Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 21 Verse 12

Canto 3: The Status Quo | Chapter 21: Conversation Between Manu and Kardama

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.21.12

jāta-harṣo 'patan mūrdhnā

kṣitau labdha-manorathaḥ

gīrbhis tv abhyagṛṇāt prīti-

svabhāvātmā kṛtāñjaliḥ

SYNONYMS

jāta-harṣaḥ — naturally jubilant; apatat — he fell down; mūrdhnā — with his head; kṣitau — on the ground; labdha — having been achieved; manaḥ-rathaḥ — his desire; gīrbhiḥ — with prayers; tu — and; abhyagṛṇāt — he satisfied; prīti-svabhāva-ātmā — whose heart is by nature always full of love; kṛta-añjaliḥ — with folded hands.

TRANSLATION

When Kardama Muni actually realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead in person, he was greatly satisfied because his transcendental desire was fulfilled. He fell on the ground with his head bowed to offer obeisances unto the lotus feet of the Lord. His heart naturally full of love of God, with folded hands he satisfied the Lord with prayers.

PURPORT

The realization of the personal form of the Lord is the highest perfectional stage of yoga. In the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, where yoga practice is described, this realization of the personal form of the Lord is called the perfection of yoga. After practicing the sitting postures and other regulative principles of the system, one finally reaches the stage of samādhi — absorption in the Supreme. In the samādhi stage one can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His partial form as Paramātmā, or as He is. Samādhi is described in authoritative yoga scriptures, such as the Patañjali-sūtras, to be a transcendental pleasure. The yoga system described in the books of Patañjali is authoritative, and the modern so-called yogīs who have manufactured their own ways, not consulting the authorities, are simply ludicrous. The Patañjali yoga system is called aṣṭāńga-yoga. Sometimes impersonalists pollute the Patañjali yoga system because they are monists. Patañjali describes that the soul is transcendentally pleased when he meets the Supersoul and sees Him. If the existence of the Supersoul and the individual is admitted, then the impersonalist theory of monism is nullified. Therefore some impersonalists and void philosophers twist the Patañjali system in their own way and pollute the whole yoga process.

According to Patañjali, when one becomes free from all material desires he attains his real, transcendental situation, and realization of that stage is called spiritual power. In material activities a person engages in the modes of material nature. The aspirations of such people are (1) to be religious, (2) to be economically enriched, (3) to be able to gratify the senses and, at last, (4) to become one with the Supreme. According to the monists, when a yogī becomes one with the Supreme and loses his individual existence, he attains the highest stage, called kaivalya. But actually, the stage of realization of the Personality of Godhead is kaivalya. The oneness of understanding that the Supreme Lord is fully spiritual and that in full spiritual realization one can understand what He is — the Supreme Personality of Godhead — is called kaivalya, or, in the language of Patañjali, realization of spiritual power. His proposal is that when one is freed from material desires and fixed in spiritual realization of the self and the Superself, that is called cit-śakti. In full spiritual realization there is a perception of spiritual happiness, and that happiness is described in Bhagavad-gītā as the supreme happiness, which is beyond the material senses. Trance is described to be of two kinds, samprajñāta and asamprajñāta, or mental speculation and self-realization. In samādhi or asamprajñāta one can realize, by his spiritual senses, the spiritual form of the Lord. That is the ultimate goal of spiritual realization.

According to Patañjali, when one is fixed in constant realization of the supreme form of the Lord, one has attained the perfectional stage, as attained by Kardama Muni. Unless one attains this stage of perfection — beyond the perfection of the preliminaries of the yoga system — there is no ultimate realization. There are eight perfections in the aṣṭāńga-yoga system. One who has attained them can become lighter than the lightest and greater than the greatest, and he can achieve whatever he likes. But even achieving such material success in yoga is not the perfection or the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is described here: Kardama Muni saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal form. Devotional service begins with the relationship of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, or Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's devotees, and when one attains it there is no question of falling down. If, through the yoga system, one wants to attain the stage of seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, but is attracted instead to attainment of some material power, then he is detoured from proceeding further. Material enjoyment, as encouraged by bogus yogīs, has nothing to do with the transcendental realization of spiritual happiness. Real devotees of bhakti-yoga accept only the material necessities of life absolutely needed to maintain the body and soul together; they refrain completely from all exaggerated material sense gratification. They are prepared to undergo all kinds of tribulation, provided they can make progress in the realization of the Personality of Godhead.

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