How exactly is the bull dharma deluded as Prabhupada mentions in SB 1.17.23 purport?
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thank you question here it is said that in the purport it is said that purport of 1723 it is said that the bull was put under illusion by the deluding energy of the lord and thus he could not identify who was the cause let’s read what Prabhupada says the personality of religion knew perfectly well that nothing can take place without the sanction of the supreme lord and still he was put into doubt by the deluding energy and thus he defrained from mentioning the supreme cause this was due to the contamination of both Kali and the material energy so now here we have to understand that there is a certain amount of inconceivability with respect to ascribing suffering to a particular cause and in general there are broadly different strategies which are used by different religious traditions to make sense of the problem of why do bad things happen to good people and what exactly is the role of the lord in that so one thing we have to clearly understand that dharma was not deluded by the illusory energy the way we are deluded if we are deluded the way we are deluded means that we may be covered in the modes of passion and ignorance, we don’t perceive the reality at all but we do see that dharma’s consciousness, the bull’s consciousness was quite high, that’s how he was able to perceive the reality that he speaks a lot of philosophy and he says that actually it’s very difficult to know who is the cause, some people say this, some people say that so the specific point which Govardhan makes is he refrains from identifying the lord as the supreme cause so this is something which is which different sadhas, devotees at different points may perceive things differently some devotees may feel that somebody gets some devotee gets cancer some devotees may feel that this cancer is forcing me to take shelter of Krishna so in that sense the cancer is here, Krishna is here I am in between, the cancer is pushing me from behind and making me go closer to Krishna and Prabhupada himself talks about this mood when he says in the Isopanishad the miseries of material existence they indirectly serve to remind us of our incompatibility with matter that means get out of material existence go to the spiritual world so that’s what is so there rather than thinking of that misery as specifically coming there, specifically considering that the lord is coming as the misery he is saying this misery is coming from somewhere but it is meant to take me, make me towards the lord, so one way is that we can see the misery from whatever source it is coming it is, its purpose is to make me go towards Krishna so sometimes we may see the source of the misery as Krishna sometimes the source means the cause ultimate cause we may see it as nothing happens without Krishna, but sometimes we may see the purpose as Krishna and ok whatever has happened, let me take deeper shelter of Krishna sometimes we are not able to see the purpose as Krishna, so what do we do at that time we need some association which will help us align our perception in a way that is in harmony with our devotion, we need some insight from somewhere, so to ascribe so the bull is under illusion in the sense that he is not ascribing the lord as the supreme cause he is the cause of all causes, that means he is the cause of, if some distress is coming in our life, he is the cause of the distress also but that is not necessarily the point always so I would say that yes, if some devotees at a level of consciousness, they can see that even the suffering is coming from Krishna in fact, Krishna, Prabhupada even says in one part that a devotee says that Krishna is coming as the suffering somebody can see like that, that’s also wonderful but if we can’t perceive like that we don’t have to make that into a major issue, major deficiency the operating principle that we can apply in our life is in our particular situation, how can we fix our mind on Krishna that is best we can focus on