Bhagavatam-daily 286 – 11.13.19 – The essence-shower enlightens the essence-seeker

Shrimad bhagavatam 11.13.19 samama chintaya devaha prashna parati tirushaya tasyaham hamsa roopena sakasham agamam tadah so one level of illusion is to not know what to do a deeper level of illusion is to not know what to do when we don’t know what to do the first kind of illusion is to some extent always possible in mortal existence mortal existence can present us with such complexities that we may just not know what am I supposed to do in such a situation samama chintaya devaha but even if we are at that level of illusion if we don’t even know what to do when we don’t know what to do then that is a much deeper illusion but if we know what to do we should pray to Krishna we should seek Krishna’s guidance when we chant Hare Krishna the mood is please engage me in your service oh lord and that mood is very helpful in countering illusions that mood is very valuable in beseeching the lord’s mercy by which he will give us intelligence Krishna will give intelligence by which we will know how to come to him so a devotee may be perplexed but a devotee is never discouraged perplexed means we don’t know what to do but discouraged means we don’t feel like doing anything that doesn’t happen for a devotee because the devotee knows Krishna is still my master I am still his servant, Krishna still loves me and I simply have to continue serving Krishna according to the best of my capacity and gradually the path will become clear so here when Brahman is asked a question about the ultimate purpose of yoga of life’s ultimate realities ultimate goals so then ultimate purpose so he is unable to answer that question and then he remembers that oh the supreme lord is my deliverer so he starts meditating on the supreme lord beseeching him fervently for mercy in the form of guidance please oh lord tell me what I should do when Brahman when Brahman prays like this sincerely similarly Brahman also has a special position he is in the intermediate position between the lord and the devatas in general that’s why it is he who has had darshan right at the beginning and similarly again whenever devatas are in trouble they go to Brahman and Brahman prays to Vishnu and then although even Brahman does not get darshan of Vishnu but he hears the voice of Vishnu within himself and he knows the answer so Brahman has a special position whenever he has whenever he faces problems whenever he is threatened by an illusion at that time he can call the supreme invoke the supreme and thus find the best course of action to move on so in this case when Brahman prayed to the supreme lord to find the prashna par what is the solution to this question what is the answer if you consider a question to be like a big vast river an uncrossable chasm then he looked for a way to go to the other side so on one side of the question is ignorance on other side of the question is wisdom so when we are on the side where we don’t know the answer then we are in ignorance but when we get to know the answer then we come to knowledge so brahmani sought to come to knowledge like this and the lord facilitated him the lord helped him to come to knowledge as will be made evident in the enduing verses wherein the lord’s manifestation as bhamsa to answer the questions of brahman will be outlined so now the lord appears its remarkable that in brahma prayer hamsa himself chose to appear and when hamsa appears the word hamsa means swan param hamsa are the devotees who are like swans swans are reputed to be able to separate milk from water even when the two are mixed together so like that the param hamsas they separate Krishna from the material world and they stay fixed in Krishna putting aside whatever else the material world offers now in the case of lord hamsa what does he do the essence seekers the hamsa is the essence seeker and the lord hamsa is the essence shower so he comes and separates the modes putting them aside and he strengthens and nourishes and sharpens the pure intelligence of brahman and in this way he enlightens brahman so by the lord’s grace we too will be able to see the essence amidst the plethora of things that are present in the world we will be able to understand what is what and thus be able to move onwards in our journey towards enlightenment, towards liberation by the grace of the lord by focusing on Krishna, by seeking his guidance, by seeking his grace so for us the way in a miraculous super natural way the lord himself manifested he manifested at that time when brahma meditated and prayed such a miraculous appearance of the lord may not happen not everyone has that specific fortune just like there are some people who happen to be there when Krishna descends in the world and they have special fortune they are able to see Krishna also but that does not mean that Krishna’s mercy is restricted only to the time only to those people and only those times when he manifests his avatar Krishna’s mercy is always available and similarly in the case of in our case also even if Krishna himself does not appear his guidance will appear in our heart if we persistently meditate on him if we persistently pray to him when by his mercy will cross over all obstacles Krishna says in 18.58 and one obstacle of course is the obstacle of not knowing what to do and what not to do and Krishna will enable us to cross over that obstacle by his infinite grace which will manifest as the wisdom as the inner wisdom that will help us overcome our illusion, it will help us see through the perplexities and complexities created by the ways of this illusory world so by focusing on the essence who is the lord and the world essence by being essence seekers we will get the reciprocation of the lord who is the essence shower who will help us stay focused on making right choices and growing going and growing towards him in our life thank you