"Explanation of Devotional Service by Lord Kapila" :

 

 

Skandham-3.2,

Chapter-29.

Slokam- 1 to 45.

 

Explanation of Devotional Service by Lord Kapila :
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(1-2) Devahûti said: 'The complete reality of the material and the personal nature has been described. The true nature of them was explained in analytic terms. Please dear master explain to me now at length the path of bhakti-yoga, that one calls the ultimate end of it. (3) Dear Lord, give, for me and for the people in general, the description of the manifold repetition of birth and death, by which a person may become completely detached. (4) And oh, what about Eternal Time, the form, that represents the Supreme Ruler and of Your nature is the lead of all the other rulers, under the influence of which the people in general act piously? (5) With the intelligence to the material activities, that delude the attached living entities by false ego blinding them for a long time, leaving them without shelter, fatigued and in the dark, You have indeed appeared like the sun of the yogasystem.'

 

(6) Maitreya said: 'In welcome of the words of His mother, o best of the Kurus, did the great and gentle sage, pleased and moved by compassion, speak the following. (7) The Supreme Lord said: 'Devotion in yoga, in its appearance divided, has many paths, o noble lady, showing the way people follow their own course to their natural qualities. (8) What out of love for Me he, who is of violence, pride and envy or in truth being angry as a separatist may do, is considered to be in the mode of ignorance. (9) He in worship of Me who is out for material things, fame and opulence, may worship deities; he in his preference to go against, is in the mode of passion. (10) When acting to the Supreme with the purpose of freeing oneself from fruitive activities or to offer the results, one may worship, as such be worshiped or be an opponent; such a one is in goodness. (11-12) Just hearing about My transcendental qualities, has one towards Me, who resides in the heart of everyone, the continuing on the course of the heart, the way the water of the Ganges flows towards the sea. The manifestation of unadulterated devotional yoga verily exhibited without separation and ulterior motives is the devotion which is towards the Supreme Personality. (13) Without being of My service, will pure devotees not even when being offered these, accept to be living on the same planet, to have the same opulence, to be a personal associate, to have the same bodily features or to be in oneness [the so-called five forms of liberation of sâlokya, sârshthi, sâmîpya, sârûpya and ekatva]. (14) Truly this devotion in yoga, as I explained, is called the highest platform, by which, overcoming the three modes, one attains to My transcendental nature. (15) One's own duty executed without attachment to the results is glorious in the doing of yoga and auspicious without unnecessary violence and regular performance. (16) In respect of the benevolent of Me, in touch with the ritual about My form, in praise and offering obeisances and thinking of Me as present in all living beings, one lives by the mode of goodness and detachment. (17) Of sense-control and proper regulation [Yama and Niyama, the does and don'ts of Yoga] is one with the greatest respect for the great souls, compassionate with the poor and certainly as a friend to equals. (18) From hearing about spiritual matters and from chanting My holy names is one, being straightforward and of association with the civilized, thus without false ego. (19) Following My course along with these qualities is a persons consciousness completely purified as by simply hearing one immediately approaches My quality. (20) The way the sense of smell catches the aroma when it is carried by means of the air from its source, similarly catches the consciousness by means of yoga the Supreme Soul which is unchanging.

 

(21) A mortal man who is always in disregard of Me, the Supersoul situated in every living being, is, worshiping the deity, just imitating. (22) One who worships the deity and is disregarding Me as the Supreme Ruler and Supersoul present in all beings, is out of ignorance only offering oblations into the ashes. (23) He who offers Me his respects being envious of the presence of others, lives inimical in opposition towards others and will never attain to a mind in peace. (24) O sinless one, I am certainly not pleased when those, who accomplished to worship Me in My deity form with all attributes, are not of respect for other living beings. (25) One should begin worshipping the deity of Me, the Supreme Ruler, for the time that one does not do one's prescribed duties, until one realizes that I reside in one's heart and in the hearts of all. (26) To the one who discriminates between himself and another, having a different outlook to his body, I, as death, will cause great fear. (27) Therefore should one, through charity and respect and in friendship, seeing one another as equals, propitiate Me as abiding in the Self of all beings.

 

(28) Living entities verily are better than inanimate objects, better than entities with life symptoms, o blessed one, are entities with a developed consciousness and better than them are those with developed senses. (29) Moreover, among them are those perceptive to taste better than those who are after touching and better than them are those who are in favor of smelling; the better of whom again are the ones perceptive to sound. (30) Better than them are the ones who are perceptive to differences of form and better than them are those who have teeth in both their jaws. The better of them are those with many legs. Of them are the four legged the better ones and better than them are the two-legged ones [the human beings]. (31) Among them is a society with four classes the better one and to those is the brahmin the best. Moreover among the brahmins is certainly the one who knows the Vedas the better one and better than him is the one who knows of its purpose [to know the absolute of the truth in three phases: brahman, paramâtmâ and bhagavân]. (32) Better than the one knowing of the purpose is the one who puts all doubts to an end and better than him is the one who does the duties set for him. Of the ones free from materially motivated association with that is the righteous one who doesn't do it for himself the best one. (33) Therefore I know of no greater being than a person who with a dedicated mind has offered all of his actions, wealth and life unreserved unto Me, working with no other interest and not separating himself. (34) Mindful does such a one show respect for all these living beings, thus regarding the Supreme Lord, the Controller of the individual soul, as having entered them by His expansion as the Supersoul [the paramâtmâ]. (35) Of the devotional service and yoga I described, o daughter of Manu, can by either one of the two alone a person achieve the Original Person. (36) This form of the Supreme Lord of Brahman [the Supreme Spirit] and Paramâtmâ [the personalized local aspect] is the transcendental Original Person of the primal reality [pradhâna] whose activities are all spiritual.

 

(37) The divinity of time, as the cause of the transformation thus known of the forms of the living entities originating from the Supreme Spirit, is the reason because of which those who see themselves as separate live in fear. (38) He who from within enters the living entities, annihilates by living entities and of everyone is the support; He is named Vishnu, the enjoyer of all sacrifices who is that time-factor which is the master of all masters. (39) There is no one who is specially favored by Him nor is He bound or averse to anyone; He cares for those who are attentive and of persons inattentive He is the

 

(40-45) Of whom out of fear the wind blows and out of fear this sun is shining, of whom out of fear rains are sent by the Godhead and of whom out of fear the heavenly bodies are shining, because of whom the trees and the creepers do fear and the herbs each in their own time bear flowers as also fruit appears, the fearful rivers flow and the oceans do not overflow, because of whom the fire burns and the earth with its mountains doesn't sink out of fear for Him, of whom the sky gives air to the ones who breathe, under the control of whom the universe expands its body of the complete reality [mahâ-tattva] with its seven layers [the seven kos'as or also dvipas with their states of consciousness at the level of the physical, physiological, psychological, intellectual, the enjoying, the consciousness and the true self.], out of fear for whom the gods in charge of the modes of nature of this world concerning the matters of the creation carry out their functions according to the yugas [see 3-11], of whom all this animated and inanimate is under control; that infinite final operator of beginningless Time is the unchangeable creator creating people out of people and ending the rule of death by means of death.