Text 23
sa vā ayaṁ yat padam atra sūrayo
jitendriyā nirjita-mātariśvanaḥ
paśyanti bhakty-utkalitāmalātmanā
nanv eṣa sattvaṁ parimārṣṭum arhati
Translation
Here is the same Supreme Personality of Godhead whose transcendental form is experienced by the great devotees who are completely cleansed of material consciousness by dint of rigid devotional service and full control of life and the senses. And that is the only way to purify existence.
Purport
As it is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord can be known in His real nature by dint of pure devotional service only. So it is stated here that only the great devotees of the Lord who are able to clear the mind of all material dust by rigid devotional service can experience the Lord as He is. Jitendriya means one who has full control over the senses. The senses are active parts of the body, and their activities cannot be stopped. The artificial means of the yogic processes to make the senses inactive has proved to be abject failure, even in the case of great yogīs like Viśvāmitra Muni. Viśvāmitra Muni controlled the senses by yogic trance, but when he happened to meet Menakā (a heavenly society woman), he became a victim of sex, and the artificial way of controlling the senses failed. But in the case of a pure devotee, the senses are not at all artificially stopped from doing anything, but they are given different good engagements. When the senses are engaged in more attractive activities, there is no chance of their being attracted by any inferior engagements. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the senses can be controlled only by better engagements. Devotional service necessitates purifying the senses or engaging them in the activities of devotional service. Devotional service is not inaction. Anything done in the service of the Lord becomes at once purified of its material nature. The material conception is due to ignorance only. There is nothing beyond Vāsudeva. The Vāsudeva conception gradually develops in the heart of the learned after a prolonged acceleration of the receptive organs. But the process ends in the knowledge of accepting Vāsudeva as all in all. In the case of devotional service, this very same method is accepted from the very beginning, and by the grace of the Lord all factual knowledge becomes revealed in the heart of a devotee due to dictation by the Lord from within. Therefore controlling the senses by devotional service is the only and easiest means.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So previously, these women were praising the Lord because of His greatness. At the same time, when they see Him directly, they appreciate his great beauty. So they appreciate both aspects of the Supreme Lord, power and sweetness. So this is a rare opportunity. All the people of Hastinapur, they got to see the Supreme Lord Krishna.
So it does not look so rare because everybody there saw Krishna. But it is rare because not everybody lives in Hastinapur. Only people who are qualified get to live there and see Krishna. So as Prabhupada mentions, the yogis do not see Krishna. They are definitely very qualified because they practice for thousands of years to control their senses. But as Brahma Samhita explains, the only aspect of Krishna they realize is one ray of light from his toenail.
So they don’t even see his toe or his foot or anything else. Just the light from a toenail. The same with the jñānis. They do not see the Lord. So at the beginning of Nectar of Devotion, Rūpa Goswāmi explains that one of the unique qualities of Bhakti is Sudurlabha. So that means it is very rare.
Of course, sādhana bhakti is not so rare. So many people are doing some sort of practice of Bhakti. But Bhāva bhakti is very rare. It is that Bhakti, Bhāva bhakti that qualifies you to see the Lord. If you practice Sādhana Bhakti and you get to Bhāva bhakti , you are qualified to see the Lord. One may practice five years, ten years, twenty years, five lifetimes, but eventually if you get to Bhāva, you see the Lord. So it is not so rare, but it might be a little difficult. It takes some time. But it is so rare that actually it’s impossible for the jñāni and the yogi to see Krishna. Why is that? They don’t have Bhāva. They don’t have Bhāva because they didn’t do Sādhana Bhakti. So they can practice Jñāna or Yoga for thousands of years, but they don’t get Bhava. They’ve never practiced Sadhana Bhakti, so they never see the Lord.
So in that sense, Bhakti is very, very rare. On the other hand, we see everybody in Hastinapur, everybody in Dwāraka, everybody in Vṛndāvan saw the Lord.
So, how they see the Lord? They are qualified with Bhāva and Prema. So, Bhakti is the only way by which you can see the Lord. Here it says, Bhakti vikalaita amala ātmanā.. So, ātmanā here means by the mind. So, by the pure mind you can see the Supreme Lord.
But one may object, I can purify the mind by Yoga or Jñāna. That is true. Jñānis and Yogis who get liberation must have purified their mind. You can’t get liberation without having a completely pure mind.
Of course, one can do that. One can purify the mind by Karma, jñāna or Yoga. But it’s difficult and takes a long time.
If we purify the mind by Bhakti, it is easier and it is quicker. It is easier because, as Prabhupada mentions in the purport, we do not have to stop the senses. We can engage the senses.
So, the Yogi will stop his senses by leaving all the towns and villages, going off into the forest and into caves, so he can’t see anything and close his eyes, so he won’t see anything. But the devotee looks at the form of the Lord. The Yogi and the Jñāni, they stop hearing voices, they stop speaking. And the devotees do Kirtan. So, it’s much easier to engage your senses than to stop your senses. In that sense, it’s easier.
What makes it so quick? One reason is that Bhakti itself is the cit Shakti or Svarupa Shakti of Krishna. It does not belong to the material world. As we know, the śakti and the Lord are non-different. So, Bhakti is non-different from Krishna. So, Krishna is the most pure, so Bhakti is the most pure.
So, Bhakti is the most purifying agent. However, there’s another reason why it becomes quicker. And that is that the Supreme Lord Himself is so attached to Bhakti that the Lord personally begins to purifythe individual. And therefore, in the second to last statement in the purport, Prabhupāda says, it’s due to dictation by the Lord from within. So, the Lord from within is giving directions to the devotee.
So, in this way, Bhakti is the recommended process. However, simply a pure mind does not qualify you for seeing the Lord. Jñānis and yogis purify the mind, get liberation, but they don’t see the Lord.
So, Bhakti does more than purify the mind. So, what is that extra something that Bhakti has that Jñāna and Yoga do not have? And that is that what attracts Krishna and makes you qualified for Krishna is this Bhakti itself. So, by practicing Bhakti, not only the mind is purified, but the mind becomes filled with Krishna.
In other words, through the process of Bhakti, we get to Bhāva, and in Bhāva, we’ve developed Bhakti to such an extent that it qualifies us to see Krishna. So, it’s not just a pure mind, but we have that Bhakti which turns into Bhāva. So, in any case, it is the process of Bhakti that qualifies us to see the Lord.
However, the goal of the devotee is not to see the Lord. The devotee does not just want to stand there and look at the Lord. We have different types of liberation.
One is that sāmīpya Mukti. You can be near the Lord, so you can see Him all the time. It’s one type of liberation. So, definitely, by Bhakti, one can get sālokya sārūpya, sārṣṭi, and sāmīpya. You can be near the Lord, you can see the Lord, you can live near the Lord, you can live in his Dhām, you can have qualities like the Lord, etc.
But if the devotee does not have service to the Lord, he does not want to accept any of these things(liberation). So, the Jnāni and the Yogi cannot even see the Lord, they cannot even see the light from the toenail of the Lord. So, the devotees can see the Lord, but more than seeing the Lord, they serve the Lord.
Of course, even seeing the Lord is part of the devotee’s activity. But, and of course, even seeing the Lord is a type of bhakti, a type of devotional service. But the devotees want more than that, they want to serve the Lord.
So, in the spiritual world, there are devotees that have śānta rasa, so they see the Lord, but they don’t serve. So, śānta rasa or śānta rati is not desired by the devotees. The devotees desire to serve the Lord in higher rasas like dāsya, sakhya, vatsalya or mādhurya. And without that, they don’t desire these other things like sārūpya, sālokya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya. However, the Supreme Lord supplies what is required to serve the Lord in the spiritual world, unless you have a body. If you don’t have a body, how are you going to serve the Lord? So, the Lord supplies a body with hands, feet, senses.
How does this develop? It develops through the process of bhakti. The jñāni and yogi do not practice bhakti, they get liberation. No form, no senses, no hands and feet. Why don’t they develop(body, senses etc)? Because they don’t have any need, because they don’t want to serve anybody. So, the devotee desires to serve, so the Lord gives him suitable body. But, if you go to Goloka and you have the body of a Viṣṇu dūta, that’s not a suitable body.
So, to serve Krishna in Goloka, you need a cowherd body. And if it’s in Sakhya rasa, it will be a masculine body. If one desires Mādhurya rasa, then it will be a female body.
So, the Lord supplies a form suitable for the devotee’s particular service. The Lord in that body supplies all the wonderful qualities necessary for the particular service. So, the Lord makes proper arrangement for the devotees, so that the devotees can serve. So, this is the power of bhakti. Of course, even karma yoga has some śakti. By doing that, you can elevate yourself in the material world.
Again, yoga has some śakti, so you can get liberation. But, bhakti is most powerful because it gives you eternal service in the spiritual world. So, only the devotees practicing bhakti, they get to see the Lord and serve the Lord. And how do they do that? Their minds are completely pure and completely saturated with devotion. And that is the qualification for eternal service of the Lord.
Q & A
1) We hear that a devotee can develop a particular rasa in which he wants to serve the Lord in the spiritual world, and he does a meditation of that rasa or practices in this life only. So, he can desire for a rasa and he aspires and he develops that. At another instance, we hear from Prabhupada lectures that every living entity has an eternal relationship with Krishna. So, my question is, if a relationship is eternal, which means a particular rasa is already there and the guru or seniors reveal over a period of time, or does this person aspires for a rasa? A particular relationship is revealed to him, or he can develop a relationship which he desires?
So, it is not one or the other.We can say it is both. And we should understand that rasa is eternal, prema is eternal, bhāva is eternal, so your relationship also is eternal. But it doesn’t appear until bhava stage. But it won’t appear unless you do sādhana. So, if you do karma sadhana, it’s not going to appear. If you do jnāna, it’s not going to appear. If you do bhakti, it can appear. But if you choose to worship Viṣṇu and do bhakti, you get bhava for Vishnu. It’s natural. But if it appears, it’s also eternal. So, it may be, let’s say, advised by another devotee or a guru, or it can also appear internally, either way. So, all those people who have joined Lord Caitanya’s movement or in ISKCON, then most of them are going to be worshipping Krishna.
So, if you practice for 5 lifetimes or 10 lifetimes, you get bhāva, who will you see? So, if suddenly you see Visṣṇu, then you say, well, why are you here? So, because we are choosing in one sense to do sādhana, we expect a certain result. But we should not think therefore it’s all whimsical, because it’s actually eternal. But simultaneously, it depends on our choice and the mercy of the devotees.
2) You said that when we do sādhana bhakti, our mind gets purified. This is one part you explained. Another part is that Krishna also intervenes for purification. Is that after certain stages, Krishna intervenes? Or the moment we start sādhana bhakti, Krishna intervenes and He purifies? Is that both the sides, from the beginning stage or after certain stages?
So, as I said, bhakti is very special because it’s the srupa śakti of Krishna.
So, because it’s non-different from Krishna, therefore when we begin bhakti in one sense, Krishna is also there. But then again it says in the first canto Bhagavatham that Krishna within purifies you and gets rid of your anarthas, so you can come to niṣtha stage. So, then we could say, well, Krishna is inside purifying us, but I think Vishvanatha Chakravarti says this means that Krishna is present through hearing process.
So, Krishna is non-different from Bhāgavatam . Krishna disappeared, but He appeared in Bhāgavatam for the people of Kali Yuga. But the name of Krishna is also non-different from Krishna.
So, therefore, Krishna is personally present in the name. And that, of course, is why the name is so powerful. So, even if accidentally chanted, as in the case of Ajamila, you can destroy all your karmas.
Of course, the perfection of chanting is to chant, and when you chant, you realize Krishna. So, thus, Krishna is present in various ways for the devotee. And, of course, when we take to devotional service, we are under the guidance of the Supreme Lord, as is stated here.
By the dictation of the Lord from within the heart of the devotee, things are revealed. But, we will not get the direct perception in front of us until bhava stage. But, we will not get the direct perception in front of us until bhava stage.
3) Except Sayujya Mukti, other four types of Mukti leads to which Loka?
Depending on your type of bhakti will determine which loka and which type pf body you will attain.If you worship Viṣṇu and Vaidhi Bhakti, you go to Vaikuṇṭha and get a four-armed form. If you worship Krishna, you get to see Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !!