BG 15.05 nirmana-moha jita-sanga-dosa... cited

Expressions researched:
"Those who are free from false prestige" |"adhyatma-nitya vinivrtta-kamah" |"dvandvair vimuktah sukha-duhkha-samjnair" |"gacchanty amudhah padam avyayam tat" |"nirmana-moha jita-sanga-dosa" |"who are done with material lust" |"who are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress"

BG Preface and Introduction

BG Introduction:

The Lord suggests that we attain the spiritual world in the following manner (BG 15.5):

nirmāna-mohā jita-saṅga-doṣā

adhyātma-nityā vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ

dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-saṁjñair

gacchanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat

That padam avyayam, or eternal kingdom, can be reached by one who is nirmāna-moha. What does this mean? We are after designations. Someone wants to become "sir," someone wants to become "lord," someone wants to become the president or a rich man or a king or something else. As long as we are attached to these designations, we are attached to the body, because designations belong to the body. But we are not these bodies, and realizing this is the first stage in spiritual realization. We are associated with the three modes of material nature, but we must become detached through devotional service to the Lord. If we are not attached to devotional service to the Lord, then we cannot become detached from the modes of material nature. Designations and attachments are due to our lust and desire, our wanting to lord it over the material nature. As long as we do not give up this propensity of lording it over material nature, there is no possibility of returning to the kingdom of the Supreme, the sanātana-dhāma. That eternal kingdom, which is never destroyed, can be approached by one who is not bewildered by the attractions of false material enjoyments, who is situated in the service of the Supreme Lord. One so situated can easily approach that supreme abode.

BG Chapters 13 - 18

BG 15.5, Translation and Purport:

Those who are free from false prestige, illusion and false association, who understand the eternal, who are done with material lust, who are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress, and who, unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person attain to that eternal kingdom.

The surrendering process is described here very nicely. The first qualification is that one should not be deluded by pride. Because the conditioned soul is puffed up, thinking himself the lord of material nature, it is very difficult for him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know by the cultivation of real knowledge that he is not lord of material nature; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord. When one is free from delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender. For one who is always expecting some honor in this material world, it is not possible to surrender to the Supreme Person. Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering the land, this earth, to belong to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world. When one is freed from such a false notion, he becomes free from all the false associations caused by familial, social and national affections. These faulty associations bind one to this material world. After this stage, one has to develop spiritual knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge of what is actually his own and what is actually not his own. And when one has an understanding of things as they are, he becomes free from all dual conceptions such as happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. He becomes full in knowledge; then it is possible for him to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.7.18, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.5-6), the paraṁ dhāma of the Lord is described as follows:

nirmāna-mohā jita-saṅga-doṣā

adhyātma-nityā vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ

dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-saṁjñair

gacchanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat

na tad bhāsayate sūryo

na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ

yad gatvā na nivartante

tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

One who possesses more in this material world, in the shape of houses, land, children, society, friendship and wealth, possesses these things only for the time being. One cannot possess all this illusory paraphernalia, created by māyā, permanently. Such a possessor is more illusioned in the matter of his self-realization; therefore one should possess less or nothing, so that one may be free from artificial prestige. We are contaminated in the material world by association with the three modes of material nature. Therefore, the more one spiritually advances by devotional service to the Lord, in exchange for his temporary possessions, the more one is freed from the attachment of material illusion. To achieve this stage of life one must be firmly convinced about spiritual existence and its permanent effects. To know exactly the permanency of spiritual existence, one must voluntarily practice possessing less or only the minimum to maintain one's material existence without difficulty. One should not create artificial needs.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

If we stand on the bank of a river or any reservoir of water, we can see that the tree on the bank of the reservoir of water is reflected in the water as trunk downwards and the root upwards. So this material world is practically a reflection of the spiritual world. Just like the reflection of the tree on the bank of a reservoir of water is seen downwards, similarly, this material world, it is called shadow. Shadow. As in the shadow there cannot be any reality, but at the same time, from the shadow we can understand that there is reality. The example of shadow in the, shadow of water in the desert, suggests that in the desert there is no water, but there is water. Similarly, in the reflection of the spiritual world, or in this material world, there is undoubtedly, there is no happiness, there is no water. But the real water, or the actual happiness, is in the spiritual world. The Lord suggests that one has to reach that spiritual world in the following manner, nirmāna-mohā.

nirmāna-mohā jita-saṅga-doṣā

adhyātma-nityā vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ

dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-saṁjñair

gacchanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat

(BG 15.5)

That padam avyayam, that eternal kingdom, can be reached by one who is nirmāna-mohā. Nirmāna-mohā. Nirmāna means we are after designations. Artificially we want some designations. Somebody wants to become sir, somebody wants to become lord, somebody wants to become the president, or somebody wants to become a rich man, somebody wants to become something else, king. All these designations, so long we'll have attachment for all these designations... Because after all these designations belong to the body, and we are not this body. This is the first conception of spiritual realization. So one has no attraction for designation. And jita-saṅga-doṣā, saṅga-doṣā. Now we are associated with the three modes of material qualities, and if we become detached by devotional service of the Lord... So long we are not attracted by devotional service of the Lord, we cannot be detached from the three modes of material nature. Therefore the Lord says, vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ, these designations or these attachments are due to our lust, desire. We want to lord it over the material nature. So, so long we do not give up this propensity of lording it over the material nature, up to that time there is no possibility of going back to the kingdom of the Supreme, the sanātana-dhāma. Dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-saṁjñair gacchanty amūḍhāḥ, amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat (BG 15.5). That eternal kingdom, which is never destructible like this material world, can be approached by amūḍhāḥ. Amūḍhāḥ means nonbewildered, one who is not bewildered by the attraction of this false enjoyment. And one is situated in the supreme service of the Lord, he is the right person to approach that eternal kingdom. And that eternal kingdom does not require any sun, any moon, or any electricity. That is a glimpse idea of approaching of the eternal kingdom.