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TEXT 15 na mam duskrtino mudhah
SYNONYMS  na--not;
mam--unto Me; duskrtinah--miscreants; mudhah--foolish;
prapadyante--surrender; nara-adhamah--lowest among mankind;
mayaya--by the illusory energy; apahrta--stolen by illusion;
jnanah--knowledge; asuram--demonic; bhavam--nature;
asritah--accepting.
TRANSLATION Those miscreants
who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen
by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not
surrender unto Me.
PURPORT It is said in
Bhagavad-gita that simply by surrendering oneself unto the lotus
feet of the Supreme Personality Krsna, one can surmount the stringent laws
of material nature. At this point a question arises: How is it that educated
philosophers, scientists, businessmen, administrators and all the leaders
of ordinary men do not surrender to the lotus feet of Sri Krsna, the all-powerful
Personality of Godhead? Mukti, or liberation from the laws of material
nature, is sought by the leaders of mankind in different ways and with
great plans and perseverance for a great many years and births. But if
that liberation is possible by simply surrendering unto the lotus feet
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then why don't these intelligent
and hard-working leaders adopt this simple method?
The Gita
answers this question very frankly. Those really learned leaders of society
like Brahma, Siva, Kapila, the Kumaras, Manu, Vyasa, Devala, Asita, Janaka,
Prahlada, Bali, and later on Madhvacarya, Ramanujacarya, Sri Caitanya and
many others--who are faithful philosophers, politicians, educators, scientists,
etc.--surrender to the lotus feet of the Supreme Person, the all-powerful
authority. Those who are not actually philosophers, scientists, educators,
administrators, etc., but who pose themselves as such for material gain,
do not accept the plan or path of the Supreme Lord. They have no idea of
God; they simply manufacture their own worldly plans and consequently complicate
the problems of material existence in their vain attempts to solve them.
Because material energy (nature) is so powerful, it can resist the unauthorized
plans of the atheists and baffle the knowledge of "planning commissions."
The atheistic
plan-makers are described herein by the word duskrtinah, or "miscreants."
Krtina means one who has performed meritorious work. The atheist
planmaker is sometimes very intelligent and meritorious also, because any
gigantic plan, good or bad, must take intelligence to execute. But because
the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the
Supreme Lord, the atheistic planmaker is called duskrtina, which
indicates that his intelligence and efforts are misdirected.
In the Gita
it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully under the direction
of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent authority. It works as the shadow
moves, in accordance with the movements of the object. But still material
energy is very powerful, and the atheist, due to his godless temperament,
cannot know how it works; nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord.
Under illusion and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are
baffled, as in the case of Hiranyakasipu and Ravana, whose plans were smashed
to dust although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers,
administrators and educators. These duskrtinas, or miscreants, are
of four different patterns, as outlined below:
(1) The
mudhas are those who are grossly foolish, like hard-working beasts
of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves,
and so do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical example
of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made to work very
hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom he works so hard
day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle
of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by his master,
and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked
by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but
this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish
fruitive worker who does not know for whom he should work. He does not
know that karma (action) is meant for yajna (sacrifice).
Most often,
those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden of self-created
duties say that they have no time to hear of the immortality of the living
being. To such mudhas, material gains, which are destructible, are
life's all in all--despite the fact that the mudhas enjoy only a
very small fraction of the fruit of labor. Sometimes they spend sleepless
days and nights for fruitive gain, and although they may have ulcers or
indigestion, they are satisfied with practically no food; they are simply
absorbed in working hard day and night for the benefit of illusory masters.
Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable
time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme
master of all masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper
sources. The swine who eat the soil do not care to accept sweetmeats made
of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly continue
to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering mundane force
that moves the material world.
(2) Another
class of duskrtina, or miscreant, is called the naradhama,
or the lowest of mankind. Nara means human being, and adhama
means the lowest. Out of the 8,400,000 different species of living beings,
there are 400,000 human species. Out of these there are numerous lower
forms of human life that are mostly uncivilized. The civilized human beings
are those who have regulative principles of social, political and religious
life. Those who are socially and politically developed, but who have no
religious principles, must be considered naradhamas. Nor is religion
without God religion, because the purpose of following religious principles
is to know the Supreme Truth and man's relation with Him. In the Gita
the Personality of Godhead clearly states that there is no authority above
Him and that He is the Supreme Truth. The civilized form of human life
is meant for man's reviving the lost consciousness of his eternal
relation with the Supreme Truth, the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna,
who is all-powerful. Whoever loses this chance is classified as a naradhama.
We get information from revealed scriptures that when the baby is in the
mother's womb (an extremely uncomfortable situation) he prays to God for
deliverance and promises to worship Him alone as soon as he gets out. To
pray to God when he is in difficulty is a natural instinct in every living
being because he is eternally related with God. But after his deliverance,
the child forgets the difficulties of birth and forgets his deliverer also,
being influenced by maya, the illusory energy.
It is the
duty of the guardians of children to revive the divine consciousness dormant
in them. The ten processes of reformatory ceremonies, as enjoined in the
Manu-smrti, which is the guide to religious principles, are meant
for reviving God consciousness in the system of varnasrama. However,
no process is strictly followed now in any part of the world, and therefore
99.9 percent of the population is naradhama.
When the
whole population becomes naradhama, naturally all their so-called
education is made null and void by the all-powerful energy of physical
nature. According to the standard of the Gita, a learned man is
he who sees on equal terms the learned brahmana, the dog, the cow,
the elephant and the dog-eater. That is the vision of a true devotee. Sri
Nityananda Prabhu, who is the incarnation of Godhead as divine master,
delivered the typical naradhamas, the brothers Jagai and Madhai,
and showed how the mercy of a real devotee is bestowed upon the lowest
of mankind. So the naradhama who is condemned by the Personality
of Godhead can again revive his spiritual consciousness only by the mercy
of a devotee.
Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, in propagating the bhagavata-dharma or activities of
the devotees, has recommended that people submissively hear the message
of the Personality of Godhead. The essence of this message is Bhagavad-gita.
The lowest amongst human beings can be delivered by this submissive hearing
process only, but unfortunately they even deny giving an aural reception
to these messages, and what to speak of surrendering to the will of the
Supreme Lord? Naradhamas, or the lowest of mankind, will fully neglect
the prime duty of the human being.
(3) The
next class of duskrtina is called mayayapahrta-jnanah, or
those persons whose erudite knowledge has been nullified by the influence
of illusory material energy. They are mostly very learned fellows--great
philosophers, poets, literati, scientists, etc.--but the illusory energy
misguides them, and therefore they disobey the Supreme Lord.
There are
a great number of mayayapahrta-jnanah at the present moment, even
amongst the scholars of the Gita. In the Gita, in plain and
simple language, it is stated that Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. There is none equal to or greater than Him. He is mentioned
as the father of Brahma, the original father of all human beings. In fact,
Sri Krsna is said to be not only the father of Brahma but also the father
of all species of life. He is the root of the impersonal Brahman and Paramatma;
the Supersoul in every entity is His plenary portion. He is the fountainhead
of everything and everyone is advised to surrender unto His lotus feet.
Despite all these clear statements, the mayayapahrta-jnanah deride
the personality of the Supreme Lord and consider Him merely another human
being. They do not know that the blessed form of human life is designed
after the eternal and transcendental feature of the Supreme Lord.
All the
unauthorized interpretations of the Gita by the class of mayayapahrta-jnana,
outside the purview of the parampara system, are so many stumbling
blocks in the path of spiritual understanding. The deluded interpreters
do not surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Krsna, nor do they teach others
to follow this principle.
(4) The
last class of duskrtina is called asuram bhavam asritah,
or those of demonic principles. This class is openly atheistic. Some of
them argue that the Supreme Lord can never descend upon this material world,
but they are unable to give any tangible reasons as to why not. There are
others who make Him subordinate to the impersonal feature, although the
opposite is declared in the Gita. Envious of the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, the atheist will present a number of illicit incarnations manufactured
in the factory of his brain. Such persons whose very principle of life
is to decry the Personality of Godhead cannot surrender unto the lotus
feet of Sri Krsna.
Sri Yamunacarya
Albandaru of South India said, "O my Lord! You are unknowable to persons
involved with atheistic principles despite Your uncommon qualities, features,
and activities and despite Your personality being confirmed by all the
revealed scriptures in the quality of goodness, and despite Your being
acknowledged by the famous authorities renowned for their depth of knowledge
in the transcendental science and situated in the godly qualities."
Therefore,
(1) grossly foolish persons, (2) the lowest of mankind, (3) the deluded
speculators, and (4) the professed atheists, as above mentioned, never
surrender unto the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead in spite of
all scriptural and authoritative advice.
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