Chapter 4: Transcendental Knowledge
Bg 4.11
TEXT 11
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
SYNONYMS
ye—all of them; yatha—as; mam—unto Me; prapadyante—surrender; tan—unto them; tatha—so; eva—certainly; bhajami—do I reward; aham—I; mama—My; vartma—path; anuvartante—do follow; manusyah—all men; partha—O son of Prtha; sarvasah—in all respects.
TRANSLATION
All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha.
PURPORT
Eveyone is searching for Krsna in the different aspects of His manifestations. Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is partially realized in His impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence and as the all-pervading Supersoul dwelling within everything, including the particles of atoms. But Krsna is only fully realized by His pure devotees. Consequently, Krsna is the object of everyone's realization, and thus anyone and everyone is satisfied according to one's desire to have Him. In the transcendental world also, Krsna reciprocates with His pure devotees in the transcendental attitude, just as the devotee wants Him. One devotee may want Krsna as supreme master, another as his personal friend, another as his son, and still another as his lover. Krsna rewards all the devotees equally, according to their different intensities of love for Him. In the material world, the same reciprocations of feelings are there, and they are equally exchanged by the Lord with the different types of worshipers. The pure devotees both here and in the transcendental abode associate with Him in person and are able to render personal service to the Lord and thus derive transcendental bliss in His loving service. As for those who are impersonalists and who want to commit spiritual suicide by annihilating the individual existence of the living entity, Krsna helps also by absorbing them into His effulgence. Such impersonalists do not agree to accept the eternal, blissful Personality of Godhead; consequently they cannot relish the bliss of transcendental personal service to the Lord, having extinguished their individuality. Some of them, who are not situated even in the impersonal existence, return to this material field to exhibit their dormant desires for activities. They are not admitted in the spiritual planets, but they are again given a chance to act on the material planets. For those who are fruitive workers, the Lord awards the desired results of their prescribed duties, as the yajnesvara; and those who are yogis seeking mystic powers are awarded such powers. In other words, everyone is dependant for success upon His mercy alone, and all kinds of spiritual processes are but different degrees of success on the same path. Unless, therefore, one comes to the highest perfection of Krsna consciousness, all attempts remain imperfect, as is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam:
akamah sarva-kamo va moksa-kama udaradhih
tivrena bhakti-yogena yajeta purusam param
"Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is desirous of all fruitive results, or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Krsna consciousness."
(Bhag. 2.3.10)