Bhagavatam-daily 29 – 11.07.19 – Use intelligence to take the initiative for delivering oneself

Impersonalist claims, thank you Adhava has completed his request to the lord in the previous verse expression of surrender, acknowledging how difficult it is to get out of material existence the lord responds by reassuring by offering encouragement that yes it is possible to overcome illusion and he says generally in most cases generally in most cases loka tattva vijakshana vijakshana refers to expertise so those who know expertly loka tattva, truth about loka, here the second loka refers to the world so in this world the people who know the truth about the world, the wise people manuja can understand the truth about the world and samudharanti they deliver themselves, how? by their intelligence and atma naiva shubhashayat, on the other hand how do they deliver themselves? by their own intelligence, they deliver themselves ashubhashayat, ashubhashayat refers to desires and gratification, which is actually ashubha, inauspicious attitude an attitude which leads to entanglement so krishna in essence is saying that yes, wise people, manuja, human beings by atma naiva, atmanam atma naiva shubhashayat so with their intelligence they can deliver themselves they can deliver their souls this is similar to 3.43 in the bhagavad gita as well as 6.5 in 3.43 krishna explicitly uses the word buddhi, evam buddhe param budhva samsthabhyatmanam atmanam, with intelligence know yourself to be transcendental and fix the mind on the spiritual level by that and then jihshatrum mahabahu kamarupam durasatam durasatam, formidable enemy of lust can be conquered in this way arjuna it behooves you to do it because you are mahabahu the point is with intelligence it is said conquer now this play of the double use of the word atma with different meanings, that comes in 6.5 uddharedatmanatmanam naatmanam avisadayet atmaiva yaatmanobandhur atmaivar puratmanaham so uddhared, elevate the mind here there is samuddharanti, so there is dhared just deliver yourself, aatmanatmanam deliver yourself with the mind and don’t degrade yourself, some acharyas have also said that this refers to the soul, deliver the self with the self and don’t degrade the self with the self naatmanam avisadayet, now don’t degrade yourself atmaiva yaatmanobandhur, because the mind can be the friend of the self and it can be the enemy also now although the word mind is used the word atma is used, it refers to the mind because the next word continues the same thought but there it explicitly uses the word mind anyway the point is, Krishna is placing the initiative on the person to deliver oneself, so here it says with the intelligence one can deliver oneself, there it said, one should use the intelligence to elevate oneself, so use the mind to elevate oneself either way, this verse may not seem very devotional that it is saying that the individual can with one’s intelligence deliver oneself actually principle of dependence on Krishna is not meant to deny the principle of taking initiative from our side unless we take initiative and try to raise ourselves we cannot be delivered from material existence it is for us to recognize that we are trapped and yes Krishna will offer us all help more help than what the doctor can offer, Krishna can offer in rescuing us, in curing us but we have to accept that process the patient has to at least accept the medicine when the doctor gives the medicine so Krishna in the Uddhava Gita places the initiative on us, sometimes in the process of bhakti, often the principle of obeying the instructions of the spiritual master is stressed very strongly but in that process the principle of taking initiative may get lost, may get undermined yes the spiritual master may give us some generic instructions of what to do but the spiritual master is not going to be there all the time for us to guide us from moment to moment or even on a day to day basis so at that time we have to take so many decisions but from what we hear from the spiritual master we get some broad framework and based on that we take our decisions and we all need to know that making spiritual advancement and getting liberated is my responsibility it is not my spiritual master’s responsibility yes my spiritual master may accept it as a responsibility and that is his mercy but as Prabhupada would say that we all have to fly our own plane and fighter pilot when he is in the flight mode is alone the commander of the fleet the captain may guide from below or may be also in the flight attack but still the commander is in a different flight so like that the spiritual master may train us and may also be there in the battle with us but still it is we who have to fight our own battle and scripture appeals to our intelligence so by our intelligence we understand what is right and what is wrong what will be debilitating in the short term but will be debilitating in the long run will be entangling in the long run that we understand from scripture and what may be austere in the short run but what will be luxurious, what will be wonderful in the long run what will bring abundance in the long run that also we learn from scripture so based on this understanding we learn to turn away from sense gratification and turn towards Krishna so even when spiritual master is not there, Sridhar Swami writes in his commentary to this purport that actually to understand that this world is Dukhalaya one doesn’t need a spiritual master necessarily in fact one should ask go to the spiritual master for what? for acquiring about that knowledge scientific knowledge about that that is the absolute truth beyond this world so that means one understands that this world cannot give me happiness and therefore I need to know about some destination beyond this world and for that I go to the spiritual master so in the past ages the sages would live in forest and seekers would go to the forest to meet the sages now of course the sages are compassionate and Prabhupada came not only to cities from Vrindavan to New Delhi or to Mumbai but he came into even more materialistic parts of the world he came to America and even in America he went to the most degraded sort of part, the Highteshwari or the lower east side and there he gave the message of Krishna, that is the mercy of the spiritual master and still when Prabhupada went to these areas not everybody over there took up, so it depends on what is it a spiritual master potency can definitely help the spiritual disciple to advance but the will to advance, the desire to advance has to be basically present in the disciple so Prabhupada gives the example that when a person is trying to drive a vehicle at that time others can push from outside but ultimately the person has to take the initiative and drive, the person is putting a brake from inside or has gone to sleep inside and people will just stop afterwards and leave the person there so like that we also, the spiritual master can push us the devotees can push us, they can help us but ultimately we have to take initiative and if we are lethargic or we are actually antagonistic then the spiritual master and the devotees will leave us alone to our means, so Krishna begins his instructions here by pointing out, by placing the initiative on us, advised people can deliver themselves with their intelligence, now what process they use for delivering themselves using their intelligence that will be talked about later and will be concluded how bhakti is the best but the point remains that the process has to be understood and for understanding that the intelligence has to be used, it is this intelligence to which Krishna will speak the Uddhavita