Chapter 22

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya 4.176) it is said: ‘dvaite’ bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba — ‘manodharma’‘ei bhāla, ei manda,’ — ei saba ‘bhrama’ In this material world the auspicious and inauspicious are simply mental concoctions because such things exist only due to association with the material world. This is called illusion, or ātma-māyā. We think ourselves created by material nature exactly as we think ourselves experiencing so many things in a dream. The spirit soul, however, is always transcendental. There is no question of becoming materially covered. This covering is simply something like a hallucination or a dream. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.62) it is also said, saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ: simply by association we create artificial material necessities. Dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate: when we forget our real constitutional position and wish to enjoy the material resources, our material desires manifest, and we associate with varieties of material enjoyment. As soon as the concoctions of material enjoyment are there, because of our association we create a sort of lust or eagerness to enjoy them, and when that false enjoyment does not actually make us happy, we create another illusion, known as anger, and by the manifestation of anger, the illusion becomes stronger. When we are illusioned in this way, forgetfulness of our relationship with Kṛṣṇa follows, and by thus losing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our real intelligence is defeated. In this way we become entangled in this material world. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.63) it is said: krodhād bhavati sammohaḥsammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥsmṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśobuddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati By material association we lose our spiritual consciousness; consequently there is the question of the auspicious and inauspicious. But those who are ātmārāma, or self-realized, have transcended such questions. The ātmārāmas, or self-realized persons, gradually making further progress in spiritual bliss, come to the platform of association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the perfection of life. In the beginning, the Kumāras were self-realized impersonalists, but gradually they became attracted to the personal pastimes of the Supreme Lord. The conclusion is that for those who are always engaged in the devotional service of the Personality of Godhead, the duality of the auspicious and inauspicious does not arise. Pṛthu Mahārāja is therefore asking about auspiciousness not for the sake of the Kumāras but for his own sake.