Ch 2 VERSE 63
क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहः सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः ।
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ॥६३॥
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ
sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo
buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
krodhāt—from anger; bhavati—takes place; saṁmohaḥ—perfect illusion; saṁmohāt—from illusion; smṛti—of memory; vibhramaḥ—bewilderment; smṛti-bhraṁśāt—after bewilderment of memory; buddhi-nāśaḥ—loss of intelligence; buddhi-nāśāt—and from loss of intelligence; praṇaśyati—falls down.From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ
sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo
buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyat
“From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.”
So this verse is a continuation of the verse that we previously had read and studied together, and probably reading them both together sort of completes the whole idea. So I’ll just do that before we go on:
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.”
So this really explains the significance of having a healthy respect for the power of anger, that when one becomes moved by anger we have this situation where—and I’ll just draw your attention in the verse, this sammohah: Mohat, mohan, means illusion, to be plunged into a state of very deep illusion.
So Srila Vishvanath Chakravati Thakur, one of the great acharyas or spiritual teachers in our lineage, from roughly about 400 years ago, he commented on this verse:
“From anger develops absence of discrimination of what should be done and what should not be done (sammohah)”
So this is a pretty extraordinary statement:
“From bewilderment develops loss of remembrance of one’s own benefit derived from the instructions of scriptures (smriti vibhramah)
So I’ll just speak to this a little bit. This was the term used in this verse. Smriti means remembrance This term bhramah, bhramah means—it’s almost like if you’re in the dark, or if you’ve had a bad fall, and you get up off the ground, and you don’t know where you are, and you’re all dizzy, and you’re just staggering around aimlessly, this epitomizes this word bhramah. And when you put vi in front of it vibhramah it is like an extreme case of great forgetfulness and bewilderment. And it’s—he defines as is stated here, that this has become a situation where one can no longer recollect the great advice given in spiritual scriptures, in the Vedas, which need to be used to guide us, to be the guard rails on our journey through life.
Then he goes on:
“From that comes a destruction of resolve for spiritual practice.”
This is buddhi nasa. Buddhi is the spiritual intelligence, and nasa refers to its actual destruction. So one now the resolve for spiritual practice becomes destroyed.
“Then one falls down into the well of samsara.”
Samsara is this cycle of repeated birth and death that all living beings are caught on, this great revolving wheel.
So the problem of material entanglement, it really starts with contemplation upon material objects and experiences, which the mind and the senses seem—you know, they—it seems desirable. It seems like something that will actually deliver the happiness or the fulfillment that we seek, but then you have this consequence, so it’s sort of like, well how do we get out of this? What is this—we’re in this situation where we’re constantly being bombarded with stimulation and people fighting.
I mean, I’ve mentioned before so many times, it’s like when you use a smartphone or some device, what you don’t understand is that there is actually a supercomputer on the other side of that screen, not in the device itself, but the devices is a peripheral attachment to this massive supercomputer that’s aimed directly at your brain, directly at your senses, that is analyzing constantly everything that you are doing, looking for your weak spots so it can now penetrate those areas and offer you something, so that you can be exploited. That is a pretty hard cold reality of what’s going on.
And so our senses are sort of like—the active senses are the chinks in the armour. They are the holes in the walls of the fortress that make it so that the enemy, as it were, can enter and plunder the interior of the fortified city. So it’s kind of like whoa, so, well, what do we do? How do we deal with this?
There are two fundamental schools of philosophical thought about the highest truth. There are those who feel that there is either no God or that there is no personal higher spiritual existence, that everything is just void ultimately; and in the other school, you have an understanding that God does manifest as a divine transcendental personality. And being on one side of that idea or on the other when it comes to how to address this problem, the problem of the senses wanting to run wild all the time: one side there is simply the attempt to shut everything out and to remain devoid of experience and connection and contact. That’s a pretty dark space to be in. The other alternative is explained by Srila Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada in his commentary on this verse, where he restates:
“Those who are without knowledge of dedicated service to the Lord, artificially try to avoid material objects, and as a result, although they desire liberation from material bondage, they do not attain to the perfect stage of renunciation. On the other hand, a person in Krishna consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord, therefore he does not become a victim of material consciousness.”
Now he gives an example of how this could be understood or applied:
“For example, for an impersonalist, the Lord, or the Absolute being impersonal cannot eat.”
So, stating that if you consider God as an impersonal energy He cannot eat.
“Whereas an impersonalist tries to avoid good eatables, a devotee knows that Krishna is the supreme enjoyer and He eats all that is offered to Him in devotion. So, after offering good eatables to the Lord the devotee takes the remnants called, prasadam. [This word prasadam means mercy] Thus everything becomes spiritualized and there is no danger of a downfall. The devotee takes prasadam in Krishna consciousness, whereas the non-devotee rejects it as material.”
So this is a really practical example. If you are going to maintain the body then you are forced to eat. And for one who is simply trying by their own strength to become transcendentally situated the idea of eating becomes a fearful experience, because I’ll stimulate the senses, and then my mind will be agitated, and it will lead to the development of more desire and thoughts, and then that will pull me down again into material existence.
Whereas one who is engaged in a very personal way with the Supreme Soul, the Supreme Lord, they know that they can take foodstuff that’s meant for nourishing the body, and they can make an offering of that and that this will be accepted by Krishna (as it will be later explained), and when He accepts such an offering that foodstuff now takes on a spiritual characteristic. And when one eats it in a sense of gratitude, and humility, and thankfulness, then one is becoming spiritualized. It does have an effect of further refining the mind, the brain, the body itself, and making it easy for a person to become increasingly absorbed in this mode of devotion to the Supreme Lord. So that is the way out.
Thank you very much.