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Dear Rupa Dasi Mataji,

Please accept my most humble obeisances.

All glories to ®r…la Prabhup€da!

 

> Can someone explain what this quote means?

 

>>yad€ carma-vad €k€aˆ

>> ve˜ayiyanti m€nav€ƒ

>> tad€ devam avijñ€ya

>> duhkhasy€nto baviyati

>>

>> Only after ordinary men have rolled up the sky like a carpet can

>> unhappiness be brought to an end without knowing the effulgent

>> Lord.

>>

>> ---- ®r… ®vet€vatara Upaniad 6.20

 

If I am not mistaken it means this: Just as it is impossible for

ordinary man to roll up the sky like a carpet, it is equally

impossible to become happy without knowing the effulgent Lord.

 

There will NEVER be a time AFTER ordinary men have rolled up the sky

like a carpet, for it is impossible for them to do so. Similarly,

there will never be a time when unhappiness can be brought to an end

without knowing the effulgent Lord. Or to state it positively: To

become happy one must come to know the effulgent Lord. Or: When one

knows the effulgent Lord one will be happy. The darkness of

unhappiness cannot stay in in the presence of the effulgeny Lord ®r…

KŠa, so unhappiness can be brought to an end by knowing Him.

 

kŠa——s™rya-sama, m€y€ haya andhak€ra

y€h€‰ kŠa, t€h€‰ n€hi m€y€ra adhik€ra

 

“Godhead is light. Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there

is no nescience.” Cc. Madhya 22.31

 

“To become associated with the supreme light is to dissipate all

ignorance. By ignorance only, the conditioned soul wrongly thinks that

both he and the Lord are products of material nature. But in fact the

Personality of Godhead and the living beings are transcendental, and

they have nothing to do with the material nature. When ignorance is

removed and it is perfectly realized that there is nothing existing

without the Personality of Godhead, then nescience is removed.”

 

---- Bh€g. 1.5.27, purport

 

 

“They are truly ignorant who, while imprisoned within the ceaseless

flow of this world’s material qualities, fail to know You, the Supreme

Soul of all that be, as their ultimate, sublime destination. Because

of their ignorance, the entanglement of material work forces such

souls to wander in the cycle of birth and death.”

 

PURPORT

 

A soul who forgets his true identity as a servant of God is sent to

this world to be imprisoned in a succession of material bodies.

Wrongly identifying himself with these bodies, such a conditioned soul

suffers the consequent distress of karmic action and reaction.

Vasudeva, as a compassionate VaiŠava, laments for the suffering

conditioned souls, whose unhappiness, the result of ignorance,* can be

remedied by knowledge of the principles of devotional service to Lord

KŠa.*”

 

---- Bh€g. 10.85.15

 

 

Another thing is that a devotees are not "ordinary men" who try for

the impossible task of rolling up the sky. Ordinary men try for the

impossible, namely: becoming happy in this material world. They will

conceive of "big, big" plans to conquer material nature and to

controll up the sky. But not the devotees, they use their time

properly, for they are “Great learned sages, saintly persons, they’re

always thinking how the people will be happy Vaisvana. Para

duƒkha-duƒkhi: he is always unhappy for unhappiness of the people in

general, public. That is VaiŠava. Para duƒkha-duƒkhi. Just like in

the Western country Lord Jesus Christ, he was unhappy for others. So

that is the business of devotee, God’s son or God’s devotee. That is

the duty, that people are suffering on account of proper knowledge,

and the most grievous ignorance is without any knowledge of God. That

is the most dangerous ignorance. Because human life is meant for

understanding God.” (®r…la Prabhup€da, lecture on ®r…mad-Bh€gavatam

6.1.40, L.A., June 6, 1976)

 

Hoping for corrections,

Your humble servant,

Rogier.