Five Elements OF Material Nature -Sahadev Prabhu ISKCON Chowpatty

2016 11 25 SB 10 87 30 Five Elements OF Material Nature -Sahadev Prabhu ISKCON Chowpatty SB 10.87.30 aparimitā dhruvās tanu-bhṛto yadi sarva-gatās  tarhi na śāsyateti niyamo dhruva netarathā ajani ca yan-mayaṁ tad avimucya niyantṛ bhavet  samam anujānatāṁ yad amataṁ mata-duṣṭatayā Synonyms: aparimitāḥ — countless; dhruvāḥ — permanent; tanu-bhṛtaḥ — the embodied living entities; yadi — if; sarva-gatāḥ — omnipresent; tarhi — then; na — not; śāsyatā — sovereignty; iti — such; niyamaḥ — rule; dhruva — O unchanging one; na — not; itarathā — otherwise; ajani — was generated; ca — and; yat-mayam — from whose substance; tat — from that; avimucya — not separating itself; niyantṛ — regulator; bhavet — must be; samam — equally present; anujānatām — of those who supposedly know; yat — which; amatam — misunderstood; mata — of what is known; duṣṭatayā — because of the imperfection. Translation: If the countless living entities were all-pervading and possessed forms that never changed, You could not possibly be their absolute ruler, O immutable one. But since they are Your localized expansions and their forms are subject to change, You do control them. Indeed, that which supplies the ingredients for the generation of something is necessarily its controller because a product never exists apart from its ingredient cause. It is simply illusion for someone to think that he knows the Supreme Lord, who is equally present in each of His expansions, since whatever knowledge one gains by material means must be imperfect. Purport: Because the conditioned soul cannot directly understand the Supreme, the Vedas commonly refer to that Supreme Truth in such impersonal terms as Brahman and oṁ tat sat. If an ordinary scholar presumes to know the confidential meaning of these symbolic references, he should be rejected as an imposter. In the words of Śrī Kena Upaniṣad (2.1), yadi manyase su-vedeti dabhram evāpi nūnaṁ tvaṁ vettha brahmaṇo rūpaṁ, yad asya tvaṁ yad asya deveṣu: “If you think you know Brahman well, then your knowledge is very meager. If you think you can identify Brahman’s form from among the demigods, indeed you know but little.” And again: yasyāmataṁ tasya mataṁ  mataṁ yasya na veda saḥ avijñātaṁ vijānatāṁ  vijñātam avijānatām “Whoever denies having any opinion of his own about the Supreme Truth is correct in his opinion, whereas one who has his own opinion about the Supreme does not know Him. He is unknown to those who claim to know Him, and can only be known by those who do not claim to know Him.” (Kena Upaniṣad 2.3)