SB 7.9.49 Go beyond the irreligious and the religious to the transcendental Lord

Transcript

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Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.49 So here Prahlad Maharaj is almost concluding his prayers. This is the second last prayer. And he is establishing how the Supreme Lord is greater than everything else that is taught in the Vedic literature.
Shabda here refers to the study of the Vedic literature. And he says that such a wise person, Sudhiyo, such wise people stop studying the Vedas because they understand the Vedas talk about material things, especially the Karmakanda section of the Vedas. And all those are temporary.
So he describes what are those things that are temporary? So Guna is the modes. Gunino is those who are the masters of the modes, the material predominating deities. So they are the great material elements just studied by Sankhya philosophers.
So the mind is there. The Pravrittaya, all the others, the Devatas are there and even human beings are there. All of them are Adi Antavanta.
They all have beginning and they all have end. Adi Antavanta is also the phrase used by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita to describe worldly pleasures. So all worldly pleasures and all worldly things are Adi Antavanta.
Therefore, Urugaya means O Supreme Lord who is glorified by wonderful songs. By the great saintly persons. Understanding you, what do the great souls do? The wise people, they become absorbed in you and by becoming absorbed in you, they end the study of the Vedic literature.
So, Prahlad Maharaj is saying that the Lord is better than not just the bad but also the good. The bad refers to Hiranyakashipu who was a demon and Prahlad Maharaj has said in the earlier prayers, one of the earlier prayers, he said that, I am not going to aspire for anything material because Hiranyakashipu, my father, achieved everything. He had such power that just by raising his eyebrows, everybody would become scared.
Devatas would tremble in fear and be eager to carry out his order and pacify him. And such power was lost just in one moment when you, by his time you destroyed everything. So, by raw power and by doing impious activities, one may achieve things, they will be lost.
But he is saying that even by doing punya, one may achieve great things. So, even the Devatas who have achieved great power, they are also temporary. What they have is also going to be lost by time.
So, therefore, I won’t aspire even for this. I only aspire for you, my dear Lord. So, in general, most people want to give up the irreligious and become religious.
But here Prahlad Maharaj is demonstrating the level of sarva-dharmahant parityajya that one gives up the irreligious and the religious if that religious is directed towards mundane religiosity, towards material aggrandizement rather than towards spiritual elevation. So, this is what the wise souls do. And although Prahlad Maharaj is not saying that I am doing this or I will do this, in life he has demonstrated that that is what he has done.
Single-mindedly. When the whole universe was bowing down to Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad Maharaj was unflinchingly, fearlessly sticking to the devotion of Lord Vishnu. He has demonstrated that.
And now he is saying, the wise people do that. And he is indicating to us through his prayer that we should also do that. So, rather than getting caught up in worldly good or bad, we focus on what is good for the service of Krishna and keep doing that.
Absorb ourselves in Krishna. Because, in this world, even when we are devotees, sometimes good things will happen and sometimes bad things will happen. Certainly, we want to serve Krishna and to the extent our life is, material life is situated in an orderly way, we can serve him better.
But, we can’t make our devotional service to Krishna dependent on everything being good in our material life. You know, even if we go to heaven and everything is good over there, still there is no guarantee that we will serve Krishna. So, rather than thinking that first I have to make things good, then I will serve Krishna.
We focus simply on serving Krishna. And, to the extent we put God first, we will find that we will get the intelligence and God will also exhibit his benevolence by which we will be able to bring out the good in the world also. And, in that way, we will be able to not only achieve the next world to be eternally with Krishna, but also be able to contribute positively in this world without being caught up in its dualities.