It is said that one who is engaged in unalloyed devotional service unto Me, he has already transcended the material modes of nature. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. He's on the Brahman platform, that means liberated. To become liberated means to be situated on the Brahman platform. There are three platforms. The bodily platform or sensual platform, then mental platform, then spiritual platform. That spiritual platform is called Brahman platform. So to become liberated means to stand on the Brahman platform. Conditioned soul, we are at the present moment we are on the platform of this bodily concept of life or sensual platform. Those who are a little above, they are on the mental platform, speculating, philosophers. And above this platform there is Brahman platform. So you'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā Twelfth Chapter or Fourteenth Chapter I think, that one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's already on the Brahman platform. That means liberated.
Liberated means
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 2
To become liberated means to become free from dehātma-buddhi, the illusory attachment for personal bodily coverings and everything connected with the body, namely wife, children and all other entanglements. One selects a wife for bodily comforts, and the result is children. For wife and children one requires a dwelling place, and as such a residential house is also necessary. Animals like horses, elephants, cows and dogs are all household animals, and a householder has to keep them as household paraphernalia. In modern civilization the horses and elephants have been replaced by cars and conveyances with considerable horsepower. To maintain all the household affairs, one has to increase the bank balance and be careful about the treasury house, and in order to display the opulence of material assets, one has to keep good relations with friends and relatives, as well as become very careful about maintaining the status quo. This is called material civilization of material attachment.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Suppose in my whole life I have never done anything impious thing; I have done simply pious activities. So the result of pious activities is janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ (SB 1.8.26). By pious activities, in your next life you can get your birth in a very highly respectable, aristocratic family. Janmaiśvarya. You can get a great amount of wealth. And janmaiśvarya-śruta. You can become a highly educated scholar, or you can become a very beautiful. You have a very beautiful body. These things are the result of good activities, result. Now, suppose I get all these things. That is not my liberation. But we are for liberation. We want to get out of this material contamination. So good work or bad work, that will not lead me to liberation. The bondage is there. But if you act for Kṛṣṇa or you act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you are liberated. And liberated means you are at once transferred to the spiritual world. Mām upaiṣyasi. Mām means "You can get Me. You can get Me."
As soon as you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, as soon as you surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no more jurisdiction of māyā upon you. Then you are free. To become liberation, liberated, means to become liberated from the controller of māyā. That is liberation. Therefore, those who are devotees, they are already liberated. They are not under the control of the external energy.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī assimilated the Vedic knowledge and he was after Kṛṣṇa. Although he was liberated soul, still, he was after Kṛṣṇa. To become liberated is not the final stage. Liberated means one who understands that he is not this material body—he is liberated. But that much knowledge is not sufficient. One must act according to that. Just like one is cured of the feverish condition. One was suffering some fever; now there is no fever. That's nice. But that is called convalescent stage. In the convalescent stage, if we do not take care nicely, again the fever may be relapse. That is marginal stage. We must come this side or that side. So even if we are liberated, if we are not engaged in the activities of liberation, then we are to be considered on the marginal stage. And marginal stage means we may fall down in this material condition. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Āruhya kṛcchreṇa. Kṛcchreṇa means with great difficulty. The philosophers, they try to understand the Absolute Truth by mental speculation. But simply by mental speculation you cannot stay in that understanding. Or, in other words, by theoretical knowledge you cannot escape. It must be practiced. Practiced.
There are living entities who are eternally conditioned and there are living entities eternally liberated. The eternally liberated souls, living entities, they are with Kṛṣṇa, they're dancing with Kṛṣṇa, because they have no other desire than to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between eternally conditioned and eternally liberated. Eternally liberated means they have no other desire. All these gopīs, all the cowherds boys, all the cows, all the trees, all the water, all the father, mother, friends, they're simply trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. They have no other business. That is Vṛndāvana. The central point is Kṛṣṇa. And here, in this material world, everyone is trying to satisfy himself. His center is he himself. Therefore he's exploiting others, he's cheating others, he's making so many things, bluffing, because he wants to enjoy himself. That's all. This is the difference between spiritual world and material world. If you want to satisfy yourself, your senses, that is material. And if you want to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's senses, then it is spiritual. This is the difference. So either do it here or go to Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka, do there—the business is the same.
Unless Kṛṣṇa is perfectly right, why should we accept Kṛṣṇa? If He is ordinary rascal, then why, what is the use of reading His book, Bhagavad-gītā? No. All the ācāryas, all the saintly scholars, they have accepted. Therefore we have accepted. Because He is beyond all, I mean to say, faults. What is the difference between ordinary man and a liberated man? Liberated means not under the conditions of material nature. He is called liberated. Liberated means who is not conditioned by the laws of nature. He is called liberated. So Kṛṣṇa is the liberated Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore He has no defects. And those who are... Just like we are..., we are not liberated. Therefore we have got four defects. The four defects are that we commit mistake. Anyone, big, big man, he must commit mistake, because he is not liberated. He is under the laws of material nature. Who is here in this meeting who can say that "I have never committed any mistake"? Is there anybody? However learned scholar you may be, commit mistake is inherent. Similarly, to become illusioned. Illusioned means to accept something which you are not or which is not fact. That is called illusion. Just like sometimes we see that the sun is on the western side, but reflection is on the glass, and the glass is reflecting some light. So we are thinking that sun has come to the other side. We have got this experience. Sun is this side, reflecting the sun shining, and on the glass or on mirror, and the same reflection is this side. So we are thinking that "Sun is this side. The sunlight is coming..." That is called illusion. This is example of illusion, which is not fact. But it is appearing. False thing appearing as truth, that is called māyā. This is the explanation of māyā. Māyā. Mā means "not," yā means "this." Māyā, what you are experiencing, that is not. That is called māyā. So a conditioned soul... A child will think that... Although the fact is sun is this side, by seeing the reflection a child may say, "The sun is this side." So that is called illusion.
Prabhupāda: Purport?
Pradyumna: "The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage..."
Prabhupāda: He's already liberated. If one understands this fact, that why God comes, if he is fully aware of the fact, he's already liberated, immediately. Go on.
Pradyumna: "... and therefore he returns to the..."
Prabhupāda: Because without being liberated, one cannot understand God as He is. It is not possible. Because he has no perfect vision. Liberated means perfect knowledge, perfect vision. That is liberation.
As Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). By the study of Vedas, if you have attained perfection, then you should know what is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa also said. Yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). Siddha means those who are liberated. Liberated means those who have no more the bodily concept of life. They are called liberated, brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). Prasannātmā. So long one is in the bodily concept of life, he's conditioned. He's conditioned. He's conditioned; he's not liberated. And when one understands fully that he's not this body, he's pure soul, bhāgavata, when he realizes, then that stage is called liberated. So liberated stage is not final. If you simply understand that you are not this body, you are a spirit soul, that is not sufficient. You must act as Brahman. You must act as Brahman. Then you will stay.
So one who understands this body as a lump of matter before death, he is called wise. Jñāna-cakṣusā: "He sees the soul by the eyes of knowledge." Paśyati jñāna-cakṣusā. Those who are not in the platform of jñāna, on the gross platform of the animals, they cannot see the soul or Bhagavān, Supersoul. So it requires many, many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After practicing karma... Generally, people are karmīs. Karmīs means gross fruitive worker to get some profit for material benefit. They are called karmīs. So out of many millions and thousands of karmīs, one is jñānī. Jñānī means one who understands that "I am not this body." The karmīs cannot understand. They are in the gross field. Jñānī can understand that "I am not this body." Brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). And out of many millions of jñānīs, one becomes liberated. Liberated means "I am not this body." Actually, he understands that "I am soul." But sometimes the Māyāvādīs, they become liberated, but they think, "Because I am spirit soul, therefore I am one with the Supreme." So 'ham. So 'ham. Actually, I am spirit soul. I am equal in quality. But that does not mean I am the Supreme Soul. Therefore in the next verse you will find: naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecit. The devotees are not so fool that they will desire to become one with the Supreme, Na ekātmatām, because they are in full knowledge. And those who are not full in knowledge, in full knowledge, and, but thinking that they have become liberated, conception of this body... That is theoretical, not practical. Theoretical. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. They are thinking that they have become now liberated, Nārāyaṇa. Now he has become equal with Nārāyaṇa. Therefore the Māyāvādīs, because they have become Nārāyaṇa, one with Nārāyaṇa, they are addressing one another, "Namo nārāyaṇāya." "You are Nārāyaṇa, I am Nārāyaṇa, and the everyone is Nārāyaṇa." Then daridra-nārāyaṇa, rich Nārāyaṇa, this Nārāyaṇa.
So hṛtātmano hṛta-prāṇāṁś ca bhaktiḥ. This is the perfection. "This" means that the gross body and the subtle body becomes digested, no more existence of this gross body. Gross body means sense gratification, and subtle body means speculation, "God is like that, God is like that," speculation, subtle body. Mana-buddhy-ahaṅkāra. And gross body means the senses. So when the senses and the mind, everything, is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that means you are already liberated, already liberated. Therefore it is said, anicchato me gatim aṇvīṁ prayuṅkte. The liberated means that you have no more the activities of gross body and subtle body, but there are activities of the soul. This is wanted. The bhakti means the activities of the soul, not of the body, not of the mind. The Brahman realization means stopping the activities of the body. But the activities of the mind is going on, or they do not know. It is not perfect knowledge. Therefore I have said several times that the Brahman realization, those who are Brahman realized souls, they are not in perfect knowledge. Aviśuddha-buddhi. They have been described as aviśuddha. Viśuddha means very purified, and "a" means "not." Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Their intelligence is not yet perfectly purified. Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa. They are thinking that "Now we have become liberated." No. That is not liberation. Here is liberation. Why? Hṛtātmano hṛta-prāṇāṁś ca bhaktiḥ. When the mind and the senses are all absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, that is the bhakti state. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). The people think that bhakti is a sentiment thing. No. It is above liberation. Above liberation. Unless one is not liberated, he cannot stand on the platform of bhakti. That is bhakti. That is called parā-bhakti. Aparā-bhakti and parā-bhakti.
So we can become immediately liberated. Liberated means who has no karma-bandhana, no resultant action. Ava-bharjitāni. That is liberation. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Devotee, he may seem, it may appear, that he is also dying, but his death and ordinary death is different. Here—tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9); and others—they are dying tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). There is a difference. Karmī... It appears that karmīs... People may say, "A karmī is dying, and bhakta is dying. What is benefit?" No. He's not dying, but he is dying or giving up this body for living forever. And the nondevotees, he is dying to accept another body. That is the difference. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So if you remain a minister, a president or some very big man, but if you are not a devotee, then you have to accept another body. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). You have to... Daiva-netreṇa, by superior management, superior administration, you'll be judged what kind of karma you have done. Although you are minister, but you have done, acted like a hog, like a dog, then you have to accept the body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantor dehopapatti. But that we do not know. They do not believe. At the modern days they do not believe that there is next life and it is conducted by the laws of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ sarvaśaḥ... (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why there are difference of birth? One is king, another is dog; one is tree, another is worm. They are all living entities, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayoyaḥ (BG 14.4). They are all part and parcel. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "They are all My part and parcel." Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. They're struggling in this material nature because conducted by this mind and indriyas.
So the whole civilization is how to restrict this sex desire. Because... Why restriction? Because the sex desire, sex life, will keep him within this material world in different bodies, either as human being or as animal or as bird or as insect—so long there will be this sex desire. To become free, to become liberated means to become liberated from sex desire. That's all. This is the basic principle. Not that this tantra-yoga, how to increase sex desires. This is not civilization. Civilization is how to cut down sex desire and ultimately become free, paramahaṁsa. That is civilization according to Vedic culture. Therefore the training from the very beginning, brahmacārī. Brahmacārī is instructed in such a way that he'll remain brahmacārī throughout the whole life. A brahmacārī is open to accept either a gṛhastha āśrama or vānaprastha āśrama or sannyāsa āśrama, but the guru advises, "Better remain all through brahmacārī. No botheration." So he's trained properly, but still if he has desire, then he's allowed to become a gṛhastha. That is also for a limited time. The whole plan is how to stop, because as soon as here, that Ajāmila, he was not properly married, he became the husband of a prostitute. But there are ten children, but he's entangled with the family, with children, and now he's engaged bhuñjānaḥ prapiban khādan bālakaṁ sneha-yantritaḥ, one after another. First of all sex desire, puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etam (SB 5.5.8).
So we have to follow this. If we are actually serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and going back to home, back to Godhead, make our lives successful in this very life, then... Life successful means mukti, to be not entangled again with this material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). That is success. That after giving up this body... This body means the combination of the so many, twenty-four elements. So long we'll be entangled within this network of twenty-four elements, it is called conditioned life. And mukti, liberated, means no more entanglement. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpam. We are now entangled in these twenty-four elements, and mukti means we are not entangled. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpam. Because we are entangled, we are thinking otherwise. "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that," "I am that," "I have got so many duties." These things. But when one understands that these so-called duties and entanglement of these twenty-four elements of matter, "I do not belong this. I am aloof, I aloof," this understanding is called brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). At least theoretically if we understand, then our duty changes. Prasannātmā, fixed up. That whatever I am doing now, I am doing with this material, for the benefit of this material, not for my personal benefit. I am not these twenty-four elements. This is called mukti.
Tattva-darśi. This word tattva is very important. Unless one is tattva-darsi, there is no use to take instruction from him. Useless waste of time. Tattva-darśi means... Kṛṣṇa says in another place, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Siddhi means liberated, means who has no more the bodily concept of life. This is the Vedic meaning of ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Aham: "I, the spiritual spark, I am not this matter. I am a spirit soul." That is brahmāsmi. So long we are in the bodily concept of life, that is called jīva-bhūta-mamivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ—conditioned soul. And when one understands ahaṁ brahmāsmi, that is called (SB 4.30.20) brahma-bhūta. There are two words. The conditioned soul is called jīva-bhūta. He is thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am cat," "I am dog," "I am this," "I am that." That is called jīva-bhūta. And in the human form of life, when he studies athāto brahma jijñāsā, when he is inquisitive to understand Brahman, spirit, that is real life. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
So in order to dissipate our ignorance, we should receive perfect knowledge. Then we can stop our sinful activities. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavān says, Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam. Kṛṣṇa appears, Kṛṣṇa lives here, He teaches, He acts. If we simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa from the devotee of Kṛṣṇa, then we become perfect, so much so that after giving up this body... Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti... (BG 4.9). Without being perfect, without being free from all sinful reactions, we have to undergo the tribulation of accepting different types of body. But as soon as we become perfect through the perfect knowledge, then automatically we become uncontaminated from this material world and we become liberated. Liberated means, as I have several times explained, to be situated in his original position. Just like a, a person gets fever. When his fever is subsided, he's liberated, he's called liberated from the fever. Similarly, when we have perfect knowledge... What is that perfect knowledge? The perfect knowledge: to understand that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is perfect knowledge. This is perfect knowledge. Jīvera svarūpa haya nityera kṛṣṇera dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108). One has to understand this fact, that "I am not Kṛṣṇa. I am not like Kṛṣṇa. I am not equal to Kṛṣṇa. I cannot become Kṛṣṇa. I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant." This is taught by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayoḥ dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). He, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, says, "I am not a brāhmaṇa. I am not a śūdra. I am not a brahmacārī. I am not a sannyāsī." In this way... Because we identify with the varṇāśrama-dharma: "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am sannyāsī," "I am brahmacārī," "I am gṛhastha," "I am kṣatriya." These are our designations. But when we become designation-free, then "I am not brāhmaṇa, I am not brahmacārī, I am not this, I am not that. I am simply pure servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is knowledge. Our otherwise, anything we identify, that is ignorance. This is knowledge.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest: Just you have told about liberation, and in Adhyāya Two Kṛṣṇa has told that jīrṇāni vaśtrāni vihāya...
Prabhupāda: Aparāṇi. Navāṇī vaśtrāni aparāṇi, gṛhṇāty aparāṇi.
Guest: Yes. According to that version, one, if the soul was there, soul was there before birth, and after death, soul is there, and again the soul is coming in a new shape. So the soul is going on always, changing one body to another body, then how the soul is liberated? How it will be...
Prabhupāda: Liberated means at the present moment under this material, in this material world, he is accepting material body, and when he is bona fide servant of Kṛṣṇa, he'll be offered a spiritual body. Just like a soldier. A person, so long he's not a soldier, he does not, he is not awarded the uniform. But as soon as he accepts the service as a soldier, immediately he is given the uniform. So you are accepting different bodies in the material world, and that is bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You are accepting one type of body, it is becoming vāṇīshed, again you have to accept another. But as soon as you become perfectly Kṛṣṇa conscious, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), then, after leaving this body, he does not come to this material world. He is immediately... Mam eti, he transfers. Similarly, he accepts spiritual body. Is it clear or not? You are accepting material body now, birth after birth. Is it not? That is transmigration. Sometimes you are accepting human body, sometimes you are accepting dog's body, sometimes you are accepting king's body, sometimes you are accepting somebody else. Is it not? Is it clear?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dr. Patel: It is what? Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66)?
Prabhupāda: Yes, and it is very easy: "Henceforward I shall simply follow what Kṛṣṇa says." That's all. You become liberated immediately. It is one minute's task, simply to decide that "No more my concoction, my imagination." Then he is liberated.
Dr. Patel: But this decision, all these things is done by the mind which has got all the vartmas of the past births.
Prabhupāda: Mind may be, but if I ask the mind that "You cannot do anything except what Kṛṣṇa says," then you are liberated. Very easy. You see? We are doing the same thing. We are not liberated. I am not liberated. But I am presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That's all. That's my doing.
Dr. Patel: You mean sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ. That is your duty you have. That is what ...
Prabhupāda: So that verse is very important. That mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. As soon as you become fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, you are liberated, not that liberated means one has to grow four hands and eight legs. No. Simply you have to change the consciousness, that "Henceforward I shall act only as directed by Kṛṣṇa." That's all. You are liberated. It is one minute....
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...parāyanaḥ sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune. "O great sage, out of many millions of materially liberated people who are free from ignorance, and out of many millions of siddhas who have merely attained perfection, there's hardly one pure devotee of Nārāyaṇa. Only such a devotee is actually completely satisfied and peaceful."
Prabhupāda: This is devotee. It is not so easy. But we are giving chance to everyone to come to that position. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But otherwise it is very, very... Muktānām. It begins from the mukta, liberated. Liberated means no more material anxiety.
Hari-śauri: You said in that article in the BTG that women's liberation means that they get more exploited.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They giving them bluff that "You become liberated" means "We shall exploit you, young girls." This is the idea behind. Because the karmīs, they want sex, young girls, and they get energy to work. The Europeans, Americans, they work so hard. They get energy from new, new girls. This is psychology. Therefore they work like hogs and dogs. Dog civilization. Hog civilization. Because the hog has no restriction, either mother, sister, or anyone, "Come on." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājām..., kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This civilization is for the hogs, to take energy by sex with mother, sister, and anyone, and work hard. It is stated in the Bhāgavata. I have not manufactured. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). And here is the civilization. Tapo divyam. Be brahmacārī, undergo austerities and rectify your, this conditioned life, birth and death. This is human civilization. Why you are under birth and death? One life remain brahmacārī and solve all the question. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Teach them, these rascals—they are accusing, "brainwashing"—that this is civilization. It is not civilization to work hard like hogs and dogs and have sex enjoyment. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
| Page Title: | Liberated means |
| Compiler: | Serene, Alakananda |
| Created: | 30 of Nov, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=15, Con=4, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 20 |