Bhagavad-gita As It Is - Macmillan 1972 Edition -- Prabhupada Books (97 page)

Bg 13.21

TEXT 21

TEXT

kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve

hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate

puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ

bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate

SYNONYMS

kārya-
effect;
kāraṇa-
cause;
kartṛtve-
in the matter of creation;
hetuḥ-
instrument;
prakṛtiḥ-
material nature;
ucyate-
is
said to be;
puruṣaḥ
-the living entities;
sukha-
happiness;
duḥkhānām-
of distresses;
bhoktṛtve-
in enjoyment;
hetuḥ-
instrument;
ucyate-
is
said to be.

TRANSLATION

Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.

PURPORT

The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are the creation of the material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world everyone is struggling hard to acquire victims who present different pleasures to the body. It might be more clear to state that this body is the effect of the senses. The senses are instruments for gratifying desire. Now, the sum total-body and instrument senses-are offered by material nature, and, as will be clear in the next verse, the living entity is blessed or damned with circumstances according to his past desire and activity. According to one's desires and activities, material nature places one in various residential quarters. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. Once placed in some particular kind of body, he comes under the control of nature because the body, being matter, acts according to the laws of nature. At that time, the living entity has no power to change that law. Suppose an entity is put into the body of a dog. As soon as he is put into the body of a dog, he must act like a dog. He cannot act otherwise. And if the living entity is put into the body of a hog, then he is forced to eat stool and act like a hog. Similarly, if the living entity is put into the body of a demigod, he must act according to his body. This is the law of nature. But in all circumstances, the Supersoul is with the individual soul. That is explained in the
Vedas
as follows:
dvā
suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā.
The Supreme Lord is so kind upon the living entity that He always accompanies the individual soul and in all circumstances is present as the Supersoul or Paramātmā.

Bg 13.22

TEXT 22

TEXT

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

SYNONYMS

puruṣaḥ-
the living entity;
prakṛti-sthaḥ-
being situated in the material energy;
hi-
certainly;
bhuṅkte-
enjoys;
prakṛti-jān
-produced by the material nature;
guṇān
-modes of nature;
kāraṇam
-cause;
guṇa-saṅgaḥ
-association with the modes of nature;
asya
-of the living entity;
sat-asat
-good and bad;
yoni
-species of life;
janmasu-
birth.

TRANSLATION

The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.

PURPORT

This verse is very important for an understanding of how the living entities transmigrate from one body to another. It is explained in the Second Chapter that the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another just as one changes dress. This change of dress is due to his attachment to material existence. As long as he is captivated by this false manifestation, he has to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Due to his desire to lord it over material nature, he is put into such undesirable circumstances. Under the influence of material desire, the entity is born sometimes as a demigod, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a beast, as a bird, as a worm, as an aquatic, as a saintly man, as a bug. This is going on. And in all cases the living entity thinks himself to be the master of his circumstances, yet he is under the influence of material nature.

How he is put into such different bodies is explained here. It is due to association with the different modes of nature. One has to rise, therefore, above the three material modes and become situated in the transcendental position. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unless one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his material consciousness will oblige him to transfer from one body to another because he has material desires since time immemorial. But he has to change that conception. That change can be effected only by hearing from authoritative sources. The best example is here: Arjuna is hearing the science of God from Kṛṣṇa. The living entity, if he submits to this hearing process, will lose his long-cherished desire to dominate material nature, and gradually and proportionately, as he reduces his long desire to dominate, he comes to enjoy spiritual happiness. In a Vedic
mantra
it is said that as he becomes learned in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he proportionately relishes his eternal blissful life.

Bg 13.23

TEXT 23

TEXT

upadraṣṭānumantā ca

bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ

paramātmeti cāpy ukto

dehe 'smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ

SYNONYMS

upadraṣṭā-
overseer;
anumantā-
permitter;
ca-
also;
bhartā-
master;
bhoktā
-supreme enjoyer;
maheśvaraḥ-
the Supreme Lord;
paramātmā-
Supersoul;
iti
-also;
ca-
and;
api uktaḥ-
is
said;
dehe-
in this body;
asmin-
this;
puruṣaḥ-
enjoyer;
paraḥ-
transcendental.

TRANSLATION

Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.

PURPORT

It is stated here that the Supersoul, who is always with the individual soul, is the representation of the Supreme Lord. He is not an ordinary living entity. Because the monist philosophers take the knower of the body to be one, they think that there is no difference between the Supersoul and the individual soul. To clarify this, the Lord says that He is the representation of Paramātmā in every body. He is different from the individual soul; He is
paraḥ,
transcendental. The individual soul enjoys the activities of a particular field, but the Supersoul is present not as finite enjoyer nor as one taking part in bodily activities, but as the witness, overseer, permitter and supreme enjoyer. His name is Paramātmā, not
ātmā,
and He is transcendental. It is distinctly clear that the
ātmā
and Paramātmā are different. The Supersoul, the Paramātmā, has legs and hands everywhere, but the individual soul does not. And because He is the Supreme Lord, He is present within to sanction the individual soul's desiring material enjoyment. Without the sanction of the Supreme Soul, the individual soul cannot do anything. The individual is
bhakta
or the sustained, and He is
bhukta
or the maintainer. There are innumerable living entities, and He is staying in them as a friend.

The fact is that individual living entities are eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and both of them are very intimately related as friends. But the living entity has the tendency to reject the sanction of the Supreme Lord and act independantly in an attempt to dominate the supreme nature, and because he has this tendency, he is called the marginal energy of the Supreme Lord. The living entity can be situated either in the material energy or the spiritual energy. As long as he is conditioned by the material energy, the Supreme Lord, as his friend, the Supersoul, stays with him just to get him to return to the spiritual energy. The Lord is always eager to take him back to the spiritual energy, but due to his minute independence, the individual entity is continually rejecting the association of spiritual light. This misuse of independence is the cause of his material strife in the conditioned nature. The Lord, therefore, is always giving instruction from within and from without. From without He gives instructions as stated in
Bhagavad-gītā,
and from within He tries to convince him that his activities in the material field are not conducive to real happiness. "Just give it up and turn your faith toward Me. Then you will be happy," He says. Thus the intelligent person who places his faith in the Paramātmā or the Supreme Personality of Godhead begins to advance toward a blissful eternal life of knowledge

Bg 13.24

TEXT 24

TEXT

ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ

prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha

sarvathā vartamāno 'pi

na sa bhūyo 'bhijāyate

SYNONYMS

yaḥ-
anyone;
evam-
thus;
vetti
-understands;
puruṣam
-the living entities;
prakṛtim-
material nature;
ca-
and;
guṇaiḥ
-modes of material nature;
saha-
with;
sarvathā
-by all means;
vartamānaḥ-
situated;
api-
in spite of;
na
-never;
saḥ-
he;
bhūyaḥ-
again;
abhijāyate-
takes his birth.

TRANSLATION

One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position.

PURPORT

Clear understanding of material nature, the Supersoul, the individual soul and their interrelation makes one eligible to become liberated and turn to the spiritual atmosphere without being forced to return to this material nature. This is the result of knowledge. The purpose of knowledge is to understand distinctly that the living entity has by chance fallen into this material existence. By his personal endeavor in association with authorities, saintly persons and a spiritual master, he has to understand his position and then revert to spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness by understanding
Bhagavad-gītā
as it is explained by the Personality of Godhead. Then it is certain that he will never come again into this material existence; he will be transferred into the spiritual world for a blissful eternal life of knowledge.

Bg 13.25

TEXT 25

TEXT

dhyānenātmani paśyanti

kecid ātmānam ātmanā

anye sāṅkhyena yogena

karma-yogena cāpare

SYNONYMS

dhyānena-
by meditation;
ātmani-
self;
paśyanti-
see;
kecit-
one;
ātmānam-
Supersoul;
ātmanā-
by the mind;
anye-
others;
sāṅkhyena-
by philosophical discussion;
yogena-
by the
yoga
system;
karma-yogena-
by activities without fruitive desire;
ca-
also;
apare-
others.

TRANSLATION

That Supersoul is perceived by some through meditation, by some through the cultivation of knowledge, and by others through working without fruitive desire.

PURPORT

The Lord informs Arjuna that the conditioned soul can be divided into two classes as far as man's search for self-realization is concerned. Those who are atheists, agnostics and skeptics are beyond the sense of spiritual understanding. But there are others who are faithful in their understanding of spiritual life, and they are called workers who have renounced fruitive results. Those who always try to establish the doctrine of monism are also counted among the atheists and agnostics. In other words, only the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are really capable of spiritual understanding because they understand that beyond this material nature there is the spiritual world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is expanded as the Paramātmā, the Supersoul in everyone, the all-pervading Godhead. Of course there are those who try to understand the Supreme Absolute Truth by cultivation of knowledge, and they can be counted in the second class. The atheistic philosophers analyze this material world into twenty-four elements, and they place the individual soul as the twenty-fifth item. When they are able to understand the nature of the individual soul to be transcendental to the material elements, they are able to understand also that above the individual soul there is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the twenty-sixth element. Thus gradually they also come to the standard of devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who work without fruitive results are also perfect in their attitude. They are given a chance to advance to the platform of devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Here it is stated that there are some people who are pure in consciousness and who try to find out the Supersoul by meditation, and when they discover the Supersoul within themselves, they become transcendentally situated. Similarly, there are others who also try to understand the Supreme Soul by cultivation of knowledge, and there are others who cultivate the
haṭha-yoga
system and who try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by childish activities.