The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One should neither praise nor criticize the conditioned
nature and activities of other persons.
Rather, one should see this world as simply the combination of material nature and the
enjoying souls, all based on the one Absolute Truth.
Whoever indulges in praising or criticizing the qualities and behavior of others will
quickly become deviated from his own best interest by his entanglement in illusory dualities.
Just as the embodied spirit soul loses external consciousness when his senses are overcome
by the illusion of dreaming or the deathlike state of deep sleep, so a person experiencing
material duality must encounter illusion and death.
That which is expressed by material words or meditated upon by the material mind is
not ultimate truth.
What, therefore, is actually good or bad within this insubstantial world of duality, and how
can the extent of such good and bad be measured?
Although shadows, echoes and mirages are only illusory reflections of real things, such
reflections do cause a semblance of meaningful or comprehensible perception.
In the same way, although the identification of the conditioned soul with the material
body, mind and ego is illusory, this identification generates fear within him even up to the moment
of death.
The Supersoul alone is the ultimate controller and creator of this world, and thus He alone
is also the created.
Similarly, the Soul of all existence Himself both maintains and is maintained, withdraws
and is withdrawn.
No other entity can be properly ascertained as separate from Him, the Supreme Soul, who
nonetheless is distinct from everything and everyone else.
The appearance of the threefold material nature, which is perceived within Him, has no actual
basis.
Rather, you should understand that this material nature, composed of the three modes, is simply
the product of His illusory potency.
One who has properly understood the process of becoming firmly fixed in theoretical and
realized knowledge, as described herein by Me, does not indulge in material criticism
or praise.
Like the sun, he wanders freely throughout this world.
By direct perception, logical deduction, scriptural testimony and personal realization, one should
know that this world has a beginning and an end and so is not the ultimate reality.
Thus one should live in this world without attachment.
Sri Uddhava said: My dear Lord, it is not possible for this material existence to be
the experience of either the soul, who is the seer, or of the body, which is the seen
object.
On the one hand, the spirit soul is innately endowed with perfect knowledge, and on the
other hand, the material body is not a conscious, living entity.
To whom, then, does this experience of material existence pertain?
The spirit soul is inexhaustible, transcendental, pure, self-luminous and never covered by anything
material.
It is like fire.
But the nonliving material body, like firewood, is dull and unaware.
So in this world, who is it that actually undergoes the experience of material life?
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: As long as the foolish spirit soul remains attracted
to the material body, senses and vital force, his material existence continues to flourish,
although it is ultimately meaningless.
Actually, the living entity 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.
Although while dreaming a person experiences many undesirable things, upon awakening he
is no longer confused by the dream experiences.
Lamentation, elation, fear, anger, greed, confusion and hankering, as well as birth
and death, are experiences of the false ego and not of the pure soul.
The living entity who falsely identifies with his body, senses, life air and mind, and who
dwells within these coverings, assumes the form of his own materially conditioned qualities
and work.
He is designated variously in relation to the total material energy, and thus, under
the strict control of supreme time, he is forced to run here and there within material
existence.
Although the false ego has no factual basis, it is perceived in many forms—as the functions
of the mind, speech, life air and bodily faculties.
But with the sword of transcendental knowledge, sharpened by worship of a bona fide spiritual
master, a sober sage will cut off this false identification and live in this world free
from all material attachment.
Real spiritual knowledge is based on the discrimination of spirit from matter, and it is cultivated
by scriptural evidence, austerity, direct perception, reception of the Puranas’ historical
narrations, and logical inference.
The Absolute Truth, which alone was present before the creation of the universe and which
alone will remain after its destruction, is also the time factor and the ultimate cause.
Even in the middle stage of this creation’s existence, the Absolute Truth alone is the
actual reality.
Gold alone is present before its manufacture into gold products, the gold alone remains
after the products’ destruction, and the gold alone is the essential reality while
it is being utilized under various designations.
Similarly, I alone exist before the creation of this universe, after its destruction and
during its maintenance.
The material mind manifests in three phases of consciousness—wakefulness, sleep and
deep sleep—which are products of the three modes of nature.
The mind further appears in three different roles—the perceiver, the perceived and the
regulator of perception.
Thus the mind is manifested variously throughout these threefold designations.
But it is the fourth factor, existing separately from all this, that alone constitutes the
Absolute Truth.
That which did not exist in the past and will not exist in the future also has no existence
of its own for the period of its duration, but is only a superficial designation.
In My opinion, whatever is created and revealed by something else is ultimately only that
other thing.
Although thus not existing in reality, this manifestation of transformations created from
the mode of passion appears real because the self-manifested, self-luminous Absolute Truth
exhibits Himself in the form of the material variety of the senses, the sense objects,
the mind and the elements of physical nature.
Thus clearly understanding by discriminating logic the unique position of the Absolute
Truth, one should expertly refute one’s misidentification with matter and cut to pieces
all doubts about the identity of the self.
Becoming satisfied in the soul’s natural ecstasy, one should desist from all lusty
engagements of the material senses.
The material body made of earth is not the true self; nor are the senses, their presiding
demigods or the air of life; nor is the external air, water or fire or one’s mind.
All these are simply matter.
Similarly, neither one’s intelligence, material consciousness nor ego, nor the elements of
ether or earth, nor the objects of sense perception, nor even the primeval state of material equilibrium
can be considered the actual identity of the soul.
For one who has properly realized My personal identity as the Supreme Godhead, what credit
is there if his senses—mere products of the material modes—are perfectly concentrated
in meditation?
And on the other hand, what blame is incurred if his senses happen to become agitated?
Indeed, what does it mean to the sun if the clouds come and go?
The sky may display the various qualities of the air, fire, water and earth that pass
through it, as well as such qualities as heat and cold, which continually come and go with
the seasons.
Yet the sky is never entangled with any of these qualities.
Similarly, the Supreme Absolute Truth is never entangled with the contaminations of goodness,
passion and ignorance, which cause the material transformations of the false ego.
Nevertheless, until by firmly practicing devotional service to Me one has completely eliminated
from his mind all contamination of material passion, one must very carefully avoid associating
with the material modes, which are produced by My illusory energy.
Just as an improperly treated disease recurs and gives repeated distress to the patient,
the mind that is not completely purified of its perverted tendencies will remain attached
to material things and repeatedly torment the imperfect yogi.
Sometimes the progress of imperfect transcendentalists is checked by attachment to family members,
disciples or others, who are sent by envious demigods for that purpose.
But on the strength of their accumulated advancement, such imperfect transcendentalists will resume
their practice of yoga in the next life.
They will never again be trapped in the network of fruitive work.
An ordinary living entity performs material work and is transformed by the reaction to
such work.
Thus he is driven by various desires to continue working fruitively up to the very moment of
his death.
A wise person, however, having experienced his own constitutional bliss, gives up all
material desires and does not engage in fruitive work.
The wise man, whose consciousness is fixed in the self, does not even notice his own
bodily activities.
While standing, sitting, walking, lying down, urinating, eating or performing other bodily
functions, he understands that the body is acting according to its own nature.
Although a self-realized soul may sometimes see an impure object or activity, he does
not accept it as real.
By logically understanding impure sense objects to be based on illusory material duality,
the intelligent person sees them to be contrary to and distinct from reality, in the same
way that a man awakening from sleep views his fading dream.
Material nescience, which expands into many varieties by the activities of the modes of
nature, is wrongly accepted by the conditioned soul to be identical with the self.
But through the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, My dear Uddhava, this same nescience fades
away at the time of liberation.
The eternal self, on the other hand, is never assumed and never abandoned.
When the sun rises it destroys the darkness covering men’s eyes, but it does not create
the objects they then see before them, which in fact were existing all along.
Similarly, potent and factual realization of Me will destroy the darkness covering a
person’s true consciousness.
The Supreme Lord is self-luminous, unborn and immeasurable.
He is pure transcendental consciousness and perceives everything.
One without a second, He is realized only after ordinary words cease.
By Him the power of speech and the life airs are set into motion.
Whatever apparent duality is perceived in the self is simply the confusion of the mind.
Indeed, such supposed duality has no basis to rest upon apart from one’s own soul.
The duality of the five material elements is perceived only in terms of names and forms.
Those who say this duality is real are pseudoscholars vainly proposing fanciful theories without
basis in fact.
The physical body of the endeavoring yogi who is not yet mature in his practice may
sometimes be overcome by various disturbances.
Therefore the following process is recommended.
Some of these obstructions may be counteracted by yogic meditation or by sitting postures,
practiced together with concentration on controlled breathing, and others may be counteracted
by special austerities, mantras or medicinal herbs.
These inauspicious disturbances can be gradually removed by constant remembrance of Me, by
congregational hearing and chanting of My holy names, or by following in the footsteps
of the great masters of yoga.
By various methods, some yogis free the body from disease and old age and keep it perpetually
youthful.
Thus they engage in yoga for the purpose of achieving material mystic perfections.
This mystic bodily perfection is not valued very highly by those expert in transcendental
knowledge.
Indeed, they consider endeavor for such perfection useless, since the soul, like a tree, is permanent,
but the body, like a tree’s fruit, is subject to destruction.
Although the physical body may be improved by various processes of yoga, an intelligent
person who has dedicated his life to Me does not place his faith in the prospect of perfecting
his physical body through yoga, and in fact he gives up such procedures.
The yogi who has taken shelter of Me remains free from hankering because he experiences
the happiness of the soul within.
Thus while executing this process of yoga, he is never defeated by obstacles.