Bhagavatam-daily 168 – 11.10.10 – See the Lord as the source of illusion – and illumination

Thank you yo asau gunair virachito here krishna bhagavatam is explaining the relationship between the soul and the body and it is stating that yo asau gunair virachito asau yo asau asau refers to the body which is made of the which is the subtle body here we refer to gunair virachito it is comprised of it is comprised of the modes constructed by the modes virachito deho ayam purushasyah deho ayam this particular body purushasyah purushasyah refers to the supreme lord so this body is created by the supreme lord’s energy which manifests as the modes gunair virachito and samsaras tan nibandhoyam and nibandha bondage bondage to samsara happens ayam pumso vidya chidatmanah that this bondage happens because of the modes which come from the which are the supreme lord’s energy but pumso vidya chidatmanah but if soul souls gets things gets knowledge then chid then that illusion gets dispelled atmanah of the soul so essentially this text states how the illusion created by the modes is the cause of our bondage and the illumination illumination of knowledge destroys the bondage and this illusion is created by the lord and the illumination also comes from the lord this tells when if we are watching a movie essentially on the movie theater there is nothing but a pattern of pixels which are of if we are looking at say a movie on a movie theater we are seeing it on a computer and there is a pattern of pixels and those pixels are being illuminated by different colors and because of the illumination of different colors we see certain things and we ascribe them to certain sources and that’s how illumination or illusion happens now if we move forward from this and think about how things are actually happening then you will realize that the essential point for self realization is that or with respect to the movie to come out of the illusion of the movie we need to recognize that what I am seeing is not real as I can definitely the extent of the illusion that is seen in the unreal that means the extent of the if some movie is very absorbing then we understand oh this movie must have been made by a very good movie maker and not only is the movie maker in terms of the content of the movie but also the medium through which the movie is made so if the computer screen on which we are watching it that is like say some Mac computers have retina display or some other computers have a very high resolution display then the illusion becomes more and more real seems more and more real doesn’t become it seems more and more real and to make illusion seem real also requires expertise and that’s why when say some people go to watch some magic shows now in general it is known that the magician is not actually doing any magic the magician is doing some just some sleigh of hand and that’s how the magician is able to say produce objects produce a rabbit out of a hat or a golden ring out of a finger or whatever but the the difficulty in discerning how the magician is doing it the extent of the illusion is seen is what creates the attraction how did how did he do that that’s what the question comes up and to the more the more the more surprising the nature of the trick the more people become intrigued now people become intrigued to try to find out how it was done whereas otherwise people may become intrigued to find out so that rather in the magic show people may get people may get intrigued just for the sake of being entertained or if they are curious then they may want to know how did how was this done it’s superb I want to find out how it is done so that eagerness to find out is there because we appreciate the expert skill of the magician in in making that illusion similarly as devotees we can even when we fall into illusion rather than just ranting at rather than just resenting that he fell into illusion we can let even our falling into illusion become a means of appreciating the lord who is the source of that illusion and we can appreciate so when we see people getting captivated by anything we sometimes get captivated and then come out of the captivation we can see how powerful is the lord as in how skillful how powerful is the lord that he is able to create such a captivating illusion now after recognizing this point now the difference however is that when we go into illusion it’s extremely dangerous it’s extremely entangling it’s extremely disastrous so we don’t have to go into that kind of illusion and we want to avoid that so we need to also appreciate the lord’s capacity not just to put us into illusion more importantly we need to appreciate the lord’s capacity to bring us out of illusion and sometimes we may feel that illusion is so captivating and overwhelming that I can’t come out and that is true to some extent but if we turn from it and we appreciate that this illusion is made by someone and how intelligent that person must be and let me turn towards that person let me seek guidance from that person and if I can get that person’s guidance then surely I can come out of this illusion so here it is a chidatmana that the soul has been put into illusion by three modes that soul’s illumination can also be dissipated when vidya when knowledge comes up and that vidya that knowledge which is being referred to over here is the knowledge of spiritual enlightenment it is the knowledge of realization of perfection realization that we are souls and we have the potential for an eternal relationship with all attractive supreme soul all that we need to do is work on developing that relationship once we develop our spiritual potential then we can all attain eternal existence which is ultimately our deepest aspiration so the as devotees we can try also for philosophical discrimination to recognize that this is illusion and this is reality and that is also important this is matter this is spirit but we focus more on devotional appreciation yes how wonderful Krishna is and I want to appreciate Krishna I want to love Krishna and then if that focus is there then it will not be a strenuous exercise I don’t want to go into it I don’t want to go into it I don’t want to go into this illusion so that focus is actually although we may be able to fight illusion by that but it is somewhat negative focus because we are still saying no no this seems attractive but it is not attractive I will not succumb to it so we are saying no but if we turn instead our attention hey this looks so attractive how brilliant must be the lord who has made it so let me turn towards that lord then our focus will be more positive because we are directing our hearts longing for love we are directing our emotional energy towards a supremely fulfilling source we are not just suppressing our emotional energy but we are redirecting it towards a much more fulfilling direction and that makes enlightenment much easier so once we focus on the supreme lord and become attracted to him and start remembering him then by that absorption by that remembrance our the illusion starts getting dissipated and we start becoming situated in knowledge as this was mentioned that by knowledge the illusion is destroyed