Everyone is hankering after peace of mind. Ātmā suprasa. Ātma, ātma means this body, ātma means the mind and ātma means the soul. We are in three status of life. Actually, we are the spirit soul covered by two kinds of dresses. Just like you gentlemen, you are also covered by two kinds of dresses—underwear and coat, shirt and coat. Similarly . . . actually, "I am" means I am not this shirt and coat, I am within the shirt and coat. Similarly, I, the soul, I am covered by two kinds of layers—mind, intelligence and false ego. False ego means I am considering I am this American dress, I am this Indian dress, because I am identifying with this body. If I ask somebody, "What you are, sir?" "I am American." "What you are, sir?" "I am Indian," "I am brahmin," "I am kṣatriya."
But these are the designations. This is not my real identification. The Vedic information is when I understand I am ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am Brahman, or the spirit soul. That is my beginning of identification. Therefore in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, athāto brahma jijñāsā, to inquire about the spirit. This human form of life is meant for advancing knowledge of brahma, brahma-jñāna. Brahmā jānātīti brāhminḥ. One who is advanced in knowledge of Brahman, he is called brāhmin.
So if we actually want peace . . . everyone is hankering; that is . . . that is our prerogative. Every living entity must hanker after happiness. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Because by nature we are happy. By nature we are happy. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. So as spirit soul we are naturally happy, blissful. But because we have been covered by the eight material elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether, these are gross elements—and within the gross elements, mind, intelligence and ego. So somebody is satisfied with the comfort of the outward gross elements, this body. They are called materialist. Simply sense gratification. Indriyāni parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42).
First of all our conception is happiness means happiness of my body. The whole world is going on. Material world means everyone is working hard only for the happiness of the body. And some of them, they are trying to be happy by the happiness of the mind. Just like arts, poetry, philosophy, speculating on. But both of these kinds of happiness will not give us real happiness, because real happiness belongs to the soul. Basic principle of happiness missing.
Therefore simply by bodily comfort, sense gratification, we cannot be happy. And actually it is so happening. People are endeavoring throughout the whole world for bodily comforts, for sense gratification, but they're not happy. There cannot be happiness. Because . . . the same example. Suppose you have got a nice coat. If you simply soap the coat and iron the coat and keep it very nice, that does not mean you'll be happy, because you are trying to get happiness from the coat or shirt. That is not happiness. That is not possible.
Happiness is possible when you try to make happy the soul. Then happiness is possible. Another example is given—just like a bird within the cage. If you simply wash the cage and keep it very nice and don't give any food to the bird, then the bird will never be happy simply by polishing the cage. But this is the cage. This material body is a cage of the soul. Therefore material living being is called conditioned, or encaged. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
This is the beginning of spiritual knowledge. One must understand that the soul is encaged within this body and mind.
So if you try to become, by bodily comforts or mental satisfaction, it will never be possible. Happiness will never be possible. Therefore Bhāgavata says, yayātmā suprasīdati. Ātma means soul. Suprasīdati. Prasīdati means becomes happy. And su means very—very much happy. How? Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6).
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the mature instruction of Vyāsadeva on Vedic wisdom. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam (SB 1.1.3). Nigama means Vedas. It is like kalpa-taru, desire tree. Whichever thing you desire, you can get from Vedic knowledge. Nigama-kalpa-taru. Kalpa-taru means desire tree. We have got experience of this tree—mango tree, orange tree, or so many trees. So you can get a particular type of fruit from a particular type of tree. But in the spiritual world all the trees are desire trees. Whatever you want, you can get. If you want mango from orange tree, then you'll get.
We get this information from Vedas. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu (Bs. 5.29). Kalpa-vṛkṣa means the desire tree. Not only one, two—lakṣāvṛteṣu, there are thousands and thousands of desire trees. That is the spiritual world. We have no information of the material world even. We are trying to go to the moon planet, we have not full information. And the moon planet is the one of the nearest planet. But there are innumerable, millions and millions of planets within one universe. And there are millions and millions of universes.
We get this information from Vedic literature. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi means millions of universes. Koṭiṣv vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam. And each universe is full of millions and millions of planets. And each planet is of different type, different climate, different living entities. These are the information. You cannot expect the same planet or same atmosphere everywhere.
Just like even on this planet, I am coming from Europe, America, the climate is different. India's climate is different. Even on this planet. So each and every planet, they are of different nature. And all the living entities are there. In the Bhagavad-gītā we get information, sarva-ga. Sthāṇur acalo 'yam (BG 2.24), sarva-ga. It is not fact that only on this planet there are living entities, and other planets there are no living entities. No, that is not a fact.
Anyway, here the proposal is how to achieve perfect happiness of ātma. Ātma, I have already explained, ātma means the body, ātma means the mind and ātma means the soul. So unless you get happiness of the soul, simply trying to get happiness of the body and the mind, you'll never get happiness. That is the information in this verse. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6).
Dharma means religion, English translation. But according to the Vedic understanding, dharma means the characteristic. Everything has got a characteristic. In the chemical laboratory, when something is tested, the characteristic is tested, "This is this chemical, it has got so many characteristics." So our characteristic, we living entities, we have got our characteristic.
What is that characteristic, general characteristics? In this meeting we may be sitting so many people; one may be Hindu, one may be . . . because I am talking of Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Here the word is used, dharma. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). So dharma, we generally understand that "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am Ārya-samājī," "I am this, "I am that." That is generally taken as dharma.
But according to Vedic principle dharma means characteristic. Just like chili—to become hot, the characteristic of chili. We test in the market when we go to purchase chili, we test how strong it is hot. If it is not very strong in its hottiness, then we reject, "No, no, it is not good chili." Chili must be very hot. That is characteristic; that is dharma. Sugar must be very sweet. That is characteristic; that is dharma.