SB 11.2.34
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Please note: The synonyms, translation and purport of this verse were composed by disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda
TEXT 34
- ye vai bhagavatā proktā
- upāyā hy ātma-labdhaye
- añjaḥ puṁsām aviduṣāṁ
- viddhi bhāgavatān hi tān
SYNONYMS
ye — which; vai — indeed; bhagavatā — by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; proktaḥ — spoken; upāyāḥ — means; hi — indeed; ātma-labdhaye — for realizing the Supreme Soul; añjaḥ — easily; puṁsām — by persons; aviduṣām — less intelligent; viddhi — know; bhāgavatān — to be bhāgavata-dharma; hi — certainly; tān — these.
Translation and purport composed by disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda
TRANSLATION
Even ignorant living entities can very easily come to know the Supreme Lord if they adopt those means prescribed by the Supreme Lord Himself. The process recommended by the Lord is to be known as bhāgavata-dharma, or devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
PURPORT
There are many Vedic scriptures, such as Manu-saṁhitā, that present standard injunctions for the peaceful management of human society. Such Vedic knowledge is based on the varṇāśrama system, which scientifically divides human society into four occupational divisions as well as four spiritual divisions. According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, however, knowledge that can bring one directly in contact with the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called ati-rahasyam, or the most confidential knowledge (ati-rahasyatvāt sva-mukhenaiva bhagavatāviduṣām api puṁsām añjaḥ sukhenaivātma-labdhaye).
Bhāgavata-dharma is so confidential that it is spoken by the Lord Himself. The essence of bhāgavata-dharma is given in Bhagavad-gītā, wherein Kṛṣṇa personally instructs Arjuna. Yet in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the Lord will give instructions to Uddhava that surpass even the teachings given to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā . As Śrīla Prabhupāda has stated, "Undoubtedly Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by the Lord on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra just to encourage Arjuna to fight, and yet to complete the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā the Lord instructed Uddhava. The Lord wanted Uddhava to fulfill His mission and disseminate knowledge which He had not spoken even in Bhagavad-gītā." (SB 3.4.32, purport) Similarly, it is understood that the knowledge that will be presented here by the nine Yogendras is not their personal concoction but is authorized knowledge originally spoken by the Lord Himself.
According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, the living entities, in the course of their wanderings throughout the cycle of birth and death, lose all trace of the Personality of Godhead. But when they hear the eternally auspicious topics spoken by the Supreme Lord for their benefit and understand their eternal identities as spirit souls, the realized experience of being an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa becomes the basis of bhāgavata-dharma. In the soul's experience as a pure Vaiṣṇava, or servant of God, there is no consideration of being different from God or the same as God, nor is one interested in the kingdom of material sense gratification. The pure devotee simply perceives his particular devotional service to the Supreme Lord and sees himself as an individual part and parcel of the ultimate shelter. A pure devotee experiences that his very being is tied, by ropes of loving devotion, to the ultimate shelter Himself in one of His direct personal expansions. And in such a perfect state of consciousness, the devotee can perceive the all-pervading variegated forms of the Absolute Truth.