Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11 Chapter 7 Verse 14

SYNONYMS

sri-uddhavah uvaca -- Sri Uddhava said; yoga-isa -- O giver of all results of yoga; yoga-vinyasa -- O You who by Your own power bestow yoga even upon those who are unqualified; yoga-atman -- O Supreme Soul realized through yoga; yoga-sambhava -- O origin of all mystic power; nihsreyasaya -- for the ultimate benefit; me -- of me; proktah -- You have spoken about; tyagah -- renunciation; sannyasa -- by the acceptance of the order of sannyasa; lakshanah -- characterized.

TRANSLATION

Sri Uddhava said: My dear Lord, You alone award the results of yoga practice, and You are so kind that by Your own influence You distribute the perfection of yoga to Your devotee. Thus You are the Supreme Soul who is realized through yoga, and it is You who are the origin of all mystic power. For my supreme benefit You have explained the procedure for giving up the material world through the process of sannyasa, or renunciation.

PURPORT

The word yogesa here indicates that the Supreme Personality of Godhead awards the results of all yoga practices. Since all of the material and spiritual worlds emanate from the transcendental body of Krishna, there is nothing to be achieved by any yoga process except Krishna and His potencies. And since the Lord remains eternally the master of His potencies, no one can achieve anything through yoga, or any other spiritual or material process, except by the sanction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word yoga means "linking up," and unless we link ourselves with the Absolute Truth, we remain covered by the darkness of ignorance. Thus, Krishna is the goal of yoga.

In the material world we falsely try to link ourselves with the objects of the senses. Man wants to link with woman and woman with man, or one tries to link up with nationalism, socialism, capitalism or innumerable other creations of the illusory energy of the Lord. Since we are linking ourselves to temporary objects the relationships are temporary, the results are temporary, and at the time of death we become bewildered when all of our connections are suddenly cut off by maya. If we link ourselves to Krishna, however, our relationship with Him will continue even after death. As explained in Bhagavad-gita, the relationship with Krishna that we develop in this life will continue to increase in our next life until we achieve the supreme goal of entering Krishna's planet. Those who sincerely serve the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, following the transcendental life-style prescribed by the Lord, will enter the Lord's abode at the end of this lifetime.

One can never achieve a permanent situation by mental speculation, and what to speak of by ordinary material sense gratification. By the methods of hatha-yoga, karma-yoga, raja-yoga, jnana-yoga, etc., one does not actually awaken his propensity for rendering eternal loving service to the Personality of Godhead. Thus, one is bereft of the transcendental tastes of spiritual enjoyment. Sometimes the conditioned soul, disgusted by his failure to gratify his senses, bitterly decides to renounce the material world and merge into an impersonal, painless transcendence. But our actual happy situation is to render loving service at the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead. All of the different yoga processes gradually lead one to love of Godhead, and it is Lord Krishna's aim to reestablish the conditioned souls in this happy position. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is making this perfection easily available through the chanting of the holy name of Krishna, the supreme yoga process for this age.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari