evaṁ bruvāṇaṁ maitreyaṁ

Chapter Seven

Vidura’s Questions

|| 3.7.1 ||

śrī-śuka uvāca

evaṁ bruvāṇaṁ maitreyaṁ

dvaipāyana-suto budhaḥ

prīṇayann iva bhāratyā

viduraḥ pratyabhāṣata

Śukadeva said: Then intelligent Vidura, the son of Vyāsadeva, pleasing Maitreya with sweet words after he had finished his explanation, addressed Maitreya.

In the Seventh Chapter Vidura asks questions to resolve his doubts about the Lord and the jīva and other questions about bhakti. Maitreya had explained as follows:

sā vā etasya saṁdraṣṭuḥ

śaktiḥ sad-asad-ātmikā

māyā nāma mahā-bhāga

yayedaṁ nirmame vibhuḥ

 

kāla-vṛttyā tu māyāyāṁ

guṇa-mayyām adhokṣajaḥ

puruṣeṇātma-bhūtena

vīryam ādhatta vīryavān

 

O great soul! That energy, composed of cause and effect, belonging to the Lord who glances, is called māyā. By that energy the Lord creates the universe.

 

Bhagavān, lord of Mahā-vaikuṇṭha, in his svāṁśa expansion as the puruṣa, under the influence of time, offered the jīvas into māyā agitated by the guṇas.  SB 3.2.25-26

“O brāhmaṇa! You have delivered me from the well of material life!” By such sweet words (bhāratyā) Vidura seemed to (iva) please Maitreya. Actually he could not please Maitreya with such words because Maitreya could easily understand the objections in Vidura’s mind to what he had said.

 

|| 3.7.2 ||

vidura uvāca

brahman kathaṁ bhagavataś

cin-mātrasyāvikāriṇaḥ

līlayā vāpi yujyeran

nirguṇasya guṇāḥ kriyāḥ

Vidura said: O brāhmaṇa! How is it possible that the Lord, who is spiritual, without change, and beyond the guṇas, becomes connected with actions and guṇas?

How can a spiritual entity have activities like creation of the universe with guṇas like sattva, rajas and tamas? Vidura has not used the words cinmaya or cid-rūpa but the word cin-mātrasya. This word limits the Lord to only spiritual substance, with no trace of matter. However, māyā, with material guṇas, was described in the verse quoted from chapter 5 as being a śakti of the Lord. Because the Lord cannot be separated from his śakti, the Lord must have material guṇas. How can that be possible that he has these guṇas if he is only exclusively spiritual, cinmātra. And if he has these guṇas, how can he be considered completely spiritual? This is one question.

 

Transformation is caused by time, and is a quality of the guṇas. Because the Lord is purely spiritual, if he is without change, how can he perform actions which indicate change? If he performs actions, how can he be spiritual? This is the second question. “It is impossible for him to have such guṇas and actions.” But they do appear if the Lord has independent pastimes. By using the phrase līlayā vā (does he really have such pastimes?) instead of simply līlayā, it is possible to avoid contradiction. If he actually has such pastimes, then it is impossible for him to avoid have guṇas.

 

Bhagavataḥ is a subject with modifying words such as cinmatrasya and avikariṇaḥ. bhagavān eka āsedam agre: only the Lord existed before the creation. (SB 3.5.23)  Maitreya will also mention Bhagavān later with seyaṁ bhagavato māyā. (SB 3.7.9) If one describes the Lord as dealing with māyā, such a Bhagavān cannot be purely spiritual. He cannot be said to have bhaga (spiritual qualities), for in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said that bhagavān means “having bhagas or qualities, which is non-material.”

 

jñāna-śakti-balaiśvarya-vīrya-tejāṁsy aśeṣataḥ

bhagavac-chabda vācyāni vinā heyair guṇādibhir

 

The word bhagavān means to be endowed with unlimited knowledge, sense power, bodily strength, power of control, influence and beauty without inferior guṇas.

 

dehadehi-vibhāgo ’yaṁ neśvare vidyate kvacid

 

There is not separation of the Lord from his body at all.

 

Thus the word bhaga indicates that the six great qualities are purely spiritual, not a transformation of the material guṇas such as sattva. Such qualities of Bhagavān are his chief qualities (svarūpa-lakṣaṇa). Saying that these qualities of Bhagavān are secondary qualities (taṭaṣṭha-lakṣaṇa) because they are material is completely wrong. One may say that Indra possesses māyā, and that Indra becomes a bull by māyā’s power. This means that there is an appearance of a bull belonging to Indra created by himself. Similarly, in saying that the Lord has māyā (seyaṁ bhagavato māyā), the Lord becomes the universe by the use of māyā. This means that the Lord has a universal form made of māyā, but this is not the Lord.

 

|| 3.7.3 ||