Introduction To Bhagavad Gita Part Two
So the Lord, the living entity, the nature, material nature, and time, they are all eternal. But the other item, karma, is not eternal. The effects of karma or activity may be very old. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from a time immemorial, but still, we can change the result of our karma, or activity. That will depend on our perfect knowledge.
RECAP from “Introduction To Bhagavad Gita Part One”
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Therefore Bhagavad-gita should be taken up in a spirit of devotee of Lord Sri Krsna. One should not think that he is equal, on the same level of Sri Krsna, or one should not think that He is an ordinary personality, maybe a very great personality. No. Lord Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So at least theoretically, on the statement of Bhagavad-gita or on the statement, assertion of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gita, we should accept Sri Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and then, with that submissive spirit. . . Unless one receives this Bhagavad-gita in a submissive spirit and aural reception, it is very difficult to understand Bhagavad-gita because it is a great mystery.
So in this Bhagavad-gita. . . We may survey what is this Bhagavad-gita. This Bhagavad-gita is meant for delivering persons, persons from the nescience of this material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, as Arjuna also was in difficulty in the matter of fighting the battle of Kuruksetra. And as such he surrendered unto Sri Krsna, and therefore this Bhagavad-gita was spoken. Similarly, not only Arjuna but every one of us is always full of anxieties due to our, this material existence. Asad-grahat. It is. . . Our existence is in the environment or atmosphere of nonexistence. But actually, we are not nonexistent. Our existence is eternal, but some way or other we are put into this asat. Asat means which does not exist.
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So the Lord, the living entity, the nature, material nature, and time, they are all eternal. But the other item, karma, is not eternal. The effects of karma or activity may be very old. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from a time immemorial, but still, we can change the result of our karma, or activity. That will depend on our perfect knowledge. We are engaged in various activities undoubtedly, but we do not know what sort of activities we shall adopt that will give us relief from the actions and reactions of all activities. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita.
Now, the position of isvara is supreme consciousness. Position of isvara, or the Supreme Lord, is supreme consciousness. And the jivas, or the living entities, being parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, he is also conscious. A living entity is also conscious. The living entity is explained as prakrti, energy, and the material nature is also explained as prakrti, but amongst the two, one prakrti, the jivas, they are conscious. The other prakrti is not conscious. That is the difference. Therefore the jiva prakrti is called superior because the jivas has consciousness similar to the Lord. The Lord is supreme consciousness. One should not claim that a jiva, a living entity is also supremely conscious. No. A living being cannot be supremely conscious at any stage of his perfection. This is a misleading theory. This is misleading theory. But he is conscious. That’s all. But he is not supreme conscious.
The supreme conscious, it will be explained in the Bhagavad-gita in the chapter where the distinction between the jiva and isvara is explained. Ksetra-ksetra-jna. This ksetra-jna has been explained that the Lord is also ksetra-jna, or conscious, and the jivas, or the living beings, they are also conscious. But the difference is that a living being is conscious within his limited body, but the Lord is conscious of all bodies. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61].
The Lord lives within the core of heart in every living being, therefore He is conscious of the psychic movements, activities, of the particular jiva. We should not forget. It is also explained that the Paramatma, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is living in everyone’s heart as isvara, as the controller and He is giving direction. He is giving direction. Sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisthah, everyone’s heart He is situated, and He gives direction to act as he desires. The living entity forgets what to do. First of all he makes his determination to act in a certain way, and then he is entangled in the actions and reactions of his own karma. But after giving up one type of body, when he enters another type of body. . .
Just like we give up one kind of dress, one type of dress, for another type of dress, similarly, it is explained in this Bhagavad-gita that vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya [Bg. 2.22]. One, as one changes his different dresses, similarly the living entities, they are also changing different bodies, transmigration of the soul, and pulling on the actions and reactions of his past activities. So these activities can be changed when a living being is in the mode of goodness, in sanity, and he understands what sort of activities he should adopt, and if he does so, then the whole action and reactions of his past activities can be changed. Therefore karma is not eternal. Other things, out of the four, five items- isvara, jiva, prakrti, kala, and karma- these four items are eternal, whereas the karma, the item known as karma, that is not eternal.
Now the conscious isvara, the supreme conscious isvara, and difference between the supreme conscious isvara, or the Lord, and the living being is, in the present circumstances, is like this. Consciousness, consciousness of, both of the Lord and the living entities, they are, this consciousness is transcendental. It is not that this consciousness is generated by the association of this matter. That is a mistaken idea.
The theory that consciousness develops under certain circumstances of material combination is not accepted in the Bhagavad-gita. They cannot. Consciousness may be pervertedly reflected by the cover of material circumstances, just like light reflected through a colored glass may seem according to the color. Similarly, the consciousness of Lord, it is not materially affected. The Supreme Lord, just like Krsna, He says that mayadhyaksena prakrtih [Bg. 9.10]. When He descends in this material world, His consciousness is not materially affected. Had His consciousness been materially affected, He was unfit to speak about the transcendental subject matter in the Bhagavad-gita.
One cannot say anything about the transcendental world without being free from the materially contaminated consciousness. So the Lord was not materially contaminated. But our consciousness, at the present moment, is materially contaminated. So whole thing, as the Bhagavad-gita teaches, we have to purify the materially contaminated consciousness and in that pure consciousness, the actions will be done. That will make us happy. We cannot stop. We cannot stop our activity.
The activities are to be purified. And these purified activities are called bhakti. Bhakti means they are, they appear also just like ordinary activity, but they are not contaminated activities They are purified activities. So an ignorant person may see that a devotee is working like an ordinary man, but a person with poor fund of knowledge, he does not know that the activities of a devotee or the activities of the Lord, they are not contaminated by the impure consciousness of matter, impurity of the three gunas, modes of nature, but transcendental consciousness. So our consciousness is materially contaminated, we should know.
Now when we are such materially contaminated, that is called our conditioned stage. Conditioned stage. And the false ego, the false consciousness. . . The false consciousness is exhibited under the impression that “I am one of the product of this material nature.” That is called false ego. The whole material activities, yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke [SB 10.84.13]. Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke, one who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conception.
Now, the whole Bhagavad-gita was explained by the Lord because Arjuna represented himself with bodily conception. So one has to get free from the bodily conception of life. That is the preliminary activity for a transcendentalist who wants to get free, who wants to be liberated. And he has to learn first of all that he is not this material body. So this consciousness, or material consciousness, when we are freed from this material consciousness, that is called mukti. Mukti or liberation means to become free from material consciousness. In the Srimad-Bhagavata also the definition of liberation is said, muktir hitvanyatha rupam svarupena vyavasthitih [SB 2.10.6]. Svarupena vyavasthitih. Mukti means liberation from the contaminated consciousness of this material world and to become situated in pure consciousness. And the whole instruction, instruction of Bhagavad-gita, is targeted to awaken that pure consciousness.
We’ll find in the last stage of the instruction of Bhagavad-gita that Krsna is asking Arjuna whether he is now in purified consciousness. Whether he was in purified consciousness. The purified consciousness is to act according to the direction of the Lord. That is purified consciousness. That is the whole sum and substance of purified consciousness. Consciousness is already there, but because we are part and parcels, therefore we are affected. There is affinity of being affected by the material modes. But the Lord being Supreme, He is never affected. He is never affected. That is the difference between the Lord and the Supreme. . ., Supreme Lord and the. . .
Now this consciousness is. . . What is this consciousness? This consciousness is that “I am.” What I am? When in contaminated consciousness this “I am” means that “I am the lord of all I survey.” This is impure consciousness. And “I am the enjoyer.” The whole material world is moving that every living being is thinking that “I am the lord and I am the creator of this material world.” The consciousness has got two psychic movement or two psychic division. One is that “I am the creator,” and the other is “I am the enjoyer.”
So the Supreme Lord is actually the creator and He is actually the enjoyer. And the living entities, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, he’s not actually the creator or the enjoyer, but he’s a cooperator. Just like the whole machine. The part of the machine is the cooperator, is the cooperator. Or if we can study just the constitution of our body.
Now, in the body there are hands, there are legs, there are eyes, and all these instruments, working, but all these parts and parcels of the body, they are not enjoyer. The stomach is the enjoyer. The leg is moving from one place to another. The hand is collecting, the hand is preparing foodstuff, and the teeth is chewing, and everything, all parts of body, are engaged in satisfying the stomach because the stomach is the principle fact within the organization of this body. And everything should be given to the stomach. Pranopaharac ca yathendriyanam [SB 4.31.14].
Just like you can see a tree green by pouring water in the root. Or you can become healthy. . . The parts of the body- the hands, the legs, the eyes, the ears, the fingers- everything keeps in healthy stage when the parts of the body cooperate with the stomach. Similarly, the supreme living being, the Lord, He is the enjoyer. He is the enjoyer and He is the creator. And we, I mean to say, subordinate living beings, the products of the energy of the Supreme Lord, we are just to cooperate with Him. That cooperation will help. Just for example, a good foodstuff taken by the fingers. If the fingers think that “Why should we give it to the stomach? Let us enjoy.” That is a mistake. The fingers are unable to enjoy. If fingers want the fruit of enjoyment of that particular foodstuff, the fingers must put it into the stomach.
So the whole arrangement is that the central figure, central figure of creation, central figure of enjoyment, is the Supreme Lord, and the living entities, they are simply cooperator. By cooperation, by cooperation they enjoy. The relation is just like the master and the servant. If the master is satisfied, if the master is fully satisfied, the servants are automatically satisfied. That is the law. Similarly, the Supreme Lord should be satisfied, although the tendency for becoming creator and the tendency to enjoy this material world is, they are also in the living entities because it is there in the Supreme Lord. He has created, He has created the manifested cosmic world.
Therefore we shall find in this Bhagavad-gita that the complete whole, comprising the supreme controller, the controlled living entities, the cosmic manifestation, the eternal time, and the activities, all of them are completely explained. So the whole thing taking together completely is called the Absolute Truth. The complete whole, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is therefore the complete Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna. As I have explained, that the manifestation are due to His different energies, and He is the complete whole.
The impersonal Brahman is explained in the Bhagavad-gita that impersonal Brahman is also subordinate to the complete person. Brahmano ‘ham pratistha [Bg. 14.27]. Impersonal Brahman is also. It is. . . The impersonal Brahman is more explicitly explained in the Brahma-sutra as the rays. As there is the rays of the sunshine, sun planet, similarly, the impersonal Brahman is the shining rays of the Supreme Brahman or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore impersonal Brahman is incomplete realization of the absolute complete whole, and so also the conception of Paramatma. These things are also explained. Purusottama-yoga. When we shall read the chapter of Purusottama-yoga it will be seen that the Supreme Personality, Purusottama, is above the impersonal Brahman and partial realization of Paramatma.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is called sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah [Bs. 5.1]. In the Brahma-samhita, the beginning is started like this: isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah/ anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam [Bs. 5.1].” Govinda, Krsna, is the cause of all causes. He is the primal Lord.”
So the Supreme Personality of Godhead is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah. Impersonal Brahman realization is the realization of His sat part, eternity. And Paramatma realization is the realization of sat-cit, eternal knowledge part realization. But realization of the Personality of Godhead as Krsna is realization of all the transcendental features like sat, cit, and ananda, in complete vigraha. Vigraha means form. Vigraha means form. Avyaktam vyaktim apannam manyante mam abuddhayah [Bg. 7.24]. People with less intelligence, they consider the Supreme Truth as impersonal, but He is a person, a transcendental person.
This is confirmed in all Vedic literature. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. So, as we are also persons, individual living beings, we are persons, we have got our individuality, we are all individual, similarly the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Absolute, He is also, at the ultimate issue He is a person. But realization of the Personality of Godhead is realization of all the transcendental features like sat, cit, and ananda, in complete vigraha. Vigraha means form. Therefore the complete whole is not formless. If He is formless or if He is less in any other thing, He cannot be complete whole. The complete whole must have everything within our experience and beyond our experience. Otherwise He cannot be complete.
The complete whole Personality of Godhead has immense potencies. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. That is also explained in Bhagavad-gita, how He is acting in different potencies. This phenomenal world, or the material world, where we are now put, is also complete by itself because purnam idam [Isopanisad, Invocation]. The 24 elements of which, according to Sankhya philosophy, the 24 elements of which this material universe is a temporary manifestation, are completely adjusted to produce complete things which are necessary for the maintenance and subsistence of this universe.
No extraneous effort by any other unit is required for the maintenance of the universe. It’s at its own time, fixed up by the energy of the complete whole, and when the time is complete, these temporary manifestations will be annihilated by the complete arrangement of the complete. There is complete facility for the small complete units, namely, the living entities, to realize the complete. And all sorts of incompleteness is experienced on account of incomplete knowledge of the complete. So the Bhagavad-gita is the complete knowledge of the Vedic wisdom.
The whole Vedic knowledge is infallible. There are different examples how we take Vedic knowledge as infallible. Take for example, so far the Hindus are concerned, and how they accept the Vedic knowledge as complete, here is an insignificant example. Just like the cow dung. The cow dung is the stool of an animal. According to smrti or Vedic wisdom, if one touches the stool of an animal he has to take his bath to purify himself. But in the Vedic scriptures the cow dung is as stated as pure. Rather, impure place or impure things are purified by touch of the cow dung. Now if one argues how it is that in one place it is said that the stool of the animal is impure and another place it is said that the cow dung which is also the stool of an animal, it is pure, so it is contradictory. But actually, it may appear to be contradictory, but because it is Vedic injunction, therefore for our practical purposes we accept it. And by that acceptance we are not committing mistake.
It has been found by modern chemists, modern science, one Dr. Lal Mohan Gosal, he has very minutely analyzed the cow dung and he has found that cow dung is a composition of all antiseptic properties. So similarly, he has also analyzed the water of the Ganges out of curiosity. So my idea is that Vedic knowledge is complete because it is above all doubts and all mistakes. So, and Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic knowledge. The Vedic knowledge is therefore infallible. It comes down through the perfect disciplic succession.
Therefore Vedic knowledge is not a thing of research. Our research work is imperfect because we are searching everything with imperfect senses. Therefore the result of our research work is also imperfect. It cannot be perfect. We have to accept the perfect knowledge. The perfect knowledge is coming down, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, just we have begun, evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [Bg. 4.2]. We have to receive the knowledge from the right source in disciplic succession of spiritual master beginning from the Lord Himself.
So Bhagavad-gita is spoken by the Lord Himself. And Arjuna, the, I mean to say, the student who took lessons of the Bhagavad-gita, he accepted the whole story as it is, without any cutting. That is also not allowed, that we accept a certain portion of Bhagavad-gita and reject another portion. That is also not accepted. We must accept the Bhagavad-gita without interpretation, without any cutting, and without our own whimsical participation in the matter because it should be taken as the most perfect Vedic knowledge. The Vedic knowledge is received from the transcendental sources because the first word was spoken by the Lord Himself. The words spoken by the Lord is called apauruseya, or not delivered by any person of the mundane world, who is infected with four principles of imperfectness.
A living being of the mundane world has four defective principles of his life, and they are 1) that he must commit mistake, 2) he must be sometimes illusioned, and 3) he must try to cheat others, and 4) he’s endowed with imperfect senses. With all these four principles of imperfectness, one cannot deliver the perfect form of information in the matter of all-pervading knowledge. The Vedas are not like that. The Vedic knowledge was imparted in the heart of Brahma, the first created living being. And Brahma in his turn disseminated the knowledge to his sons and disciples as they were originally received from the Lord. The Lord, being purnam or all-perfect, there is no chance of His becoming subjected to the laws of material nature. One should therefore be intelligent enough to know that except the Lord, nobody is the proprietor of anything within the universe. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita:
mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhava-samanvitah
[Bg. 10.8]
The Lord is the original creator. He is the creator of Brahma, He is the creator. . . That is also explained. He is the creator of Brahma. In the 11th Chapter the Lord is addressed as prapitamaha [Bg. 11.39] because Brahma is addressed as pitamaha, the grandfather, but He is the creator of the grandfather also. So nobody should claim to be the proprietor of anything, but he must accept things which are set aside by the Lord as his quota of maintenance.
Now, there are many examples how we have to utilize the allotment of the Lord. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Arjuna, he decided in the beginning that he should not fight. That was his own contemplation. Arjuna said to the Lord that it was not possible for him to enjoy the kingdom after killing his own kinsmen. And that point of view was due to his conception of the body. Because he was thinking that the body was himself and the bodily relatives, his brothers, his nephews, his father-in-law or his grandfather, they were expansion of his body, and he was thinking in that way to satisfy his bodily demands. And the whole thing was spoken by the Lord just to change the view. And he agreed to work under the direction of the Lord. And he said, karisye vacanam tava [Bg. 18.73].
Therefore in this world the human being is not meant for quarreling like the cats and dogs. They must be intelligent enough to realize the importance of the human life and refuse to act like ordinary animal. He should. . . A human being should realize the aim of human life. This direction is given in all the Vedic literature, and the essence is given in the Bhagavad-gita. Vedic literature are meant for the human being and not for the cats and dogs.
The cats and dogs can kill their eatable animals, and for that there is no question of sin on their part. But if a man kills an animal for the satisfaction of his uncontrolled taste, he must be responsible for breaking the laws of nature. And in the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly explained that there are three kinds of activities according to the different modes of nature: the activities of goodness, the activities of passion, the activities of ignorance. Similarly, there are three kinds of eatables also: eatables in goodness, eatables on passion, eatables on ignorance. They’re all clearly described, and if we properly utilize the instructions of the Bhagavad-gita, then our whole life will become purified and ultimately we shall (be) able to reach the destination. Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama [Bg. 15.6].
That information is given in the Bhagavad-gita, that beyond this material sky, there is another spiritual sky; that is called sanatana sky. In this sky, this covered sky, we find everything temporary. It is manifested, it stays for some time, gives us some by-product, and then it becomes dwindling, and then vanishes. That is the law of this material world. You take this body, you take a fruit or anything what is created here, it has got its annihilation at the end. So beyond this temporary world there is another world for which the information is there, that paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah [Bg. 8.20].
There is another nature which is eternal, sanatana, which is eternal. And the jiva, jiva is also described as sanatana. Mamaivamso jiva-bhutah jiva-loke sanatanah [Bg. 15.7]. Sanatana, sanatana means eternal. And the Lord is also described as sanatana in the 11th Chapter. So because we have got intimate relation with the Lord and we are all qualitatively one. . . The sanatana-dhama and the sanatana Supreme Personality and the sanatana living entities, they are on the same qualitatively plane. Therefore the whole target of Bhagavad-gita is to revive our sanatana occupation or sanatana. . ., that is called sanatana-dharma, or eternal occupation of the living entity.
We are now temporarily engaged in different activities and all these activities being purified. When we give up all these temporary activities, sarva-dharman parityajya [Bg. 18.66], and when we take up the activities as desired by the Supreme Lord, that is called our pure life. [break] Therefore, sanatana-dharma, as mentioned above, that the Supreme Lord is sanatana, and the transcendental abode, which is beyond the spiritual sky, that is also sanatana. And the living entities, they are also sanatana. So association of the sanatana Supreme Lord, sanatana living entities, in the sanatana eternal abode is the ultimate aim of human form of life.
The Lord is so kind upon the living entities because the living entities are claimed to be all sons of the Supreme Lord. The Lord declares sarva-yonisu kaunteya sambhavanti murtayo yah [Bg. 14.4]. Every living, every type of living entity. . . There are different types of living entities according to their different karma, but the Lord claims that He is the father of all living entities, and therefore the Lord descends to reclaim all these forgotten conditioned souls back to the sanatana-dhama, the sanatana sky, so that the sanatana living entity may again reinstall in his sanatana position in eternal association of the Lord. He comes Himself by different incarnations, He sends His confidential servitor as sons or associates or acaryas to reclaim the conditioned souls.
And therefore sanatana-dharma does not mean any sectarian process of religion. It is the eternal function of the eternal living entities in relationship with the eternal Supreme Lord. So far sanatana-dharma is concerned, it means the eternal occupation. Sripada Ramanujacarya has explained the word sanatana as “the thing which has neither any beginning nor any end.” And when we speak of sanatana-dharma we must take it for granted on the authority of Sripada Ramanujacarya that it has no beginning, nor any end. The word religion is a little different from sanatana-dharma.
Religion conveys the idea of faith. Faith may change. One may have faith in a particular process, and he may change the faith afterwards and adopt another faith. But sanatana-dharma means which cannot be changed, which cannot be changed. Just like water and liquidity. Liquidity cannot be changed from water. Heat and fire. Heat cannot be changed from fire. Similarly, the eternal function of the eternal living entity, which is known as sanatana-dharma, cannot be changed. It is not possible to change. We have to find out what is that eternal function of the eternal living entity.
When we speak of sanatana-dharma therefore, we must take it for granted on the authority of Sripada Ramanujacarya that it has no beginning nor any end. The thing which has no end, no beginning, must not be any sectarian thing or limited by any boundary. When we hold on the conference on the sanatana-dharma, people belonging to some of the noneternal religious faiths may wrongly consider it that we are dealing in some sectarian thing. But if we go deep into the matter and take everything in the light of modern science, it will be possible for us to see sanatana-dharma as the business of all the people of the world, nay, all the living entities of the universe. Non-sanatana religious faith may have some beginning in the annals of the human society, but there cannot be any history of the sanatana-dharma because it continues to remain with the history of the living entities.
So far living entities are concerned, we find it from the authority of the sastras that living entities have also no birth or death. In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that the living entity is never born, nor does it ever die. He’s eternal, indestructible, and continues to live after the destruction of his temporary material body. With reference to the above concept of sanatana-dharma we may try to understand the concept of religion from the Sanskrit root meaning of the word dharma. It means that which is constantly with the particular object. As we have already mentioned, when we speak of fire it is concluded at the same time that there is heat and light along with the fire.
Without heat and without light, there is no meaning of the word fire. Similarly, we must find out the essential part of a living being which is always companion with him. That part of constant companion of the living being is his eternal quality, and the eternal part of the living being’s quality is his eternal religion. When Sanatana Gosvami asked Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu about the svarupa- we have already discussed about the svarupa of every living being- svarupa or real constitution of the living being, the Lord replied that the constitutional position of the living being is to render service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
But if we analyze this part of the statement of Lord Caitanya, we can very well see that every living being is constantly engaged in the business of rendering service to another living being. A living being serves another living being in different capacities, and by doing so, the living entity enjoys life. A lower animal serves a human being, a servant serves his master, A serves B master, B serves C master, and C serves D master, and so on. Under the circumstances, we can see that a friend serves another friend, and the mother serves the son, or the wife serves the husband, or husband serves the wife. If we go on searching in that spirit, it will be seen that there is no exception in the society of the living being where we do not find the activity of service. The politician present his manifesto before the public and convinces voters about his service capacity. The voter also gives the politician his valuable vote on expectation that the politician will give service to the society. The shopkeeper serves the customer and the artisan serves the capitalist.
The capitalist serves his family and the family serves the head man in terms of the eternal capacity of eternal being. In this way we can see no living being is exempted from the practice of rendering service to other living being, and therefore we can conclude that service is a thing which is the constant companion of the living being, and therefore it may be safely concluded that rendering of service by a living being is the eternal religion of the living being. When a man professes to belong to a particular type of faith with reference to the particular time and circumstances of birth, and thus one claims to be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, Buddhist, or any other sect, and sub-sect, such designations are non-sanatana-dharma.
A Hindu may change his faith to become a Muslim, or a Muslim may change his faith to become a Hindu or a Christian, etc., but in all circumstances such change of religious faith does not allow a person to change his eternal engagement of rendering service to other. A Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian, in all circumstances, he is servant of somebody, and thus to profess a particular type of faith is not to be considered as sanatana-dharma, but the constant companion of the living being, that is, rendering of service, is the sanatana-dharma.
So factually, we are related in the service relationship with the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the supreme enjoyer, and we living entities are eternally His supreme servitors. We are created for His enjoyment, and if we partake, participate in that eternal enjoyment with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that makes us happy, not otherwise. Independently, as we have already explained that independently, any part of the body, the hand, the feet, the fingers, or any part of the body, independently, cannot be happy without cooperation with the stomach, similarly, the living entity can never be happy without rendering his transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord. Now, in the Bhagavad-gita the worship of different demigods is not approved, is not approved because. . .
It is said in the Bhagavad-gita [Bg. 7.20], the Lord says, kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah prapadyante ‘nya-devatah. Kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah. Those who are directed by lust, only they worship the demigods other than the Supreme Lord, Krsna. We also may remember that when we speak of “Krsna” it is not a sectarian name. The “Krsna” name means the highest pleasure. It is confirmed that the Supreme Lord is the reservoir, is the storehouse of all pleasure. We are all hankering after pleasure. Anandamayo ‘bhyasat. The living entities or the Lord, because we are full of consciousness, therefore our consciousness is after happiness. Happiness. The Lord is also perpetually happy, and if we associate with the Lord, cooperate with Him, take part in His association, then also we become happy.
The Lord descends on this mortal world to show His pastimes in Vrndavana full of happiness. When Lord Sri Krsna was in Vrndavana, His activities with His cowherd boys friends, with His damsels, with His friends, damsel friends, and with the inhabitants of Vrndavana and His occupation of cowherding in His childhood, and all these pastimes of Lord Krsna were full of happiness. The whole of Vrndavana, the whole population of Vrndavana, was after Him. They did not know except Krsna. Even Lord Krsna restricted His father, Nanda Maharaja in worshiping the demigod Indra because He wanted to establish that people need not worship any other demigod except the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because the ultimate aim of life is to return to the abode of the Supreme Lord. The abode of Lord Krsna is described in the Bhagavad-gita, 15th Chapter, 6th verse,
na sasanko na pavakah
yad gatva na nivartante
tad dhama paramam mama
Now the description of that eternal sky. . .
(contunued. . .
About the Author
HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founded the Hare Krishna Movement in 1966 in New York. In only 11 years he spread the movement all over the world. He wrote more than 80 books including Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Sri Isopanisad. Prabhupada's books constitute a complete library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture.
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