Pradyumna: Translation: "Thus during two seasons, the rainy season and autumn, I had the opportunity to hear these great-souled sages constantly chant the unadulterated glories of the Lord Hari. As my devotional service began, the coverings of the modes of passion and ignorance vanished."
Prabhupāda:
- itthaṁ śarat-prāvṛṣikāv ṛtū harer
- viśṛṇvato me 'nusavaṁ yaśo 'malam
- saṅkīrtyamānaṁ munibhir mahātmabhir
- bhaktiḥ pravṛttātma-rajas-tamopahā
- (SB 1.5.28)
Ātma-rajas-tamopahā. This is the perfection of life. We are now covered by the modes of material nature, tri-guṇamayī, three guṇas: sattva, rajas, tamas. So mukti means to get out of this entanglement of three guṇas. That is called mukti. We are suffering different modes of material nature. We have several times explained, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. There are different types of bodies. From specie point of view, there are 8,400,000 forms. And they are due to these material modes of nature. I have several times explained. There are three modes of material nature, and if you mix, three into three, it becomes nine, and nine into nine equal to eighty-one. So little more or less, there are 8,400,000 species of life. So in order to get out of this repetition of birth and death, we require to be freed from the influence of the modes of material nature. That is the perfection of life.
So here Nārada Muni says that "During the four months..." In India there are six seasons. There is summer season, and there is spring. There is autumn. Then there is winter, there is fall. In this way, there are six seasons. So the saintly persons, in the, during the autumn and rainy season, they keep together; they do not move. Because saintly persons, sannyāsīs, their business is to move... Gṛhiṇāṁ dīna-cetasām, mahad-vicalanam. Mahad-vicalanam. Mahat means mahātmā, great souls. Great soul means not crippled souls, those who are anxious to meet the great, or the Supreme Brahman, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are crippled souls, they are entangled with the limited circle of material enjoyment. But mahātmā... Mahātmā is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Mahātmās are not interested within this material world. They are not under the influence of the external energy. Of course, nowadays it is... Sometimes politicians are called "mahātmā." But that is not the purpose of mahātmā. Mahātmā is not interested with politics or sociology or... They are all material things. Or philanthropy. They are interested with the Supreme: Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). They're interested. Especially mahātmā is he who is interested with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.