Confirmation (SB cantos 1 - 3)

Expressions researched:
"confirm" |"confirmation" |"confirmations" |"confirmatory" |"confirmed" |"confirming" |"confirms"

SB Preface and Introduction

SB Introduction:

The Supreme Person, or parameśvara, is the supreme conscious personality, and because He does not derive any power from any other source, He is supremely independent. In the Vedic literatures Brahmā is described as the supreme god or the head of all other gods like Indra, Candra and Varuṇa, but the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam confirms that even Brahmā is not independent as far as his power and knowledge are concerned. He received knowledge in the form of the Vedas from the Supreme Person who resides within the heart of every living being.

SB Introduction:

The simultaneous occurrence of the Lord's appearance and the lunar eclipse indicated the distinctive mission of the Lord. This mission was to preach the importance of chanting the holy names of the Lord in this age of Kali (quarrel). In this present age quarrels take place even over trifles, and therefore the śāstras have recommended for this age a common platform for realization, namely chanting the holy names of the Lord. People can hold meetings to glorify the Lord in their respective languages and with melodious songs, and if such performances are executed in an offenseless manner, it is certain that the participants will gradually attain spiritual perfection without having to undergo more rigorous methods. At such meetings everyone, the learned and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the Hindus and the Muslims, the Englishmen and the Indians, and the caṇḍālas and the brāhmaṇas, can all hear the transcendental sounds and thus cleanse the dust of material association from the mirror of the heart. To confirm the Lord's mission, all the people of the world will accept the holy name of the Lord as the common platform for the universal religion of mankind. In other words, the advent of the holy name took place along with the advent of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

SB Canto 1

SB 1.1.1, Purport:

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has even more explicitly explained the subject matter in his Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha. And Brahmā, the original living being, has explained the subject of Śrī Kṛṣṇa substantially in his treatise named Brahma-saṁhitā. In an Upaniṣad in the Sāma-veda, it is also stated that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the divine son of Devakī. Therefore, in this prayer, the first proposition holds that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Kṛṣṇa, which means the all-attractive. In Bhagavad-gītā, in many places, the Lord asserts Himself to be the original Personality of Godhead, and this is confirmed by Arjuna, who also cites great sages like Nārada, Vyāsa, and many others. In the Padma Purāṇa, it is also stated that out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Kṛṣṇa is the principal one. Although Vāsudeva indicates the plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead, and although all the different forms of the Lord, being identical with Vāsudeva, are thus indicated in this text, the name Vāsudeva particularly indicates Kṛṣṇa, the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is always meditated upon by the paramahaṁsas, who are the perfected ones among those in the renounced order of life.

SB 1.1.1, Purport:

In the śruti-mantra, it is also stated that the absolute whole or Brahman is the ultimate source of everything. Everything emanates from Him, and everything is maintained by Him. And at the end, everything enters into Him. That is the law of nature. In the smṛti-mantra, the same is confirmed. It is said there that the source from which everything emanates at the beginning of Brahmā's millennium and the reservoir to which everything ultimately enters, is the Absolute Truth or Brahman. Material scientists take it for granted that the ultimate source of the planetary system is the sun, but they are unable to explain the source of the sun. Herein, the ultimate source is explained. According to the Vedic literature, Brahmā is the creator of this universe. Yet he had to meditate to get inspiration for such creation. Therefore, neither Brahmā nor the sun is the ultimate creator. It is stated in this śloka that Brahmā was taught Vedic knowledge by the Personality of Godhead.

SB 1.1.1, Purport:

But ultimately, they were rendered helpless and could not save themselves when the Lord appeared before them as cruel death. This is also the case with the modern atheists who also dare to flout the authority of the Lord. Such atheists will be dealt with similarly, for history repeats itself. Whenever men neglect the authority of the Lord, nature and her laws are there to penalize them. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā in the well-known verse yadā yadā hi dharmasya glāniḥ. "Whenever there is a decline of dharma and a rise of adharma, O Arjuna, then I incarnate Myself." (BG 4.7)

That the Supreme Lord is all-perfect is confirmed in all śruti-mantras. It is said in the śruti-mantras that the all-perfect Lord threw a glance over matter and thus created all living beings. The living beings are parts and parcels of the Lord, and He impregnates the vast material creation with seeds of spiritual sparks, and thus the creative energies are set in motion to enact so many wonderful creations.

SB 1.1.1, Purport:

If a man could manufacture such a set of machines that could produce other machines without his attention, then he could approach the intelligence of God. But that is not possible, for each machine has to be handled individually. Therefore, no one can create as well as God. Another name for God is asamaurdhva, which means that no one is equal to or greater than Him. Paraṁ satyam, or the Supreme Truth, is He who has no equal or superior. This is confirmed in the śruti-mantras. It is said that before the creation of the material universe there existed the Lord only, who is master of everyone. That Lord instructed Brahmā in Vedic knowledge. That Lord has to be obeyed in all respects. Anyone who wants to get rid of the material entanglement must surrender unto Him. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā.

Unless one surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, it is certain that he will be bewildered. When an intelligent man surrenders unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and knows completely that Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, then only can such an intelligent man become a mahātmā, or great soul. But such a great soul is rarely seen. Only the mahātmās can understand that the Supreme Lord is the primeval cause of all creations. He is parama or ultimate truth because all other truths are relative to Him. He is omniscient. For Him, there is no illusion.

SB 1.2.13, Purport:

When the aim of life, i.e., realization of the Absolute Truth, is missed by too much attachment for indriya-prīti, or sense gratification, as already discussed hereinbefore, the institution of the varṇāśrama is utilized by selfish men to pose an artificial predominance over the weaker section. In the Kali-yuga, or in the age of quarrel, this artificial predominance is already current, but the saner section of the people know it well that the divisions of castes and orders of life are meant for smooth social intercourse and high-thinking self-realization and not for any other purpose.

Herein the statement of Bhāgavatam is that the highest aim of life or the highest perfection of the institution of the varṇāśrama-dharma is to cooperate jointly for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.13).

SB 1.2.16, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (Sixteenth Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is given in which it is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord's liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none of them falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures.

SB 1.2.20, Purport:

The very same thing is confirmed herein in the above words. No ordinary man, or even one who has attained success in human life, can know scientifically or perfectly the Personality of Godhead. Perfection of human life is attained when one can understand that he is not the product of matter but is in fact spirit. And as soon as one understands that he has nothing to do with matter, he at once ceases his material hankerings and becomes enlivened as a spiritual being. This attainment of success is possible when one is above the modes of passion and ignorance, or, in other words, when one is actually a brāhmaṇa by qualification. A brāhmaṇa is the symbol of sattva-guṇa, or the mode of goodness. And others, who are not in the mode of goodness, are either kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, śūdras or less than the śūdras.

SB 1.2.23, Purport:

That Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, by His plenary parts, should be rendered devotional service, as explained above, is confirmed by this statement. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and all His plenary parts are viṣṇu-tattva, or the Lordship of Godhead. From Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the next manifestation is Baladeva. From Baladeva is Saṅkarṣaṇa, from Saṅkarṣaṇa is Nārāyaṇa, from Nārāyaṇa there is the second Saṅkarṣaṇa, and from this Saṅkarṣaṇa the Viṣṇu puruṣa-avatāras. The Viṣṇu or the Deity of the quality of goodness in the material world is the puruṣa-avatāra known as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu or Paramātmā. Brahmā is the deity of rajas (passion), and Śiva of ignorance. They are the three departmental heads of the three qualities of this material world. The creation is made possible by Brahma's quality of passion and his endeavor, it is maintained by the goodness of Viṣṇu, and when it requires to be destroyed, Lord Śiva does it by the tāṇḍava-nṛtya. The materialists and the foolish human beings worship Brahmā and Śiva respectively.

SB 1.2.28-29, Purport:

That Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, is the only object of worship is confirmed in these two ślokas. In the Vedic literature there is the same objective: establishing one's relationship with Vasudeva, acting according to that relationship, and ultimately reviving our lost loving service unto Him. That is the sum and substance of the Vedas. In the Bhagavad-gītā the same theory is confirmed by the Lord in His own words: the ultimate purpose of the Vedas is to know Him only. All the revealed scriptures are prepared by the Lord through His incarnation in the body of Śrīla Vyāsadeva just to remind the fallen souls, conditioned by material nature, of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. No demigod can award freedom from material bondage. That is the verdict of all the Vedic literatures. Impersonalists who have no information of the Personality of Godhead minimize the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord and put Him on equal footing with all other living beings, and for this act such impersonalists get freedom from material bondage only with great difficulty. They can surrender unto Him only after many, many births in the culture of transcendental knowledge.

SB 1.3.1, Purport:

The Bhagavad-gītā states that the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa maintains these material universes by extending His plenary expansions. So this puruṣa form is the confirmation of the same principle. The original Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva, or Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is famous as the son of King Vasudeva or King Nanda, is full with all opulences, all potencies, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. Part of His opulences are manifested as impersonal Brahman, and part of His opulences are manifested as Paramātmā. This puruṣa feature of the same Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Paramātmā manifestation of the Lord. There are three puruṣa features who effect the material creation, and this form, who is known as the Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, is the first of the three. The others are known as the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, which we shall know one after another. The innumerable universes are generated from the skin holes of this Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and in each one of the universes the Lord enters as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.

SB 1.3.2, Purport:

Therefore, the conclusion is that the puruṣa-avatāra is manifested in three features—first the Kāraṇodakaśāyī who creates aggregate material ingredients in the mahat-tattva, second the Garbhodakaśāyī who enters in each and every universe, and third the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu who is the Paramātmā of every material object, organic or inorganic. One who knows these plenary features of the Personality of Godhead knows Godhead properly, and thus the knower becomes freed from the material conditions of birth, death, old age and disease, as it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā.

SB 1.3.4, Purport:

With our present materialized senses we cannot perceive anything of the transcendental Lord. Our present senses are to be rectified by the process of devotional service, and then the Lord Himself becomes revealed to us. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is confirmed that the transcendental Lord can be perceived only by pure devotional service. So it is confirmed in the Vedas that only devotional service can lead one to the side of the Lord and that only devotional service can reveal Him. In the Brahma-saṁhitā also it is said that the Lord is always visible to the devotees whose eyes have been anointed with the tinge of devotional service. So we have to take information of the transcendental form of the Lord from persons who have actually seen Him with perfect eyes smeared with devotional service. In the material world also we do not always see things with our own eyes; we sometimes see through the experience of those who have actually seen or done things. If that is the process for experiencing a mundane object, it is more perfectly applicable in matters transcendental. So only with patience and perseverance can we realize the transcendental subject matter regarding the Absolute Truth and His different forms. He is formless to the neophytes, but He is in transcendental form to the expert servitor.

SB 1.3.28, Purport:

So all the different indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls. His pastimes with the gopīs are all displays of transcendental existence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopīs should never be misunderstood. The Bhāgavatam relates these transcendental pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to understand the transcendental nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastimes with the gopīs, the Bhāgavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī's statement, in accordance with authoritative sources, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of all other incarnations. It is not that Lord Kṛṣṇa has any source of incarnation. All the symptoms of the Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth greater than or equal to Himself. In this stanza the word svayam is particularly mentioned to confirm that Lord Kṛṣṇa has no other source than Himself.

SB 1.3.31, Purport:

It is further confirmed herein that with our material eyes and senses we cannot see the Lord, who is all spirit. We cannot even detect the spiritual spark which exists within the material body of the living being. We look to the outward covering of the body or subtle mind of the living being, but we cannot see the spiritual spark within the body. So we have to accept the living being's presence by the presence of his gross body. Similarly, those who want to see the Lord with their present material eyes or with the material senses are advised to meditate on the gigantic external feature called the virāṭ-rūpa. For instance, when a particular gentleman goes in his car, which can be seen very easily, we identify the car with the man within the car. When the President goes out in his particular car, we say, "There is the President." For the time being we identify the car with the President. Similarly, less intelligent men who want to see God immediately without necessary qualification are shown first the gigantic material cosmos as the form of the Lord, although the Lord is within and without. The clouds in the sky and the blue of the sky are better appreciated in this connection. Although the bluish tint of the sky and the sky itself are different, we conceive of the color of the sky as blue. But that is a general conception for the laymen only.

SB 1.5.1, Purport:

Nārada was smiling because he well knew the great sage Vedavyāsa and the cause of his disappointment. As he will explain gradually, Vyāsadeva's disappointment was due to insufficiency in presenting the science of devotional service. Nārada knew the defect, and it was confirmed by the position of Vyāsa.

SB 1.5.12, Purport:

When speculation on the impersonal Brahman is condemned on the above ground, then what to speak of ordinary fruitive work, which is not meant to fulfill the aim of devotional service. Such speculative knowledge and fruitive work cannot lead one to the goal of perfection. Fruitive work, in which almost all people in general are engaged, is always painful either in the beginning or at the end. It can be fruitful only when made subservient to the devotional service of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is confirmed that the result of such fruitive work may be offered for the service of the Lord, otherwise it leads to material bondage. The bona fide enjoyer of the fruitive work is the Personality of Godhead, and thus when it is engaged for the sense gratification of the living beings, it becomes an acute source of trouble.

SB 1.5.35, Purport:

He desires that all of them come to Him and live with Him, but going back to Godhead means that one must purify himself from material infections. When work is performed, therefore, to satisfy the Lord, the performer becomes gradually purified from the material affection. This purification means attainment of spiritual knowledge. Therefore knowledge is dependent on karma, or work, done on behalf of the Lord. Other knowledge, being devoid of bhakti-yoga or satisfaction of the Lord, cannot lead one back to the kingdom of God, which means that it cannot even offer salvation, as already explained in connection with the stanza naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitam (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.12). The conclusion is that a devotee engaged in the unalloyed service of the Lord, specifically in hearing and chanting of His transcendental glories, becomes simultaneously spiritually enlightened by the divine grace, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

SB 1.6.32, Purport:

The musical stringed instrument called the vīṇā, which was handed to Nārada by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is described in the Liṅga Purāṇa, and this is confirmed by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. This transcendental instrument is identical with Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Nārada because all of them are of the same transcendental category. Sound vibrated by the instrument cannot be material, and therefore the glories and pastimes which are broadcast by the instrument of Nārada are also transcendental, without a tinge of material inebriety. The seven singing meters, namely ṣa (ṣaḍja), ṛ (ṛṣabha), gā (gāndhāra), ma (madhyama), pa (pañcama), dha (dhaivata) and ni (niṣāda), are also transcendental and specifically meant for transcendental songs. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Śrī Nāradadeva is always fulfilling his obligation to the Lord for His gift of the instrument, and thus he is always engaged in singing His transcendental glories and is therefore infallible in his exalted position. Following in the footsteps of Śrīla Nārada Muni, a self-realized soul in the material world also properly uses the sound meters, namely ṣa, ṛ, gā, mā, etc., in the service of the Lord by constantly singing His glories. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.14), the mahātmās, or great souls, have no business in life except singing the transcendental glories of the Lord, following in the footsteps of Śrīla Nārada-deva.

SB 1.7.4, Purport:

Perfect vision of the Absolute Truth is possible only by the linking process of devotional service. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. One can perfectly realize the Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead only by the process of devotional service, and one can enter into the kingdom of God by such perfect knowledge. Imperfect realization of the Absolute by the partial approach of the impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā does not permit anyone to enter into the kingdom of God. Śrī Nārada advised Śrīla Vyāsadeva to become absorbed in transcendental meditation on the Personality of Godhead and His activities. Śrīla Vyāsadeva did not take notice of the effulgence of Brahman because that is not absolute vision. The absolute vision is the Personality of Godhead, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19): vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti. In the Upaniṣads also it is confirmed that Vāsudeva, the Personality of Godhead, is covered by the golden glowing hiraṇmayena pātreṇa veil of impersonal Brahman, and when that curtain is removed by the mercy of the Lord the real face of the Absolute is seen. The Absolute is mentioned here as the puruṣa, or person. The Absolute Personality of Godhead is mentioned in so many Vedic literatures, and in the Bhagavad-gītā, the puruṣa is confirmed as the eternal and original person.

SB 1.7.5, Purport:

The living being is by constitution transcendental to material encagement, but he is now imprisoned by the external energy, and therefore he thinks himself one of the material products. And due to this unholy contact, the pure spiritual entity suffers material miseries under the modes of material nature. The living entity misunderstands himself to be a material product. This means that the present perverted way of thinking, feeling and willing, under material conditions, is not natural for him. But he has his normal way of thinking, feeling and willing. The living being in his original state is not without thinking, willing and feeling power. It is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that the actual knowledge of the conditioned soul is now covered by nescience. Thus the theory that a living being is absolute impersonal Brahman is refuted herein. This cannot be, because the living entity has his own way of thinking in his original unconditional state also. The present conditional state is due to the influence of the external energy, which means that the illusory energy takes the initiative while the Supreme Lord is aloof.

SB 1.7.5, Purport:

Personal superintendence of the illusory energy is confirmed in the Vedas (the Kena Upaniṣad) in relation to the demigods' controlling power. Herein also it is clearly stated that the living entity is controlled by the external energy in a personal capacity. The living being thus subject to the control of external energy is differently situated. It is clear, however, from the present statement of Bhāgavatam that the same external energy is situated in the inferior position before the Personality of Godhead, or the perfect being. The perfect being, or the Lord, cannot be approached even by the illusory energy, who can only work on the living entities. Therefore it is sheer imagination that the Supreme Lord is illusioned by the illusory energy and thus becomes a living being. If the living being and the Lord were in the same category, then it would have been quite possible for Vyāsadeva to see it, and there would have been no question of material distress on the part of the illusioned being, for the Supreme Being is fully cognizant.

SB 1.7.7, Purport:

There are various senses, of which the ear is the most effective. This sense works even when a man is deep asleep. One can protect himself from the hands of an enemy while awake, but while asleep one is protected by the ear only. The importance of hearing is mentioned here in connection with attaining the highest perfection of life, namely, getting free from three material pangs. Everyone is full of lamentation at every moment, he is after the mirage of illusory things, and he is always afraid of his supposed enemy. These are the primary symptoms of material disease. And it is definitely suggested herein that simply by hearing the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam one gets attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and as soon as this is effected the symptoms of the material diseases disappear. Śrīla Vyāsadeva saw the all-perfect Personality of Godhead, and in this statement it is clearly confirmed that the all-perfect Personality of Godhead is Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

SB 1.7.32, Purport:

The theory that the modern atomic bomb explosions can annihilate the world is childish imagination. First of all, the atomic energy is not powerful enough to destroy the world. And secondly, ultimately it all rests on the supreme will of the Supreme Lord because without His will or sanction nothing can be built up or destroyed. It is foolish also to think that natural laws are ultimately powerful. Material nature's law works under the direction of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says there that natural laws work under His supervision. The world can be destroyed only by the will of the Lord and not by the whims of tiny politicians. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa desired that the weapons released by both Drauṇi and Arjuna be withdrawn, and it was carried out by Arjuna at once. Similarly, there are many agents of the all-powerful Lord, and by His will only can one execute what He desires.

SB 1.7.33, Purport:

Aśvatthāmā's mother, Kṛpī, was born in the family of Gautama. The significant point in this śloka is that Aśvatthāmā was caught and bound up with ropes like an animal. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Arjuna was obliged to catch this son of a brāhmaṇa like an animal as a part of his duty (dharma). This suggestion by Śrīdhara Svāmī is also confirmed in the later statement of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Aśvatthāmā was a bona fide son of Droṇācārya and Kṛpī, but because he had degraded himself to a lower status of life, it was proper to treat him as an animal and not as a brāhmaṇa.

SB 1.8.19, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa affirms that less intelligent persons mistake Him to be an ordinary man like us, and thus they deride Him. The same is confirmed herein by Queen Kuntī. The less intelligent persons are those who rebel against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as asuras. The asuras cannot recognize the Lord's authority. When the Lord Himself appears amongst us, as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha or in His original form as Kṛṣṇa, He performs many wonderful acts which are humanly impossible. As we shall find in the Tenth Canto of this great literature, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa exhibited His humanly impossible activities even from the days of His lying on the lap of His mother. He killed the Pūtanā witch, although she smeared her breast with poison just to kill the Lord.

SB 1.8.21, Purport:

There is no parallel to His childhood pastimes as exhibited at Vrajabhūmi, which are replicas of His eternal affairs in the original Kṛṣṇaloka, described as the cintāmaṇi-dhāma in the Brahma-saṁhitā (Bs. 5.29). Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa descended Himself at Vrajabhūmi with all His transcendental entourage and paraphernalia. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore confirmed that no one is as fortunate as the residents of Vrajabhūmi, and specifically the cowherd girls, who dedicated their everything for the satisfaction of the Lord. His pastimes with Nanda and Yaśodā and His pastimes with the cowherd men and especially with the cowherd boys and the cows have caused Him to be known as Govinda. Lord Kṛṣṇa as Govinda is more inclined to the brāhmaṇas and the cows, indicating thereby that human prosperity depends more on these two items, namely brahminical culture and cow protection. Lord Kṛṣṇa is never satisfied where these are lacking.

SB 1.9.18, Purport:

The Vedic system of acquiring knowledge is the deductive process. The Vedic knowledge is received perfectly by disciplic succession from authorities. Such knowledge is never dogmatic, as ill conceived by less intelligent persons. The mother is the authority to verify the identity of the father. She is the authority for such confidential knowledge. Therefore, authority is not dogmatic. In the Bhagavad-gītā this truth is confirmed in the Fourth Chapter (BG 4.2), and the perfect system of learning is to receive it from authority. The very same system is accepted universally as truth, but only the false arguer speaks against it. For example, modern spacecraft fly in the sky, and when scientists say that they travel to the other side of the moon, men believe these stories blindly because they have accepted the modern scientists as authorities. The authorities speak, and the people in general believe them. But in the case of Vedic truths, they have been taught not to believe. Even if they accept them they give a different interpretation. Each and every man wants a direct perception of Vedic knowledge; otherwise, they foolishly refuse to accept it. This means that the misguided man can believe one authority, the scientist, but will reject the authority of the Vedas. The result is that people have degenerated.

SB 1.9.18, Purport:

Bhīṣmadeva is one of the twelve mahājanas who know the principles of transcendental knowledge. His confirmation of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa's being the original Personality of Godhead is also corroborated by the impersonalist Śaṅkara. All other ācāryas have also confirmed this statement, and thus there is no chance of not accepting Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the original Personality of Godhead. Bhīṣmadeva says that He is the first Nārāyaṇa. This is also confirmed by Brahmājī in the Bhāgavatam (10.14.14). Kṛṣṇa is the first Nārāyaṇa. In the spiritual world (Vaikuṇṭha) there are unlimited numbers of Nārāyaṇas, who are all the same Personality of Godhead and are considered to be the plenary expansions of the original Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The first form of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa first expands Himself as the form of Baladeva, and Baladeva expands in so many other forms, such as Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa, Puruṣa, Rāma and Nṛsiṁha. All these expansions are one and the same viṣṇu-tattva, and Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original source of all the plenary expansions. He is therefore the direct Personality of Godhead.

SB 1.9.32, Purport:

Now, in order to achieve pure devotional service, he wanted to invest all powers of thinking, feeling and willing entirely in the Supreme Being, Lord Kṛṣṇa. He is described herein as the leader of the devotees and all-powerful. Although Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, He Himself descends on earth to bestow upon His pure devotees the boon of devotional service. He descends sometimes as Lord Kṛṣṇa as He is, and sometimes as Lord Caitanya. Both are leaders of the pure devotees. Pure devotees of the Lord have no desire other than the service of the Lord, and therefore they are called sātvata. The Lord is the chief amongst such sātvatas. Bhīṣmadeva, therefore, had no other desires. Unless one is purified from all sorts of material desires, the Lord does not become one's leader. Desires cannot be wiped out, but they have only to be purified. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā by the Lord Himself that He gives His instruction from within the heart of a pure devotee who is constantly engaged in the service of the Lord. Such instruction is given not for any material purpose but only for going back home, back to Godhead (BG 10.10). For the ordinary man who wants to lord it over material nature, the Lord not only sanctions and becomes a witness of activities, but He never gives the nondevotee instructions for going back to Godhead.

SB 1.9.39, Purport:

The material forms of the conditioned souls are all foreign dresses, and when the conditioned soul becomes liberated from the clutches of material energy, he attains his original form. The impersonalist wants to attain the impersonal Brahman effulgence of the Lord, but that is not at all congenial to the living sparks, parts and parcels of the Lord. Therefore, the impersonalists again fall down and get material forms, which are all false to the spirit soul. A spiritual form like the Lord's, either two-handed or four-handed, is attained by the devotees of the Lord either in the Vaikuṇṭhas or in the Goloka planet, according to the original nature of the soul. This form, which is cent percent spiritual, is the svarūpa of the living being, and all the living beings who participated on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, on both sides, attained their svarūpa, as confirmed by Bhīṣmadeva. So Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was not merciful only to the Pāṇḍavas; He was also merciful to the other parties because all of them attained the same result. Bhīṣmadeva wanted the same facility also, and that was his prayer to the Lord, although his position as an associate of the Lord is assured in all circumstances. The conclusion is that whoever dies looking on the Personality of Godhead within or without attains his svarūpa, which is the highest perfection of life.

SB 1.9.42, Purport:

It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā that the brahma-jyotir is His personal glow. Therefore, there is no difference between Him and His personal glow, brahma-jyotir, or His plenary portions as Paramātmā. Less intelligent persons who are not aware of this fact consider brahma-jyotir and Paramātmā to be different from Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This misconception of duality is completely removed from the mind of Bhīṣmadeva, and he is now satisfied that it is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa only who is all in all in everything. This enlightenment is attained by the great mahātmās or devotees, as it is stated in Bhagavad-gītā (7.19) that Vāsudeva is all in all in everything and that there is no existence of anything without Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva, or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the original Supreme Person, as now confirmed by Bhīṣmadeva. Since Bhīṣmadeva is one of the twelve mahājanas, or great authorities, both the neophytes and the pure devotees must try to follow in his footsteps. That is the way of the devotional line.

SB 1.9.47, Purport:

The devotees of the Lord are always in the heart of the Lord, and the Lord is always in the hearts of the devotees. That is the sweet relation between the Lord and His devotees. Due to unalloyed love and devotion for the Lord, the devotees always see Him within themselves, and the Lord also, although He has nothing to do and nothing to aspire to, is always busy in attending to the welfare of His devotees. For the ordinary living beings the law of nature is there for all actions and reactions, but He is always anxious to put His devotees on the right path. The devotees, therefore, are under the direct care of the Lord. And the Lord also voluntarily puts Himself under the care of His devotees only. So all the sages, headed by Vyāsadeva, were devotees of the Lord, and therefore they chanted the Vedic hymns after the funeral ceremony just to please the Lord, who was present there personally. All the Vedic hymns are chanted to please Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15). All the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Vedānta, etc., are seeking Him only, and all hymns are for glorifying Him only. The sages, therefore, performed the exact acts suitable for the purpose, and they happily departed for their respective hermitages.

SB 1.9.49, Translation:

After this, the great religious King, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, executed the royal power in the kingdom strictly according to the codes of royal principles approved by his uncle and confirmed by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

SB 1.9.49, Purport:

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira followed these principles strictly, as will be seen from the next chapter. Not only did he follow the principles, but he also got approval from his old uncle, who was experienced in political affairs, and that was also confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa, the speaker of the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā.

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is the ideal monarch, and monarchy under a trained king like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is by far the most superior form of government, superior to modern republics or governments of the people, by the people. The mass of people, especially in this age of Kali, are all born śūdras, basically lowborn, ill-trained, unfortunate and badly associated. They themselves do not know the highest perfectional aim of life. Therefore, votes cast by them actually have no value, and thus persons elected by such irresponsible votes cannot be responsible representatives like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira.

SB 1.10.21, Purport:

The merging of the living beings into the body of Mahā-viṣṇu takes place automatically at the end of Brahmā's one hundred years. But that does not mean that the individual living being loses his identity. The identity is there, and as soon as there is another creation by the supreme will of the Lord, all the sleeping, inactive living beings are again let loose to begin their activities in the continuation of past different spheres of life. It is called suptotthita naya, or awakening from sleep and again engaging in one's respective continuous duty. When a man is asleep at night, he forgets himself, what he is, what his duty is and everything of his waking state. But as soon as he awakens from slumber, he remembers all that he has to do and thus engages himself again in his prescribed activities. The living beings also remain merged in the body of Mahā-viṣṇu during the period of annihilation, but as soon as there is another creation they arise to take up their unfinished work. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.18-20).

SB 1.10.22, Purport:

The nitya-muktas are eternally liberated souls, and they are eternally engaged in the reciprocation of transcendental loving service with the Lord in His eternal abode beyond the manifested mundane creations. But the nitya-baddha, or eternally conditioned souls, are entrusted to His external energy, māyā, for rectification of their rebellious attitude toward the Supreme Father. Nitya-baddhas are eternally forgetful of their relation with the Lord as parts and parcels. They are bewildered by the illusory energy as products of matter, and thus they are very busy in making plans in the material world for becoming happy. They go on merrily with plans, but by the will of the Lord both the planmakers and the plans are annihilated at the end of a certain period, as above mentioned. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā as follows: "O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium all the living entities merge into My nature, and again when the time of creation is ripe, I begin creation by the agency of My external energy."

SB 1.10.24, Purport:

As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, all the Vedic literatures are glorifying the greatness of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Here it is confirmed in the Bhāgavatam also. The Vedas are expanded by many branches and subbranches by great devotees and empowered incarnations of the Lord like Vyāsa, Nārada, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the Kumāras, Kapila, Prahlāda, Janaka, Bali and Yamarāja, but in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam especially, the confidential parts of His activities are described by the confidential devotee Śukadeva Gosvāmī. In the Vedānta-sūtras or Upaniṣads there is only a hint of the confidential parts of His pastimes. In such Vedic literatures as the Upaniṣads, the Lord has expressively been distinguished from the mundane conception of His existence. His identity being fully spiritual, His form, name, quality, and paraphernalia, etc., have been elaborately distinguished from matter, and therefore He is sometimes misunderstood by less intelligent persons as impersonal. But factually He is the Supreme Person, Bhagavān, and He is partially represented as Paramātmā or impersonal Brahman.

SB 1.10.25, Purport:

Such kings have full responsibility and knowledge from authorities about the administration of the world. But at times, due to the influence of the ignorance mode of material nature (tamo-guṇa), the lowest of the material modes, kings and administrators come into power without knowledge and responsibility, and such foolish administrators live like animals for the sake of their own personal interest. The result is that the whole atmosphere becomes surcharged with anarchy and vicious elements. Nepotism, bribery, cheating, aggression and, therefore, famine, epidemic, war and similar other disturbing features become prominent in human society. And the devotees of the Lord or the faithful are persecuted by all means. All these symptoms indicate the time of an incarnation of the Lord to reestablish the principles of religion and to vanquish the maladministrators. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

SB 1.10.27, Purport:

Three places, namely Vṛndāvana, Mathurā and Dvārakā, are more important than the famous planets within the universe. These places are perpetually sanctified because whenever the Lord descends on earth He displays His transcendental activities particularly in these three places. They are perpetually the holy lands of the Lord, and the inhabitants still take advantage of the holy places, even though the Lord is now out of their sight. The Lord is the soul of all living beings, and He desires always to have all the living beings, in their svarūpa, in their constitutional position, to participate in transcendental life in His association. His attractive features and sweet smiles go deep into the heart of everyone, and once it is so done the living being is admitted into the kingdom of God, from which no one returns. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

SB 1.11.6, Purport:

The Supreme Lord is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, Brahma-saṁhitā and other authorized Vedic literatures. No one is equal to or greater than Him, and that is the verdict of all scriptures. The influence of time and space is exerted upon the dependent living entities, who are all parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The living entities are predominated Brahman, whereas the Supreme Lord is the predominating Absolute. As soon as we forget this clear fact, we are at once in illusion, and thus we are put into threefold miseries, as one is put into dense darkness. The clear consciousness of the cognizant living being is God consciousness, in which one bows down unto Him in all circumstances.

SB 1.11.31, Purport:

As mentioned above, the Lord entered His home palaces occupied by 16,108 queens. This means that the Lord at once expanded Himself in as many plenary expansions as there were queens and palaces and entered in each and every one of them simultaneously and separately. Here is another manifestation of the feature of His internal potency. He can expand Himself in as many forms of spiritual identity as He desires, even though He is one without a second. It is confirmed by the Śruti-mantra that the Absolute is one alone, and yet He becomes many as soon as He so desires. These manifold expansions of the Supreme Lord are manifested as plenary and separated portions. The separated portions are representations of His energy, and the plenary portions are manifestations of His Personality. Thus the Personality of Godhead manifested Himself in 16,108 plenary expansions and simultaneously entered into each and every one of the palaces of the queens.

SB 1.11.37, Purport:

The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original primeval Personality of Godhead, and when He was personally present before the eyes of everyone, He displayed full-fledged divine potency in every field of activities. As we have already explained in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, He is completely independent to act however He likes, but all His actions are full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. Only the foolish mundaners misunderstand Him, unaware of His eternal form of knowledge and bliss, which is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā and Upaniṣads. His different potencies work in a perfect plan of natural sequence, and doing everything by the agency of His different potencies, He remains eternally the supreme independent. When He descends on the material world by His causeless mercy to different living beings, He does so by His own potency. He is not subject to any condition of the material modes of nature, and He descends as He is originally.

SB 1.11.38, Purport:

In the Vedas and Vedic literatures (śruti and smṛti) it is affirmed that in the Divinity there is no influence of the material modes. He is simply the transcendental (nirguṇa) witness, the supreme cognizant. Hari, or the Personality of Godhead, is the supreme transcendental person situated beyond the range of material affection. These statements are also confirmed even by Ācārya Śaṅkara. One may argue that His relation with the goddesses of fortune may be transcendental, but what about His relation with the Yadu dynasty, being born in that family, or His killing the nonbelievers like Jarāsandha and other asuras directly in contact with the modes of material nature. The answer is that the divinity of the Personality of Godhead is never in contact with the qualities of material nature in any circumstances. Actually He is in contact with such qualities because He is the ultimate source of everything, yet He is above the actions of such qualities. He is known, therefore, as Yogeśvara, or the master of mystic power, or in other words the all-powerful.

SB 1.12.4, Purport:

As mentioned in our introduction, "There is a need for the science of Kṛṣṇa in human society for all the suffering humanity of the world, and we simply request the leading personalities of all nations to take to the science of Kṛṣṇa for their own good, for the good of society, and for the good of all the people of the world." So it is confirmed herein by the example of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the personality of goodness. In India the people hanker after Rāma-rājya because the Personality of Godhead was the ideal king and all other kings or emperors in India controlled the destiny of the world for the prosperity of every living being who took birth on the earth. Herein the word prajāḥ is significant. The etymological import of the word is "that which is born." On the earth there are many species of life, from the aquatics up to the perfect human beings, and all are known as prajās. Lord Brahmā, the creator of this particular universe, is known as the prajāpati because he is the grandfather of all who have taken birth.

SB 1.12.12, Purport:

Astronomical calculations of stellar influences upon a living being are not suppositions, but are factual, as confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Every living being is controlled by the laws of nature at every minute, just as a citizen is controlled by the influence of the state. The state laws are grossly observed, but the laws of material nature, being subtle to our gross understanding, cannot be experienced grossly. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (3.9), every action of life produces another reaction, which is binding upon us, and only those who are acting on behalf of Yajña (Viṣṇu) are not bound by reactions. Our actions are judged by the higher authorities, the agents of the Lord, and thus we are awarded bodies according to our activities. The law of nature is so subtle that every part of our body is influenced by the respective stars, and a living being obtains his working body to fulfill his terms of imprisonment by the manipulation of such astronomical influence.

SB 1.12.17, Purport:

The Lord gives protection to all living beings because He is their supreme leader. The Vedic hymns confirm that the Lord is the Supreme Person amongst all personalities. The difference between the two living beings is that the one, the Personality of Godhead, provides for all other living beings, and only by knowing Him can one achieve eternal peace (Kaṭha Upaniṣad). Such protection is given by His different potencies to different grades of living beings. But as far as His unalloyed devotees are concerned, He gives the protection personally. Therefore, Mahārāja Parīkṣit is protected from the very beginning of his appearance in the womb of his mother. And because he is especially given protection by the Lord, the indication must be concluded that the child would be a first-grade devotee of the Lord with all good qualities. There are three grades of devotees, namely the mahā-bhāgavata, madhyam-adhikārī and the kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.

SB 1.12.20, Purport:

Mahārāja Śibi was aware of the heavenly planet where he was to be transferred after his death, and the description of this heavenly planet is given in the Mahābhārata (Ādi-parva 96.6-9). Mahārāja Śibi was so charitably disposed that he wanted to give over his acquired position in the heavenly kingdom to Yayāti, but he did not accept it. Yayāti went to the heavenly planet along with great ṛṣis like Aṣṭaka and others. On inquiry from the ṛṣis, Yayāti gave an account of Śibi's pious acts when all of them were on the path to heaven. He has become a member of the assembly of Yamarāja, who has become his worshipful deity. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, the worshiper of the demigods goes to the planets of the demigods (yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25)); so Mahārāja Śibi has become an associate of the great Vaiṣṇava authority Yamarāja on that particular planet. While he was on the earth he became very famous as a protector of surrendered souls and a donor of charities. The King of heaven once took the shape of a pigeon-hunter bird (eagle), and Agni, the fire-god, took the shape of a pigeon. The pigeon, while being chased by the eagle, took shelter on the lap of Mahārāja Śibi, and the hunter eagle wanted the pigeon back from the King.

SB 1.13.2, Purport:

The conditioned soul, the living being in material existence, seeks happiness by employing his senses in the modes of materialism, but that cannot give him satisfaction. He then searches after the Supreme Truth by the empiric philosophic speculative method and intellectual feats. But if he does not find the ultimate goal, he again goes down to material activities and engages himself in various philanthropic and altruistic works, which all fail to give him satisfaction. So neither fruitive activities nor dry philosophical speculation can give one satisfaction because by nature a living being is the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and all the Vedic literatures give him direction towards that ultimate end. The Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) confirms this statement.

SB 1.13.46, Purport:

Only the man in the quality of goodness can help to a certain extent. Most persons are passionate and ignorant, and therefore their plans and projects can hardly do any good to others. Above the modes of nature is eternal time, which is called kāla because it changes the shape of everything in the material world. Even if we are able to do something temporarily beneficial, time will see that the good project is frustrated in course of time. The only thing possible to be done is to get rid of eternal time, kāla, which is compared to kāla-sarpa, or the cobra snake, whose bite is always lethal. No one can be saved from the bite of a cobra. The best remedy for getting out of the clutches of the cobralike kāla or its integrity, the modes of nature, is bhakti-yoga, as it is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.26). The highest perfectional project of philanthropic activities is to engage everyone in the act of preaching bhakti-yoga all over the world because that alone can save the people from the control of māyā, or the material nature represented by kāla, karma and guṇa, as described above. The Bhagavad-gītā (14.26) confirms this definitely.

SB 1.13.47, Purport:

This is impossible for other animals. The human being is meant for self-realization, and for that purpose he is not to eat anything which is not first offered to the Lord. The Lord accepts from His devotee all kinds of food preparations made of vegetables, fruits, leaves and grains. Fruits, leaves and milk in different varieties can be offered to the Lord, and after the Lord accepts the foodstuff, the devotee can partake of the prasāda, by which all suffering in the struggle for existence will be gradually mitigated. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.26). Even those who are accustomed to eat animals can offer foodstuff, not to the Lord directly, but to an agent of the Lord, under certain conditions of religious rites. Injunctions of the scriptures are meant not to encourage the eaters of animals, but to restrict them by regulated principles.

SB 1.15.24, Purport:

According to the anthropologists, there is nature's law of struggle for existence and survival of the fittest. But they do not know that behind the law of nature is the supreme direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is confirmed that the law of nature is executed under the direction of the Lord. Whenever, therefore, there is peace in the world, it must be known that it is due to the good will of the Lord. And whenever there is upheaval in the world, it is also due to the supreme will of the Lord. Not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord. Whenever, therefore, there is disobedience of the established rules enacted by the Lord, there is war between men and nations. The surest way to the path of peace, therefore, is dovetailing everything to the established rule of the Lord.

SB 1.16.26-30, Purport:

The Lord, being all that is described above, maintains the affairs of the creation, and by His so doing He gives salvation even to His enemies who are killed by Him. He is attractive even to the topmost liberated soul, and thus He is worshipable even by Brahmā and Śiva, the greatest of all demigods. Even in His incarnation of puruṣa-avatāra He is the Lord of the creative energy. The creative material energy is working under His direction, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). He is the control switch of the material energy, and to control the material energy in the innumerable universes, He is the root cause of innumerable incarnations in all the universes. There are more than five hundred thousand incarnations of Manu in only one universe, besides other incarnations in different universes. In the spiritual world, however, beyond the mahat-tattva, there is no question of incarnations, but there are plenary expansions of the Lord in different Vaikuṇṭhas.

SB 1.17.19, Purport:

They say that action is not independent because action is performed by some performer; therefore, the performer himself is the cause of his own happiness or distress. In the Bhagavad-gītā (6.5) also it is confirmed that by one's mind, freed from material affection, one can deliver himself from the sufferings of material pangs. So one should not entangle oneself in matter by the mind's material affections. Thus one's own mind is one's friend or enemy in one's material happiness and distress.

Atheistic, materialistic Sāṅkhyaites conclude that material nature is the cause of all causes. According to them, combinations of material elements are the causes of material happiness and distress, and disintegration of matter is the cause of freedom from all material pangs. Gautama and Kaṇāda find that atomic combination is the cause of everything, and impersonalists like Aṣṭāvakra discover that the spiritual effulgence of Brahman is the cause of all causes. But in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord Himself declares that He is the source of impersonal Brahman, and therefore He, the Personality of Godhead, is the ultimate cause of all causes. It is also confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate cause of all causes.

SB 1.17.20, Purport:

The Vaiṣṇavites, the devotees of the Lord, do believe, as above explained, that nothing can take place without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. He is the supreme director, for He confirms in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) that He, as all-pervading Paramātmā, stays in everyone's heart and keeps vigilance over all actions and witnesses all activities. The argument of the atheist that one cannot be punished for one's misdeeds unless proved before a qualified justice is refuted herein, for we accept the perpetual witness and constant companion of the living being. A living being may forget all that he might have done in his past or present life, but one must know that in the same tree of the material body, the individual soul and the Supreme Soul as Paramātmā are sitting like two birds. One of them, the living being, is enjoying the fruits of the tree, whereas the Supreme Being is there to witness the activities.

SB 1.17.34, Purport:

It is even sometimes seen that demigods like Indra and Candra are worshiped and offered sacrificial awards, yet the rewards of all such sacrifices are awarded to the worshiper by the Supreme Lord, and it is the Lord only who can offer all welfare to the worshiper. The demigods, although worshiped, cannot do anything without the sanction of the Lord because the Lord is the Supersoul of everyone, both moving and nonmoving.

In Bhagavad-gītā (9.23) the Lord Himself confirms this in the following śloka:

ye 'py anya-devatā-bhaktā

yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ

te 'pi mām eva kaunteya

yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam

"Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kuntī, is really meant for Me alone, but it is offered without true understanding."

SB 1.18.14, Purport:

Everyone wants to relish some kind of taste in everything, but one who is engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord can derive unlimited pleasure from such engagement. The Lord is unlimited, and His name, attributes, pastimes, entourage, variegatedness, etc. are unlimited, and those who relish them can do so unlimitedly and still not feel satiated. This fact is confirmed in the Padma Purāṇa:

ramante yogino 'nante

satyānanda-cid-ātmani

iti rāma-padenāsau

paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate

(CC Madhya 9.29)

"The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rāma."

SB 1.18.21, Purport:

The conception of many gods in the Vedic literatures by the ignorant is completely wrong. The Lord is one without a second, but He expands Himself in many ways, and this is confirmed in the Vedas. Such expansions of the Lord are limitless, but some of them are the living entities. The living entities are not as powerful as the Lord's plenary expansions, and therefore there are two different types of expansions. Lord Brahmā is generally one of the living entities, and Lord Śiva is the via medium between the Lord and the living entities. In other words, even demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, who are the chief amongst all demigods, are never equal to or greater than Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, and all-powerful demigods like Brahmā and Śiva are engaged in the worship of Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa; therefore who can be more powerful than Mukunda (Lord Kṛṣṇa) to be factually called the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The goddess of fortune, Lakṣmījī, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are not independently powerful; they are powerful as expansions of the Supreme Lord, and all of them are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and so also are the living entities.

SB 1.18.33, Purport:

The brāhmaṇas are considered to be the head and brains of the social body, and the kṣatriyas are considered to be the arms of the social body. The arms are required to protect the body from all harm, but the arms must act according to the directions of the head and brain. That is a natural arrangement made by the supreme order, for it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that four social orders or castes, namely the brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas and the śūdras, are set up according to quality and work done by them. Naturally the son of a brāhmaṇa has a good chance to become a brāhmaṇa by the direction of his qualified father, as a son of a medical practitioner has a very good chance to become a qualified medical practitioner. So the caste system is quite scientific. The son must take advantage of the father's qualification and thus become a brāhmaṇa or medical practitioner, and not otherwise.

SB 1.19.7, Purport:

To be free from all material association means to cease completely from committing any further sins. To meditate upon the lotus feet of the Lord means to become free from the effects of all previous sins. The conditions of the material world are so made that one has to commit sins willingly or unwillingly, and the best example is Mahārāja Parīkṣit himself, who was a recognized sinless, pious king. But he also became a victim of an offense, even though he was ever unwilling to commit such a mistake. He was cursed also, but because he was a great devotee of the Lord, even such reverses of life became favorable. The principle is that one should not willingly commit any sin in his life and should constantly remember the lotus feet of the Lord without deviation. Only in such a mood will the Lord help the devotee make regular progress toward the path of liberation and thus attain the lotus feet of the Lord. Even if there are accidental sins committed by the devotee, the Lord saves the surrendered soul from all sins, as confirmed in all scriptures.

SB 1.19.12, Purport:

Although the King had already decided to fast until death on the bank of the Ganges, he humbly expressed his decision to elicit the opinions of the great authorities present there. Any decision, however important, should be confirmed by some authority. That makes the matter perfect. This means that the monarchs who ruled the earth in those days were not irresponsible dictators. They scrupulously followed the authoritative decisions of the saints and sages in terms of Vedic injunction. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, as a perfect king, followed the principles by consulting the authorities, even up to the last days of his life.

SB 1.19.24, Purport:

The conclusion arrived at thereof is that devotional service of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as it is confirmed by the Lord Himself in the last phases of the Bhagavad-gītā, is the last word in relation to everyone's permanent duty in life. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was already aware of this fact, but he wanted the great sages assembled there to unanimously give their verdict on his conviction so that he might be able to go on with his confirmed duty without controversy. He has especially mentioned the word śuddha, or perfectly correct. For transcendental realization or self-realization, many processes are recommended by various classes of philosophers. Some of them are first-class methods, and some of them are second- or third-class methods. The first-class method demands that one give up all other methods and surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord and thus be saved from all sins and their reactions.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.1.7, Purport:

The topmost transcendentalist is not interested in anything material, and his taking interest in the matter of the Lord's activities is definite proof that the Lord is not like one of us in the material world. In the Vedic literatures also, it is confirmed that the Supreme Lord is one, but that He is engaged in His transcendental pastimes in the company of His unalloyed devotees and that simultaneously He is present as the Supersoul, an expansion of Baladeva, in the heart of all living entities. Therefore, the highest perfection of transcendental realization is to take pleasure in hearing and describing the transcendental qualities of the Lord and not in merging into His impersonal Brahman existence, for which the impersonalist monist aspires. Real transcendental pleasure is realized in the glorification of the transcendental Lord, and not in the feeling of being situated in His impersonal feature. But there are also others who are not the topmost transcendentalists but are in a lower status, and who do not take pleasure in describing the transcendental activities of the Lord. Rather, they discuss such activities of the Lord formally with the aim of merging into His existence.

SB 2.1.10, Purport:

Recitation and hearing are two processes out of nine devotional activities, and by strenuously following the principles, either in all or by parts, one can attain the absolute plane. So the complete text of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, beginning with the janmādy asya (SB 1.1.1) verse up to the last one in the Twelfth Canto (SB 12.13.23), was spoken by Śukadeva Gosvāmī for the attainment of salvation by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. In the Padma Purāṇa, it is mentioned that Gautama Muni advised Mahārāja Ambarīṣa to hear regularly Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as it was recited by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and herein it is confirmed that Mahārāja Ambarīṣa heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the very beginning to the end, as it was spoken by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. One who is actually interested in the Bhāgavatam, therefore, must not play with it by reading or hearing a portion from here and a portion from there; one must follow in the footsteps of great kings like Mahārāja Ambarīṣa or Mahārāja Parīkṣit and hear it from a bona fide representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī.

SB 2.1.21, Purport:

Success of mystic performances is achieved only by the help of the devotional attitude. Pantheism, or the system of feeling the presence of the Almighty everywhere, is a sort of training of the mind to become accustomed to the devotional conception, and it is this devotional attitude of the mystic that makes possible the successful termination of such mystic attempts. One is not, however, elevated to such a successful status without the tinge of mixture in devotional service. The devotional atmosphere created by pantheistic vision develops into devotional service in later days, and that is the only benefit for the impersonalist. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) that the impersonal way of self-realization is more troublesome because it reaches the goal in an indirect way, although the impersonalist also becomes obsessed with the personal feature of the Lord after a long time.

SB 2.1.26, Purport:

Outside the bodily existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the manifested cosmic existence has no reality. Everything and anything of the manifested world rests on Him, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.4), but that does not imply that everything and anything in the vision of a materialist is the Supreme Personality. The conception of the universal form of the Lord gives a chance to the materialist to think of the Supreme Lord, but the materialist must know for certain that his visualization of the world in a spirit of lording over it is not God realization. The materialistic view of exploitation of the material resources is occasioned by the illusion of the external energy of the Lord, and as such, if anyone wants to realize the Supreme Truth by conceiving of the universal form of the Lord, he must cultivate the service attitude. Unless the service attitude is revived, the conception of virāṭ realization will have very little effect on the seer. The transcendental Lord, in any conception of His form, is never a part of the material creation. He keeps His identity as Supreme Spirit in all circumstances and is never affected by the three material qualities, for everything material is contaminated. The Lord always exists by His internal energy.

SB 2.1.32, Purport:

The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literatures. But His personality is different from what we can conceive. It is stated here that Brahmājī acts as His genitals and that the Mitrā-varuṇas are His two testicles. This means that as a person He is complete with all bodily organs, but they are of different types with different potencies. When the Lord is described as impersonal, therefore, it should be understood that His personality is not exactly the type of personality found within our imperfect speculation. One can, however, worship the Lord even by seeing the hills and mountains or the ocean and the sky as different parts and parcels of the gigantic body of the Lord, the virāṭ-puruṣa. The virāṭ-rūpa, as exhibited by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, is a challenge to the unbelievers.

SB 2.1.33, Purport:

The Vedas say that the Supreme Lord has nothing to do personally, as is always the case with superiors, but everything is done by His direction. As it is said, not a blade of grass moves without His sanction. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.48), it is said that all the universes and the heads of them (the Brahmās) exist only for the duration of His breathing period. The same is confirmed here. The air on which the universes and the planets within the universes exist is nothing but a bit of the breath of the unchallengeable virāṭ-puruṣa. So even by studying the rivers, trees, air and passing ages, one can conceive of the Personality of Godhead without being misled by the formless conception of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is stated that those who are much inclined to the formless conception of the Supreme Truth are more troubled than those who can intelligently conceive of the personal form.

SB 2.1.39, Purport:

He is always in His transcendental position, but essentially He is everything, and nothing is apart from Him. As a part of Him, one should therefore concentrate on Him only, without deviation; otherwise one is sure to be overcome by the potencies of the material creation, one after another. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.7) as follows:

sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya

prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām

kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni

kalpādau visṛjāmy aham

"O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I again create."

The human life, however, is an opportunity to get out of this repetition of creation and annihilation. It is a means whereby one may escape the Lord's external potency and enter into His internal potency.

SB 2.2.6, Purport:

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (18.61), the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the all-pervading omnipresent Supersoul. Therefore one who is a yogī can worship only Him because He is the substance and not illusion. Every living creature is engaging in the service of something else. A living being's constitutional position is to render service, but in the atmosphere of māyā, or illusion, or the conditional state of existence, the conditioned soul seeks the service of illusion. A conditioned soul works in the service of his temporary body, bodily relatives like the wife and children, and the necessary paraphernalia for maintaining the body and bodily relations, such as the house, land, wealth, society and country, but he does not know that all such renderings of service are totally illusory. As we have discussed many times before, this material world is itself an illusion, like a mirage in the desert.

SB 2.2.14, Purport:

The Supreme Lord is the seer of all worlds, both material and transcendental. In other words, the Supreme Lord is the ultimate beneficiary and enjoyer of all worlds, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29). The spiritual world is the manifestation of His internal potency, and the material world is the manifestation of His external potency. The living entities are also His marginal potency, and by their own choice they can live in either the transcendental or material worlds. The material world is not a fit place for living entities because they are spiritually one with the Lord and in the material world the living entities become conditioned by the laws of the material world. The Lord wants all living entities, who are His parts and parcels, to live with Him in the transcendental world, and for enlightening conditioned souls in the material world, all the Vedas and the revealed scriptures are there—expressly to recall the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead.

SB 2.2.28, Purport:

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī confirms that a part of the material nature, after being initiated by the Lord, is known as the mahat-tattva. A fractional portion of the mahat-tattva is called the false ego. A portion of the ego is the vibration of sound, and a portion of sound is atmospheric air. A portion of the airy atmosphere is turned into forms, and the forms constitute the power of electricity or heat. Heat produces the smell of the aroma of the earth, and the gross earth is produced by such aroma. And all these combined together constitute the cosmic phenomenon. The extent of the cosmic phenomenon is calculated to be diametrically (both ways) four billion miles. Then the coverings of the universe begin. The first stratum of the covering is calculated to extend eighty million miles, and the subsequent coverings of the universe are respectively of fire, effulgence, air and ether, one after another, each extending ten times further than the previous.

SB 2.2.31, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (8.15) also the same is confirmed, as the Lord says, "The great mahātmās, or the bhakti-yogīs, after attaining My association, never come back to this material world, which is full of miseries and is nonpermanent." The highest perfection of life, therefore, is to attain His association, and nothing else. The bhakti-yogī, being completely engaged in the Lord's service, has no attraction for any other process of liberation like jñāna or yoga. A pure devotee is a one hundred percent devotee of the Lord and nothing more.

SB 2.2.32, Purport:

Those who are free from all material desires, which are diseases of the heart, are able to conquer death and enter the kingdom of God through the Arci planets." These Vedic versions corroborate the version of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and the latter is further confirmed by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who affirms that the truth was disclosed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, to Brahmā, the first authority on the Vedas. The disciplic succession holds that the Vedas were uttered by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Brahmā, by Brahmā to Nārada, and by Nārada to Vyāsadeva, and then by Vyāsadeva to Śukadeva Gosvāmī and so on. So there is no difference between the versions of all the authorities. The truth is eternal, and as such there cannot be any new opinion about the truth. That is the way of knowing the knowledge contained in the Vedas. It is not a thing to be understood by one's erudite scholarship or by the fashionable interpretations of mundane scholars. There is nothing to be added and nothing to be subtracted, because the truth is the truth. One has to accept, after all, some authority.

SB 2.2.35, Purport:

Realization of the Superself by the individual self is the beginning of self-realization, and by the progress of such self-realization one is able to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead by intelligence, by the help of authorized scriptures, and, principally, by the grace of the Lord. The Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary conception of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the further explanation of the science of Godhead. So if we stick to our determination and pray for the mercy of the director of intelligence sitting within the same bodily tree, like a bird sitting with another bird (as explained in the Upaniṣads), certainly the purport of the revealed information in the Vedas becomes clear to our vision, and there is no difficulty in realizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. The intelligent man therefore, after many births of such use of intelligence, surrenders himself at the lotus feet of Vāsudeva, as confirmed by the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19).

SB 2.3.2-7, Purport:

Rāvaṇa was made a very powerful man by worshiping Lord Śiva, and he used to offer severed heads to please Lord Śiva. He became so powerful by the grace of Lord Śiva that all the demigods were afraid of him, until he at last challenged the Personality of Godhead Śrī Rāmacandra and thus ruined himself. In other words, all such persons who aspire after gaining some or all of the material objects of enjoyment, or the gross materialistic persons, are on the whole less intelligent, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20). It is said there that those who are bereft of all good sense, or those whose intelligence is withdrawn by the deluding energy of māyā, aspire to achieve all sorts of material enjoyment in life by pleasing the various demigods, or by advancing in material civilization under the heading of scientific progress. The real problem of life in the material world is to solve the question of birth, death, old age and disease.

SB 2.3.15, Purport:

The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Vṛndāvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit used to imitate the worship of the family Deity by elderly members. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also confirms the viewpoint of Jīva Gosvāmī. So accepting either of them, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was naturally inclined to Lord Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood. He might have imitated either of the above-mentioned activities, and all of them establish his great devotion from his very childhood, a symptom of a mahā-bhāgavata. Such mahā-bhāgavatas are called nitya-siddhas, or souls liberated from birth.

SB 2.3.17, Purport:

This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service. Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold. Human life is simply awarded to a living entity (jīva) so that he can realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness. A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities.

SB 2.4.6, Purport:

Those who are under the control of the external energy of the Lord, or in other words those who are in the material world, must first of all know how the external energy of the Lord is working under the direction of the Supreme Personality, and afterwards one may try to enter into the activities of His internal energy. The mundaners are mostly worshipers of Durgā-devī, the external energy of Kṛṣṇa, but they do not know that Durgā-devī is but the shadow energy of the Lord. Behind her astonishing display of material workings is the direction of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). The Brahma-saṁhitā affirms that Durgā-śakti is working by the direction of Govinda, and without His sanction the powerful Durgā-śakti cannot move even a blade of grass. Therefore the neophyte devotee, instead of jumping at once to the platform of transcendental pastimes presented by the internal energy of the Lord, may know how great the Supreme Lord is by inquiring about the process of His creative energy.

SB 2.4.11, Purport:

The devotees of the Lord, while delivering speeches and describing the transcendental attributes of the Lord, do not think that they can do anything independently. They think that they can speak only what they are induced to speak by the Supreme Lord, the master of the senses. The senses of the individual being are not his own; the devotee knows that such senses belong to the Supreme Lord and that they can be properly used when they are employed for the service of the Lord. The senses are instruments, and elements are ingredients, all endowed by the Lord; therefore whatever an individual can do, speak, see, etc., is under the direction of the Lord only. The Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) confirms this: sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca. No one is free to act freely and independently, and as such, one should always seek the permission of the Lord to act or eat or speak, and by the blessing of the Lord everything done by a devotee is beyond the principles of the four defects typical of the conditioned soul.

SB 2.4.14, Purport:

The Vaikuṇṭha planets and the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet are all self-illuminating, and the rays scattered by those sva-dhāma of the Lord constitute the existence of the brahma-jyotir. As further confirmed in the Vedas like the Muṇḍaka (2.2.10), Kaṭha (2.2.15) and Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣads (6.14):

na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ

nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto 'yam agniḥ

tam eva bhāntam anu bhāti sarvaṁ

tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti

In the sva-dhāma of the Lord there is no need of sun, moon or stars for illumination. Nor is there need of electricity, so what to speak of ignited lamps? On the other hand, it is because those planets are self-illuminating that all effulgence has become possible, and whatever there is that is dazzling is due to the reflection of that sva-dhāma.

SB 2.4.17, Purport:

The purpose of maintaining the human body is different from that of the animals. Similarly, advancement of learning, economic development, philosophical research, study in the Vedic literature or even the execution of pious activities (like charity, opening of hospitals, and the distribution of food grains) should be done in relation with the Lord. The aim of all such acts and endeavors must be the pleasure of the Lord and not the satisfaction of any other identity, individual or collective (saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13)). In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.27) the same principle is confirmed where it is said that whatever we may give in charity and whatever we may observe in austerity must be given over to the Lord or be done on His account only. The expert leaders of a godless human civilization cannot bring about a fruitful result in all their different attempts at educational advancement or economic development unless they are God conscious. And to become God conscious one has to hear about the all-auspicious Lord, as He is described in literature like the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

SB 2.5.1, Purport:

The perfection of the paramparā system, or the path of disciplic succession, is further confirmed. In the previous chapter it has been established that Brahmājī, the firstborn living entity, received knowledge directly from the Supreme Lord, and the same knowledge was imparted to Nārada, the next disciple. Nārada asked to receive the knowledge, and Brahmājī imparted it upon being asked. Therefore, asking for transcendental knowledge from the right person and receiving it properly is the regulation of the disciplic succession. This process is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2). The inquisitive student must approach a qualified spiritual master to receive transcendental knowledge by surrender, submissive inquiries and service. Knowledge received by submissive inquiries and service is more effective than knowledge received in exchange for money. A spiritual master in the line of disciplic succession from Brahmā and Nārada has no demand for dollars and cents. A bona fide student has to satisfy him by sincere service to obtain knowledge of the relation and nature of the individual soul and the Supersoul.

SB 2.5.14, Purport:

This phenomenal world is impersonally the representation of Vāsudeva because the ingredients of its creation, their interaction and the enjoyer of the resultant action, the living being, are all produced by the external and internal energies of Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.4-5). The ingredients, namely earth, water, fire, air and sky, as well as the conception of material identity, intelligence and the mind, are produced of the external energy of the Lord. The living entity who enjoys the interaction of the above gross and subtle ingredients, as set up by eternal time, is an offshoot of internal potency, with freedom to remain either in the material world or in the spiritual world. In the material world the living entity is enticed by deluding nescience, but in the spiritual world he is in the normal condition of spiritual existence without any delusion.

SB 2.5.16, Purport:

Sāṅkhya-yoga is meant to distinguish the truth from ephemerals. But ultimately both the systems are meant for realizing the impersonal Brahman, which is but a partial representation of Nārāyaṇa, the Personality of Godhead. As we have explained before, the impersonal Brahman effulgence is only a part of the Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman is situated on the person of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such, Brahman is the glorification of the personality of the Godhead. This is confirmed both in the Bhagavad-gītā and in the Matsya Purāṇa. Gati refers to the ultimate destination, or the last word in liberation. Oneness with the impersonal brahma-jyotir is not ultimate liberation; superior to that is the sublime association of the Personality of Godhead in one of the innumerable spiritual planets in the Vaikuṇṭha sky. Therefore the conclusion is that Nārāyaṇa, or the Personality of Godhead, is the ultimate destination for all kinds of yoga systems as well as all kinds of liberation.

SB 2.5.21, Purport:

The creation of the material world, wherein the conditioned souls are allowed to act subordinately by the Supreme Lord, takes place again and again after being repeatedly annihilated. The material creation is something like a cloud in the unlimited sky. The real sky is the spiritual sky, eternally filled with the rays of the brahma-jyotir, and a portion of this unlimited sky is covered by the mahat-tattva cloud of the material creation, in which the conditioned souls, who want to lord it against the will of the Lord, are put into play as they desire under the control of the Lord by the agency of His external energy. As the rainy season appears and disappears regularly, the creation takes place and is again annihilated under the control of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.19). So the creation and annihilation of the material worlds is a regular action of the Lord just to allow the conditioned souls to play as they like and thereby create their own fate of being differently created again in terms of their independent desires at the time of annihilation.

SB 2.5.25, Purport:

It is said that first the tan-mātrā sound is created and then the sky, and in this verse it is confirmed that actually it is so, but sound is the subtle form of the sky, and the distinction is like that between the seer and the seen. The sound is the representation of the actual object, as the sound produced speaking of the object gives an idea of the description of the object. Therefore sound is the subtle characteristic of the object. Similarly, sound representation of the Lord, in terms of His characteristics, is the complete form of the Lord, as was seen by Vasudeva and Mahārāja Daśaratha, the fathers of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Rāma. The sound representation of the Lord is nondifferent from the Lord Himself because the Lord and His representation in sound are absolute knowledge. Lord Caitanya has instructed us that in the holy name of the Lord, as sound representation of the Lord, all the potencies of the Lord are invested.

SB 2.5.26-29, Purport:

They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva. As such, Lord Kṛṣṇa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the cause of all causes, and this is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) as follows:

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo

mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māṁ

budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent. In the sky there is sound only, whereas in the air there are sound and touch. In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape.

SB 2.5.32, Purport:

The different types of bodily construction of the living entities are exactly like different types of motorcars manufactured by assembling the allied motor parts. When the car is ready, the driver sits in the car and moves it as he desires. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.61): the living entity is as if seated on the machine of the body, and the car of the body is moving by the control of material nature, just as the railway trains are moving under the direction of the controller. The living entities, however, are not the bodies; they are separate from the cars of the body. But the less intelligent material scientist cannot understand the process of assembling the parts of the body, namely the senses, the mind and the qualities of the material modes. Every living entity is a spiritual spark, part and parcel of the Supreme Being, and by the kindness of the Lord, for the Father is kind to His sons, the individual living beings are given a little freedom to act according to their will to lord it over the material nature.

SB 2.5.33, Purport:

In each and every universal globe, the same Mahā-viṣṇu enters again as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and lies there on the serpentlike Śeṣa incarnation. From His navel sprouts a lotus stem, and on the lotus, Brahmā, the lord of the universe, is born. Brahmā creates all forms of living beings of different shapes in terms of different desires within the universe. He also creates the sun, moon and other demigods.

Therefore the chief engineer of the material creation is the Lord Himself, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). It is He only who directs the material nature to produce all sorts of moving and nonmoving creations.

There are two modes of material creation: the creation of the collective universes, as stated above, done by the Mahā-viṣṇu, and the creation of the single universe. Both are done by the Lord, and thus the universal shape, as we can see, takes place.

SB 2.5.34, Purport:

The Lord is described here as the jīva because He is the leader of all other jīvas (living entities). In the Vedas He is described as the nitya, the leader of all other nityas. The Lord's relation with the living entities is like that of the father with the sons. The sons and the father are qualitatively equal, but the father is never the son, nor is the son ever the father who begets. So, as described above, the Lord as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu or Hiraṇyagarbha Supersoul enters into each and every universe and causes it to be animated by begetting the living entities within the womb of the material nature, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.3). After each annihilation of the material creation, all the living entities are merged within the body of the Lord, and after creation they are again impregnated within the material energy. In material existence, therefore, the material energy is seemingly the mother of the living entities, and the Lord is the father. When, however, the animation takes place, the living entities revive their own natural activities under the spell of time and energy, and thus the varieties of living beings are manifested. The Lord, therefore, is ultimately the cause of all animation in the material world.

SB 2.5.37, Purport:

The administrative class is meant for protecting the living beings so that they can serve this purpose; the mercantile class is meant for producing food grains and distributing them to the complete human society so that the whole population is given a chance to live comfortably and discharge the duties of human life. The mercantile class is also required to give protection to the cows in order to get sufficient milk and milk products, which alone can give the proper health and intelligence to maintain a civilization perfectly meant for knowledge of the ultimate truth. And the laborer class, who are neither intelligent nor powerful, can help by physical services to the other higher classes and thus be benefited by their cooperation. Therefore the universe is a complete unit in relationship with the Lord, and without this relationship with the Lord the whole human society is disturbed and is without any peace and prosperity. This is confirmed in the Vedas: brāhmaṇo 'sya mukham āsīd, bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ.

SB 2.6.13-16, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.4-5) He is therefore said to be Yogeśvara. Everything rests on the potency of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and still the Lord is different from and transcendental to all such identities. In the Vedic Puruṣa-sūkta of the Ṛg mantra, this is also confirmed. This philosophical truth of simultaneous oneness and difference was propounded by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and it is known as acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. Brahmā, Nārada and all others are simultaneously one with the Lord and different from the Supreme Lord. We are all one with Him, just as the gold ornaments are one in quality with the stock gold, but the individual gold ornament is never equal in quantity with the stock gold. The stock gold is never exhausted even if there are innumerable ornaments emanating from the stock because the stock is pūrṇam, complete; even if pūrṇam is deducted from the pūrṇam, still the supreme pūrṇam remains the same pūrṇam. This fact is inconceivable to our present imperfect senses. Lord Caitanya therefore defined His theory of philosophy as acintya (inconceivable), and as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā as well as in the Bhāgavatam, Lord Caitanya's theory of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva is the perfect philosophy of the Absolute Truth.

SB 2.6.17, Purport:

The universal form of the Lord, or the impersonal feature of the Lord known as the brahma-jyotir, is clearly explained here and compared to the radiation of the sun. The sunshine may expand all over the universe, but the source of the sunshine, namely the sun planet or the deity known as Sūrya-nārāyaṇa, is the basis of such radiation. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Kṛṣṇa is the basis of the impersonal brahma-jyotir radiation, or the impersonal feature of the Lord. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.27). So the universal form of the Lord is the secondary imagination of the impersonal form of the Lord, but the primary form of the Lord is Śyāmasundara, with two hands, playing on His eternal flute. Seventy-five percent of the expansive radiation of the Lord is manifested in the spiritual sky (tripād-vibhūti), and twenty-five percent of His personal radiation comprehends the entire expansion of the material universes.

SB 2.6.22, Purport:

His supreme personal form, with two hands and flute, is bewildering for the impersonalists who can accommodate only the gigantic viśva-rūpa of the Lord. They should know that the rays of the sun are secondary to the sun, and similarly the impersonal gigantic form of the Lord is also secondary to the personal form as Puruṣottama. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) confirms this statement as follows:

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis

tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ

goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, the one who enlivens the senses of everyone by His personal bodily rays, resides in His transcendental abode, called Goloka. Yet He is present in every nook and corner of His creation by expansion of happy spiritual rays, equal in power to His personal potency of bliss." He is therefore simultaneously personal and impersonal by His inconceivable potency, or He is the one without a second, displaying complete unity in a diversity of material and spiritual manifestations. He is separate from everything, and still nothing is different from Him.

SB 2.6.32, Purport:

The conception of one without a second is clearly confirmed here. The one is Lord Vāsudeva, and only by His different energies and expansions are different manifestations, both in the material and in the spiritual worlds, maintained. In the material world also, Lord Vāsudeva is everything, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19). Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti: everything is Vāsudeva only. In the Vedic hymns also the same Vāsudeva is held to be supreme. It is said in the Vedas, vāsudevāt paro brahman na cānyo 'rtho 'sti tattvataḥ: in fact there is no greater truth than Vāsudeva. And Lord Kṛṣṇa affirms the same truth in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.7). Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: "There is nothing above Me (Lord Kṛṣṇa)." So the conception of oneness, as overly stressed by the impersonalist, is also accepted by the personalist devotee of the Lord.

SB 2.6.33, Purport:

The complete cosmic situation, both in the material and in the spiritual manifestations of the energies of the Lord, is working and moving first as the cause and then as the effect. But the original cause is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Effects of the original cause become the causes of other effects, and thus everything, either permanent or temporary, is working as cause and effect. And because the Lord is the primeval cause of all persons and all energies, He is called the cause of all causes, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā as well as in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.1) affirms:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

SB 2.6.36, Purport:

Lord Brahmā is known as the pitāmaha, or the father's father. A young man consults his experienced father about discharging his duties. So the father is naturally a good advisor. But Lord Brahmā is the father of all fathers. He is the father of the father of Manu, who is the father of mankind all over the universal planets. Therefore the men of this insignificant planet should kindly accept the instruction of Brahmājī and would do well to surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord rather than try to estimate the length and breadth of the Lord's potencies. His potencies are immeasurable, as confirmed in the Vedas. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8 (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport)). He is the greatest of all, and all others, even the greatest of all living beings, namely Brahmājī, admits that the best thing for us is to surrender unto Him. Therefore only those persons with a very poor fund of knowledge claim that they themselves are lords of all that they survey. And what can they survey? They cannot survey even the length and breadth of a small sky in one small universe. The so-called material scientist says that he would need to live forty thousand years to reach the highest planet of the universe, being carried by a sputnik.

SB 2.6.39, Purport:

The original Personality of Godhead (ādyaḥ), Govinda, expands Himself as the Mahā-viṣṇu incarnation and rests in the Causal Ocean, which He Himself creates. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.47) confirms this as follows:

yaḥ kāraṇārṇava-jale bhajati sma yoga-

nidrām ananta-jagad-aṇḍa-saroma-kūpaḥ

ādhāra-śaktim avalambya parāṁ sva-mūrtiṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

Lord Brahmājī says in his Brahma-saṁhitā, "I worship the primeval Lord Govinda, who lies down in the Causal Ocean in His plenary portion as Mahā-viṣṇu, with all the universes generating from the pores of hair on His transcendental body, and who accepts the mystic slumber of eternity."

SB 2.6.39, Purport:

So this Mahā-viṣṇu is the first incarnation in the creation, and from Him all the universes are generated and all material manifestations are produced, one after another. The Causal Ocean is created by the Lord as the mahat-tattva, as a cloud in the spiritual sky, and is only a part of His different manifestations. The spiritual sky is an expansion of His personal rays, and He is the mahat-tattva cloud also. He lies down and generates the universes by His breathing, and again, by entering into each universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He creates Brahmā, Śiva and many other demigods for maintenance of the universe and again absorbs the whole thing into His person as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.7):

sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya

prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām

kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni

kalpādau visṛjāmy aham

"O son of Kuntī, when the kalpa, or the duration of the life of Brahmā, is ended, then all the created manifestations enter into My prakṛti, or energy, and again, when I desire, the same creation takes place by My personal energy."

SB 2.6.40-41, Purport:

His transcendental qualities are so attractive that even the liberated souls (ātmārāmas) are also attracted by them. Although possessed of all personal qualities, He is nevertheless omnipotent. Therefore, personally He has nothing to do, for everything is being carried out by His omnipotent energies. This is confirmed by the Vedic mantras: parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). This suggests His specific spiritual form, which can never be experienced by the material senses. He can be seen only when the senses are purified by devotional service (yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena -labhyaḥ Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.23). As such, there are basic differences between the Lord and the living entities, in so many respects. No one can be compared to the Lord, as the Vedas declare (ekam evādvitīyaṁ brahma, dvaitād vai bhayaṁ bhavati). The Lord has no competitor, and He has nothing to fear from any other being, nor can anyone be equal to Him.

SB 2.6.40-41, Purport:

Somehow or other, as long as there is a demand for sense satisfaction, there is no chance for pacification; on the contrary, by unnecessary dry speculative arguments, the whole matter becomes distorted, and thus the Lord moves still further away from our understanding. The dry speculators, however, because of their following the principles of austerity and penance, can have knowledge of the impersonal features of the Lord to some extent, but there is no chance of their understanding His ultimate form as Govinda because only the amalātmanas, or the completely sinless persons, can accept pure devotional service to the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.28):

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

SB 2.7.1, Purport:

When the Lord appeared to pick up the earth, the demon of the name Hiraṇyākṣa tried to create a disturbance in the methodical functions of the Lord, and therefore he was killed by being pierced by the Lord's tusk. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the demon Hiraṇyākṣa was killed by the hand of the Lord. Therefore his version is that after being killed by the hand of the Lord, the demon was pierced by the tusk. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura confirms this version.

SB 2.7.5, Purport:

The word san is also used in the sense of charity; therefore when everything is given up in charity unto the Lord, the Lord reciprocates by giving Himself unto the devotee. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.11): ye yathā māṁ prapadyante. Brahmājī wanted to create the whole cosmic situation as it was in the previous millennium, and because, in the last devastation, knowledge of the Absolute Truth was altogether erased from the universe, he desired that the same knowledge again be renovated; otherwise there would be no meaning in the creation. Because transcendental knowledge is a prime necessity, the ever-conditioned souls are given a chance for liberation in every millennium of creation. This mission of Brahmājī was fulfilled by the grace of the Lord when the four sanas, namely Sanaka, Sanat-kumāra, Sanandana and Sanātana, appeared as his four sons. These four sanas were incarnations of the knowledge of the Supreme Lord, and as such they explained transcendental knowledge so explicitly that all the sages could at once assimilate this knowledge without the least difficulty. By following in the footsteps of the four Kumāras, one can at once see the Supreme Personality of Godhead within oneself.

SB 2.7.15, Purport:

The leader of the elephants was much distressed when he was attacked by the crocodile. Although the elephant is always stronger than the crocodile, the latter is stronger than the elephant when it is in the water. And because the elephant was a great devotee of the Lord in his previous birth, he was able to chant the holy name of the Lord by dint of his past good deeds. Every living entity is always distressed in this material world because this place is such that at every step one has to meet with some kind of distress. But one who is supported by his past good deeds engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.16). Those who are supported by impious acts cannot be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, even though they are distressed. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.15). The Personality of Godhead Hari appeared at once on the back of His eternal bearer, Garuḍa, and delivered the elephant.

SB 2.7.29, Purport:

Although in this verse the Lord's activity has been described as superhuman, it should be noted that the Lord's activities are always superhuman, and that distinguishes Him from the ordinary living being. Uprooting a gigantic banyan or arjuna tree and extinguishing a blazing forest fire simply by closing one's eyes are certainly impossible by any kind of human endeavor. But not only are these activities amazing to hear, but in fact all other activities of the Lord, whatever He may do, are all superhuman, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9). Whoever knows the superhuman activities of the Lord, due to their very transcendental nature, becomes eligible to enter the kingdom of Kṛṣṇa, and as such, after quitting this present material body, the knower of the transcendental activities of the Lord goes back home, back to Godhead.

SB 2.7.31, Purport:

Actually there was no arrest of Nanda Mahārāja by Varuṇa because the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were always engaged in thinking of Kṛṣṇa, in constant meditation on the Personality of Godhead in a particular form of samadhi, or trance of bhakti-yoga. They had no fear of the miseries of material existence. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is confirmed that to be in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead by full surrender in transcendental love frees one from the miseries inflicted by the laws of material nature. Here it is clearly mentioned that the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were extensively busy in the hard labor of their day's work, and due to the day's hard labor they were engaged in sound sleep at night. So practically they had very little time to devote to meditation or to the other paraphernalia of spiritual activities. But factually they were engaged in the highest spiritual activities only. Everything done by them was spiritualized because everything was dovetailed in their relationship with Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

SB 2.7.49, Purport:

The living entity is unborn and eternal, and as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.30), the living entity is not exhausted even though the material elementary body is vanquished. As long as the living entity is in material existence, actions performed by him are rewarded in the next life, or even in the present life. Similarly, in his spiritual life also actions are rewarded by the Lord by the five kinds of liberation. Even the impersonalist cannot achieve the desired merging into the existence of the Supreme without being favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.11) that the Lord awards similar results, as one desires, in one's present life. The living entities are given freedom to make their choice, and the Lord awards them accordingly.

SB 2.7.49, Purport:

The Lord is so kind that even if a devotee of the Lord cannot fulfill the complete course of devotional service unalloyed and uncontaminated by material association, he is given another chance in the next life by being awarded a birth in the family of a devotee or rich man so that without being engaged in the struggle for material existence the devotee can finish the remaining purification of his existence and thus immediately, after relinquishing the present body, go back home, back to Godhead. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

In this connection detailed information is available in the Bhagavat-sandarbha of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī Prabhupāda. Once achieving the spiritual existence, the devotee is eternally situated there, as already discussed in the previous verse.

SB 2.7.50, Purport:

Since we generally have the experience of the temporary, material world and conditioned souls trying to lord it over the material worlds, Brahmājī explained to Nāradadeva that this temporary world is the work of the external potency of the Lord and that the conditioned souls struggling here for existence are the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead. There is no cause for all these phenomenal activities but Him, Hari, the Supreme Lord, who is the primeval cause of all causes. This does not mean, however, that the Lord Himself is distributed impersonally. He is aloof from all these interactions of the external and marginal potencies. In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.4) it is confirmed that by His potencies alone He is present everywhere and anywhere. Everything that is manifested rests on His potency only, but He, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always aloof from everything. The potency and the potent are simultaneously one and different from one another.

SB 2.8.7, Purport:

Mahārāja Parīkṣit, being a typical devotee, is not only satisfied by confirming the importance of hearing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the representative of Brahmājī by disciplic succession, but he is still more anxious to establish the philosophical basis of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the science of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such all questions that may arise in the mind of a serious student must be cleared by the statements of the authority. A person on the path of devotional service may inquire from his spiritual master all about the spiritual position of God and the living beings. From the Bhagavad-gītā, as well as from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is known that qualitatively the Lord and the living beings are one. The living being in the conditioned state of material existence is subjected to many transmigrations by continuous changing of the material body. But what are the causes of the material embodiment of the part and parcel of the Lord? Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquires about this very important matter for the benefit of all classes of candidates on the path of self-realization and devotional service to the Lord.

Indirectly it is confirmed that the Supreme Being, the Lord, makes no such material changes of body. He is spiritually whole, with no difference between His body and His soul, unlike the conditioned soul.

SB 2.8.17, Purport:

Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, and all the incarnations of the Supreme Lord, although nondifferent from Him, are emanations from the Supreme. Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired from the great and learned sage Śukadeva Gosvāmī about the different activities of such incarnations so that the incarnation of the Lord might be confirmed by His activities in the authoritative scriptures. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was not to be carried away by the sentiments of the common man to accept an incarnation of the Lord very cheaply. Instead he wished to accept the incarnation of the Lord by symptoms mentioned in the Vedic literatures and confirmed by an ācārya like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. The Lord descends by His internal energy without any obligation to the laws of material nature, and thus His activities are also uncommon. The specific activities of the Lord are mentioned, and one should know that the activities of the Lord and the Lord Himself are identical due to being on the absolute plane. Thus to hear the activities of the Lord means to associate with the Lord directly, and association with the Lord directly means purification from material contamination. We have already discussed this point in the previous volume.

SB 2.9.1, Purport:

Mahārāja Parīkṣit's question as to how a living entity began his material life, although he is apart from the material body and mind, is perfectly answered. The spirit soul is distinct from the material conception of his life, but he is absorbed in such a material conception because of being influenced by the external energy of the Lord, called ātma-māyā. This has already been explained in the First Canto in connection with Vyāsadeva's realization of the Supreme Lord and His external energy. The external energy is controlled by the Lord, and the living entities are controlled by the external energy—by the will of the Lord. Therefore, although the living entity is purely conscious in his pure state, he is subordinate to the will of the Lord in being influenced by the external energy of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) also the same thing is confirmed; the Lord is present within the heart of every living entity, and all the living entity's consciousness and forgetfulness are influenced by the Lord.

SB 2.9.3, Purport:

Undoubtedly there is oneness of the living entity with the Lord in many respects, but ultimately the living entity is subordinate to the Lord, and he is constitutionally meant for satisfying the senses of the Lord. The Lord therefore asks the conditioned souls to surrender unto Him. Had the living entities not been subordinate to the supreme will, why would the living entity be asked to surrender? Had the living being been equal in all respects, then why was he put under the influence of māyā? We have already discussed many times that the material energy is controlled by the Lord. The Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) confirms this controlling power of the Lord over the material nature. Can a living entity who claims to be as good as the Supreme Being control the material nature? The foolish "I" would reply that he will do so in the future. Even accepting that in the future one will be as good a controller of material nature as the Supreme Being, then why is one now under the control of material nature? The Bhagavad-gītā says that one can be freed from the control of the material nature by surrendering unto the Supreme Lord, but if there is no surrender, then the living entity will never be able to control the material nature.

SB 2.9.3, Purport:

The Supreme Truth is uncontaminated by the illusory energy because He is the controller of that energy. The relative truths are apt to be engrossed in illusory energy. The best purpose is served, however, when one is directly facing the Supreme Truth, as when one faces the sun. The sun overhead in the sky is full of light, but when the sun is not in the visible sky, all is in darkness. Similarly, when one is face to face with the Supreme Lord, he is freed from all illusions, and one who is not so is in the darkness of illusory māyā. The Bhagavad-gītā (14.26) confirms this as follows:

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

So the science of bhakti-yoga, of worshiping the Lord, glorifying the Lord, hearing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the right sources (not from the professional man but from a person who is Bhāgavatam in life) and being always in the association of pure devotees, should be adopted in earnestness. One should not be misled by misconceptions of "I" and "mine."

SB 2.9.3, Purport:

The living entity has to be situated in the transcendental position where there is no more influence of time nor of the material energy. In conditioned life the living entity is subjected to the influence of time in the dream of past, present and future. The mental speculator tries to conquer the influence of time by future speculations of becoming Vāsudeva or the Supreme Lord himself by means of culturing knowledge and conquering over ego. But the process is not perfect. The perfect process is to accept Lord Vāsudeva as the Supreme in everything, and the best perfection in culturing knowledge is to surrender unto Him because He is the source of everything. Only in that conception can one get rid of the misconception of I and mine. Both Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam confirm it. Śrīla Vyāsadeva has specifically contributed to the illusioned living entities the science of God and the process of bhakti-yoga in his great literature Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and the conditioned soul should fully take advantage of this great science.

SB 2.9.9, Purport:

The statement of the Bhagavad-gītā, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6), is also confirmed herewith. param means transcendental Brahman. Therefore, the abode of the Lord is also Brahman, nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is known as Vaikuṇṭha, and His abode is also known as Vaikuṇṭha. Such Vaikuṇṭha realization and worship can be made possible by transcendental form and sense.

SB 2.9.10, Purport:

The sane man, therefore, without being puffed up, as if he were the God of the universe, abides by the instructions of the Vedic literature, the easiest way to acquire knowledge in transcendence. So let us know through the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of the nature and constitution of the transcendental world beyond the material sky. In that sky the material qualities, especially the modes of ignorance and passion, are completely absent. The mode of ignorance influences a living entity to the habit of lust and hankering, and this means that in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas the living entities are free from these two things. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage of life one becomes free from hankering and lamentation. Therefore the conclusion is that the inhabitants of the Vaikuṇṭha planets are all brahma-bhūta living entities, as distinguished from the mundane creatures who are all compact in hankering and lamentation. When one is not in the modes of ignorance and passion, one is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness in the material world. Goodness in the material world also at times becomes contaminated by touches of the modes of passion and ignorance. In the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, it is unalloyed goodness only.

SB 2.9.10, Purport:

It is clearly stated in this verse that the influence of time is conspicuous by its absence. The whole material existence is manifested by actions and reactions of elements which make the influence of time prominent in the matter of past, present and future. There are no such actions and reactions of cause and effects there, so the cycle of birth, growth, existence, transformations, deterioration and annihilation—the six material changes—are not existent there. It is the unalloyed manifestation of the energy of the Lord, without illusion as experienced here in the material world. The whole Vaikuṇṭha existence proclaims that everyone there is a follower of the Lord. The Lord is the chief leader there, without any competition for leadership, and the people in general are all followers of the Lord. It is confirmed in the Vedas, therefore, that the Lord is the chief leader and all other living entities are subordinate to Him, for only the Lord satisfies all the needs of all other living entities.

SB 2.9.25, Purport:

The Bhagavad-gītā confirms that the Lord is situated in everyone's heart as the witness, and as such He is the supreme director of sanction. The director is not the enjoyer of the fruits of action, for without the Lord's sanction no one can enjoy. For example, in a prohibited area a habituated drunkard puts forward his application to the director of drinking, and the director, considering his case, sanctions only a certain amount of liquor for drinking. Similarly, the whole material world is full of many drunkards, in the sense that each and every one of the living entities has something in his mind to enjoy, and everyone desires the fulfillment of his desires very strongly. The almighty Lord, being very kind to the living entity, as the father is kind to the son, fulfills the living entity's desire for his childish satisfaction. With such desires in mind, the living entity does not actually enjoy, but he serves the bodily whims unnecessarily, without profit. The drunkard does not derive any profit out of drinking, but because he has become a servant of the drinking habit and does not wish to get out of it, the merciful Lord gives him all facilities to fulfill such desires.

SB 2.9.29, Purport:

A conditioned soul is instrumental in the hands of the external energy, guṇa-mayī māyā, or the illusory energy of the Lord, and in the liberated stage the living entity is instrumental to the will of the Personality of Godhead directly. To be instrumental to the direct will of the Lord is the natural constitutional position of the living entity, whereas to be an instrument in the hands of the illusory energy of the Lord is material bondage for the living entity. In that conditioned state, the living entity speculates on the Absolute Truth and His different activities. But in the unconditioned stage the living entity directly receives knowledge from the Lord, and such a liberated soul acts flawlessly, without any speculative habit. The Bhagavad-gītā (10.10-11) confirms emphatically that the pure devotees, who are constantly engaged in the loving transcendental service of the Lord, are directly advised by the Lord, so much so that the devotee unwaveringly makes progress on the path home, back to Godhead. Pure devotees of the Lord are therefore not proud of their definite progress, whereas the nondevotee speculator is in the darkness of illusory energy and is very much proud of his misleading knowledge based on speculation without any definite path. Lord Brahmā wanted to be saved from that pitfall of pride, although he was posted in the most exalted position within the universe.

SB 2.9.33, Purport:

The form of the Lord, as seen by Brahmā, existed before the creation of Brahmā, and the material manifestation with all the ingredients and agents of material creation are also energetic expansions of the Lord, and after the exhibition of the Lord's energy comes to a close, what remains is the same Personality of Godhead. Therefore the form of the Lord exists in all circumstances of creation, maintenance and annihilation. The Vedic hymns confirm this fact in the statement vāsudevo vā idam agra āsīn na brahmā na ca śaṅkara eko nārāyaṇa āsīn na brahmā neśāna, etc. Before the creation there was none except Vāsudeva. There was neither Brahmā nor Śaṅkara. Only Nārāyaṇa was there and no one else, neither Brahmā nor Īśāna. Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya also confirms in his comments on the Bhagavad-gītā that Nārāyaṇa, or the Personality of Godhead, is transcendental to all creation, but that the whole creation is the product of avyakta. Therefore the difference between the created and the creator is always there, although both the creator and created are of the same quality.

SB 2.9.33, Purport:

Śrīdhara Svāmī explains this in his notes: "During the annihilation of the creation, who serves the Lord lying on the Śeṣa, etc." This means that the transcendental Lord with all His name, fame, quality and paraphernalia exists eternally. The same confirmation is also in the Kāśī-khaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa in connection with dhruva-carita. It is said there:

na cyavante 'pi yad-bhaktā

mahatyāṁ pralayāpadi

ato 'cyuto 'khile loke

sa ekaḥ sarvago 'vyayaḥ

Even the devotees of the Personality of Godhead are not annihilated during the period of the entire annihilation of the material world, not to speak of the Lord Himself. The Lord is ever-existent in all three stages of material change.

SB 2.9.33, Purport:

In the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.4.1) there is the hymn ātmaivedam agra āsīt puruṣa-vidhaḥ. This mantra indicates the Supreme Personality of Godhead (Kṛṣṇa) even before the appearance of the puruṣa incarnation. In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.18) it is said that Lord Kṛṣṇa is Puruṣottama because He is the supreme puruṣa, transcendental even to the puruṣa-akṣara and the puruṣa-kṣara. The akṣara-puruṣa, or the Mahā-viṣṇu, throws His glance over prakṛti, or material nature, but the Puruṣottama existed even before that. The Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad therefore confirms the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person (Puruṣottama).

SB 2.9.34, Purport:

There is one Supreme Person who is the progenitor of this cosmic manifestation and whose energy acts as prakṛti, or the material nature, dazzling like a reflection. By such illusory action of prakṛti, even dead matter is caused to move by the cooperation of living energy of the Lord, and the material world appears like a dramatic performance to the ignorant eyes. The ignorant person, therefore, may even be a scientist or physiologist in the drama of prakṛti, while the sane person knows prakṛti as the illusory energy of the Lord. By such a conclusion, as confirmed by the Bhagavad-gītā, it is clear that the living entities are also a display of the Lord's superior energy (parā prakṛti), just as the material world is a display of the Lord's inferior energy (aparā prakṛti). The superior energy of the Lord cannot be as good as the Lord, although there is very little difference between the energy and the possessor of the energy, or the fire and the heat. Fire is possessed of heat, but heat is not fire. This simple thing is not understood by the man with a poor fund of knowledge who falsely claims that the fire and heat are the same.

SB 2.9.35, Purport:

The Lord can award anyone and everyone liberation (mukti) from the bondage of material existence, yet He rarely awards the privilege of love of Godhead, as confirmed by Nārada (muktiṁ dadhāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam). This transcendental devotional service of the Lord is so wonderful that the occupation keeps the deserving devotee always rapt in psychological activities, without deviation from the absolute touch. Thus love of Godhead, developed in the heart of the devotee, is a great mystery. Brahmājī previously told Nārada that the desires of Brahmājī are never unfulfilled because he is always absorbed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord; nor has he any desire in his heart save and except the transcendental service of the Lord. That is the beauty and mystery of the process of bhakti-yoga.

SB 2.9.35, Purport:

"Just hear from Me again about the most confidential part of the instructions in Bhagavad-gītā." The same was confirmed by Brahmājī to Nārada in the following words:

idaṁ bhāgavataṁ nāma

yan me bhagavatoditam

saṅgraho 'yaṁ vibhūtīnāṁ

tvam etad vipulīkuru

Brahmājī said to Nārada, "Whatever I have spoken to you about the Bhāgavatam was explained to me by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and I am advising you to expand these topics nicely so that people may easily understand the mysterious bhakti-yoga by transcendental loving service to the Lord." It is to be noted here that the mystery of bhakti-yoga was disclosed to Brahmājī by the Lord Himself.

SB 2.9.36, Purport:

The lowest of human beings can be elevated to the highest stage of devotional life if they are trained by the bona fide spiritual master well versed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. If the lowest can be so elevated, then what to speak of the highest, who are well versed in the Vedic knowledge? The conclusion is that devotional service to the Lord is open for all, regardless of who they are. That is the confirmation of its application for all kinds of performers of the service.

Therefore the devotional service of the Lord with perfect knowledge through the training of a bona fide spiritual master is advised for everyone, even if one happens not to be a human being. This is confirmed in the Garuḍa Purāṇa as follows:

kīṭa-pakṣi-mṛgāṇāṁ ca

harau sannyasta-cetasām

ūrdhvām eva gatiṁ manye

kiṁ punar jñānināṁ nṛṇām

"Even the worms, birds and beasts are assured of elevation to the highest perfectional life if they are completely surrendered to the transcendental loving service of the Lord, so what to speak of the philosophers amongst the human beings?"

SB 2.9.36, Purport:

Therefore there is no need to seek properly qualified candidates for discharging devotional service to the Lord. Let them be either well behaved or ill trained, let them be either learned or fools, let them be either grossly attached or in the renounced order of life, let them be liberated souls or desirous of salvation, let them be inexpert in the discharge of devotional service or expert in the same, all of them can be elevated to the supreme position by discharging devotional service under the proper guidance. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.30, 32) as follows:

api cet su-durācāro

bhajate mām ananya-bhāk

sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ

samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya

ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ

striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās

te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim

Even if a person is fully addicted to all sorts of sinful acts, if he happens to be engaged in the loving transcendental service of the Lord under proper guidance, he is to be considered the most perfect holy man without a doubt.

SB 2.9.36, Purport:

The cream of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the foregoing four ślokas is sometimes squeezed out by the impersonalist for different interpretations in their favor, but it should be carefully noted that the four ślokas were first described by the Personality of Godhead Himself, and thus the impersonalist has no scope to enter into them because he has no conception of the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, the impersonalist may squeeze out any interpretations from them, but such interpretations will never be accepted by those who are taught in the disciplic succession from Brahmā, as will be cleared up in the following verses. Besides that, the śruti confirms that the Supreme Truth Absolute Personality of Godhead never reveals Himself to anyone who is falsely proud of his academic knowledge.

SB 2.9.38, Purport:

In this verse it is clearly mentioned that the Lord is ajanaḥ, or the Supreme Person, and that He was showing His transcendental form (ātmano rūpam) to Brahmājī while instructing him in the summarization of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in four verses. He is ajanaḥ, or the Supreme Person, amongst janānām, or all persons. All living entities are individual persons, and amongst all such persons Lord Hari is supreme, as confirmed in the śruti-mantra, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So there is no place for impersonal features in the transcendental world as there are impersonal features in the material world. Whenever there is cetana, or knowledge, the personal feature comes in. In the spiritual world everything is full of knowledge, and therefore everything in the transcendental world, the land, the water, the tree, the mountain, the river, the man, the animal, the bird—everything—is of the same quality, namely cetana, and therefore everything there is individual and personal.

SB 2.9.42, Purport:

He is the spiritual master of Prahlāda, Dhruva and Vyāsa, down to the forest animal hunter Kirāta. His only business is to turn everyone to the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore all these features of Nārada make him the dearmost son of his father, and all this is due to Nārada's being a first-class devotee of the Lord. The devotees are always anxious to know more and more about the Supreme Lord, the master of all energies. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.9):

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā

bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ

tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

The Supreme Lord is unlimited, and His energies are also unlimited. No one can know them completely. Brahmājī, being the greatest living entity within this universe and being directly instructed by the Lord, must know more than anyone within this universe, although such knowledge may not be complete. Thus it is the duty of everyone to ask about the unlimited Lord from the spiritual master in the disciplic succession of Brahmā, which descends from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsa to Śukadeva and so on.

SB 2.9.45, Purport:

If the activities of the Supreme Brahman were material activities, then Nārada would not have advised Vyāsadeva to meditate upon them. And the paraṁ brahma is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, when Arjuna realized the factual position of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa in the following words:

paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma

pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān

puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam

ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum

(BG 10.12)

āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve

devarṣir nāradas tathā

asito devalo vyāsaḥ

svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me

(BG 10.13)

Arjuna summarized the purpose of the Bhagavad-gītā by his realization of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and thus said, "My dear Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Original Person in the eternal form of bliss and knowledge, and this is confirmed by Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsadeva, and, above all, Your personal self has also confirmed it." (Bg. 10.12-13)

SB 2.9.45, Purport:

When Vyāsadeva fixed his mind in meditation, he did it in bhakti-yoga trance and actually saw the Supreme Person with māyā, the illusory energy, in contraposition. As we have discussed before, the Lord's māyā, or illusion, is also a representation because māyā has no existence without the Lord. Darkness is not independent of light. Without light, no one can experience the contraposition of darkness. However, this māyā, or illusion, cannot overcome the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but stands apart from Him (apāśrayam).

Therefore, perfection of meditation is realization of the Personality of Godhead along with His transcendental activities. Meditation on the impersonal Brahman is a troublesome business for the meditator, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5): kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām.

SB 2.10.7, Purport:

Synonyms for the supreme source of all energies, as explained in the very beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam/ brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate, called Parambrahma, Paramātmā or Bhagavān. The word iti used here in this verse completes the synonyms and thus indicates Bhagavān. This will be further explained in the later verses, but this Bhagavān ultimately means Lord Kṛṣṇa because the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has already accepted the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). The original source of all energies, or the summum bonum, is the Absolute Truth, which is called Parambrahma, etc., and Bhagavān is the last word of the Absolute Truth. But even with the synonyms for Bhagavān, such as Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu and Puruṣa, the last word is Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ samaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8), etc. Besides that, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the representation of Lord Kṛṣṇa as a sound incarnation of the Lord.

SB 2.10.7, Purport:

In the Second Canto the Absolute Truth as the Personality of Godhead is further emphasized, and the indication is the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. The summary of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in four verses, as we have already discussed, is succinct. This Supreme Personality of Godhead in the ultimate issue is confirmed by Brahmā in his Brahma-saṁhitā as īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So it is concluded in the Third Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The complete subject matter is elaborately explained in the Tenth and Eleventh Cantos of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the matter of the changes of the Manus or manvantaras, such as the Svāyambhuva-manvantara and Cākṣuṣa-manvantara, as they are discussed in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Kṛṣṇa is indicated. In the Eighth Canto the Vaivasvata-manvantara explains the same subject indirectly, and in the Ninth Canto the same purport is there. In the Twelfth Canto the same is further explained, specifically regarding the different incarnations of the Lord.

SB 2.10.8, Purport:

That which distinguishes the controller and controlled, i.e. the material body, is called the adhibhautic puruṣa. The body is sometimes called puruṣa, as confirmed in the Vedas in the following hymn: sa vā eṣa puruṣo 'nna-rasamayaḥ. This body is called the anna-rasa embodiment. This body depends on food. The living entity which is embodied does not eat anything, however, because the owner is spirit in essence. The material body requires replacement of matter for the wearing and tearing of the mechanical body. Therefore the distinction between the individual living entity and controlling planetary deities is in the anna-rasamaya body. The sun may have a gigantic body, and the man may have a smaller body, but all these visible bodies are made of matter; nonetheless, the sun-god and the individual person, who are related as the controller and the controlled, are the same spiritual parts and parcels of the Supreme Being, and it is the Supreme Being who places different parts and parcels in different positions. And thus the conclusion is that the Supreme Person is the shelter of all.

SB 2.10.20, Purport:

The nasal instrument, odor, and the controlling deity air, smelling, etc., all became manifested simultaneously when the Lord desired to smell. The Vedic mantras confirm this statement in the Upaniṣads' statement that everything is first desired by the Supreme before the subordinate living entity can act upon it. The living entity can see only when the Lord sees, the living entity can smell when the Lord smells, and so on. The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, and therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.

SB 2.10.44, Purport:

The pure devotees of the Lord thus undergo a practice of that devotional service to the Lord during the manifestation of the creation and take full advantage of the manifestation by qualifying themselves to enter into the kingdom of God. The Bhagavad-gītā (18.55) confirms this:

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti

yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ

tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā

viśate tad-anantaram

By development of pure devotional service one can factually know the Lord as He is and thus be trained in the bona fide service of the Lord and be allowed to enter into the direct association of the Lord in so many capacities. The highest glorious association with the Lord is made possible in the planet of Goloka Vṛndāvana, where Lord Kṛṣṇa enjoys Himself with the gopīs and His favorite animals, the surabhi cows. A description of this transcendental land of Kṛṣṇa is given in the Brahma-saṁhitā, which is considered by Lord Śrī Caitanya to be the most authentic literature in this connection.

SB 2.10.45, Purport:

Superficially material nature appears to be the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction, but material nature is set into motion for creation by the supreme conscious being, the Personality of Godhead. He is the background of all creation, maintenance and destruction, and this is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10):

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

The material nature is one of the energies of the Lord, and she can work under the direction of the Lord (adhyakṣeṇa). When the Lord throws His transcendental glance over the material nature, then only can the material nature act, as a father contacts the mother, who is then able to conceive a child.

SB 2.10.46, Purport:

The creation of Brahmā and dispersion of the material ingredients are called vikalpa, and the creation by Brahmā in each day of his life is called kalpa. Therefore each day of Brahmā is called a kalpa, and there are thirty kalpas in terms of Brahmā's days. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.17) as follows:

sahasra-yuga-paryantam

ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ

rātiṁ yuga-sahasrāntāṁ

te 'ho-rātra-vido janāḥ

In the upper planetary system the duration of one complete day and night is equal to one complete year of this earth. This is accepted even by the modern scientist and attested by the astronauts. Similarly, in the region of still higher planetary systems the duration of day and night is still greater than in the heavenly planets.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.1.17, Purport:

One cannot be one hundred percent devoted to the Lord unless and until he is completely free from all effects of sin. Vidura was conscious that by the association of the diplomatic Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Duryodhana he had lost his piety and was therefore not fit to associate at once with the Lord. In Bhagavad-gītā (7.28) this is confirmed in the following verse:

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

Persons who are sinful asuras like Kaṁsa and Jarāsandha cannot think of Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth. Only those who are pure devotees, those who follow the regulative principles of religious life as prescribed in the scriptures, are able to engage themselves in karma-yoga and then jñāna-yoga and thereafter, by pure meditation, can understand pure consciousness.

SB 3.1.24, Purport:

How this is so cannot be explained, but it is factually realized by those who are pure devotees of the Lord. Philosophically, one can understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa and His remembrance are on the absolute plane and that the very idea of searching for Him at Vṛndāvana in pure God consciousness gives more pleasure to the devotee than seeing Him face to face. Such devotees of the Lord see Him face to face at every moment, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.38):

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena

santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti

yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

"Those who are in ecstasy of love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śyāmasundara (Kṛṣṇa), see Him always in their hearts due to love and devotional service rendered to the Lord." Both Vidura and Uddhava were such elevated devotees, and therefore they both came to the bank of the Yamunā and met each other.

SB 3.1.45, Purport:

There are innumerable rulers all over the universe in different varieties of planets: the sun-god in the sun planet, the moon-god in the moon planet, Indra in the heavenly planet, Vāyu, Varuṇa, and those in the Brahmaloka planet, where Lord Brahmā is living. All are obedient servants of the Lord. Whenever there is any trouble in the administration of the innumerable planets in different universes, the rulers pray for an appearance, and the Lord appears. The Bhāgavatam (1.3.28) has already confirmed this in the following verse:

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

In every millennium, whenever there is any trouble for the obedient rulers, the Lord appears. He also appears for the sake of His pure unalloyed devotees. The surrendered rulers and the pure devotees are always strictly under the control of the Lord, and they are never disobedient to the desires of the Lord. The Lord is therefore always attentive to them.

SB 3.2.2, Purport:

The sooner this awakening is brought about, the quicker the mission of human life is fulfilled. In a good family of devotees, the child gets the opportunity to serve the Lord in many ways. A soul who is already advanced in devotional service has the opportunity to take birth in such an enlightened family. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.41). Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate: even the fallen devotee gets the opportunity to take his birth in the family of a well-situated brāhmaṇa or in a rich, well-to-do mercantile family. In both these families there is a good opportunity to revive one's sense of God consciousness automatically because particularly in these families the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa is regularly performed and the child gets the opportunity to imitate the process of worship called arcanā.

SB 3.2.5, Purport:

The symptoms of the highest order of devotional life were observed by Vidura, an experienced devotee of the Lord, and he confirmed Uddhava's perfectional stage of love of Godhead. Ecstatic bodily changes are manifested from the spiritual plane and are not artificial expressions developed by practice. There are three different stages of development in devotional service. The first stage is that of following the regulative principles prescribed in the codes of devotional service, the second stage is that of assimilation and realization of the steady condition of devotional service, and the last stage is that of ecstasy symptomized by transcendental bodily expression.

SB 3.2.8, Purport:

Such patients may not have any experience of the cow's milk because milk is never given to liver patients. But the liver patient may know that the cow has milk also, although he has never tasted it. Similarly, men who have experience only of this tiny planet where the saltwater ocean exists may take information from the revealed scriptures that there is also an ocean of milk, although we have never seen it. From this ocean of milk the moon was born, but the fish in the milk ocean could not recognize that the moon. was not another fish and was different from them. The fish took the moon to be one of them or maybe something illuminating, but nothing more. The unfortunate persons who do not recognize Lord Kṛṣṇa are like such fish. They take Him to be one of them, although a little extraordinary in opulence, strength, etc. The Bhagavad-gītā (9.11) confirms such foolish persons to be most unfortunate: avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam.

SB 3.2.15, Purport:

When Lord Kṛṣṇa appears on a mission, all His plenary portions accompany Him. When He appeared as the son of Vasudeva, there were differences of opinion about His incarnation. Some said, "He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Some said, "He is an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa," and others said, "He is the incarnation of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu." But actually He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead—kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28)—and Nārāyaṇa, the puruṣas and all other incarnations accompany Him to function as different parts of His pastimes. Mahad-aṁśa-yuktaḥ indicates that He is accompanied by the puruṣas, who create the mahat-tanva. It is confirmed in the Vedic hymns, mahāntaṁ vibhum ātmānam.

SB 3.2.29, Purport:

Over and above all, the Lord used to play His celebrated flute. The sound vibrated by His flute would give His friends such transcendental pleasure that they would forget all the talks of the brahmānanda which is so praised by the impersonalists. These cowherd boys, as will be explained by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, were living entities who had accumulated heaps of pious acts and thus were enjoying with the Lord in person and were hearing His transcendental flute. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.30) confirms the Lord's blowing His transcendental flute.

SB 3.3.14, Purport:

When Lord Kṛṣṇa referred to the burden of the Yadu dynasty on the earth, He referred to something different than the burden of the beast. The large numbers of family members born of Lord Kṛṣṇa counted to some millions and were certainly a great increase in the population of the earth, but because all of them were expansions of the Lord Himself by His transcendental plenary expansions, they were a source of great pleasure for the earth. When the Lord referred to them in connection with the burden on the earth, He had in mind their imminent disappearance from the earth. All the members of the family of Lord Kṛṣṇa were incarnations of different demigods, and they were to disappear from the surface of the earth along with the Lord. When He referred to the unbearable heaviness on the earth in connection with the Yadu dynasty, He was referring to the burden of their separation. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī confirms this inference.

SB 3.3.21, Purport:

The Lord enjoyed in this world with His pure devotees. Although He is the Personality of Godhead and is transcendental to all material attachment, He nevertheless exhibited much attachment for His pure devotees on the earth, as well as for the demigods who engage in His service in the heavenly planets as powerful delegated directors in the management of all material activities. He displayed special attachment for His family members, the Yadus, as well as for His sixteen thousand wives, who had the opportunity to meet Him in the leisure hours of night. All these attachments of the Lord are manifestations of His internal potency, of which the external potency is only a shadow representation. In the Skanda Purāṇa, Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa, in the topics between Lord Śiva and Gaurī, there is confirmation of His internal potential manifestations. There is mention of the Lord's meeting with sixteen thousand cowherd damsels although He is the Haṁsa (transcendental) Supersoul and maintainer of all living entities. The sixteen thousand cowherd damsels are a display of sixteen varieties of internal potencies. This will be more elaborately explained in the Tenth Canto. It is said there that Lord Kṛṣṇa is just like the moon and the internal potential damsels are like the stars around the moon.

SB 3.4.11, Purport:

At that time an expansion of Uddhava, acting as one of the Vasus, desired to become an associate of the Lord. The Lord knew this because He is present in the heart of every living entity as Paramātmā, the Superconsciousness. In everyone's heart there is the representation of the Superconsciousness, who gives memory to the partial consciousness of every living entity. The living entity, as partial consciousness, forgets incidents of his past life, but the Superconsciousness reminds him how to act in terms of his past cultivation of knowledge. Bhagavad-gītā confirms this fact in various ways: ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11), sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15).

SB 3.4.20, Purport:

Here is the proper answer to such unauthorized speculators. The verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are purely theistic science understandable by the postgraduate students of Bhagavad-gītā. The unauthorized dry speculators are offenders at the lotus feet of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because they distort the purports of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to mislead the public and prepare a direct path to the hell known as Andha-tāmisra. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (16.20) such envious speculators are without knowledge and are surely condemned life after life. They unnecessarily take shelter of Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, but he was not so drastic as to commit an offense at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. According to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya preached the Māyāvāda philosophy for a particular purpose. Such a philosophy was necessary to defeat the Buddhist philosophy of the nonexistence of the spirit soul, but it was never meant for perpetual acceptance.

SB 3.4.30, Purport:

Transcendental knowledge has three departmental divisions, namely knowledge of impersonal Brahman, knowledge of the all-pervading Supersoul and knowledge of the Personality of Godhead. Out of the three, transcendental knowledge of the Personality of Godhead has special significance and is known as bhagavat-tattva-vijñāna, specific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead. This specific knowledge is realized by pure devotional service and no other means. Bhagavad-gītā (18.55) confirms this: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. "Only persons engaged in devotional service can factually know the transcendental position of the Lord." Uddhava was considered to be the best amongst all devotees of that time, and therefore he was directly instructed by the Lord's grace, so that people might take advantage of Uddhava's knowledge after the disappearance of the Lord from the vision of the world. This is one of the reasons why Uddhava was advised to go to Badarikāśrama, where the Lord is personally represented by the Nara-Nārāyaṇa Deity. One who is transcendentally advanced can gain direct inspiration from the temple Deity, and thus a devotee of the Lord always takes shelter of a recognized temple of the Lord in order to make tangible advancement in transcendental knowledge by the grace of the Lord.

SB 3.4.32, Purport:

The Lord is undoubtedly the source of all knowledge, and the messages dispatched through Uddhava to Nara-Nārāyaṇa and other sages were also part of the Vedic knowledge, but they were more confidential and could be sent or understood only through such a pure devotee as Uddhava. Since such confidential knowledge was known only to the Lord and Uddhava, it is said that Uddhava was as good as the Lord Himself. Every living entity can, like Uddhava, also become a confidential messenger on the same level as the Lord, provided he becomes confidential himself by dint of loving devotional service. Such confidential knowledge is entrusted, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā only to pure devotees like Uddhava and Arjuna, and one has to learn the mystery through them, and not otherwise. One cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam without the help of such confidential devotees of the Lord. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, that confidential message must have concerned the mystery of His departure and the annihilation of His dynasty after the end of His appearance in the mundane world for one hundred years. Everyone must have been very anxious to know about the mystery of the annihilation of the Yadu dynasty, and that message must have been explained by the Lord to Uddhava and dispatched to Badarikāśrama for the information of Nara-Nārāyaṇa and other pure devotees of the Lord.

SB 3.4.33, Purport:

Such subject matters are certainly of increasing interest because the researchers have to search out the transcendental abode of the Lord, which He enters after finishing His pastimes in the mortal world. But even the great sages have no information that beyond the material sky is the spiritual sky where Śrī Kṛṣṇa eternally resides with His associates, although at the same time He exhibits His pastimes in the mortal world in all the universes one after another. This fact is confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37): goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. "The Lord, by His inconceivable potency, resides in His eternal abode, Goloka, yet at the same time, as the Supersoul, He is present everywhere—in both the spiritual and material skies—by His multivarieties of manifestation." Therefore His appearance and disappearance are simultaneously going on, and no one can say definitely which of them is the beginning and which is the end. His eternal pastimes have no beginning or end, and one has to learn of them from the pure devotee only and not waste valuable time in so-called research work.

SB 3.4.34, Purport:

The Lord never reveals Himself to persons like the jñānīs and yogīs. And there are others who, because of their envying the Lord from the bottom of their hearts, are classified amongst the beasts, and for such envious beasts the subject matter of the Lord's appearance and disappearance is simply a mental disturbance. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15), the miscreants who are simply concerned with material enjoyment, who work very hard like beasts of burden, can hardly know the Personality of Godhead at any stage due to āsurika-bhāva, or a spirit of revolt against the Supreme Lord.

The transcendental bodily expansions manifested by the Lord for His pastimes in the mortal world, and the appearance and disappearance of such transcendental expansions, are difficult subject matters, and those who are not devotees are advised not to discuss the Lord's appearance and disappearance, lest they commit further offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord. The more they discuss the transcendental appearance and disappearance of the Lord in the asuric spirit, the more they enter into the darkest region of hell, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (16.20). Anyone who is against the transcendental loving service of the Lord is more or less a beastly creature, as confirmed in this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

SB 3.5.4, Purport:

Only in such a purified stage does the Lord, who is seated in everyone's heart with the individual soul, give instruction so that the devotee can reach the ultimate destination of going back home, back to Godhead. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10): teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatām. Only when the Lord is satisfied with the devotional service of the devotee does He impart knowledge, as He did for Arjuna and Uddhava.

The jñānīs, yogīs and karmīs cannot expect this direct cooperation of the Lord. They are not able to satisfy the Lord by transcendental loving service, nor do they believe in such service to the Lord. The bhakti process, as performed under the regulative principles of vaidhī-bhakti, or devotional service following the prescribed rules and regulations, is defined by the revealed scriptures and confirmed by great ācāryas. This practice can help the neophyte devotee to rise to the stage of rāga-bhakti, in which the Lord responds from within as the caitya-guru, or the spiritual master as Superconsciousness.

SB 3.5.23, Purport:

The Personality of Godhead is described herein as the master of all other living entities. He is like the sun disc, and the living entities are like the molecules of the sun's rays. This existence of the Lord before the creation is confirmed by the śrutis: vāsudevo vā idaṁ agra āsīt na brahmā na ca śaṅkaraḥ, eko vai nārāyaṇa āsīn na brahmā neśānāḥ. Because everything that be is an emanation from the Personality of Godhead, He always exists alone without a second. He can so exist because He is all-perfect and omnipotent. Everything other than Him, including His plenary expansions, the viṣṇu-tattvas, is His part and parcel. Before the creation there were no Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī or Garbhodakaśāyī or Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇus, or was there Brahmā nor Śaṅkara. The Viṣṇu plenary expansion and the living entities beginning from Brahmā are separated parts and parcels. Although the spiritual existence was there with the Lord, the material existence was dormant in Him. By His will only is the material manifestation done and undone. The diversity of the Vaikuṇṭhaloka is one with the Lord, just as the diversity of soldiers is one with and the same as the king. As explained in Bhagavad-gītā (9.7), the material creation takes place at intervals by the will of the Lord, and in the periods between dissolution and creation, the living entities and the material energy remain dormant in Him.

SB 3.5.25, Purport:

The material nature, known as māyā, is both the material and efficient cause of the cosmos, but in the background the Lord is the consciousness for all activities. As in the individual body the consciousness is the source of all energies of the body, so the supreme consciousness of the Lord is the source of all energies in material nature. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) as follows:

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

"Throughout all the energies of material nature there is the hand of the Supreme Lord as the final superintendent. Due to this supreme cause only, the activities of material nature appear planned and systematic, and all thing regularly evolve."

SB 3.5.26, Purport:

We should not understand the process of impregnation by the Personality of Godhead in terms of our conception of sex. The omnipotent Lord can impregnate just by His eyes, and therefore He is called all-potent. Each and every part of His transcendental body can perform each and every function of the other parts. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.32): aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. In Bhagavad-gītā (14.3) also, the same principle is confirmed: mama yonir mahad-brahma tasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmy aham. When the cosmic creation is manifested, the living entities are directly supplied from the Lord; they are never products of material nature. Thus, no scientific advancement of material science can ever produce a living being. That is the whole mystery of the material creation. The living entities are foreign to matter, and thus they cannot be happy unless they are situated in the same spiritual life as the Lord. The mistaken living being, out of forgetfulness of this original condition of life, unnecessarily wastes time trying to become happy in the material world.

SB 3.5.31, Purport:

The best means of liberation from the clutches of false ego is to give up the habit of philosophical speculation regarding the Absolute Truth. One should know definitely that the Absolute Truth is never realized by the philosophical speculations of the imperfect egoistic person. The Absolute Truth, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is realized by hearing about Him in all submission and love from a bona fide authority who is a representative of the twelve great authorities mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. By such an attempt only can one conquer the illusory energy of the Lord, although for others she is unsurpassable, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14).

SB 3.5.40, Purport:

There is no want of knowledge in the devotional service of Vāsudeva, the Personality of Godhead. He, the Lord, personally takes charge of dissipating the darkness of ignorance from the heart of a devotee. He confirms this in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te

Empiric philosophical speculation cannot give one relief from the threefold miseries of material existence. Simply to endeavor for knowledge without devoting oneself to the Lord is a waste of valuable time.

SB 3.5.49, Purport:

The Vedic hymns, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān, tā enam abruvann āyatanaṁ naḥ prajānīhi yasmin pratiṣṭhitā annam adāme, etc., confirm this truth. In Bhagavad-gītā also, the Lord is mentioned as bhūta-bhṛt, or the maintainer of all living creatures.

The modern theory that starvation is due to an increase in population is not accepted by the demigods or the devotees of the Lord. The devotees or demigods are fully aware that the Lord can maintain any number of living entities, provided they are conscious of how to eat. If they want to eat like ordinary animals, who have no God consciousness, then they must live in starvation, poverty and want, like the jungle animals in the forest. The jungle animals are also maintained by the Lord with their respective foodstuffs, but they are not advanced in God consciousness. Similarly, human beings are provided with food grains, vegetables, fruits and milk by the grace of the Lord, but it is the duty of human beings to acknowledge the mercy of the Lord. As a matter of gratitude, they should feel obliged to the Lord for their supply of foodstuff, and they must first offer Him food in sacrifice and then partake of the remnants.

In Bhagavad-gītā (3.13) it is confirmed that one who takes foodstuff after a performance of sacrifice eats real food for proper maintenance of the body and soul, but one who cooks for himself and does not perform any sacrifice eats only lumps of sin in the shape of foodstuffs.

SB 3.5.50, Purport:

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (14.3), the Lord impregnates the external or material energy, and thus the total living entities later come out in different gradations, beginning from Brahmā, the first demigod, down to the insignificant ant. All gradations of living entities are manifested by Brahmā and the external energy, but the Lord is the original father of everyone. The relationship of every living being with the Supreme Lord is certainly one of son and father and not one of equality. Sometimes in love the son is more than the father, but the relationship of father and son is one of the superior and the subordinate. Every living entity, however great he may be, even up to demigods like Brahmā and Indra, is an eternally subordinate servitor of the supreme father. The mahat-tattva principle is the generating source of all the modes of material nature, and the living entities take birth in the material world in bodies supplied by the mother, material nature, in terms of their previous work. The body is a gift of material nature, but the soul is originally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.

SB 3.6.2, Purport:

Similarly, this is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (10.42):

athavā bahunaitena

kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna

viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam

ekāṁśena sthito jagat

"O Arjuna, there is no necessity of your knowing about My innumerable energies, which act in various ways. I enter into the material creation by My partial plenary expansion (Paramātmā, or the Supersoul) in all the universes and in all the elements thereof, and thus the work of creation goes on." The wonderful activities of material nature are due to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus He is the final cause, or the ultimate cause of all causes.

SB 3.6.9, Purport:

The mental speculators can reach the point of buddhi-yoga after many, many lifetimes of speculation, but the intelligent person who begins from the platform of intelligence above the mind makes rapid progress in self-realization. Because the buddhi-yoga process entails no fear of deterioration or retrogression at any time, it is the guaranteed path to self-realization, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (2.40). The mental speculators cannot understand that the two birds (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad) sitting in one tree are the soul and the Supersoul. The individual soul eats the fruit of the tree, while the other bird does not eat the fruit but only observes the activities of the eating bird. Without attachment, the witnessing bird helps the fruit-eating bird perform fruitful activities. One who cannot understand this difference between the soul and the Supersoul, or God and the living entities, is certainly still in the entanglement of the cosmic machinery and thus must still await the time when he will be free from bondage.

SB 3.6.29, Purport:

This middle portion of the sky is called Bhuvarloka, as confirmed by both Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. In Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that those who develop in the mode of passion are situated in the middle region. Those who are situated in the mode of goodness are promoted to the regions of the demigods, those who are situated in the mode of passion are placed in human society, and those who are situated in the mode of ignorance are placed in the society of animals or ghosts. There are no contradictions in this conclusion. Numerous living entities are distributed all over the universe in different planets and are so situated in terms of their own qualities in the modes of material nature.

SB 3.6.30, Purport:

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (4.13), the four orders of human society developed with the order of the body of the gigantic form. The bodily divisions are the mouth, arms, waist and legs. Those who are situated on the mouth are called brāhmaṇas, those who are situated on the arms are called kṣatriyas, those who are situated on the waist are called vaiśyas, and those who are situated on the legs are called śūdras. Everyone is situated in the body of the Supreme in His gigantic viśva-rūpa form. In terms of the four orders, therefore, no caste is to be considered degraded because of being situated on a particular part of the body. In our own bodies we do not show any actual difference in our treatment towards the hands or legs. Each and every part of the body is important, although the mouth is the most important of the bodily parts.

SB 3.6.34, Purport:

The actual position of the conditioned soul is explained in this verse: all the conditioned souls are impure due to contact with the material energy in three modes of nature. Therefore it is necessary that they purify themselves under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, who not only is a brāhmaṇa by qualification but must also be a Vaiṣṇava. The only self-purifying process mentioned herein is to worship the Lord under the recognized method—under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master. That is the natural way of purification, and no other method is recommended as bona fide. The other methods of purification may be helpful to come to this stage of life, but ultimately one has to come to this last point before he attains actual perfection. Bhagavad-gītā (7.19) confirms this truth as follows:

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante

jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti

sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ

SB 3.6.40, Purport:

Unless one relishes transcendental joy, naturally one will come back from his speculations and concocted conclusions because he will see them as neither factual nor enjoyable. The devotees can at least know that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu, as the Vedic hymns confirm: oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) also confirms this fact: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. By culture of Vedic knowledge one must know Lord Kṛṣṇa and should not falsely speculate on the word aham, or "I." The only method for understanding the Supreme Truth is devotional service, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (18.55): bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. Only by devotional service can one know that the ultimate truth is the Personality of Godhead and that Brahman and Paramātmā are only His partial features. This is confirmed in this verse by the great sage Maitreya. With devotion he offers his sincere surrender, namaḥ, to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavate. One has to follow in the footsteps of great sages and devotees like Maitreya and Vidura, Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and engage in the transcendental devotional service of the Lord if one would know His ultimate feature, which is above Brahman and Paramātmā.

SB 3.7.5, Purport:

He is always present in the past, present and future, like electricity. One can remember incidents from his past and can conjecture about his future also on the basis of past experience. He never forgets his personal identity, even though he is placed in awkward circumstances. How then can the living entity become forgetful of his real identity as pure spirit soul and identify with matter unless influenced by something beyond himself? The conclusion is that the living entity is influenced by the avidyā potency, as confirmed in both the Viṣṇu Purāṇa and the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The living entity is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā (7.5) as parā prakṛti, and in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa he is mentioned as the parā śakti. He is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord as potency and not as the potent. The potent can exhibit many potencies, but the potency cannot equal the potent at any stage. One potency may be overcome by another potency, but to the potent, all potencies are under control. The jīva potency, or the kṣetrajña-śakti of the Lord, has the tendency to be overpowered by the external potency, avidyā-karma-saṁjñā, and in this way he is placed in the awkward circumstances of material existence. The living entity cannot be forgetful of his real identity unless influenced by the avidyā potency. Because the living entity is prone to the influence of the avidyā potency, he can never equal the supreme potent.

SB 3.7.10, Purport:

The so-called liberation of thinking oneself God is that last reaction of avidyā by which the living entity is entrapped. The conclusion is that a living entity deprived of eternal transcendental service to the Lord becomes illusioned in many ways. Even in his conditional life he is the eternal servant of the Lord. His servitude under the spell of illusory māyā is also a manifestation of his eternal condition of service. Because he has rebelled against the service of the Lord, he is therefore put in the service of the māyā. He is still serving, but in a perverted manner. When he wants to get out of service under material bondage, he next desires to become one with the Lord. This is another illusion. The best course, therefore, is to surrender unto the Lord and thus get rid of the illusory māyā for good, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14):

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī

mama māyā duratyayā

mām eva ye prapadyante

māyām etāṁ taranti te

SB 3.7.37, Purport:

After the dissolution of the material manifestations, the Lord and His kingdom beyond the Causal Ocean do not disappear, nor do the inhabitants, the Lord's associates. The associates of the Lord are far more numerous than the living entities who have forgotten the Lord due to material association. The impersonalist's explanation of the word aham in the four verses of the original Bhāgavatam—aham evāsam evāgre etc.—is refuted here. The Lord and His eternal associates remain after the dissolution. Vidura's inquiry about such persons is a clear indication of the existence of all the paraphernalia of the Lord. This is also confirmed in the Kāśī-khaṇḍa, as quoted by both Jīva Gosvāmī and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, who follow in the footsteps of Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī.

SB 3.8.19, Purport:

By dint of one's personal endeavor one may go nearer to the Lord, but without the Lord's mercy one cannot reach the ultimate point. Such understanding of the Lord is possible only by devotional service, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (18.55): bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ.

SB 3.9.1, Purport:

One can know the supreme cause, the Personality of Godhead, by the causeless mercy of the Lord, which is bestowed upon the Lord's pure devotees like Brahmā and those in his disciplic succession. By acts of penance only was Lord Brahmā able to see the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and by realization only could he understand the Lord as He is. Brahmā was extremely satisfied upon observing the magnificent beauty and opulence of the Lord, and he admitted that nothing can be comparable to Him. Only by penance can one appreciate the beauty and opulence of the Lord, and when one is acquainted with that beauty and opulence, he is no longer attracted by any other. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (2.59): paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate.

SB 3.9.4, Purport:

All the plenary expansions of the Personality of Godhead are equally potent, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.46):

dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya

dīpāyate vivṛta-hetu-samāna-dharmā

yas tādṛg eva hi ca viṣṇutayā vibhāti

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

The Lord expands Himself as the flames of a fire expand one after another. Although the original flame, or Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is accepted as Govinda, the Supreme Person, all other expansions, such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and Varāha, are as potent as the original Lord. All such expanded forms are transcendental. In the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is made clear that the Supreme Truth is eternally uncontaminated by material touch.

SB 3.9.10, Purport:

The impersonalists, who take much trouble in penance and austerity for self-liberation, may approach the impersonal brahma-jyotir, but ultimately, because of not being situated in devotional service, they glide down again to the material world to undergo another term of material existence. This is confirmed as follows:

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas

tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ

patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

"Persons who are falsely under the impression of being liberated, without devotional service to the Lord, may reach the goal of the brahma-jyotir, but because of their impure consciousness and for want of shelter in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, such so-called liberated persons again fall down into material existence." (SB 10.2.32)

SB 3.9.11, Purport:

The statement here that the Lord manifests Himself before the devotee in the form in which the devotee likes to worship Him indicates that the Lord becomes subordinate to the desire of the devotee—so much so that He manifests His particular form as the devotee demands. This demand of the devotee is satisfied by the Lord because He is pliable in terms of the transcendental loving service of the devotee. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (4.11): ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. We should note, however, that the Lord is never the order supplier of the devotee. Here in this verse it is particularly mentioned: tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita. This indicates the efficiency achieved through execution of matured devotional service, or premā, love of Godhead.

SB 3.9.11, Purport:

This particular attachment is invoked by practice of regulative devotional service to the Lord, and thus the devotee becomes attached to the eternal form of the Lord, exactly like one who is already eternally attached. This attachment for a particular form of the Lord is called svarūpa-siddhi. The Lord sits on the lotus heart of the devotee in the eternal form the pure devotee desires, and thus the Lord does not part from the devotee, as confirmed in the previous verse. The Lord, however, does not disclose Himself to a casual or unauthentic worshiper to be exploited. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (7.25): nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. Rather, by yoga-māyā, the Lord remains concealed to the nondevotees or casual devotees who are serving their sense gratification. The Lord is never visible to the pseudodevotees who worship the demigods in charge of universal affairs. The conclusion is that the Lord cannot become the order supplier of a pseudodevotee, but He is always prepared to respond to the desires of a pure, unconditional devotee, who is free from all tinges of material infection.

SB 3.9.14, Purport:

The word rāsa is significant herein. The rāsa dance is performed by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the company of the cowherd damsels at Vṛndāvana, and the Personality of Godhead Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is also engaged in rāsa enjoyment with His external potency, by which He creates, maintains and dissolves the entire material manifestation. Indirectly, Lord Brahmā offers his respectful obeisances unto Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is factually ever engaged in rāsa enjoyment with the gopīs, as confirmed in the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad in the following words: parārdhānte so 'budhyata gopa-veśo me puruṣaḥ purastād āvirbabhūva. The distinction between the Lord and the living entity is definitely experienced when there is sufficient intelligence to understand His internal potency, as distinguished from the external potency by which He makes possible the material manifestation.

SB 3.9.16, Purport:

The cosmic manifestation is grossly divided into three worlds, the upper, lower and middle planetary systems, and then it broadens into the cosmos of fourteen planetary systems, with the manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the supreme root. Material nature, which appears to be the cause of the cosmic manifestation, is only the agency or energy of the Lord. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10): mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. "Only under the superintendence of the Supreme Lord does material nature appear to be the cause of all creation, maintenance and dissolution." The Lord expands Himself into three—Viṣṇu, Brahmā and Śiva—for maintenance, creation and destruction respectively.

SB 3.9.16, Purport:

Due to a poor fund of knowledge, the impersonalist does not believe in the personal management of things as they are. But in this verse it is clearly explained that everything is personal and nothing is impersonal. We have already discussed this point in the Introduction, and it is confirmed here in this verse. The tree of the material manifestation is described in the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā as an aśvattha tree whose root is upward. We have actual experience of such a tree when we see the shadow of a tree on the bank of a reservoir of water. The reflection of the tree on the water appears to hang down from its upward roots. The tree of creation described here is only a shadow of the reality which is Para-brahman, Viṣṇu. In the internal potential manifestation of the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, the actual tree exists, and the tree reflected in the material nature is only the shadow of this actual tree.

SB 3.9.19, Purport:

The Lord's incarnations in different species of life are all transcendental. He appears as a human being in His incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, etc., but He is not a human being. Anyone who mistakes Him for an ordinary human being is certainly not very intelligent, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.11): avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam. The same principle is applicable when He appears as the hog or fish incarnations. They are transcendental forms of the Lord and are manifested under certain necessities of His own pleasure and pastimes. Such manifestations of the transcendental forms of the Lord are accepted by Him mostly to enliven His devotees. All His incarnations are manifested whenever there is a need to deliver His devotees and maintain His own principles.

SB 3.9.30, Purport:

The mercy the Lord bestows upon a particular person engaged in executing the responsible work entrusted unto him is beyond imagination. But His mercy is received due to our penance and perseverance in executing devotional service. Brahmā was entrusted with the work of creating the planetary systems. The Lord instructed him that when he meditated he would very easily know where and how the planetary systems must be arranged. The directions were to come from within, and there was no necessity for anxiety in that task. Such instructions of buddhi-yoga are directly imparted by the Lord from within, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10).

SB 3.9.33, Purport:

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu it is said that a person whose only desire is to render transcendental loving service to the Lord is a free person in any condition of material existence. That service attitude is the svarūpa, or real form, of the living entity. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, also confirms this statement by declaring that the real, spiritual form of the living entity is eternal servitorship to the Supreme Lord. The Māyāvāda school shudders at the thought of a service attitude in the living entity, not knowing that in the transcendental world the service of the Lord is based on transcendental love. Transcendental loving service is never to be compared to the forced service of the material world. In the material world, even if one is under the conception that he is no one's servant, he is still the servant of his senses, under the dictation of the material modes.

SB 3.10.11, Purport:

Therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī concludes that the time factor is intermixed with the activities—actions and reactions—of the external energy of the Lord. The external energy, or material nature, works under the superintendence of the time factor as the Lord Himself, and that is why material nature appears to have produced so many wonderful things in the cosmic manifestation. Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) confirms this conclusion as follows:

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

SB 3.10.17, Purport:

The energy of the Lord called avidyā is the bewildering factor of the conditioned souls. The material nature is called avidyā, or ignorance, but to the devotees of the Lord engaged in pure devotional service, this energy becomes vidyā, or pure knowledge. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The energy of the Lord transforms from mahāmāyā to yogamāyā and appears to pure devotees in her real feature. The material nature therefore appears to function in three phases: as the creative principle of the material world, as ignorance and as knowledge. As disclosed in the previous verse, in the fourth creation the power of knowledge is also created. The conditioned souls are not originally fools, but by the influence of the avidyā function of material nature they are made fools, and thus they are unable to utilize knowledge in the proper channel.

SB 3.11.38, Purport:

The impersonalists do not believe in the form of the Lord, and thus they would hardly believe in the Lord's sleeping. Their idea is obtained by a poor fund of knowledge; they calculate everything in terms of man's capacity. They think that the existence of the Supreme is just the opposite of active human existence; because the human being has senses, the Supreme must be without sense perception; because the human being has a form, the Supreme must be formless; and because the human being sleeps, the Supreme must not sleep. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, however, does not agree with such impersonalists. It is clearly stated herein that the Supreme Lord rests in yoga-nidrā, as previously discussed. And because He sleeps, naturally He must breathe, and the Brahma-saṁhitā confirms that within His breathing period innumerable Brahmās take birth and die.

SB 3.11.42, Purport:

The original form of the Personality of Godhead is actually the svarūpa, or real form, and He eternally resides in the Vaikuṇṭha world (Viṣṇuloka). The word mahātmanaḥ is used here to indicate Mahā-viṣṇu, and His real manifestation is Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is called parama, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

(Bs. 5.1)

"The Supreme Lord is Kṛṣṇa, the original Personality of Godhead known as Govinda. His form is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, and He is the original cause of all causes."

SB 3.12.11, Purport:

The great yogī Durvāsā, under the influence of this Rudra principle, picked a quarrel with Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, and a brāhmaṇa boy exhibited the Rudra principle by cursing the great King Parīkṣit. When the Rudra principle is exhibited by persons who are not engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the angry person falls down from the peak of his improved position. This is confirmed as follows:

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas

tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ

patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

(SB 10.2.32)

The most lamentable falldown of the impersonalist is due to his false and unreasonable claim of being one with the Supreme.

SB 3.12.25, Purport:

That religion was manifested from the place where the Personality of Godhead is personally situated is very significant because religion means devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā as well as the Bhāgavatam. In Bhagavad-gītā the last instruction is to give up all other engagements in the name of religion and take shelter of the Personality of Godhead. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also confirms that the highest perfection of religion is that which leads to the devotional service of the Lord, unmotivated and unhampered by material impediments. Religion in its perfect form is the devotional service of the Lord, and irreligion is just the opposite. The heart is the most important part of the body, whereas the back is the most neglected part. When one is attacked by an enemy one is apt to endure attacks from the back and protect himself carefully from all attacks on the chest. All types of irreligion spring from the back of Brahmā, whereas real religion, the devotional service of the Lord, is generated from the chest, the seat of Nārāyaṇa. Anything which does not lead to the devotional service of the Lord is irreligion, and anything which leads to the devotional service of the Lord is called religion.

SB 3.12.34, Purport:

Brahmā is powerful by dint of his devotional service unto the Lord, and the Lord is always ready to forgive His devotee if by chance he falls down from the noble path of devotional service. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.42) confirms this as follows:

sva-pāda-mūlaṁ bhajataḥ priyasya

tyaktvānya-bhāvasya hariḥ pareśaḥ

vikarma yac cotpatitaṁ kathañ-cid

dhunoti sarvaṁ hṛdi sannviṣṭaḥ

"Any person who is engaged one hundred percent in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, at His lotus feet, is very dear to the Personality of Godhead Hari, and the Lord, being situated in the heart of the devotee, excuses all kinds of sins committed by chance." It was never expected that a great personality like Brahmā would ever think of sex indulgence with his daughter.

SB 3.12.43, Purport:

The varṇāśrama-dharma, or the institution of the four divisions and orders of social and spiritual life, is not a new invention of the modern age, as proposed by the less intelligent. It is an institution established by Brahmā from the beginning of the creation. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.13): cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam.

SB 3.12.57, Purport:

The history of the creation of the population of the universe is given herewith. Brahmā is the original living creature in the universe, from whom were generated the Manu Svāyambhuva and his wife Śatarūpā. From Manu, two sons and three daughters were born, and from them all the population in different planets has sprung up until now. Therefore, Brahmā is known as the grandfather of everyone, and the Personality of Godhead, being the father of Brahmā, is known as the great-grandfather of all living beings. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (11.39) as follows:

vāyur yamo 'gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ

prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaś ca

namo namas te 'stu sahasra-kṛtvaḥ

punaś ca bhūyo 'pi namo namas te

"You are the Lord of air, the supreme justice Yama, the fire, and the Lord of rains. You are the moon, and You are the great-grandfather. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You again and again."

SB 3.13.23, Purport:

It appears that great hills and mountains also have their roaring power because they are also living entities. The volume of the sound vibrated is in proportion to the size of the material body. While Brahmā was guessing about the appearance of the Lord's incarnation as a boar, the Lord confirmed Brahmā's contemplation by roaring with His gorgeous voice.

SB 3.13.39, Purport:

The qualification of bhakti, or devotional service to the Lord, is that the devotee should be free from all material contaminations and desires. This freedom is called vairāgya, or renouncement of material desires. One who engages in devotional service to the Lord according to regulative principles is automatically freed from material desires, and in that pure state of mind one can realize the Personality of Godhead. The Personality of Godhead, being situated in everyone's heart, instructs the devotee regarding pure devotional service so that he may ultimately achieve the association of the Lord. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10) as follows:

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te

"To one who constantly engages in the devotional service of the Lord with faith and love, the Lord certainly gives the intelligence to achieve Him at the ultimate end."

SB 3.13.43, Purport:

When a scientist discovers something impressive to the ignorant mass of people, the common man, without inquiry, accepts such a discovery as wonderful. But the intelligent man is not struck with wonder by such discoveries. He gives all credit to the person who created the wonderful brain of the scientist. A common man is also struck with wonder by the wonderful action of material nature, and he gives all credit to the cosmic manifestation. The learned Kṛṣṇa conscious person, however, knows well that behind the cosmic manifestation is the brain of Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10): mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. Since Kṛṣṇa can direct the wonderful cosmic manifestation, it is not at all wonderful for Him to assume the gigantic form of a boar and thus deliver the earth from the mire of the water. A devotee is therefore not astonished to see the wonderful boar because he knows that the Lord is able to act far more wonderfully by His potencies, which are inconceivable to the brain of even the most erudite scientist.

SB 3.13.49, Purport:

As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10), the Lord gives intelligence to the pure devotees so that they may be elevated to the highest perfectional stage. It is confirmed herein that a pure devotee, who constantly engages in the loving service of the Lord, is awarded all knowledge necessary to reach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For such a devotee there is nothing valuable to be achieved but the Lord's service. If one serves faithfully, there is no possibility of frustration because the Lord Himself takes charge of the devotee's advancement. The Lord is seated in everyone's heart, and He knows the devotee's motive and arranges everything achievable. In other words, the pseudo devotee, who is anxious to achieve material gains, cannot attain the highest perfectional stage because the Lord is in knowledge of his motive. One merely has to become sincere in his purpose, and then the Lord is there to help in every way.

SB 3.15.25, Purport:

Brahmājī confirms herewith that only persons who have developed the desirable qualities can enter into the kingdom of God. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the devotee's desirable qualities are described to be twenty-six in number. They are stated as follows: He is very kind; he does not quarrel with anyone; he accepts Kṛṣṇa consciousness as the highest goal of life; he is equal to everyone; no one can find fault in his character; he is magnanimous, mild and always clean, internally and externally; he does not profess to possess anything in this material world; he is a benefactor to all living entities; he is peaceful and is a soul completely surrendered to Kṛṣṇa; he has no material desire to fulfill; he is meek and humble, always steady, and has conquered the sensual activities; he does not eat more than required to maintain body and soul together; he is never mad after material identity; he is respectful to all others and does not demand respect for himself; he is very grave, very compassionate and very friendly; he is poetic; he is expert in all activities, and he is silent in nonsense.

SB 3.15.25, Purport:

He is not partial; he is kind both to human beings and to animals. He is not such a fool that he will kill a goat Nārāyaṇa to feed a human Nārāyaṇa, or daridra-nārāyaṇa. He is very kind to all living entities; therefore he has no enemy. He is very peaceful. These are the qualities of persons who are eligible to enter into the kingdom of God. That such a person gradually becomes liberated and enters the kingdom of God is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter, verse 2. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Canto, Third Chapter, verse 24, also states that if a person does not cry or exhibit bodily changes after chanting the holy name of God without offense, it is to be understood that he is hardhearted and that therefore his heart does not change even after he chants the holy name of God, Hare Kṛṣṇa. These bodily changes can take place due to ecstasy when we offenselessly chant the holy names of God: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

SB 3.15.45, Purport:

I am present throughout my body by my consciousness, but my consciousness is not present in another's body. The Supersoul, or Paramātmā, however, being present everywhere and within everyone, is also conscious of everyone's existence. The theory that the soul and the Supersoul are one is not acceptable because it is not confirmed by authoritative Vedic literature. The individual soul's consciousness cannot act in superconsciousness. This superconsciousness can be achieved, however, by dovetailing individual consciousness with the consciousness of the Supreme. This dovetailing process is called surrender, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. From the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā we learn very clearly that Arjuna, in the beginning, did not want to fight with his brothers and relatives, but after understanding Bhagavad-gītā he dovetailed his consciousness with the superconsciousness of Kṛṣṇa. He was then in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

SB 3.15.47, Purport:

They could only understand the Supreme Absolute Truth when they personally saw the Personality of Godhead with their own eyes. In other words, if one sees or understands the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the other two features of the Absolute Truth—namely impersonal Brahman and localized Paramātmā—are also automatically understood. Therefore the Kumāras confirm: "You are the ultimate Absolute Truth." The impersonalist may argue that since the Supreme Personality of Godhead was so nicely decorated, He was therefore not the Absolute Truth. But here it is confirmed that all the variegatedness of the absolute platform is constituted of śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. In the material world, any quality—goodness, passion or ignorance—is contaminated. Even the quality of goodness here in the material world is not free from tinges of passion and ignorance.

SB 3.15.50, Purport:

In other words, the transcendentalists who aspire to the impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā are not fully satisfied and still hanker for more. Even if they are satisfied in their minds, still, transcendentally, their eyes are not satisfied. But as soon as such persons come to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are satisfied in all respects. In other words, they become devotees and want to see the form of the Lord continually. It is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā that one who has developed transcendental love of Kṛṣṇa by smearing his eyes with the ointment of love sees constantly the eternal form of the Lord. The particular word used in this connection, anātmanām, signifies those who have no control over the mind and senses and who therefore speculate and want to become one with the Lord. Such persons cannot have the pleasure of seeing the eternal form of the Lord. For the impersonalists and the so-called yogīs, the Lord is always hidden by the curtain of yogamāyā. Bhagavad-gītā says that even when Lord Kṛṣṇa was seen by everyone while He was present on the surface of the earth, the impersonalists and the so-called yogīs could not see Him because they were devoid of devotional eyesight.

SB 3.16.18, Purport:

The statement in this verse dharmasya paramo guhyaḥ refers to the most confidential part of all religious principles. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The conclusion of Lord Kṛṣṇa in His advice to Arjuna is: "Give up all other religious engagement and just surrender unto Me." This is the most confidential knowledge in executing religious principles. In the Bhāgavatam also it is stated that if one does not become Kṛṣṇa conscious after very rigidly executing one's specified religious duties, all his labor in following so-called religious principles is simply a waste of time. Here also the sages confirm the statement that the Supreme Lord, not the demigods, is the ultimate goal of all religious principles. There are many foolish propagandists who say that worship of the demigods is also a way to reach the supreme goal, but in the authorized statements of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā this is not accepted. Bhagavad-gītā says that one who worships a particular demigod can reach the demigod's planet, but one who worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead can enter into Vaikuṇṭha.

SB 3.16.25, Purport:

The sages, the four Kumāras, now reject their cursing of the two doorkeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, because they are now conscious that persons who engage in the service of the Lord cannot be at fault at any stage. It is said that anyone who has implicit faith in the service of the Lord, or who actually engages in transcendental loving service, has all the good qualities of the demigods. Therefore, a devotee cannot be at fault. If sometimes it is found that he is in error by accident or by some temporary arrangement, that should not be taken very seriously. The cursing of Jaya and Vijaya is here repented. Now the Kumāras are thinking in terms of their position in the modes of passion and ignorance, and they are prepared to accept any kind of punishment from the Lord. In general, when dealing with devotees, we should not try to find faults. In Bhagavad-gītā also it is confirmed that the devotee who faithfully serves the Supreme Lord, even if found to commit a gross mistake, should be considered a sādhu, or saintly person. Due to former habits he may commit some wrong, but because he is engaged in the service of the Lord, that wrong should not be taken very seriously.

SB 3.16.27, Purport:

The transcendental abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā and confirmed in this verse, is self-illuminated. In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that in the spiritual world there is no need of sun, moon or electricity. This indicates that all the planets there are self-illuminated, self-sufficient and independent; everything there is complete. Lord Kṛṣṇa says that once one goes to that Vaikuṇṭha planet, he never returns. The inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha never return to the material world, but the incident of Jaya and Vijaya was a different case. They came to the material world for some time, and then they returned to Vaikuṇṭha.

SB 3.16.32, Purport:

There are many similar incidents where great yogīs and brāhmaṇas, by dint of their yoga practice, have gone from this material world to Vaikuṇṭhaloka—but they were not meant to stay there. They came back. It is also confirmed here that the Lord was surrounded by many Vaikuṇṭha airplanes. Vaikuṇṭhaloka is described here as having splendid opulence, far surpassing the splendor of this material world.

All other living creatures, including the demigods, are born of Brahmā, and Brahmā is born of Lord Viṣṇu. Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā, in the Tenth Chapter, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: (BG 10.8) Lord Viṣṇu is the origin of all manifestations in the material world. Those who know that Lord Viṣṇu is the origin of everything, who are conversant with the process of creation and who understand that Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, is the most worshipable object of all living entities, engage themselves in Viṣṇu worship as Vaiṣṇavas. The Vedic hymns also confirm this: oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam. The goal of life is to understand Viṣṇu. The Bhāgavatam also confirms this elsewhere. Foolish people, not knowing that Viṣṇu is the supreme worshipable object, create so many worshipable objects in this material world, and therefore they fall down.

SB 3.18.8, Purport:

Those who are demons cannot understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead floated the earth on water, but to devotees of the Lord this is not a very wonderful act. Not only the earth but many, many millions of planets are floating in the air, and this floating power is endowed upon them by the Lord; there is no other possible explanation. The materialists can explain that the planets are floating by the law of gravitation, but the law of gravitation works under the control or direction of the Supreme Lord. That is the version of Bhagavad-gītā, which confirms, by the Lord's statement, that behind the material laws or nature's laws and behind the growth, maintenance, production and evolution of all the planetary systems—behind everything—is the Lord's direction. The Lord's activities could be appreciated only by the demigods, headed by Brahmā, and therefore when they saw the uncommon prowess of the Lord in keeping the earth on the surface of the water, they showered flowers on Him in appreciation of His transcendental activity.

SB 3.19.22, Purport:

Even famous yogīs and demons can sometimes enact very magical feats by their mystic power, but in the presence of the Sudarśana cakra, when it is let loose by the Lord, all such magical jugglery is dispersed. The instance of the quarrel between Durvāsā Muni and Mahārāja Ambarīṣa is a practical example in this matter. Durvāsā Muni wanted to display many magical wonders, but when the Sudarśana cakra appeared, Durvāsā himself was afraid and fled to various planets for his personal protection. The Lord is described here as tri-pāt, which means that He is the enjoyer of three kinds of sacrifices. In Bhagavad-gītā the Lord confirms that He is the beneficiary and enjoyer of all sacrifices, penances and austerities. The Lord is the enjoyer of three kinds of yajña. As further described in Bhagavad-gītā, there are sacrifices of goods, sacrifices of meditation and sacrifices of philosophical speculation. Those on the paths of jñāna, yoga and karma all have to come in the end to the Supreme Lord because vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19)—the Supreme Lord is the ultimate enjoyer of everything. That is the perfection of all sacrifice.

SB 3.19.24, Purport:

In this verse the Lord is addressed as Keśava because He killed the demon Keśī in the beginning of creation. Keśava is also a name of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all incarnations, and it is confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā that Govinda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, exists simultaneously in His different incarnations and expansions. The demon's attempt to measure the Supreme Personality of Godhead is significant. The demon wanted to embrace Him with his arms, thinking that with his limited arms he could capture the Absolute by material power. He did not know that God is the greatest of the great and the smallest of the small. No one can capture the Supreme Lord or bring Him under his control. But the demoniac person always attempts to measure the length and breadth of the Supreme Lord. By His inconceivable potency the Lord can become the universal form, as explained in Bhagavad-gītā, and at the same time He can remain within the box of His devotees as their worshipable Deity. There are many devotees who keep a statue of the Lord in a small box and carry it with them everywhere; every morning they worship the Lord in the box. The Supreme Lord, Keśava, or the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is not bound by any measurement of our calculation. He can remain with His devotee in any suitable form, yet He is unapproachable by any amount of demoniac activities.

SB 3.19.28, Purport:

Yoga practice is not intended to keep the body fit and young. Such advertisements of so-called yoga are not approved by any standard method. Particularly mentioned in this verse is the word yam, or "unto whom," indicating that meditation should be targeted on the Personality of Godhead. Even if one concentrates his mind on the boar form of the Lord, that is also yoga. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, one who concentrates his mind constantly in meditation upon the Personality of Godhead in one of His many varieties of forms is the first-class yogī, and he can very easily attain trance simply by meditating upon the form of the Lord. If one is able to continue such meditation on the Lord's form at the time of one's death, one is liberated from this mortal body and is transferred to the kingdom of God. This opportunity was given to the demon by the Lord, and therefore Brahmā and other demigods were astonished. In other words, the perfection of yoga practice can be attained by a demon also if he is simply kicked by the Lord.

SB 3.19.31, Purport:

This verse confirms the statement in Bhagavad-gītā that the Lord appears as He is from His transcendental abode for the sake of killing the miscreants and saving the devotees. By killing the demon Hiraṇyākṣa He fulfilled His promise to kill the demons and always protect the demigods headed by Brahmā. The statement that the Lord returned to His own abode indicates that He has His own particular transcendental residence. Since He is full of all energies, He is all-pervasive in spite of His residing in Goloka Vṛndāvana, just as the sun, although situated in a particular place within the universe, is present by its sunshine throughout the universe.

SB 3.20.8, Purport:

It is stated here that the Lord assumed the form of a boar by His own potency. His form is not actually the form of a conditioned soul. A conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of body by the higher authority of material laws, but here it is clearly said that the Lord was not forced to accept the form of a boar by the external power. In Bhagavad-gītā the same fact is confirmed; when the Lord descends to this earth, He assumes a form by His own internal potency. The form of the Lord, therefore, can never consist of material energy. The Māyāvāda version that when Brahman assumes a form the form is accepted from māyā is not acceptable, because although māyā is superior to the conditioned soul, she is not superior to the Supreme Personality of Godhead; she is under the control of the Supreme Godhead, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Māyā is under His superintendence; māyā cannot overcome the Lord. The Māyāvāda idea that the living entity is the Supreme Absolute Truth but has become covered by māyā is invalid, because māyā cannot be so great that it can cover the Supreme. The covering capacity can be employed on the part and parcel of Brahman, not on the Supreme Brahman.

SB 3.20.12, Purport:

There are three Viṣṇus mentioned. One is Mahā-viṣṇu, another is Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and the third is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. The First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam discusses all these three Viṣṇus, and here also it is confirmed that Viṣṇu is the cause of creation. From Bhagavad-gītā also we learn that prakṛti begins to work and is still working under Kṛṣṇa's, or Viṣṇu's, glance of superintendence, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unchangeable. One should not mistakenly think that because the creation emanates from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He has therefore transformed into this material cosmic manifestation. He exists in His personal form always, but the cosmic manifestation takes place by His inconceivable potency. The workings of that energy are difficult to comprehend, but it is understood from Vedic literature that the conditioned soul creates his own destiny and is offered a particular body by the laws of nature under the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who always accompanies him as Paramātmā.

SB 3.20.16, Purport:

It appears from this verse that the conditioned souls who rested within the body of the Personality of Godhead after the dissolution of the last creation came out in the sum total form of the lotus. This is called hiraṇyagarbha. The first living entity to come out was Lord Brahmā, who is independently able to create the rest of the manifested universe. The lotus is described here as effulgent as the glare of a thousand suns. This indicates that the living entities, as parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, are also of the same quality, since the Lord also diffuses His bodily glare, known as brahma-jyotir. The description of Vaikuṇṭhaloka, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures, is confirmed herewith. In Vaikuṇṭha, the spiritual sky, there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, electricity or fire. Every planet there is self-effulgent like the sun.

SB 3.20.17, Purport:

At a certain time, the Personality of Godhead, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, lies in the Kāraṇa Ocean and produces many thousands of universes from His breathing; then He enters again into each and every universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and fills up half of each universe with His own perspiration. The other half of the universe remains vacant, and that vacant region is called outer space. Then the lotus flower sprouts from His abdomen and produces the first living creature, Brahmā. Then again, as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Lord enters into the heart of every living entity, including Brahmā. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, Fifteenth Chapter. The Lord says, "I am seated in everyone's heart, and by Me are remembrance and forgetfulness made possible." As the witness of the activities of the individual entities, the Lord gives each one remembrance and intelligence to act according to his desire at the time he was annihilated in his last birth in the last millennium. This intelligence is invoked according to one's own capacity, or by the law of karma.

SB 3.20.51, Purport:

The importance of sacrifice is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, Third Chapter, verse 10. The Lord confirms there that in the beginning of creation Brahmā created the Manus, along with the ritualistic sacrificial method, and blessed them: "Continue these sacrificial rites, and you will be gradually elevated to your proper position of self-realization and will also enjoy material happiness." All the living entities created by Brahmā are conditioned souls and are inclined to lord it over material nature. The purpose of sacrificial rituals is to revive, gradually, the spiritual realization of the living entities. That is the beginning of life within this universe. These sacrificial rituals, however, are intended to please the Supreme Lord. Unless one pleases the Supreme Lord, or unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, one cannot be happy either in material enjoyment or in spiritual realization.

SB 3.21.11, Purport:

The descriptions in verses 9-11 of the Lord in His transcendental, eternal form are understood to be descriptions from the authoritative Vedic version. These descriptions are certainly not the imagination of Kardama Muni. The decorations of the Lord are beyond material conception, as admitted even by impersonalists like Śaṅkarācārya: Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has nothing to do with the material creation. The varieties of the transcendental Lord—His body, His form, His dress, His instruction, His words—are not manufactured by the material energy, but are all confirmed in the Vedic literature. By performance of yoga Kardama Muni actually saw the Supreme Lord as He is. There was no point in seeing an imagined form of God after practicing yoga for ten thousand years. The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form. The process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to deliver the form of Kṛṣṇa directly.

SB 3.21.14, Purport:

Hellish and demoniac persons do not actually know what is the ultimate attainment in perfection, and therefore they think that sense gratification is the highest goal of life. They advise that one can satisfy the senses and at the same time, by reciting some mantra and by some practice, can cheaply aspire for perfection. Such persons are described here as hata-medhasaḥ, which means "those whose brains are spoiled." They aspire for material enjoyment by perfection of yoga or meditation. In Bhagavad-gītā it is stated by the Lord that the intelligence of those who worship the demigods has been spoiled. Similarly, here too it is stated by Kardama Muni that one who aspires after material enjoyment by practice of yoga has spoiled his brain substance and is fool number one. Actually, the intelligent practitioner of yoga should aspire for nothing else but to cross over the ocean of nescience by worshiping the Personality of Godhead and to see the lotus feet of the Lord. The Lord is so kind, however, that even today persons whose brain substance is spoiled are given the benediction to become cats, dogs or hogs and enjoy material happiness from sex life and sense gratification. The Lord confirms this benediction in Bhagavad-gītā: "Whatever a person aspires to receive from Me, I offer him as he desires."

SB 3.21.30, Purport:

Here the words tīrthī-kṛtāśeṣa-kriyārthaḥ are significant. Tīrtha means a sanctified place where charity is given. People used to go to places of pilgrimage and give munificently in charity. This system is still current. Therefore the Lord said, "In order to sanctify your activities and the results of your actions, you will offer everything unto Me." This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, the result should be given to Me only." In another place in Bhagavad-gītā the Lord said, "I am the enjoyer of all sacrifices, all penances and everything done for the welfare of mankind or society." All activities, therefore, whether for the welfare of family, society, country or humanity at large, must be performed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the instruction given by the Lord to Kardama Muni. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira welcomed Nārada Muni: "Wherever you are present, that place becomes sanctified because the Lord Himself is always seated in your heart." Similarly, if we act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness under the direction of the Lord and His representative, then everything is sanctified. This is the indication given to Kardama Muni, who acted on it and therefore received the most excellent wife and child, as will be disclosed in later verses.

SB 3.21.34, Purport:

It is clearly stated here that the sage Kardama began to look to the path by which the Lord was being carried to Vaikuṇṭha. It is thus confirmed that the Lord descends from His abode, Vaikuṇṭha, in the spiritual sky, and is carried by Garuḍa. The path which leads to Vaikuṇṭha is not worshiped by the ordinary class of transcendentalists. Only those who are already liberated from material bondage can become devotees of the Lord. Those who are not liberated from material bondage cannot understand transcendental devotional service. In Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). There are many persons who are trying to attain perfection by striving for liberation from material bondage, and those who are actually liberated are called brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) or siddha. Only the siddhas, or persons liberated from material bondage, can become devotees. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: anyone who is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or devotional service, is already liberated from the influence of the modes of material nature. Here it is also confirmed that the path of devotional service is worshiped by liberated persons, not the conditioned souls.

SB 3.21.52-54, Purport:

The institution of four varṇas and four āśramas is confirmed herewith to be bhagavad-racita, which means "designed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead." In Bhagavad-gītā this is also confirmed: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). The Lord says that the institution of four varṇas and four āśramas "is created by Me." Anything created by the Lord cannot be closed or covered. The divisions of varṇas and āśramas will continue to exist, either in their original form or in degraded form, but because they are created by the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they cannot be extinguished. They are like the sun, a creation of God, and therefore will remain. Either covered by clouds or in a clear sky, the sun will continue to exist. Similarly, when the varṇāśrama system becomes degraded, it appears as a hereditary caste system, but in every society there is an intelligent class of men, a martial class, a mercantile class and a laborer class.

SB 3.23.7, Purport:

What are the graces of the Lord? It is stated here that the graces of the Lord are abhaya, free from fearfulness. In the material world, if someone accumulates a million dollars, he is always full of fear because he is always thinking, "What if the money is lost?" But the benediction of the Lord, bhagavat-prasāda, is never to be lost. It is simply to be enjoyed. There is no question of loss. One simply gains and enjoys gaining. Bhagavad-gītā also confirms this: when one achieves the grace of the Lord, the result is that sarva-duḥkhāni, all distresses, are destroyed. When situated in the transcendental position, one is freed from the two kinds of material diseases—hankering and lamentation. This is also stated in Bhagavad-gītā. After devotional life begins, we can achieve the full result of love of Godhead. Love of Kṛṣṇa is the highest perfection of bhagavat-prasāda, or divine mercy. This transcendental achievement is so greatly valuable that no material happiness can compare to it. Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī said that if one achieves the grace of Lord Caitanya he becomes so great that he does not care a fig even for the demigods, he thinks of monism as hellish, and for him the perfection of controlling the senses is as easy as anything. Heavenly pleasures become to him no more than stories. Actually, there is no comparison between material happiness and transcendental happiness.

SB 3.23.42, Purport:

The words yair āśritas tīrtha-padaś caraṇaḥ are significant here. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as tīrtha-pāda. The Ganges is called a sacred river because it emanates from the toe of Viṣṇu. The Ganges is meant to eradicate all the material distresses of the conditioned souls. For any living entity, therefore, who has taken shelter of the holy lotus feet of the Lord, nothing is impossible. Kardama Muni is special not because he was a great mystic, but because he was a great devotee. Therefore it is said here that for a great devotee like Kardama Muni, nothing is impossible. Although yogīs can perform wonderful feats, as Kardama has already displayed, Kardama was more than a yogī because he was a great devotee of the Lord; therefore he was more glorious than an ordinary yogī. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, "Out of the many yogīs, he who is a devotee of the Lord is first class." For a person like Kardama Muni there is no question of being conditioned; he was already a liberated soul and better than the demigods, who are also conditioned. Although he was enjoying with his wife and many other women, he was above material, conditional life. Therefore the word vyasanātyayaḥ is used to indicate that he was beyond the position of a conditioned soul. He was transcendental to all material limitations.

SB 3.24.13, Purport:

Sometimes the father and the spiritual master may be the same man, and sometimes they are different men. In any case, the order of the father or the order of the spiritual master must be carried out without hesitation, with an immediate yes. There should be no argument. That is real service to the father and to the spiritual master. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has stated that the order of the spiritual master is the life and soul of the disciples. As a man cannot separate his life from his body, a disciple cannot separate the order of the spiritual master from his life. If a disciple follows the instruction of the spiritual master in that way, he is sure to become perfect. This is confirmed in the Upaniṣads: the import of Vedic instruction is revealed automatically only to one who has implicit faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and in his spiritual master. One may be materially considered an illiterate man, but if he has faith in the spiritual master as well as in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then the meaning of scriptural revelation is immediately manifested before him.

SB 3.24.26, Purport:

Lord Caitanya is that devotee. Kṛṣṇa appeared in the form of a devotee, but although He never disclosed Himself, Rūpa Gosvāmī could understand His identity, for the Lord cannot hide Himself from a pure devotee. Rūpa Gosvāmī detected Him when he offered his first obeisances to Lord Caitanya. He knew that Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa Himself and therefore offered his obeisances with the following words: "I offer my respects to Kṛṣṇa, who has now appeared as Lord Caitanya." This is also confirmed in the prayers of Prahlāda Mahārāja: in Kali-yuga He does not directly appear, but He appears as a devotee. Viṣṇu, therefore, is known as tri-yuga. Another explanation of tri-yuga is that He has three pairs of divine attributes, namely power and affluence, piety and renown, and wisdom and dispassion. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, His three pairs of opulences are complete riches and complete strength, complete fame and complete beauty, and complete wisdom and complete renunciation. There are different interpretations of tri-yuga, but it is accepted by all learned scholars that tri-yuga means Viṣṇu. When Kardama Muni understood that his son, Kapila, was Viṣṇu Himself, he wanted to offer his obeisances. Therefore, when Kapila was alone he offered his respects and expressed his mind as follows.

SB 3.24.29, Purport:

Devotional service is such a powerful transcendental method that it surpasses all other methods of transcendental realization. The Lord says, therefore, that He lives neither in Vaikuṇṭha nor in the heart of a yogī, but He lives where His pure devotees are always chanting and glorifying Him. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as bhakta-vatsala. He is never described as jñānī-vatsala or yogī-vatsala. He is always described as bhakta-vatsala because He is more inclined toward His devotees than toward other transcendentalists. In Bhagavad-gītā it is confirmed that only a devotee can understand Him as He is. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti: (BG 18.55) "One can understand Me only by devotional service, not otherwise." That understanding alone is real because although jñānīs, mental speculators, can realize only the effulgence, or the bodily luster, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and yogīs can realize only the partial representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a bhakta not only realizes Him as He is but also associates with the Personality of Godhead face to face.

SB 3.24.33, Purport:

The word param is used in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the phrase paraṁ satyam, to refer to the summum bonum, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. param is explained further by the next word, pradhānam, which means the chief, the origin, the source of everything—sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1)—the cause of all causes. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not formless; He is puruṣam, or the enjoyer, the original person. He is the time element and is all-cognizant. He knows everything—past, present and future—as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says, "I know everything—present, past and future—in every corner of the universe." The material world, which is moving under the spell of the three modes of nature, is also a manifestation of His energy. parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate: everything that we see is an interaction of His energies (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8 (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport)). parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis tathedam akhilaṁ jagat.

SB 3.24.38, Purport:

Actually, human life is meant for conquering the insurmountable process of birth and death. That can be done as stated here. Māṁ bhaja: one must engage in the devotional service of the Lord. In Bhagavad-gītā also the Lord says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Just become My devotee. Just worship Me." (BG 9.34) But foolish so-called scholars say that it is not Kṛṣṇa whom we must worship and to whom we must surrender; it is something else. Without Kṛṣṇa's mercy, therefore, no one can understand the Sāṅkhya philosophy or any philosophy which is especially meant for liberation. Vedic knowledge confirms that one becomes entangled in this material life because of ignorance and that one can become free from material embarrassment by becoming situated in factual knowledge. Sāṅkhya means that factual knowledge by which one can get out of the material entanglement.

SB 3.24.43, Purport:

We are conditioned souls, but He is not affected, although the material nature has emanated from Him. He is the supreme living entity and is never affected by māyā, but we are subordinate, minute living entities, prone to be affected by the limitations of māyā. If he is in constant contact with the Supreme Lord by devotional service, the conditioned living entity also becomes freed from the infection of māyā. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: sa guṇān samatītyaitān (BG 14.26). A person engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is at once liberated from the influence of the three modes of material nature. In other words, once the conditioned soul engages himself in devotional service, he also becomes liberated like the Lord.

SB 3.25.2, Purport:

In Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that no one can be equal to or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in the Vedas also: eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. He is the supreme living entity and is supplying the necessities of all other living entities. Thus all other living entities, both viṣṇu-tattva and jīva-tattva, are subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. The same concept is confirmed here. Na hy asya varṣmaṇaḥ puṁsām: amongst the living entities, no one can surpass the Supreme Person because no one is richer, more famous, stronger, more beautiful, wiser or more renounced than He. These qualifications make Him the Supreme Godhead, the cause of all causes. Yogīs are very proud of performing wonderful feats, but no one can compare to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.25.18, Purport:

That is the beginning of devotional service. Unless one is liberated from material contamination, one cannot engage himself in the devotional service of the Lord. In this verse, therefore, it is stated, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktena: when one is in full knowledge of one's constitutional position and is in the renounced order of life, detached from material attraction, then, by pure devotional service, bhakti-yuktena, he can engage himself as a loving servant of the Lord. Paripaśyati means that he can see everything in its right perspective. Then the influence of material nature becomes almost nil. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā: (BG 18.54) when one is self-realized he becomes happy and free from the influence of material nature, and at that time he is freed from lamentation and hankering. The Lord states that position as mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54), the real state of beginning devotional service. Similarly, it is confirmed in the Nārada Pañcarātra that when the senses are purified they can then be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. One who is attached to material contamination cannot be a devotee.

SB 3.25.20, Purport:

It is recommended here that if one at all wants to realize Brahman, or spiritual perfection, his attachment should be transferred to the sādhu, or devotee. Lord Caitanya also confirmed this. Lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya: (CC Madhya 22.54) simply by a moment's association with a sādhu, one can attain perfection.

Mahātmā is a synonym of sādhu. It is said that service to a mahātmā, or elevated devotee of the Lord, is dvāram āhur vimukteḥ, the royal road of liberation. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam (SB 5.5.2). Rendering service to the materialists has the opposite effect. If anyone offers service to a gross materialist, or a person engaged only in sense enjoyment, then by association with such a person the door to hell is opened. The same principle is confirmed here. Attachment to a devotee is attachment to the service of the Lord because if one associates with a sādhu, the result will be that the sādhu will teach him how to become a devotee, a worshiper and a sincere servitor of the Lord.

SB 3.25.24, Purport:

A pure soul who is prepared to be freed from this material entanglement must first of all be free from the association of the three modes of nature. Our consciousness at the present moment is polluted because of association with the three modes of nature; therefore in Bhagavad-gītā the same principle is stated. It is advised, jita-saṅga-doṣāḥ: one should be freed from the contaminated association of the three modes of material nature. Here also, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this is confirmed: a pure devotee, who is preparing to transfer himself to the spiritual kingdom, is also freed from the association of the three modes of material nature. We have to seek the association of such devotees. For this reason we have begun the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. There are many mercantile, scientific and other associations in human society to develop a particular type of education or consciousness, but there is no association which helps one to get free from all material association. If anyone has reached the stage where he must become free from this material contamination, then he has to seek the association of devotees, wherein Kṛṣṇa consciousness is exclusively cultured. One can thereby become freed from all material association.

SB 3.25.29, Purport:

Therefore, jñāna-yoga does not actually end material existence. Similarly, regarding the haṭha-yoga system, which aims at the localized aspect of the Lord, Paramātmā, it has been experienced that many yogīs, such as Viśvāmitra, fall down. But bhakti-yogīs, once approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead, never come back to this material world, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yad gatvā na nivartante: (BG 15.6) upon going, one never comes back. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: (BG 4.9) after giving up this body, he never comes back again to accept a material body. Nirvāṇa does not finish the existence of the soul. The soul is ever existing. Therefore nirvāṇa means to end one's material existence, and to end material existence means to go back home, back to Godhead.

SB 3.25.33, Purport:

For a devotee, liberation is no problem at all. Liberation takes place without separate endeavor. Bhakti, therefore, is far better than mukti or the impersonalist position. The impersonalists undergo severe penances and austerities to attain mukti, but the bhakta, simply by engaging himself in the bhakti process, especially in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, immediately develops control over the tongue by engaging it in chanting, and accepting the remnants of foodstuff offered to the Personality of Godhead. As soon as the tongue is controlled, naturally all other senses are controlled automatically. Sense control is the perfection of the yoga principle, and one's liberation begins immediately as soon as he engages himself in the service of the Lord. It is confirmed by Kapiladeva that bhakti, or devotional service, is garīyasī, more glorious than siddhi, liberation.

SB 3.25.36, Purport:

There are three divisions of devotees—first-class, second-class and third-class. Even the third-class devotees are liberated souls. It is explained in this verse that although they do not have knowledge, simply by seeing the beautiful decoration of the Deity in the temple, the devotee is absorbed in thought of Him and loses all other consciousness. Simply by fixing oneself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, engaging the senses in the service of the Lord, one is imperceptibly liberated. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Simply by discharging uncontaminated devotional service as prescribed in the scriptures, one becomes equal to Brahman. In Bhagavad-gītā it is said, brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26) This means that the living entity in his original state is Brahman because he is part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman. But simply because of his forgetfulness of his real nature as an eternal servitor of the Lord, he is overwhelmed and captured by māyā. His forgetfulness of his real constitutional position is māyā. Otherwise he is eternally Brahman.

SB 3.25.36, Purport:

The Deities of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī and Nārāyaṇa, and Rāma and Sītā are very attractive to devotees, so much so that when they see the statue decorated in the temple of the Lord they become fully absorbed in thought of the Lord. That is the state of liberation. In other words, it is confirmed herewith that even a third-class devotee is in the transcendental position, above those who are trying for liberation by speculation or by other methods. Even great impersonalists like Śukadeva Gosvāmī and the four Kumāras were attracted by the beauty of the Deities in the temple, by the decorations and by the aroma of tulasī offered to the Lord, and they became devotees. Even though they were in the liberated state, instead of remaining impersonalists they were attracted by the beauty of the Lord and became devotees.

SB 3.25.36, Purport:

Even third-class devotees who have no literary knowledge or no time to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā get the opportunity to hear about the pastimes of the Lord. In this way their minds may remain always absorbed in the thought of the Lord—His form, His activities and His transcendental nature. This state of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a liberated stage. Lord Caitanya, therefore, recommended five important processes in the discharge of devotional service: (1) to chant the holy names of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, (2) to associate with devotees and serve them as far as possible, (3) to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, (4) to see the decorated temple and the Deity and, if possible, (5) to live in a place like Vṛndāvana or Mathurā. These five items alone can help a devotee achieve the highest perfectional stage. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā and here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That third-class devotees can also imperceptibly achieve liberation is accepted in all Vedic literatures.

SB 3.25.38, Purport:

The reason for freedom from destruction is also described. The devotees accept the Supreme Lord as the most dear personality and reciprocate with Him in different relationships. They accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the dearmost friend, the dearmost relative, the dearmost son, the dearmost preceptor, the dearmost well-wisher or the dearmost Deity. The Lord is eternal; therefore any relationship in which we accept Him is also eternal. It is clearly confirmed herein that the relationships cannot be destroyed, and therefore the opulences of those relationships are never destroyed. Every living entity has the propensity to love someone. We can see that if someone has no object of love, he generally directs his love to a pet animal like a cat or a dog. Thus the eternal propensity for love in all living entities is always searching for a place to reside. From this verse we can learn that we can love the Supreme Personality of Godhead as our dearmost object—as a friend, as a son, as a preceptor or as a well-wisher—and there will be no cheating and no end to such love. We shall eternally enjoy the relationship with the Supreme Lord in different aspects. A special feature of this verse is the acceptance of the Supreme Lord as the supreme preceptor. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken directly by the Supreme Lord, and Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa as guru, or spiritual master. Similarly, we should accept only Kṛṣṇa as the supreme spiritual master.

SB 3.25.41, Purport:

It is indicated herein that the cycle of birth and death cannot be stopped unless one is a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord. It is said, hariṁ vinā na mṛtim taranti. One cannot surpass the cycle of birth and death unless one is favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The same concept is confirmed herewith: one may take to the system of understanding the Absolute Truth by one's own imperfect sensory speculation, or one may try to realize the self by the mystic yoga process; but whatever one may do, unless he comes to the point of surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, no process can give him liberation. One may ask if this means that those who are undergoing so much penance and austerity by strictly following the rules and regulations are endeavoring in vain. The answer is given by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32): ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Lord Brahmā and other demigods prayed to the Lord when Kṛṣṇa was in the womb of Devakī: "My dear lotus-eyed Lord, there are persons who are puffed up with the thought that they have become liberated or one with God or have become God, but in spite of thinking in such a puffed-up way, their intelligence is not laudable. They are less intelligent." It is stated that their intelligence, whether high or low, is not even purified. In purified intelligence a living entity cannot think otherwise than to surrender. Bhagavad-gītā, therefore, confirms that purified intelligence arises in the person of a very wise man. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After many, many births, one who is actually advanced in intelligence surrenders unto the Supreme Lord.

SB 3.25.41, Purport:

As soon as one falls down to material activity, there is no rescue from the cycle of birth and death. It is stated here by Lord Kapila, "Without My mercy" (nānyatra mad bhagavataḥ). The Lord is stated here to be Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, indicating that He is full of all opulences and is therefore perfectly competent to deliver one from the cycle of birth and death. He is also called pradhāna because He is the Supreme. He is equal to everyone, but to one who surrenders to Him He is especially favorable. It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that the Lord is equal to everyone; no one is His enemy and no one is His friend. But to one who surrenders unto Him, He is especially inclined. By the grace of the Lord, simply by surrendering unto Him one can get out of this cycle of birth and death. Otherwise, one may go on in many, many lives and may many times attempt other processes for liberation.

SB 3.25.42, Purport:

The demigods are also ordinary living entities, but due to their faithfulness—their devotional service attitude—they have been promoted to such posts. These different demigods, or directors, such as Candra, Varuṇa and Vāyu, are called adhikāri-devatā. The demigods are departmental heads. The government of the Supreme Lord consists not only of one planet or two or three; there are millions of planets and millions of universes. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has a huge government, and He requires assistants. The demigods are considered His bodily limbs. These are the descriptions of Vedic literature. Under these circumstances, the sun-god, the moon-god, the fire-god and the air-god are working under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). The natural laws are being conducted under His superintendence. Because He is in the background, everything is being performed punctually and regularly.

SB 3.25.43, Purport:

One who actually wants to be liberated from the entanglement of this material world and go back home, back to Godhead, is actually a mystic yogī. The words explicitly used here are yuktena bhakti-yogena. Those yogīs, or mystics, who engage in devotional service are the first-class yogīs. The first-class yogīs, as described in Bhagavad-gītā, are those who are constantly thinking of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. These yogīs are not without knowledge and renunciation. To become a bhakti-yogī means to automatically attain knowledge and renunciation. That is the consequent result of bhakti-yoga. In the Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, it is also confirmed that one who engages in the devotional service of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, has complete transcendental knowledge and renunciation, and there is no explanation for these attainments. Ahaitukī—without reason, they come. Even if a person is completely illiterate, the transcendental knowledge of the scriptures is revealed unto him simply because of his engagement in devotional service.

SB 3.26.1, Purport:

It is generally understood by the paramparā system, or by disciplic succession, to be the science of devotional service. Preliminary studies of devotional service have already been explained. Now the analytical study of devotional service will be explained by the Lord, who says that by such an analytical study, one becomes freed from the modes of material nature. The same assertion is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā: by understanding the Lord according to various categories, one can become eligible to enter into the kingdom of God. This is also explained here. By understanding the science of devotional service in Sāṅkhya philosophy, one can become free from the modes of material nature. The eternal self, after becoming freed from the spell of material nature, becomes eligible to enter into the kingdom of God. As long as one has even a slight desire to enjoy or lord it over material nature, there is no chance of his being freed from the influence of nature's material modes. Therefore, one has to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead analytically, as explained in the Sāṅkhya system of philosophy by Lord Kapiladeva.

SB 3.26.2, Purport:

It is said that by proper understanding of the pure self, or by self-realization, one can be freed from material attachment. Knowledge leads one to attain the ultimate perfection of life and to see oneself as he is. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.8) also confirms this. Tam eva viditvāti-mṛtyum eti: simply by understanding one's spiritual position, or by seeing oneself as he is, one can be freed from material entanglement. In various ways, the seeing of oneself is described in the Vedic literatures, and it is confirmed in the Bhāgavatam (puruṣasya ātma-darśanam) that one has to see oneself and know what he is. As Kapiladeva explains to His mother, this "seeing" can be done by hearing from the proper authoritative source. Kapiladeva is the greatest authority because He is the Personality of Godhead, and if someone accepts whatever is explained as it is, without interpretation, then he can see himself.

SB 3.26.3, Purport:

This is individual consciousness. Similarly, there is superconsciousness. The example can be given of a small light and the sunlight. The sunlight is perceived everywhere, even within the room or in the sky, but the small light is experienced within a specific limit. Similarly, our consciousness is perceived within the limit of our particular body, but the superconsciousness, or the existence of God, is perceived everywhere. He is present everywhere by His energy. It is stated in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa that whatever we find, anywhere and everywhere, is the distribution of the energy of the Supreme Lord. In Bhagavad-gītā also it is confirmed that the Lord is all-pervading and exists everywhere by His two kinds of energy, one spiritual and the other material. Both the spiritual and material energies are spread everywhere, and that is the proof of the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.26.3, Purport:

It is explained here, svayaṁ-jyotiḥ: He is light Himself. We have experience in the material world of one light's being a reflection of another, just as moonlight is a reflection of the sunlight. Sunlight is also the reflection of the brahma-jyotir. Similarly, brahma-jyotir, the spiritual effulgence, is a reflection of the body of the Supreme Lord. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavataḥ (Bs. 5.40). The brahma-jyotir, or Brahman effulgence, is due to His bodily luster. Therefore it is said here, svayaṁ-jyotiḥ: He Himself is light. His light is distributed in different ways, as the brahma-jyotir, as sunlight and as moonlight. Bhagavad-gītā confirms that in the spiritual world there is no need of sunlight, moonlight or electricity. The Upaniṣads also confirm this; because the bodily luster of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is sufficient to illuminate the spiritual world, there is no need of sunlight, moonlight or any other light or electricity. This self-illumination also contradicts the theory that the spirit soul, or the spiritual consciousness, develops at a certain point in material combination. The term svayaṁ-jyotiḥ indicates that there is no tinge of anything material or any material reaction. It is confirmed here that the concept of the Lord's all-pervasiveness is due to His illumination everywhere.

SB 3.26.3, Purport:

Similarly, although the supreme light is situated in His personal abode, Vaikuṇṭha or Vṛndāvana, His light is diffused not only in the spiritual world but beyond that. In the material world also, that light is reflected by the sun globe, and the sunlight is reflected by the moon globe. Thus although He is situated in His own abode, His light is distributed all over the spiritual and material worlds. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) confirms this. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ: He is living in Goloka, but still He is present all over the creation. He is the Supersoul of everything, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He has innumerable transcendental qualities. It is also concluded that although He is undoubtedly a person, He is not a puruṣa of this material world. Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand that beyond this material world there can be a person; therefore they are impersonalists. But it is explained very nicely here that the Personality of Godhead is beyond material existence.

SB 3.26.9, Purport:

In the Vedic literatures it is said that by the glance of the Supreme Lord the total material energy is impregnated, and then everything is born of material nature. It is also confirmed in the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that under His glance, adhyakṣeṇa—under His direction and by His will—nature is working. It is not that nature works blindly. After understanding the position of the conditioned souls in relation to material nature, Devahūti wanted to know how nature works under the direction of the Lord and what the relationship is between the material nature and the Lord. In other words, she wanted to learn the characteristics of the Supreme Lord in relation to the material nature.

SB 3.26.18, Purport:

Here it is stated that within the heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead resides as the Supersoul. This situation is also explained in Bhagavad-gītā: the Supersoul rests beside the individual soul and acts as a witness. This is also confirmed elsewhere in the Vedic literature: two birds are sitting on the same tree of the body; one is witnessing, and the other is eating the fruits of the tree. This puruṣa, or Paramātmā, who resides within the body of the individual soul, is described in Bhagavad-gītā (13.23) as the upadraṣṭā, witness, and the anumantā, sanctioning authority. The conditioned soul engages in the happiness and distress of the particular body given him by the arrangement of the external energy of the Supreme Lord. But the supreme living being, or the Paramātmā, is different from the conditioned soul. He is described in Bhagavad-gītā as maheśvara, or the Supreme Lord. He is Paramātmā, not jīvātmā. Paramātmā means the Supersoul, who is sitting by the side of the conditioned soul just to sanction his activities. The conditioned soul comes to this material world in order to lord it over material nature. Since one cannot do anything without the sanction of the Supreme Lord, He lives with the jīva soul as witness and sanction-giver. He is also bhoktā; He gives maintenance and sustenance to the conditioned soul.

SB 3.26.46, Purport:

Different elements, such as sound, sky, air, fire and water, can be perceived in the earth. Another feature of the earth especially mentioned here is that earth can manifest different forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By this statement of Kapila's it is confirmed that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Brahman, has innumerable forms, which are described in the scriptures. By manipulation of earth and its products, such as stone, wood and jewels, these forms of the Supreme Lord can be present before our eyes. When a form of Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Viṣṇu is manifested by presentation of a statue made of earth, it is not imaginary. The earth gives shape to the Lord's forms as described in the scriptures.

SB 3.26.50, Purport:

After stating the generation of the causes, Kapiladeva speaks about the generation of the effects. At that time when the causes were unmixed, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in His feature of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, entered within each universe. Accompanying Him were all of the seven primary elements—the five material elements, the total energy (mahat-tattva) and the false ego. This entrance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead involves His entering even the atoms of the material world. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.35): aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. He is not only within the universe, but within the atoms also. He is within the heart of every living entity. Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, entered into everything.

SB 3.26.52, Purport:

This virāṭ-puruṣa is considered an incarnation of the Lord. The original form of the Lord is Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā: ādi-puruṣa. The virāṭ-puruṣa is also puruṣa, but He is not ādi-puruṣa. The ādi-puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ/ anādir ādir govindaḥ (Bs. 5.1). In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa is also accepted as the ādi-puruṣa, the original. Kṛṣṇa says, "No one is greater than I." There are innumerable expansions of the Lord, and all of them are puruṣas, or enjoyers, but neither the virāṭ-puruṣa nor the puruṣa-avatāras—Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu—nor any of the many other expansions, is the original. In each universe there are Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the virāṭ-puruṣa and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. The active manifestation of the virāṭ-puruṣa is described here. persons who are in the lower grade of understanding regarding the Supreme Personality of Godhead may think of the universal form of the Lord, for that is advised in the Bhāgavatam.

SB 3.26.55, Purport:

The sun is dependent on the eyes of the universal form. The Brahma-saṁhitā also says that the sun is the eye of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā. Savitā means "the sun." The sun is the eye of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually, everything is created by the universal body of the Supreme Godhead. Material nature is simply the supplier of materials. The creation is actually done by the Supreme Lord, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: "Under My direction does material nature create all moving and nonmoving objects in the cosmic creation."

SB 3.26.61, Purport:

This purificatory process is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as the consciousness is purified, the false ego disappears. Identification of the body with the self is called false identification, or false ego. Lord Caitanya confirms this in His Śikṣāṣṭaka. He states that the first result of chanting the mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, is that dirt is cleared from the consciousness, or the mirror of the mind, and then at once the blazing fire of material existence is over. The blazing fire of material existence is due to false ego, but as soon as the false ego is removed, one can understand his real identity. At that point he is actually liberated from the clutches of māyā. As soon as one is freed from the clutches of false ego, his intelligence also becomes purified, and then his mind is always engaged upon the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.26.72, Purport:

When one is detached from the attraction of material prosperity, one can actually concentrate his mind upon the Supersoul. As long as the mind is distracted towards the material, there is no possibility of concentrating one's mind and intelligence upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His partial representation, Supersoul. In other words, one cannot concentrate one's mind and energy upon the Supreme unless one is detached from the material world. Following detachment from the material world, one can actually attain transcendental knowledge of the Absolute Truth. As long as one is entangled in sense enjoyment, or material enjoyment, it is not possible to understand the Absolute Truth. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (18.54). One who is freed from material contamination is joyful and can enter into devotional service, and by devotional service he can be liberated.

SB 3.27.1, Purport:

Here the same principle is confirmed. A person who is detached from the modes of material nature remains just like the sun reflected on water. When the sun is reflected on water, the movement of the water or the coolness or unsteadiness of the water cannot affect the sun. Similarly, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7): when one engages fully in the activities of devotional service, bhakti-yoga, he becomes just like the sun reflected on water. Although a devotee appears to be in the material world, actually he is in the transcendental world. As the reflection of the sun appears to be on the water but is many millions of miles away from the water, so one engaged in the bhakti-yoga process is nirguṇa, or unaffected by the qualities of material nature.

Avikāra means "without change." It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that each and every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and thus his eternal position is to cooperate or to dovetail his energy with the Supreme Lord. That is his unchanging position.

SB 3.27.4, Purport:

Conditional existence is described here as dhyāyato viṣayān asya. Viṣaya means "an object of enjoyment." As long as one continues to think that he can enjoy material advantages, he is in conditioned life, but as soon as he comes to his senses, he develops the knowledge that he is not the enjoyer, for the only enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), He is the beneficiary for all the results of sacrifices and penances (bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām), and He is the proprietor of all the three worlds (sarva-loka-maheśvaram). He is the actual friend of all living entities. But instead of leaving proprietorship, enjoyment and the actual position as the friend of all living entities to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we claim that we are the proprietors, the enjoyers and the friends. We perform philanthropic work, thinking that we are the friends of human society.

SB 3.27.10, Purport:

As soon as he remembers the energy of Kṛṣṇa, he immediately remembers Kṛṣṇa in His personal form. Therefore in all his observations he sees Kṛṣṇa only. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.38) it is stated that when one's eyes are smeared with love of Kṛṣṇa (premāñjana-cchurita), he always sees Kṛṣṇa, outside and inside. This is confirmed here; one should be freed from all other vision, and in that way he is freed from the false egoistic identification and sees himself as the eternal servitor of the Lord. Cakṣuṣevārkam: as we can see the sun without a doubt, one who is fully developed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness sees Kṛṣṇa and His energy. By this vision one becomes ātma-dṛk, or self-realized. When the false ego of identifying the body with the self is removed, actual vision of life is perceivable. The senses, therefore, also become purified. Real service of the Lord begins when the senses are purified. One does not have to stop the activities of the senses, but the false ego of identifying with the body has to be removed. Then the senses automatically become purified, and with purified senses one can actually discharge devotional service.

SB 3.27.11, Purport:

A pure devotee can see the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in everything materially manifested. He is present there only as a reflection, but a pure devotee can realize that in the darkness of material illusion the only light is the Supreme Lord, who is its support. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that the background of the material manifestation is Lord Kṛṣṇa. And, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the Supreme Lord, by His partial or plenary expansion, is present not only within this universe and each and every universe, but in every atom, although He is one without a second. The word advayam, "without a second," which is used in this verse, indicates that although the Supreme Personality of Godhead is represented in everything, including the atoms, He is not divided. His presence in everything is explained in the next verse.

SB 3.27.12, Purport:

The example given herewith is perfect. The sun is situated in the sky, far, far away from the surface of the earth, but its reflection can be seen in a pot of water in the corner of a room. The room is dark, and the sun is far away in the sky, but the sun's reflection on the water illuminates the darkness of the room. A pure devotee can realize the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in everything by the reflection of His energy. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is stated that as the presence of fire is understood by heat and light, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although one without a second, is perceived everywhere by the diffusion of His different energies. It is confirmed in the Īśopaniṣad that the presence of the Lord is perceived everywhere by the liberated soul, just as the sunshine and the reflection can be perceived everywhere although the sun is situated far away from the surface of the globe.

SB 3.27.14, Purport:

The example given by Jīva Gosvāmī is that a green bird that enters a green tree appears to merge in the color of greenness, but actually the bird does not lose its individuality. Similarly, a living entity merged either in the material nature or in the spiritual nature does not give up his individuality. Real individuality is to understand oneself to be the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. This information is received from the mouth of Lord Caitanya. He said clearly, upon the inquiry of Sanātana Gosvāmī, that a living entity is the servitor of Kṛṣṇa eternally. Kṛṣṇa also confirms in Bhagavad-gītā that the living entity is eternally His part and parcel. The part and parcel is meant to serve the whole. This is individuality. It is so even in this material existence, when the living entity apparently merges in matter. His gross body is made up of five elements, his subtle body is made of mind, intelligence, false ego and contaminated consciousness, and he has five active senses and five knowledge-acquiring senses. In this way he merges in matter. But even while merged in the twenty-four elements of matter, he can keep his individuality as the eternal servitor of the Lord. Either in the spiritual nature or in the material nature, such a servitor is to be considered a liberated soul. That is the explanation of the authorities, and it is confirmed in this verse.

SB 3.27.16, Purport:

It is stated in the Īśopaniṣad that everything belongs to the Lord. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Everything exists on the energy of the Supreme Lord. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Because everything is produced of His energy and exists on His energy, the energy is not different from Him—but still the Lord declares, "I am not there." When one clearly understands one's constitutional position, everything becomes manifest. False egoistic acceptance of things conditions one, whereas acceptance of things as they are makes one liberated. The example given in the previous verse is applicable here: due to absorption of one's identity in his money, when the money is lost he thinks that he is also lost. But actually he is not identical with the money, nor does the money belong to him. When the actual situation is revealed, we understand that the money does not belong to any individual person or living entity, nor is it produced by man. Ultimately the money is the property of the Supreme Lord, and there is no question of its being lost. But as long as one falsely thinks, "I am the enjoyer," or "I am the Lord," this concept of life continues, and one remains conditioned. As soon as this false ego is eliminated, one is liberated. As confirmed in the Bhāgavatam, situation in one's real constitutional position is called mukti, or liberation.

SB 3.27.19, Purport:

Although the living entity desires freedom from the contamination of matter, he is not given release. Actually, as soon as a living entity puts himself under the control of the modes of material nature, his acts are influenced by the qualities of material nature, and he becomes passive. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ: (BG 3.27) the living entity acts according to the qualities or modes of material nature. He falsely thinks that he is acting, but unfortunately he is passive. In other words, he has no opportunity to get out of the control of material nature because it has already conditioned him. In Bhagavad-gītā it is also stated that it is very difficult to get out of the clutches of material nature. One may try in different ways to think that everything is void in the ultimate issue, that there is no God and that even if the background of everything is spirit, it is impersonal. This speculation may go on, but actually it is very difficult to get out of the clutches of material nature. Devahūti poses the question that although one may speculate in many ways, where is liberation as long as one is under the spell of material nature? The answer is also found in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14): only one who has surrendered himself unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa (mām eva ye prapadyante) can be freed from the clutches of māyā.

SB 3.27.20, Purport:

Devahūti very intelligently says, "One may theoretically analyze and say that by knowledge he has become freed, but actually, as long as the cause exists, he is not free." Bhagavad-gītā confirms that after performing such speculative activities for many, many births, when one actually comes to his real consciousness and surrenders unto the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, then the fulfillment of his research in knowledge is actually achieved. There is a gulf of difference between theoretical freedom and actual freedom from material bondage. The Bhāgavatam (10.14.4) says that if one gives up the auspicious path of devotional service and simply tries to know things by speculation, one wastes his valuable time (kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye). The result of such a labor of love is simply labor; there is no other result. The labor of speculation is ended only by exhaustion. The example is given that there is no benefit in husking the skin of an empty paddy; the rice is already gone. Similarly, simply by the speculative process one cannot be freed from material bondage, for the cause still exists. One has to nullify the cause, and then the effect will be nullified. This is explained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the following verses.

SB 3.27.21, Purport:

If one wants to perfect his life, he should discharge his prescribed duties for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. One must act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for such action will never produce any reaction (animitta-nimittena). This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra: all activities should be performed simply for Yajña, or the satisfaction of Viṣṇu. Anything done otherwise, without the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, or Yajña, produces bondage, so here it is also prescribed by Kapila Muni that one can transcend material entanglement by acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which means seriously engaging in devotional service. This serious devotional service can develop by hearing for long periods of time. Chanting and hearing is the beginning of the process of devotional service. One should associate with devotees and hear from them about the Lord's transcendental appearance, activities, disappearance, instructions, etc.

SB 3.27.28-29, Purport:

Actual self-realization means becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. The existence of a devotee implies the function of devotion and the object of devotion. Self-realization ultimately means to understand the Personality of Godhead and the living entities; to know the individual self and the reciprocal exchanges of loving service between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity is real self-realization. This cannot be attained by the impersonalists or other transcendentalists; they cannot understand the science of devotional service. Devotional service is revealed to the pure devotee by the unlimited causeless mercy of the Lord. This is especially spoken of here by the Lord—mat-prasādena, "by My special grace." This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Only those who engage in devotional service with love and faith receive the necessary intelligence from the Supreme Personality of Godhead so that gradually and progressively they can advance to the abode of the Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.28.1, Purport:

The yoga process explained by Lord Kapiladeva in this chapter is authorized and standard, and therefore these instructions should be followed very carefully. To begin, the Lord says that by yoga practice one can make progress towards understanding the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the previous chapter it has been clearly stated that the desired result of yoga is not to achieve some wonderful mystic power. One should not be at all attracted by such mystic power, but should attain progressive realization on the path of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, which states in the last verse of the Sixth Chapter that the greatest yogī is he who constantly thinks of Kṛṣṇa within himself, or he who is Kṛṣṇa conscious.

SB 3.28.4, Purport:

The word puruṣārcanam in this verse means worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, especially the form of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In Bhagavad-gītā it is confirmed by Arjuna that Kṛṣṇa is the original puruṣa, or Personality of Godhead, puruṣaṁ śāśvatam. Therefore in yoga practice one not only must concentrate his mind on the person of Kṛṣṇa, but must also worship the form or Deity of Kṛṣṇa daily.

SB 3.28.11, Purport:

Ultimately, one has to meditate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead in order to be elevated to the transcendental position where he is no longer affected by the three modes of material nature. It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that one who engages himself in unalloyed devotional service at once becomes transcendental to the three modes of material nature and immediately realizes his identification with Brahman. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). For every item in the yoga system there is a parallel activity in bhakti-yoga, but the practice of bhakti-yoga is easier for this age. What was introduced by Lord Caitanya is not a new interpretation. Bhakti-yoga is a feasible process that begins with chanting and hearing. Bhakti-yoga and other yogas have as their ultimate goal the same Personality of Godhead, but one is practical, and the others are difficult. One has to purify his physiological condition by concentration and by restraint of the senses; then he can fix his mind upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is called samādhi.

SB 3.28.13, Purport:

It is definitely recommended herein that one concentrate his mind upon the form of Viṣṇu. There are twelve different forms of Viṣṇu, which are described in Teachings of Lord Caitanya. One cannot concentrate his mind on anything void or impersonal; the mind should be fixed on the personal form of the Lord, whose attitude is cheerful, as described in this verse. Bhagavad-gītā states that meditation on the impersonal or void features is very troublesome to the meditator. Those who are attached to the impersonal or void features of meditation have to undergo a difficult process because we are not accustomed to concentrating our minds upon anything impersonal. Actually such concentration is not even possible. Bhagavad-gītā also confirms that one should concentrate his mind on the Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.28.17, Purport:

The Lord's facial expression always indicates that He is ready to show favor and benediction to the devotees; for the nondevotees, however, He is silent. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, although He acts equally to everyone because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and because all living entities are His sons, He is especially inclined to those engaged in devotional service. The same fact is confirmed here: He is always anxious to show favor to the devotees. Just as the devotees are always eager to render service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord is also very eager to bestow benediction upon the pure devotees.

SB 3.28.18, Purport:

One has to fix his mind on the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. When one is accustomed to thinking of one of the innumerable forms of the Lord—Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu, Rāma, Nārāyaṇa, etc.—he has reached the perfection of yoga. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā: a person who has developed pure love for the Lord, and whose eyes are smeared with the ointment of transcendental loving exchange, always sees within his heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The devotees especially see the Lord in the beautiful blackish form of Śyāmasundara. That is the perfection of yoga. This yoga system should be continued until the mind does not vacillate for a moment. Oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ: the form of Viṣṇu is the highest individuality and is always visible to sages and saintly persons.

SB 3.28.34, Purport:

One should engage in the service of the Lord twenty-four hours a day, as confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā. The stage of premāñjana-cchurita can be attained by developing complete love. When one's love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead in devotional service is fully developed, one always sees the Lord, even without artificially meditating on His form. His vision is divine because he has no other engagement. At this stage of spiritual realization it is not necessary to engage the mind artificially. Since the meditation recommended in the lower stages is a means to come to the platform of devotional service, those already engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord are above such meditation. This stage of perfection is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

SB 3.28.41, Purport:

A clear conception of the complete whole is given herewith. The living entity is different from the material elements, and the supreme living entity, the Personality of Godhead, who is the creator of the material elements, is also different from the individual living entity. This philosophy is propounded by Lord Caitanya as acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. Everything is simultaneously one with and different from everything else. The cosmic manifestation created by the Supreme Lord by His material energy is also simultaneously different and nondifferent from Him. The material energy is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord, but at the same time, because that energy is acting in a different way, it is different from Him. Similarly, the individual living entity is one with and different from the Supreme Lord. This "simultaneously one and different" philosophy is the perfect conclusion of the Bhāgavata school, as confirmed here by Kapiladeva.

SB 3.28.43, Purport:

The smallness or greatness of different souls is described in the Varāha Purāṇa as svāṁśa-vibhinnāṁśa. The svāṁśa soul is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the vibhinnāṁśa souls, or small particles, are eternally small particles, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7)). The small living entities are eternally part and parcel, and therefore it is not possible for them to be quantitatively as great as the Supersoul.

SB 3.29.14, Purport:

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, who is supposed to be the leader of the impersonalist school of philosophers, has admitted in the beginning of his comments on Bhagavad-gītā that Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is beyond the material creation; except for Him, everything is within the material creation. It is also confirmed in the Vedic literature that before the creation there was only Nārāyaṇa; neither Lord Brahmā nor Lord Śiva existed. Only Nārāyaṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, is always in the transcendental position, beyond the influence of material creation.

The material qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance cannot affect the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore He is called nirguṇa (free from all tinges of material qualities). Here the same fact is confirmed by Lord Kapila: one who is situated in pure devotional service is transcendentally situated, as is the Lord. Just as the Lord is unaffected by the influence of the material modes, so too are His pure devotees. One who is not affected by the three modes of material nature is called a liberated soul, or brahma-bhūta soul (SB 4.30.20). Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54) is the stage of liberation. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this body." This is applicable only to the person who constantly engages in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa and is thus in the transcendental stage; he is above the influence of the three modes of material nature.

SB 3.29.15, Purport:

From every position, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya: (BG 18.46) one can serve the Supreme Lord by performing one's prescribed duty. It is not that only the brāhmaṇas can serve the Supreme Lord and not the śūdras. Anyone can serve the Supreme Lord by performing his prescribed duties under the direction of a spiritual master, or representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one should think that his prescribed duties are inferior. A brāhmaṇa can serve the Lord by using his intelligence, and the kṣatriya can serve the Supreme Lord by using his military arts, just as Arjuna served Kṛṣṇa. Arjuna was a warrior; he had no time to study Vedānta or other highly intellectual books.

SB 3.29.16, Purport:

The exact meaning of the word sattvena is given by Śrīdhara Svāmī as being synonymous with dhairyeṇa, or patience. One must perform devotional service with great patience. One should not give up the execution of devotional service because one or two attempts have not been successful. One must continue. Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī also confirms that one should be very enthusiastic and execute devotional service with patience and confidence. Patience is necessary for developing the confidence that "Kṛṣṇa will certainly accept me because I am engaging in devotional service." One has only to execute service according to the rules and regulations to insure success.

SB 3.29.20, Purport:

It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is kṣetra jña, present within this body, but He is also simultaneously present in every other body. Since the individual soul is present only in a particular body, he is altered when another individual soul does not cooperate with him. The Supersoul, however, is equally present everywhere. Individual souls may disagree, but the Supersoul, being equally present in every body, is called unchanging, or avikāri. The individual soul, when fully saturated with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can understand the presence of the Supersoul. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that (bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55)) a person saturated with devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, either as Supersoul or as the Supreme Person.

SB 3.29.36, Purport:

In order to distinguish the personality whom the individual soul must approach, it is described herein that this puruṣa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the chief amongst all living entities and is the ultimate form of the impersonal Brahman effulgence and Paramātmā manifestation. Since He is the origin of the Brahman effulgence and Paramātmā manifestation, He is described herewith as the chief personality. It is confirmed in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, nityo nityānām: there are many eternal living entities, but He is the chief maintainer. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā also, where Lord Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: (BG 10.8) "I am the origin of everything, including the Brahman effulgence and Paramātmā manifestation." His activities are transcendental, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Janma karma ca me divyam: (BG 4.9) the activities and the appearance and disappearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are transcendental; they are not to be considered material. Anyone who knows this fact—that the appearance, disappearance and activities of the Lord are beyond material activities or material conception—is liberated. Yo vetti tattvataḥ/ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma: (BG 4.9) such a person, after quitting his body, does not come back again to this material world, but goes to the Supreme Person. It is confirmed here, puruṣaḥ puruṣaṁ vrajet: the living entity goes to the Supreme Personality simply by understanding His transcendental nature and activities.

SB 3.29.40, Purport:

The Lord states in Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate: (BG 9.10) "Nature is working under My direction." The foolish person thinks that nature is working automatically, but such an atheistic theory is not supported in the Vedic literature. Nature is working under the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, and we also find here that the sun shines under the direction of the Lord, and the cloud pours forth showers of rain under the direction of the Lord. All natural phenomena are under superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu.

SB 3.29.41, Purport:

As the sun rises and sets and the seasonal changes ensue at their appointed times by the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so the seasonal plants, flowers, herbs and trees all grow under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It is not that plants grow automatically, without any cause, as the atheistic philosophers say. Rather, they grow in pursuance of the supreme order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is confirmed in the Vedic literature that the Lord's diverse energies are working so nicely that it appears that everything is being done automatically.

SB 3.30.28, Purport:

Materialistic life is based on sex life. The existence of all the materialistic people, who are undergoing severe tribulation in the struggle for existence, is based on sex. Therefore, in the Vedic civilization sex life is allowed only in a restricted way; it is for the married couple and only for begetting children. But when sex life is indulged in for sense gratification illegally and illicitly, both the man and the woman await severe punishment in this world or after death. In this world also they are punished by virulent diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea, and in the next life, as we see in this passage of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are put into different kinds of hellish conditions to suffer. In Bhagavad-gītā, First Chapter, illicit sex life is also very much condemned, and it is said that one who produces children by illicit sex life is sent to hell. It is confirmed here in the Bhāgavatam that such offenders are put into hellish conditions of life in Tāmisra, Andha-tāmisra and Raurava.

SB 3.30.29, Purport:

Sometimes unbelievers do not accept these statements of scripture regarding hell. They disregard such authorized descriptions. Lord Kapila therefore confirms them by saying that these hellish conditions are also visible on this planet. It is not that they are only on the planet where Yamarāja lives. On the planet of Yamarāja, the sinful man is given the chance to practice living in the hellish conditions which he will have to endure in the next life, and then he is given a chance to take birth on another planet to continue his hellish life. For example, if a man is to be punished to remain in hell and eat stool and urine, then first of all he practices such habits on the planet of Yamarāja, and then he is given a particular type of body, that of a hog, so that he can eat stool and think that he is enjoying life. It is stated previously that in any hellish condition, the conditioned soul thinks he is happy. Otherwise, it would not be possible for him to suffer hellish life.

SB 3.31.12, Purport:

The word calac-caraṇāravindam refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who actually walks or travels upon the surface of the world. For example, Lord Rāmacandra actually walked on the surface of the world, and Lord Kṛṣṇa also walked just like an ordinary man. The prayer is therefore offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who descends to the surface of this earth, or any part of this universe, for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that when there is an increase of irreligion and discrepancies arise in the real religious activities, the Supreme Lord comes to protect the pious and kill the impious. This verse indicates Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Another significant point in this verse is that the Lord comes, icchayā, by His own will. As Kṛṣṇa confirms in Bhagavad-gītā, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā: (BG 4.6) "I appear at My will, by My internal potential power." He is not forced to come by the laws of material nature. It is stated here, icchayā: He does not assume any form, as the impersonalists think, because He comes at His own will, and the form in which He descends is His eternal form.

SB 3.31.13, Purport:

Both the Supreme Soul and the jīva soul are sitting in the same body, as confirmed in the Upaniṣads. They are sitting as friends, but one is suffering, and the other is aloof from suffering.

In this verse it is said, viśuddham avikāram akhaṇḍa-bodham: the Supersoul is always sitting apart from all contamination. The living entity is contaminated and suffering because he has a material body, but that does not mean that because the Lord is also with him, He also has a I material body. He is avikāram, changeless. He is always the same Supreme, but unfortunately the Māyāvādī philosophers, because of their impure hearts, cannot understand that the Supreme Soul, the Supersoul, is different from the individual soul. It is said here, ātapyamāna-hṛdaye 'vasitam: He is in the heart of every living entity, but He can be realized only by a soul who is repentant. The individual soul becomes repentant that he forgot his constitutional position, wanted to become one with the Supreme Soul and tried his best to lord it over material nature. He has been baffled, and therefore he is repentant. At that time, Supersoul, or the relationship between the Supersoul and the individual soul, is realized. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, after many, many births the knowledge comes to the conditioned soul that Vāsudeva is great, He is master, and He is Lord.

SB 3.31.16, Purport:

When a conditioned soul is seriously anxious to get out of the influence of the material clutches, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated within him as Paramātmā, gives him this knowledge: "Surrender unto Me." As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, "Give up all other engagements. Just surrender unto Me." It is to be accepted that the source of knowledge is the Supreme Person. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). The Lord says, "Through Me one gets real knowledge and memory, and one also forgets through Me." To one who wants to be materially satisfied or who wants to lord it over material nature, the Lord gives the opportunity to forget His service and engage in the so-called happiness of material activities. Similarly, when one is frustrated in lording it over material nature and is very serious about getting out of this material entanglement, the Lord, from within, gives him the knowledge that he has to surrender unto Him; then there is liberation.

SB 3.31.19, Purport:

Real self-realization by means of controlling the senses is explained herein. One should try to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead and one's own self also. To think oneself the same as the Supreme is not self-realization. Here it is clearly explained that the Supreme Lord is anādi, or purāṇa, and He has no other cause. The living entity is born of the Supreme Godhead as part and parcel. It is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, anādir ādir govindaḥ: (Bs. 5.1) Govinda, the Supreme person, has no cause. He is unborn. But the living entity is born of Him. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, mamaivāṁśaḥ: both the living entity and the Supreme Lord are unborn, but it has to be understood that the supreme cause of the part and parcel is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahma-saṁhitā therefore says that everything has come from the Supreme Personality of Godhead (sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1)). The Vedānta-sūtra confirms this also. Janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) the Absolute Truth is the original source of everyone's birth. Kṛṣṇa also says in Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: (BG 10.8) "I am the source of birth of everything, including Brahmā and Lord Śiva and the living entities." This is self-realization. One should know that he is under the control of the Supreme Lord and not think that he is fully independent. Otherwise, why should he be put into conditional life?

SB 3.31.20, Purport:

It is said that Śukadeva Gosvāmī, on this consideration, remained for sixteen years within the womb of his mother; he did not want to be entangled in false bodily identification. After cultivating such knowledge within the womb of his mother, he came out at the end of sixteen years and immediately left home so that he might not be captured by the influence of māyā. The influence of māyā is also explained in Bhagavad-gītā as insurmountable. But insurmountable māyā can be overcome simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14): mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. Whoever surrenders unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa can get out of this false conception of life. By the influence of māyā only, one forgets his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa and identifies himself with his body and the by-products of the body—namely wife, children, society, friendship and love. Thus he becomes a victim of the influence of māyā, and his materialistic life of continued birth and death becomes still more stringent.

SB 3.31.35, Purport:

Attachment to women is so contaminating that one becomes attached to the condition of material life not only by the association of women but by the contaminated association of persons who are too attached to them. There are many reasons for our conditional life in the material world, but the topmost of all such causes is the association of women, as will be confirmed in the following stanzas.

SB 3.31.41, Purport:

From this verse it appears that a woman is also supposed to have been a man in his (her) previous life, and due to his attachment to his wife, he now has the body of a woman. Bhagavad-gītā confirms this; a man gets his next life's birth according to what he thinks of at the time of death. If someone is too attached to his wife, naturally he thinks of his wife at the time of death, and in his next life he takes the body of a woman. Similarly, if a woman thinks of her husband at the time of death, naturally she gets the body of a man in the next life. In the Hindu scriptures, therefore, woman's chastity and devotion to man is greatly emphasized. A woman's attachment to her husband may elevate her to the body of a man in her next life, but a man's attachment to a woman will degrade him, and in his next life he will get the body of a woman.

SB 3.31.41, Purport:

The relationship between man and woman is very complicated, but the substance is that one who aspires to ascend to the transcendental stage of spiritual realization should be very careful in accepting the association of a woman. In the stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, such restriction of association may be slackened because if a man's and woman's attachment is not to each other but to Kṛṣṇa, then both of them are equally eligible to get out of the material entanglement and reach the abode of Kṛṣṇa. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, anyone who seriously takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness—whether in the lowest species of life or a woman or of the less intelligent classes, such as the mercantile or laborer class—will go back home, back to Godhead, and reach the abode of Kṛṣṇa. A man should not be attached to a woman, nor should a woman be attached to a man. Both man and woman should be attached to the service of the Lord. Then there is the possibility of liberation from material entanglement for both of them.

SB 3.31.45-46, Purport:

When one says, "I see," this means that he sees with his eyes or with his spectacles; he sees with the instrument of sight. If the instrument of sight is broken or becomes diseased or incapable of acting, then he, as the seer, also ceases to act. Similarly, in this material body, at the present moment the living soul is acting, and when the material body, due to its incapability to function, ceases, he also ceases to perform his reactionary activities. When one's instrument of action is broken and cannot function, that is called death. Again, when one gets a new instrument for action, that is called birth. This process of birth and death is going on at every moment, by constant bodily change. The final change is called death, and acceptance of a new body is called birth. That is the solution to the question of birth and death. Actually, the living entity has neither birth nor death, but is eternal. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) the living entity never dies, even after the death or annihilation of this material body.

SB 3.31.47, Purport:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond the material creation. It is admitted even by impersonalists like Śaṅkarācārya that Nārāyaṇa is transcendental to this material creation. As such, when one actually engages in the service of the Lord in various forms, either Nārāyaṇa or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa or Sītā-Rāma, he is understood to be on the platform of liberation. The Bhāgavatam also confirms that liberation means to be situated in one's constitutional position. Since a living entity is eternally the servitor of the Supreme Lord, when one seriously and sincerely engages in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, he is situated in the position of liberation. One should try to associate with a liberated person, and then the problems of life, namely birth and death, can be solved.

SB 3.32.2, Purport:

Especially amongst the Hindus, those who are meat-eaters prefer to worship goddess Kālī because it is prescribed that one can sacrifice a goat before that goddess. They maintain that whether one worships the goddess Kālī or the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu or any demigod, the destination is the same. This is first-class rascaldom, and such people are misled. But they prefer this philosophy. Bhagavad-gītā does not accept such rascaldom, and it is clearly stated that such methods are meant for persons who have lost their intelligence. The same judgment is confirmed here, and the word kāma-mūḍha, meaning one who has lost his sense or is infatuated by the lust of attraction for sense gratification, is used. Kāma-mūḍhas are bereft of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service and are infatuated by a strong desire for sense gratification. The worshipers of demigods are condemned both in Bhagavad-gītā and in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

SB 3.32.3, Purport:

The moon is considered one of the planets of the heavenly kingdom. One can be promoted to this planet by executing different sacrifices recommended in the Vedic literature, such as pious activities in worshiping the demigods and forefathers with rigidity and vows. But one cannot remain there for a very long time. Life on the moon is said to last ten thousand years according to the calculation of the demigods. The demigods' time is calculated in such a way that one day (twelve hours) is equal to six months on this planet. It is not possible to reach the moon by any material vehicle like a sputnik, but persons who are attracted by material enjoyment can go to the moon by pious activities. In spite of being promoted to the moon, however, one has to come back to this earth again when the merits of his works in sacrifice are finished. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.21): te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti.

SB 3.32.4, Purport:

There are two kinds of dissolutions. One dissolution takes place at the end of the life of Brahmā. At that time all the planetary systems, including the heavenly systems, are dissolved in water and enter into the body of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, who lies on the Garbhodaka Ocean on the bed of serpents, called Śeṣa. In the other dissolution, which occurs at the end of Brahmā's day, all the lower planetary systems are destroyed. When Lord Brahmā rises after his night, these lower planetary systems are again created. The statement in Bhagavad-gītā that persons who worship the demigods have lost their intelligence is confirmed in this verse. These less intelligent persons do not know that even if they are promoted to the heavenly planets, at the time of dissolution they themselves, the demigods and all their planets will be annihilated. They have no information that eternal, blissful life can be attained.

SB 3.32.12-15, Purport:

That Brahmā becomes liberated is known to everyone, but he cannot liberate his devotees. Demigods like Brahmā and Lord Śiva cannot give liberation to any living entity. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, only one who surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, can be liberated from the clutches of māyā. Brahmā is called here ādyaḥ sthira-carāṇām. He is the original, first-created living entity, and after his own birth he creates the entire cosmic manifestation. He was fully instructed in the matter of creation by the Supreme Lord. Here he is called veda-garbha, which means that he knows the complete purpose of the Vedas. He is always accompanied by such great personalities as Marīci, Kaśyapa and the seven sages, as well as by great mystic yogīs, the Kumāras and many other spiritually advanced living entities, but he has his own interest, separate from the Lord's.

SB 3.32.21, Purport:

It is sometimes found that a person elevated to a very high position in government service falls down all of a sudden, and no one can check him. Similarly, after finishing their period of enjoyment, foolish persons who are very much interested in being elevated to the position of president in higher planets also fall down to this planet. The distinction between the elevated position of a devotee and that of an ordinary person attracted to fruitive activities is that when a devotee is elevated to the spiritual kingdom he never falls down, whereas an ordinary person falls, even if he is elevated to the highest planetary system, Brahmaloka. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ) that even if one is elevated to a higher planet, he has to come down again. But Kṛṣṇa confirms in Bhagavad-gītā (8.16), mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate: "Anyone who attains My abode never comes back to this conditioned life of material existence."

SB 3.32.22, Purport:

Sarva-bhāvena means "in all-loving ecstasy." Bhāva is the preliminary stage of elevation before the attainment of pure love of Godhead. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ: (BG 10.8) one who has attained the stage of bhāva can accept the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa as worshipable. This is also advised here by Lord Kapila to His mother. Also significant in this verse is the phrase tad-guṇāśrayayā bhaktyā. This means that discharging devotional service unto Kṛṣṇa is transcendental; it is not material activity. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: those who engage in devotional service are accepted to be situated in the spiritual kingdom. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate: (BG 14.26) they at once become situated in the transcendental kingdom.

SB 3.32.23, Purport:

Those who are very eager to advance in transcendental knowledge can engage themselves in pure devotional service, without wasting time in mental speculation. For arriving at the positive conclusions of knowledge in the Absolute Truth, the word brahma-darśanam is significant in this verse. Brahma-darśanam means to realize or to understand the Transcendence. One who engages in the service of Vāsudeva can actually realize what Brahman is. If Brahman is impersonal, then there is no question of darśanam, which means "seeing face to face." Darśanam refers to seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. Unless the seer and the seen are persons, there is no darśanam. Brahma-darśanam means that as soon as one sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he can at once realize what impersonal Brahman is. A devotee does not need to make separate investigations to understand the nature of Brahman. Bhagavad-gītā also confirms this. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate: (BG 14.26) a devotee at once becomes a self-realized soul in the Absolute Truth.

SB 3.32.26, Purport:

The universal form of the Lord and the formless Brahman effulgence of the Lord, being invisible, are inferior features. The concept of the universal form is material, and the concept of impersonal Brahman is spiritual, but the highest spiritual understanding is the Personality of Godhead. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa states, viṣṇur brahma-svarūpeṇa svayam eva vyavasthitaḥ: Brahman's real feature is Viṣṇu, or the Supreme Brahman is Viṣṇu. Svayam eva: that is His personal feature. The supreme spiritual conception is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). That specific abode called paramaṁ mama is the place from which, once one attains it, one does not return to this miserable, conditional life. Every place, every space and everything belongs to Viṣṇu, but where He personally lives is tad dhāma paramam, His supreme abode. One has to make one's destination the supreme abode of the Lord.

SB 3.32.27, Purport:

The purpose of all yoga is to detach one's sense activities from this material world. The final aims, however, are different. Jñānīs want to become one with the Brahman effulgence, yogīs want to realize Paramātmā, and devotees want to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness and transcendental loving service to the Lord. That loving service is the perfect stage of sense control. The senses are actually active symptoms of life, and they cannot be stopped. They can be detached only if there is superior engagement. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate: (BG 2.59) the activities of the senses can be stopped if they are given superior engagements. The supreme engagement is engagement of the senses in the service of the Lord. That is the purpose of all yoga.

SB 3.32.28, Purport:

The form of Kṛṣṇa has to be understood as it is described in the books of knowledge such as Brahma-saṁhitā. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1): Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. By our imperfect sense perception we cannot understand the form of the Lord. We have to acquire knowledge about Him. Therefore it is said here, jñānam ekam. Bhagavad-gītā confirms that they are fools who, simply upon seeing Kṛṣṇa, consider Him a common man. They do not know the unlimited knowledge, power and opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Material sense speculation leads to the conclusion that the Supreme is formless. It is because of such mental speculation that the conditioned soul remains in ignorance under the spell of illusory energy. The Supreme Person has to be understood by the transcendental sound vibrated by Him in Bhagavad-gītā, wherein He says that there is nothing superior to Himself; the impersonal Brahman effulgence is resting on His personality. The purified, absolute vision of Bhagavad-gītā is compared to the River Ganges. Ganges water is so pure that it can purify even the asses and cows. But anyone who, disregarding the pure Ganges, wishes to be purified instead by the filthy water flowing in a drain, cannot be successful. Similarly, one can successfully attain pure knowledge of the Absolute only by hearing from the pure Absolute Himself.

SB 3.32.28, Purport:

In this verse it is clearly said that those who are averse to the Supreme Personality of Godhead speculate with their imperfect senses about the nature of the Absolute Truth. The formless Brahman conception, however, can be received only by aural reception and not by personal experience. Knowledge is therefore acquired by aural reception. It is confirmed in the Vedānta-sūtra, śāstra-yonitvāt: one has to acquire pure knowledge from the authorized scriptures. So-called speculative arguments about the Absolute Truth are therefore useless. The actual identity of the living entity is his consciousness, which is always present while the living entity is awake, dreaming or in deep sleep. Even in deep sleep, he can perceive by consciousness whether he is happy or distressed. Thus when consciousness is displayed through the medium of the subtle and gross material bodies, it is covered, but when the consciousness is purified, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one becomes free from the entanglement of repeated birth and death.

SB 3.32.33, Purport:

Ultimately, the Supreme Person is the destination of all different processes. The fortunate person who, by following the principles of scriptures, becomes completely purified of all material contamination, surrenders unto the Supreme Lord as everything. Just as one can appreciate the real taste of milk with the tongue and not with the eyes, nostrils or ears, one can similarly appreciate the Absolute Truth perfectly and with all relishable pleasure only through one path, devotional service. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti: (BG 18.55) if one wants to understand the Absolute Truth in perfection, he must take to devotional service. Of course, no one can understand the Absolute Truth in all perfection. That is not possible for the infinitesimal living entities. But the highest point of understanding by the living entity is reached by discharge of devotional service, not otherwise.

SB 3.32.34-36, Purport:

The words bhakti-yogena caiva hi mean that whatever is to be performed, as described in verse 34, whether yoga or sacrifice or fruitive activity or study of Vedic literature or philosophical research or acceptance of the renounced order of life, is to be executed in bhakti-yoga. The words caiva hi, according to Sanskrit grammar, indicate that one must perform all these activities mixed with devotional service, otherwise such activities will not produce any fruit. Any prescribed activity must be performed for the sake of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.27), yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi: "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, whatever austerities you undergo and whatever charities you give, the result should be given to the Supreme Lord." The word eva is added, indicating that one must execute activities in such a way. Unless one adds devotional service to all activities, he cannot achieve the desired result, but when bhakti-yoga is prominent in every activity, then the ultimate goal is sure.

SB 3.33.3, Purport:

The statement made in this verse by Devahūti that the Absolute Truth has many diverse energies although He personally has nothing to do is confirmed in the Upaniṣads. There is no one greater than Him or on an equal level with Him, and everything is completely done by His energy, as if by nature. It is understood herein, therefore, that although the modes of material nature are entrusted to different manifestations like Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, each of whom is particularly invested with different kinds of power, the Supreme Lord is completely aloof from such activities. Devahūti is saying, "Although You personally are not doing anything, Your determination is absolute. There is no question of Your fulfilling Your will with the help of anyone else besides Yourself. You are, in the end, the Supreme Soul and the supreme controller.

SB 3.33.3, Purport:

Why is the creation made? Since the Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for all living entities, He created this material manifestation for those living entities who want to enjoy or lord it over material nature. As the Supreme Godhead, He arranges to fulfill their various desires. It is confirmed also in the Vedas, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān: the supreme one supplies the necessities of the many living entities. There is no limit to the demands of the different kinds of living entities, and the supreme one, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, alone maintains them and supplies them by His inconceivable energy.

SB 3.33.6, Purport:

Herein the spiritual potency of chanting, hearing or remembering the holy name of the Supreme Lord is greatly stressed. Rūpa Gosvāmī has discussed the sequence of sinful activities of the conditioned soul, and he has established, in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that those who engage in devotional service become freed from the reactions of all sinful activities. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says that He takes charge of one who surrenders unto Him, and He makes him immune to all reactions to sinful activities. If by chanting the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead one becomes so swiftly cleared of all reactions to sinful activities, then what is to be said of those persons who see Him face to face?

SB 3.33.6, Purport:

Usually, initiation depends on the bona fide spiritual master, who directs the disciple. If he sees that a disciple has become competent and purified by the process of chanting, he offers the sacred thread to the disciple just so that he will be recognized as one-hundred-percent equal with a brāhmaṇa. This is also confirmed in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa by Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī: "As a base metal like bell metal can be changed into gold by a chemical process, any person can similarly be changed into a brāhmaṇa by dīkṣā-vidhāna, the initiation process".

It is sometimes remarked that by the chanting process one begins to purify himself and can take birth in his next life in a brāhmaṇa family and then be reformed. But at this present moment, even those who are born in the best brāhmaṇa families are not reformed, nor is there any certainty that they are actually born of brāhmaṇa fathers. Formerly the garbhādhāna reformatory system was prevalent, but at the present moment there is no such garbhādhāna, or seed-giving ceremony. Under these circumstances, no one knows if a man is factually born of a brāhmaṇa father. Whether one has acquired the qualification of a brāhmaṇa depends on the judgment of the bona fide spiritual master. He bestows upon the disciple the position of a brāhmaṇa by his own judgment. When one is accepted as a brāhmaṇa in the sacred thread ceremony under the pāñcarātrika system, then he is dvija, twice-born. That is confirmed by Sanātana Gosvāmī: dvijatvaṁ jāyate. By the process of initiation by the spiritual master, a person is accepted as a brāhmaṇa in his purified state of chanting the holy name of the Lord. He then makes further progress to become a qualified Vaiṣṇava, which means that the brahminical qualification is already acquired.

SB 3.33.10, Purport:

Devotional service is so perfect that simply by following the rules and regulations and executing them under the direction of the spiritual master, one is liberated, as it is said herein, from the clutches of māyā, even in this body. In other yogic processes, or in empiric philosophical speculation, one is never certain whether or not he is at the perfectional stage. But in the discharge of devotional service, if one has unflinching faith in the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master and follows the rules and regulations, he is sure to be liberated, even within this present body. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, has also confirmed this. Īhā yasya harer dāsye: regardless of where he is situated, anyone whose only aim is to serve the Supreme Lord under the direction of the spiritual master is called jīvan-mukta, or one who is liberated even with his material body. Sometimes doubts arise in the minds of neophytes about whether or not the spiritual master is liberated, and sometimes neophytes are doubtful about the bodily affairs of the spiritual master. The point of liberation, however, is not to see the bodily symptoms of the spiritual master. One has to see the spiritual symptoms of the spiritual master. Jīvan-mukta means that even though one is in the material body (there are still some material necessities, since the body is material), because one is fully situated in the service of the Lord, he should be understood to be liberated.

SB 3.33.22, Purport:

Unless we are able to transfer our attachment to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no possibility of becoming freed from material attachment. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, confirms that it is not possible for one to become liberated by cultivation of empiric philosophical speculation. Simply knowing that one is not matter but spirit soul, or Brahman, does not purify one's intelligence. Even if the impersonalist reaches the highest platform of spiritual realization, he falls down again to material attachment because of not being situated in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord.

SB 3.33.26, Purport:

In Bhagavad-gītā it is said, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). This means that unless one is freed from the material entanglement and situated in Brahman, there is no question of entering into the understanding of devotional service or engaging in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One who is engaged in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is understood to be already realized in the Brahman concept of life because transcendental knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead includes knowledge of Brahman. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham (BG 14.27): the concept of the Personality of Godhead does not depend on Brahman. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa also confirms that one who has taken shelter of the all-auspicious Supreme Lord is already situated in the understanding of Brahman. In other words, one who is a Vaiṣṇava is already a brāhmaṇa.

Another significant point of this verse is that one has to observe the prescribed rules and regulations. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, yuktāhāra-vihārasya. When one engages in devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he still has to eat, sleep, defend and mate because these are necessities of the body. But he performs such activities in a regulated way. He has to eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. He has to sleep according to regulated principles.

SB 3.33.26, Purport:

Devahūti was fully instructed by her son, Kapiladeva, on how to concentrate her mind on the Viṣṇu form in full detail. Following the instructions of her son in the matter of devotional service, she contemplated the form of the Lord within herself with great devotional love. That is the perfection of Brahman realization or the mystic yoga system or devotional service. At the ultimate issue, when one is fully absorbed in thought of the Supreme Lord and meditates on Him constantly, that is the highest perfection. Bhagavad-gītā confirms that one who is always absorbed in such a way is to be considered the topmost yogī.