SSR3a The Immortal Nectar of the Bhagavad-gita
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
(reproduced from the article "Meditation on the Gita by Sri Shankaracharya" published in the 1967 Back to Godhead magazine number 10)
The Immortal Nectar of the Bhagavad-gītā
Through the centuries, India's greatest philosophers and spiritualists have praised the Bhagavad-gītā as the distilled essence of the eternal Vedic wisdom. In his Meditations on the Bhagavad-gītā, versified here, the renowned sixth-century philosopher Śaṅkara glorifies the Gītā and its divine author, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Although universally celebrated as an impersonalist, here Śaṅkara reveals his devotion to the original personal form of God, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. And Śrīla Prabhupāda elucidates.
- O Bhagavad-gītā,
- Through Thy eighteen chapters
- Thou showerest upon man
- The immortal nectar
- Of the wisdom of the Absolute.
- O blessed Gītā,
- By Thee, Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself
- Enlightened Arjuna.
- Afterward, the ancient sage Vyāsa
- Included Thee in the Mahābhārata.
- O loving mother,
- Destroyer of man's rebirth
- Into the darkness of this mortal world,
- Upon Thee I meditate.
- Salutations to thee, O Vyāsa.
- Thou art of mighty intellect,
- And thine eyes
- Are large as the petals
- Of the full-blown lotus.
- It was thou
- Who brightened this lamp of wisdom,
- Filling it with the oil
- Of the Mahābhārata.
Purport
Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya was an impersonalist from the materialistic point of view. But he never denied the spiritual form known as sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], or the eternal, all-blissful form of knowledge that existed before the material creation. When he spoke of the Supreme Brahman as impersonal, he meant that the Lord's sac-cid-ānanda form was not to be confused with a material conception of personality. In the very beginning of his commentary on the Gītā, he maintains that Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Lord, is transcendental to the material creation. The Lord existed before the creation as the transcendental personality, and He has nothing to do with material personality. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the same Supreme Personality, and He has no connection with a material body. He descends in His spiritual, eternal form, but foolish people mistake His body to be like ours. Śaṅkara's preaching of impersonalism is especially meant for teaching foolish persons who consider Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary man composed of matter.
No one would care to read the Gītā if it had been spoken by a material man, and certainly Vyāsadeva would not have bothered to incorporate it into the history of the Mahābhārata. According to the above verses, the Mahābhārata is the history of the ancient world, and Vyāsadeva is the writer of this great epic. The Bhagavad-gītā is identical with Kṛṣṇa; and because Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His words. Therefore the Bhagavad-gītā is as worshipable as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, both being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gītā "as is" actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord. But unfortunate persons say that the Gītā is too antiquated for the modern man, who wants to find out God by speculation or meditation.
- I salute Thee, O Kṛṣṇa,
- O Thou who art the refuge
- Of ocean-born Lakṣmī
- And all who take refuge
- At Thy lotus feet.
- Thou art indeed
- The wish-fulfilling tree
- For Thy devotee.
- Thy one hand holds a staff
- For driving cows,
- And Thy other hand is raised-
- The thumb touching the tip
- Of Thy forefinger,
- Indicating divine knowledge.
- Salutations to Thee, O Supreme Lord,
- For Thou art the milker
- Of the ambrosia of the Gītā.
Purport
Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya explicitly says, "You fools, just worship Govinda and that Bhagavad-gītā spoken by Nārāyaṇa Himself," yet foolish people still conduct their research work to find out Nārāyaṇa; consequently they are wretched, and they waste their time for nothing. Nārāyaṇa is never wretched nor daridra; rather, He is worshiped by the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, as well as by all living entities. Śaṅkara declared himself to be "Brahman," but he admits Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, to be the Supreme Personality who is beyond the material creation. He offers his respects to Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Brahman, or Para-brahman, because He (Kṛṣṇa) is worshipable by everyone. Only the fools and enemies of Kṛṣṇa, who cannot understand what the Bhagavad-gītā is (though they make commentaries on it), say, "It is not the personal Kṛṣṇa to whom we have to surrender ourselves utterly, but the unborn, beginningless Eternal who speaks through Kṛṣṇa." Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whereas Śaṅkara, the greatest of the impersonalists, offers his due respects to Kṛṣṇa and His book the Bhagavad-gītā, the foolish say that "we need not surrender to the personal Kṛṣṇa." Such unenlightened people do not know that Kṛṣṇa is absolute and that there is no difference between His inside and outside. The difference of inside and outside is experienced in the dual, material world. In the absolute world there is no such difference, because in the absolute everything is spiritual (sac-cid-ānanda), and Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, belongs to the absolute world. In the absolute world there is only the factual personality, and there is no distinction between body and soul.
- The Upaniṣads
- Are like a herd of cows,
- Lord Kṛṣṇa, son of a cowherd,
- Is their milker,
- Arjuna is the calf,
- The supreme nectar of the Gītā
- Is the milk,
- And the wise man
- Of purified intellect
- Is the drinker.
Purport
Unless one understands spiritual variegatedness, one cannot understand the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that Kṛṣṇa's name, form, qualities, pastimes, entourage, and paraphernalia are all ānanda-cinmaya-rasa—in short, everything of His transcendental association is of the same composition of spiritual bliss, knowledge, and eternity. There is no end to His name, form, etc., unlike in the material world, where all things have their end. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, only fools deride Him; whereas it is Śaṅkara, the greatest impersonalist, who worships Him, His cows, and His pastimes as the son of Vasudeva and pleasure of Devakī.
- Thou son of Vasudeva,
- Destroyer of the demons Kaṁsa and Cāṇūra,
- Thou supreme bliss of Mother Devakī,
- O Thou, guru of the universe,
- Teacher of the worlds,
- Thee, O Kṛṣṇa, I salute.
Purport
Śaṅkara describes Him as the son of Vasudeva and Devakī. Does he mean thereby that he is worshiping an ordinary, material man? He worships Kṛṣṇa because he knows that Kṛṣṇa's birth and activities are all supernatural. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9), Kṛṣṇa's birth and activities are mysterious and transcendental, and therefore only the devotees of Kṛṣṇa can know them perfectly. Śaṅkara was not such a fool that he would accept Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary man and at the same time offer Him all devotional obeisances, knowing Him as the son of Devakī and Vasudeva. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, only by knowing the transcendental birth and activities of Kṛṣṇa can one attain liberation by acquiring a spiritual form like Kṛṣṇa's. There are five different kinds of liberation. One who merges into the spiritual aura of Kṛṣṇa, known as the impersonal Brahman effulgence, does not fully develop his spiritual body. But one who fully develops his spiritual existence becomes an associate of Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa in different spiritual abodes. One who enters into the abode of Nārāyaṇa develops a spiritual form exactly like Nārāyaṇa's (four-handed), and one who enters into the highest spiritual abode of Kṛṣṇa, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, develops a spiritual form of two hands like Kṛṣṇa's. Śaṅkara, as an incarnation of Lord Śiva, knows all these spiritual existences, but he did not disclose them to his then Buddhist followers because it was impossible for them to know about the spiritual world. Lord Buddha preached that the void is the ultimate goal, so how could his followers understand spiritual variegatedness? Therefore Śaṅkara said, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, or, material variegatedness is false but spiritual variegatedness is fact. In the Padma Purāṇa Lord Śiva has admitted that he had to preach the philosophy of māyā, or illusion, in the Kali-yuga as another edition of the "void" philosophy of Buddha. He had to do this by the order of the Lord for specific reasons. He disclosed his real mind, however, by recommending that people worship Kṛṣṇa, for no one can be saved simply by mental speculations composed of word jugglery and grammatical maneuvers. Śaṅkara further instructs:
- bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindaṁ
- bhaja govindam mūḍha-mate
- samprāpte sannihite kāle
- na hi na hi rakṣati ḍukṛñ-karaṇe
"You intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not save you at the time of death."
- Of that terrifying river
- Of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra,
- Over which the Pāṇḍavas victoriously crossed,
- Bhīṣma and Droṇa were like the high banks,
- Jayadratha like the river's water,
- The King of Gāndhāra the blue water-lily,
- Śalya the shark, Kṛpa the current,
- Karṇa the mighty waves,
- Aśvatthāmā and Vikarṇa the dread alligators,
- And Duryodhana the very whirlpool-
- But Thou, O Kṛṣṇa, wast the ferryman!
- May the spotless lotus of the Mahābhārata,
- Which grows on the waters
- Of the words of Vyāsa
- And of which the Bhagavad-gītā
- Is the irresistibly sweet fragrance
- And its tales of heroes
- The full-blown petals
- Fully opened by the talk of Lord Hari,
- Who destroys the sins
- Of Kali-yuga,
- And on which daily light
- The nectar-seeking souls,
- Like so many bees
- Swarming joyously—
- May this lotus of the Mahābhārata
- Bestow on us the highest good.
- Salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa,
- The embodiment of supreme bliss,
- By whose grace and compassion
- The dumb become eloquent
- And the lame scale mountains-
- Him I salute!
Purport
Foolish followers of foolish speculators cannot understand the meaning of offering salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the embodiment of bliss. Śaṅkara himself offered his salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa so that some of his intelligent followers might understand the real fact by the example set by their great master, Śaṅkara, the incarnation of Lord Śiva. But there are many obstinate followers of Śaṅkara who refuse to offer their salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa and instead mislead innocent persons by injecting materialism into the Bhagavad-gītā and confusing innocent readers by their commentaries, and consequently the readers never have the opportunity to become blessed by offering salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the cause of all causes. The greatest disservice to humanity is to keep mankind in darkness about the science of Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by distorting the sense of the Gītā.
- Salutations to that supreme shining one,
- Whom the creator Brahmā, Varuṇa,
- Indra, Rudra, Marut, and all divine beings
- Praise with hymns,
- Whose glories are sung
- By the verses of the Vedas,
- Of whom the singers of Sāma sing
- And of whose glories the Upaniṣads
- Proclaim in full choir,
- Whom the yogīs see
- With their minds absorbed
- In perfect meditation,
- And of whom all the hosts
- Of gods and demons
- Know not the limitations.
- To Him, the Supreme God, Kṛṣṇa, be all salutations -
- Him we salute! Him we salute! Him we salute!
Purport
By recitation of the ninth verse of his meditation, quoted from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śaṅkara has indicated that Lord Kṛṣṇa is worshipable by one and all, including himself. He gives hints to materialists, impersonalists, mental speculators, "void" philosophers, and all other candidates subjected to the punishment of material miseries—just offer salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is worshiped by Brahmā, Śiva, Varuṇa, Indra, and all other demigods. He has not mentioned, however, the name of Viṣṇu, because Viṣṇu is identical with Kṛṣṇa. The Vedas and the Upaniṣads are meant for understanding the process by which one can surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. The yogīs try to see Him (Kṛṣṇa) within themselves by meditation. In other words, it is for all the demigods and demons who do not know where the ultimate end is that Śaṅkara teaches, and he especially instructs the demons and the fools to offer salutations to Kṛṣṇa and His words, the Bhagavad-gītā, by following in his footsteps. Only by such acts will the demons be benefited, not by misleading their innocent followers by so-called mental speculations or show-bottle meditations. Śaṅkara directly offers salutations to Kṛṣṇa, as if to show the fools, who are searching after light, that here ls light like the sun. But the fallen demons are like owls that will not open their eyes on account of their fear of the sunlight itself. These owls will never open their eyes to see the sublime light of Kṛṣṇa and His words, the Bhagavad-gītā. They will, however, comment on the Gītā with their closed owl-eyes to mislead their unfortunate readers and followers. Śaṅkara, however, discloses the light to his less intelligent followers and shows that the Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa are the only source of light. This is all to teach the sincere seekers of truth to offer salutation to Lord Kṛṣṇa and thus surrender unto Him without misgivings. That is the highest perfection of life, and that is the highest teaching of Śaṅkara, the great learned scholar whose teachings drove the voidist philosophy of Buddha out of India, the land of knowledge. Oṁ tat sat.