Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan
yat tad agre viṣam iva
pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam
tat sukhaṁ sāttvikaṁ proktam
ātma-buddhi-prasāda-jam
Synonyms:
yat — which; tat — that; agre — in the beginning; viṣam iva — like poison; pariṇāme — at the end; amṛta — nectar; upamam — compared to; tat — that; sukham — happiness; sāttvikam — in the mode of goodness; proktam— is said; ātma — in the self; buddhi — of intelligence; prasāda–jam — born of the satisfaction.
Translation:
That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.
yat tad agre viṣam iva, that which in the beginning taste like poison but in the end pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam, but in the end taste like a nectar,
tat sukhaṁ sāttvikaṁ proktam, that happiness is in the mode of goodness, sukham, and its characteristic is ātma-buddhi-prasāda-jam, atma Buddhi means spiritual intelligence, prasāda-jam, so prasadajam is born off,
Srila Prabhupada translated in word to word as prasāda–jam — born of the satisfaction. And in translation he translated as which awakens one to self-realization, so when one practices spiritual life by such practices one moves from materials to spirituality and when this happens one starts delighting at spiritual level, and to the extent one is delighted one is more and more situated at spiritual level, one become more spiritually inclined, one’s intelligence becomes spiritually situated so that is the meaning of ātma-buddhi-prasāda-jam, spiritual intelligence
For example for a child playing is natural but studying requires discipline and effort and when the child starts joy of learning he learns more and more and in that way child starts relishing higher happiness, similarly in goodness also initially there may not be pleasure but as one starts moving forward one starts experiencing higher pleasure, that higher pleasure is talked about as
pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam another example is treatment by doctor. So the result pariṇāme is important which is ultimately sukha, amrita.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says in Shikshastakam as Prati Pada Purna Ashvadam, which means this Shankirtan at every step, Prati Pada, is Purna Ashvadam, is complete nectar, so there Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not talking about in the beginning it is poison and later nectar, He is saying it is complete nectar, this is of course at a later stage in Shikshastaka the various effect of sankrtan are described, so this is one of the last result, so actually at spiritual level the whole process is constantly ecstatic the reciprocation of love the engagement in service is all profoundly ecstatic, till we come to spiritual level things may not be ecstatic, it is a struggle for sadhaka we have to go through that struggle and it is not easy to go to the struggle but once we come to the siddha level then there is not pariṇāme amṛta, it is completely amrita,
As mentioned by Srila Rupa Goswami as a jaundice patient cannot taste the sweetness of sugar cane juice similarly now we cannot taste the sweetness of Krishna but as we become purified we will be able to taste the sweetness of Krishna. The nature of poison in beginning and nectar in end applies to one in goodness as well as one in transcendence, so as a sadhaka we should not be always in pleasure searching mentality, if at all we have to be in searching mentality it has to be in service searching mentality, how can I serve Krishna? In some way or other we can always serve at least we can chant or remember Krishna internally.
pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam
Should be looking for pariṇāme amrit, example should be looking for ruchi, taste, at this stage we are giving pleasure to Krishna through our service and when we do that naturally we will get pleasure.
End of transcription.
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