Bhagavatam-daily 301 – 11.13.34 – Don’t equate continuity of form with continuity of substance

Shrimad Bhagavatam 11.3.1934 इक्षेत्विभ्रममिदं मनसो विलासं तृष्टं विनष्टं तिलोलमलात चक्रं विध्यानमेकमुधेवविभातिमाया स्वप्नस्त्रिधा गुडविशे कृतो विकल्पः so here Krishna is continuing his analysis about how one should be detached from this world and that connection he states here that actually we will need to see this world as a extremely flickering thing something which is not going to exist for long to the extent we can see this reality of the world in terms of how how temporary it is to the extent we can become detached from it so here is an example that we may have observed during any Diwali or firecracker exhibition sometimes there is a lit stick and that stick is moved rapidly in in a circle then although there is only one stick but because of what is called physics and science as the phenomenon of persistence of vision that means our eyes can perceive change at a particular speed and if things have changed faster than that then we don’t see the change we see it as a continuity in fact this persistence of vision is what is used in all electronic media where motion is depicted so for example when we are watching a movie whether it be in a theater or on a computer or even on a smart phone essentially when the movie is being streamed at that time there are distinct images that are being broadcast so for example let’s say the hero is fighting with the villain and towards the end of the fight with one deadly blow the hero knocks out the villain so then the fist is raised up the fist is moved backward to gain momentum the fist is moved forward and the fist contacts the jaw of the villain and the villain falls when we see it we see it as a swift action unswift action but actually there are distinct frames for each of these and because those frames are moving so fast we don’t realize that there are distinct frames we see it as a continuous reality so similarly when we see the world around us the world is continuously changing now even when we look at say a stream now we may think the stream has been flowing or this river has been flowing for 100 years 50 years or whatever but actually the river is constantly changing what you may say continuously is not the river the water is constantly changing it is only because the bed remains the same so the shape of the river remains the same and because of the same shape of the river we mistake we superimpose the shape of the container on the shape of the river by container I mean not a box but the river’s pathway, river’s bed so only when the river bed changes then we say the river has changed but actually the river is constantly changing and of course it is not that we can’t see the water moving we can see the water moving but still this is the same river that has nourished your parents and grandparents and great grandparents so like that based on certain external factors we may perceive certain things as continuous while actually they may be discrete so here Krishna is saying that if we look at the world with a critical eye with a careful critical eye then we will realize that it is not all that majestic as it seems to be it is actually living it is actually ever shifting and because of its ever shifting nature now this change we see the changes like we don’t perceive or it doesn’t register in our mind that the river is constantly changing but when the river’s path changes then we say the river has changed so like that gradual changes happen in this world as they are happening constantly so for example constantly in our own bodies even though looking at the world outside when we look at our own bodies we see that the body is changing constantly and cells are dying new cells are coming up and in that way there is flux continuous flux but I usually say if someone gains weight or someone loses weight it is quite a tangible and physical change at that time we say oh you have changed but otherwise we don’t think of the change and thus we stay trapped under the spell of illusion thinking that things are the same so so just as in the mind you may perceive something in a dream which does not actually exist now certainly the outer world exists and there is a reality of course to the outer world so when it is said that the outer world is just like an object consumed in the mind the stress of this is not to say that both are illusory in fact in his commentary he states that even what is produced in the mind is lasting that even that that is also real it may last for some time it may not last as long as the world outside us but it is real what you perceive in the mind is also real it is made of such a matter and it is arranged by the arrangement of the Supreme God so by thus recognizing that the commonality between the mental and the physical is not that both are illusory but that both are temporary and just as we don’t take the mental too seriously similarly we needn’t take the physical too seriously either by regularly and rigorously connecting ourselves with the spiritual reality with Krishna we can get a taste of that which is continuously eternally real and by that taste of the eternally real we can detach ourselves from the external in terms of both the physical and the mental because both are external to the soul we can detach ourselves from them by meditating so that means there are three steps one is we meditate on the ephemeral nature of the physical and the mental and so we turn our focus towards the spiritual and with the taste of the spiritual with the taste of the remembrance of Krishna and the sweetness of Krishna ultimately we can fully detach ourselves from the ephemeral mental and physical realms and thus by this process first of intellectual contemplation and then the phase of intellectual contemplation, spiritual connection and then realized rejection realized redirection we can transcend worldly illusions