Bhagavatam-daily 205 – 11.11.11 – Beware of the internal sabotage of our defense mechanism

Shrimadbhagavatam 11.11.10 daivadhine sharire yasmin gunabhavena karmana vartamanoha buddhas tatra kartasmi itinibadhyate daivadhine sharire yasmin here dhamita krishna is continuing the analysis of the difference between conditioned and liberated souls and here he is describing the mentality of a conditioned soul daivadhine sharire yasmin sharira yasmin this body which we have daivadhine it is actually under destiny we don’t choose the body that we have right now it is by the arrangement of destiny that we have a particular body in our present situation and it is daivadhine the body is given to us by destiny and to us and although we have some control over the body still the body is also under destiny always or sometimes we may get a paralysis we may get a fracture and that which we consider our normal ability to do suddenly we are no longer able to do that such events unfortunate they are they can serve as illuminating reminders that not only are we not the body but we are not even in control of our body daivadhine sharira yasmin gunabhavena karmana now gunabhavena karmana means that karmana is activity gunabhavena under the influence of the modes the body acts a tiger is considered in the mode of passion the tiger will act in a particular way gunabhavena karmana and a monkey is considered to be in the mode of ignorance and the monkey will act in a different way and that is gunabhavena karmana so similarly we see that different people have different dispositions and with those dispositions when they act it is gunabhavena karmana gunabhavena it is actually actuated by the three modes by the gunas and these gunas are actually different from us so unfortunately vartamano abudha the person who is not wise not enlightened one whose buddhi is not activated awakened so in this particular present situation that is there kartasmi iti nibadhyate kartasmi iti the person thinks that I am the karta and because of such an illusion nibadhyate the person becomes further entangled in material existence so this verse quickly reminds us of oft quoted similar theme verse from the bhagavad gita 3.27 prakrteh kriyamanani gunai karmani sarvasah ahankara vimudhatma kartah miti manyate so prakrteh kriyamanani gunai karmani sarvasah so there it is said that actually everything is done by the three modes of material nature ahankara vimudhatma but because of ego the deluded soul thinks kartah miti manyate so there it is I think I am the doer now in this verse not only is that thought thought persisted but also along with that it is stated that kartasmi iti nibadhyate those who think that they are karta they will become bound and there it is vimudhatma here it is abudhaha similar there the focus is on how the modes of the doers here that is there gunabhavena karmana but along with that it is also stated that the body which we have got is daivadhine sharire yasmi that we have got this body by the arrangement of destiny so shilpa prabhupada says in an isopanishad purport that we have got the body by chance now actually there is arrangement of mother nature and it is by that arrangement that the soul gets a particular body based on its desires and its karma but what shilpa prabhupada emphasizes by saying that we have got a particular body by chance is that we don’t have anything intrinsically to do with the body and we are inherently core different from the body so therefore the misidentification of the body is illusion and the total misidentification with it where we forget our spiritual identity completely is a far greater far deeper and far more dangerous illusion now in our life we all can observe certain times when we do certain things and then after that we look back and wonder why did I do that we start thinking what was the point what made me do that now you need to understand it is guna bhavye na karma nao if we are not in our guard then some of the lower modes catch hold of us they make us do certain things which can drive us crazy which can have the modes in the catch hold of us they make us do certain things and those things can actually be crazy things which we normally never do in our normal state of consciousness with our conscience and intelligence active and on guard so knowing that we are in a vulnerable situation wherein the very place that we are situated in the body mind mechanism that itself is vulnerable to being sabotaged by the enemy by the force of illusion just like if a person is say the captain of a ship and that ship is supposed to go on a war against an enemy but if on that ship itself there are some traitors and those traitors if they get the opportunity those spies they may well turn the ship around and instead of attacking the enemy, attack for the enemy and attack oneself and one’s own side one’s own forces so if a person knows that if the captain knows that then the captain will be on extreme alert alert not only for attack from the enemy from outside the ship through some other ship or some other plane or some other source from outside but will be careful about sabotage from inside also so similar is our situation as sadhakas when we are trying to serve Krishna by the practice of bhakti we are trying to like the body is often compared to a boat or we can say a ship so we want to take it towards the destination of eternity but then vidrenas itself the enemy has long hands and those long hands are the mores the gunas which actually extend to right into our consciousness to our subtle body and by acting on the subtle body and the mind they can change our desires and thereby change our whole course of action and our destiny and that’s why we need to be not just externally vigilant but also internally vigilant to see what are the kind of desires that are entering on that we are entertaining sometimes desires may enter but we don’t have to entertain them we just say no I am not interested I don’t want these thoughts I won’t focus on these thoughts we focus enough attention to recognize that they are dangerous and then we drive them out by focusing on positive thoughts how I can engage myself in constructive activities and by so doing we can move onwards in our spiritual life not just in our spiritual life even the mores can disrupt our harmonious working in material life so recognizing that we are susceptible to illusion through internal sabotage of our subtle body we can stay on high alert and regular study of scripture helps us remind us of the danger that we are in and helps us identify to enemies so that we can check and counter them thank you