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Miscreants do not surrender to Lord Krsna -- Bhagavad-Gita 7.15
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To: alt-hindu@cis.ohio-state.edu
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Subject: Miscreants do not surrender to Lord Krsna -- Bhagavad-Gita 7.15
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From: susarla@rice.edu (H. Krishna Susarla)
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Date: 20 Jan 1995 01:03:39 GMT
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From news@larry.rice.edu Thu Jan 19 19: 51:32 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
TEXT 15
na mam duskrtino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam asritah
na--not; mam--unto Me; duskrtinah--miscreants; mudhah--foolish;
prapadyante--surrender; nara-adhamah--lowest among mankind; mayaya--by
the illusory energy; apahrta--stolen; jnanah--whose knowledge;
asuram--demonic; bhavam--nature; asritah--accepting.
TRANSLATION
Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among
mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the
atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.
PURPORT
It is said in Bhagavad-gita that simply by surrendering oneself
unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality Krsna one can surmount
the stringent laws of material nature. At this point a question arises:
How is it that educated philosophers, scientists, businessmen,
administrators and all the leaders of ordinary men do not surrender to
the lotus feet of Sri Krsna, the all-powerful Personality of Godhead?
Mukti, or liberation from the laws of material nature, is sought by the
leaders of mankind in different ways and with great plans and
perseverance for a great many years and births. But if that liberation
is possible by simply surrendering unto the lotus feet of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, then why don't these intelligent and
hard-working leaders adopt this simple method?
The Gita answers this question very frankly. Those really learned
leaders of society like Brahma, Siva, Kapila, the Kumaras, Manu, Vyasa,
Devala, Asita, Janaka, Prahlada, Bali, and later on Madhvacarya,
Ramanujacarya, Sri Caitanya and many others--who are faithful
philosophers, politicians, educators, scientists, etc.--surrender to
the lotus feet of the Supreme Person, the all-powerful authority. Those
who are not actually philosophers, scientists, educators,
administrators, etc., but who pose themselves as such for material
gain, do not accept the plan or path of the Supreme Lord. They have no
idea of God; they simply manufacture their own worldly plans and
consequently complicate the problems of material existence in their
vain attempts to solve them. Because material energy (nature) is so
powerful, it can resist the unauthorized plans of the atheists and
baffle the knowledge of ``planning commissions.''
The atheistic planmakers are described herein by the word
duskrtinah, or ``miscreants.'' Krti means one who has performed
meritorious work. The atheist planmaker is sometimes very intelligent
and meritorious also, because any gigantic plan, good or bad, must take
intelligence to execute. But because the atheist's brain is improperly
utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the atheistic
planmaker is called duskrti. which indicates that his intelligence and
efforts are misdirected.
In the Gita it is clearly mentioned that material energy works
fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent
authority. It works as the shadow moves, in accordance with the
movements of the object. But still material energy is very powerful,
and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it
works; nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion and
the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as in
the case of Hiranyakasipu and Ravana, whose plans were smashed to dust
although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers,
administrators and educators. These duskrtinas, or miscreants, are of
four different patterns, as outlined below.
(1) The mudhas are those who are grossly foolish, like hardworking
beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by
themselves, and so do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The
typical example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is
made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for
whom he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling
his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of
being beaten by his master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk
of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry
and philosophy sometimes, but this braying sound only disturbs others.
This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does not know
for whom he should work. He does not know that karma (action) is meant
for yajna (sacrifice).
Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the
burden of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the
immortality of the living being. To such mudhas, material gains, which
are destructible, are life's all in all--despite the fact that the
mudhas enjoy only a very small fraction of the fruit of labor.
Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and
although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with
practically no food; they are simply absorbed in working hard day and
night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real
master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon.
Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all
masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources.
The swine who eat the night soil do not care to accept sweetmeats made
of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly
continue to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering
mundane world, but will have very little time to hear about the eternal
living force that moves the material world.
(2) Another class of duskrti, or miscreant, is called the
naradhama, or the lowest of mankind. Nara means human being, and adhama
means the lowest. Out of the 8,400,000 different species of living
beings, there are 400,000 human species. Out of these there are
numerous lower forms of human life that are mostly uncivilized. The
civilized human beings are those who have regulative principles of
social, political and religious life. Those who are socially and
politically developed but who have no religious principles must be
considered naradhamas. Nor is religion without God religion, because
the purpose of following religious principles is to know the Supreme
Truth and man's relation with Him. In the Gita the Personality of
Godhead clearly states that there is no authority above Him and that He
is the Supreme Truth. The civilized form of human life is meant for
man's reviving the lost consciousness of his eternal relation with the
Supreme Truth, the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, who is
all-powerful. Whoever loses this chance is classified as a naradhama.
We get information from revealed scriptures that when the baby is in
the mother's womb (an extremely uncomfortable situation) he prays to
God for deliverance and promises to worship Him alone as soon as he
gets out. To pray to God when he is in difficulty is a natural instinct
in every living being because he is eternally related with God. But
after his deliverance, the child forgets the difficulties of birth and
forgets his deliverer also, being influenced by maya, the illusory
energy.
It is the duty of the guardians of children to revive the divine
consciousness dormant in them. The ten processes of reformatory
ceremonies, as enjoined in the Manu-smrti. which is the guide to
religious principles, are meant for reviving God consciousness in the
system of varnasrama. However, no process is strictly followed now in
any part of the world, and therefore 99.9 percent of the population is
naradhama.
When the whole population becomes naradhama. naturally all their
so-called education is made null and void by the all-powerful energy of
physical nature. According to the standard of the Gita, a learned man
is he who sees on equal terms the learned brahmana. the dog. the cow,
the elephant and the dog-eater. That is the vision of a true devotee.
Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who is the incarnation of Godhead as divine
master, delivered the typical naradhamas. the brothers Jagai and
Madhai, and showed how the mercy of a real devotee is bestowed upon the
lowest of mankind. So the naradhama who is condemned by the Personality
of Godhead can again revive his spiritual consciousness only by the
mercy of a devotee.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in propagating the bhagavata-dharma, or
activities of the devotees, has recommended that people submissively
hear the message of the Personality of Godhead. The essence of this
message is Bhagavad-gita. The lowest amongst human beings can be
delivered by this submissive hearing process only, but unfortunately
they even refuse to give an aural reception to these messages, and what
to speak of surrendering to the will of the Supreme Lord? Naradhamas,
or the lowest of mankind, will fully neglect the prime duty of the
human being.
(3) The next class of duskrti is called mayayapahrta-jnanah, or
those persons whose erudite knowledge has been nullified by the
influence of illusory material energy. They are mostly very learned
fellows--great philosophers, poets, literati, scientists, etc.--but the
illusory energy misguides them, and therefore they disobey the Supreme
Lord.
There are a great number of mayayapahrta-jnanah at the present
moment, even amongst the scholars of the Bhagavad-gita. In the Gita, in
plain and simple language, it is stated that Sri Krsna is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. There is none equal to or greater than Him. He
is mentioned as the father of Brahma, the original father of all human
beings. In fact, Sri Krsna is said to be not only the father of Brahma
but also the father of all species of life. He is the root of the
impersonal Brahman and Paramatma; the Supersoul in every entity is His
plenary portion. He is the fountainhead of everything, and everyone is
advised to surrender unto His lotus feet. Despite all these clear
statements, the mayayapahrta-jnanah deride the personality of the
Supreme Lord and consider Him merely another human being. They do not
know that the blessed form of human life is designed after the eternal
and transcendental feature of the Supreme Lord.
All the unauthorized interpretations of the Gita by the class of
mayayapahrta-jnanah, outside the purview of the parampara system, are
so many stumbling blocks on the path of spiritual understanding. The
deluded interpreters do not surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Krsna,
nor do they teach others to follow this principle.
(4) The last class of duskrti is called asuram bhavam asritah, or
those of demonic principles. This class is openly atheistic. Some of
them argue that the Supreme Lord can never descend upon this material
world, but they are unable to give any tangible reasons as to why not.
There are others who make Him subordinate to the impersonal feature,
although the opposite is declared in the Gita. Envious of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the atheist will present a number of illicit
incarnations manufactured in the factory of his brain. Such persons,
whose very principle of life is to decry the Personality of Godhead,
cannot surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Krsna.
Sri Yamunacarya Albandaru of South India said, ``O my Lord! You
are unknowable to persons involved with atheistic principles, despite
Your uncommon qualities, features and activities, despite Your
personality's being confirmed by all the revealed scriptures in the
quality of goodness, and despite Your being acknowledged by the famous
authorities renowned for their depth of knowledge in the transcendental
science and situated in the godly qualities.''
Therefore, (1) grossly foolish persons, (2) the lowest of mankind,
(3) the deluded speculators, and (4) the professed atheists, as above
mentioned, never surrender unto the lotus feet of the Personality of
Godhead in spite of all scriptural and authoritative advice.
Books of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
