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Jugglery (Books)

Expressions researched:
"juggle" |"juggler" |"juggleries" |"jugglers" |"jugglery"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: juggle or juggler or juggleries or jugglers or jugglery not "jugglery of word" not "jugglery of words" not "word jugglers" not "word jugglery"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 6.15, Purport:

No one can reach the spiritual sky (Vaikuṇṭha) or enter into the Lord's eternal abode (Goloka Vṛndāvana) without the proper understanding of Kṛṣṇa and His plenary expansion Viṣṇu. Therefore a person working in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the perfect yogī, because his mind is always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's activities (sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-pādāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18)). In the Vedas also (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8) we learn, tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti: "One can overcome the path of birth and death only by understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa." In other words, perfection of the yoga system is the attainment of freedom from material existence and not some magical jugglery or gymnastic feats to befool innocent people.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Preface and Introduction

SB Introduction:

The Lord thus spoke on the Vedānta-sūtra and defied all the propaganda of the Māyāvāda school.* The Bhaṭṭācārya tried to defend himself and his Māyāvāda school by jugglery of logic and grammar, but the Lord defeated him by His forceful arguments. He affirmed that we are all related with the Personality of Godhead eternally and that devotional service is our eternal function in exchanging the dealings of our relations. The result of such exchanges is to attain premā, or love of Godhead. When love of Godhead is attained, love for all other beings automatically follows because the Lord is the sum total of all living beings.

SB Canto 1

SB 1.1.20, Purport:

This process of concocting an incarnation of God has become an ordinary business, especially in Bengal. Any popular personality with a few traits of mystic powers will display some feat of jugglery and easily become an incarnation of Godhead by popular vote. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was not that type of incarnation. He was actually the Personality of Godhead from the very beginning of His appearance. He appeared before His so-called mother as four-armed Viṣṇu. Then, at the request of the mother, He became like a human child and at once left her for another devotee at Gokula, where He was accepted as the son of Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā Mātā. Similarly, Śrī Baladeva, the counterpart of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, was also considered a human child born of another wife of Śrī Vasudeva.

SB 1.3.37, Purport:

The fruitive workers have practically no information of the Absolute Truth, and the mental speculators, after being frustrated in fruitive activities, turn their faces towards the Absolute Truth and try to know Him by mental speculation. And for all these men, the Absolute Truth is a mystery, as the jugglery of the magician is a mystery to children. Being deceived by the jugglery of the Supreme Being, the nondevotees, who may be very dexterous in fruitive work and mental speculation, are always in ignorance. With such limited knowledge, they are unable to penetrate into the mysterious region of transcendence. The mental speculators are a little more progressive than the gross materialists or the fruitive workers, but because they are also within the grip of illusion, they take it for granted that anything which has form, a name and activities is but a product of material energy. For them the Supreme Spirit is formless, nameless and inactive.

SB 1.4.6, Purport:

One should approach a sādhu or great sage not to see but to hear him. If one is not prepared to hear the words of a sādhu, there is no profit. Śukadeva Gosvāmī was a sādhu who could speak on the transcendental activities of the Lord. He did not satisfy the whims of ordinary citizens. He was recognized when he spoke on the subject of Bhāgavatam, and he never attempted jugglery like a magician. Outwardly he appeared to be a retarded, dumb madman, but in fact he was the most elevated transcendental personality.

SB 1.15.35, Purport:

And if by chance the face of such an infidel is seen, one must clean himself by jumping in the river with his clothing. The Lord is described as amṛta, or deathless, because He has no material body. Under the circumstances, the Lord's dying or quitting His body is like the jugglery of a magician. The magician shows by his tricks that he is cut to pieces, burnt to ashes or made unconscious by hypnotic influences, but all are false shows only. Factually the magician himself is neither burnt to ashes nor cut to pieces, nor is he dead or unconscious at any stage of his magical demonstration. Similarly, the Lord has His eternal forms of unlimited variety, of which the fish incarnation, as was exhibited within this universe, is also one.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.2.3, Purport:

Those who are captivated by the illusory advancement of material civilization (following the way of phantasmagoria) are certainly madmen. The whole material creation is a jugglery of names only; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter like earth, water and fire. The buildings, furniture, cars, bungalows, mills, factories, industries, peace, war or even the highest perfection of material science, namely atomic energy and electronics, are all simply bewildering names of material elements with their concomitant reactions of the three modes. Since the devotee of the Lord knows them perfectly well, he is not interested in creating unwanted things for a situation which is not at all reality, but simply names of no more significance than the babble of sea waves.

SB 2.4.16, Purport:

Bhakti-yoga is the highest quality of perfection to be achieved by the intelligent person in lieu of performing a large quantity of spiritual activities. The example cited here is very appropriate. A handful of real paddy is more valuable than heaps of paddy skins without any substance within. Similarly, one should not be attracted by the jugglery of karma-kāṇḍa or jñāna-kāṇḍa or even the gymnastic performances of yoga, but skillfully should take to the simple performances of kīrtanam, smaraṇam, etc., under a bona fide spiritual master, and without any difficulty attain the highest perfection.

SB 2.4.21, Purport:

The Lord, being the Lord of intelligence in everyone (even in the nondevotee), favors His devotee with proper intelligence so that automatically the pure devotee is enlightened with the factual truth about the Lord and His different energies. the Lord is revealed not by one's speculative power or by one's verbal jugglery over the Absolute Truth. Rather, He reveals Himself to a devotee when He is fully satisfied by the devotee's service attitude. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is not a mental speculator or compromiser of the theory of "as many ways, as many conclusions." Rather, he prays to the Lord only, invoking His transcendental pleasure. That is the way of knowing the Lord.

SB 2.8.21, Purport:

Success or failure has no meaning for a pure devotee because he is a soldier in the field. Preaching the cult of devotional service is something like declaring war against materialistic life. There are different kinds of materialists, such as the fruitive workers, the mental speculators, the mystic jugglers, and so many others. All of them are against the existence of Godhead. They would declare that they are themselves God, although in every step and in every action they are dependent on the mercy of the Lord. Therefore a pure devotee may not associate with such gangs of atheists. A strong devotee of the Lord will not be misled by such atheistic propaganda of the nondevotees, but a neophyte devotee should be very cautious about them. A devotee should see to the right discharge of devotional service under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master and should not stick only to the formalities.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.4.28, Purport:

It is necessary, therefore, for the serious students of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to follow the notes and comments of the great ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī. To others, who are not devotees of the Lord, the comments and explanations of such ācāryas may appear to he grammatical jugglery, but to the students who are in the line of disciplic succession, the explanations of the great ācāryas are quite fit.

The word upagateṣu is also significant. All the members of Vṛṣṇi and Bhoja directly reached the abode of the Lord. Other devotees do not reach the abode of the Lord directly, but the pure associates of the Lord have no attraction for the opulence of any planets of the material world. Sometimes, due to inquisitiveness, devotees who are to be promoted to the abode of the Lord have some attraction for the opulence of the higher material planets above the earth, and thus they desire to see them while going up to the perfection.

SB 3.6.39, Translation:

The wonderful potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is bewildering even to the jugglers. That potential power is unknown even to the self-sufficient Lord, so it is certainly unknown to others.

SB 3.6.39, Purport:

The froggish philosophers and mundane wranglers in science and mathematical calculation may not believe in the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are sometimes puzzled by the wonderful jugglery of man and nature. Such jugglers and magicians of the mundane world are actually puzzled by the jugglery of the Lord in His transcendental activities, but they try to adjust their bewilderment by saying that it is all mythology. There is, however, nothing impossible or mythological in the Supreme Omnipotent Person. The most wonderful puzzle for the mundane wranglers is that while they remain calculating the length and breadth of the unlimited potency of the Supreme Person, His faithful devotees are set free from the bondage of material encagement simply by appreciating the wonderful jugglery of the Supreme in the practical field. The devotees of the Lord see the wonderful dexterity in everything with which they come in contact in all circumstances of eating, sleeping, working, etc.

SB 3.7.2, Purport:

Since the Supreme Lord of such eternal and unchangeable qualities is never subjugated by anything like material influence, how can His activities and form be conceived to be under the influence of illusory māyā, as is the case with the living entities?

A juggler or magician displays many wonders with his acts and arts. He can become a cow by his magical tactics, and yet he is not that cow; but at the same time, the cow displayed by the magician is not different from him. Similarly, the material potency is not different from the Lord because it is an emanation from Him, but at the same time, that manifestation of potency is not the Supreme Lord. The Lord's transcendental knowledge and potency always remain the same; they do not change, even when displayed in the material world.

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.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.14.13, Purport:

Cheaters are always there to manufacture their own way of spiritual realization. To get some material benefit, the conditioned soul approaches these pseudo sannyāsīs and yogīs for cheap blessings, but he does not receive any benefit from them, either spiritual or material. In this age there are many cheaters who show some jugglery and magic. They even create gold to amaze their followers, and their followers accept them as God. This type of cheating is very prominent in Kali-yuga. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes the real guru in this way.

SB 5.14.13, Purport:

One cannot become happy by accepting a false guru. A guru should be accepted as advised in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.3.21). Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: One should approach a bona fide guru to inquire about the highest benefit of life. Such a guru is described as follows: śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Such a guru does not manufacture gold or juggle words. He is well versed in the conclusions of Vedic knowledge (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15)). He is freed from all material contamination and is fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. If one is able to obtain the dust of the lotus feet of such a guru, his life becomes successful. Otherwise he is baffled both in this life and in the next.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.15.6, Purport:

In Kali-yuga there is a scarcity of food almost every year, and thus philanthropists spend lavishly to feed the poor. For this they invent the term daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. This is prohibited. One should distribute sumptuous prasāda, considering everyone a part of the Supreme Lord, but one should not juggle words to make a poor man Nārāyaṇa. Everyone is related to the Supreme Lord, but one should not mistakenly think that because one is related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has become the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa. Such a Māyāvāda philosophy is extremely dangerous, especially for a devotee. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore strictly forbidden us to associate with Māyāvādī philosophers. Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa: if one associates with the Māyāvāda philosophy, his devotional life is doomed.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.1.2, Purport:

At the present time, especially in India, so many rascals are claiming to be incarnations, and people are being misled. Therefore, the identity of an incarnation should be confirmed by the descriptions of the śāstras and by wonderful activities. As described in this verse by the word mahīyasaḥ, the activities of an incarnation are not ordinary magic or jugglery, but are wonderful activities. Thus any incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead must be supported by the statements of the śāstra and must actually perform wonderful activities. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was eager to hear about the Manus of different ages. There are fourteen Manus during a day of Brahmā, and the age of each Manu lasts for seventy-one yugas. Thus there are thousands of Manus during the life of Brahmā.

SB 8.4.15, Purport:

Every verse in the Vedic literature, especially in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā, is a Vedic mantra. Here the words yathānukīrtayanti are used to recommend that this literature be presented as it is. Unscrupulous persons, however, deviate from the actual narration and interpret the text in their own way with grammatical jugglery. Such deviations are to be avoided. This is a Vedic injunction supported by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, one of the mahājanas, or authorities. He says, yathānukīrtayanti: one should recite the mantra as it is, without deviation, for then one will be eligible to rise to the platform of all good fortune. Śukadeva Gosvāmī especially recommends that those who are brāhmaṇas (śucayaḥ) recite all these mantras after rising from bed in the morning.

SB 8.10 Summary:

In the beginning of the battle, the demigods prepared to defeat the demons. Indra, King of heaven, fought with Bali, and other demigods, like Vāyu, Agni and Varuṇa, fought against other leaders of the demons. In this fight the demons were defeated, and to save themselves from death they began to manifest many illusions through material maneuvers, killing many soldiers on the side of the demigods. The demigods, finding no other recourse, surrendered again to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, who then appeared and counteracted all the illusions presented by the jugglery of the demons. Heroes among the demons such as Kālanemi, Mālī, Sumālī and Mālyavān fought the Supreme Personality of Godhead and were all killed by the Lord. The demigods were thus freed from all dangers.

SB 8.10.55, Translation:

As the dangers of a dream cease when the dreamer awakens, the illusions created by the jugglery of the demons were vanquished by the transcendental prowess of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as soon as He entered the battlefield. Indeed, simply by remembrance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one becomes free from all dangers.

SB 8.11.6, Translation:

Today, with my thunderbolt, which has hundreds of sharp edges, I, the same powerful person, shall sever your head from your body. Although you can produce so much jugglery through illusion, you are endowed with a poor fund of knowledge. Now, try to exist on this battlefield with your relatives and friends.

SB 8.24.50, Purport:

The conditioned soul, being wrapped in ignorance and therefore not knowing the goal of life, accepts a guru who can juggle words and make some display of magic that is wonderful to a fool. Sometimes a foolish person accepts someone as a guru because he can manufacture a small quantity of gold by mystic yogic power. Because such a disciple has a poor fund of knowledge, he cannot judge whether the manufacture of gold is the criterion for a guru. Why should one not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, from whom unlimited numbers of gold mines come into being? Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). All the gold mines are created by the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, why should one accept a magician who can manufacture only a small portion of gold? Such gurus are accepted by those who are blind, not knowing the goal of life. Mahārāja Satyavrata, however, knew the goal of life. He knew the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore he accepted the Lord as his guru. Either the Supreme Lord or His representative can become guru. The Lord says, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: (BG 7.14)

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.2.37, Purport:

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī therefore recommends, śrī-guru-padāśrayaḥ: one must seek shelter at the lotus feet of a pure devotee who can be one's guru. Caitanya Mahāprabhu advises that a guru is one who strictly follows the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā: yare dekha, tare kaha, 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). A juggler, a magician or one who speaks nonsense as an academic career is not a guru. Rather, a guru is one who presents Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa's instructions, as it is. Śravaṇa is very important; one must hear from the Vaiṣṇava sādhu, guru and śāstra.

The word kriyāsu, meaning "by manual labor" or "by work," is important in this verse. One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, all our activities are concentrated upon distributing Kṛṣṇa literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Kṛṣṇa literature so that in the future he also may become a devotee.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 5.51, Purport:

The Personality of Godhead is the direct, or remote, cause of creation, and material nature is the indirect, or immediate, cause. Materialistic scientists, puffed-up by the magical changes their so-called inventions have brought about, cannot see the real potency of Godhead behind matter. Therefore the jugglery of science is gradually leading people to a godless civilization at the cost of the goal of human life. Having missed the goal of life, materialists run after self-sufficiency, not knowing that material nature is already self-sufficient by the grace of God. Thus creating a colossal hoax in the name of civilization, they create an imbalance in the natural self-sufficiency of material nature.

To think of material nature as all in all, not knowing the original cause, is ignorance. Lord Caitanya appeared in order to dissipate this darkness of ignorance by igniting the spark of spiritual life that can, by His causeless mercy, enlighten the entire world.

CC Adi 5.51, Purport:

The power of electricity is transmitted through the medium of copper, but this does not mean that the copper is electricity. The power is generated at a powerhouse under the control of an expert living being. Similarly, behind all the jugglery of the natural laws is a great living being, who is a person like the mechanical engineer in the powerhouse. It is by His intelligence that the entire cosmic creation moves in a systematic way.

The modes of nature, which directly cause material actions, are also originally activated by Nārāyaṇa. A simple example will explain how this is so: When a potter manufactures a pot from clay, the potter's wheel, his tools and the clay are the immediate causes of the pot, but the potter is the chief cause.

CC Adi 7.114, Purport:

Māyāvādī philosophers are very proud of exhibiting their Vedānta knowledge through grammatical jugglery, but in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa certifies that they are māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, bereft of real knowledge due to māyā. Māyā has two potencies with which to execute her two functions—the prakṣepātmikā-śakti, the power to throw the living entity into the ocean of material existence, and āvaraṇātmikā-śakti, the power to cover the knowledge of the living entity. The function of the the āvaraṇātmikā-śakti is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā by the word māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15).

CC Adi 7.121, Purport:

They are not illusion. Śaṅkarācārya has inconsistently tried to prove that it is an illusion to accept the material world and the jīvas as by-products of the Supreme Lord because (in his conception) the existence of the material world and the jīvas is different and separate from that of the Absolute Truth. With this jugglery of understanding, Māyāvādī philosophers have propagated the slogan brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, which declares that the Absolute Truth is fact but the cosmic manifestation and the living entities are simply illusions, or that all of them are in fact the Absolute Truth and that the material world and living entities do not separately exist.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 3.77, Translation:

Advaita Ācārya continued, "By My great fortune You have just come to My home. Please do not juggle words. Just begin eating and do not talk."

CC Madhya 5.58, Translation:

When the elderly brāhmaṇa's son heard this, he took the opportunity to juggle some words. Becoming very impudent, he stood before the assembly and spoke as follows.

CC Madhya 11.8, Purport:

This is a quotation from Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya-nāṭaka (8.23). Thus Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu enunciates the principles for a sannyāsī renouncing the material world for spiritual advancement. Spiritual advancement is not meant for magic shows and jugglery but for crossing the material world and being transferred to the spiritual world. Pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣoḥ means desiring to go to the other side of the material world. There is a river called Vaitaraṇī, and on one side of this river is the material world, and on the other side is the spiritual world. Since the Vaitaraṇī River is compared to a great ocean, it is named bhava-sāgara, the ocean of repeated birth and death. Spiritual life aims at stopping this repetition of birth and death and entering into the spiritual world, where one can live eternally cognizant and blissful.

Page Title:Jugglery (Books)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:26 of Sep, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=24, CC=7, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:32