Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'

Introduction

prakrteh kriyamanani

gunaih karmani sarvasah

ahankara-vimudhatma

kartaham iti manyate

tattva-vit tu maha-baho

guna-karma-vibhagayoh

guna gunesu vartanta

iti matva na sajjate

Bg 3.27-28

The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature. One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.

A wide gulf of difference

 

Two persons, one in Krsna consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. 

a. Material consciousness

The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Krsna. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Krsna, in Krsna consciousness. 

The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hrsikesa, or the master of the senses of the material body, for due to his long misuse of the senses in sense gratification, he is factually bewildered by the false ego, which makes him forget his eternal relationship with Krsna. 

b. Krishna consciousness

The knower of the Absolute Truth is convinced of his awkward position in material association. He knows that he is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, and that his position should not be in the material creation. He knows his real identity as part and parcel of the Supreme, who is eternal bliss and knowledge, and he realizes that somehow or other he is entrapped in the material conception of life. In his pure state of existence he is meant to dovetail his activities in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. He therefore engages himself in the activities of Krsna consciousness and becomes naturally unattached to the activities of the material senses, which are all circumstantial and temporary. He knows that his material condition of life is under the supreme control of the Lord; consequently he is not disturbed by all kinds of material reactions, which he considers to be the mercy of the Lord. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam, one who knows the Absolute Truth in three different features -- namely Brahman, Paramatma, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead -- is called tattva-vit, for he knows also his own factual position in relationship with the Supreme.

Ys in service of Srila Prabhupada

JANAKA DASA

(Dr Jagadeesh TG)

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Please Chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare” and Be Happy!!!

                           HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada - Saviour of the whole world

 

THE BIRD AND THE GOLDEN CAGE

Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'


A rich lady once brought a beautiful bird as a pet. To keep the bird from flying away she also invested in a cage made of gold. Eventually she got so enamored with golden cage that she spent all her time in the upkeep of the cage – cleaning it, beautifying it and keeping it spic and span. In the process she totally forgot about the bird in the cage and it eventually died one-day out of starvation.

This is the story of most of the living entities in the material world. The ‘bird’ can be compared to the living entity called soul – our true identity and the ‘golden cage’ can be compared to the human body. There are a variety of ‘cages’ manufactured by material nature representing the material bodies of 84,00,000 species of life. Out of these many varieties it is the human body, that is of the highest quality – a golden cage. But the fact is that it is a cage after-all. The soul is trapped in this cage of material body due to its desires and ensuing actions followed by reactions.

Nevertheless, it is but in the human form of life that a living entity has the highest state of consciousness that makes him ask questions like ‘Who am I’ and ‘What is the purpose of my life’. No other species of life can think on these lines. And the very goal of human life is to realize the answers for such meaningful questions. The soul is eternal but due to karmic reactions is entrapped in a temporary body. So whether the ‘cage’ is golden or made of any other material the actual focus of interest should be the maintenance of the soul. To do this of course we need to take care of the ‘cage’ too but not to the point of forgetting the importance of the ‘bird’ which is the real identity.

Unfortunately today the materialistic world has engaged many in ‘cage-keeping’ exercises with the ‘bird’ virtually taking a back-stage if not forgotten in the oblivion. This has led to the spiritual death of a materially advancing civilization.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna’s first instruction to Arjuna (and to all mankind) is ‘You are not this body’. He also instructed that the soul is continuously changing the body and as in this life it changes body from childhood, youth and old age it eventually transmigrates into another body after death. He also says in the 16th verse of the second chapter

“nasato vidyate bhavo


nabhavo vidyate satah


ubhayor api drsto 'ntas


tv anayos tattva-darsibhih”

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

The highest intelligence is action in Krishna consciousness and is called ‘Buddhi yoga’. Krishna consciousness is the ‘Science of Self realization’ that can help the ‘bird’ liberate itself from the ‘cage’.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada


Dr Jagadeesh TG
Prabhupada Dasa
RadhaKrishna Sevak
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The Real Soul Doctor - Jagadguru Srila Prabhupada

PHASES OF REALIZATION OF THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH

Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'

Introduction


Krsna and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical. Therefore Lord Krsna is referred to as Bhagavan throughout the Gita. Bhagavan is the ultimate in the Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely Brahman, or the impersonal all-pervasive spirit; Paramatma, or the localized aspect of the Supreme within the heart of all living entities; and Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna.

Conception of Absolute Truth

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.11) this conception of the Absolute Truth is explained thus:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate

"The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical. Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan."

These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun's surface and the sun planet itself. One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun's surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine -- its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature -- may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramatma feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth.

Conclusion

The bhaktas, or the transcendentalists who have realized the Bhagavan feature of the Absolute Truth, are the topmost transcendentalists, although all students who are engaged in the study of the Absolute Truth are engaged in the same subject matter. The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are not in the same category. Bg 2.2

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada


Dr Jagadeesh TG
Prabhupada Dasa
RadhaKrishna Sevak
http://www.doctor-soul-healer.blogspot.com/ :
http://www.folknet.in/ :
http://www.drjgdsh.wordpress.com/
www.twitter.com/drjgdsh :
Facebook – Jagadeesh Gurumurthy:
Indya Rocks – Dr Jagadeesh’s Blog.

 

The Real Soul Doctor - Jagadguru Srila Prabhupada