Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 36

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Contents of the Gita Summarized
Chapter 2: Verse-2

sri-bhagavän uväca
kutas tvä kasmalam idam
visame samupasthitam
anärya-justam asvargyam
akirti-karam arjuna[1]

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the value of life. They lead not to higher planets but to infamy.

PURPORT

Krsna and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical. Therefore Lordkrsnais referred to as Bhagavän throughout the Gita. Bhagavän is the ultimate in the Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely Brahman, or the impersonal all-pervasive spirit; Paramätmä, or the localized aspect of the Supreme within the heart of all living entities; and Bhagavän, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna. In the Srimad-Bhägavatam [2] this conception of the Absolute Truth is explained thus.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnänam advayam
brahmeti paramätmeti
bhagavän iti sabdyate

“The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical. Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramätmä, and Bhagavän.”

These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun’s surface and the sun planet itself. One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun’s surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine—its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature—may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramätmä feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Therefore, the bhaktas, or the transcendentalists who have realized the Bhagavän feature of the Absolute Truth, are the topmost transcendentalists, although all students who are engaged in the study of the Absolute Truth are engaged in the same subject matter. The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are not in the same category.


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References

  1. sri-bhagavän uväca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; kutah—wherefrom; tvä—unto you; kasmalam—dirtiness; idam—this lamentation; visame—in this hour of crisis; samupasthitam—arrived; anärya—persons who do not know the value of life; justam—practiced by; asvargyam—which does not lead to higher planets; akirti—infamy;
    karam—the cause of; arjuna—O Arjuna.
  2. 1.2.11

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