Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Bg 7.3

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

Word for word: 

manuṣyāṇām — of men; sahasreṣu — out of many thousands; kaścit — someone; yatati — endeavors; siddhaye — for perfection; yatatām — of those so endeavoring; api — indeed; siddhānām — of those who have achieved perfection; kaścit — someone; mām — Me; vetti — does know; tattvataḥ — in fact.

Translation: 

Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, sata is 100 sahasra is 1000, so sometimes we say sahasra- sata koti dandavat pranam means 100’s and 1000’s of obeisance’s to your lotus feet. We may say sahasra-sata dandavat but we may be lazy to offer even one dandavat at physical level, so there is no need for exaggeration to show our respect, so just saying Dandavat Pranam, PAMHO is good enough, there is no need for sahasra-sata koti dandavat pranam at your lotus feet, sometimes the value of the word is lost without having actually any feeling to it. 

So here Sri Krishna is saying among thousands of people, kaścid yatati siddhaye, very few endeavours for perfection siddhaye, yatati means perfection.

yatatām api siddhānāṁ, and among those who endeavours for perfection, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ, very few actually knows me in truth.

So in that sense what Sri Krishna is telling over here is, He is highlighting the rarity of knowledge about Him, why it is rare, because first of all most people are caught up in animalistic propensity of eating, mating, sleeping and defending so there are materialist people who are caught-up in that. And unfortunately there are religious people who are also caught up in these things. How it that, most religious people practice religion for this for Dharma, Artha and Kama. Specific category of Dharma, Artha and Kama may not be there in Abrahamic religion, these names may not be there but conception is the same. That is God’s blessing upon us when we get good things in life, and what is good thing in life? Often people think about the materialistic things in life like if I get this and that material thing it will make me happy.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. Among thousands of people most people are caught up in eating, sleeping, mating and defending. When people are religions people use religion for eating, sleeping mating and defending. There is a popular chant to Hanuman Ji, Tum To Ho Bal-Brahmachari Muje De Do Eak Naari. So this is completely at Karma Kanda Level, Off course choosing an appropriate spouse is essential for good life even for spiritual seekers also and if it incompatible it could be problem, so for a devotee to pray for a spiritually and materially compatible spouse is not wrong, but the point is most people’s desire get stuck at that level itself, so in Sanskrit there is a word Dharma Patni, so the purpose is Patni is for Dharma. There is spouse so that one can follow Dharma but people think that Dharma is for Patni, let only Patni do Dharma, so in program ladies attendance is more. So here the purpose of Dharma is Dharma is for Artha and Kama. But ultimately Dharma Artha and Kama should be practiced so that one can get Moksha, apavarga so that one can go beyond material things. So people of this conception of soul mate, the conception is reincarnation and is also included in movies and theatre, there they romanticise it, like there is a couple who cannot unite in one life so they incarnate in next life and they unite in next life and this is how their romance is successful, this is how they depict that. And sometimes mystic seers are there and you show them hands etc. and they will say Oh this person is your soul mate or not your soul mate, so actually this kind of romanticisation of reincarnation is very trivial. When we are studying reincarnation the focus should not be in mate part focus should be on soul part, which means it is not who is my mate but what is my soul that should be my question, if I am continuing life after life, who I am? And what is my relationship with God? So the essential point is ultimately soul mate of soul is Sri Krishna. Eternal relationship of every soul is with Sri Krishna. Of course the word mate involves certain connotation which we cannot apply to Krishna. But the point is relationship, eternal relationship is with Sri Krishna. And for that we should focus on the soul part not the mate part. 

Now most people they use Dharma also for Artha so siddhaye, here siddhaye refers to perfection for liberation, in terms of attainment of transcendence, so very few people endeavour for transcendence, and  yatatām api siddhānāṁ, and even among those who endeavor for transcendence, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ, few actually knows me, this is interesting that even those trying for liberation which itself is very few, but among them also they can have different conception, they can think Brahman is the absolute truth, they can think Parmatama is the absolute truth, but to understand Bhagvan as absolute truth in his beauty, glory and His complete majesty  and complete sweetness is very rare that is kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ. Very few people know me in truth. By underscoring how much rare it is knowing absolute truth, Sri Krishna attracts Arjuna’s attention. It is like many people are attracted towards breaking news, why? Since they think I should hear news first before anyone else hears so that I tell everyone the news. People want latest news Taja Khabar they don’t want old news because the idea is I should know about something which others don’t know. Sri Krishna is telling this is something I am telling you which is very-very rare very few people knows by that He is attracting Arjuna, please understand this.

Now Srila Prabhupada makes a very-very interesting point that Mayavadis calls that Bhakti is for less intelligent people they try to make as simplistic division of various paths that Karma is for hard working people (among Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga, Astanaga Yoga & Bhakti Yoga), so they say Karma is for the hard working people Karma Yoga, Astanga Yoga is for people who like to do austerities, Bhakti Yoga is for the sentimental people, and Gyana Yoga is for the intellectual people, now even those people who are not intellectual thinks of themselves as intellectual, they like to think about themselves O I am very great, I am very great scholar, because they think like this so what happens is even if someone do Karma they think Karma yoga is for hard working people so I am hard working, most people think I should do Gyana yoga because I am intellectual, and people look at Bhaktas, oh! Sentimental who wants to be sentimental, although sentiments are the ornaments of our heart and our life, sentiments makes life worth living but Bhakti is not just sentimentality, Bhakti is guided, enriched, purified sentiments. So they think Bhakti is easy path as it is just sentiments, but Srila Prabhupada argues if Bhakti is easy path then why would anyone choose difficult path? If it is easy path everybody should follow it. If say goal is to reach peak of mountain and there is an easy path and there is a difficult path why someone chooses difficult path? Everybody should choose the easy path. But people choose other path because as Srila Prabhupada says Bhakti is not easy. When one thinks I can do whatever in the name of Bhakti that kind of Bhakti might be easy but when one actually follows Bhakti according to scriptures then that kind of Bhakti is not easy. 

Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.101):

śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-
pañcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā
aikāntikī harer bhaktir
utpātāyaiva kalpate

“Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upaniṣads, Purāṇas and Nārada Pañcarātra is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.”

śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi, śruti-smṛti-purāṇā etc. 

pañcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā, basically these are different categories of scriptures. Śruti are Vedas including Upanishads. smṛti general vedic scriptures which are coming from tradition and among that examples are given like –purāṇā and pañcarātra, so without their vidhi if one practices Bhakti, aikāntikī harer bhaktir, then what happens utpātāyaiva, means simply disruption in society is created, then Srila Prabhupada quotes real knowledge about Sri Krishna why it is rare because it comes by revelation, it doesn’t come merely by reconstruction or recollection. So what does this mean? Merely knowledge about Sri Krishna doesn’t come by reconstruction or recollection or even by reflection. What does this means? I just think and think and think and I understand Sri Krishna, it doesn’t work like that, recollection mean I think may be I was in spiritual world who was I at that time, think, think and think and I get to know my Svarupa. Reconstruction means our dreams are mostly reconstruction means we see mountain and we see gold and we reconstruct it as golden mountain. So our memories are remarkably unreliable. So often we forget many things. So remembrance of Sri Krishna is actually a revelation. And in that sense it is very rare. 

So now after describing about how rare knowledge about Sri Krishna is, Sri Krishna will describe what that knowledge is what those glories are, knowledge about absolute.

End of transcription.