SB 8.3.24 Don’t try to fit the Lord into our conceptual cupboard; just serve him
Transcript
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Thank you.
Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.24 So here Gajendra is continuing his prayer, describing the transcendental position of the Lord and he is using the method of negation. He is describing what all the Lord is not. In general when we want to understand something, we try to fit it into our conceptual cupboard.
We have our own set of pre-existing conceptions and say somebody behaves in a very materialistic way, very money-minded way, then we may think, oh this person probably is from this community, the community of this community people are known to be like this. So like that we try to fit people into our conceptual cupboard and that way we try to make sense of life. So he is saying by using the naiti naiti process, he is warning us, don’t try to fit the Lord into our conceptual cupboard.
He is saying, this person who you see, that person is not a deva, devatas, they are pious enjoyers. This Lord is transcendental and certainly not asura, he is not a martyr, he is immortal, he may appear sometimes in animal forms, but he is not an animal, he is not aquatic, he is none of these. He is not a bird or a beast or any lower species.
And then he is not female, he is not neuter, he is not male, nor he is any living being or animal. So this person is not also a material mode, a material quality. Guna can mean quality as well as mode, Prabhupada translates it as quality.
Nakarma, that person is not a fruitive activity, and that person is not a sannyas, not a manifestation, not a non-manifestation. Then what is it? What category do we put it in? It’s a nishe dhesho. When we come to Krishna, the negation comes to an end, shesha.
That person is nothing like what we know anyone in this world to be. And therefore our negation comes to an end. And then jayata dhesho.
What is that person? You know, that person reveals the limitation of negation, but at the same time that person is unlimited. So the unlimitedness, so if the person is nishe dhesho, then the person is not all this, then the impersonal is in the void is. You say, okay, not this, not this, nothing of this world and nothing remains.
And what would remain is that? Nothing actually. So then the absolute truth is nothing. So when negation is taken to its extreme, at the material level of conceptualization, then the negation leads to nothingness.
So the Lord is nothing like what we know in the world, therefore he ends up being nothing because all the properties get stripped away from the Lord, all the qualities and attributes get stripped away from him. But here in making the point is shesha, he’s unlimited. So when it is said that he’s not all these things, that means that he’s far greater than all these things.
And he’s entirely transcendent. In fact, it’s not that he’s quality-less. His qualities are so unlimited that comparing him to any of these things would be a minimization of his extraordinary, supreme, unending qualities.
So this applies not only to the existence of the Lord, that he is inconceivable, but also to his actions. So often when we are living in the world and certain things happen in our life, we cannot, it’s not of much use in the way to try to fit Krishna’s actions as manifested through the events of this world within a conceptual cupboard. Or maybe this is the reason this is happening, that is the reason that is happening.
We can never know for sure, but what we can know for sure is that we are returning the servants of Krishna and if we serve him, if we continue serving him, that is the most auspicious course of action for us. And eventually auspiciousness will become manifest if we keep serving Krishna, whatever be the turn of events are happening currently. So meditating on how the Lord is beyond our conceptual categories, our conceptual cupboard can help us to fix the mind on him steadily and focus on calling out to him during a chanting