Bhakti Shastri (091) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 Text 19 to 24

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Syādau kurvaṁ gītāṁ prataṁ dadau loka-trayopakārāya tasmaiḥ kṛṣṇa-ātmanena mahā Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Welcome back to our Veda Bhakti Shastra course. We are in the seventh chapter discussing the second section of people who surrender to Krishna, those who do not surrender to Krishna and those who surrender to something other than Krishna. So, 7.14 talks about how we should surrender to Krishna and then we will go beyond māyā.
7.15 talks about the four categories of people who do not surrender to Krishna and then 7.16 to 19 talks about the four categories of people who start worshipping Krishna and eventually they surrender to Krishna. So from 7.16 talks about bhajante and from bhajante the progression moves onwards and then it comes in 7.19 to prapadyante, to surrender. So they become one-pointed in their devotional service to the Supreme Lord.
So let us discuss that now. So 7.19 is bahunāṁ janmanāṁ ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate pāsudevah sarvamiti samātmā sudurlabhah So bahunāṁ janmanāṁ ante after many lifetimes jñānavān and the person becomes jñānavān māṁ prapadyate they surrender to me. What is their understanding when they surrender to me? pāsudevah sarvamiti They understand that Lord Vāsudeva is everything.
There is no reality higher than Lord Vāsudeva. samātmā to such great souls sudurlabhah, they are extremely rare. So here Krishna is talking about a progression from one level of reality to higher levels of reality.
So bahunāṁ janmanāṁ ante after many many lifetimes. So what is he referring to? He is referring to the four categories of people who came to him in 7.16 So those are people who started doing bhajante Now bhajante to prapadyate that is a progression which can take several lifetimes depending on the intensity of the practise There are many people who may do bhakti as a casual activity within the journey of their lives. But beyond that there is bhakti which can be performed at a much more serious much more intense and single pointed level.
So that is the kind of bhakti which Krishna is talking about over here when he talks about prapadyate bahunāṁ janmanāṁ ante that after many lifetimes one moves from bhajante to prapadyate jñānavān mām prapadyate So now Krishna has talked about four categories of people ārto, jīvyāsura, arthārthi and jñāni All four people are sukṛtina. All four people are having pious credits. What are these pious credits referring to? This actually refers to spiritual pious credits in the sense that they have done some kind of bhakti in some way not directly bhakti by knowing that it is bhakti which is conducive to bhakti.
That means they have while doing gardening watered tulsi or while doing some service given some prasad to people or rendered some seva to Vaishnava giving charity in general for Krishna’s cause also. So they are not doing consciously thinking that this is devotional service. They do it without a conscious understanding.
But they somehow engage, connect with Krishna. That sort of sukṛti helps them. And the sukṛti brings them to Krishna and they start serving Krishna.
They are having bhajante. But after many lifetimes then they understand something because of which bhajante they don’t remain connecting with Krishna and serving Krishna occasionally. When they understand this then they start serving Krishna constantly.
So, jñānavān māṁ prapadyate Now what is the conception that enables us to make them prapadyate? Vāsudeva sarva-mṛti That Vāsudeva is everything. śrava-mahātmā su-durlabhaha Such great souls are extremely rare. Durlabha is very difficult, very rare.
And su-durlabha is extremely rare. Now it’s interesting. Krishna says they understand Vāsudeva is everything.
That means that they understand that there is no reality beyond Vāsudeva. What Krishna has himself told in 7.7, in the same chapter. They understand this.
That there is no reality higher than Krishna. And because of it, they surrender to Krishna. When they surrender to Krishna, what happens? Vāsudeva sarva-mṛti So when they surrender like this to Krishna, they become purified.
They become elevated. And gradually they become completely fixed in their worship of Krishna. That is prapadyate.
It’s interesting that although they understand Vāsudeva to be sarvam, this is not pantheistic. Pantheistic, as we discussed earlier, means everything is God. So although they understand Vāsudeva is everything, that doesn’t mean that they surrender to everything.
They surrender to Vāsudeva. So Vāsudeva sarva-mṛti means Vāsudeva is everything but everything is not Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva is everything means Vāsudeva is manifest everywhere.
Vāsudeva is accessible everywhere. But it is not that everything is everything and everything is just Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva has his own self-existence and self-glory in the spiritual world where he is manifest in his transcendental, eternal personality.
So they don’t surrender to everything but they surrender to Vāsudeva. When Niraṇyakaśipu asks Prahlāda, where is your Viṣṇu? So he says, with my Khatka, I am going to kill you. Let us see if your Viṣṇu comes and protects you.
Where is he? Everywhere? Is he in this pillar? So he says, yes, Viṣṇu is everywhere. He is in this pillar also. And then Niraṇyakaśipu absolves that pillar.
What happens is Narasimhadeva emerges from there. Now when Narasimhadeva emerges from the pillar, Prahlāda Mahārāja doesn’t offer obeisances to the pillar. He offers obeisances, he offers prayers, he offers garland to Narasimhadeva.
So yes, the pillar can also be respected because it is the place from which Narasimhadeva manifested. But the pillar itself is not the ultimate object of worship. Because it is connected with Krishna, so it also becomes sacred.
But it is not in and of itself the ultimate object of worship. Everything connected with Krishna, especially if Krishna has performed some pastimes in connection with that, that is sacred and that is worshipable. Although whatever is worshipable doesn’t mean that that is the ultimate object of worship.
See, worshipable can also mean that because of its connection with the Absolute Truth, it also becomes sacred. So Vasudeva is Sarvamitī, the person understands. The Jñānavāna understands that Vasudeva is everything, but still the Jñānavāna doesn’t surrender to everything.
Jñānavāna surrenders to Vasudeva. So Krishna is telling over here this very significant truth that from the point of approaching him to surrender him, it may take many lifetimes. Of course, if one practises bhakti seriously, then So in 12.7 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna will tell that I will lift such people out of metal existence.
Who are these people? These are the people who are the spiritualists. Those who are not just ordinary spiritualists, but those who fix their mind on Him. So bhakti is like an elevator.
It can take us rapidly up. Now here we discuss that these people, they are not directly practising bhakti. They are definitely approaching Krishna and we can say that is bhakti, but that is not shuddha bhakti.
So here when Krishna says He is referring to people who start approaching Him and from the point of your starting to approach Him to the point of your completely, to the point level of completely surrender to Him, that may take time, that may take progression. And that progression is what is talked about over here in this verse. So that is the Krishna Prabhupada’s purport here.
So Prabhupada quotes the Purushukta section from the Shudra Upanishad with chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. And what does he say over here? sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛttvā kātiṣṭhāṁ daśāṅgulam puruṣha evedam sarvam yad bhūtaṁ yas ca bhavyaṁ uttāṁ ratāśhye śāsāṇo yad anenāti rohati So here he is talking about how one understands that everything is Vāsudeva. So Vāsudeva sarvam iti.
Prabhupada previously has explained such universal vision of Vāsudeva precipitates one’s full surrender to Supreme Lord Sri Krishna as the highest goal. So what is that universal vision? One understands that the Supreme Lord is sahasrākṣa sahasrāpurusha sahasrākṣa sahasrāpā So he has thousands of head, thousands of eyes, thousands of legs like that daśāṅgulam so like that basically the point is this universal form is all pervading this universal form is so great, so glorious that the glory pervades everywhere and in everything and how is that in everything? So that is further described over here in next verse of Chandogya Upanishad Prabhupada quotes na vai vāco cakṣuṁśi śrotrāṇi na manasa manāmasi ācakṣate prāṇaiti evācakṣate prāṇo he vai tāni sarvāṇi bhavanti So in the living entity in the body the power to speak the power to feel the power to hear, the power to think, these are not central it is actually prāṇa, life that is central and that prāṇa ultimately comes from Krishna. So here this verse is explained Now after explaining how one progressively comes from the worship of Krishna for some material motive to the worship of Krishna with a pure motive that is how one progresses so from there now one starts thinking about, Krishna starts analysing how are those who do not reject him but who do not surrender to him, who surrender to someone someone else, that he will describe in reception room 7.20-23 kāmai sthai sthairita jñāna prapadyante anya devataha tam tam niyamāsthāya prakṛtyānyata svayā so kāmai sthai sthairita jñāna kāmai because of material desires rita jñāna the intelligence, knowledge has been destroyed abducted, removed and in prapadyante, they are surrendering but what are they surrendering to prapadyante anya devataha they are surrendering to somebody else, to some other devatas tam tam niyamāsthāya so one follows the rules accordingly for the worship of tam tam niyamāsthāya what are the niyams, what are the rules that one follows prakṛtyānyata svayā the rules that are according to one’s own prakṛti so here Krishna is explaining why do some people surrender not to him but to other devatas so Prabhupāda explains in this section in his commentary that actually some people say all gods are one but Krishna is here clearly differentiating mām prapadyante anya devataha those who surrender to other gods, so there is a categorical difference between the two which Krishna is mentioning over here and that indicates that there are different gods and not all of them are one they are all different so when one understands this then one understands very clearly that all paths are not one all gods are not one there is supreme lord and there is other devatas it’s a very clear word anya devata, other gods tam tam niyamāsthāya now one follows rules according to one’s own nature prakṛtyānyata svayā so here Krishna is referring to how there are purāṇas within three modes that this purāṇas they direct people to worship according to the propensities of the people according to the level of consciousness of the people so the tamasic purāṇas guide people to worship Shiva, the rajasic purāṇas guide people to worship Brahma and the sattvic purāṇas guide people to worship Vishnu so prakṛtyānyata svayā so the Vedic system is created in such a way that according to the level of people, people can worship and then they can become elevated so this is the broad encompassing nature of the Vedic system it encompasses people from the lowest mode to the highest mode and provides them custom made methods for elevation prakṛtyānyata svayā so ok somebody is addicted to eating meat and drinking then can such a person become religious now we could say at the highest level of religion such a person cannot become religious but that doesn’t mean that the person cannot at all become religious yes, for the practise of serious spiritual life for the sake of attaining liberation it’s not easily possible for such a person to do that unless the person is ready to give it up but if the person is not ready to give it up that doesn’t mean that the person has to suffer and suffer exile from the house of religion that person can still be accommodated in the house of religion, how is that? Then there are custom made forms of religion, rules of religion, practises of religion which that person can accept so such people can offer māṃsā to Kālī and then they can take māṃsā, such people can offer they may offer bhāṅga they may take wine Lord Shiva drinks that, we also drink it like that so now this is allowed, we have discussed earlier the difference between a concession and a recommendation or instruction, recommendation or instruction means I want you to do it, this is good, you should do it or it is good if you do it, instruction means you should do it recommendation means it is good if you do it, concession means that you want to do it, I will allow you to do it so the concessions are given in this case for some people who are in those nature, who are at that level of consciousness now we may say that actually in Kali Yuga also people are in lower modes and should people practise this tamasic modes of worship because most people are in rajoguna how can they practise devotional service which is actually meant for Lord Vishnu, which is meant for those who are in goodness so actually here Krishna is talking about a normal system if a pure devotee intervenes in the life of a person if the devotional force comes energy comes in the life of a person then this normal system can be transcended also not transcended in terms of being rejected but one can take instead of taking the gradual staircase one can just take swift elevator and move forward so the difference between the two will depend on whether one gets access to the mercy of Krishna coming to a pure devotee and whether one accepts that mercy so when one gets is fortunate enough to get that mercy and to accept that mercy then one can also move fast so Prabhupada was so compassionate that he was able to he was able to elevate even the people who were in tamoguna like the hippies who used to drink and smoke and take drugs and do all sorts of terrible activities, anti-spiritual, anti-devotional activities they were also elevated, that is the mercy of a pure devotee but normally we have to understand that bhakti is not always easily accessible, even in the Vedic cultural context, bhakti is not always available so bhakti is always rare so when bhakti is not available for people at that time are they doomed to be religious, are they doomed to be live materialistic, godless, sinful lives, no the Vedic culture also creates a facility by which they can be gradually elevated and that is the system of demigod worship, so we have discussed elaborately in our Isopanishad classes about demigod worship, we discussed about how the prodigal son story we expanded in the Vedic context how when the son is not ready to return back to the father the father sends a minister and the minister gets the son who has gone out of the kingdom back into the kingdom, so getting the son back into the kingdom means that the son has come back within the father’s jurisdiction, although indirectly like that, and the son starts serving the father like that, through his intermediary, through a minister and that is like the son coming back to the house of the Vedas and serving Krishna indirectly, that is through devatas, so this Krishna I will describe in the next verse, so Prabhupada’s emphasis in the purport is that their knowledge has been destroyed by karma but then the Bhagavatam says, even if one has, Bhagavatam actually recommends pure devotional service but as we see in this verse, which Prabhupada would often quote 2.3.10 from the Bhagavatam so even whatever desires one has whatever desires one has one will become elevated and liberated, if one just if one worships the Supreme Lord, and how does one worship the Supreme Lord? with intense bhakti so if we just worship the Supreme Lord with intense bhakti we can all become liberated, that is the glory here akama refers to one who has no material desires sarvakama, all kinds of material desires, mokshakama one’s desire for liberation so this is the Bhagavatam’s recommendation ultimately that whatever we once level, let that person worship but worship the Supreme Lord, but those who cannot understand this principle they may worship the other devatas, and they will also become elevated gradually so Prabhupada’s emphasis is actually, there is no need for this, again he quotes 2.3.10 that Krishna is the Supreme Lord and he should be the supreme object of worship for us so now let us look at the system of demigod worship and see what happens after this so whatever tanu, tanu refers to form whatever form one feels attracted to one desires to worship, ichchati ichchati is a desire, architum ichchati one desires to, architum is worship ichchati is desire, normally when we want to worship how will we worship, there has to be some faith shraddhaya architum ichchati one desires to worship with shraddha tasya tasya chalam shraddham so he makes the shraddha achala achala means he makes the shraddha unshakeable I make that viddhami, viddhami means I give strong faith, achala shraddha it’s very significant here, that means here Krishna is explaining that he is so kind that he doesn’t reject demigod worship directly now does he reject the people who are demigod worshippers, he is concerned not with his own glorification but he is concerned with others elevation, Krishna is not concerned with his glorification, he is concerned with others elevation, our elevation and that’s why normally speaking if a boss is there in an office the boss wants everyone to know that I am the boss and if somebody else comes along and for example there is a boss and there is a CEO and there is an assistant manager and then somebody comes to the office and starts praising that assistant manager as if he is the CEO, the boss will become angry how dare you you are so ignorant and you will get angry with both of them why are you glorifying, why are you praising like that and he will get angry with the person who is accepting that praise also but Krishna is not concerned like that yes Krishna is happy when devotees glorify him but he understands that the glorification is the expression of devotion and that glorification is not flattery that glorification is not centred on the ego, it is meant for the reciprocation of love when we love someone we appreciate that person and naturally when we appreciate we glorify that person so like that when we understand then we move forward in our spiritual progression when we move forward in spiritual progression then actually speaking what do you mean by we move forward in spiritual progression we move forward in understanding the compassion of Krishna because sometimes devotees start doubting if Krishna is supreme then why the Vedas talk about other devatas sometimes they talk about other devatas as supreme also when we understand the compassion of Krishna then actually the system of devout worship increases our faith in Krishna, it doesn’t decrease our faith why, because we understand how large hearted Krishna is how is it he is so large hearted that he is not concerned whether people recognise my position or not whether people glorify me or not if they understand that and they do that, that is great because that is the way to ultimate liberation that is the way to ultimate happiness and that is the way to supreme fulfilment but if they are not ready to do that at least let them get elevated from lower modes to higher modes therefore what Krishna does is he gives the demigods the power and he gives the demigod worshippers the faith so Krishna says I make the shraddha achala so you want to worship that particular devata, I will give you faith in that devata and then by worshipping that devata you will get elevated so I give faith and I elevate I facilitate the elevation so I give it so Krishna is present in the super soul in the heart and from the super soul he says you desire to worship this particular devata, I will give you the faith and that way we understand Krishna’s broad mindedness and the devotee appreciates this of course the devotee doesn’t himself get involved if we understand Krishna’s glory then we focus more on Krishna’s glory exclusively, singularly but we appreciate the broad heart of Krishna and that’s what Krishna is revealing over here that’s why we will see in this purport that in the translation Prabhupada starts with I am in everyone’s heart as a super soul now somebody may say there is no reference to anything like super soul in the verse there is no paramatma, there is no ruday where is Krishna talking about anything so actually Prabhupada often integrates the translation the purport to illuminate the translation better, so sometimes when he wants to explain certain points to us so at that point Prabhupada does such things so that our conceptions will become clearer we won’t get into unnecessary misunderstandings so where is faith ultimately faith is a matter of the heart and Krishna is present in the heart Krishna is the person who gives us faith so depending on our desires whatever kind of faith we want Krishna will give that kind of faith to us so he gives us faith in himself when we choose to develop faith in him I give that faith to him and after that Krishna will describe further that Prabhupada explains this a very significant point Prabhupada makes over here some people may ask why the all powerful gives facilities for the living entities for enjoying this material world and so lets them fall into the trap of the illusory energy the answer is Prabhupada says that the supreme lord does not give such facilities that there is no meaning to independence so one such facility which the lord gives for exercising the independence is the facility of demigod worship so through the demigod system of demigod worship also Krishna allows the living entity to turn towards him gradually by slowly but surely moving forwards so by worshipping Tamoguna they will gradually rise from Tamoguna to Rajoguna and Satoguna so here Prabhupada explains that both the demigod and the living entity are dependent on the supreme will so here in this verse Krishna has talked about how the living entity’s faith is enhanced by the devata and now we will talk about how the devata is also empowered by Krishna so equip with this faith the person aradhanam aradhanam is the same as architam the person worships, aspires, endeavours so equip with this faith the person worships and then the person gets the result the person gets the result kaman word is used same as in 7.20 so because of kama one is doing this and here labhate kaman and Krishna is saying it is actually by my mercy that he is getting it actually Krishna tells here that it is I who is the giver of result just as when a minister gives a salary to the prince who is now the prince has gone away from the father and the father has brought him back to his kingdom and the father has brought him back but the prince is not ready to come back home the prince is the king, the father is the king the father puts him under a minister and the minister gives some salary, gives some rewards to the prince then at that time who is ultimately giving it it is Krishna who is giving it is the king who is giving so like that when the devatas give some results it is ultimately the supreme lord who is giving the results it is not the devatas who have independent power to give results devatas powers are there but their powers ultimately come from Krishna from the supreme lord alone and that is why if there is a confrontation between devatas and the supreme lord then the devatas always fail and they fail because their power comes from Krishna they can’t confront and conquer Krishna and that is why in the Bhagavatam we will see Brahmaji, Indra all other devatas whoever plays Shiva and other devatas when they confront with Krishna actually they are overcome so this is the point of the whole passage the point is that their power is coming from Krishna so whatever blessings anybody gives that blessings comes from Krishna so as we have discussed this elaborately in our Ishopishit course we will not go into this in more detail but let’s move forward now to understand the principle as it comes in the Bhagavad Gita so Prabhupada explains again for the living entity who desires to return to God his material desires are impediment so a devotee doesn’t get caught in such desires a devotee focusses on glorifying Krishna and returning back to Krishna so the phala that one gets by the worship of the devatas is antavat is temporary actually so who aspires for this those are alpamedhasa alpamedhasa is brain substance or intelligence and alpa is little less scanty not much those who have intelligence are very less so those who worship the devatas they go to the devatas and those who worship me come back to me Krishna is telling over here so in this way he is explaining the difference between different kinds of worship different levels of worship so antavat tuphalam tesham when we worship the devatas actually demigods are temporary demigods abodes are temporary demigods benedictions are temporary and the demigod worshippers themselves are temporary their souls are eternal but whatever attainments they get as long as they are existing at the material level their existences themselves remain material temporary our bodily existence is temporary so the demigod worshippers they get elevated what is the ultimate fruit that they can get by the mercy of the supreme lord somehow they get elevated from demigod worship to the worship of the supreme lord that is the ultimate blessing that they can get and instead of being sakam they become nishkam in the worship of the supreme lord otherwise at the material level the benefit that they may get is they may move from materialistic consciousness to pious materialism and then they may go to the demigods where they will live with the demigods but that is also not permanent the demigods abodes themselves are temporary so even if they attain those abodes they will be temporarily only and quite often they will not even attain those abodes because today especially when people perform demigod worship they don’t do it with proper they don’t do it with proper scriptural rules and regulations so tam tam niyam asthaya means there has to be niyam and one has to follow those niyams faithfully those rules faithfully even the demigod worship has to be done according to rules and regulations now the rules and regulations for demigod worship may be different from the rules and regulations for worship of other people sorry worship of the supreme lord or the worship of demigods different demigods may have slightly different rules of worship but there are rules nonetheless and it is only when one follows the rules that one gets elevated so today we have demigod worship in India for example we may have worship of Ganesh and in the worship of Ganesh in the pandal people are having movie songs so many people don’t find anything objectionable in such a thing because their whole idea is that this side of religious practise they think that it is just one kind of entertainment and ok people are coming to Ganesh also for entertainment only and people hear movie songs also for entertainment only so what is the problem bringing two forms of entertainment together but actually it is a complete complete misunderstanding demigod worship also should be done for the glorification of the demigod ultimately we should glorify only the supreme lord but if we are worshipping the devata then we should glorify that devata in the worship the best way to glorify the devata would be to glorify that devata as a devotee of the supreme lord so as Chetan Mahaprabhu has written Chetan Charita, a set of verses called Shiva Ashtakam so there he is glorifying lord Shiva as a devotee of the supreme lord but if one doesn’t do that kind of glorification at least within demigod worship one can glorify the demigod properly as per the powers of the demigods but today even that is not done image might be there but actually one is worshipping one is only singing movie songs over there and may be in the morning or in the evening when Marthi is there little bit some songs of the demigods but even those songs are often sung by professional musicians who are singing not out of devotion but they are singing because of the desire for profit they are singing so that they can become famous they can earn money so that sort of worship of the devatas is not going to lead to much spiritual advancement actually speaking by the worship of devatas even if it is done properly there is only gradual spiritual advancement and when Krishna is saying that the worship of himself if it is done with material motives from there to come to pure surrender may take many lifetimes and if somebody is doing worship of devatas with material motives from there to come to Krishna worship may take a much longer time and that’s why it’s not particularly encouraging or elevating it’s not particularly it’s not something which as devotees we should encourage whenever we get the forum we don’t have to hurt people’s sentiments if they are doing demigod worship but we can guide them many people are uninformed and because they are uninformed they just don’t know that there is something wrong over here so we can gently but gravely explain that if at all somebody has to do demigod worship then they should do demigod worship properly the best way is by connecting the glorification of the demigod with the education, the position of the demigod as the servant to the supreme lord but that’s why Krishna is telling over here it’s not that all of this will lead to the same result so if somebody is doing worship of the devata it is not that by worshipping that devata the person will go back to Krishna it’s very clearly Krishna is saying those who worship the devatas will go to devatas and those who worship me will come back to me and because attaining me is eternal attainment, attaining the abode of the devata is temporary attainment therefore the two cannot be equated and that’s why he says alpamedhasa those who worship me are less intelligent so now this alpamedhasa can be contrasted with what was talked about in 7.19 at the start of this section jnanavan so those who are jnanavan they surrender to me then Krishna says that those who are Krishna continues the use of the word jnana in the next verse in 7.20 and he says that kama ista istai rita jnana so the knowledge has been stolen away and somebody may say ok knowledge has been stolen away by material desires but they at least started worshipping the devatas, they did not get into sinful material sinful activities for fulfilment of material desires yes that is good, so therefore they have some medhasa but their medhasa is alpamedhasa it’s not very great because they are not aspiring for the eternal, they are aspiring for something temporary only devan devayajo yanti so those who worship devatas will go to their devatas and that’s why it’s less intelligent, for a human being who is capable of attaining eternal result seeking something temporary is selling oneself short, it is what? selling oneself short, one could get so much something so much greater but one chooses to settle for something so small so small, we discussed if somebody is a student in IIT and IIT is a premier educational institute and while being in IIT the student doesn’t think of how I can study and have bright career, student just thinks where can I get the best food to eat in the hostel, the mess is terrible so what I’ll do is I’ll go around in the nearby not just in the campus, outside also, just whole day the person spends time only searching, where can I get the best food to eat well if the goal is to eat food one doesn’t have to be in IIT, one can find food anywhere to eat so if one has got the privilege of being in IIT now we all need to eat, so eating is important but eating is not all important so eating is one part of life, the real purpose of being in IIT is to study and have bright career, similarly our life has a material side and the material side is important so not to be entirely rejected or neglected but we have to understand also that the material side of life is not all important, even the animals are taking care of the material side, so we have to rise to a higher level of understanding we have to rise to the level of understanding that there is a spiritual side of our life and that is what should be our primary focus, so when we understand that and focus on that then we can attain an eternal result, as long as we are focussing on the material side we will get only a temporary result, that’s why Alpamey Dasa, so after describing this, now Krishna will describe the second category, so what is going on in this section Krishna is talking about those who surrender, those who do not surrender so when he talks about those who do not surrender he talks about those who those who do not surrender to him, those who surrender to something other than him but which is connected with him, so that is the devatas, so now apart from the devatas somebody may also start worshipping the impersonal conception, for those kind of people Krishna talks about in this verse now ma vimanottamam avyaktam vyaktimapannam avyaktam means which is unmanifest vyaktimapannam became manifest so those who think that I was unmanifest earlier and I have become manifest now avyaktam vyaktimapannam manyante mam buddhaya those who think like this, they are abuddhaya those who think about me like this, they are abuddhaya, why are they abuddhaya because parambhavam ajananto they do not know my supreme nature and what is their supreme nature mama vimanottamam that I am avyayam imperishable and I am anottamam I am the finest, uttama uttama is that which is beyond darkness uttama is also superlative glorification best uttama avyaktam vyaktimapannam unmanifest before but then one becomes manifest now what is this talking about this is referring to not just the impersonal conception in terms of brahmavad, it is the impersonal conception in terms of mayavad we have discussed the difference between brahmavad and mayavadis brahmavadis are attracted to the impersonal conception and they either don’t know about the personal conception or they are not attracted to the personal conception because they are not associated with the devotee who has attraction to the personal conception so these are the brahmavadis, so they are not offensive but mayavadis are those who are not only attracted to the impersonal conception but they also consider the personal conception to be transitional, to be temporary in fact they consider the personal conception to be a convenient fiction convenient fiction means that they think that this is just a tool by which one can move from a lower level of reality to a higher level of reality so because we are because we are conditioned to think in terms of form so we cannot think of the formless and therefore just think of some form and meditate on that form and afterwards you can transcend that form that is the conception, but that conception is Krishna is saying those who think like this are abuddhaya so they are, abuddhaya means having no intelligence buddhaya buddhi is intelligence, the prefix a actually here acts as a contrast so it acts as a prefix which negates what comes after that now when Krishna is describing abuddhaya, why is he saying so strongly about this because these are mayavadis who offend this form avyaktam vyaktimapannam that means they think the actual eternal reality is the impersonal conception that is brahman and temporarily that brahman is manifested as bhagwan, so what is their idea that brahman alone is transcendent now there are many brands of mayavad, we use the word mayavad we use it like a rubber band expandable and practically anybody and everybody who has some impersonal conception, we put all of them in the category of mayavad, mayavadis now that is not necessarily wrong, but now it is entirely accurate so we discussed the difference between brahmavadis and mayavadis so those who are offensive, their idea is I will talk about one particular conception of mayavad their idea for example is that the brahman is the only reality and brahman alone is transcendental and we know that there is tatvatraya, there is jagat, jiva and jagdish, so jagdish is the supreme lord, jiva is the living entity and jagat is the material nature, so this is tatvatraya, jagat, jiva and jagdish which is often talked about in the philosophical so when these three are talked about jiva, jagat and jagdish at that time what is the focus of this discussion, what is the purpose of this discussion the purpose of this discussion is a gradual ascent that one understands these three categories and one understands that the supreme lord is the ultimate reality and all other are his energies which rest on him, this Krishna has talked about in the sacred chapter itself in verses 4, 5 and 6 but the mayavadi idea is that the brahman alone is the ultimate reality that brahman alone is transcendental and so this is goodness, passion and ignorance, so their idea is that when brahman comes in contact with goodness then what results is jagdish what results is what we call as bhagwan so that means bhagwan is what bhagwan is brahman contaminated by contact with matter in the form of goodness and when brahman comes in contact with the mode of passion that leads to the formation of jiva so all of us are brahman but when brahman comes in contact with passion that leads to the formation of jiva and when brahman comes in contact with ignorance that leads to the formation of matter so their conception is that ultimately bhagwan is also material, everything is brahman but when brahman is covered by different kinds of illusions brahman covered by sattvic illusion is jagdish brahman covered by rajasic illusion is jiva brahman covered by tamasic illusion is jagat so this is their idea and the problem with this idea is that actually it makes bhagwan not transcendental but it makes bhagwan or jagdish here in this context particular terminology as material and time and time again krishna has categorically explained that he is not material in the same chapter krishna has talked in 7.12 and 13 matta eveti tan viddhi nattvaham teshu te mayi so in 7.12 he has said that everything in this material world comes from the three modes but these modes are in me, they are not in them they are in me, i am not in them matta eveti tan viddhi they come from me, nattvaham i am not in them, nattvaham teshu te mayi they are in me again in next 7.13 he says so he is saying that everything is covered by the three modes but i am transcendental to three modes so in this way krishna’s statement is very clear, very categorical but unfortunately the impersonalists they make that brahmabhagwan who is transcendental to be material and when they make him to be material then they make bhagwan who is the indispensable ultimate truth into a dispensable temporary truth, what do they do they make the indispensable absolute truth into a dispensable temporary tool how temporary tool, their idea is that ok you can meditate on bhagwan as long as you are not very intelligent, as long as you are not very evolved so you can worship on, meditate on a form and ultimately you have to go beyond form so often these people they may not even tell this reality initially for general people they say that ok for less intelligent people they will tell about demigod worship and for more intelligent people then they will talk about something higher, no its not like that actually even for more intelligent people and for less intelligent people, bhakti, soul and compassion that all kinds of people can take it up, so here we say that even the wise people surrendered to him and krishna will talk about in the 9th chapter in 2nd, 33rd verses that that even those who are low born that even the low born can become elevated and liberated that even the low born can become elevated and liberated so in that sense actually anybody and everybody can become elevated and liberated so there is no need to have this misconception, at least its not scripturally based misconception that only those who are less intelligent they should worship the bhapalasana aspect so this is not just a misconception but it is a monstrous misconception, why monstrous like a monster devours and destroys so this is a monstrous misconception that devours and destroys our bhakti because materialism directs our love away from krishna but this sort of mayavad makes us think that giving up that love for krishna is spiritual advancement, materialism actually doesn’t put us in the illusion that i am spiritually advanced, materialism makes us feel this, forget about spiritual advancement material enjoyment will give you great happiness when you are practising spiritual life then you understand that material enjoyment is not what it is made out to be it is made out to be a big thing but actually the pleasure is very temporary so there has to be something higher in life for that ultimate higher taste is the taste of bhakti but when one starts worshipping the impersonal conception and the mayavadi misconception then one starts thinking that bhakti is transitional and going beyond the feelings of bhakti is actually supreme and that is terrible that is a terrible misconception which deprives people of the higher taste of bhakti and ultimately leaves them with nothing why it leaves them with nothing? because there is no tangible taste in contemplating on a formless reality so the conception of brahman which the impersonalists have, which the mayavadis have it is devoid of attributes, it is devoid of pastimes, devoid of reciprocation and actually there is very little ecstasy in contemplating on that and because of not getting a spirituality people come back to material days that’s why Srila Prabhupada writes in the first canto, first chapter of darshan that this impersonalism has actually led to increase in materialism in many ways so some mayavadis have this idea, we know there are five rasas so these five rasas are based on the progressive levels of intimacy so in the shanta there is distant reveration and in progressive as we move forward towards madhurya there is intense intimacy so these are all five are eternal rasas which are there in the spiritual world and different devotees are in these rasas but the mayavadis take the same hierarchy and that which is eternal they make it transitional initially when you are worshipping god you think of an object as veneration but when you advance further then you understand it is an object of service then when you advance further you go closer to god then you understand he is a friend, he is not just a master then when you go further then you understand that actually god is not your parent, you have to care for god as you would care for your child and then when you go further then you understand that you care for god as if he is your most intimate beloved and then when you go further, so each of these we are going closer, closer, closer in shanta rasa you are far away, in dasya rasa you are further close sakhya rasa is further close, vatsala is closer madhura is closer and then when you come closest you become one with god so actually they think that the impersonal managing is higher than madhurya also this is a terrible misunderstanding because there is some joy in meditating on the absolute truth, it is called brahmananda but that brahmananda is nothing as compared to so in the hierarchy from negative axis that is mental enjoyment the zero point is the impersonal realisation, there is neither mental happiness nor positive spiritual happiness and beyond that is we move forward and then there is the scale where the highest spiritual happiness comes in madhurya rasa but the impersonal is, what they do is that which is at the bottom end of the spiritual hierarchy they surreptitiously they clandestinely by their misinterpretation, they place that at the highest level so brahman is the first level in spiritual realisation after that comes brahmananda and bhagwan is the highest but they change the whole thing upside down and they say bhagwan is lower and brahmananda is the highest so brahmananda is the lowest but they mean brahmananda is higher than madhurya also and in this way they completely make a mess of people’s spiritual conceptions and that’s why krishna says abudhaya such people, they have no ideas and krishna will talk about their destination later in 9.13 and 14 that time we will discuss further about this but param bhavam jananto they do not know my transcendental nature, what is the transcendental nature krishna has talked about it again and again and again in the bhagavad gita ajopisana vayatma he has talked about it in 4.6 janma karma chame divyam his form and activity, his appearance and activities are not mundane, they are transcendental they are transcendental so when one understands this then one can actually take shelter of krishna and then go beyond the impersonal reality to the personal reality that is the ultimate goal of life that is the ultimate perfection of life so the impersonalists are also going to make some spiritual advancement if they are not offensive to the supreme lord so if they are offensive then they can get into a lot of trouble in their spiritual progress they can create a lot of trouble for others also so in this section from 13 to 24 we have discussed why one should surrender to krishna and then those who surrender those who don’t surrender to krishna, those who surrender to krishna and then after that two categories among those who surrender but not to krishna one is the devatas, those who surrender to devatas and the other is those who go towards the impersonal conception now krishna will elaborate in the assurance given in 7.14 that by surrendering to him one goes beyond maya so how does surrender to him take one beyond maya that will be the discussion of the last section 25 to 30 that we will discuss in our next class