Bhagavad-gītā 7.5

[loud Indian music in background throughout]

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat [Bg 7.5]

[leads chanting of synonyms] [break]

[03:04]

Translation: "Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe."

Prabhupāda:

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat [Bg 7.5]

So last night we discussed about the material energy and came to the conclusion that life is not made out of matter. Matter is product of living force or living entity. [music grows louder] Hmm. Today it will be little disturbing. Anyway, we shall explain. [aside:] No. That's all right. Let them go with their festival. No need.

Aparā and parā. Aparā means inferior, or material, and parā means superior, or spiritual. The spiritual force behind is moving the material world. Yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat. Jagat means gacchati iti jagat, which is moving or going forward. Everything is moving. All these planets are moving. Your earthly planet is also moving—within twenty-four hours covering 25,000 miles, day and night. The whole material planet, earthly planets, you have 25,000 miles, and this is rotating. Similarly, every planet is rotating. The sun is also rotating. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ [Bs 5.52].

[The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.]

The sun is also having a duration of life, and it will rotate, then it will be finished. Everything in the material world, it has got a date of birth, it lives for some time, it grows or changes the body and produces some by-products, then dwindles and then vanishes. This is called ṣaḍ-vikāra, six kind of changes of anything material. That is called jagat. Gacchati. But there is a moving force. Just like the motorcar is going, gacchati. But the motorcar is not moving without any driver. There is a machine, very first class machine, Rolls-Royce car, Cadillac car, good machine, but the machine is useless unless there is a driver. The aeroplane is moving, but without the pilot it cannot move. Therefore material elements, however, I mean to say, wonderful it may be, it has no value without the spirit soul. That is the explanation here. Apareyam.

Kṛṣṅa has explained the material elements: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca [Bg 7.4].

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

But these material elements cannot work independently. It must be added with the superior energy, or the living energy, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat. This Bombay city is important because there are so many living entities. Otherwise, where there are no living entities... Even in Bombay, there are some open land. What is the value? There is no value. Therefore the conclusion should be that material elements may be wonderful, but it has no value without the touch of living entities. Modern scientists, they cannot understand that there is living, spiritual energy behind this material energy; therefore it is moving. They are... Just like a child cannot understand that the motorcar or the aeroplane is moving because there is driver and the pilot. Foolish children may think, "Oh, how the motorcar is going on?" The motorcar is not going on independently. That the child does not know. Therefore, those who have no information of the spiritual energy behind the material energy, they are children, foolish children. Mūḍha. They have been described as mūḍha.

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ [Bg 7.15]

[Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.]

Therefore foolish persons who cannot understand that behind this gigantic material energy there is the spiritual energy, supreme spiritual energy, Kṛṣṅa... They have no inform... Therefore in the previous verse we have discussed,

manuṣyāṅāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg 7.3]

[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]

Ordinary persons, they cannot understand that behind this gigantic, wonderful material energy there is the supreme energy, spiritual energy, Kṛṣṅa. They cannot understand, just like the child cannot understand that the motorcar is not moving independently, but there is a driver. These foolish, materialistic persons, they cannot understand. Mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam [Bg 7.13].

[Deluded by the three modes [goodness, passion and ignorance], the whole world does not know Me who am above the modes and inexhaustible.]

They cannot understand. Tribhir guṅamayair bhāvaiḥ. They are bewildered by the three modes of material nature, finding out. Big, big scientists, big, big philosopher, big, big worker, they are simply studying the material energy, but they have no information of the spiritual energy.

Here, from the Bhagavad-gītā, you can understand that this material energy is inferior, apareyam. Apareyam. You cannot produce living force by combination of material energy. That is not possible. But they are... Because these foolish persons, they are missing the spiritual energy, they are thinking, "By chemical reaction or by combination of matter, some living force is coming out." Just like if you mix acid and alkaline, there is some reaction and there is some movement. They are thinking like that. No. It is not that. The material energy is being pushed forward by the spiritual energy. Jīva-bhūtā mahā-bāho. Jīva, living force. Jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho. And because the spiritual force is there, the material world is working. This is the conclusion. Not that the material force is working independently. Apareyam itas tu anyām. Anya means it is different. It is not material energy. Anyām, completely. Prakṛti. But it is prakṛti, not puruṣa. Puruṣa means the worker. Puruṣa is Kṛṣṅa. Puruṣa is Kṛṣṅa. As it will be admitted by Arjuna after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, puruṣaṁ śāśvatam. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣam [Bg 10.12].

[Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.]

"You are puruṣa." Puruṣa means enjoyer, and prakṛti means enjoyed. So here jīva, the living entities, they have been described as prakṛti, not as puruṣa. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they think that living entity is puruṣa, the Supreme, but that is..., that is not the fact. They are prakṛti. Prakṛti means subordinate. Energy acts under the direction of the puruṣa. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ [Bg 3.27].

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

Just like a machine is made by a person, and the machine is working. That machine is working, that is prakṛti, but who has made the machine or pushing on the machine, that is puruṣa.

So prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ. When you set up the machine... Just like electricity: you set up, machine will work. But the setter, or who first sets the machine, pushes on the machine, that is a puruṣa. Similarly, the whole material world is working very nicely, wonderfully, but behind that machine, behind that working, there is Kṛṣṅa. Mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram [Bg 9.10].

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

Just like electric powerhouse. You see the machine is going on—kat-kat-kat-kat-kat-kat, it is going on—but there is a supervising engineer. He's looking that whether the machine is rightly going on, if there is any defect. If there is oil required, he's putting some oil or something else. So the supervisor is the engineer.

Similarly the whole machine of this material world... Or this material... You do not try to study the whole material world, but you study your own machine, this body. This body is also machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg 18.61]

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

This is a yantra, this body. Just like somebody seats you... Just like a child is seated on the car, and the car is moving. There are many example. Similarly, this body is given by material energy. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. This body is given by māyā, but within the body... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

Dehī, within the body, the living spirit, or living soul, is sitting there. And because we are under the control of māyā, we wanted it, such a..., such a body, so Kṛṣṅa has given. Anumantā. He has given order to māyā, that "This living entity wants to enjoy this material world under certain body. So you give him this body." Just like a pig: he wanted to eat everything and anything, without any discrimination. So, by the order of the Supreme, anumantā, upadraṣṭā, He orders to the māyā that "You give him a body, a vehicle, a machine of pig body, so that he can very nicely eat stool."

So this is karma, karma-vāda, that I want to possess a certain type of machine, or body, and Kṛṣṅa, Īśvara, is within everyone's heart. He understands, "He's persistent to get this machine. All right, you get this machine." This is called janmada[?]... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.133]. In this way, we are desiring something in this life, and the next life is being prepared. And that next life or this life, it is just like machine. It is made by the material nature under the order...

mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

This is the fact.

So Kṛṣṅa is the original puruṣa. Prakṛti, the material energy is also prakṛti, subordinate to Kṛṣṅa, and the spiritual energy, the living entity, they are also prakṛti, but they are superior prakṛti. Inferior, not... Inferior matter. Just like we are handling matter, we are getting matter. We are getting cement, we are getting bricks, we are getting iron and combining them, and making a very, very high skyscraper building. So the material energy is also Kṛṣṅa's, and the spiritual energy, the living entity, that is also Kṛṣṅa's energy. So..., but they are working for satisfying their senses. Therefore superior, jīva-bhūtāṁ yayedaṁ dhāryate... They are handling the material energy. The same living entity, when he understands his constitutional position, that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa," mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7], then he'll work for Kṛṣṅa. Then the same energy spent for building skyscraper building will be utilized to build a nice temple for Kṛṣṅa.

This is proper utilization of energy. When the energy of Kṛṣṅa, the spiritual energy of Kṛṣṅa or the living entity, works for Kṛṣṅa, that is healthy condition. Just like part and parcel of my body, this finger: when this finger works for me... I want the finger: "Come here. Work some here." But if the finger is not in healthy condition—it is painful, it cannot work—that is not normal condition. The normal condition is the finger is to work for my body. Similarly, we, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, when we are engaged in Kṛṣṅa's service, that is our normal condition, our healthy life. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says that "These foolish creatures, mūḍhāḥ, who are thinking that 'We shall work for sense gratification,' they are mūḍhas." Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ [Bg 7.15].

[Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.]

The animals cannot understand this constitutional position of the living entity. Because this material world means all the living entities, they have come here for satisfying their senses. And in different grades of life they are satisfying their senses. Either as Brahmā or the worm in the stool, they are satisfying their senses, different senses. That is material life. And when one understands that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. My duty is to serve Kṛṣṅa," that is normal life. That is actually spiritual life. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.234].

[No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṅa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.]

When we forget to serve Kṛṣṅa, that is material life. And when we serve Kṛṣṅa with love and affection, understanding that we are very intimately related, part and parcel, that is spiritual life.

This is the difference between material life and spiritual life. When one works for his own sense gratification, that is material life. And when works for Kṛṣṅa's satisfaction, that is spiritual life. That is spiritual life. It is very easy to understand. We are working; we are servant of somebody. All these people who have gathered here, nobody can claim that "I am not servant." Everyone is servant—servant of the society, servant of the family, servant of the country, servant of dog, servant of cat. Everyone is servant. That is misplacement. But actually he is servant of Kṛṣṅa. When he forgets that he is servant of Kṛṣṅa, he becomes servant of so many māyā. But when he understands that "I am servant of Kṛṣṅa and, becoming servant of Kṛṣṅa, I can become servant of others also," that is called Kṛṣṅa consciousness. This is the movement of Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Everyone is a servant, but he is serving wrongly. His service is misplaced. We are simply educating people that "Your service being misplaced, therefore you are not satisfied, neither your master is satisfied. Nobody's satisfied." For example... I have repeated this example many times. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the great servant of India. He served India so nicely; still, the master was not satisfied, and the master killed him. He wanted to serve his country, but the result was that his countrymen killed him.

So this service is frustration. If you go on serving the material world, you'll be frustrated, in this way or that way. But if you serve Kṛṣṅa, the same service applied to Kṛṣṅa, your life will be successful. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, that ser... You cannot avoid service, but service other than Kṛṣṅa will be frustration. But you serve Kṛṣṅa, you'll be satisfied, the Supreme Lord will be satisfied, and your life will be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupada. [end]