Krishna-The Time Factor

2025-12-02
Srimad Bhagavatam 03.11.15-17 - Krishna-The Time Factor (download mp3)
by Bhakti Charudesna Swami at ISKCON Chowpatty


SB 03.07.15
vidura uvāca
sañchinnaḥ saṁśayo mahyaṁ
tava sūktāsinā vibho
ubhayatrāpi bhagavan
mano me sampradhāvati

Translation:
Vidura said: O powerful sage, my lord, all my doubts about the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities have now been removed by your convincing words. My mind is now perfectly entering into them.

Purport:
The science of Kṛṣṇa, or the science of God and the living entities, is so subtle that even a personality like Vidura has to consult persons like the sage Maitreya. Doubts about the eternal relationship of the Lord and the living entity are created by mental speculators in different ways, but the conclusive fact is that the relationship of God and the living entity is one of the predominator and the predominated. The Lord is the eternal predominator, and the living entities are eternally predominated. Real knowledge of this relationship entails reviving the lost consciousness to this standard, and the process for such revival is devotional service to the Lord. By clearly understanding from authorities like the sage Maitreya, one can become situated in real knowledge, and the disturbed mind can thus be fixed on the progressive path.

SB 03.07.16
sādhv etad vyāhṛtaṁ vidvan
nātma-māyāyanaṁ hareḥ
ābhāty apārthaṁ nirmūlaṁ
viśva-mūlaṁ na yad bahiḥ

Translation:
O learned sage, your explanations are very good, as they should be. Disturbances to the conditioned soul have no other basis than the movement of the external energy of the Lord.

Purport:
A living entity’s unlawful desire to become one with the Lord in every respect is the root cause of the entire material manifestation, for otherwise the Lord has no need to create such a manifestation, even for His pastimes. The conditioned soul, under the spell of the external energy of the Lord, falsely suffers many unfortunate incidents in material life. The Lord is the predominator of the external energy, māyā, whereas the living entity is predominated by the same māyā under the material condition. The false attempt of the living entity to occupy the predominating post of the Lord is the cause of his material bondage, and the conditioned soul’s attempt to become one with the Lord is the last snare of māyā.


SB 03.07.17
yaś ca mūḍhatamo loke
yaś ca buddheḥ paraṁ gataḥ
tāv ubhau sukham edhete
kliśyaty antarito janaḥ

Translation:
Both the lowest of fools and he who is transcendental to all intelligence enjoy happiness, whereas persons between them suffer the material pangs.

Purport:
The lowest of fools do not understand material miseries; they pass their lives merrily and do not inquire into the miseries of life. Such persons are almost on the level of the animals, who, although in the eyes of superiors are always miserable in life, are unaware of material distresses. A hog’s life is degraded in its standard of happiness, which entails living in a filthy place, engaging in sex enjoyment at every opportune moment, and laboring hard in a struggle for existence, but this is unknown to the hog. Similarly, human beings who are unaware of the miseries of material existence and are happy in sex life and hard labor are the lowest of fools. Yet because they have no sense of miseries, they supposedly enjoy so-called happiness. The other class of men, those who are liberated and are situated in the transcendental position above intelligence, are really happy and are called paramahaṁsas. But persons who are neither like hogs and dogs nor on the level of the paramahaṁsas feel the material pangs, and for them inquiry about the Supreme Truth is necessary. The Vedānta-sūtra states, athāto brahma-jijñāsā: “Now one should inquire about Brahman.” This inquiry is necessary for those who are between the paramahaṁsas and the fools who have forgotten the question of self-realization in the midst of life in sense gratification.

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