The Superior and Inferior Energies

Recitation of Sri Isopanisad mantras

2:21ISO 0.2ईशोपनिषद्ॐ पूर्णं अदः पूर्णं इदंपूर्णात् पूर्णं उदच्यतेपूर्णस्य पूर्णं आदायपूर्णं एव अवशिष्यतेoṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁpūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyatepūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāyapūrṇam evāvaśiṣyateThe Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.[Īśo Invocation] ISO 1ईशावास्यं इदं सर्वंयत् किञ्च जगत्यां जगत्तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथामा गृधः कस्य स्वित् धनम् || 1 ||īśāvāsyam idam sarvaṁyat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagattena tyaktena bhuñjīthāmā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanamEverything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.

2:42ISO 2कुर्वन्न् एव इह कर्माणिजिजीविषेत् शतं समाःएवं त्वयि न अन्यथा इतो अस्तिन कर्म लिप्यते नरे || 2 ||kurvann eveha karmāṇijijīviṣec chataṁ samāḥevaṁ tvayi nānyatheto 'stina karma lipyate nareOne may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.ISO 3असुर्या नाम ते लोकाअन्धेन तमसा आवृताःताम् ते प्रेत्य अभिगच्छन्तिये के च आत्म हनो जनाः || 3 ||asuryā nāma te lokāandhena tamasāvṛtāḥtāṁs te pretyābhigacchantiye ke cātma-hano janāḥThe killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.

2:54ISO 4अनेजत् एकं मनसो जवीयोन एनत् देवा आप्नुवन् पूर्वम् अर्षत्तत् धावतो अन्यन् अत्येति तिष्ठत्तस्मिन् अपो मातरिश्वा दधाति || 4 ||anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyonainad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arṣattad dhāvato 'nyān atyeti tiṣṭhattasminn apo mātariśvā dadhātiAlthough fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.ISO 5तत् एजति तत् न एजतितत् दूरे तत् व अन्तिकेतत् अन्तर अस्य सर्वस्यतत् उ सर्वस्य अस्य बाह्यतः || 5 ||tad ejati tan naijatitad dūre tad v antiketad antar asya sarvasyatad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥThe Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.

3:06ISO 6यः तु सर्वाणि भूतानिआत्मनि एव अनुपश्यतिसर्व भूतेषु च आत्मनंततो न विजुगुप्सते || 6 ||yas tu sarvāṇi bhūtānyātmany evānupaśyatisarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁtato na vijugupsateHe who sees systematically everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.ISO 7यस्मिन् सर्वाणि भूतानिआत्म एव अभूत् विजानतःतत्र को मोहः कः शोकःएकत्वं अनुपष्यतः || 7 ||yasmin sarvāṇi bhūtānyātmaivābhūd vijānataḥtatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śokaekatvam anupaśyataḥOne who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?

3:17ISO 8स पर्यगात् शुक्रम् अकायम् अव्रणम्अस्नाविरं शुद्दं अपाप विद्धंकविः मानिसी परिभूः स्वयंभूःयथा तथ्यतो अर्थान् व्यदधात् शाश्वतीभ्यः समाभ्यः || 8 ||sa paryagāc chukram akāyam avraṇamasnāviram śuddham apāpa-viddhamkavir manīṣī paribhūḥ svayambhūryāthātathyato 'rthān vyadadhāc chāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥSuch a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.

3:24ISO 9अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्तिये अविद्याम् उपासतेततो भूय इव ते तमोय उ विद्यायां रताः || 9 ||andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśantiye 'vidyām upāsatetato bhūya iva te tamoya u vidyāyām ratāḥThose who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.ISO 10अन्यत् एव आहुः विद्ययाअन्यत् आहुः अविद्ययाइति शुश्रुम धीराणांये नः तत् विचचक्षिरे || 10 ||anyad evāhur vidyayā-nyad āhur avidyayāiti śuśruma dhīrāṇāṁye nas tad vicacakṣireThe wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.

3:33ISO 11विद्यां च अविद्याम् च यत्तत् वेद उभयं सहअविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वाविद्यया अमृतं अश्नुते || 11 ||vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yastad vedobhayaṁ sahaavidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvāvidyayāmṛtam aśnuteOnly one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.ISO 12अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्तिये असंभूतिम् उपासतेततो भूय इव ते तमोय उ संभूत्यां रताः || 12 ||andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśantiye 'sambhūtim upāsatetato bhūya iva te tamoya u sambhūtyām ratāḥThose who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.

3:44Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Read.

3:44Gargamuni: Fourteen.

3:44Prabhupāda: Yes.

3:44Gargamuni: The last sentence.

Divine control and energy distribution

3:48"This point is confirmed by the Bhagavad-gītā in the Seventh Chapter, where parā and aparā prakṛti are discussed.

3:58The elements of nature—earth, fire, water, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego—all belong to the inferior, or material, energy of the Lord, whereas the living being, the organic energy, is the superior energy, the parā prakṛti, of the Lord.

4:17Both the prakṛtis, or energies, are emanations from the Lord, and ultimately He is the controller of everything that exists.

4:26There is nothing in the universe which does not belong either to the parā or aparā prakṛti, and therefore everything is under the..."

4:37Prabhupāda: "...proprietary right of the Supreme Being." So here, in the Īśopaniṣad also, the same thing is explained, that īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Īśo mantra 1].

4:55Whatever we are seeing, animate or inanimate, there is control of the Supreme Lord. The same thing is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that His energies are working.

5:17In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said just like fire staying in one place distributes its heat and light... Eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā. Agni, agni means fire. Fire is... Just like the sun.

5:46Sun is also fire, very high temperature fire. So it is staying in one place, but it is distributing its light and heat all over the universe.

6:06Eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā yathā vistāriṇī tathaiva parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ [Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.22.53]. Similarly, two energies from the Supreme Lord is being distributed all over the creation.

6:34One kind of energy is called material energy, and the other kind of energy is called the spiritual energy. So in this world, in this temporary material world, the spiritual energy is there. That is prominent.

6:56But it is covered by the material energy.

Material and spiritual energy transformations

7:00Just like there is sunshine—sunshine, nobody can check—but it is sometimes covered by cloud. When it is covered by the cloud, the sunshine is dim. The more it is covered...

7:24Just like in Western countries, in the northern countries, it is very much covered. Practically, there is no sunshine. In London I saw the sunshine is very rare.

7:38At ten o'clock it is early in the morning, and at half past three again evening, so long I was there. So this covering of the sunshine is temporary. Actually, sunshine cannot be covered.

7:58The whole sunshine cannot be covered. That is not possible. An insignificant portion of the sunshine may be covered, or is covered sometimes by the cloud.

8:11Similarly, this material world is an insignificant portion of the spiritual world, covered by this material energy. That's all. And what is the position of material energy?

8:30The material energy is also another form of the spiritual energy. That means absence of spiritual activity, that is material. That's all. Just like what is this cloud? This cloud is another transformation of the sunshine.

8:51The sunshine evaporates water from the sea, and the cloud is formed. Therefore sunshine is the cause of the cloud. Similarly, this material energy is also caused by the Supreme Lord, because it is His energy.

9:14So two energies are working in this material world: the spiritual energy and the material energy.

9:25The material energy means these eight kinds of material elements, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ Bg. 7.4: earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego. These are all material.

9:42And similarly, finer, finer, finer, finer, and grosser, grosser, grosser.

9:49Just like water is finer than the earth, then fire is finer than the water, then air is finer than the fire, then sky, or ether, is finer than the air.

10:06Similarly, intelligence is finer than the ether, or mind is finer than the ether. The mind... You know, I have given several times example: the speed of mind. Many thousands of miles within a second you can go.

10:25So the finer it becomes, it is powerful. Similarly, ultimately, when you come to the spiritual part, finer, from which everything is emanating, oh, that is very powerful. That's spiritual energy.

10:47So that is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. What is that spiritual energy? That spiritual energy is this living entity. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parā [Bg. 7.5].

Superiority of spirit over matter

11:03Kṛṣṇa says, "These are material energies. Beyond this there is another, spiritual energy." Apareyam. Aparā means inferior. Apareyam. "All these described material elements, they're inferior energy.

11:23And beyond this there is superior energy, My dear Arjuna." What is that? Jīva-bhūta mahā-bāho: "These living entities." They are also energy. We living entities, we are also energy, but superior energy. How superior?

11:44Because yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat Bg. 7.5. The superior energy is controlling the inferior energy. Matter has no power. The big airplane, nice machine, is flying in the sky, made of material things.

12:06But unless the spiritual energy, pilot, is there, it is useless. It is useless.

12:16Thousands of years the jet plane will stand on the airport; it will not be flying unless the small particle spiritual energy, that pilot, comes and touches. So what is the difficulty to understand God?

12:38So plain thing, that if this huge machine... There are so many huge machineries; they cannot move without the touch of the spiritual energy, a human being or a living being.

12:57How can you expect that this whole material energy is working out of automatically or without any control? How you can put your arguments in that way? That is not possible.

Supreme proprietorship and Krishna consciousness

13:16Therefore less intelligent class of men, they cannot understand how this material energy is being controlled by the Supreme Lord.

13:26The godless men, those who are of opinions that this material energy is working automatically, they are fools. That is the explanation of Īśopaniṣad. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Īśo mantra 1].

13:43Everything is being controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And therefore, because He is the supreme controller, therefore He is the supreme proprietor.

13:58We can see in our practical experience, the man who controls the whole establishment, he is proprietor, or the president. Similarly, if it is being controlled by some superior person, then He is God.

14:18That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. Kṛṣṇa says, "Under My superintendence this material energy is working, and all these animate and inanimate objects are being produced."

14:38BG 9.10मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृतिः सूयते सचराचरम् ।हेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते ॥१०॥mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥsūyate sa-carācaramhetunānena kaunteyajagad viparivartateThis material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

14:49So unless there is some living force, energy, behind any material manifestation, it cannot work. If we simply understand this fact, that everywhere there is control of the Supreme Lord, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

15:11Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to understand things as it is. That's all. Thank you very much. [devotees offer obeisances] [end]