Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.15

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

etāvān eva saṅkhyāto brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya ha sanniveśo mayā prokto yaḥ kālaḥ pañca-viṁśakaḥ [SB 3.26.15]

[break]

Prabhupāda: This chanting is chanting of the veda-mantra. Go on.

Nitāi: [leads chanting of synonyms]

[break] [03:04]

"All these are considered the qualified Brahman. The mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth element."

Prabhupāda:

etāvān eva saṅkhyāto brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya ha sanniveśo mayā prokto yaḥ kālaḥ pañca-viṁśakaḥ [SB 3.26.15]

So saṅkhyāya, saṅkhyāta, saṅkhyāyati iti sāṅkhya. This is Sāṅkhya philosophy, to know analytical study of the whole cosmic manifestation. That is called Sāṅkhya philosophy. It is physical. And the kāla is via media. And then the soul and the Supersoul. So if we understand thoroughly this analytical study of the whole thing, then we know Sāṅkhya philosophy, saṅkhyāta, Sāṅkhya, in its numerically count.

So twenty-four elements we have discussed yesterday: the five gross elements, and the five sense objects, and five knowledge-gathering senses and five working senses—twenty—and four internal senses—twenty-four—and then again, all under the control of time, the fifth, er, twenty-fifth. And above these there is the soul and Supersoul. That is spiritual. These are all material, analytical study of the material composition of this cosmic manifestation. This is called Sāṅkhya philosophy.

So here there is one word, brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya. These twenty-four or twenty-five material elements is covering the Brahman, and therefore he is called saguṅa. There are two words generally used: saguṅa and nirguṅa. Saguṅa means material, and nirguṅa means spiritual. So in the Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna is advised to come to the platform of nirguṅa. Traiguṅya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṅyo bhavārjuna [Bg 2.45].

[The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self.]

That is the aim of life. We are also Brahman. We are part and parcel of Brahman, Supreme Brahman; therefore we are also Brahman. Brahman realization is not very difficult thing, provided we want to realize. And how we want? You take instruction from the Bhagavad-gītā, and if you accept it, then immediately your Brahman realization is there. Kṛṣṅa says that "These jīvas, they are My part and parcel." So if Kṛṣṅa is Brahman, Para-brahman, then we are Brahman. If we accept this... We have to accept, because that is the constitutional position. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa.

So we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa; therefore it is our constitutional position to live with Kṛṣṅa. Just like the part and parcel of my body, this finger. Finger is the part and parcel of my body. It must live with the body; then it is active. And if you cut the finger and throw on the ground, you may call, "It is finger," but it is useless. Unless it is in contact with the body, acting with the body... Then it is valuable. Take any example, any machine, the screw in the machine, a very insignificant part, but so long it is attached with the whole machine, it has got value. If one screw is lost, if you have to purchase from the market, you will have to pay some value. But the same screw, if it is not attached to the machine, it has no value. Similarly, we are very insignificant spiritual spark. We are, by quality, the same because we are spirit, eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. So we also do not die, we do not take birth. And Kṛṣṅa is also: ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san [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.]

He is also aja; we are also aja. But He is bhūtānām īśvaraḥ. Bhūtānām, all the living entities, He is the Supreme. Nityo nityānām. Nityo nityānām [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]. He is the chief, leader.

We require a leader. Any field of activities, we require a leader. Suppose for getting independence we had to follow one leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Therefore for guidance we require a leader. And the supreme leader is Kṛṣṅa. So if we follow Kṛṣṅa, the supreme leader, then our life is successful. And if we do not follow... Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, "You rascal, you fool, mūḍha, you just follow Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66]. This is the whole story of spiritual life. Kṛṣṅa is the supreme leader. He is also a living being, He is also person like you and me, but He is ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṅa. Therefore He is called Bhagavān. We cannot be called Bhagavān because our power is very limited, not pūrṅa. Therefore we become saguṅa. Kṛṣṅa does not become saguṅa. The Māyāvāda theory, that God, when He incarnates, He becomes saguṅa, that is wrong theory.

Here it is said that brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya ha. Saguṅasya brahmaṅaḥ, these twenty-five elements, they cover him—that means the living entity who has come in this material world. But Kapiladeva or Kṛṣṅa, Bhagavān, He is not saguṅa; He is always nirguṅa. Nirguṅa guṅa bhakti ca. In... The Bhagavān says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Although He is nirguṅa, but He is the controller of the guṅas." Kṛṣṅa is not controlled. Mama māyā guṅamayī. Kṛṣṅa says, daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī mama māyā [Bg 7.14].

[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]

Mama māyā: "This māyā, this energy, is My energy." So energy is controlled by the energetic. Suppose if you have got some energy, you can control it. Suppose if you have got very good energy to kill anyone or to hurt one or to beat anyone, good strength, but that strength is not beyond you. The strength is under your control. When you like, you can use it; when you do not like, you cannot use it..., you do not use it.

Therefore this māyā, this material world, saguṅa, that is also Kṛṣṅa's energy. Daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī mama māyā [Bg 7.14]. Kṛṣṅa is not māyā's, but māyā is Kṛṣṅa's. We have to understand that way, not that Kṛṣṅa becomes enveloped or overpowered by māyā. That is wrong theory. The Māyāvādī theory is like that, that "I am Kṛṣṅa. I am God. Now I am overpowered by māyā, and as soon as I become free from māyā, again I become Kṛṣṅa." But the question is that "If you are Kṛṣṅa, if you are God, then why you became under the control of māyā? What kind of God you are?" Just like in the English Constitution it is said that "The king can do no wrong." So you cannot bring king under any law. Others will come—even if he is minister, he will come under the law—but the king cannot come under the law. This is the English Constitution.

Similarly, God cannot be under māyā. Others, everyone under the...

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate [Bg 3.27]

E[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.]

veryone is under the control of māyā. Nobody is free. But there are two māyā: yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā. Mahā-māyā, this material world, and yoga-māyā, the spiritual world. If you agree to be under the yoga-māyā, then you are happy. Just like there are two kinds of laws: civil laws and criminal laws. You have to remain under one of these laws. But if you live under criminal law, then you go to the jail, and if you live under civil law, then you are free. But in either condition, you cannot say that "I am free of law." That is foolishness. That is foolishness. The atheist class of men, they say that "We do not believe in God." But that is craziness. You may believe God or may not believe, but you are under the stringent laws of God. That you cannot say, that "I am free." No. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

You may be very big scientist, very big man, very big prime minister. Whatever you may be, you are under the control of these criminal laws: janma, birth; mṛtyu, death; old age and disease. Then how you are independent? Where is your independence? How we can say that "You are free. You don't require to obey the laws, or dharma"?

Dharma means the laws of God. This is the simple definition of dharma. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṅītam [SB 6.3.19].

[Real religious principles are enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although fully situated in the mode of goodness, even the great ṛṣis who occupy the topmost planets cannot ascertain the real religious principles, nor can the demigods or the leaders of Siddhaloka, to say nothing of the asuras, ordinary human beings, Vidyādharas and Cāraṅas.]

So when we defy the religious principles... Religious principle means that dharma, not your created dharma. You cannot create law at home; it is given already. What is that? Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam... [Bg 18.66]. This is dharma. All other dharmas, so-called dharmas, they are all cheating. Therefore Bhāgavata says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra: "All cheating type of religious system is kicked out, rejected." Actually, it is not required. It is simply bogus. Real dharma is here: to abide by the laws of God. That is real dharma. Then if you have no conception of God, if you have no knowledge what is the laws of God, then you are adharmika, you are simply transgressing the laws of dharma. And to transgress the laws of dharma, you are sinful, you are punishable. And that is going on. Material life means that. Material life means defying the laws of God, denying the existence of God. And one wants to become himself God. These are the material activities. So we may do so, may defy, but the laws will act. Laws will act.

So the saguṅa Brahman means the living entities. Saguṅa Brahman does not mean the God, Kṛṣṅa, Bhagavān. Because even if you become servant of God... Just like there are so many nice example, that if an ordinary man beats another man, slap, he immediately becomes criminal. Law is there, "You cannot do that." But if policeman gives you a slap, it is not criminal. If you kill somebody, then you become criminal. But when a soldier kills hundreds of men, he is not criminal. The process is the same, but because one is acting on behalf of the supreme law-giver, he is immune. So that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā,

māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṅa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate sa guṅān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [Bg 14.26]

[One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.]

"Anyone who is engaged in the service of the Lord, he becomes immediately nirguṅa." Sa guṅān samatītya etān, plural number, etān guṅān, the sattva-rajas-tamo-guṅa, samatītya. Samyak-rūpeṅa atītya, atītya.

So if a devotee becomes nirguṅa immediately, as soon as he is engaged in devotional service of the Lord, how the Supreme Lord can become saguṅa? Just try to understand. Use your logic. If one becomes a devotee of the nirguṅa, he becomes nirguṅa. So why the nirguṅa God can be saguṅa? This Māyāvādī theory is not very logical, that when God comes He is saguṅa, He accepts this material body. No. That is not possible. Why He should accept material body? He is all-powerful. He can... He cannot be affected by the material laws. A man is suffering from some disease, infected. That does not mean when the physician comes to treat him he is also infected. He knows how to protect himself, disinfected.

So saguṅa, this word... The Māyāvādī theory is saguṅa worship and nirguṅa worship. Saguṅa worship means when you worship a deity, in form, that is called saguṅa worship. And when you meditate upon impersonal, that is nirguṅa. That is their theory. But meditation is not possible unless there is form. Without form, meditation means... That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, kleśaḥ adhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām [Bg 12.5]:

[For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progrese in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.]

"One who is trying to meditate upon the impersonal Brahman," kleśaḥ, "it is very troublesome," because we are not accustomed to concentrate our mind, meditate upon anything which is impersonal. That is not possible. We simply try to do that under labor, under trouble, kleśaḥ adhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām, whereas devotee, he immediately sees Kṛṣṅa in the temple: "Here is Kṛṣṅa. Here is Rādhārāṅī." Arcā-vigraha. Kṛṣṅa has appeared to be visible. We cannot see Kṛṣṅa, or God, by these material eyes, but as we can be seeing, as we can appreciate, as we can touch, Kṛṣṅa has accepted the form to be touched by us, to be seen by us, to be served by us. This is called arcā-vigraha. It is not idol worship. The Māyāvādī says it is imagination. No, not it is imagination. Arcā-vigraha. Vigraha. Kṛṣṅa is vigraha, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1], His form.

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

So we should always remember, when we speak of saguṅa, saguṅa means saguṅa Brahman. Saguṅa Brahman means we, the living entities, not Kṛṣṅa, or Bhagavān. He is not saguṅa; He is always nirguṅa. Etat īśasya īśanam. This is the supremacy of the Supreme Person, that although He comes within this material world, incarnates as incarnation, He is not affected by the material qualities. That is īśanam. Otherwise how He is īśvara? Īśvara means controller. If, when He comes in the material world, if He becomes controlled by the material nature, then how He is controller? Huh? He is not controller. Then He becomes controlled. We are controlled. Kṛṣṅa is never controller..., er, controlled. He is always the controller. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ. Īśvara means controller. So He is the supreme controller. He is the controller of these energies also, māyā. So how He can be under māyā? This is mistaken theory. Kṛṣṅa is always supreme, Adhokṣaja. Kṛṣṅa's another name is Adhokṣaja.

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā yenātmā samprasīdati [SB 1.2.6]

[The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.]

Adhokṣaja means beyond, avan manasa-gocaraḥ, beyond the reach of our thinking, speculation. So Kṛṣṅa is always nirguṅa in any condition, any circumstances. But those who are mūḍhas, 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.]

But because Kṛṣṅa incarnates, or comes, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham, He comes, we think, because we are foolish person, mūḍha, we think that "Kṛṣṅa is also one of us." That is not the fact. Saguṅa Brahman, nirguṅa Brahman, we should distinguish, that Kṛṣṅa is always nirguṅa Brahman, but we are saguṅa Brahman. We are Brahman, but because we are not Para-brahman, or Supreme Brahman, we are subjected, we are prone to be covered by these material qualities. Therefore our business is again to recover ourself from these twenty-five elements, material elements. And that is only possible, as it is prescribed by Kṛṣṅa, sa guṅān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. What is that? Māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṅa bhakti-yogena sevate [Bg 14.26].

[One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.]

You just engage yourself in bhakti-yoga process, mām avyabhicāreṅa, without any mixture, without any deviation. And how it can be, deviation? Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11],

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

without any material desire, without any motive; jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, not mixed up with fruitive activities or speculative knowledge—pure, simple.

You cannot bring Kṛṣṅa under your speculative knowledge, avan manasa-gocaraḥ, because He is beyond the scope of the activities of the mind, adhokṣaja. Therefore don't try to bring Kṛṣṅa within your speculative knowledge. Speculative knowledge, how can you go? That is Dr. Frog. Dr. Frog cannot... Frog is in the well, three-feet well. How he can imagine about the Atlantic Ocean? It is not possible. Avan manasa-gocaraḥ. So don't try to speculate upon God. You will never find God. If you want to go by the speculative knowledge, trying to find out what is God just like the theosophist and many other societies—they do that, speculating—you cannot reach God by speculation. That is not. Because your senses are limited. How you can reach God, the unlimited, by speculative knowledge? That is not possible.

athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya- prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi jānāti tattvaṁ... na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan [SB 10.14.29]

[My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years.]

Ciraṁ vicinvan: "For millions and millions of years, if you simply speculate, you cannot reach what is God." It is not possible. But athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva: "One who has received a little mercy, causeless mercy, my Lord, he can understand." Little mercy.

So how the little mercy can be obtained? That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ [Bg 18.55].

[One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.]

"You can get mercy of the Supreme Lord simply by devotional service, bhaktyā." He doesn't say by knowledge, jñānena, or karmeṅa. He never says. Or yogena. No. These are not the process to understand the Absolute Truth. You can make little advance, but it is... Avan manasa-gocaraḥ. What advance you can make with your limited senses? That is not possible. He is beyond the scope of my mental activities. So you cannot reach that. Therefore Kṛṣṅa has recommended that "If you want to Me..., know Me, then you have to adopt this process, bhakti-yoga." And Kṛṣṅa accepts everything through bhakti. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati [Bg 9.26].

[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]

Not these karmīs, jñānīs. He doesn't accept anything from the hands of karmīs and jñānīs. Karmīs and jñānīs cannot approach Him, what to speak of accepting their offering. That is not possible. They cannot approach Him.

Therefore bhakti means karma-jñāna-anāvṛtam. Anyābhilaṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

Don't try to approach God with your so-called speculative knowledge and fruitive activities, as people are trying to do. It is not possible. You may, by such activities, you can come to the platform of this sattva-guṅa. Sattva-guṅa. But that is also guṅa. You remain saguṅa; you are not nirguṅa. But you require to be nirguṅa. That is bhakti. If you remain saguṅa, you may come to the platform of sattva-guṅa, the brahminical platform—satyaṁ śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣā ārjavam, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam [Bg 18.42].

[Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness—these are the qualities by which the brāhmaṅas work.]

That is better platform to understand. Sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati [SB 1.2.19].

[As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature's modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.]

You can understand, you can get light of the spiritual world, by sattva-guṅa. But you have to surpass the sattva-guṅa. That is called śuddha-sattva, untinted, without any tinge of these rajo-guṅa and tamo-guṅa. In the material world you may be situated on the brahminical qualification, sattva-guṅa, but there is chance of being infected by the rajo-guṅa and tamo-guṅa. Therefore it is not śuddha-sattva, pure sattva. So you have to come to the platform of pure sattva-guṅa. Sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam [SB 4.3.23]. That pure sattva, pure sattva-guṅa, mode of goodness, is called vasudeva, and Vasudeva, he gives birth to Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa. So when you come to that platform, then you will be able to give birth to Vāsudeva. That means you will meet Vāsudeva. Śuddha-sattva. Sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam. This is the process.

So saguṅa, saguṅa Brahman, brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya, here it is said. Brahmaṅaḥ saguṅasya ha etāvān eva saṅkhyātaḥ. The living entity is entrapped. This body is the combination of these twenty-five elements. So that is for the living entity, saguṅa Brahman. Saguṅa Brahman means living entity. But it is not for Kṛṣṅa. And again, sanniveśo mayā proktaḥ. So mayā proktaḥ means Bhagavān is speaking. Bhagavān is not saguṅa. Here Kapiladeva says, mayā proktaḥ: "I have described it." He knows everything. Mayā proktaḥ. We have to take knowledge from Bhagavān, not from any saguṅa Brahman. We have to take knowledge from nirguṅa Brahman. Nirguṅa Brahman is Kṛṣṅa, Bhagavān, Kapiladeva. Mayā proktaḥ.

Yaḥ kālaḥ pañca-viṁśakaḥ. And now He gives another element, kāla, because everything is going on under the influence of kāla. The past, present and future, the kāla, is eternal. Time is eternal, but we are creating our past and present and future according to our existence. The past, present, future of an ant is not the past, present of an elephant. The past, present of our is not the past, present of Brahmā. It is relative. This kāla is working relatively. Therefore this is called relative world. So this prime factor of relativity is kāla. That is the twenty-fifth element. And beyond that, there is the soul, there is the Supersoul, and above everything, Puruṣottama, the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṅa.

So in this way if we understand, then we become a student of Sāṅkhya philosophy. That is being taught by Kapiladeva.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]