Bhagavatam-daily 28 – 11.07.18 – Meditate on Krishna’s benevolence to terminate ambivalence

Being careful, thank you so here Uddhava in the Uddhava Gita is continuing to express his surrender to the lord in the previous verse he stated that apart from the lord, no one else, not even the devatas are free from the illusion of bodily existence and the associated illusions, therefore he says you only can, you are the only shelter and in this verse so he gives further attributes of the lord which make him supremely worthy of taking shelter so sharanam prapadye I surrender unto you, that is the point which is being made over here and how does he say surrender unto me he says, tasmad, these are the reasons why I surrender to you my dear lord, tasmad bhavantam a respectful second person reference is there, tasmad bhavantam anavadyam, anavadyam means you are perfect, you don’t have any flaws sometimes in this world we may do service but the master may not know the service that we have done or the master may not have the power to reward the service, the master may die before the reward is given to us, but this doesn’t happen with Krishna because he is immortal, tasmad bhavantam anavadyam anantaparam he is perfect and he is unlimited, so if he is to give a reward and if the reward is worthy then nothing can stop him from giving a reward, anantaparam so he is not neglectful and he is not powerless, so anavadyam perfection refers to that he doesn’t neglect any service, he doesn’t forget any service he doesn’t forget to reward and anantaparam refers to that, it is not that he is powerless, he wants to reward but he can’t reward it’s not like that, anansarvadyam and he actually knows, sometimes the master may give a reward which actually turns out to be harmful but Krishna knows everything past, present and future and therefore when he awards, he awards in such a way that it is the best for the person’s growth so he uses omniscience in service of his benevolence omniscience means to know everything, benevolence means to desire the good of others, so Krishna uses his omniscience in service of his benevolence, that means he is like a doctor, may know all the complications of the case history and therefore a medicine might be good for other patients in general but that medicine may be harmful for a particular patient, so Krishna is a doctor who knows all past complications and therefore gives a medicine that is just the best, Ishwaram he is the supreme controller so there is nothing that is not in his power to give he is Ishwara means that he is the person who is specifically the controller of his material nature everybody else is controlling their material nature but he is the controller of material nature therefore he can liberate people from material nature and further Akuntavikuntha Dishyam so Dishyam is the lord, that is his abode so that is free from anxiety, that vikuntha, he is the lord of that that means it is not that he is too busy battling with troubles to be able to give a result, no, he is perfect and he knows how to give the perfect result and he is serenely situated in his own abode and the ultimate perfection that he gives us is that he elevates us to his abode so in this way Krishna fulfills our hearts in the most longings by taking us to the supreme abode where there is no more anxiety and here Lord is saying Nirvin Nadhir, now I have developed detachment, I have become sick of material existence my dear lord I have realized that there is no happiness here whatever happiness is there is so flickering, so unfulfilling and then it is so implicating and so troubling in the long run so it doesn’t fulfill, it lasts for a very short time but afterwards it creates a very long complex tale of bondage and misery, therefore Nirvin Nadhir, on the one side the pleasure is too little and then on the other side Bhujina Abhitapto, there are so many miseries in material existence Bhujina is misery, Abhitapto is like I am burning because of these miseries my dear lord so therefore what do I do, now Krishna is benevolent and we are actually in a malevolent circumstance, malevolent means that which causes harm, benevolent means that which causes good, so we are in a malevolent circumstance of this material world wherein we suffer from danger not just physical danger of accident or infection or something like that but also spiritual danger of temptation and degradation, we suffer it at every moment so the world is malevolent and Krishna is benevolent so it would seem natural to turn towards Krishna and turn away from the world but we are ambivalent ambivalent means we are undecided, why are we undecided because we actually do not realize the miserable nature of the material world, we think that this world is a place of misery, not a place of misery that there may be some misery but actually if I just continue working happiness will come and that’s why all that I need to do is just work on and some happiness will come back to me so therefore just make some adjustment and some happiness will come, so rather than recognizing that this world is permanently a place of misery, we are patients, Krishna is a doctor but unfortunately because of illusion we do not realize that we are sick, that we are patients, that we are suffering and because of that we don’t turn towards Krishna so if we somehow turn towards Krishna then he will deliver us from all misery so this Uddhava’s consciousness is very important to develop and how will we develop it actually in the Chetan Charita Amrit when Sanatana Goswami renounces the world and he comes to surrender to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that the actual super soul are extremely grave, that he has actually surrendered, that he has although you had so much wealth, phenomenal wealth you had but still in spite of it all, it is by his grace that you have become renounced, so now does it mean that our renunciation within us is also dependent on Krishna then what can we do, now it is the nature of the devotee to give credit to Krishna but at the same time that renunciation came to Sanatana Goswami but along with that he required determination, phenomenal determination, that’s how he was able to risk the wrath of the Nawab, he was able to court imprisonment and in spite of that he was able to continue on in his determination to renounce the world, so we may not have to physically renounce the world and we may not be court-martialed and imprisoned for that but the point is that we have to have some determination and if we contemplate the nature of material existence and also contemplate the nature of spiritual happiness then that parallel contemplation will give us the determination to give up the lower indulgences and to focus on the higher pursuit and then when we will turn towards the Lord Narayana Narasakam Sharanam Prapadye like Uddhava will be able to say, oh now Lord Narayana you are Narasakam, you are my best friend and it is to you I surrender, please take care of me, just as a patient understands that I am sick and the doctor is good, then the patient surrenders to the doctor, so like that when we understand Krishna’s benevolence and the world’s malevolence then our ambivalence, ambivalence means indecision, our ambivalence will fade and we will be able to march steadily on the path of bhakti to destination Krishna for life eternal with him, thank you