Bhagavatam-daily 41 – 11.07.31 – The intelligence for spiritual enquiry is a great fortune

This is the Uddhava Gita, Krishna is speaking to Uddhava and he is reporting the incident between Maharaja Yadu and the Avadhut Brahmana. Maharaja Yadu has finished expressing his curiosity, his sincere enquiry and now the Avadhut Brahmana will start speaking. So as a transition between that, Krishna speaks this verse and he is saying that even the Yadu king was Mahabhaga, was greatly fortunate.
Now, actually Maharaja Yadu is not making small talk and just socializing. A person who lives like a Bishaachavat, like a ghost, is not a person who anyone will want to socialize with. So, Maharaja Yadu is not interested in socializing but he is serious spiritual seeker and the capacity to make serious spiritual enquiries is itself rare as Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, that few endeavour to know about life’s higher truths and among them even fewer actually attain Krishna.
So here Maharaja Yadu is described as Mahabhaga because he has made very intelligent enquiries and these enquiries will become the womb of the supreme fortune for him because unless we enquire about life’s higher truths, we cannot actually learn those truths. Even if those truths are thrust upon us by say if we are born as devotees, born in devotee families or somehow we are placed in devotee association, still we will not take much interest in it and we may do it as a ritual is to conform to social expectations and as soon as we are having some freedom, we will give that up. So, to get interest in life’s fundamental questions, to want to know the higher truths of life by interacting with people who are situated at higher levels of reality, spiritualists, that itself is a great fortune and that fortune gives way to the supreme fortune just like if I have a cheque worth one crore rupees, then that cheque will eventually, when I encash it, I will get one crore rupees.
Similarly, Brahma Jignasa which the Vedanta Sutra exhorts human beings to do, it’s a spiritual enquiry that Brahma Jignasa is like the cheque, that encashing of that cheque may take time but just the presence of Brahma Jignasa itself is a great fortune and actually Madhavacharya and Ramanacharya in their commentary to this verse in the Vedanta Sutra go into elaborate analysis about how does one develop Brahma Jignasa. Now, why do most souls just talk about Karmakanda at best of sense gratification material things and that is where their Jignasa remains. So what is it that enables some souls to develop Brahma Jignasa and others do not.
So they talk about how there may be Purojana Samskara, there may be Hari Krupa, special mercy of Hari and there may be circumstantial sufferings that awaken a person’s higher intelligence and in that way they analyze various factors but ultimately just the propensity to want to enquire about higher truth itself is a mercy of the Lord and to get that mercy itself is fortune. So, taking this point to a little bit of extreme, Jabbala Upanishad says that the moment renunciation comes in a person one should renounce the world because the feeling of renunciation is a necessity and renunciation can be capitalized, not in an exploitative sense but in a grateful, enthusiastic sense. So here Maharaj Yadu is a Mahabhaga because he has the propensity for Brahma Jignasa awake and active and as a king he could be doing so many other activities and he could justify I don’t have time for enquiring about spirituality and what to speak of enquiring about spirituality about life’s ultimate purpose from a person who looks like a Pishachevat, like a completely uncultured, uncivilized person but he is Saragrahi, he has seen that actually this person is extraordinary and he is a repository of wisdom and therefore let me enquire from him, that’s why he enquires from the Abdut Brahmana, Brahmanyena Sumedasa.
So, he enquired, so he had that fortune, that fortune was that he had the intelligence for spiritual enquiry and with this intelligence he moves onwards and he is asked the questions in Pushta Sabhajita Praha, so the Sabhajita, he honoured the Brahmana and Prashraya Avanatam Vijaya, Vijaya is the Brahmana, Prashraya is humility, Avanatam, he bowed down his head. So, with his head bowed down, Maharaj Yadu waited for the reply, so here Maharaj Yadu demonstrates the principle of Tatviddhi Pranipatena Pariprashnena Sevaya, so he has done Pariprashnena and now he is demonstrating Pranipatena, so actually inquisitiveness means that we ask, please show me the way and submissiveness means, okay, I don’t know the way, you are telling me the way, I will hear the way from you, so if we think that we already know the way, we know what I am to do in life and how I am to do it, then we don’t feel the need for any guidance from anyone, but when we hear, when we have that inquisitiveness, then we must realize that, okay, the path that I am choosing in my life, it may lead to some glory materially, but it will lead to futility at the time of death, I need a path that will lead to lasting gain and what is that path, so let me inquire about that path and further, let me hear, so that even if that knowledge contradicts my preconceptions, let me hear and let me try to understand, submissiveness doesn’t mean blind following, it also means intelligent questioning, but after we question, we don’t contradict at every point, we try to hear, so that we properly, so and lastly, of course, is service-mindedness, now service-mindedness doesn’t mean just maybe washing the feet of a spiritual master or offering some food to the spiritual master, that is good, if we get the opportunity to do that, but the most important service to the spiritual master and to the saintly people is to mould our life according to their instructions, so in this way, we get his grace through his representative, so his grace means Krishna’s grace and that we get by this combination of humility, inquisitiveness and submissiveness and service-mindedness, H-I-S, so humility means I don’t know the way, please show me the way, humility means I don’t know the way, sorry, that means inquisitiveness means please tell me the way and service-mindedness means I will walk along the way, so now here Maharaj Yata is demonstrating the characteristic of ideal spiritual seeker and student and in reciprocating the sincerity, the Avadhik Brahmana will impart precious lessons of wisdom that we will discuss