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Q. 229. IS PURE LOVE OF GOD ETERNAL ?‏‏

Q. 229. IS PURE LOVE OF GOD ETERNAL ?‏‏

A.  BY  SRILA  PRABHUPADA.



amṛta-svarūpā ca

SYNONYMS
amṛta — immortality; svarūpā — having as its essence; ca — and.

TRANSLATION
This pure love for God is eternal. (Narada Bhakti Sutra).

PURPORT
When a person attains to the perfectional stage of love of Godhead, he becomes liberated even in his present body and realizes his constitutional position of immortality.

In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says :-
janma karma ca me divyam
evaḿ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaḿ punar janma
naiti mām eti so 'rjuna

SYNONYMS
janma — birth; karma — work; ca — also; me — of Mine; divyam — transcendental; evam — like this; yaḥ — anyone who; vetti — knows; tattvataḥ — inreality; tyaktvā — leaving aside; deham — this body; punaḥ — again; janma — birth; na — never; eti — does attain; mām — unto Me; eti — does attain; saḥ —he; arjuna — O Arjuna.

TRANSLATION
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.

Here the Lord says that any person who simply understands His transcendental activities and His appearance and disappearance in this material world becomes liberated, and that after quitting his present body he at once reaches His abode.

Therefore it is to be understood that one who has attained the stage of love of God has perfect knowledge, and even if he may fall short of perfect knowledge, he has the preliminary perfection of life that a living entity can attain.

To conceive of oneself as being one with the Supreme is the greatest misconception of self-realization, and this misconception prevents one from rising to the highest stage of love of God. But a person who understands his subordinate position can attain the highest stage of loving service to the Lord.

Although the Lord and the living entities are qualitatively one, the living entities are limited, while the Lord is unlimited. This understanding, called amṛta-svarūpa, makes one eligible for being eternally situated.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the personified Vedas pray to the Lord :-
aparimitā dhruvās tanu-bhṛto yadi sarva-gatās
tarhi na śāsyateti niyamo dhrava netarathā
ajani ca yan-mayaḿ tad avimucya niyantṛ bhavet
samam anujānatāḿ yad amataḿ mata-duṣṭatayā

SYNONYMS
aparimitāḥ — countless; dhruvāḥ — permanent; tanu-bhṛtaḥ — the embodied living entities; yadi — if; sarva-gatāḥ — omnipresent; tarhi — then; na — not;śāsyatā — sovereignty; iti — such; niyamaḥ — rule; dhruva — O unchanging one; na — not; itarathā — otherwise; ajani — was generated; ca — and;yat-mayam — from whose substance; tat — from that; avimucya — not separating itself; niyantṛ — regulator; bhavet — must be; samam — equally present;anujānatām — of those who supposedly know; yat — which; amatam — misunderstood; mata — of what is known; duṣṭatayā — because of the imperfection.

TRANSLATION
If the countless living entities were all-pervading and possessed forms that never changed, You could not possibly be their absolute ruler, O immutable one. But since they are Your localized expansions and their forms are subject to change, You do control them. Indeed, that which supplies the ingredients for the generation of something is necessarily its controller because a product never exists apart from its ingredient cause. It is simply illusion for someone to think that he knows the Supreme Lord, who is equally present in each of His expansions, since whatever knowledge one gains by material means must be imperfect.

Therefore, the living entities should be accepted as fragmental portions of the Supreme.

This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā when the Lord says:-
mamaivāḿśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

SYNONYMS
mama — My; eva — certainly; aḿśaḥ — fragmental particle; jīva-loke — in the world of conditional life; jīva-bhūtaḥ — the conditioned living entity; sanātanaḥ— eternal; manaḥ — with the mind; ṣaṣṭhāni — the six; indriyāṇi — senses; prakṛti — in material nature; sthāni — situated; karṣati — is struggling hard.

TRANSLATION
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

As fragmental portions, they are qualitatively one with the Supreme, but they are not unlimited.

One who is convinced that he is eternally a servitor of the Supreme Lord is called immortal because he has realized his constitutional position of immortality. Unless one can understand his position as a living entity and an eternal servitor of the Lord, there is no question of immortality. But one who accepts these facts becomes immortal.

In other words, those who are under the misconception that the living entity and the Supreme Lord are equal in all respects, both qualitatively and quantitatively, are mistaken, and they are still bound to remain in the material world. They cannot rise to the position of immortality.

Upon attaining love of God, a person immediately becomes immortal and no longer has to change his material body. But even if a devotee of the Lord has not yet reached the perfectional stage of love of Godhead, his devotional service is considered immortal.

Any action in the stage of karma or jñāna will be finished with the change of body, but devotional service, even if not executed perfectly, will continue into the next life, and the living entity will be allowed to make further progress.

The constitutional position of the living entity as a fragment of the Supreme Lord is confirmed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Upaniṣads. The

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad states,
bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca
bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate

"If the tip of a hair were divided into one hundred parts, and if one of those parts were again divided into a hundred parts, that one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair would be the dimension of the living entity."

As already mentioned, this position of the living entity as a fragment of the Supreme Lord is declared in the Bhagavad-gītā to be eternal; it cannot be changed.

A person who understands his constitutional position as a fragment of the Supreme Lord and engages himself in devotional service with all seriousness at once becomes immortal.

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    PRAYER TO READ AFTER CHANTING JAPA.

    guhyaati guhya-goptaa twaam

    grhaanaasmat-krtam japam

    siddhir bhavatu me deva

    twat-prasaadaat twayi sthite

    Translation:  O my Lord, You are the secret of secrets

    and a keeper of secrets.

    Please accept the japa I have chanted as an offering to You.

    Please be merciful and let me attain the same perfection

    attained by those who are fixed in Your service.

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