Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 6 Chapter 4 Verse 31

Canto 6: Prescribed Duties for Mankind | Chapter 4: The Haḿsa-guhya Prayers

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.4.31

yac-chaktayo vadatāḿ vādināḿ vai

vivāda-saḿvāda-bhuvo bhavanti

kurvanti caiṣāḿ muhur ātma-mohaḿ

tasmai namo 'nanta-guṇāya bhūmne

SYNONYMS

yat-śaktayaḥ — whose multifarious potencies; vadatām — speaking different philosophies; vādinām — of the speakers; vai — indeed; vivāda — of argument; saḿvāda — and agreement; bhuvaḥ — the causes; bhavanti — are; kurvanti — create; ca — and; eṣām — of them (the theorists); muhuḥ — continuously; ātma-moham — bewilderment regarding the existence of the soul; tasmai — unto Him; namaḥ — my respectful obeisances; ananta — unlimited; guṇāya — possessing transcendental attributes; bhūmne — the all-pervading Godhead.

TRANSLATION

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, who possesses unlimited transcendental qualities. Acting from within the cores of the hearts of all philosophers, who propagate various views, He causes them to forget their own souls while sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing among themselves. Thus He creates within this material world a situation in which they are unable to come to a conclusion. I offer my obeisances unto Him.

PURPORT

Since time immemorial or since the creation of the cosmic manifestation, the conditioned souls have formed various parties of philosophical speculation, but this is not true of the devotees. Nondevotees have different ideas of creation, maintenance and annihilation, and therefore they are called vādīs and prativādīs — proponents and counterproponents. It is understood from the statement of Mahābhārata that there are many munis, or speculators:

tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā

nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataḿ na bhinnam

All speculators must disagree with other speculators; otherwise, why should there be so many opposing parties concerned with ascertaining the supreme cause?

Philosophy means finding the ultimate cause. As Vedānta-sūtra very reasonably says, athāto brahma jijñāsā: human life is meant for understanding the ultimate cause. Devotees accept that the ultimate cause is Kṛṣṇa because this conclusion is supported by all Vedic literature and also by Kṛṣṇa Himself, who says, ahaḿ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: "I am the source of everything." Devotees have no problem understanding the ultimate cause of everything, but nondevotees must face many opposing elements because everyone who wants to be a prominent philosopher invents his own way. In India there are many parties of philosophers, such as the dvaita-vādīs, advaita-vādīs, vaiśeṣikas, mīmāḿsakas, Māyāvādīs and svabhāva-vādīs, and each of them opposes the others. Similarly, in the Western countries there are also many philosophers with different views of creation, life, maintenance and annihilation. Thus it is undoubtedly a fact that there are countless philosophers throughout the world, each of them contradicting the others.

Now, one might ask why there are so many philosophers if the ultimate goal of philosophy is one. Undoubtedly the ultimate cause is one — the Supreme Brahman. As Arjuna told Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (10.12):

paraḿ brahma paraḿ dhāma

pavitraḿ paramaḿ bhavān

puruṣaḿ śāśvataḿ divyam

ādi-devam ajaḿ vibhum

"You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty." Nondevotee speculators, however, do not accept an ultimate cause (sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam [Bs. 5.1]). Because they are ignorant and bewildered concerning the soul and its activities, even though some of them have a vague idea of the soul, many controversies arise, and the philosophical speculators can never reach a conclusion. All of these speculators are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (16.19-20):

tān ahaḿ dviṣataḥ krūrān

saḿsāreṣu narādhamān

kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān

āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu

āsurīḿ yonim āpannā

mūḍhā janmani janmani

mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya

tato yānty adhamāḿ gatim

"Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated birth among the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence." Because of their envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nondevotees are born in demoniac families life after life. They are great offenders, and because of their offenses the Supreme Lord keeps them always bewildered. Kurvanti caiṣāḿ muhur ātma-moham: the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, purposely keeps them in darkness (ātma-moham).

The great authority Parāśara, the father of Vyāsadeva, explains the Supreme Personality of Godhead thus:

jñāna-śakti-balaiśvarya-

vīrya-tejāḿsy aśeṣataḥ

bhagavac-chabda-vācyāni

vinā heyair guṇādibhiḥ

The demoniac speculators cannot understand the transcendental qualities, form, pastimes, strength, knowledge and opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which are all free from material contamination (vinā heyair guṇādibhiḥ). These speculators are envious of the existence of the Lord. Jagad āhur anīśvaram: their conclusion is that the entire cosmic manifestation has no controller, but is just working naturally. Thus they are kept in constant darkness, birth after birth, and cannot understand the real cause of all causes. This is the reason why there are so many schools of philosophical speculation.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness