Bhagavatam-daily 27 – 11.07.17 – Even the gods are illusioned; Krishna alone isn’t

So here Uddhava is speaking something very profound.
The general idea among people is that there are different kinds of living beings and there are above us the gods and many people think that all these gods are one or all these gods are just manifestations of the Brahman and we can just worship whichever god we like and then gradually by that we will become liberated. But here Uddhava is countering this misconception by stating that actually it’s not that any god and every god can liberate. It is only the supreme being who can liberate.
And he also can liberate only when there is, he can liberate when man surrenders to him. Of course, he can liberate anyone, but then the purpose of liberation is to return back to him, to love him. So if we don’t love him, there is not much point in going back to the spiritual world.
We’ll be out of place there. So now the other devatas, they are also in the same, similar illusion like all of us. So often there is the idea that the Vedic tradition is thought of as polytheistic.
However, polytheism is a category which is coming from the Western tradition with their experience of the Greco-Roman gods and that is imposed on the Vedic tradition. But in the Vedic tradition, it is quite clear that there is one God who is supreme and in that sense it is monotheistic. So actually the gods of the Vedic, of the Bhagwat, of the Puranic tradition especially, they are not like the gods of Roman, Greco-Roman polytheism.
They are more like the angels of Christianity if one at all wants to conceive from a Western perspective. The angels are intermediate beings who are not God and they don’t have the power of God. But they are in some ways godly and sometimes they get acted as representatives of God.
But still they are finite. So the point is that the gods cannot act as independent objects of worship who can grant liberation because they themselves to some extent are under illusion. And what is the illusion? To think that external things are the source of pleasure.
To think that the external things are the source of enjoyment. To think that these external things will make one happy. That is the illusion and as long as that illusion exists, one cannot be happy.
Therefore, the solution for getting out of this illusion is to recognize that one is a soul and one needs to turn inwards towards the Supreme Lord to become happy. Without turning inwards, one cannot be happy. Now how does one turn inwards? That is through the process of yoga.
Now the topmost of the yogas is Bhakti Yoga and this yoga enables one to connect directly with the Supreme Lord. Now what is important in such a situation is that one not let oneself be distracted by worldly things because they can drag one’s attention outwards and they prevent one from focusing on the Supreme Lord. And that’s why the important thing is to turn towards the Lord and focus on him.
And by focusing on him, bahirarth bhavah, as Mahatma says that, devidho svartha rathini vishnu durasaya ye bahirarth manna. That they think that the external things are what are pleasurable and that is a great illusion. So the way one gets out of that illusion is by surrendering to the Supreme Lord.
And that surrender is not possible as long as one is caught up in external pleasures, in the hope of external enjoyment. So the way out of that hope of external pleasure is surrender. Now what does surrender mean? We can’t overnight become pure devotees, but we can surely try to focus on Krishna to the best of our capacity.
And that is our expression of surrender at our level. And as we keep moving forward, our surrender will increase. And as our surrender increases, our fixation on the Lord will increase.
And as our fixation on the Lord will increase, we will become more and more detached from worldly things. So the way out of this illusion is focusing on the Supreme Lord. Understanding his supremacy, understanding his unique supreme position enables us to practice undistracted devotion.
So by understanding that nobody else can rescue us from this bahirarth manna situation, only the Supreme Lord can rescue us. We can by that focus on him single-mindedly. And when we focus on him single-mindedly, then we are able to march onwards back to him.
And by that we can ultimately attain him. So the purpose and perfection of spiritual life is to become completely devoted to the Supreme Lord. And the way to that complete devotion is by taking step by step surrender to him.
By slowly one step at a time focusing on him and moving forward onwards towards him till we attain him completely. So that is that process of bhakti which Uddhava desires to learn and which the Lord will teach over here. And as he teaches more and more, Uddhava by his questioning shows us how we can learn and how we can become devoted to the Supreme Lord and thereby attain him.