Srimad Bhagavatam 11.12.21 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 21 June 2021
ŚB 11.12.21
यस्मिन्निदं प्रोतमशेषमोतं
पटो यथा तन्तुवितानसंस्थ: ।
य एष संसारतरु: पुराण:
कर्मात्मक: पुष्पफले प्रसूते ॥ २१ ॥
yasminn idaṁ protam aśeṣam otaṁ
paṭo yathā tantu-vitāna-saṁsthaḥ
ya eṣa saṁsāra-taruḥ purāṇaḥ
karmātmakaḥ puṣpa-phale prasūte
Synonyms
yasmin — in whom; idam — this universe; protam — woven crosswise; aśeṣam — the whole; otam — and lengthwise; paṭaḥ — a cloth; yathā — just like; tantu — of the threads; vitāna — in the expansion; saṁsthaḥ — situated; yaḥ — that which; eṣaḥ — this; saṁsāra — of material existence; taruḥ — the tree; purāṇaḥ — existing since time immemorial; karma — toward fruitive activities; ātmakaḥ — naturally inclined; puṣpa — the first result, blossoming; phale — and the fruit; prasūte — being produced.
Translation
Just as woven cloth rests on the expansion of lengthwise and crosswise threads, similarly the entire universe is expanded on the lengthwise and crosswise potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is situated within Him. The conditioned soul has been accepting material bodies since time immemorial, and these bodies are like great trees sustaining one’s material existence. Just as a tree first blossoms and then produces fruit, similarly the tree of material existence, one’s material body, produces the various results of material existence.
Purport
Before a tree produces fruit, blossoms appear. Similarly, the word puṣpa-phale, according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, indicates the happiness and distress of material existence. One’s material life may appear to be blossoming, but ultimately there will appear the bitter fruits of old age, death and other catastrophes. Attachment to the material body, which is always inclined toward sense gratification, is the root cause of material existence, and it is therefore called saṁsāra-taru. The tendency to exploit the external energy of the Supreme Lord has existed since time immemorial, as expressed by the words purāṇaḥ karmātmakaḥ. The material universe is an expansion of the illusory potency of the Supreme Lord and is always dependent on Him and nondifferent from Him. This simple understanding can relieve the conditioned souls from endless wandering in the unhappy kingdom of māyā.
The word puṣpa-phale may also be understood as meaning sense gratification and liberation. The tree of material existence will be further explained in the following verses.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
And the whole cloth is made up of this network of the intertwined threads. So everything in the universe is woven with the supreme lord in this way. We cannot separate the material world from the lord. Take away the threads, there is no cloth. So therefore ultimately the lord is in control of this material world. And within this material world we have the bodies of the jivas. And with their bodies they go from body to body and in this way they manifest samsara. So samsara often is a word used to describe how the living entities go from body to body without beginning and without end. Sometimes it is compared to an ocean. However it is an ocean that you cannot cross, it has no shore. Similarly we can find no beginning and no end to our birth in this material world.
And of course the compelling force here to go from body to body is karma. And this karma results in different fruits. So the fruits are the results of the karma. And some of the results give happiness. And this continues birth after birth in the material world. So therefore the material world is not just matter. It is matter supported by the supreme lord. And it also has the jiva situated in that world. So in fact the whole material world is produced by the lord for the enjoyment of the jiva. The lord himself has no interest in the material world. However because the jiva does have interest, the lord manifests the material world. But the negative point is that this material world covers the jiva and he cannot see the supreme lord.
So why does the jiva choose the material world? And the answer is he desires his own enjoyment. You see in the spiritual world there is also enjoyment. But it is primarily the enjoyment of the supreme lord. From the point of view of the jiva in the spiritual world, he wants to give pleasure to the lord. However we should not think that the spiritual world is a very self-centered place where Krishna is enjoying like anything and everybody is suffering. Just as the jiva in the spiritual world strives to give pleasure to Krishna, Krishna strives to give pleasure to the jiva in the spiritual world. So this is the only method by which we can have eternal happiness.
Instead of trying to please the supreme lord, if our goal is simply to please ourselves, then we end up in the material world. And the only hope for the jiva in the material world is to remove that ignorance. And the jiva removes the ignorance by the process of bhakti. So the central goal of that bhakti is to please the lord. That is the whole goal of bhakti. And if there is no other desire than that, then it is called pure bhakti. The opposite tendency is not to strive to please the lord, but to please yourself. So the person who begins the process of bhakti decides that he will instead of trying to enjoy for himself, he will give pleasure to the lord. However he has a lot of material attachments. So therefore it takes some time until he can steadily practice bhakti. So the more he practices bhakti, the more he develops this idea of giving the enjoyment to Krishna. Natural result of that is that he does not desire enjoyment for himself.
In this way, naturally all material anarthas begin to dissipate. So that is the process of bhakti yoga. Another way of saying this is that the jiva in the material world is bahirmukha. This means that jiva is inclined or attracted to the bahiranga shakti, material energy. And why he is attracted? Because he wants to enjoy it. So the process of bhakti takes bahirmukha jiva and turns him around instead of inclining him to enjoy material energy, gives inclination to serve Krishna. Of the two, the latter that is serving the lord gives us eternal happiness. And serving maya gives us a mixture of happiness and distress in the material world. And we get body after body to experience that.
So therefore the jiva has to choose. The jiva has to make a choice. But lower species of life have no choice. So it is the human being that has the ability to choose. The jiva can choose maya. The jiva can choose this [Not clear]. So the whole purpose of human life is to make the correct choice. If we are in tamoguna, even then our ability to choose is very little. WE are trying to make ignorant choices and that increases our choices. Nevertheless, we are responsible for our choices and therefore we get karma. As we rise in the gunas, our ability to choose becomes greater. Just like a child, when he is a baby, he has no real choice. And even when he is 5 or 6 years old, very little choice. But when he becomes grown up and he is 18 or 19, then he has choice. So that’s why you have a voting age. You cannot vote when you are 5 years old, but you can vote when you are 18 years old. And similarly, when you are a child, you are not responsible for crime, but when you are grown up, you are.
So as human beings, we make choices and we are responsible and we get karma. So the whole process of karma is to help us make good choices. But the ultimate choice is to either choose the material world or Krishna. But to make that choice is very rare. In other words, to finally choose [Not clear] over every other process is a rare event. And the Jiva that makes that choice is considered to be very very fortunate. This choice itself is not determined by gunas. To choose good karma over bad karma that is determined by gunas. If we are in ignorance, we tend to make bad choices. If we are in sattva, we make good choices. However, the process of bhakti is different. What impels us to make a choice of bhakti over maya. It is not karma. Karma is not the cause of bhakti. So the only cause is bhakti. So if a devotees have mercy on a Jiva and he gets enough mercy, then he will make a nice choice. So therefore the devotee and the mercy of the devotee is very very important.
So the supreme lord himself comes into the material world to destroy the demons, protect the devotees, establish dharma, etc. But of all the different purposes by which the lord comes the most important one is to encourage his devotees. And if the devotees are strong, then they can inspire other people to take up the path of bhakti. In this way, the lord is not indifferent to the creation of the material world. He makes arrangements by which the Jivas can come to the process of bhakti.
So sometimes the lord is described as being sama, indifferent to everything. So definitely the lord is indifferent to the material world. He does not care to enjoy it. And the happiness and suffering of Jivas is determined by the law of karma and the lord does not interfere with that. But as Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, yes I am equal to everyone, but I am in my devotee and my devotee is in me. So that means that the lord is thinking of the devotee because the devotee is thinking of the lord. So the lord tries to make everyone a devotee. To do that, he employs the devotees. So therefore the devotees are instrumental in delivering the Jivas. And for that reason, the lord swears or promises to always protect his devotees. And he also glorifies the devotees. Because without the devotee’s mercy, no one in the material world can take to the process of bhakti. So in this way, the lord makes an arrangement in the material world to deliver the Jivas. If by their free will, they do not want to take to the process of bhakti, then the lord does not [Not clear]. So in that sense, the lord does not interfere with the free will of the jiva.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A:
1.) Thank you Maharaj. Maharaj, we are speaking about the creation for the last couple of days.This is actually referring to 3rd Canto 8th chapter where it talks about creation. But the question Maharaj is, what is the basis for different headed Brahmas in different universes?
It’s just explained to show that there are different universes of different sizes.
Devotee : Thank you Maharaj.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. We already have a lot of previous life impressions while taking birth in a new life. So jiva follows the choices based on these previous impressions in the current life, this we know as destiny which cannot be changed. So with these constraints, how the jiva can progress from lower gunas to sattva guna so that he can come out of ignorance.
So there is two factors. One is the factor of karma. That determines certain circumstances of your life. Those are difficult to avoid. The other aspect is that, yes our desires continue from previous life. But desires continually get changed, they modify. But that is not fixed. Just as in this lifetime, sometimes you may be attracted to idlis and sometimes to dosas. So certain things may be strong from previous lifetime, but they are not fixed. Nevertheless, some of the desires are stronger, so it takes more effort to change that. But the whole purpose of human life is to change those desires. And therefore we have directions in scripture. The question is asked by the Acharya’s that, if everything is predetermined, even your choices, then what is the use of scripture? They can’t do anything for you [Laughs]. So if you choose to follow the scriptures, then you begin to change desires. Nevertheless, it is a slow process. And therefore, we have many many lifetimes to progress. But the whole idea of the varnashrama system is to birth after birth purify the jiva, so he rises through gunas. So in that way, those things are not fixed. The strongest influence is association.
So by association we can give up one set of desires and develop new desires. So that same principle operates in relation to bhakti. We change from bahir-mukha to antar-mukha. So instead of being interested in our own enjoyment, we change to be with Krishna. So that can take place by association. This can take place by the association of bhaktas.
3.) If a person is seriously practicing pure devotional service, he gets into some accident and not able to perform devotional service like before but still has faith in the lord to understand its his karma for suffering. Can we say that prarabdha karma is active in any Jiva’s devotional service? How the lord favors that person’s endeavor for pure devotional service. Thank you.
Even accidental bhakti, as in the case of Ajamila, can destroy all your karmas. So what remains is a shadow of karma. We see that in Ajamila. Even though he chanted the name of the lord and all his karmas were gone, he continued with his body and he continued to have different experiences. But all the karmas were actually destroyed. Therefore it is a shadow form of karma. So that is what operates for the devotee. There is a pattern that appears like karma, but it is under the lord, not under the law of karma. In any case, the devotee understands that all these conditions of life are meant to remind him of the temporary nature of the body and to continue the process.
4.) If bhakti is not dependent on karma how is that based on bad karma, a person is born in a family where there is no worship of Krishna and he/she never tries to satisfy Krishna because such a person never heard about Krishna as the family members are atheistic. Please explain ?
You are born in a family of devotees is not the result of karma, it’s a result of bhakti. If you do some activity serving the devotees in some way, then you get a chance to be born in a family of devotees. If you do some activity serving the devotees in some way, then you get a chance to be born in a devotee family. So in the way it is not karma it is previous bhakti that determines your [Not clear]. If you are not born in a family of devotees, that can be karma.
We don’t do bhakti and we don’t get the results of bhakti.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!!!