Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.15.31 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | July 6, 2025
ŚB 1.15.31
विशोको ब्रह्मसम्पत्त्या सञ्छिन्नद्वैतसंशय: ।
लीनप्रकृतिनैर्गुण्यादलिङ्गत्वादसम्भव: ॥ ३१ ॥
viśoko brahma-sampattyā
sañchinna-dvaita-saṁśayaḥ
līna-prakṛti-nairguṇyād
aliṅgatvād asambhavaḥ
Translation
Because of his possessing spiritual assets, the doubts of duality were completely cut off. Thus he was freed from the three modes of material nature and placed in transcendence. There was no longer any chance of his becoming entangled in birth and death, for he was freed from material form.
Purport
Doubts of duality begin from the misconception of the material body, which is accepted as the self by less intelligent persons. The most foolish part of our ignorance is our identifying this material body with the self. Everything in relation with the body is ignorantly accepted as our own. Doubts due to misconceptions of “myself” and “mine” — in other words, “my body,” “my relatives,” “my property,” “my wife,” “my children,” “my wealth,” “my country,” “my community” and hundreds and thousands of similar illusory contemplations — cause bewilderment for the conditioned soul. By assimilating the instructions of the Bhagavad-gītā, one is sure to be released from such bewilderment because real knowledge is knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is everything, including one’s self. Everything is a manifestation of His potency as part and parcel. The potency and the potent are nondifferent, so the conception of duality is at once mitigated by attainment of perfect knowledge. As soon as Arjuna took up the instructions of the Bhagavad-gītā, expert as he was, he could at once eradicate the material conception of Lord Kṛṣṇa, his eternal friend. He could realize that the Lord was still present before him by His instruction, by His form, by His pastimes, by His qualities and everything else related to Him. He could realize that Lord Kṛṣṇa, his friend, was still present before him by His transcendental presence in different nondual energies, and there was no question of attainment of the association of the Lord by another change of body under the influence of time and space. By attainment of absolute knowledge, one can be in association with the Lord constantly, even in this present life, simply by hearing, chanting, thinking of and worshiping the Supreme Lord. One can see Him, one can feel His presence even in this present life, simply by understanding the advaya-jñāna Lord, or the Absolute Lord, through the process of devotional service, which begins with hearing about Him. Lord Caitanya says that simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can at once wash off the dust on the mirror of pure consciousness, and as soon as the dust is removed, one is at once freed from all material conditions. To become free from material conditions means to liberate the soul. As soon as one is, therefore, situated in absolute knowledge, his material conception of life is removed, or he emerges from a false conception of life. Thus the function of the pure soul is revived in spiritual realization. This practical realization of the living being is made possible due to his becoming free from the reaction of the three modes of material nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance. By the grace of the Lord, a pure devotee is at once raised to the place of the Absolute, and there is no chance of the devotee’s becoming materially entangled again in conditioned life. One is not able to feel the presence of the Lord in all circumstances until one is endowed with the required transcendental vision made possible by devotional service prescribed in the revealed scriptures. Arjuna had attained this stage long before on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, and when he apparently felt the absence of the Lord, he at once took shelter of the instructions of the Bhagavad-gītā, and thus again he was placed in his original position. This is the position of viśoka, or the stage of being freed from all grief and anxieties.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So, this verse is explaining why Arjuna, inspired by Bhagavad Gita, gave up his lamentation. Often we find in Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures, this word ‘shoka’ or lamentation is used. ‘Vishoka’ in this verse means the opposite, no lamentation. But why this word lamentation is used? So, it is used to indicate the suffering condition in the material world. Of course, most people will object and say, I am not suffering. And of course it is true, within the material world, there is an arrangement by which we also get happiness. But that happiness is not constant. And there are some people who never get any happiness. So, of course, instead of saying it is a world of lamentation, we also say it is a world of happiness and lamentation. Another way of saying it is what Prabhupada says here, it is the ‘world of duality’. And in this verse we have the word ‘dvaita’, which means duality. This word is not much used in common language. Of course, it means two, as opposed to one. But of course, two also means many. And in the scriptures, this word dvaita or duality has a philosophical connotation. And it is used to refer to our perception of the material world.
So, Srila Prabhupada explains this in the first part of the purport. There is first one duality. There is me and everything else. And then there is me and my body. But then the person identifies himself with the body. And then they relate everything else in relation to the body. And of course, we can say, well, what is wrong with that? So, yes, we may think that this identity with the body and with objects related to the body will create happiness. If we get the objects we want, we are happy. If we don’t get them, then we suffer. So, this is the result of this duality. And we think in terms of duality and we get the dual results, happiness and distress. Of course, all of this is held in the mind. The basic function of the mind is to desire things which we think will give us happiness. And we will avoid those things which will give us suffering and pain. So, this is how our mind always operates. And if you analyze your mind all day long, the mind is operating in terms of things which are good for me and make me happy. I’ll avoid those things which will give me pain. In response to that duality, then we do activities. Activities to gain things and to avoid things. And then we can analyze our whole life as a series of activities simply for this purpose. And sometimes we get, sometimes we don’t get. Sometimes we get things we don’t want. So, therefore we get this duality of happiness and suffering. So, this is an unsolvable problem. Every living entity in the material world born with the body has this problem of duality. So, the duality in our experience ultimately arises from our duality in our thought. So, of course, as I mentioned, we identify ourselves with the body.
However, Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures like Bhagavatam will teach us actually, we are not the body. You are Atma and body and Atma are very, very different. So, this is another type of duality, we have body and atma completely different. But the atma is stuck in the body. So, this itself creates some sort of unnatural situation. This is like the fish out of water. So, the fish is in the water. That is very happy. We take the fish out of water, then it cannot survive. So, the Atma in the material body is like the fish out of water. Atma is completely different from body. Atma is eternal. Atma is conscious. Body is unconscious and temporary. Yet, the two are firmly joined together. So, what is it that joins them? What joins them is false identity or Ahankara. Ahakara is a subtle material element that makes the Jiva think, I am not a Jiva, I am the body. It is like now you identify with one body, but you don’t identify with another person’s body. So, this is what the Atma does. Atma has its own body. It is identifying with some other body, the material body. And then the Jiva thinks that he can get happiness through material body. And then we develop this duality of happiness and distress with the material body.
So, the spiritual solution to the problem is to get rid of that false identity. We get rid of that identity with the material body, that ignorance. So, when we do that, that is called liberation. We are free from bodily conception completely. So, this is what is described here. Arjuna got free from this duality of the material body, he is free from prakrti, free from material bodies. So, as I said, one gets free from the material body by getting rid of the ignorance. Now, there are two types of ignorance. One ignorance is, I think I am the material body. So, we get rid of that ignorance by knowledge that I am not the body, I am eternal atma. So, this gives liberation and we may think the problem is solved. But then there is another ignorance. Not only should I get free of the ignorance that I am the material body, but then we have to get free of the ignorance that I am independent. So, how do we get rid of that ignorance? So, we replace that with the Atma is the eternal servant of Krishna. So, we don’t use the process of Jnana Yoga for that. We use the process of Bhakti Yoga. So, then we have complete knowledge.
What is the difference between these two types of knowledge? The first one, I am not the body, I am the soul, gives us freedom from material bodies, from happiness and distress of material bodies. One becomes free from taking birth in the material world. For many that is the goal. However, there is another goal for the Atma. So, not only should one be free from the material body and birth and death, the atma should develop spiritual body. So, through the process of Bhakti Yoga, the atma develops a spiritual body which is eternal. So, no birth and death. With that spiritual body, then the Jiva experiences happiness and no distress.
So, if we simply get rid of the first ignorance, and we get liberation, then we get free from suffering. If we develop Bhakti and we develop our spiritual body, then we experience real eternal happiness. So, both realizations give freedom from duality. Duality is attached to everything in the material world. So, both liberation and Prema in the spiritual world are free from that duality. So, what do we call that position? ‘Advaita’ [Laughs]. No more duality.
However, generally as Vaishnavas, we don’t like that word too much [Laughs]. Because it usually refers to that liberation and not to our position with Prema. But Prabhupada explains that everything is one with Vasudeva Krishna. Vasudeva is everything. Including oneself, including the Jiva. He is one with everything. So, that is a type of Advaita also. So, there is Advaita even in Prema. However, we also have duality. Why? Because we have the Atma and we have the Supreme Lord. So, there is Advaita but there is also Dvaita. So, actually we have both Dvaita and Advaita. So, this is what our philosophy is – ‘Acintya Bheda Abheda’. Bheda means Dvaita, Abheda means Advaita. So, we reject the duality of the material world. We also reject simply Advaita.
And in the Lord, we have Dvaita and Advaita or Bheda and Abheda. So what is the superiority of Bheda- Abheda over Advaita? If there is advaita, there is no relationship, no form, no qualities, no activities. Of course, we can say, well then, what’s so good about liberation? Answer is we are free from birth and death and material dualities. So, yes, we are free from dualities of the material world but no form, qualities, activities. If we act as Bhakti, then we can realize form, qualities and activities in the spiritual world. But without the dualities of the material world. What does that lead to? That leads to bliss. So that Dvaita, Advaita in the spiritual world gives rise to bliss for the Jiva and bliss for the Supreme Lord. The bliss arises from the relationship between the Lord and the Jiva.
In the material world, of course, we try to get bliss through relationships. But that is a relationship between material bodies, not a relationship with the Supreme Lord. And these relationships of the material world give rise to more duality. And thus, happiness and distress. So, in non-dual world of liberation, then we are free from those dualities but we are also free from relationships. So, it’s free of material duality but it’s also devoid of spiritual bliss. So, we do Bhakti Yoga and we attain Prema in the spiritual world then we have relationships, we have form, qualities and activities and we have bliss. This is the most satisfying position for the Atma. And therefore, the Bhagavatam says that this is the goal for the Atma. So, Prema is the goal and the method to get it is Bhakti. So, that is the simple conclusion of Bhagavatam.
Q & A
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, in Brahma Samhita also it is said that ‘advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam; ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣam nava-yauvanaṁ ca’ and that is only for spiritual world or material world also ?
So material world is not oneness, it is difference. We see different forms everywhere. It is described in Upanishads that there is oneness and then the Lord creates and then we get many. So the many arise because of desires of the Jivas and the perceptions of the Jivas. And through that the Jiva tries to get bliss. So the goal of Jnana is to get rid of that dvaita, duality. Also Bhakti does not get rid of the duality. So in the spiritual world we have many, we have trees and rivers and people and so many things. But they do not give rise to happiness and distress like the material world rather they give rise to bliss.
2.) Maharaj, in the first section of the Purport, there is a statement being made by Srila Prabhupada – ‘By assimilating the instructions of Bhagavad Gita, one is sure to be released from such bewilderment. Because real knowledge is knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, Lord Krishna is everything, including one’s self’. The last word Maharaj – ‘including one’s self’, it appears that Srila Prabhupada apparently talks about oneness. So how do we understand this Maharaj?
As we see Prabhupada explain here, as Bhagavad Gita says, that the intelligent person or the devotee will see that ‘vasudeva sarvam iti’, Vasudeva is everything. So only Vasudeva everywhere. So in that sense there is oneness. This of course is also quite prominent in some of the Upanishads. ‘Sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ brahma’, everything is Brahman. This of course is used by Sankaracharya. He says that actually there is no variety at all. There is no material world, there is no spiritual world, there is only Brahman.
So we do not disagree. Yes, everything is one. Supreme Lord is everything. But within that oneness of the Supreme Lord, we do have Prakriti, Jivas, spiritual world, etc. So simultaneously we have oneness and difference. How does this take place? So our acharyas explain, it is because of Shakti. The Lord is called Shaktimaan, possessor of Shakti. So he possesses Shaktis, a material Shakti called Prakriti, Jiva Shakti and Antaranga Shakti or internal energy, spiritual Shakti. And through the material Shakti we get material world, through Jiva Shakti we get the Jivas, through Antaranga Shakti we get spiritual world. And they are all real. So in that sense there is not oneness, there is so many things, material world with all its variety, all the Jivas and spiritual world. Yet the Supreme Lord is the Shaktiman, the possessor of the Shaktis. So it is said there is ‘Abheda’ between the Shakti and the Shaktiman. So in that sense, there is oneness because the Lord controls the Shaktis. But those Shaktis produce actual existing objects. So in that sense there is difference.
3.) We are understanding that Jiva and Krishna are one in quality, but different in quantity. Why this is being termed as ‘Acintya’ – inconceivable?
So of course the Jiva and Supreme Lord have common quality of consciousness and experience etc. There is also difference, because Supreme Lord is controller, Jiva is controlled. So there is similarity and difference. So because of the similarity we can call it a type of oneness. And because they are also different, we call that a difference. So that is not inconceivable. But it is a good way to explain ‘why’ there is difference and oneness. However on another level / higher level, we can say that, there is oneness and difference.
The difference is not difficult to accept. For instance, we have an object. The object has qualities. The quality is not actually the object. A pot is white. So white is not pot. But it is qualified by some white colour. So there is difference between the quality and the object. At the same time, that particular pot is a white pot. And it is situated at a certain place at a certain time, different from all other pots including all white pots. So the whiteness and the pot together is also inseparable from the identity of that particular pot. So therefore we say the whiteness and the pot are one [Laughs]. So that is another way of explaining the relation between oneness and difference. And this is how Ramanuja explains it.
Madhvacharya says, don’t think about oneness at all, everything is different. Matter is different from Jiva, different from Supreme Lord, different from qualities, its all different. No, don’t think of oneness. Of course scripture speaks of oneness like ‘sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ brahma’, only Brahman exists. So how do we explain it? So he says it is metaphorical. All the oneness means, the Lord controls everything else, that’s all.
So these are various logical ways of explaining the relationship between oneness and difference. And why do we have to do that? Because scripture says both things [Laughs]. It gives statements about oneness and statements about difference. So why do we have to explain it? Because they are opposites. So opposites existing together is contradiction. If I say the book is blue, it cannot be red. If I say it is red, it is not blue. If I say the book is red-blue, it doesn’t mean anything [Laughs]. So when we have contradictory things, oneness and difference, then we want some rational explanation for it. But of course to make a rational explanation, we have to use material things. So Lord Caitanya’s solution is, we don’t have to explain it in terms of our logic. It is simply the inconceivable power of God that He can be one and different from everything. So that way we can accept the statements of scripture that say there is oneness and also difference. At the same time, we don’t have to use metaphors or comparisons to try to explain it.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srima Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!