BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:35

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:35

 

yaj jnatva na punar moham

evam yasyasi pandava

yena bhutany asesani

draksyasy atmany atho mayi

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

yat--which; jnatva--knowing; na--never; punah--again; moham--to

illusion; evam--like this; yasyasi--you shall go; pandava--O son of

Pandu; yena--by which; bhutani--living entities; asesani--all;

draksyasi--you will see; atmani--in the Supreme Soul; athau--or in

other words; mayi--in Me.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will

never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge you will

see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other

words, that they are Mine.

 

PURPORT

 

The result of receiving knowledge from a self-realized soul, or one

who knows things as they are, is learning that all living beings are

parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri

Krsna. The sense of an existence separate from Krsna is called maya

(ma--not, ya--this). Some think that we have nothing to do with Krsna,

that Krsna is only a great historical personality and that the

Absolute is the impersonal Brahman. Factually, as it is stated in the

Bhagavad-gita, this impersonal Brahman is the personal effulgence of

Krsna. Krsna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the cause of

everything. In the Brahma-samhita it is clearly stated that Krsna is

the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes. Even the

millions of incarnations are only His different expansions. Similarly,

the living entities are also expansions of Krsna. The Mayavadi

philosophers wrongly think that Krsna loses His own separate existence

in His many expansions. This thought is material in nature. We have

experience in the material world that a thing, when fragmentally

distributed, loses its own original identity. But the Mayavadi

philosophers fail to understand that absolute means that one plus one

is equal to one, and that one minus one is also equal to one. This is

the case in the absolute world.

 

For want of sufficient knowledge in the absolute science, we are now

covered with illusion, and therefore we think that we are separate

from Krsna. Although we are separated parts of Krsna, we are

nevertheless not different from Him. The bodily difference of the

living entities is maya, or not actual fact. We are all meant to

satisfy Krsna. By maya alone Arjuna thought that the temporary bodily

relationship with his kinsmen was more important than his eternal

spiritual relationship with Krsna. The whole teaching of the Gita is

targeted toward this end: that a living being, as Krsna's eternal

servitor, cannot be separated from Krsna, and his sense of being an

identity apart from Krsna is called maya. The living entities, as

separate parts and parcels of the Supreme, have a purpose to fulfill.

Having forgotten that purpose since time immemorial, they are situated

in different bodies, as men, animals, demigods, etc. Such bodily

differences arise from forgetfulness of the transcendental service of

the Lord. But when one is engaged in transcendental service through

Krsna consciousness, one becomes at once liberated from this illusion.

One can acquire such pure knowledge only from the bona fide spiritual

master and thereby avoid the delusion that the living entity is equal

to Krsna. Perfect knowledge is that the Supreme Soul, Krsna, is the

supreme shelter for all living entities, and giving up such shelter,

the living entities are deluded by the material energy, imagining

themselves to have a separate identity. Thus, under different

standards of material identity, they become forgetful of Krsna. When,

however, such deluded living entities become situated in Krsna

consciousness, it is to be understood that they are on the path of

liberation, as confirmed in the Bhagavatam (2.10.6): muktir

hitvanyatha-rupam svarupena vyavasthitih. Liberation means to be

situated in one's constitutional position as an eternal servitor of

Krsna (Krsna consciousness).

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.