We Can Serve and Please the Lord by our Good Intentions

2014-08-14
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.48.19 - We Can Serve and Please the Lord by our Good Intentions (download mp3)
by Hare Krishna Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty
www.iskcondesiretree.net




SB 10.48.19
atma-srstam idam visvam
 anvavisya sva-saktibhih
iyate bahudha brahman
 sruta-pratyaksa-gocaram

Translation:
O Supreme Absolute Truth, with Your personal energies You create this universe and then enter into it. Thus one can perceive You in many different forms by hearing from authorities and by direct experience.

Purport:
The grammatical agreement of sruta-pratyaksa-gocaram, in the neuter case, with atma-srstam idam visvam indicates that the Supreme Lord, by entering His creation with His potencies, makes Himself perceivable within the universe. Throughout the Bhagavatam and other authorized Vedic literature, we often find descriptions of the Lord’s simultaneous supremacy over all other things and His identity with them. We cannot reasonably draw any other conclusion from Vedic literature than the one powerfully preached by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu: acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. That is, the Absolute Truth is greater than and distinct from everything (since He is the omnipotent creator and controller of all), and simultaneously one with everything (since all that exists is the expansion of His own power).

Throughout these chapters of Srimad-Bhagavatam, we also observe one of the unique, extraordinary features of this great work. Whether Krsna is sending His message to the gopis or accepting the prayers of Akrura, there is constant philosophical discussion. Throughout the Bhagavatam, the steady combination of fascinating pastimes with persistent spiritual philosophy is an extraordinary feature. We are allowed to glimpse and even to relish the spiritual emotions of the Lord and His liberated associates, and yet we are constantly reminded of their ontological position lest we lapse into a cheap, anthropomorphic vision. Thus it is entirely in character with the work that Akrura, in his ecstasy, glorifies the Lord with precise philosophical prayers.