Bhagavad-gita As It Is - Macmillan 1972 Edition -- Prabhupada Books (70 page)

Some of those who deride Kṛṣṇa, who are infected with the Māyāvādī philosophy, quote the following verse from the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
to prove that Kṛṣṇa is just an ordinary man:
ahaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu bhūtātmāvasthitaḥ sadā:
"The Supreme is present in every living entity." (
Bhāg.
3.29.21)
We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiṣṇava
ācāryas
like Jīva Gosvāmī instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Kṛṣṇa, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the
arca-mūrti,
the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Jīva Gosvāmī warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that Kṛṣṇa is present in everyone's heart as Paramātmā; therefore every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord, and as such, as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in whom the Paramātmā dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.

There are also many impersonalists who deride temple worship. They say that since God is everywhere, why should one restrict himself to temple worship? But if God is everywhere, is He not in the temple or in the Deity? Although the personalist and the impersonalist will fight with one another perpetually, a perfect devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows that although Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality, He is all-pervading, as is confirmed in the
Brahma-saṁhitā.
Although His personal abode is Goloka Vṛndāvana and He is always staying there, still, by His different manifestations of energy and by His plenary expansion, He is present everywhere in all parts of the material and spiritual creation.

Bg 9.12

TEXT 12

TEXT

moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo

mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ

rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva

prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ

SYNONYMS

moghāśāḥ-
baffled hope;
mogha-karmāṇaḥ-
baffled in fruitive activities;
mogha-jñānāḥ-
baffled in knowledge;
vicetasaḥ-
bewildered;
rākṣasīm-
demonic;
āsurīm-
atheistic;
ca-
and;
eva-
certainly;
prakṛtim-
nature;
mohinīm
-bewildering;
śritāḥ-
taking shelter of.

TRANSLATION

Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.

PURPORT

There are many devotees who assume themselves to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service but at heart do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, as the Absolute Truth. For them, the fruit of devotional service-going back to Godhead-will never be tasted. Similarly, those who are engaged in fruitive, pious activities and who are ultimately hoping to be liberated from this material entanglement will never be successful either because they deride the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. In other words, persons who mock Kṛṣṇa are to be understood to be demonic or atheistic. As described in the Seventh Chapter of
Bhagavad-gītā,
such demonic miscreants never surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore their mental speculations to arrive at the Absolute Truth bring them to the false conclusion that the ordinary living entity and Kṛṣṇa are one and the same. With such a false conviction, they think that the body of any human being is now simply covered by material nature and that as soon as one is liberated from this material body there is no difference between God and himself. This attempt to become one with Kṛṣṇa will be baffled because of delusion. Such atheistic and demoniac cultivation of spiritual knowledge is always futile. That is the indication of this verse. For such persons, cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedic literature, like the
Vedānta-sūtra
and the
Upaniṣads,
is
always baffled.

It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa. In the
Bṛhad-vaiṣṇava mantra
it is clearly stated that one who considers the body of Kṛṣṇa to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the
śruti.
And if one by chance sees his face, he should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection. People jeer at Kṛṣṇa because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation.

Bg 9.13

TEXT 13

TEXT

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

SYNONYMS

mahātmānaḥ-
the great souls;
tu-
but;
mām-
unto Me;
pārtha
-O son of Pṛthā;
daivīm-
divine;
prakṛtim-
nature;
āśritāḥ-
taken shelter of;
bhajanti-
render service;
ananya-manasaḥ-
without deviation of the mind;
jñātvā-
knowing;
bhūta
-creation;
ādim-
original;
avyayam
-inexhaustible.

TRANSLATION

O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

PURPORT

In this verse the description of
mahātmā
is
clearly given. The first sign of the
mahātmā
is
that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter: one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification. One can become free from the control of material nature as soon as he surrenders his soul to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the preliminary formula. Being marginal potency, as soon as the living entity is freed from the control of material nature, he is put under the guidance of the spiritual nature. The guidance of the spiritual nature is called
daivīṁ prakṛtim,
divine nature. So, when one is promoted in that way-by surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead-one attains to the stage of great soul,
mahātmā.

The
mahātmā
does not divert his attention to anything outside Kṛṣṇa because he knows perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. There is no doubt about it. Such a
mahātmā,
or great soul, develops through association with other
mahātmās,
pure devotees. Pure devotees are not even attracted by Kṛṣṇa's other features, such as the four-armed Mahā-Viṣṇu. They are simply attracted by the two-armed form of Kṛṣṇa. Since they are not attracted to other features of Kṛṣṇa (what to speak of the demigods), they are not concerned with any form of a demigod or of a human being. They only meditate upon Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are always engaged in the unswerving service of the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Bg 9.14

TEXT 14

TEXT

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ

yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ

namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā

nitya-yuktā upāsate

SYNONYMS

satatam-
always;
kīrtayantaḥ-
chanting;
mām-
Me;
yatantaḥ ca-
fully endeavoring also;
dṛḍha-vratāḥ-
with determination;
namasyantaḥ ca-
offering obeisances;
mām-
unto Me;
bhaktyā-
in devotion;
nitya-yuktāḥ-
perpetually engaged;
upāsate-
worship.

TRANSLATION

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.

PURPORT

The
mahātmā
cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man. His symptoms are described here: a
mahātmā
is
always engaged in chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. He has no other business. He is always engaged in the glorification of the Lord. In other words, he is not an impersonalist. When the question of glorification is there, one has to glorify the Supreme Lord, praising His holy name, His eternal form, His transcendental qualities and His uncommon pastimes. One has to glorify all these things; therefore a
mahātmā
is
attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

One who is attached to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, the
brahmajyoti,
is
not described as
mahātmā
in the
Bhagavad-gītā.
He is described in a different way in the next verse. The
mahātmā
is
always engaged in different activities of devotional service, as described in the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
hearing and chanting about Viṣṇu, not a demigod or human being. That is devotion:
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, smaraṇam,
and remembering Him. Such a
mahātmā
has firm determination to achieve at the ultimate end the association of the Supreme Lord in any one of the five transcendental
rasas.
To achieve that success, he engages all activities-mental, bodily and vocal, everything-in the service of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That is called full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In devotional service there are certain activities which are called determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of the moon,
Ekādaśī,
and on the appearance day of the Lord, etc. All these rules and regulations are offered by the great
ācāryas
for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world. The
mahātmās
, great souls, strictly observe all these rules and regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired result.

As described in the second verse of this chapter, this devotional service is not only easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood. One does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity. He can live this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master, and in any position, either as a householder or a
sannyāsī
, or a
brahmacārī
; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become actually
mahātmā
, a great soul.

Bg 9.15

TEXT 15

TEXT

jñāna-yajñena cāpy anye

yajanto mām upāsate

ekatvena pṛthaktvena

bahudhā viśvato-mukham

SYNONYMS

jñāna-yajñena-
by cultivation of knowledge;
ca-
also;
api-
certainly;
anye-
others;
yajantaḥ-
worshiping;
mām
-Me;
upāsate-
worship;
ekatvena
-in oneness;
pṛthaktvena
-in duality;
bahudhā-
diversity;
viśvataḥ-mukham
-in the universal form.

TRANSLATION

Others, who are engaged in the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, diverse in many, and in the universal form.

PURPORT

This verse is the summary of the previous verses. The Lord tells Arjuna that those who are purely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and do not know anything other than Kṛṣṇa are called
mahātmā;
yet there are other persons who are not exactly in the position of
mahātmā
but who worship Kṛṣṇa also, in different ways. Some of them are already described as the distressed, the financially destitute, the inquisitive, and those who are engaged in the cultivation of knowledge. But there are others who are still lower, and these are divided into three: 1) He who worships himself as one with the Supreme Lord, 2) He who concocts some form of the Supreme Lord and worships that, and 3) He who accepts the universal form, the
viśvarūpa
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and worships that. Out of the above three, the lowest, those who worship themselves as the Supreme Lord, thinking themselves to be monists, are most predominant. Such people think themselves to be the Supreme Lord, and in this mentality they worship themselves. This is also a type of God worship, for they can understand that they are not the material body but are actually spiritual soul; at least, such a sense is prominent. Generally the impersonalists worship the Supreme Lord in this way. The second class includes the worshipers of the demigods, those who by imagination consider any form to be the form of the Supreme Lord. And the third class includes those who cannot conceive of anything beyond the manifestation of this material universe. They consider the universe to be the supreme organism or entity and worship that. The universe is also a form of the Lord.