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In chapter sixteen of the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa describes the qualities of the demoniac person. In the Vedic conception, “demon” (asura) is not someone with horns and tail but an atheist who challenges the divine law and lives according to his lower instincts. Kṛṣṇa gives us a vivid description:
“Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them. They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust. Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world. Taking shelter of insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent. They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.” (Bg 16.7-12)
Their destination is described in texts 16.19-20: they continue to take progressively lower births, life after life. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we learn that the universe is composed of fourteen levels of planetary systems. We are in bhū-loka, the seventh level from top to bottom. Below us are seven levels populated by the āsūras. Life there is not necessarily miserable in the material sense. On the contrary, these abodes are described as extraordinarily opulent. The problem is that, because of this association, a soul who falls there has little opportunity to rise again. One already has the tendency to envy Kṛṣṇa, and by associating with other atheists, the tendency is for that only to grow. Eventually one falls into the lower species of life, plants and animals, and from there has to go on the long evolutionary cycle throughout the 8,400,000 species of life until reaching the form of a human being again.
Looking around, we can observe that the vast majority of living entities on our planet are non-human, including plants, insects, bacteria, etc. As discussed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 9.24.58), when a soul first enters the material universe, he starts from the very top. That being so, we may ask how so many souls have fallen into such lower forms. The answer is the accumulated misuse of independence over repeated births. That’s exactly the path Kṛṣṇa describes. No one is forced to go on this path; one goes there by his own choice.
What about the mahātmās? They are the precise opposite. They are described by Kṛṣṇa in text 9.13. After describing the dark path of the demoniac, He declares: mahātmānas tu. But for the great souls, the devotees, it’s different…
Different from the atheist, who takes shelter of the bewildering material nature, the devotee takes shelter of the spiritual potency, Kṛṣṇa’s divine nature. Every time we chant “Hare Kṛṣṇa!” we are invoking this divine potency (harā) to connect us with Kṛṣṇa. It is not even just about chanting; every devotional act has the same practical effect. A devotee who remains busy in different devotional activities during the day remains always connected. One doesn’t even have to be a pure devotee. This shelter begins from the first day one sincerely engages in devotional service. That’s the beauty of the process of devotional service: one does not have to first become pure and then come under the spiritual potency; by sincerely approaching Kṛṣṇa through the appropriate process, one comes under the spiritual potency, and by that association one becomes pure.
Prabhupāda makes this point in his purport:
“In this verse the description of the mahātmā is clearly given. The first sign of the mahātmā is that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter: one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification. One can become free from the control of material nature as soon as he surrenders his soul to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the preliminary formula. Being marginal potency, as soon as the living entity is freed from the control of material nature, he is put under the guidance of the spiritual nature. The guidance of the spiritual nature is called daivī prakṛti, divine nature. So when one is promoted in that way – by surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead – one attains to the stage of great soul, mahātmā.”
When it is described that the soul is the marginal potency of Kṛṣṇa, this does not imply that the soul is somehow made of a different type of substance. The soul is spiritual, just as Kṛṣṇa is spiritual. The point is that the soul is an eternally separated part, and therefore, just as Kṛṣṇa has independence, the soul has a minute independence. By misusing this free will, we go down the path Kṛṣṇa described. However, as soon as we take shelter of Him, we come again under the protection of the divine nature. This shelter is immediate. The only question is to remain under it, avoiding falling back under the influence of lust, greed, and anger that distance us from Kṛṣṇa. That’s what the process of sādhana-bhakti is about.
How can we maintain such a high state of consciousness? That’s where the second part of Prabhupāda’s purport lands:
“The mahātmā does not divert his attention to anything outside Kṛṣṇa, because he knows perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. There is no doubt about it. Such a mahātmā, or great soul, develops through association with other mahātmās, pure devotees.”
The pure devotee is firmly and exclusively fixed upon Kṛṣṇa. This is the symptom. But how can I get there? Such an elevated consciousness is developed through association with other pure devotees. Just as one becomes a drunkard by associating with other drunkards, one can become a pure devotee by properly and persistently associating with pure devotees, starting with the spiritual master. We come back thus to the importance of good association.
In text 9.13, Kṛṣṇa mentions the word bhajanty: they engage in bhajana (worship, devotional service). Arjuna could then ask what exactly this worship consists of. Anticipating this question, Kṛṣṇa summarizes the devotional process in text 9.14: “Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.”
Such great devotees are described by Kṛṣṇa as yatantaḥ: they endeavor with steadfast vows. However, as he mentions immediately afterward, devotional service is easy and can be performed in a happy mood. There is no need to become a fakir. To endeavor with steadfast vows means to chant a prescribed number of rounds, offer obeisances, fast on Ekādaśis, and perform other standard practices. As he mentions, a devotee “can live this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master, and in any position, either as a householder or a sannyāsī or a brahmacārī; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become actually mahātmā, a great soul.”
In short, Mahātmā is not a fabricated title. It’s not about rubber-stamping a man based on academic qualifications. It is not vox populi. The real qualification is that he has no other business apart from glorifying Kṛṣṇa.
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