Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

  • 38-45: If the mind deviates the yogi, what is his destination?

Bg 6.42

atha vā yoginām eva
kule bhavati dhīmatām
etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ
loke janma yad īdṛśam

Word for word: 

atha — or; yoginām — of learned transcendentalists; eva — certainly; kule — in the family; bhavati — takes birth; dhīmatām — of those who are endowed with great wisdom; etat — this; hi — certainly; durlabhataram — very rare; loke — in this world; janma — birth; yat — that which; īdṛśam — like this.

Translation: 

Or [if unsuccessful after long practice of yoga] he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists who are surely great in wisdom. Certainly, such a birth is rare in this world.

 

Athava, alternatively. yoginām eva, those who are yogis. 

kule bhavati dhīmatām, they are born in the dhīmatām. Dhī means intelligence, dhīmatām means those who are endowed with intelligence, Srila Prabhupada explains this refers to very advanced devotees in the family. kule bhavati dhīmatām

etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ, durlabha-taraṁ means they are very advanced devotees, and such is rare durlabha. 

loke janma yad īdṛśam, because such an advance devotees families are rare, therefore birth in such a family is also rare. 

etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ. So Sri Krishna is pointing about good fortune of those who are born in such a families. Because if someone takes birth in such a family then auspiciousness begins from birth right from Garbhadan samskara onwards since food mother is taking is all prasad so the milk which mother is taking that is prasad that is converted even what is nourishing embryo in the womb is all prasad, so practically speaking the entire body of the infant is made up of prasad so it is very auspicious environment for the soul inside to practice spiritual life so etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ, this is very rare to have this kind of Janma.

Srila Prabhpada has put himself and his spiritual master in this category, from his purport: Fortunately, both our spiritual master, Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and our humble self had the opportunity to take birth in such families, by the grace of the Lord. Now it is interesting that Srila Prabhupada has told on some occasions that he was in spiritual world and that he descended from spiritual world on the instruction of Sri Krishna for writing books and for sharing Krishna consciousness with the world. Now that being the case why Srila Prabhupada placing himself in the category of those who take birth in the devotees family, in the advanced dhīmatām families. There is a reason for that first of all Srila Prabhupada is not saying anywhere that I and my spiritual master were deviated yogis, Yoga Brashta, Srila Prabhupada is not saying that anywhere at all, he is also saying by the grace of the Lord, so he is not saying by our past spiritual practices we were born in devotees families, he is saying by the grace of the Lord, my spiritual master and I were born in devotees families, born in such families of advance devotees dhīmatām. So sometime devotees may speculate what was Srila Prabhupada in his previous life, who was he in his previous life, or what is Srila Prabhupada Svarupa in spiritual world, so Srila Prabhupada generally doesn’t encourage this kinds of speculations. When Srila Prabhupada was asked about the verse Nikunja Yeta Rati Keli Siddheya which we sing in Guruastakam mangal arati, that spiritual master assist Radha Krishna pastime by assisting in confidential service, so the question may come up what does it mean? How the spiritual master assist? When Srila Prabhupada was asked this question he said that is none of your business. Srila Prabhupada cut off he did not encourage this kind of speculation there is one letter which Srila Prabhupada wrote to HH Tamala Krishna Maharaj who asked him does spiritual master knows who he was in his previous life? Devotees asked indirectly they did not asked who were you in your previous life but Prabhupada understood what they are asking and why, so Srila Prabhupada never made any supernatural claims and he did not claim his authorities has come because of any super natural vision which he has, he just said I don’t know but one astrologer said like this. When it was asked about himself he said from disciples point of view it doesn’t matter where the spiritual master came from where the spiritual master was Sadhana Siddha or Kripa Siddha or Nithya Siddha, Prabhupada gave example the father has become millionaire and he is ready to give million dollars as an inheritance to the child then the child never bothers from where million dollars came to the father by his own hard work or from inheritance. Kripa Siddha are extremely rare. Srila Prabhupada has explained that if the spiritual master is more advance than us then he can guide us to spiritual success, therefore there is no need for us to bother how the spiritual master become so advance? Is it because of eternal associated or because of being advance and perfected? Once a reported asked Srila Prabhupada how many pure devotees are there in your organization the reply was as many devotees are there in organization. In a sense we all are eternal associates of supreme Lord as we are part and parcel of Lord. Sometime Prabhupada said he was mediating what Krishna has in His lunch box today. And about Krishna playing with Gopas, and some devotees speculated that SP is in Skhya Rasa so he made Krishna-Balaram temple and since he is not in Madhurya rasa which is highest so we need spiritual master who is in Madhuyra rasa, so these type of things keep coming which is not good. Srila Prabhupada has not made such types of explicit statements and he told why he made Krishna-Balaram temple. It is dangerous to do postmortem of pure devotee’s word and heart to find out what the pure devotees intention was. We have to look at his words and try to understand based on that. Srila Prabhupada said the place of the temple was Raman Reti where Krishna perform pastime with Gopas primarily, so it is appropriate that it should be a Krishna Balram temple and also in Vrindavan there are so many Radha-Krishna temples so we want our temple to be distinctive and because it is on the land where Shakya Rasa is performed so let us have a Krishna Balaram temple there. And beyond that it is not that Srila Prabhupada doesn’t have Radha Krishna Temple, we have Krishna Balaram, and we also have Radha Shyamsundar, and of course we have Gaur-Nitai also. So the point is this sort of speculation is not fare Srila Prabhupada is simple illustrating through this purport that birth in a devotee family is advantageous for spiritual advancement and that is the main point and beyond that one doesn’t have to try to speculate, Srila Prabhupada didn’t encourage speculation. We can definitely see the commitment of Srila Prabhupada in advance stages he works tirelessly to practice spiritual life and after that also he continued till the last breath, he had purity and potency to transform so many people that is what we should focus on.

So after describing this, those who have done little practice of spiritual life and those who has done lot of practice on spiritual life either way what happens to them afterwards? Now they have to continue on their practice.

End of transcription.