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Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.2.38
avidyamāno 'py avabhāti hi dvayo
dhyātur dhiyā svapna-manorathau yathā
tat karma-sańkalpa-vikalpakam mano
budho nirundhyād abhayam tatah syāt
SYNONYMS
avidyamānah — not present in reality; api — although; avabhāti — is manifest; hi — indeed; dvayah — duality; dhyātuh — of the person experiencing; dhiyā — by the intelligence; svapna — a dream; manah-rathau — or the conceiving of a desire; yathā — as; tat — therefore; karma — of material activities; sańkalpa-vikalpakam — having the functions of forming positive and negative desires; manah — the mind; budhah — an intelligent person; nirundhyāt — should bring under control; abhayam — fearlessness; tatah — in this way; syāt — there may be.
TRANSLATION
Although the duality of the material world does not ultimately exist, the conditioned soul experiences it as real under the influence of his own conditioned intelligence. This imaginary experience of a world separate from Krishna can be compared to the acts of dreaming and desiring. When the conditioned soul dreams at night of something desirable or horrible, or when he daydreams of what he would like to have or avoid, he creates a reality that has no existence beyond his own imagination. The tendency of the mind is to accept and reject various activities based on sense gratification. Therefore an intelligent person should control the mind, restricting it from the illusion of seeing things separate from Krishna, and when the mind is thus controlled he will experience actual fearlessness.
PURPORT
Although the conditioned mind is bewildered by the objects of sense gratification offered by māyā, illusion, if one takes to the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord such material sense gratification gradually dissipates, for it is merely a mental concoction of the conditioned soul. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has emphasized by the words avyabhicārinī bhakti that one cannot dissipate the illusion of material sense gratification unless one takes to the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord. As Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has stated:
anyābhilāshitā-śūnyam
ānukūlyena krishnānu-
[Madhya 19.167]
[Bhakti-rasāmrita-sindhu 1.1.11]
Unalloyed devotional service cannot be mixed with material sense gratification or mental speculation. The servant must act only for the satisfaction of the master. Similarly, Lord Krishna states in Bhagavad-gītā, mām ekam śaranam vraja. One must see only Krishna everywhere and must act exclusively for the satisfaction of Lord Krishna, the eternal master of every living entity.
Śrīla Madhvācārya has quoted several verses from the Hari-vamśa illustrating that the living entity bewildered by identifying with his material body, home, family, friends and so on and thus entangled in the cycle of birth and death accepts phantasmagoria as reality. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, śravana-kīrtanādi-lakshana-mātratvam yato na vyāhanyeta: if one seriously desires to vanquish the duality of material illusion, one must adopt the process of chanting and hearing the glories of the Supreme Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also cited the following Vedic reference:
[Adi 17.21]
(Brihan-nāradīya Purāna)
According to Vedic literatures the living entities of this Kali-yuga are very feeble in their power to understand spiritual knowledge (mandāh sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāh [SB 1.1.10]). Their minds are always disturbed. and they are lazy and misguided by so many bogus leaders. They are further described in the Bhāgavatam as nihsattvān (impatient and impious). durmedhān (possessed of weak intelligence) and hrasitāyushah (very short lived). Therefore one who seriously wants to overcome the ignorance of material life must surrender to the process of chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare — as well as reciting and rendering submissive aural reception to the transcendental literatures presented by the Lord, such as Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmrita. It should be understood that the living entity is completely spiritual and never actually becomes mixed with material energy (asańgo hy ayam purushah). According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, tasmin śuddhe 'pi kalpyate: although the living entity is śuddha, pure spirit soul, he imagines that he is a material creation and thus entangles himself in the network of illusion called dehāpatya-kalatrādi.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura has used the word mānasa-pratyaksha to describe the experience of material life. Mānasa-pratyaksha means "that which is experienced only within the mind." The actual pratyaksha is described in Bhagavad-gītā (9.2):
pratyakshāvagamam dharmyam
When one submissively hears the instructions given by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā, which constitute the king of all knowledge (rāja-vidyā) and the most confidential of all information (rāja-guhyam), by associating with such spotless spiritual knowledge (pavitram idam uttamam) one can directly experience one's eternal nature (pratyakshāvagamam). By experiencing one's eternal nature, one becomes thoroughly religious (dharmyam), blissful (susukham) and eternally engaged in the devotional service of the Lord (kartum avyayam).
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura has quoted the following śruti-mantra in this connection: vijita-hrishīka-vāyubhir adānta-manas turagam. "By the very senses and life air one has conquered, the uncurbed mind will again drag one away." According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura the meaning of this verse is samavahāya guroś caranam: if one rejects the lotus feet of one's spiritual master, all of one's previous spiritual advancement becomes null and void. This has already been indicated in the previous verse by the words guru-devatātmā. Unless one accepts a bona fide spiritual master in the authorized paramparā as one's worshipable deity and life and soul, there is no question of overcoming the duality of material life.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thākura has made the following comments on this verse. "Control of the mind is a result of living a life of devotional service to the Lord. By the influence of fixed devotional service, the accepting and rejecting mind can stop its thirst for sensory enjoyment apart from Krishna. In transcendental Krishna consciousness there is no contradiction, pettiness or lack of ecstasy. In other words, it is not like a material object, which always proves temporary and constantly miserable. Having forgotten Krishna, the conditioned living entity is suffering the misdirection and perversion of his own so-called intelligence. The living entities are fragmental parts of the supreme shelter, Krishna, but have fallen from Krishna's kingdom of spiritual pastimes. Because of forgetting the Supreme Lord, they become prone to sinful life and turn their attention to dangerous material objects, which fill them with constant fear. If one desires to subdue the mind, which is constantly engaged in the duality of mental concoction, one must take to the devotional service of Lord Krishna."
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari