Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

  • 38-45: If the mind deviates the yogi, what is his destination?

 

And now Sri Krishna will go into specific, first He describes generic principle now He describes specific in 6.41 verse

Bg 6.41

prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṁ lokān
uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ
śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe
yoga-bhraṣṭo ’bhijāyate

Word for word: 

prāpya — after achieving; puṇya–kṛtām — of those who performed pious activities; lokān — planets; uṣitvā — after dwelling; śāśvatīḥ — many; samāḥ — years; śucīnām — of the pious; śrī–matām — of the prosperous; gehe — in the house; yoga–bhraṣṭaḥ — one who has fallen from the path of self-realization; abhijāyate — takes his birth.

Translation: 

The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.

 

prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṁ lokān, those who have done Punya, kṛtāṁ lokān goes to Lokas, which are those lokas? Heavenly Planets, so the abode of pious people are heavenly planets, so the Bhaktas will attain that abode, prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṁ lokān. Then uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, they stay there for a long-long time śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, from the point of being earthly being the lifespan of heavenly being is enormous it is so long from earthly being that many people consider it to be indestructible forever, and that is why in that relative sense the residents of heavenly places are considered AMAR they are not actually Amar not immortal, in scripture there are four categories of beings are described, there are Marthaya, Amara, Cheranjeeva, and there is Nithya. So only Nithaya are eternal. Marthaya are earthly living beings who have a short life span a 100 years at the most may be more in earlier ages but it is not long. Then there are heavenly realm who has long life time compare to earthly, for many people it appears forever but it is not forever. Then there is Cheranjeev, those who live for one life time of Brahma or in some cases one day of Brahma in some cases the words are not fixed generally it is one day of Brahma in some cases it is one life time of Brahma also. But the point is it is categorically longer than the heavenly life time also and beyond that is Nithya, Nithaya is eternal those who live in spiritual world are Nithya they live forever. Sri Krishna is telling uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, those goes to haven live there for long time after that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe, gehe means in the houses, so what kind of houses, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ, śucī is pure hearted and śrīmadā is wealthy, so these are the two advantage family, how are they advantageous? If one is born in pure family pious family śucīnāṁ then one have samskara which is favourable for transcendence and if one is born in Srimatam family, Sri is the goddess of fortune Srimatam refers to aristocratic family, wealthy family, then one doesn’t have much struggle for material existence, by that one can continue spiritual life steadily, yoga-bhraṣṭo ’bhijāyate, abhijāyate, they take birth, so Arjuna has used the word earlier Yoga Chalita Manasah, Sri Krishna is using here yoga-bhraṣṭo, so same point, those who gets deviated, yoga-bhraṣṭo. 

Normally in this world people get distracted from spiritual life because of many reasons among them there are primary reasons like there upbringing are very unconducive for spiritual life, anti-spiritual, there culture is anti-spiritual otherwise they may be in spiritual culture but they are so caught up, if they are struggling to maintain the body then practice of spiritual life is difficult for them. 

Soul can have mental or physical obstacle to spiritual life, physical life can be in terms of maintaining the body making the arrangements for bodily necessities, and mental obstacle can be the conditioning and the misconception that one has acquired during one’s upbringing and the cultural conception and convention. Now both of them can misdirect so Srimatam prevent one from getting too many misconception and suchinam prevents on from having too many struggles and in this way it is actually an advantage. 

This can lead to question that if someone born in so much wealthy family that can have infatuation and can lead a person away from spiritual life, Yes it can have in fact Kunti Maharani says Janmashvarya Sutabhir so Ashvarya wealth is one of the opulence that can intoxicate a person and feel that I don’t need God, that is true but here we are talking about spiritualist who already developed spirituality, so just because they got wealth that will not delude them from continuing spirituality śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe

yoga-bhraṣṭo ’bhijāyate, so this way the distractions are minimal for these two classes. Here Sri Krishna is talking about who have made a little bit of spiritual advancement, when somebody wants liberation why does Sri Krishna send such a person to haven? The reason for that is the person also have desire to enjoy heavenly pleasures. And because of desire to enjoy heavenly pleasure the person gets distracted by that desire so if we understand that ultimately we have to deal with our desire if we want liberation, there are two ways to deal with our desire one is to indulge into that and get rid of them and second is to understand there futility and get rid of them, both way we have to get rid of one’s material desire in order to move towards liberation, of course indulgence itself will not led to the desire to get rid of them but indulgence along with the practice of Dharma indulgence with Dharmic environment so by practice of Dharma one gets higher taste by indulgence one gets lower taste when both are compared one understand that the lower taste is insignificant let me focus on the higher taste, that’s how one transits but when that doesn’t happen that means the person is indulging but not doing Dharma, then the person lust, greed and Anarthas just increase but if a person is having a higher taste and having a lower taste and still attracted to lower taste so much so that the person’s attraction of the lower taste let him give up the higher taste then what happens to such a person? Then such a person Krishna says that ok this is what you wanted to enjoy this has distracted you from spiritual life, fine!!! You take this and enjoy it whatever you want and far better than enjoyment of this world are heavenly pleasures and the heavenly pleasures lasts for long time and their quality, quantity, longevity all are much higher and because the person also got some memory of the higher taste by the practice of devotional service while on earth as Sadhaka and the person is in haven in a atmosphere which is overall dharmic one gradually starts realizing the futility of heavenly enjoyment. So uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ means, the person is aiming for liberation but also has a desire for enjoyment so then the person is taken to haven and after the person goes to haven then comes back and born in environment over here from which he can practice spiritual life. So it is interesting that Sri Krishna doesn’t say over here from haven one can continue on, He is saying after uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, after staying in haven such a person will come back to śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe, will come back to the earthly planetary system so in general earthly planetary system is the Karma Bhumi, this is the place where our destiny is shaped the other arenas in the universe meant for exhausting the Karma which we have acquired over here, in higher planets on exhausting the Punya and lower planets one is exhausting the paapa but either way one is exhausting the karma. Which one has acquired while one is here on earth and in this way one moves on, so going to haven is to cater to the desire, so if someone is practicing spiritual life but also wants to enjoy the world that person is given the facility to engage in heavenly enjoyment by going to haven and one comes back and continues one’s spiritual practice either in Suchinam or Srimatam, a prosperous family or a pious family, so now this is the first possibility that one is practicing a spiritual life but one has strong desire so that one is taken to haven in next verse Sri Krishna will describe the other possibility. What is other possibility? That one has practiced spiritual life substantially, one has made significant advancement but one is not able to complete the journey that means the person doesn’t become completely purified in order to go back to the spiritual world, so what happened to such a person?

End of transcription.