SB 07.06.26 dharmartha-kama iti yo 'bhihitas tri-varga... cited

Expressions researched:
"dharmartha-kama iti yo bhihitas tri-varga" |"iksa trayi naya-damau vividha ca varta" |"manye tad etad akhilam nigamasya satyam" |"svatmarpanam sva-suhrdah paramasya pumsah"

SB Canto 2

SB 2.4.3-4, Purport:

Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī, the grand-spiritual master of Lord Caitanya, took leave of all karma-kāṇḍīya obligations in the following words:

sandhyā-vandana bhadram astu bhavato bhoḥ snāna tubhyaṁ namo

bho devāḥ pitaraś ca tarpaṇa-vidhau nāhaṁ kṣamaḥ kṣamyatām

yatra kvāpi niṣadya yādava-kulottaṁsasya kaṁsa-dviṣaḥ

smāraṁ smāram aghaṁ harāmi tad alaṁ manye kim anyena me

"O my evening prayer, all good unto you. O my morning bath, I bid you good-bye. O demigods and forefathers, please excuse me. I am unable to perform any more offerings for your pleasure. Now I have decided to free myself from all reactions to sins simply by remembering anywhere and everywhere the great descendant of Yadu and the great enemy of Kaṁsa (Lord Kṛṣṇa). I think that this is sufficient for me. So what is the use of further endeavors?"

Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī said further:

mugdhaṁ māṁ nigadantu nīti-nipuṇā bhrāntaṁ muhur vaidikā

mandaṁ bāndhava-sañcayā jaḍa-dhiyaṁ muktādarāḥ sodarāḥ

unmattaṁ dhanino viveka-caturāḥ kāmam mahā-dāmbhikam

moktuṁ na kṣāmate manāg api mano govinda-pāda-spṛhām

"Let the sharp moralist accuse me of being illusioned; I do not mind. Experts in Vedic activities may slander me as being misled, friends and relatives may call me frustrated, my brothers may call me a fool, the wealthy mammonites may point me out as mad, and the learned philosophers may assert that I am much too proud; still my mind does not budge an inch from the determination to serve the lotus feet of Govinda, though I be unable to do it."

And also Prahlāda Mahārāja said:

dharmārtha-kāma iti yo 'bhihitas trivarga

īkṣā trayī naya-damau vividhā ca vārtā

manye tad etad akhilaṁ nigamasya satyaṁ

svātmārpaṇaṁ sva-suhṛdaḥ paramasya puṁsaḥ

"Religion, economic development and sense gratification are celebrated as three means of attaining the path of salvation. Of these, īkṣā trayī especially, i.e., knowledge of the self, knowledge of fruitive acts and logic and also politics and economics, are different means of livelihood. All these are different subjects of Vedic education, and therefore I consider them temporary engagements. On the other hand, surrendering unto the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu is a factual gain in life, and I consider it the ultimate truth." (SB 7.6.26)

The whole matter is concluded in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.41) as vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ, or the absolute path of perfection. Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, a great Vaiṣṇava scholar, defines this as bhagavad-arcanā-rūpaika-niṣkāma-karmabhir viśuddha-cittaḥ—accepting transcendental loving service to the Lord as the prime duty, free from fruitive reaction.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.6.26, Translation and Purport:

Religion, economic development and sense gratification—these are described in the Vedas as tri-varga, or three ways to salvation. Within these three categories are education and self-realization; ritualistic ceremonies performed according to Vedic injunction; logic; the science of law and order; and the various means of earning one's livelihood. These are the external subject matters of study in the Vedas, and therefore I consider them material. However, I consider surrender to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu to be transcendental.

These instructions of Prahlāda Mahārāja stress the transcendental position of devotional service. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (14.26):

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

"One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman." One who fully engages in the devotional service of the Lord is immediately raised to the transcendental position, which is the brahma-bhūta stage (SB 4.30.20). Any education or activity not on the brahma-bhūta platform, the platform of self-realization, is considered to be material, and Prahlāda Mahārāja says that anything material cannot be the Absolute Truth, for the Absolute Truth is on the spiritual platform. This is also confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (2.45), where He says, traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna: "The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them." To act on the material platform, even if one's activities are sanctioned by the Vedas, is not the ultimate goal of life. The ultimate goal of life is to stay on the spiritual platform, fully surrendered to the parama-puruṣa, the supreme person. This is the object of the human mission. In summary, the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies and injunctions are not to be discounted; they are means of being promoted to the spiritual platform. But if one does not come to the spiritual platform, the Vedic ceremonies are simply a waste of time. This is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.8):

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ

viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ

śrama eva hi kevalam

"Duties (dharma) executed by men, regardless of occupation, are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Supreme Lord." If one very strictly performs the various duties of religion but does not ultimately come to the platform of surrendering to the Supreme Lord, his methods of attaining salvation or elevation are simply a waste of time and energy.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 7.7.22-26 -- San Francisco, March 10, 1967:

Now, our point is: never mind what kind of body we are getting next, but I am existing. Whether I am intelligently working during the time when I am awake, or whether I am working under dreams, or whether I am being transferred to another body—I am having sound sleep under chloroform—I am the same. I am the same. I am that eternal soul. This is self-realization. So under all circumstances, either this body or that body, either sleeping or working or under sound sleep, any condition, I am there. This is my identification.

ebhis tri-varṇaiḥ paryastair

buddhi-bhedaiḥ kriyodbhavaiḥ

svarūpam ātmano budhyed

gandhair vāyum ivānvayāt

(SB 7.6.26)

So how I am being carried to different kinds of body, although I am the eternal and existing? How? Now, the very example is here, that gandhair vāyum. Just like vāyu. Vāyu means air. Air is passing through a, I mean to say, garden of rose. So air is carrying the flavor. The aroma of rose is being carried by the air. Now the air is passing through some filthy place, obnoxious, very bad smell, so air is catching. So air has neither this flavor, nor this bad or good. But as it is passing on, according to the association, it is getting certain time of, certain type of flavor and aroma. Similarly, by your association, you are getting different types of body. If you make your association with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you get next your Kṛṣṇa body. And if you make your association with non-Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you'll have this material body, and you have to undergo birth and death repeatedly.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

So that spiritual existence—Prahlāda Mahārāja, he is giving hint here that "We have got three stages of our existence. Sometimes we are active, sometimes we are sleeping, and sometimes we are deeply sleeping. But within these three stages of our existence, I am there." When I am active, I am there. When I am sleeping, I am dreaming, I am there. And when I am in deep sleep, I am there. And when again, I am awakened, I am there. In no case I am not there. I am there always. So buddher jāgaraṇam. So one has to apply his good intelligence. Then this "I am," which is existing in all the stages, that is "I am spirit soul." Tā yenaivānubhūyante. I am... I am perceiving that "Oh, yesterday I was sleeping." That sleeping condition is passed, but I am here. I am thinking, "Oh, I was sleeping yesterday like this. I was dreaming like this." Therefore, I am the chief, adhyakṣaḥ. I am the chief controller. So I am... This "I am," it is very easy to understand. Any intelligent man can understand. So there are so many yogis. They are trying to understand, "What I am?" This is "I am." It can be understood in a few seconds if you are intelligent enough. There is no question of prolonging simply to understand "What I am?" You are this. So only to understand that if I am not this body, which is dreaming, which is awakened, which is sleeping, so many conditions... It is changing from boyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. So then I have to understand that "If I am eternal then what is my eternal business? Now I am engaged with this temporary business. Because I am born in this land, America, so America has become my country. So I am called for going to Vietnam. Because I am born American, I have to go. But if I am not this body, I am something else, eternal, then what is my eternal engagement? This is my bodily engagement." Everything is our bodily engagement. So Cai... Prahlāda Mahārāja asking us, tā yenaivānubhūyante so 'dhyakṣaḥ puruṣaḥ paraḥ. That puruṣa, that personality, is transcendental.

ebhis tri-varṇaiḥ paryastair

buddhi-bhedaiḥ kriyodbhavaiḥ

svarūpam ātmano budhyed

gandhair vāyum ivānvayāt

(SB 7.6.26)

So this ātmā is being transferred from one body to another. How it is being transferred? Just like air is passing from one field to another. Air is passing from this field to another field, another field, another field, and, as he's passing, as he's associating, the air, if it is passing over the nice, fragrant garden, it is, I mean to say, taking with him, with it, the nice flavor, and if it is passing in nasty place, then it is taking the bad smell. Similarly, we are passing from one body to another, and according to the atmosphere we are creating here in this body, we are taking again, transferring ourself to another body.