Daily-Bhagavatam 68 – 11.07.58 – Appreciate the inconceivable even in the material
Bhagavatam 11.758 तेशु काले विजायंत रजिता वेवाहरे शक्तिम् दुर्विभाव्याभी कोमलांगतिर्भाः तेशु काले विजायंत See, Adul Brahmana is telling the story of the Kapot and Kapoti, he and Shree Vijay, and describing how the eggs hatched and they hatched. काले विजायंत All the things in nature happen after you pass your time.
So the eggs, the mother bird sat on them, fostered them, cared for them, and gradually they hatched. प्रजायंत, विजायंत, were born. विजिता विवाहरे, they were produced.
आव्यवाहरे शक्तिम् दुर्विभाव्याः भी By the inconceivable potency of Lord Hari, and कोमलांग तन्रुहाः, they were very soft-limbed, कोमलांग तन्रुहाः, they were bedecked with feathers. Now, while this narrative is primarily in the mode of ज्यान, where one recognizes the futility of material existence, and thereby rejects material existence, within that overall frame, which is the focus of this narrative, there is still the cognition of the hand of God, the role of God, the energy of God, in the activity of birth. Birth is a natural miracle.
Generally, we think of miracles as those things that are extraordinarily special, that don't usually happen. And that's why, when something which is not expected to happen, which is not likely to happen, which is in fact quite unlikely to happen, when something happens, then we say that it's a miracle. So, birth is something that happens so many times.
In fact, there are millions and millions of people, even humans living on this planet, billions in fact, and what to speak of, so many other species, and they are all existing, that means they were all born, like they were all born, that means, birth has happened so many billions and trillions and zillions of times. So, what is special about it? Why should it be called Shakti-Durga-Bhavya-Bhihare, the inconceivable potency of Lord? Now, actually speaking, just because birth happens many, many times, does not make it less miraculous. It is still extraordinarily miraculous, because of the sheer unlikelihood of any of the things which are expected, which actually happen.
For example, let's consider human birth. Among all the sperms that enter the female womb, actually it's a perilous journey before the sperms unite with the eggs, and then how just one cell, which is practically microscopic, which we would not even normally notice, how that grows over a period of time by just reproduction into a fully developed body like yours or mine. That, even from a scientific point of view, the many number of things that could go wrong, and in spite of it all, how it goes right, that is a miracle.
Albert Einstein said that there are two ways of living life. One is to see nothing as a miracle, and the other is to see everything as a miracle. So, to see everything as a miracle does not necessarily mean to suspend the idea of science and scientific explanation for things, but still to recognize that even if there is scientific explanation for things, still the very fact that those things are happening and the things are set up in such a way that they happen like this, that is still miraculous.
So, even for a pigeon, how… Now, when someone breaks an egg, prematurely, all that it contains is some yolk, maybe some different colors of yolk, but that's all that is there, a sticky, messy, fluidish substance. But that, how it becomes a suitable biochemical medium for a soul to manifest and for the soul to grow, that is actually extraordinary. And this extraordinariness is demonstrated here by the she-bird and the he-bird, by how their union leads through the formation of an egg to the beginning of their progeny.
So, while recognizing the ultimate futility of material existence at the material level, we should not blind ourselves to the glory of God that is evident even at the material level. Now, generally, children are considered to be a gift of God. That's why when a child is born, there is a great celebration.
Now, the gift of God is not… Now, if we understand science, if we observe nature, if we have more of an intellectual inclination, then that should not be used to demystify, demystify the process of thinking that everything is just ordinary, natural, predictable. But no, even the things that happen repeatedly, even millions of times, a perceptive seer can still see the inconceivable energy of God by which these things are happening. So, this way, at one level, we don't want to become emotionally entangled in material existence.
But at another level, once we have sufficiently distanced ourselves from material nature, then we can appreciate even the workings of material nature as manifestations of the supreme creative energy of Krishna, by which he makes just amazing things happen. And, as Pascal said, little of science takes man away from God, but emergent science brings man back to God. So, appreciation of the wonders of nature can increase our appreciation of the wonderful law of nature.
By thus connecting our consciousness with Krishna, we can not only protect ourselves from getting entangled in material existence, but also we can accelerate the process of disentanglement from this world by increasing our connection with Krishna and by absorption in Him, become quickly and joyfully liberated from material existence.