SB 11.23.28 – Misfortune is mercy if it makes us detached

Transcript

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Srimad Bhagavatam 11.23.28 in the previous verse the avanti brahmana has pointed towards the supreme lord and now he’s thinking that actually my misfortune is the supreme lord’s mercy so somehow bhagwan has become satisfied with me who is that bhagwan he is the lord of all the devatas sarva deva mayohari all the powers of all the devatas reside within him and he is the ultimate lord of all the devatas that means there may be devatas who in charge of specific departments and who cause who administer specific karmic reactions within the jurisdictions of their departments but the ultimate governing and sanctioning authority is the supreme lord and the misfortune that has come upon me it is it is by his arrangement that this dasha this condition has befallen me why because nirve das chatmana plavam because this has brought about detachment within me and that detachment is atmana plavam is boat and atmana is soul so detachment is the boat for the soul the soul is struggling and drowning in the ocean of material existence and the way out of that ocean is through detachment actually this ocean and boat metaphor is used many times in the bhagavatam and in the vedic scriptures in general and sometimes it is said that the human body is the boat sometimes it is said that the process of bhakti yoga is the boat and sometimes it is said that the lotus feet of the lord are the boat all of it is correct basically the boat is the means by which a person can get out of the ocean so human body is required for a person to get out of the ocean animals cannot do that they cannot pursue self-realization and even after we get a human form one has to practice bhakti yoga so not all human beings get out of the material existence it is the human beings who practice devotional service who get out of material existence and similarly detachment can also be said to be the boat because as long as a person is attached to material enjoyment with the hopes that in the future material enjoyment will make me happy to that extent the soul cannot get out of material existence so detachment as we know chaitanya mahaprabhu was very pleased with sanatana goswami when first he renounced the whole world and then eventually he renounced even the expensive blanket that his cousin his relative had given him and he exchanged it for a old quilt from with a beggar chaitanya mahaprabhu said yes super soul’s actions are very great and the super soul has bestowed his mercy on you so this nirveda is atmana plavam detachment is important even on the path of devotion as chaitanya mahaprabhu’s benedictine sanatana goswami being pleased with him indicates so how is this how does this detachment come in our lives actually whenever it comes however it comes it is the mercy of the supreme lord it is only by his mercy that we can become detached without his mercy detachment is impossible so of course the ultimate mercy is that we become attached to him but along with that attachment to him a devotee has to have attachment to the lord and detachment from matter when both are there then that leads to steady advancement and of course when a person is detached the person can also practice devotional service more sincerely here the avanti brahmana is talking from the point of his own perspective that he was so terribly attached to money and now he has become detached realizing the futility and the misery that is the end result of attachment to money and based on that he is considering the this as a blessing of the supreme lord so we can also when we are trying to practice devotional service and some misfortune befalls us rather than blaming that lord or resenting the misfortune we can see that misfortune as a mercy which brings about detachment from our various attachments and thereby facilitates us to fix the mind in krishna if we see misfortunes in this way then misfortunes will never be able to distract us from our devotional attentiveness but they will increase our devotional attentiveness when we are practicing mantra meditation and are trying to connect with krishna thereby thank you