Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Now after describing Mavavadis in previous two verses in quite a strong condemnation, Krishna turn towards Kevala Bhaktas, pure devotees. 

Bg 9.13

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

Word for word: 

mahā–ātmānaḥ — the great souls; tu — but; mām — unto Me; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; daivīm — divine;prakṛtim — nature; āśritāḥ — having taken shelter of; bhajanti — render service; ananya–manasaḥ — without deviation of the mind; jñātvā — knowing; bhūta — of creation; ādim — the origin; avyayam — inexhaustible.

Translation: 

O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

 

So here Krishna is giving two extremes, Krishna has given in 9.11 & 9.12 are most dangerous misunderstanding and now He will give most evolved or highest understanding. The same thing Krishna has done in 7th chapter also when in 7.14 He told Mam Maya duratyaya, and in 7.15 He said about four kinds of people who do not surrender to Him, and in 7.16 He said four kinds of people who do surrender to Him, so He gave complete spectrum over there, similarly He is giving spectrum over here, now here Krishna will go deeper in each of the categories in a different way where the focus will be more on Him, and the peoples understanding about Him, in 7th chapter the focus was on people’s own conceptions and their desire it was not their conceptions about Krishna. In 7.15 those misconceptions were not about Krishna they were just misconceptions that they have e.g. Mudha thinks that work hard is the standard way for success in life, Naradhama just think about sensual pleasures and worldly craving and do not think of anything higher, And Maya Aprihata Jayana they have knowledge but they forget about ultimate purpose of knowledge which is spiritual, devotion, surrender to Krishna, Asuram Bhava Ashrita, overall demonic mentality which is anti religious anti spiritual anti God, but not specifically anti Krishna. So the focus in both ways were people about their understanding which is covered in 7.16 to 19, but here when Krishna talked about the spectrum the focus is coming more and more in Him, so that glory of Bhakti to Him can be eventually revealed. 

So here His focus is what is people’s conception of Him, so when we talk about Mayavadis they have misconception about Him as mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam.

So now He is talking about those who take shelter of Him what is their understanding? 

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha, so the great souls the mahatmas 

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, they take shelter of daivi Prakriti and bhajanty, they worship Me, they render service to Me, 

And how they worship ananya-manaso, their mind doesn’t go to other things 

Why?

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam, they understand that Krishna is bhuta adi, He is the beginning of all existence. Avyayam, and He is imperishable 

so this conception of bhūtādim avyayam is exactly opposite of mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam and there in 9.11 paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto, there they think that actually Absolute Truth is impersonal and temporarily Absolute Truth have taken human form, but they don’t know the transcendental nature of Absolute Truth but here the Mahatmas know, jñātvā, what do they know? They know about Him, Mam, jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam. Adi and avyaya means beginning of existence and imperishable indicate that Krishan is talking about Himself in eternal term not just in contextual terms. ananya-manaso means mahatama fix themselves only on Krishna not on other demigods or Brahman form of Krishna, and Krishna used the word mahatama to describe them, earlier in 7.19 Krishna uses this word to describe those who surrender to Him after many life time, Bahunam Janmanam Ante, and in 8.15 to describe those who devote to Krishna will come back to spiritual world and will not return back to this material world. Mahatma today is social cultural word some freedom fighter were given this title and SP objected as these words has some meaning and using them in those way is inappropriate. Now we should not do campaign against these if say we are going to attend a national day celebration that is not the forum to say that, so we can clarify in the appropriate forum, we should know what is the central message which we want to give it to people, do we want to give people this message that we have protested against calling someone as Mahatama? No our message is we should chant Hare Krishna, we are not body we are soul and soul is happy when we serve to Krishna and when people hear these message and appreciate and then they can open then we can bring other points also. So although a soul which is very tiny is linked with the greatest super soul Krishna so that soul is called Mahatama, so this way soul will become also powerful and influential, so Anu Atama will become Mahatama by taking shelter of Vibhu Atama. In CC it is described Lord is Maya Dhish and Jiva is Maya Dhina,  

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ refers to, daivīṁ prakṛtim means divine nature, āśritāḥ, is significant here because one verse before āśritāḥ is used for people who were demonic, So the contract between these two verse is clear. Here it is daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ.

This daivīṁ prakṛtim is indirect reference to Smt Radharani, there are two natures material nature and spiritual nature so here the spiritual nature is referred by daivīṁ prakṛtim. So daivīṁ prakṛtim means that nature which is intimately connected with Krishna, the word Daivi can be used in various context, and depending on context it can have different meanings, so earlier the word daivi is used for maya also, Davi Esha Guna Mayi Mam Maya Duratyaya, in 7.14 Krishna has said that so when Krishna used their Daivi the intent is that even this energy is not independent to Me, that is also My energy, it is divine in the sense that it is acting under My will, so generally when temptation comes it takes us away from Krishna but to resist this potency I need to take shelter of Krishna and I cannot take it by my own effort. 

Whereas here when daivi is used if we look at the whole context it is talking about Mahatmas. There is no concept of illusory energy here. 

Our Acharyas has quite elaborately analysed the internal potency of Lord, Smt. Radharani, a summary understanding is as follows: 

We are all parts of Krishna.

Krishna has his pleasure giving potency which is called as Hladhini Shakti.

Now because we are part of Krishna we also have our pleasure giving potencies. But because we are Anu our pleasure giving potency is also very tiny. That is why if we try to enjoy separate from Krishna we can enjoy, but that enjoyment is tiny. It is so limited. In contrast since Krishna is Vibhu His Hladini Shakti is also Vibhu. That is why the happiness which comes to Krishna through Hladini Shakti is also unlimited. So when Jiva tries to enjoy separate from Krishna Jiva gets tiny enjoyment and is also entangled in bad karam and gets karmic reactions, So what the Jiva is meant to do is connect with Krishna, so the enjoyment comes by connecting to Krishna, Krishna Hladini Shakti gives infinite happiness. And this way Jiva also becomes elevated and purified and ultimately liberated. 

So in this verse Krishna talks about the characteristics of those who takes shelter of Him.

In this verse Krishna describes about inner world, the conceptions of those who takes shelter of Him, and that is bhajanty ananya-manaso. They are fixed in worshiping Krishna and they are not deviated from that. Now these inner characteristics are also reflected in their outer actions, which is described in next verse. In general SP translated Devotional Service to translate Bhakti, so devotion is internal and Service is external. And when both are present together then that is authentic Bhakti. So here in 9.13 devotional aspect is talked about and 9.14 talks about the service aspect, the external aspect. External grows from internal.

End of transcription.