Srimad Bhagavatam: Canto 3 Withdrawal of the Cosmic Creation: Chapter 3. Gajendra’s Prayers of Surrender: Text 3
na yasya devā ṛṣayaḥ padaṁ vidurjantuḥ punaḥ ko ’rhati gantum īritumyathā naṭasyākṛtibhir viceṣṭatoduratyayānukramaṇaḥ sa māvatu
Synonyms
na — neither; yasya — He of whom; devāḥ — the demigods; ṛṣayaḥ — great sages; padam — position; viduḥ — can understand; jantuḥ — unintelligent living beings like animals; punaḥ — again; kaḥ — who; arhati — is able; gantum — to enter into the knowledge; īritum — or to express by words; yathā — as; naṭasya — of the artist; ākṛtibhiḥ — by bodily features; viceṣṭataḥ — dancing in different ways; duratyaya — very difficult; anukramaṇaḥ — His movements; saḥ — that Supreme Personality of Godhead; mā — unto me; avatu — may give His protection.
Translation
An artist onstage, being covered by attractive dresses and dancing with different movements, is not understood by his audience; similarly, the activities and features of the supreme artist cannot be understood even by the demigods or great sages, and certainly not by those who are unintelligent like animals. Neither the demigods and sages nor the unintelligent can understand the features of the Lord, nor can they express in words His actual position. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead give me protection.
Sirla Prabhupada says that as far as devotee is concerned everyday is New year because Krishna is performing Nitya Lila. All his past times are going on either in this universe, or some other universe or all the universe. Example it is like sun rising at a fixed time in one place and also rising at the same time in a different place. As the planet rotates rising and setting of sun happens. Same way Krishna’s past times are always going on so Krishna is eternally situated.
In this verse Gajendra knows that there is a Supreme Person and is praying to the Supreme Lord Krishna. He is saying that even though those who are qualified in terms of their knowledge and abilities like the Sages, Demigods still they have difficulties in understanding Vedas. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is described in the Vedic literatures as follows:
na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyatena tat-samas cabhyadhikas ca drsyate
No body can be found greater than Supreme Personality of God head or equal to him. Krishna is the greatest artist here. He does not have to do anything personally. In our own situation our interaction with others we can see someone is not as good as us. So, we are proud of that. If someone is equal to us then we are not so happy. And then when someone is better than us, we really don’t want to know about those people. That is the nature of the material world. How ever great we may be, we will find someone equal to or greater than us. It is normal in this material world. We cannot say we are always the best , eventually someone will be better than us. Example) In Olympics if someone is running fast, he is so proud . He thinks that he is the best. Then after 4 years someone else is running faster than him and he will be the best. So, these things keep happening. We have to accept the fact. So as far is Krishna is concerned , he is the Supreme personality of God head. The great sages and so many have accepted and concluded by their own research and experiment. Brihaspati tests Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and Lord Krishna and then comes to conclusion that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of God head. So, someone has done already the research so we don’t have to do any. Great personalities like Madhavaharya, Vyasa, Devala, Narada, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya,Sri VishvanathaChakravarty,SrilaBhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, Jiva Goswami, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu coming down from our Guruparampara Srila Prabupada has said that No one is greater than the Supreme personality of God head. It is not easy to understand Krishna but we have to accept it through our Acharaya’s who have realized that Supreme lord better than us. In Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, chapter 1, text one it is said that “muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ”. Even Vyasa Deva acknowledge and glorifies Krishna.
Even the greatest Demigods and sages are placed in to illusion by Krishna and hence they cannot understand Krishna. They don’t know how Krishna behaves, how he manifests etc. Here Gajendra says he is in ignorance. Why ? because he in an animal body, so how can he understand Krishna who is the Supreme Lord. But Still Gajendra prays, my Lord you are residing in my heart, please hear my plea and rescue me. This is why Srila Prabupada writes in BG 18.61
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
Translation: The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
The Lord is situated everywhere. All over the creation and same way he is situated in our heart. So, Krishna says to Arjuna I am in the heart and I am directing the wandering of all living entities. Our body is like a machine created by the material energy. We are siting in this material body and thinking this is who I am, I am so good, wonderful, this is my enemy, this is my friend falsely Identifying ourself with this material body but actually we are all Jivas sitting in a machine. For example) you are driving your car. Someone sees your car they can’t see clearly the person who is uniquely qualified sitting inside the car and driving on the road made by the government and the road can lead to some places. In the same way Lord is directing the wanderings of the living entity. According to living entity’s desires they are going on one way and the road is going in another way. So even though Lord is within our heart we look somewhere else, but we cannot make out the Lord is actually helping us in our aimless journey. Unless we are not in Krishna conscious, our life will have no aim and will be meaningless. So, we should aim to live our life in Krishna consciousness.
In general Lord is in our heart and he is silent as Paramatma. He is the witness to all our actions and he can provide for us to all our needs according to our desires and Karma but as Bhagavan Krishna has nothing to do with material universe or material things. He has no duties like us. He has so many different ways to interact with living entities with his energies. He has so much multi potencies which are all perfect and their strength, activity and their consciousness are directed by the will of the lord. But when we desire, we have to put some efforts to get some results and sometime we don’t get the expected results. Krishna potencies are different. Whatever he desires it manifest immediately. Actually, the entire material creation is manifested according to the will of the Lord for our purification. So called scientist or students of material nature cannot understand how it is happening. Krishna is here is known as na yasya , as an actor or a magician. When you do a drama, you disguise yourself by wearing costumes and make up so no one can recognize you. But Krishna is the best actor and the best magician. Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarty Thakur gives the best example of the story of a magician. He came to a king and said he can do the best magic and the king will be amazed by it. He took a jewel necklace of the King and made it disappear. Then he asks the King to bring gold coins, 7000 horses and made it to disappear. Then he made the King’s children, grandchildren and family members all disappear. Then he makes the brothers of the king fight and made them die in front of the king. Then they disappear and then the King hear the magician saying that he is sitting in the great hall, he is the representative of the Supreme Lord, he has studied the magic from Guru and also learned mystic yoga or meditation I don’t like these things happening in my life and want to give up my body now and right in front of the king he sits down, close his eyes and practice Yama , Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi and right in front of the King the fire comes out of his body and then his body turns in to ashes. All the wives of the magician jump in to fire and there was nothing, but only ashes. Then after 3 to 4 days the magician had already gone back to his province and he send his daughter back to the king to demand money from this and said that she has brought invisibly with her all the sons, grandsons, brother, all jewels and material things of the King. Suddenly the King sees all of them. We are like king . We are bewildered by the magic of Krishna and finding difficult to understand him. But actually, it is not difficulty to understand the Lord even though the laws of nature bewilder us only thing is we have to serve Krishna then he will reveal to us. Even when we see when Krishna left this world people think that Krishna is dead, he is an ordinary person, but Krishna is a transcendental person and his death is also an illusion. Only Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and other Demigods could see Krishna going back to his eternal abode once his past times are done in this material world.
The material energy which we find in this material world is Krishna’s energy which is trying to make us understand to know Krishna better. As long as we refuse to understand Krishna this energy will cover our intelligence and our consciousness. As soon as we approach Krishna the material energy will allow us to connect with Krishna. This material energy is required in this material world otherwise how can the nature itself, transpire as well as manifest properly. Example) Without any energy working how could the roses in our garden bloom beautifully. So, some energy is working and that energy is Krishna’s energy which works subtly and swiftly which we cannot see . One day you see a rose bud, then within no time it turns in to full bloom rose. Scientist may prove experimentally how it is working. But actually, material energy is working automatically and there is someone behind it. Srila Prabupada says that there is a brain for everything what is happening. Things does not happen on its own. Another Example is of a painting. When we see a beautiful painting, any intelligent person know that it did not manifest on its own. There is an artist who is behind it, who mixed the correct color combinations, the brush strokes etc. to capture the beauty of the nature or anything. Same way so many forces are acting on the plants on cellular level, all the way up to the gravitational force. It needs the sunlight so many things, so many energies of the Lord are acting on the rose plant mentioned above. We should not think automatically rose is coming. Krishna is behind it, who is greatest artist. When Scientist who are ordinary people with some brain can do something then think of the ability of Krishna and his intelligence to create this material world, and all the creations and sustaining it and all other planets as well. Another example is in electronic age, we press the button of a machine and it starts it is working, especially when we are travelling in an Airplane, we can see that Pilot puts the plane in autopilot mode and moves around his cabin and then the plane travels in the sky. If a person can invent these things then just think then how intelligent Krishna is. Srila Prabupada gives another example of a Banyan tree. It produces thousands of seeds but from one seed itself an entire Banyan tree can be created . That is the amazing technology of Krishna which the scientist cannot do.
In Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila, there is a conversation between Gopinath Acharya who is the devotee of the Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, a Mayavadi, who does not believe in Supreme Personality of God head . The Mayavadis who follow the path of knowledge deny the eternal spiritual character of the Lord’s essence, name, form, qualities and pastimes. They believe that these are a product of the illusory energy and they study some evidence and come in to a conclusion. Gopinath Acharya was saying to him that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Lord, the Acharya’s have understood the Supreme Personality of God head and that is the proof and we have to accept that . By mere reading and hypothesis won’t do good. But Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya does some logical hypothesis. We cannot know the Lord by any logical hypothesis and argument and then come to a conclusion because the Supreme Lord cannot be understood by the people who do not accept him. In BG 7.25 Krishna says
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ‘yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam
Translation:I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-māyā]; and so, the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.
In Mahabharata time when Krishan was present no one could understand Krishna. They were covered by the spiritual internal potency of Krishna. Kunti Devi says in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.19:
māyā-javanikācchannam ajñādhokṣajam avyayam
nalakṣyasemūḍha–dṛśānaṭo nāṭyadharo yathā
Translation: Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, you are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized.
So, we cannot understand Krishna due to deluding energy and our senses are limited. The foolish person cannot see Krishna due to this. One can understand Krishna only by his mercy only not by guess work or by any hypothesis because Krishna is Adhoksaja, meaning beyond material conception and our senses are imperfect and therefore using anumana or understanding with our senses we cannot know Krishna. But the goal of the person is to understand who he is , why he is in this situation in this material world , how the universe is created , then we can come to an understanding. We should ask and enquire to know Krishna who is the Absolute truth, from whom everything is manifested.
We are amazed by NASA who send spaceship but they don’t know the position of God. Srila Prabupada says we should compare the small spaceship to millions and trillions of planets and stars. One tiny planet earth has so many oceans, sky scrapers and mountains and when we go to the space and look at our planet earth, it is another small spot. And you see in the sky millions of planets floating. We give so much importance to scientist who creates the small spaceship but how much credit we should give to the person who created the entire cosmos. When we think like that, we can appreciate Krishna better. In that way we become thankful to Krishna.
In Brahma Samhita it is said that Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane. This shows how cosmos manifested from him, from him come all these limitless universes. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Here we cannot even finish studying about our nearest planet moon, then how are we going to study about other millions of planets. From the effulgence of Brahman, from the Lord himself all these things are manifested it is amazing. By being submissive and appreciating the things what Krishna can do then we can understand the position of Krishna.
In the 60’s and 70’s lots of theories came with the explanations of how the universe began like the Big bang theory, Big bounce theory, no boundary theory by Stephen Hawking, then the string theory and the latest was the conspiracy theory by David Vaughan Icke’s in his book The Biggest secret. But the real answer of the creation of Universe lay in the Second Canto and Third Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. If you read how Brahma when he was created, he gets empowerment from Narayana or Garbhodhakaśāyī Vishnu and goes to the lotus flower and then he expands the lotus flower stem in to different dimensions, upper planetary, lower planetary and in to the far place of universe. When scientist is calculating they see the small portion. Brahma creates and Lord Rudra annihilates and the scientist never understand how and why this is happening. We don need all these formulas and don’t need to crack our head because Lord Brahma had a vision and he could do the creation. But still people are willing to listen to conspiracy stories and explanations of various Scientists, but not willing to listen to Krishna. Up to 17 million in America believe in conspiracy theories and the Scientists are formulating different theories to understand Krishna’s different material energies. Every time they come with one formula; they find some missing. All this material nature is made possible by Krishna’s bodily effulgence Brahma Jyothi. Therefore, the Jnanis try to understand Krishna by mental speculation. By dint of tiny brain power but at most they can approach the Brahman Jyoti, the illumination of Krishna’s body. But they cannot really understand that this Brahman is coming from Krishna.
It is said in Chaitanya Caritamrta
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī-‘aśānta’
kṛṣṇa-bhakta-niṣkāma, ataeva śānta
Those who are after material things are all asanta because they are all disturbed. One has to be Niskama meaning with no personnel desires. A Devotee has no personnel desire so he is peaceful in his life. He knows Krishna created all this. Those who have developed love for God are enjoying transcendental pleasure by seeing the artistic work of Krishna everywhere and that should be our position. This is Krishna Conscious. We see everywhere Krishna, everything we relate to Krishna then our mind is always connected to Krishna and we become also liberated by this consciousness. Anyone who by his actions, by mind and words live for loving service of Krishna is certainly liberated. Our day-to-day activities should be connected to Krishna . Srila Prabupada says seeing Krishna everywhere is not difficult. Example by drinking water, seeing sun one can be easily remined of Krishna. In fact, Krishna says in BG 7.8, O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man. Krishna is the source of strength to all living entities too. When we honor prasadam, we are actually tasting what Krishna has tasted this is kind of training of our mind. Thinking like that we become a good devotee.
So always we remember Krishna and never forget Krishna, read Bhagavad Gita we find all the information to become conscious of Krishna. If you can’t read daily just chant his Holy name. That way we are always engage in Krishna Conscious. And Krishna desire is that we all should come back to him and be with him in his eternal abode . So that should be our only motive. Even though we have our own priorities and responsibilities to do in this material world still we should find time to read our scriptures, chant holy name of Krishna and that way we can go back to Krishna.
na yasya devā ṛṣayaḥ padaṁ vidurjantuḥ punaḥ ko ’rhati gantum īritumyathā naṭasyākṛtibhir viceṣṭatoduratyayānukramaṇaḥ sa māvatu
Synonyms
na — neither; yasya — He of whom; devāḥ — the demigods; ṛṣayaḥ — great sages; padam — position; viduḥ — can understand; jantuḥ — unintelligent living beings like animals; punaḥ — again; kaḥ — who; arhati — is able; gantum — to enter into the knowledge; īritum — or to express by words; yathā — as; naṭasya — of the artist; ākṛtibhiḥ — by bodily features; viceṣṭataḥ — dancing in different ways; duratyaya — very difficult; anukramaṇaḥ — His movements; saḥ — that Supreme Personality of Godhead; mā — unto me; avatu — may give His protection.
Translation
An artist onstage, being covered by attractive dresses and dancing with different movements, is not understood by his audience; similarly, the activities and features of the supreme artist cannot be understood even by the demigods or great sages, and certainly not by those who are unintelligent like animals. Neither the demigods and sages nor the unintelligent can understand the features of the Lord, nor can they express in words His actual position. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead give me protection.
Sirla Prabhupada says that as far as devotee is concerned everyday is New year because Krishna is performing Nitya Lila. All his past times are going on either in this universe, or some other universe or all the universe. Example it is like sun rising at a fixed time in one place and also rising at the same time in a different place. As the planet rotates rising and setting of sun happens. Same way Krishna’s past times are always going on so Krishna is eternally situated.
In this verse Gajendra knows that there is a Supreme Person and is praying to the Supreme Lord Krishna. He is saying that even though those who are qualified in terms of their knowledge and abilities like the Sages, Demigods still they have difficulties in understanding Vedas. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is described in the Vedic literatures as follows:
na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyatena tat-samas cabhyadhikas ca drsyate
No body can be found greater than Supreme Personality of God head or equal to him. Krishna is the greatest artist here. He does not have to do anything personally. In our own situation our interaction with others we can see someone is not as good as us. So, we are proud of that. If someone is equal to us then we are not so happy. And then when someone is better than us, we really don’t want to know about those people. That is the nature of the material world. How ever great we may be, we will find someone equal to or greater than us. It is normal in this material world. We cannot say we are always the best , eventually someone will be better than us. Example) In Olympics if someone is running fast, he is so proud . He thinks that he is the best. Then after 4 years someone else is running faster than him and he will be the best. So, these things keep happening. We have to accept the fact. So as far is Krishna is concerned , he is the Supreme personality of God head. The great sages and so many have accepted and concluded by their own research and experiment. Brihaspati tests Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and Lord Krishna and then comes to conclusion that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of God head. So, someone has done already the research so we don’t have to do any. Great personalities like Madhavaharya, Vyasa, Devala, Narada, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya,Sri VishvanathaChakravarty,SrilaBhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, Jiva Goswami, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu coming down from our Guruparampara Srila Prabupada has said that No one is greater than the Supreme personality of God head. It is not easy to understand Krishna but we have to accept it through our Acharaya’s who have realized that Supreme lord better than us. In Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, chapter 1, text one it is said that “muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ”. Even Vyasa Deva acknowledge and glorifies Krishna.
Even the greatest Demigods and sages are placed in to illusion by Krishna and hence they cannot understand Krishna. They don’t know how Krishna behaves, how he manifests etc. Here Gajendra says he is in ignorance. Why ? because he in an animal body, so how can he understand Krishna who is the Supreme Lord. But Still Gajendra prays, my Lord you are residing in my heart, please hear my plea and rescue me. This is why Srila Prabupada writes in BG 18.61
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
Translation: The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
The Lord is situated everywhere. All over the creation and same way he is situated in our heart. So, Krishna says to Arjuna I am in the heart and I am directing the wandering of all living entities. Our body is like a machine created by the material energy. We are siting in this material body and thinking this is who I am, I am so good, wonderful, this is my enemy, this is my friend falsely Identifying ourself with this material body but actually we are all Jivas sitting in a machine. For example) you are driving your car. Someone sees your car they can’t see clearly the person who is uniquely qualified sitting inside the car and driving on the road made by the government and the road can lead to some places. In the same way Lord is directing the wanderings of the living entity. According to living entity’s desires they are going on one way and the road is going in another way. So even though Lord is within our heart we look somewhere else, but we cannot make out the Lord is actually helping us in our aimless journey. Unless we are not in Krishna conscious, our life will have no aim and will be meaningless. So, we should aim to live our life in Krishna consciousness.
In general Lord is in our heart and he is silent as Paramatma. He is the witness to all our actions and he can provide for us to all our needs according to our desires and Karma but as Bhagavan Krishna has nothing to do with material universe or material things. He has no duties like us. He has so many different ways to interact with living entities with his energies. He has so much multi potencies which are all perfect and their strength, activity and their consciousness are directed by the will of the lord. But when we desire, we have to put some efforts to get some results and sometime we don’t get the expected results. Krishna potencies are different. Whatever he desires it manifest immediately. Actually, the entire material creation is manifested according to the will of the Lord for our purification. So called scientist or students of material nature cannot understand how it is happening. Krishna is here is known as na yasya , as an actor or a magician. When you do a drama, you disguise yourself by wearing costumes and make up so no one can recognize you. But Krishna is the best actor and the best magician. Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarty Thakur gives the best example of the story of a magician. He came to a king and said he can do the best magic and the king will be amazed by it. He took a jewel necklace of the King and made it disappear. Then he asks the King to bring gold coins, 7000 horses and made it to disappear. Then he made the King’s children, grandchildren and family members all disappear. Then he makes the brothers of the king fight and made them die in front of the king. Then they disappear and then the King hear the magician saying that he is sitting in the great hall, he is the representative of the Supreme Lord, he has studied the magic from Guru and also learned mystic yoga or meditation I don’t like these things happening in my life and want to give up my body now and right in front of the king he sits down, close his eyes and practice Yama , Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi and right in front of the King the fire comes out of his body and then his body turns in to ashes. All the wives of the magician jump in to fire and there was nothing, but only ashes. Then after 3 to 4 days the magician had already gone back to his province and he send his daughter back to the king to demand money from this and said that she has brought invisibly with her all the sons, grandsons, brother, all jewels and material things of the King. Suddenly the King sees all of them. We are like king . We are bewildered by the magic of Krishna and finding difficult to understand him. But actually, it is not difficulty to understand the Lord even though the laws of nature bewilder us only thing is we have to serve Krishna then he will reveal to us. Even when we see when Krishna left this world people think that Krishna is dead, he is an ordinary person, but Krishna is a transcendental person and his death is also an illusion. Only Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and other Demigods could see Krishna going back to his eternal abode once his past times are done in this material world.
The material energy which we find in this material world is Krishna’s energy which is trying to make us understand to know Krishna better. As long as we refuse to understand Krishna this energy will cover our intelligence and our consciousness. As soon as we approach Krishna the material energy will allow us to connect with Krishna. This material energy is required in this material world otherwise how can the nature itself, transpire as well as manifest properly. Example) Without any energy working how could the roses in our garden bloom beautifully. So, some energy is working and that energy is Krishna’s energy which works subtly and swiftly which we cannot see . One day you see a rose bud, then within no time it turns in to full bloom rose. Scientist may prove experimentally how it is working. But actually, material energy is working automatically and there is someone behind it. Srila Prabupada says that there is a brain for everything what is happening. Things does not happen on its own. Another Example is of a painting. When we see a beautiful painting, any intelligent person know that it did not manifest on its own. There is an artist who is behind it, who mixed the correct color combinations, the brush strokes etc. to capture the beauty of the nature or anything. Same way so many forces are acting on the plants on cellular level, all the way up to the gravitational force. It needs the sunlight so many things, so many energies of the Lord are acting on the rose plant mentioned above. We should not think automatically rose is coming. Krishna is behind it, who is greatest artist. When Scientist who are ordinary people with some brain can do something then think of the ability of Krishna and his intelligence to create this material world, and all the creations and sustaining it and all other planets as well. Another example is in electronic age, we press the button of a machine and it starts it is working, especially when we are travelling in an Airplane, we can see that Pilot puts the plane in autopilot mode and moves around his cabin and then the plane travels in the sky. If a person can invent these things then just think then how intelligent Krishna is. Srila Prabupada gives another example of a Banyan tree. It produces thousands of seeds but from one seed itself an entire Banyan tree can be created . That is the amazing technology of Krishna which the scientist cannot do.
In Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila, there is a conversation between Gopinath Acharya who is the devotee of the Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, a Mayavadi, who does not believe in Supreme Personality of God head . The Mayavadis who follow the path of knowledge deny the eternal spiritual character of the Lord’s essence, name, form, qualities and pastimes. They believe that these are a product of the illusory energy and they study some evidence and come in to a conclusion. Gopinath Acharya was saying to him that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Lord, the Acharya’s have understood the Supreme Personality of God head and that is the proof and we have to accept that . By mere reading and hypothesis won’t do good. But Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya does some logical hypothesis. We cannot know the Lord by any logical hypothesis and argument and then come to a conclusion because the Supreme Lord cannot be understood by the people who do not accept him. In BG 7.25 Krishna says
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ‘yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam
Translation:I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-māyā]; and so, the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.
In Mahabharata time when Krishan was present no one could understand Krishna. They were covered by the spiritual internal potency of Krishna. Kunti Devi says in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.19:
māyā-javanikācchannam ajñādhokṣajam avyayam
nalakṣyasemūḍha–dṛśānaṭo nāṭyadharo yathā
Translation: Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, you are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized.
So, we cannot understand Krishna due to deluding energy and our senses are limited. The foolish person cannot see Krishna due to this. One can understand Krishna only by his mercy only not by guess work or by any hypothesis because Krishna is Adhoksaja, meaning beyond material conception and our senses are imperfect and therefore using anumana or understanding with our senses we cannot know Krishna. But the goal of the person is to understand who he is , why he is in this situation in this material world , how the universe is created , then we can come to an understanding. We should ask and enquire to know Krishna who is the Absolute truth, from whom everything is manifested.
We are amazed by NASA who send spaceship but they don’t know the position of God. Srila Prabupada says we should compare the small spaceship to millions and trillions of planets and stars. One tiny planet earth has so many oceans, sky scrapers and mountains and when we go to the space and look at our planet earth, it is another small spot. And you see in the sky millions of planets floating. We give so much importance to scientist who creates the small spaceship but how much credit we should give to the person who created the entire cosmos. When we think like that, we can appreciate Krishna better. In that way we become thankful to Krishna.
In Brahma Samhita it is said that Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane. This shows how cosmos manifested from him, from him come all these limitless universes. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Here we cannot even finish studying about our nearest planet moon, then how are we going to study about other millions of planets. From the effulgence of Brahman, from the Lord himself all these things are manifested it is amazing. By being submissive and appreciating the things what Krishna can do then we can understand the position of Krishna.
In the 60’s and 70’s lots of theories came with the explanations of how the universe began like the Big bang theory, Big bounce theory, no boundary theory by Stephen Hawking, then the string theory and the latest was the conspiracy theory by David Vaughan Icke’s in his book The Biggest secret. But the real answer of the creation of Universe lay in the Second Canto and Third Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. If you read how Brahma when he was created, he gets empowerment from Narayana or Garbhodhakaśāyī Vishnu and goes to the lotus flower and then he expands the lotus flower stem in to different dimensions, upper planetary, lower planetary and in to the far place of universe. When scientist is calculating they see the small portion. Brahma creates and Lord Rudra annihilates and the scientist never understand how and why this is happening. We don need all these formulas and don’t need to crack our head because Lord Brahma had a vision and he could do the creation. But still people are willing to listen to conspiracy stories and explanations of various Scientists, but not willing to listen to Krishna. Up to 17 million in America believe in conspiracy theories and the Scientists are formulating different theories to understand Krishna’s different material energies. Every time they come with one formula; they find some missing. All this material nature is made possible by Krishna’s bodily effulgence Brahma Jyothi. Therefore, the Jnanis try to understand Krishna by mental speculation. By dint of tiny brain power but at most they can approach the Brahman Jyoti, the illumination of Krishna’s body. But they cannot really understand that this Brahman is coming from Krishna.
It is said in Chaitanya Caritamrta
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī-‘aśānta’
kṛṣṇa-bhakta-niṣkāma, ataeva śānta
Those who are after material things are all asanta because they are all disturbed. One has to be Niskama meaning with no personnel desires. A Devotee has no personnel desire so he is peaceful in his life. He knows Krishna created all this. Those who have developed love for God are enjoying transcendental pleasure by seeing the artistic work of Krishna everywhere and that should be our position. This is Krishna Conscious. We see everywhere Krishna, everything we relate to Krishna then our mind is always connected to Krishna and we become also liberated by this consciousness. Anyone who by his actions, by mind and words live for loving service of Krishna is certainly liberated. Our day-to-day activities should be connected to Krishna . Srila Prabupada says seeing Krishna everywhere is not difficult. Example by drinking water, seeing sun one can be easily remined of Krishna. In fact, Krishna says in BG 7.8, O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man. Krishna is the source of strength to all living entities too. When we honor prasadam, we are actually tasting what Krishna has tasted this is kind of training of our mind. Thinking like that we become a good devotee.
So always we remember Krishna and never forget Krishna, read Bhagavad Gita we find all the information to become conscious of Krishna. If you can’t read daily just chant his Holy name. That way we are always engage in Krishna Conscious. And Krishna desire is that we all should come back to him and be with him in his eternal abode . So that should be our only motive. Even though we have our own priorities and responsibilities to do in this material world still we should find time to read our scriptures, chant holy name of Krishna and that way we can go back to Krishna.