Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.22.14

bhavatsu kuśala-praśna

ātmārāmeshu neshyate

kuśalākuśalā yatra

na santi mati-vrittayah

SYNONYMS

bhavatsu — unto you; kuśala — good fortune; praśnah — question; ātma-ārāmeshu — one who is always engaged in spiritual bliss; na ishyate — there is no need of; kuśala — good fortune; akuśalāh — inauspiciousness; yatra — where; na — never; santi — exists; mati-vrittayah — mental concoction.

TRANSLATION

Prithu Mahārāja continued: My dear sirs, there is no need to ask about your good and bad fortune because you are always absorbed in spiritual bliss. The mental concoction of the auspicious and inauspicious does not exist in you.

PURPORT

In the Caitanya-caritāmrita (Antya 4.176) it is said:

'dvaite' bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba — 'manodharma'

'ei bhāla, ei manda,' — ei saba 'bhrama'

In this material world the auspicious and inauspicious are simply mental concoctions because such things exist only due to association with the material world. This is called illusion, or ātma-māyā. We think ourselves created by material nature exactly as we think ourselves experiencing so many things in a dream. The spirit soul, however, is always transcendental. There is no question of becoming materially covered. This covering is simply something like a hallucination or a dream. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.62) it is also said, sańgāt sañjāyate kāmah. Simply by association we create artificial material necessities. Dhyāyato vishayān pumsah sańgas teshūpajāyate. When we forget our real constitutional position and wish to enjoy the material resources, our material desires manifest, and we associate with varieties of material enjoyment. As soon as the concoctions of material enjoyment are there, because of our association we create a sort of lust or eagerness to enjoy them, and when that false enjoyment does not actually make us happy, we create another illusion, known as anger, and by the manifestation of anger, the illusion becomes stronger. When we are illusioned in this way, forgetfulness of our relationship with Krishna follows, and by thus losing Krishna consciousness, our real intelligence is defeated. In this way we become entangled in this material world. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.63) it is said:

krodhād bhavati sammohah

sammohāt smriti-vibhramah

smriti-bhramśād buddhi-nāśo

buddhi-nāśāt pranaśyati

By material association we lose our spiritual consciousness; consequently there is the question of the auspicious and inauspicious. But those who are ātmārāma, or self-realized, have transcended such questions. The ātmārāmas, or self-realized persons, gradually making further progress in spiritual bliss, come to the platform of association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the perfection of life. In the beginning, the Kumāras were self-realized impersonalists, but gradually they became attracted to the personal pastimes of the Supreme Lord. The conclusion is that for those who are always engaged in the devotional service of the Personality of Godhead, the duality of the auspicious and inauspicious does not arise. Prithu Mahārāja is therefore asking about auspiciousness not for the sake of the Kumāras but for his own sake.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness