So this civilization, modern civilization, having no information of the soul, it is simply a pack of animals only, that's all. Therefore they do not care what is the resultant action of their activities, they do not care for pious, piety and vicious activities. They take everything... That is asuric civilization. Pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca na vidur āsura-janāḥ (BG 16.7). Āsura-jana means these rascals or asuras, atheists, fools, rascals, they do not know pravṛtti and nivṛtti. Pravṛtti means in which subject matter we should take interest, that is called pravṛtti. And nivṛtti means in which subject matter we shall not take interest, or we shall try to give it up. The āsura-jana, they do not know. Just like we have got pravṛtti inclination, loke vyavāya āmiṣa mada-sevā nityasya jantuḥ. Every living entity has got materially... There are two natures, spiritual and material. Materially, the inclination of sex enjoyment and eating meat—āmiṣa, āmiṣa means eating meat, flesh and fish, like that. That is called āmiṣa. Nonvegetarian means nirāmiṣa. So āmiṣa and mada and vyavāya. Vyavāya means sex. Loke vyavāya āmiṣa mada-sevā. Sex indulgence and eating meat, flesh, eggs, and drinking wine. Mada. Mada means liquor. Nityasya jantuḥ. Jantu. When one is in the material world he is called jantu. Jantu means animal. Although he's living entity, he's not called jīva soul. He's called jantu. Jantur dehopapattaye. Jantu. This material body is developing for the jantu, animal. Anyone who is devoid of spiritual knowledge, he's called jantu, or animal. This is the shastric injunction. Jantur dehopapattaye. Who gets this material body? Jantu, animal. So, so long we shall get on, continually get or change this material body, we remain jantu, animal. Kleśada āsa dehaḥ. A jantu, animal, can tolerate, or he's forced to tolerate. Just like a bullock yoked in the cart and whipping. He has to tolerate. He cannot get out of it. Similarly, when they are taken to slaughterhouse to be killed, he has to tolerate it. There is no way. This is called jantu.
Jantu means
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Just like we are advising our student not to have illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. This is tapasya. Because everyone is prone to all these things. Everyone likes illicit sex. Everyone likes to eat meat. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantoḥ. Jantoḥ, jantu means animal, or ignorant person. A person who has no knowledge, he also a jantu, animal. So vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevāḥ. Sex life and meat-eating, āmiṣa, and madya-sevāḥ, intoxicant, and natural tendency. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānām. This is pravṛtti. They have got inclination. That is material life. Āmiṣa-madya-sevāḥ. But they have to be controlled by tapasya. That is tapasya. If because I have got this inclination, I have got a desire to drink or have intoxication, therefore I shall take it.... There is a Bengali song, cakṣe yadi lāge bhāla kena dekha nā:(?) "Now if I, my eyes like to see it, why shall I not see?" This is sense enjoyment. This is animalism.
So according to our own position in relationship with the modes of nature we create our work. Nādatte kasyacit pāpam...
- nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ
- na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ
- ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ
- tena muhyanti jantavaḥ
- (BG 5.15)
Now, here everyone is addressed as jantu. Jantu means animals. Of course, in logic also, human being is called rational animal. They are classified among the animals, but they are called rational animals So here also, in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says, jantavaḥ. Jantavaḥ is the plural number of jantu. Jantu means animal. So nādatte kasyacit pāpam. A... Somebody is engaged in the activities of sinful activities, but he is not induced by the Lord that he should be engaged in sinful activities. Similarly, somebody is engaged in virtuous activities. So that virtuous activity is according to his own, I mean to say, association with the modes of material nature. Ajñānena āvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ (BG 5.16). But in this material world, either in the modes of ignorance or in the modes of passion or in the modes of goodness, they are all... Total, sum total, is ignorance. Sum total... Even a man is in the modes of goodness, that is also considered as ignorance because real knowledge, real knowledge is to know his relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is real knowledge. Unless one is elevated to that position, that what is his relation with the Supreme Lord, then all his so-called knowledge is also understood as ignorance.
So from the Supreme Soul all these material elements have come. Just like your body. Wherefrom it has come? It has come from the soul. In the śāstra it is said, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha-upapatti (SB 3.31.1). Jantu. Jantu means living entity, jan word(?), jantu. So jantur deha-upapatti. There... The atheist theory that combination of matter makes a situation when living symptoms come out, combination of matter, that is the present chemical theory, chemical evolution. There are so many theories based on Darwin's theory, chemical evolution. Recently, when I was in Los Angeles, one German scientist came there. He has written one book, Chemical Evolution, and he has got Nobel Prize. Now he's touring for lecturing on his theory. So in the California university there is our student, Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara. He's my disciple. He's doctor in chemistry. So, when this German chemist was lecturing, theorizing that life has come from chemicals, so he put the question that "Suppose if I give you these chemicals, whether you can prepare a life?" He answered in the meeting, "That I cannot say." That means he's not certain; still, he's theorizing, that from chemical, life has come. No, from chemical, life has not come; from life, chemical has come. This is real theory.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Jantu means living entities. For giving him a body, it is decided by the higher authorities. You cannot say, "Now give me the body of a king." Now you are American. You cannot say, you cannot dictate, that "Give me again the American body as the son of Rockefeller." No. That will be judged, what you have done. Of course, you have got this opportunity for your pious activities. Because to take birth in rich family or rich nation, that is due to pious activity, past. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ (SB 1.8.26). Janma, birth; aiśvarya, riches; śruta, education; and śrī, and beauty. These things are obtained according to past activities. Not that everyone becomes educated. No. There is no such chance. We were discussing this morning. There is no chance. Everything depends on some cause. Not that by chance anyone becomes very rich man. No. One has to work for it. Not that by chance one becomes very educated. These things are not chances. So as soon as there is no chance, there is cause, there must be judgment. There must be judgment. Otherwise why one man is born rich and other man is working so hard, but he is lying down on the street?
So there is judgment. So the small particle of the living entity, by the judgment, superior judgment, is transferred to the semina of a particular father. And the living entity is injected in the womb of the female, and both secretion combine, the living entity develops body. This is the science. If you use contraceptive, that means if you contaminate the emulsion, the poor living entity cannot take place. That is contra... You cannot kill the living soul, but you make the circumstances unfavorable for his staying, or... Then he has to be transferred to another womb.
Therefore we say, "No illicit sex, no intoxication." You are already intoxicated. Why you are increasing intoxication? This māyā means intoxication. Piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna... Just like a person, when he's ghostly haunted, he calls his father by ill names, but he cannot recognize even his father. So all of us, we are already under the clutches of māyā. That is the position of intoxication. And again intoxication? So what will be our condition? Therefore it is prohibited. First of all, whatever intoxication you have already got, just try to cure it. Don't increase it. So everything... The physical necessities means we have already got it, but it is meant for decreasing, not increasing. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttis tu mahā-phalā. We have got general tendency, loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. Everything is there in the śāstra. Nityā hi jantoḥ. Jantu means living entities. So, it is eternally existing, loke vyavāya, sex intercourse, āmiṣa, eating non-fruital things. Āmiṣa means "which is not fruits and vegetables." Meat, fish, eggs, they are called āmiṣa. And they are called nirāmiṣa. Nirāmiṣa means fruits, vegetables, milks, food grains, sugar. These are nirāmiṣa. And eggs, fish, meat and so many other things, they are called āmiṣa. So āmiṣa. Āmiṣa means these things. Sevā, eating. And vyavāya. Vyavāya means sex life. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya, intoxication. It is not that Vedic civilization did not know how to eat meat and how to drink liquor. It is all known. But they are prohibited, "Don't eat." It is not that then they were unknown, now it is discovered by scientific advancement. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi, nityāsti, asti, it is there. It is not that because one is not educated now to use sex life... Nobody requires education. It is automatical. But people are now very much advanced in understanding sex life. So many books, Freud philosophy, this philosophy. And after all, this is already there. What is the need of philosophy? Without your rascal philosophy, everyone knows how to use sex life. But they are thinking this is advancement. Nityā hi. It is already there. Who was speaking yesterday? Jayatīrtha. That his niece, seven years old, she is also dating. So this is already there.
Young man: (yelling) Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda! Look what your Godbrothers are doing. Prabhupāda! Please help me, Prabhupāda!
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Devotees: There's a crazy boy out there. Crazy man. Crazy man...
Young man: Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda! Devotees. Hypocrites. They're hypocrites. (devotees chant japa loudly)
Prabhupāda: So office record is kept there...
Young man: You're full of nescience!
Prabhupāda: ...and, according to the activities of that particular person, he's awarded promotion, increment of pay, or sometimes degraded and fired off. Two things are there. Similarly, for all our activities, which we are doing, there are witnesses. The sun is witness, the moon is witness, the day is witness, the air is witness and, above all witnesses, God Himself as the Supersoul, He's sitting in everyone's heart. He's also witness. So we cannot hide any activity from the eyes of God. So according to our work... Therefore in the śāstra it is said, daiva-netreṇa. Daiva means God, and netra, netreṇa means under supervision. So karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Jantu. Jantu means living entities. Deha means this body; upapattaye, "for manufacturing." Now we have got this human body. Next life it may not be human body—something else, better or lower. That will be decided by the superior examination. Daiva-netreṇa.
Initiation Lectures
He said, "My dear boys, this human form of life," ayaṁ deha, this body... Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājām. Everyone has got body. The Brahmā has got body and the small insect, it has got also body. The spirit soul is encaged in this material body. So lower than human being up to the animals, there are so many forms of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. In this way, varieties of life. But Ṛṣabhadeva said, "Now you have got this human form of life, don't spoil it like the hogs and dogs simply by sense gratification." Sense gratification is available by the hogs and dogs also. That was the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva. And what is the duty of human life? Tapo, tapasya. Tapasya. Voluntarily accepting some inconvenience. That is called tapasya. Generally, we want loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityasta jantu. Jantu, when one is not on the platform of spiritual understanding, they are called jantu. Jantu means anyone who has got life. The cats and dogs, they have also got life. So loke, in this material world, vyavāya āmiṣa madya sevā. Vyavāya means sex indulgence, sex life. And āmiṣa means meat, fish, egg-eating. Āmiṣa. Therefore vegetarian diet is called nirāmiṣa, not āmiṣa. So it is general tendency of the living being to become āmiṣa, to eat meat. That is the general laws of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One living entity is the life for another living entity. Ahastāni sahastānām. There are animals, two-legged animals, and there are four-legged animals. The four-legged animals is the food for the two-legged animals. So long we remain as animals, then there is the necessity of eating meat. Ahastāni sahastānām. Hasta means hands. So those who are living like animals, only two legs. The other animals, four legs, and here is an animal of two legs, dvipad-paśu. For them, the animal is eatable, āmiṣa-madya sevā. And drinking wine, or intoxication, and vyavāya, sex life. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya sevayā nityastu jantu. So long he is jantu, these things are required. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttis tu mahā-phalā. That is general tendency. But when one gives up voluntarily for higher status of life, that is called nivṛtti-mārga. Pravṛtti-mārga and nivṛtti-mārga. Pravṛtti-mārga means to fulfill these desires, āmiṣa vyavāya madya sevā. But when one is trained up to give up these habits, that is called nirvrtti-mārga. So we have got so many pravṛttis, inclinations. But when you voluntarily give up all these nonsense habits, that is called nivṛtti-mārga and tapasya.
| Page Title: | Jantu means |
| Compiler: | Vaishnavi |
| Created: | 24 of Nov, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=8, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 8 |