BHAGAVAD-GITA 10:3

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 10:3

 

yo mam ajam anadim ca

vetti loka-mahesvaram

asammudhah sa martyesu

sarva-papaih pramucyate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

yah--anyone who; mam--Me; ajam--unborn; anadim--without beginning;

ca--also; vetti--knows; loka--of the planets; maha-isvaram--the

supreme master; asammudhah--undeluded; sah--he; martyesu--among those

subject to death; sarva-papaih--from all sinful reactions;

pramucyate--is delivered.

 

TRANSLATION

 

He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme

Lord of all the worlds--he only, undeluded among men, is freed from

all sins.

 

PURPORT

 

As stated in the Seventh Chapter (7.3), manusyanam sahasresu

kascidyatati siddhaye: those who are trying to elevate themselves to

the platform of spiritual realization are not ordinary men; they are

superior to millions and millions of ordinary men who have no

knowledge of spiritual realization. But out of those actually trying

to understand their spiritual situation, one who can come to the

understanding that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the

proprietor of everything, the unborn, is the most successful

spiritually realized person. In that stage only, when one has fully

understood Krsna's supreme position, can one be free completely from

all sinful reactions.

 

Here the Lord is described by the word aja, meaning "unborn," but He

is distinct from the living entities who are described in the Second

Chapter as aja. The Lord is different from the living entities who are

taking birth and dying due to material attachment. The conditioned

souls are changing their bodies, but His body is not changeable. Even

when He comes to this material world, He comes as the same unborn;

therefore in the Fourth Chapter it is said that the Lord, by His

internal potency, is not under the inferior, material energy, but is

always in the superior energy.

 

In this verse the words vetti loka-mahesvaram indicate that one should

know that Lord Krsna is the supreme proprietor of the planetary

systems of the universe. He was existing before the creation, and He

is different from His creation. All the demigods were created within

this material world, but as far as Krsna is concerned, it is said that

He is not created; therefore Krsna is different even from the great

demigods like Brahma and Siva. And because He is the creator of

Brahma, Siva and all the other demigods, He is the Supreme Person of

all planets.

 

Sri Krsna is therefore different from everything that is created, and

anyone who knows Him as such immediately becomes liberated from all

sinful reactions. One must be liberated from all sinful activities to

be in the knowledge of the Supreme Lord. Only by devotional service

can He be known and not by any other means, as stated in

Bhagavad-gita.

 

One should not try to understand Krsna as a human being. As stated

previously, only a foolish person thinks Him to be a human being. This

is again expressed here in a different way. A man who is not foolish,

who is intelligent enough to understand the constitutional position of

the Godhead, is always free from all sinful reactions.

 

If Krsna is known as the son of Devaki, then how can He be unborn?

That is also explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam: When He appeared before

Devaki and Vasudeva, He was not born as an ordinary child; He appeared

in His original form, and then He transformed Himself into an ordinary

child.

 

Anything done under the direction of Krsna is transcendental. It

cannot be contaminated by material reactions, which may be auspicious

or inauspicious. The conception that there are things auspicious and

inauspicious in the material world is more or less a mental concoction

because there is nothing auspicious in the material world. Everything

is inauspicious because the very material nature is inauspicious. We

simply imagine it to be auspicious. Real auspiciousness depends on

activities in Krsna consciousness in full devotion and service.

Therefore if we at all want our activities to be auspicious, then we

should work under the directions of the Supreme Lord. Such directions

are given in authoritative scriptures such as Srimad-Bhagavatam and

Bhagavad-gita, or from a bona fide spiritual master. Because the

spiritual master is the representative of the Supreme Lord, his

direction is directly the direction of the Supreme Lord. The spiritual

master, saintly persons and scriptures direct in the same way. There

is no contradiction in these three sources. All actions done under

such direction are free from the reactions of pious or impious

activities of this material world. The transcendental attitude of the

devotee in the performance of activities is actually that of

renunciation, and this is called sannyasa. As stated in the first

verse of the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, one who acts as a matter

of duty because he has been ordered to do so by the Supreme Lord, and

who does not seek shelter in the fruits of his activities

(anasritah karma-phalam), is a true renouncer. Anyone acting under the

direction of the Supreme Lord is actually a sannyasi and a yogi, and

not the man who has simply taken the dress of the sannyasi, or a

pseudo yogi.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.