BHAGAVAD-GITA 5:15

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 5:15

 

nadatte kasyacit papam

na caiva sukrtam vibhuh

ajnanenavrtam jnanam

tena muhyantijantavah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

na--never; adatte--accepts; kasyacit--anyone's; papam--sin; na--nor;

ca--also; eva--certainly; su-krtam--pious activities; vibhuh--the

Supreme Lord; ajnanena--by ignorance; avrtam--covered;

jnanam--knowledge; tena--by that; muhyanti--are bewildered;

jantavah--the living entities.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone's sinful or pious activities.

Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance

which covers their real knowledge.

 

PURPORT

 

The Sanskrit word vibhu means the Supreme Lord who is full of

unlimited knowledge, riches, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation.

He is always satisfied in Himself, undisturbed by sinful or pious

activities. He does not create a particular situation for any living

entity, but the living entity, bewildered by ignorance, desires to be

put into certain conditions of life, and thereby his chain of action

and reaction begins. A living entity is, by superior nature, full of

knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due

to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is

not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu,

or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire

by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent

Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the

Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never

responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation

which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the

embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body

and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life.

The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramatma,

or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the

individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near

it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The

Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God

disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling

his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord,

being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the

minute independent living entities. However, when one desires Krsna,

the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way

that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy. The Vedic hymns

therefore declare, esa u hy evasadhu karma karayati tam yam ebhyo

lokebhya unninisate. esa u evasadhu karma karayati yam adho ninisate:

"The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities so that he may

be elevated. The Lord engages him in impious activities so that he may

go to hell." (Kausitaki Upanisad 3.8)

 

ajno jantur aniso 'yam

atmanah sukha-duhkhayoh

isvara-prerito gacchet

svargam vasv abhram eva ca

 

"The living entity is completely dependent in his distress and happiness. By

the will of the Supreme he can go to heaven or hell, as a cloud is

driven by the air."

 

Therefore the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Krsna

consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he

is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the

littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of

service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience. And, under the

spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is

responsible for his conditional existence. The Vedanta-sutras (2.1.34)

also confirm this. Vaisamya-nairghrnye na sapeksatvat tatha hi

darsayati: "The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears

to."

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.