Bhagavatam-daily 315 – 11.14.9 – Spiritual universality accomodates material variety

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast:

Thank you manmaya manmaya mohitadhiya by my maya intelligence is deluded purusha purusharshabha of the people shreyo vadanti anekantam and they speak of what is good for people yatha karma yatha ruchi according to their nature and their interest so here krishna continues his description of how things manifest in the material world manmaya mohitadhiya manmaya is his maya so he is saying that in this world people’s intelligence gets deluded by ignorance, by illusion by the illusory energy manmaya mohitadhiya and because of being thus deluded people fail to understand what is best for them but unfortunately not understanding that they have not understood they think that whatever they have come up with that is the best and accordingly they act when they act thus they create many moral they create many baat, shreyo normally the word shreyo is contrasted with prayer prayer is short term good, shreyo is long term good and the idea is that what is long term good varies from person to person from situation to situation and this relativity in what will be the long term good is defining feature of people of the thinking of people who are deluded, yes certainly there is relativity in terms of there are different varanas there are different ashramas there are different people with different natures and when different people have different natures naturally at a material level the shoe that fits one person bites another so we cannot mandate the same way of acting for everyone at the same time while recognizing this diversity among people it is also important to note that there is abundant need and scope for overarching universal message because there is diversity at the material level at the same time there is uniformity at the spiritual level we are all at our core souls and as souls we all have a nature to love we are all ultimately seeking an object of love and wondering which object will gratify us will satisfy us gratify not necessarily self centered sense but where our longing for love can find lasting fulfillment not knowing where such fulfillment lies we often subject ourselves to an endless search where the mind thinks that this is better and that is better and that is better and that is better and in this way we become deluded so we all need at various levels of realization the harmonious blend of a spiritually universal pathway which is also materially accommodating whether people are intellectuals or administrators or business people or general assistants they are all ultimately souls and as souls they are all ultimately meant to love Krishna so when such love is the ultimate goal the only way to attain lasting love in life is by the practice of directing our love towards the lasting object of love that is to be Krishna so while this is the ultimate but people according to their actions and according to their intellections people come up with a different conception of what is long term good for them and thus we have the variety in philosophy we have a wide variety in conceptions of what will be good, what will be auspicious what will be long term beneficial and no doubt many of these things may be better than other things just like apart from Krishna bhakti Krishna bhakti is transcendental there is goodness, passion and ignorance and within goodness, passion and ignorance one needs to accommodate according to time, place, circumstances so the way we move onwards to Krishna is by acknowledging both the ultimacy of Krishna tree and acknowledging also the need for dovetailing our material nature in devotional service is not to be neglected entirely Krishna also says according to your work Krishna will worship him one can attain perfection thus human being so while there is no denying that as Krishna also says dovetail your work but that dovetailing has to be done in such a way that people can actually move towards Krishna and not just stay caught in their karma and ruchi and that is where we need careful guidance of scripture as manifested in the lives and words of those who are living scripture