Bhagavatam-daily 195 – 11.10.37 – Non-imitable observable attributes characteristize the advanced

Thank you.
Prashnam prashna vidam vara nitya-padho nitya-mukta eka eveti me brahma etad acyuta me bruhi etad this, or acyuta, now Krishna who is infallible, me bruhi, please tell me this, please explain this to me, prashnam prashna vidam vara this is my question, please answer it for me, prashnam prashna vidam vara one who knows how to answer questions, vara means the best, so you have the best of the answerer of all questions, there is a poetic alliteration here, prashna prashna, so there is prashnam and prashna vara, prashnam prashna vidam vara, and again, vidam and vara also has the uppa sound which is repeating, there is alliteration of that sound also, nitya-padho nitya-mukta nitya-mukta, so among those who are eternally conditioned, those who are eternally liberated, eka eveti me brahma to me they appear one, me brahma, this is my illusion, this is my confusion, so please resolve this confusion for me, so here Krishna is being asked by Uddhava, while also being praised as being capable of answering all questions, so he is asking the question firstly, how to the external vision, the activities of the conditioned soul and the activities of the liberated soul seem same, both act for bodily maintenance in a similar way, the activities were listed in the previous text, they eat, evacuate, sit, sleep, walk, so how can we know the difference, and here while asking that question, Uddhava uses two words to refer to Krishna, achyuta and then prashna vidam vara, so Krishna is the best, knower of the answers to all questions, Krishna is himself omniscient, one of the defining qualities of God is omniscience, he knows everything, so omni means every, science is to know, the word science which we use now to refer to largely to natural science, that actually comes from the word science, like we have prashans, prashans means to know before, nashans means to not know, so science essentially comes from the root saya which means to know, so here Uddhava is asking that you O Lord, you are prashna vidam vara, you are omniscient, he is not using the word omniscient specifically, but the omniscience is hinted through the point that you are the best of the answer of all questions, so omniscience means you know everything, usually omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are considered to be the three defining qualities of God, he is present everywhere, he knows everything and he has the potency to do everything, so here although that attribute is not explicitly mentioned, but it is clearly indicated that the Lord is the best among the answerers of questions, and he is achyuta, he is infallible, that means when a soul seeks guidance from him, the Lord does not let that soul down, the Lord will help that soul to gain the guidance, Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita asks questions several times to Krishna and similarly Uddhava also asks questions to Krishna, here actually in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about three modes of material nature, then also Arjuna asks similar questions, he asks questions, three questions essentially, what are the external characteristics, what are the characteristics of those who have transcended the modes, how can I know that I have transcended and what is the process to transcend, so in this case Krishna has repeatedly indicated stressed bhakti yoga itself, so here Arjuna does not, Uddhava does not ask specifically about bhakti yoga, which process is to be used for transcending the modes, instead here he focuses primarily on the principle that how do we differentiate between conditioned and liberated souls, how do we know who is under the modes and who has gone beyond the modes, by no means is this a easy differentiation to make, but still it is possible and what are the way to know this, that’s the question, at one level the results of spiritual perception are perceivable, at one level it is possible to perceive the results of spiritual action in terms of understanding what is happening and why, so we can see a person becoming free from bad habits, undesirable attachments, and we can see that person moving closer to God, that is perceivable, at another level it’s not perceivable how someone may be in illusion and not able to come out of it, in the sense that the person may pretend to be renounced, Krishna talks about such people, one is internally attached but externally maintaining a pretence of renunciation and beyond that there are people who are actually renounced, so that means the people are actually renounced but they are engaged in the world and the body continues the same functions as as in basic functions as the known as the entangled, so therefore it becomes difficult for a seeker to understand who is where and generally this understanding is required by which we can know whom to seek guidance from, whom to emulate, whom to follow, that’s why the scriptures do give us guidance for this although these things are not easy to understand, it’s sometimes said it takes one to know one, so it’s difficult to know who is at what level of spiritual advancement, that is true, at the same time there are some basic guidelines which we can surely know by which we can focus on practicing spiritual life consistently, taking inspiration from those who are more advanced and moving onwards in our spiritual life, so in general once we have the basic framework of Shastra, thereafter we can focus on who inspires me the most, now this inspiration should not be divorced from scripture, because then we may just look at some material characteristics, oh this person sings so nicely, dances so nicely and that’s why I must be liberated, no, we have to look at Shastric characteristics, in the Bhakti Samrut Sindhu there are non-limitable, tangible characteristics such as not wasting time, constantly being eager to glorify the Lord and not interested in material subject matters, such characteristics are given which are non-limitable and by those characteristics which are observable and non-limitable by which we can understand who is a liberated soul or at least who is not liberated, at least one who is still in advanced stage of devotion by which one can feel inspired to follow such a person, so Krishna will also talk about such characteristics in response to Arjuna’s question