The Original Person
-Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.18
Written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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The Original Person
-Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.18
The Queen's Baton arrived today in India from Pakistan through the Wagah Border after covering more than 1,70,000 kilometres and 70 nations. Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman of CWG Organizing Committee received the baton from Lt. Gen Syed Arif Hassan, President of Pakistan Olympic Association at the Wagah Border in presence of Mr. Mike Fennell, Chief of Commonwealth Games Federation.
The Queen's Baton will cover 200 cities and seven union territories in coming 100 days with full security which will be provided by state governments and will reach in New Delhi on September 30. It will traverse more than 20,000 kilometres in 100 days and by the end of its journey it will have covered over 1,90,0000 kilometres in 340 days.
The Queen's Baton relay is epitomizing the unity and shared principles of the Commonwealth of Nations. It has the ability to capture images and sound during it travels, even it can be revealed exact location with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.
Transcendental Knowledge
Transcendental knowledge-the spiritual knowledge of the soul, of God, and their relationship-is both purifying and liberating. Such knowledge is the fruit of selfless devotional action (karma-yoga). The Lord explains the remote history of the Gita, the purpose and significance of His periodic descents to the material world, and the necessity of approaching a guru, a realized teacher.
PURPORT:
Herein we find the history of the Bhagavad-gita traced from a remote time when it was delivered to the royal order of all planets, beginning from the sun planet. The kings of all planets are especially meant for the protection of the inhabitants, and therefore the royal order should understand the science of Bhagavad-gita in order to be able to rule the citizens and protect them from material bondage to lust. Human life is meant for cultivation of spiritual knowledge, in eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the executive heads of all states and all planets are obliged to impart this lesson to the citizens by education, culture and devotion. In other words, the executive heads of all states are intended to spread the science of Krishna consciousness so that the people may take advantage of this great science and pursue a successful path, utilizing the opportunity of the human form of life.
In this millennium, the sun-god is known as Vivasvan, the king of the sun, which is the origin of all planets within the solar system. In the Brahma-samhita (5.52) it is stated:
"Let me worship," Lord Brahma said, "the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Krishna], who is the original person and under whose order the sun, which is the king of all planets, is assuming immense power and heat. The sun represents the eye of the Lord and traverses its orbit in obedience to His order."
Krishna's Hiding from the Gopis
When Krishna suddenly disappeared from the company of the gopis, they searched for Him everywhere. After not finding Him anywhere, they became afraid and almost mad after Him. They were simply thinking of the pastimes of Krishna in great love and affection. Being absorbed in thought of Him, they experienced loss of memory, and with dampened eyes they began to see the very pastimes of Krishna—His beautiful talks with them, His embracing, kissing and other activities. Being so attracted to Krishna, they imitated His dancing, His walking and His smiling, as if they themselves were Krishna. Due to Krishna's absence, they all became crazy; each one of them told the others that she was Krishna Himself. Soon they all assembled together and chanted Krishna's name very loudly as they moved from one part of the forest to another, searching for Him.
Actually, Krishna is all-pervasive: He is in the sky, and He is in the forest; He is within the heart, and He is always everywhere. The gopis therefore began to question the trees and plants about Krishna. There were various types of big trees and small plants in the forest, and the gopis addressed them: "Dear banyan tree, have you seen the son of Maharaja Nanda passing this way, laughing and playing on His flute? He has stolen our hearts and gone away. If you have seen Him, kindly inform us which way He has gone. Dear asoka tree, dear naga flower tree and campaka flower tree, have you seen the younger brother of Balarama pass this way? He has disappeared because of our pride." The gopis were aware of the reason for Krishna's sudden disappearance. They could understand that when they had been enjoying Krishna they thought themselves to be the most fortunate women within the universe, and since they were feeling proud, Krishna had disappeared immediately just to curb their pride. Krishna does not like His devotees to be proud of their service to Him. He accepts everyone's service, but He does not like one devotee to proudly consider himself better than others. If sometimes there are such feelings, Krishna ends them by changing His attitude toward the devotee.
The gopis then addressed the tulasi plants: "Dear tulasi, you are much beloved by Lord Krishna because your leaves are always at His lotus feet. Dear malati flower, dear mallika flower, dear jasmine flower, all of you must have been touched by Krishna while He was passing this way after giving us transcendental enjoyment. Have you seen Madhava passing this way? O mango trees, O trees of jackfruit, O pear trees and asana trees! O blackberries and bael trees and trees of the kadamba flower—you are all very pious trees to be living on the bank of the Yamuna. Krishna must have passed through this way. Will you kindly let us know which way He has gone?"
The gopis then looked upon the ground they were traversing and began to address the earth: "Dear earthly planet, we do not know how many penances and austerities you have undergone to be now living with the footprints of Lord Krishna upon you. You are very jolly; the hairs on your body are these jubilant trees and plants. Lord Krishna must have been very much pleased with you; otherwise how could He have embraced you in the form of Varaha the boar? When you were submerged in water, He delivered you, taking the whole weight of your existence on His tusks."
God has a form, but not a material form like ours. His form is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], a spiritual form full of eternity, bliss, and knowledge. Anyone who understands the transcendental nature of Krishna's form achieves perfection. This Krishna confirms in the
Bhagavad-gita (4.9):
"When I come, I do not accept a material body; My birth and activities are completely spiritual. And anyone who perfectly understands this is liberated." When Krishna displayed Himself as the perfect child before mother Yasoda, He would break everything when she did not supply Him with butter—as if He were in need of butter! So God can display Himself exactly like an ordinary human being, yet He remains the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Impersonalists cannot know God because they see Him as an ordinary man. This is rascaldom, as Krishna declares in the Bhagavad-gita (9.11): avajananti mam mudhah. "Only rascals accept Me as an ordinary human being." The Mayavadis say, "Oh, here is a child. How can He be God?" Even Brahma and Indra became bewildered. They thought, "How can this boy be the Supreme Lord? Let me test Him."
Sometimes a so-called incarnation of God declares, "I am God." He should be tested to determine whether or not he is actually God. The Mayavadis are claiming, "I am God, I am Krishna, I am Rama." Everyone becomes "Krishna," everyone becomes "Rama," yet people do not challenge their claims: "If you are Rama, exhibit your supreme potency! Rama constructed a bridge over the Indian Ocean. What have you done? At the age of seven, Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill. What have you done?" When they are challenged by Krishna's pastimes, these rascals say, "It is all fiction; it is all legend." Therefore people accept an ordinary person as Rama or Krishna. This nonsense is going on, and both those who declare themselves to be God and those who accept them as God will have to suffer for it. Anyone can claim to be God, and any foolish person can accept, but no one will benefit by serving a false God.
Thereafter Pandu consulted with great sages in the forest and then asked Kunti to observe vows of austerity for one full year. At the end of this period Pandu said to Kunti, "O beautiful one, Indra, the King of heaven, is pleased with you, so invoke him and conceive a son." Kunti then invoked Indra, who came to her and begot Arjuna. As soon as the prince was born, the same celestial voice boomed through the sky: "O Kunti, this child will be as strong as Kartavirya and Sibi [two powerful kings of Vedic times] and as invincible in battle as Indra himself. He will spread your fame everywhere and acquire many divine weapons." Subsequently, Pandu's junior wife Madri bore two sons named Nakula and Sahadeva. These five sons of Pandu (Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva) then came to be known as the Pandavas.
Now, since Pandu had retired from the throne and gone to the forest, Dhritarashtra had temporarily assumed the throne until Pandu's eldest son Yudhishthira came of age. However, long before that time Pandu died as a result of the curse, and Madri gave up her life as well by ascending his funeral pyre. That left the five Pandavas in the care of Queen Kunti.
After Pandu's death, the sages living in the forest brought the five young princes and Kunti to the Kaurava court at Hastinapura (near present-day Delhi). In Hastinapura, the capital city of the kingdom, the five boys were raised in royal style under the guidance of Dhritarashtra and the noble Vidura, Pandu's half brother.
But a smooth transfer of power was not to be. Although Dhritarashtra had at first recognized the primogeniture of Yudhishthira, he later allowed himself to be used by his eldest son, the power-hungry Duryodhana, who wished to ascend the throne in place of Yudhishthira. Driven by uncontrollable jealousy, Duryodhana plotted against the Pandavas, and with the hesitant approval of the weak Dhritarashtra, he inflicted many sufferings upon them. He made several attempts on their lives in Hastinapura, and then he brought them to a provincial palace and tried to assassinate them by having it set on fire. All the while, the five youthful Pandavas were accompanied by their courageous mother Kunti, who suffered Duryodhana's atrocities in the company of her beloved sons.
Miraculously, however, Kunti and the Pandavas repeatedly escaped death, for they were under the loving protection of Lord Krishna, who had incarnated to perform His earthly pastimes. Ultimately Duryodhana, a clever politician, cheated the Pandavas out of their kingdom (and their freedom) in a gambling match. As a result of the match, the Pandavas, wife Draupadi was abused by the Kauravas, and the Pandavas themselves were forced to spend thirteen years in exile in the forest—to the great sorrow of Kunti.
----------------------------The tragic and heroic figure of Queen Kunti emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. As related in the Mahabharata, India's grand epic poem of 110,000 couplets, Kunti was the wife of King Pandu and the mother of five illustrious sons known as the Pandavas. As such, she was one of the central figures in a complex political drama that culminated fifty centuries ago in the Kurukshetra War, a devastating war of ascendancy that changed the course of world events. The Mahabharata describes the prelude to the holocaust as follows:
Pandu became king because his elder brother Dhritarashtra had been born blind, a condition that excluded him from direct succession. Some time after Pandu ascended to the throne, Dhritarashtra married Gandhari and fathered one hundred sons. This was the ruling family of the Kaurava dynasty, of whom the eldest was the ambitious and cruel Duryodhana.
Meanwhile, Pandu had taken two wives, Madri and Kunti. Originally named Pritha, Kunti was the daughter of Surasena, the chief of the glorious Yadu dynasty. The Mahabharata relates that Kunti "was gifted with beauty and character; she rejoiced in the law [dharma] and was great in her vows." She also possessed an unusual benediction. When she was a child, her father Surasena had given her in adoption to his childless cousin and close friend Kuntibhoja (hence the name "Kunti"). In her stepfather's house, Kunti's duty was to look after the welfare of guests. One day the powerful sage and mystic Durvasa came there and was pleased by Kunti's selfless service. Foreseeing that she would have difficulty conceiving sons, Durvasa gave her the benediction that she could invoke any demigod and by him obtain progeny.
After Kunti married Pandu, he was placed under a curse that prevented him from begetting children. So he renounced the throne and retired with his wives to the forest. There Kunti's special benediction enabled her to conceive (at her husband's request) three glorious sons. First she invoked Dharma, the demigod of religion. After worshiping him and repeating an invocation Durvasa had taught her, she united with Dharma and, in time, gave birth to a boy. As soon as the child was born, a voice with no visible source said, "This child will be called Yudhishthira, and he will be very virtuous. He will be splendid, determined, renounced, and famous throughout the three worlds."
----------------------------Factually we are related to the Supreme Lord in service. The Supreme Lord is the supreme enjoyer, and we living entities are His servitors. We are created for His enjoyment, and if we participate in that eternal enjoyment with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we become happy. We cannot become happy otherwise. It is not possible to be happy independently, just as no one part of the body can be happy without cooperating with the stomach. It is not possible for the living entity to be happy without rendering transcendental loving service unto the Supreme Lord.
In the Bhagavad-gita, worship of different demigods or rendering service to them is not approved. It is stated in the Seventh Chapter, twentieth verse:
"Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures."
Here it is plainly said that those who are directed by lust worship the demigods and not the Supreme Lord Krishna. When we mention the name Krishna, we do not refer to any sectarian name. Krishna means the highest pleasure, and it is confirmed that the Supreme Lord is the reservoir or storehouse of all pleasure. We are all hankering after pleasure. Ananda-mayo 'bhyasat (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). The living entities, like the Lord, are full of consciousness, and they are after happiness. The Lord is perpetually happy, and if the living entities associate with the Lord, cooperate with Him and take part in His association, then they also become happy.
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Translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
When Krishna spoke in such a discouraging way to the gopis, they became very sad, for they thought that their desire to enjoy the rasa dance with Krishna would be frustrated. Thus they became full of anxiety. Out of great sadness, the gopis began to breathe very heavily. Instead of looking at Krishna face to face, they bowed their heads and looked at the ground, and they began to draw various types of curved lines on the ground with their toes. They were shedding heavy tears, and their cosmetic decorations were being washed from their faces. The water from their eyes mixed with the kunkuma on their breasts and fell to the ground. They could not say anything to Krishna but simply stood there silently. By their silence they expressed that their hearts were grievously wounded.
The gopis were not ordinary women. In essence they were on an equal level with Krishna. They are His eternal associates. As it is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita, they are expansions of the pleasure potency of Krishna, and as His potency they are nondifferent from Him. Although they were depressed by the words of Krishna, they did not like to use harsh words against Him. Yet they wanted to rebuke Krishna for His unkind words, and therefore they began to speak in faltering voices. They did not like to use harsh words against Krishna because He was their dearmost, their heart and soul. The gopis had only Krishna within their hearts. They were completely surrendered and dedicated souls. Naturally, when they heard such unkind words, they tried to reply, but in the attempt torrents of tears fell from their eyes. Finally they managed to speak.
"Krishna," they said, "You are very cruel! You should not talk like that. We are full-fledged surrendered souls. Please accept us, and don't talk in that cruel way. Of course, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead and can do whatever You like, but it is not worthy of Your position to treat us in such a cruel way. We have come to You, leaving everything behind, just to take shelter of Your lotus feet. We know that You are completely independent and can do whatever You like, but we request You, don't reject us. We are Your devotees. You should accept us as Lord Narayana accepts His devotees. There are many devotees of Lord Narayana who worship Him for salvation, and He awards them salvation. Similarly, how can You reject us when we have no shelter other than Your lotus feet?
"A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, and who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a cow.
Here the Srimad-Bhagavatam says that the brahmana Ajamila became attached to a prostitute and thus lost his brahminical qualifications. He was a young man of about twenty when this happened. Because of his illicit association with the prostitute, Ajamila was forced to live by begging, borrowing, stealing, and gambling.
These verses indicate how degraded one becomes simply by indulging in illicit sex with a prostitute. Illicit sex is not possible with chaste women, but only with unchaste women. The more society allows prostitution and illicit sex, the more impetus it gives to cheaters, thieves, plunderers, drunkards, and gamblers. Therefore we first advise all the disciples in our Krishna consciousness movement to avoid illicit sex, which is the beginning of all abominable life and which is followed by meat-eating, gambling, and intoxication, one after another. Of course, restraint is difficult, but it is quite possible if one fully surrenders to Krishna, since all abominable habits gradually become distasteful for a Krishna conscious person.
While in his time Ajamila was an exception, in the present age there are millions of Ajamilas. But if illicit sex is allowed to increase, the entire society will be condemned, for it will be full of rogues, thieves, cheaters, and so forth.
Therefore, if we actually want to improve the world situation, we have to take to Krishna consciousness, as that gives the best service to human society, both materially and spiritually. Whatever abominable characteristics we have developed, we have only to take to the process of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, in order to completely eradicate them. We have developed so many anarthas, or unwanted habits, the chief of which are meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling. But we can curb them by accepting the principles of bhakti-yoga as they are presented in the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Scarcely anyone knows these Vedic scriptures, and therefore no one heeds their instructions. People would rather read all kinds of books by all kinds of rascals, but the result of such books is to kill Krishna consciousness.
After Tata Motors Limited (BOM: 500570), it’s Infosys’ turn. The second largest Indian IT firm offered to buy up Axon Group PLC (LON:AXO), a UK based SAP consultancy firm with a cash offer of £407m. Infosys Technologies Limited (BOM:500209) is buying up the company to increase its presence in the European market. Under this deal, the three founders of Axon Group will walk away with about £70m.
The news sparked fears of job losses and mass-outsourcing among the workers but Infosys CEO, Kris Gopalakrishnan assured that there will be no job losses. He said that there would be little overlap between the clients of the two companies.
At present, Infosys Technologies Ltd. employs 90,000 people majority of which are in India. Axon Group PLC has 2,000 employees. The company mainly works with firms that use business software developed by German SAP. Mr, Gopalakrishnan said:
"It is very important to us that people stay and make the whole thing work. . . .We are doing this acquisition so we can leverage all the employees."
Under the current deal, Axon will be paid 600p per share. Infosys is giving the money from its own fund. The deal is backed by the management of Axon Group PLC and its three founders who currently holds just under 17.9% share of the company. The transfer process is expected to finish in November 2008.
Anandi Patel, a 37-year-old woman, became the third fatality of swine flu in Gujarat.
Health department officials said that she died on August 13, and her death due to the virus was confirmed by the private hospital in Maninagar- where she was admitted – on Monday.
Patel was a resident of Vastral locality in Ahmedabad.
Her samples for the swine flu test were sent on admission to the hospital, but the reports arrived as a positive case of swine flu on August 16 – three days after her death.
Reports say that the Gujarat government has now decided to take action against the private hospital for not reporting the death of the woman on time to the correct authorities in the government.
LG Electronics has launched BL20 Chocolate 3G enabled slide phone in India.
The mobile phone features with many facilities with upgraded version of the hidden navigation keys. the phone also has a 5 megapixel camera with Schinder-Kreuznach lens and flash.
The LG Chocolate BL40 is available for Rs 29,990.
Check the preview and specifications
Motorola is expertise in creative designing and technology. This time Motorola launched EDA phone i.e. ES400, it is undoubted a brilliant phone. The technology Enterprise Digital Assistant is a device which brings Window Embedded feature. The phone has number of features like Biometric Fingerprint Reader. The phone can be kept save in rain. Low or high temperature will not create any problem to Motorola ES400, these are the unique features in the phone.
More features are following:-
1. 3inch touch screen
2. 256 RAM
3. 1 GB ROM Memory (Real Only Memory)
4. 600 MHz processor
5. CDMA/GSM SIM support
6. Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g
7. GPS
8. Bar code Reader
Those people who liked it, they would have to wait for some more time because by the time price is not declared of Motorola ES400.