Copyright © r The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
| Canto 5: The Creative Impetus | Chapter 10: The Discussion Between Jada Bharata and Mahārāja Rahūgana |
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.10.10
sthaulyam kārśyam vyādhaya ādhayaś ca
kshut trid bhayam kalir icchā jarā ca
nidrā ratir manyur aham madah śuco
SYNONYMS
sthaulyam — being very stout and strong; kārśyam — being skinny and weak; vyādhayah — the pains of the body, such as disease; ādhayah — the pains of the mind; ca — and; kshut trit bhayam — hunger, thirst and fear; kalih — quarrels between two persons; icchā — desires; jarā — old age; ca — and; nidrā — sleep; ratih — attachment for sense gratification; manyuh — anger; aham — false identification (in the bodily concept of life); madah — illusion; śucah — lamentation; dehena — with this body; jātasya — of one who has taken birth; hi — certainly; me — of me; na — not; santi — exist.
TRANSLATION
Fatness, thinness, bodily and mental distress, thirst, hunger, fear, disagreement, desires for material happiness, old age, sleep, attachment for material possessions, anger, lamentation, illusion and identification of the body with the self are all transformations of the material covering of the spirit soul. A person absorbed in the material bodily conception is affected by these things, but I am free from all bodily conceptions. Consequently I am neither fat nor skinny nor anything else you have mentioned.
PURPORT
Śrīla Narottama dāsa Thākura has sung: deha-smriti nāhi yāra, samsāra-bandhana kāhāń tāra. One who is spiritually advanced has no connection with the body or with the bodily actions and reactions. When one comes to understand that he is not the body and therefore is neither fat nor skinny, one attains the topmost form of spiritual realization. When one is not spiritually realized, the bodily conception entangles one in the material world. At the present moment all human society is laboring under the bodily conception; therefore in the śāstras people in this age are referred to as dvipada-paśu, two-legged animals. No one can be happy in a civilization conducted by such animals. Our Krishna consciousness movement is trying to raise fallen human society to the status of spiritual understanding. It is not possible for everyone to become immediately self-realized like Jada Bharata. However, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.18): nashta-prāyeshv abhadreshu nityam bhāgavata-sevayā. By spreading the Bhāgavata principles, we can raise human society to the platform of perfection. When one is not affected by the bodily conceptions, one can advance to the Lord's devotional service.
nashta-prāyeshv abhadreshu
bhagavaty uttamaśloke
bhaktir bhavati naishthikī
The more we advance our freedom from the bodily conception, the more we are fixed in devotional service, and the more we are happy and peaceful. In this regard, Śrīla Madhvācārya says that those who are too materially affected continue the bodily conception. Such persons are concerned with different bodily symptoms, whereas one freed from bodily conceptions lives without the body even in the material condition.
Copyright © r The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness