Ordinary morality

Expressions researched:
"moral instruction... Why strict? Ordinary" |"ordinary ethics and morality" |"ordinary moral" |"ordinary morality" |"ordinary morals" |"ordinary, following moral principles"

Notes from the compiler: "ordinar* moral*"@7

SB Canto 1

Even in the ordinary moral codes (maintained by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, the great politician and moralist) there is no harm in taking lessons from a person who may be by birth less than a śūdra.

SB 1.13.15, Translation and Purport:

As long as Vidura played the part of a śūdra, being cursed by Maṇḍūka Muni, Aryamā officiated at the post of Yamarāja to punish those who committed sinful acts.

Vidura, born in the womb of a śūdra woman, was forbidden even to be a party of royal heritage along with his brothers Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Pāṇḍu. Then how could he occupy the post of a preacher to instruct such learned kings and kṣatriyas as Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira? The first answer is that even though it is accepted that he was a śūdra by birth, because he renounced the world for spiritual enlightenment by the authority of Ṛṣi Maitreya and was thoroughly educated by him in transcendental knowledge, he was quite competent to occupy the post of an ācārya, or spiritual preceptor. According to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, anyone who is conversant in the transcendental knowledge, or the science of Godhead, be he a brāhmaṇa or a śūdra, a householder or a sannyāsī, is eligible to become a spiritual master. Even in the ordinary moral codes (maintained by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, the great politician and moralist) there is no harm in taking lessons from a person who may be by birth less than a śūdra. This is one part of the answer. The other is that Vidura was not actually a śūdra. He was to play the part of a so-called śūdra for one hundred years, being cursed by Maṇḍūka Muni. He was the incarnation of Yamarāja, one of the twelve mahājanas, on the level with such exalted personalities as Brahmā, Nārada, Śiva, Kapila, Bhīṣma, Prahlāda, etc. Being a mahājana, it is the duty of Yamarāja to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world, as Nārada, Brahmā, and other mahājanas do. But Yamarāja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom punishing the doers of sinful acts. Yamarāja is deputed by the Lord to a particular planet, some hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet of earth, to take away the corrupt souls after death and convict them in accordance with their respective sinful activities. Thus Yamarāja has very little time to take leave from his responsible office of punishing the wrongdoers. There are more wrongdoers than righteous men. Therefore Yamarāja has to do more work than other demigods who are also authorized agents of the Supreme Lord. But he wanted to preach the glories of the Lord, and therefore by the will of the Lord he was cursed by Maṇḍūka Muni to come into the world in the incarnation of Vidura and work very hard as a great devotee. Such a devotee is neither a śūdra nor a brāhmaṇa. He is transcendental to such divisions of mundane society, just as the Personality of Godhead assumes His incarnation as a hog, but He is neither a hog nor a Brahmā. He is above all mundane creatures. The Lord and His different authorized devotees sometimes have to play the role of many lower creatures to claim the conditioned souls, but both the Lord and His pure devotees are always in the transcendental position. When Yamarāja thus incarnated himself as Vidura, his post was officiated by Aryamā, one of the many sons of Kaśyapa and Aditi. The Ādityas are sons of Aditi, and there are twelve Ādityas. Aryamā is one of the twelve Ādityas, and therefore it was quite possible for him to take charge of the office of Yamarāja during his one hundred years' absence in the form of Vidura. The conclusion is that Vidura was never a śūdra, but was greater than the purest type of brāhmaṇa.

CC Antya-lila

Because the prākṛta-sahajiyās do not follow the regulative principles but instead violate even ordinary morals, their contemplation of rāsa-līlā is a futile attempt, which sometimes results in their imitating the dealings of the gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa.

CC Antya 5.45-46, Translation and Purport:

"When one hears or describes with great faith the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa, such as His rāsa dance with the gopīs, the disease of lusty desires in his heart and the agitation caused by the three modes of material nature are immediately nullified, and he becomes sober and silent."

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection, "Any person seriously inclined to hear about the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance, as mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, with great faith and a transcendental, spiritually inspired mind, is immediately freed from the natural lusty desires found within the heart of a materialistic man."

When a pure Vaiṣṇava speaks on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and another pure Vaiṣṇava hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from such a realized soul, both of them live in the transcendental world, where the contamination of the modes of material nature cannot touch them. Freed from the contamination of the modes of nature, the speaker and hearer are fixed in a transcendental mentality, knowing that their position on the transcendental platform is to serve the Supreme Lord. The class of men known as prākṛta-sahajiyās, who consider the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa something like the behavior between a man and a woman in the material field, artificially think that hearing the rāsa-līlā will help them by diminishing the lusty desires of their diseased hearts. But because they do not follow the regulative principles but instead violate even ordinary morals, their contemplation of rāsa-līlā is a futile attempt, which sometimes results in their imitating the dealings of the gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa. To forbid such habits of the prākṛta-sahajiyās, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has excluded their material intelligence by using the word viśvāsa ("faith"). In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.33.30), Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī says:

naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ

vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā rudro ‘bdhijaṁ viṣam

"Certainly one who is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead should never, even within his mind, imitate the activities of the transcendental rāsa-līlā of Kṛṣṇa. If out of ignorance one does so, he will be destroyed, just as if he were to imitate Lord Śiva, who drank poison produced from the ocean."

But because they do not follow the regulative principles but instead violate even ordinary morals, their contemplation of rāsa-līlā is a futile attempt, which sometimes results in their imitating the dealings of the gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa.

CC Antya 5.45-46, Purport:

When a pure Vaiṣṇava speaks on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and another pure Vaiṣṇava hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from such a realized soul, both of them live in the transcendental world, where the contamination of the modes of material nature cannot touch them. Freed from the contamination of the modes of nature, the speaker and hearer are fixed in a transcendental mentality, knowing that their position on the transcendental platform is to serve the Supreme Lord. The class of men known as prākṛta-sahajiyās, who consider the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa something like the behavior between a man and a woman in the material field, artificially think that hearing the rāsa-līlā will help them by diminishing the lusty desires of their diseased hearts. But because they do not follow the regulative principles but instead violate even ordinary morals, their contemplation of rāsa-līlā is a futile attempt, which sometimes results in their imitating the dealings of the gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa. To forbid such habits of the prākṛta-sahajiyās, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has excluded their material intelligence by using the word viśvāsa ("faith"). In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

When we are not very much pious, but not impious also—ordinary, following moral principles—then madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Calcutta, March 8, 1972:

We are wandering all over the universe. When you are doing some pious activities, you are elevated to the higher planetary system, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā . When we are not very much pious, but not impious also—ordinary, following moral principles—then madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. So in this way, up and down, we are wandering by transmigration of the soul. This is our position

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

And from ordinary moral point of view, it is said by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ. Anyone who can see in others, feeling like himself.

Lecture on SB 1.7.47-48 -- Vrndavana, October 6, 1976:

Therefore Vaiṣṇava's qualification is, para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. Personally a Vaiṣṇava is not unhappy, but a Vaiṣṇava becomes unhappy for others" distress. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. Kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye. This is Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī's prayer to Sanātana Gosvāmī. Vairāgya-vidyā. He was feeling obligation to Sanātana Gosvāmī, how Sanātana Gosvāmī taught him vairāgya-vidyā. So, kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye . This is Vaiṣṇava position. So Kuntī... And from ordinary moral point of view, it is said by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ. Anyone who can see in others, feeling like himself

General Lectures

Even an ordinary moral instruction by one Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, he says, āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṇa-koṭibhiḥ. Your one moment of your life cannot be returned back even if you are prepared to pay millions of dollars.

Lecture -- New York, April 16, 1969:

Kṛṣṇa is instructing Arjuna that our one thousand yugas... One yuga, one aggregate of yuga, according to our, this planet's calculation, it is forty-three hundred thousands of years. So that multiplied by one thousand becomes twelve hours of that planet. So there are different calculation according to different planet, different situation. But there is life. Don't think that this planet is finished, that "Oh, this life is finished." It is simply ignorance. We have to take information from higher authoritative scripture.

So there is life, and we are preparing for the next life. That is real knowledge. So we should not waste our, this valuable life whimsically. That is the instruction of all Vedic literatures. Don't spoil it. Even an ordinary moral instruction by one Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, he says, āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṇa-koṭibhiḥ. Your one moment of your life cannot be returned back even if you are prepared to pay millions of dollars.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

"Jesus had to deal with rascals like you. Therefore he... Even ordinary moral principles, you could not, what to speak of other things."

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Rāmeśvara: They say that if God had all of these things, then He would have revealed them in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: Because you cannot, rascal, manage that. That is the difference between him and God. Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand wives and sixteen thousand palaces. You cannot maintain one apartment.

Rāmeśvara: In the Bible...

Prabhupāda: You tell them like that: "You are so poor that you are afraid to maintain even one wife. So how you can be equal with God?"

Hari-śauri: His argument was that...

Prabhupāda: No argument! This is fact!

Rāmeśvara: Yes, this is fact.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of argument.

Rāmeśvara: No. He's not arguing that.

Prabhupāda: You cannot do. You are so poor that you are afraid to marry because you have to take so much responsibility.

Rāmeśvara: He wants to know, then, why didn't Jesus Christ say all these things about Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Jesus may be fool. That doesn't mean everyone should be fool.

Rāmeśvara: They believe Jesus came to this world to teach people about God.

Prabhupāda: "Jesus... Jesus had to speak to rascals and fools like you. Therefore he did not speak." This is the argument. "Because you are such a fool that Jesus said, 'Thou shall not kill'—your first business was to kill him. So you are so nice, advanced men. Now, what he'll speak to you? He knew that you are all rascals. Even the one word you cannot understand, 'Thou shall not kill.' So what you will understand? Therefore Jesus Christ did not say." Give them this answer. Jesus Christ was perfect, but because you are rascals, he did not say, because you could not understand even his one word. You are so intelligent. His commandment is "Thou shall not kill," but your business is to kill him first. How far you are advanced and civilized, just imagine. And you want perfect instruction. You cannot follow even one instruction. That is your position. In this way try to understand. "Jesus had to deal with rascals like you. Therefore he... Even ordinary moral principles, you could not, what to speak of other things."

You have such a poor brain that you could not follow even ordinary moral instruction of Jesus Christ.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Just like sex life is enjoyment, but a person who is suffering from tuberculosis—his death. He'll die if he indulges in sex life. That is medical science. "So it is condemned in the material world, not in the spiritual world. If you have good health, you can enjoy sex life. But you have tuberculosis? You'll die. Your sex life is death, and their sex life is life. That you cannot understand. You have such a poor brain that you could not follow even ordinary moral instruction of Jesus Christ.

1968 Correspondence

If the conduct of the pure devotee crosses the lines of ordinary morality it is because he acts on the plane of Absolute Morality which is not known to the conditioned soul and cannot therefore be imitated.

Letter to Pradyumna -- Los Angeles 22 January, 1968:

You may use the facilities available to you if there is no risk of making trouble. But so far as stealing is concerned, one should not steal except in the rarest circumstances. Moral principle is recommended in all scriptures as prerequisite for spiritual culture. If the conduct of the pure devotee crosses the lines of ordinary morality it is because he acts on the plane of Absolute Morality which is not known to the conditioned soul and cannot therefore be imitated. So generally we should be careful to observe good moral conduct.