11.2 · Mahārāja Nimi Meets the Nine Yogendras

In the Second Chapter of this canto, bhāgavata-dharma, or pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, is explained by Nārada Muni to Vasudeva, who had inquired with devotion. Nārada Muni cites a conversation between King Nimi and the Jāyanteyas. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, the word abhīkṣṇam indicates that although Nārada Muni was frequently sent by Lord Kṛṣṇa here and there for various pastimes, such as inquiring about the affairs of the world, Nārada continuously returned to reside in Dvārakā. The word kṛṣṇopāsana-lālasaḥ indicates that Nārada was very eager to be near Kṛṣṇa and worship Him. Because of the curse of Dakṣa, Nārada is never allowed to live continuously in one place. Śrīdhara Svāmī, however, has pointed out, na tasyāṁ śāpādeḥ prabhāvaḥ: in Dvārakā there is no influence of curses or other such evils, because Dvārakā is the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is always protected by His arms, as shown by the word govinda-bhuja-guptāyām. The conditioned souls are struggling within the kingdom of māyā against the cruel laws of material nature, such as birth, death, old age and disease, but if such conditioned souls have the good fortune to enter the city of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whether Dvārakā, Mathurā or Vṛndāvana, and live there under the direct protection of the omnipotent arms of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, they will experience the unlimited transcendental bliss of real life, which is eternal and which is meant to be lived in the personal company of God.

The word indriyavān is significant in this verse. Indriyavān means “possessing senses.” Although we are conditioned within the material world, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord we are awarded a human body, which possesses distinct senses, such as the eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin. Generally the conditioned souls use these senses in a false attempt to exploit the material nature for sense gratification. But our material senses and their objects are temporary, and it is not possible to become peaceful or happy in the attempt to gratify our temporary senses with the temporary sense objects offered by māyā, the illusory energy of the Lord. In fact, our strenuous endeavor to satisfy the material senses inevitably brings exactly the opposite result, namely material suffering. A man is attracted to a woman. Being sexually aroused he marries her, and soon there is a family that requires ever-increasing support. In this way his innocent and simple life is ended, and he spends the major portion of his life working hard like an ass to support the demands of his family. In the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Kapila describes very clearly that in spite of the exhausting work a man performs throughout his life, his family is ultimately dissatisfied, and when the exhausted father reaches old age, the irritated family members look upon him just as farmers look upon an old and useless ox. Sometimes the sons dream of receiving their father’s money as an inheritance and secretly wish for him to die. Nowadays people strongly resent the trouble of caring for elderly parents and therefore send them to an institution, where they die lonely and neglected after a life of hard work for their so-called loved ones. One doctor in England is seriously proposing euthanasia for elderly persons who are no longer productive.

Nowadays some people, desiring material sense gratification but hoping to avoid the inconvenience of family life, try to enjoy “free” sexual relations with women, without the trouble of marriage. Through birth control and abortion they eliminate the disturbance of caring for children. In this way they hope to enjoy material sense gratification without any material impediment. By the laws of nature, however, such persons become bound in a network of sinful reactions by avoiding their real duty to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and by thoughtlessly causing violence and suffering to others for increasing their own sense gratification. Caught in a network of impious activities, they drift further and further away from their original pure consciousness and gradually lose all power to understand the laws of nature. Therefore it is stated here, sarvato-mṛtyuḥ. Mṛtyu means “death.” Death suddenly appears, startling such confident sense gratifiers, and destroys their entire program of so-called material happiness. Often such persons are afflicted with ghastly diseases and undergo inconceivable suffering, which ends in death. If a sincere well-wisher points these facts out to them, trying to inform them of the reality, they become angry and accuse him of being a pessimist or a religious fanatic. In this way they blindly ignore the laws of nature until these laws inevitably smash them down and drag them out of their fool’s paradise. Because of an excessive accumulation of sinful results, they are forced into situations of great distress by the laws of karma. Sinking down into the lower species of life, they lose all awareness of that which lies beyond their gross material senses.

Sometimes a living being is able to understand the miserable result of materialistic sense gratification. Being frustrated by the pain and suffering of materialistic life and being ignorant of any superior life, he adopts a neo-Buddhist philosophy and seeks shelter in so-called nothingness. But there is no actual void within the kingdom of God. The desire to merge into nothingness is a reaction against material pain; it is not a tangible concept of the Supreme. For example, if I feel unbearable pain in my leg and the pain cannot be cured, I may finally agree to have my leg amputated. But it is far better to remove the pain and keep my leg. Similarly, because of false ego we think, “I am everything. I am the most important person. No one is as intelligent as me.” Thinking in this way, we suffer constantly and experience intense anxiety. But as soon as we purify the ego by admitting that we are insignificant eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, our ego will give us great pleasure.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the blissfully variegated spiritual sky, called Vaikuṇṭha, is always absorbed in transcendental enjoyment. In fact, Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure. People absorbed in materialistic enjoyment are bound by the laws of omnipresent death, but if we endeavor instead to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we can immediately be connected to His hlādinī śakti, or blissful potency. If we serve Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of His authorized representative, the spiritual master, we can immediately get relief from material distress. Then we shall not yearn after nothing, but instead we shall be able to relish unlimited spiritual bliss in the service of the Supreme Lord.

Sarvato-mṛtyuḥ also indicates that birth and death occur on every planet in the universe. Therefore our so-called space travel and cosmic consciousness are useless, since there is no eternal life anywhere within the material cosmos. In conclusion, to understand the futility of engaging in the service of anything other than Kṛṣṇa and to engage instead in serving that which is eternal and full of bliss is the highest possible development of intelligence. Although our present intelligence is narrow, being conditioned by the laws of nature, we can create unlimited good fortune for ourselves by taking shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, learning to discriminate between that which is temporary and useless and that which is eternal and real.

Vasudeva herein describes the glories of Nārada Muni. The words kṛpaṇānāṁ yathā pitror uttama-śloka-vartmanām are significant. Kṛpaṇānām refers to the most wretched persons, whereas uttama-śloka-vartmanām refers to the most fortunate, those who are advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīdhara Svāmī has stated, tathā bhagavad-rūpasya bhavato yātrā sarva-dehināṁ svastaya iti. The word bhagavad-rūpasya indicates that Nārada Muni is an expansion of the Supreme Lord and that his activities therefore bring immense benefit for all living beings. In the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Nārada Muni is described as a manifestation of the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There it is stated that Nārada is especially empowered to give instructions in the art of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Nārada is especially able to advise the conditioned souls as to how they can dovetail their present activities with the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa without unnecessarily disrupting their present life.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī has defined the word kṛpaṇa by quoting from the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (3.8.10). Etad akṣaraṁ gārgi aviditvāsmāl lokāt praiti sa kṛpaṇaḥ: “O daughter of Gargācārya, he who leaves this world without learning about the infallible Supreme is a kṛpaṇa, or miser.” In other words, we are awarded the human form of life so that we may understand our eternal, blissful relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As indicated in verse 2 of this chapter by the word indriyavān, the human body is specifically awarded so that we may serve the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. This human form of body is the greatest fortune because the highly evolved intelligence of human life enables us to understand Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth. If we are unable to understand our eternal relationship with God, we shall derive no permanent benefit whatsoever in this present life, nor can we ultimately benefit others. One who receives a great treasure but can neither use it himself nor dedicate it to the happiness of others is called a miser. Therefore, a person who leaves this world without having understood his actual position as servant of God is called a kṛpaṇa, or miser.

This verse states that Nārada Muni is so empowered in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa that he can lift even miserly rascals out of their illusion, just as a kind father goes to his child and wakes him from a distressing nightmare. Our present materialistic life is just like a troublesome dream, from which great souls such as Nārada can wake us. Nārada Muni is so powerful that even those already advanced in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can greatly enhance their spiritual position by hearing his instructions, as they will be given here in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore Śrī Nārada is the guru and father of all living beings, who are originally devotees of the Lord but who are now artificially attempting to enjoy the material world in the material bodies of human beings, animals, and so on.

This verse clearly states that the pure devotees of the Lord such as Nārada Muni are saintly persons, to be considered superior even to the demigods, the living beings empowered by the Supreme Lord to administer the entire universe. In Bhagavad-gītā (3.12) it is stated:

iṣṭān bhogān hi vo devā dāsyante yajṣa-bhāvitāḥ tair dattān apradāyaibhyo yo bhuṅkte stena eva saḥ

“The demigods in charge of the various necessities of life, being satisfied by the performance of yajṣa [sacrifice], supply all necessities to man. But one who enjoys these gifts without offering them in return to the demigods is certainly a thief.” In this connection Śrīla Prabhupāda has made the following comment regarding the demigods: “The demigods are empowered administrators of material affairs. The supply of air, light, water and other blessings for maintaining the body and the soul of all living entities are entrusted to the demigods, who are innumerable assistants in the different parts of the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their pleasure and displeasure depend on the performance of yajṣas by the human being.” In other words, by the Lord’s arrangement, material prosperity depends upon the satisfaction of the demigods. If the demigods are dissatisfied due to nonperformance or improper performance of sacrifice, they are empowered to impose various types of suffering upon human beings. Usually this suffering takes the form of either excessive or insufficient supply of material necessities. For example, sunshine is necessary for life, but if there is excessive heat or insufficient heat from the sun, we suffer. Excessive or insufficient rain is also a cause of suffering. Thus the demigods bestow either happiness or suffering upon human beings, in accordance with the performance of sacrifice.

As stated here, however, great saintly persons such as Nārada Muni are always merciful to all living beings.

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ

“The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities, he has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.” ( Bhāg. 3.25.21 ) Śrīla Prabhupāda, in his commentary on this verse, has portrayed the sādhu as follows: “A sādhu as described above is a devotee of the Lord. His concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country door to door preaching, ‘Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Don’t spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.’ These are the preachings of a sādhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality toward all the fallen souls. One of his qualifications, therefore, is kāruṇika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work he has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sādhu, or devotee of the Lord, has to be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat him, because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They do not like it; that is their disease. The sādhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya’s principal assistant, Nityānanda, was violently attacked by Jagāi and Mādhāi. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a sādhu is that he is very tolerant and is merciful to all fallen souls. He is merciful because he is a well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well. It is said here, sarva-dehinām , which indicates all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Not only does a human being have a material body, but other living entities, such as cats and dogs, also have material bodies. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone — the cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Śivānanda Sena, one of the disciples of Lord Caitanya, gave liberation to a dog by treating the dog transcendentally. There are many instances where a dog got salvation by association with a sādhu , because a sādhu engages in the highest philanthropic activities for the benediction of all living entities. Although the sādhu is not inimical toward anyone, the world is so ungrateful that even a sādhu has many enemies.

“What is the difference between an enemy and a friend? It is a difference in behavior. A sādhu behaves with all conditioned souls for their ultimate relief from material entanglement. Therefore, no one can be more friendly than the sādhu in relieving a conditioned soul. A sādhu is calm, and he quietly and peacefully follows the principles of scripture and at the same time is a devotee of the Lord. One who actually follows the principles of scripture must be a devotee of God because all the śāstras instruct us to obey the orders of the Personality of Godhead. Sādhu, therefore, means a follower of the scriptural injunctions and a devotee of the Lord. All these characteristics are prominent in a devotee. A devotee develops all the good qualities of the demigods, whereas a nondevotee, even though academically qualified, has no actual good qualifications or good characteristics according to the standards of transcendental realization.”

Vasudeva, therefore, has used the word sādhu to describe Nārada Muni, indicating that the position of the devotee of the Lord is superior even to that of the demigods.

The words chāyeva karma-sacivāḥ are significant here. Chāyā means “shadow.” The shadow of the body precisely follows the movements of the body. The shadow has no power to move in a way different from the movement of the body. Similarly, as stated here, bhajanti ye yathā devān devā api tathaiva tān: the results the demigods award to living beings correspond exactly to the living beings’ actions. The demigods are empowered by the Lord to follow precisely the particular karma of a living entity in awarding him happiness and distress. Just as a shadow cannot move independently, the demigods cannot punish or reward a living being independently. Although the demigods are millions of times more powerful than the human beings on earth, they are ultimately tiny servants of God whom the Lord allows to play as the controllers of the universe. In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Pṛthu Mahārāja, an empowered incarnation of the Lord, states that even the demigods are subject to punishment by the Lord if they deviate from His laws. On the other hand, devotees of the Lord such as Nārada Muni, by their potent preaching, can interfere in the karma of a living being by persuading him to give up his fruitive activity and mental speculation and surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In material existence, one works hard under the bondage of ignorance. But if one becomes enlightened by association with a pure devotee of the Lord, one can understand one’s actual position as an eternal servant of God. By rendering such service, one dissolves his attachment to the material world and the reactions of his previous activities, and as a surrendered soul he is endowed with unlimited spiritual freedom in the service of the Lord. In this regard, the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.54) states:

yas tv indragopam athavendram aho sva-karma- bandhānurūpa-phala-bhājanam ātanoti karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājāṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I adore the primeval Lord, Govinda, who burns to the root all the fruitive activities of those imbued with devotion. For those who walk the path of work — no less for Indra, king of the demigods, than for the tiny insect indragopa — He impartially ordains the due enjoyments of the fruits of activities in accordance with the chain of works previously performed.” Even the demigods are bound to the laws of karma, whereas a pure devotee of the Lord, having completely given up the desire for material enjoyment, successfully burns to ashes all traces of karma.

In this regard, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has commented that unless one is engaged as a surrendered soul in the devotional service of the Lord, he cannot actually be considered niṣkāma, or free from all personal desire. Sometimes a materialistic person will engage in charity or altruistic activities and in this way consider himself a selfless worker. Similarly, those who engage in mental speculation with the ultimate goal of merging into the impersonal Brahman aspect of the Lord also advertise themselves as being selfless or desireless. According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, however, such karmīs and jṣānīs, while busy in their so-called “selflessness,” are in fact servants of lusty desires. In other words, they have not perfectly understood their position as eternal servants of God. The altruistic karmī falsely considers himself the best friend of humanity, although he is unable to give actual benefit to others because he is ignorant of the eternal life of bliss and knowledge beyond the temporary hallucination of material existence. Similarly, although the jṣānī proudly declares himself God and invites others to become God also, he neglects to explain how the so-called gods have come to be bound by the laws of material nature. Actually, the attempt to become God is based not on love of God but on the desire to take the same status as God. In other words, the desire to be equal in all respects to the Supreme is simply another materialistic desire. Therefore the karmīs and jṣānīs, because of their dissatisfaction in artificially trying to fulfill their own desires, can show no actual mercy to the fallen souls. In this regard, Śrī Madhvācārya has quoted the Uddāma-saṁhitā:

sukham icchanti bhūtānāṁ prāyo duḥkhāsahā nṛṇām tathāpi tebhyaḥ pravarā devā eva hareḥ priyāḥ

“ Ṛṣis want happiness for all beings and are almost always incapable of tolerating the unhappiness of men. Nevertheless, the demigods are superior because they are very dear to Lord Hari.” But although Śrīla Madhvācārya has placed the demigods in a higher position than the merciful ṛṣis, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has stated, sādhavas tu na karmānugatāḥ: the sādhus are actually better than the demigods because the sādhus are merciful regardless of the pious or impious acts of the conditioned souls. This apparent disagreement between Madhvācārya and Jīva Gosvāmī is resolved by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who points out that in the statement by Śrīla Madhvācārya, the word ṛṣi, or “sage,” indicates the so-called sādhus or saintly persons among the karmīs and jṣānīs. Ordinary fruitive workers and speculative philosophers certainly consider themselves to be at the summit of pious morality and altruism. However, since they are ignorant of the supreme position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they cannot be considered equal to the demigods, who are all devotees of the Lord and aware that all living beings are eternal servants of the Lord. Even such demigods, however, cannot be compared to the pure devotees such as Nārada. Such pure devotees are empowered to award the highest perfection of life to both pious and impious living beings, who have only to follow the orders of such pure devotees.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Nārada Muni might have been reluctant to instruct Vasudeva because of natural respect for Vasudeva’s exalted position as the father of Kṛṣṇa. Nārada might have thought that since Vasudeva was already perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness there was no need to instruct him in the process of devotional service. Therefore, anticipating Nārada’s possible reluctance, Vasudeva specifically requested Nārada to preach to him about devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. This is the symptom of a pure devotee. A pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa never considers himself exalted. To the contrary, he meekly feels that his devotional service is most imperfect but that somehow or other Lord Kṛṣṇa, out of His causeless mercy, is accepting such imperfect service. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has stated in this regard:

tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

“One can chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, feeling himself lower than the straw in the street. One should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and ready to offer all respect to others.” ( Śikṣāṣṭaka 3) The conditioned souls in this material world become falsely proud of their so-called family lineage. This pride is false because one who has taken birth in the material world is in a fallen situation, even in the best of cases. Vasudeva, however, was certainly not fallen, since he had taken birth in the family of Kṛṣṇa. Since he was Kṛṣṇa’s father, his position was most exalted, yet because he was a pure devotee he did not become proud of his special relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Instead, considering himself deficient in spiritual understanding, he took advantage of the appearance of Nārada Muni, a great preacher of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by immediately inquiring from him about devotional service. This incomparable humility of a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa is far superior to the false humility of the impersonalist, who actually maintains a desire to be equal to God though adopting the external behavior of a meek and saintly person.

Bhayam, or fear, is caused by seeing something other than Kṛṣṇa ( dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ ). Everything is actually an emanation from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as stated in Vedānta-sūtra ( janmādy asya yataḥ ) and as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā ( ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, etc.). Kṛṣṇa is the well-wishing friend of every living entity ( suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām ). If a living being gives up his misguided attempt to defy the Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrenders to the Lord, certainly he becomes confident in his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. A surrendered soul can actually experience that Kṛṣṇa is his well-wishing friend, and since that friend is the supreme absolute controller of all existence, there is certainly no cause for fear. The son of a rich man certainly feels confident while touring the estate of his father. Similarly, an empowered representative of the government feels confident in the discharge of his duty. In the same way, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, acting as a representative of the Supreme Lord, feels confident because he can understand at every moment that the entire material and spiritual creation is strictly under the control of his benevolent master. The nondevotee, however, denies the supreme position of Kṛṣṇa and therefore imagines that something is different from Kṛṣṇa. For example, if a servant of the government thinks that there is some dangerous obstacle that cannot be controlled by the government’s power, he becomes fearful. If a child feels that there is some power that cannot be subdued by his father, then he becomes fearful. Similarly, because we artificially think that there is something within existence that is not under the strict control of the benevolent Lord, we become fearful. Such a concept of a second thing (something other than Kṛṣṇa) is called dvitīyābhiniveśa, and it immediately creates a foreign atmosphere of bhayam, or fear. Kṛṣṇa is called abhayaṅkara, which means that He destroys all fear in the heart of His devotee.

Sometimes so-called scholars, distraught after many years of impersonal speculation and enjoyment of materialistic life, become fearful and anxious. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī compares such disturbed philosophers to the bound vulture in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Desiring liberation from fear, such speculators unfortunately concoct an imaginary liberation ( vimukta-māninaḥ ) and try to take shelter of impersonal spiritual existence or voidness. But the Bhāgavatam (10.2.32) states, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ/ patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: because such speculators have not rectified their original mistake of rejecting their eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they fall from their concocted liberation and thus remain in a fearful condition. Vasudeva, however, is openly eager to hear more and more about devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, and therefore he states, yān śrutvā śraddhayā martyo mucyate sarvato bhayāt: simply by hearing about pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, a conditioned soul can easily free himself from all types of fear, and this transcendental freedom is certainly eternal.

According to Śrīdhara Svāmī the word kila (meaning “indeed, it is true,” “it is said” or “as is well known”) indicates that Vasudeva was remembering the words the Lord had spoken to him when the Lord had appeared as four-armed Viṣṇu in the prison of Kaṁsa. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī states that from the anxiety of Vasudeva, which is expressed in this verse by the words apūjayaṁ na mokṣāya mohito deva-māyayā, it is to be discerned that Vasudeva had heard of the curse of the brāhmaṇas at Piṇḍāraka against the Yadu dynasty and that he could understand from this curse that the Lord’s disappearance from the earth was imminent. Vasudeva understood that the Lord’s manifest pastimes within this universe were coming to an end, and he now lamented that he had not directly taken advantage of the opportunity to worship Kṛṣṇa to go back home, back to Godhead.

Significantly, Vasudeva has used the word mukti-dam to describe the Lord. Mukti-dam is a synonym of Mukunda, or that personality who can give liberation from the cycle of birth and death. It is stated in Vedic literature that even the demigods are bound to the cycle of birth and death, although their life span is inconceivably long by earthly calculations. It is the almighty God alone who can free the conditioned soul from the reactions to his previous sinful activities and award him an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

Vasudeva lamented that he had desired Kṛṣṇa to come to him as a son instead of desiring to go back to Kṛṣṇa, back to Godhead, to serve the Lord in the spiritual sky. Commenting on this incident in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda has emphasized that we should desire to go back home, back to Godhead, rather than try to bring the Lord to this world as our son. Nor can we artificially imitate the severe penances Vasudeva and Devakī performed for thousands of heavenly years in their previous births as Sutapā and Pṛśni. In this connection Śrīla Prabhupāda states, “If we want to get the Supreme Personality of Godhead to become one of us in this material world, this requires great penance, but if we want to go back to Kṛṣṇa ( tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna ), we need only understand Him and love Him. Through love only we can very easily go back home, back to Godhead.” Śrīla Prabhupāda goes on to explain that Caitanya Mahāprabhu freely bestows the benediction of love of Kṛṣṇa, which allows one to return to Kṛṣṇa’s abode, through the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This chanting process is far more effective in this age than artificial attempts to perform severe penances and austerities. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes, “Therefore, one need not undergo severe penances for many thousands of years. One need only learn how to love Kṛṣṇa and be always engaged in His service ( sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ ). Then one can very easily go back home, back to Godhead. Instead of bringing the Lord here for some material purpose, to have a son or whatever else, if we go back home, back to Godhead, our real relationship with the Lord is revealed, and we eternally engage in our eternal relationship. By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, we gradually develop our eternal relationship with the Supreme Person and thus attain the perfection called svarūpa-siddhi. We should take advantage of this benediction and go back home, back to Godhead.” ( Bhāg. 10.3.38 purport)

Although Vasudeva and Devakī desired that Kṛṣṇa become their son, it should be understood that they are devotees eternally situated in love of Kṛṣṇa. As stated by the Lord Himself ( Bhāg. 10.3.39 ), mohitau devamāyayā: Vasudeva and Devakī, His pure devotees, were covered by His internal potency. In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (4.1.20) the great sage Atri Muni prayed to the Lord, prajām ātma-samāṁ mahyaṁ prayacchatu: “Kindly be pleased to offer me a son exactly like You.” Atri Muni said he wanted a son exactly like the Lord, and therefore he was not a pure devotee, because he had a desire to be fulfilled and that desire was material. If he had desired the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his child, he would have been completely free of material desires because he would have wanted the Supreme Absolute Truth, but because he wanted a similar child, his desire was material. Thus Atri Muni cannot be counted among the pure devotees. Vasudeva and Devakī, however, did want the Lord Himself, and therefore they were pure devotees of the Lord. In this verse, therefore, Vasudeva’s statement apūjayaṁ na mokṣāya mohito deva-māyayā should be taken to mean that Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency bewildered Vasudeva so that he would desire Kṛṣṇa as his son. This paved the way for the Lord’s appearance as the son of His loving devotees.

The word mucyema is significant here. In the previous verse Vasudeva stated that because he had been bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord he could not achieve from the Supreme Personality of Godhead the boon of liberation. Therefore he is now approaching the pure devotee of the Lord, confident that by the mercy of the Lord’s devotee he will certainly achieve liberation from material bondage.

In this connection the words aṣjasā, “easily,” and addhā, “directly,” are very important. Although foolish persons proudly want to jump up directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead without accepting His pure devotee as spiritual master, those who are experienced in spiritual science know that by submission and service at the lotus feet of a pure devotee one directly contacts the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.17.27) Lord Kṛṣṇa has stated, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit. Thus one should understand that the pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa stands on the same spiritual level as the Lord Himself. This does not mean that a pure devotee is also God, but because of his intimate loving connection with the Lord, he is accepted by the Lord as being the Lord’s very soul. In other words, Kṛṣṇa is always in the heart of His pure devotee, and the pure devotee is always in the heart of Kṛṣṇa. Although Śrī Kṛṣṇa is eternally the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one without a second, the Lord is more pleased to see His pure devotee worshiped. Therefore the Lord says, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyāt. One must offer the same respect to the Vaiṣṇava spiritual master as one would offer to the Lord. Therefore as soon as one pleases the Vaiṣṇava spiritual master, one immediately pleases Kṛṣṇa and makes spiritual advancement. The word aṣjasā means that this bona fide process is the easiest method of achieving spiritual perfection. And because the pure devotee is a transparent medium, the word addhā, “directly,” is used, indicating that service rendered to the pure devotee goes directly to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, whereas service one whimsically offers to Kṛṣṇa directly, bypassing the bona fide spiritual master, is not actually accepted and is therefore useless.

Those who actually desire the highest perfection, that of going back home, back to the eternal, blissful kingdom of Kṛṣṇa, should study very carefully the example shown by Śrī Vasudeva in these two verses. He indicates that although one cannot achieve liberation by directly worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can very easily achieve the perfection of life simply by a moment’s association with a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa such as Nārada Muni, the exalted Vaiṣṇava saint among the demigods.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the word viśvato-bhayāt indicates that Vasudeva very much feared the curse of the brāhmaṇas. As one can become perfect by worshiping the Vaiṣṇavas, by displeasing the Vaiṣṇavas one can bring about all misfortune. Thus Vasudeva feared the curse delivered by the brāhmaṇas at Piṇḍāraka-tīrtha.

A similar statement was made by Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī in the first verse of the Second Canto when he congratulated Parīkṣit Mahārāja for asking about Kṛṣṇa.

varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa ātmavit-sammataḥ puṁsāṁ śrotavyādiṣu yaḥ paraḥ

“My dear King, your question is glorious because it is very beneficial to all kinds of people. The answer to this question is the prime subject matter for hearing, and it is approved by all transcendentalists.”

Similarly, Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī congratulated the inquiring sages of Naimiṣāraṇya in the following words:

munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo ’haṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati

“O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are worthy because they relate to Lord Kṛṣṇa and so are of relevance to the world’s welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of completely satisfying the self.” ( Bhāg. 1.2.5 )

Nārada will now answer Vasudeva’s inquiry about the process of devotional service. Later, at the end of their conversation, he will reply to Vasudeva’s comments about Vasudeva’s own faulty intentions.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has commented that the word sad-dharma refers to bhāgavata-dharma. This is also confirmed by Śrīdhara Svāmī. Bhāgavata-dharma is spiritually so powerful that even those who by worldly standards are implicated in various ways in sinful behavior can easily be purified by adopting any of the processes mentioned in this verse. In the practice of ordinary piety, one worships God with the expectation of receiving something in return for one’s service. Similarly, the impersonalist aspires for his own liberation, wishfully thinking that he will become equal to God. In bhāgavata-dharma, however, there is no such impurity. Bhāgavata-dharma is devotional service to the Lord in which the only objective is the satisfaction of the Lord. If one rejects this process and instead wants to hear about, teach or meditate upon another process, the chance for immediate purification is lost.

Neither ordinary materialistic yoga processes meant for achieving mystic powers nor impersonal processes based on speculation have the power to purify immediately those who have fallen into sinful behavior. Sad-dharma, or bhāgavata-dharma, pure devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is unique in that even the most fallen souls can immediately rise to the highest perfectional stage by surrendering at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa or His pure devotee. This was vividly demonstrated in the preaching work of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, especially in the case of the sinful brothers Jagāi and Mādhāi.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has stated, nārāyaṇas tādṛśa-dharme madīya-guru-rūpo nārāyaṇarṣiḥ. The word nārāyaṇa in this verse refers to the incarnation of Godhead Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, who acted as Nārada’s spiritual master in this dharma. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has also pointed out, smārita iti kṛṣṇopāsanāveśena tasyāpi vismaraṇāt. The word smārita, “he is brought back to memory,” indicates that because of Nārada’s absorption in the worship of Kṛṣṇa he had forgotten Lord Nara-Nārāyaṇa. In other words, if intense engagement in devotional service makes one sometimes forget the Personality of Godhead, by Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement such a sincere servitor will again be reminded of the Personality of Godhead.

The words itihāsaṁ purātanam, meaning “ancient historical account,” are significant here. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam, the ripe fruit of the desire tree of Vedic knowledge. In the pages of the Bhāgavatam we find true historical narrations relating to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the liberation of the conditioned souls. These historical accounts are not fiction or mythology, but describe the wonderful activities of the Lord and His devotees that took place in yugas previous to the advent of this puny age. Although mundane scholars have foolishly tried to depict the Bhāgavatam as a mythological work or a recent creation, the actual fact is that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a perfect transcendental literature describing not only the entire situation of this universe but also that which lies far beyond this universe, in both the material and spiritual skies. If one seriously studies the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam he becomes the most learned intellectual man. Caitanya Mahāprabhu desires that all pious persons become highly learned by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and then preach the glories of the Lord in a scientific way all over the world. It is essential that we hear these historical narrations, such as the conversation between the nava-yogendras and King Videha, with complete faith and submission. Then, as stated in verse 12 of this chapter, even if our former life is filled with abominable activities, simply by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we shall be promoted to the same transcendental status as the Lord and His pure devotees. This is the extraordinary power of bhāgavata history, as contrasted with useless, mundane historical accounts, which ultimately serve no purpose. Although mundane historians justify their work on the plea that we have to learn from history, we can practically see that the world situation is now rapidly deteriorating into unbearable conflict and chaos while so-called historians stand helplessly by. But the bhāgavata historians who have faithfully heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam can give perfect and potent instructions for the restoration of a peaceful and blissful world. Therefore those who are inclined to enrich their intellectual life through the study of history should educate themselves in the historical narrations of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This will bring them the perfection of intellectual and spiritual life.

The genealogical background of the sons of Ṛṣabhadeva is given in this verse.

The complete narration of the three lives of Bharata — as a king, as a deer and as an exalted paramahaṁsa devotee of the Lord — is given in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

The nine dvīpas, or islands, ruled by nine sons of Ṛṣabhadeva are the nine varṣas of Jambudvīpa, namely Bhārata, Kinnara, Hari, Kuru, Hiraṇmaya, Ramyaka, Ilāvṛta, Bhadrāśva and Ketumāla.

Nimi, the King of Videha, asked the following nine questions of the nine Yogendras, the saintly sons of Ṛṣabha. (1) What is the highest good? (Chapter Two, verse 30); (2) What are the religious principles ( dharma ), natural proclivities ( svabhāva ), behavior ( ācāra ), speech ( vākya ) and outward symptoms ( lakṣaṇa ) of a bhāgavata, a Vaiṣṇava devotee of the Lord? (2.44); (3) What is the external energy of Viṣṇu, the Supreme Lord? (3.1); (4) How can one become dissociated from this māyā ? (3.17); (5)What is the true identity of Brahman? (3.34); (6) What are the three types of karma, namely karma based on the enjoyment of the fruits of work, karma offered to the Supreme Lord, and naiṣkarmya ? (3.41); (7) What are the various pastimes of the various incarnations of God? (4.1); (8) What is the aim or destination of one who is against the Supreme Lord and devoid of bhakti (in other words, a nondevotee)? (5.1); and (9)What are the respective colors, forms and names of the four yugāvatāras, the four incarnations of the Supreme Lord who appear in the four ages, and what is the process of worshiping each of Them? (5.19).

The transcendental answers to these inquiries were given by the great devotees Kavi, Havir, Antarīkṣa, Prabuddha, Pippalāyana, Āvirhotra, Drumila, Camasa and Karabhājana. These nine paramahaṁsas answered the nine questions, each in turn, in the following verses: (1) 2.33-43; (2) 2.45-55; (3) 3.3-16; (4) 3.18-33; (5) 3.35-40; (6) 3.43-55; (7) 4.2-23; (8) 5.2-18; and (9) 5.20-42.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, it is clearly demonstrated in this and the following verse that the nine saintly sons of Ṛṣabhadeva known as the nava-yogendras were situated in the highest stage of spiritual perfection, called pāramahaṁsya-caritam, or “having fully developed the character of paramahaṁsas. ” In other words, they were pure devotees of the Lord. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī and Jīva Gosvāmī, the words ātmano ’vyatirekeṇa indicate that the nine sages saw the universe as being nondifferent from themselves as well as nondifferent from the Supreme Soul, Lord Kṛṣṇa. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has additionally commented, ātmanaḥ paramātmanaḥ sakāśād avyatirekeṇa, viśvasya tac-chakti-mayatvād iti bhāvaḥ: “ Ātmanaḥ indicates the Supersoul. This universe is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, since the entire universe is composed of His energy.”

Although it is stated here that the cosmic manifestation is nondifferent from both the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one should not think that either the living entity or the Supreme Lord is material. A Vedic aphorism states, asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ: “The living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead have nothing to do with the material world.” Furthermore, Bhagavad-gītā says that the entire universe, consisting of eight gross and subtle elements, constitutes the bhinnā prakṛti, or aparā prakṛti — the separated, inferior energy — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Kṛṣṇa clearly states in Bhagavad-gītā that He has eternally established His own abode in the kingdom of God, where life is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, and that the living entity, being part and parcel of God, is also eternal ( mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ ). Furthermore, once having gone to that eternal abode of the Lord the living entity never returns to this temporary manifestation ( yaṁ prāpya na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama ).

One may therefore ask why the living entity and the Supreme Lord are stated to be nondifferent from the material universe. The question is very nicely answered by Śrīla Nārada Muni in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.20) . Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaro yato jagat-sthāna-nirodha-sambhavāḥ: “The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos, and still He is aloof from it. From Him only has this cosmic manifestation emanated, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation.” Commenting on Nārada’s statement, Śrīla Prabhupāda has very nicely explained this delicate philosophical point: “For a pure devotee, the conception of Mukunda, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is both personal and impersonal. The impersonal cosmic situation is also Mukunda because it is the emanation of the energy of Mukunda. For example, a tree is a complete unit, whereas the leaves and branches of the tree are emanated parts and parcels of the tree. The leaves and branches of the tree are also the tree, but the tree itself is neither the leaves nor the branches. The Vedic version that the whole cosmic creation is nothing but Brahman means that since everything is emanating from the Supreme Brahman, nothing is apart from Him. Similarly, the part-and-parcel hands and legs are called the body, but the body as the whole unit is neither the hands nor the legs. The Lord is the transcendental form of eternity, cognition and beauty. And thus the creation of the energy of the Lord appears to be partially eternal, full of knowledge and beautiful also.…

“According to the Vedic version, the Lord is naturally fully powerful, and thus His supreme energies are always perfect and identical with Him. Both the spiritual and the material skies and their paraphernalia are emanations of the internal and external energies of the Lord. External energy is comparatively inferior, whereas the internal potency is superior. The superior energy is living force, and therefore she is completely identical [with the Lord], but the external energy, being inert, is partially identical. But both the energies are neither equal to nor greater than the Lord, who is the generator of all energies; such energies are always under His control, exactly as electrical energy, however powerful it may be, is always under the control of the engineer.

“The human being and all other living beings are products of His internal energies. Thus the living being is also identical with the Lord. But he is never equal or superior to the Personality of Godhead.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda has clearly explained here that both the cosmic manifestation and the living entities are emanations from the Supreme Lord, as confirmed both in Vedānta-sutra and in the opening statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Janmādy asya yataḥ: “The Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates.” Similarly, the Īśopaniṣad states:

om pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

The Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, is pūrṇa, or complete in Himself. And since this cosmic world is a manifestation of His potency, it also appears to be pūrṇa. In other words, because this material world is an emanation from the Supreme Lord, it is nondifferent from Him, exactly as the sun’s rays are nondifferent from the sun globe, which is the source of their emanation. Similarly the living beings, who are expansions of the superior, or conscious, energy of the Supreme Lord, are also nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa, although this nondifference is qualitative and not quantitative. The gold found in golden ornaments such as rings and bracelets is qualitatively identical with the gold in a mine, but the gold in the mine is quantitatively far superior to the tiny quantity of gold in a bracelet or ring. Similarly, although we are qualitatively one with God, being spiritual emanations of His unlimited potency, we are quantitatively infinitesimal and eternally subordinate to His supreme power. Therefore the Lord is called vibhu, or infinitely potent, and we are aṇu, or infinitesimal and dependent. This is further confirmed in the Vedic literature by the statement nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām/ eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān ( Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). There are innumerable eternal living entities who are eternally and totally dependent upon the supreme singular living entity, the Supreme Lord. That dependence is not an illusion created by material existence, as stated by the impersonalist philosophers, but is an eternal relationship in which the Lord is eternally superior and we are eternally inferior. The Lord is eternally independent, and we are eternally dependent. The Lord is eternally absolute in Himself, and we are eternally relative to His supreme personality.

Although the Lord is infinitely greater than any other living being, or than all of them combined, every living being is qualitatively nondifferent from the Lord, because all living beings are parts and parcels emanating from Him ( mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ ). Therefore, in one sense, the living entity is also not different from the material cosmic manifestation, which is an inferior sister energy of the Lord. Both the living entity and the material nature are prakṛti, or feminine, dependent expansions of the supreme puruṣa. The difference is that the living entity is the superior energy of the Lord, because the living entity is conscious and eternal like the Lord, whereas material energy is the inferior energy of the Lord, lacking consciousness and eternal form.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has emphasized in this regard that the absolute substance is one and is called Paramātmā, or the Supersoul. When one has achieved but a partial vision of the Paramātmā, one’s understanding of life is called ātma-darśana, or self-realization. And when even this partial understanding is lacking, one’s existential condition is called anātma-darśana, or ignorance of the self. In the state of partial realization of the Supersoul, without recognition of the Paramātmā’s distinction from the individual soul, the living entity tends to become puffed up by his spiritual achievement, be carried away by mental concoction, and consider himself equal in all respects with God. On the other hand, the living entity situated in anātma-darśana, or material ignorance, feels that he is completely different from the Supreme Lord; and since everyone in this material world is interested in himself, the living entity forgets about God, thinking that God is completely different from him and that there is therefore no substantial relationship between him and God. In this way the impersonal transcendentalists emphasize only the oneness between God and the living entity, whereas the ordinary materialists overemphasize the difference between God and the living entity. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu has clearly revealed that the Ultimate Truth is simultaneous oneness and difference ( acintya-bhedābheda-tattva ). Actually we are eternally different from God. Because the living entity and God are eternally separate individual entities, there exists the possibility of an eternal relationship. And because every living entity is qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord, that relationship constitutes the essence of the ultimate reality for every living being. As stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta ( Madhya 20.108), jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa.’ The ultimate essential identity of every living entity is his relationship with the Supreme Lord as a servitor of the Lord.

If one can understand that he is an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can correctly understand that both the living entity and the material universe are identical with Kṛṣṇa, being emanations from Him, and that they are therefore nondifferent from each other. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī has stated, “The material world is a manifestation of simultaneous difference and nondifference, and it is a form of the Supreme Lord. Thus the temporary, perishable and ever-changing material world is different from Vaikuṇṭha, the eternal world.”

It should be noted that in this verse the word sad-asad-ātmakam, or “made up of gross and subtle objects,” does not refer to material and spiritual objects. This universe is stated to be composed of sat and asat, gross and subtle material objects. According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, “The very subtle state within the manifest world is known as ‘the unmanifest,’ and the realm beyond the manifest world is called ‘transcendental.’ Within the coverings surrounding the manifest, in the region of the time factor, is the phase of material existence experienced by the controlling deities; in this phase exist the two functions: cause ( asat ) and effect ( sat ). In the universe, which is a third tattva, or reality (apart from and containing both sat and asat ), and which is a form of the Supreme Lord, it is impossible to produce any contradiction to the nondual Absolute Truth.” In other words, although ignorant, materialistic scientists may zealously carry out research to find a material principle that can negate or render unnecessary the existence of God, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī clearly states that since the universe is an emanation from the Lord and therefore spiritually identical with Him, there cannot possibly exist anywhere within the universe a material law, principle or phenomenon that in any way contradicts the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead. In fact, the entire universe, along with the spiritual sky, exists as eternal testimony to the unlimited glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. With this understanding, the nine Yogendras were traveling about the earth in transcendental bliss.

The word yathārhataḥ is significant here. According to Viśvanātha Cakravartī the word yathārhataḥ means yathocitam, or “according to the proper etiquette.” It is clearly mentioned here that the nava-yogendras are nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa, exalted devotees of the Supreme Lord, Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, the word yathārhataḥ indicates that the King worshiped the nine sages according to the standard Vaiṣṇava etiquette. The etiquette for worshiping exalted Vaiṣṇavas is expressed by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura with the words sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ: an exalted Vaiṣṇava, being totally surrendered to the will of the Supreme Lord, is taken to be a transparent medium for the Lord’s will. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is stated that even by a moment’s association with the pure devotees of the Lord one can achieve all perfection in life. Therefore, as indicated by the word prītaḥ, King Nimi was overjoyed by the auspicious arrival of the sages, and therefore he worshiped them just as one would worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Although impersonalist philosophers claim that every living entity is equal to God, they callously step over the heads of their so-called spiritual masters and freely speculate on the nature of the Absolute, giving their own whimsical opinions in defiance of the impersonal whims of their so-called gurus. In other words, although Māyāvādī impersonalists claim that everyone is God, they ultimately show an offensive mentality toward the Supreme Personality of Godhead in rejecting the reality of His eternal form and pastimes. Thus, they unwittingly belittle the eternal position of all living beings by denying their eternal personality and activities in the kingdom of God. The impersonalists, through their mental concoctions, try to minimize the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities who are part of Him, reducing them theoretically to a formless, nameless light, which by their concoction they claim to be the Absolute God. The Vaiṣṇavas, however, welcome the Supreme Personality of Godhead and easily understand that the unlimited Supreme Personality has nothing to do with the conditioned, limited, mundane personalities we find in the material world. The impersonalists arrogantly assume that there could not be any transcendental or unlimited personality beyond our present experience. But the Vaiṣṇavas intelligently understand that there are many wonderful things far beyond our limited experience. Therefore they accept the words of Kṛṣṇa, who states in Bhagavad-gītā (15.19) :

yo mām evam asammūḍho jānāti puruṣottamam sa sarva-vid bhajati māṁ sarva-bhāvena bhārata

“Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is the knower of everything, and he therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata.” In this connection Śrīla Prabhupāda states, “There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains that anyone who knows Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything. The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord.… It is not that one should simply speculate academically. One should submissively hear from Bhagavad-gītā that these living entities are always subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone who is able to understand this, according to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, knows the purpose of the Vedas; no one else knows the purpose of the Vedas. ” Therefore, exalted devotees such as the nine Yogendras always accept the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as expressed here by the word nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇān.

King Nimi was a Vaiṣṇava, and therefore he worshiped the great sages with the same respect with which he would worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as shown by the word yathārhataḥ. Although impersonalists falsely claim that every living entity is equal to God, they cannot properly respect any living being, because of their original offense at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality. Their so-called worship, even of their own gurus, is ultimately self-serving and opportunistic. When an impersonalist imagines that he has become God, he has no further need for his so-called guru. The Vaiṣṇava, however, because he accepts the supremacy of the eternal Personality of Godhead, is ready and willing to offer eternal respect to all living beings, especially to those most fortunate living beings who have achieved shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord. A Vaiṣṇava’s worship of the Lord’s representative is not self-serving or opportunistic, but is an expression of eternal love for the Lord and His representatives, as indicated here by the word prītaḥ. Therefore it is clear from this verse that not only the nine exalted sons of Ṛṣabhadeva but also King Nimi himself were all great devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in defiance of the artificial and limited concept of impersonalism.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has pointed out that the word sva-rucā indicates that the nava-yogendras glowed from their own spiritual effulgence and not due to their ornaments or any other cause. The Supreme Soul, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is the original source of all light. His brilliantly glowing body is the source of the all-pervading brahmajyoti, the immeasurable spiritual light that is the resting place of innumerable universes ( yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi ). The individual soul, being part and parcel of the Lord, is also self-effulgent. In fact, everything in the kingdom of God is self-effulgent, as described in Bhagavad-gītā (15.6) :

na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

It has already been described in many ways that the nava-yogendras were pure devotees of the Lord. Being completely Kṛṣṇa conscious souls, they naturally radiated the intense effulgence of the soul, as indicated here by the word sva-rucā. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has also pointed out that the word brahma-putropamān, meaning “equal to the sons of Brahmā,” indicates that the nava-yogendras were on the same spiritual platform as the four exalted Kumāra brothers. It has been described in the Fourth Canto that Mahārāja Pṛthu received the four Kumāras with great love and reverence, and here King Nimi is similarly receiving the nine sons of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva. Receiving exalted Vaiṣṇavas with love and reverence is standard spiritual etiquette for those who desire progress and happiness in life.

King Nimi here welcomes the great sages by glorifying their transcendental activities. It is well known that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to the three modes of material nature, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (7.13) : mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Similarly, His pure devotees are also on the transcendental platform. One may ask how such transcendental living beings as the associates of Lord Viṣṇu could be seen within the material world. Therefore it is stated here, pāvanāya caranti hi: the associates of Lord Viṣṇu travel throughout the universe to reclaim the fallen, conditioned souls on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A representative of the governor may be seen moving within the prison house, but that does not mean that the governor’s representative has become a conditioned prisoner. It is understood that he is within the prison to negotiate the possible release of those prisoners who have rectified their criminal propensity. Similarly, the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead called parivrājakācāryas wander throughout the universe inviting everyone to surrender to Lord Kṛṣṇa and go back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

In the Sixth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the mercy of the associates of Lord Viṣṇu has been described in connection with the salvation of Ajāmila. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has pointed out that the associates of Lord Viṣṇu are as merciful as the Lord Himself. Even though the ignorant members of human society are not interested in approaching the servants of Lord Viṣṇu, the devotees of the Lord, without any false prestige, act to liberate the conditioned souls from their perpetual misfortune.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the word dehinām means bahavo dehā bhavanti yeṣāṁ te, “the conditioned souls, who accept innumerable material bodies.” According to some wishful thinkers a living entity in the human form of life will never be degraded to a lower form such as that of an animal or plant. But despite this wishful thinking, it is a fact that according to our activities at the present, we will be elevated or degraded by the laws of God. At the present time in human society there is no clear or precise understanding of the nature of life. Foolish scientists have invented highly sophisticated terminologies and theories to bluff innocent people into believing that life comes from chemical reactions. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has exposed this bluff in his book Life Comes from Life, which points out that although scientists claim that life comes from chemicals, they cannot produce so much as an insect, even from unlimited quantities of chemicals. Actually, life and consciousness are symptoms of the spirit soul.

In Life Comes from Life (page 43), Śrīla Prabhupāda has stated, “Living beings move from one bodily form to another. The forms already exist. The living entity simply transfers himself, just as a man transfers himself from one apartment to another. One apartment is first class, another is second class, and another is third class. Suppose a person comes from a lower-class apartment to a first-class apartment. The person is the same. But now, according to his capacity for payment, or karma, he is able to occupy a higher-class apartment. Real evolution does not mean physical development, but development of consciousness.” Within every species of life there is consciousness, and that consciousness is the symptom of the living entity, who is the superior energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without understanding this essential point of the transmigration of the conscious living entity throughout 8,400,000 species of life, one cannot possibly understand the words durlabho mānuṣo dehaḥ, “the human body is very rarely achieved.”

People are now being cheated of this essential understanding. They are completely unaware of the danger of slipping back into the eight million species that lie below the human species. It is natural that a human being think in terms of progress. We want to feel that our life is progressing and that we are advancing and improving the quality of our life. Therefore, it is urgent that people be informed of the great danger of misusing the valuable human life and that they know of the great opportunity the human life affords, the opportunity to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just as on earth different residential areas are divided into high class, middle class and low class, within the universe there are upper-class, middle-class and lower-class planets. By practice of the yoga system, or by meticulous execution of religious rituals, one can transfer himself to the higher planets within this universe. On the other hand, by neglecting religious principles one will degrade himself to a lower planet. But the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, declares in Bhagavad-gītā (8.16) , ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna. Thus the final conclusion is that every planet within the material universe is an unsuitable and inappropriate residence, because on each planet there are the primal defects old age and death. The Lord assures us, however, that in His transcendental abode, which lies far beyond the material cosmos, life is everlasting, blissful and absolutely cognizant. The material world is temporary, troublesome and rife with ignorance, but the spiritual world, called Vaikuṇṭha, is eternal, blissful and full of perfect knowledge.

The highly evolved human brain is a gift given by God so that we may use our intelligence to distinguish between that which is eternal and that which is temporary. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.16) :

nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ ubhayor api dṛṣṭo ’ntas tv anayos tattva-darśibhiḥ

“Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that matter has no permanent existence whereas the spirit soul never ceases to exist. Learned seers have concluded this by studying the nature of both.”

Those who have accepted the Supreme Lord and His abode as the ultimate goal of life are called vaikuṇṭha-priya. Here King Nimi states that to have the personal association of such learned transcendentalists is certainly the perfection of human life. In this connection Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura suggests that we consider the following verse:

nṛ-deham ādyaṁ su-labhaṁ su-durlabhaṁ plavaṁ su-kalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā

“[The Supreme Lord said:] The best of bodies, a human body, is a great attainment, rarely achieved, and may be compared to a boat. The guru is an expert captain for this boat, and I have sent favorable winds (the Vedas ). Thus I have given all facilities for crossing over the ocean of material existence. Any human being who has achieved these excellent facilities of human life but does not cross over the material ocean is to be considered the killer of his own self.” ( Bhāg. 11.20.17 )

According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, the eternal servants of the Supreme Lord, being controlled by powerful feelings of mercy, descend into the material world as Vaiṣṇavas to deliver the conditioned souls who are bound by the results of their own mundane work. Such Vaiṣṇavas also distribute their mercy to those who are laboriously searching after the impersonal Absolute. Śrī Nārada Muni has stated that without ecstatic love of Godhead such laborious, impersonal contemplation of the Absolute is certainly troublesome ( naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitam ), and what to speak of the innumerable problems of ordinary gross materialistic life. We have practical experience that in the Western countries most people are working hard to get money, laboring under heavenly dreams of sense gratification. Others, having become frustrated with ordinary materialistic life, are trying to negate their personal existence and merge into the existence of God through so-called yoga and meditation. Both classes of unhappy people are receiving the mercy of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, putting aside their dreams of sense gratification as well as their troublesome impersonal speculation. They are learning to chant the holy names of God, dance in ecstasy, and feast on the holy food offered to the Lord. They become enlivened by the transcendental knowledge spoken by the Lord Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. As the Lord states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.2) , susukhaṁ kartum avyayam. The actual process of spiritual freedom is joyful to perform and has nothing to do with fruitive activities aimed at sense gratification or with dry impersonal speculation. More and more people are taking to the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becoming joyful, and eagerly distributing Kṛṣṇa’s mercy to others. Thus the whole world will be enlivened and inspired by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is the practical demonstration of the mercy of the Vaiṣṇavas.

The word śevadhiḥ, or “a great treasure,” is significant in this verse. Just as an ordinary man is overjoyed to discover an unexpected treasure, one who is actually intelligent is overjoyed to gain the association of a pure devotee of the Lord, by which one’s life can easily be perfected. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī the words ātyantikaṁ kṣemam, or “the supreme good,” indicate that situation in which one cannot be touched by even the slightest fear. Now we are entangled in the cycle of birth, old age, disease and death ( saṁsāre ). Because our entire situation can be devastated in a single moment, we are constantly in fear. But the pure devotees of the Lord can teach us the practical way to free ourselves from material existence and thus to abolish all types of fear.

According to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, normal etiquette would dictate that a host immediately ask a guest who has arrived about his well-being. But such an inquiry is unsuitable to place before self-satisfied devotees of the Lord, who are themselves the bestowers of all well-being. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha, the King knew that it would be useless to ask the sages about their business affairs, since the only business of the pure devotees of the Lord is the achievement of the supreme goal of life. According to Bhagavad-gītā, the goal of life is to free oneself from the cycle of birth and death and reinstate oneself as an eternal servant of God on the platform of spiritual bliss. Pure devotees of the Lord do not waste their time with ordinary mundane affairs. Sometimes foolish relatives of a Vaiṣṇava preacher lament that such a transcendental preacher has not used his life for material business and that so much money has therefore been lost by the practice of spiritual life. Such ignorant persons cannot imagine the unlimited prosperity available on the spiritual platform to those who have surrendered heart and soul to the mission of the Lord. King Nimi was himself a learned Vaiṣṇava, and therefore he did not foolishly ask the sages about ordinary worldly affairs. He immediately inquired about ātyantikaṁ kṣemam, the highest, most perfect goal of life.

According to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the word anaghāḥ, “O sinless ones,” has two meanings. Anaghāḥ indicates that the nine Yogendras were themselves completely free of sins. It also indicates that merely by the great fortune of seeing them and hearing from them submissively, an ordinary, sinful man could also be freed of his sins and achieve everything he desired.

One might object that since the great sages had just arrived, the King should not have been so impatient as to inquire from them about the perfection of life. Perhaps the King should have waited until the sages themselves invited his inquiry. Such a hypothetical objection is answered by the words kṣaṇārdho ’pi. Even a single moment’s association with pure devotees, or even half a moment’s association, is sufficient to give one the perfection of life. An ordinary person who is offered a great treasure will immediately desire to claim such a treasure. Similarly, King Nimi was thinking, “Why should I consider myself fortunate enough to have such great sages stay here for a long time? Because I am an ordinary person, undoubtedly you will soon be leaving. Therefore, let me immediately take advantage of your holy association.”

According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, in this world there are different varieties of mercy. But ordinary mercy cannot bring about the cessation of all unhappiness. In other words, there are many humanitarians, altruists and social reformers who certainly work for the betterment of humanity. Such persons are universally considered merciful. But in spite of their mercy, humanity continues to suffer in the grip of birth, old age, disease and death. I may distribute free food to the needy, but even after eating my merciful gift, the recipient will again become hungry, or he will suffer in some other way. In other words, by mere humanitarianism or altruism, people do not actually become free from unhappiness. Their unhappiness is merely postponed or altered. King Nimi was joyful upon seeing the nava-yogendras because he knew that they were eternally perfect associates of the Supreme Lord. Therefore he thought, “You are not prone to sinful activities like unfortunate mundane people such as me. Thus the words you speak carry no deception or exploitation.”

The materially conditioned souls spend their days and nights discussing various topics of sense gratification. They never find time to hear about transcendental knowledge. But if even only briefly or accidentally they hear hari-kathā, topics of Kṛṣṇa, in the association of pure devotees of the Lord, their propensity to suffer in material existence will slacken. When one sees liberated persons, hears about Kṛṣṇa from them, remembers their saintly behavior and so on, one’s tendency to bind himself in the illusion of sense gratification is diminished, and he becomes eager to serve the Supreme Lord.

Within the material world there are two classes of mundane philosophers who present their opinions about the Supreme Lord. Some so-called theologians claim that we are infinitely different from God, and therefore they tend to look upon the Lord as something far beyond our power to understand. Such extreme dualistic philosophers outwardly or officially claim to be pious and religious believers in God, but they consider God so much different from that which is within our experience that according to them there is little profit in even trying to discuss the personality or attributes of the Supreme Lord. Such outwardly faithful persons generally take to fruitive activities and gross materialistic sense gratification, being infatuated with the mundane relationships of the material world, which appear under the headings society, friendship and love.

The advaita-vādīs, or nondualistic philosophers, claim that there is no difference between God and the living entity and that the highest goal of life is to give up our personal existence, which is due to illusion, and merge into the impersonal Brahman effulgence, which is devoid of name, form, paraphernalia and personality. Thus neither class of speculative philosopher is able to understand the transcendental Personality of Godhead.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His sublime teaching of acintya-bhedābhedha-tattva, or simultaneous oneness and difference, has clearly demonstrated that we are qualitatively one with God but quantitatively different. God is personal consciousness, and He has His personal form. Similarly we are also personal consciousness, and ultimately, when liberated, we also have eternal forms. The difference is that the eternal form and personality of the Supreme Lord contain unlimited potency and opulence whereas our potency and opulence are infinitesimal. We are conscious of our personal body, whereas Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth, is conscious of everyone’s body, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā ( kṣetra-jṣaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata ). But although God is infinitely greater than the living entity, both God and the living entities are eternal personalities with form, activities and feelings.

The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, expands Himself into innumerable living entities to enjoy rasas, or ecstatic relationships, with them. The living entities are part and parcel of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and they are meant to serve Him with love. Although the Supreme Lord is eternally the predominator and the living entity is eternally the predominated, when the living entity surrenders unto the Lord with a sincere loving attitude, desiring to serve the Lord eternally without the slightest expectation of personal reward for such service, the Lord immediately is pleased, as expressed here by the word prasannaḥ. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is so unlimitedly merciful and magnanimous that in His gratitude to such a surrendered and loving servitor, He is immediately inclined to offer anything, even Himself, to His surrendered devotee.

There are numerous practical, historical examples of this loving propensity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because of the love of Mother Yaśodā, child Kṛṣṇa, in His form as Dāmodara, surrendered Himself to His loving mother and allowed Himself to be bound with ropes as a childhood punishment. Similarly, feeling indebted to the Pāṇḍavas for their intense love for Him, Kṛṣṇa in His form as Pārtha-sārathi happily agreed to drive the chariot of Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana is always thinking of ways to satisfy the gopīs, who are universally recognized as the most exalted loving devotees of the Lord.

Such intense loving feelings exchanged between the Lord and His pure devotees would not be possible were the living entities not qualitatively one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and indeed inseparable parts and parcels of the Lord. On the other hand, because both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities are eternally individuals, each with his own eternal individual consciousness, such loving exchanges are a perpetual reality in the kingdom of God. In other words, absolute oneness with God and absolute difference from God are theoretical imaginations of different schools of speculative philosophy. The perfection of spiritual love, as described in this verse, is based on simultaneous oneness and difference, and this absolute reality was elaborately presented by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in His brahminical incarnation as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu have expounded this perfect doctrine in innumerable books, culminating in the teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who has most perfectly presented this knowledge in a way that is understandable not only in India but to all the people of the world. Our present insignificant attempt is simply to complete his translation and commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and we are constantly praying for his guidance so that this work can simply be completed exactly as he would have desired. If one can understand these teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu as they are being presented in Western languages, surely the Lord will be satisfied with such a sincere seeker of spiritual truth.

According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, not only the King but also the members of the assembly and the priests conducting the sacrifice were all devoted to hearing and chanting the glories of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The sages, beginning with Kavi, will now each speak in turn, answering the questions of the King.

In the opinion of Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī the word asad-ātma-bhāvāt in this verse indicates that the living entity is constantly disturbed by fear because he identifies his eternal self with the temporary material body and its paraphernalia. Similarly, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has stated, bhakti-pratikūla-deha-gehādiṣv āsaktim. Because of one’s attachment to one’s temporary body and so-called home, family, friends and so on, one’s intelligence is always disturbed by fear, and one is unable to appreciate or practice pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord. So-called religious activities executed in the bodily conception of life are always accompanied by fear and anxiety about the ultimate result. But pure devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead frees one from fear and anxiety because it is executed on the platform of Vaikuṇṭha, or the spiritual plane, where there is no fear or anxiety. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the process of bhakti-yoga is so powerful that even in the stage of sādhana-bhakti, in which one is practicing devotional service through rules and regulations, the neophyte can have a direct experience of fearlessness by the mercy of the Lord. As one’s devotional service becomes mature, the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee, and all fear is totally vanquished forever.

Every living entity has a natural propensity to serve God, but because of false identification with the temporary body one loses touch with this pure, constitutional propensity and instead inauspiciously becomes attached to temporary sense gratification in the form of body, home, family and so on. The result of such false attachment is continuing distress, which can be eradicated only by devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

In this connection, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī has quoted the following verse:

tāvad bhayaṁ draviṇa-deha-suhṛn-nimittaṁ śokaḥ spṛhā paribhavo vipulaś ca lobhaḥ tāvan mamety asad-avagraha ārti-mūlaṁ yāvan na te ’ṅghrim abhayaṁ pravṛṇīta lokaḥ

“O my Lord, the people of the world are embarrassed by all material anxieties — they are always afraid. They always try to protect wealth, body and friends, they are filled with lamentation and unlawful desires and paraphernalia, and they avariciously base their undertakings on the perishable conceptions of ‘I’ and ‘mine.’ As long as they do not take shelter of Your safe lotus feet, they are full of such anxieties.” ( Bhāg. 3.9.6 )

There are many Vedic scriptures, such as Manu-saṁhitā, that present standard injunctions for the peaceful management of human society. Such Vedic knowledge is based on the varṇāśrama system, which scientifically divides human society into four occupational divisions as well as four spiritual divisions. According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, however, knowledge that can bring one directly in contact with the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called ati-rahasyam, or the most confidential knowledge ( ati-rahasyatvāt sva-mukhenaiva bhagavatāviduṣām api puṁsām aṣjaḥ sukhenaivātma-labdhaye ).

Bhāgavata-dharma is so confidential that it is spoken by the Lord Himself. The essence of bhāgavata-dharma is given in Bhagavad-gītā, wherein Kṛṣṇa personally instructs Arjuna. Yet in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the Lord will give instructions to Uddhava that surpass even the teachings given to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā. As Śrīla Prabhupāda has stated, “Undoubtedly Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by the Lord on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra just to encourage Arjuna to fight, and yet to complete the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā the Lord instructed Uddhava. The Lord wanted Uddhava to fulfill His mission and disseminate knowledge which He had not spoken even in Bhagavad-gītā. ” ( Bhāg. 3.4.32 purport) Similarly, it is understood that the knowledge that will be presented here by the nine Yogendras is not their personal concoction but is authorized knowledge originally spoken by the Lord Himself.

According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, the living entities, in the course of their wanderings throughout the cycle of birth and death, lose all trace of the Personality of Godhead. But when they hear the eternally auspicious topics spoken by the Supreme Lord for their benefit and understand their eternal identities as spirit souls, the realized experience of being an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa becomes the basis of bhāgavata-dharma. In the soul’s experience as a pure Vaiṣṇava, or servant of God, there is no consideration of being different from God or the same as God, nor is one interested in the kingdom of material sense gratification. The pure devotee simply perceives his particular devotional service to the Supreme Lord and sees himself as an individual part and parcel of the ultimate shelter. A pure devotee experiences that his very being is tied, by ropes of loving devotion, to the ultimate shelter Himself in one of His direct personal expansions. And in such a perfect state of consciousness, the devotee can perceive the all-pervading variegated forms of the Absolute Truth.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the word aṣjaḥ (“easily”), which is used in the previous verse, is explained in this verse. He states, aṣjaḥ-padenoktaṁ su-karatvaṁ vivṛṇoti: “By the word aṣjaḥ the ease of performing bhakti-yoga is established, and this will be elaborated in the present verse.” In Bhagavad-gītā (9.2) the Lord Himself states, pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ susukhaṁ kartum avyayam: “The process of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternal, and it is very joyfully and naturally performed.” Śrīla Prabhupāda comments, “The process of devotional service is a very happy one. Why? Devotional service consists of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, so one can simply hear the chanting of the glories of the Lord or can attend philosophical lectures on transcendental knowledge given by authorized ācāryas. Simply by sitting, one can learn; then one can eat the remnants of the food offered to God, nice palatable dishes. In every state devotional service is joyful. One can execute devotional service even in the most poverty-stricken condition. The Lord says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalam: He is ready to accept from the devotee any kind of offering, never mind what. Even a leaf, a flower, a bit of fruit or a little water, which are all available in every part of the world, can be offered by any person, regardless of social position, and will be accepted if offered with love. There are many instances of this in history. Simply by tasting the tulasī leaves offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, great sages like Sanat-kumāra became great devotees. Therefore the devotional process is very nice, and it can be executed in a happy mood. God accepts only the love with which things are offered to Him.”

The essential point to be understood here is that when a living entity surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he tells the Lord, “My dear Lord, although I am most sinful and unqualified and for so long have been trying to forget You, now I am taking shelter at Your lotus feet. From this day on I am Yours. Whatever I possess — my body, mind, words, family, riches — I am now offering at Your lotus feet. Please do with me as You like.” The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, has repeatedly given assurance in Bhagavad-gītā that He will protect and redeem such a surrendered living entity, bringing him back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life in the Lord’s own kingdom. Thus the qualification of surrendering to the Lord is so great and spiritually potent that even if a surrendered soul is deficient in other aspects of pious life, his elevated status is protected by the Lord Himself. In other processes, however, such as yoga, because one depends upon his own determination and intelligence and does not actually seek shelter of the Lord, one is subject to fall at any moment, being protected only by one’s own flimsy, limited potency. Therefore, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32) , āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ/ patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: if one gives up the shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and instead tries to advance in the yoga process by one’s own determination, or if one tries to make progress in knowledge by one’s own speculative power, surely one will eventually fall again to a mediocre material platform, having no protection other than one’s own fallible strength. Therefore the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, in their commentaries on this verse, have illustrated in various ways the vast superiority of bhakti-yoga, or pure devotional service. In this connection, Śrīdhara Svāmī states, nimīlya netre dhāvann api iha eṣu bhāgavata-dharmeṣu na skhalet; nimīlanaṁ nāmājṣānaṁ, yathāhuḥ — ‘śruti-smṛtī ubhe netre viprāṇāṁ parikīrtite/ ekena vikalaḥ kāṇo dvābhyām andhaḥ prakīrtitaḥ’ iti. “Even if running with both eyes closed, a devotee on this path of bhāgavata-dharma will not stumble. ‘Closing one’s eyes’ refers to being in ignorance [of standard Vedic literatures]. As it is said, ‘The śruti and smṛti scriptures are the two eyes of the brāhmaṇas. Lacking one of them, a brāhmaṇa is half blind, and deprived of both he is considered completely blind.’”

In Bhagavad-gītā (10.10-11) the Lord has clearly stated that even if a devotee is lacking in Vedic knowledge or ignorant of Vaiṣṇava literature, the Lord personally enlightens him from within his heart if the devotee is actually engaged in loving service to the Lord. In this connection, Śrīla Prabhupāda states, “When Lord Caitanya was in Benares promulgating the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, thousands of people were following Him. Prakāśānanda, a very influential and learned scholar in Benares at that time, derided Lord Caitanya for being a sentimentalist. Sometimes philosophers criticize the devotees because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists. Actually that is not the fact. There are very, very learned scholars who have put forward the philosophy of devotion, but even if a devotee does not take advantage of their literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Kṛṣṇa Himself within his heart. So the sincere devotee engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be without knowledge. The only qualification is that one carry out devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

Yet this facility given by the Lord cannot justify unauthorized concoctions put forward about the process of devotional service in the name of spontaneous devotion. In this connection Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has stated, bhagavat-prāpty-arthaṁ pṛthaṅ-mārga-karaṇaṁ tv ati-dūṣaṇāvaham eva: “If one manufactures his own process of devotional service for the sake of attaining the Supreme Lord, such a concoction will cause total ruination.” Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura goes on to quote:

śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi- paṣcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā aikāntikī harer bhaktir utpātāyaiva kalpate

“If one’s so-called unalloyed devotion to Lord Hari does not take into account the regulations of the śruti, smṛti, Purāṇas and Paṣcarātra, it is nothing more than a disturbance to society.” In other words, even if one is not learned in the Vedic literatures, if he is engaged in the loving service of the Lord he is to be accepted as a pure devotee; nonetheless, such loving devotion cannot in any way contradict the injunctions of revealed scriptures.

Such groups as the prākṛta-sahajiyās ignore the standard regulations of Vaiṣṇava dharma and engage in illicit, degraded activities, dressing as Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the name of spontaneous devotion. They claim that because such spontaneous devotion is revealed by the Lord Himself, they need not refer to standard scriptures. Similarly, all over the world there are pseudoreligionists who manufacture their own processes and claim they are receiving knowledge from the Lord Himself within their hearts. Therefore it is very important to understand, as stated here, that spontaneous revelation by the Lord within the heart is meant not to alter the eternal process of devotional service to the Lord, but to give a supplementary facility to a sincere devotee who is ignorant of revealed scriptures. In other words, the revealed scriptures describe the eternal process of service to the Lord. Since the Lord is eternal and the living entity is eternal, the process of their loving relationship is also eternal. The Lord never changes His essential nature, nor does the living entity. Therefore there is no need to change the essential process of loving service to the Lord. Special revelation by the Lord is meant to give scriptural knowledge by another means, and not to contradict scriptural knowledge.

On the other hand, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has stated that if a devotee is executing all the basic principles of bhakti-yoga and advancing in devotional service, such a Vaiṣṇava should not be criticized for neglecting the secondary procedures. For example, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda established hundreds of spiritual communities in the Western countries for practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The devotees in these communities give up all illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and meat-eating and constantly engage in service to Kṛṣṇa. Such followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda are able to make wonderful spiritual advancement and convert many thousands of people to the process of devotional service. In fact, all the faithful members of ISKCON who follow the standard regulations remain free from material contamination and make visible progress in going back home, back to Godhead. Such members of ISKCON cannot possibly execute all the details of the varṇāśrama-dharma system. In fact, many Western devotees can barely pronounce Sanskrit words and are not very expert in performing elaborate sacrifices based on chanting of mantras and offering of oblations. But because they are executing all the essential principles of bhakti-yoga by giving up material sense gratification and constantly engaging in loving service to Kṛṣṇa, their position is guaranteed both in this life and in the next.

We have seen many sophisticated Sanskrit scholars and learned experts in the details of Vedic sacrifice who can hardly even follow the basic principles of human life, namely no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling and no intoxication. Such brilliant scholars and ritualistic performers are generally seen to be attached to a materialistic conception of life and are fond of mental speculation. Although in Bhagavad-gītā the Lord Himself has given perfect knowledge for all time, such so-called scholars consider themselves more intelligent than the Lord and thus speculate on the meaning of Vedic literature. Such speculation certainly constitutes a fall from perfect spiritual life, and what then is to be said of materialistic fruitive activities, which are illusory in every sense of the term. The transcendental devotees are able to remain aloof from the pollution of fruitive activity and mental speculation, and that is the essential purport of this verse.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has warned that the words yān āsthāya indicate that the exalted status of a Vaiṣṇava can never be accorded to one who is not following the basic regulations of bhakti-yoga. Nor can it apply to one who is sometimes serving Kṛṣṇa and sometimes serving the illusory energy, māyā, by mental speculation or fruitive activities. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has concluded, “In all dharmas other than bhāgavata-dharma one must consider the conditioned soul’s qualification. But a soul surrendered to the Lord is never confounded by error, even if unqualified in all other respects. His feet never stumble, and he never falls. Even though wandering in the world at whim, he always resides in an auspicious place by the influence of his unswerving worship. The unique potency of bhagavata-dharma does not appear in any of the other dharmas of the world. There is no comparison between a surrendered individual who has taken shelter of bhāgavata-dharma and the practitioner of any other dharma. ”

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has commented in this regard that a person who engages all the sensory activities of his body, mind, words, intelligence, ego and consciousness in the service of the Supreme Lord cannot be considered to be on the same level as a karmī working for his personal sense gratification. Although apparently still a conditioned soul, one who offers the fruits of all his activities to the Lord can no longer be touched by the countless miseries that arise from the reactions to materialistic activities.

Because of enmity against the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His omnipotent authority, the conditioned living entity performs activities against the order of the Lord. Yet self-realized souls continue to perform all types of work within this world to carry out the mission of the Supreme Lord. According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, those karmīs who are sufficiently pious follow the example of the self-realized souls by trying to offer the fruits of their own duties at the lotus feet of the Lord. Although this is counted as karma-miśrā bhakti, or devotional service mixed with the desire to execute fruitive activities, such mixed devotional service is gradually transformed into pure devotional service. As the pious fruitive workers disengage themselves, step by step, from the bogus philosophy of “enjoyment of one’s hard-earned rewards,” pure devotional service rewards them with complete good fortune.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has commented, ātmanā cittenāhaṅkāreṇa vā anusṛto yaḥ svabhāvas tasmāt: although one may still be in the bodily concept of life, he should offer the fruit of his work to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those with a primitive, materialistic concept of the Supreme Lord consider the Lord present only in a temple or church. They make some offering to the Lord in the place of worship, but in their normal activities they claim proprietorship, not thinking that God is present everywhere and within everyone. We have practical experience of many so-called religious men who become very offended if their children try to become servants of the Supreme Lord. They feel, “God should be pleased with whatever humble offering I give Him, but my family and ordinary business affairs belong to me and are under my control.” The perception of anything as separate from the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His proprietorship is called māyā, or illusion. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has quoted, na kevalaṁ vidhitaḥ kṛtam eveti niyamaḥ; svabhāvānusāri laukikam api: “The regulation that one should serve the Supreme Lord does not refer only to prescribed religious paths, ceremonies and regulations; rather, all the activities one performs in this world according to one’s personal nature should be dedicated to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

The words karoti yad yat sakalaṁ parasmai nārāyaṇāyeti samarpayet tat in this verse are very significant. A similar verse is found in Bhagavad-gītā (9.27) :

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

“O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, and all the austerities that you perform should be done as an offering unto Me.” The objection may be raised, Since our ordinary activities are performed with a material body and material mind, not by the spirit soul, how can such activities be offered to the Supreme Lord, who is completely transcendental to the material world? How can such activities be considered spiritual? In answer to this it is stated in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3.8.8):

varṇāśramācāra-vatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

One who wants to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, must accept the system of varṇāśrama-dharma and worship the Lord through the execution of his prescribed duties. In Bhagavad-gītā (4.13) the Supreme Lord has personally taken credit for establishing the system of varṇāśrama-dharma: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Therefore if one offers his work within the varṇāśrama-dharma system to the Supreme Lord, such work is counted as devotional service. According to one’s svabhāva, or nature, one may work as an intellectual or priest, as an administrator or military man, as an agriculturist or mercantile man, or as a laborer or craftsman. And while working, everyone should meditate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thinking, yat sakalaṁ parasmai nārāyaṇāya: “I am working for the Supreme Lord. Whatever result comes from my work, I shall accept the bare minimum for my personal maintenance, and the rest I shall offer for the glorification of Lord Nārāyaṇa.”

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has pointed out, kāmināṁ tu sarvathaiva na duṣkarmārpaṇam: one cannot offer duṣkarma, or sinful, wicked activities, to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The four pillars of sinful life are illicit sex, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. Such activities are never acceptable as offerings to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The example may be given that although in a free society each person is allowed to choose his own occupation, even a democratic government will not allow a citizen to choose the occupation of thief or murderer. In the same way, according to the laws of God one is invited to work according to his own nature in the varṇāśrama system, but one is forbidden to adopt a criminal life of sinful activities violating the laws of God.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has given a nice description of how one should offer one’s ordinary activities to the Supreme Lord. He says that an ordinary sense gratifier begins his activities in the morning by passing stool and urine, cleaning his mouth, brushing his teeth, bathing, meeting his friends and family members and discussing with them the day’s business. In this way one has so many activities during the day, and a sense gratifier executes all these activities for his personal material enjoyment. A karmī, on the other hand, working under the jurisdiction of the karma-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas, will perform the same activities for the pleasure of the demigods and his forefathers. Thus, according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, a devotee of the Supreme Lord, Nārāyaṇa, should similarly perform all of his daily activities for the pleasure of the Supreme Lord. In this way everything we do throughout the day will become bhakty-aṅga, or a supplementary aspect of our devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.

It should be understood that as long as one identifies oneself in terms of the varṇāśrama-dharma system rather than as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa one is still on the platform of ahaṅkāra, or false ego, because the varṇāśrama system is designed according to the modes of nature acquired by the living entity through his material body. But the ācāryas have emphasized in their commentaries on this verse that such a false ego, by which one identifies oneself as a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, sannyāsī, gṛhastha and so on, should also be offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, when one becomes very much attracted to hearing and chanting about the Supreme Lord and not merely offering Him the fruits of one’s work, one has attained the stage called svarūpa-siddhā bhakti, or the stage in which actual devotion becomes visible. The example may be given that although any good citizen will pay his taxes to the government, he may not necessarily love the government or its leaders. Similarly a pious living entity can understand that he is working under the laws of God, and therefore in accordance with Vedic injunctions or the injunctions of other scriptures he offers a portion of his assets to the Supreme Lord in religious ceremonies. But when such a pious person actually becomes attached to chanting and hearing about the personal qualities of the Lord and when love thus becomes visible, he is considered to be reaching the mature stage of life. In this regard, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has quoted several verses that very nicely show the development of love for Godhead. Anena durvāsanā-duḥkha-darśanena sa karuṇā-mayaḥ karuṇāṁ karotu: “May the merciful Lord show mercy on me by demonstrating the misery created by sinful desires.” Yā prītir avivekānāṁ visayeṣv anapāyinī/ tvām anusmarataḥ sā me hṛdayān nāpasarpatu: “Unintelligent persons have unflinching affection for the objects of sense gratification. Similarly, may I always remember You, so that that same attachment, applied to You, never leaves my heart.” ( Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.20.19) Yuvatīnāṁ yathā yūni yūnāṁ ca yuvatau yathā/ mano ’bhiramate tadvan mano me ramatāṁ tvayi: “As the minds of young girls take pleasure in thinking of a young boy and those of young boys take pleasure in thinking of a young girl, may my mind take pleasure in You.” Mama sukarmaṇi duṣkarmaṇi ca yad rāga-sāmānyam, tad sarvato-bhāvena bhagavad-viṣayam eva bhavatu: “Whatever attraction I have for pious or sinful activities, let that attraction be wholeheartedly invested in You.”

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī the objection may be raised that since fear is caused by ignorance, it can be dispelled by knowledge and there is no need to worship the Supreme Lord. The living entity falsely identifies with his material body, family, society and so on, and he simply has to give up this false identification. Then what will māyā be able to do?

In reply to this argument, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has quoted the following verse from Bhagavad-gītā (7.14) :

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te

“This divine energy of Mine consisting of the three modes of material nature is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” The living entity, called jīva-tattva, is one of the potencies of the Supreme Lord, but the constitutional position of the living entity is taṭa-stha, or marginal. Being minute, every living entity is eternally dependent upon the supreme living entity, Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in the Vedic literature as follows: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānāṁ/ eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. “Among all the eternally conscious beings there is one supreme eternal living being who is supplying the needs of all the innumerable others.” ( Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.12) Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja has stated, ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya: “Kṛṣṇa is the only independent controller; all other living entities depend upon Him.” ( Cc. Ādi 5.142) Just as the finger is part and parcel of the body and therefore must always be engaged in bodily service, we as parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa ( mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ ) have the eternal duty ( sanātana-dharma ) of engaging in the unalloyed service of the Lord.

The potency of the Lord that enlightens us in the Lord’s service is called cit-śakti. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments that when the living entity develops a spirit of independence he is forced to come to the material world, where he enters into various types of petty and undesirable behavior that create a fearful situation for him. The bahiraṅgā-śakti, the illusory potency of the Supreme Lord, covers all trace of the cit-śakti and imposes one material body after another upon the living entity for his gross sinful enjoyment. As further punishment, the living entity who has given up his loving relationship with Kṛṣṇa loses all power to perceive the eternal, blissful form of the Supreme Lord, who is his actual shelter. Instead the living entity becomes attached to many temporary, phantasmagorical forms, such as his personal body, the bodies of his family members and friends, his nation, his city, with its buildings and cars, and innumerable types of ephemeral material scenery. In such a state of gross ignorance the idea of returning to one’s original identity no longer even crosses the mind.

By the laws of God the three modes of material nature are constantly in conflict, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. This conflict is described in many places in the Bhāgavatam as guṇa-vyatikaram. When the living entity is bewildered by the interactions of the modes of material nature, he comes to the conclusion of relativity and assumes that God and worship of God are simply by-products of the relative, contradictory interactions of nature’s modes. In the name of anthropological, sociological or psychological perspective, the living entity falls deeper and deeper into the darkness of materialistic ignorance, dedicating himself to mundane piety, economic development, sense gratification, or speculation in which he regards the Absolute as lacking variety and personality, which he assumes to be products of the interactions of nature’s modes.

The illusory potency of the Supreme Lord is duratyayā; it is impossible to escape without the direct mercy of Kṛṣṇa ( mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te ). The example may be given that when the sun is covered by clouds, no man-made apparatus can remove them from the sky, but the sun itself, which created the clouds, can immediately burn away the cloudy covering and reveal itself. Similarly, when we become covered by the illusory potency of the Lord we identify with our temporary material body, and thus we are always in fear and anxiety. But when we surrender to the Lord Himself, He can immediately free us from this illusion. The material world is padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām; it is dangerous at every step. When a living entity understands that he is not the material body but an eternal servant of God, his fear is vanquished. As stated by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, atra bhaktaiḥ saṁsāra-bandhān na bhetavyaṁ sa hi bhaktau pravartamānasya svata evāpayāti: “In this bhāgavata-dharma devotees have no need to fear the bondage of material existence. That fear goes away of its own accord for one who engages in devotional service.”

It is important to make clear that bhayam, or fear, cannot ultimately be vanquished simply by impersonal self-realization as expressed by the words ahaṁ brahmāsmi, “I am spirit soul.” In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.12) Nārada Muni says to Vyāsadeva, naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ na śobhate: mere naiṣkarmyam, or cessation of material activities and repudiation of the bodily concept of life, cannot ultimately save one. The living entity must find a superior shelter on the spiritual platform; otherwise he will come back to the fearful situation of material existence. That is stated in śāstra: āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ ( Bhāg. 10.2.32 ). Although one may with great labor and effort struggle up to the Brahman platform ( kleśo ’dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām ), if he does not find a suitable shelter he will come back to the material platform. His so-called liberation is vimukta-māna, liberation by imagination.

The living entity is by nature pleasure-seeking, ānanda-maya. Now we are suffering because we are falsely seeking pleasure on the material platform and as a result we are becoming entangled in the painful complexities of material existence. But if we try to give up the pleasure-seeking propensity altogether, we shall eventually become frustrated and return to the platform of material pleasure-seeking. Although there is eternal existence on the Brahman platform of impersonal realization, there is no ānanda. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. In the Vaikuṇṭha planets there is actual, spiritual ānanda. Kṛṣṇa is there in His ecstatic, spiritual form, surrounded by His blissful associates, all of them eternally full of bliss and knowledge. They have nothing to do with material existence. In the spiritual planets even the scenery and birds and animals are fully conscious of Kṛṣṇa and are absorbed in transcendental bliss. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama ( Bg. 15.6 ). One who goes to the blissful, spiritual planet of Kṛṣṇa will be fully satisfied and never come back to the material platform. Therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has said, kiṁ cātra bhaktaiḥ saṁsāra-bandhān na bhetavyam. Only the bhakta actually becomes free from fear.

In this connection Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has emphasized the necessity of accepting a bona fide spiritual master who is vrajendranandana-preṣṭha, the dearmost servitor of the son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa. The bona fide spiritual master is completely free from envy of other living entities, and therefore he freely distributes knowledge of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the living entities who are inimical to the service of the Lord somehow hear this knowledge submissively, they become free from the illusory potency of the Lord, which has covered them and thrown them into various miserable species of life. According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, by the mercy of the spiritual master the faithful disciple gradually realizes the transcendental position of Lord Nārāyaṇa, who is served with great awe and reverence by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. As the disciple’s transcendental knowledge gradually increases, even the paramaiśvarya, or supreme opulence, of the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha becomes pale in the light of the beauty of Govinda, Kṛṣṇa. Govinda has inconceivable potency to enchant and give pleasure, and by the mercy of the spiritual master the disciple gradually develops his own blissful relationship ( rasa ) with Govinda. Having understood the blissful pastimes of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, Śrī Sītā-Rāma, Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa and finally Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, the purified living entity is given the unique privilege of participating directly in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, who becomes his only object and shelter.