Explanation of Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatham
Actual Question from Parthasarathy Gopinath:
“Prabhuji, Srila Prabhupada had mentioned these 3 words- sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana, in Srimad Bhagavatham- 10th canto. Could you please elaborate on these terms . Many thanks prabhuji. Harekrishna!”
REPLY:
These three are not ordinary words.
Not only in Bhagavatham; they are the extract of almost all the vedic scriptures including Bhagavad Gita.
All the scriptures tend to explain them only.
Why do we read the scriptures?
To get relieved from this material world and to go back to Godhead.
This is not just an easy task.
This is also a holy project. And, of course, this should be our only project in our life.
This project involves three stages. They are the three mentioned by you.
Also read: 12 THINGS TO FOLLOW TO GO BACK TO KRISHNA’s GOLOKA AT THE END OF THIS BIRTH ITSELF!
(i) SAMBANDHA:
To go back to Lord Krishna, we should first understand our relationship with Krishna. If we understand this, other stages will automatically follow.
Therefore, the first stage of Self and God realization is understanding that we are athma and Krishna as Paramathma, ie, our master. We, the athma, are the parts and parcels of Krishna.
Therefore, our real relationship, ie, (soul-supersoul relationship) is Krishna.
This is our SAMBANDHA with Krishna.
This can be further expanded as the BHAWA (Type of Love) based relationship with Krishna.
Some may love Krishna as child.
Some may love as a moderate devotee.
Some may love as lover.
Some may love as friend.
Thus, we can develop different kinds of relationships with Krishna.
However, the base of all these relationships is our eternal relationship as: “We are athma; Krishna is the Source; We are the part and parcel of Krishna”.
Also read: Why and How did we fall down from Goloka? How to avoid it?
(2) ABHIDHEYA:
Abhidheya means acting according to the relationship that we have understood with Krishna.
Until we were in body consciousness, ie, until we considered ourselves as body and identified with bodies only, we were under the control of illusion, ie, maya.
For example, we identified ourselves as Indian, American, African, looking beautiful or ugly, being wealthy or poor, because, we identified others with their body or status.
But, after understanding our SAMBANDHA (relation) with Krishna, we should act cultivating our athma.
In other words, we should show that SAMBANDHA in action. This is called ABHIDHEYA.
When we act as athma and as the real relative of Krishna, we will consider all the living beings and the creations as the products of Krishna and we will see Krishna in everyone and everything.
When we come to the stage of seeing Krishna everywhere, we will have only one relation for us (athma). It is Krishna.
We will consider other relations as body oriented and hence these relations end when this body dies.
Whereas, our (soul’s) real relation with Krishna is eternal and does not end with the death of bodies.
Therefore, after understanding our SAMBHANDHA with Krishna, we should come to the next stage of ABHIDHEYA to act as athma and the eternal relative and servant of Krishna.
Also read: RULES TO READ AND LEARN SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM
(iii) PRAYOJANA:
Prayojana is the end result if we crossed the stages of after understanding our SAMBHANDHA with Krishna, and hence coming to the next stage of ABHIDHEYA by acting as athma and as the eternal relative and servant of Krishna.
In ABHIDHEYA stage, we will act on the platform of athma and we would have realized that Krishna is the only eternal relation for us and hence our only activity will be satisfying Krishna and performing all our works as the service to Krishna.
Because of this, we will not have any material attachments and we will always be immersed in Krishna’s thoughts and the Prema on Krishna.
In this stage, after our death, we will be gifted the PRAYOJANA, ie, the result of GOING BACK TO KRISHNA HIMSELF.
This is the simplified explanation for Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana.
Hope you are clear now.