Pravrutti Nivrutti Prakaranam (Topic of Worldly and Spiritual Lives)

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1) Ādyā bāhyāntarā'styeva, parāntarmātra niṣṭhitā |
Pratīkopāsane hyevam, hitvā jīva narāyitam ||

[Pravrutti means the worldly life, which is both external and internal. Nivrutti means spiritual life, which is internal only and not external due to the impossibility of general life. Pravrutti is blended with the external life in the case of any soul belonging to Pravrutti or Nivrutti. This means pure Nivrutti is not possible in this world, completely devoid of Pravrutti. External means body and word, and internal means mind. The conclusion is that a soul can have complete internal Nivrutti, but not complete external Nivrutti. The basic reason for this difference is that God is taken as either formless space or as inert statues and photos of past human incarnations or energetic incarnations having form. In all these cases, God is worshipped as a representative model (pratīka upāsanā) only and not as direct human incarnation. As long as the contemporary human incarnation is not recognized and realized, there is no other way than to maintain Nivrutti in internal level only. This does not mean that since contemporary human incarnation is absent, this state of internal Nivrutti is inevitable. The point is that contemporary human incarnation is available in every human generation, but humanity is missing it. By this, we must realize that it is our fault and not the fault of God.]

2) Nāpavādakṣataṃ tattvam, hetubhir martya ujjhitaḥ |
Hanumad gopikā labdham, kimanyeṣu guṇāśca te ||

[Some devotees have completely rejected the concept of human incarnation for several reasons like the exploitations done by fraud human incarnations, ego and jealousy of devotees towards co-human form, economic loss etc. Instead of solving the problems that hinder the concept, people have chosen to completely eliminate the concept. Is it wise? Because of some railway accident, do people avoid railway journey completely? If some copying took place in some center, would you recommend abolition of the examination system itself? Then, what about the credit of several centers conducting examination perfectly? What about the credit of several safe Railway journeys done by you? Elimination of the very basic concept is the wrong direction of conclusion to the issues. Every system has its own merits and defects. What about the merit of Hanuman and Gopikas (as seen from their ultimate fruits of Brahma Loka and Goloka), who worshipped only their contemporary human incarnations? Such highest fruits were not attained by the other devotees, who worshipped God as space and statues leaving the contemporary human incarnation! You should not confine yourself to see only the defects of a concept but also observe the side of merits. The merits are tremendous, you shall take all care to avoid the defects.]

3) Doṣebhyo mucyatāṃ necchā, satyā te dvividhasthtī |
Narāvatāra mātraṃ na, vartamāna narākṛtiḥ ||

[Defects can be easily avoided by taking care of 1) identifying the contemporary human incarnation through proper identity marks, 2) crossing ego and jealousy towards co-human forms and 3) reducing selfish greediness etc. There are ways to control the defects, if you wish to control them. The actual point is that you like the defects and hence, you don’t want to control them. Hence, we have to understand Pravrutti and Nivrutti in these two different situations of realizing the contemporary human incarnation and eliminating the contemporary incarnation. In fact, the biggest fun is devotees eliminating the contemporary incarnation accept the past human incarnations so that even if the concept is correct, they will not lose anything! But this is bogus because the concept is not that of human incarnation, but, of the contemporary human incarnation!]

4) Aṅgīkāre Nivṛttistu, bāhyāntassulabhā hi sā |
Nivṛtti rasti cet pūrṇā, pravṛtter mucyatāṃ katham? ||

[If you are lucky to realize the contemporary human incarnation, complete Nivrutti, which is both internal and external is possible. If you don’t realize the contemporary human incarnation, only internal Nivrutti is possible and external Nivrutti is impossible. Now, the question is that “if complete Nivrutti is followed by a lucky devotee by realizing the contemporary human incarnation, what about the Pravrutti of such a devotee? Is such devotee released from total Pravrutti or not? Staying in the world, such total liberation is not possible. When there is no total liberation from Pravrutti, how can you have total Nivrutti?”— This is the question from the opponent.]

5) Bāhya mānasa bhedo'sti, sambandhe'pi kṛtākṛtāt |
Gītāyā muttaraṃ dattam, Nivṛttiścet pravṛttigā ||

[Our answer is that liberation must be about the mind and need not be external. External liberation need not ensure the internal liberation because a soul sitting in the forest may be thinking about worldly life. A person sitting in the world may be totally absorbed in spiritual life by his/her mind. Moreover, the activities in the external life are always done as per one’s mind only. The devotee of total Nivrutti performs spiritual activities also externally. But, what about the external worldly activities of the same devotee? Under inevitable circumstances external worldly activities can be also performed, which are not counted by God since the mind is not involved in it. Such external inevitable Pravrutti-activities are not real and are as good as the activities done in a dream and bear no results. This is the critical explanation given in the Gita by God Krishna for this critical situation.]

6) Pravṛttir jīvayor bandhaḥ, nivṛttir jīvadevayoḥ |
Jīvantau miśrame khyātau, śuddhā vāstika nāstikau ||

[Pravrutti means the relationship between souls. Nivrutti means the relationship between God and a soul. Both these are not existing separately like day and night or energy and matter. The creation is like twilight, which is a mixture of light and darkness and is also a mixture of Nivrutti and Pravrutti. The atheist can live in pure Pravrutti rejecting Nivrutti completely. But the theist can’t live in an isolated condition. The devotee of complete Nivrutti also has inevitable connection with Pravrutti in this world. An atheist may proceed through a group singing devotional songs, but, is mentally detached. Similarly, a devotee of complete Nivrutti can live in this world without mental attachment, doing inevitable activities of Pravrutti and doing the activities of Nivrutti with a fully inspired mind. Just like the atheist is considered to be a pure atheist, the devotee of complete Nivrutti is also considered to be pure.]

7) Ādyā bandhe parā tyāge, bhandha tyāgau dvivṛttigau |
Bandho'numīyate tyāgaiḥ, mānadaṇḍa ivāmbhasi ||

[Pravrutti means attachment and Nivrutti means detachment. In both Pravrutti and Nivrutti, both attachment and detachment exist. In Pravrutti, the soul is attached to the world and is detached from God. In Nivrutti, the soul is attached to God and is detached from the world. The attachment to one side is measured from the detachment to the other side. Attachment is abstract and detachment is visible. Just like the depth of the river is measured by observing the upper exposed length of the scale, the abstract attachment to God is understood from the observed detachment from the world. Even within the boundaries of Pravrutti also, the attachment of a soul to the prostitute can be understood from its detachment from his wife. This means the abstract attachment to an item can be measured from the visible detachment from other items.]

8) Spaṣṭa tyāgā'spaṣṭa bandho, gaṇya evaṃ śrutāvapi |
Kevala tyāga vaiyarthyam, bandhāt tyāgo bhaven mataḥ ||

[It is said that attachment to God is measured from the detachment from the world because attachment is abstract whereas detachment from the world is visible. In fact, in Nivrutti, both attachment to God and detachment from the world co-exist. In such a case, why is this field not named after the attachment (Pravrutti) to God or Pravrutti? If the word Pravrutti is again used for the spiritual line also, confusion will come because already for worldly life, the word Pravrutti is fixed. Hence, detachment (Nivrutti) from the world is selected to name the spiritual line. This may lead to a misunderstanding that wherever detachment from world (Nivrutti) exists, it is the spiritual line. This is not correct because mere detachment from the world has nothing to do with God. The detachment from the world shall be the result of the attachment to God. A person may become a saint in order to earn his livelihood and such sainthood is not Nivrutti. If a person becomes saint due to his attachment to God (to propagate divine knowledge), such sainthood alone is Nivrutti.]

Chapter-1: Matāntarīkaraṇa Prakaraṇam

Chapter-2: Parabrahma Prakaraṇam

Chapter-3: Māyā Śakti Prakaraṇam

Chapter-4: Īśvara Prakaraṇam

Chapter-5: Avatāra Prakaraṇam

Chapter-6: Ākāśa Tejaḥ Prakaraṇam

Chapter-7: Vibhūti Prakaraṇam

Chapter-8: Sṛṣṭilakṣya Prakaraṇam

Chapter-9: Jagat Sṛṣṭi Prakaraṇam

Chapter-10: Jīvātma Tattva Prakaraṇam

Chapter-11: Matasamanvaya Prakaraṇam

Chapter-12: Yoga Vicāra Prakaraṇam