SRI BRAHMA-SAMHITA

Verse 34

panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampragamyo
vayor athapi manaso munipungavanam
so ’py asti yat-prapadasimny avichintya-tattve
govindam adi purusam tam aham bhajami [34]

Translation: The yogis tread the path of strictly controlling the life-breath, or the greatest sages tread the path of sharpening their perceptions by assiduous rejection of the non-real, in quest of the non-differentiative Brahman; they all aspire to reach that supramundane truth beyond the worldly intellect; and after trying for billions of years, they may reach only the boundary of His lotus feet—it is that Primeval Lord Govinda who I do worship.

Purport: The nectarine relish of pure devotion is the attainment of the lotus feet of Govinda. The ‘oneness with God’ attained by the astanga-yogis after billions of years of meditation, and the self-dissolution in the non-differentiative Brahman in the form of contemplation on the indifferent that the great monist sages finally attain after sitting for a similar period and rejecting mayik elements one by one, saying, ‘This is not it, this is not it’ in their philosophizing on the distinction between matter and spirit—all these attempts are only in the region of the outer area surrounding Krishna’s lotus feet—not Krishna’s lotus feet proper.

The underlying point is that kaivalya and brahmalaya—becoming one with the Absolute and ultimate dissolution in the Absolute—are situated at a region midway between the mundane plane and the divine realm, since without crossing beyond these two states, the variegatedness of the divine realm is indiscernible. All such positions are nothing more than the absence of the sorrow in mundane relativity by a process of elimination, but not happiness. Even if any measure of ‘happiness’ is professed in that state of sorrowlessness, it will be most meagre and insignificant. Merely to dissipate the mundane situation is not enough; actual attainment is alone the establishment of the jiva’s supramundane situation. This can be attained only by the grace of divinity personified in devotion, and never by the path of tasteless and tortuous mental speculation.

• For Reader's Appreciation
• Feelings of Appreciation
• Prologue
• Translator's Note
• Illumination
• Verse 1
• Verse 2
• Verse 3
• Verse 4
• Verse 5
• Verse 6
• Verse 7
• Verse 8
• Verse 9

• Verse 11
• Verse 12
• Verse 13
• Verse 14
• Verse 15
• Verse 16
• Verse 17
• Verse 18
• Verse 19

• Verse 20
• Verse 21
• Verse 22
• Verse 23
• Verse 24
• Verse 25
• Verse 26
• Verse 27
• Verse 28
• Verse 29

• Verse 30
• Verse 31
• Verse 32
• Verse 33
• Verse 34
• Verse 35
• Verse 36
• Verse 37
• Verse 38
• Verse 39

• Verse 40
• Verse 41
• Verse 42
• Verse 43
• Verse 44
• Verse 45
• Verse 46
• Verse 47
• Verse 48
• Verse 49

• Verse 50
• Verse 51
• Verse 52
• Verse 53
• Verse 54
• Verse 55
• Verse 56
• Verse 57
• Verse 58
• Verse 59

• Verse 60
• Verse 61
• Verse 62

• Verse Contents

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