BHAGAVAD-GITA 7:15

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 7:15

 

na mam duskrtino mudhah

prapadyante naradhamah

mayayapahrta-jnana

asuram bhavam asritah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

na--not; mam--unto Me; duskrtinah--miscreants; mudhah--foolish;

prapadyante--surrender; nara-adhamah--lowest among mankind; mayaya--by

the illusory energy; apahrta--stolen; jnanah--whose knowledge;

asuram--demonic; bhavam--nature; asritah--accepting.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among

mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the

atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.

 

PURPORT

 

It is said in Bhagavad-gita that simply by surrendering oneself unto

the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality Krsna one can surmount the

stringent laws of material nature. At this point a question arises:

How is it that educated philosophers, scientists, businessmen,

administrators and all the leaders of ordinary men do not surrender to

the lotus feet of Sri Krsna, the all-powerful Personality of Godhead?

Mukti, or liberation from the laws of material nature, is sought by

the leaders of mankind in different ways and with great plans and

perseverance for a great many years and births. But if that liberation

is possible by simply surrendering unto the lotus feet of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, then why don't these intelligent and

hard-working leaders adopt this simple method?

 

The Gita answers this question very frankly. Those really learned

leaders of society like Brahma, Siva, Kapila, the Kumaras, Manu,

Vyasa, Devala, Asita, Janaka, Prahlada, Bali, and later on

Madhvacarya, Ramanujacarya, Sri Caitanya and many others--who are

faithful philosophers, politicians, educators, scientists,

etc.--surrender to the lotus feet of the Supreme Person, the

all-powerful authority. Those who are not actually philosophers,

scientists, educators, administrators, etc., but who pose themselves

as such for material gain, do not accept the plan or path of the

Supreme Lord. They have no idea of God; they simply manufacture their

own worldly plans and consequently complicate the problems of material

existence in their vain attempts to solve them. Because material

energy (nature) is so powerful, it can resist the unauthorized plans

of the atheists and baffle the knowledge of "planning commissions."

 

The atheistic planmakers are described herein by the word duskrtinah,

or

"miscreants." Krti means one who has performed meritorious work. The atheist

planmaker is sometimes very intelligent and meritorious also, because

any gigantic plan, good or bad, must take intelligence to execute. But

because the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the

plan of the Supreme Lord, the atheistic planmaker is called duskrti.

which indicates that his intelligence and efforts are misdirected.

 

In the Gita it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully

under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent

authority. It works as the shadow moves, in accordance with the

movements of the object. But still material energy is very powerful,

and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it

works; nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion

and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as

in the case of Hiranyakasipu and Ravana, whose plans were smashed to

dust although they were both materially learned as scientists,

philosophers, administrators and educators. These duskrtinas, or

miscreants, are of four different patterns, as outlined below.

 

(1) The mudhas are those who are grossly foolish, like hardworking beasts of

burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves,

and so do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical

example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made

to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom

he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his

stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of

being beaten by his master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the

risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings

poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying sound only disturbs

others. This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does

not know for whom he should work. He does not know that karma (action)

is meant for yajna (sacrifice).

 

Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden

of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the

immortality of the living being. To such mudhas, material gains, which

are destructible, are life's all in all--despite the fact that the

mudhas enjoy only a very small fraction of the fruit of labor.

Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and

although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with

practically no food; they are simply absorbed in working hard day and

night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real

master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon.

Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all

masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources.

The swine who eat the night soil do not care to accept sweetmeats made

of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly

continue to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering

mundane world, but will have very little time to hear about the

eternal living force that moves the material world.

 

(2) Another class of duskrti, or miscreant, is called the naradhama, or the

lowest of mankind. Nara means human being, and adhama means the

lowest. Out of the 8,400,000 different species of living beings, there

are 400,000 human species. Out of these there are numerous lower forms

of human life that are mostly uncivilized. The civilized human beings

are those who have regulative principles of social, political and

religious life. Those who are socially and politically developed but

who have no religious principles must be considered naradhamas. Nor is

religion without God religion, because the purpose of following

religious principles is to know the Supreme Truth and man's relation

with Him. In the Gita the Personality of Godhead clearly states that

there is no authority above Him and that He is the Supreme Truth. The

civilized form of human life is meant for man's reviving the lost

consciousness of his eternal relation with the Supreme Truth, the

Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, who is all-powerful. Whoever loses

this chance is classified as a naradhama. We get information from

revealed scriptures that when the baby is in the mother's womb (an

extremely uncomfortable situation) he prays to God for deliverance and

promises to worship Him alone as soon as he gets out. To pray to God

when he is in difficulty is a natural instinct in every living being

because he is eternally related with God. But after his deliverance,

the child forgets the difficulties of birth and forgets his deliverer

also, being influenced by maya, the illusory energy.

 

It is the duty of the guardians of children to revive the divine

consciousness dormant in them. The ten processes of reformatory

ceremonies, as enjoined in the Manu-smrti. which is the guide to

religious principles, are meant for reviving God consciousness in the

system of varnasrama. However, no process is strictly followed now in

any part of the world, and therefore 99.9 percent of the population is

naradhama.

 

When the whole population becomes naradhama. naturally all their

so-called education is made null and void by the all-powerful energy

of physical nature. According to the standard of the Gita, a learned

man is he who sees on equal terms the learned brahmana. the dog. the

cow, the elephant and the dog-eater. That is the vision of a true

devotee. Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who is the incarnation of Godhead as

divine master, delivered the typical naradhamas. the brothers Jagai

and Madhai, and showed how the mercy of a real devotee is bestowed

upon the lowest of mankind. So the naradhama who is condemned by the

Personality of Godhead can again revive his spiritual consciousness

only by the mercy of a devotee.

 

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in propagating the bhagavata-dharma, or

activities of the devotees, has recommended that people submissively

hear the message of the Personality of Godhead. The essence of this

message is Bhagavad-gita. The lowest amongst human beings can be

delivered by this submissive hearing process only, but unfortunately

they even refuse to give an aural reception to these messages, and

what to speak of surrendering to the will of the Supreme Lord?

Naradhamas, or the lowest of mankind, will fully neglect the prime

duty of the human being.

 

(3) The next class of duskrti is called mayayapahrta-jnanah, or those

persons whose erudite knowledge has been nullified by the influence of

illusory material energy. They are mostly very learned fellows--great

philosophers, poets, literati, scientists, etc.--but the illusory

energy misguides them, and therefore they disobey the Supreme Lord.

 

There are a great number of mayayapahrta-jnanah at the present moment,

even amongst the scholars of the Bhagavad-gita. In the Gita, in plain

and simple language, it is stated that Sri Krsna is the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. There is none equal to or greater than Him. He

is mentioned as the father of Brahma, the original father of all human

beings. In fact, Sri Krsna is said to be not only the father of Brahma

but also the father of all species of life. He is the root of the

impersonal Brahman and Paramatma; the Supersoul in every entity is His

plenary portion. He is the fountainhead of everything, and everyone is

advised to surrender unto His lotus feet. Despite all these clear

statements, the mayayapahrta-jnanah deride the personality of the

Supreme Lord and consider Him merely another human being. They do not

know that the blessed form of human life is designed after the eternal

and transcendental feature of the Supreme Lord.

 

All the unauthorized interpretations of the Gita by the class of

mayayapahrta-jnanah, outside the purview of the parampara system, are

so many stumbling blocks on the path of spiritual understanding. The

deluded interpreters do not surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri

Krsna, nor do they teach others to follow this principle.

 

(4) The last class of duskrti is called asuram bhavam asritah, or those of

demonic principles. This class is openly atheistic. Some of them argue

that the Supreme Lord can never descend upon this material world, but

they are unable to give any tangible reasons as to why not. There are

others who make Him subordinate to the impersonal feature, although

the opposite is declared in the Gita. Envious of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, the atheist will present a number of illicit

incarnations manufactured in the factory of his brain. Such persons,

whose very principle of life is to decry the Personality of Godhead,

cannot surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Krsna.

 

Sri Yamunacarya Albandaru of South India said, "O my Lord! You are

unknowable to persons involved with atheistic principles, despite Your

uncommon qualities, features and activities, despite Your

personality's being confirmed by all the revealed scriptures in the

quality of goodness, and despite Your being acknowledged by the famous

authorities renowned for their depth of knowledge in the

transcendental science and situated in the godly qualities."

 

Therefore, (1) grossly foolish persons, (2) the lowest of mankind, (3)

the deluded speculators, and (4) the professed atheists, as above

mentioned, never surrender unto the lotus feet of the Personality of

Godhead in spite of all scriptural and authoritative advice.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.