Srimad Bhagavatam, Volume 3

pleasure of the Lord and this action is called Yoga karmasya kousalam or
actions may be performed keeping link with the Supreme Lord. That is the art
of doing a thing perfectly.
Jaloukasam jale yadbat mahanto'danti aniyasah
Druvalan Valino rajan mahanto valino mitho
Evam valisthair yadubhi mahadbhir itaram bibhuh
Yadun yadubhir anyonyam bhubharam samjahara
Jaloukasam—of the acquatics, Jale—in the water, Yadbat—as it is,
Mahanto—the larger one, Odanti—swallows, Aniyasah—smallers ones,
Durvalan—the weak, Valino—the stronger, Rajan—oh the king, Mahanto—
the strongest, Valino—lesser strong, Mitho—in duel, Evam—thus,
Valisthair—by the strongest, Yadubhir—by the descendants of Yadu,
Mahadbhir—one who has greater strength, Itaran—the common ones,
Bibhuh—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yadun—all the Yadus,
Yadubhir—by the Yadus, Anyonyam—between one another, Bhubharan—the
burden of the world, Samjahara—has unloaded, Ha—in the past.
Oh the King! as it is in the ocean the stronger acquatic swallows up the
weaker ones, the bigger one swallows up the smaller ones so also the
Supreme Personality of Godhead has unloaded the burden on the earth
by engaging the stronger Yadu for killing weaker and bigger Yadu in
killing the smaller.
In the material world the law of struggle for existence and survival of the
fittest work for the reason that in the material world there is disparity between
the conditioned souls on account of every one's desire to lord it over the
material resources. This very mentality of lording it over the material nature is
the root cause of conditioned life. And to give facility to such imitation sense
of lordship the illusary energy of the Lord has created a disparity between
conditioned living beings by creating the stronger and the weaker in every
species of life. The mentality of lording it over the the material nature and the
creation of the strong and the weak has naturally created a disparity and
therefore the law of struggle for existence. In the spiritual world there is no
such disparity neither there is such struggle for existence because every one
there exists eternally. There is no disparity because overy one wants to render
service to the Supreme Lcrd and bo body wants to imitate the Lord in the
matter of becoming the beneficiary. The Lord being creater of everything
including the living beings, factually He is the proprietor and enjoyer of
everything that be but in the material world by the spell of Maya or illusion
this sense of eternal relation with the Supreme Personality of Godhead being
forgotten the living being is conditioned under the law of struggle for
existence and survival of the fittest.
Desha kala artha yuktani hrit tapo upasamani cha
Haranti smaratas chittam govinda abhihitani me.
Desha—space, Kala—time, Artha—importance, Yuktani—impregnated with,
Hrit—the heart, Tapa—burning, Upasamani—extinguishing, Cha—and,
Haranti—are attracting, Smaratas—by remembering, Chittam—mind,
Govinda—the Supreme Lord of pleasure, Abhihitani—narrated by, Me—unto
me.
Now I am being attracted by the instructions which were imparted to me
by the Personality of Godhead because they are always impregnated with
instruction for relief to the burning heart of all in all circumstances of
space and time.
Herein Arjuna refers to the instruction of the Bhagwat Geeta which was
imparted to him by the Lord in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The Lord left
behind Him the instructions of the Bhagwat Geeta not only for the benefit of
Arjuna alone, but also it is useful for all at all time and in all climate or space.
The Bhagwat Geeta being spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it
is the essence of all vedicwisdom. It is nicely presented by the Lord Himself
for all who have very little time for going through the vast vedic-literatures
like the Upanishads, Puranas and Vedanta Sutras. It is put within the study of
the great historical epic Mahabharata which was specially prepared for the
less intelligent class of men namely the women, the labourer class of men and
those who are worthless descendants of the higher class men of the society
namely the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and higher section of the Vaishyas. The
problem, which arose some times in the heart of Arjuna in the battle field of
Kurukshetra, was solved by the teachings of the Bhagwat Geeta and again
after the departure of the Lord from the vision of the earthly people, when
Arjuna was face to face with another problem of being vanquished in his
acquired power and prominence, he wanted again to remember the great
teachings of the Bhagwat Geeta just to teach all concerned that the Bhagwat
Geeta could be consulted in all critical time not only to be solaced from all
kinds of mental agonies but also to find out the way out of the great
entanglement which might have embarassed one in some critical hour.
The merciful Lord left behind Him the great teachings of the Bhagwat
Geeta for the only reason that one could take the instructions of the Lord even
during the time of His not being visible to the material eyesight. Material
senses cannot have any estimation of the Supreme Lord but by his
inconceivable power, the Lord can incarnate Himself to the sense-perception
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Fifteenth Chapter - The Pandavas Retire Timely
of the conditioned souls in a suitable manner through the agency of matter
which is also another form of Lord's energy of manifestation. As such the
Bhagwat Geeta or any such authentic scriptural sound representation of the
Lord is also incarnation of the Lord. There is no difference between such
sound representation of the Lord and Himself and one can derive the same
benefit from the Bhagwat Geeta as Arjuna had it done in the personal
presence of the Lord.
Faithful human being who is desirous of being liberated from the clutches
of the illusory energy of material existance, can take very easily the
transendental advantage of the Bhagwat Geeta and with this mission in view
the Lord instructed Arjuna as if Arjuna was in need of it. In the Bhagwat
Geeta five important factors of knowledge have been delineated pertaining to
the (l) Supreme Lord, (2) the living being, (3) the Nature, (4) the time and
space and (5) the process of activity. Out of these, the Supreme Lord and the
living being, being qualitatively one, the difference between the two have
been analysed as the whole and the part and parcel. The nature is inert matter
displaying the interaction of three different modes and the eternal time and
unlimited space are considered to be beyond the existence of the material
nature. Activities of the living being are different varieties of aptitudes which
can entrap or liberate the living being within or without the material nature.
All these subject matters are concisely disscussed in the Bhagwat Geeta and
later the subject matters are elaborated in the Srimad Bhagwatam for further
enlightenment. Out of the five subjects, the Supreme Lord, the living entity,
the Nature and time and space all are enternal but the living entity, nature and
time all of them are under the direction of the Supreme Lord who is Absolute
and completely independant of any other control. The Supreme Lord is the
supreme controller. Activity of the living being is beginningless but it can be
rectified by transferred epithet into spiritual quality and thus cease its material
qualitative reactions. Both the Lord and the living entity are cognisant and
both have the sense of identification of being conscious as living force. But
the living being under the condition of the material nature called the Mahat
Tattwa misidentifies himself as different from the Lord and the whole scheme
of vedic wisdom is targetted to this aim of eradicating such misconception of
the living being and thus to liberate him from the illusion of material
identification. When such illusion is eradicated by knowledge and
renunciation the living being revives his real identification as interested
individual being in the transcendental position of the Lord. As conscious
beings both the Lord and the living being are responsible actors and enjoyer
also. The sense of enjoyment in the Lord is real but such sense in the living
being is a sort of wishful desire only. This difference in consciousness is the
criterian of two identities namely the Lord and the living being. Otherwise
there is no difference between the Lord and the living being. The living being
is therefore, eternally one and diffierent simultaneously. The whole
instructions of the Bhagwat Geeta stand on the basis of this principle.
In the Bhagwat Geeta the Lord and the living being both have been
described as Sanatan or eternal and the Lord's abode far beyond the range of
material sky is also described as Sanatan. The living being is invited to live in
the Sanatan existence of the Lord and the process which can help a living
being to approach the Lord's abode as abovementioned, is called the Sanatan
Dharma or the place where the liberated activity of the soul is exhibited. One
cannot, however, reach the eternal abode of the lord without being free from
the misconception of material identification and the Bhagwat Geeta gives us
the clue how to achieve this stage of perfection. The process of being liberated
from the misconception of material identification is called, in different stages,
as fruitive activity, emperic philosophy and devotional services up in the
matter of transcendental realisation. Such transcendental realisation is made
possible by dovetailing all the above items in relation with the Lord.
Prescribed duties of the human being as they are directed in the Vedas, can
gradually purify the sinful mind of the conditioned soul and raise him to the
stage of knowledge. Such purified stage of acquiring knowledge becomes the
basis of devotional service of the Lord. So long one is engaged in the matter
of researching the solution of the problems life, it is called Jnana or purified
knowledge but on the stage of realising the actual solution of life, one is
called as situated in the dovotional service of the Lord. The Bhagwat Geeta
begins with the problems of life by discreminating the soul from the elements
of matter and proves it by all reasons and arguments that the soul is
indestructible at all circumstances and the outer cover of matter the body and
the mind change covering for another term of material existence which is full
of miseries. The Bhagwat Geeta is therefore meant for terminating all
different types of miseries and Arjuna took shelter of the great knowledge
which was imparted to him before, during the time of Kurukshetra battle.
Suta uvacha:
Evam chintayato jishnoh krishnapada saroruham
Souhardena atigadhena santay asit vimala matih.
Suta uvacha—Suta Goswami said, Evam—thus, Chintayato—while thinking
of the instructions, Jishnoh—of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
Krishnapada—feet of Krishna, Saroruham—resembling tbe lotus,
Souhardena—by deep friendship, Atigadhena—in great intimacy, Santa—