rule

 

Vibhâvarî S'esha

 

 

 

Canto 11

 

Chapter 21

 

On Distinguishing between Good and Bad

(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'They who give up on these means for achieving Me, consisting of the devotion, the knowledge and the work to be done, are by the insignificant of the flickering lusts with the senses that they cultivate, confronted with the finality of life. (2) Steadiness of each in his own position as such is declared to be the virtue and the opposite is indeed the vice; this is the definite conclusion about the two [see also B.G. 2: 16]. (3) A particular object is to be evaluated within the same category of objects and thus is for the purpose of the religion the pure and impure, for the ordinary dealings the virtue and the vice and for one's physical survival the auspicious and inauspicious established, o sinless one. (4) This way of proceeding [distinguishing between good and bad] is revealed by Me for those bearing the burden of religious principles. (5) Earth, water, fire, air and ether are the five basic elements that, from Lord Brahmâ down to the nonmoving creatures, make up the bodies of all living beings equally relating to the Supreme Soul. (6) Though being equal in their elements are, in relation to them, Uddhava, by the Veda different names and forms conceived for the achievement of their self-interest [see varnâs'rama].

(7) O most truthful one, the positive quality and the detrimental of the space and time and so on of the states of existence and of things, are by Me established to be sure of the restriction of profit minded activities. (8) Among the places are the places where there is no respect for the brahminical and the spotted antelopes are missing, spoiled; and even if there are spotted antelopes [left, viz. not all being killed] is a place without saintly cultured men, a place uncivilized where the practice is unclean and the earth is barren [see mleccha and *]. (9) That time is valid which, either by its own nature [the not-for-profit time of nature] or the same way to the person [the Lord, or the object, the lakshmî, the time for harvesting etc.], is suitable for executing one's prescribed duty; and bad and offensive is the time that impedes one's duty, the time that is unsuitable for doing work [lust- and profit-minded time, see 11.20: 26, kâla and kâlakûtha **]. (10) The pure or impure of a thing [or: the substance] is there by another thing, by the speech and by a ritual performance or else by time or according the relative magnitude [see ***]. (11) Depending one's power or impotence, the intelligence and increase of wealth, as also to one's condition or place, causes it to oneself a sinful [or pious] reaction accordingly. (12) By time, by air, by fire, by earth and by water in combination or separately [do also wither away] the grains, things of wood and bone, thread and liquids, things won from fire and skins and things of clay. (13) That which touching the impure removes a bad smell or dirt and so restores the original nature of that object, that is for that matter considered as purifying. (14) By bathing, charity and austerity, by virtue of his age, his heroism, ritual purification and his prescribed duties should a twice-born man [: the doer] in the remembrance of Me, perform to the pure, the cleanliness of the self. (15) The purification derived from a mantra so follows the correct knowledge of it and the purification by a certain act so follows the dedication to Me; the religiousness is achieved by the six [as mentioned: the place, the time, the substance, the mantras, the doer and the devotional act] but the irreligious follows the contrary.

(16) Sometimes a virtue turns into a vice though and turns a vice on the strength of vedic instruction into a virtue; it is actually in regard of this restriction of the two that the distinction falls away [4*]. (17) The same karma is for those who are fallen not a cause of a falldown; with the one who lies down not further falling down is the natural attachment a virtue. (18) Whatever one desists from, from that is one liberated - this is for human beings the foundation of dharma that takes away the suffering, fear and delusion. (19) Presuming the objects of gratification to be good rises from that presumption the attachment of a person, from that attachment springs the lust and from the lust so the quarrel among people. (20) From the quarrel there is the anger diffcult to handle and the ignorance that follows the anger; thus is of a man the broadmindedness, swiftly seized by darkness. (21) O saintly one, a living being bereft of that [wider consciousness] becomes empty-headed so that, consequently fallen down from his goals in life, he like dull matter is as good as dead [compare B.G.: 2: 62-63]. (22) Overly absorbed in the sensual knows he, in vain living to the lifestyle of a tree, not himself nor the other and is his breathing mere bellowing. (23) Those awards the scriptures speak are for man not the highest good; they are merely enticements with the idea of prompting for the ultimate good, just the same as what one says to make someone take a medicine. (24) Simply by birth do mortals, attached in the mind to the cause of their objects of desire, their vital functions and their folks, defeat the purpose of their soul. (25) Submissive [religiously] do they ignorant to their real self-interest wander the path of disaster; for what reason would the intelligent [the vedic authority] cause them, entering the darkness, to engage further in that all? [see also 5.5: 17] (26) Some, this way with a perverted intelligence not understanding the actual conclusion, speak in flowery statements of the material awards that the one who knows the Veda's indeed doesn't speak of [see also B.G. 2: 42-44]. (27) The lusty, miserly and greedy ones think the flowers to be the ultimate truth; bewildered by the fire do they, suffocating from the smoke, not know their own place [of being an individual soul instead of being a body]. (28) They, armed with their expressions, My dear, do not know Me who is seated within the heart and from whom this universe has risen - they, self-indulgent, are like persons with their eyes in the fog. (29-30) They without understanding My confidential conclusion [see also 10.87 and B.G. 9] are, when absorbed in the sensual, attached to the violence that may be, but certainly never is encouraged in the sacrificial prescriptions. Indeed taking pleasure in being violent with the animals that in the desire for their own happiness were slaughtered, are they in their worshiping the gods, the forefathers and the leading ghosts with rituals, mischievous people. (31) That world unholy [upheld by them] equals a dream that sounding nice is about mundane achievements with which they, imagined in their hearts like a businessman, do give up the purpose [of realizing the soul]. (32) Not worshiping Me the proper way do they, established in the mode of passion, goodness or ignorance worship the gods and others headed by Indra who delight in that passion, goodness and ignorance [see also B.G. 9: 23 and 10: 24 & 25]. (33-34) 'Worshiping out here will we by our sacrifices to the gods enjoy in heaven and at the end of that enjoyment will we on earth become great housekeepers of high standing', thus with their minds bewildered by the flowery words have they nevertheless, as proud and most greedy men, no attraction for My topics.

(35) The tri-kânda divided Vedas have the spiritual understanding of the Self as their subject matter but also dear to Me are the vedic seers esoterically expressing themselves in indirect terms [the 'other gurus']. (36) The spiritual sound [the s'abda-brahman] manifesting itself in the prâna, the senses and the mind knows no limit and is unfathomably deep like the ocean. (37) The groundless, changeless Absolute of endless potencies [that I am], is, as promoted by Me [see omkâra], represented within the living beings in the form of soundvibrations, the way a single single strand of fiber is on a lotus stalk [see also 11.18: 32 and 6.13: 15]. (38-40) Just as a spider from its opening from within emits its web, is the breath of God [the prâna] from the ether manifesting the soundvibration through the mind in the form of the different phonemes. Comprising all the shapes full of nectar branching out in thousands of directions, has the Master, decorated with consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels, expanded from the syllable om. By the elaborated diversity of expressions and metrical arrangements each having four more syllables, does He create and Himself withdraw the great unlimited expanse [of the vedic literature, see also B.G. 15: 15]. (41) For instance the metres: Gâyatrî, Ushnik and Anusthup; Brihatî and Pankti as also Tristhup, Jagatî, Aticchanda, and Atyasthi, Atijagatî and Ativirâth [have each in this order four more syllables]. (42) What they [karma-kânda] enjoin, what they [upâsana-kânda] indicate, what aspects they describe or what alternatives they [jñâna-kânda] thus literarily offer, that heart in this world, is not known by anyone else but by Me [compare 11.20, B.G. 5: 5, 7: 26, 10: 41]. (43) I am the object of worship enjoined and I am the alternative offered and argued; I thus am the meaning of all the Vedas that establish Me,the transcendental soundvibration, and elaborately describe the material duality as simply the illusory to negate to ultimately become happy.

 

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Source Texts:

Lord Krishna's Explanation of the Vedic Path

 

Text 1

The Supreme Lord said: 'They who give up on these means for achieving Me, consisting of the devotion, the knowledge and the work to be done, are by the insignificant of the flickering lusts with the senses that they cultivate, confronted with the finality of life.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said - Those who give up these methods for achieving Me, which consist of devotional service, analytic philosophy and regulated execution of prescribed duties, and instead, being moved by the material senses, cultivate insignificant sense gratification, certainly undergo the continual cycle of material existence.

 

Text 2

Steadiness of each in his own position as such is declared to be the virtue and the opposite is indeed the vice; this is the definite conclusion about the two [see also B.G. 2: 16].

Steadiness in one's own position is declared to be actual piety, whereas deviation from one's position is considered impiety. In this way the two are definitely ascertained.

   

Text 3

A particular object is to be evaluated within the same category of objects and thus is for the purpose of the religion the pure and impure, for the ordinary dealings the virtue and the vice and for one's physical survival the auspicious and inauspicious established, o sinless one.

O sinless Uddhava, in order to understand what is proper in life one must evaluate a given object within its particular category. Thus, in analyzing religious principles one must consider purity and impurity. Similarly, in one's ordinary dealings one must distinguish between good and bad, and to insure one's physical survival one must recognize that which is auspicious and inauspicious.

 

Text 4

This way of proceeding [distinguishing between good and bad] is revealed by Me for those bearing the burden of religious principles.

I have revealed this way of life for those bearing the burden of mundane religious principles.

 

Text 5

Earth, water, fire, air and ether are the five basic elements that, from Lord Brahmâ down to the nonmoving creatures, make up the bodies of all living beings equally relating to the Supreme Soul.

Earth, water, fire, air and ether are the five basic elements that constitute the bodies of all conditioned souls, from Lord Brahmâ himself down to the nonmoving creatures. These elements all emanate from the one Personality of Godhead.

 

Text 6

Though being equal in their elements are, in relation to them, Uddhava, by the Veda different names and forms conceived for the achievement of their self-interest [see varnâs'rama].

My dear Uddhava, although all material bodies are composed of the same five elements and are thus equal, the Vedic literatures conceive of different names and forms in relation to such bodies so that the living entities may achieve their goal of life.

 

Text 7

O most truthful one, the positive quality and the detrimental of the space and time and so on of the states of existence and of things, are by Me established to be sure of the restriction of profit minded activities.

O saintly Uddhava, in order to restrict materialistic activities, I have established that which is proper and improper among all material things, including time, space and all physical objects.

 

 Text 8

Among the places are the places where there is no respect for the brahminical and the spotted antelopes are missing, spoiled; and even if there are spotted antelopes [left, viz. not all being killed] is a place without saintly cultured men, a place uncivilized where the practice is unclean and the earth is barren [see mleccha and *].

Among places, those bereft of the spotted antelope, those devoid of devotion to the brâhmanas, those possessing spotted antelopes but bereft of respectable men, provinces like Kîkatha and places where cleanliness and purificatory rites are neglected, where meat-eaters are prominent or where the earth is barren, are all considered to be contaminated lands.

 

 Text 9

That time is valid which, either by its own nature [the not-for-profit time of nature] or the same way to the person [the Lord, or the object, the lakshmî, the time for harvesting etc.], is suitable for executing one's prescribed duty; and bad and offensive is the time that impedes one's duty, the time that is unsuitable for doing work [lust- and profit-minded time, see 11.20: 26, kâla and kâlakûtha **].

A specific time is considered pure when it is appropriate, either by its own nature or through achievement of suitable paraphernalia, for the performance of one's prescribed duty. That time which impedes the performance of one's duty is considered impure.

 

Text 10

The pure or impure of a thing [or: the substance] is there by another thing, by the speech and by a ritual performance or else by time or according the relative magnitude [***].

An object's purity or impurity is established by application of another object, by words, by rituals, by the effects of time or according to relative magnitude.

 

Text 11

Depending one's power or impotence, the intelligence and increase of wealth, as also to one's condition or place, causes it to oneself a sinful [or pious] reaction accordingly.

Impure things may or may not impose sinful reactions upon a person, depending on that person's strength or weakness, intelligence, wealth, location and physical condition.

 

Text 12

By time, by air, by fire, by earth and by water in combination or separately [do also wither away] the grains, things of wood and bone, thread and liquids, things won from fire and skins and things of clay.

Various objects such as grains, wooden utensils, things made of bone, thread, liquids, objects derived from fire, skins and earthy objects are all purified by time, by the wind, by fire, by earth and by water, either separately or in combination.

 

 Text 13

That which touching the impure removes a bad smell or dirt and so restores the original nature of that object, that is for that matter considered as purifying.

A particular purifying agent is considered appropriate when its application removes the bad odor or dirty covering of some contaminated object and makes it resume its original nature.

 

Text 14

By bathing, charity and austerity, by virtue of his age, his heroism, ritual purification and his prescribed duties should a twice-born man [: the doer] in the remembrance of Me, perform to the pure, the cleanliness of the self.

The self can be cleansed by bathing, charity, austerity, age, personal strength, purificatory rituals, prescribed duties and, above all, by remembrance of Me. The brâhmana and other twice-born men should be duly purified before performing their specific activities.

 

Text 15

The purification derived from a mantra so follows the correct knowledge of it and the purification by a certain act so follows the dedication to Me; the religiousness is achieved by the six [as mentioned: the place, the time, the substance, the mantras, the doer and the devotional act] but the irreligious follows the contrary.

A mantra is purified when chanted with proper knowledge, and one's work is purified when offered to Me. Thus by purification of the place, time, substance, doer, mantras and work, one becomes religious, and by negligence of these six items one is considered irreligious.

  

Text 16

Sometimes a virtue turns into a vice though and turns a vice on the strength of vedic instruction into a virtue; it is actually in regard of this restriction of the two that the distinction falls away [4*].

Sometimes piety becomes sin, and sometimes what is ordinarily sin becomes piety on the strength of Vedic injunctions. Such special rules in effect eradicate the clear distinction between piety and sin.

 

Text 17

The same karma is for those who are fallen not a cause of a falldown; with the one who lies down not further falling down is the natural attachment a virtue.

The same activities that would degrade an elevated person do not cause falldown for those who are already fallen. Indeed, one who is lying on the ground cannot possibly fall further. The material association that is dictated by one's own nature is considered a good quality.

 

Text 18

Whatever one desists from, from that is one liberated - this is for human beings the foundation of dharma that takes away the suffering, fear and delusion.

By refraining from a particular sinful or materialistic activity, one becomes freed from its bondage. Such renunciation is the basis of religious and auspicious life for human beings and drives away all suffering, illusion and fear.

 

Text 19

Presuming the objects of gratification to be good rises from that presumption the attachment of a person, from that attachment springs the lust and from the lust so the quarrel among people.

One who accepts material sense objects as desirable certainly becomes attached to them. From such attachment lust arises, and this lust creates quarrel among men.

 

Text 20

From the quarrel there is the anger difficult to handle and the ignorance that follows the anger; thus is of a man the broadmindedness, swiftly seized by darkness.

From quarrel arises intolerable anger, followed by the darkness of ignorance. This ignorance quickly overtakes a man's broad intelligence.

  

 Text 21

O saintly one, a living being bereft of that [wider consciousness] becomes empty-headed so that, consequently fallen down from his goals in life, he like dull matter is as good as dead [compare B.G.: 2: 62-63].

O saintly Uddhava, a person bereft of real intelligence is considered to have lost everything. Deviated from the actual purpose of his life, he becomes dull, just like a dead person.

 

 Text 22

Overly absorbed in the sensual knows he, in vain living to the lifestyle of a tree, not himself nor the other and is his breathing mere bellowing.

Because of absorption in sense gratification, one cannot recognize himself or others. Living uselessly in ignorance like a tree, one is merely breathing just like a bellows.

 

 Text 23

Those awards the scriptures speak are for man not the highest good; they are merely enticements with the idea of prompting for the ultimate good, just the same as what one says to make someone take a medicine.

Those statements of scripture promising fruitive rewards do not prescribe the ultimate good for men but are merely enticements for executing beneficial religious duties, like promises of candy spoken to induce a child to take beneficial medicine.

 

 Text 24

Simply by birth do mortals, attached in the mind to the cause of their objects of desire, their vital functions and their folks, defeat the purpose of their soul.

Simply by material birth, human beings become attached within their minds to personal sense gratification, long duration of life, sense activities, bodily strength, sexual potency and friends and family. Their minds are thus absorbed in that which defeats their actual self-interest.

 

 Text 25

Submissive [religiously] do they ignorant to their real self-interest wander the path of disaster; for what reason would the intelligent [the vedic authority] cause them, entering the darkness, to engage further in that all? [see also 5.5: 17]

Those ignorant of their real self-interest are wandering on the path of material existence, gradually heading toward darkness. Why would the Vedas further encourage them in sense gratification if they, although foolish, submissively pay heed to Vedic injunctions?

 

 Text 26

Some, this way with a perverted intelligence not understanding the actual conclusion, speak in flowery statements of the material awards that the one who knows the Veda's indeed doesn't speak of [see also B.G. 2: 42-44].

Persons with perverted intelligence do not understand this actual purpose of Vedic knowledge and instead propagate as the highest Vedic truth the flowery statements of the Vedas that promise material rewards. Those in actual knowledge of the Vedas never speak in that way.

 

 Text 27

The lusty, miserly and greedy ones think the flowers to be the ultimate truth; bewildered by the fire do they, suffocating from the smoke, not know their own place [of being an individual soul instead of being a body].

Those who are full of lust, avarice and greed mistake mere flowers to be the actual fruit of life. Bewildered by the glare of fire and suffocated by its smoke, they cannot recognize their own true identity.

 

Text 28

They, armed with their expressions, My dear, do not know Me who is seated within the heart and from whom this universe has risen - they, self-indulgent, are like persons with their eyes in the fog.

My dear Uddhava, persons dedicated to sense gratification obtained through honoring the Vedic rituals cannot understand that I am situated in everyone's heart and that the entire universe is nondifferent from Me and emanates from Me. Indeed, they are just like persons whose eyes are covered by fog.

 

 Text 29-30

They without understanding My confidential conclusion [see also 10.87 and B.G. 9] are, when absorbed in the sensual, attached to the violence that may be, but certainly never is encouraged in the sacrificial prescriptions. Indeed taking pleasure in being violent with the animals that in the desire for their own happiness were slaughtered, are they in their worshiping the gods, the forefathers and the leading ghosts with rituals, mischievous people.

Those who are sworn to sense gratification cannot understand the confidential conclusion of Vedic knowledge as explained by Me. Taking pleasure in violence, they cruelly slaughter innocent animals in sacrifice for their own sense gratification and thus worship demigods, forefathers and leaders among ghostly creatures. Such passion for violence, however, is never encouraged within the process of Vedic sacrifice.

 

 Text 31

That world unholy [upheld by them] equals a dream that sounding nice is about mundane achievements with which they, imagined in their hearts like a businessman, do give up the purpose [of realizing the soul].

Just as a foolish businessman gives up his real wealth in useless business speculation, foolish persons give up all that is actually valuable in life and instead pursue promotion to material heaven, which although pleasing to hear about is actually unreal, like a dream. Such bewildered persons imagine within their hearts that they will achieve all material blessings.

 

 Text 32

Not worshiping Me the proper way do they, established in the mode of passion, goodness or ignorance worship the gods and others headed by Indra who delight in that passion, goodness and ignorance [see also B.G. 9: 23 and 10: 24 & 25].

Those established in material passion, goodness and ignorance worship the particular demigods and other deities, headed by Indra, who manifest the same modes of passion, goodness or ignorance. They fail, however, to properly worship Me.

 

 Text 33-34

'Worshiping out here will we by our sacrifices to the gods enjoy in heaven and at the end of that enjoyment will we on earth become great housekeepers of high standing', thus with their minds bewildered by the flowery words have they nevertheless, as proud and most greedy men, no attraction for My topics.

The worshipers of demigods think, 'We shall worship the demigods in this life, and by our sacrifices we shall go to heaven and enjoy there. When that enjoyment is finished we shall return to this world and take birth as great householders in aristocratic families.' Being excessively proud and greedy, such persons are bewildered by the flowery words of the Vedas. They are not attracted to topics about Me, the Supreme Lord.

 

 Text 35

The tri-kânda divided Vedas have the spiritual understanding of the Self as their subject matter but also dear to Me are the vedic seers esoterically expressing themselves in indirect terms [the 'other gurus'].

The Vedas, divided into three divisions, ultimately reveal the living entity as pure spirit soul. The Vedic seers and mantras, however, deal in esoteric terms, and I also am pleased by such confidential descriptions.

 

 Text 36

The spiritual sound [the s'abda-brahman] manifesting itself in the prâna, the senses and the mind knows no limit and is unfathomably deep like the ocean.

The transcendental sound of the Vedas is very difficult to comprehend and manifests on different levels within the prâna, senses and mind. This Vedic sound is unlimited, very deep and unfathomable, just like the ocean.

 

 Text 37

The groundless, changeless Absolute of endless potencies [that I am], is, as promoted by Me [see omkâra], represented within the living beings in the form of soundvibrations, the way a single single strand of fiber is on a lotus stalk [see also 11.18: 32 and 6.13: 15].

As the unlimited, unchanging and omnipotent Personality of Godhead dwelling within all living beings, I personally establish the Vedic sound vibration in the form of omkâra within all living entities. It is thus perceived subtly, just like a single strand of fiber on a lotus stalk.

 

 Text 38-40

Just as a spider from its opening from within emits its web, is the breath of God [the prâna] from the ether manifesting the soundvibration through the mind in the form of the different phonemes. Comprising all the shapes full of nectar branching out in thousands of directions, has the Master, decorated with consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels, expanded from the syllable om. By the elaborated diversity of expressions and metrical arrangements each having four more syllables, does He create and Himself withdraw the great unlimited expanse [of the vedic literature, see also B.G. 15.15].

Just as a spider brings forth from its heart its web and emits it through its mouth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself as the reverberating primeval vital air, comprising all sacred Vedic meters and full of transcendental pleasure. Thus the Lord, from the ethereal sky of His heart, creates the great and limitless Vedic sound by the agency of His mind, which conceives of variegated sounds such as the spars'as. The Vedic sound branches out in thousands of directions, adorned with the different letters expanded from the syllable om - the consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels. The Veda is then elaborated by many verbal varieties, expressed in different meters, each having four more syllables than the previous one. Ultimately the Lord again withdraws His manifestation of Vedic sound within Himself.

 

  Text 41

For instance the metres: Gâyatrî, Ushnik and Anusthup; Brihatî and Pankti as also Tristhup, Jagatî, Aticchanda, and Atyasthi, Atijagatî and Ativirâth [have each in this order four more syllables].

The Vedic meters are Gâyatrî, Ushnik, Anusthup, Brihatî, Pankti, Tristhup, Jagatî, Aticchanda, Atyasthi, Atijagatî and Ativirâth.

 

 Text 42

What they [karma-kânda] enjoin, what they [upâsana-kânda] indicate, what aspects they describe or what alternatives they [jñâna-kânda] thus literarily offer, that heart in this world, is not known by anyone else but by Me [compare 11.20, B.G. 5: 5, 7: 26, 10: 41].

In the entire world no one but Me actually understands the confidential purpose of Vedic knowledge. Thus people do not know what the Vedas are actually prescribing in the ritualistic injunctions of karma-kânda, or what object is actually being indicated in the formulas of worship found in the upâsanâ-kânda, or that which is elaborately discussed through various hypotheses in the jñâna-kânda section of the Vedas.

 

 Text 43

I am the object of worship enjoined and I am the alternative offered and argued; I thus am the meaning of all the Vedas that establish Me,the transcendental soundvibration, and elaborately describe the material duality as simply the illusory to negate to ultimately become happy.

I am the ritualistic sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas, and I am the worshipable Deity. It is I who am presented as various philosophical hypotheses, and it is I alone who am then refuted by philosophical analysis. The transcendental sound vibration thus establishes Me as the essential meaning of all Vedic knowledge. The Vedas, elaborately analyzing all material duality as nothing but My illusory potency, ultimately completely negate this duality and achieve their own satisfaction.

 

 *: S'rîla Madhvâcârya quotes from the Skanda Purâna as follows: 'Religious persons should reside within an eight-mile radius of rivers, oceans, mountains, hermitages, forests, spiritual cities or places where the s'âlagrâma-s'îlâ [a black oval river-stone suitable for worship] is found. All other places should be considered kîkatha, or contaminated. But if even in such contaminated places black and spotted antelopes are found, one may reside there as long as sinful persons are not also present. Even if sinful persons are present, if the civil power rests with respectable authorities, one may remain. Similarly, one may dwell wherever the Deity of Vishnu is duly installed and worshiped.'

**: The paramparâ adds here: Political, social or economic disturbances that obstruct the execution of one's religious duties are considered inauspicious times. (...) Therefore is that moment in which one achieves the association of the Supreme Lord or the Lord's pure devotee is the most auspicious time, whereas the moment of losing such association is most inauspicious.

***: An example to this rather abstract formulation is the clock: the clock is pure or impure relative to its object measured: the time of nature as another 'thing' of time. This is called the criterion of scientific validation or the determining of the zero point of measurement. But also speaking of it in a scientific lecture telling that the mean of time, the clock deviating from nature, is derived from and refers to nature itself through a scientific formula that expresses the socalled equation of time, is a way of sanctifying, declaring the purity of , an obviously deviating clock. Furthermore is there also the religious ritual that presents the cross of Jesus for instance, or the mahâmantra of Caitanya, to the standard of time adhered to in order to forgive the sin of deviating from God's nature of time pragmatically and the scientific rationalization about it. Next we can simply set the clock to the nature of time to be true to the religious insight [see f.c.o.]. And finally, realizing that the confidentiality of Krishna's time cannot be imposed politically, is there the purity to the relative magnitude, as this verse states, that with the modern complexity of time-awareness simply knows the difference by a dual display of time that some clocks do offer: one display set to nature and one to the politics of pragmatical timekeeping. Thus we can by this verse tolerate the impurity of profit-motivated karmic time-manipulations and still manage with purity as devotees [Prabhupâda who at the one hand demanded punctuality, requested his devotees to further study the subject of time. 'All days and hours are the same to me. I leave that matter to you', he confided in ' A Transcendental Diary' by Hari S'auri Dâsa].

4*: According to S'rîla Madhvâcârya, persons above the age of fourteen are considered capable of distinguishing between good and bad and are thus responsible for their pious and sinful activities.

 
 

 

 

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