The Heart of the Uddhava Gita

By Sajohn Daverly

The Heart of the Uddhava Gita is a concise abridgement of the final teachings which the noble avatar-king Sri Krishna shared with His dear friend Uddhava before departing from this Earth, and countless spiritual students down through the ages have found His communication of timeless universal wisdom capable of evoking profound awakening

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan Dulfon
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780985615529

Sajohn Daverly

Sajohn Daverly has been a student of the Eastern wisdom teachings for over 35 years, assisting in the writing, editing, and proofreading of books and magazines presenting Eastern philosophy and culture since 1979. Previously ordained into one of the traditional branches of the Swami order during his three years living in India, he has been sharing his spiritual insights with groups and offering individual consultations since 1996.

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The Heart of the

UDDHAVA GITA

Translation with Notes by

Sajohn Daverly

BOULDER, COLORADO

Also by this author:

Bhagavad-Gita: The Ambrosial ‘Sat-Song’ of Sri Krishna

Copyright © 2020 Sajohn Daverly

PUBLISHED BY

BOTH WORLDS PUBLICATIONS

Boulder, Colorado

Cover illustration by Jonathan Machen

Interior drawings by Sanjay Kumar Chatterjee

Front cover design and art direction: Sajohn Daverly

Graphic design and production assistance: Timm Bryson

Back cover photo: Brian Feaster

Paperback ISBN 978-0-9856155-1-2

Ebook ISBN 978-0-9856155-2-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020915641

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage

and retrieval system without written permission from the author

or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Enquiries: [e-mail]

Contents

________________________________________________________________

A Few Words From Mooji

Preface

Part One

Introductory Verses

Part Two

Selected Verses From

The UDDHAVA GITA

In Book Eleven of

The SRIMAD BHAGAVATA PURANA

Chapter One

Sri Krishna Begins His Instruction

on the Eve of His Ascension

Chapter Two

Sri Dattatreya’s Twenty-Four Teachers

Chapter Three

The Value of Satsang and Self-Enquiry •

Bondage and Freedom

Chapter Four

The Hamsa Gita (Song of the Swan)

Chapter Five

Meditation On The Beloved

Chapter Six

Mystic Powers •

Universal Manifestations

Chapter Seven

Enlightened Living As a Sannyasin Sage

Chapter Eight

From Knowing To Loving and Serving

Chapter Nine

Virtues and Faults

Chapter Ten

Spirit, Nature, and the Self

Chapter Eleven

The Song of the Avanti Brahmin

Chapter Twelve

Creation and Dissolution •

The Three Components of Nature

Chapter Thirteen

Emperor Pururava •

Vedic and Tantric Ritual Worship

Chapter Fourteen

Realisation of Truth

Chapter Fifteen

Sri Krishna’s Concluding Instruction

Part Three

Selected Verses From the Other Books of

The SRIMAD BHAGAVATA PURANA

Part Four

Selected Verses From

The GOPALA-TAPANI UPANISHAD

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Further Reading

Dedicated to

Swami B.R. Sridhar Maharaj,

Roy Eugene Davis,

Ramesh S. Balsekar,

Adyashanti,

and Sri Moojibaba—

Guiding luminaries and beloved friends all.

A Few Words From Mooji

________________________________________________________________

I find in my hands a thoughtfully considered, meticulously-woven spiritual work. This is a unique, poetic, and illuminating translation of selected verses from the Uddhava Gita with complementary verses from other renowned spiritual texts. Sajohn Daverly has fully invested his heart and skill in offering these ancient teachings to the contemporary world. It is both an academic and aesthetic work of Heart. The author’s translation exhibits a sensitivity and clarity that bring to life Lord Krishna’s final, intimate and profound teachings with great richness and beauty. This book speaks for itself and can be considered another fine work amongst the Indian spiritual classics. The reader of these timeless verses need not refer to any other source for validation of its potency and authenticity. I feel this comprehensive work is a huge gift for all sincere seekers of Truth.

Mooji

Preface

________________________________________________________________

Just as the Bhagavad-Gita, the spiritual classic of ancient India, comprises

one portion of the epic Mahabharata, so also does its more extensively nuanced sequel the Uddhava Gita constitute one section of the epic Srimad Bhagavata Purana (‘glorious ancient stories in relation to the divine Lord’) which is also known simply as the Bhagavatam. The Purana’s authorship is attributed to the great sage Vyasa, and most of it is presented in the form of a discourse given by Vyasa’s son Shukadeva, a young Self-realised renunciate, to a large assembly of sages headed by King Pariksit, the grandson of

Arjuna. The satsang, a gathering of those who value the embodying of truth, continued for seven days at a place called Shukratal near the Ganges River about halfway between Haridwar and Delhi, and concluded with the king’s becoming completely settled in meditation on his true identity as Brahman, pure Spirit, after which he was liberated from his mortal body.

The central character of the Bhagavatam is Sri Krishna, the celebrated ‘attractively dark’ avatar said to be Lord Vishnu (‘the all-pervasive one’) Himself descended from an infinitely higher dimension of Consciousness to fulfil the role of a most exemplary king and spiritual teacher upon the Earth. In Chapter Six of the Bhagavatam’s eleventh book, we find the Creator Lord Brahma and other celestials visiting Krishna in His palace, lavishly extolling His glories, and requesting Him to return to His divine abode of Vaikuntha since His work upon the Earth had been completed, and Krishna responds to them saying that He will do so after the threat posed by His royal family has been ended. He explains that the Yadavas had become proud, arrogant, and excessive due to their physical strength, military prowess, and wealth. They had intentions of conquering and dominating other kingdoms, and so there was actually a risk of the whole world being destroyed by their aggressive advances. Thus the Yadava clan was cursed by the brahmin community to meet with destruction themselves before they could destroy the planet, and Krishna displayed the full measure of dharma-based impartiality by not mystically repelling that curse which was placed upon His own family members.

Upon Krishna’s observing ominous portents of intense calamities collectively occurring in His kingdom of Dvaraka (‘many-gated’), He convened a meeting of the Yadava dynasty’s elders and urged them to leave that city at once and go to the holy pilgrimage place of Prabhasa without delay. After all others had departed from the palace meeting hall, Uddhava approached Krishna

in His private quarters to speak with Him. Uddhava, ‘one who is like a joyous festival personified’, was not only a very dear friend and cousin to Krishna

as was Arjuna, but he also served as one of Krishna’s most valued counselors during the period when Krishna ruled as the king of Dvaraka in the state of Gujarat on the west coast of India. Such were the events leading up to the recitation of Krishna’s second gita, His ‘song to Uddhava’.

Although while on Earth Krishna exhibited all of the loftiest and most endearing human qualities, readers of the Uddhava Gita will find that throughout most of the text He does not speak from the standpoint of being

a temporarily manifest human expression of the Absolute, but rather from

the depth of His timeless, unborn, neither-coming-nor-going nature as the Absolute Reality itself. He speaks not only from within the relative historical context of being Uddhava’s dearest friend and spiritual teacher, but also from His fully embodied perception of being the same one animating Presence within all living beings, and in so many ways again and again He exhorts Uddhava and all of us to similarly see beyond our own time-framed human persona. Providing us with an abundance of resources for discovering our innermost being to be qualitatively of the same nature as His, Krishna further encourages us to utilise all available means in our Self-investigation so that we may come to clearly perceive, in the words of the insightful medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, that ‘The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.’

Among the most powerfully effective resources provided by Krishna are those which He communicated to Uddhava through narrations of teachings which He had given in two of His previous incarnations as the God- intoxicated sage Sri Dattatreya and as the Hamsa (swan or swanlike) avatar. Sri Dattatreya teaches Krishna’s ancestor King Yadu and ourselves how one may attain to atma-sakshatkara, Self-realisation, by remaining fully alert and attentive to all of the extraordinarily valuable lessons taught by the basic elements of nature and all of nature’s multifarious creations around us

even if a traditional spiritual teacher is not available to us. This is especially pertinent at the present time when it is distinctly clear that particular life- conditions may not permit us to travel and be in the physical presence of

one who has awakened to the unchanging truth which underlies all that we perceive in the ever-changing world-environment. From the Hamsa avatar’s teachings to the four child-sages the Kumaras we are provided with the means to become free from the magnetic attraction which objects have on

our attention by remaining consciously aware of our always-already-existing position as the sakshi, the uninvolved witness, of all phenomena in all states

of perception.

Within the Uddhava Gita are a number of other priceless offerings not found in the Bhagavad-Gita, such as Krishna’s conducting a step-by-step guided meditation on His Vishnu form, and His relating the song of a brahmin

from Avanti who, having subdued the influence of the mind upon himself, underwent a transformation in character from one that embodied all disagreeable qualities to one which was completely devoid of any trace of discontentment or ill will even while he was being subjected to inhumane treatment by others. Alongside these presentations we also find themes propounded by Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita given even greater emphasis

in the Uddhava Gita, such as the importance of not affiliating one’s sense

of self-identity with any perceivable objects or conditions; the value of associating with those who have clear perception of the underlying unicity

of life within the appearance of its diversity; and the incomparable power

of desirelessness and equanimity in bringing about freedom from the vast majority of our sufferings which are caused by conditioned habit-patterns, self-limiting beliefs, and fixed, one-sided perspectives.

In a certain sense, it could be said that Krishna’s teachings to Uddhava in

this gita ‘complete’ His teachings to the human population as a whole because of their particular orientation for Uddhava being the very opposite of what they were for Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita. By this it is meant that Uddhava

is being urged to entirely cease his engagement in conventional social interactions, whereas Arjuna was repeatedly urged to not disengage from his societal occupation as a warrior but rather to wholeheartedly perform what was his necessary duty at the time. This serves to demonstrate that universal principles of truth and conscious living (dharma) are applicable ‘at both ends of the spectrum’, so to speak, and that it is simply a matter of considering individual acquired natures in accordance with the particular time, place,

and circumstances for determining how, in any given situation, the dharma principles may be best applied in order to potentially contribute to benefitting the broadest range of sentient beings.

At the time of this writing most of us would readily agree that we are similarly witnessing many different kinds of ‘ominous portents of intense calamities’ occurring in the world-environment just as Krishna mentioned that He was observing in Dvaraka in His time. Just as His earthly kingdom was completely engulfed by the ocean thousands of years ago, there is at

the present time documented evidence from numerous branches of our own scientific community that unless there is a dramatic transformation in the collective human consciousness accompanied by a ceasing of the destructive behaviour of the collective human population, most islands and coastal regions in every part of the world may indeed be facing a similar impending fate as the original Dvaraka.

It is for this reason that, unlike my presentation of the complete Bhagavad- Gita published in 2012, I felt that currently the most immediately urgent necessity was to present an abridged version of the Uddhava Gita’s twenty-four chapters which contain what I feel to be their most essential verses, those with the greatest potential for evoking, enriching, expanding, expediting, and in every way supporting the type of inner awakening and transformation that is so vitally needed at this particular time. Along with these selections from the Uddhava Gita, additionally included herein are a small sampling of what I feel to be among the most powerfully supportive verses from the other books of the Bhagavata Purana as well as from the Gopala-tapani Upanishad, another ancient text centred upon Sri Krishna.

By ‘supportive’, I mean not only in our collective endeavours to avert any further destruction of the Earth planet, but also in regard to the continued evolution of consciousness towards spiritual Self-realisation and divine fulfilment both within the earthly realm and beyond it.

Innumerable sages and sagesses throughout history who have awakened

to the truth of their innermost being have described many things which

we would have to honestly admit are beyond our earthly experience, such

as for example states of being that are beyond all varieties of suffering and limitation. Is it actually possible that what they have spoken and written about truly exists? Most of us cannot claim to know the answer to that question, yet those who feel some inner calling to an exploration which

the question invites will find that the Uddhava Gita contains a formidable array of useful facilities for each of us to make our own individual discoveries of the same perennial universal truth that has been communicated down through the ages for thousands of years by those who have soulfully embodied it.

Krishna states twice in His discourse—first in verse 11.22.55, and then again in 11.28.13—that ‘The rotating appearance of relative life does not come to an end for one who continues to dwell upon sense-objects.’ Therefore perhaps one of the most profoundly liberating revelations for us during the course of our inner exploration is that the material world is not in fact holding onto us; it is actually we who are holding onto it. When this is clearly perceived, then as we proceed in our Self-investigation with the openness of a completely unbiased heart, at some point we may come to subtly sense that whatever

it is that we want from the relative world may very well be exactly what constitutes our self-imposed ‘bondage’; and as stated in verse 2.12 of the Adhyatma Upanishad: ‘The cessation of all desires is what is referred to as jivanmukti, living in the liberated state while still with the material body.’

Phonetic spelling of Sanskrit words has been employed throughout except in the case of certain words which for the broadest section of readers might be

more familiar in their original form such as jnana, wherein the letters j-n are pronounced like the combined letters g-y in the phrase ‘long yarn’, or the honorific prefix Sri, which is pronounced ‘Shree’. Also, bracketed insertions have occasionally been added into the translations of verses where it was felt that they provided fuller clarity for the reader’s understanding of the verse.

Most of us would probably agree that throughout our lives we have met

with relatively few persons who have said that they relish having a life of continual hardship, struggle, and stressful challenges. Therefore it is my sincere hope that lovers of truth everywhere may be inspired and delighted by this literary offering wherein there has been the endeavour to ‘translate

the Ground of Being into more of the ease of being’ by pointing out what is always already available to us and has never been lost. And insofar as the termination of the physical body’s functioning is inevitable at some point

or other, may we all further come to discover that virtually every experience in life either makes living easier or dying easier, and that Self-realisation accomplishes both in each newly-arising moment.

Sajohn Daverly

11 August, 2020 (Sri Krishna Janmashtami)

Boulder, Colorado

Part One

________________________________________________________________

Introductory Verses

Maha Mula-Mantra

om satchidananda parabrahma / purushottama paramatma

sri bhagavati sameta / sri bhagavate namah

om > (invocation, affirmation); sat-chit-ananda > pure existence,

consciousness, and joyous contentment; parabrahma > the Absolute Reality,

the transcendent aspect of the Godhead; purushottama > the Supreme Being; paramatma > Supreme Spirit, the immanent animating Presence

pervading the universe; sri bhagavati > Goddess Durga, Goddess Lakshmi,

the divine feminine aspect of the Godhead; sameta > united, connected,

or conjoined with; sri bhagavate > unto Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, or the masculine aspect of the Godhead; namah > I offer respectful homage.

I offer respectful homage unto the one Absolute Reality—

Pure existence, consciousness, and joyous contentment—

The animating Presence which pervades the entire universe

yet is also beyond it,

And who is the Supreme Being—

Both the masculine conjoined with the feminine aspect

of the one divine Godhead.

Guru Gita verse 89

(From the Skanda Purana)

brahmanandam paramasukhadam / kevalam jnanamurtim

dvandvatitam gaganasadrisham / tattvamasyadi-lakshyam

ekam nityam vimalam achalam / sarvadhi-sakshibhutam

bhavatitam trigunarahitam / sadgurum tam namami

brahma-anandam > the unconditional bliss inherent in the Absolute; parama-sukhadam > giving the greatest happiness; kevalam > of the

absolute unicity of pure Spirit; jnana > divine knowing or realisation;

murtim > the embodiment, manifestation, or personification of;

dvandva-atitam > beyond duality, beyond being affected

by the pairs of opposites; gagana-sadrisham > like the sky;

tat tvam asi adi lakshyam > an observable indication

or expression of scriptural aphorisms such as ‘That thou art’;

ekam > oneness, singularity; nityam > eternal, timeless; vimalam > clear,

bright, pure; achalam > unwavering; sarvadhi > from above everything,

all-transcending; sakshi-bhutam > witnessing the world of living beings;

bhava-atitam > beyond becoming or changing into anything;

triguna-rahitam > free from subjugation by the three components

of Nature; sadgurum > the true spiritual teacher or exemplary preceptor;

tam namami > I offer my respectful homage unto him, her, or that one.

[Lord Shiva said to Goddess-Mother Parvati:]

The true spiritual teacher embodies the divine realisation

of the absolute unicity of pure Spirit

And provides access to the greatest happiness—

the unconditional bliss inherent in the Absolute.

Like the sky,

he or she is beyond being affected by the pairs of opposites,

And is truly an observable manifestation

of scriptural aphorisms such as ‘That thou art’.

I offer respectful homage unto that exemplary preceptor

who is a clear, unwavering reflection

Of that timeless Singularity which,

while witnessing the world of living beings,

Remains transcendent to everything,

Beyond becoming anything,

And free from subjugation by the three components of Nature.

Unconditional bliss—Not caused by any reason relating to the conditions of any type of phenomena, either physical or subtle.

Like the sky—The nature of the sky is not affected or changed by any environmental conditions such as heat and cold, darkness and light, thunderous sounds, or even the most turbulent storms moving through it. Similarly, those who have realised their true skylike nature are not shaken from their perceiving and expressing of that nature in the midst of life’s inevitably-occurring pairs of opposites such as pleasure and pain, gain

and loss, honour and dishonour, etcetera.

‘That thou art’—Conveys that ‘That’—infinite Spirit, the undivided absolute Totality—is partially expressing Itself in a dreamlike way as oneself and the entirety of all life-forms.

While witnessing remains transcendent—Those who are awake to being the

one ever-present Reality do not view themselves as being merely another phenomenal object within the infinitude of transient forms which appear, remain temporarily, and vanish. They are consciously aware of always being the abiding perceiver of whatever illusory phenomena is perceived, the truth of which has been articulated by the Hamsa avatar of Lord Vishnu in verse 11.13.27 of the Bhagavata Purana: ‘The three states of physical wakefulness, dreaming, and deep sleep are modes of perception in accordance with the components of Nature, yet it is definitively ascertained that the animating Presence is different from them and situated as their witness.’

The Gayatri Mantra

(Rig Veda verse 3.62.10)

om bhur bhuvah svah / tat savitur varenyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi / dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

om > ‘May it be so’; bhuh > the earthly sphere of the universe;

bhuvah > the intermediate astral region; svah > and the subtle domain

of the celestials; tat savituh > that vivifying deity within the sun;

varenyam > most excellent, desirable; bhargah > splendour, radiance;

devasya > of the Divine, of the Godhead; dhimahi > we meditate

upon; dhiyah > intelligence, understanding; yah > who;

nah > our; prachodayat > stimulating, propelling, inspiring.

May it be that throughout the earthly, the astral,

and the heavenly regions of the universe

We meditate upon the radiance of the Divine

as that most excellent vivifying deity within the sun,

That He may propel and inspire our intelligence.

Deity within the sun—Generally refers to the form of Lord Vishnu known as Surya-narayana. Other principal mantras for him are Om hram hrim hraum sah suryay namah, as well as:

namah suryaya shantaya / sarvaroga-nivarine

ayur arogyam aishvaryam / dehi devah jagatpate

‘I respectfully bow to you, Lord Surya, who are the calming remover

of all illness and infirmity. O sovereign of the world, you are the divine embodiment of vitality, freedom from disease, and abundant prosperity.’

Prayers For Universal Peace

sarvesham svastir bhavatu / sarvesham shantir bhavatu

sarvesham purnam bhavatu / sarvesham mangalam bhavatu

sarve bhavantu sukhinah / sarve santu niramayah

sarve bhadrani pashyantu / makashchid duhkha bhagbhavet

om shanti shanti shanti om

sarvesham > for all sentient beings; svastih > well-being, good fortune;

bhavatu > let there be, may there be; shantih > peace; purnam > abundance, fulfilment, contentment; mangalam > auspiciousness, spiritual prosperity.

sarve > all; bhavantu > may they be; sukhinah > happy;

sarve > all; santu > may they be; niramayah > free from illness,

whole and healthy; sarve > all; bhadrani > what is beneficial

or brings good fortune; pashyantu > may we see, consider,

or rightly understand; ma kashchid > not anyone; duhkha > pain,

sorrow, trouble, difficulty; bhagbhavet > one should dispense;

om shanti > let there be peace; om > amen, may it be so.

May there be well-being and good fortune for all.

May there be peace, fulfilment, and auspiciousness

for all sentient beings.

May all be whole, healthy, and happy.

May we all see and rightly understand what is beneficial

and not give trouble to any being anywhere.

Let there be peace...peace...peace. Amen.

Part Two

________________________________________________________________

Selected Verses From

The UDDHAVA GITA

In Book Eleven of

The SRIMAD BHAGAVATA PURANA

‘My dear Maitreyi,

By shravana, manana, and nididhyasana—

Attentive hearing, deep contemplation,

And stable assimilation of what has been heard and contemplated—

The true Self is to be realised.’

—Sri Yajnavalkya, Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5

Chapter One

________________________________________________________________

Sri Krishna Begins His Instruction

on the Eve of His Ascension

vedan puranam kavyam cha / prabhur mitram priyeva cha

bodhayanteti hi prahus / trivad bhagavatam punan

‘The sages say that the Vedas give instruction like one’s master,

The Puranas give instruction like one’s friend,

And poetry certainly gives instruction like one’s lover,

But the Srimad Bhagavatam gives instruction like all three of them combined.’

—Vopadeva, Muktaphala

11.6.41

vivikte upasangamya / jagatam ishvareshvaram

pranamya shirasa padau / pranjalis tam abhashata

vivikte > in a secluded place; upasangamya > approaching;

jagatam > of living beings; ishvara-ishvaram > the Lord of all other

lordly rulers; pranamya > bowing down; shirasa padau > with his

(Uddhava’s) head at the feet (of Sri Krishna); pranjalih > with palms

conjoined respectfully; tam abhashata > he addressed Him.

[Sri Shukadeva said to King Pariksit:]

Approaching Sri Krishna in a secluded place

And bowing his head to the feet

of the Lord of all other lordly rulers of living beings,

Uddhava addressed Him with his palms respectfully conjoined.

Shukadeva—Whose name means ‘divine parrot’, and ‘Pariksit’ means ‘extending’ or ‘surrounding’.

11.6.42

sri uddhava uvacha

devadevesha yogesha / punyashravana-kirtana

samhrityaitat kulam nunam / lokam santyakshyate bhavan

viprashapam samarthopi / pratyahan na yad ishvarah

sri uddhavah uvacha > the noble Uddhava said; deva-devesha > O divine leader of all celestial beings; yoga-isha > master of all supernatural powers;

punya > meritorious, virtuous, auspicious; shravana-kirtana > hearing about and speaking about whom; samhritya > removing, withdrawing, concluding; etat > this; kulam > family, community, tribe; nunam > assuredly;

lokam > this world; santyakshyate > leaving; bhavan > (honorific) Your Grace, Your Lordship; vipra-shapam > the curse inflicted (upon the Yadava

dynasty) by the religious scholars; samarthah > competent, capable;

api > even though; pratyahan na > you did not repel, drive back,

or keep away; yat > as, since; ishvarah > supremely powerful.

The noble Uddhava said:

O divine leader of all the celestial beings,

Master of all supernatural powers

the hearing and speaking about whom is most auspicious,

Your Lordship must surely be preparing to leave this world

since You are concluding the activities of Your family,

And You did not repel the curse inflicted upon the Yadava dynasty

by the religious scholars,

Even though You are supremely powerful

and were fully capable of doing so.

Celestial beings—Expressions of the one Existence in the more subtle dimension of infinite Consciousness.

The curse inflicted by the religious scholars—For the reasons mentioned in the Preface to this work. Not long after the city of Dvaraka had been evacuated by all of its residents, it became completely flooded by the ocean and submerged underwater. Between 1963 and 2007, teams of marine archaeologists explored that area and excavated a great many structural remains and artifacts dating back thousands of years.

11.6.43

naham tavanghri-kamalam / kshanardham api keshava

tyaktum samutsahe natha / svadhama naya mam api

na aham > I do not; tava anghri-kamalam > your lotus-like feet;

kshana-ardham > for half of a moment; api > even;

keshava > O one with long handsome hair; tyaktum > for relinquishing,

for leaving; samutsahe > have the ability, energy, or will-power;

natha > O master; svadhama > to your abode;

naya mam > please lead, guide, or bring me; api > also.

O beautiful master,

I am not able to relinquish Your lotus-like feet

for even half a moment.

Please bring me to Your abode as well.

11.6.47

vatavasana ya rishayah / shramana urdhramanthinah

brahmakhyam dhama te yanti / shantah sannyasinomalah

vata-vasanah > clad only in air; ye rishayah > those seer-poets

or sages who; shramanah > making great effort, performing austerities;

urdhva-manthinah > ‘keeping the semen above’, observing celibacy

or chastity; brahma-akhyam > which is called Brahman;

dhama > the abode, the state; te yanti > they reach, they attain to;

shantah > whose passions have subsided, who are serene;

sannyasinah > the renunciates; amalah > pure, free of vices.

Those sages clad only in air

who perform austerities, observe celibacy—

Whose passions have subsided and are thus free of vices—

Such pure renunciates attain to the state called Brahman.

Attain to the state—Meaning that those sages fully embody the stable realisation of being pure Spirit. For them, the only-existing Reality is no longer something to be attained by an ‘other’, but is rather one’s own ever-present true nature.

11.6.48

vayam tviha mahayogin / bhramantah karmavartmasu

tvad-vartaya tarishyamas / tavakair dustaram tamah

vayam > we; tu > but; iha > here in this world; maha-yogin > O great one

possessing all mystic abilities; bhramantah > wandering about,

revolving; karma-vartmasu > performing worldly activities ‘in a rut’;

tvat-vartaya > recounting events in relation to You, conversing about You;

tarishyamah > we will cross over, pass through, overcome, or escape from; tavakaih > with those who are Yours or who belong to You; dustaram > difficult to be crossed, passed, or overcome; tamah > mental darkness, illusion.

But we in this world who are revolving in the deep rut

created by the wheel of worldly activities

Will escape from this condition of mental darkness

which is difficult to pass through

By conversing about You

with others whose heart belongs to You,

O great one possessing all mystic abilities.

Created by the wheel—The word vartman is defined as ‘the track or rut of a wheel’. Just as one makes deep tracks in the ground by the repeated passage of a vehicle’s wheels, vartmasu connotes repetitive behaviour and deeply- engrained habit-patterns of acquired conditioning associated with the wheel of samsara, the dreamlike experience of mundane life and transmigration.

Others whose heart belongs to You—Refers to other students, servitors, and devotees of Krishna.

11.6.49

smarantah kirtayantas te / kritani gaditani cha

gatyutsmitekshana-kshveli / yan nriloka-vidambanam

smarantah > remembering; kirtayantah > relating, praising, celebrating;

te > by You; kritani > the deeds performed; gaditani cha > and the words spoken; gati > Your manner of moving, Your gait; utsmita > with a smile; ikshana > looking upon, viewing, regarding; kshveli > with playfulness,

with humour, with a leap (connoting ‘with a spring in your step’),

with a sporting demeanour; yat > which; nri-loka > in the company of

human beings; vidambanam > imitating, playing the part, disguised.

We shall remember and celebrate Your words and deeds—

Your charming manner of viewing

and moving through all life-situations

with a smile, humour, and a sporting demeanour

As You play the part of a human being in our company.

We shall remember and celebrate—Uddhava’s overall mood expressed here

and in the previous three verses recalls some words of the sixteenth-century spiritual teacher Sri Chaitanya recorded in one of his biographies known as the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Antya-lila 20.47:

ashlishya va padaratam pinashtu mam / adarshanan marmahatam karotu va

yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato / mat-prananathas tu sa eva naparah

‘Whether He warmly embraces me who am devoted to His lotus-like feet,

Or hurts my feelings and breaks my heart by disregarding me,

Or in whatever manner that libertine Krishna may treat me—

He alone is the Lord of my life and no other.’

‘That libertine Krishna’ refers to Krishna’s playful romantic pastimes in His youth with the milkmaids of Vrindaban, ‘the forest where the holy basil grows’.

11.7.2

maya nishpaditam hyatra / devakaryam asheshatah

yadartham avatirnoham / amshena brahmanarthitah

maya > by Me; nishpaditam > completed, accomplished; hi > indeed;

atra > here in this world; deva-karyam > the work which the celestials

wished to be done; asheshatah > fully, without remainder;

yat > which; artham > the purpose; avatirnah aham > I descended;

amshena > with one who is part of Me (refers to Krishna’s brother Balarama); brahmana > by the universal Creator Lord Brahma; arthitah > requested.

[The radiant Lord Krishna said:]

I have indeed fully completed the work

which the celestials wished to accomplish in this world,

This being the purpose for My descending here

with My beloved brother Balarama

at the request of Lord Brahma.

The work which the celestials wished to accomplish—Was stated by Krishna in verse 11.6.28 as being bhumer bharovataritah, to remove the burden of malefic forces from the Earth.

My descending here—From the ‘higher strata’ or more refined expression of infinite Consciousness.

Balarama—Krishna’s elder brother, ‘the powerful one who brings delight to all’. Just as Krishna here affectionately refers to him as ‘one who is part of Me’, He will also address Uddhava as anga, ‘part of Me’, on several occasions throughout His discourse.

11.7.6

tvam tu sarvam parityajya / sneham svajanabandhushu

mayyaveshya manah