Bhakti Shastri (002) – Sri Isopanisad Invocation

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Hare Krishna so today we continue with our discussion on the Ishopanishad till now we have discussed the introduction of the Ishopanishad in our first class in which we discussed a broad overview of the Vedic literature the presentation of Shri Prabhupada as a progression in the Vedic literature from Vedic, Bhagavad Gita Vaishna, Srimad Bhagavatam and Gaudiya Vaishna Chaitanya Charitam the Nectar of Devotion and we discussed the position of the four books, how they give us an understanding of the sadhya and sadhana and then in the introduction we discussed further about the Vedas, how they progressively lead to the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna now we will start with the invocation now technically speaking the invocation is not a part of the Ishopanishad the invocation is actually a standard Vedic saying which is spoken on various occasions it conveys a very profound truth that is very consistent with the theme of the Ishopanishad especially its first three verses starting from Ishavasya and Shri Prabhupada very aptly positions it before Ishavasya in his book now Ishopanishad was not written as a book by Shri Prabhupada directly, Shri Prabhupada wrote it as a series of articles in his back to Godhead magazines which he had published prior to establishing the Krishna Consciousness movement the back to Godhead magazine was started by Shri Prabhupada in 1944 when at the peak of the second world war Shri Prabhupada felt that sharing the knowledge of God was the best way to attack the problem of violence and conflict at its root so from that time Shri Prabhupada struggled and maintained it for many years and then after he went to America he started back to Godhead with his disciples taking primary responsibility for it so when Shri Prabhupada was running back to Godhead at that time he wrote a series of articles which were purports on the Ishopanishad verses and those were later compiled by his disciples and made into the Ishopanishad book so today we will discuss about the invocation of the Ishopanishad so let’s start with the verse so the verse is Purnameva Vashishyate so this sounds very sweet and enigmatic Om Purnam Adah so Adah is this here this whatever is here, it’s Purna Om Purnam Adah Purnam Idam, Adah is this not in terms of proximity but this in terms of what is being primarily referred to so that which is the object of meditation object of contemplation, object of discussion that is Purna and Purnam Idam what is here this is also Purna then Purna Purnam Udachyate that from that complete this complete has come out and the wonderful thing about that complete is Purnasya Purnam Adahya that even when the completes come out from the complete still Purnameva Vashishyate the Purna remains complete in and of itself so this is almost a mystical address or a glorification of the absolute truth that the absolute truth is complete, this world is complete and that absolute truth is a source of this world so because this world has come from the complete so it is complete but because that absolute truth is complete so therefore though so many complete units come from it, it remains the complete whole so what is this actually talking about the verse itself does not tell us what is this Purna thing Adahya, Idam, what are these pronouns referring to in English we have pronouns he, she, it, they, their, so they are obviously referring to someone either male, female or a group of people but what is that being referred to is not directly stated in this verse and this is typical of the style of the Upanishads the Upanishads are enigmatic enigmatic means puzzling they are primarily meant for intellectuals who love to speculate so if things are given very straight and easy to intellectuals they don’t like it they need to have things presented with great sophistication and have some stuff which makes them stretch their minds so the Upanishads cater to that need while also leading these intellectuals towards the ultimate truth so what is this complete to understand this we can use the concept of infinity from the infinity if we take out infinity still infinity will remain so hypothetically it is said that actually there are many infinites and in the sense that even if you take out many infinites from the one infinite still infinite will remain so in mathematics for example if we take the set of all numbers it is infinite the set of all odd numbers that is also infinite the set of all prime numbers that is also infinite so 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 if we go like that that is infinite 1,3,5,7,9,11 that is infinite so 1,3,5,7,11 13,17 23,19 these are prime numbers these are also infinite so now but still although there are infinites we understand that the set of natural numbers is the biggest set and then there are the set of odd numbers set of prime numbers they are infinite but they are subsets of this set so like that although there is infinity there are levels within infinity there are gradations within infinity and even if we take out a set of all odd numbers take out a set of all prime numbers these remain infinite although they remain a part of the infinite set of all natural numbers so this is how when we come to the mathematics of infinity things don’t remain very simple so like that when we talk about the absolute truth 1-1 is 0, 10-10 is 0 10,000,000-10,000,000 is 0 but infinity-infinity is not necessarily 0 infinity-infinity can still be infinity this is how we understand the absolute truth that the absolute truth is infinite and although infinite universes come out from it the Supreme Lord is called Anantakoti Brahmanayak still the absolute truth remains complete now of course no material example is complete and it is always imperfect and that’s why when we talk about a set of natural numbers and if we take out the odd numbers it will appear as a set of natural numbers and this has become lesser but that doesn’t happen with the absolute truth because the absolute truth is complete in fullness so now Srila Prabhupada in his translation itself often integrates his purport because the translation is also meant to illumine concepts so the pronoun the adaha which is kept ambiguous in the Sanskrit Srila Prabhupada explains it to be the personality of Godhead so Om Poornam Adaha the personality of Godhead is perfect and complete so Prabhupada translates Poornaha as not just perfect but perfect and complete and Adaha he translates as personality of Godhead I am talking about not the word to word translation but the sentence translation Om Poornam Adaha Poornam Idam Poornat Poornam Udachate so Prabhupada translates that Om Poornam Adaha Poornam Idam so Poornam Idam is Prabhupada is almost given like a sentence translation of this because he is completely perfect all emanations from him just this phenomenal world are perfectly equipped as complete wholes so Srila Prabhupada is playing around with the word perfect and complete first he uses completely perfect to describe the absolute truth then he is using perfectly equipped as complete wholes for describing the phenomenal world which is an emanation from the Supreme Lord so Poornam Idam refers to the material world and why is it Poornat Poornam Udachate whatever is produced with the complete whole is also complete in itself Poornasya Poornam Adaya and Prabhupada is adding this point because he is a complete whole then Poornasya Poornam Adaya even though so many complete units emanate from him Poornameva Vashishyate he remains the complete balance so now Srila Prabhupada’s purport is very systematic and this is how the purport can be divided into five parts there are five paragraphs more or less so first Srila Prabhupada talks about how the Supreme Personality of God is the complete absolute truth so the absolute truth has many manifestations Brahman, Paramatma, Bhagwan so Bhagwan is the complete manifestation of the absolute truth Bhagwan is the complete absolute truth then the material world is complete so Poornam Adaya is the first paragraph Poornam Idam material world is complete is the second paragraph so we will discuss each of these paragraphs later on then human form offers complete facility that’s the third paragraph we will see what this means and how it applies in our lives so beyond that Prabhupada says that in the human form it is a complete facility for what? is it a complete facility for sense gratification? No if somebody tries for sense gratification then there is illusory completeness we think that we will get completeness but we don’t and then the last paragraph Prabhupada says that it is by devotional service that we attain real completeness so in this way the concept of completeness is in a way perfectly and completely analysed by Prabhupada in his succinct and eloquent purport so as I said earlier in the Ishopanishad which is the Shruti the absolute truth is not referred directly by a personal name because the Upanishads are transitional bodies of knowledge, they are taking people from Karmakanda towards Bhakti so in Karmakanda all the people who are materially great or want to be materially great are talked about so Indra, Chandra, Surya, Agni all these Devatas are glorified in the Karmakanda literature and their worship is recommended because they are materially powerful and Karmakandi people those who are worshipping God for the sake of material prosperity they want to look as ideals at those people who are materially influential and powerful so the Upanishads focus on rejecting material forms rejecting everything temporary and then taking people towards the absolute truth but they don’t focus on the absolute truth directly nudge people onwards away from matter towards spirit so from the Karmakanda, if you imagine Karmakanda to be the negative axis but moving towards the positive, Jnanakanda is the neutral zero and Bhakti is the positive axis so when we are moving like this though in the Upanishads, the absolute truth is not directly referred to by the personal name and Shri Prabhupada follows that strategy in his purports also he practically never uses the word Krishna in the whole Ishopanishad, he focusses on the concept of the absolute truth, he uses the word Brahman, in fact Prabhupada at one place, in later purports he uses the word family of the Parabrahman, normally Brahman is thought of as an impersonal light and the family of Brahman seems to be paradoxical because Brahman doesn’t have any name, form qualities, so how does he have a family but Shri Prabhupada uses the terminology of the impersonalist to take the impersonalist beyond impersonalism that means the impersonalists often think that the Upanishads teach impersonalism impersonalism is the philosophy which says that the absolute truth is impersonal that the absolute truth does not have form does not have personality, does not have qualities does not have activities, the absolute truth is pure existence, pure consciousness with nothing else, so for example right now I am speaking and you are hearing me, so you are perceiving and I am the perceived object so now in this there are three items there are you who are the conscious being there is a stream of consciousness which is flowing from your eyes to the video screen and then there is a video screen in which I am there and I am the object of consciousness so there is the subject of consciousness the conscious being, there is a stream of consciousness and then there is the object of consciousness and when three come together the subject, the stream and the object then there is conscious experience so according to impersonalists, the subject of consciousness and the object of consciousness both are illusory so you are illusory, I am illusory so what exists only is consciousness so this is the impersonalist idea and they say there is no person there is neither a perceiver nor a performer so there is simply perception but what is that perception, that is just consciousness they call it as pure consciousness now actually speaking if somebody becomes liberated, there is nobody who will be conscious that I am liberated because there is no being who is conscious according to their philosophy but the impersonalists consider the absolute truth to be impersonal so those philosophers consider that the Upanishads teach our philosophy, the Upanishads teach impersonalism, so Srila Prabhupada takes the Isopanishad adopts the terminology of the impersonalists and then takes the impersonalists beyond impersonalism he will show how actually the Upanishads themselves take people to personal conclusions, personalist conclusions let’s see how Srila Prabhupada does that in this purport so now this is an important chart you have to understand this carefully to understand what Srila Prabhupada is saying the absolute truth has three features, Sat, Chit and Ananda now the absolute truth is always Satchitananda but the absolute truth is not always perceived as Satchitananda so here Srila Prabhupada explains that when the Sat aspect of the absolute truth is perceived then at that time the absolute truth is considered to be Brahman what does this mean? that means that the Jnanis who are perceiving the Sat aspect of the absolute truth, they recognise that this world is temporary and still I have a longing to live forever so where does my longing come from? there must be some arena of existence where existence is eternal and it is to that arena that I must belong so when they think in this way they slowly come to the level of Brahman realisation that means they understand that beyond this world there is an eternal world there is something eternal not necessarily a world that they perceive some kind of eternal existence is there and they consider that to be the higher reality in fact the highest reality so at this level of perception they have understood only the Brahman realisation, Brahman platform and the absolute truth has three aspects, Sat, Chit and Ananda but they have perceived only the Sat aspect, now to understand this another way suppose say in a kitchen somebody is cooking gulab jamuns now a gulab jamun is a sweet delicacy which is soft to touch and if it is cooked particularly it may also give a nice fragrance so if we have a sweet that is being cooked in the kitchen now I am not seeing the sweet right now but I get the fragrance so the sweet assuming that it always has the faculties of, it always has the characteristics of fragrance, taste and touch or let’s consider fragrance sight and taste three let’s see actually Ananda Vandavan Champo is a beautiful book written by Kavi Karanapur and there he describes the glories of prasad and he says prasad should be cooked in such a pachaya way that even before we taste prasad it should actually captivate us in other ways and he says this is how Radharani cooks for Krishna when Radharani cooks food for Krishna it’s so wonderful that first that food attracts by the fragrance, even before we see it it starts captivating by the fragrance then when we go in the direction of the fragrance we see it and it looks so wonderful and then when we touch it then each item is gratifying the sense of the touch in appropriate way, so if an item is fried and it is supposed to be crisp, it is crisp if an item is supposed to be soft and succulent, it is soft and succulent so whatever is the appropriate tactile sensation sensation to the touch faculty that food item should give, it gives and then lastly when we put it in the mouth and experience with the tongue it gives the perfect taste so in this way he says that prasad should have fragrance that attracts sight that attracts form that attracts then appropriate touch sensation that attracts and finally the taste that captivates so out of these four let’s consider three right now so if a delicious sweet is made the sweet already has fragrance, the sweet already has shape and the sweet already has taste all these three are simultaneously present in the sweet but if the sweet is being cooked in another room and I am here so right now its taste and its sight are not accessible to me all that is accessible is its fragrance so similarly at the Brahman level of realisation now I am comparing the sweet to the absolute truth so when the absolute truth is not yet fully perceivable to us it is only partially perceivable so at that time we perceive only the sat aspect like perceiving only the fragrance of the sweet so now it is not that Brahman is sat Brahman is actually sat chit ananda because Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagawan are the three reference three names for referring the absolute truth in its different features but actually it is the same absolute truth so in the Bhagavatam in the first canto, second chapter eleventh verse divinity and divine service when the absolute truth is defined it is said that these three, Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagawan, they are advaya tattva they are the same non-dual absolute truth so Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagawan are the same absolute truth so it is not so Brahman is also chit ananda, Paramatma is also chit ananda Bhagawan is also chit ananda then what is the difference between them actually there is no difference from the point of view of the absolute truth all three are the absolute truth just like some person may perceive the gulabjam the sweet by its fragrance some person may perceive it by its fragrance and shape another person may perceive it by its fragrance, shape and taste from the gulabjamun’s perspective the gulabjamun is always the same but from the perceiver’s perspective the gulabjamun is perceived at different levels of completeness by the three perceivers so what this means is that actually the absolute truth is perceived differently by different people and when different people perceive it differently the primary focus is on perceiving the absolute truth completely but not everybody is able to perceive it completely so at the jnanis when they perceive the absolute truth they perceive only the sat aspect they perceive that there is some eternal existence that is there when the transcendentalists progress further then they perceive the chit aspect so when they perceive the chit aspect what happens sat and chit so when they perceive sat and chit at that time it’s like the same gulabjamun, first the fragrance was being perceived but now the fragrance and the shape is being perceived so the absolute truth one has moved closer to it now, one has moved closer to it, just as one has moved closer to the gulabjamun he is spelling it and seeing it so the absolute truth is always satchitananda but at the jnani level one has perceived only its sat aspect, at the yogi level when one perceives parmatma one perceives the chit aspect also, what does it mean to perceive the chit aspect? One understands that the super soul is there everywhere, the super soul is in my heart, is in everyone’s heart and the super soul is conscious is conscious of me, of my activities and I want to be conscious of that super soul so as I said in brahman realisation there is only the conception that consciousness is all that exists there is neither the conscious observer nor the conscious observed neither are there but here one understands the absolute truth is parmatma one understands the absolute truth is is perceiving in the 8th canto of bhagavatam it is described that the absolute truth’s eyes never blink, super soul is always awake, always eager, watching now at this stage one doesn’t consider the super soul as the object of devotion it’s primarily the object of meditation so object of contemplation, admiration and in that sense there is devotion within that contemplation admiration but there is no devotion in the sense of the reciprocation of love through services and pastimes that happens with bhagavan so the bhakta perceives the absolute truth is not just eternal, is not just conscious but is also filled with joy and that joy is expressed through the performance of pastimes so when the absolute truth performs pastimes how exactly does the absolute truth perform pastimes that is through various dynamic activities which are called as leela we will discuss the concept of leela later but it is through the reciprocations that the absolute truth is revealed in fullness as sat chit ananda and this revelation comes to the bhakta so the absolute truth is in its complete manifestation bhagavan because sat chit ananda all three features are realised without the absolute truth coming to the level of without the seeker coming to the level of realising all the three sat, chit, ananda aspects of the absolute truth the seeker has not come to the complete realisation and that’s why that realisation either if you are brahman level or parmatma level is incomplete so when a person not only smells the gulab jamun not only sees the gulab jamun but then picks the gulab jamun and eats it, that is the time when the perception of the gulab jamun is complete so like that it’s not just that one understands something eternal is there, something is conscious no, that something is the object of love, I want to love him and he wants to love me and we will love each other eternally in the world of endless love that is the complete realisation that complete realisation is offered to the bhakta who focusses on Bhagavan so in this way Srila Prabhupada explains that in the first paragraph the complete whole is the complete personality of Godhead and Srila Prabhupada talks about how the complete whole is not formless, if he were formless or if he were less than his creation anyway he would not be complete so we will discuss this more in detail about the absolute truth having form or not having form in the later verses but here suffice it to say that the absolute truth is complete when Satchitananda, all three features are understood and that is understood when we focus on the Bhagavan aspect and second paragraph talks about how this phenomenal world is also complete in itself and Prabhupada says no other unit in the universe need make an extraneous effort to try to maintain the universe let’s try to understand what this means so traditionally there have been debates between the theists and the atheists so the theists always say that see there is so much right in this world, there must be God you see that the clouds are formed by the heat of the sun and then the rains come and the rains produce grains and the rains nourish all living beings and this whole arrangement is so majestic, how could it have come by itself? It must have come by some plan actually it cannot be by itself so therefore the theists say that there must be a divine intelligence there must be God now atheists say there is so much wrong in this world they say if you say rains are produced by God and rains are produced to nourish all living beings then what is the need for rains on the ocean? what is the need for so much water to fall where there is already huge quantity of water whom is that water nourishing? so they point to the many ways in which design seems to be deficient and they say God has provided rains and so many places there are droughts so many places there are floods rains are too little, rains are too many where is the benevolent arrangement? they say so much is wrong where is God? so now actually speaking the evidence of design is undeniable in the world now clouds are so complex that they just can’t be formed on their own now sometimes people say it happens automatically the sun heats and then the water goes up and then the water vapour accumulates through some natural process and then clouds are formed however when we say something automatically that doesn’t mean there is no existence of a designer or operator automatically simply means there is no awareness or there is no direct intervention of the creator and the designer there is a very big difference between the two that means if a toy is made in such a way that it operates automatically so a small child normally used to watching the toys move and the child say pushes the toy so that it moves but somebody has made the toy automatic so that it just moves on its own, the child is surprised, so how is it moving on its own? it is moving automatically now automatically simply means that two things, from the observer’s perspective there is no operator seen and from the actual toy’s perspective also there is no operator directly constantly intervening so there is no such thing as there being absolutely no operator no controller, there is a designer, there is a controller but that control can be delegated or made in such a way that it is not required constantly it is not visible similarly the lord has made the world in such a way that nothing extraneous is required for its maintenance that means the lord has made the world in such a way that once made it will sustain itself it will go on, on its own on its own means that a man and a woman come together and produce a child they grow up, they unite and they produce children and in this way things go on so actually speaking even in managerial terms the perfect management is that which requires minimal management or no management, things are structured so well that they go on on their own with least possible supervision so the absence of the need of constant intervention is not indicative of the proof, is not indicative or is not a proof, not an evidence that there is no intelligence actually it proves that there is such a perfect intelligence that the system is designed in such a way that there is no need for constant intervention now of course the super soul is there and the super soul is constantly overseen but the super soul doesn’t have to constantly act the super soul doesn’t have to constantly intervene in the material world the super soul has made material things in such a way that they go on by the arrangement of material nature prakate kriyamanane gunai karamane sarvesha so Krishna says in 3.27 by the arrangement of material nature things go on now of course he also says in 9.10 in the Bhagavad Gita maya dhyakshena prakriti that he is supervising material nature so in that sense both are important but in our context the point which we are making over here is that nothing extraneous is required for the material world because the supreme lord has so perfectly arranged so completely arranged the material world that it is self-sustaining once the systems are made the material nature’s processes go on on their own now this is with respect to the functioning the other is with respect to the purpose whenever we want to evaluate a design we have to evaluate it in connection with its purpose now if I take a cell phone now when I have a cell phone and if I decide that I want to write a book with the cell phone and I start typing now I can get frustrated I try to type over here, this is so stupid the keys are so small and on one key there are so many letters how can a book be typed over here and I can curse the maker of the cell phone I want to write a book and what a wretched device you have made, it is taking me ten times more time than what is required for writing a book now if there is an intelligent person around that person will tell me my dear friend the cell phone is not meant for writing a book the cell phone is primarily meant for communication through speech and as a supplement a facility is provided for sending some brief messages if you want to make, write a book take another device, take a computer type on a computer so if I want to evaluate how good the design of a cell phone is I always have to keep in mind what its purpose is if I impose my own purpose on the cell phone my purpose is to write a book and then I evaluate the cell phone based on my purpose of writing a book then I can point fault with this stupid design why? because the purpose of the cell phone is different from the purpose which I am putting it to use for so the design is good if it serves the purpose for which it is meant same way when we talk about the world in the world how good is the design that has to be evaluated based on understanding its purpose so if we want to say that this world is for our enjoyment if we think that our enjoyment is the purpose of this world then definitely we can say that this world is imperfectly designed why? because there is not enough enjoyment in this world we have a few moments of sense enjoyment that is possible with the limited capacity of the senses and that is also for a few years and when we grow old we get deceased there is no enjoyment and then we die and there is practically the end of all enjoyment and there is so much suffering before death during disease in old age so if I want to evaluate this world and I assume its purpose my purpose is to enjoy then I assume this world’s purpose is enjoyment and evaluate it naturally I will find that the world is deficient so then what is the purpose of this world so both the theists and the atheists have got something right they say that the atheists say there is so much arrangement for provision the arrangements have been made to provide food, air, water for us in this world the atheists say that there is so much arrangement for suffering in this world sometimes its too hot, sometimes its too cold sometimes there is too much rain, sometimes there is too less rain so both are true there is arrangement for subsistence and there is arrangement for suffering now where do we see this are there any places in the world where both these are there there is subsistence there is arrangement for living and there is also suffering over there we see this in two places among others first is a jail a jail is a place where the food, clothing shelter, even to some extent medication of the prisoners is taken care of at the same time the jail is also a place of suffering so just because there is suffering in a jail doesn’t mean that the jail is not designed, doesn’t mean that the designer is imperfect it simply means that the designer is designed the jail for a particular purpose that is to punish and reform the prisoners while at the same time providing for them the other example where there is arrangement for taking care and there is arrangement for suffering also or there is presence of suffering also that is in a hospital in a hospital everything is well planned this is department for this, this is specialist doctor for this these are the nurses who are trained in this there is arrangement but at the same time in a hospital people are suffering so just the presence of suffering the presence of factors which cause suffering does not prove that there is no designer there might be some other purpose the hospital is meant to cure the suffering so the scriptures explain that this world is like a prison and a hospital it’s a prison for those souls who have rebelled against God and want to enjoy separate from Him and it’s a hospital for those souls who want to rectify and heal their wrong mentality so when we see design in connection with the purpose then we will understand how the material world is perfect if we see the design separate from the purpose then we will never understand how the design is perfect so now let us move to the, so here is the example of perfection in design this is remarkable so I have given this example in my book on science and spirituality so this is an example of what is called a symbiotic factory setup so in nature we see this factory setup that there is a human body which gives out the waste product of carbon dioxide and that waste product becomes a raw material for another factory that is the plants and the plants give out the waste product of oxygen and that becomes a raw material for human beings so this is like an industrial dream come true imagine that there are two factories factory A and factory B so factory A normally requires some raw materials and gives out the finished product but along with that it also gives waste product which has to be disposed of but imagine if there is a factory B which could use the waste products of factory A as its raw materials and then it would give out some waste products which could be used as the raw materials for factory A again then what would happen is factory A and factory B would feed each other A’s waste products will be B’s raw material and B’s waste products will be A’s raw material and in this way there will be no expenditure and there will be ongoing profit so this sort of setup is just a theory it is not possible because the raw material very few times these are the waste products usable as raw materials and most waste products are not only not usable they are expensive to even dispose but in nature that which is the dream of industrialists has already been actualised so we have plants human beings acting as factory A plants acting as factory B so human beings give out the waste product of carbon dioxide and that becomes the raw material for plants so we see this majestic design so we can’t deny the evidence for design at the same time we can’t deny the presence of suffering and the material world is complete in the sense that it fulfils its purpose it is not perfect for material enjoyment but it is perfect for reformation for turning towards God and returning to Him now this brings us to the next point about the perfection Srila Prabhupada in the next paragraph talks about how human form offers us the complete opportunity for realising the completeness so what is the human form offering nowadays there is a lot of talk about human rights now what exactly are human rights because some people say that their human rights are violated so the idea of violation of human rights is some prisoners are tortured in the prison some people are not given even basic needs for existence basic dignity for living and they consider this to be violation of human rights yes certainly those things need to be provided for people but actually these are not human rights these are even animal rights you know the arrangement for food, clothing and shelter the arrangement for food, clothing and shelter is not just the arrangement for the human beings animals they have their food they have their air, water they have their shelter and these are actually animal rights so the animals get through nature these things and providing these to human beings is not the fulfilment of human rights so human rights are that which what none but humans can get that is the right to enlightenment the right to understanding the purpose of life the right to understanding the purpose of the world and living according to that purpose that is the actual human right the right to enlightenment certainly whatever human right violations are happening they need to be corrected but that is not the point that is not what makes humans humans you know getting our civilisation may have been arranged in such a way that what the animals get sometimes humans don’t get that that is regrettable definitely but providing for that doesn’t lead to the fulfilment of the actual human rights so the real human right is the right to enlightenment and what is that enlightenment it is not just some flash of light rushing through the head it is actually a coherent understanding of the purpose of life and a corresponding harmonisation of our living with that purpose that is the essence of enlightenment so actually speaking it is only in the human form that we can perceive spiritual reality in the lower forms one cannot perceive spiritual reality one only perceives the lower reality the waiting, sleeping, mating, defending so that’s why the human form offers us the complete opportunity to realise the absolute truth and that’s why it is considered very special we will discuss more about the speciality of the human form in Mantra 3 here Srila Prabhupada explains the human form offers the opportunity in the human form our consciousness is developed enough by which we can perceive higher realities higher spiritual realities we can think of things beyond eating, sleeping, mating and defending so now in the human form we can attain completeness how is that? that is our next part so be apart be not apart be apart that means we are meant to be a part of Krishna be not apart we should not live apart from Krishna actually this is based on Bhagavad Gita 15.7 15.7 so 15.7 Krishna says that all living beings are my part are they my part so that’s be apart when we live with Krishna as his parts playing our parts in his plan, in his service for his pleasure then we are happy, be apart.
But if we become apart, it is be not apart, but when we become apart then what happens? We come under the mind and senses, mana shashtani, indriyani, prakriti sthani karshati. So now when we talk about our completeness, it is dependent. Krishna’s is independent.
So although we are also complete, Krishna is also complete. But there is a difference. Ours is a dependent completeness.
Srila Prabhupada in the parapurna gives the example of a hand. So a hand is perfectly equipped to do what a hand is supposed to do. But the hand cannot do what the head is supposed to do.
So if the hand is cut off from the whole body, then it cannot function. So the hand connected to the body is be apart. The hand cut off from the body is be apart.
So when the hand is cut off from the body, it cannot do any other thing that it is meant to do. So similarly when we are cut off from Krishna, we are meant to live a life of eternal happiness and love. We cannot do that when we become cut off from Krishna.
So we are also complete being emanations from Krishna, but our completeness is dependent on our Krishna connection. Just as a hand’s completeness is dependent on its connection with the body. So now when we are in this incomplete condition right now, so we can seek completeness in two ways.
One is materially and the other is spiritually. So let’s look at that. Now, sense gratification promises us completeness.
When a man becomes young or a woman becomes young, at that time they feel, oh we are incomplete. We need a partner through whom we will become complete. But actually this is illusory.
Because in this world, we cannot become complete. Two incomplete beings cannot make each other complete. They both remain incomplete.
So sense gratification keeps us incomplete. It promises us completeness, but because the pleasure is so little, it keeps us incomplete. And we keep trying in vain to fulfil the mind’s foolish fantasies and draconian demands.
So foolish fantasies, like a child sometimes, the mind says, I want this, I want that. If I just get this, I’ll become happy. Like a child sometimes says, I want that toy.
And the parents say, you already have so many toys. No, I want it, just give it to me, I’ll become happy. And that child has a foolish fantasy, I’ll play with this toy.
And the child thinks, if I just get this toy, it’ll be the perfection of my life. But after the child gets the toy, what happens? It’s a foolish fantasy. After sometime the child feels, this toy doesn’t matter, I want something more.
And sometimes the mind doesn’t act childishly, it acts draconially. Draconian means like a dictator. The mind makes draconian demands, you must give it to me.
The mind starts tormenting us. So we are promised completeness, but we never get completeness to sense gratification. It is a false way to completeness.
So Akshila Prabhupada writes in the Purport that, so the illusory representation of completeness cannot fully satisfy them. So Prabhupada writes that, then further he says, the completeness of human life can be realised only when one engages in the service of the complete whole. That brings us to the point of devotional service.
There are many eloquent sentences in this Purport of Akshila Prabhupada. So for example, Prabhupada writes over here, because the living entity cannot enjoy the life of the senses without being totally the complete whole, the misleading life of sense enjoyment is illusion. It’s illusion.
It promises completeness, but it delivers perpetual incompleteness. I think if I get this new car, I’ll become happy. But when I get the new car, what happens is, I’m happy for a few minutes till I see a better car, or I still see a neighbour having a better car, which is worse than I want that new car, and that new car.
And this urge for new things just goes on and we never feel complete. So the misleading life of sense enjoyment is illusion. Now here, Akshila Prabhupada explains that devotional service is what will make us complete.
So how does it make us complete? By connecting us perfectly with the complete whole. That means we are tiny. We are limited.
Because we are limited, if we try to enjoy on our own, we cannot get complete enjoyment. Because we are tiny, we can get only a little bit of enjoyment. But when we connect with Krishna, then because Krishna is infinite, our connection with Krishna enables us to experience infinite happiness.
And in that way, by connecting with Krishna, we attain completeness. So therefore, the way to completeness is through devotional service. When I practise devotional service, at that time, I start experiencing that here is the supreme happiness of life.
Here is the way I will experience happiness forever. So how devotional service will give us completeness will be the subject that we will discuss later in the Aishwarya Upanishad. But in principle, we cannot experience completeness because we are tiny.
And no matter how many other tiny things we acquire, we will not become complete. But we connect with the infinite and the infinite love and the infinite happiness that comes with our connection will make us completely happy. So to summarise, in this verse and purport, we discussed about firstly the mathematics, paradoxical mathematics of infinity, the absolute truth.
It gives out many absolute units, many units from itself, which are complete in themselves. At the same time, the absolute truth remains complete. Then we discussed how the complete understanding of the absolute truth is Bhagavan, the personality of Godhead.
Why? Because only the Bhagavan realisation of Sat, Chit, Ananda, all three aspects are realised. So like when a sweet is pursued only through fragrance, the perception is incomplete. When a sweet is pursued through fragrance and shape, its perception is better, but not incomplete.
When its perception is through fragrance, shape and taste, then it becomes complete. So similarly, our perception of the absolute truth, when it is only Sat aspect, then it is Brahman realisation. Then when it is Paramatma aspect, Sat and Chit are realised, it is more complete.
But when it is Bhagavan aspect, Sat, Chit and Ananda, all three are realised, then it is the most complete realisation. Then we discussed about how this material world is complete. Firstly, the perfect management is that which requires no management.
Everything is structured in such a way that things go on on their own. So that is how the material world is arranged in such a way that nature carries on its processes and things go on as if automatically, no extraneous endeavour is required. So then we discussed that automatically does not mean absence of a controller, automatically simply means absence of awareness of the controller.
So then we discussed after that about how the human form is complete in the sense that it offers us the opportunity for realising eternity. So human rights are not just the rights to get the necessity that animals already get it through nature. It is the right to enlightenment.
So what is that enlightenment? Not to see the purpose of the material world in our own terms for enjoyment, but to understand that it is for reformation. So the atheists say there is so much wrong in the world, atheists say there is so much right, both are correct. So the correct understanding is to see the world for its purpose, not to use a mobile for typing a book, not to use this world for enjoyment, but for reformation.
And then that reformation can be done through the practise of devotional service. Since gratification offers us false completeness, devotional service offers us actual completeness. Thank you very much.
We will continue with the next, the first two words in our next class. Shri Prabhupada ki Jai, Shri Isopanishad ki Jai, Gauravakta Vindhya ki Jai, Chitai Gaur Premanandai, Hari Nibhau. Thank you.