Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Bg 7.9

puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca
tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau
jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
tapaś cāsmi tapasviṣu

Word for word: 

puṇyaḥ — original; gandhaḥ — fragrance; pṛthivyām — in the earth; ca — also; tejaḥ — heat; ca — also; asmi — I am; vibhāvasau — in the fire; jīvanam — life; sarva — in all; bhūteṣu — living entities; tapaḥ — penance; ca — also; asmi — I am; tapasviṣu — in those who practice penance.

Translation: 

I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.

 

puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca

I am the fragrance of the earth.

tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau

vibhāvasau, refers to fire, I am the heat of fire 

jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu

I am the life of all that lives 

tapaś cāsmi tapasviṣu

I am the austerity of the austere 

So we discussed earlier puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca, what does this refers to we discussed how sense object associated with earth is fragrance in the Sankhya system of evaluation so in that sense puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca

Refers to how the fragrance is the essence of the earth and that fragrance is manifested through Krishna, now we also see that this fragrance is extra ordinary in the sense that we may plant a seed in earth, the seed may not be having any fragrance and then we nourish the seed with water that also doesn’t have any fragrance but if we are doing any Horticulture or people gardening also say we are planting the trees which will be blossoming flower so when flower comes out at that time flower has charming fragrance so where this fragrance comes from the fragrance is not there in the seed the fragrance is not there in water yet when we put the seed and nourish with water the fragrance comes, from the earth especially when the first rain comes that time also we can feel the fragrance of earth this is general example for understanding from our experience how fragrance is associated with the earth the point is there is experiential understanding and there is conceptual understanding. In sankhya fragrance is associated with earth.

tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau

vibhāvasau means fire, so actually with Sun and Moon we talk about light first of all Sun also gives heat and the moon light is considered to be cooling but generally we talk about Sun in terms of light primarily and secondarily of course heat is also important. So hear Sri Krishna is distinguishing I am light of Sun and I am heat of fire, in either way the point is how there are various things in this world and everything is having some essential characteristics which are important for us so when it is cold that time people light a fire or we have a heating system which again involves fire giving heat, so I am heat of fire means we are attracting towards fire because it has its essential element of heat. Krishna says I am that heat.

jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu

So how life is present in all living being sarva-bhūteṣu, actually life itself is a great mystery. In the perspective of modern science how is life come about so many scientist reject the conception of soul because they say if soul is there how the soul effect matter their idea is soul is spiritual and because the soul is spiritual so being spiritual soul cannot effect matter because the idea is matter is effected by material things so how is soul effect matter that is the problem which perplexed western thought and because of that in western intellectual history soul is largely neglected but Vedic conception is actually the soul and matter interact through Super-Soul, Super-Soul is controller of both the spirit and matter and Super-Soul can affect matter and of course Super-Soul can use material mechanism also to affect matter, that mechanism is misidentification. But the point is what defines all living being is life and where does that life comes from? Ultimately that life comes from Krishna the Soul is part of Krishna and the arrangement by which soul is able to manifest the life through matter that is also coming from Krishna so Jivanam Servabhutesu, 

tapaś cāsmi tapasviṣu

So tapasviṣu refers to those who are austere, so capacity for austerity is also extraordinary, doing Nirjala ekadasi for one day is difficult but some people will do nirjala on every ekadasi or fast by only taking water every ekadasi. Some people can fast for 3 days 5 days or 15 days, In Vashishta Muni Ashram there were many sages and some of them were surviving just on air, other were surviving only on water, and it is mentioned that among the austere sages the least austere were living only on leaves, now today if someone has to live on leaves only we will be amazed what kind of capacity the person would be having, so the point is capacity for austerity is extraordinary, and the capacity for austerity ultimately comes from Krishna. 

So Krishna can give different abilities to different people he can give capacity of austerities to certain people, so when we see certain people with certain attributes we should not become envious of seeing those attributes in people but we should see that those attributes are coming from Krishna that way we can make spiritual advancement by connecting everything with Krishna.

Another thing important about jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu is actually life and death is not in our hands, Doctors treats but it is God who heals. Doctor can do surgery gives medicines etc. whatever else is required but ultimately medicine is not an exact science, exact science is when we say you take this chemical, mix it with another chemical and then exactly you will get this result but in medical science Doctors say you take this medicine and you will be cured but everyone is not cured by taking that medicines different people have different backgrounds who knows what infection they have and how one  thing interact with other internally and produce certain results we can’t say, that is why there are many examples of people who got small disease which can be very easily cured but it becomes so severe that the person dies despite best medicines and best doctors. And on the other hand someone will have terrible disease and the Doctor says that you are going to die in 6 months and that person lives long and attains the funeral of the doctor, so that person outlives the doctor so how does this happens? Life and death are ultimately not in our hands, life and death are ultimately given by Sri Krishna, Sri Krishna is the giver of life, Krishna is ultimately taker of life, so it is not that Sri Krishna has vengeance against someone so Sri Krishna takes life but Karmic reactions of every souls are given by different ways by Krishna, again Prabhupada say that Krishna consciousness is active in every sphere, so it is interesting Srila Prabhupada personifies Krishna consciousness here, so instead of saying that we can be active in Krishna Consciousness in every sphere, Srila Prabhupada is saying Krishna Consciousness is active in every sphere, that means the capacity for Krishna Consciousness is latent in every sphere so we have to just utilise the capacity and when we utilise the capacity we can be Krishna Conscious also.

End of transcription.