Hari hari biphale janama goṅāinu, manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā, jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. This is Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's song. Anyone who is not trying to understand Kṛṣṇa... Not even trying, what to speak of worshiping Him, giving Him service... And Kṛṣṇa says simply by trying to know Him, one becomes liberated. Simply by trying, not perfectly. Even imperfectly. Because he is endeavoring to understand Kṛṣṇa, that very activity will make him liberated. That very activity. It is not possible to understand Kṛṣṇa. He is so great, unlimited. How we can understand Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa cannot understand Himself. Or Ananta cannot understand. So... Actually, that is the fact. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. But still, whatever Kṛṣṇa says about Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā, if we accept so much, then we immediately become fit for going back to Godhead, back to home. Simply. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Tattvataḥ. Tattvataḥ means in truth. The tattvataḥ cannot understand.
Tattvatah means
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So it is very difficult. Nobody can understand Kṛṣṇa without becoming a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yas cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). Tattvataḥ, in truth. Tattvataḥ means truth. If one wants to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is, then he has to take this process of devotional service, bhakta, bhakti. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). When one is employed as the servitor of Hṛṣīkeśa, the master of senses. Master, and hṛsīkeṇa, when your senses are also engaged in the service of the master of the senses, then you also become master of the senses. You also. Because your senses are engaged in the service of the Hṛṣīkeśa, the senses have no other opportunity to be engaged. Locked up. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). So this is the process of devotional service. If you want to become master of the senses, gosvāmī, svāmī, then you should always keep your senses engaged in the service of Hṛṣīkeśa. That is the only way. Otherwise it is not possible. As soon as you become a little slack to engage your senses in the service of the master of the senses, immediately māyā is there, "Come on, please." This is the process. Kṛṣṇa bhuliyā jīva bhoga vāñchā kare, pāsate māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare. As soon as you forget Kṛṣṇa, even for a moment, immediately māyā is there: "Please, my dear friend, come here." Therefore we have to become very cautious. We cannot forget Kṛṣṇa even for a moment. Therefore the chanting program, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma... Always remember Kṛṣṇa. Then māyā will not be able to touch you. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etān taranti. Māyā cannot touch. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He was engaged in the service of Hṛṣīkeśa. Māyā came in full-fledged strength. Still, she was defeated; Haridāsa Ṭhākura was not defeated.
In another place, janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Tato māṁ jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). This word tattvataḥ is very important. Tattvataḥ means the absolute truth. Truth. Tattva—means truth. In the Bhāgavata also, we'll find vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). Tattva-vidaḥ. Those who are aware of the truth, they call this tattva. What is that tattva? Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). That tattva is called sometimes Brahman, sometimes Paramātmā, and sometimes Bhagavān. The Bhagavān is the last word of tattva. Therefore, you'll find in every stanza, Vyāsadeva is writing, but he's writing śrī bhagavān uvāca. Don't think... Vyāsadeva says, that "Although I am writing, I am not the speaker. The speaker is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Śrī bhagavān uvāca. "The authority is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not I." The modern so-called philosophers, scientists, scholars, they say, "I think. I think." What is your value? The great personalities, they will not say like that. Never they will say. Therefore Kṛṣṇa even says, tattva-darśibhiḥ: "It has been concluded by higher authorities."
It is said, "My dear Lord, one who is Your devotee," athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi, "one who is Your devotee, one who has got Your mercy by worshiping Your lotus feet, he can understand. Others, they may go on speculating for many millions of years, still it is not possible to know God." And in the Bhagavad-gītā also Kṛṣṇa said that "Because you are My devotee, therefore I am revealing unto you My nature." Therefore conclusion is that you have to become devotee, then you can understand what is God. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). "One can understand Me by devotion," bhaktyā. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). Tattvataḥ means in truth. You can imagine something of God, but that is not truth. Just like, for example, somebody very big, very rich. So you can imagine this man is so big, so big merchant, he has got so much money. Imagination, by discussion amongst your friends, but that is not perfect knowledge. But somehow or other, if you make friendship with that big man, and if he tells you that "My position is like this," then you understand very easily. You cannot speculate. By speculating, you cannot understand God. That is not possible. He's so great, our speculating power is very poor.
Tattvataḥ means truth. That is very difficult. Kṛṣṇa says, out of many millions of persons, one tries to become siddha. Siddha means perfect. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. When one knows that "I am not this material body, I am spirit soul, I am eternal servant of God, Kṛṣṇa," that is perfection. So this, for this perfection, out of many millions of persons, one becomes perfect. One who knows.
Now, people will be surprised, "How Kṛṣṇa's activities are transcendental? He's taking part with Arjuna. He's taking part in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Oh, He's born of a father whose name is Vasudeva. And He has got a family. And so on, so on. So just like us." But He says it is transcendental. Transcendental. And again He says, divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ. Tattvataḥ means "in truth." Simply by knowing, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is born here at Mathurā, and He was brought up by His foster father at Vṛndāvana. Then, when He was grown up, He went back to His father at Dvārakā. And when He was old, He married so many wives and He had children, and there was a battle of Kurukṣetra, and He took part." These things are there in the history or in the scriptures, but one has to understand this tattvataḥ, tattvataḥ, in truth.
Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa never says that "By mental speculation or yogic mystic practice, one can understand the Supreme Lord." Never says that. It is clearly said that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). Tattvataḥ means in truth. To understand Kṛṣṇa in truth, that requires bhakti or bhakti-yoga, not the jñāna-yoga or karma-yoga, haṭha-yoga or any other yoga system. By other yoga system like jñāna-yoga or karma-yoga, haṭha-yoga, you can understand Kṛṣṇa partially. As I have explained, that somebody is seeing the mountain as hazy cloud and somebody is seeing as greenish something, and somebody is seeing actually the mountain with all varieties, so without bhakti-yoga realization of the Absolute Truth, it is partial.
Bhakti, devotional service. That devotional service, if you accept, you can understand that difficult subject matter of Kṛṣṇa very easily. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. Abhijānāti means perfectly you can understand. Yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. Tattvataḥ means the Absolute Truth as it is, you can understand. And tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā, and after understanding the Kṛṣṇa science very perfectly, he becomes eligible to enter into that spiritual kingdom. These things are stated.
Tattvataḥ means truth. Simply superficially to know Kṛṣṇa... Just like in the English dictionary it is said, "Kṛṣṇa..." Kṛṣṇa is mentioned in the dictionary: "a Hindu god." So what does he know about Kṛṣṇa? "Hindu god." There are Hindu gods, many. According to our Hindu conception, there are thirty-three crores of demigods, chief of which is Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Lord Viṣṇu, Sūrya and Gaṇapati. Chiefly they worship. In the Hindu world, they worship... Somebody worship Viṣṇu, somebody worship Śiva, somebody worship Brahmā, somebody worship the sun. Just like the Parsis, they worship the sun. I think I am right. So they also can be concluded as Hindus, and actually, they came from Persia. When there was Muhammadan disturbance, they fled from their country and came to India. That is the history. So these five gods are especially recommended and worshiped. So Kṛṣṇa is considered in the Viṣṇu category; therefore in the English dictionary it is said as "one of the gods." They're under the conception, foreigners, that "Hindus, they have got many gods." But actually, that is not fact. There are... Many gods means... Just like "god-ly," because they are servants of Kṛṣṇa. Just like in royal palace, even the servants are dressed with royal garments. Similarly, the chief servants of Kṛṣṇa, like Indra, Candra... Sūrya is also servant. Candra, that is also servant. Indra is also servant.
Tattvataḥ means truth. You can understand that "Kṛṣṇa was an India in...," He was born like that. Just like Arjuna also said, aparaṁ bhavato janma paraṁ janma vivasvataḥ, katham etad vijānīyām. So he also... Arjuna understood Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna was devotee of Kṛṣṇa. But to clear the idea of Kṛṣṇa, as the rascals take, he asked this question, aparaṁ bhavato janma, that "Your birth is just recently, say a hundred years ago, but the sun planet? Millions, millions of years. How can I believe that you spoke this philosophy, or science, to the sun-god, Vivasvān?"
Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). It is transcendental, divine. Therefore there are so many śāstras to understand Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, if Kṛṣṇa is ordinary child, then why there are so many books? There is no need of so many books to understand Kṛṣṇa. Just to understand Him that He is not ordinary child; He is God Himself. Otherwise who is writing so many books for understanding a ordinary child? Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "If one understands Me," tattvataḥ—tattvataḥ means in fact, in truth—"then he becomes so qualified that after..." We have to give up this body, any circumstances. That's a fact. Then such person who has become fully aware of Kṛṣṇa, such person, tyaktvā deham, giving up this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), he does not take any more birth with another material body.
Brahmā is one of the demigods, Lord Śiva is one of the demigods, but Kṛṣṇa says, aham ādir hi devānāṁ maharṣinām ca sarvaśaḥ. So if we understand Kṛṣṇa—vasudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19), He is the origin of everything—that is all perfect knowledge. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. But such kind of mahātmā is rarely seen. Koṭiṣv apy mahāmune. Koṭiṣv apy mahāmune. Amongst the crores of men, you'll find one man may know Kṛṣṇa.
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
So if you try to understand Kṛṣṇa, tattvataḥ, in reality, that is perfection of life. That is perfection of life. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Simply to know, "Kṛṣṇa was born at Mathurā, He was the nephew of Kaṁsa and son of..." That is also nice. But you should try to understand tattvataḥ. That tattvataḥ means:
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
That is tattvataḥ, the cause of all causes. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Cause of all causes. Everything has got cause and effect, cause and effect. So Kṛṣṇa is the original cause.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Kṛṣṇa is ajita. Nobody can conquer Him. But such devotee who submits himself to hear from the realized soul, Kṛṣṇa becomes conquered by him. Vedeṣu durlābhaṁ adurlābhaṁ ātmā-bhaktau (Bs. 5.33). Therefore it is said, tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā paśanty ātmani cātmānam (SB 1.2.12). Ātmani, within his heart, he can see the Supreme Soul, Kṛṣṇa, ātmanaṁ bhaktyā. There is the real process, bhaktyā: by means of devotional service, not by speculation or mystic power. That is not possible. Therefore a special word is used there: bhaktyā. And in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa also says, "Not by yoga system or by jñāna system or by karma system, but bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55)." This tattvataḥ means the tattva-jñāna. Bhaktyā. And what kind of bhakti? Not that simply I sit I sit down and cry a little, I practice how to cry, sentiment. No. Śruta-gṛhītayā: understanding about the Absolute Truth from Vedic knowledge. That is bhakti. That is real bhakti. Sentiment is not bhakti—I stand and I practice how to cry: "Oh, this man cries always." No. Of course, crying is there, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to cry. But that stage is very, very high. It is not possible. You are crying, but next moment you are engaged in ordinary thing, that crying is artificial.
So one has to know Kṛṣṇa in tattvataḥ, as He is. So this tattvataḥ means accept the process of devotional service. Tattvataḥ, Kṛṣṇa as He is, cannot be understood by the other methods, namely by mental speculation or mystic yogic exercises. Kṛṣṇa cannot be understood in that way. If we want to understand Kṛṣṇa, then we have to accept the Kṛṣṇa method, bhakti method. That is plainly spoken by Kṛṣṇa: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa does not say that you can know Him by mental exercises or yogic practices. No. Yogi can know... Tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. Yogi also, by meditation, they see Kṛṣṇa. That is real yoga. As it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, the first-class yogi is he who always thinks of Kṛṣṇa within himself.
- janma karma me divyaṁ
- yo jānāti tattvataḥ
- tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
- naiti mām eti kaunteya
- (BG 4.9)
Anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa in truth... Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Tattvataḥ means in truth, not superficially. If you understand Kṛṣṇa in truth, as He is... And He is speaking Himself about Himself. There is no difficulty. If you simply accept Kṛṣṇa, what He says, if you follow, then you become perfect and you become fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. Thank you very much. (end)
That I have repeatedly explained in this meeting. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, how He appears, how He disappears, what is His constitutional position, what is my constitutional position, what is the relationship with Kṛṣṇa, how to live. Everything. Simply if you understand these things, Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ... Tattvataḥ means reality, scientifically. Not by whims or sentiments or fanaticism. No. Everything. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is everything scientific, solid scientific. It is not bogus. It is not imagination. So tattvataḥ. That is called tattvataḥ, in fact, in reality, in truth. If one understands Kṛṣṇa in truth, then the result is tyaktvā deham. By giving up this body... We have to give up this body, willingly or unwillingly. A day will come when you have to submit to the laws of nature and give up this body. Even your president, Mr. Kennedy, he was going in procession, but when nature's law demanded that "Now you submit your body here and change for another body," he had to. There was no question, "Oh, I am president, I am Mr. Kennedy, I cannot do this." No. You have to do it. Force. That you do not understand, how this nature's force is working on us.
| Page Title: | Tattvatah means |
| Compiler: | Jahnu |
| Created: | 26 of Jan, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=25, Con=1, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 26 |