Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

After describing this now Sri Krishna will describe second category so what is going on in this section Krishna is talking about those who Surrender and those who will not surrender. So in talks about those who do not surrender He talks about those who surrender something other than Him but is connected with Him so that is the devatas so apart from devatas somebody may started worshiping impersonal conception for those kinds of people Sri Krishna talks about in this verse:

Bg 7.24

avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ
manyante mām abuddhayaḥ
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mamāvyayam anuttamam

Word for word: 

avyaktam — nonmanifested; vyaktim — personality; āpannam — achieved; manyante — think; mām — Me;abuddhayaḥ — less intelligent persons; param — supreme; bhāvam — existence; ajānantaḥ — without knowing;mama — My; avyayam — imperishable; anuttamam — the finest.

Translation: 

Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme.

 

avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ

avyaktaṁ means which is unmanifest, vyaktim āpannaṁ became manifest,

So those who think that I was unmanifest earlier have become manifest now avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ.

manyante mām abuddhayaḥ

Those who think like this they are abuddhayaḥ, why they are abuddhayaḥ because 

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto

They do not know my Supreme Nature and what is that Supreme Nature? 

mamāvyayam anuttamam

That I am āvyayam, imperishable and I am anuttamam, the finest, uttamam, tama is darkness and uttamam is one who is beyond darkness.

Uttama is also superlative glorification best.

avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ, what was unmanifest before has become manifest this is referring to not just the impersonal conception of Brahmavad but also impersonal conception in terms of Mayavad the difference between Brahmavad and Mayavad is Brahmavadis are attracted to the impersonal conception and they either don’t know about the personal conception or not attracted by personal conception because they have not associated with devotees who has personal conception so these are the Brahmavadis so they are not offensive, but Mayavadis are those who are not only attracted to the impersonal conception but they also consider personal conception to be transitional to be temporary in fact they consider personal conception to be a convenient fiction. Convenient fiction means this is just a tool by which one can move from lower level of reality to higher level of reality because we are conditioned to think of form so we cannot think of form-less so therefore just think of some form and meditate on that form and afterwards you can transcend that form. That is the conception. But Sri Krishna is saying those who think like this is abuddhayaḥ. So they are abuddhayaḥ means low intelligence, now when Sri Krishna is saying abuddhayaḥ why He is saying so strongly about this. Because Mayavadis offend this form avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ. Which means they think the actual eternal reality is impersonal Brahman and that Brahman is manifested as Bhagvan. 

There are many brands of Mayavad, we use word mayavad as rubber band expandable and practically anybody and everybody who has some conception about impersonal Brahman we call them Mayavadis, now that is not necessarily wrong but that is also not entirely accurate. So we discussed difference of Brahmavadi and Mayavadis so those who are offensive will talk about one particular section of Mayavad there idea for example is that the Brahman is the only reality and Brahman alone is transcendental. We know that there is tattva traya, Jagat, Jiva and Jagadish, so Jagadish is the Supreme Lord, Jiva is the living entity and Jagat is the material nature so these are tattva traya, these are often talked about in philosophical circle like Upanishad and elsewhere so when these three are talked about Jiva, Jagat and jagadish what is the focus or purpose of this discussion? The focus or purpose of the discussion is a gradual ascent, one understand these category and one understand that Supreme Lord is ultimate reality and all other are His energies which rest on Him this Sri Krishna has talked about in the seventh chapter itself in verses 7.4, 7.5 & 7.6 bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ…and apareyam itas tv anyāṁ …but the mayavadi’s idea is that the Brahman alone is the ultimate reality that Brahman alone is transcendental, we have different modes namely transcendence, goodness, passion and ignorance. So there idea is when Brahman comes in contact with goodness then what results is, what we call as Jagadish or Bhagvan. So what is Bhagvan as per them? It is Brahman contaminated by coming in contact with matter in the mode of goodness, and when Brahman comes in contact with passion that will lead to Jivas and when Brahman comes in contact with ignorance that lead to formation of matter. Jada Tattva that is Jagat so their conception is that ultimately Bhagvan is also material, everything is Brahman but when Brahman is covered by different kinds of illusions, Brahman covered by Satvik illusion is Jagadish, Brahman covered by Rajasik illusion is Jiva, Brahman covered by Tamasik illusion is Jagat. This is there idea, the problem with this idea is it makes Bhagvan not transcendental but it makes Bhagvan or Jagdish here in this context, as material time and again Sri Krishna has categorically explained that, He is not material in this same chapter Sri Krishna has told in 7.12 & 7.13, In 7.12 He said that everything in this material world comes from three modes, they come from Me I am not in them, they are in Me. So He is saying that everything is covered by the three modes but I am transcendental to the three modes. So in this way Sri Krishna’s statement is very clear very categorical but unfortunately the impersonalist they make that Bhagvan who is transcendental to material and in making Him material they make Bhagvan who is indispensable absolute truth into a dispensable temporary tool. How temporary tool? There idea is ok you can meditate on Bhagvan as long as you are not very intelligent as long as you are not very evolved so you can worship on and meditate on a form and ultimately you have to go beyond form. So often these people they may not even tell this reality initially for general people they will tell about demigod worship and more intelligent higher people they will talk about something higher, actually it is not like that Bhakti is so encompassing that all kinds of people can take it up less intelligent or more intelligent. So here we say Gyanvan Mam Prapadyate. The wise people surrender to Him and Krishna will talk about that in 9.32 or 33 verses that even those who are low born can become elevated and liberated so in that sense anybody and everybody can become liberated. So there is no need to have this misconception at least it is not scripturally based. The misconception that only those who are less intelligent they should worship the personal form of Bhagvan, so it is not just misconception but monstrousness conception. Why monstrous? Because the monster devours and destroys so this is a monstrous conception that devours and destroys our Bhakti because materialism directs our love away from Sri Krishna but this sort of mayavad makes us think that giving up that love for Krishna is spiritual advancement. Materialism at least puts in the illusion that I am spiritually advanced but mayavad lets us feel that, forget about spiritual advancement, material enjoyment gives us better happiness. When we practice spiritual life we understand that material enjoyment is not what it is made out to be, it is made to be such a big thing but actually it is temporary so there has to be something higher in life that ultimate higher is taste of Bhakti but when one starts worshiping the impersonal conception under mayavadi misconception then one starts thinking that Bhakti is transitional and going beyond the feelings of Bhakti is actually Supreme, and that is a terrible misconception which deprive people of higher taste of Bhakti and ultimately leaves them with nothing, why it leaves them with nothing because there is no tangible taste in contemplating on formless reality so the conception of Brahman which the impersonalist have is devoid of attributes, devoid of pastimes, devoid of reciprocation and actually there is very little ecstasy in contemplating on that and because they are not getting spiritual taste they come back to material taste, that is why  Srila Prabhupada has written in SB 1.1 that this impersonalism has actually increased materialism in many ways.

So mayavadis have the idea, we know that there are five Rasa and these Rasa has progressive level of intimacy so in Shanta there is distant revelation and progressively as we move towards Madhurya there is intense intimacy so these 5 are eternal rasa in spiritual world and different devotees are in different rasas but mayavadis take same hierarchy and that which is eternal they make it transactional. Initially when you think about God you think Him about object of veneration but when you advance further then you think about service and when you advance further then you go closer to God and then you understand that He is a friend and not just a master and then when you go further you would understand that God is not your parent and you have to care for Him as you care for a child and when you go further you understand that you have to care for God as your most intimate beloved and then if you go further…in each stage of this you are going closer and closer and closer to God and then when you become closet you become one with God. So they thinks that impersonal merging is higher than Madhurya also. So this is terrible misunderstanding because there is some joy in meditating on absolute truth called Brahmanand but Brahmanand is noting in comparison to Bhakti Ananda, so in the hierarchy from negative access that is material enjoyment, zero point is impersonal realization neither material happiness nor spiritual happiness they we move beyond and in that scale the highest is Madhurya Rasa the impersonalists what they do is turn the scale so what is at the bottom end of the spiritual happiness they show it as top, this they do because of the misinterpretation, so Brahman is the first level of spiritual realization after that come parmatama and Bhagvan is the highest, but they change it upside down and say Bhagvan is the lowest and Brahman is the highest so this way although Brahmanand is the lowest they make them highest. And in this way they completely make a mess of people’s spiritual conception and that is why Sri Krishna says abuddhayaḥ, such people have no intelligence and Sri Krishna will talk about their destination later in ninth chapter. 

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto.

They do not know my transcendental nature, what is the transcendental nature? Sri Krishna has talked again and again and again in Bhagavad Gita in 4.6 ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā , Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates …He says Janma Karma Ca Me Divyam…His appearance and activity are not mundane they are transcendental when one understands this then one can take Shelter of Sri Krishna and then go beyond impersonal reality to personal reality that is the ultimate goal of life, that is the ultimate perfection of life so the impersonalist are also going to make some spiritual advancement if they are not offensive to the Supreme Lord if they are offensive then they can get lot of trouble in the spiritual progress they can create a lot of trouble for others also 

so in this section from 13 to 24 it discussed why one should surrender to Krishna then those who Surrender and those who don’t surrender to Krishna and then two categories those who surrender but not to Sri Krishna one is those who surrender to Devatas and other those who goes to impersonal conception.

End of transcription.