Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.2.38

avidyamāno 'py avabhāti hi dvayo

dhyātur dhiyā svapna-manorathau yathā

tat karma-sańkalpa-vikalpakaḿ mano

budho nirundhyād abhayaḿ tataḥ syāt

SYNONYMS

avidyamānaḥ — not present in reality; api — although; avabhāti — is manifest; hi — indeed; dvayaḥ — duality; dhyātuḥ — of the person experiencing; dhiyā — by the intelligence; svapna — a dream; manaḥ-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; manaḥ — the mind; budhaḥ — an intelligent person; nirundhyāt — should bring under control; abhayam — fearlessness; tataḥ — 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 Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa, 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 avyabhicāriṇī 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:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaḿ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaḿ bhaktir uttamā

[Madhya 19.167]

[Bhakti-rasāmṛta-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 Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā, mām ekaḿ śaraṇaḿ vraja. One must see only Kṛṣṇa everywhere and must act exclusively for the satisfaction of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the eternal master of every living entity.

Śrīla Madhvācārya has quoted several verses from the Hari-vaḿśa 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, śravaṇa-kīrtanādi-lakṣaṇa-mātratvaḿ 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:

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

[Adi 17.21]

(Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa)

According to Vedic literatures the living entities of this Kali-yuga are very feeble in their power to understand spiritual knowledge (mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ [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 niḥsattvān (impatient and impious). durmedhān (possessed of weak intelligence) and hrasitāyuṣaḥ (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 Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, 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-caritāmṛta. It should be understood that the living entity is completely spiritual and never actually becomes mixed with material energy (asańgo hy ayaḿ puruṣaḥ). 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 Ṭhākura has used the word mānasa-pratyakṣa to describe the experience of material life. Mānasa-pratyakṣa means "that which is experienced only within the mind." The actual pratyakṣa is described in Bhagavad-gītā (9.2):

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaḿ

pavitram idam uttamam

pratyakṣāvagamaḿ dharmyaḿ

susukhaḿ kartum avyayam

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 (pratyakṣāvagamam). 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 Ṭhākura has quoted the following śruti-mantra in this connection: vijita-hṛṣīka-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 Ṭhākura the meaning of this verse is samavahāya guroś caraṇam: 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 Ṭhākura 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 Kṛṣṇa. In transcendental Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa, 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, Kṛṣṇa, but have fallen from Kṛṣṇa'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 Kṛṣṇa."

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
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