This Body Is Imitation
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.26.29
Bombay, January 6, 1975
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Take a testBombay, January 6, 1975
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Nitai: "By the transformation of the
false ego in passion, intelligence takes birth, O virtuous lady. The functions
of the intelligence are to help in ascertaining the nature of objects when they
come into view, and to help the senses."
Prabhupada:
taijasat tu vikurvanad
buddhi-tattvam abhut sati
dravya-sphurana-vijnanam
indriyanam anugrahah
[SB 3.26.29]
So these things are taking place daily within the womb of the mother -- how the child is developing from the day of union of the father and the mother, and, on the first day, it is like a pealike form by the semina of father and mother, and then everything develops. Different types of body, different types of intelligence, different types of brain -- how it takes place? If it is simply material, then all children would have come out of the same quality. But it does not so come. Every child, baby born, has got everything separate from the others. How subtle laws of nature is working, we can just imagine. It is not possible to understand by our these material senses even this material formation of the body, what to speak of spiritual understanding.
Therefore, in the sastras it is advised, acintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet. Acintyah khalu ye bhavah. Things which are beyond your perception, sense perception, acintya, mental speculation, not cintaniya... Acintya. Acintya means mentally speculating. Beyond that, acintya, you cannot think of how this pealike form develops into such a big brain or small brain. The hands, legs, and the mechanical process of different body... This is a machine. In the material world we manufacture machine, manufacturing different parts and assembling them. (aside:) The child may be... But this machine is automatically developing. There is no question of manufacturing each part and then assembling. It is yantra. This body is yantra, machine. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita:
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
[Bg. 18.61]
Isvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is situated in everyone's heart. He is supervising what kind of yantra, or machine, this living entity requires for fulfilling his desires. That is karma. He is engaged in such karma, and he is manufacturing by his karma another body. Everything is going on by the laws of nature. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah [Bg. 3.27]. Gunaih. By different gunas -- sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna, goodness, passion, and ignorance -- very subtle machineries are going on. They are all material.
So here it is said, therefore, dravya-sphurana-vijnanam. Dravya means physical. Dravya-jnana. Dravya-jnana means physical knowledge. And brahma-jnana means spiritual knowledge. So here it is said, dravya-sphurana. The material, physical, phenomenal atmosphere is developing one after another. The medical science, they are trying to study different cells; but wherefrom the cells came into action? That is by the influence or by the manipulation of prakrti. Prakrteh kriyamanani [Bg. 3.27]. And prakrti is working under the direction of Supreme Lord, Krsna. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih [Bg. 9.10]. Therefore, ultimately, by the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead everything is going on. But how it is going on, that we cannot explain. We have got limited knowledge. Therefore sastra says, "Don't try to speculate, because you are imperfect, but things are going on like this." Try to understand. Acintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yo... Simply by your so-called argument and logic you cannot understand. You have to hear from the authorities that "Things are going on like this."
This is called sruti, Veda-jnana. Sruti, Veda, perfect knowledge is called sruti. Srutibhih pratipanna, pratipanna. What is established by the sruti, by the Vedic knowledge, that we have to accept. Otherwise there is no other way. So this is even in the material field of activities, and what to speak of the spiritual. Therefore we have to hear from the authorities of sruti. Authorities of sruti... Krsna is the original speaker of sruti, or Veda knowledge. Therefore Vedic knowledge is called apauruseya. It is not manufactured or concocted by some mental speculator. It is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it was imparted first of all to Lord Brahma, not by personal presentation, but through the heart. Brahma is the original person to understand Vedic knowledge. So after his birth he meditated for hundreds of years, and by meditation, through his heart the knowledge of Vedas, sruti, became revealed. Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye. Adi-kavi means Brahma. And Brahman means Vedic knowledge. So we have to accept in that way. There is no physical science which can ascertain all this, how the things are taking place. But they are coming. In this way we have to learn from the sruti. Dravya-sphurana-vijnanam indriyanam anugrahah.
So dravya, the physical body, that is influenced by the taijasat vikurvanat . This physical body is developed by the mode of passion, the ego. The false ego of the spirit soul, when it is influenced by the mode of passion, then these indriyas, different indriyas, senses-eyes, ear, nose, tongue, hands, legs, genital, rectum -- all these things -- nine chidras, holes in the body -- develop. And they ultimately come to become the different parts and limbs of the senses of the body.
taijasat tu vikurvanad
buddhi-tattvam abhut sati
dravya-sphurana-vijnanam
indriyanam anugrahah
In this way the senses came into being. And we have discussed last night the all this controlling is going on under the supervision of Aniruddha. Aniruddha is in charge of development of these indriya also. Indriyanam adhisvaram. Yad vidur hy aniruddha-akhyam hrsikanam adhisvaram. Hrsika means the indriya, or the senses. So actually we have discussed already. We are simply under some machine. Bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani [Bg. 18.61]. A machine is manufactured immediately. Just like your medical men. They also manufacture some skeleton according to the requirement of the patient. So this body is manufactured by the supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the ingredients given by material nature, and I am put into the machine. This is my position. As I desire to enjoy... Actually, I haven't got to enjoy or reject anything. I am put into a certain type of machine, and I have to go or work. Actually, I do not also work. The work is also going on by different agents. I am simply put into it just to satisfy my desires as I wanted. Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham [Bg. 4.11]. Krsna is so kind that He has given us the chance of enjoying.
The same example as I have already spoken several times, that a gentleman takes his dog chained, and the dog passes urine, and the gentleman also stands. He passes. He wants to go there, this and there, gives the facility -- but under the control of the chain. Similarly, we, after forgetting our relationship with Krsna, when we want to enjoy independently, the chance is given. This chance is given. That is material world. We get a material body, and we are given chance to enjoy as we like. But that is not very fruitful for our satisfaction. After all, we are part and parcel of sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]. Sat, cit, ananda. Sat means eternal, cit means knowledge, and ananda means bliss. So we, being part and parcel of Krsna, the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, we have got also the same type or same quality of constitutional position. But because we wanted independently, therefore we are in a position or in a circumstance which is neither sat nor cit nor ananda. Asat acit nirananda.
This body, material body, is asat. Everyone knows. It will not stay: temporary. Avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam tatam. This body is vinasi, and the dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13], the dehinah, the proprietor of the body, he is avinasi. He is sat, but this body is asat. Asad-grahat. The sastra says that sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat [SB 7.5.5]. This living entity, although part and parcel of the Supreme Being, Krsna, sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, so why, instead of ananda, we have got anxieties? Instead of ananda... Actually, we should have been in ananda. Anandamayo 'bhyasat (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). Just like Krsna is before us. He is ananda, He is enjoying, He is playing on His flute, and Srimati Radharani is serving Him, and all the gopis serving Him. And those who are devotees, they are also trying to assist Srimati Radharani and the gopis to give Krsna pleasure. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-
So ananda-cinmaya-rasa-
So this is all spiritual. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa. Rasa, rasa means mellow, the juice. There is juice, but that is not material juice. Material juice is different. That is temporary, asat. That is not sat. So if we want to taste this material juice, then we must be put into always in anxiety. Material life is anxiety. Therefore in this material world we..., I may love somebody, but it is full with anxieties. "My lover may not cheat. She may not go away" or "He may not go away." Because we are not in the spiritual platform, asad-grahat, we are simply trying to love the external feature which is asat, which will not exist. Just like if you try to love a doll made of earth, dirt, very nicely painted as they are exhibited in the window of the tailor's shop. Who is going to love that? Nobody is going to. Everyone knows that this is imitation. Similarly, this body is imitation. It is a layer on the spiritual body. The spiritual body, when gives up this body, it has no value. A dead body of a beautiful man or beautiful woman, nobody likes because the spiritual essence is gone. Therefore love is actually on the spiritual platform. Material love is simply superficial, and it will cheat you. We must know this. Asad-grahat. Sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat [SB 7.5.5].
So on the sat existence, this material existence develops, and the process of development is described here. And the development of the body is described here, dravya-sphurana-vijnanam. Dravya-sphurana. Dravya means physical, development of physical body. Vijnana, this is the vijnana, how things are developing one after another, one after another. Prakrteh kriyamanani. This is all by the material nature.
prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate
[Bg. 3.27]
So dravya-sphurana-vijnanam indriyanam anugrahah. So our senses follow, and we enjoy these false senses, and that is material existence. So the endeavor should be how to become free from this material existence and come to our spiritual platform. That should be the endeavor of human life. The cats and dogs, they have no such advanced consciousness. They cannot try for it. They are satisfied with this material body and material senses. But in the human-form body there is chance to understand that these senses, this physical formation of the body, is false or temporary. Or false in this sense that it is not my original body. Original body is within this material body. That is spiritual body. Asmin dehe dehinah. Dehino 'smin, tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13], asmin dehinah. So the spiritual body is actually the body, and this material body is covering. It is explained in different way in the Bhagavad-gita. Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya [Bg. 2.22]. This material body is just like dress. The dress... I am putting on the shirt, you are putting on the shirt and coat. That is not very important thing. The important thing is the body within the shirt. Similarly, this material body is simply outward covering of the spiritual body by physical atmosphere, but real body is within. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13]. This external, physical body is called deha, and the owner of this deha is called dehi, "one who possesses this deha." That you have to und... This is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gita.
So one should be inquisitive to know "How this physical body has come into existence, covering myself, the spiritual body?" Aham brahmasmi. So to understand this science, Kapiladeva is explaining the physical Sankhya philosophy, how things are developing. To understand that... The same thing: to understand the simple thing, that "I am not this body. The body has developed from the soul." Therefore we challenge the material scientists. They say that the soul has developed from the body. No. Soul has not developed from the body, but the body has developed from the soul. Just the opposite. The material scientists, they think that combination of these physical elements creates a situation where is..., when there is living, life symptoms. No. That is not. The real is that, fact is, that the spirit soul is there. They are wandering all over the universe. Brahmanda brahman. Brahmanda means all over the universe. The spirit soul is sometimes in one species of life; sometimes he's another species of life. Sometimes he is in this planet; sometimes another planet. In this way, according to his karma, he is wandering. That is his material life. So ei rupe brahmanda bhramite [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. He is loitering, wandering without any aim. "What is the aim of life? Why I have put into this condition, accepting this material body, the source of all miseries?" -- these questions should be asked. This is called brahma-jijnasa. And that should be answered properly. Then our life will be successful. Otherwise it is as useless as the body of a cat or a dog -- no understanding, mudha. Mudha.
So the cats' and dogs' life or the cats and dogs in two legs... Any human being who has no spiritual knowledge, he is no better than the cats and dogs, but difference is: the cats and dogs have got four legs, and this animal has got two legs, that's all. Dvipada-pasu. They have been described as dvipada-pasu. Dvi means two, and pada means leg. So anyone who has no knowledge of the spiritual existence -- how this material body has developed, how we are put into different conditions life -- without this knowledge he is two-legged animal, that's all. So don't remain as two-legged animal. You may develop from two-legged animal another body -- four-legged animal -- but that is not our business. Our business is athato brahma jijnasa. That is our life. Now this human form of life should be inquisitive: jijnasuh sreya uttamam. That is life. You must be very much inquisitive to understand what is your ultimate goal of life. Sreya uttamam. Tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam [SB 11.3.21].
Therefore Bhagavata says that in order to understand the Supreme goal of life, sreya uttamam... Sreya means the best. Sreya and preya. Preya means immediately palatable, and sreya means ultimately beneficial. That is called sreya. Just like for a child, playing is priya, preya. He likes to play. But he is by force, by the parents, he is studied books. That is called preya. But because without education, his future life will be dark. So parents know it. Therefore, although the child likes to play -- that is preya -- the parents engages them into sreya, into education. So that is the Vaisnava's duty. These rascals and fools, they are busy in material sense gratification, and it has become the duty of the devotee. Because the devotees means the servant of the supreme father, Krsna. So they have been engaged. Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. So devotees are so confidential servant of the Supreme Lord. Therefore they are engaged in preaching Krsna consciousness. They have no business for themself -- they are completely perfect as soon as they have accepted Krsna -- but they are working on behalf of Krsna to turn these two-legged animals to become Krsna conscious. This is the meaning of Krsna consciousness movement.
Thank you very much. (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
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