Bg 4.11
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
Word for word:
ye — all who; yathā — as; mām — unto Me; prapadyante — surrender; tān — them; tathā — so; eva — certainly; bhajāmi — reward; aham — I; mama — My; vartma — path; anuvartante — follow; manuṣyāḥ — all men; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; sarvaśaḥ — in all respects.
Translation:
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.
From here, next section in BG starts, which is Krishna is the goal and creator of all paths.
Acharya has not fixed sections, it may verify from person to person, by this we create a framework for our own understanding, different BG teachers classified sections in their own way, as long as the continuity and clarity is there it is alright.
Here, first Krishna has given the principal which is (ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham)
Generally Vaishnavas quote first part (As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly) more often and mayavadis quote 2nd part more often (Everyone follows My path in all respects,)
First part indicated that Lord is reciprocal He is not like a stone. How He reciprocates? Ye Yatha Mam prapandiyante. When someone consider Krishna’s activities as transcendental, Lord makes their activities transcendental which means He purifies them. Those who consider Krishna’s activities as material, their activities remains material.
Meaning of second part is not that by following any path ultimately we will reach Him as it will not match with other verses of BG where Krishna is saying Yanti Dev Vrata Devan Pritri yanti pritavrata…other example is Arjun fight or not fight it doesn’t matter as everyone will ultimately go to Krishna, so Srila Prabhupad asked a simple question that if whatever we do we have to go back to Krishna then why Krishna has spoken Bhagvad Gita and gives us so many instructions to follow?
So what is the meaning of all people are on my path? It means that whatever that person is attracted to he is actually attracted to manifestation of Krishna. Ultimately anything that is attractive is because of manifestation of Krishna (sparks of main fire), so someone asks then if beauty of opposite sex is also attraction to Krishna what is wrong in getting attracted towards it, the problem is this attraction does not connect us to Krishna rather it takes us away from Krishna, so this spark doesn’t take us towards Krishna but takes us away from Krishna. Mayavadis saying everything is experiencing Brahman so if a person drinking alcohol is also experiencing Brahman? If it is true then also it is not elevating and purifying the persons, it degrades that person, some attraction takes us away from Krishna and some takes us towards Krishna.
In Rasa Lila chapter Srila Prabhupad said everyone is dancing, some are dancing in Yoga maya and some in maha maya, those in maha maya are illumined and experiencing more miseries.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.10):
akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param
“Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is desirous of all fruitive results or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”
More than spark I will get the whole, so I will be eternally happy. It is question of infinite longings or longing for infinite.
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