Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.13

[loud noise of fireworks in background]

Prabhupāda: [Hindi]

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat]

Prabhupāda: [Hindi]

Nitāi: [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

śrī-bhagavān uvāca yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me atyantoparatir yatra duḥkhasya ca sukhasya ca [SB 3.25.13]

[break] [01:14]

"The Personality of Godhead answered: The yoga system which relates to the Lord and the individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate benefit of the living entity, and which causes detachment from all happiness and distress in the material world, is the highest yoga system."

Prabhupāda:

yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me atyantoparatir yatra duḥkhasya ca sukhasya ca [SB 3.25.13]

Everyone in this material world trying to mitigate or trying to become free from the distress. Duḥkhasya. Ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti. Ātyantika means supreme. The struggle for existence in this material world is everyone is trying to get some happiness and minimize the quantity of distress. This is called struggle for existence. Generally, yoga practice is executed for getting some material profit: aṅimā, laghimā, prāpti, īśitā, vaśitā, mahimā. Aṅimā... The yogīs, they have aṣṭa-siddhi-yoga, eight kinds of perfection. One can become smaller than the smallest or lighter than the lightest, bigger than the biggest; whatever he likes, he can get immediately; vaśita, he can control over; he can create a planet even. These are some of the yoga-siddhis. But here it is said that the supreme yoga system is not to aspire for material happiness, neither to become distressed by the material inconveniences. This is perfection of yoga.

Everyone is trying to get out of the material distress and get some happiness, but anything material—happiness, so-called happiness, or so-called distress... Just like here, the firework is going on. It is happiness for somebody, but it is distress for us. Is it not? They are thinking they are enjoying, and we are thinking it is inconvenience. So that is material way: happiness..., one side happiness, another side distress. So both the happiness and distress, they are illusion. Illusion. There are many examples. Just like water: in summer season it is happiness, and in winter season it is distress. But the same water. Same water, at one time it is happiness, and the same water, at one time it is distress. The same son, when he is born, it is happiness, and the same son, when he's dead, it is distress. But son is the same.

So this material world is duality. You cannot understand happiness without distress, and you cannot understand distress without happiness. Therefore it is called relative world. You cannot understand son without understanding a father, and you cannot understand a father without understanding the son. And spiritual happiness is above this duality. Spiritual happiness. So that is the perfection of yoga. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Ādhyātmā. Ātmika, ātmā, the soul, the happiness of the soul, that is real yoga. The happiness of the soul can be possible when the soul, individual soul, is with the Supersoul, or the Supreme Soul. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13].

[The Supreme Lord is eternal and the living beings are eternal. The Supreme Lord is cognizant and the living beings are cognizant. The difference is that the Supreme Lord is supplying all the necessities of life for the many other living entities.]

There is the Supreme Soul, or Supreme Being, amongst... There are many living beings. We are many. We living beings, or living entities, we are many. But the principal living being is Kṛṣṅa. The fire and the sparks: the sparks are illuminated when it is with the original fire. If the sparks fall down from the association of the original fire, it is extinguished—no more light. Similarly, our real happiness is when we enjoy with the Supreme Being. Supreme Being.

Just like Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa is not alone. Kṛṣṅa is always with His friends—either gopīs or the cowherd boys, or with His father, with His mother. You'll never find Kṛṣṅa alone. Just like here is Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa is not alone. Kṛṣṅa is with His Rādhārāṅī and with His devotees. Just like a king. When we say that "The king is coming here" or "The president is coming here," so it means that president is not coming alone, but he's coming with his secretaries, with his ministers, with so many others. In England, the Queen has bodyguards. So similarly, when we... Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Yoga means connection, and ātmā, ātmā means this soul, actually, but sometimes ātmā means the mind, ātmā means the body also. The body has nothing to do with the Supreme Being, because Supreme Being is complete spirit. He has no material covering. One who thinks that Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Being, has got a material covering, covered by māyā, as we are covered by māyā, this material energy... Kṛṣṅa is not like that. Kṛṣṅa says, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā [Bg 4.6].

[Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.]

Kṛṣṅa does not say that "I come here as ordinary living being." Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ [Bg 4.9].

[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]

One has to learn how Kṛṣṅa takes birth. It is not ordinary birth. Had it been ordinary birth, then why we should observe the Janmāṣṭamī ceremony? It is divyam, divine, transcendental. Everything of Kṛṣṅa is divine. And if we think Kṛṣṅa as like us, then according to the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā, immediately we become a mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam [Bg 9.11].

[Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.]

So actually Kṛṣṅa is the original Supreme Being, original spirit soul. We are simply minute part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. Exactly the same example: just like the fire and the small sparks. You can see. This fireworks is going on. The fire is there, and there are small spark. So long the fire and the small sparks are together, they are illumination. Similarly, if we connect with Kṛṣṅa, then we are illuminated. As Kṛṣṅa is illuminated, we are also illuminated, although we are small. But if we fall down from Kṛṣṅa, the original fire, we become extinguished. Our spiritual power, our spiritual illumination, becomes extinguished. Therefore yoga system means again connecting the link. That is called yoga. Yoga, the Sanskrit word, means connect, and viyoga means disconnect.

So here it is... Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is Bhagavān, Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhagavān has no mistake. Bhagavān... Nārāyaṅaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt. Even Śaṅkarācārya says that Bhagavān, Nārāyaṅa, He does not belong to this material world. Nārāyaṅaḥ avyaktāt paraḥ. So when we speak of Bhagavān, or the śāstra says Bhagavān, Bhagavān means above material understanding. Divyam, above material understanding; paraḥ, above material understanding. So here it is said, bhagavān uvāca. Even he does not say, Vyāsadeva, that kapiladeva uvāca. No. Similarly, in the Bhagavad-gītā also, Vyāsadeva says... Kṛṣṅa says actually. But Vyāsadeva says, bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means above the defects of this material world. That is Bhagavān. Bhagavān is not subjected to the deficiencies of this material world. There are four deficiencies in the material world. Just like we are concerned, in the material world, we are not perfect because we commit mistake, bhrama. We are illusioned. Bhrama, pramāda. And vipralipsa, we try to cheat others. I have no knowledge; still, I become teacher or preacher. That is cheating. We have no perfect knowledge. Therefore our principle is to teach what Bhagavān says. We don't manufacture teaching. This is not our business. As they manufacture... They say, the ordinary, I mean to say, so-called scholars and learned men, they give their opinion... Especially in the Western world, there are so many philosophical speculation, each one giving his own mental gymnastic. That philosophy is not perfect. We have to take ideas from Bhagavān. That is perfect.

Therefore here it is said, bhagavān uvāca. If we take instruction from Bhaga... Why we are reading Bhagavad-gītā? That is very common practice. Because it is perfect. There is no mistake, there is no illusion, there is no cheating, there is no imperfection of the senses. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, vedāhaṁ samatītāni [Bg 7.26]: "I know everything—past, present and future." Māṁ ca veda na kaścana: "But nobody understands Me." That is our position. God knows everything. Kṛṣṅa knows everything. But we do not know what is God. That is our position. We do not know. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati [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.]

Īśvara, God, Kṛṣṅa, is situated in everyone's heart. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ [Bg 15.15]:

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

"I am entered in everyone's heart." Everyone's heart—not only the human being, but also animals or anything. Aṅḍāntara-stha-paramāṅu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. He is within the atom. Therefore because He is within me, within you and within everything, He knows everything. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, vedāhaṁ samatītāni [Bg 7.26]. He knows everything. So because He knows everything, therefore we have to take lesson from Bhagavān. What Bhagavān says, if we take, that is perfect knowledge.

There is a paramparā system, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, Fourth Chapter: evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg 4.2].

[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.]

So our business, Kṛṣṅa conscious people, our business is very easy, because we don't manufacture ideas. We take the idea and the words delivered by the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṅa, or His incarnation or His representative. His representative does not say anything which the master does not say. Representative is very easy. You can become representative of Kṛṣṅa if you do not interpret Kṛṣṅa's words in your whimsical way. Kṛṣṅa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya [Bg 7.7]:

[O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.]

"There is no more superior authority than Me." And if you take it as it is, and if you speak to the people that "There is no more superior authority than Kṛṣṅa," then you become guru. You become guru. You don't change, then you become guru.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu has instructed this. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa [Cc Madhya 7.128].

[Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.]

His..., He was preaching. So He was preaching everyone, from country to country. Of course, He did not go outside India. Within India. And He was instructing that "You learn from Me and teach your people within this village, within this country." Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa. Ei deśa means "this country, or this place where you are living." Then? Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā. You become guru. So one may think that "I am illiterate. I have no education. I am not born in very high family. How I can become guru?" So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that "It is not very difficult." Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṅa-upadeśa [Cc Madhya 7.128]. Bās. You become guru. You simply speak whatever Kṛṣṅa speaks. Then you become guru.

So anyone who does not speak what Kṛṣṅa has spoken, he's not guru; he's a rascal. He cannot be guru. He is guru who speaks only what Kṛṣṅa has spoken. This is the śāstric injunction.

ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṅo vipro mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ avaiṣṅavo gurur na syād vaiṣṅavaḥ śva-paco guruḥ [Padma Purāṅa]

[Even if a brāhmaṅa is very learned in Vedic scripture and knows the six occupational duties of a brāhmaṅa, he cannot become a guru or spiritual master unless he is a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. However, if one is born in a family of dog-eaters but is a pure devotee of the Lord, he can become a spiritual master.]

This is the definition of guru, that one brāhmaṅa, born in brāhmaṅa family and very educated, mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ, very expert in reciting Vedic mantras... That is the duty of brāhmaṅa, veda-mantra. So mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ. But avaiṣṅava, if he's not Vaiṣṅava, or if he's not follower of the instruction of Viṣṅu or Kṛṣṅa, avaiṣṅavo gurur na syāt, he cannot become guru. And syād vaiṣṅavaḥ śva-pacaḥ. Śva-pacaḥ means the dog-eater. That is considered the lowest of the mankind, dog-eaters, means caṅḍāla, bhaṅgi. He becomes gu..., he can become guru. How? If he's Vaiṣṅava, he is devotee of Viṣṅu or Kṛṣṅa. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu... That is His mission.

āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṅa'-upadeśa [Cc Madhya 7.128]

So if we simply take the words of Bhagavān and preach, then it is very easy for us to become, each and every one, to become guru. Not to exploit. No. But to give knowledge. And what is that knowledge? What Kṛṣṅa has spoken. That's all. So even one is not very learned scholar, Sanskrit scholar, everyone has got this ear. He can hear from Kṛṣṅa and Kṛṣṅa's representative and assimilate what is spoken by Kṛṣṅa, and he can repeat the same. Then he becomes guru. That is the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He said,

bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma hailayāra janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra [Cc Ādi 9.41]

[One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.]

To become guru means para-upakāra. People are in the darkness, so they have to be enlightened. That is the Vedic injunction. Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.14].

[Please wake up and try to understand the boon that you now have in this human form of life. The path of spiritual realization is very difficult; it is sharp like a razor's edge. That is the opinion of learned transcendental scholars.]

Now, people..., from animal kingdom we are getting this human body. So up to animal body we are sleeping, kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole, in the lap of this material nature. Now this human form of body is meant for getting out. So the mission is to awaken people to Kṛṣṅa consciousness. To awaken people to Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Jīv jāgo jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole. Gauracānda, means Caitanya Mahāprabhu, is speaking to everyone, "Oh, the living entity, get up! Get up!" Kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole: "How long you shall sleep?"

So the..., here is the same thing: yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsām. This is the prime business, to connect yourself again, again, your soul, with the Supreme. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me. He is giving... He says that "This is My instruction, that one should be awakened to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and connect himself again with Kṛṣṅa." That is ādhyātmika-yoga. Not to show some gymnastic magic. No. This is the best yoga. Kṛṣṅa has also said in the Bhagavad-gītā,

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ [Bg 6.47]

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

The first-class yogī is he... Who? Yoginām api sarve... There are many yogīs. There are many different types of yoga system, and all the yoga system are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā—haṭha-yoga, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, rāja-yoga, so many yoga system. But the real yoga system, the first-class yoga system, is to revive your connection with Kṛṣṅa. That is first class. Here it is also said, yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsām. Ādhyātmika. We are living entities, soul. We are now... We are not disconnected, but we have forgotten. Disconnection cannot be. That is not possible. But it is covered. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ [Bg 7.25].

[I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-māyā]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.]

There is yoga and there is a yogamāyā. Yogamāyā means forgetfulness. So Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is Bhagavān. He is advising, Bhagavān, that "This is first-class yoga." Ādhyātmikaḥ. Ādhyātmikaḥ, about the soul.

Soul... First of all you have to understand what is soul. At the present moment, people are so much in darkness, they do not understand what is soul. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā teaches first to understand what is the soul. What is the soul. 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, that soul. Dehī means the proprietor of the body. We are thinking, "I am this... I am this body." No, I am not this body; I am the proprietor of this body. That is real understanding of myself: "I am not this body." We say also, "This is my finger," "This is my head," "This is my leg." Nobody says "I head," or "I finger." Nobody says. Everyone says "my head." So I am the proprietor of this body. And then I am under the influence of māyā. This body has been given by māyā, the material energy.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate [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.]

And we have got different types of body. I have got this body, you have got another body, the dog has got another body, cat has got another body. Why there are so many bodies? Why not one kind of body?

That is also stated in the Bha... Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgaḥ asya [Bg 13.22]. Kāraṅam The reason is that the dehī within the body, the soul, he is associating with different types of the modes of material nature. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Therefore he is getting different types of body. It is naturally going on. You haven't got to aspire for your next body, different... But it must be different body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13].

You have to change this body, but Kṛṣṅa does not say what kind of body. That will depend on your qualification. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgaḥ asya. Qualification. If you associate with sattva-guṅa, then ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ [Bg 14.18],

[Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.]

then you are elevated to the higher planetary system. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. If you are associating with the modes of passion, then you will remain here. And jaghanya-guṅa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ: and if you associate with the tamo-guṅa, then you go lower and lower, abominable family, lower family, animal family, or trees, plants, like that.

So the 8..., 8,400,000 forms of life is due to kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgaḥ asya. And according to the body, there are distresses and happinesses. You cannot expect in the dog's body the same happiness as a king or a very rich man is enjoying. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-sa... He has got the dog's body; he has got the king's body. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya [Bg 13.22]. So this happiness or that happiness, this distress or that distress, they are all due to this material body. Therefore yoga means one has to transcend this happiness of body, distress or happiness. That is here said, that atyanta-uparatiḥ yatra. If you connect yourself again with the supreme yoga—that is called real yoga—then you get rid of this so-called material happiness and distress, which is due to this body.

So that is wanted. That is ādhyātmika. That is called bhakti-yoga, to reconnect our connection with Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa also comes to instruct that "You rascal, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

Just revive your connection with Me, you rascal. Give up all these manufactured so-called types of yoga and religion." Sarva-dharmān paritya... That is Kṛṣṅa's instruction. That is the differ... That is the proof. Kṛṣṅa says the same thing, and Kṛṣṅa's representative or incarnation or guru says the same thing. That is the qualification of guru. Here Kapiladeva, although He is the incarnation of Kṛṣṅa, He's acting as the representative of Kṛṣṅa as guru. He's saying the same thing. He does not say another thing. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me. Niḥśreyasa means the ultimate benefit. Kṛṣṅa also says the same thing, that paraṁ guhyatamam: "I have instructed you so many things, but because you are My dear friend, I am just disclosing to you the most confidential thing." What is that? Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja. If you accept this principle, then you become actually transcendental to this so-called material happiness and distress. That is yoga.

We should not be captivated by the material distress..., or we should not be very much aggrieved by the material distress, and we should not be very much happy for material happiness. These are bondage. Material happiness is not actually happiness. That is through distress. Just like we are trying to be happy, trying to be very rich, get some money. That is not very easily obtained. We have to undergo so much distresses. So actually, it is distress, but with the hope of getting some false happiness, we accept this distress. Actually, there is no happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam [Bg 6.21].

[The stage of perfection is called trance, or samādhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.]

So that atīndriya means spiritual senses. If we purify our senses, come to the spiritual platform, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam [Cc Madhya 19.170],

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

If we become purified, then when that senses are engaged, hṛṣīkeṅa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate, then that is real happiness. When we are engaged in the satisfying of the senses of Kṛṣṅa, not these material senses, then that is called ādhyātmika-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. So we have to learn bhakti-yoga from Kapiladeva. Gradually, He has begun the preliminary instruction.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Haribol. [end]