Isopanishad Text 14
Back to 'Books' Page	English page
Back Home	Translate page to German French Italian Norwegian Portugese Spanish

sambhutim ca vinasam ca
yas tad vedobhayam saha
vinasena mrtyum tirtva
sambhutyamrtam asnute

sambhutim--the eternal personality of Godhead, His transcendental name, form, pastimes, qualities and paraphernalia, the variegatedness of His abode, etc.; ca--and; vinasam--the temporary material manifestation of demigods, men, animals, etc., with their false names, fame, etc.; ca--also; yah--one who; tat--that; veda--knows; ubhayam--both; saha--along with; vinasena--with everything liable to be vanquished; mrtyum--death; tirtva--surpassing; sambhutya--in the eternal kingdom of God; amrtam--deathlessness; asnute--enjoys.

TRANSLATION

One should know perfectly the personality of Godhead and His transcendental name, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

PURPORT

By its so-called advancement of knowledge, human civilization has created many material things, including spaceships and atomic energy. Yet it has failed to create freedom from birth, old age, disease and death. Whenever an intelligent man raises the question of these miseries before a so-called scientist, the scientist very cleverly replies that material science is progressing and that it will ultimately be possible to render man deathless and ageless. Such answers prove the scientists' gross ignorance of material nature. In material nature, everything is under the stringent laws of matter and must pass through six stages of transformation: birth, growth, maintenance, transformation, deterioration and finally death. Nothing that is in contact with material nature can be beyond these six laws of transformation; therefore no one--whether demigod, man, animal or tree--can survive forever in the material world.

The duration of life may vary according to species. Lord Brahma, the chief living being within this material universe, may live for millions and millions of years, while a minute germ may live for some hours only. But that does not matter. No one in the material world can survive eternally. Things are born or created under certain conditions, they stay for some time, and, if they continue to live, they grow, procreate, gradually dwindle and finally vanish. According to these laws, even the Brahmas, of which there are millions in different universes, are all liable to death either today or tomorrow. Therefore the entire material universe is called Mrtyuloka, the place of death.

Material scientists and politicians are trying to make this place deathless because they have no information of the deathless spiritual nature. This is due to their ignorance of Vedic literature, which is full of knowledge of mature transcendental experience. Unfortunately modern man is averse to receiving knowledge from the Vedas, Puranas and other scriptures.

From Visnu Purana (V.P. 6.7.61) we receive information that Lord Visnu, the Personality of Godhead, possesses different energies, known as para (superior) and apara or avidya (inferior energy). The material energy in which we are presently entangled is called the avidya or inferior energy. The material creation is made possible by this energy. Yet there is another, a superior energy called the para-sakti, which is different from this material inferior energy. That superior energy constitutes the eternal or deathless creation of the Lord. (Bg. 8.20)

All the material planets--upper, lower and intermediate, including the sun, moon and Venus--are scattered throughout the universe. These planets exist only during the lifetime of Brahma. Some lower planets, however, are vanquished after the end of one day of Brahma and are again created during the next day of Brahma. On the upper planets, time is calculated differently. One of our years is only equal to twenty-four hours, or one day and night, on many of the upper planets. The four ages of earth years according to the time scale of the upper planets. Such a length of time multiplied by one thousand constitutes one day of Brahma, and one night of Brahma is the same. Such days and nights accumulate into months and years, and Brahma lives for one hundred such years. At the end of Brahma's life, the complete universal manifestation is vanquished.

Those living beings who reside in the sun and on the moon, as well as those in the Martyaloka system--which includes this earth and many planets below it--are all merged into the waters of devastation during the night of Brahma. During this time no living beings or species remain manifest, although spiritually they continue to exist. This unmanifested stage is called avyakta. Again, when the entire universe is vanquished at the end of Brahma's lifetime, there is another avyakta state. However, beyond these two unmanifested states is a spiritual atmosphere or nature. There is a great number of spiritual planets in this atmosphere, and these planets exist eternally, even when all the planets within this material universe are vanquished. The cosmic manifestation within the jurisdiction of the various Brahmas is but a display of one-fourth of the energy of the Lord. This is the inferior energy. Beyond the jurisdiction of Brahma is the spiritual nature, which is called tri-pad-vibhuti, three-fourths of the Lord's energy. This is the superior energy, or para-prakrti.

The predominating Supreme person residing within the spiritual nature is Lord Sri Krishna. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 8.22), He can be approached only by unalloyed devotional service and not by the processes of jnana (philosophy), yoga (mysticism), or karma (fruitive work). The karmis, or fruitive workers, can elevate themselves to the Svargaloka planets, which include the sun and moon. Jnanis and yogis can attain still higher planets, such as Brahmaloka, and when they become still more qualified through devotional service, they are allowed to enter into the spiritual nature, either the illuminating cosmic atmosphere of the spiritual sky (Brahman) or the Vaikuntha planets, according to their qualification. It is certain, however, that no one can enter into the spiritual Vaikuntha planets without being trained in devotional service.

On the material planets, everyone from Brahma down to the ant is trying to lord it over material nature, and this is the material disease. As long as this material disease continues, the living entity has to undergo the process of bodily change. Whether he takes the form of a man, demigod or animal, he ultimately has to endure an unmanifested condition during the two devastations--the devastation of the night of Brahma and the devastation at the end of Brahma's life. If we want to put an end to this process of repeated birth and death, as well as the concomitant factors of old age and disease, we must try to enter the spiritual planets. Lord Krishna in His plenary expansions dominates each and every one of these planets.

No one can dominate Krishna. It is the conditioned soul who tries to dominate material nature and is instead subjected to the laws of material nature and the sufferings of repeated birth and death. The Lord comes here to reestablish the principles of religion, and the basic principle is the development of an attitude of surrender to Him. This is the Lord's last instruction in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 18.66), but foolish men have tactfully misinterpreted this prime teaching and have misled the masses of people in diverse ways. people have been urged to open hospitals but not to educate themselves to enter into the spiritual kingdom by devotional service. They have been taught to take interest only in temporary relief work, which can never bring real happiness to the living entity. They start varieties of public and semi-governmental institutions to tackle the devastating power of nature, but they don't know how to pacify insurmountable nature. Many men are advertised as great scholars of Bhagavad-gita, but they overlook the Gita's message by which material nature can be pacified. Powerful nature can only be pacified by the awakening of God consciousness, as clearly pointed out in Bhagavad-gita. (Bg. 7.14)

In this mantra Sri Isopanisad teaches that one must know both sambhuti (the Personality of Godhead) and vinasa (the temporary material manifestation) perfectly, side by side. By knowing the temporary material manifestation alone, one cannot save anything, for in the course of nature there is devastation at every moment. No one can be saved from these devastations by opening hospitals. One can be saved only by complete knowledge of the eternal life of bliss and awareness. The whole Vedic scheme is meant to educate men in this art of attaining eternal life. People are often misguided by temporary attractive things based on sense gratification, but service rendered to the objects of the senses is both misleading and degrading.

We must therefore save our fellow man in the right way. There is no question of liking or disliking the truth. It is there. If we want to be saved from repeated birth and death, we must take to the devotional service of the Lord. There can be no compromise, for this is a matter of necessity.

(c) 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 
---Jai Srila Prabhupada!---

Back Home | Back to 'Books' Page | Next >>