2016-11-22 Srimad Bhagavatam 10.87.27 - Six Symptoms of Philosophy (download mp3) by Shyamananda Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty www.iskcondesiretree.com SB 10.87.27tava pari ye caranty akhila-sattva-niketataya ta uta padakramanty aviganayya siro nirrtehparivayase pasun iva gira vibudhan api tams tvayi krta-sauhrdah khalu punanti na ye vimukhah Translation: The devotees who worship You as the shelter of all beings disregard Death and place their feet on his head. But with the words of the Vedas You bind the nondevotees like animals, though they be vastly learned scholars. It is Your affectionate devotees who can purify themselves and others, not those who are inimical to You. Purport: The personified Vedas have now set aside the erroneous philosophies of several contending schools: the asad-utpatti-vada of the Vaisesikas, who presume a material source of creation; the sad-vinasa-vada of the Naiyayikas, who would deprive the liberated soul of consciousness; the sagunatva-bheda-vada of the Sankhyas, who isolate the soul from all his apparent qualities; the vipana-vada of the Mimamsakas, who condemn the soul to eternal involvement in the mundane commerce of karma; and the vivarta-vada of the Mayavadis, who denigrate the soul’s real life in this world as a hallucination. Having rejected all these ideas, the personified Vedas now present the philosophy of devotional service, paricarya-vada. The Vaisnavas who accept this philosophy teach that the jiva soul is an atomic particle of spiritual personality who possesses minute knowledge, is not independent and has no material qualities. Being minute, he is prone to come under the control of the material energy, where he suffers the pains of material life. He can end his suffering and regain the shelter of the Supreme Lord’s divine, internal energy only by rendering devotional service to the Lord, not by engaging in fruitive work, mental speculation or any other process. As Lord Krsna says in His own words, bhaktyaham ekaya grahyah sraddhayatma priyah satambhaktih punati man-nistha sva-pakan api sambhavat “Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in Me can one obtain Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take Me as the only goal of their loving service. By engaging in such pure devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves from the contamination of their low birth.” (Bhag. 11.14.21) Devotees of the Personality of Godhead worship Him as the shelter (niketa) of everything that exists (akhila-sattva). Moreover, these Vaisnava devotees themselves can be called akhila-sattva-niketa in the sense that their abode and shelter is the philosophic truth of the reality (sattvam) of both the material and spiritual worlds. Thus Sripada Madhvacarya, in his Vedanta-sutra-bhasya, quotes the sruti-mantra: satyam hy evedam visvam asrjata. “He created this world as real.” And the Seventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.1.11) refers to the Supreme Lord as pradhana-pumbhyam naradeva satya-krt, “the creator of a real universe of matter and living entities.” Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura points out yet another, more confidential, meaning of akhila-sattva-niketa: that the Supreme Lord’s personal abodes are in no way khila, or imperfect, and so are called Vaikuntha, the realms free of anxiety and restriction. Vaisnavas whose devotional service the Lord has kindly accepted are so sure of His protection that they no longer fear death, which becomes for them just another easy step on the way back to their eternal home. But are only devotees of the Supreme Lord eligible for liberation from the fear of death? Why are all other mystics and learned scholars disqualified? Here the srutis answer: “Anyone who is vimukha, who has not turned his face toward the Lord with hopeful expectation of His mercy, is bound up in illusion by the same words of the Vedas that enlighten the surrendered devotees.” The Vedas themselves warn, tasya vak-