Paleoenvironmental evolution

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead answered: That yoga system which relates to the Lord and the individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate benefit of the living entity, and which causes detachment from all happiness and distress in the material world, is the highest yoga system.

PURPORT

In the material world, everyone is striving for some material happi­

ness, but as soon as we get some material happiness, there is also material distress. In the material world one cannot have unadulterated happiness.

Any kind of happiness one has is contaminated by distress also. For ex­

ample, if we want to drink milk, we have to bother to maintain a cow and keep her fit to supply milk. Drinking milk is very nice; it is also pleasure. But for the sake of drinking milk one has to accept so much trouble. The

yoga

system, as here stated by the Lord, is meant to end all material happiness and material distress. The best

yoga,

as taught in

Bhagavad-gita

by l(r�l}.a, is

bhakti-yoga.

It is also mentioned in the

Gitii

that one should try to be tolerant and not be disturbed by material happi­

ness or distress. Of course, one may say that he is not disturbed by ma­

terial happiness, but he does not know that just after one enjoys so-called material happiness, material distress will follow. This is the law of the material world. Lord Kapila states that the

yoga

system is the science of the spirit. One practices

yoga

in order to attain perfection on the spiritual platform. There is no question of material happiness or distress. It is transcendental. Lord Kapila will eventually explain how it is transcen­

dental, but the preliminary introduction is given here.

The attempt in this material world to maximize happiness and mini­

mize distress is called the struggle for existence. Generally

yoga

is prac­

ticed to acquire some material profit. There are eight kinds of yogic perfection

(siddhis): aQ-imii, laghima, prapti, iSitva, va§itva, mahimii,

prakamya

and

kamavasayita.

A real

yogi

can become smaller than the

84 Teachings of Lord Kapila

smallest, lighter than the lightest and bigger than the biggest. Whatever he wants he can produce immediately in his hand. He can even create a planet. These are some of the yoga-siddhis, but here it is stated that the supreme yoga system does not aim at material happiness or relief from distresses caused by material inconvenience. Everyone is trying to get out of material distress and gain some happiness. In any case, when some­

thing is material, there is only so-called happiness and so-called distress.

For instance, there may be fireworks going on, and this may be happiness for someone but distress for us. Some people are thinking that these :fire­

works are very enjoyable, and we are thinking that they are very incon­

venient. That is the material world. On one side there is happiness, and on the other side there is distress. Both happiness and distress are ac­

tually illusions. In summer, water is happiness, but in winter it is dis­

tress. The water is the same, but at one time it brings happiness and at another time it brings distress. When a son is born, he brings happiness, but when he dies, he brings distress. In either case, the son is the same.

This material world is the world of duality, and we cannot understand happiness without distress or distress without happiness. This is therefore called the relative world. Spiritual happiness is above these dualities, and that spiritual happiness is the perfection of yoga. Yoga adhyatmika/:t. Yoga is the happiness of the soul, and the individual soul can be happy when it is with the Supersoul, the Supreme Soul. Nityo nityanam cetana§ cetananam. There is the Supreme Soul, or the supreme living being, and there are many individual souls, individual beings. We are many, but the principal living being is one, ��J}.a. He is the :fire, and we are the sparks from that fire. The sparks are illuminated when they are with the original fire, but if the sparks no longer associate with the original fire, they are extinguished. Similarly, our real happi­

ness is in enjoying with the Supreme Being. Happiness is being in His company. ��I}.a is not alone, but is always with His friends, either the gopis or the cowherd boys, or with His mother and father. We never find

��I}.a alone. He may be with Radharal}.i or with His devotees. He is like a king or president. When one says that the king or president is coming, it is understood that he is not coming alone. He comes with His secretaries, ministers and many others.

The word yoga means "connection," and atma means "soul" and sometimes "mind" or "body." The material body has nothing to do

Lord Kapila Begins to Explain Self-realization 85

with the Supreme Being because the Supreme Being is completely spiri­

tual. He has no material covering. One who thinks that ��1,1a, the Supreme Being, has a material covering is himself covered by maya.

��I,la does not say that He comes as an ordinary living being. Rather, His advent is totally transcendental. ]anma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvata/:t (Bg.

4.4).

We therefore have to learn how ��1,1a takes His birth, which is not ordinary. If it were ordinary, why should we observe the Janma�tami ceremony? His birth is divyam, divine. Everything ah�ut ��1,1a is divine, and if we think that ��1,1a is like us, we im­

mediately become miil)has, fools. In the words of Bhagavad-gita

(9.11):

avajananti roam mul},ha man�im tanum asritam param bhavam ajananto

mama bhuta-mahesvaram

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that he."

Actually K:r�1,1a is the original Supreme Being, the original spirit soul.

We are simply minute parts and parcels of K:r�1,1a. If we connect with

��1,1a, we are illuminated just as ��1,1a is illuminated. If we fall down from ��1,1a, our spiritual power and illumination are extinguished.

The word yoga means connecting or linking with that original source.

Yoga is the Sanskrit word meaning "connection," and viyoga means

"disconnection."

Kapiladeva is referred �o as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhagavan makes no mistakes. Narayar:ta/:t paro 'vyaktat: even Sailkaracarya says that "Bhagavan, Naraya1,1a, does not belong to this material world." When we speak of Bhagavan, or when the siistras refer to Bhagavan, we refer to Him who is above material understanding. As stated here, sri-bhagavan uvaca. It does not say vyiisadeva uvaca or kapiladeva uvaca. Similarly, in Bhagavad-gita, Vyasadeva says, sri­

bhagavan uvaca. Bhagavan refers to Him who is above the defects of this material world. Bhagavan is not subject to the four deficiencies of the living entities. Being imperfect, living entities are illusioned and subject to commit mistakes. They also have the tendency to cheat others.

When one who has no knowledge tries to become a teacher or preacher,

86 Teachings of Lord Kapila

he is actually cheating others. Since we ourselves do not possess perfect knowledge, we simply try to teach what Sri Bhagavan says. We do not manufacture our own teachings. So-called scholars and learned men manufacture their own teachings and give their opinions. In the West es­

pecially, we find much philosophical speculation and mental gymnastics, but such philosophy can never be perfect. We have to take our ideas from Bhagavan; then they will be perfect. We read

Bhagavad-gita

be­

cause it is perfect. There is no mistake in it; there is no illusion in it;

there is no cheating in it. Nor is it delivered by one whose senses are im­

perfect. ��J.la says in

Bhagavad-gita (7.26):

vedaham samatitani

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