a creation
of the material energy, just like a puppet. As a puppet has no independent
power to dance but dances according to the direction of the puppet master, so
the demigods and living entities are all subordinate to the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. As it is stated in the Caitanya-caritämåta, the only master is Kåñëa,
and all others are servants. The whole world is under the waves of the material
spell, and beings are floating like straws in water. So their struggle for
existence is continuing. But as soon as one becomes conscious that he is the
eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this mäyä, or illusory
struggle for existence, is stopped.
Lord Brahmä, who has full
control over the goddess of learning and who is considered to be the best
authority in Vedic knowledge, was thus perplexed, being unable to understand
the extraordinary power manifested in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In
the mundane world, even a personality like Brahmä is unable to understand the
potential mystic power of the Supreme Lord Not only did Brahmä fail to
understand, but he was perplexed even to see the display being manifested by Kåñëa
before him.
Kåñëa took compassion upon
Brahmä’s inability to see even how He was displaying the force of Viñëu in
transferring Himself into cows and cowherd boys, and thus, while fully
manifesting the Viñëu expansion, He suddenly pulled His curtain of yogamäyä
over the scene. In the Bhagavad-gétä it is said that the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is not visible due to the curtain spread by yogamäyä. That which covers
the reality is mahämäyä, or the external energy, which does not allow a
conditioned soul to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead beyond the
cosmic manifestation. But the energy that partially manifests the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and partially does not allow one to see is called yogamäyä.
Brahmä is not an ordinary conditioned soul. He is far, far superior to all the
demigods, and yet he could not comprehend the display of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead; therefore Kåñëa willingly stopped manifesting any
further potency. The conditioned soul not only becomes bewildered, but is
completely unable to understand. The curtain of yogamäyä was drawn so that
Brahmä would not become more and more perplexed.
When Brahmä was relieved from
his perplexity, he appeared to be awakened from an almost dead state, and he
began to open his eyes with great difficulty. Thus he could see the eternal
cosmic manifestation with common eyes. He saw all around him the superexcellent
view of Våndävana—full with trees—which is the source of life for all living
entities. He could appreciate the transcendental land of Våndävana, where all
the living entities are transcendental to ordinary nature. In the forest of Våndävana,
even ferocious animals like tigers and others live peacefully along with the
deer and human being. He could understand that, because of the presence of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead in Vrndavana, that place is transcendental to
all other places and that there is no lust and greed thereBrahmä thus found Çré
Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, playing the part of a small cowherd
boy; he saw that little child with a lump of food in His left hand, searching
out His friends, cows and calves, just as He was actually doing one year before,
after their disappearance.
Immediately Brahmä
descended from his great swan carrier and fell down before the Lord just like a
golden stick. The word used among the Vaiñëavas for offering respect is daëòavat.
This word means falling down like a stick; one should offer respect to the
superior Vaiñëava by falling down straight, with his body just like a stick. So
Brahmä fell down before the Lord just like a stick to offer respect; and
because the complexion of Brahmä is golden, he appeared to be like a golden
stick Iying down before Lord Kåñëa. All the four helmets on the four heads of
Brahmä touched the lotus feet of Kåñëa. Brahmä, being very joyful, began to
shed tears, and he washed the lotus feet of Kåñëa with his tears. Repeatedly he
fell and rose as he recalled the wonderful activities of the Lord. After
repeating obeisances for a long time, Brahmä stood up and smeared his hands
over his eyes. Seeing the Lord before him, he, trembling, began to offer
prayers with great respect, humility and attention.
Brahmä said, “My dear
Lord, You are the only worshipful Supreme Lord, Personality of Godhead;
therefore I am offering my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You.
Your bodily features are of the color of clouds filled with water. You are
glittering with a silver electric aura emanating from Your yellow garments.
“Let me offer my
respectful repeated obeisances unto the son of Mahäräja Nanda, who is standing
before me with conchshell, earrings and peacock feather on His head. His face
is beautiful; He is wearing a helmet, garlanded by forest flowers, and He
stands with a morsel of food in His hand. He is decorated with cane and bugle,
and He carries a buffalo horn and flute. He stands before me with small lotus
feet.
“My dear Lord, people may say
that I am the master of all Vedic knowledge, and I am supposed to be the
creator of this universe, but it has been proved now that I cannot understand
Your personality, even though You are present before me just like a child. You
are playing with Your boy friends, calves and cows, which might imply that You
do not even have sufficient education. You are appearing just like a village
boy, carrying Your food in Your hand and searching for Your calves. And yet
there is so much difference between Your body and mine that I cannot estimate
the potency of Your body. As I have already stated in the Brahma-saàhitä, Your
body is not material.”
In the Brahma-saàhitä it
is stated that the body of the Lord is all spiritual; there is no difference
between the Lord’s body and His self. Each limb of His body can perform the
actions of all the others. The Lord can see with His hands, He can hear with
His eyes, He can accept offerings with His legs and He can create with His
mouth.
Brahmä continued: “Your
appearance as a cowherd child is for the benefit of the devotees, and although
I have committed offenses at Your lotus feet by stealing away Your cows, boys
and calves, I can understand that You have mercy upon me. That is Your
transcendental quality; You are very affectionate toward Your devotees. In
spite of Your affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of Your bodily
activities. It is to be understood that when I, Lord Brahmä, the supreme
personality of this universe, cannot estimate the childlike body of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, then what to speak of others? Therefore, as it is said
in the Bhagavad-gétä, anyone who can understand a little of the transcendental
pastimes, appearance and disappearance of the Lord becomes immediately eligible
to enter into the kingdom of God after quitting this material body. This
statement is confirmed in the Vedas, and it is stated simply: by understanding
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can overcome the chain of repeated
birth and death. I therefore recommend that people should not try to understand
You by their speculative knowledge.
“The best process of
understanding You is to submissively give up the speculative process and try to
hear about You, either from Yourself as You have given statements in the
Bhagavad-gétä and many similar Vedic literatures, or from a realized devotee
who has taken shelter at Your lotus feet. One has to hear from a devotee
without speculation. One does not even need to change his worldly position; he
simply has to hear Your message. Although You are not understandable by the
material senses, simply by hearing about You, one can gradually conquer the
nescience of misunderstanding. By Your grace only, You become revealed to a
devotee. You are unconquerable by any other means. Speculative knowledge
without any trace of devotional service is simply a useless waste of time in
the search for You. Devotional service is so important that even a little
attempt can raise one to the highest perfectional platform. One should not,
therefore, neglect this auspicious process of devotional service and take to
the speculative method. By the speculative method one may gain partial
knowledge of Your cosmic manifestation, but it is not possible to understand
You, the origin of everything. The attempt of persons who are interested only
in speculative knowledge is simply wasted labor, like the labor of a person who
attempts to gain something by beating the empty husk of a rice paddy. A little
quantity of paddy can be husked by the grinding wheel, and one can gain some
grains of rice, but if the skin of the paddy is already beaten by the grinding
wheel, there is no further gain in beating the husk. It is simply useless
labor.
“My dear Lord, there are
many instances in the history of human society where a person, after failing to
achieve the transcendental platform, engaged himself in devotional service with
his body, mind and words and thus attained the highest perfectional stage of
entering into Your abode. The processes of understanding You by speculation or
mystic meditation are all useless without devotional service. One should
therefore engage himself in Your devotional service even in his worldly
activities, and one should always keep himself near You by the process of
hearing and chanting Your transcendental glories. Simply by being attached to
hearing and chanting Your glories, one can attain the highest perfectional
stage and enter into Your kingdom. If a person, therefore, always keeps in
touch with You by hearing and chanting Your glories and offers the results of
his work for Your satisfaction only, he very easily and happily attains
entrance into Your supreme abode. You are realizable by persons who have
cleansed their hearts of all contamination. This cleansing of the heart is made
possible by chanting and hearing the glories of Your Lordship.”
RVL: Appendixes: The First Indologists
The first Westerners to
investigate the Vedic literatures were the British, in the last half of the
eighteenth century. It is best to understand their work in the larger
historical context1 of the British rule of India.
A Brief History of the
British in India
Early invaders of India
included the Persians (600 B.C.) and the Greeks under Alexander the Great (300
B.C.). India’s first great Hindu empire, the Maurya Empire founded by
Candragupta (300 B.C.), expanded under Emperor Açoka to embrace the whole
subcontinent, and it also fostered Buddhism. After Açoka, assorted northern
tribes invaded India, until the reign of another Gupta dynasty, which united a
section of the country for centuries. In the seventh century the Arab Muslims
began conquering India, and various Muslim leaders developed empires up until
the Mogul Empire, whose chief ruler was Akbar. During the reign of Akbar’s son
Jahangir (1605–1627), the British established their first trading station in
India. The Portuguese had been the first Europeans to arrive, and they competed
with the French and English for commercial control of port cities. Through treaties
with local rulers, the trading companies became more powerful than the Mogul
Empire. The companies received official monopolies from their governments and
held huge armies of mercenaries. By defeating an Indian army at the Battle of
Plassey, in 1757, the British East India Company finally gained supremacy.
Through the eighteenth century, the company made treaties or annexed areas by
military campaigns; at last in full control of India, it ceded the country to
the British government.
At first, the British
government was careful not to force any change in religion upon the Indian
people. This policy had always seemed most judicious for ruling the several
hundred million Indian citizens without precipitating rebellion. Thus, under
Lord Cornwallis (1786–1793, 1805) laissez-faire had dominated the East India
Company’s attitude toward the Indian way of life.2 Through the East India
Company’s regulations of 1793, the governor general had promised to “preserve
the laws of the Shaster and the Koran, and to protect the natives of India in
the free exercise of their religion.”3 However, a year before these regulations
went into effect, Charles Grant had written, “The company manifested a laudable
zeal for extending, as far as its means went, the knowledge of the Gospel to
the pagan tribes among whom its factories were placed.”4 In 1808, the same
author described openings of Christian schools and translations of the Bible
into Indian dialects as “principal efforts made under the patronage of the
British government in India, to impart to the natives a knowledge of
Christianity.”5
Historian Vincent Smith
describes three broad tendencies in Britain’s policy at the start of the 1800’s.6
The conservatives were interested in improving the Indian way of life, but
recommended extreme caution for fear of violent reaction; they saw no easy
overthrow of Indian tradition. The liberals felt the need to introduce Western
ideas and values, but they hoped to integrate gradually. The rationalists, led
by George Berkeley and David Hume, had a more radical approach. They trusted
that reason could abolish all human ignorance. And since the West was the
champion of reason, the East could only profit by the acquaintance.
To most eighteenth-century
Englishmen (whether at home or abroad), religion meant Christianity. Naturally,
racism played its part also. “This attitude of Europeans toward Indians was due
to a sense of racial superiority—a cherished conviction which was shared by
every Englishman in India, from the highest to the lowest.”7 Thus, upon
arriving in India in 1813, the governor general marquis of Hastings wrote, “The
Hindoo appears a being merely limited to mere animal functions, and even in
them indifferent … with no higher intellect than a dog.”8
Without governmental
sanction or license, the Christian evangelists came to India and proselytized
to undermine the “superstitions of the country.”9 Alexander Duff (1806–1878)
founded Scots College, in Calcutta, which he envisioned as a “headquarters for
a great campaign against Hinduism.”10 Duff sought to convert the natives by
enrolling them in English-run schools and colleges, and he placed emphasis on
learning Christianity through the English language. Another leading missionary,
a Baptist, William Carey (1761–1834), smuggled himself into India and
propagandized against the Vedic culture so zealously that the British
government in Bengal curbed him as a political danger. On confiscating a batch
of Bengali-language pamphlets produced by Carey, India’s Governor General Lord
Minto described them as “scurrilous invective.…Without arguments of any kind,
they were filled with hell fire and still hotter fire, denounced against a
whole race of men merely for believing in the religion they were taught by
their fathers.”11 Duff, Carey, and other missionaries gradually gained strength
and became more aggressive; finally, they gained permission to conduct their
campaigns without governmental license. The missionaries actively opposed the
British government’s attempt to take a neutral stand toward Indian culture and
worked with optimism for the complete conversion of the natives. They did not
hesitate to denounce the Vedic literatures as “absurdities” meant “for the
amusement of children.’’12
Historian Arthur D. Innes
writes, “The educators had hardly concealed their expectations that with
Western knowledge the sacred fairy tales of the East would be dissolved and the
basis of popularly cherished creeds would be swept away.”13 The suspicion of
religious coercion disrupted British-lndian relations and in 1857 helped touch
off the Sepoy Rebellion (of Indian mercenaries).14
The First Scholars
Such was the setting in
which the first Indologists appeared. These first Vedic scholars did not form a
unified political or academic party; they were variously conservative, liberal,
and radical. Sir William Jones, the first Britisher to master Sanskrit and
study the Vedas, drew fire from the eminent British historian James Mill for
his “hypothesis of a high state of civilization.”15 Typically, Mill believed
that the people of India never had been advanced and that therefore their claim
to a glorious past (which some of the early Indologists supported) was
historical fantasy. At any rate, by translating the Vedas for the Western
reader and thus evincing the ancient Vedic genius, the scholars increased India’s
prestige in the West. On the other hand, as Aubrey Menen has said, “It should
be remembered that they [the English of the seventeenth century] were not the
almost pagan English of today. Every man was a Christian, and it was a
Christian’s duty to wash the heathen in the blood of the lamb.”16
Nonetheless, some of the
early scholars rather admired the Vedic culture they were investigating, even
though they initially conceived of themselves as bearers of Christian light to
the sacred darkness of the heathens.
Sir William Jones (1746–1794),
Charles Wilkins (1749–1836), and Thomas Colebrooke (1765–1837) are considered
the fathers of Indology.17 Jones was educated at Oxford and there began his
studies in Oriental and other languages; he is said to have mastered a total of
sixteen. In addition, he wrote a Persian grammar, translated various Oriental
literatures, and also practiced law. After his appointment as judge of the
Supreme Court, Sir William went to Calcutta, in 1783. There he founded the
Asiatic Society of Bengal and was its president throughout his life. He
translated a number of Sanskrit works into English, and his investigations into
languages mark him as one of the most brilliant minds of the eighteenth
century. Sir William was not prone to invective against another’s religion,
particularly the Vedic, which he admired. In his view the narratives of the
East, like those of Greece and Rome, could enrich both the English tradition
and the human mind. Notwithstanding, Sir William’s stance was that of “a devout
and convinced Christian.”18 Thus, he described the Bhägavata Puräëa as “a
motley story,”19 and he speculated that the Bhägavata came from the Christian
gospels, which had been brought to India and “repeated to the Hindus, who
ingrafted them on the old fable of Ce’sava [Keçava, a name for Kåñëa], the
Apollo of Greece.”20 Of course, this theory has been discredited since records
of Kåñëa worship predate Christ by centuries.21
H. H. Wilson ( 1786–1860),
described as “the greatest Sanskrit scholar of his time,”22 received his
education in London and journeyed to India in the East India Company’s medical
service. He became secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1811–1833), and
medical duties notwithstanding, he published a Sanskrit-English dictionary. He
became Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1833, librarian of the India
House in 1836, and director of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1837. Titles
credited to his name include Viñëu Puräëa, Lectures on the Religious and
Philosophical Systems of the Hindus, and Åg Veda, among others. Also, he helped
Mill’s History of India and edited several other translations of Eastern
literatures. He also proposed that Britain restrain herself from forcing the
Hindus to give up their religious traditions. Compared to the evangelists, he
appears to have been a champion of the preservation of Vedic ideas. Yet we may
be a little startled by his stated motives:
From the survey which has
been submitted to you, you will perceive that the practical religion of the
Hindus is by no means a concentrated and compact system, but a heterogeneous
compound made up of various and not infrequently incompatible ingredients, and
that to a few ancient fragments it has made large and unauthorized additions,
most of which are of an exceedingly mischievous and disgraceful nature. It is,
however, of little avail yet to attempt to undeceive the multitude; their
superstition is based upon ignorance, and until the foundation is taken away,
the superstructure, however crazy and rotten, will hold together.23
Ultimately, Wilson felt
that the Christian culture should simply replace the Vedic culture, and he
believed that full knowledge of the Indian tradition would help effect that
conversion. In his modulated conservatism he seemed to echo the East India
Company. Aware that the people of India would not easily give up their
tradition, he made this shrewd commentary:
The whole tendency of
brahminical education is to enforce dependence upon authority—in the first
instance upon the guru, in the next upon the books. A learned brähmaëa trusts
solely to his learning; he never ventures upon independent thought; he appeals
to memory; he quotes texts without measure and in unquestioning trust. It will
be difficult to persuade him that the Vedas are human and very ordinary
writings, that the Puräëas are modern and unauthentic, or even that the tantras
are not entitled to respect. As long as he opposes authority to reason, and
stifles the workings of conviction by the dicta of a reputed sage, little
impression can be made upon his understanding. Certain it is, therefore, that
he will have recourse to his authorities, and it is therefore important to show
that his authorities are worthless.24
Wilson also warned that
the Vedic adherents were likely to show “tenacious obstinacy” about their “speculative
tenets … particularly those regarding the nature and condition of the soul.”25
But he was hopeful that by inspired, diligent effort the “specious” system of
Vedic thought would be “shown to be fallacious and false by the Ithuriel spear
of Christian truth.”26 As the first holder of Oxford’s Boden Chair for
Sanskrit, H. H. Wilson delivered public lectures to promote his cause. He
intended that the lectures “help candidates for a prize of two hundred pounds …
for the best refutation of the Hindu religious system.”27 Wilson’s writings are
full of similar passages, including a detailed method for exploiting the native
Vedic psychology by use of a counterfeit guru-disciple relationship. Now, in
Wilson’s case, the charge of bias has become aggravated by charges of invalid
scholarship. Recently, Natalie P. R. Sirkin presented documented evidence that
betrays Wilson as a plagiarist: his most important publications were collected
manuscripts by deceased authors whose works he credited to himself, as well as
works done without research. “He wrote an analysis of the Puräëas without
reading them.”28
Another renowned pioneer
Indologist was F. Max Muller (1823–1900), born at Dessau and educated in
Leipzig. He learned Sanskrit and translated the ancient Hitopadeça before
coming to England, in 1846. Comissioned by the East India Company to translate
the Åg Veda, he lived at Oxford and wrote many books on mythology and
comparative religion. Muller is best known for his series Sacred Books of the
East, a fifty-volume work which he devoted himself to editing in 1875.
In 1876, Muller wrote to a
friend, “India is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece were at the
time of Saint Paul.”29 He added that he would not like to go to India as a
missionary, because that would make him dependent on the government. His
preference was this: “I should like to live for ten years quite quietly and
learn the language, try to make friends, and then see whether I was fit to take
part in a work, by means of which the old mischief of Indian priestcraft could
be overthrown and the way opened for the entrance of simple Christian teaching.”30
Muller regarded Vedic philosophy as “Aryan legend” and “myth,” and he believed
that Aryan civilizations had simply helped bring about the evolution of
Christianity. “History seems to think that the whole human race required
gradual education before, in the fullness of time, it could be admitted to the
truths of Christianity.”31 Muller added, “The ancient religions of the world
may have but served to prepare the way of Christ by helping through its very
errors.”32
H. H. Wilson’s successor
in Oxford’s Boden Chair was Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899). Born in
Bombay, Monier-Williams attended the East India Company’s college and late=
taught there. After his appointment as a professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, in
1870, he delivered an inaugural lecture entitled “The Study of Sanskrit in
Relation to Missionary Work in India.” Monier-Williams also wrote a book called
Hinduism (1894), which was published and distributed by the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge. He is best known to twentieth-century Indology
students for his Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Also, he dedicated twenty-five
years to founding an institution at Oxford for disseminating information about
Indian literature and culture. He succeeded, and the Indian Institute formally
opened in 1896. Monier-Williams disapproved of Muller’s
evolution-to-Christianity view of the Vedic çästra:
There can be no doubt of a
greater mistake than to force these non-Christian bibles into conformity with
some scientific theory of development and then point to the Christian’s Holy
Bible as the crowning product of religious evolution. So far from this, these
non-Christian bibles are all developments in the wrong direction. They all
begin with some flashes of true light and end in utter darkness.33
Monier-Williams further
wrote, “It seems to me that our missionaries are already sufficiently convinced
of the necessity of studying these works, and of making themselves conversant
with the false creeds they have to fight against. How could an army of invaders
have any chance of success in an enemy’s country without a knowledge of the
position and strength of its fortresses, and without knowing how to turn the
batteries they may capture against the foe?”34
Another early Indologist
was Theodore Goldstucker (1821–1872), born at Konigsberg and educated there and
at Bonn, where he studied Sanskrit, philosophy, and Oriental languages. After
settling in England, in 1850, he received appointment as a professor of
Sanskrit at London’s University College; he held this post until his deathwrote
a number of books on Sanskrit literature and founded the Society for the
Publication of Sanskrit Texts. He also participated in many writing and
research projects concerning India. The Dictionary of lndian Biography
describes him as an authority on ancient Hindu literature.35 Goldstucker
regarded the people of India as being burdened by Vedic religion, which had
only brought them worldwide “contempt and ridicule.” Thus, he proposed to
reeducate them with European values. Goldstucker wrote, “The means for
combating that enemy is as simple as it is irresistible: a proper instruction
of the growing generation in its ancient literature.”36 In his book Inspired
Writings of Hinduism, Goldstucker assailed the validity of Vedic literature.
His aim was to demonstrate to the new generation of Vedic followers that he had
scholastically annihilated their scripture and that they should show their
appreciation by adopting European values and improving their
character.=/o:p>
It is lamentable that this
sectarian raison d’etre clouded the early study of Vedic literature. At any
rate, when reading the theories or analyses of these early Indologists, the
student would do well to bear in mind the bias behind the brilliant
scholarship.
Their Influence on Modern
Scholarship
Of course, college
Sanskrit departments no longer award prizes for “the best refutation of
Hinduism.” In fact, when one samples the current selection of books by Vedic
scholars, he finds the authors describing themselves as “sympathetic outsiders,”
“friends of India,” and “admirers of the tradition of tolerance in Indian
religion.”
Nonetheless, some of the
missionary Indologists’ main theses still crop up as time-honored facts. Simply
by being the pioneers, Wilson, Monier-Williams, Muller, and others have left a
lasting impression of how one should go about studying the çästras. “The
foundations for the recovery of India’s past were laid by certain eminent
classical scholars, including Sir William Jones, James Prinsep, H. T.
Colebrooke, and H. H. Wilson.… the debt owed these men is great.”37
Modern Vedic scholars are
hardly missionaries; still, largely out of academic habit, they give tacit
approval to many of the first Indologists’ conclusions. For instance, the early
researchers portrayed Vedic literature as a hodgepodge of disharmonious texts.
Sir Monier Monier-Williams wrote, “Yes, after a lifelong study of the religious
books of the Hindus, I feel compelled to publicly express my opinion of
themThey begin with much promise amid scintillations of truth and light and
occasional sublime thoughts from the source of all truth and light, but end in
sad corruptions and lamentable impurities.”38 Like their predecessors, today’s
scholars discredit the Puräëas, although the Vedic äcäryas themselves have accepted
the Puräëas on a par with the other Vedic çästras. Recently, one scholar has
commented that Muller attempted to change Hinduism to a “new and purer form”
and failed, but that “his conception of the history of Hinduism, which
presented an antithesis between its Vedic form and the so-called Puranic form …
still survives in a modified version.”39 In addition, many of today’s scholars
still teach that the Vedas are essentially mythological and that the Puräëas
are not even consonant with the Vedic mythology. In other words, the scholars
disavow what the äcäryas affirm—namely, that the Vedic literatures form a
coherent whole, and that the Puräëas are the culmination. But since it is the
Puräëas that substantiate monotheism, if we dismiss them we miss part of the
Vedic picture of the Absolute Truth.
As we would expect, many
of today’s students are coming to think of the Vedic literature as lacking
clarity and conclusiveness. More often than not, as one begins his Indological
studies he hears that Vedic authority is dubious, that eternal existence is
simply a wish for self-perpetuation, and that God and the demigods are ipso
facto myths. In fact, the Vedas’ compiler, Vyäsadeva, often receives no
mention. Moriz Winternitz writes that the names of the authors of Vedic
literature are unknown to us and that sometimes “a mythical seer of primitive
times is named as author.”40 Yet Vedic evidence confirms Vyäsadeva as the
literature’s actual compiler: “Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of
Godhead, Çré Vyäsadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavaté, wife of Paräçara
Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and subbranches.”41
Still, Winternitz makes this comment: “The orthodox … believe the same Vyäsa who
compiled the Vedas and composed the Mahäbhärata, who also in the beginning of
Kali-yuga, the present age of the world, was the author of the eighteen Puräëas.
But this Vyäsadeva is a form of the exalted God Viñëu Himself.”42 And thus,
without further word, Winternitz rejects the possibility of Vyäsadeva’s
authorship and goes on to discuss other possible authors: since the Puräëas
present Vyäsadeva as an avatära, he obviously could never have existed. In this
way, Vedic personalities and statements become suspect, even “mythological,”
simply because they are supramundane. The student of the Vedas should
understand plainly that the Vedas do describe the supramundane, and that to
reject their statements on this basis is really self-defeating. One should approach
the Vedas with an open mind and let them speak for themselves. Otherwise, they
will remain a hodgepodge of “sad corruptions and lamentable impurities.”
Today many scholars
continue to minimize the existential and transcendental validity of the Vedas, often
without so much as an explanation why empiric knowledge should take precedence
over çabda, knowledge from authority. Thus, subtly but surely, the Indological
scholars of the present day have inherited the pioneers’ bias, and though today’s
bias is not “evangelist” but “empiricist,” it slants just the same. With all
deference to the laudable efforts of the empiricists, we suggest that the
student try to take a fresh look at Vedic literature, through the eyes of the
Vedas themselves. Momentarily setting aside the legacy of the British
Indological pioneers, the new student of Vedic literature will benefit by
returning to the primary sources—the original çästras and the commentaries of
the äcäryas. In this way, without preconceived notions, the student may better
appreciate the coherent and many-faceted knowledge that the Vedas offer.
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