Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Now Sri Krishna goes to a new topic now

Bg 7.27

icchā-dveṣa-samutthena
dvandva-mohena bhārata
sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ
sarge yānti paran-tapa

Word for word: 

icchā — desire; dveṣa — and hate; samutthena — arisen from; dvandva — of duality; mohena — by the illusion;bhārata — O scion of Bharata; sarva — all; bhūtāni — living entities; sammoham — into delusion; sarge — while taking birth; yānti — go; param–tapa — O conqueror of enemies.

Translation: 

O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.

 

icchā-dveṣa-samutthena

Because of desire and because of dveṣa aversion, because of attachment and aversion, samutthena, together timed samutthena, 

dvandva-mohena bhārata

There is delusion, two kinds of delusion, dvandva-mohena bhārata, when there is no dvandva what happens? That dvandva is cause of suffering for all living being sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ, all living entities become illusioned.

sarge yānti paran-tapa

sarge yānti, means at the time of giving births.

Actually all living entities are born in illusion. How is that? We may say Happy Birth Day to a friend to ourselves but the sad truth is we were not happy on our birth day we were crying, of course there is a joy that the new life is born that joy is not taken away but the fact is birth in itself is not joyful experience the mother is also screaming in pain, the end result is not joyful, the new life has come in the world and that new life is not just a life which has come to the world that life can go successfully out of the world, if the parent practice devotional service and share devotional service to the child then the child can become their liberator so that is what Sri Krishna allows us but 

sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ
sarge yānti

Actually all living entities are born in illusion so we have to become liberated from that illusion and for becoming liberated from illusion we need to move forward steadily, we take small-small baby steps in our spiritual life and as we keep taking these baby steps ultimately we will realize that we have done so much in Sri Krishna’s service how amazing it is. But we are all born in illusion so now where does this illusion comes from? So Sri Krishna has used two words over here SamMoha and dvandva-moha, so what is the difference between two SamMoha and dvandva-moha. So let us look at the literal translation to understand this icchā-dveṣa-samutthena that by the combination of iccha and dvesa, iccha and dvesa can refer to many things the iccha can refer to the desire to enjoy separate from Sri Krishna Dvesa can refer to the resentment the hatred about Sri Krishna’s position as the enjoyer. So generally we have iccha for that which we like and Dvesa for that which we do not like. So this word iccha and dvesa has been used many time but if we look at the context of 7th chapter where Krishna is giving knowledge of the absolute, He is giving knowledge about Himself and here Krishna is talking about His own position so here iccha and devsa refers not generically attraction and aversion  but when a person has iccha to enjoy separate from Krishna and dvesa for Krishna being the enjoyer, and those who are serving Krishna accepting Krishna to be enjoyer, samutthena, because of this iccha and dvesawe like something and we don’t like something so when we like something we call it good and we don’t like we call it bad. Prahllad Mahraj said that when there is separation from Priya we call it misery and we have sanyoja of Priya we call it pleasure.

Viyoga from Priya is misery, Sanyoja with Apriya, united with undesirable we suffer when we are separated from desirable we suffer. So these are two major ways we will suffer.

So I want sweet to eat and there is no sweet then I suffer and other way is say I don’t want bitterroot sabji and that sabji is there so that way also I will suffer. So when we don’t get what we want and we get what we don’t want we suffer. So the we start labeling things this is bad this is good, so we label things generally based on our likes and dislikes.

So icchā-dveṣa leads to dvandva-moha, so dvandva-moha is the illusion of duality, Srila Prabhupada says bewildered by duality but the overall set of world view with iccha and dvesa that is called Samoha, Samoha means Samyak Rupena Moha the complete illusion that is there that is Samoha so what is the difference there is a foundational illusion just like a person goes to watch a movie that time the person forgets that I am the spectator and feels that I am a vicarious (means identifies with someone)  participant then I will try to enjoy based on the identification so within the movie there will be certain things which we like and certain things which we may not like, example when hero beat villain we like it but when he is beaten by villain we don’t like it. So there is this point of dvandva, good and bad within movie also and the dvandva is based on  icchā-dveṣa what we like and what we don’t like, but this whole getting into setup of iccha and dvesa and then Priya and Apriya because of that dvandva-mohena, all these happen because of sammoha, sammoha is first of all the desire that I want to watch the movie so when I start watching the movie the certain things which I like certain things which I don’t like and label them as good and bad but foundationally wanting to watch the movie itself is an illusion. So Krishna is saying that all living beings are born in this illusion 

sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ
sarge yānti

All living beings are born in illusion of material existence where they think of themselves as separate from Me.

So what is the connection between this verse and previous verse? 

In previous verse Sri Krishna was saying that I am free from illusion. 

Let us look at these three verses 7.25 was saying that I am not visible to everyone, I am not manifest to everyone, 7.26 says that I know everything, 7.27 says all living entities are deluded so here Sri Krishna is clearly differentiating between His position and position of the living entity just as earlier we gave examples of Sun, cloud and person on earth, so observer on the earth are covered by the clouds but the sun is not covered by the clouds. So Krishna is like Sun, illusory potencies are like cloud and the living entity is like the person on the earth, so living entity for sometime may feel that I am liberated as the cloud move aside little bit and person is starting to see but the clouds are much bigger so one cannot remove the cloud by one’s own effort it is not like cobwebs in the room which can be removed, we cannot remove cloud by some sticks or by our means, we need to depend on divine grace.

This verse can be used to refer to origins, ultimately the question of origins how we fell away from spiritual world is a vexed question how we originally came here that is a vexed question, why vexed? That which is beyond the conception of time and space is very difficult to understand within the conception of time and space. That is why when Srila Prabhupada was pressed with this question Srila Prabhupada often given example that when a person is drowning in the ocean one should think about getting out not bother too much on how one fell into ocean. So still the point is icchā and dveṣa, so in the biblical tradition there is story of Adam and Eve, Adam was tempted by eve and eve was tempted by satan who came as snake, adam and eve were at the original garden of Eden and in the garden of Eden everything was wonderful and they have lots of fruits and food to eat and they could play around over there enjoy, and God just told them don’t just eat this one fruit from this tree so Satan came along as snake. Satan told eve why don’t you eat that fruit Eve said no-no God told us not to eat, Stan, no it is delicious food why God told not to eat it? You know why? If you eat it, you will become god, it is delicious food and if you eat you will become god, He doesn’t want competition. O really if I will eat it I will become God? Yes go and eat it immediately, so eve went and told Adam, so Adma told no-no God told not to eat it so we should not eat it, we should be obedient, Eve: No-No I want to eat it, then they both went and eat it after that it is said that they suddenly became conscious, they were unclothed that time but before this they have never realised that they are unclothed now they became conscious, when they became conscious that way God came to know and He was displeased by the disobedience and defiance and that is how they fell from Eden, Eden is the primeval garden from where they fell so this story, is not exactly literal in one sense all of us we are Adam everyone of us is Adam all of us have defied the Supreme Lord, the story is symbolic it illustrates how by going against the will of God the soul falls, so there are various explanations like soul has a desire to enjoy. Soul was happy in the spiritual world with Krishna but the soul has not experienced separate from Krishna that is why the soul desires to enjoy separate from Krishna and that is how the soul comes here to the material world, the soul sometimes desires to serve in a way that is not possible in spiritual world for example the soul becomes Brahma in this world and when soul comes here and because this is arena of Maya after coming here the soul starts getting lower desires, then from the position of Brahma the soul starts going downwards, so there are explanations like this so the soul has free will, the free will means it has freedom to act and there is arena to exercise that free will. If there is no arena to exercise the free will then there is no meaning of free will. So the arena to exercise the free will is spiritual world where we can freely choose Krishna but if we choose not to serve Krishna if we choose to do something else then there has to be an arena for that also, and that arena is the material world. So even in this world also we see that logic doesn’t lead to any absolute conclusion especially with respect to behaviours even in this world also we see that when a boy falls in love with a girl there are not always logical reasons why boy and girl fall in love with each other and even when a boy and girl break out in relationship, it may be specific behaviour or event which leads to disruption in relationship but it is not an exact science that because of this and this it happened, relationship and emotions in general are not precise and that is why actually to sustain a relationship one has to be emotionally sharp one has to be emotionally alert to reciprocate properly with others and maintains relationships in that way. The point actually is why the soul chose to go apart from Krishna we understand that soul has free will and free will means soul can use the free will which every way the soul wants, so the soul can choose to go away from Krishna and Sri Krishna allows the soul to do that, that is how the soul becomes bond in this world, 

sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ
sarge yānti

All living entities are bond into illusion in this way.

Now one may wonder is this illusion irreversible, permanent is it that we have to always in this illusion, No, we can become purified and we can become liberated and again and again Sri Krishna will talk about this in eighth chapter. Now the question may come up if we go back to spiritual world what is the guarantee that we will not fall back.

So this is analyzed very nicely in Govind Bhasya which is a commentary on Vedanta Sutra by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusan. The last aphorism of Vedanta Sutra is Anavriti Sabdat. This is explained differently by different Acharyas Srila Prabhupada has explained Anavriti Sabdat as by different sound vibration the uncovering of consciousness will happen, so avaran is covering Anavriti in uncovering Sabdat is sound. So uncovering of consciousness by sound.

Anavriti can also mean something different, Krishna has talked about Punavarteno Arjuna so Punavareno means to come back here again. So those living entities comes back to this material world but Anavriti means will not come back. Sabdat means so said by scripture, Baladeva Vidyabhusan said that the scripture declares that there will be no return here, one will not return to material existence. So he said the living entities attain liberation the living entities will not return back to material existence why? Because of multiple reasons, He said one reason among many reasons is first of all it is scriptural promise Sabdat, scriptures have said and scripture gives absolute truth from God then he further says that actually Lord loves His devotees and Lord is Bhaktavatsal so Lord will ensure that those devotees who truly loved Him and have rejected the places of this world for His sake, He will never reject them, He will always hold them in tight embrace and keep them ever with Him, and He will never let them fall into material existence. And then he further says actually the devotees love the Lord, and the devotees have sacrificed everything for the sake of the Lord and once they attain Object of love and Object of love is so much complete and fulfilling why will such devotees ever wanted to come back to material world? So originally we did not know how horrible the life can be separate from Krishna. After returning back to Krishna it is not that constantly we will be remembering material existence but once we are back to Krishna we know that if at all sometimes the desire comes up then immediately Sri Krishna will give the remembrance of the consequences. And it will be like no I don’t want to again go through it, so because of having the experience because of reassurance of the Lord because of the nature of love of Lord for the devotees and because of nature of love of devotees for the Lord it can be said guaranteed that we will not come back. So that is the ultimate liberation. sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ, so though all of us are deluded and all of us can be liberated and once you are liberated we will not come back again to this material world.

End of transcription.