Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.)
- sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
- yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
- ahaituky apratihatā
- yayātmā suprasīdati
- (SB 1.2.6)
Translation: "The supreme occupation, dharma, for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self."
Prabhupāda: So we are reading chapter the Second Chapter of the First Canto, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, "Divinity and Divine Service." So just now we have recited the sixth verse. We can begin from the first verse. The first verse is,
- iti sampraśna-saṁhṛṣṭo
- viprāṇāṁ raumaharṣaṇiḥ
- pratipūjya vacas teṣāṁ
- pravaktum upacakrame
There was a great meeting and..., meeting means... In those days, there was no political meeting. Political meeting was not necessary because there was no democracy. It was monarchy. The kings, they were so trained up that there was no necessity of democracy. Actually, the modern government, democracy... We are experiencing, especially the great democratic country, America. So the democracy, the president elected by popular vote, is now being condemned. So what is the value of this democracy? You elect somebody by your vote, again condemn. That means the electors, the voters, have also no experience, and neither the man who is voted, he is also very good man. Otherwise, why you should change your opinion once you have elected a person to act as your head executive? So the democracy has proved a farce. It has no meaning, because people are not educated. People are mostly śūdras. There must be four classes of men. So brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, first class, second class, third class, fourth class. So at the present moment there is no first-class men, neither second-class men. All third class, fourth class. All of them. So on the votes of third-class and fourth-class men, how you can expect good government? That is not possible.
So there was no need of this democratic meeting, but there was meeting of the first-class brāhmaṇas. For the benefit of the whole human society they used to meet sometimes, and that meeting is still continuing in India. It is called Kumbha-melā. Kumbha-melā. Recently this meeting took place in Haridwar. All the saintly person used to come and in four places: one at Prayāga, Allahabad, one at Vṛndāvana, and one at Haridwar, and another at Rāmeśvaram, something like that. Four places. So similar meeting was held at Naimiṣāraṇya. Naimiṣāraṇya, that place is still existing, very nice place.
So the question was that "After departure of Kṛṣṇa, who was guiding the fates of the human being?" The last question was this.
- brūhi yogeśvare kṛṣṇe
- brahmaṇye dharma-varmaṇi
- svāṁ kāṣṭhām adhunopete
- dharmaḥ kaṁ śaraṇaṁ gataḥ
Dharma, religious principle... Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Glāniḥ means polluted. "Wherever there is pollution in the matter of discharging religious principles, I come down." Tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham. "Then I come down to settle up things." So Kṛṣṇa came for this purpose, to settle up or to purify dharmasya glāniḥ, pollution in the matter of discharging religious principles. Therefore, as soon as there is pollution, means there is a class of men who have polluted. They are called duṣkṛta, sinful. When there is increase of the number of sinful persons, there must be pollution in the system of religious life. This is the way. If everyone is following religious principle, everyone does not commit any sinful activity, so at that time, there is no chance of pollution in religiousness.
At the present moment, they do not know what is pollution and they do not know what is religious principle. That is the defect of the modern civilization, that religion is described in the dictionary, "a kind of faith," not principle. But according to Vedic conception, religion is not a kind of faith. Religion is... It is your must duty. That is religion. Or it is your natural occupation. You cannot change it. Faith you can change. "I am now Muhammadan; I become Hindu." Or "I am Hindu, I become Christian." But I remain the same man. I may change my faith from this to that. So religion does not mean that. Religion means you cannot change it at any circumstance. That is religion. That is the meaning of dharma. If you change, that is your diseased condition. That is not normal condition. So that is the meaning of religion. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). When human being changes his normal condition of life, that is pollution of...
So the normal condition of life is described by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When Sanātana Gosvāmī inquired from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that "Why I am suffering?"... He inquired from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He was minister, very big post, and very learned scholar in Sanskrit and Arabic. Because at that time there was Pathan rule. So as government was Muhammadan, so responsible officers, ministers, they had to learn the Arabic language or Persian language. The Moguls were Persians?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Turks.
Prabhupāda: Turks, oh, yes. So, so he was a big scholar and born in brāhmaṇa family. Everything was all right. But still he presented himself before Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that he is not a bona fide learned man because he did not know what is his identification. That is very important thing. One should know his identification. At the present moment, identification is going on by the skin. "I am Indian," "I am American." This is going on. But that is not our proper identification. The proper identification is ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." This is to be understood in human form of life. Otherwise, the dog is also puffed up, "I am a big dog." So similarly, if a man becomes puffed up simply by the bodily concept of life, "I am a big Roman," "I am big Indian," "I am big...," there is no distinction between the dog's conception of life and the big Roman's conception of life—because the center is the body.
So here Kṛṣṇa came to establish this fact, that "You are neither Roman, nor Indian nor brāhmaṇa nor śūdra. You are My eternal servant. Therefore give up all this nonsense identification." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Because due to your wrong identification, you have created so-called "isms:" Hinduism, Muhammadanism, nationalism, this "ism," that "ism." This is all nonsense. This is the understanding of religion. Whatever we have created with the bodily concept of life, they are all nonsense. The real religion is that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." That is real religion. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was questioned by Sanātana Gosvāmī, "My dear Sir, I have come to You to surrender to You because You are my spiritual master. You have asked me to give up my family life. So by Your word I have given up. Now I have come to You. So this is my first question." One should be very inquisitive. After initiation, ādau gurvāśrayam. This is our system. So just to become enlightened in the spiritual affairs of life... As Arjuna also said, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7). Similarly, Sanātana Gosvāmī also, he said, "Sir, You asked me. I am now surrendered to You. So this is my question."
What is that question? There must be question. If one is actually seeking after spiritual realization, there must be intelligent question. The first intelligent question was put forward by Sanātana Gosvāmī, that ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya: "Sir, please let me know what is my identification, why I am put into this miserable condition of material life." People do not know it. Just like cats and dogs. The cat or the dog does not know that his life is very abominable. No, he is happy. This is māyā. Even the hog, he is also thinking, "I am very happy." This is called māyā, moha. Jīvasya moha, ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). So when human life is there, at least, one must be awakened to this consciousness, that actually "I am not happy." That is the beginning of human life, not to remain in darkness like cats and dog. He is unhappy in every respect, in every step, and still, he is thinking, "I am happy." Cats, dogs, hogs, their whole day working, day and night, and for some food, and sense gratification. This is the modern life. And that is happiness, become very busy whole day and night for getting some food for eating and something for sense gratification. This is happiness.