SB 1.8.19 (1964)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 19
- Maya javanika achhannam ajna adhokshajam avyayam
- Na lakshyase mudhadrisham nato natyadharo yatha.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Maya—deluding, Javanika—curtain, Achhannam—covered by, Ajna—ignorant, Adhokshajam—beyond the range of material conception (transcendental), Avyayam—irreproachable, Na—not, Lakshyase—observed, Mudhadrisa—by foolish observer, Nato—artist, Natyadharo—dressed as a player, Yatha—as.
TRANSLATION
Being beyond the range of limited sense-perceptions the eternal irreproachable factor coverd by the curtain of deluding energy, you are invisible to the foolish observer exactly like the artist dressed as a player is not recognised (by the less intelligent person.)
PURPORT
In the Bhagwat Geeta the Lord has affirmed that less intelligent persons or the foolish observer mistakes Lord Sri Krishna as an ordinary man like us and thus he derides at Him. The same thing is confirmed herein by Queen Kunti. The less intelligent persons are those who are rebelled souls against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as the Ashuras. The Ashuras cannot recognise the Lord by all means of authority. When the Lord appears Himself amongst us Like Rama, Nrisingha, Varaha, or in His original Form as Krishna, He performs many wonderful acts which are humanly impossible. As we shall find it in the 10th canto of this great literature, Lord Sri Krishna exhibited His humanly impossible activities even from the days of His lying on the lap of His mother. He killed the Putana witch although she smeared her breast with poison just to kill the Lord. The Lord sucked her breast like a natural baby and along with such sucking He sucked her very life also. Similarly He lifted the Govardhan Hill just like a boy picks up the frog's umbrella and kept Himself standing for several days continually just to give protection to the residents of Vrindaban. These are some of the superhuman activities of the Lord described in the authoritative Vedic literatures like the Puranas, Itihasha (history) Upanishads etc. He has delivered wonderful instructions in the shape of the Bhagwat Geeta. He has shown marvellous capacities as a Hero, as a householder as a teacher or as a renouncer. He is accepted as the Supreme personality of Godhead by such authoritative personalities like Vyasa, Devala, Ashita, Narada, Madhya, Shankara, Ramanuja, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Jiva Goswami, Viswanath Chakrabarty, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and all other authorities of the line. He has Himself declared as such in many places of the authentic literatures. And yet there is a class of men with demoniac mentality that they are always reluctant to accept the Lord as the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is partially due to their poor fund of knowledge and partially due to their stuborn obstinacy as the result of various misdeeds in the past and present. Such persons could not recognise Lord Sri Krishna even when He was present before them. Another difficulty is that those who depend more on their imperfect senses also cannot realise Him as the Supreme Lord. Such persons are like the modern scientist. They want to know everything by their experimental knowledge. But it is not possible to know the Supreme Person by imperfect experimental knowledge. He is described herein as the Adhokshaja or beyond the range of experimental knowledge. All our senses are imperfect. We claim to observe everything and anything but we must admit that we can observe things under certain material conditions only which are also beyond our control. The Lord is beyond the observation of sense perception. Queen Kunti accepts this deficiency on the part of conditioned soul and specially for the woman class who are less intelligent. For the less intelligent class of men there must be such things like the temples, mosques or churches so that they may begin to recognise the authority of the Lord and hear about Him from authorities in such holy places. For less intelligent class of men such beginning of spiritual life is essential and foolish men only decry against the establishment of such places of worship required for raising the standard of spiritual attributes for the mass of people. For less intelligent persons bowing down before the authority of the Lord, as it is generally done in the Temples, mosques or churches, is as much beneficial as it is for the advanced devotees to meditate upon Him by active service.