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TEXT 3 sri-bhagavan uvaca
SYNONYMS  sri-bhagavan
uvaca--the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; aksaram--indestructible;
brahma--Brahman; paramam--transcendental; svabhavah--eternal
nature; adhyatmam--the self; ucyate--is called; bhuta-bhava-udbhava-karah--action
producing the material bodies of the living entities; visargah--creation;
karma--fruitive activities; samjnitah--is called.
TRANSLATION The Supreme
Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman,
and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development
of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities.
PURPORT Brahman is indestructible
and eternally existing, and its constitution is not changed at any time.
But beyond Brahman there is Parabrahman. Brahman refers to the living entity,
and Parabrahman refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The constitutional
position of the living entity is different from the position he takes in
the material world. In material consciousness, his nature is to try to
be the lord of matter, but in spiritual (Krsna) consciousness, his position
is to serve the Supreme. When the living entity is in material consciousness,
he has to take on various bodies in the material world. That is called
karma, or varied creation by the force of material consciousness.
In Vedic
literature the living entity is called jivatma and Brahman, but
he is never called Parabrahman. The living entity (jivatma) takes
different positions--sometimes he merges into the dark material nature
and identifies himself with matter, and sometimes he identifies himself
with the superior spiritual nature. Therefore he is called the Supreme
Lord's marginal energy. According to his identification with material or
spiritual nature, he receives a material or spiritual body. In material
nature he may take a body from any of the 8,400,000 species of life, but
in spiritual nature he has only one body. In material nature he is sometimes
manifested as a man, demigod, an animal, a beast, a bird, etc., according
to his karma. To attain material heavenly planets and enjoy their
facilities, he sometimes performs sacrifices (yajna), but when his
merit is exhausted, he returns to earth again in the form of a man.
In the process
of sacrifice, the living entity makes specific sacrifices to attain specific
heavenly planets and consequently reaches them. When the merit of sacrifice
is exhausted, then the living entity descends to earth in the form of rain,
then takes on the form of grains, and the grains are eaten by man and transformed
into semen, which impregnates a woman, and thus the living entity once
again attains the human form to perform sacrifice and so repeat the same
cycle. In this way, the living entity perpetually comes and goes on the
material path. The Krsna conscious person, however, avoids such sacrifices.
He takes directly to Krsna consciousness and thereby prepares himself to
return to Godhead.
Impersonalist
commentators on the Gita unreasonably assume that Brahman takes
the form of jiva in the material world, and to substantiate this
they refer to Chapter Fifteen, verse 7, of the Gita. But this verse
also speaks of the living entity as "an eternal fragment of Myself." The
fragment of God, the living entity, may fall down into the material world,
but the Supreme Lord (Acyuta) never falls down. Therefore this assumption
that the Supreme Brahman assumes the form of jiva is not acceptable.
It is important to remember that in Vedic literature Brahman (the living
entity) is distinguished from Parabrahman (the Supreme Lord).
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