So, this verse shows how the Lord is the controller of the material energy. Previous verse discussed how the Lord was all alone in the beginning before the creation. Then, somehow, by His will, He manifests the material world with the jivas with material bodies.

So, the point here is that this happens by the desire of the Lord. And without His desire, nothing happens. Without His energy or His potency, the material world will not manifest as we know it.

So, why does the Lord desire like this? Why does He have to create the world and then destroy it again and then He creates and destroys it again? What’s the use? So, He does this because He wants to create forms, names, etc. But, why does He want to do this? Because the jivas desire these forms and names. So, it’s described that when there’s no creation after pralaya, everything is very peaceful, the Lord is sleeping nicely.

So, the jivas are inside Him, but they’re all sleeping nicely and peaceful. But, then after some time, He understands the jivas are getting restless. So, the jivas are waking up, so to speak.

And these jivas want names, forms in the material world. So, because of the desire of the jivas, the Lord creates this material world. If there’s no desire in the jiva, then of course the Lord will not create.

But, they do have desire, then the Lord creates. So, why do the jivas desire names and forms in the material world at all? It continues from previous universe where they had names and forms and they had desires. And before that, in another universe, they had names and forms and desires.

And before that again, there was another universe and again they had names and forms and desires. So, what is the problem with this? The jivas think, no problem. But, we also call them Nithya Baddha.

Baddha means to be tied up, to be bound up. So, they are imprisoned. So, why are they in this position? Why do they want to be imprisoned? So, the ultimate answer is ignorance.

Of course, it is said that Prakriti has two functions. One is called Avarana or covering function. That means the jiva is covered by ignorance.

The second function is called Vikshapa, by which the jiva acts in bewilderment. So, the ultimate cause of the material world for the jiva is ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of course, in the material world, ignorance that they are actually Atma, not a body.

However, even when they don’t have any bodies in Mahavishnu, still they are covered by ignorance. Of course, this can be attributed to previous lifetime. They had ignorance and these impressions stay with the jiva.

Ultimately, the ignorance means that the jiva does not realize that he is a spiritual particle, but dependent on the Lord. The jiva does not recognize I am the eternal servant of the Lord.

I am independent. This means the jiva desires his own happiness. We say the opposite of that is to only desire happiness for the Lord. Ignorance means I desire only happiness for myself.

So the Jiva can take either position. Thus the jiva is called tatashta. However the Jivas in the material world are in a very special position They are covered by this ignorance and it is very difficult to get out of that ignorance.

As Krishna describes in Bhagavad Gita, mamamaya durataya  very difficult to overcome maya. It is very difficult to get out of the prison of the material world.

If we take the analogy of the prison, inside the prison we have all the prisoners. In the prison of the material world the jivas think, oh this Is where I belong. I was born here, father was born here, grandfather was born in prison, this is my whole world. This is nice.

So, we will make the prison very nice. So, of course, the Lord allows this in the material world and therefore, he gives karma yoga and varnashrama system. If you think the world is like, fine, do it. But follow some rules and then you can live nicely and peacefully.

If we have a big prison, it has got thousands and thousands and thousands of prisoners. We have to have some rules. We have to have some order.

So, we can concoct our own rules. But then, usually one person will exploit the others. And it will always be unstable.

So karma yoga in varnashrama make a nice arrangement by which the majority of people can be happy in the prison. So, they have to sacrifice something. They also have to contribute whatever but they all get along peacefully. They live a long life span. So, it is very rare that someone will come and say, Well, what’s outside the prison?

Everyone will say, No, nothing outside. This is it. This is everything.

So, it takes a very special person to understand, No, this is a prison. Of course, the Lord has a very special arrangement in the prison also. It is said that Maya, apart from being Avarana, covering with ignorance and then disturbing everybody, it has two other functions. One is the avidya function with its Avarana and Viksepa, that is the covering part and the disturbance part. But Maya has another function called vidya, opposite.

So, therefore, Maya itself should give bondage, but also give liberation, its vidya. So, in sattva guna a, the vidya begins to manifest. So, if one comes to sattva guna a as a human being, then one can begin to inquire, Oh, I don’t like this prison. There’s something else. And that person is willing to accept scripture. And in the scripture then, they’ll get knowledge. The vidya will be there. 

So, there’s a big prison with high walls. You cannot get out. At the same time, the Lord provides a little door, a secret door by which you can get out. The Lord provides a system by which a human being can go from tamo guna  to sattva guna  to the varnashrama system. When you get the sattva guna , then you can get out.

Unfortunately, the number of people who get to sattva guna , very small amount, maybe 1%, 2%. Very few people are qualified to get out, even with that system. So, Supreme Lord is not so cruel. He provides another system. So, that is bhakti yoga. So, bhakti yoga does not require for you to get to sattva guna .

Anybody can practice. Furthermore, you not only get out of the prison, you also get a special palace. If you get to sattva guna , go through vidya, do jnana yoga, you get out of the prison, but you’re out.

That’s it. If you do bhakti yoga, not only you get out of the prison, you get a big palace. So, the Lord provides systems in the material world by which the jiva can escape from this maya.

So, the jiva is in the material world, but there is a possibility the jiva can also get out. So, you can get out by getting to sattva guna , practicing jnana yoga, get liberation. Or, follow the quicker process of bhakti yoga and get to the spiritual world.

Of course, for bhakti also, we require some qualification. That qualification is faith. But the faith does not depend upon the gunas.

So, if we develop faith, we can develop faith in sattva guna , rajo guna  or tamo guna . So, how is it possible that someone in tamo guna can develop faith? And the answer is that bhakti itself does not have limits of the gunas. Jnana yoga itself is in sattva guna.

Bhakti is nirguna. But it can manifest in any of the material gunas. So, how is that possible? Of course, we know the lord is nirguna.He can appear in the material world also. So, bhakti also nirguna, but it appears in the material world.

How does it appear in a person in tamo guna ? The answer is faith.

If he develops faith, then he can practice bhakti. How does a jiva develop faith? So, it cannot be by anything in the gunas, because bhakti is nirguna. So, of course, it could be supreme lord himself.

He is nirguna. He can help you develop faith. Or, more commonly, through mercy of devotees.

Devotees are more common than avatars. So, it is said, by the mercy of guru and krishna, we get the seed of bhakti. But, of course, the seed will not sprout unless we have favorable field.

Favorable field means faith, shraddha. But, like the seed of bhakti, the shraddha itself comes through mercy of devotees. So, the mercy of the devotees also is nirguna.

What is the devotee giving? Bhakti. What is bhakti? It is nirguna. So, the devotees give up bhakti. They create faith. With faith, then they get mercy and they practice bhakti. So, this is the easiest and quickest process by which the jiva in the material world can get up , Get out and get to the spiritual world. 

Q & A

QUESTION 1 : The so-called normal devotees in ISKCON and they are practicing devotional service. So, whether they are sometimes nirgunaa and sometimes in gunas, the modes affect them at certain times. Because, for example, in the objective of MIHE, it says to create a class of brahmanas. So, brahmanas means, usually refers to sattva guna. So, I mean, I found that little contradictory?

We should be careful when we use that word, brahmana. So, the normal connotation of brahmana is part of the varnashrama system, following varnashrama rules for a brahmana. So, what is that person? He is following nithya karmas, naimittika karmas, etc.

And if he doesn’t follow those nithya karmas, then he is not considered a brahmana. So, what are the nithya karmas? Are we encouraged to follow them? It consists of sandhyavandana, tarpanas, daily bathing according to ritual, performing sraddha rites, things like this. 

And if we see someone doing this, and they do it in ISKCON, we say, Oh, you are a smartha. And then we say, smartha brahmana is no good. So, what do we mean by brahmana? So, I believe the origin of this comes from a term used by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvathi called brahmanatha.

We often see Lord Chaitanya criticizes being a brahmana as such, which is like a status. And of course, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvathi  Thakur has criticized the smartha brahmanas. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvathi Thakur says that Haridas Thakur is brahmanatha.

So what does Brahmanatha mean, he is a good Vaishnava. That is the ultimate goal of bhakti to be a Vaishnava, not to be a brahmana.

So, why use the word brahmanatha at all? It makes it confusing. I suppose, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvathi Thakur used the term to say that the Vaishnava should be the topmost person in society, as the brahmana is the topmost in the varnasana society, for that reason.

So, our goal is to be a Vaishnava, and by being a good Vaishnava, we are at the top of society.

QUESTION 2 : An ordinary devotee , Is he partly in nirguna and partly in gunas? 

Well, this is like bhakti or the name, or even supreme lord. So, supreme lord is in the material world, the gunas are there, but he is not affected by the gunas. Bhakti is in the material world, not affected by the gunas.

Name is in the world, not affected by the gunas. So, Nama Cintamani Krishna Caitanya Rasa Vigraha, and it says Nityamukta. Name is Nityamukta.

But, then we talk about Namabhas, Namaparada, etc. So, the name itself is not contaminated, but Jiva is covered. So, therefore, the effect of the name is less and less and less, depending on the amount of covering.

In the third canto, Kapiladeva describes tamo guna bhakti, rajo guna bhakti, sattva guna bhakti, nirguna bhakti. So, Vishwanatha Chakravarti Thakur asks the question, well, how can bhakti be in the gunas? Actually, bhakti is not in the gunas, but people are in the gunas. When we talk about tamo guna bhakti, bhakti is not contaminated, it’s the person contaminated in performance of the bhakti.

However, a person in tamo guna doing bhakti, gradually can become purified and get to rajo guna, sattva guna or beyond. However, these different types of bhakti in the gunas do not give the best result. If we want to get prema, we have to do pure bhakti.

QUESTION 3 : These buddhist monks, they practice buddhism and they follow the regulative principles of no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling and meat eating. So it appears they seem to be in the platform of goodness and they adore and love Lord Buddha, who is an avatar of Krishna. And we see a lot of Vaishnavas, who are devotees of Lord Rama, Narasimha, they go to the spiritual world. So how do we assume, although the goal is nirvana for buddhists, do they go to the brahmajyoti or the spiritual world and can we consider their practice as bhakti because they adore and love Lord Buddha, who is an avatar of Lord Krishna, Vishnu. 

Maharaj : You are asking the followers of Buddha, where do they go? 

So Buddha rejected the Vedas and then he pronounced that there is no brahman, there is no jiva, there is nothing.

So the goal is to destroy the illusion of the material world, that’s all. That’s a type of impersonal liberation like Shankara’s philosophy. 

QUESTION 4 : Why Krishna instructs Bhagavad Gita to Sun God? 

Oh, well, all the devatas are also devotees. And he gives them knowledge so that they can rule over the world properly.

And of course, he gives that knowledge in different ways. We see that Supreme Lord gives knowledge to Brahma so he can create the universe. So the lord in various forms gives teachings to various devotees.

Krishna teaches Arjuna. Kapiladeva teaches his mother, Devahuti.

So the Lord, in various forms, is willing to impart knowledge to various persons. 

QUESTION 5 : In Sathya Yuga, people were living in Sattvaguna  , one lakh years was given. So in Satvaguna , they were more on the spiritual platform. So easily they could have got into that secretive gate to enter into the palace. But how come that now in Kali Yuga, where it is dominated with Tamoguna , we are very vigorous in doing this Bhakti Yoga? 

Oh, well, in all ages, Bhakti is present. And as I said, Bhakti does not depend on the Gunas. Some people in  sattva Gunas, will not attain Krishna. Many will attain Brahman. Many will become Devatas.

So Satvaguna in some sense is favorable, but still it has also got minus points. But the Lord appears in all Yugas, with various gunas, and He gives a method which is appropriate, so that the majority of the people can take to Bhakti.

QUESTION 6 : You said that by the mercy of the vaishanvas people who are situated in the modes they get bhakti so they will be elevated to bhakti level. We also received such mercy from Vaishnavas, we are also coming to that platform. So what is our responsibility towards such Vaishnavas? What is that we have to do in return for such Vaishnavas? 

Well, since it is the mercy of the Vaishnava, by which we get faith, and by which we practice Bhakti, we must always respect the Vaishnava. 

Ofcourse we respect all Jivas. We respect the trees, the animals, and the human beings. And among the human beings we respect the Vaishnava the most.

But among Vaishnavas, there are also various degrees of Vaishnava. So accordingly, we give more and more respect to the level of the Vaishnava. Of course, the highest respect is to follow the instructions of the Vaishnava.

QUESTION 7 : Is it possible for everyone to get out of the material world, because the gate is very small and it is hidden? And do their previous karmas, or the previous birth karmas, affect their Bhakti? Or because of their previous karma, they come to Bhakti? Or Bhakti is independent of karma or astrology? 

So it is possible for all Jivas, but generally they have to wait to become a human being. But Bhakti is independent of gunas.

It is also independent of karma. So a person may have worse karma, but if they get the mercy of a devotee, and they begin to chant the holy name, immediately, no karma. So Bhakti does not depend upon karma, it only depends on mercy.

QUESTION 8: We hear that when we chant , we should chant very eagerly. It should be like very desperate when will I get the taste for chanting? When will I be able to please the lord? When will I be able to chant pure name ? A kind of desperation is expected when we read the scriptures and hear from the devotees. So many things are there. At the same time we hear, where Rupa Goswami says, we keep patience, because on one side, what is desperation, whatever attentiveness is from our side, but we should be patient, in receiving the mercy of the Lord. Is this understanding correct?

So of course, we should always expect mercy, we should always strive for advancement. At the same time, we cannot expect or over expect results. So example is given of a seed, we plant the seed and we water the seed.

So we water the seed, the plant grows. So a foolish person will say, look I’m watering my seed one month, it’s only grown this much, where is the mango? I want the mango. Cheater, sold me the wrong seed.

So everything takes time to develop properly. At the same time, the Lord is very merciful, Bhakti is very merciful, so we may get very quick results also.