The
Supreme Lord said: 'They who give up on these means of
achieving Me, consisting of the devotion, the knowledge and the
work to be done, are by the insignificance of the flickering
lusts they cultivate with the senses, confronted with the
finality of a material existence.
The
Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who give up these
methods for achieving Me, which consist of devotional
service, analytic philosophy and regulated execution of
prescribed duties, and instead, being moved by the material
senses, cultivate insignificant sense gratification,
certainly undergo the continual cycle of material existence.
(Vedabase)
Text
2
The steadiness
each one has in his own position is declared to be the actual
virtue and the opposite [of being unsteady] is indeed
the vice; this is the final conclusion about the two [see
also B.G. 2:
16].
Steadiness
in one's own position is declared to be actual piety,
whereas deviation from one's position is considered impiety.
In this way the two are definitely ascertained.
(Vedabase)
Text
3
What would be
pure or impure concerning the religion, what would be vice or
virtue in normal affairs and what would be favorable or
unfavorable for one's physical survival are matters one must
evaluate from the same category of elements, o sinless one
[what is good for the body e.g. is not necessarily good for
the religion].
O
sinless Uddhava, in order to understand what is proper in
life one must evaluate a given object within its particular
category. Thus, in analyzing religious principles one must
consider purity and impurity. Similarly, in one's ordinary
dealings one must distinguish between good and bad, and to
insure one's physical survival one must recognize that which
is auspicious and inauspicious. (Vedabase)
Text
4
This approach
[of distinguishing between good and bad] I put forward
for the sake of those who suffer the burden of religious
principles.
I
have revealed this way of life for those bearing the burden
of mundane religious principles. (Vedabase)
Text
5
Earth,
water, fire, air and ether are the five basic elements that,
from Lord Brahmâ down to the nonmoving creatures,
constitute the bodies of the living beings who are all
connected in the Supreme Soul.
Earth,
water, fire, air and ether are the five basic elements that
constitute the bodies of all conditioned souls, from Lord
Brahmâ himself down to the nonmoving creatures. These
elements all emanate from the one Personality of Godhead.
(Vedabase)
Text
6
Although they
consist of the same elements and in that sense are equal,
assign the Vedas different names and forms to them in service
of their self-interest [see varnâs'rama].
My
dear Uddhava, although all material bodies are composed of
the same five elements and are thus equal, the Vedic
literatures conceive of different names and forms in
relation to such bodies so that the living entities may
achieve their goal of life. (Vedabase)
Text
7
What would be
the right and wrong considerations concerning the time, place,
the things and so on, is established by Me with the purpose of
restricting materially motivated activities.
O
saintly Uddhava, in order to restrict materialistic
activities, I have established that which is proper and
improper among all material things, including time, space
and all physical objects. (Vedabase)
Text
8
Among all
places are those places spoiled where there is no respect for
the brahminical and the spotted antelopes are missing. And even
when there are spotted antelopes [left, viz. not all being
killed] is a place that is without saintly, cultured men,
an uncivilized place where the practices are unclean and the
earth is barren [see mleccha
and *].
Among
places, those bereft of the spotted antelope, those devoid
of devotion to the brâhmanas, those possessing spotted
antelopes but bereft of respectable men, provinces like
Kîkatha and places where cleanliness and purificatory
rites are neglected, where meat-eaters are prominent or
where the earth is barren, are all considered to be
contaminated lands. (Vedabase)
Text
9
That time is
correct and suitable which either by its own nature [viz.
not manipulated against nature] or understood according to
the person [the Lord, but also according the season, the
money - the lakshmî
-, the availability of something] is suitable for executing
one's prescribed duty. Wrong and not suitable is the time which
impedes someone in the performance of his duty, the time that
is not fit for doing work [a lust motivated, arbitrary
notion of time, see 11.20:
26,
kâla
and kâlakûtha
**].
A
specific time is considered pure when it is appropriate,
either by its own nature or through achievement of suitable
paraphernalia, for the performance of one's prescribed duty.
That time which impedes the performance of one's duty is
considered impure. (Vedabase)
Text
10
The pure or
impure of a thing [or of a substance] is determined
with the help of another thing, in respect of what one says
about it, by means of a ritual performance, by the reference of
time or according the relative magnitude
[***].
An
object's purity or impurity is established by application of
another object, by words, by rituals, by the effects of time
or according to relative magnitude. (Vedabase)
Text
11
Depending one's
power or impotence, intelligence and wealth, condition and
place, imposes it [viz. the quality of a thing]
accordingly upon a person a sinful [or pious]
reaction.
Impure
things may or may not impose sinful reactions upon a person,
depending on that person's strength or weakness,
intelligence, wealth, location and physical condition.
(Vedabase)
Text
12
By a
combination of time, air, fire, earth and water or by each of
them separately [are matters purified like] grains,
things made of wood, clay and bone, thread, skins, liquids and
things won from fire.
Various
objects such as grains, wooden utensils, things made of
bone, thread, liquids, objects derived from fire, skins and
earthy objects are all purified by time, by the wind, by
fire, by earth and by water, either separately or in
combination. (Vedabase)
Text
13
That is
considered purifying which by touching the impure removes a bad
smell or dirt and so restores the original nature of that
object.
A
particular purifying agent is considered appropriate when
its application removes the bad odor or dirty covering of
some contaminated object and makes it resume its original
nature. (Vedabase)
Text
14
By bathing,
charity and austerity, by virtue of his age, his heroism,
ritual purification and his prescribed duties a twice-born man
[being the doer] should, in the remembrance of Me,
perform according to the pure, the cleanliness of the
[original] self.
The
self can be cleansed by bathing, charity, austerity, age,
personal strength, purificatory rituals, prescribed duties
and, above all, by remembrance of Me. The brâhmana and
other twice-born men should be duly purified before
performing their specific activities. (Vedabase)
Text
15
The
purification derived from a mantra is a consequence of the
correct knowledge about it and the purification by a certain
act is the consequence of one's dedication to Me. Religiosity
is achieved by [the purity of] the six factors [as
mentioned: the place, the time, the substance, the mantras, the
doer and the devotional act], whereas the irreligious is
there as a consequence of the contrary.
A
mantra is purified when chanted with proper knowledge, and
one's work is purified when offered to Me. Thus by
purification of the place, time, substance, doer, mantras
and work, one becomes religious, and by negligence of these
six items one is considered irreligious. (Vedabase)
Text
16
Sometimes a
virtue turns into a vice though and a vice turns by the power
of vedic instruction into a virtue. Respecting the regulative
principles one is thus faced with the fact that the distinction
[between that what is proper and improper] factually is
effaced by them [4*].
Sometimes
piety becomes sin, and sometimes what is ordinarily sin
becomes piety on the strength of Vedic injunctions. Such
special rules in effect eradicate the clear distinction
between piety and sin. (Vedabase)
Text
17
The same karma
because of which someone fell down is not the cause of another
falldown. Someone who fell [in love...] doesn't fall
further; for such a one the natural attachment changes into a
virtue.
The
same activities that would degrade an elevated person do not
cause falldown for those who are already fallen. Indeed, one
who is lying on the ground cannot possibly fall further. The
material association that is dictated by one's own nature is
considered a good quality. (Vedabase)
Text
18
Whatever one
desists from one is freed from - this is for human beings the
foundation of religious life that takes away the suffering,
fear and delusion.
By
refraining from a particular sinful or materialistic
activity, one becomes freed from its bondage. Such
renunciation is the basis of religious and auspicious life
for human beings and drives away all suffering, illusion and
fear. (Vedabase)
Text
19
Presuming the
objects that gratify the senses to be good rises from that
assumption the attachment of a person, from that attachment
originates the lust and because of lust there is quarrel among
people.
One
who accepts material sense objects as desirable certainly
becomes attached to them. From such attachment lust arises,
and this lust creates quarrel among men. (Vedabase)
Text
20
From quarreling
there is the anger that is difficult to handle and the
consequent ignorance; thus is someone's consciousness quickly
overtaken by darkness.
From
quarrel arises intolerable anger, followed by the darkness
of ignorance. This ignorance quickly overtakes a man's broad
intelligence. (Vedabase)
Text
21
O saintly one,
a living being bereft that way [of clear understanding]
becomes empty-headed so that, consequently fallen away from his
goals in life, he similar to dull matter is as good as dead
[compare B.G. 2:
62-63].
O
saintly Uddhava, a person bereft of real intelligence is
considered to have lost everything. Deviated from the actual
purpose of his life, he becomes dull, just like a dead
person. (Vedabase)
Text
22
Overly absorbed
in the sensual he, vainly living the lifestyle of a tree, fails
in knowing himself and knowing the other so that his breathing
is nothing but pumping air.
Because
of absorption in sense gratification, one cannot recognize
himself or others. Living uselessly in ignorance like a
tree, one is merely breathing just like a bellows.
(Vedabase)
Text
23
The awards
promised in the scriptures are for man not the highest good;
they are merely enticements to create a taste for the ultimate
good, similar to what one says to make someone take a
medicine.
Those
statements of scripture promising fruitive rewards do not
prescribe the ultimate good for men but are merely
enticements for executing beneficial religious duties, like
promises of candy spoken to induce a child to take
beneficial medicine. (Vedabase)
Text
24
Simply by their
birth alone strive mortals against the interest of their souls,
because their minds are entangled in the care for the objects
of their desire, their vital functions and their loved
ones.
Simply
by material birth, human beings become attached within their
minds to personal sense gratification, long duration of
life, sense activities, bodily strength, sexual potency and
friends and family. Their minds are thus absorbed in that
which defeats their actual
self-interest.
(Vedabase)
Text
25
Submissive
[religiously] wander they unaware in regard of their
real self-interest the path of disaster. Why would the
intelligent [the vedic authority] lead those who enter
the darkness further into sense engagement [see also
5.5:
17]?
Those
ignorant of their real self-interest are wandering on the
path of material existence, gradually heading toward
darkness. Why would the Vedas further encourage them in
sense gratification if they, although foolish, submissively
pay heed to Vedic injunctions? (Vedabase)
Text
26
Some people,
they who this way with a perverted intelligence do not
understand the actual conclusion, speak in flowery statements
of the material awards about which he who really knows the
Vedas doesn't speak [see also B.G. 2:
42-44].
Persons
with perverted intelligence do not understand this actual
purpose of Vedic knowledge and instead propagate as the
highest Vedic truth the flowery statements of the Vedas that
promise material rewards. Those in actual knowledge of the
Vedas never speak in that way. (Vedabase)
Text
27
The lusty,
miserly and greedy ones take the flowers for the ultimate
truth; bewildered by the fire do they, suffocating by the
smoke, not know their position [of being an individual soul
instead of being a body].
Those
who are full of lust, avarice and greed mistake mere flowers
to be the actual fruit of life. Bewildered by the glare of
fire and suffocated by its smoke, they cannot recognize
their own true identity. (Vedabase)
Text
28
They, armed
with their expressions, My dear, do not know Me who is seated
within the heart and from whom this universe has risen that is
also Me - they, self-indulgent, are like people staring in
fog.
My
dear Uddhava, persons dedicated to sense gratification
obtained through honoring the Vedic rituals cannot
understand that I am situated in everyone's heart and that
the entire universe is nondifferent from Me and emanates
from Me. Indeed, they are just like persons whose eyes are
covered by fog. (Vedabase)
Text
29-30
They without
understanding My confidential conclusion [see also
10.87
and B.G. 9]
are, being absorbed in the sensual, attached to the violence
that may be [an itegral part of nature], but certainly
never is encouraged for the sacrifices. In reality taking
pleasure in being violent with the animals that in the desire
for their own happiness were slaughtered, they are in their
ritual worship of the gods, the forefathers and the leading
ghosts, mischievous people.
Those
who are sworn to sense gratification cannot understand the
confidential conclusion of Vedic knowledge as explained by
Me. Taking pleasure in violence, they cruelly slaughter
innocent animals in sacrifice for their own sense
gratification and thus worship demigods, forefathers and
leaders among ghostly creatures. Such passion for violence,
however, is never encouraged within the process of Vedic
sacrifice. (Vedabase)
Text
31
That unholy
world [they uphold] can be compared to a dream that,
sounding nice, is about mundane achievements with which they,
imagined in their hearts like they were businessmen, have
forsaken the actual purpose [of realizing the
soul].
Just
as a foolish businessman gives up his real wealth in useless
business speculation, foolish persons give up all that is
actually valuable in life and instead pursue promotion to
material heaven, which although pleasing to hear about is
actually unreal, like a dream. Such bewildered persons
imagine within their hearts that they will achieve all
material blessings. (Vedabase)
Text
32
Established in
the mode of passion, goodness or ignorance they worship the
gods and others headed by Indra who likewise delight in
passion, goodness and ignorance. But I am thus not worshiped
the proper way [see also B.G. 9:
23 and
10:
24 &
25].
Those
established in material passion, goodness and ignorance
worship the particular demigods and other deities, headed by
Indra, who manifest the same modes of passion, goodness or
ignorance. They fail, however, to properly worship Me.
(Vedabase)
Text
33-34
'When we here
with our sacrifices to the gods are full of worship, we will
enjoy the pleasures of heaven and next on earth all live in a
barn of a house and be high-born.' With their minds thus
bewildered by the flowery words [of the Vedas] they
despite of these words, as proud and most greedy men, are not
attracted to My topics.
The
worshipers of demigods think, 'We shall worship the demigods
in this life, and by our sacrifices we shall go to heaven
and enjoy there. When that enjoyment is finished we shall
return to this world and take birth as great householders in
aristocratic families.' Being excessively proud and greedy,
such persons are bewildered by the flowery words of the
Vedas. They are not attracted to topics about Me, the
Supreme Lord. (Vedabase)
Text
35
The
trikânda
divided Vedas have the spiritual understanding of the true
self, the soul, as their subject matter, but also the vedic
seers who more esoterically privately express themselves are
dear to Me [the 'other gurus'].
The
Vedas, divided into three divisions, ultimately reveal the
living entity as pure spirit soul. The Vedic seers and
mantras, however, deal in esoteric terms, and I also am
pleased by such confidential descriptions. (Vedabase)
Text
36
The
transcendental sound [the s'abda-brahman]
manifesting itself in the prâna,
the senses and the mind [of the self-realized, enlightened
person] is something most difficult to understand, it is
unlimited and is as unfathomably deep as the
ocean.
The
transcendental sound of the Vedas is very difficult to
comprehend and manifests on different levels within the
prâna, senses and mind. This Vedic sound is
unlimited, very deep and unfathomable, just like the ocean.
(Vedabase)
Text
37
The groundless,
changeless Absolute of endless potencies that I promote [as
My nature, see Omkâra],
is represented within the living beings in the form of
soundvibrations, the way a lotus stalk is represented by a
single single strand of fiber [see also
11.18:
32 and
6.13:
15].
As
the unlimited, unchanging and omnipotent Personality of
Godhead dwelling within all living beings, I personally
establish the Vedic sound vibration in the form of
omkâra within all living entities. It is thus
perceived subtly, just like a single strand of fiber on a
lotus stalk. (Vedabase)
Text
38-40
Just as a
spider from from the heart weaves its web through its opening,
is the breath of God [the prâna] from the
ether manifesting the soundvibration through the mind in the
form of the different phonemes. Full of nectar comprising all
the shapes that branch out in thousands of directions, has the
Master, decorated with consonants, vowels, sibilants and
semivowels, expanded from the syllable om. By the
elaborated diversity of expressions and metrical arrangements
that each have four more syllables, He creates and Himself
withdraws again the great unlimited expanse [of the vedic
manifestation of sound, see also B.G. 15.15].
Just
as a spider brings forth from its heart its web and emits it
through its mouth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
manifests Himself as the reverberating primeval vital air,
comprising all sacred Vedic meters and full of
transcendental pleasure. Thus the Lord, from the ethereal
sky of His heart, creates the great and limitless Vedic
sound by the agency of His mind, which conceives of
variegated sounds such as the spars'as. The Vedic sound
branches out in thousands of directions, adorned with the
different letters expanded from the syllable om - the
consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels. The Veda is
then elaborated by many verbal varieties, expressed in
different meters, each having four more syllables than the
previous one. Ultimately the Lord again withdraws His
manifestation of Vedic sound within Himself.
(Vedabase)
Text
41
For
instance the metres: Gâyatrî,
Ushnik and Anushthup; Brihatî and Pankti as also
Trishthup, Jagatî, Aticchanda, and Atyashthi,
Atijagatî and Ativirâth [have each in this
order four more syllables].
The
Vedic meters are Gâyatrî, Ushnik, Anusthup,
Brihatî, Pankti, Tristhup, Jagatî, Aticchanda,
Atyasthi, Atijagatî and Ativirâth.
(Vedabase)
Text
42
What they
[karma-kânda] enjoin [to be done],
what they [upâsana-kânda] indicate
[as beig the object of devotion], what aspects they
describe or what alternatives they
[jñâna-kânda] thus literarily
offer [as philosophy], the heart of this matter is in
this world not known by anyone else but Me [compare
11.20,
B.G. 5:
5,
7:
26,
10:
41].
In
the entire world no one but Me actually understands the
confidential purpose of Vedic knowledge. Thus people do not
know what the Vedas are actually prescribing in the
ritualistic injunctions of karma-kânda, or what
object is actually being indicated in the formulas of
worship found in the upâsanâ-kânda, or
that which is elaborately discussed through various
hypotheses in the jñâna-kânda
section of the Vedas. (Vedabase)
Text
43
I am the object
of worship, the concern of the enjoined action and the
alternative that is offered and explained away. The
transcendental sound vibration of the Vedas establishes Me as
being their meaning and elaborately describes the material
duality as simply being the illusory one has to emasculate to
ultimately become happy.
I
am the ritualistic sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas, and I am
the worshipable Deity. It is I who am presented as various
philosophical hypotheses, and it is I alone who am then
refuted by philosophical analysis. The transcendental sound
vibration thus establishes Me as the essential meaning of
all Vedic knowledge. The Vedas, elaborately analyzing all
material duality as nothing but My illusory potency,
ultimately completely negate this duality and achieve their
own satisfaction. (Vedabase)
*:
S'rîla Madhvâcârya quotes from the Skanda
Purâna as follows: 'Religious persons should reside
within an eight-mile radius of rivers, oceans, mountains,
hermitages, forests, spiritual cities or places where the
s'âlagrâma-s'îlâ [a black
oval river-stone suitable for worship] is found. All other
places should be considered kîkatha, or
contaminated. But if even in such contaminated places black and
spotted antelopes are found, one may reside there as long as
sinful persons are not also present. Even if sinful persons are
present, if the civil power rests with respectable authorities,
one may remain. Similarly, one may dwell wherever the Deity of
Vishnu is duly installed and worshiped.'
**:
The paramparâ adds here: 'Political, social or
economic disturbances that obstruct the execution of one's
religious duties are considered inauspicious times.' Therefore
is the - form of, type of - time with which one achieves the
association of the Supreme Lord or the Lord's pure devotee, the
most auspicious time, whereas the form of time which is
politically, economically or socially determined and with which
one loses such association, most inauspicious. Religous timing
- to the sun and moon e.g. - is sat kâla, or true
timing and proper conditioning, whereas humanly
determined timing is asat kâla, or time
conditioning by false authority, a karma motivated time driven
by ulterior motives. Scientifically it concerns a biological
conflict at the level of the nervous system between natural
stimuli of time, like the regularity of daylight, and the
cultural stimuli of time that oppose with linear and
generalized concepts of time like mean time and zone time. The
time sense of modern man is for this reason disturbed, he
suffers psychological time, an unstable sense of time which is
fundamental to the cultural neurosis.
***:
An example to illustrate this rather abstract formulation is
the clock: the clock is pure or impure relative to its object
measured: the time of nature as another 'thing' of time. This
is called the criterion of scientific validation or the
determining of the zero point of measurement. But also speaking
of it in a scientific lecture telling that the mean of time,
the clock deviating from nature, is derived from and refers to
nature itself through a scientific formula that expresses the
socalled equation
of time,
is a political way of sanctifying, declaring the truth of, an
obviously deviating clock. Furthermore is there also the
religious ritual that presents the cross of Jesus Christ for
instance, or the Mahâmantra of Lord Caitanya, to the
standard of time on the clock in order to forgive the sin of
the pragmatical deviating from God's nature of time and the
scientific rationalization about it. Next we can
simply
set the clock to the nature of
time,
to the time of Krishna, to be true to the religious insight
[see f.c.o.].
And finally, realizing that the confidentiality of Krishna's
time cannot be imposed politically, there is the purity to the
relative magnitude, as this verse states, that with the modern
complexity of time awareness can be respected with a dual
display of time offered by some clocks or else with two clocks
combined: one display set to nature and one to the politics of
pragmatical timekeeping. Thus we can by this verse tolerate the
impurity of profit motivated karmic time manipulations and
still manage with purity as devotees [Prabhupâda who
at the one hand demanded punctuality, requested his devotees to
further study the subject of time. 'All days and hours are the
same to me. I leave that matter to you', he confided in 'A
Transcendental Diary' by Hari S'auri
Dâsa].
4*:
According to S'rîla Madhvâcârya, persons
above the age of fourteen are considered capable of
distinguishing between good and bad and are thus responsible
for their pious and sinful
activities.