Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 28 entitled, Puranjan becomes a woman in the next life.
Text 40
Sa vyapakatayatmanam
Vyatiriktatayatmani
Vidvan svapna ivamarsa
Saksinam virarama ha
Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupad.
King Malayadvaja attained perfect knowledge by being able to distinguish the supersoul from the individual soul. The individual soul is localized while the supersoul is all pervasive. He became perfect in knowledge that the material body is not the soul but that the soul is the witness of the material body.
Purport : The conditioned soul is often frustrated in trying to understand the distinctions between the material body, the supersoul and the individual soul. There are two types of Mayavadi philosophers. The followers of the Buddhist philosophy and the followers of the Shankara philosophy. The followers of Buddha do not recognize anything beyond the body. The followers of Shankara conclude that there is no separate existence of Paramatma. The Shankarites believe that the individual soul is identical with the Paramatma in the ultimate analysis but the Vaishnava philosophers. One who is perfect in knowledge knows that the body is made of external energy and that the supersoul, Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is sitting within the individual soul and is witnessing his activities. As Krsna says in Bhagavad Gita,
Ksetrajnam capi mam viddhi
Sarva ksetresu Bharata
Ksetra ksetrajnayor jnanam
Yat Taj jnanam matam mama
O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower of all bodies and to understand this body, it's owner is called knowledge. That is my opinion. The body is taken to be a field of knowledge and the individual soul is taken to be the knower in the field. Yet there is another who is known as the supersoul who along with the individual soul simply witnesses. The individual soul works and enjoys the fruits of the body while the supersoul simply witnesses the activities of the individual soul but does not enjoy the fruits of those activities. The supersoul is present in every field of activity whereas the individual soul is localized in one particular body. King Malayadvaja was able to attain this and was able to distinguish between the individual soul and the supersoul and between the soul and the material body.
Here in we see in this particular episode in the fourth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam wherein Sripad Narada Muni has been preaching to King Prachinibarishat now for a long time with this allegorical story of King Puranjan and major portion of this particular story. Narada Muni is revealing to King Prachinibarishat about the various sense gratifications which King Puranjan was involved in. And towards the end of the story we see how Narada Muni is speaking to the same personality who in his next life has turned to devotional service. Narada Muni is an expert preacher. He knows how to administer the medicine of Krsna consciousness. He is not only talking about the downfall of King Puranjan but he is also speaking about the spiritual advancement which he makes in his next life.
Many times people accuse the philosophy of Krsna consciousness as being very pessimistic. Sometimes people may come up to us and say that you always speak about death, old age, disease and all kinds of pessimistic things in life but the Vedic scriptures are all full of topics which can help a conditioned living entity to come to Krsna. If a living entity is well settled in this conditioned life thinking that he is enjoying this material world and this material world is the end of the world, there are sufficient quotes in the Vedic scriptures which can make such a conditioned living entity unsettle. So, when somebody thinks that he is happy in this material world we have quotes from the Vedic scriptures which tells about the futility of this material world and when somebody comes to conclusion that this material world is a futile place to enjoy and makes a conviction to go back home back to Godhead then we also have in Vedic scriptures the description of the Spiritual World to settle over there. For both kinds of people, the Vedic scriptures give directions how to advance in spiritual life. Herein Narada Muni wonderfully is explaining both the aspects of the Spiritual life, understanding this material world, futility of this material world, futility of sense gratification and he is also speaking to King Prachinibarishat the glories of devotional service. And in order to understand these subject matters which are there in the Vedic scriptures the transcendental knowledge or any field of knowledge that we cannot gather in this material world, We need to have a certain intelligence, a certain endeavor from our part in order to grasp that knowledge properly.
Now when Narada Muni is explaining both these aspects to King Prachinibarishat we understand how King Prachinibarishat could rectify his situation in the end. He could have taken the same example of King Puranjan and engaged in sense gratification thinking that yes, Narada Muni is revealing to me nicer ways to enjoy this material world as in the allegorical story.
We see that how King Prachinibarishat receives this knowledge.. Knowledge is supposed to give a person a certain perception in this world. Knowledge is there but it depends on an individual person how he receives it and how he perceived it.
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