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Prahlada Maharaja saw Krsna in a pillar. There are many other examples. Krsna is there; all that is required is our qualification to see Him

2024-03-10T05:14:20Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Prahlada Maharaja saw Krsna in a pillar. There are many other examples. Krsna is there; all that is required is our qualification to see Him"}}
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[[Category:Prahlada's Seeing]]
[[Category:Seeing Krsna]]
[[Category:Pillar]]
[[Category:There Are Many]]
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[[Category:Example]]
[[Category:Krsna Is There]]
[[Category:Require]]
[[Category:Qualification]]
[[Category:Raja-Vidya Chapters 01 to 08]]
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<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
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<h3>Raja-Vidya The King of Knowledge</h3>
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When a devotee is present, Kṛṣṇa, by His omnipresent energies, will manifest Himself anywhere and everywhere, but when His devotee is not there, He will not do this. There are many instances of this. Prahlāda Mahārāja saw Kṛṣṇa in a pillar. There are many other examples. Kṛṣṇa is there; all that is required is our qualification to see Him.
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[[Vanisource:RV 3 Knowledge of Krsna's Energies|Raja-Vidya The King of Knowledge, 3]]
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It may be noted at this point that the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is especially meant for those who have already accepted Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, it is meant for His devotees. If one does not accept Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme, this Ninth Chapter will appear as something different from what it actually is. As stated in the beginning, the subject matter of the Ninth Chapter is the most confidential material in the entire Bhagavad-gītā. If one doesn't accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme, he will think the chapter to be a mere exaggeration. This is especially the case with the verses dealing with Kṛṣṇa's relationship with His creation ([[Vanisource:BG 9.4|BG 9.4]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
:jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
:mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
:na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ
</div>

"By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them."

The world which we see is also Kṛṣṇa's energy, His māyā. Here, mayā means "by Me," as if one says, "This work has been done by me." This "by Me" does not mean that He has done His work and has finished or retired. If I start a large factory and I say, "This factory was started by me," in no case should it be concluded that I am lost or in any way not present. Although a manufacturer may refer to his products as being "manufactured by me," it does not mean that he personally created or constructed his product, but that the product was produced by his energy. Similarly, if Kṛṣṇa says, "Whatever you see in the world was created by Me," we are not to suppose that He is no longer existing.

It is not very difficult to see God everywhere in the creation, for He is everywhere present. Just as in the Ford factory the workers see Mr. Ford in every corner, those who are conversant with the science of Kṛṣṇa can see Him in every atom of the creation. Everything is resting on Kṛṣṇa (mat-sthāni sarva bhūtāni ([[Vanisource:BG 9.4|BG 9.4]])), but Kṛṣṇa is not there (na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ). Kṛṣṇa and His energy are non-different, yet the energy is not Kṛṣṇa. The sun and the sunshine are not different, but the sunshine is not the sun. The sunshine may come through our window and enter our room, but this is not to say that the sun is in our room. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa states: parasya brāhmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ: parasya means supreme, brāhmaṇaḥ means Absolute Truth, and śaktiḥ means energy. The energy of the Supreme Absolute is everything, but in that energy Kṛṣṇa is not to be found.

There are two kinds of energy - material and spiritual. Jīvas, or individual souls, belong to the superior energy of Kṛṣṇa, but because they are prone to be attracted to the material energy, they are called marginal energy. But actually there are only two energies. All of the planetary systems and universes are resting on the energies of Kṛṣṇa. Just as all the planets in the solar system are resting in the sunshine, everything within the creation is resting on Kṛṣṇa-shine. All of these potencies of the Lord give pleasure to a devotee, but one who is envious of Kṛṣṇa rejects them. When one is a nondevotee, the statements of Kṛṣṇa seem to be so much bluff, but when one is a devotee, he thinks, "Oh, my Lord is so powerful," and he becomes filled with love and adoration. Nondevotees think that because Kṛṣṇa says, "I am God," they and everyone else can say the same. But if asked to show their universal form, they cannot do it. That is the difference between a pseudo god and the real God. Kṛṣṇa's pastimes cannot be imitated. Kṛṣṇa married over 16,000 wives and kept them nicely in 16,000 palaces, but an ordinary man cannot even keep one wife nicely. It is not that Kṛṣṇa just spoke so many wonderful things; He also acted wonderfully. We should not believe one thing that Kṛṣṇa says or does and reject another; if belief is there, it must be full belief.

In this regard, there is a story of Nārada Muni, who was once asked by a brāhmaṇa: "Oh, you are going to meet the Lord? Will you please ask Him when I'm going to get my salvation?"

"All right," Nārada agreed. "I shall ask Him."

As Nārada proceeded, he met a cobbler who was sitting under a tree mending shoes, and the cobbler similarly asked Nārada, "Oh, you are going to see God? Will you please inquire of Him when my salvation will come?"

When Nārada Muni went to the Vaikuṇṭha planets, he fulfilled their request and asked Nārāyaṇa (God) about the salvation of the brāhmaṇa and the cobbler, and Nārāyaṇa replied, "After leaving this body, the cobbler shall come here to me."

"What about the brāhmaṇa?" Nārada asked.

"He will have to remain there for a number of births. I do not know when he is coming."

Nārada Muni was astonished, and he finally said, "I can't understand the mystery of this."

"That you will see," Nārāyaṇa said. "When they ask you what I am doing in My abode, tell them that I am threading the eye of a needle with an elephant."

When Nārada returned to earth and approached the brāhmaṇa, the brāhmaṇa said, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? What was He doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Nārada answered.

"I don't believe such nonsense," the brāhmaṇa replied. Nārada could immediately understand that the man had no faith and that he was simply a reader of books.

Nārada then left and went on to the cobbler, who asked him, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? Tell me, what was He doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Nārada replied.

The cobbler began to weep, "Oh, my Lord is so wonderful, He can do anything."

"Do you really believe that the Lord can push an elephant through the hole of a needle?" Nārada asked.

"Why not?" the cobbler said, "Of course I believe it."

"How is that?"

"You can see that I am sitting under this banyan tree," the cobbler answered, "and you can see that so many fruits are falling daily, and in each seed there is a banyan tree like this one. If, within a small seed there can be a big tree like this, is it difficult to accept that the Lord is pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle?"

So this is called faith. It is not a question of blindly believing. There is reason behind the belief. If Kṛṣṇa can put a large tree within so many little seeds, is it so astounding that He is keeping all the planetary systems floating in space through His energy?

Although scientists may think that the planets are being held in space simply by nature alone, behind nature there is the Supreme Lord. Nature is acting under His guidance. As Śrī Kṛṣṇa states ([[Vanisource:BG 9.10|BG 9.10]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
:sūyate sa-carācaram
:hetunānena kaunteya
:jagad viparivartate
</div>

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

Mayādhyakṣena means "under My supervision." Material nature cannot act so wonderfully unless the Lord's hand is behind it. We cannot give any example of material things automatically working. Matter is inert, and without the spiritual touch there is no possibility of its acting. Matter cannot act independently or automatically. Machines may be very wonderfully constructed, but unless a man touches that machine, it cannot work. And what is that man? He is a spiritual spark. Without spiritual touch, nothing can move; therefore everything is resting on Kṛṣṇa's impersonal energy. Kṛṣṇa's energy is impersonal, but He is a person. We often hear of persons performing wonderful actions, yet despite their energetic accomplishments, they still remain persons. If this is possible for human beings, why isn't it possible for the Supreme Lord? We are all persons, but we are all dependent upon Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person.

We have often seen pictures of Atlas, a stout man bearing a large planet on his shoulders and struggling very hard to hold it up. We may think that because Kṛṣṇa is maintaining the universe, He is struggling under its burden like Atlas. But this is not the case ([[Vanisource:BG 9.5|BG 9.5]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni
:paśya me yogam aiśvaram
:bhūta-bhṛn na ca bhūta-stho
:mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ
</div>

"And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence. Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, still My Self is the very source of creation."

Although all beings in the universe are resting in Kṛṣṇa's energy, still they are not in Him. Kṛṣṇa is maintaining all living entities, and His energy is all-pervading, yet He is elsewhere. This is Kṛṣṇa's inconceivable mystic power. He is everywhere, yet He is aloof from everything. We can perceive his energy, but we cannot see Him because He cannot be seen with material eyes. However, when we develop our spiritual qualities, we sanctify our senses so that even within this energy we can see Him. Electricity, for instance, is everywhere, and an electrician is capable of utilizing it. Similarly, the energy of the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and when we become transcendentally situated, we can see God eye to eye everywhere. That spiritualization of the senses is possible through devotional service and love of God. The Lord is all-pervading all over the universe and is within the soul, the heart, water, air - everywhere. Thus if we make an image of God in anything - clay, stone, wood or whatever - it should not be considered to be just a doll. That also is God. If we have sufficient devotion, the image will also speak to us. God is everywhere impersonally (mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam ([[Vanisource:BG 9.4|BG 9.4]])), but if we make His personal form from anything, or if we create an image of God within ourselves, He will be present personally for us. In the śāstras, there are eight kinds of images recommended, and any kind of image can be worshiped because God is everywhere. One may protest and ask, "Why should God be worshiped in images and not in His original spiritual form?" The answer is that we cannot see God immediately in His spiritual form. With our material eyes we can only see stone, earth, wood - something tangible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes as arcā-vigraha, a form conveniently presented by the Supreme Lord in order for us to see Him. The result is that if we concentrate upon the image and make offerings with love and devotion, Kṛṣṇa will respond through the image.

There are many instances of this happening. In India, there is one temple called Sākṣi-Gopāla (Kṛṣṇa is often called Gopāla). The Gopāla mūrti or statue was at one time located in a temple in Vṛndāvana. Once two brāhmaṇas, one old and one young, went to visit Vṛndāvana on a pilgrimage. It was a long trip, and in those days there were no railways, so travelers underwent many hardships. The old man was much obliged to the youth for helping him on the journey, and upon arriving in Vṛndāvana, he said to him: "My dear boy, you have rendered me so much service, and I am much obliged to you. I would like very much to return that service and give you some reward."

"My dear sir,"the youth said, "you are an old man just like my father. It is my duty to serve you. I don't require any reward."

"No, I'm obliged to you, and I must reward you," the old man insisted. He then promised to give the young man his young daughter in marriage.

The old man was a very rich man, and the youth, although a learned brāhmaṇa, was very poor. Considering this, the youth said, "Don't promise this, for your family will never agree. I am such a poor man, and you are aristocratic, so this marriage will not take place. Don't promise this way before the Deity."

The conversation was taking place in the temple before the Deity of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, and the young man was anxious not to offend the Deity. However, despite the youth's pleas, the old man insisted on the marriage. After staying in Vṛndāvana for some time, they finally returned home, and the old man informed his eldest son that his young sister was to be married to the poor brāhmaṇa youth. The eldest son became very angry. "Oh, how have you selected that pauper as husband for my sister? This cannot be."

The old man's wife also came to him and said, "If you marry our daughter to that boy, I shall commit suicide."

The old man was thus perplexed. After some time, the brāhmaṇa youth became very anxious. "He has promised to marry his daughter to me, and he made that promise before the Deity. Now he is not coming to fulfill it." He then went to see the old man to remind him of his promise.

"You promised before Lord Kṛṣṇa," the youth said, "and you are not fulfilling that promise. How is that?"

The old man was silent. He began praying to Kṛṣṇa, for he was perplexed. He didn't want to marry his daughter to the youth and cause such great trouble within his family. In the meantime the elder son came out and began to accuse the brāhmaṇa youth. "You have plundered my father in the place of pilgrimage. You gave him some intoxicant and took all his money, and now you are saying that he has promised to offer you my youngest sister. You rascal!"

In this way there was much noise, and people began to gather. The youth could understand that the old man was still agreeable but that the family was making it difficult for him. People began to gather about because of the noise which the elder son was raising, and the brāhmaṇa youth began to exclaim to them that the old man made this promise before the Deities but that he could not fulfill it because the family was objecting. The eldest son, who was an atheist, suddenly interrupted the youth and said, "You say that the Lord was witnessing. Well, if He comes and bears witness to this promise of my father's, you can have my sister in marriage."

The youth replied, "Yes, I shall ask Kṛṣṇa to come as a witness." He was confident that God would come. An agreement was then made before everyone that the girl would be given in marriage if Kṛṣṇa came from Vṛndāvana as a witness to the old man's promise.

The brāhmaṇa youth returned to Vṛndāvana and began to pray to Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. "Dear Lord, You must come with me." He was such a staunch devotee that he spoke to Kṛṣṇa just as one would speak to a friend. He was not thinking that the Gopāla was a mere statue or image, but he considered Him to be God Himself. Suddenly the Deity spoke to him:

"How do you think that I can go with you? I am a statue. I can't go anywhere."

"Well, if a statue can speak, he can also walk," the boy replied.

"All right then," the Deity said finally. "I shall go with you, but on one condition. In no case shall you look back to see Me. I will follow you, and you will know that I am following by the jingle of My leg bangles."

The youth agreed, and in this way they left Vṛndāvana to go to the other town. When the trip was nearly over, just as they were about to enter his home village, the youth could no longer hear the sound of the bangles, and he began to fear. "Oh, where is Kṛṣṇa?" Unable to contain himself any longer, he looked back. He saw the statue standing still. Because he looked back, it would go no further. He immediately ran into the town and told the people to come out and see Kṛṣṇa who had come as a witness. Everyone was astounded that such a large statue had come from such a distance, and they built a temple on the spot in honor of the Deity, and today people are still worshiping Sākṣi-Gopāla, the Lord as a witness.

We should therefore conclude that because God is everywhere, He is also in His statue, in the image made of Him. If Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, as even the impersonalists admit, then why isn't He in His image? Whether an image or statue speaks to us or not is dependent on the degree of our devotion. But if we choose to see the image merely as a piece of wood or stone, Kṛṣṇa will always remain wood or stone for us. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, but as we advance in spiritual consciousness we can begin to see Him as He is. If we put a letter into a mailbox, it will go to its destination because the mailbox is authorized. Similarly, if we worship an authorized image of God, our faith will have some effect. If we are prepared to follow the various rules and regulations - that is to say, if we become qualified - it is possible to see God anywhere and everywhere. When a devotee is present, Kṛṣṇa, by His omnipresent energies, will manifest Himself anywhere and everywhere, but when His devotee is not there, He will not do this. There are many instances of this. Prahlāda Mahārāja saw Kṛṣṇa in a pillar. There are many other examples. Kṛṣṇa is there; all that is required is our qualification to see Him.

Kṛṣṇa Himself gives an example of His omnipresence in this way ([[Vanisource:BG 9.6|BG 9.6]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:yathākāśa sthito nityaṁ
:vāyuḥ sarvatra-go mahān
:tathā sarvāṇi bhūtāni
:mat-sthānīty upadhāraya
</div>

"As the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, always rests in ethereal space, know that in the same manner all beings rest in Me."

Everyone knows that the wind blows within space, and on earth it is blowing everywhere. There is no place where there is no air or wind. If we wish to drive out air, we have to create a vacuum artificially by some machine. Just as the air is blowing everywhere in space, so everything is existing within Kṛṣṇa. If this is the case, when the material creation is dissolved, where does it go? ([[Vanisource:BG 9.7|BG 9.7]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya
:prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām
:kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni
:kalpādau visṛjāmy aham
</div>

"O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency I again create."

Kṛṣṇa sets His nature (prakṛti) into motion, as one may wind up a clock, and when nature unwinds, it is absorbed into the Lord. The spiritual creation, however, is not like this, for it is permanent. In the material creation everything is temporary. Just as our bodies are developing due to the spiritual spark that is within, the whole creation is coming into being, developing and passing out of being, due to the spirit of the Lord which is within it. Just as our spirit is present within the body, the Lord is present within the universe as Paramātmā. Due to the presence of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the material creation exists, just as due to our presence our bodies are existing. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa manifests the material creation, and sometimes He does not. In all cases, its existence is due to His presence.
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Narada Muni advises that human beings not waste their time simply jumping like cats and monkeys, without real benefit. The duty of the human being is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead

2024-03-02T04:49:04Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Nārada Muni advises that human beings not waste their time simply jumping like cats and monkeys, without real benefit. The duty of the human being is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Purports]]
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<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
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<h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
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The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, is neither bhūtvā nor pralīyate; He is eternal. In other words, He is not obliged to take birth like human beings or animals, which repeatedly take birth and die because of ignorance of the soul. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is not subjected to such changes of body, and one who thinks otherwise is considered a fool (avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11)). Nārada Muni advises that human beings not waste their time simply jumping like cats and monkeys, without real benefit. The duty of the human being is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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[[Vanisource:SB 6.5.12|SB 6.5.12, Translation and Purport]]
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[Nārada Muni had said that there is a kingdom where there is only one male. The Haryaśvas realized the purport of this statement.] The only enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who observes everything, everywhere. He is full of six opulences and fully independent of everyone else. He is never subject to the three modes of material nature, for He is always transcendental to this material creation. If the members of human society do not understand Him, the Supreme, through their advancement in knowledge and activities, but simply work very hard like cats and dogs all day and night for temporary happiness, what will be the benefit of their activities?
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<div class="purport">

Nārada Muni had mentioned a kingdom where there is only one king with no competitor. The complete spiritual world, and specifically the cosmic manifestation, has only one proprietor or enjoyer—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond this material manifestation. The Lord has therefore been described as turya, existing on the fourth platform. He has also been described as abhava. The word bhava, which means "takes birth," comes from the word bhū, "to be." As stated in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 8.19 (1972)|BG 8.19]]), bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate: the living entities in the material world must be repeatedly born and destroyed. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, is neither bhūtvā nor pralīyate; He is eternal. In other words, He is not obliged to take birth like human beings or animals, which repeatedly take birth and die because of ignorance of the soul. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is not subjected to such changes of body, and one who thinks otherwise is considered a fool (avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam ([[Vanisource:BG 9.11 (1972)|BG 9.11]])). Nārada Muni advises that human beings not waste their time simply jumping like cats and monkeys, without real benefit. The duty of the human being is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

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Narada Muni advised the Haryasvas not to enter household life. Since they were already advanced in spiritual knowledge, why should they be entangled in that way?

2024-03-02T04:48:19Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Narada Muni advised the Haryasvas not to enter household life. Since they were already advanced in spiritual knowledge, why should they be entangled in that way"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Purports]]
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
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<div id="SB_Canto_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 6"><h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
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<div id="SB6568_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_6" book="SB" index="194" link="SB 6.5.6-8" link_text="SB 6.5.6-8">
<div class="heading">In the dark well of family life, one is always full of anxiety because of having accepted a temporary body. If one wants to free himself from this anxiety, one should immediately leave family life and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Vṛndāvana. Nārada Muni advised the Haryaśvas not to enter household life. Since they were already advanced in spiritual knowledge, why should they be entangled in that way?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 6.5.6-8|SB 6.5.6-8, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">The great sage Nārada said: My dear Haryaśvas, you have not seen the extremities of the earth. There is a kingdom where only one man lives and where there is a hole from which, having entered, no one emerges. A woman there who is extremely unchaste adorns herself with various attractive dresses, and the man who lives there is her husband. In that kingdom, there is a river flowing in both directions, a wonderful home made of twenty-five materials, a swan that vibrates various sounds, and an automatically revolving object made of sharp razors and thunderbolts. You have not seen all this, and therefore you are inexperienced boys without advanced knowledge. How, then, will you create progeny?</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>Nārada Muni saw that the boys known as the Haryaśvas were already purified because of living in that holy place and were practically ready for liberation. Why then should they be encouraged to become entangled in family life, which is so dark that once having entered it one cannot leave it? Through this analogy, Nārada Muni asked them to consider why they should follow their father's order to be entangled in family life. Indirectly, he asked them to find within the cores of their hearts the situation of the Supersoul, Lord Viṣṇu, for then they would truly be experienced. In other words, one who is too involved in his material environment and does not look within the core of his heart is increasingly entangled in the illusory energy. Nārada Muni's purpose was to get the sons of Prajāpati Dakṣa to divert their attention toward spiritual realization instead of involving themselves in the ordinary but complicated affairs of propagation. The same advice was given by Prahlāda Mahārāja to his father ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.5|SB 7.5.5]]):</p>
:tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ
:sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt
:hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
:vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta
<p>In the dark well of family life, one is always full of anxiety because of having accepted a temporary body. If one wants to free himself from this anxiety, one should immediately leave family life and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Vṛndāvana. Nārada Muni advised the Haryaśvas not to enter household life. Since they were already advanced in spiritual knowledge, why should they be entangled in that way?</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the SPG, offer prayers and ask for the fulfillment of one's desire at the lotus feet of the Lord. That is real intelligence

2024-03-02T04:47:59Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 Purports - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Actually, the demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Nārada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, offer prayers and ask for the fulfillment of one's desire at the lotus feet of the Lord. That is real intelligence. An intelligent person never goes to demigods to pray for anything. He goes directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all benediction.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.41|SB 4.8.41, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Any person who desires the fruits of the four principles religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, at the end, liberation, should engage himself in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for worship of His lotus feet yields the fulfillment of all of these.
</div>
<div class="text">
In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that only with the sanction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can the demigods offer benedictions. Therefore, whenever any sacrifice is offered to a demigod, the Supreme Lord in the form of nārāyaṇa-śilā, or śālagrāma-śilā, is put forward to observe the sacrifice. Actually, the demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Nārada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, offer prayers and ask for the fulfillment of one's desire at the lotus feet of the Lord. That is real intelligence. An intelligent person never goes to demigods to pray for anything. He goes directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all benediction.

As Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa has said in Bhagavad-gītā, performance of ritualistic ceremonies is not actually religion. The real path of religion is to surrender at the lotus feet of the Lord. For one who is actually surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord, there is no question of any separate endeavor for economic development. A devotee engaged in service to the Lord is not disappointed in the satisfaction of his senses. If he wants to satisfy his senses, Kṛṣṇa fulfills that desire. As far as liberation is concerned, any devotee fully engaged in the service of the Lord is already liberated; therefore there is no separate necessity for his liberation.

Nārada Muni therefore advised Dhruva Mahārāja to take shelter of Vāsudeva, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and engage himself in the way that his mother had advised, for that would help him fulfill his desire. In this verse Nārada Muni has especially stressed the devotional service of the Lord as the only way. In other words, even if one is full of material desires, he can continue his devotional service to the Lord, and all his desires will be fulfilled.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advised Prajapati Daksa's second group of sons to follow their elder brothers and be promoted to the spiritual world

2024-03-02T04:47:37Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Nārada Muni advised Prajāpati Dakṣa's second group of sons to follow their elder brothers and be promoted to the spiritual world"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Here it is said that one who is very faithful to his brothers should follow a path similar to theirs and get the opportunity for promotion to Marudloka. Nārada Muni advised Prajāpati Dakṣa's second group of sons to follow their elder brothers and be promoted to the spiritual world.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 6.5.31|SB 6.5.31, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
A brother aware of the principles of religion follows in the footsteps of his elder brothers. Because of being highly elevated, such a pious brother gets the opportunity to associate and enjoy with demigods like the Maruts, who are all affectionate to their brothers.
</div>
<div class="text">
According to their belief in various material relationships, people are promoted to various planets. Here it is said that one who is very faithful to his brothers should follow a path similar to theirs and get the opportunity for promotion to Marudloka. Nārada Muni advised Prajāpati Dakṣa's second group of sons to follow their elder brothers and be promoted to the spiritual world.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advised him (Vyasadeva) to write about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Vyasadeva began writing Srimad-Bhagavatam

2024-03-02T04:47:19Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"advised him to write about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Vyāsadeva began writing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam"}}
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[[Category:Vyasadeva's Writings]]
[[Category:About]]
[[Category:Activities of God]]
[[Category:Supreme Personality of Godhead]]
[[Category:Therefore]]
[[Category:Began]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Chapter 22 Purports - The Process of Devotional Service]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Purports]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 62 Chapters, All Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Even after writing many Vedic literatures, Vyāsadeva felt very morose. Therefore his spiritual master, Nāradadeva, told him that he could be happy by writing about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Up to that time, Śrīla Vyāsadeva had written the karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa sections of the Vedas, but he had not written about upāsanā-kāṇḍa, or bhakti. Thus his spiritual master, Nārada, chastised him and advised him to write about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Vyāsadeva began writing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 22.19|CC Madhya 22.19, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
“‘When pure knowledge is beyond all material affinity but is not dedicated to the Supreme Personality of Godhead [Kṛṣṇa], it does not appear very beautiful, although it is knowledge without a material tinge. What, then, is the use of fruitive activities—which are naturally painful from the beginning and transient by nature—if they are not utilized for the devotional service of the Lord? How can they be very attractive?’
</div>
<div class="text">
This is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.5.12|SB 1.5.12]]). Even after writing many Vedic literatures, Vyāsadeva felt very morose. Therefore his spiritual master, Nāradadeva, told him that he could be happy by writing about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Up to that time, Śrīla Vyāsadeva had written the karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa sections of the Vedas, but he had not written about upāsanā-kāṇḍa, or bhakti. Thus his spiritual master, Nārada, chastised him and advised him to write about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Vyāsadeva began writing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada gave them (the hunter & his wife) 1 Tulasi plant, & they sat down near the Tulasi plant, & he advised that "Go on chanting HK mantra." In the meantime, in the village it was advertised that - The hunter has become a Vaisnava. Let us go and see him

2024-03-02T04:46:09Z

Kritika:

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<div id="section">
<h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
So they followed the instruction of Nārada Muni, the spiritual master, and they came with Nārada Muni and sat down in a place on the bank of the Ganges at Prayāg. Nārada Muni gave them one Tulasī plant, and they sat down near the Tulasī plant, and he advised that "Go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." In the meantime, in the village it was advertised that "The hunter has become a Vaiṣṇava. Let us go and see him." So people who were coming to visit, they were bringing . . . It is the custom still now, India, that when you go to see some Deity or a Vaiṣṇava, sādhu, you bring some, one misti rice or āttā; you give them as contribution.
</div>

<mp3player>https://vanipedia.s3.amazonaws.com/clip/760107SB-NELLORE_clip0.mp3</mp3player>
<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:760107 - Lecture SB 06.01.09 - Nellore|760107 - Lecture SB 06.01.09 - Nellore]]
</div>
<div class="text">
In every religious system there is a process of atonement. In Christian religion there is a process of atonement called confession. Some religion, there is a process of atonement called confession.The Parīkṣit Mahārāja is practical politician. He said that . . . He had also experience that a criminal is punished and again he commits the criminal act. Nowadays we practically see also that government has enacted so many laws against criminality, but criminality is going on without any stoppage. We have got practical experience, as we have explained last night, that in the airport the security checking is going on for everyone - which means that after so much education, every one of us, we are dishonest. This answer is there in the śāstra: yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. This means that if one is turned to be a pure devotee, then all the good qualities automatically become manifest in him. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsato dhāvato bahiḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 5.18.12|SB 5.18.12]]). Whereas a nondevotee, he has no good qualification because he is acting on the mental platform - as such he will be always attracted by material things.

In this connection I shall recite one historical incident from the Purāṇas. There was a hunter in Prayāg. Prayāg you know, in Allahabad. So he was hunting in the forest indiscriminately. So Nārada Muni was passing through the jungle, and he was very compassionate to see the animals being half dead and half killed by the hunter. Nārada Muni, being Vaiṣṇava, he was very kind to all living entities; so he went to the hunter, whose name was Mṛgāri. So the Mṛgāri thought that "This saintly person is coming to me for some deerskin," so he said, "Sir, don't disturb in my business. If you want deerskin I shall give you. Please get out of my activities for the present." Nārada Muni said that "I have not come here to ask for deerskin, but I simply ask you that if you want to kill the animals, you kill them total. Why you are killing half?" The hunter said, "What is the difference between killing whole and killing half?"

Actually he had no idea about pāpa and puṇya. Actually, those who are animal-hunter, they cannot understand what is spiritual life, what is God, what is sinful life, what is pious life. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam quoted by Mahārāja Parīkṣit,

<div class="quote_verse">
:nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād
:bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt
:ka uttamaśloka guṇānuvādāt
:virajyeta vinā paśughnāt
:([[Vanisource:SB 10.1.4|SB 10.1.4]])
</div>

Unless one is animal-hunter, he cannot be away from chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So Nārada Muni said that "If you kill the animal totally, it is less sinful than you kill them half." Nārada Muni said, "No, if you kill the animal half, it is more sinful than you kill them whole." The hunter said that "From my childhood I have been taught like this by my father. I do not know which is sinful, which is pious." Nārada Muni, as Vaiṣṇava, advised him that "You stop this hunting business and I will give you your livelihood." The hunter, having seen a Vaiṣṇava, was little convinced about spiritual life. Then he said that "Sir, if you give me my livelihood, then I can give up my this business." Then Nārada Muni suggested that "You and your wife may come with me. I shall arrange for your livelihood. You give up this business."

So they followed the instruction of Nārada Muni, the spiritual master, and they came with Nārada Muni and sat down in a place on the bank of the Ganges at Prayāg. Nārada Muni gave them one Tulasī plant, and they sat down near the Tulasī plant, and he advised that "Go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." In the meantime, in the village it was advertised that "The hunter has become a Vaiṣṇava. Let us go and see him." So people who were coming to visit, they were bringing . . . It is the custom still now, India, that when you go to see some Deity or a Vaiṣṇava, sādhu, you bring some, one misti rice or āttā; you give them as contribution. So he thought that Nārada Muni was sending the āttā, rice, dāl, and everything. So he became confident that he would not die because he is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In this way he gradually became a perfect Vaiṣṇava because he was chanting under the instruction of the spiritual master and committing no sinful activities. So, we being in the disciplic succession of Nārada Muni, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are advising the same principle: that "Don't commit sinful activities, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra."
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advises the hunter to accept only what is absolutely necessary for him and his wife. The devotee should always be alert to consume only those things that he absolutely requires and not create unnecessary needs

2024-03-02T04:44:56Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Chapter 24 Purports - The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse]]
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<div id="section">
<h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
The principle should be that one should not want more than what is absolutely necessary. Nārada Muni advises the hunter to accept only what is absolutely necessary for him and his wife. The devotee should always be alert to consume only those things that he absolutely requires and not create unnecessary needs.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 24.262|CC Madhya 24.262, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
“Nārada Muni continued, ‘Every day I shall send sufficient food to you both. You can take as much food as you want.’
</div>
<div class="text">
When a person takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no need to care for material necessities. Kṛṣṇa says, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham: ([[Vanisource:BG 9.22 (1972)|BG 9.22]]) “I personally carry all necessities to My devotees.” Why should one be anxious about the necessities of life? The principle should be that one should not want more than what is absolutely necessary. Nārada Muni advises the hunter to accept only what is absolutely necessary for him and his wife. The devotee should always be alert to consume only those things that he absolutely requires and not create unnecessary needs.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advises the Pracetas to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized

2024-03-02T04:44:29Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Nārada Muni therefore advises the Pracetās to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 31 Purports - Narada Instructs the Pracetas]]
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</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada Muni therefore advises the Pracetās to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized. According to the advice of Nārada Muni, one should directly engage in devotional service. This will include all pious activity. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states, kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya: when one worships the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, in devotional service, one automatically performs all other pious activity.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.31.8|SB 4.31.8, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Because the Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes, He is the Supersoul of all individual living entities, and He exists as both the remote and immediate cause. Since He is aloof from the material emanations, He is free from their interactions and is Lord of material nature. You should therefore engage in His devotional service, thinking yourself qualitatively one with Him.
</div>
<div class="text">
According to Vedic calculations, there are three causes of creation—time, the ingredient and the creator. Combined, these are called tritayātmaka, the three causes. Everything in this material world is created by these three causes. All of these causes are found in the Personality of Godhead. As confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā: sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (BS 5.1). Nārada Muni therefore advises the Pracetās to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized. According to the advice of Nārada Muni, one should directly engage in devotional service. This will include all pious activity. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states, kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya: when one worships the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, in devotional service, one automatically performs all other pious activity. In this verse the words sva-tejasā dhvasta-guṇa-pravāham are very significant. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is never affected by the material qualities, although they all emanate from His spiritual energy. Those who are really conversant with this knowledge can utilize everything for the service of the Lord because nothing in this material world is unconnected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advises Vyasadeva thusly, "Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Krsna), there will be no fault on his part, & in all circumstances his position is secure"

2024-03-02T04:43:08Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Kṛṣṇa), there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure"}}
{{notes|}}
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[[Category:Immediately]]
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[[Category:There Will Be No]]
[[Category:Fault]]
[[Category:Part]]
[[Category:In All Circumstances]]
[[Category:Position]]
[[Category:Secure]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapter 05 - The Purity of Devotional Service]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapters 01 to 51]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Nectar of Devotion</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada Muni advises Vyāsadeva thusly: "Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Kṛṣṇa), there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure. Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:NOD 5 (1970)|Nectar of Devotion, 5]]
</div>
<div class="text">
Practically there are three processes for elevating one to the platform of spiritual consciousness. These processes are called karma, jñāna and bhakti. Ritualistic performances are in the field of karma. Speculative processes are in the field of jñāna. One who has taken to bhakti, the devotional service of the Lord, need have nothing to do with karma or jñāna. It has been already explained that pure devotional service is without any tinge of karma or jñāna. Bhakti should have no tinge of philosophical speculation or ritualistic performances.

In this connection Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives evidence from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.21.2|Eleventh Canto]], in which it is said by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava, "The distinction between qualification and disqualification may be made in this way: persons who are already elevated in discharging devotional service will never again take shelter of the processes of fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. If one sticks to devotional service and is conducted by regulative principles given by the authorities and ācāryas, that is the best qualification."

This statement is supported in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 1.5.17|First Canto, 5th Chapter, 17th verse]], wherein Śrī Nārada Muni advises Vyāsadeva thusly: "Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Kṛṣṇa), there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure. Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life." The purport is that all conditioned souls who are engaged very frantically in activities for sense gratification, without knowing that this process will never help them to get out of material contamination, are awarded only with repeated births and deaths.

In the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is clearly stated by Ṛṣabhadeva to his sons: "Persons engaged in fruitive activities are repeatedly accepting birth and death, and until they develop a loving feeling for Vāsudeva, there will be no question of getting out from these stringent laws of material nature." As such, any person who is very seriously engaged in his occupational duties in the varṇas and āśramas, and who does not develop love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, is to be understood as simply spoiling his human form of life.

This is confirmed also in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.11.29-32|11th Chapter, 32nd verse]], in which the Lord says to Uddhava, "My dear Uddhava, any person who takes shelter of Me in complete surrender and follows My instructions, giving up all occupational duties, is to be considered the first-class man." In this statement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is understood that people who are generally attracted to philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic, political and social welfare activities may be considered nice men only in the calculation of the material world. From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other authentic Vedic scriptures we learn further that if a person simply acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and discharges devotional service, he is considered to be far, far better situated than all of those persons engaged in philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic and social welfare activities.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advises Vyasadeva, "A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varna and asrama, however, with no Krsna consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life"

2024-03-02T04:42:40Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|HanumanIC}}
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[[Category:Practically]]
[[Category:Does Not]]
[[Category:Gain]]
[[Category:True]]
[[Category:Benefit]]
[[Category:Human Life]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapter 05 - The Purity of Devotional Service]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapters 01 to 51]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Nectar of Devotion</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:NOD 5 (1970)|Nectar of Devotion, 5]]
</div>
<div class="text">
Practically there are three processes for elevating one to the platform of spiritual consciousness. These processes are called karma, jñāna and bhakti. Ritualistic performances are in the field of karma. Speculative processes are in the field of jñāna. One who has taken to bhakti, the devotional service of the Lord, need have nothing to do with karma or jñāna. It has been already explained that pure devotional service is without any tinge of karma or jñāna. Bhakti should have no tinge of philosophical speculation or ritualistic performances.

In this connection Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives evidence from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.21.2|Eleventh Canto]], in which it is said by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava, "The distinction between qualification and disqualification may be made in this way: persons who are already elevated in discharging devotional service will never again take shelter of the processes of fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. If one sticks to devotional service and is conducted by regulative principles given by the authorities and ācāryas, that is the best qualification."

This statement is supported in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 1.5.17|First Canto, 5th Chapter, 17th verse]], wherein Śrī Nārada Muni advises Vyāsadeva thusly: "Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Kṛṣṇa), there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure. Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life." The purport is that all conditioned souls who are engaged very frantically in activities for sense gratification, without knowing that this process will never help them to get out of material contamination, are awarded only with repeated births and deaths.

In the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is clearly stated by Ṛṣabhadeva to his sons: "Persons engaged in fruitive activities are repeatedly accepting birth and death, and until they develop a loving feeling for Vāsudeva, there will be no question of getting out from these stringent laws of material nature." As such, any person who is very seriously engaged in his occupational duties in the varṇas and āśramas, and who does not develop love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, is to be understood as simply spoiling his human form of life.

This is confirmed also in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.11.29-32|11th Chapter, 32nd verse]], in which the Lord says to Uddhava, "My dear Uddhava, any person who takes shelter of Me in complete surrender and follows My instructions, giving up all occupational duties, is to be considered the first-class man." In this statement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is understood that people who are generally attracted to philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic, political and social welfare activities may be considered nice men only in the calculation of the material world. From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other authentic Vedic scriptures we learn further that if a person simply acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and discharges devotional service, he is considered to be far, far better situated than all of those persons engaged in philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic and social welfare activities.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni advises Vyasadeva, "Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss"

2024-03-02T04:42:14Z

Kritika:

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{{notes|}}
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[[Category:Devotional Service to God at the Time of Death‎]]
[[Category:Untimely]]
[[Category:No Loss in Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:Narada and Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapter 05 - The Purity of Devotional Service]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapters 01 to 51]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Nectar of Devotion</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:NOD 5 (1970)|Nectar of Devotion, 5]]
</div>
<div class="text">
Practically there are three processes for elevating one to the platform of spiritual consciousness. These processes are called karma, jñāna and bhakti. Ritualistic performances are in the field of karma. Speculative processes are in the field of jñāna. One who has taken to bhakti, the devotional service of the Lord, need have nothing to do with karma or jñāna. It has been already explained that pure devotional service is without any tinge of karma or jñāna. Bhakti should have no tinge of philosophical speculation or ritualistic performances.

In this connection Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives evidence from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.21.2|Eleventh Canto]], in which it is said by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava, "The distinction between qualification and disqualification may be made in this way: persons who are already elevated in discharging devotional service will never again take shelter of the processes of fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. If one sticks to devotional service and is conducted by regulative principles given by the authorities and ācāryas, that is the best qualification."

This statement is supported in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 1.5.17|First Canto, 5th Chapter, 17th verse]], wherein Śrī Nārada Muni advises Vyāsadeva thusly: "Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari (Kṛṣṇa), there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure. Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn't finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varṇa and āśrama, however, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life." The purport is that all conditioned souls who are engaged very frantically in activities for sense gratification, without knowing that this process will never help them to get out of material contamination, are awarded only with repeated births and deaths.

In the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is clearly stated by Ṛṣabhadeva to his sons: "Persons engaged in fruitive activities are repeatedly accepting birth and death, and until they develop a loving feeling for Vāsudeva, there will be no question of getting out from these stringent laws of material nature." As such, any person who is very seriously engaged in his occupational duties in the varṇas and āśramas, and who does not develop love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, is to be understood as simply spoiling his human form of life.

This is confirmed also in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 11.11.29-32|11th Chapter, 32nd verse]], in which the Lord says to Uddhava, "My dear Uddhava, any person who takes shelter of Me in complete surrender and follows My instructions, giving up all occupational duties, is to be considered the first-class man." In this statement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is understood that people who are generally attracted to philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic, political and social welfare activities may be considered nice men only in the calculation of the material world. From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other authentic Vedic scriptures we learn further that if a person simply acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and discharges devotional service, he is considered to be far, far better situated than all of those persons engaged in philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic and social welfare activities.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni described to the boys (the Haryasvas) their ultimate goal of life and advised them not to become ordinary karmis to beget children. Thus all the sons of Daksa became enlightened and left, never to return

2024-03-02T04:41:52Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Narada Muni described to the boys their ultimate goal of life and advised them not to become ordinary karmis to beget children. Thus all the sons of Daksa became enlightened and left, never to return"}}
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[[Category:Leave]]
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[[Category:Narada and Daksa]]
</div>
<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 6"><h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB65Summary_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_6" book="SB" index="189" link="SB 6.5 Summary" link_text="SB 6.5 Summary">
<div class="heading">The Haryaśvas began practicing austerities, penances and meditation, which are the engagements of the highly exalted renounced order of life. However, when Śrīla Nārada Muni saw these boys engaged in such commendable austerities simply for material creation, he thought it better to release them from this tendency. Nārada Muni described to the boys their ultimate goal of life and advised them not to become ordinary karmīs to beget children. Thus all the sons of Dakṣa became enlightened and left, never to return.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 6.5 Summary|SB 6.5 Summary]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">This chapter relates how all the sons of Dakṣa were delivered from the clutches of the material energy by following the advice of Nārada, who was therefore cursed by Dakṣa.</p>
<p>Influenced by the external energy of Lord Viṣṇu, Prajāpati Dakṣa begot ten thousand sons in the womb of his wife, Pāñcajanī. These sons, who were all of the same character and mentality, were known as the Haryaśvas. Ordered by their father to create more and more population, the Haryaśvas went west to the place where the River Sindhu (now the Indus) meets the Arabian Sea. In those days this was the site of a holy lake named Nārāyaṇa-saras, where there were many saintly persons. The Haryaśvas began practicing austerities, penances and meditation, which are the engagements of the highly exalted renounced order of life. However, when Śrīla Nārada Muni saw these boys engaged in such commendable austerities simply for material creation, he thought it better to release them from this tendency. Nārada Muni described to the boys their ultimate goal of life and advised them not to become ordinary karmīs to beget children. Thus all the sons of Dakṣa became enlightened and left, never to return.</p>
<p>Prajāpati Dakṣa, who was very sad at the loss of his sons, begot one thousand more sons in the womb of his wife, Pāñcajanī, and ordered them to increase progeny. These sons, who were named the Savalāśvas, also engaged in worshiping Lord Viṣṇu to beget children, but Nārada Muni convinced them to become mendicants and not beget children. Foiled twice in his attempts to increase population, Prajāpati Dakṣa became most angry at Nārada Muni and cursed him, saying that in the future he would not be able to stay anywhere. Since Nārada Muni, being fully qualified, was fixed in tolerance, he accepted Dakṣa's curse.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni had come to advise Priyavrata about the value of spiritual life, knowledge, renunciation and bhakti, and Lord Brahma knew that Narada's instructions were very impressive

2024-03-02T04:41:21Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Nārada Muni had come to advise Priyavrata about the value of spiritual life, knowledge, renunciation and bhakti, and Lord Brahmā knew that Nārada's instructions were very impressive"}}
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[[Category:Very]]
[[Category:Impression]]
[[Category:Narada and Priyavrata]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Chapter 01 Purports - The Activities of Maharaja Priyavrata]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 5</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
That Lord Brahmā descended from Satyaloka to see Priyavrata indicates that the matter was very serious. Nārada Muni had come to advise Priyavrata about the value of spiritual life, knowledge, renunciation and bhakti, and Lord Brahmā knew that Nārada's instructions were very impressive. Therefore unless Lord Brahmā personally went to Gandhamādana Hill to request Priyavrata, Lord Brahmā knew that prince Priyavrata would not accept his father's order. Brahmā's purpose was to break Priyavrata's determination.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 5.1.10|SB 5.1.10, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
My dear King Parīkṣit, because Lord Brahmā had finally descended from Satyaloka to Bhūloka, Nārada Muni, Prince Priyavrata and Svāyambhuva Manu came forward to offer him objects of worship and to praise him in highly qualified language, according to Vedic etiquette. At that time, Lord Brahmā, the original person of this universe, felt compassion for Priyavrata and, looking upon him with a smiling face, spoke to him as follows.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

That Lord Brahmā descended from Satyaloka to see Priyavrata indicates that the matter was very serious. Nārada Muni had come to advise Priyavrata about the value of spiritual life, knowledge, renunciation and bhakti, and Lord Brahmā knew that Nārada's instructions were very impressive. Therefore unless Lord Brahmā personally went to Gandhamādana Hill to request Priyavrata, Lord Brahmā knew that prince Priyavrata would not accept his father's order. Brahmā's purpose was to break Priyavrata's determination. Therefore Brahmā first looked upon Priyavrata with compassion. His smile and compassionate features also indicated that although Brahmā would request Priyavrata to accept household life, Priyavrata would not be out of touch with devotional service. By the blessings of a Vaiṣṇava, everything is possible. This is described in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu as kṛpā-siddhi, or perfection attained simply by the blessings of a superior person. One usually becomes liberated and perfect by executing the regulative principles set down in the śāstras. Nonetheless, many persons have achieved perfection simply by the blessings of a spiritual master or superior.

Priyavrata was the grandson of Lord Brahmā, and as joking competition sometimes takes place between grandson and grandfather, in this case also Priyavrata was determined to remain in meditation, whereas Brahmā was determined that he rule the universe. Thus Lord Brahmā's affectionate smile and glance meant, "My dear Priyavrata, you have decided not to accept household life, but I have decided to convince you that you must accept it." Actually, Brahmā had come to praise Priyavrata for his high standard of renunciation, austerity, penance and devotion so that he would not be deviated from devotional service, even though he would accept household life.

In this verse, one important word is sūkta-vākena (by Vedic hymns). In the Vedas, there is the following prayer to Lord Brahmā: hiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgre bhūtasya jātaḥ patir eka āsīt. Brahmā was received with the appropriate Vedic hymns, and because he was welcomed according to the Vedic etiquette, he was very pleased.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada Muni then advised the hunter, 'Return home and distribute whatever riches you have to the pure brahmanas who know the Absolute Truth'

2024-03-02T04:41:00Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Nārada Muni then advised the hunter, ‘Return home and distribute whatever riches you have to the pure brāhmaṇas who know the Absolute Truth"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|HanumanIC}}
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[[Category:Narada and Mrgari the Hunter]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Chapter 24 - The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 62 Chapters]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 25 Chapters]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada Muni then advised the hunter, ‘Return home and distribute whatever riches you have to the pure brāhmaṇas who know the Absolute Truth. After you have distributed all your riches to the brāhmaṇas, you and your wife should leave home, each of you taking only one cloth to wear.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 24.259|CC Madhya 24.259, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Nārada Muni then advised the hunter, ‘Return home and distribute whatever riches you have to the pure brāhmaṇas who know the Absolute Truth. After you have distributed all your riches to the brāhmaṇas, you and your wife should leave home, each of you taking only one cloth to wear.
</div>
<div class="text">
This is the process of renunciation at the stage of vānaprastha. After enjoying householder life for some time, the husband and wife must leave home and distribute their riches to brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. One can keep his wife as an assistant in the vānaprastha stage. The idea is that the wife will assist the husband in spiritual advancement. Therefore Nārada Muni advised the hunter to adopt the vānaprastha stage and leave home. It is not that a gṛhastha should live at home until he dies. Vānaprastha is preliminary to sannyāsa. In the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement there are many young couples engaged in the Lord’s service. Eventually they are supposed to take vānaprastha, and after the vānaprastha stage the husband may take sannyāsa in order to preach. The wife may then remain alone and serve the Deity or engage in other activities within the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada was never advised to preach the principles of Bhagavatam to earn a livelihood; he was ordered by his spiritual master to take the matter very seriously in a missionary spirit

2024-03-02T04:38:30Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
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[[Category:Earning a Livelihood]]
[[Category:Orders of a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Take]]
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[[Category:Very Seriously]]
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[[Category:Spirit]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Chapter 07 Purports - Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 2</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Those who are after the enjoyment of this material world can also take shelter of the great science of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and they will be successful at the end. Nārada is therefore requested or ordered by his spiritual master to present this science with determination and in good plan. Nārada was never advised to preach the principles of Bhāgavatam to earn a livelihood; he was ordered by his spiritual master to take the matter very seriously in a missionary spirit.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 2.7.52|SB 2.7.52, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Please describe the science of Godhead with determination and in a manner by which it will be quite possible for the human being to develop transcendental devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead Hari, the Supersoul of every living being and the summum bonum source of all energies.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the philosophy of devotional service and the scientific presentation of man's relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prior to the age of Kali there was no need for such a book of knowledge to know the Lord and His potential energies, but with the beginning of the age of Kali human society gradually became influenced by four sinful principles, namely illegitimate connection with women, intoxication, gambling and unnecessary killing of animals. Because of these basic sinful acts, man gradually became forgetful of his eternal relation with God. Therefore man became blind, so to speak, to his ultimate goal of life. The ultimate goal of life is not to pass a life of irresponsibility like the animals and indulge in a polished way in the four animal principles, namely eating, sleeping, fearing and mating. For such a blind human society in the darkness of ignorance, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the torchlight to see things in proper perspective. Therefore it was necessary to describe the science of God from the very beginning, or from the very birth of the phenomenal world.

As we have already explained, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is so scientifically presented that any sincere student of this great science will be able to understand the science of God simply by reading it with attention or simply by regularly hearing it from the bona fide speaker. Everyone is hankering after happiness in life, but in this age the members of human society, blind as they are, do not have the proper vision that the Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all happiness because He is the ultimate source of everything (janmādy asya yataḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 1.1.1|SB 1.1.1]])). Happiness in complete perfection without hindrance can be achieved only by our devotional relationship with Him. And it is only by His association that we can get free of distressful material existence. Even those who are after the enjoyment of this material world can also take shelter of the great science of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and they will be successful at the end. Nārada is therefore requested or ordered by his spiritual master to present this science with determination and in good plan. Nārada was never advised to preach the principles of Bhāgavatam to earn a livelihood; he was ordered by his spiritual master to take the matter very seriously in a missionary spirit.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Naradaji advises Vyasadeva to broadcast the transcendental knowledge of God in terms of the vast Vedic knowledge which he had already attained

2024-03-02T04:38:09Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
As such, Nāradajī advises Vyāsadeva to broadcast the transcendental knowledge of God in terms of the vast Vedic knowledge which he had already attained.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.40|SB 1.5.40, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Please, therefore, describe the Almighty Lord's activities which you have learned by your vast knowledge of the Vedas, for that will satisfy the hankerings of great learned men and at the same time mitigate the miseries of the masses of common people who are always suffering from material pangs. Indeed, there is no other way to get out of such miseries.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Śrī Nārada Muni from practical experience definitely asserts that the prime solution of all problems of material work is to broadcast very widely the transcendental glories of the Supreme Lord. There are four classes of good men, and there are four classes of bad men also. The four classes of good men acknowledge the authority of the Almighty God, and therefore such good men (1) when they are in difficulty, (2) when they are in need of money, (3) when they are advanced in knowledge and (4) when they are inquisitive to know more and more about God, intuitively take shelter of the Lord. As such, Nāradajī advises Vyāsadeva to broadcast the transcendental knowledge of God in terms of the vast Vedic knowledge which he had already attained.

As far as the bad men are concerned, they are also four in number: (1) those who are simply addicted to the mode of progressive fruitive work and thus are subjected to the accompanying miseries, (2) those who are simply addicted to vicious work for sense satisfaction and so suffer the consequence, (3) those who are materially very much advanced in knowledge, but who suffer because they do not have the sense to acknowledge the authority of the Almighty Lord, and (4) the class of men who are known as atheists and who therefore purposely hate the very name of God, although they are always in difficulty.

Śrī Nāradajī advised Vyāsadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is therefore not meant for any particular class of men or sect. It is for the sincere soul who actually wants his own welfare and peace of mind.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada advises Vyasadeva that - You are not only fortunate, but you are amogha-drk. Your vision is perfect because you are liberated

2024-03-02T04:36:55Z

Kritika:

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</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada advises Vyāsadeva that "You are not only fortunate, but you are amogha-dṛk. Your vision is perfect because you are liberated." Amogha. Our vision—we are not perfect. Therefore you'll find in Vedic version, anuśṛṇuyet, anuvarṇayet. Anu. Anu means following. Following. We have to follow the ācāryas. Just like Vyāsadeva. Amogha-dṛk: his vision is without any impediment.
</div>

<mp3player>https://vanipedia.s3.amazonaws.com/clip/690611SB-NEW_VRINDAVAN_clip01.mp3</mp3player>
<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:690611 - Lecture SB 01.05.12-13 - New Vrindaban, USA|690611 - Lecture SB 01.05.12-13 - New Vrindaban, USA]]
</div>
<div class="text">
My Guru Mahārāja used to say that this press is bṛhad-mṛdaṅga. Bṛhat means bigger, at large, bigger mṛdaṅga, bigger. Just like we are playing mṛdaṅga. This mṛdaṅga can be vibrated in the neighboring quarter, but our mṛdaṅga, Back to Godhead, that will go far, far away. So therefore this press was considered by my Guru Mahārāja as bṛhad-mṛdaṅga. He said. You'll find in the picture: there is this mṛdaṅga and press. He was very much fond of press. In the very beginning of his this life, he started one press. You'll find in his life a small press.

So this press propaganda, this literary propaganda, is required, because it is not sentiment. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not sentiment. It is not that some sentimental people have gathered here and dancing and chanting. No. There is background. There is philosophical background. There is theological understanding. It is not blind or sentimental. So therefore Nārada advises Vyāsadeva that "You are not only fortunate, but you are amogha-dṛk. Your vision is perfect because you are liberated." Amogha.

Our vision—we are not perfect. Therefore you'll find in Vedic version, anuśṛṇuyet, anuvarṇayet. Anu. Anu means following. Following. We have to follow the ācāryas. Just like Vyāsadeva. Amogha-dṛk: his vision is without any impediment. There are four kinds of impediments for the conditioned soul. What are those? That we are subjected to commit error. Any man will commit error, because he's conditioned; he'll be illusioned; and he will try to cheat; and his senses are imperfect. These four imperfectness of a conditioned soul. Anywhere, you take any great man, any big man, he has got these four imperfection.

Therefore without liberated man, you cannot get real knowledge. Therefore you'll find even the so-called scientists, astrologer and the astronomer, or . . . they're studying this nature, "Perhaps," "It might be," because they have no clear vision. And another scientist comes, they changes. But you'll find in the Vedic literature, everything clear understanding. Just like the Vedic literature says the division of the living entities: jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi (Padma Purāṇa). Accurate number is given, that "There are 900,000 species of life in the water." Accurate. So they might have said ten . . . one million, or 800,000. No. Nine hundred thousand. Nine hundred thousand. Because it's accurate. Amogha-dṛk, they have been placed. How it has been acquired? The . . . the same process, paramparā, amogha-dṛk. If you receive knowledge from the person who is liberated, then it is all right.

So Vyāsadeva is liberated person. Amogha-dṛk. He's amogha-dṛk. Bhavān amogha-dṛk śuci-śravāḥ. "And your behavior is pure," śuci-śravāḥ. "You have heard the Vedic knowledge from right sources, from pure sources." Śuci-śravāḥ satya-rataḥ. Satya-rataḥ means "You are dedicated to the Absolute Truth." These are the qualification. One must be liberated, one must be pure, one must be dedicated to the service of the Lord, and dhṛta-vrataḥ, and one must be determined. Then he can do something to the human society. Not a conditioned soul, by whims he can manufacture something, that "I can do something to the human . . ." It is not possible.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada advises Sri Vyasadeva to compose transcendental literature which is not only attractive but can also actually bring liberation from all kinds of bondage

2024-03-02T04:36:17Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_1" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 1"><h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB1513_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="144" link="SB 1.5.13" link_text="SB 1.5.13">
<div class="heading">Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, being the best amongst the Vaiṣṇavas, is compassionate toward such unfortunate victims of worthless literatures, and thus he advises Śrī Vyāsadeva to compose transcendental literature which is not only attractive but can also actually bring liberation from all kinds of bondage. Śrīla Vyāsadeva or his representatives are qualified because they are rightly trained to see things in true perspective. Śrīla Vyāsadeva and his representatives are pure in thought due to their spiritual enlightenment, fixed in their vows due to their devotional service, and determined to deliver the fallen souls rotting in material activities.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.13|SB 1.5.13, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div class="trans text" style="display: inline; "><p style="display: inline; ">O Vyāsadeva, your vision is completely perfect. Your good fame is spotless. You are firm in vow and situated in truthfulness. And thus you can think of the pastimes of the Lord in trance for the liberation of the people in general from all material bondage.</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>People in general have a taste for literatures by instinct. They want to hear and read from the authorities something about the unknown, but their taste is exploited by unfortunate literatures which are full of subject matter for satisfaction of the material senses. Such literatures contain different kinds of mundane poems and philosophical speculations, more or less under the influence of māyā, ending in sense gratification. These literatures, although worthless in the true sense of the term, are variously decorated to attract the attention of the less intelligent men. Thus the attracted living entities are more and more entangled in material bondage without hope of liberation for thousands and thousands of generations. Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, being the best amongst the Vaiṣṇavas, is compassionate toward such unfortunate victims of worthless literatures, and thus he advises Śrī Vyāsadeva to compose transcendental literature which is not only attractive but can also actually bring liberation from all kinds of bondage. Śrīla Vyāsadeva or his representatives are qualified because they are rightly trained to see things in true perspective. Śrīla Vyāsadeva and his representatives are pure in thought due to their spiritual enlightenment, fixed in their vows due to their devotional service, and determined to deliver the fallen souls rotting in material activities. The fallen souls are very eager to receive novel informations every day, and the transcendentalists like Vyāsadeva or Nārada can supply such eager people in general with unlimited news from the spiritual world. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the material world is only a part of the whole creation and that this earth is only a fragment of the whole material world.</p>
<p>There are thousands and thousands of literary men all over the world, and they have created many, many thousands of literary works for the information of the people in general for thousands and thousands of years. Unfortunately none of them have brought peace and tranquillity on the earth. This is due to a spiritual vacuum in those literatures; therefore the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are specifically recommended to suffering humanity to bring about the desired effect of liberation from the pangs of material civilization, which is eating the vital part of human energy. The Bhagavad-gītā is the spoken message of the Lord Himself recorded by Vyāsadeva, and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the transcendental narration of the activities of the same Lord Kṛṣṇa, which alone can satisfy the hankering desires of the living being for eternal peace and liberation from miseries. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, is meant for all the living beings all over the universe for total liberation from all kinds of material bondage. Such transcendental narrations of the pastimes of the Lord can be described only by liberated souls like Vyāsadeva and his bona fide representatives who are completely merged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Only to such devotees do the pastimes of the Lord and their transcendental nature become automatically manifest by dint of devotional service. No one else can either know or describe the acts of the Lord, even if they speculate on the subject for many, many years. The descriptions of the Bhāgavatam are so precise and accurate that whatever has been predicted in this great literature about five thousand years ago is now exactly happening. Therefore, the vision of the author comprehends past, present and future. Such liberated persons as Vyāsadeva are perfect not only by the power of vision and wisdom, but also in aural reception, in thinking, feeling and all other sense activities. A liberated person possesses perfect senses, and with perfect senses only can one serve the sense proprietor, Hṛṣīkeśa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, is the perfect description of the all-perfect Personality of Godhead by the all-perfect personality Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the compiler of the Vedas.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord, which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one's mind on the form of the Lord

2024-03-02T04:35:44Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 Purports - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord, which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one's mind on the form of the Lord. As meditation on any form of the Lord is valuable, so is chanting of different names of the Lord, such as Hari, Govinda and Nārāyaṇa. But in this age we are especially advised to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra as enunciated in the śāstra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.57|SB 4.8.57, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
My dear Dhruva, besides worshiping the Deity and chanting the mantra three times a day, you should meditate upon the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His different incarnations, as exhibited by His supreme will and personal potencies.
</div>
<div class="text">
Devotional service comprises nine prescribed practices—hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving, offering everything to the Deity, etc. Here Dhruva Mahārāja is advised not only to meditate on the form of the Lord, but to think of His transcendental pastimes in His different incarnations. Māyāvādī philosophers take the incarnation of the Lord to be in the same category as the ordinary living entity. This is a great mistake. The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not forced to act by the material laws of nature. The word svecchā is used here to indicate that He appears out of His supreme will. The conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of body according to his karma given by the laws of material nature under the direction of the Supreme Lord. But when the Lord appears, He is not forced by the dictation of material nature; He appears as He likes by His own internal potency. That is the difference. The conditioned soul accepts a particular type of body, such as the body of a hog, by his work and by the superior authority of material nature. But when Lord Kṛṣṇa appears in the incarnation of a boar, He is not the same kind of hog as an ordinary animal. Kṛṣṇa appears as Varāha-avatāra in an expansive feature which cannot be compared to an ordinary hog's. His appearance and disappearance are inconceivable to us. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that He appears by His own internal potency for the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the nondevotees. A devotee should always consider that Kṛṣṇa does not appear as an ordinary human being or ordinary beast; His appearance as Varāha-mūrti or a horse or tortoise is an exhibition of His internal potency. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ: (BS 5.37) one should not mistake the appearance of the Lord as a human being or a beast to be the same as the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul, who is forced to appear by the laws of nature, whether as an animal, as a human being or as a demigod. This kind of thinking is offensive. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned the Māyāvādīs as offensive to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of their thinking that the Lord and the conditioned living entities are one and the same.

Nārada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord, which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one's mind on the form of the Lord. As meditation on any form of the Lord is valuable, so is chanting of different names of the Lord, such as Hari, Govinda and Nārāyaṇa. But in this age we are especially advised to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra as enunciated in the śāstra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
</div>
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</div>

Narada advised that a devotee should act perfectly

2024-03-02T04:34:42Z

Kritika:

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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_4" class="sub_section" sec_index="4" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 4"><h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB4834_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_4" book="SB" index="322" link="SB 4.8.34" link_text="SB 4.8.34">
<div class="heading">The great sage Nārada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly. Instead of being envious of a more qualified man, one should be jolly to receive him. Instead of being oppressive to a less qualified man, one should be compassionate toward him just to raise him to the proper standard. And when one meets an equal, instead of being proud of one's own activities before him, one should treat him as a friend.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.34|SB 4.8.34, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">Every man should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased; when he meets someone less qualified than himself, he should be compassionate toward him; and when he meets someone equal to himself, he should make friendship with him. In this way one is never affected by the threefold miseries of this material world.</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>Generally when we find someone more qualified than ourselves, we become envious of him; when we find someone less qualified, we deride him; and when we find someone equal we become very proud of our activities. These are the causes of all material tribulations. The great sage Nārada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly. Instead of being envious of a more qualified man, one should be jolly to receive him. Instead of being oppressive to a less qualified man, one should be compassionate toward him just to raise him to the proper standard. And when one meets an equal, instead of being proud of one's own activities before him, one should treat him as a friend. One should also have compassion for the people in general, who are suffering due to forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. These important functions will make one happy within this material world.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Narada advised meditation upon the transcendental activities of the Lord. Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality

2024-03-02T04:34:01Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Nārada advised meditation upon the transcendental activities of the Lord. Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality"}}
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{{compiler|Iswaraj}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Chapter 09 Purports - Answers by Citing the Lord's Version]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 2</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Nārada advised meditation upon the transcendental activities of the Lord. Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality. If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Nārada would not have advised Vyāsadeva to meditate upon them. And the paraṁ brahma is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.45|SB 2.9.45, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
In succession, O King, the great sage Nārada instructed Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam unto the unlimitedly powerful Vyāsadeva, who meditated in devotional service upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, on the bank of the River Sarasvatī.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

In the [[Vanisource:SB 1.5: Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva|Fifth Chapter of the First Canto]] of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Nārada instructed the great sage Vyāsadeva as follows:

<div class="quote_verse">
:atho mahā-bhāga bhavān amogha-dṛk
:śuci-śravāḥ satya-rato dhṛta-vrataḥ
:urukramasyākhila-bandha-muktaye
:samādhinānusmara tad viceṣṭitam
</div>

"O greatly fortunate, pious philosopher, your name and fame are universal, and you are fixed in the Absolute Truth with spotless character and infallible vision. I ask you to meditate upon the activities of the Personality of Godhead, whose activities are unparalleled."

So in the disciplic succession of the Brahma-sampradāya, the practice of yoga meditation is not neglected. But because the devotees are bhakti-yogīs, they do not undertake the trouble to meditate upon the impersonal Brahman; as indicated here, they meditate on brahma paramam, or the Supreme Brahman. Brahman realization begins from the impersonal effulgence, but by further progress of such meditation, manifestation of the Supreme Soul, Paramātmā realization, takes place. And progressing further, realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is fixed. Śrī Nārada Muni, as the spiritual master of Vyāsadeva, knew very well the position of Vyāsadeva, and thus he certified the qualities of Śrīla Vyāsadeva as fixed in the Absolute Truth with great vow, etc. Nārada advised meditation upon the transcendental activities of the Lord. Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality. If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Nārada would not have advised Vyāsadeva to meditate upon them. And the paraṁ brahma is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, when Arjuna realized the factual position of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa in the following words:

<div class="quote_verse">
:paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma
:pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān
:puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam
:ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum
:([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.12]])
</div>

<div class="quote_verse">
:āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve
:devarṣir nāradas tathā
:asito devalo vyāsaḥ
:svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me
:([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.13]])
</div>

Arjuna summarized the purpose of the Bhagavad-gītā by his realization of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and thus said, "My dear Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Original Person in the eternal form of bliss and knowledge, and this is confirmed by Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsadeva, and, above all, Your personal self has also confirmed it." ([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.12-13]])When Vyāsadeva fixed his mind in meditation, he did it in bhakti-yoga trance and actually saw the Supreme Person with māyā, the illusory energy, in contraposition. As we have discussed before, the Lord's māyā, or illusion, is also a representation because māyā has no existence without the Lord. Darkness is not independent of light. Without light, no one can experience the contraposition of darkness. However, this māyā, or illusion, cannot overcome the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but stands apart from Him (apāśrayam).

Therefore, perfection of meditation is realization of the Personality of Godhead along with His transcendental activities. Meditation on the impersonal Brahman is a troublesome business for the meditator, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 12.5 (1972)|BG 12.5]]): kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

This compromising spirit of Vyasadeva is directly condemned by Narada, who advises him to directly proclaim that the prime necessity of human life is to realize one's eternal relation with the Lord and thus surrender unto Him without delay

2024-03-02T04:33:06Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"This compromising spirit of Vyasadeva is directly condemned by Narada, who advises him to directly proclaim that the prime necessity of human life is to realize one's eternal relation with the Lord and thus surrender unto Him without delay"}}
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{{compiler|Visnu Murti}}
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[[Category:one (as in someone)]]
[[Category:Eternal Relationship with God]]
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[[Category:Without Delay]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_1" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 1"><h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB1515_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="146" link="SB 1.5.15" link_text="SB 1.5.15">
<div class="heading">Men with materialistic tendencies are more attracted to the politics, economics and philanthropic activities mentioned in the Mahābhārata than to the principal topic, namely the Bhagavad-gītā. This compromising spirit of Vyāsadeva is directly condemned by Nārada, who advises him to directly proclaim that the prime necessity of human life is to realize one's eternal relation with the Lord and thus surrender unto Him without delay.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.15|SB 1.5.15, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">The people in general are naturally inclined to enjoy, and you have encouraged them in that way in the name of religion. This is verily condemned and is quite unreasonable. Because they are guided under your instructions, they will accept such activities in the name of religion and will hardly care for prohibitions.</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>Śrīla Vyāsadeva's compilation of different Vedic literatures on the basis of regulated performances of fruitive activities as depicted in the Mahābhārata and other literature is condemned herewith by Śrīla Nārada. The human beings, by long material association, life after life, have a natural inclination, by practice, to endeavor to lord it over material energy. They have no sense of the responsibility of human life. This human form of life is a chance to get out of the clutches of illusory matter. The Vedas are meant for going back to Godhead, going back home. To revolve in the cycle of transmigration in a series of lives numbering 8,400,000 is an imprisoned life for the condemned conditioned souls. The human form of life is a chance to get out of this imprisoned life, and as such the only occupation of the human being is to reestablish his lost relationship with God. Under the circumstances, one should never be encouraged in making a plan for sense enjoyment in the name of religious functions. Such diversion of the human energy results in a misguided civilization. Śrīla Vyāsadeva is the authority in Vedic explanations in the Mahābhārata, etc., and his encouragement in sense enjoyment in some form or other is a great barrier for spiritual advancement because the people in general will not agree to renounce material activities which hold them in material bondage. At a certain stage of human civilization when such material activities in the name of religion (as sacrificing animals in the name of yajña) were too much rampant, the Lord incarnated Himself as Buddha and decried the authority of the Vedas in order to stop animal sacrifice in the name of religion. This was foreseen by Nārada, and therefore he condemned such literatures. The flesh-eaters still continue to perform animal sacrifice before some demigod or goddess in the name of religion because in some of the Vedic literatures such regulated sacrifices are recommended. They are so recommended to discourage flesh-eating, but gradually the purpose of such religious activities is forgotten, and the slaughterhouse becomes prominent. This is because foolish materialistic men do not care to listen to others who are actually in a position to explain the Vedic rites.</p>
<p>In the Vedas it is distinctly said that the perfection of life is never to be attained either by voluminous work, or by accumulation of wealth or even by increasing the population. But it is so attained only by renunciation. The materialistic men do not care to listen to such injunctions. According to them, the so-called renounced order of life is meant for those who are unable to earn their livelihood because of some corporeal defects, or for persons who have failed to achieve prosperity in family life.</p>
<p>In histories like the Mahābhārata, of course, there are topics on transcendental subjects along with material topics. The Bhagavad-gītā is there in the Mahābhārata. The whole idea of the Mahābhārata culminates in the ultimate instructions of the Bhagavad-gītā, that one should relinquish all other engagements and should engage oneself solely and fully in surrendering unto the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. But men with materialistic tendencies are more attracted to the politics, economics and philanthropic activities mentioned in the Mahābhārata than to the principal topic, namely the Bhagavad-gītā. This compromising spirit of Vyāsadeva is directly condemned by Nārada, who advises him to directly proclaim that the prime necessity of human life is to realize one's eternal relation with the Lord and thus surrender unto Him without delay.</p>
<p>A patient suffering from a particular type of malady is almost always inclined to accept eatables which are forbidden for him. The expert physician does not make any compromise with the patient by allowing him to take partially what he should not at all take. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said that a man attached to fruitive work should not be discouraged from his occupation, for gradually he may be elevated to the position of self-realization. This is sometimes applicable for those who are only dry empiric philosophers without spiritual realization. But those who are in the devotional line need not be always so advised.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

The significance of this particular verse (SB 4.8.71) is that Dhruva Maharaja acted exactly according to the advice of his spiritual master, the great sage Narada

2024-03-02T04:31:48Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"The significance of this particular verse is that Dhruva Mahārāja acted exactly according to the advice of his spiritual master, the great sage Nārada"}}
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[[Category:Significance]]
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[[Category:Verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam]]
[[Category:Is That]]
[[Category:Dhruva]]
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[[Category:Exactly]]
[[Category:According]]
[[Category:Advice from a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Advising Devotees of God]]
[[Category:Advise for Devotees of God]]
[[Category:Narada's Advice]]
[[Category:Narada is a Great Sage]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 Purports - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
The significance of this particular verse is that Dhruva Mahārāja acted exactly according to the advice of his spiritual master, the great sage Nārada. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also advises that if we want to be successful in our attempt to go back to Godhead, we must very seriously act according to the instruction of the spiritual master. That is the way of perfection.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.71|SB 4.8.71, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Elsewhere, Dhruva Mahārāja, having arrived at Madhuvana, took his bath in the River Yamunā and observed fasting in the night with great care and attention. After that, as advised by the great sage Nārada, he engaged himself in worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
</div>
<div class="text">
The significance of this particular verse is that Dhruva Mahārāja acted exactly according to the advice of his spiritual master, the great sage Nārada. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also advises that if we want to be successful in our attempt to go back to Godhead, we must very seriously act according to the instruction of the spiritual master. That is the way of perfection. There need be no anxiety over attaining perfection because if one follows the instruction given by the spiritual master he is sure to attain perfection. Our only concern should be how to execute the order of the spiritual master. A spiritual master is expert in giving special instructions to each of his disciples, and if the disciple executes the order of the spiritual master, that is the way of his perfection.
</div>
</div>
</div>

The living entity is actually a spiritual soul who is part and parcel of God and has nothing to do with relationships in the world of duality. Therefore Narada Muni advised Citraketu not to lament for his so-called dead son

2024-03-02T04:29:17Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"The living entity is actually a spiritual soul who is part and parcel of God and has nothing to do with relationships in the world of duality. Therefore Narada Muni advised Citraketu not to lament for his so-called dead son"}}
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[[Category:So-called]]
[[Category:Dead]]
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</div>
<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 6"><h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB616Summary_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_6" book="SB" index="579" link="SB 6.16 Summary" link_text="SB 6.16 Summary">
<div class="heading">All our relationships in this material world with friends, relatives or enemies consist of duality, in which one feels happy and distressed on the basis of illusion. The living entity is actually a spiritual soul who is part and parcel of God and has nothing to do with relationships in the world of duality. Therefore Nārada Muni advised Citraketu not to lament for his so-called dead son.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 6.16 Summary|SB 6.16 Summary]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">As related in this chapter, Citraketu was able to talk with his dead son and hear from him the truth of life. When Citraketu was appeased, the great sage Nārada gave him a mantra, and by chanting this mantra Citraketu found shelter at the lotus feet of Saṅkarṣaṇa.</p>
<p>The living entity is eternal. Thus he has neither birth nor death (na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre ([[Vanisource:BG 2.20 (1972)|BG 2.20]])). According to the reactions of one's fruitive activities, one takes birth in various species of life among the birds, beasts, trees, human beings, demigods and so on, thus rotating through various bodies. For a certain period of time, one receives a particular type of body as a son or father in a false relationship. All our relationships in this material world with friends, relatives or enemies consist of duality, in which one feels happy and distressed on the basis of illusion. The living entity is actually a spiritual soul who is part and parcel of God and has nothing to do with relationships in the world of duality. Therefore Nārada Muni advised Citraketu not to lament for his so-called dead son.</p>
<p>After hearing instructions from their dead child, Citraketu and his wife could understand that all relationships in this material world are causes of misery. The queens who had administered poison to the son of Kṛtadyuti were very much ashamed. They atoned for the sinful act of killing a child and gave up their aspiration to have sons. Thereafter. Nārada Muni chanted prayers to Nārāyaṇa, who exists as catur-vyūha, and instructed Citraketu about the Supreme Lord, who creates, maintains and annihilates everything and who is the master of the material nature. After instructing King Citraketu in this way, he returned to Brahmaloka. These instructions about the Absolute Truth are called the mahā-vidyā. After being initiated by Nārada Muni, King Citraketu chanted the mahā-vidyā, and after one week he attained the presence of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, who was surrounded by the four Kumāras. The Lord was nicely dressed in bluish garments, with a helmet and ornaments of gold. His face appeared very happy. In the presence of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, Citraketu offered his obeisances and began to offer prayers.</p>
<p>In his prayers, Citraketu said that millions of universes rest in the pores of Saṅkarṣaṇa, who is limitless, having no beginning and end. The Lord is well known to the devotees for His eternity. The difference between worshiping the Lord and worshiping the demigods is that the worshiper of the Lord also becomes eternal, whereas whatever benedictions one can get from the demigods are impermanent. Unless one becomes a devotee, one cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.</p>
<p>After Citraketu finished his prayers, the unlimited Supreme Lord explained knowledge of Himself to Citraketu.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

The great sage Narada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly

2024-03-02T04:28:05Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 Purports - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
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<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Generally when we find someone more qualified than ourselves, we become envious of him; when we find someone less qualified, we deride him; and when we find someone equal we become very proud of our activities. These are the causes of all material tribulations. The great sage Nārada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.34|SB 4.8.34, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Every man should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased; when he meets someone less qualified than himself, he should be compassionate toward him; and when he meets someone equal to himself, he should make friendship with him. In this way one is never affected by the threefold miseries of this material world.
</div>
<div class="text">
Generally when we find someone more qualified than ourselves, we become envious of him; when we find someone less qualified, we deride him; and when we find someone equal we become very proud of our activities. These are the causes of all material tribulations. The great sage Nārada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly. Instead of being envious of a more qualified man, one should be jolly to receive him. Instead of being oppressive to a less qualified man, one should be compassionate toward him just to raise him to the proper standard. And when one meets an equal, instead of being proud of one's own activities before him, one should treat him as a friend. One should also have compassion for the people in general, who are suffering due to forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. These important functions will make one happy within this material world.
</div>
</div>
</div>

The disciples of Narada Muni advise all the members of the younger generation to join the Krsna consciousness movement immediately. There is nothing wrong in this

2024-03-02T04:27:28Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"the disciples of Nārada Muni advise all the members of the younger generation to join the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement immediately. There is nothing wrong in this"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
They do not know that the householder's concession for sex life cannot be regulated unless one accepts the life of a mendicant. The Vedic civilization therefore enjoins that at the end of one's fiftieth year one must give up household life. This is compulsory. However, because modern civilization is misled, householders want to remain in family life until death, and therefore they are suffering. In such cases, the disciples of Nārada Muni advise all the members of the younger generation to join the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement immediately. There is nothing wrong in this.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 6.5.36|SB 6.5.36, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Prajāpati Dakṣa said: Alas, Nārada Muni, you wear the dress of a saintly person, but you are not actually a saint. Indeed, although I am now in gṛhastha life, I am a saintly person. By showing my sons the path of renunciation, you have done me an abominable injustice.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, sannyāsīra alpa chidra sarva-loke gāya ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 12.51|CC Madhya 12.51]]). In society one will find many sannyāsīs, vānaprasthas, gṛhasthas and brahmacārīs, but if all of them properly live in accordance with their duties, they are understood to be sādhus. Prajāpati Dakṣa was certainly a sādhu because he had executed such great austerities that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, had appeared before him. Nevertheless, he had a fault-finding mentality. He improperly thought Nārada Muni to be asādhu, or nonsaintly, because Nārada had foiled his intentions. Desiring to train his sons to become gṛhasthas fully equipped with knowledge, Dakṣa had sent them to execute austerities by Nārāyaṇa-saras. Nārada Muni, however, taking advantage of their highly elevated position in austerity, instructed them to become Vaiṣṇavas in the renounced order. This is the duty of Nārada Muni and his followers. They must show everyone the path of renouncing this material world and returning home, back to Godhead. Prajāpati Dakṣa, however, could not see the exaltedness of the duties Nārada Muni performed in relation to his sons. Unable to appreciate Nārada Muni's behavior, Dakṣa accused Nārada of being asādhu.

The words bhikṣor mārga, "the path of the renounced order," are very significant in this regard. A sannyāsī is called tridaṇḍi-bhikṣu because his duty is to beg alms from the homes of gṛhasthas and to give the gṛhasthas spiritual instructions. A sannyāsī is allowed to beg from door to door, but a gṛhastha cannot do so. Gṛhasthas may earn their living according to the four divisions of spiritual life. A brāhmaṇa gṛhastha may earn his livelihood by becoming a learned scholar and teaching people in general how to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He may also assume the duty of worship himself. Therefore it is said that only brāhmaṇas may engage in Deity worship, and they may accept as prasāda whatever people offer the Deity. Although a brāhmaṇa may sometimes accept charity, it is not for his personal maintenance but for the worship of the Deity. Thus a brāhmaṇa does not stock anything for his future use. Similarly, kṣatriyas may collect taxes from the citizens, and they must also protect the citizens, enforce rules and regulations, and maintain law and order. Vaiśyas should earn their livelihood through agriculture and cow protection, and śūdras should maintain their livelihood by serving the three higher classes. Unless one becomes a brāhmaṇa, one cannot take sannyāsa. Sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs may beg alms door to door, but a gṛhastha cannot.

Prajāpati Dakṣa condemned Nārada Muni because Nārada, a brahmacārī who could beg from door to door, had made sannyāsīs of Dakṣa's sons, who were being trained to be gṛhasthas. Dakṣa was extremely angry at Nārada because he thought that Nārada had done him a great injustice. According to Dakṣa's opinion, Nārada Muni had misled Dakṣa's inexperienced sons (asādhv akāry arbhakāṇām). Dakṣa regarded his sons as innocent boys who had been misled when Nārada showed them the renounced order of life. Because of all these considerations, Prajāpati Dakṣa charged that Nārada Muni was asādhu and should not have adopted the dress of a sādhu.

Sometimes a saintly person is misunderstood by gṛhasthas, especially when he instructs their young sons to accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Generally a gṛhastha thinks that unless one enters gṛhastha life he cannot properly enter the renounced order. If a young man immediately adopts the path of the renounced order in accordance with the instructions of Nārada or a member of his disciplic succession, his parents become very angry. This same phenomenon is occurring in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement because we are instructing all the young boys in the Western countries to follow the path of renunciation. We allow gṛhastha life, but a gṛhastha also follows the path of renunciation. Even a gṛhastha has to give up so many bad habits that his parents think his life has been practically destroyed. We allow no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no gambling and no intoxication, and consequently the parents wonder how, if there are so many no's, one's life can be positive. In the Western countries especially, these four prohibited activities practically constitute the life and soul of the modern population. Therefore parents sometimes dislike our movement, just as Prajāpati Dakṣa disliked the activities of Nārada and accused Nārada of dishonesty. Nevertheless, although parents may be angry at us, we must perform our duty without hesitation because we are in the disciplic succession from Nārada Muni.

People addicted to householder life wonder how one can give up the enjoyment of gṛhastha life, which is a concession for sex enjoyment, simply to become a mendicant in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They do not know that the householder's concession for sex life cannot be regulated unless one accepts the life of a mendicant. The Vedic civilization therefore enjoins that at the end of one's fiftieth year one must give up household life. This is compulsory. However, because modern civilization is misled, householders want to remain in family life until death, and therefore they are suffering. In such cases, the disciples of Nārada Muni advise all the members of the younger generation to join the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement immediately. There is nothing wrong in this.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

The demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Narada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead

2024-03-02T04:26:14Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"the demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Narada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 Purports - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
[[Category:Give]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that only with the sanction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can the demigods offer benedictions. Therefore, whenever any sacrifice is offered to a demigod, the Supreme Lord in the form of nārāyaṇa-śilā, or śālagrāma-śilā, is put forward to observe the sacrifice. Actually, the demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Nārada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, offer prayers and ask for the fulfillment of one's desire at the lotus feet of the Lord.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.41|SB 4.8.41, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Any person who desires the fruits of the four principles religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, at the end, liberation, should engage himself in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for worship of His lotus feet yields the fulfillment of all of these.
</div>
<div class="text">
In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that only with the sanction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can the demigods offer benedictions. Therefore, whenever any sacrifice is offered to a demigod, the Supreme Lord in the form of nārāyaṇa-śilā, or śālagrāma-śilā, is put forward to observe the sacrifice. Actually, the demigods cannot give any benediction without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Nārada Muni, therefore, advised that even for religiosity, economic development, sense gratification or liberation, one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, offer prayers and ask for the fulfillment of one's desire at the lotus feet of the Lord. That is real intelligence. An intelligent person never goes to demigods to pray for anything. He goes directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all benediction.

As Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa has said in Bhagavad-gītā, performance of ritualistic ceremonies is not actually religion. The real path of religion is to surrender at the lotus feet of the Lord. For one who is actually surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord, there is no question of any separate endeavor for economic development. A devotee engaged in service to the Lord is not disappointed in the satisfaction of his senses. If he wants to satisfy his senses, Kṛṣṇa fulfills that desire. As far as liberation is concerned, any devotee fully engaged in the service of the Lord is already liberated; therefore there is no separate necessity for his liberation.

Nārada Muni therefore advised Dhruva Mahārāja to take shelter of Vāsudeva, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and engage himself in the way that his mother had advised, for that would help him fulfill his desire. In this verse Nārada Muni has especially stressed the devotional service of the Lord as the only way. In other words, even if one is full of material desires, he can continue his devotional service to the Lord, and all his desires will be fulfilled.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Yudhisthira Maharaja is advised by Narada not to be disturbed by the affairs of so-called happiness and distress, but to look only unto the Lord to execute the mission for which the Lord has descended. That was his prime duty

2024-03-02T04:25:36Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is advised by Nārada, therefore, not to be disturbed by the affairs of so-called happiness and distress, but to look only unto the Lord to execute the mission for which the Lord has descended. That was his prime duty"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 13 Purports - Dhrtarastra Quits Home]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Bona fide spiritual masters who look unto the Supreme Lord to cooperate with Him are actually qualitatively one with the Lord, and the forgetful ones are perverted reflections only. Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is advised by Nārada, therefore, not to be disturbed by the affairs of so-called happiness and distress, but to look only unto the Lord to execute the mission for which the Lord has descended. That was his prime duty.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.13.48|SB 1.13.48, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Therefore, O King, you should look to the Supreme Lord only, who is one without a second and who manifests Himself by different energies and is both within and without.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is one without a second, but He manifests Himself by different energies because He is by nature blissful. The living beings are also manifestations of His marginal energy, qualitatively one with the Lord, and there are innumerable living beings both within and without the external and internal energies of the Lord. Since the spiritual world is a manifestation of the Lord's internal energy, the living beings within that internal potency are qualitatively one with the Lord without contamination from the external potency. Although qualitatively one with the Lord, the living being, due to contamination of the material world, is pervertedly manifested, and therefore he experiences so-called happiness and distress in the material world. Such experiences are all ephemeral and do not affect the spirit soul. The perception of such ephemeral happiness and distress is due only to the forgetfulness of his qualities, which are equal to the Lord's. There is, however, a regular current from the Lord Himself, from within and without, by which to rectify the fallen condition of the living being. From within He corrects the desiring living beings as localized Paramātmā, and from without He corrects by His manifestations, the spiritual master and the revealed scriptures. One should look unto the Lord; one should not be disturbed by the so-called manifestations of happiness or distress, but he should try to cooperate with the Lord in His outward activities for correcting the fallen souls. By His order only, one should become a spiritual master and cooperate with the Lord. One should not become a spiritual master for one's personal benefit, for some material gain or as an avenue of business or occupation for earning livelihood. Bona fide spiritual masters who look unto the Supreme Lord to cooperate with Him are actually qualitatively one with the Lord, and the forgetful ones are perverted reflections only. Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is advised by Nārada, therefore, not to be disturbed by the affairs of so-called happiness and distress, but to look only unto the Lord to execute the mission for which the Lord has descended. That was his prime duty.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

When Pracinabarhi was performing Vedic rituals in which the killing of animals was recommended, Narada Muni, out of compassion, advised him to stop. Pracinabarhi understood Narada properly and then left the kingdom to perform austerities in the forest

2024-03-02T04:24:42Z

Kritika:

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"When King Prācīnabarhi was performing Vedic rituals in which the killing of animals was recommended, Nārada Muni, out of compassion, advised him to stop. Prācīnabarhi understood Nārada properly and then left the kingdom to perform austerities in the forest"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Chapter 04 Purports - The Hamsa-guhya Prayers]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 06 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 6</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
When King Prācīnabarhi was performing Vedic rituals in which the killing of animals was recommended, Nārada Muni, out of compassion, advised him to stop. Prācīnabarhi understood Nārada properly and then left the kingdom to perform austerities in the forest. His ten sons, however, were performing austerities within the water, and therefore there was no king to see to the management of the world. When the ten sons, the Pracetās, came out of the water, they saw that the earth was overrun with trees.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 6.4.4|SB 6.4.4, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: When the ten sons of Prācīnabarhi emerged from the waters, in which they were performing austerities, they saw that the entire surface of the world was covered by trees.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

When King Prācīnabarhi was performing Vedic rituals in which the killing of animals was recommended, Nārada Muni, out of compassion, advised him to stop. Prācīnabarhi understood Nārada properly and then left the kingdom to perform austerities in the forest. His ten sons, however, were performing austerities within the water, and therefore there was no king to see to the management of the world. When the ten sons, the Pracetās, came out of the water, they saw that the earth was overrun with trees.

When the government neglects agriculture, which is necessary for the production of food, the land becomes covered with unnecessary trees. Of course, many trees are useful because they produce fruits and flowers, but many other trees are unnecessary. They could be used as fuel and the land cleared and used for agriculture. When the government is negligent, less grain is produced. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 18.44 (1972)|BG 18.44]]), kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva jam: the proper engagements for vaiśyas, according to their nature, are to farm and to protect cows. The duty of the government and the kṣatriyas is to see that the members of the third class, the vaiśyas, who are neither brāhmaṇas nor kṣatriyas, are thus properly engaged. Kṣatriyas are meant to protect human beings, whereas vaiśyas are meant to protect useful animals, especially cows.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

When Dhruva Maharaja, the son of the King, was thus advised by the great sage Narada, he circumambulated Narada, his spiritual master, and offered him respectful obeisances

2024-03-02T04:24:00Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"When Dhruva Maharaja, the son of the King, was thus advised by the great sage Narada, he circumambulated Narada, his spiritual master, and offered him respectful obeisances"}}
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[[Category:Advice from a Spiritual Master]]
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[[Category:Narada's Advice]]
[[Category:Circumambulating a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Offering Respectful Obeisances]]
[[Category:Offering Obeisances to a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Bhagavatam Verses Spoken by Maitreya Rsi - Vaniquotes]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 08 - Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Cantos 01 to 09 - All Verse Translations]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
When Dhruva Maharaja, the son of the King, was thus advised by the great sage Narada, he circumambulated Narada, his spiritual master, and offered him respectful obeisances.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.8.62|SB 4.8.62, Translation]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
When Dhruva Mahārāja, the son of the King, was thus advised by the great sage Nārada, he circumambulated Nārada, his spiritual master, and offered him respectful obeisances. Then he started for Madhuvana, which is always imprinted with the lotus footprints of Lord Kṛṣṇa and which is therefore especially auspicious.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Vyasadeva was not satisfied (although he complied all Vedic literature). His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and thus Narada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of Lord Sri Krsna

2024-03-02T04:23:12Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Observations of a Spiritual Master]]
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[[Category:Advice from a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Vyasadeva's Writings]]
[[Category:Krsna's Transcendental Activities]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 01 Purports - Questions by the Sages]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
But nevertheless he was not satisfied. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and thus Nārada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.1.1|SB 1.1.1, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.
</div>
<div class="text">
Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, directly indicate Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. This fact will be more explicitly explained in the text of this work. Śrī Vyāsadeva asserts herein that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, and all others are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has even more explicitly explained the subject matter in his Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha. And Brahmā, the original living being, has explained the subject of Śrī Kṛṣṇa substantially in his treatise named Brahma-saṁhitā. In the Sāma-veda Upaniṣad, it is also stated that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the divine son of Devakī. Therefore, in this prayer, the first proposition holds that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Kṛṣṇa, which means the all-attractive. In Bhagavad-gītā, in many places, the Lord asserts Himself to be the original Personality of Godhead, and this is confirmed by Arjuna, and also by great sages like Nārada, Vyāsa, and many others. In the Padma Purāṇa, it is also stated that out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Kṛṣṇa is the principal one. Vāsudeva indicates the plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead, and all the different forms of the Lord, being identical with Vāsudeva, are indicated in this text. The name Vāsudeva particularly indicates the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is always meditated upon by the paramahaṁsas, who are the perfected ones among those in the renounced order of life.

Vāsudeva, or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the cause of all causes. Everything that exists emanates from the Lord. How this is so is explained in later chapters of this work. This work is described by Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanya as the spotless Purāṇa because it contains the transcendental narration of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The history of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also very glorious. It was compiled by Śrī Vyāsadeva after he had attained maturity in transcendental knowledge. He wrote this under the instructions of Śrī Nāradajī, his spiritual master. Vyāsadeva compiled all Vedic literatures, containing the four divisions of the Vedas, the Vedānta-sūtras (or the Brahma-sūtras), the Purāṇas, the Mahābhārata, and so on. But nevertheless he was not satisfied. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and thus Nārada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. These transcendental activities are described specifically in the Tenth Canto of this work. But, in order to reach to the very substance, one must proceed gradually by developing knowledge of the categories.

It is natural that a philosophical mind wants to know about the origin of the creation. At night he sees the stars in the sky, and he naturally speculates about their inhabitants. Such inquiries are natural for man because man has a developed consciousness which is higher than that of the animals. The author of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives a direct answer to such inquiries. He says that the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all creations. He is not only the creator of the universe, but the destroyer as well. The manifested cosmic nature is created at a certain period by the will of the Lord. It is maintained for some time, and then it is annihilated by His will. Therefore, the supreme will is behind all cosmic activities. Of course, there are atheists of various categories who do not believe in a creator, but that is due to a poor fund of knowledge. The modern scientist, for example, has created space satellites, and by some arrangement or other, these satellites are thrown into outer space to fly for some time at the control of the scientist who is far away. Similarly, all the universes with innumerable stars and planets are controlled by the intelligence of the Personality of Godhead.

In Vedic literatures, it is said that the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, is the chief amongst all living personalities. All living beings, beginning from the first created being, Brahmā, down to the smallest ant, are individual living beings. And above Brahmā, there are even other living beings with individual capacities, and the Personality of Godhead is also a similar living being. And He is an individual as are the other living beings. But the Supreme Lord, or the supreme living being, has the greatest intelligence, and He possesses supermost inconceivable energies of all different varieties. If a man's brain can produce a space satellite, one can very easily imagine how brains higher than man can produce similarly wonderful things which are far superior. The reasonable person will easily accept this argument, but there are stubborn atheists who would never agree. Śrīla Vyāsadeva, however, at once accepts the supreme intelligence as the parameśvara. He offers his respectful obeisances unto the supreme intelligence addressed as the para or the parameśvara or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And that parameśvara is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as admitted in Bhagavad-gītā and other scriptures delivered by Śrī Vyāsadeva and specifically in this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that there is no other para-tattva (summum bonum) than Himself. Therefore, Śrī Vyāsadeva at once worships the para-tattva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose transcendental activities are described in the Tenth Canto.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Srila Vyasadeva is advised by Srila Narada to expand this idea in the Bhagavatam. In the Bhagavad-gita also the same idea is explained: surrender fully unto the lotus feet of the Lord. That is the only business of the perfect human being

2024-03-02T04:22:28Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Srila Vyasadeva is advised by Srila Narada to expand this idea in the Bhagavatam. In the Bhagavad-gita also the same idea is explained: surrender fully unto the lotus feet of the Lord. That is the only business of the perfect human being"}}
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[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Srila Vyasadeva is advised by Srila Narada to expand this idea in the Bhagavatam. In the Bhagavad-gita also the same idea is explained: surrender fully unto the lotus feet of the Lord. That is the only business of the perfect human being.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.20|SB 1.5.20, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos, and still He is aloof from it. From Him only has this cosmic manifestation emanated, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation. Your good self knows all about this. I have given only a synopsis.
</div>
<div class="text">
According to the Vedic version, the Lord is naturally fully powerful, and thus His supreme energies are always perfect and identical with Him. Both the spiritual and the material skies and their paraphernalia are emanations of the internal and external energies of the Lord. External energy is comparatively inferior, whereas the internal potency is superior. The superior energy is living force, and therefore she is completely identical, but the external energy, being inert, is partially identical. But both the energies are neither equal to nor greater than the Lord, who is the generator of all energies; such energies are always under His control, exactly as electrical energy, however powerful it may be, is always under the control of the engineer.

The human being and all other living beings are products of His internal energies. Thus the living being is also identical with the Lord. But he is never equal or superior to the Personality of Godhead. The Lord and living beings are all individual persons. With the help of the material energies the living beings are also creating something, but none of their creations are equal or superior to the creations of the Lord. The human being may create a small playful sputnik and may throw it into outer space, but that does not mean that he can create a planet like the earth or moon and float it in the air as the Lord does. Men with a poor fund of knowledge claim to be equal to the Lord. They are never equal to the Lord. This is never to be. The human being, after attaining complete perfection, may achieve a large percentage of the qualities of the Lord (say up to seventy-eight percent), but it is never possible to surpass the Lord or to become equal with Him. In a diseased condition only, the foolish being claims to be one with the Lord and thus becomes misled by the illusory energy. The misguided living beings, therefore, must accept the supremacy of the Lord and agree to render loving service to Him. For this they have been created. Without this, there cannot be any peace or tranquillity in the world. Śrīla Vyāsadeva is advised by Śrīla Nārada to expand this idea in the Bhāgavatam. In the Bhagavad-gītā also the same idea is explained: surrender fully unto the lotus feet of the Lord. That is the only business of the perfect human being.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Sri Vyasadeva is advised by Narada to describe the science of God directly by relating His transcendental activities

2024-03-02T04:21:23Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Śrī Vyāsadeva is therefore advised by Nārada to describe the science of God directly by relating His transcendental activities"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Śrī Vyāsadeva is therefore advised by Nārada to describe the science of God directly by relating His transcendental activities.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.16|SB 1.5.16, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
The Supreme Lord is unlimited. Only a very expert personality, retired from the activities of material happiness, deserves to understand this knowledge of spiritual values. Therefore those who are not so well situated, due to material attachment, should be shown the ways of transcendental realization, by Your Goodness, through descriptions of the transcendental activities of the Supreme Lord.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Theological science is a difficult subject, especially when it deals with the transcendental nature of God. It is not a subject matter to be understood by persons who are too much attached to material activities. Only the very expert, who have almost retired from materialistic activities by culture of spiritual knowledge, can be admitted to the study of this great science. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated that out of many hundreds and thousands of men only one person deserves to enter into transcendental realization. And out of many thousands of such transcendentally realized persons, only a few can understand the theological science specifically dealing with God as a person. Śrī Vyāsadeva is therefore advised by Nārada to describe the science of God directly by relating His transcendental activities. Vyāsadeva is himself a personality expert in this science, and he is unattached to material enjoyment. Therefore he is the right person to describe it, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, is the right person to receive it.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the topmost theological science, and therefore it can react on the laymen as medicinal doses. Because it contains the transcendental activities of the Lord, there is no difference between the Lord and the literature. The literature is the factual literary incarnation of the Lord. So the laymen can hear the narration of the activities of the Lord. Thereby they are able to associate with the Lord and thus gradually become purified from material diseases. The expert devotees also can discover novel ways and means to convert the nondevotees in terms of particular time and circumstance. Devotional service is dynamic activity, and the expert devotees can find out competent means to inject it into the dull brains of the materialistic population. Such transcendental activities of the devotees for the service of the Lord can bring a new order of life to the foolish society of materialistic men. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His subsequent followers exhibited expert dexterity in this connection. By following the same method, one can bring the materialistic men of this age of quarrel into order for peaceful life and transcendental realization.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Sri Naradaji advised Vyasadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad

2024-03-02T04:20:43Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"Sri Naradaji advised Vyasadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 05 Purports - Narada's Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam for Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Sri Naradaji advised Vyasadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.40|SB 1.5.40, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Please, therefore, describe the Almighty Lord's activities which you have learned by your vast knowledge of the Vedas, for that will satisfy the hankerings of great learned men and at the same time mitigate the miseries of the masses of common people who are always suffering from material pangs. Indeed, there is no other way to get out of such miseries.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Śrī Nārada Muni from practical experience definitely asserts that the prime solution of all problems of material work is to broadcast very widely the transcendental glories of the Supreme Lord. There are four classes of good men, and there are four classes of bad men also. The four classes of good men acknowledge the authority of the Almighty God, and therefore such good men (1) when they are in difficulty, (2) when they are in need of money, (3) when they are advanced in knowledge and (4) when they are inquisitive to know more and more about God, intuitively take shelter of the Lord. As such, Nāradajī advises Vyāsadeva to broadcast the transcendental knowledge of God in terms of the vast Vedic knowledge which he had already attained.

As far as the bad men are concerned, they are also four in number: (1) those who are simply addicted to the mode of progressive fruitive work and thus are subjected to the accompanying miseries, (2) those who are simply addicted to vicious work for sense satisfaction and so suffer the consequence, (3) those who are materially very much advanced in knowledge, but who suffer because they do not have the sense to acknowledge the authority of the Almighty Lord, and (4) the class of men who are known as atheists and who therefore purposely hate the very name of God, although they are always in difficulty.

Śrī Nāradajī advised Vyāsadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is therefore not meant for any particular class of men or sect. It is for the sincere soul who actually wants his own welfare and peace of mind.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Priyavrata might argue that Lord Brahma was requesting him to accept family life and the responsibility for ruling a kingdom, although Narada Muni had advised him not to enter household life and be entangled in material affairs

2024-03-02T04:16:55Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Chapter 01 Purports - The Activities of Maharaja Priyavrata]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 5</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
The word manīṣayā ("by intelligence") is of special significance. Priyavrata might argue that Lord Brahmā was requesting him to accept family life and the responsibility for ruling a kingdom, although Nārada Muni had advised him not to enter household life and be entangled in material affairs. Whom to accept would be a puzzle for Priyavrata because both Lord Brahmā and Nārada Muni are authorities. Under the circumstances, the use of the word manīṣayā is very appropriate, for it indicates that since both Nārada Muni and Lord Brahmā are authorized to give instruction, Priyavrata should neglect neither of them but should use his intelligence to follow the advice of both.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 5.1.12|SB 5.1.12, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
One cannot avoid the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not by the strength of severe austerities, an exalted Vedic education, or the power of mystic yoga, physical prowess or intellectual activities. Nor can one use his power of religion, his material opulence or any other means, either by himself or with the help of others, to defy the orders of the Supreme Lord. That is not possible for any living being, from Brahmā down to the ant.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

In the Garga Upaniṣad, Garga Muni says to his wife, etasya vā akṣarasya praśāsane gargi sūryā-candramasau vidhṛtau tiṣṭhataḥ: "My dear Gargī, everything is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even the sun, the moon and other controllers and demigods like Lord Brahmā and King Indra are all under His control." An ordinary human being or animal who has accepted a material body cannot go beyond the jurisdiction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's control. A material body includes senses. However, the sense activities of so-called scientists who try to be free from God's law or the laws of nature are useless. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 7.14 (1972)|BG 7.14]]). Mama māyā duratyayā: it is impossible to surpass the control of material nature, for the Supreme Personality of Godhead is working behind it. Sometimes we are proud of our austerities, penances and mystic yogic powers, but it is clearly stated herein that one cannot surpass the laws and directions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, either by dint of mystic power, a scientific education, or austerities and penances. It is impossible.

The word manīṣayā ("by intelligence") is of special significance. Priyavrata might argue that Lord Brahmā was requesting him to accept family life and the responsibility for ruling a kingdom, although Nārada Muni had advised him not to enter household life and be entangled in material affairs. Whom to accept would be a puzzle for Priyavrata because both Lord Brahmā and Nārada Muni are authorities. Under the circumstances, the use of the word manīṣayā is very appropriate, for it indicates that since both Nārada Muni and Lord Brahmā are authorized to give instruction, Priyavrata should neglect neither of them but should use his intelligence to follow the advice of both. To solve such dilemmas, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has given a very clear conception of intelligence. He says:

<div class="quote_verse">
:anāsaktasya viṣayān
:yathārham upayuñjataḥ
:nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe
:yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate
</div>

Viṣayān, material affairs, should be accepted without attachment. and everything should be dovetailed with the service of the Lord. That is real intelligence (manīṣā). Becoming a family man or king in the material world is not harmful if one accepts everything for Kṛṣṇa's service. That necessitates clear intelligence. Māyāvādī philosophers say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: this material world is false, and only the Absolute Truth is real. However, an intelligent devotee in the line of Lord Brahmā and the great sage Nārada—or, in other words, in the Brahma-sampradāya—does not consider this world false. That which is created by the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be false, but using it for enjoyment is. Everything is meant to be enjoyed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 5.29 (1972)|BG 5.29]]). Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme proprietor and enjoyer, and therefore everything should be dovetailed for His enjoyment and service. Regardless of one's circumstances, favorable or unfavorable, one should use everything to serve the Supreme Lord. That is the perfect way to use one's intelligence.

</div>
</div>
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One can keep his wife as an assistant in the vanaprastha stage. The idea is that the wife will assist the husband in spiritual advancement. Therefore Narada Muni advised the hunter to adopt the vanaprastha stage and leave home

2024-03-02T04:15:31Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Chapter 24 Purports - The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Purports]]
[[Category:Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 62 Chapters, All Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
This is the process of renunciation at the stage of vānaprastha. After enjoying householder life for some time, the husband and wife must leave home and distribute their riches to brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. One can keep his wife as an assistant in the vānaprastha stage. The idea is that the wife will assist the husband in spiritual advancement. Therefore Nārada Muni advised the hunter to adopt the vānaprastha stage and leave home.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 24.259|CC Madhya 24.259, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
“Nārada Muni then advised the hunter, ‘Return home and distribute whatever riches you have to the pure brāhmaṇas who know the Absolute Truth. After you have distributed all your riches to the brāhmaṇas, you and your wife should leave home, each of you taking only one cloth to wear.’
</div>
<div class="text">
This is the process of renunciation at the stage of vānaprastha. After enjoying householder life for some time, the husband and wife must leave home and distribute their riches to brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. One can keep his wife as an assistant in the vānaprastha stage. The idea is that the wife will assist the husband in spiritual advancement. Therefore Nārada Muni advised the hunter to adopt the vānaprastha stage and leave home. It is not that a gṛhastha should live at home until he dies. Vānaprastha is preliminary to sannyāsa. In the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement there are many young couples engaged in the Lord’s service. Eventually they are supposed to take vānaprastha, and after the vānaprastha stage the husband may take sannyāsa in order to preach. The wife may then remain alone and serve the Deity or engage in other activities within the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
</div>
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On the advice of Narada Muni he (Marutta) appointed Samvarta to the post, and he was successful in his mission

2024-03-02T04:14:54Z

Kritika:

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<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
He was very sorry for this, but on the advice of Nārada Muni he appointed Samvarta to the post, and he was successful in his mission.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.12.33|SB 1.12.33, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Understanding the hearty wishes of the King, his brothers, as advised by the infallible Lord Kṛṣṇa, collected sufficient riches from the North [left by King Marutta].
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

Mahārāja Marutta: one of the great emperors of the world. He reigned over the world long before the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. He was the son of Mahārāja Avikṣit and was a great devotee of the son of the sun-god, known as Yamarāja. His brother Samvarta was a rival priest of the great Bṛhaspati, the learned priest of the demigods. He conducted one sacrifice called Saṅkāra-yajña by which the Lord was so satisfied that He was pleased to hand over to him the charge of a mountain peak of gold. This peak of gold is somewhere in the Himalaya Mountains, and modern adventurers may try to find it there. He was so powerful an emperor that at the day's end of sacrifice, the demigods from the other planets like Indra, Candra and Bṛhaspati used to visit his palace. And because he had the gold peak at his disposal, he had sufficient gold in his possession. The canopy of the sacrificial altar was completely made of gold. in his daily performances of the sacrificial ceremonies, some of the inhabitants of the Vāyuloka (airy planets) were invited to expedite the cooking work of the ceremony. And the assembly of the demigods in the ceremony was led by Viśvadeva.

By his constant pious work he was able to drive out all kinds of diseases from the jurisdiction of his kingdom. All the inhabitants of higher planets like Devaloka and Pitṛloka were pleased with him for his great sacrificial ceremonies. Every day he used to give in charity to the learned brāhmaṇas such things as beddings, seats, conveyances and sufficient quantities of gold. Because of munificent charities and performances of innumerable sacrifices, the King of heaven, Indradeva, was fully satisfied with him and always wished for his welfare. Due to his pious activities, he remained a young man throughout his life and reigned over the world for one thousand years, surrounded by his satisfied subjects, ministers, legitimate wife, sons and brothers. Even Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa praised his spirit of pious activities. He handed over his only daughter to Maharṣi Aṅgirā, and by his good blessings, he was elevated to the kingdom of heaven. First of all, he wanted to offer the priesthood of his sacrifices to learned Bṛhaspati, but the demigod refused to accept the post because of the King's being a human being, a man of this earth. He was very sorry for this, but on the advice of Nārada Muni he appointed Samvarta to the post, and he was successful in his mission.

The success of a particular type of sacrifice completely depends on the priest in charge. In this age, all kinds of sacrifice are forbidden because there is no learned priest amongst the so-called brāhmaṇas, who go by the false notion of becoming sons of brāhmaṇas without brahminical qualifications. In this age of Kali, therefore, only one kind of sacrifice is recommended, saṅkīrtana-yajña, as inaugurated by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Maharaja Yudhisthira was advised by Narada not to disturb his uncle (Dhrtarastra) by attempting to bring him back home. He was now beyond the attraction of anything material

2024-03-02T04:13:19Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Maharaja Yudhisthira was advised by Narada not to disturb his uncle by attempting to bring him back home. He was now beyond the attraction of anything material"}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 13 Purports - Dhrtarastra Quits Home]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_1" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 1"><h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB11356_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="526" link="SB 1.13.56" link_text="SB 1.13.56">
<div class="heading">Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was advised by Nārada not to disturb his uncle by attempting to bring him back home. He was now beyond the attraction of anything material. The material modes of nature (the guṇas) have their different modes of activities, but above the material modes of nature is a spiritual mode, which is absolute.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.13.56|SB 1.13.56, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">He will have to suspend all the actions of the senses, even from the outside, and will have to be impervious to interactions of the senses, which are influenced by the modes of material nature. After renouncing all material duties, he must become immovably established, beyond all sources of hindrances on the path.</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>Dhṛtarāṣṭra had attained, by the yogic process, the stage of negation of all sorts of material reaction. The effects of the material modes of nature draw the victim to indefatigable desires of enjoying matter, but one can escape such false enjoyment by the yogic process. Every sense is always busy in searching for its food, and thus the conditioned soul is assaulted from all sides and has no chance to become steady in any pursuit. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was advised by Nārada not to disturb his uncle by attempting to bring him back home. He was now beyond the attraction of anything material. The material modes of nature (the guṇas) have their different modes of activities, but above the material modes of nature is a spiritual mode, which is absolute. Nirguṇa means without reaction. The spiritual mode and its effect are identical; therefore the spiritual quality is distinguished from its material counterpart by the word nirguṇa. After complete suspension of the material modes of nature, one is admitted to the spiritual sphere, and action dictated by the spiritual modes is called devotional service, or bhakti. Bhakti is therefore nirguṇa attained by direct contact with the Absolute.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Maharaja Yudhisthira is advised by Narada not to worry about his uncles' suffering for want of food, for they could live on vegetables available in the jungles as prasada of the Supreme Lord and thus realize the path of salvation

2024-03-02T04:11:31Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is advised by Nārada not to worry about his uncles' suffering for want of food, for they could live on vegetables available in the jungles as prasāda of the Supreme Lord and thus realize the path of salvation"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|Angela}}
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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 13 Purports - Dhrtarastra Quits Home]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
No one should be very anxious for his subsistence in any circumstances because there are living beings everywhere, and no living being starves for want of food at any place. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is advised by Nārada not to worry about his uncles' suffering for want of food, for they could live on vegetables available in the jungles as prasāda of the Supreme Lord and thus realize the path of salvation.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 1.13.47|SB 1.13.47, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

A systematic law of subsistence in the struggle for existence is there by the supreme will, and there is no escape for anyone by any amount of planning. The living beings who have come to the material world against the will of the Supreme Being are under the control of a supreme power called māyā-śakti, the deputed agent of the Lord, and this daivī māyā is meant to pinch the conditioned souls by threefold miseries, one of which is explained here in this verse: the weak are the subsistence of the strong. No one is strong enough to protect himself from the onslaught of a stronger, and by the will of the Lord there are systematic categories of the weak, the stronger and the strongest. There is nothing to be lamented if a tiger eats a weaker animal, including a man, because that is the law of the Supreme Lord. But although the law states that a human being must subsist on another living being, there is the law of good sense also, for the human being is meant to obey the laws of the scriptures. This is impossible for other animals. The human being is meant for self-realization, and for that purpose he is not to eat anything which is not first offered to the Lord. The Lord accepts from His devotee all kinds of food preparations made of vegetables, fruits, leaves and grains. Fruits, leaves and milk in different varieties can be offered to the Lord, and after the Lord accepts the foodstuff, the devotee can partake of the prasāda, by which all suffering in the struggle for existence will be gradually mitigated. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 9.26 (1972)|BG 9.26]]). Even those who are accustomed to eat animals can offer foodstuff, not to the Lord directly, but to an agent of the Lord, under certain conditions of religious rites. Injunctions of the scriptures are meant not to encourage the eaters of animals, but to restrict them by regulated principles.

The living being is the source of subsistence for other, stronger living beings. No one should be very anxious for his subsistence in any circumstances because there are living beings everywhere, and no living being starves for want of food at any place. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is advised by Nārada not to worry about his uncles' suffering for want of food, for they could live on vegetables available in the jungles as prasāda of the Supreme Lord and thus realize the path of salvation.

Exploitation of the weaker living being by the stronger is the natural law of existence; there is always an attempt to devour the weak in different kingdoms of living beings. There is no possibility of checking this tendency by any artificial means under material conditions; it can be checked only by awakening the spiritual sense of the human being by practice of spiritual regulations. The spiritual regulative principles, however, do not allow a man to slaughter weaker animals on one side and teach others peaceful coexistence. If man does not allow the animals peaceful coexistence, how can he expect peaceful existence in human society? The blind leaders must therefore understand the Supreme Being and then try to implement the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, or Rāma-rājya, is impossible without the awakening of God consciousness in the mass mind of the people of the world.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Narada would not have advised Vyasadeva to meditate upon them. And the param brahma is Lord Sri Krsna, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita

2024-03-02T04:10:36Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
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[[Category:Meditating on God]]
[[Category:Krsna Is The Supreme Brahman]]
[[Category:Confirming about God]]
[[Category:Krsna and the Bhagavad-gita]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Chapter 09 Purports - Answers by Citing the Lord's Version]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 02 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 2</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality. If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Nārada would not have advised Vyāsadeva to meditate upon them. And the paraṁ brahma is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.45|SB 2.9.45, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
In succession, O King, the great sage Nārada instructed Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam unto the unlimitedly powerful Vyāsadeva, who meditated in devotional service upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, on the bank of the River Sarasvatī.
</div>
<div class="text">
So in the disciplic succession of the Brahma-sampradāya, the practice of yoga meditation is not neglected. But because the devotees are bhakti-yogīs, they do not undertake the trouble to meditate upon the impersonal Brahman; as indicated here, they meditate on brahma paramam, or the Supreme Brahman. Brahman realization begins from the impersonal effulgence, but by further progress of such meditation, manifestation of the Supreme Soul, Paramātmā realization, takes place. And progressing further, realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is fixed. Śrī Nārada Muni, as the spiritual master of Vyāsadeva, knew very well the position of Vyāsadeva, and thus he certified the qualities of Śrīla Vyāsadeva as fixed in the Absolute Truth with great vow, etc. Nārada advised meditation upon the transcendental activities of the Lord. Impersonal Brahman has no activities, but the Personality of Godhead has many activities, and all such activities are transcendental, without any tinge of material quality. If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Nārada would not have advised Vyāsadeva to meditate upon them. And the paraṁ brahma is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, when Arjuna realized the factual position of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa in the following words:

<div class="quote_verse">
:paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma
:pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān
:puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam
:ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum
:([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.12]])
</div>

<div class="quote_verse">
:āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve
:devarṣir nāradas tathā
:asito devalo vyāsaḥ
:svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me
:([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.13]])
</div>

Arjuna summarized the purpose of the Bhagavad-gītā by his realization of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and thus said, "My dear Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Original Person in the eternal form of bliss and knowledge, and this is confirmed by Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsadeva, and, above all, Your personal self has also confirmed it." ([[Vanisource:BG 10.12-13 (1972)|BG 10.12-13]])When Vyāsadeva fixed his mind in meditation, he did it in bhakti-yoga trance and actually saw the Supreme Person with māyā, the illusory energy, in contraposition. As we have discussed before, the Lord's māyā, or illusion, is also a representation because māyā has no existence without the Lord. Darkness is not independent of light. Without light, no one can experience the contraposition of darkness. However, this māyā, or illusion, cannot overcome the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but stands apart from Him (apāśrayam).

Therefore, perfection of meditation is realization of the Personality of Godhead along with His transcendental activities. Meditation on the impersonal Brahman is a troublesome business for the meditator, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 12.5 (1972)|BG 12.5]]): kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Hariscandra had no sons, but on the advice of Narada he worshiped Varuna and in this way got a son named Rohita. Hariscandra promised that Rohita would be used to perform a Varuna-yajna

2024-03-02T04:09:37Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Hariscandra had no sons, but on the advice of Narada he worshiped Varuna and in this way got a son named Rohita. Hariscandra promised that Rohita would be used to perform a Varuna-yajna"}}
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="SB_Canto_9" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 9"><h3>SB Canto 9</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB97Summary_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_9" book="SB" index="248" link="SB 9.7 Summary" link_text="SB 9.7 Summary">
<div class="heading">Hariścandra had no sons, but on the advice of Nārada he worshiped Varuṇa and in this way got a son named Rohita. Hariścandra promised that Rohita would be used to perform a Varuṇa-yajña. Varuṇa reminded Hariścandra repeatedly about this yajña, but the King, because of affection for his son, gave various arguments to avoid sacrificing him.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 9.7 Summary|SB 9.7 Summary]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">In this chapter the descendants of King Māndhātā are described, and in this connection the histories of Purukutsa and Hariścandra are also given.</p>
<p>The most prominent son of Māndhātā was Ambarīṣa, his son was Yauvanāśva, and Yauvanāśva's son was Hārīta. These three personalities were the best in the dynasty of Māndhātā. Purukutsa, another son of Māndhātā, married the sister of the snakes (sarpa-gaṇa) named Narmadā. The son of Purukutsa was Trasaddasyu, whose son was Anaraṇya. Anaraṇya's son was Haryaśva, Haryaśva's son was Prāruṇa, Prāruṇa's son was Tribandhana, and Tribandhana's son was Satyavrata, also known as Triśaṅku. When Triśaṅku kidnapped the daughter of a brāhmaṇa, his father cursed him for this sinful act, and Triśaṅku became a caṇḍāla, worse than a śūdra. Later, by the influence of Viśvāmitra, he was brought to the heavenly planets, but by the influence of the demigods he fell back downward. He was stopped in his fall, however, by the influence of Viśvāmitra. The son of Triśaṅku was Hariścandra. Hariścandra once performed a Rājasūya-yajña, but Viśvāmitra cunningly took all of Hariścandra's possessions as a dakṣiṇa contribution and chastised Hariścandra in various ways. Because of this, a quarrel arose between Viśvāmitra and Vasiṣṭha. Hariścandra had no sons, but on the advice of Nārada he worshiped Varuṇa and in this way got a son named Rohita. Hariścandra promised that Rohita would be used to perform a Varuṇa-yajña. Varuṇa reminded Hariścandra repeatedly about this yajña, but the King, because of affection for his son, gave various arguments to avoid sacrificing him. Thus time passed, and gradually the son grew up. To safeguard his life, the boy then took bow and arrows in hand and went to the forest. Meanwhile, at home, Hariścandra suffered from dropsy because of an attack from Varuṇa. When Rohita received the news that his father was suffering, he wanted to return to the capital, but King Indra prevented him from doing so. Following the instructions of Indra, Rohita lived in the forest for six years and then returned home. Rohita purchased Śunaḥśepha, the second son of Ajīgarta, and gave him to his father, Hariścandra, as the sacrificial animal. In this way, the sacrifice was performed, Varuṇa and the other demigods were pacified, and Hariścandra was freed from disease. In this sacrifice, Viśvāmitra was the hotā priest, Jamadagni was the adhvaryu, Vasiṣṭha was the brahmā, and Ayāsya was the udgātā. King Indra, being very satisfied by the sacrifice, gave Hariścandra a golden chariot, and Viśvāmitra gave him transcendental knowledge. Thus Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes how Hariścandra achieved perfection.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

He (Vyasadeva) was not satisfied until he wrote Srimad-Bhagavatam. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and consequently Narada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of the Lord Sri Krsna

2024-03-02T03:18:11Z

Kritika:

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<div id="facts">
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[[Category:Narada and Vyasadeva]]
[[Category:Teachings of Lord Caitanya 1975 Chapter 23 - Why Study the Vedanta-sutra]]
[[Category:Teachings of Lord Caitanya 1975 Chapters 01 to 32]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Teachings of Lord Caitanya</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
Vyāsadeva compiled all the Vedic literatures—the four Vedas, the Vedānta-sūtra or Brahma-sūtras, the purāṇas and the Mahābhārata. Yet he was not satisfied until he wrote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and consequently Nārada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:TLC 23 (1975)|Teachings of Lord Caitanya (1975), Chapter 23]]
</div>
<div class="text">
Knowledge is information gathered from the scriptures, and science is practical realization of that knowledge. Knowledge is scientific when it is gathered from the scriptures through the bona fide spiritual master, but when it is interpreted by speculation, it is mental concoction. By scientifically understanding the scriptural information through the bona fide spiritual master, one learns, by one's own realization, the actual situation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is different from material manifestations, and it is above the reactions of matter. Unless one scientifically understands the spiritual form of the Personality of Godhead, one becomes an impersonalist. The sunshine in itself is illumination, but that illumination is different from the sun. Yet the sun and the sunshine are not differently situated, for without the sun there can be no sunshine, and without sunshine there is no meaning to the word sun.

Unless one is freed from the influence of material energy, he cannot understand the Supreme Lord and His different energies. Nor can one who is captivated by the spell of material energy understand the spiritual form of the Supreme Lord. Unless there is realization of the transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no question of love of God. Unless one can realize the transcendental form of the Supreme Lord, he cannot actually attain love of God, and without love of God there is no perfection in human life. Just as the five gross elements of nature—namely earth, water, fire, air and ether—are both within and without all living beings in this world, the Supreme Lord is both inside and outside this existence, and those who are His devotees can realize this.

Pure devotees know that they are meant to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that all things that exist can be means by which one can serve the Supreme. Because a devotee has been blessed by the Supreme from within his heart, he can see the Supreme Lord wherever he looks. Indeed, he can see nothing else. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.2.55|SB 11.2.55]]) the relationship between the devotee and the Supreme Lord is confirmed as follows:

<div class="quote_verse">
:viṣṛjati hṛdayaṁ na yasya sākṣād
:dharir avaśābhihito 'py aghaugha-nāśaḥ
:praṇaya-raśanayā dhṛtāṅghri-padmaḥ
:sa bhavati bhāgavata-pradhāna uktaḥ
</div>

"If a person's heart is always tied to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord with the rope of love, the Lord does not leave him. Indeed, even if his remembrance is not perfect, he is to be considered a first class devotee." There is an example of this described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Daśa-skandha ([[Vanisource:SB 10.30.4|SB 10.30.4]]). When the gopīs assembled to join the rāsa dance with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa left them. Consequently the gopīs began to chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and, being overwhelmed with madness, began to inquire about Kṛṣṇa from the flowers and the creepers in the forest. Kṛṣṇa is like the sky; He is situated everywhere.

By studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we can obtain information about our eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, understand the procedure by which the Lord can be attained and receive the ultimate realization, which is love of Godhead. In explaining to Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī how one can achieve the Supreme Personality of Godhead by devotional service, Lord Caitanya quoted a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.14.21|SB 11.14.21]]) in which the Lord says that He can be realized only through devotional service executed with faith and love. Indeed, it is devotional service alone which purifies the heart of the devotee and elevates him to the ultimate realization by which he, established in faith, renders service unto the Supreme Lord. Even if one is born in a low family, like a family of caṇḍālas (dog-eaters), one can become filled with transcendental symptoms through realization of the supreme stage of love of Godhead. These transcendental symptoms are described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.3.31|SB 11.3.31]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:smarantaḥ smārayantaś ca
:mitho 'ghaugha-haraṁ harim
:bhaktyā samjātayā bhaktyā
:bibhraty utpulakāṁ tanum
</div>

"When devotees discuss subjects dealing with the Supreme Lord, who can cleanse the heart of His devotee from all kinds of sinful reactions, they become overwhelmed with ecstasy and display different symptoms due to their devotional service." The Bhāgavatam further states: "Due to their spontaneous attachment for the Lord, when they chant His holy names they sometimes cry, sometimes laugh, dance, sing and so on, not caring for any social convention." ([[Vanisource:SB 11.2.40|SB 11.2.40]])

We should understand that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the real explanation of the Brahma-sūtra, and it is compiled by Vyāsadeva himself. In the Garuḍa Purāṇa it is said:

<div class="quote_verse">
:artho 'yaṁ brahma-sūtrāṇāṁ
:bhāratārtha-vinirṇayaḥ
:gāyatrī-bhāṣya-rūpo 'sau
:vedārtha-paribṛṁhitaḥ
:grantho 'ṣṭādaśa-sāhasraḥ
:śrīmad-bhāgavatābhidhaḥ
</div>

"The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the authorized explanation of Brahma-sūtra, and it is a further explanation of Mahābhārata. It is the expansion of the gāyatrī mantra and the essence of all Vedic knowledge. This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, containing eighteen thousand verses, is known as the explanation of all Vedic literature." In the very First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya asked Sūta Gosvāmī how one can know the essence of Vedic literature. In answer, Sūta Gosvāmī presented Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the essence of all the Vedas, histories and other Vedic literatures. Elsewhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 12.13.15|SB 12.13.15]]) it is clearly stated that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedānta knowledge and that one who relishes the knowledge of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has no taste for studying any other literature. In the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the meaning and purpose of the gāyatrī mantra are also described: "I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Truth." This is the first introductory verse dealing with the Supreme Truth, which is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the source of creation, maintenance and destruction for the cosmic manifestation. Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva (oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya), directly indicate Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. This fact is more explicitly presented later in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vyāsadeva asserts that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead and that all others are either His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of those portions. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has later still more explicitly developed this subject in his Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha, and Brahmā, the original living being, has explained Śrī Kṛṣṇa substantially in his treatise Brahma-saṁhitā. The Sāma Veda also verifies the fact that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the divine son of Devakī.

In his prayer, the author of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam first proposes that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the primeval Lord and that if any transcendental nomenclature for the Absolute Personality of Godhead is to be accepted, it should be the name Kṛṣṇa, the all-attractive. In Bhagavad-gītā the Lord has affirmed in many passages that He is the original Personality of Godhead, and this was also confirmed by Arjuna, who cited great sages like Nārada, Vyāsa and many others. In Padma Purāṇa it is also stated that of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Kṛṣṇa is the principal one. Although the name Vāsudeva indicates the plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead, and although all the different forms of the Lord are identical with Vāsudeva, in this text Vāsudeva principally indicates the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is always meditated upon by the paramahaṁsas, those who are most perfect in the renounced order of life. Vāsudeva, or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the cause of all causes, and everything that exists is an emanation from Him. How this is so is explained in later chapters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu describes Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the spotless Purāṇa because it contains transcendental narrations of the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The history of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also very glorious. It was compiled by Vyāsadeva, who drew from his mature experience of transcendental knowledge under the instruction of Śrī Nārada Muni, his spiritual master. Vyāsadeva compiled all the Vedic literatures—the four Vedas, the Vedānta-sūtra or Brahma-sūtras, the purāṇas and the Mahābhārata. Yet he was not satisfied until he wrote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and consequently Nārada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's transcendental activities are specifically described in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the canto which is considered to contain the substance of the whole work. One should not approach the Tenth Canto immediately but should approach it gradually by developing knowledge of the subject matters first presented.

Generally a philosophical mind is inquisitive to learn of the origin of all creations. When one who is philosophical sees the night sky, he naturally raises questions about the stars, how they are situated, who lives there, etc. All these inquiries are quite natural for a human being, for the human being has a greater developed consciousness than the animals. In answer to such an inquiry, the author of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that the Lord is the origin of all creations. He is not only the creator but the maintainer and annihilator as well. The manifested cosmic creation is created at a certain period by the will of the Lord, is maintained for some time and is finally annihilated by His will. Thus He is the supreme will behind all activities.

Of course there are atheists of various categories who do not believe in the creator, but that is due simply to their poor fund of knowledge. The modern scientist creates rockets, and by some arrangement or other they are thrown into outer space to fly for some time under the control of a scientist far away. All the universes and the innumerable planets within them are similar to such rockets, and they are all controlled by the Personality of Godhead.

In the Vedic literatures it is said that the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is the foremost amongst all living personalities. All living beings, from the first created being, Brahmā, down to the smallest ant, are individual living entities. Even above Brahmā there are many other living beings with individual capacities. The Personality of Godhead Himself is also a living being and is as much an individual as the other living beings. However, the Supreme Lord is the supreme living being, and He has the greatest mind and possesses the supermost inconceivable energies in great variety. If a man's mind can produce rockets and spaceships, it is conceivable that a mind higher than man's can produce superior things. A reasonable person will accept this argument but stubborn obstinate people will not.

Śrīla Vyāsadeva at once accepts the supreme mind as the parameśvara, the supreme controller. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā and all other scriptures written by Śrīla Vyāsadeva, that parameśvara is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself. This is specifically validated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In Bhagavad-gītā also the Lord Himself says that there is no paratattva (summum bonum) superior to Himself. Therefore the author at once worships the paratattva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose transcendental activities are described in the Tenth Canto.

Unscrupulous people go at once to the Tenth Canto, especially to the five chapters which describe the Lord's rāsa dance. However, this portion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the most confidential part of that great literature. Unless one is thoroughly accomplished in the transcendental knowledge of the Lord, he is sure to misunderstand the Lord's worshipable transcendental pastimes in the rāsa dance and the Lord's love affairs with the gopīs. This subject matter is highly spiritual and technical, and only liberated personalities who have gradually attained the stage of paramahaṁsa can transcendentally relish the worshipable rāsa dance.

Therefore Śrīla Vyāsadeva gives the reader a chance to gradually develop in spiritual realization before actually relishing the essence of the pastimes of the Lord. Thus Vyāsadeva purposefully invokes the gāyatrī mantra: dhīmahi. This gāyatrī mantra is especially meant for spiritually advanced people. When one attains success in chanting gāyatrī mantra, he can enter into the transcendental position of the Lord. First, however, one must acquire the brahminical qualities and become perfectly situated in the mode of goodness in order to chant the gāyatrī mantra successfully. From that point one can begin to transcendentally realize the Lord, His name, His fame, His qualities, etc. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a narration dealing with the svarūpa (form) of the Lord, which is manifested by His internal potency. This potency is distinguished from the external potency, which has manifested the cosmic world within our experience. Śrīla Vyāsadeva makes a clear distinction between the internal and external potencies in the very first verse of the First Chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In that verse he says that the internal potency is factual reality, whereas the external manifested energy in the form of material existence is temporary and illusory, no more real than a mirage in the desert. Water may appear present in a mirage, but real water is somewhere else. Similarly, the manifested cosmic creation appears to be reality, but it is simply a reflection of the true reality which exists in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there are no mirages. Absolute Truth is there; it is not here in the material world. Here, everything is relative truth; one truth seems to depend upon another. This cosmic creation results from an interaction of the three modes of material nature. The temporary manifestations are so created as to present an illusion of reality to the bewildered mind of the conditioned soul. Thus there appear to be so many species of life, including the higher demigods like Brahmā, Indra, Candra, etc. In fact there is no reality in the manifested world, but there appears to be reality because the true reality exists in the spiritual world, where the Personality of Godhead eternally abides with His transcendental paraphernalia.

The chief engineer of a complicated construction does not personally take part in the construction itself, but it is he only who knows all the nooks and corners of the construction because everything is carried out under his instructions only. In other words, he knows everything about the construction directly and indirectly. Similarly, the Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme engineer of this cosmic creation, knows very well what is happening in every nook and corner of the cosmic creation, although activities appear to be performed by someone else. In actuality no one is independent in the material creation; the hand of the Supreme Lord is everywhere. All material elements, as well as all spiritual sparks, are but emanations from Him only. Whatever is created in this material world is created by the interaction of the two energies, material and spiritual. These energies belong to the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

A chemist can manufacture water in the laboratory by mixing hydrogen and oxygen, but in reality the living entity can only work under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Indeed, all materials used by a chemist are supplied by the Lord. The Lord knows everything directly and indirectly, and He is cognizant of all the minute details of everything. He is fully independent as well. He can be compared to a gold mine, and the cosmic creations can be compared to ornaments made from that gold, such as gold rings, necklaces, etc. The gold ring and necklace are qualitatively one with the gold in the mine, but quantitatively the gold in the mine and the gold in the earring or necklace are different. Lord Caitanya's philosophy of the Absolute Truth centers about the fact that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. Nothing is absolutely equal to the Absolute Truth, but at the same time nothing is independent of it.

Conditioned souls, beginning from Brahmā, the engineer of this particular universe, down to an insignificant ant, are all creating something, but none of them are independent of the Supreme Lord. The materialist wrongly thinks that there is no creator outside his own good self, and this is called māyā, or illusion. Due to his poor fund of knowledge, the materialist cannot see beyond the purview of his imperfect senses; thus he thinks that matter automatically takes its own shape independent of a conscious background. This is refuted by Śrīla Vyāsadeva in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. As stated before, Vyāsadeva is a liberated soul, and he compiled this book of authority after attaining spiritual perfection. Since the complete whole, or the Absolute Truth, is the source of everything, nothing is independent of Him. Everything exists within the body of the Absolute Truth. Any action or reaction of a part of a body becomes a cognizable fact to the embodied whole. Similarly, if the creation abides in the body of the Absolute Truth, then nothing is unknown to the Absolute, directly or indirectly.

In the śruti-mantra it is stated that the absolute whole, or Brahman, is the ultimate source of everything. Everything emanates from Him, everything is maintained by Him, and at the end everything enters into Him again. That is the law of nature. This is also confirmed in the smṛti-mantra. There it is said that at the beginning of Brahma s millennium, the source from which everything emanates is the Absolute Truth, or Brahman, and at the end of that millennium the reservoir into which everything enters is that same Absolute Truth. Material scientists haphazardly take it for granted that the ultimate source of this planetary system is the sun, but they are unable to explain the source of the sun. In Vedic literatures the ultimate source is explained; Brahmā is the creator of this universe, but because he had to meditate in order to receive the inspiration for such a creation, he is not the ultimate creator. As stated in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Brahmā was taught Vedic knowledge by the Personality of Godhead. In the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that the Supreme Lord inspired a secondary creator, Brahmā, and enabled him to carry out his creative functions. In this way the Supreme Lord is the supervising engineer; the real mind behind all creative agents is the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In Bhagavad-gītā Śrī Kṛṣṇa personally admits that it is He only who superintends the creative energy (prakṛti), the sum total of matter. Thus Śrī Vyāsadeva neither worships Brahmā nor the sun but the Supreme Lord, who guides both Brahmā and the sun in their creative activities.

The Sanskrit words abhijña and svarāṭ, appearing in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are significant. These two words distinguish the Lord from all other living entities. No living entity other than the supreme being, the Absolute Personality of Godhead is either abhijña or svarāṭ—that is, none of them are either fully cognizant or fully independent. Everyone has to learn from his superior about knowledge; even Brahmā, who is the first living being within this material world, has to meditate upon the Supreme Lord and take help from Him in order to create. If Brahmā or the sun cannot create anything without acquiring knowledge from a superior, then what is the situation with the material scientists who are fully dependent on so many things? Modern scientists like Jagadisha Chandra Bose, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, etc., may be very boastful of their respective creative energies, but all were dependent on the Supreme Lord for so many things. After all, the highly intelligent brains of these gentlemen were certainly not products of any human being. The brain is created by another agent. If brains like those of Einstein or Newton could have been manufactured by a human being, then mankind would produce many such brains instead of eulogizing their passing. If such scientists cannot even manufacture such brains, what to speak of foolish atheists who defy the authority of the Lord?

Even the Māyāvādī impersonalists who flatter themselves and believe that they have become the Lord themselves are not abhijñaḥ or svarāṭ, fully cognizant or fully independent. The Māyāvādī monists undergo a severe process of austerity and penance to acquire knowledge of becoming one with the Lord, but ultimately they become dependent on some rich follower who supplies them with requisite paraphernalia to construct great monasteries and temples. Atheists like Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu had to undergo severe penances before they could flout the authority of the Lord, but ultimately they were so helpless that they could not save themselves when the Lord appeared before them as cruel death. This is also applicable to the modern atheists who dare flout the authority of the Lord. Such atheists will be dealt the same awards as were given in the past to great atheists like Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu. History repeats itself, and what was occurring in the past will recur again and again when there is necessity. Whenever the authority of the Lord is neglected, the penalties dealt by the laws of nature are always there.

That the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, is all—perfect is confirmed in all śruti-mantras. It is said in the śruti-mantras that the all-perfect Lord glanced over matter and thus created all living beings. The living beings are parts and parcels of the Lord, and He impregnates the vast material nature with the seeds of the spiritual sparks. Thus the creative energies are set in motion for so many wonderful creations. When one atheist argued that God is no more expert than the manufacturer of a subtle watch which has so many delicate parts, we had to reply that God is a greater mechanic than the watchmaker because He simply creates one machine in male and female forms, and the male and female forms go on producing innumerable similar machines without the further attention of God. If a man could manufacture a set of machines capable of producing other machines without the man giving the matter any further attention, then a man could be said to equal the intelligence of God. Of course this is not possible. Each and every one of man's imperfect machines has to be handled individually by a mechanic. Because no one can be equal in intelligence to God, another name for God is asamordhva, which indicates that no one is equal to or greater than Him. Everyone has his intellectual equal and superior, and no one can claim that he has neither. However, this is not the case with the Lord. The śruti-mantras indicate that before the creation of the material universe, the Lord was existing, and He was master of everyone. It was the Lord who instructed Brahmā in Vedic knowledge. That Personality of Godhead has to be obeyed in all respects. Anyone who wants to become freed from material entanglement must surrender unto Him, and this is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā.

Unless one surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead, it is certain that one will be bewildered, even if he happens to be a great mind. Only when great minds surrender unto the lotus feet of Vāsudeva and know fully that Vāsudeva is the cause of all causes, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 7.19 (1972)|BG 7.19]]), can they become mahātmās, or truly broad-minded. However, such broad-minded mahātmās are rarely seen. Only they, however, can understand the Supreme Lord as the Absolute Personality of Godhead, the primeval cause of all creations. He is parama, ultimate truth, because all other truths are dependent on Him. Because He is the source of all knowledge, He is omniscient; there is no illusion for Him as there is for the relative knower.

Some Māyāvādī scholars argue that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was not compiled by Śrīla Vyāsadeva, and some suggest that the book is a modern creation written by someone named Vopadeva. In order to refute this meaningless argument, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī points out that there are many of the oldest purāṇas which make reference to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The first śloka, or verse, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the Gāyatrī mantra, and there is reference to this in the Matsya Purāṇa (the oldest Purāṇa). With reference to the context of Gāyatrī mantra in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in this Purāṇa it is said, "That which contains many narrations of spiritual instruction, begins with the Gāyatrī mantra and also contains the history of Vṛtrāsura, is known as the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Whoever makes a gift of this great work on a full moon day attains to the highest perfection of life and goes back to Godhead. There is also reference to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in other Purāṇas which even indicate that the work consists of Twelve Cantos and eighteen thousand ślokas. In Padma Purāṇa also there is reference about the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam during a conversation between Gautama and Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Mahārāja Ambarīṣa was advised to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly if he at all desired liberation from material bondage. Under these circumstances, there is no doubt regarding the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. For the past five hundred years many scholars have made elaborate commentaries upon Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and have displayed unique scholarship. The serious student will do well to attempt to go through them in order to more happily relish the transcendental messages of the Bhāgavatam.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura specifically deals with original and pure sex psychology (ādi-rasa) devoid of all mundane inebriety. The entire material world turns due to the basic principle of sex life. In modern human civilization, sex is the central point of all activities; indeed, wherever we turn our face we see sex life prominent. Consequently sex life is not unreal; its true reality is experienced in the spiritual world. Material sex is but a perverted reflection of the original; the original is found in the Absolute Truth. This validates the fact that the Absolute Truth is personal, for the Absolute Truth cannot be impersonal and have a sense of pure sex life. The impersonal monist philosophy gives an indirect impetus to abominable mundane sex because it overly stresses the impersonality of the ultimate truth. The result is that men who lack knowledge have accepted the perverted material sex life as all in all because they have no information of the actual spiritual form of sex. There is a distinction between sex in the diseased condition of material life and sex in the spiritual existence. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gradually elevates the unbiased reader to the highest perfectional stage of transcendence above the three modes of material activities, fruitive actions, speculative philosophy and above worship of functional deities indicated in the Vedas. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the embodiment of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa and is therefore situated in a position superior to other Vedic literatures.

Religion includes four primary subjects: (1) pious activities, (2) economic development, (3) satisfaction of the senses, and (4) liberation from material bondage. Religious life is distinguished from the irreligious life of barbarism. Indeed, it may be said that human life actually begins with religion. The four principles of animal life-eating, sleeping, defending and mating—are common both to the animals and human beings, but religion is the special concern of human beings. Since human life is no better than animal life without religion, in real human society there is some form of religion aiming at self-realization and referring to one's eternal relationship with God.

In the lower stage of human civilization there is always competition between men in their attempt to dominate material nature. In other words, there is continuous rivalry in an attempt to satisfy the senses. Thus driven by sense gratificatory consciousness, men enact religious rituals. Thus pious activities and religious functions are performed with an aim to acquire some material gain, and if such material gain is obtainable in another way, this so-called religion is neglected. This can be seen in modern human civilization. Since the economic desires of the people appear to be fulfilled in another way, no one is interested in religion now. The churches, mosques and temples are practically vacant, for people are more interested in factories, shops and cinemas. Thus they have deserted the religious places erected by their forefathers. This is evidence that religion is generally performed for the sake of economic development, and economic development is required for sense gratification. When one is baffled in his attempt to attain sense gratification, he takes to the cause of salvation in order to become one with the supreme whole. All these activities arise with the same aim in view—sense gratification.

In the Vedas, the four primary subjects mentioned above are prescribed in a regulative way so that there will not be undue competition for sense gratification. However, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is transcendental to all the sense gratifying activities of the material world. It is a pure transcendental literature, understandable by the devotees of the Lord who are above competition in sense gratification. In the material world there is keen competition between animals, men, communities and even nations in an attempt to gratify the senses, but the devotees of the Lord are above all this. Devotees have no need to compete with materialists because they are on the path back to Godhead, back home where everything is eternal, full and blissful. Such transcendentalists are a hundred percent nonenvious and are therefore pure in heart. Because everyone in the material world is envious, there is competition. The devotees of the Lord are not only free from all material envy, but they are also kind to everyone in an attempt to establish a competitionless society with God in the center.

The socialist's idea of a society devoid of competition is artificial because even in the socialist states there is competition for power. It is a fact that the principle of sense gratification is the basic principle of materialistic life, and this can be realized either from reading the Vedas or simply from observing common human activities. The Vedas recommend fruitive activities by which people can advance to higher planets, and they also recommend worship of the various demigods for the purpose of attaining their planets. Ultimately the Vedas recommend activities by which one can reach the Absolute Truth and realize His impersonal feature in order to become one with Him. However, the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth is not the last word. Above the impersonal feature is the Paramātmā, or the Supersoul, and above that is the Supreme Personality. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives information about the personal qualities of the Absolute Truth, qualities which are beyond the impersonal aspect. Topics concerning these qualities are greater than topics of impersonal philosophical speculation; consequently Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is given higher status than the jñāna-kāṇḍa portions of the Vedas. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also greater than the karma-kāṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa portions as well because it recommends the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the divine son of Vasudeva. The karma-kāṇḍa portion of the Vedas is fraught with competition to reach heavenly planets for better sense gratification, and this competition is also seen in the jñāna-kāṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa portions. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is above all of these because it aims only at the Supreme Truth, the substance or root of all categories.

In other words, from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we can know the substance as well as the relativities in their true sense and perspective. The substance is the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the relativities are the different forms of energy which emanate from Him. Since the living entities are also related to His energies, there is nothing really different from the substance. At the same time, the energies are different from the substance. In the material sense, this conception is self-contradictory, but Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explicitly deals with this aspect of simultaneous oneness and difference. This philosophy is also found in the Vedānta-sūtra beginning with the janmādy asya sūtra. Knowledge of the simultaneous oneness and difference found in the Absolute Truth is imparted for the well-being of everyone. Mental speculators mislead people by establishing the energy of the Lord as absolute, but when the truth of simultaneous oneness and difference is understood, the imperfect concepts of monism and dualism cease to satisfy. By understanding the Lord's simultaneous oneness with and difference from His creation, one can immediately attain freedom from the threefold miseries—miseries inflicted by the body and mind, by other living entities and by acts of nature.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the surrender of the living entity unto the Absolute Person. This surrender is made with clear consciousness and awareness of the devotee's oneness with the Absolute, and, at the same time, of his eternal position of servitorship. In the material conception, one thinks himself to be the Lord of all he surveys; consequently he is always troubled by the threefold miseries of life. As soon as one comes to know his real position in transcendental service, he at once becomes freed from all these miseries. The position of servitor is wasted in the material conception of life. In an attempt to dominate material nature, the living entity is forced to offer his service to relative material energy. When this service is transferred to the Lord in pure consciousness of spiritual identity, the living entity at once becomes free from the encumbrances of material affection.

Over and above this, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the personal commentary on Vedānta-sūtra made by Vyāsadeva when he had attained maturity in spiritual realization. He was able to write it by the help of Nārada's mercy. Vyāsadeva is also an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, the Personality of Godhead; therefore there is no question about his authority. Although he is the author of all Vedic literature, he specifically recommends the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In other purāṇas various methods for worshiping demigods are mentioned, but in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam only the Supreme Personality of Godhead is mentioned. The Supreme Lord is the total body, and the demigods are different parts of that body. Thus if one worships the Supreme Lord, he need not worship the demigods, for the Supreme Lord is in the hearts of all demigods. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu distinguished Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from all other purāṇas by recommending it as the spotless Purāṇa.

The method by which the transcendental message is received is the method of submissive hearing. A challenging attitude cannot help one receive or realize the transcendental message; therefore in the second verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the word śuśrūṣu is used. This word indicates that one should be anxious to hear the transcendental message. The desire to hear with interest is the primary qualification for assimilating transcendental knowledge. Unfortunately many people are not interested in patiently hearing the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The process is simple but the application difficult. Those who are unfortunate will find time to hear ordinary social and political topics, but when they are invited to attend an assembly to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are reluctant to attend. Sometimes people indulge in hearing portions of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which they are not prepared to hear. Professional readers of the Bhāgavatam indulge in reading the confidential portions dealing with the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. These portions appear to read like sex literature. However, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is meant to be heard from the beginning, and those who are fit to assimilate the messages of Bhāgavatam are mentioned in the very beginning ([[Vanisource:SB 1.1.2|SB 1.1.2]]): A bona fide audience fit to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is generated after many pious deeds. An intellectual person can believe in the assurances of the great sage Vyāsadeva and patiently hear the messages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in order to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly. One need not struggle through the different Vedic stages of realization, for one can be lifted to the position of paramahaṁsa simply by agreeing to hear the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with patience. The sages of Naimiṣāraṇya told Sūta Gosvāmī that they were intensely desirous of understanding Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. They were hearing from Sūta Gosvāmī about Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they were never satiated by these discussions. People who are really attached to Kṛṣṇa never want to stop hearing about Him.

Lord Caitanya therefore advised Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī: "Always read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and try to understand each and every verse. Then you will actually understand Brahma-sūtra. You say that you are very anxious to study Vedānta-sūtra, but you cannot understand Vedānta-sūtra without understanding Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam." He also advised Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī to always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. "And, by doing so, you will very easily be liberated. After liberation you will be eligible to achieve the highest goal of life, love of Godhead."

The Lord then recited many verses from authoritative scriptures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and Nṛsiṁha-tāpanī. In particular, he quoted the following verse from Bhagavad-gītā.

<div class="quote_verse">
:brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
:na śocati na kāṅkṣati
:samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
:mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
</div>

"One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me." ([[Vanisource:BG 18.54 (1972)|BG 18.54]])

When a person reaches this brahma-bhūta ([[Vanisource:SB 4.30.20|SB 4.30.20]]) platform, he sees all living entities equally and becomes a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord. In the Nṛsiṁha-tāpanī (2.5.16) it is said that when a person is actually liberated he can understand the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Lord and thus engage in His devotional service. Lord Caitanya also quoted a verse from the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 2.1.9|SB 2.1.9]]) in which Śukadeva Gosvāmī admits that although he was elevated to the liberated stage and free from the clutches of māyā, he was still attracted by the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Consequently he studied Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from his great father, Vyāsadeva.

Lord Caitanya also quoted another śloka from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 3.15.43|SB 3.15.43]]) dealing with the Kumāras. When the Kumāras entered the temple of the Lord, they were attracted by the aroma of flowers and tulasī leaves offered to the lotus feet of the Lord with pulp of sandalwood. Simply by smelling the aroma of these offerings, the minds of the Kumāras turned to the service of the Supreme Lord, despite the fact that the Kumāras were already liberated souls. It is stated elsewhere in [[Vanisource:SB 1.7.10|Bhāgavatam 1.7.10]] that even if one is a liberated soul and is actually free from material contamination, he can still, without cause, become attracted to the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Thus God is so attractive, and because He is so attractive, He is called Kṛṣṇa.

In this way Lord Caitanya discussed the Ātmārāma verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī. Lord Caitanya's admirer, the Mahārāṣṭrīya brāhmaṇa, related that the Lord explained this verse in sixty-one different ways. Everyone assembled was very eager to hear the different versions of the Ātmārāma śloka again, and since they were so eager, Lord Caitanya again explained the śloka in the same way that He had explained it to Sanātana Gosvāmī. Everyone who heard the explanations of the Ātmārāma śloka was amazed. Indeed, everyone considered Lord Caitanya to be none other than Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself.
</div>
</div>
</div>

As indicated in verse 79 (SB 4.29.79), Narada Muni advised King Pracinabarhi to take to devotional service rather than waste time performing ritualistic ceremonies and fruitive activities

2024-03-02T02:35:07Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
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<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
As indicated in verse 79, Nārada Muni advised King Prācīnabarhi to take to devotional service rather than waste time performing ritualistic ceremonies and fruitive activities. The vivid descriptions of the subtle and gross bodies in this chapter are most scientific, and because they are given by the great sage Nārada, they are authoritative. Because these narrations are full of the glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they constitute the most effective process for the purification of the mind.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.29.84|SB 4.29.84, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
This narration spoken by the great sage Nārada is full of the transcendental fame of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently this narration, when described, certainly sanctifies this material world. It purifies the heart of the living entity and helps him attain his spiritual identity. One who relates this transcendental narration will be liberated from all material bondage and will no longer have to wander within this material world.
</div>
<div class="text">
As indicated in verse 79, Nārada Muni advised King Prācīnabarhi to take to devotional service rather than waste time performing ritualistic ceremonies and fruitive activities. The vivid descriptions of the subtle and gross bodies in this chapter are most scientific, and because they are given by the great sage Nārada, they are authoritative. Because these narrations are full of the glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they constitute the most effective process for the purification of the mind. As Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirmed: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam ([[Vanisource:CC Antya 20.12|CC Antya 20.12]]). The more we talk of Kṛṣṇa, think of Kṛṣṇa and preach for Kṛṣṇa, the more we become purified. This means we no longer have to accept a hallucinatory gross and subtle body, but instead attain our spiritual identity. One who tries to understand this instructive spiritual knowledge is delivered from this ocean of nescience. The word pārameṣṭhyam is very significant in this connection. Pārameṣṭhyam is also called Brahmaloka; it is the planet on which Lord Brahmā lives. The inhabitants of Brahmaloka always discuss such narrations so that after the annihilation of the material world, they can be directly transferred to the spiritual world. One who is transferred to the spiritual world does not have to go up and down within this material world. Sometimes spiritual activities are also called pārameṣṭhyam.
</div>
</div>
</div>

According to the advice of Narada Muni, one should directly engage in devotional service. This will include all pious activity

2024-03-02T02:29:39Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Chapter 31 Purports - Narada Instructs the Pracetas]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 04 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
According to Vedic calculations, there are three causes of creation—time, the ingredient and the creator. Combined, these are called tritayātmaka, the three causes. Everything in this material world is created by these three causes. All of these causes are found in the Personality of Godhead. As confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā: sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (BS 5.1). Nārada Muni therefore advises the Pracetās to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized. According to the advice of Nārada Muni, one should directly engage in devotional service. This will include all pious activit.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 4.31.18|SB 4.31.18, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Because the Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes, He is the Supersoul of all individual living entities, and He exists as both the remote and immediate cause. Since He is aloof from the material emanations, He is free from their interactions and is Lord of material nature. You should therefore engage in His devotional service, thinking yourself qualitatively one with Him.
</div>
<div class="text">
According to Vedic calculations, there are three causes of creation—time, the ingredient and the creator. Combined, these are called tritayātmaka, the three causes. Everything in this material world is created by these three causes. All of these causes are found in the Personality of Godhead. As confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā: sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (BS 5.1). Nārada Muni therefore advises the Pracetās to worship the direct cause, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, when the root of a tree is watered, all the parts are energized. According to the advice of Nārada Muni, one should directly engage in devotional service. This will include all pious activity. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states, kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya: when one worships the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, in devotional service, one automatically performs all other pious activity. In this verse the words sva-tejasā dhvasta-guṇa-pravāham are very significant. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is never affected by the material qualities, although they all emanate from His spiritual energy. Those who are really conversant with this knowledge can utilize everything for the service of the Lord because nothing in this material world is unconnected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
</div>
</div>
</div>

While living one may be proud of one's body, thinking oneself a very big man, minister, president or even demigod, but whatever one may be, after death this body will turn either into worms, into stool or into ashes - SB 10.10.10

2023-11-03T18:41:55Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10 Chapter 10 - Deliverance of the Yamala-arjuna Trees]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10 Chapters 01 to 13 - All Verse Translations]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
While living one may be proud of one's body, thinking oneself a very big man, minister, president or even demigod, but whatever one may be, after death this body will turn either into worms, into stool or into ashes.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 10.10.10|SB 10.10.10, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
While living one may be proud of one's body, thinking oneself a very big man, minister, president or even demigod, but whatever one may be, after death this body will turn either into worms, into stool or into ashes. If one kills poor animals to satisfy the temporary whims of this body, one does not know that he will suffer in his next birth, for such a sinful miscreant must go to hell and suffer the results of his actions.
</div>
<div class="text">
In this verse the three words kṛmi-vid-bhasma are significant. After death, the body may become kṛmi, which means "worms," for if the body is disposed of without cremation, it may be eaten by worms; or else it may be eaten by animals like hogs and vultures and be turned into stool. Those who are more civilized burn the dead body, and thus it becomes ashes (bhasma-saṁjñitam). Yet although the body will be turned into worms, stool or ashes, foolish persons, just to maintain it, commit many sinful activities. This is certainly regrettable. The human form of body is actually meant for jīvasya tattva jijñāsā, enlightenment in knowledge of spiritual values. Therefore, one must seek shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta: one must approach a guru. Who is a guru? Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.3.21|SB 11.3.21]]): a guru is one who has full transcendental knowledge. Unless one approaches a spiritual master, one remains in ignorance. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.14.2): one has full knowledge about life when one is ācāryavān, controlled by the ācārya. But when one is conducted by rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, one does not care about anything; instead, one acts like an ordinary foolish animal, risking his life (mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani ([[Vanisource:BG 9.3|BG 9.3]])) and therefore continuing to go through suffering after suffering. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.31|SB 7.5.31]]). Such a foolish person does not know how to elevate himself in this body. Instead, he indulges in sinful activities and goes deeper and deeper into hellish life.
</div>
</div>
</div>

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is here (in SB 3.32.18) described as hari-medhah, or "He who can deliver one from the cycle of birth and death."

2023-11-03T18:35:35Z

Kritika:

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<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 3</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is here described as hari-medhaḥ, or "He who can deliver one from the cycle of birth and death." Materialistic persons are never interested in hearing about the marvelous pastimes of the Lord. They think that they are fictions and stories and that the Supreme Godhead is also a man of material nature.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 3.32.18|SB 3.32.18, Translation and Purport]]
</div>
<div class="quote_translation">
Such persons are called trai-vargika because they are interested in the three elevating processes. They are averse to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who can give relief to the conditioned soul. They are not interested in the Supreme Personality's pastimes, which are worth hearing because of His transcendental prowess.
</div>
<div class="text">
<div class="purport">

According to Vedic thought, there are four elevating principles, namely religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Persons who are simply interested in material enjoyment make plans to execute prescribed duties. They are interested in the three elevating processes of religious rituals, economic elevation and sense enjoyment. By developing their economic condition, they can enjoy material life. Materialistic persons, therefore, are interested in those elevating processes, which are called trai-vargika. Trai means "three"; vargika means "elevating processes." Such materialistic persons are never attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rather, they are antagonistic towards Him.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is here described as hari-medhaḥ, or "He who can deliver one from the cycle of birth and death." Materialistic persons are never interested in hearing about the marvelous pastimes of the Lord. They think that they are fictions and stories and that the Supreme Godhead is also a man of material nature. They are not fit for advancing in devotional service, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Such materialistic persons are interested in newspaper stories, novels and imaginary dramas. The factual activities of the Lord, such as Lord Kṛṣṇa's acting in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, or the activities of the Pāṇḍavas, or the Lord's activities in Vṛndāvana or Dvārakā, are related in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which are full of the activities of the Lord. But materialistic persons who engage in elevating their position in the material world are not interested in such activities of the Lord. They may be interested in the activities of a great politician or a great rich man of this world, but they are not interested in the transcendental activities of the Supreme Lord.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

The statement in Bhagavad-gita that the mental situation at the time of death is the basis of the next birth is also corroborated in this verse - SB 3.26.34

2023-11-03T18:32:40Z

Kritika:

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[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 03 Purports]]
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
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<div id="SB_Canto_3" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 3"><h3>SB Canto 3</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB32634_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="1079" link="SB 3.26.34" link_text="SB 3.26.34">
<div class="heading">The statement in Bhagavad-gītā that the mental situation at the time of death is the basis of the next birth is also corroborated in this verse. Mental existence transforms into tangible form as soon as there is an opportunity due to contamination or development of the gross elements from subtle form.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.26.34|SB 3.26.34, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">The activities and characteristics of the ethereal element can be observed as accommodation for the room for the external and internal existences of all living entities, namely the field of activities of the vital air, the senses and the mind.</p>
</div>
<div class="purport text"><p>The mind, the senses and the vital force, or living entity, have forms, although they are not visible to the naked eye. Form rests in subtle existence in the sky, and internally it is perceived as the veins within the body and the circulation of the vital air. Externally there are invisible forms of sense objects. The production of the invisible sense objects is the external activity of the ethereal element, and the circulation of vital air and blood is its internal activity. That subtle forms exist in the ether has been proven by modern science by transmission of television, by which forms or photographs of one place are transmitted to another place by the action of the ethereal element. That is very nicely explained here. This verse is the potential basis of great scientific research work, for it explains how subtle forms are generated from the ethereal element, what their characteristics and actions are, and how the tangible elements, namely air, fire, water and earth, are manifested from the subtle form. Mental activities, or psychological actions of thinking, feeling and willing, are also activities on the platform of ethereal existence. The statement in Bhagavad-gītā that the mental situation at the time of death is the basis of the next birth is also corroborated in this verse. Mental existence transforms into tangible form as soon as there is an opportunity due to contamination or development of the gross elements from subtle form.</p>
</div>
</div>
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The real purpose of life is to remember Krsna when one's life comes to an end (ante narayana-smrtih (SB 2.1.6)). If at the time of death one can remember Krsna, one's life is successful

2023-11-03T18:26:36Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"The real purpose of life is to remember Kṛṣṇa when one's life comes to an end" | "If at the time of death one can remember Kṛṣṇa, one's life is successful"}}
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{{compiler|Soham}}
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[[Category:Real Purpose of Life]]
[[Category:Remembering Krsna]]
[[Category:When One]]
[[Category:Come To]]
[[Category:End of Life]]
[[Category:At The Time Of Death]]
[[Category:Life Will Be Successful]]
[[Category:Death in the Srimad-Bhagavatam]]
[[Category:Teachings of Queen Kunti Chapter 18 - Liberation from Ignorance and Suffering]]
[[Category:Teachings of Queen Kunti Chapters 03 to 26]]
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<div id="section">
<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>Teachings of Queen Kunti</h3>
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<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
One may say, "No, no, no. I shall not attend the rehearsal. Just give me the stage, and I shall perform." But the director will not allow this, for one cannot become a good dancer without practice. The real purpose of life is to remember Kṛṣṇa when one's life comes to an end (ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6)). If at the time of death one can remember Kṛṣṇa, one's life is successful.
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[[Vanisource:TQK 18 Liberation from Ignorance and Suffering|Teachings of Queen Kunti, 18]]
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<div class="text">
In the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā the Lord asserts that He appears in every millennium just to reestablish the way of religion. The way of religion is made by the Supreme Lord. No one can manufacture a new path of religion, as is the fashion for certain ambitious persons. The factual way of religion is to accept the Lord as the supreme authority and thus render service unto Him in spontaneous love. A living being cannot help but render service because he is constitutionally made for that purpose. The only function of the living being is to render service to the Lord. The Lord is great, and living beings are subordinate to Him. Therefore, the duty of the living being is just to serve Him only. Unfortunately the illusioned living beings, out of misunderstanding only, become servants of the senses by material desire. This desire is called avidyā, or nescience. And out of such desire the living being makes different plans for material enjoyment centered about a perverted sex life. He therefore becomes entangled in the chain of birth and death by transmigrating into different bodies on different planets under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Unless, therefore, one is beyond the boundary of this nescience, one cannot get free from the threefold miseries of material life. That is the law of nature.

The Lord, however, out of His causeless mercy, because He is more merciful to the suffering living beings than they can expect, appears before them and renovates the principles of devotional service, comprised of hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, praying, cooperating, and surrendering unto Him. Adoption of all the above mentioned items, or any one of them, can help a conditioned soul get out of the tangle of nescience and thus become liberated from all material sufferings created by the living being illusioned by the external energy. This particular type of mercy is bestowed upon the living being by the Lord in the form of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

In this very important verse the words bhave 'smin mean "in this material world." The word bhava also means "grow," and it refers to that which has taken birth. In the material world there are six kinds of changes. First there is birth, then growth, and then that which has been born and has grown stays for some time, produces some by-products, and then dwindles and finally vanishes. These six changes are called sad-vikāra. The body, for example, takes birth at a certain date, and then it grows and stays for some time. From the body come so many byproducts in the form of sons and daughters, and then the body becomes old and weak, and finally when it is very old it dies.

But when the body is finished, I am not finished. When the gross body comes to an end, I am still present within the subtle body of mind, intelligence, and false ego, and this subtle body carries me to another gross body. Although everyone has to accept a subtle body, the scientists and medical men cannot see it. I have a mind, and you have a mind, but I cannot see your mind, and you cannot see mine. I have intelligence, and you have intelligence, but you cannot see my intelligence, nor can I see yours, because they are very subtle. Similarly, the spirit soul is still more subtle, so what will the materialistic scientists see of it? They cannot see the mind, intelligence, or false ego, what to speak of the soul. Therefore they say, "The body is everything, and there is nothing more." Actually, however, that is not a fact.

The fact is that the spirit soul is very, very small. Bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9). The soul is one ten-thousandth the size of the tip of a hair. Suppose we were to take a hair and divide it into a hundred parts. Could we do it? No. That is not possible. But if we could do it and then divide it again into another one hundred parts, each part would be the size of the spirit soul.

Of course, this is not possible to understand by experimental knowledge, so how can it be learned? One must learn of this from an authority. Our knowledge is so imperfect that it cannot deal with such subtle affairs, and because rascals cannot deal with such things, they think that matter is the cause of life. Nonetheless, they have not been able to demonstrate that life comes from matter. Let them take chemicals in their laboratory and produce even a small insect with hands, legs, and eyes. Every night we see many of such small insects with legs and eyes with which they approach the light. From such small insects up to Brahmā there are 8,400,000 different forms of life, among which we are traveling from body to body, leaving one body and entering another, as stated by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 2.13|BG 2.13]])). Therefore, either we must reject Kṛṣṇa's word or reject all the so-called scientific theories that life comes from matter. But we are pledged to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and therefore we cannot reject Kṛṣṇa's word. We accept Kṛṣṇa when He says that we have to travel from one body to another.

Every living entity within this material world is under the influence of avidyā, ignorance. Avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 6.154|CC Madhya 6.154]]). God, Kṛṣṇa, has many millions of potencies (parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 13.65|CC Madhya 13.65, purport]])), and they have been summarized into three categories - the external potency, the internal potency, and the marginal potency. The marginal potency and the internal potency are of the same spiritual quality, but the third potency, the external potency, is inferior ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 6.154|CC Madhya 6.154]], Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.7.61):

<div class="quote_verse">
:viṣṇu-śaktir parā proktā
:kṣetrajñākhyā tathā parā
:avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā
:tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate
</div>

In this material world, everyone is in ignorance (avidyā). Even Brahmā was ignorant until he was given knowledge by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore no one should be proud of his knowledge. Everyone in this material world is a rascal. A particular living entity desires, "If I can get the opportunity to obtain the post of Brahmā, then I can create a big universe." Thus he receives the body of Brahmā. And the small insect thinks, "If I can create a small hole within this room, then I can live very peacefully and eat." Thus Brahmā desires to create a universe, we desire to create a skyscraper, and an ant desires to create a hole in a room, but the quality of the work is the same. We are all fools, however, because we do not realize that because these things are material they will not last. Because of ignorance we think, "This will be very nice. That will be very nice." Kāma-karmabhiḥ. We create some desire (kāma), and then we work accordingly. This results in so many difficulties (kliśyanti). To become Brahmā is not a very easy thing. Brahmā is such a big post, and it is given to a very qualified living entity who is highly advanced in austerities and penance. But he is also a living entity like us. In America there are many citizens, and President Ford is also a citizen, but by dint of his ardent labor and diplomacy he captured the post. Still, he is an ordinary citizen. President Nixon, for example, has now been dragged down and is no longer President. This is because he was an ordinary citizen. Similarly, if we like, we may also become Brahmā. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says:

<div class="quote_verse">
:kīṭa-janma hao yathā tuyā dāsa
:bahirmukha brahma janme nāhi āśā
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"Let me become an insect in a place where Your devotee is present, because if I fall down in the dust of the feet of a devotee my life will be successful." Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, bahirmukha brahma-janme nāhi āśā: "I would not want to be a Brahmā and not be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa."

Because we are in ignorance, māyā, at any time we may forget Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we must always engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that we shall not forget Him. That is indicated by Kuntīdevī by the words śravaṇa-smaraṇārhāṇi. The word śravaṇa means "hearing," smaraṇa means "remembering," and arhaṇa means "worshiping the Deity of Kṛṣṇa." One should always engage oneself in hearing about, remembering, and worshiping Kṛṣṇa. All the centers of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement are opened only for this purpose - to facilitate chanting, dancing, and worshiping so that we shall not forget Kṛṣṇa. Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ: ([[Vanisource:BG 8.6|BG 8.6]]) if we always think of Kṛṣṇa, there is a chance that we shall remember Kṛṣṇa at the end of life (ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 2.1.6|SB 2.1.6]])).

Everything takes practice. For example, if one wants to dance on the stage, one has to perform many rehearsals to practice how to dance. Then if one becomes an expert dancer, when one dances on stage one will receive acclaim: "Ah, a very good dancer." But one cannot say, "I shall go immediately to the stage and become a good dancer." That is not possible. One may say, "No, no, no. I shall not attend the rehearsal. Just give me the stage, and I shall perform." But the director will not allow this, for one cannot become a good dancer without practice. The real purpose of life is to remember Kṛṣṇa when one's life comes to an end (ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 2.1.6|SB 2.1.6]])). If at the time of death one can remember Kṛṣṇa, one's life is successful.

In this material world one must suffer from material miseries, but rascals do not care to understand this, for they are absorbed in ignorance. A smuggler may go on with his work, even though he knows that he will be arrested and punished. A thief may know that he will be arrested and punished for criminal acts, and he may even have been punished several times, but still he will commit the same crime again (punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.30|SB 7.5.30]])). Why? Ignorance. He is so much absorbed in ignorance that he does not think, "I am repeatedly stealing and being repeatedly arrested and sent to jail to be punished. Why am I doing this? The result is not good." A person who is too much sexually inclined may suffer many times from venereal disease and have to undergo treatment, but still he will go to a prostitute again. This is avaidha strī-saṅga, illegitimate sex. But even legitimate sex involves so many difficulties. After sex, a woman becomes pregnant and has to suffer for ten months, and at the time of delivery there is also sometimes very great danger. And the father, after the child is born, must take care of the child and work hard to provide for its education. Therefore the Vedic literature says, bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ: ([[Vanisource:SB 7.9.45|SB 7.9.45]]) after sex, legitimate or illegitimate, there are so many troubles. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇāḥ: but one who is an ignorant rascal will not be satisfied. Instead, he will do the same things again and again (punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.30|SB 7.5.30]])). This is called bhava-roga, the disease of material existence.

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:yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham
:kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham
:([[Vanisource:SB 7.9.45|SB 7.9.45]])
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In the Vedic civilization, therefore, small boys are trained to remain brahmacārī, celibate, and not involve themselves in the troubles of sex. But if one is unable to remain brahmacārī, he is allowed to marry. After being trained in the beginning as a brahmacārī, he will not stay for many years in family life, but will very soon become vānaprastha (retired) and then accept sannyāsa, the renounced order of life.

In this material world everyone is suffering - the birds, the beasts, the trees, the animals, the plants, and even Brahmā and Indra. Indra is also not safe; he is always in anxiety about competitors who may come ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.5|SB 7.5.5]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ
:sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt
</div>

Why is everyone in this material world always in anxiety? Avidyā-kāma-karmabhiḥ: because they are rascals. Therefore Kṛṣṇa stresses, "You rascal, give up all your nonsense and surrender unto Me." This is Kṛṣṇa's very good mercy. He is the supreme father. Therefore He directly says, sarva-guhyatamam: "This is the most confidential knowledge." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: ([[Vanisource:BG 18.66|BG 18.66]]) "You rascal, give up everything and simply surrender unto Me."

Therefore Kuntī says, "You have come to teach rascals like this and engage them in hearing, remembering, and worship." This is bhakti. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ: (SB 7.5.23) one should hear and chant about Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. But as soon as devotees begin to hear and chant about Viṣṇu, some rascal svāmī will say, "No, hearing or chanting any name will do. Why Viṣṇu? Why not Kālī?" In Bengal there is a group of people who have invented "kālī-kīrtana," chanting the name of the demigoddess Kālī. What is this nonsense? In the Vedic literature there is no such thing as "kālī-kīrtana." Kīrtana means śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23) - hearing and chanting about Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. The Vedic literature recommends harer nāma ([[Vanisource:CC Adi 17.21|CC Adi 17.21]]), chanting of the holy name of Hari, Kṛṣṇa, and no one else.

This śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, hearing and chanting, was described very nicely by Śukadeva Gosvāmī in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ([[Vanisource:SB 2.4.15|2.4.15]]). He said:

<div class="quote_verse">
:yat-kīrtanaṁ yad-smaraṇaṁ yad-īkṣaṇaṁ
:yad-vandanaṁ yat-śravaṇaṁ yad-arhaṇam
:lokasya sadyo vidhunoti kalmaṣaṁ
:tasmai subhadra-śravase namo namaḥ
</div>

Before speaking Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva Gosvāmī offered his obeisances to Kṛṣṇa with this verse. He said, "I offer my obeisances unto Him, for simply hearing of Him is subhadra, auspicious." The entire Bhāgavatam is glorification of Kṛṣṇa, and this is glorification by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He says that one can be perfectly purified if one either glorifies Kṛṣṇa, meditates upon Him, or simply sits before the Deity of Kṛṣṇa and sees Him, thinking, "How nicely dressed is Kṛṣṇa. How nicely dressed is Rādhārāṇī." If one has no ability to chant or if one's mind is so disturbed that one cannot fix it upon Kṛṣṇa, one is given this chance: "Here is the Deity. Simply see Him." If one is engaged in the service of the Deity, there is a good chance of always seeing Him, twenty-four hours a day. While cleansing the floor of the temple, while dressing the Deity, while bathing the Deity, or while offering Him food, one will always see Him. This is the process of devotional service, but people are such fallen rascals that they do not even go see the Deity. "Oh," they think, "what is this Deity worship? It is idol worship." They may worship the statue of Gandhi or someone else, but when asked to come see the worship of the Deity they will say, "No, this is idol worship."

I have seen that in Calcutta in Chaurangi Square there is a statue of Sir Asutosa Mukherji. Throughout the year the crows pass stool on his face, and the stool becomes caked on. So on one day a year the ordinary sweepers cleanse the statue with their brush in the morning, and in the evening some big men come and garland him with flowers. Then after that evening they go away, and again the next morning the crows come to pass stool on his face. So this kind of worship is accepted - sweeping the face of Sir Asutosa Mukherji with the municipal brush - but if we install the Deity of Kṛṣṇa and worship Him nicely, people will say that this is idol worship.

So people are embarrassed by being entangled in avidyā, ignorance, and the method by which to educate them and rescue them from the clutches of this ignorance is devotional service. As explained by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, one may chant the name of Kṛṣṇa or meditate upon Kṛṣṇa, or if one cannot meditate one may simply sit down and see Kṛṣṇa. Even a child can see, "Here is Kṛṣṇa. Here is Rādhārāṇī." Even a small child or even an animal can do this and benefit, or if one is more intelligent one may offer prayers, and if one is expert and has been trained by a spiritual master one may perform appropriate worship.

Christians and Muslims are also Vaiṣṇavas, devotees, because they offer prayers to the Lord. "O God," they say, "give us our daily bread." Those who offer this prayer may not know very much and may be at a lower stage, but this is a beginning, because they have approached God. Going to a church or mosque is also pious (catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino 'rjuna ([[Vanisource:BG 7.16|BG 7.16]])). Therefore those who begin in this way will one day become pure Vaiṣṇavas. But the atheistic propaganda that one should not go to a church, temple, or mosque is very dangerous to human society.

One may not be very advanced, but one should try at least to do something to understand God. A child is sent to school, and although he may simply learn ABCD, if he is interested he may one day become a very good scholar. Similarly, one day a pious man may become a pure devotee. Why should one give up religion altogether, become completely secular, and simply open a factory in which to manufacture nuts and bolts and work very hard and drink, and eat meat? What kind of civilization is this? It is because of this so-called civilization that people are suffering.

It is by ignorance that people think that by opening factories they will be happy. Why should they open factories? There is no need. There is so much land, and one can produce one's own food grains and eat sumptuously without any factory. Milk is also available without a factory. The factory cannot produce milk or grains. The present scarcity of food in the world is largely due to such factories. When everyone is working in the city to produce nuts and bolts, who will produce food grains? Simple living and high thinking is the solution to economic problems. Therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in engaging devotees in producing their own food and living self-sufficiently so that rascals may see how one can live very peacefully, eat the food grains one has grown oneself, drink milk, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

The process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be very vigorously propagated all over the world. Simply by seeing the Deity or simply by joining in chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, people will derive tremendous benefit. If one performs kīrtana, chanting, one will be able to think of Kṛṣṇa. One may think, "I danced for two hours and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the meaning of this?" This is smaraṇa, thinking of Kṛṣṇa. One may even think, "I foolishly chanted 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa' for two hours." But that also is smaraṇa. Because the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is spreading, people are purchasing our books about Kṛṣṇa. Because they are curious they say, "What is this Kṛṣṇa? Let us see the book." Then they immediately see a picture of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and if they open the book they will see more. In the book there are many prayers glorifying Kṛṣṇa. So some will hear about Kṛṣṇa, and others will read, and if they are fortunate enough they will become Kṛṣṇa conscious and engage in the worship of the Deity. These methods of devotional service - hearing, chanting, remembering Kṛṣṇa, and so on - are so perfect that as soon as one takes to them (either all of them, some of them, or even one of them) one becomes purified. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī prays, "I offer my worship to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for simply by remembering Him, simply by glorifying Him, or simply by seeing Him, so many benefits follow."

Śukadeva Gosvāmī is one of twelve important spiritual authorities, and these are the authorities we must follow (mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 17.186|CC Madhya 17.186]])). He affirms that by performing these methods of devotional service one will be cleansed of material contamination. When? Sadyaḥ: immediately, without waiting. This is the great benefit of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
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The cycle of repeated birth and death is figuratively described herein - SB 8.5.28

2023-11-03T18:20:56Z

Kritika:

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{{terms|"The cycle of repeated birth and death is figuratively described herein"}}
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[[Category:Cycle of Birth and Death]]
[[Category:Repetition of Birth and Death]]
[[Category:Figurative]]
[[Category:Described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam]]
[[Category:Death in the Srimad-Bhagavatam]]
[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 08 Chapter 05 Purports - The Demigods Appeal to the Lord for Protection]]
[[Category:Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 08 Purports]]
</div>
<div id="section">
<h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
</div>
<div id="sub_section">
<h3>SB Canto 8</h3>
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="quote_heading">
The cycle of repeated birth and death is figuratively described herein. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 7.5):

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat.
</div>

<div class="quote_link">
[[Vanisource:SB 8.5.28|SB 8.5.28, Translation and Purport]]
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<div class="quote_translation">
In the cycle of material activities, the material body resembles the wheel of a mental chariot. The ten senses [five for working and five for gathering knowledge] and the five life airs within the body form the fifteen spokes of the chariot's wheel. The three modes of nature [goodness, passion and ignorance] are its center of activities, and the eight ingredients of nature [earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and false ego] comprise the rim of the wheel. The external, material energy moves this wheel like electrical energy. Thus the wheel revolves very quickly around its hub or central support, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the Supersoul and the ultimate truth. We offer our respectful obeisances unto Him.
</div>
<div class="text">
The cycle of repeated birth and death is figuratively described herein. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 7.5 (1972)|BG 7.5]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
:prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
:jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
:yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
</div>

The entire world is going on because the living entity, who is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is utilizing the material energy. Under the clutches of the material energy, the jīvātmā is revolving on the wheel of birth and death under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The central point is the Supersoul. As explained in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 18.61 (1972)|BG 18.61]]):

<div class="quote_verse">
:īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
:hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
:bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
:yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
</div>

"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." The material body of the living entity is a result of the conditioned soul's activities, and because the supporter is the Supersoul, the Supersoul is the true reality. Every one of us, therefore, should offer respectful obeisances to this central reality. One should not be misguided by the activities of this material world and forget the central point, the Absolute Truth. That is the instruction given here by Lord Brahmā.
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