SB 7.9.48 Devotion is not about disconnecting ourselves from the world but about reconnecting everything including ourselves with its source

Transcript

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Thank you. Krishna-bhagavatam 7.9.48 तुम्बायु रग्निरविनिर्वियतं भुमात्रा नानिंद्रिया निर्दयं कितनः ग्रहच्या सर्वं तुम्हीं सभुनो विभुणिष्टिः भुमन्त नानिर्द्वलस्त्यः पिमन्नो चिसाधिरुक्तम् Kirpalada Maharaj is expressing an exalted level of God consciousness where one sees everything to be divine, everything to be a manifestation of God ultimately.
So this may make some of us uncomfortable because it seems to raise notions of pantheism or impersonalism. Pantheism means everything is God. Impersonalism is that the truth is ultimately impersonal.
But pure devotion includes pantheism, impersonalism and extends beyond it. Pantheism is the idea that nature itself is God in the sense that everything within nature is divine. Now in devotion we accept that because nature is an energy of God and in a sense the energy is non-different from the energetic.
So Kirpalada Maharaj is saying over here You are air, you are fire, you are earth, you are sky, you are the water, you are the sense objects, you are the life airs, you are the senses, you are the mind, you are the false ego, you are the devatas. He says you are all this and you are the what has qualities, what has no qualities. Saguna and Viguna.
Prabhupada explains Saguna means that which has within material nature. Prabhupada translates guna as not so much qualities but as modes. Actually the more philosophically precise understanding of these words.
Guna doesn’t refer only to qualities but also to modes. So Saguna means that which is in modes, that is material objects and Viguna refers to that which is beyond the modes. So the soul and the super soul.
You are all this. So whatever can be spoken of by words or whatever can be conceived by the mind, everything that is manifested is actually non-different from you. That non-difference doesn’t mean absolute oneness in the sense that God is reduced to all these things.
No, God pervades all these things and his exists beyond all these things also. So actually speaking and this is not a vision of impersonalism. This is a vision of devotion where one sees the object of love everywhere and one sees all the things of the world as energies of the Lord and therefore one says, my dear Lord, you are all these things.
So there is a similar prayer of Arjuna when he sees the Virat Rupa of Krishna at 11th chapter. So, my dear Lord, you are the air, you are the fire, you are the wind, you are the moon, like that. So there of course Arjuna knows that it is Krishna who has revealed this form and even the Virat Rupa is a form.
So it’s not impersonalism. As devotees, sometimes the fear of impersonalism makes us somewhat hesitant or even averse to understand Krishna’s all-pervasiveness. Krishna pervades everything, subsumes everything.
Subsume means to include within himself and still extend beyond himself, beyond that particular thing which is included. So right now I am sitting on a chair, you may be sitting somewhere. So the chair we are sitting on, that is also divine in the sense that it is the energy of Krishna.
So that way a devotee can feel enveloped by Krishna’s presence all the time. Once when Prabhupada was on a beach and the devotees were swimming and swimming brought past memories of sensuality in their minds. And Prabhupada said, you know, Krishna says, I am the taste of water.
Overhead there was sun, Krishna says, I am the fire, I am the heat of the sun. The earth below was fragrant. Prabhupada says, I am the fragrance, Krishna says, I am the fragrance of the earth.
And there was the sound of the waves. Krishna says, I am sound in ether. So he says, we are all surrounded by Krishna.
How can we not be Krishna conscious? And the devotees had been thinking on the beach, how can we be Krishna conscious? So Prabhupada was able to connect everything with Krishna depending on Krishna’s words. So that is a vision that we all strive to cultivate. And to the extent we are able to cultivate this vision and to the extent we cultivate that vision, our chanting doesn’t become a disconnection from the world, but it becomes more of a reconnection of the world with its source.