When we serve God, without any motive of getting anything in return,
then it is far better even than salvation. A true devotee likes to see
God's various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent. Being
absorbed in devotional service, he attains liberation without separate
endeavor. He does not desire even the highest benediction obtainable in
the upper planetary systems. He does not desire the siddhis obtained
from mystic
yoga, nor does he desire to be elevated to the kingdom of God. Yet even
without desiring them, the devotee enjoys, even in this life, all the
offered benedictions. It is because of God's supremacy that the wind
blows; the sun
shines out of fear of Him, and the lord of the clouds, Indra, sends
forth showers. Fire burns out of fear of Him, and death works out of
fear of Him.
God is the Supreme Soul. He has no beginning. He
is transcendental to the material modes of nature and beyond the
existence of this material world. He is perceivable everywhere because
He is self-effulgent, and by His self-effulgent luster the entire
creation is maintained. Divided into varieties, material nature creates
the forms for individual souls, and the living souls, seeing this, are
illusioned. Because of his forgetfulness, an individual soul accepts
the influence of material energy
as his field of activities, and he wrongly applies the activities to
himself. Material consciousness is the cause of one's conditional life.
Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life.
When
Nature is in unmanifest state, it is called pradhan. It is called
prakriti when in the manifested stage of existence. There are five
gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are
also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. The
senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten,
namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the
sense of sight, the sense of smell, the active organ for speaking, the
active organs for working, and those for traveling, generating and
evacuating. The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four
aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated
consciousness. All these are considered the qualified Brahman. The
mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth
element. Because of the time factor the creation begins as a result of
the agitation of the neutral, unmanifested nature.
By
exhibiting His potencies, God adjusts all these different elements,
keeping Himself within as the Supersoul and without as time. After God
charges material nature with His internal potency, material nature
delivers the sum total of the cosmic intelligence. The primordial
matter in the universe is called Mahat-tattva. From Mahat-tattva evolve
three modes of material nature - goodness, passion
and ignorance. From goodness evolves the mind, whose thoughts and
reflections give rise to desire.The mind of the living entity is known
by the name of Lord Aniruddha, the supreme ruler of the senses. He
possesses a bluish-black form resembling a lotus flower
growing in the autumn. He is found by the yogs. From passion,
intelligence takes birth. The functions of intelligence are to help in
ascertaining the nature of objects when they come into view, and to
help the senses. Doubt, misapprehension, correct apprehension, memory
and sleep, as determined by their different functions, are said to be
the distinct characteristics of intelligence. From ignorance, sound is
manifested, and from sound come the ether and the sense of hearing.
From ether, touch and thence the air and sense of touch evolve. By the
interaction of fire and the visual sensation, the subtle element taste
evolves under a superior arrangement. From taste, water is produced,
and the tongue, which perceives taste, is also manifested. Although
originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent,
sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other
substances. Due to the interaction of water with the taste perception,
the subtle element odor evolves under superior arrangement. Thence the
earth and the olfactory sense, by which we can variously experience the
aroma of the earth, become manifest. Odor, although one, becomes many —
as mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on —
according to the proportions of associated substances.
When
all these elements were unmixed, then God, along with time, work, and
the qualities of the modes of material nature, entered into the
universe with the total material energy in seven divisions. From these
seven principles, roused into activity and united by the presence of
the Lord, an unintelligent egg arose, from which appeared the
celebrated Cosmic Being. Within this egg is the universal form of Lord
Hari, of whose body the various fourteen planetary systems are parts.
From the Cosmic being, various body parts, senses, gods presiding over
these senses, and various elements came.
Because soul is
unchanging, if he does not claim proprietorship, then he remains apart
from the reactions of the modes, although abiding in a material body,
just as the sun remains aloof from its reflection on water. When the
soul is under the spell of material nature and false ego, identifying
his body as the self, he becomes absorbed in material activities, and
by the influence of false ego he thinks that he is the proprietor of
everything. The conditioned soul therefore transmigrates into different
species
of life, higher and lower, because of his association with the modes of
material nature. Unless he is relieved of material activities, he has
to accept this position because of his faulty work. Actually a soul is
transcendental to material existence, but because of his mentality of
lording it over material nature, his material existential condition
does not cease, and just as in a dream, he is affected by all sorts of
disadvantages.
One should execute his prescribed duties to the
best of his ability. One should practice nonviolence and truthfulness,
should avoid thieving and be satisfied if he possesses as much as he
needs for his maintenance. For doing yoga, one must observe silence,
acquire steadiness by practicing different yogic postures, control the
breathing of the vital air, withdraw the senses from sense objects and
thus concentrate the mind on the heart. The yogi should clear the
passage of vital air by breathing in the following manner: first he
should inhale very deeply, then hold the breath in, and finally exhale.
Or, reversing the process, the yogi can first exhale, then hold the
breath outside, and finally inhale. This is done so that the mind may
become steady and free from external disturbances. By practicing this
process called pranayam, one can eradicate the contamination of his physiological
condition, and by concentrating the mind one can become free from all
sinful activities. When the mind is perfectly purified by this practice
of yoga, one should concentrate on the start of the nose with lightly
closed eyes and meditate upon God. A yogi sees God in all
manifestations. Then he gets perfect realisation.