Shankara Meditated on Krishna

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Sankara, India's Greatest Impersonalist Meditated on Lord

Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita

 

His Divine Grace

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada

Founder-Acarya of the

Hare Krishna Movement

Srila Prabhupada chastises impersonalist yogis and swamis,

the nominal followers of the ninth-century teacher Sankara, in

this commentary on Sankara's Meditation on the Bhagavad Gita:

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whereas Sankara, the

greatest of the impersonalists, offers his due respects to

Krishna and His book Bhagavad Gita, the foolish say that we

need not surrender to the personal Krishna. His Divine Grace

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (09-11-01)

--1--

O Bhagavad-gita,

Through Thy eighteen chapters

Thou showerest upon man

The immortal nectar

Of the wisdom of the Absolute.

O blessed Gita,

By Thee, Lord Krsna Himself

Enlightened Arjuna.

Afterward, the ancient sage Vyasa

Included Thee in the Mahabharata.

O loving mother,

Destroyer of man's rebirth

Into the darkness of this mortal world,

Upon Thee I meditate.

 

 

 

--2--

 

Salutations to thee, O Vyasa.

Thou art of mighty intellect,

And thine eyes

Are large as the petals

Of the full-blown lotus.

It was thou

Who brightened this lamp of wisdom,

Filling it with the oil

Of the Mahabharata.

 

Purport

 

Sripada Sankaracarya was an impersonalist from the

materialistic point of view. But he never denied the spiritual form

known as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, or the eternal, all-blissful

form of knowledge that existed before the material creation.

When he spoke of Supreme Brahman as impersonal, he meant

that the Lord's sac-cid-ananda form was not to be confused with

a material conception of personality. In the very beginning of his

commentary on the Gita, he maintains that Narayana, the

Supreme Lord, is transcendental to the material creation. The

Lord existed before the creation as the transcendental

personality, and He has nothing to do with material personality.

Lord Krsna is the same Supreme Personality, and He has no

connection with a material body. He descends in His spiritual,

eternal form, but foolish people mistake His body to be like ours.

Sankara's preaching of impersonalism is especially meant for

teaching foolish persons who consider Krsna to be an ordinary

man composed of matter.

 

No one would care to read the Gita if it had been spoken by a

material man, and certainly Vyasadeva would not have bothered

to incorporate it into the history of the Mahabharata. According to

the above verses, Mahabharata is the history of the ancient

world, and Vyasadeva is the writer of this great epic. The

Bhagavad-gita is identical with Krsna; and because Krsna is the

Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no

difference between Krsna and His words. Therefore the

Bhagavad-gita is as worshipable as Lord Krsna Himself, both

being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gita "as is"

actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord.

But unfortunate persons say that the Gita is too antiquated for the

modern man, who wants to find out God by speculation or

meditation.

 

--3--

 

I salute Thee, O Krsna,

O Thou who art the refuge

Of ocean-born Laksmi

And all who take refuge

At Thy lotus feet.

Thou art indeed

The wish-fulfilling tree

For Thy devotee.

Thy one hand holds a staff

For driving cows,

And Thy other hand is raised--

The thumb touching the tip

Of Thy forefinger,

Indicating divine knowledge.

Salutations to Thee, O Supreme Lord,

For Thou art the milker

Of the ambrosia of the Gita.

 

Purport

 

Sripada Sankaracarya explicitly says, "You fools, just worship

Govinda and that Bhagavad-gita spoken by Narayana Himself,"

yet foolish people still conduct their research work to find out

Narayana; consequently they are wretched, and they waste their

time for nothing. Narayana is never wretched nor daridra; rather,

He is worshiped by the goddess of fortune, Laksmi, as well as

by all living entities. Sankara declared himself to be "Brahman,"

but he admits Narayana, or Krsna, to be the Supreme

Personality who is beyond the material creation. He offers his

respects to Krsna as the Supreme Brahman, or Parabrahman,

because He (Krsna) is worshipable by everyone. Only the fools

and enemies of Krsna, who cannot understand what the

Bhagavad-gita is (though they make commentaries on it), say, "It

is not the personal Krsna to whom we have to surrender

ourselves utterly, but the unborn, beginningless Eternal who

speaks through Krsna." Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Whereas Sankara, the greatest of the impersonalists, offers his

due respects to Krsna and His book the Bhagavad-gita, the

foolish say that "we need not surrender to the personal Krsna."

Such unenlightened people do not know that Krsna is absolute

and that there is no difference between His inside and outside.

The difference of inside and outside is experienced in the dual,

material world. In the absolute world there is no such difference,

because in the absolute everything is spiritual (sac-cid-ananda),

and Narayana, or Krsna, belongs to the absolute world. In the

absolute world there is only the factual personality, and there is

no distinction between body and soul.

 

--4--

 

The Upanisads

Are as a herd of cows,

Lord Krsna, son of a cowherd,

Is their milker,

Arjuna is the calf,

The supreme nectar of the Gita

Is the milk,

And the wise man

Of purified intellect

Is the drinker.

 

Purport

 

Unless one understands spiritual variegatedness, one cannot

understand the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. In the

Brahma-samhita it is said that Krsna's name, form, quality,

pastimes, entourage, and paraphernalia are all

ananda-cinmaya-rasa--in short, everything of His transcendental

association is of the same composition of spiritual bliss,

knowledge, and eternity. There is no end to His name, form, etc.,

unlike in the material world, where all things have their end. As

stated in the Bhagavad-gita, only fools deride Him; whereas it is

Sankara, the greatest impersonalist, who worships Him, His

cows, and His pastimes as the son of Vasudeva and pleasure of

Devaki.

 

--5--

 

Thou son of Vasudeva,

Destroyer of the demons Kamsa and Canura,

Thou supreme bliss of Mother Devaki,

O Thou, guru of the universe,

Teacher of the worlds,

Thee, O Krsna, I salute.

 

Purport

 

Sankara describes Him as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki.

Does he mean thereby that he is worshiping an ordinary,

material man? He worships Krsna because he knows that

Krsna's birth and activities are all supernatural. As stated in the

Bhagavad-gita (4.9), Krsna's birth and activities are mysterious

and transcendental, and therefore only the devotees of Krsna

can know them perfectly. Sankara was not such a fool that he

would accept Krsna as an ordinary man and at the same time

offer Him all devotional obeisances, knowing Him as the son of

Devaki and Vasudeva. According to the Bhagavad-gita, only by

knowing the transcendental birth and activities of Krsna can one

attain liberation by acquiring a spiritual form like Krsna's. There

are five different kinds of liberation. One who merges into the

spiritual auras of Krsna, known as the impersonal Brahman

effulgence, does not fully develop his spiritual body. But one who

fully develops his spiritual existence becomes an associate of

Narayana or Krsna in different spiritual abodes. One who enters

into the abode of Narayana develops a spiritual form exactly like

Narayana's (four-handed), and one who enters into the highest

spiritual abode of Krsna, known as Goloka Vrndavana, develops

a spiritual form of two hands like Krsna's. Sankara, as an

incarnation of Lord Siva, knows all these spiritual existences, but

he did not disclose them to his then Buddhist followers because

it was impossible for them to know about the spiritual world.

Lord Buddha preached that void is the ultimate goal, so how

could his followers understand spiritual variegatedness?

Therefore Sankara said, brahma satyam jagan mithya, or,

material variegatedness is false but spiritual variegatedness is

fact. In the Padma Purana Lord Siva has admitted that he had to

preach the philosophy of maya, or illusion, in the Kali-yuga as

another edition of the "void" philosophy of Buddha. He had to do

this by the order of the Lord for specific reasons. He disclosed

his real mind, however, by recommending that people worship

Krsna, for no one can be saved simply by mental speculations

composed of word jugglery and grammatical maneuvers.

Sankara further instructs:

 

bhaja govindam bhaja govindam

bhaja govindam mudha-mate

samprapte sannihite kale

na hi na hi raksati dukrn-karane

 

"You intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship

Govinda, just worship Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge

and word jugglery will not save you at the time of death."

 

--6--

 

Of that terrifying river

Of the battlefield of Kuruksetra

Over which the Pandavas victoriously crossed,

Bhisma and Drona were as the high banks,

Jayadratha as the river's water,

The King of Gandhara the blue water-lily,

Salya the shark, Krpa the current,

Karna the mighty waves,

Asvatthama and Vikarna the dread alligators,

And Duryodhana the very whirlpool--

But Thou, O Krsna, wast the ferryman!

 

--7--

 

May the spotless lotus of the Mahabharata

That grows on the waters

Of the words of Vyasa

And of which the Bhagavad-gita

Is the irresistibly sweet fragrance

And its tales of heroes

The full-blown petals

Fully opened by the talk of Lord Hari,

Who destroys the sins

Of Kali-yuga,

And on which daily light

The nectar-seeking souls,

As so many bees

Swarming joyously--

May this lotus of the Mahabharata

Bestow on us the highest good.

 

--8--

 

 

Salutations to Lord Krsna

The embodiment of supreme bliss,

By whose grace and compassion

The dumb become eloquent

And the lame scale mountains--

Him I salute!

 

Purport

 

Foolish followers of foolish speculators cannot understand the

meaning of offering salutations to Lord Krsna, the embodiment

of bliss. Sankara himself offered his salutations to Lord Krsna

so that some of his intelligent followers might understand the

real fact by the example set by their great master, Sankara, the

incarnation of Lord Siva. But there are many obstinate followers

of Sankara who refuse to offer their salutations to Lord Krsna

and instead mislead innocent persons by injecting materialism

into the Bhagavad-gita and confusing innocent readers by their

commentaries, and consequently the readers never have the

opportunity to become blessed by offering salutations to Lord

Krsna, the cause of all causes. The greatest disservice to

humanity is to keep mankind in darkness about the science of

Krsna, or Krsna consciousness, by distorting the sense of the

Gita.

 

--9--

 

Salutations to that supreme shining one

Whom the creator Brahma, Varuna,

Indra, Rudra, Marut, and all divine beings

Praise with hymns,

Whose glories are sung

By the verses of the Vedas,

Of whom the singers of Sama sing

And of whose glories the Upanisads

Proclaim in full choir,

Whom the yogis see

With their minds absorbed

In perfect meditation,

And of whom all the hosts

Of gods and demons

Know not the limitations.

To Him, the Supreme God, Krsna, be all salutations--

Him we salute! Him we salute! Him we salute!

 

Purport

 

By recitation of the ninth verse of his meditation, quoted from the

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sankara has indicated that Lord Krsna is

worshipable by one and all, including himself. He gives hints to

materialists, impersonalists, mental speculators, "void"

philosophers, and all other candidates subjected to the

punishment of material miseries--just offer salutations to Lord

Krsna, who is worshiped by Brahma, Siva, Varuna, Indra, and all

other demigods. He has not mentioned, however, the name of

Visnu, because Visnu is identical with Krsna. The Vedas and the

Upanisads are meant for understanding the process by which

one can surrender unto Krsna. The yogis try to see Him (Krsna)

within themselves by meditation. In other words, it is for all the

demigods and demons who do not know where the ultimate end

is that Sankara teaches, and he especially instructs the demons

and the fools to offer salutations to Krsna and His words, the

Bhagavad-gita, by following in his footsteps. Only by such acts

will the demons be benefited, not by misleading their innocent

followers by so-called mental speculations or show-bottle

meditations. Sankara directly offers salutations to Krsna, as if to

show the fools, who are searching after light, that here ls light

like the sun. But the fallen demons are like owls that will not

open their eyes on account of their fear of the sunlight itself.

These owls will never open their eyes to see the sublime light of

Krsna and His words the Bhagavad-gita. They will, however,

comment on the Gita with their closed owl-eyes to mislead their

unfortunate readers and followers. Sankara, however, discloses

the light to his less intelligent followers and shows that the

Bhagavad-gita and Krsna are the only source of light. This is all

to teach the sincere seekers of truth to offer salutation to Lord

Krsna and thus surrender unto Him without misgivings. That is

the highest perfection of life, and that is the highest teaching of

Sankara, the great learned scholar whose teachings drove the

voidist philosophy of Buddha out of India, the land of knowledge.

Om tat sat.

 

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 

 

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