Bhagavatam-daily 276 – 11.13.9 – To think we are what we are not is our foundational illuson

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13 9 Krishna is answering Uddhava’s question here about why is it that people engage in activities that perpetuate their misery for the sake of petty pleasures when overall by their own experience they know that the pursuit of sensual pleasure leads to misery why is it that they are not able to give up these pursuits why do they choose it and engage in it despite all the suffering Krishna is now giving a philosophical analysis of the nature of how illusion binds us aham iti anyatha buddhi buddhi is intelligence or knowledge anyatha buddhi means alternative knowledge or wrong knowledge, illusory knowledge, not the knowledge that sees the truth but knowledge that sees the alternative sees something else, mistaking it to be the truth, aham iti so aham iti, so one identifies with the body brahmatasya ethardhi one becomes intoxicated ethardhi internally, here the heart refers to the inner conception the mind or the intelligence, basically inside internally one becomes deluded about one’s identity and by this utsarpati rajo ghoram utsarpati arises rajo ghoram ghoram is a very strong word the ghastly mode of passion which makes us feel utsarpati rajo ghoram, with this mode of passion we feel that we are actually tato vaikarikam manaham there may be some mode of goodness but the mode of passion arises and becomes strong Krishna will continue to analyze the nature of illusion in terms of three modes and his answer will be completed in the next verse, but let’s focus on this one theme here there is foundational illusion and there is illusion that extends that foundation when a house is to be built the foundation is important because that foundation enables, ensures the longevity of the house, the visibility and even the seeming beauty of the house will depend on its superstructure but its stability and longevity will depend on its foundation now normally this principle of foundation is talked about, say how we should have a spiritual foundation for our life, otherwise even if we achieve a lot at the material level, it will not be lasting, it will not give us the kind of satisfaction, it will not give us fulfillment even when it is there because we will have no inner substance for us, for ourselves but that example of foundation can also be used in another way that sometimes some people engage in some undesirable behavior and then they decide to give up that behavior, but they are unable to do so because they are caught in illusion, they are caught in infatuation, they are caught in self-destruction, that means that externally their behavior may alternate, now a days the idea of bipolar disorder is becoming quite widespread, often some moody behavior from people it almost becomes in a perverse sort of a fashion to give it a scientific sound, to give that or behaviors in scientific sounding new, so there can be anxiety disorder, there can be attention deficit disorder, sometimes there is a tendency to pathologize ordinary human behavioral issues, but of course this is not to minimize sometimes some issues can be so serious that they may require professional, psychological, psychiatric intervention but that apart, the key thing is to recognize that we, when we are in material existence, there is this foundational illusion of we is identifying with the body and seeking pleasure through the body’s senses and their contact with the sense objects that is the foundation and once this foundation is strong Purusha Parkriti Sthohi, the Purusha becomes situated in thinking that it is through Prakriti that I will get pleasure then in such a situation, whatever the soul does, at an external level sometimes that soul may engage in gratification by pursuing sense objects and enjoying those objects and then at other times that soul may feel, oh this doesn’t give me any pleasure, so that soul may swing to the other extreme of renunciation, as Bhakthar Sambhachandra talks about this mentality of bhoga and tyaga and neither bhoga nor tyaga can provide the bhakti rasa so the important thing is that here the foundational illusion is ahamitya anyatha buddhi to think that we are what we are not, that foundation is what propels us into the world of illusion rather than looking at specific modes of behavior and saying oh why did this person behave like that why did that person behave like that these are all very troublesome and unfortunate things but say a person engaging in self-defeating and hurting forms of indulgence it hurts oneself and hurts others and certainly that sort of behavior needs to be regulated, corrected, disciplined and whenever required punished but at the same time we also need to go to the foundation and the kind of bipolar behavior wherein one oscillates between one extreme and other extreme and just keeps going like this that sort of bipolarity will be very difficult to give up as long as one is within one’s conceptions are within the realm of illusion to the extent we by the serious practice of yoga especially bhakti yoga we get conviction and realization of our spiritual identity to that extent we will be able to reign in the mind’s infatuation with dualities to that extent we will be able to resist and reject whenever the mind gets obsessed with dualities and we will be able to persevere in our quest towards steady action, steady performance and steady achievement made in material life or more consequentially in our spiritual life in terms of attaining love for Krishna and attaining Krishna eventually