Yoga Sutras vs. Bhagavad Gita
Question: The goal of Yoga being attainable thru devotion to the Lord and Arjuna asking to be taught. These verses intersect to me in subject…Surrendering to God…asking God??? Yes? No?
Answer: The difference is that in Yoga Sutras 1.23 there is option and Arjuna sees no other option. Arjuna shows surrender, faith and desperation. He is thinking of a person. YS 1.23 is vague on these points.
*
Destruction of Bhava?
Question: In Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu 1.3.54 it is said : bhAvo’py abhAvam AyAti krsna presthAparAdhataH – “even bhava is destroyed by an offence at Krishna and/or His devotee.”
Does the word ‘abhAva‘ really mean destruction? [in Bengali abhAva means ‘absence’]. If bhava is destroyed, then how can we understand the Gita’s ‘nehAbhikrama nAzo’sti verse [2.40] and SB 11.29.20’s ‘na hyangopakrame dhvamso mad dharmosyoddhavANvapi ‘In the attempt of My dharma there is not even the slightest destruction’. Perhaps this BRS verse means that bhava is temporarily suspended, for one lifetime or so, and returns in the next life, as in Bhagavad Gita 6.41-43, which describes that the fallen yogi will automatically resume his sadhana in his next life?
Answer: First of all, the bhava of Vaikunthavasis cannot be destroyed because they are immune to offenses. This possibility of bhava becoming abhava is only before one attains prema. That also is a possibility which is stated so that one is careful about aparadhas. Abhava means disappearance not destruction. Just as it becomes manifest it can become unmanifest. In a future birth it can re-appear again. The stress here is on the gravity of the aparadha which is the topic under discussion, not on the losing of the bhava.
*
Spiritual Planets
Question: Bhagavatam (2.5.15) purport says: “One who reaches the highest planet, that of Brahma, can aspire to reach the planets in the spiritual sky, where life is eternal.” Does this means that from there you go to Vaikuntha or to Goloka?
Answer: You can go to either of them.
*
Bhagavata Commentaries
Question: In my research I came across an article which meantions that there are more than 80 commentaries on Bhagavata Purana. Can you please direct me in my research to further authors who can confirm this?
Answer: I have two boks in Hindi in my libraray which give a list of available commentaries and the names of commentaries which are mentiones by other commenatators but are not available at present Book no 1 – Bhagavata ke Tikakara by Dr. Vasudeva Krishna Chaturvedi, Rajyasri Prakashan, Dalapat Street, Mathura, 1976
This book gives a list of 93 commentaries.
Book no 2 – Bhagavata Parichaya by Sudarshan Singh Chakra, Sri Krishna Janma Seva Sansthan, Mathura, 1977
He gives a list of 173 commentaries and has used the list from the above book also.
It is to be noted that all commentaries are not on the complete book. Some are only on specific chapters such as Rasa-panchadhyayi, or Sruti stuti.
I hope this is of help to you.
