Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.12

Pradyumna: Translation: "Sūta Gosvāmī thus addressed the ṛṣis headed by Śaunaka: Now I shall begin the transcendental narration of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa and topics of the birth, activities and deliverance of King Parīkṣit, the sage amongst kings, as well as topics of the renunciation of the worldly order by the sons of Pāṅḍu."

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

[aside:] The flies are disturbing.

How we are...

parīkṣito 'tha rājarṣer janma-karma-vilāpanam saṁsthāṁ ca pāṅḍu-putrāṅāṁ vakṣye kṛṣṅa-kathodayam [SB 1.7.12]

This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is another Purāṅa, history. We have already explained. So sometimes a class of devotees known as sahajiyā, they say that "What we have got to do with the narration of Kurukṣetra battle?" They immediately jump to the kṛṣṅa-līlā, directly with the gopīs. And Kṛṣṅa's activities in other field, they think it is useless. But that is not the fact. Anywhere Kṛṣṅa is acting, that is transcendental. The battlefield of Kurukṣetra, historical references, description, so superficially it appears that what a devotee has got to do with this battlefield? But battlefield or no battlefield, wherever there is Kṛṣṅa, that is transcendental. This has to be understood. Otherwise, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, why he should indulge in describing how Uttarā's pregnancy was saved by Kṛṣṅa, how the brahmāstra was thrown by Aśvatthāmā? So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is liberated person. Why he should indulge in these material things? No. Those who are advanced, they know that Kṛṣṅa's dancing with the gopīs, that līlā and Kṛṣṅa's playing as the leader of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, is the same. It is all transcendental. One should not make any distinction between the two. Saṁsthāṁ ca pāṅḍu-putrāṅāṁ vakṣye kṛṣṅa-kathodayam. Pāṅḍu-putrāṅām, the pāṅḍu-putras, or the Pāṅḍavas, son of Pāṅḍu, they're all devotees. Even their political affairs, because there is connection with Kṛṣṅa, it is kṛṣṅa-kathā. Those who are with poor fund of knowledge...

[break] ...directly taking shelter of Kṛṣṅa or to take shelter of a pure devotee who is under the shelter of Kṛṣṅa. Mad-āśrayaḥ. So if one takes shelter of a pure devotee... Just like electricity: the powerhouse is far away, but the power is coming. Suppose your body is electrified, and if I touch, then my body immediately becomes electrified. And if somebody touches me, then other's body. This is electric. Similarly, one who is pure devotee, he's authorized by Kṛṣṅa, he's electrified. So if one takes shelter of a pure devotee, then he becomes purified. Yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ śudhyanti [SB 2.4.18]. That is the statement given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. How the caṅḍālas can become purified? The example I have already stated. Then at the end, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, prabhaviṣṅave namaḥ. This is the supreme transcendental power of Viṣṅu. He can do. Sometimes they say that unless the body is changed, how a caṅḍāla can become purified? Yes, body is changing. Because we do not know how the body is changing... Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā [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.]

like that. Tathā means "like that." Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So these are dehāntara. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. This is dehāntara. Every moment we are changing our body. This is dehāntara. Kṛṣṅa says, the greatest authority. How you can say that there is no dehāntara? Yes, dehāntara. Suppose in my childhood I am born in a caṅḍāla family, but if by initiation, by taking shelter of a pure devotee, I become initiated, so dehāntara is there, going on. So if I take initiation seriously, so in the next dehāntara... Suppose yesterday I was a caṅḍāla. Now by this time there is dehāntara, and if I am purified by initiation... So this argument... Dehāntara is already there. Scientifically, in modern understanding, and on the authority of Kṛṣṅa's statement, dehāntara is going on. Not that somebody was European or... We take Europeans as mlecchas, yavanas. Yes, he was yesterday mleccha and yavanas, but he has changed his body, and after changing, if he's initiated, then dehāntara. Śudhyanti, he's purified. Śudhyanti.

So how this is possible, if we cannot understand... Because Lord Viṣṅu's energy is inconceivable. Inconceivable, acintya. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has discussed. Unless you accept acintya-śakti of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you cannot understand. You have to accept. It is acintya, inconceivable, by us. But it is not inconceivable by the advanced devotees. Or anything being executed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is not inconceivable by Him. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8].

[The Supreme Lord has nothing to do. Nothing is equal to Him or greater than Him. He acts in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His unlimited, variegated potencies. Each potency acts quite naturally in sequences, providing Him full knowledge, power and pastimes.]

He's so perfect in knowledge that what we are thinking inconceivable, that is very, very easily done with full knowledge by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So what is inconceivable by us, it is not inconceivable by Him.

Therefore we have to learn it from,

tad viddhi praṅipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ [Bg 4.34]

[Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.]

We cannot understand directly. It is not possible. So we have to approach tattva-darśī. Just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, tattva-darśī. He says śudhyanti. Yes, he's purified, although he is born of kirāta-hūṅāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśāḥ [SB 2.4.18], caṅḍāla. Caṅḍālo 'pi dvija-śreṣṭho hari-bhakti-parāyaṅaḥ. So it is inconceivable by us how a caṅḍāla can be dvija-śreṣṭha, more than a brāhmaṅa. It is inconceivable by me. But when we get a statement of the authorities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and above that, Kṛṣṅa... Because the conclusion of Kṛṣṅa and the conclusion of pure devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, they are the same. Just see here. Kṛṣṅa says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim [Bg 9.32].

[O son of Pṛthā, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaiśyas [merchants], as well as śūdras [workers]—can approach the supreme destination.]

So unless one is purified, how he can go to parāṁ gatim? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī also says the same thing. Kirāta-hūṅāndhra. Pāpa-yoni. They are pāpa-yoni. Śudhyanti prabhaviṣṅave namaḥ. Simply we have to go through the process; otherwise everything is possible. That is the omnipotency of Kṛṣṅa.

We use this word "omnipotency," but we do not know actually what is that omnipotency. Omnipotency means He has got diverse energies. That is omnipotency. And we do not know by which energy He's acting in a particular case. But this is a fact, that His energy is working. And He says also in the Bhagavad-gītā directly, 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.]

Mayādhyakṣeṅa, "Under My supervision prakṛti is acting." So how prakṛti is directed, how Kṛṣṅa is directing prakṛti to make a nice flower... Just like here, they're painting flower on the wall. It takes so much time, so much arrangement. Still, it is not as good as a natural flower. Here you have painted one rose flower, and here are roses. There is art also, and here is art also. Without art, without artistic sense, how this nice thing, beautiful thing, can come in? You'll find a beautiful flower bloom in a plant, you appreciate it. And don't think, as the rascal says, "By nature it has come automatically." No. The same energy as you are taking—you are applying your energy to paint a flower on the wall with your paints and brushes—but Kṛṣṅa is also doing that, but His energy is so inconceivable that we cannot see how He's working. But He's working. Otherwise why Kṛṣṅa says, mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ [Bg 9.10]: "Prakṛti is working under My direction"? Is it a bluff? No. Actually, prakṛti is acting under His direction.

It is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā,

sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā... [Bs 5.44]

[The external potency Māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.]

So prakṛti. Icchānurūpam api yasya. That prakṛti, Durgā, is acting under the direction of Govinda. Icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. The direction is there. Direction is there actually. But because we cannot conceive how in this plan the direction of the Supreme Lord is there so that a nice flower is coming with so beautiful feature... But direction is there, we should know. In ordinarily we say sometimes that "Not a blade of grass moves without the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." So everything is going on under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Don't think that it is taking automatically. There is no such thing as automatic. But the direction is so quick, so sufficient and so perfect. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca [Cc Madhya 13.65, purport]. Automatically, immediately. There are so many machines we have, just like the computer. There is machine working, but it is so minute that simply by pushing one button, so many things immediately done. This is a material machine, manufactured by a human being. And how much perfect the machine of Kṛṣṅa will be, just imagine.

So this material nature is nothing but machine. It is not God. Those who are with poor fund of knowledge, they are taking directly this material nature as working. No. Material nature has no power to act. It is dull. The same example, the computer. It is a very nice machine, but it cannot work automatically unless an expert pushes the button. So material nature cannot do anything. It is Kṛṣṅa's direction. So in everywhere there is Kṛṣṅa's direction. One who has got the eyes to see, for him, kṛṣṅa-kathodayam. Whatever he sees, he remembers Kṛṣṅa.

sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe nā dekhe tāra mūrti sarvatra haya nija iṣṭa-deva-sphūrti [Cc Madhya 8.274]

[The mahā-bhāgavata, the advanced devotee, certainly sees everything mobile and immobile, but he does not exactly see their forms. Rather, everywhere he immediately sees manifest the form of the Supreme Lord.]

One has to become advanced devotee to understand how Kṛṣṅa's direction is going on. They can understand. Don't think that things are taking place automatically. Therefore even in adverse condition a devotee does not see that "This thing is happening without direction of Kṛṣṅa." Even if he is in an adverse condition, he does not feel any pain, because he knows that "This adverse condition is also under the direction of Kṛṣṅa. So I am fully surrendered to Kṛṣṅa. Why I shall take this adverse position as not mercy of Kṛṣṅa? It is also mercy of Kṛṣṅa." Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṅo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam [SB 10.14.8]. A devotee is not disturbed by adverse condition. He takes that this is a gift of Kṛṣṅa. Tat te anukampām. "It is Kṛṣṅa's mercy. Although I am put into difficulty, it is Kṛṣṅa's mercy."

So anyone who takes in that way, mukti-pade sa daya-bhāk: his going back to home, back to Godhead, is guaranteed. Because he takes everything as Kṛṣṅa's mercy. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja was so much chastised by his father. You know how he was put into difficulty in so many ways. But he was taking, "This is Kṛṣṅa's mercy." He did not take otherwise. So in this way, wherever... Everywhere there is Kṛṣṅa's hand, so what to speak of this battlefield or any other thing. So we should not take otherwise, that "This the best part and this is the lowest part." No. Wherever there is Kṛṣṅa directly. Kṛṣṅa is everywhere, but we cannot see. But at least in Mahābhārata, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in Kṛṣṅa's dealing with the Pāṅḍavas, the Kṛṣṅa's hand is there. That is Kṛṣṅa's līlā. [break] ...it is not like that. One who is advanced, one who is actually in knowledge, they will take kṛṣṅa-kathodayam. Wherever Kṛṣṅa's kathā is there, it is as good as any other. That is the way of...

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]