406 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 9
PURPORT
Real knowledge is revealed to a devotee only when he comes to the
right conclusion about life by the grace of the Lord. Our creation
of friends and enemies within this material world is something like
dreaming at night. In dreams we create so many things out of various
impressions in the subconscious mind, but all such creations are simply
temporary and unreal. In the same way, although apparently we are awake
in material life, because we have no information of the soul and the Super-
soul, we create many friends and enemies simply out of imagination.
Srila Krgnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says that within this material world or
material consciousness, good and bad are the same. The distinction between
good and bad is simply a mental concoction. The actual fact is that all
living entities are sons of God, or by-products of His marginal energy.
Because of our being contaminated by the modes of material nature, we
distinguish one spiritual spark from another. That is also another kind of
dreaming. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that those who are actually
learned do not make any distinction between a learned scholar, a brahmana,
an elephant, a dog and a candala; they do not see in terms of the external
body, but they see the person as spirit soul. By higher understanding one
can know that the material body is nothing but a combination of the five
material elements. In that sense also the bodily construction of a human
being and that of a demigod are one and the same. From the spiritual
point of view we are all spiritual sparks, parts and parcels of the Supreme
Spirit, God. Either materially or spiritually we are basically one, but we
make friends and enemies as dictated by the illusory energy. Dhruva
Maharaja therefore said, daiviri mdyam upasritya: the cause of his
bewilderment was his association with the illusory material energy.
TEXT 34
ataenttd sat fated amaft |
WAT ATA TWAT HAGA |
wafecaarse vt apaftafia: ell
mayaitat prarthitam vyartham
cikitseva gatayusi
prasadya jagad-atmanam
tapasa dusprasadanam
bhava-cchidam ayace ‘ham
bhavarn bhagya-vivarjitah
maya—by me; etat—this; prarthitam—prayed for; vyartham—uselessly ;
cikitsa—treatment; iva—like; gata—has ended; ayusi—for one whose life;
