Anavrittih shabdat. Lecture 2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Radhadesh · 2004
Chapters
Vedanta-sutra on liberation through sound
So Shaitanani Maharaj, I have to ask your blessings before I start speaking. I was speaking yesterday about the salvation. I spoke a little bit about this sutra, which is the last sutra
Vedānta-sūtra 4.4.22, Anāvṛttiḥ śabdād anāvṛttiḥ śabdād, where Śrīla Vyāsadeva conclusively states that there is no return. There is no return according to Shabda, or by Shabda.
In other words, from the sound vibration, you can achieve this most elevated state of liberation. And I was speaking a little bit about the practices
of different religions, how different religions are selling salvation, and how different religions are trying to market their religion as the most sure means for salvation. And my main goal here is to describe
the mechanism of salvation in Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya or in our religion. Because we are being the preachers of this part,
of this cult, of this religion, we have to be sure that our product, our goods which we sell in the market is good.
That really it brings not some kind of fake salvation, not some kind of uh cheap salvation, which people can just buy by
little price, but the real salvation and how this process, very scientific process, is being described in the Vedas. How sabda or revelation or sacred sound can ultimately
bring about this elevated state of consciousness, which is called salvation or liberation in our tradition. And I also explained the need that everyone feels in this world, the need for salvation,
because everyone acutely experiences the transitory nature of this world. Krishna stresses this. When he says: Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, when he says that mām upetya punar janma, that one who comes to me doesn't come back.
Why? Because there is no need to come back. Because this world is aśāśvatam. And basically that is the main reason why we need salvation.
And we have to understand this very very clearly that one cannot be happy in this world because of the temporary nature of this world. Because this nature this world is by nature is very temporary place.
We need some other state. The state which is permanent. The state which is not kind of this state is not final which we are in, and everyone knows this.
And therefore also I said that therefore the disease of fear comes into the heart. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains this.
Bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ, and turned away from Isha, from the Lord, Ishaada Peta Siya Vipariya Yosmiritih and Baya Baya the fear appears in your heart.
And fear means when we want salvation it means that we're fearful.
It means that we acutely experience this the how you say this the tottering nature of this world like Prabhupada explains this: that this this life is like the tottering on a very shaky platform.
And therefore the fear comes. And therefore, we paryas mriti.
When we don't remember the Lord, we turn away from the Lord and we remember something which is unimportant. And this is called perverted smriti, perverted memory. This is our Oms gamer disease.
When we don't remember something which is most important. And this is actually the very Very dangerous disease, and we have to underständ this.
We have to know the symptoms of this disease in order to seek very urgently for the salvation or for the cure of this disease. So, and then I finished yesterday's topic uh explaining
this feeling of incompleteness, which is very humorously described in Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad. This is actually the description of our illusory attempts to be happy in this world.
How God provided us with different uh cheating devices to have the feeling that we are happy, to have the feeling that we are complete, whereas we cannot be complete unless and until we reach the Supreme Lord and this Supreme State of Union with the Lord and association with the Lord.
So Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad is very emphatic in this sense and it basically you know laughs at the attempts of stupid foolish living entities to be happy in this world by saying that you know here you are, God provided you with all these devices. You can cheat yourself for the rest of eternity, no problem.
And you will have this feeling of false happiness despite of this.
So the main need and uh the first premise which we have to understand we need salvation. We need uh and the real salvation, the real solution for all our problems is this close association with the Lord. Nothing else.
Four motivations for practicing religion
But because we have this perverted intelligence perverse intelligence, faulty and dirty intelligence, even when we are seeking salvation, even when we understand that we need something, this final state of liberation, still we, carry out the same kind of misconceptions into the realm of religion.
And this is what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining in Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta, and I will briefly explain this.
He explains the four motivations which is the driving force for people to execute religion, to practice religion. He says there is bhaya, there is āśā, kartavya-buddhi, and finally raga or attachment.
And he says that two first motivations, Bhaya and Asha. And Bhya means fear. And Asha means uh hope or desire. We know this uh uh word asha. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā, moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogh-ajñāna.
Uh so Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that these two first motivations are totally wrong.
And if people try to practice religion, being driven by this motivation or using these motivations as a driving force, the destination which they will attain will be false as well.
He says that these motivations, Bayana, fear, and uh desire to get something from the Lord or hope uh to achieve something as a reward for our religious practices is very base motivations.
He uses this word, very low class motivations. And I started describing that there are different religions which are entirely based on these motivations, like Buddhism.
Buddhism as I said yesterday, totally based on this fear.
You know, the whole material world is bad. And being polite, they don't explicitly say that there is God who created this miserable world for us to be tortured in this world. The whole concept of Buddhism is that God is the torturer, and this whole world is the torture chamber, and here you experience this, and the only escape, the only conception of salvation or liberation in Buddhism is just to commit suicide totally, become nothing. You try to escape this torture chamber by committing suicide.
That's it. Finished. So this is this is a base religion and base motivation.
I'm sorry to say this if some of you are Buddhists or want to be Buddhist or have some illusions about this religion. So I'm sorry, but this is this is not a good religion at all.
And then of course and we see also that in some Christian traditions they also try to exploit or employ this uh this fear which is totally explicitly material emotion which is coming from our material conditioning and they're trying to exploit fear to push people to practice religion like some you know preachers especially in the United States, they are famous for this.
They are coming. And um I heard they're coming to Russia too.
They're coming and they started screaming on the top of their legs, you know, you'll go to hell, you'll go to hell unless you surrender to Jesus and everyone is supposed to jump in a swimming pool to get baptized. There is a mass baptism there. They make the actually they make the lectures in the swimming pool so the swimming pool is nearby so that everyone can could execute this process of salvation in a very easy way, you know, just jump in a swimming pool.
But this is all uh ridiculous concepts. You know, I I remember I was in the United States in this conference in the United States of the spiritual leaders of the world.
And different people of different traditions came, they were Jews, there are Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists and Hare Krishna were there as well. So it was a very strange kind of gathering there.
And everyone was supposed to speak something about their tradition, and everyone was looking at everyone else with little kind of you know feeling of sadness you know these poor people they're all condemned but at the same time they were trying to communicate something.
And then there was a turn of one lady from America. She's the daughter of this famous preacher, Billy Graham. And she's uh Anne Brahm. Uh and no but everyone was kind of polite.
Everyone was saying of course we are the best and we are the only one who knows the truth, but you know because we have to speak in this format we have to be polite.
But this lady, you know, she came, she climbed over to the stage and she, you know, and in thirty seconds she started screaming. Jesus is the only way and only Jesus can save you.
She created such a tremor, you know, and everyone. So we hurry up. So we better change something. But this is again Bhaktivinoda says that the very attempt to try to exploit this emotion is low or is false.
Seeking material rewards through religion
And then another motivation is of course this asha or desire for reward from the Lord, or desire or hope to get something from the Lord, which is also actually very base.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also explains that if you ask the Lord about something else which is not the Lord Himself, it means that you placed this thing which you asking from the Lord higher than the Lord. And your system of values, this thing which you are begging from him is more important than him.
You're coming to the Lord, who is the source of everything, who is most blissful spiritual personality in you saying, please give me this, you know, little car because I need the car.
And basically, it means to say to the Lord, I don't need you. Right? Basically, I don't need you. And this is what also so many religions practice and even being proud of.
Like there is one Jewish rabbi, and he said in one of his books, he said that Judaism is the best religion. Why? He explained why. It is the best religion of all. Because you can be perfect Jew without even believing in God.
You don't need to believe in God to be a good Jew. You just have to follow the rules and regulations, that's it. And God is is something, you know, secondary, you know, you just follow these rules and regulations.
You get what you need from God, you know. You know, there is a there is a sure process to get what you need.
So again, this is the same misconception which is carried out into the religious or spiritual sphere when we have this wrong understanding of what religion is all about and we're trying to use the religion for this kind of purposes.
There is a very nice book recently published in Russia, which is called Children's Rights to God.
The one clever man in Russia writer he asked different children in schools, you know, from the first grade, second grade, small children, to write something to God, to write a letter to God.
And then he published a book, which is consisting of these letters.
And basically, usually it's just one sentence or two sentences, but the sentences are very revealing, and actually the whole scope of uh human religions are there in this little book which are coming from this naive and you know they are not clever enough to hide their motivations.
So they write very openly what they want from God. Sometimes they want ridiculous things. And sometimes they use some clever devices also.
You know there is one the best uh letter uh uh sounds like this: one boy, he writes to God, he's from the first grade, he said, when I first see you, my dear Lord, when I first see you, I will not ask you for anything.
And you will think, such a nice and humble boy. And give me a Mercedes car.
So when I first approach you, I will not ask you anything, but you know you please take the note that to reward me you have to give me some nice Mercedes car but basically
this is what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: why, why this? Or if we take again if we take Muslim religion again big religion in this world and all these people who are killing other people on the name of religion, which is totally ridiculous, absolutely horrendous.
So uh I I saw once one of them was interviewed and they asked him why you're doing this?
He said because it is said in our religion that if you do this, then immediately you will be transferred into heaven and there in heaven already 70 virgins are waiting for you.
And you will possess the seventy virgins there.
So this is therefore Bhaktivinoda's... Therefore, Bhaktivinoda says, this is, this is very base motivations which are unfortunately very unfortunately employed or even you know exploited in many many religions of this world and then he says that the first acceptable motivation, and actually this is a very important motivation for all of us because this is the motivation which we can realistically use in our religious practices.
Cultivating sense of duty in religion
The first motivation from which the pure relationship with God may start is called kartavya-buddhi. And kartavya-buddhi means the sense of duty. You're doing this because you feel obliged.
Basically, this motivation is a motivation of gratitude.
The real religion, according to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, starts from this feeling within the heart that God is the source of everything, He provided me with everything, and as soon as I feel this, as soon as I feel this gratitude towards the Lord, then uh and that's the reason why I practice religion.
I may not have raga or attachment to the Lord. And who has? Maybe Sacinandana Mahārāja. But uh it's it's a rare thing. You cannot really demand this. And you cannot really uh employ this in the preaching uh as well.
But the real religion starts from this kartavya-buddhi, and kartavya-buddhi basically means that you see the Lord as Father. The Lord is your father.
Or, as Krishna explains himself, he actually also explains this in the Bhagavad-gītā. In catur-ślokī Bhagavad-gītā, he says, and in catur-ślokī Bhagavad-gītā, the first verse of catur-ślokī Bhagavad-gītā, that's the beginning, He says, aham sarvasya pravau mathsarvampra tate it matwa bhajanti man buddha bhava bhava saman vita.
He says that first thing which you have to understand from which real theological journey may start in your life is this aham sarvasya prava math sarvam pravertate everything which you have is coming from me and that's basically the conception of the Lord as Father.
Because Father is who? He's the one who provides us with everything. He's the one who gives us everything. He's the one who whom we have to feel some sense of duty.
And it's actually often the case that we may not feel very strong attachment, but we do feel that we are obliged to him. And that's kartavya-buddhi.
But then he says, but actually he says the real motivation and the real religion, and I heard that today Sachinand Maharaj was speaking about this. I'm sorry that I was absent on your class.
So he says that the real religion really starts with Ragha, that Kartavya-buddhi is just the preparation and kartavya-buddhi is the motivation for vaidī-sādhana-bhakti. Bhakti.
Vaidī-sādhana-bhakti is behind the vaidī-sādhana-bhakti there is this driving force of sense of duty, obligation, or gratitude. And then when you feel this gratitude gradually, gradually, this raga or attachment to the Lord appears. And this is the highest conception of God.
Actually, if we analyze these motivations, we can see that this motivation corresponds very clearly to the conceptions of God. You know, if you see God as the torturer, you will ultimately say there is no God.
There is no God. I don't want to have this God. And therefore, your salvation or your goal, your prayana will be nothingness, Sunya.
If you see the God who just punishes justly, then you will try to somehow rather you know to escape the punishment and you will employ the fear.
If you see the Lord who is not just punishing but also rewarding, then you will employ this Asha and Asha will you will try to be pious, so to speak, conventionally pious, to get the reward for this and follow some rules and regulations.
If you see the Lord as the Father, then you will execute religion driven by this Kartavya Buddha or sense of duty.
But if you see the Lord as the most beautiful, as the most blissful personality, then the Raga will appear and Raga will be your driving force. If you really understand who the Lord is, then the Ravba will appear.
Actually there is a very nice story in this regard about one great Muni of the past, Lokasaranga Muni. Lokasaranga Mahamuni, he was a saint and he was living in the north of India. He was a great saint.
And once somebody brought to him a book from the south, and this book was uh Diviaprabanda, The Songs of Alvas, and he read this book and he immediately started packing his things.
Luckily he didn't have much things to pack. So the man who gave him the book, he came and he said, what did you remember from this book? He said, I don't remember anything.
The only thing which I remember is that Tirumangaya Alvar in one of his hymns he calls God Aravamudi? And Aravamudi means the sweetest nectar which is there, the sweetest possible nectar, the highest possible bliss.
And he said, when I heard this name of God, I immediately decided to give up my residence here and go down and live with these people who have this conception of God as the most sweetest thing in the world. He said, I do not want to live here among these people who don't understand who God is. This is the real highest understanding of God, and I only want to live with such people.
I don't want to live with anybody else because this is what totally you know he said this is this is shocked me because in the in the south, in the in the north they are more they were more into you know rules and regulations.
And this conception before Lord Chaitanya was not so prominent in the north of India, but when he heard this name, you know, he immediately understood this is where I should be, because this is the best place to be with.
Of course, there are different names of God which reveals different conceptions of God. I was told that there is one Zulu, Zulu tribe in Africa, and they have a very special name for God, also very interesting.
They say God is one who has the more cows than ever anyone else. And we agree with this name because this is this is what God is.
But but again the highest conception of God and highest understanding of God which we have to really clearly see and really clearly understand is that you know we need God. We don't need anything else.
We need only Him because He is the highest nectar.
Story of Mudgala Rsi rejecting heaven
There is also a very nice story in this regard in uh
n about the salvation in Mahābhārata. And this is a story about Mudgala Ṛṣi. Uh uh Mudgala Ṛṣi was a praetor, he was living in Kurukṣetra and he was doing Mahā Yajña, Mahā sacrifice.
His sacrifice was that he was eating for two weeks.
And for the next two weeks he was not eating, he was only taking grains from the field which were left to by the farmers, you know, little grains. And whatever he would cook, he would take little rice which he picked up from the fields.
It is called kapata yagya or uh whatever vṛtti and the uh the livelihood of the pigeon you know how the pigeons are taking food. So whatever he would cook, first he would invite a guest. And the guest would eat.
And whatever is left over, then he would feed his family members.
He had a son and wife and then the rest he would eat himself and if it was nothing he didn't eat for two weeks and then for the rest of two weeks he again would eat and then he would not eat again.
So once Durvasamuni heard about this and Durvasa Muni has a very important mission in life. He is checking how sincere everyone is. That's his main kind of you know pleasure in life.
So and Durvas means he's a very eccentric person. Durvas means dur means bad and was means close. Basically means durvas means that he is very poorly dressed. Guess what it means. It means that he's not dressed at all.
Durvas means that he's going around naked. So it's just a very polite way of saying that someone is naked. He's poorly dressed. So Durvāsamuni came to this Mudgalarṣi and he wanted to check how sincere he is.
He wanted really to check is this guy sincere or he's just a fake, he's just a pretender. He's doing all these austerities and he wanted to see if he's okay or not. So that was the time when Mudgalarṣi would invite guests.
So he came and he said, I heard that you're feeding all the guests. So here I am, please feed me. So Mudgalarṣi gave him this rice and said, please eat. And he ate everything.
And at the same time he was using, he was, you know, shouting insulting words left and right, you know, you're a rascal and you're a fool and you're such a dirty man, and he was using this, you know, very nice guest, you know, came to your house. He's naked, you know, and he's insulting you left and right. So and at the same time he's looking, you know, how does he react?
And you know, Mudgalarṣi is very cool and calm. And he ate everything and he said, I want more.
So Mudgalarṣi brought him more and he ate more and he ate everything which was there. Little was left, and not to leave anything, he took all these dirty remnants of his own food and smeared it all over his body, and laughing and looking at Mudgalarṣi said, Mudgalarṣi was cool, he said, thank you very much, you know, he washed his feet and said, you thought, please come tomorrow.
And this Durvāsamuni said, sure enough, I will come, don't worry, so because he was not satisfied, he said, maybe for one day he can tolerate it. Let's see what he will say tomorrow. He came tomorrow. He came tomorrow.
He came the next day. He came six days in a row. And in the meantime, the wife of Mudgalarṣi started crying, she said, you know, I want to eat something.
He said, no, you cannot eat because this Muni Durvāsā he's just putting everything in his body, he's smearing his body with the remnants. There is nothing for you to eat. I'm sorry.
So she was standing there crying, and the son, little son, is crying, but Mudgalarṣi he was totally calm and totally unperturbed for six days. And finally, this Durvāsamuni said, okay, you're real.
And therefore, I'm giving you blessings. Now, in this very body, you can get liberation immediately, right away.
And in front of his eyes, because of the blessings of Durvasa Muni, who is a very powerful sage, the demand from the uh heavenly planets came
and there was a swan uh there and there was a messenger from heaven and the messenger was very happy and he said, Mudgalerisi, come come come, this is a Riman for you. We will take you to heaven. And what do we see?
He looked at this guy and he said, wait a second, let's check it. What is there? Could you please explain? Because I don't want to go somewhere. God knows where. I don't I want to make sure that my destination is good.
So you know could you please explain to me where are you taking me? Where are you going to take me?
So this messenger said, yeah, I'm going to take you to heaven, and the heaven is very nice. And he started describing the heaven.
The heaven is such a nice place, it's open place, and the you know, nicet smells and aromas are permeating the air, and the breezes are so nice, and the sun is always shining, and there is no hunger. And all the people are nice.
All the people are so pious, and that the only pious and nice people are there. And then Mudler said, that's good. Is there something bad? And yeah, and he said he said very important things.
He said that That there is no sweat there and there is no urine there and there is no bad smell.
I suspect that when this messenger from heaven came to the earth' plsane, he immediately felt this bad smell of you know urine as you always feel in India, you know, if you go to a field you you smell this.
So he started advertising the heavens saying that there is no urine there, there is no sweat there, there is no bad smells there. And then he said: your clothes will never become dirty, your clothes is always clean.
No need to go to the you know to the dry cleaners or to whatever there is no need for washing machines and the washing powder everything is puck and and then he said all the all the inhabitants of heaven they have a garland, and these garlands are ever fresh, and they always have this beautiful garlands, and everyone is working.
And then what Galeri said, is there anything bad in the heaven? And then the messenger being truthful and pious person, he said, Yeah, there is one thing which is bad.
You know, all these people who are wearing these nice fresh garlands for a long time, you know, and they're fresh all the time.
At one point the garland becomes you know withered, becomes little dry and more dry. And when the garland becomes dry the inhabitant of heaven knows.' Thats it. My time here is finished. And he becomes very fearful and then very quickly he goes back to this earthly plane and goes again.
And then Mudgala ṛṣi said, sorry, you know, I'm not going there. No way. I'm not going to this place because I may be enjoying for a long time, but when my garland becomes dry, you know, I will come back again. You know.
And then he said, I I'm not going with you. You go back.
Now just imagine that you had this opportunity, you know, that Viman from the heavenly planet came to you and said, Come on, you know, be serious, get on this plane, go there, you know, it's so nice. What do you say no?
Therefore, Vimānas don't come to us. We would say of course, we would jump in and go to heaven. So, uh, this Mudgala ṛṣi said, I'm going only to Vaikuṇṭha, only to Viṣṇu-loka, because if one goes there, there is no end.
In any other place in this material realm, uh, it's duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. As Krishna says, everyone everywhere else there is an end to happiness, even if this happiness is so huge.
And therefore, the point is here is that one has to have a very strong, and that that's actually a taste, sorry, not a taste, but test exam for us.
We have to have a very strong faith and a very strong heart To have this goal which is the highest.
Establishing Krishna as the highest goal
Otherwise, it's very easy to kind of you know exchange for something lower uh and this is what Krishna is uh calling hṛd-daurbalyam. Hṛd-daurbalyam means weakness of the heart.
So we have to have the point is here that we have to be very strongly established in the highest goal. And the highest goal is Krishna. Highest goal is person.
Krishna is person, not the heaven, not anything else, not anything less than him.
And if anyone else comes to us and offers something else, you know, we have to be very adamant. We have to first we have to check is it is it really Krishna or is it not?
And you know I know when I tell this story to Russian devotees when I speak about heavenly planets, I say, you know, or to speak about heavenly planets, if somebody would say here's the free ticket to America, would you go there or not? And of course all Russian devotees they they put the eyes down because they all want to immigrate to America so
and that's actually that's what Śrīla Prabhupāda — Prabhupāda — It's also there is a very interesting story about Prabhupada. Sutta Kirti told this story. Sutta Kirti was at that time servant of Prabhupada and it was in Vrindavan.
And of course we know Vrindavan, we know India. In India people they are you know they are after West sometimes and they want to also to go to America usually.
So Prabhupada was very proud of his disciples and actually he was proud of his capacity or his ability to instill this highest goal very firmly in our hearts. That was his main pride.
So once Sudhakirti remembers this episode, he said that there was a you know, big assembly of Indians in Vrindavan, different Indians, and some of them and some of them quite rich, you know, came to see Prabhupada for darśana.
And so Srutakirti was standing there. Prabhupada was very proudly saying, "This is my, this is my American disciples.
And they will not exchange me for a million of dollars, for one million dollars. You know, if somebody will offer them one million dollars, they will not give up and give me up, and take the one million dollars.
And he looked at Srutakirti, Prabhupada, very proudly.
And you know, he's he's trying to explain this business-minded people, you know, how highly they value bhakti how highly they value his disciples value this relationship with the spiritual master and
And uh and he looked at Srutakirti and said, "Is it true?" Srutakirti. And Srutakirti of course being the befitting servant, "Yes, Prabhupada, yes, yes."
And then when he told the story, you know, there was a big audience of devotees, they started clapping, and then he
said, "Wait a minute, don't clap, because so far nobody offered me one million dollars and if somebody would offer, I'm not so sure.
I can tell you very honestly, you know, only if I would reject one million dollars and say, 'No, I stay with you at your lotus feet.' Only this uh In this case you could clap.
Otherwise, so and that, you know, in in other words we have to be very clear about the position of our own heart. Is it really so that we want Krishna? Or we want something? You know how highly we value Krishna.
What if it's not one million dollars? What if it's ten million dollars? Would we take W What is the What is uh the price in our consciousness uh and uh uh that's actually the amazing
um feature of our school only Gaudiya Vaiṣṇava Sampradaya promotes this goal of pañcama puruṣārtha, premā-pum-artho-mahān, that the highest goal is prema.
If you take four other Vaiṣṇava Sampradayas, if you take Rāmānuja, Madhva, Nimbārka, Vallabhacharya, whatever Viṣṇu Svāmī. So in any other sampraday the goal is moksha.
And moksha basically means at best on the level of Kartavya Buddhi. Moksha means that you are there in the heaven. In the highest heaven, Vaikuṇṭha. But you are still using everything from the Lord not not trying to get him.
En only by this raga, by by the real attachment, genuine attachment, we we can get this uh uh this goal and we can achieve this goal. So I mean I'm still not finished the introduction to my course.
I uh today I wanted to speak about three levels of of Shabdan, but I will not be able to do this, so I will do it to m about four levels of Shabdha, about Vaikari Vak, Madhyama Vak, Pashyanti Vak, and Paravak.
And how this different levels of speech or different levels of sound are invested with different energies of the Lord and how actually this is the process of material creation and how we can reverse this process of creation.
Entanglement in the fifteenth chapter
But I will not speak this, this is a big very important topic about different levels of sound and how Jiva Gaswami explains this in his Sandarbas and the process of liberation through reversing this process of creation.
But for the last few minutes, which is still there, I I will try to explain some other things, some other interesting point from Bhagavad-gītā, from the 15th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
Actually, the 15th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is the most important for this topic. Because the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, how it's called? Who remembers? Purusotana. Yeah, Purusotama Yoga. Yeah.
The yoga of Supreme Person. The Supreme Personality of God is explained there. But what is the beginning of this chapter? How Krishna approaches this topic of Purusotama Yoga or Yoga of Highest Person?
How does he benyan tree yes and not only benyan tree before even after benyan tree he explains the process of transmigration and the benyan tree what is the what metaphor is all about material world, yeah.
Not just material world, but the entanglement in the material world.
So before approaching this topic of Supreme Person, Krishna explains the miserable situation of the living being which is totally, completely, utterly lost in this material world.
Traveling in all these branches of the banyan tree, and even using Vedas. It's interesting.
This this very point is extremely interesting if we analyze this whole 15th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā because this chapter starts, what is the leaves on this Banyan tree? Hymns of Vedas, right.
So basically, uh what Krishna is saying that the hymns of Vedas is the means for your entanglement in material world is the means of your perpetual existence in this material world.
You're traveling or you're crawling through one branch to another branch from one planetary system to another planetary system using uh this leaves of
feders hymns of hymns of feters for to stay here in the material world and then he also says he speaks about transmigration of the soul.
He speaks how this the problem of the transmigration of saṁsāra, how it's perpetuated, how the soul is changing one body into another body by using the subtle body as the vehicle.
But then there is a very interesting section which starts from the verse number 12 to the verse number 15. Extremely interesting and deep. If we try to analyze this.
After explaining this samsara or transmigration, after explaining this entanglement or miserable condition of the living entity and needs for liberation. What he says, who remembers what he says next? Yes, exactly.
I am the light in the sun, in the moon and in the in the fire. What he means by this? We have to be grateful to Krishna. Yes. Yes, but not only this. He says, I am the light in the sun, in the moon, and in the fire.
Then he says, I'm upholding this ghost and I'm nourishing all this all these vegetables and then he says that Sarvasya Chahamhridisani Vishnu Mataksarvam Vhyana Makohanamcha, Vedaishasarva Hameva Vidyo, Vedanta Krit Veda Viteva Chaha.
Three features of absolute truth
Actually, what Krishna explains here, he explains the three features of the absolute truths.
First, he says, I'm the effulgence, I am the source of effulgence. He says I'm the light in the sun and I'm the light in the moon and I'm the light in the fire. And any light which you see is my effulgence.
And ultimately, what is the effulgence of Krishna? What is the nature of effulgence? What is the nature of light? It's consciousness. Ultimately, the darkness is the is the sleep or tamagun or lack of consciousness.
But first he says, by my light, by the light of my consciousness, which is Brahmayoti, all pervading Brahmayoti, I pervade this whole universe.
But you know, if we take the lead of Prabhupāda, how he explains in the purport of the fifteenth verse, which I quoted, this whole situation, first he says Brahmayothi.
I am in the heart of every living being, and what I am doing? I am giving memory and forgetfulness. And then he says Vedaishasarva Aham Eva Vedyo Vedanta Krit Vedavideva Chaham.
So he explains the three features in a very interesting way. If we take the lead of Prabhupada in this purport to the 15th verse, we will see that Prabhupada will
say that Paramatma has the double function within the heart of living entity. What is this double function of Paramatma? Paramatma? Yeah, but what is exactly for what? Forgetfulness for what? Remembrance for what?
He explains very interestingly, very deeply. Prabhupada gives a very profound purport to this verse. He says that Paramatma within the heart can liberate, and Paramatma within the heart can do what?
Can entangle you, can perpetuate your heart, uh uh your karma, depending on your desire. You know, Paramatma can give you forgetfulness for what? To stay in this world and to enjoy in this world.
Paramatma can give you memory again to stay in this world. And again, Paramatma can give you memory for what? For liberation. The same way brahma-jyoti can liberate and can entangle. Brahma-jyoti in the material function.
When Krishna says, I am the light of the sun and the moon, what the light of the sun gives to us? Enjoyment.
You know we enjoy when the sun comes up, we become really enthusiastic to enjoy and then when the moon rises we become even more enthusiastic to enjoy.
So this this feature this feature of consciousness is is can be entangling. In this material world, if we use it separately from Krishna, brahma-jyoti, it can be the cause of our entanglement in this world.
It can uh uh actually put us in bondage in this material world and giving us enjoyment and of course the fire of digestion, what is it for? It's again to give us the strength to enjoy more.
And Krishna says, yes, I'm here in these features to make you
stay here, but I also can give because ultimately that's me, this is, if you understand that that's me that this consciousness this light is coming from me. You will be able to understand, you will be able to be enlightened, and you will be able to understand the liberation.
And then he said to achieve the liberation or some kind of elevated state of enlightenment,
then he says Sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto. Again, as Paramatma I can liberate you and as paramatma I can achieve or make sure that you harvest the fruits of your karma. And you will be harvesting the fruits of your karma with the help of Paramātmā.
That's the specific the specific function of Paramātmā. But then he says how his personal feature manifest? Bhagavad, how you can achieve uh uh uh or or uh discover his personal feature? What he says? Yeah. Yeah.
What he what does he say? Yeah, yes. He says that the Daisha Sarvaira Ham Eva Vedyo, the Dantakrit Vada Vitachaham.
The point which Krishna makes here is very essential that by your own endeavors or by other so-called religious practice you can achieve Paramātmā state or enlightened state sorry uh brahmajyoti state or Paramātmā state even you can understand God as the as the controller and you can understand God as the all-pervading light or all pervading consciousness.
But how you can understand God as a person? Yeah, Vedaishasarva Raham Evidyo, the Dantakrit Veda Videvacha Ham.
Dual function of sacred sound
And again, Vedas play double role. What is the double role? Yeah, Vedas they can entangle you. Vedas can perpetuate your material stain because they are designed in a special way.
But at the same time, if you employ Vedas properly, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, you can understand me as the person. And this is actually the double function of the Vedic sound. The Vedic sound can entangle you.
The Vedic sound can be the cause of your entanglement.
And the Vedic sound can be the cause of your liberation by giving you the highest knowledge of the Supreme Person, bringing you closer face to face to the Supreme Person, giving you the interview of the Supreme Person.
So that's and afterwards, from this point, Krishna explains how it happens, how actually Vedas, because this is the real topic of the fifteenth chapter, the Vedas and how the Vedas gives us the possibility for the personal meeting with the Supreme Person uh to have this Purushotama Yoga.
So and this is here now finally we came to this point, an avriti Shabdha, how the Shabda and only Shabda can give you Krishna as the person, how only spiritual sound can bring you close face to face to the Supreme Person who is Krishna himself and this will be the topic of tomorrow's class about different kinds of speech and the different mechanisms and the different energies in different kinds of speech.
Thank you very much.