Only by serious and sincere practice under regulations
can one rise to the stage of pure devotional service.

By His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

asau gunamayair bhavair 

bhuta-sukshmendriyatmabhi

sva-nirmiteshu nirvishto 

bhunkte bhuteshu tad-gunan

“The Supersoul enters into the bodies of the created beings, who are influenced by the modes of material nature, and causes them to enjoy the effects of these modes by the subtle mind.” – Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.33

BECAUSE the individual soul wanted a certain type of enjoyment, the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is making such an arrangement. Gunamayair bhavaih. That arrangement is made through material nature. Bhava means “nature.” This nature is made of the three material modes: goodness, passion, and ignorance.

In the Bhagavad-gita (8.20) it is said, paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah.

This material creation is called bhava, but there is another bhava, or nature, and it is sanatana, eternal. Anya means “other.” Avyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah. The mahat-tattva, the total material energy, is called avyakta, “unmanifest.” When it is agitated by the glance of the Supreme Lord, the three modes of material nature act. And by the interaction of these three modes of material nature, the whole cosmic manifestation comes into being. This is the fact of creation. The creation is like a machine, and the buttons are pushed by the Supreme Lord.

Due to our ignorance, we cannot explain how nature is working. When asked to explain, we give an evasive reply. We see that from a seed a tree is coming, and then a flower is coming or a fruit is coming, and we can only say, “By nature it is coming.” But we cannot explain how it is coming.

But there is an explanation. Here we have this tape-recording machine, but we do not know how it works; we push some button, and it is recording. But there is a great manipulation being done by the machine. That process we do not know. As soon as it is not working, because we are ignorant we go to the mechanic: “Just find out what is wrong.” The mechanic knows how it works. He puts the things in the right way, and again it works.

We take the total world, and we may say it is working by nature. No. There is a brain behind it. There is a pushing of the button. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita (9.10):

mayadhyakshena prakritih
suyate sa-caracaram

hetunanena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

“This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” Mayadhyakshena. Krishna says, “I am pushing the buttons.” His pushing of the buttons and the action of the machine are so subtle and so quick and so immediate that we cannot explain it. We think it is automatically done.

So here, asau gunamayair bhavair bhuta-sukshmendriya atmabhih. The whole material creation is working because of a brain. This is not an evasive reply – “automatically.” What do you mean “automatically”? There must be somebody pushing the button, somebody working. There is a brain. That is real scientific study.

Gunamayair bhavaih. By the three kinds of energy – these qualities of nature (goodness, passion, and ignorance) – there is creation of the ego, then creation of the intelligence and mind, then creation of sky, then creation of air, then creation of fire, then creation of water, then creation of land.

Bhuta-sukshmendriya. The senses are created, sense enjoyment is created, the sense objects are created, form is created, taste is created, smell is created. So there is great machinery. It is not that automatically everything has come out. Behind all these, different energies are working.

The Potency In The Seed

Krishna’s energy is so powerful that He puts the potency in a seed. He says, bijam mam sarva-bhutanam (Gita 7.10): “I am the original seed of all existences.” Bija means “seed.” “I am the seed of whatever is coming out, or being manifested. It is manufactured under My supervision.”

The seed of a banyan tree is a small grain, like a mustard seed. But you sow the seed, and a gigantic tree will come out. Unless the energetic tree is there within the seed, how does it come out? That is Krishna’s energy working.

Now, from that seed, first of all the trunk will come. Then the branches will come, then the twigs, then the leaves. Everything we see is wonderful.

The Svetasvatara Upanishad (6.8) says, parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate svabhaviki jïana-bala-kriya: “The Supreme Lord has diverse energies by which everything happens simply by His will.” In this sense everything is being manifest automatically – svabhaviki, by Krishna’s will.

A creeper is trying to find a shelter. As soon as it finds a shelter, it immediately captures it. You have seen in Los Angeles, behind my house the creeper is taking shelter of the electric post and the wire and giving flowers and fruits – svabhaviki.

Now, you can say that the creeper has no eyes, so how is it seeing, how is it coming here and squirreling on the post? No. The energy is so perfect that – svabhaviki – it is working like nature. Automatically. This is knowledge. Svabhaviki jïana-bala-kriya. Everything is done by knowledge (jïana), by power (bala), and by action (kriya).

We can see practically how the trees are growing, how your body and my body are growing. In the same way, everything is coming out. There was the father’s seed and the mother’s seed. Now, within the seed, all these arrangements of the veins, nerves, fibers, muscles, and everything else was there.

You cannot explain how these veins are working. A little discrepancy of the working of the vein, and I suffered pain in my finger for so many days. Why was that? There was no regular supply of the energy. There was some disturbance in the openings of the veins and nerves. This is the medical science. But as soon as it is cured, the supply is there. It is like when a pipe is jammed and the water does not go and it creates a disturbance.

Krishna Knows Everything

Similarly, everything is going on nicely in this great machine. And Krishna knows everything. I do not know how the nerves in my finger became disturbed and how it became diseased and how it became cured and now it is all right. I do not know, although I claim, “This is my hand,” “This is my leg.” But I do not know.

Therefore it is not my leg, not my hand. Similarly, I’m living in a room, a rented room, but it is not my room. If you study in this way you’ll find, isavasyam idam sarvam (Isopanishad, Mantra 1) – everything belongs to God, Krishna. But we are falsely claiming this body is ours. I do not know how it is working. I have been given the chance to live in this particular body.

Krishna is working. We want teeth to eat fresh flesh, so Krishna gives us the tiger’s teeth, the tiger’s nails. But I do not know how the nails and teeth came into existence, how they are working, how they are set up. That I do not know. That Krishna knows.

How these senses are working, how the objects of enjoyment are supplied, that is all being arranged by Krishna. Sva-nirmiteshu. We wanted this kind of manufactured body, so Krishna has given it to us through the agency of prakriti, the material nature. I want a body like this to enjoy a certain standard of sense enjoyment, so I enter into this body.

Krishna also enters – as the Supersoul. Sva-nirmiteshu nirvishtah. Then bhunkte bhuteshu tad-gunan. Then what do I enjoy? I enjoy the actions and reactions of the three modes of material nature, that’s all.

Real Enjoyment

Actually, the enjoyment is in my mind. That is not enjoyment. Real enjoyment is when I am free from this embodiment of five gross elements and three subtle elements. I have entered into this, and I am enjoying the actions and reactions of these five gross elements and three subtle elements. Actually, it is not enjoying. That idea is called maya. There is no enjoyment. It is enjoyment only in the mind. The mind is also a material creation.

Real enjoyment is beyond the senses. That is stated in the Bhagavadgita (6.21): sukham atyantikam yat tat. Real happiness is not by these gross senses. By transcendental senses we can enjoy real happiness.

Therefore, because we are not on that platform of enjoying the transcendental senses, we are trying to enjoy by these gross senses, and we are becoming baffled and frustrated. This is the cause of frustration, because that is not the platform of enjoyment.

Sukham atyantikam yat tad buddhi-grahyam atindriya (Gita 6.21). Atindriya means “beyond the senses.”

The senses are covered. You cannot enjoy with covered senses. Suppose I cover your tongue with some cloth and then I give you a sweet – a rasagulla. Can you taste it? What will you taste? If you cover the senses, the real senses, and try to enjoy with that covering, what will you enjoy? That is not enjoyment. The tongue has to be uncovered. Then you’ll enjoy.

You must uncover the senses. They are now covered by upadhis, or temporary material designations. Because I am in the bodily concept of life, I am thinking, “I am American,” “I am Indian,” “I am Hindu,” “I am Muslim,”

“I am black,” “I am white,” “I am man,”

“I am woman,” “I am a tree,” “I am this,” “I am that.” This is the meaning of “covered.” How can you enjoy with senses covered in this way?

Uncover And Discover

So you have to uncover. You have to discover. That discovering process is devotional service. The more you are engaged in devotional service, the more your senses become pure, or uncovered. And when they are completely uncovered, without any designations, then you are capable of serving Krishna.

At first you are in an apprenticeship. It is called vaidhi-bhakti. It is an apprenticeship under viddhi, or rules and regulations. Real bhakti, or para-bhakti – perfect, transcendental bhakti – is raganuga-bhakti. We have to come to raganuga-bhakti after surpassing vaidhi-bhakti, the sastric, or scriptural, process.

The sastric process is regulation; that is required. Without the sastric process you cannot go to the raganuga-bhakti platform. But the sastric process is kanishtha-adhikara, the lowest stage of devotional service.

arcayam eva haraye 

pujam yah sraddhayehate

na tad-bhakteshu canyeshu 

sa bhaktah prakritah smritah

“A devotee who faithfully engages in the worship of the Deity in the temple but does not behave properly toward other devotees or people in general is called a prakrita-bhakta, a materialistic devotee, and is considered to be in the lowest position.” (Bhagavatam 11.2.47)

Generally, people come to this temple [of Radha-Damodara in Vrindavan] and they are very devoted to the deity. They offer their respects, flowers, and other things, make the regulative process, circumambulate. This is a nice beginning. But one has to go above this. One has to know who is actually a bhakta, a devotee. One has to do good for others. That is the middle-class devotee, madhyama-adhikari. If I become satisfied only with the regulative principles for worshiping the deity in the temple and following the regulative principles daily but I have no other idea, then sa bhaktah prakritah smritah. Prakrita means on the material platform. Such a devotee can fall down at any moment because he’s on the prakrita stage. Prakrita means under the influence of prakriti, the material modes of nature. Prakriti is very strong. So any devotee can fall down if he remains a prakrita-bhakta. He has to raise himself above this to the Madhyama-adhikara stage.

Here it is said svanirmiteshu nirvishto bhunkte bhuteshu tad-gunan. We are not enjoying actually. We are enjoying the interaction of the three modes of material nature. As my Guru Maharaja used to say, that is like licking the bottle of honey. That is not real honey. You have to open the bottle of honey and lick the real honey; then you’ll get the taste. That is advancement of spiritual knowledge.

Therefore, if we do not associate with the advanced devotees, the uttama-adhikaris, if we simply want to remain in the lowest stage of devotional service, then we are not making progress. Then we shall simply enjoy the material field, without entering the spiritual platform.

Bhunkte bhuteshu tad-gunan. You have to rise above the modes of material nature. Trai-gunya-vishaya veda nistrai-gunyo bhavarjuna. That is the statement of the Bhagavad-gita (2.45). The Vedic instruction is dealing with trai-gunya, the three gunas, the three material modes of nature. Krishna tells Arjuna that he must become nistraigunya; he must rise above the three material modes. When Krishna was asking Arjuna to fight, Arjuna was on the trai-gunya platform, the material platform. He was thinking, “How shall I kill my grandfather? How shall I kill my teacher? How shall I kill my brother? How can I kill my nephews?” This is trai-gunya-vicara, consideration on the material platform.

Then Krishna said, nistrai-gunyo bhavarjuna: “Just become transcendental to the material modes of nature.” What did Krishna mean? “I am asking you to fight. Do it.” That is nistrai-gunya.

Guna and nirguna – these two words are there in the Vedic literature. Guna means the three gunas, the three material modes of nature. And nirguna means above these three material modes of nature. So actually, devotional service is above the three modes of material nature. Sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate (Gita 14.26).

Real Bhakti

Being freed from the interaction of the three material modes of nature is the real, transcendental stage of devotional service. So we have to try to go to that platform. Otherwise, we shall remain a prakrita-bhakta. As it is said here, bhunkte bhuteshu tad-gunan. We have to become transcendental to the three modes of material nature.

That is not very difficult. One simply has to become very serious and sincere. That’s all. There are directions in the sastras. Rupa Gosvami has given instructions in The Nectar of Devotion on how to prosecute bhakti. He begins with the characteristics of devotional service:

anyabhilashita-sunyam 

jïana-karmady-anavritam

anukulyena krishnanu-

silanam bhaktir uttama

“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.” (Bhakti-rasamritasindhu 1.1.11). We have to begin from this uttama-bhakti. Uttama means nirguna, or transcendental. Uttama – udgata-tamah. Ut means transcendental, when you surpass tama. Tama means this material world. That is uttama-bhakti. That is transcendental bhakti.

If we execute devotional service with some material purpose, that purpose may be served, but we cannot rise to the transcendental platform. So we should be very careful that we may not take to devotional service with some material motive. Or even though you take to it in that way, still it is recommended that you prosecute, you go on, with devotional service by the regulative principles. Then you’ll come to the uttama platform.

There is no question of disappointment, but we must know that if we remain on the material platform, then we have to take so much time. From the material platform we have to go to the spiritual platform. That means we require to follow the regulative principles very strictly and sincerely. Then we’ll be promoted to the nirguna platform.

Without performing the regulative principles, one cannot come immediately, all of a sudden, to the nirguna platform. Maybe, by the grace of Krishna, one can come, but the regular way is first of all, let us follow the regulative principles strictly. Then gradually we shall be purified and come to the spiritual platform. And that will be the success of our life.

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.