19850603 Bhagavad-gītā 7.5

The following class is given by his Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on June 3rd 1985 at New Pāṇihāti Dhāma at Atlanta, Georgia. The class begins with a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā 7th chapter verse 5.

These are the important verses in Bhagavad-gītā which briefly describes the material nature and the spiritual natures. Earth, water, fire, mind, intelligence, and false ego is the inferior energy. Then there is the parā-prakṛti or the superior energy.

Anyone knows who this superior energy is? Anyone?

Now Śyāma Sundara is the source of all energies. There is another superior energy higher than the material energy which is known as Jīva Bhūta, someone know Jīva Bhūtas? 

The living entity! Jīvātmā. Jīva Bhūta. Bhūta. Jīva means jīvātmā...the living entity. The living entity is of the higher reality. higher energy. Superior energy. So Kṛṣṇa is saying that these are all my energies. Infact, in verse 6 it states, All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.

Kṛṣṇa is the origin, He is the dissolution. So the superior energy or living entity falsely identifies as this body and mind and he is trying to control and enjoy the body and mind and as a result he becomes entangled. So solution is that actually we are not the supreme controllers. We are not. Therefore total living control of our environment is subject to control of Kṛṣṇa. So if you want to become happy, that is better to willingly surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Since we are not in control anyway. If we were in control then we wouldn’t be forced to suffer these types of miseries even though we want to. Because we are forced to suffer, that is another way of humbling us, for using us to recognize that there is a more superior power. So this spiritual energy is known as taṭastha or the madhya śakti. The middle energy because we are between Rādhārāṇī and between the material nature. We are between the internal potency and external potency. Therefore, we are the middle potency. By nature, we are the same as the spiritual person the spiritual potency, but we are very minute. So we can fall under the control of māyā. our nature is to be controlled. So we are either able to put ourself under loving control of Kṛṣṇa or if we are not, then we are put under the highest control of his jail keeper, his material nature, known as māyā.

So Prabhupāda uses this the example that, a cat when it catches its own kitten at the back of the neck carries its kitten’s neck very gently. Different kind of care. When it catches the mouse, that is another type of catching. So when the material nature catches the non-devotee, it is a very highest way of catching. When interacting with the devotees who surrender to Kṛṣṇa, sometimes it appears they are under certain material controls. They are. But, it's like the cat carrying its own kitten. That is Kṛṣṇa’s way of bringing the devotee to the proper consciousness. So here the Bhagavad-gītā confirms that the living entity is one of the multi energies of Kṛṣṇa and when this energy is freed from material contamination becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious or liberated. So the goal of life is not to, so the goal of life is to become liberated from this material consciousness and to act in pure spiritual consciousness, to be freed from this material contamination. As soon as one starts to understand that this body was full of defects, inefficiencies, and is not our real identity but that it is a temporary vehicle for the soul, and we are the actual soul, they are off to immediately some relief. When one understands his relationship with Kṛṣṇa and engages in devotional service as one of the parts of Kṛṣṇa then real happiness begins:

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati
(ŚB 1.2.6)

Hare Kṛṣṇa!!

Kṛṣṇa is not the energy. He is a source of energy. He is the Parama-puruṣa or Supreme Person, Bhagavān. You are jīvātmā. You are one of the spiritual energies of the lord. So are you, so am I. So each one of us. With us, you know, we are spirit souls situated in a height of the body along with us the companies of form of God, known as the Paramātmā or super soul. That is the description of two birds. That actually our best friend is the lord, but like two birds, one bird is simply eating the fruits, but the other bird is, his friend, waiting, for his friend to turn to him, the souls trying to enjoy his body and the senses and we are actually forgetting Kṛṣṇa. Neglecting our friend, but he is always ready to receive us again.

Well, just like in this room, we have different size light bulbs. The video light bulb that shining in my eyes, is of higher power, is blinding. These are the little bulbs here like little candle bulbs may be 7 watts, 10 watts. so different bulbs have different sizes. So, say that the human being, you have got one power, and it will go up. Higher than you are the ghosts, they are 10 times. Higher than them are Gandharvas, they have got 100 times. 10 more times, that means 100, higher than them are the kinnaras. They have another 10 times, Cāraṇas another 10 times. Siddhas, another 10 times. Then asuras, they have another 10 times, higher than them are Devatās or the demigods, they have got another 10 times more power. Then the next stage below, and of all the demigods, Indra is the most powerful of all, he has 100 times more. The more powerful than Indra by 1000 times is lord Brahmā, who is the original creator of the universe. So Brahmā, says even more powerful than him is a brāhmaṇa who is a self-realized human being. So, if you become self-realized human being then you become more powerful even than a demigod in some ways. But as a human being, without self-realization, we are just king of the animal. But the difference is that different power is taken by the different power light bulbs. But Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu is the powerhouse. Lord Śiva is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa for a specific purpose, partial expansion. So, if you have in touch with the powerhouse, and you will have unlimited capacity. Then your potential is unlimited.

Well, we are in Bhūloka. Bhū loka. There is Bhūr Bhuvar. We are in Bhuvar. Next higher is Svar. Svar means Svarga, heavenly planets. And there are 14 planetary system. So, we are in number 7 out of 14. In terms of the, anyway half above is considered is heavenly planets. We consider we can say that lowest of middle planet system. And these are in top 7. Below this becomes small, degraded, and higher is elevated. So all those levels one by one, they are considered higher planetary systems or heavenly planetary systems. But the standard and one to the next is the little higher. This like in Atlanta, druid hills, supposed to be one of the higher levels, go step by step, may be higher level then there is a lower level. Some of these are middle level. But all this is within the material universe. You see that may be in druid hills, the people have better lawns, bigger driveway, but still they have to worry about thieves, so various summary, tax collectors is the same problem or the other may they do not have worry as much as someone who is in another part of the town where is may be more dangerous. So, in heavenly planets, still problems, but less.

The point is that there is spiritual world. These are levels. There are many levels. The spiritual world is absolute. Can be divided into broad categories. The spiritual planets are majestic and in a very loving. Two categories. Kṛṣṇa’s original abode is in the Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana where the mood is loving devotion. Then Nārāyaṇa, the form of Kṛṣṇa in a majestic form, lives in Vaikuṇṭha. So in the spiritual world, there is no birth, no death. There is no material energy. It's all spiritual energy. When the soul gets liberated from the bodies, the spiritual form can reside in the spiritual world. Because here spiritual form is dormant here residing in the material body, when your body dies again it takes another birth. In this way, you continue.

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

Translation: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.

Purport: The process of changing one’s nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. A person who at the end of his life quits his body thinking of Kṛṣṇa attains the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord, but it is not true that a person who thinks of something other than Kṛṣṇa attains the same transcendental state. This is a point we should note very carefully. How can one die in the proper state of mind? Mahārāja Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life, and so in his next life he was transferred into the body of a deer. Although as a deer he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one’s thoughts during one’s life accumulate to influence one’s thoughts at death, so this life creates one’s next life. If in one’s present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Kṛṣṇa, it is possible for one to remember Kṛṣṇa at the end of one’s life. That will help one be transferred to the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then his next body will be transcendental (spiritual), not material. Therefore, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare is the best process for successfully changing one’s state of being at the end of one’s life.

So depending on how the person is thinking when he leaves the body, if they have a desire to enjoy the happiness which is available as an animal, then they become an animal. But some others interested in self-realization, in spiritual life. Then that’s not available in animal lives. So then, it’s a good chance to become human being.

Again at least, if you practice some of the spiritual science, if you successful you go back to spiritual world. If you don’t complete and take birth on one of the heavenly planets for a long time. Then after that again you come down to the earth and you take birth in a family which is better of human beings who are either rich or yogīs or brāhmaṇas. So you got everything to gain and nothing to lose by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

If they die natural death, that’s why killing an animal disrupts the natural evolution. It’s like a prison term they have to take certain amount of years in that form of an animal. So when they kill the animal then that means again they have to take birth as an animal to finish off the period of time required in that body. When they die naturally to death then they go up to the next level. So, killing animals disrupts the evolutionary process in terms of spiritual progress. Therefore, it creates a bad karma. And the cows, tigers and monkeys become human beings in their next life. Cows, as human beings in the mode of goodness. Tigers, as human beings in the mode of passion. Monkeys, as human beings in the mode of ignorance. Therefore, disrupting cows evolutions is very bad karma or incremental karma for many reason.

They follow their nature. They get certain body react in certainly according to their karma. The animals are not, don’t have discussion capability. Therefore they don’t create any karma. It is like the tigers turn man eaters. Normally they don’t turn man eaters. It is not their nature. When they become very old or weak, wounded, they can’t catch anything else, human beings are easier pray than a deer, then because of unusual circumstances they become man eaters.

Human birth is special. Animal birth, they don’t produce new karma. So they naturally go from one species, say a bird becomes an animal, from cat to dog to horse like that they go up by one specie by the next. So they had to finish off their, the period in that particular specie. You are talking about the human being is all with in the same specie. So human being actually able to produce karma. That means that the human being, whatever they do they have to take reaction for that. So for the child’s born dies right away that means that that was a karma, they had to suffer, maybe in previous life, they had killed the baby. So therefore, as a baby they were, they died or other. There may be many reasons. It’s very complicated to say exactly why these things will happen. As a human being, sometimes if a human baby is born, I mean to a human child is born in a parent who are devotees and they feed the child caraṇāmṛta or chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So the child that may be enough to finish all the karma of the child may leave, or go back to the spiritual world. So on the baby or the adult is the same but the body is less or more developed.

When all your karma is gone, you are liberated. And you go back to the spiritual world. It’s just like we change clothes. May be for the heart were wearing in shorts then we wanna go out then for special occasions then we go back and put on in formal dress. Even though the clothes are changed but the person is the same. And in the body the living force is you. And you may change the body, but the living force remains the same. The changing the bodies is just like when a pair of clothes becomes older one and you put new clothes. That’s mentioned in the 2nd chapter.

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro ’parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī

Translation: As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

You understand that?

Just like when you are sleeping, the mind leaves the body and, in your dream, you go different places. So, the mind is more subtle than the body. more of the mind, is the soul. The soul is the actual energy which makes the body appear alive. When soul leaves the body, the body is an empty shell, A carcass, cadaver. Is a heavenly more beauty. So what's the difference, what’s missing? Here we have a live body and the next minute we have a dead body.  What’s the difference? Why is the live body is beautiful to look at interesting, and the dead body is different? What’s missing? When body no longer be very valuable.

So when a person is sleeping, and they are dreaming, the mind leaves the body. But it’s connected to the body by a thin silver chord, subtle chord. That’s why sometimes if you someone sleeping and dreaming, and if you suddenly wake them up, and they get real stalk and they may kill them. Because actually they are outside the body, but they are connected with the body, psychically. So that’s why people have to woke them up gently just in a second they come back to their body but they are connected with the body. If there is any connection cut, sometimes yogīs and different people when they leave the body in a psychic plane, that if they get separate from the connection of the body, then it is very dangerous, they can die. So when we talk about leaving the body, when we leave the body totally that’s known as death for the body but for the soul, there is no death. So the soul always will go somewhere. Either it will take another birth, it enters the womb at the time of conception and then that’s the new birth. And the time it’s in the womb, it’s like sleeping, like when you sleep at night for 6 hours, when you are in the womb, you are sleeping for 9 months. When wake up, you forget, just like you forget, yesterday what happened, yesterday what happened, last year, so what to speak when you are sleeping for 9 months, you forget whole previous birth. Sometimes, the babies can remember the previous lives. Many psychologists and scientists recorded those information and researched them. The thing is to we awaken us by spiritual awareness by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. that vibration is meant to awaken our spiritual consciousness. So that way you will be able to transcend this material sufferings to achieve liberation. To achieve Kṛṣṇa.

About 4 days ago, we discussed Christian theology. They have the father, the holy ghost, and the son. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Vedic Vaiṣṇava philosophy, we also have the Parama-puruśa, but the supreme person, Kṛṣṇa describes in Bhagavad-gītā, aham bīja pradaḥ pitā, I am the seed giving father of all living entities. And he has an expansion, they say the nature of the holy ghost is that the holy ghost is present everywhere. All pervasive. So in the Vedas describe that the Paramātmā or the Supersoul is all pervasive. And they say that the son of the god means he is the manifestation of god in the earth. And so it is similar, śaktyāveśāvatāra, guru-tattva, which is actually Kṛṣṇa itself manifested in this world to uplift. So in this way there is correlation between the father, holy ghost and the son. The holy ghost is actually the Supersoul or all pervasive Viṣṇu. They say the ghost is a holy ghost. Obviously, it is different. A ghost, say when a man committed suicide, because he doesn’t want to have a material body, the suffering, so his reaction when we die, a subtle body mind, intelligence and false ego takes us into the womb, into the next birth. But this person, because he doesn’t want a body, he killed himself. That means he killed his body. Destroyed his body. As a karma for that, sometimes they don’t get another body. They must wander above without a body. Those are called ghosts. So those are very hellish kind of existence and forth. In case of a mother and father or someone stuck in that kind of position, there are certain rituals, offerings made to Kṛṣṇa on their behalf so that they get freed from karma for that and they can go on and take another birth. Because it is like a limbo state for one who stuck up in between births, they wanted to enjoy the senses, but they have got no body. So they can’t do with a subtle body, they have no gross body, no senses. Sometimes they take over intoxicated or dumb peoples bodies, their senses, to enjoy. For a person who goes to sleep at night without cleaning himself like washing the mouth, the feet, the face, the hands or otherwise is other unclean state, then they can enter through the dirt of a person and usually a person who is being disturbed by ghost when they are sleep, they start to drool from the side of the mouth. That’s the symptom that someone is being haunted by the ghost at that time through their senses they may try to enjoy some kind of material gratification by going into someone’s body.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

So you chant first Lord Caitanya's name as an invocation then Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Jayapatākā Swami ki jaya...!!