Bhagavatam-daily 199 – 11.11.04 – Accepting our smallness brings wisdom

And we will discuss them in due course, thank you. jeevasyaiva mahamate bandho asya vidyayana vidyayac tathetarah ekasyaiva mamsyasya ekasya one alone eva me, I am the one supreme absolute truth mamamsya and amsya, my amsya jeevasyaiva mahamate Krishna is calling uddhava as mahamate or uddhava because your intelligence is great you can understand the relationship between the living entity and me understanding our smallness requires greatness understanding our smallness that means that actually no matter how great how talented we are how intelligent we are how powerful we are in our essence we are so tiny if you just look at the sky and see how vast and big it is and as we are practically like insects on the earth not even insects, microbes as compared to the vastness of the time scales in the universe our life spans are also so tiny so in such a situation our conception that we are perfect or that we can become perfect this is simply an illusion and it is an illusion that we need to transcend and the way we transcend this illusion is by illumination coming from Krishna through scripture so here he is saying that jivas that the jiva is my amsa and further he says that the jiva becomes bound by avidya bandho asya avidya anadev so the anadi avidya leads to the bondage of the living entity and vidyaja tathe tarah the other or the opposite result of bondage is liberation and that result comes by the practice of cultivation of wisdom and of course the cultivation of devotion is the highest wisdom so here again we can see the resonances between the uddhava gita and the bhagavad gita amshasya mama mamamshasya Krishna using the word over here mayapad and Krishna using almost similar word 15.7 in the bhagavad gita where in he states that jiva bhutah sanatanah manah shasthani dhriyani prakriti sthani karshate mamaivamsho mayapad jivalokhe those who are living in the material world they are my part jivalokhah sanatanah they are my eternal parts so the relationship between us and the lord is stressed again so now we all want in our own ways to be god we all want to be the greatest person the biggest being and that is what causes our bondage so to understand our smallness is greatness because it requires a great effort to overcome the false ego by which the false ego makes us think that we are great and largely our conceptions of great our greatness stem from attributes that are external to us attributes such as wealth, looks, strength even our intelligence is actually external to us because the intelligence is one of the features, one of the components of the subtle body so when we derive a sense of greatness from these things then we subject ourselves to bondage and illusion we put ourselves into trouble unnecessarily because we misidentify with that which we are not by thinking that these are my source of self-worth these are the basis of my self conceived greatness and the seductive power of the ego the ego is very great to overcome that seductive power and to recognize that actually I am a small being that requires great strength so understanding our smallness characterizes greatness there is a characteristic of greatness when we understand that we are small we are just small parts of Krishna I am sure this vidya to think of ourselves as great is avidya to think of ourselves as small is vidya now is it that we think of ourselves as small are we not unnecessarily weakening ourselves will we not succumb to inferiority complex and negativity and depression and things like that no because while we understand our smallness we don’t just focus on our smallness we focus on Krishna’s greatness and we understand that this supremely great Krishna loves me and because he loves me, because he cares for me because he is my my master my benevolent master so whatever he desires for me whatever he will arrange for me it will be an opportunity for me to serve him and move closer to him and to grow in wisdom and devotion and progress in my life progress towards self actualization now when we understand this then we can avoid the many temptations that we are frequently subjected to the many temptations that repeatedly entangle us in this world because we no longer perceive we no longer think that our pleasure is going to come through material objects we understand that our pleasure will be coming from Krishna and he is an eternally secure source of pleasure all that we need to do is stay focused in loving and serving him the more we stay focused thus the more our steadiness and joyfulness increases so the connection between the two halves of this verse ekaseva mamamshasya jivasyeva mahamate so that I am the one absolute truth and there are many limitedties who are my parts this and the connection to the second part is bandhavasya vidyanadir vidyasita thevataraha that avidya causes bondage vidya causes liberation the relationship between two halves is that the first half gives what is vidya and any self conception that is contrary to what is in the first half that is avidya so understanding that we are parts of Krishna and are meant to love and serve him is the vidya that will grant us that will propel us on the path to mukti