Text 3] Fundamental Principles of Material Nature 1063

PURPORT

It is said that by proper understanding of the pure self, or by self-
realization, one can be freed from material atlachment. Knowledge
leads one to attain the ultimate perfection of life and to see oneself as he
is. The Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.8) also confirms this. Tam eva viditvati-
mrtyum eti: Simply by understanding one’s spiritual position or by seeing
oneself as he is, one can be freed from material entanglement. In various
ways, the seeing of oneself is described in the Vedic literatures, and it is con-
firmed in the Bhagavatam (purusasya atma-darsanam) that one has to see
oneself and know what he is. As Kapiladeva explains to His mother, this
“seeing” can be done by hearing from the proper authoritalive source.
Kapiladeva is the greatest authority because He is the Personality of
Godhead, and if someone accepts whatever is explained as it is, without
interpretation, then he can see himself.

Lord Caitanya explained to Sanatana Gosvami the real constitutional
position of the individual. He said directly that each and every individual
soul is eternally a servilor of Krsna. Jivera ‘svariipa’ haya—krsnera ‘nitya-
dasa’: Every individual soul is eternally a servitor. When one is fixed in the
understanding that he is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul and that his
eternal position is Lo serve in association with the Supreme Lord, he becomes
self-realized. This position of understanding oneself rightly cuts the knot
of material attraction (hrdaya-granthi-bhedanam). Due to false ego
or false identification of oneself with the body and the material world,
one is entrapped by maya, but as soon as one understands that he is
qualitatively the same substance as the Supreme Lord because he belongs
to the same category of spirit soul and that his perpetual position is to
serve, this is atma-darganam and hrdaya-granthi-bhedanam, self-realization.
When one can cut the knot of attachment to the material world, his under-
standing is called knowledge. Atma-darganam means to see oneself by
knowledge; therefore, when one is freed from the false ego by the cultiva-
tion of real knowledge, he sees himself, and that is the ultimate necessity
of human life. The soul is thus isolaled from the entanglement of the
twenty-four categories of material nature. Pursuit of the systematic philo-
sophic process called sankhya is called knowledge and self-revelation.

TEXT 3

TTA TER Fao TH TT |
MAMI Sasa ate Fa aaferaTy Ul 3 Ul
