Prabhupāda:
- evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte
- avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne
- prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve
- na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat
- (SB 5.5.6)
This is another important verse. The problem is presented, deha-yogena. Deha-yogena, this body, contact with this material body, this is the problem. But nobody knows it. Especially in these days they cannot understand that "This material body is a foreign element, and somehow or other I am victimized, I am entrapped within this body." This problem is real problem. But they do not know. And this is called avidyā, ignorance.
There are two kinds of strong avidyā, ignorance, unawareness. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa is covering. Tamo-guṇa is very densely covering, and rajo-guṇa little open, and sattva-guṇa means prakāśa, there is illumination, brahminical qualifications. When one is in the sattva-guṇa, then he can understand that "I am not this body. I am different from this body." For them, those who are in the sattva-guṇa, for them it is easier. So therefore the process is . . . Human civilization means not to drag somebody who is already in the sattva-guṇa or in the family of sattva-guṇa, to drag him down to the tamo-guṇa. The modern civilization is like that. The allurement of material civilization is so strong and so bad that those who are by pious activities born in brāhmaṇa family, they are being dragged to the tamo-guṇa behavior like śūdras. They are learning how to drink, how to eat meat, how to have illicit sex. These are the symptoms of tamo-guṇa, lowest type of tamo-guṇa.
There are different degrees of guṇa. The degrees are so mixed up. Therefore three guṇas is manifested into 8,400,000's of different forms of life, mixture. You can calculate—we have several times calculated—three multiplied by three equal nine. Nine multiplied by nine, eighty-one. So therefore there are so many varieties. So human civilization should be so arranged that never mind it is so mixed up, you have to gradually draw him again to the sattva-guṇa. That is human civilization. Not that drag him again to the tamo-guṇa. Somebody, by pious activities, by good work, he's already in the sattva-guṇa, but the arrangement, the social, political, economical arrangement, is so bad that one is dragged to the tamo-guṇa. This is not civilization. This is degradation. Civilization means elevation. The aim is how to become disconnected with this material body. This is civilization. Otherwise that is not civilization, it is animal life. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to bring the human society into the proper platform of civilization. It is a very scientific movement. How it is done? Here it is said, prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. Prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat. This is the problem. So by gradual process, to bring one to the platform of vāsudeve prītir, that is bhakti. Prītir means love, how to love Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa. That is civilization—to bring one to the platform of loving Kṛṣṇa, prītir to Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva sarvam iti (BG 7.19). Just like if you love somebody, the intense love is that your lover or beloved is everything. That is love. Just like a mother loves her child. She is always anxious to take care of the child. Whole attention is on the child. These are examples. These are not actually love, but a perverted reflection of love. We can understand what is love. This love does not stand, but nature dictates that you love your child like this, you love your husband like this, your wife like this, your country like this, your society like this. There are different grades of loving demonstration. That loving demonstration, when it will be concentrated on Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, that is the highest perfection of life.
Therefore it is said, prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. One may have prītir . . . Because we do not know Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, we have got natural tendency to love, but we do not know where to place love. If we place our loving tendency unto Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, then that tendency becomes fruitful and perfection. That is wanted. Therefore it is said that,
If you place your loving tendency to Vāsudeva, then vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ. This can be done perfectly by bhakti-yoga, not by any other. There are different yoga system. Everything is mixed up with little bhakti, but . . . Just like karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, there are different. But the real yoga means loving Vāsudeva, Bhagavān. Therefore Bhagavān says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yogināṁ api sarveṣāṁ (BG 6.47). All other yoga system, there is little tinge of vāsudeva-bhakti, but not cent percent pure. It is mixed. Miśra-bhakti. Miśra-bhakti will not be immediately fruitful. It will take long, long time. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). Everything, there is some bhakti-yoga, but if it is not pure, then it will take very, very, very, very long time, bahūnāṁ janmanām. One janma means hundreds of years. We are not talking of any other janma. Even human form of life. Because those who are advanced in spiritual life, there is every possibility for getting next life a human being. Otherwise nobody knows. Those who are ignorant, they do not know. There will be change of body—tathā dehāntara prāptir (BG 2.13)—that is a fact. But those who are in the sattva-guṇa, they are sure to get next life in the human society. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sanjāyate (BG 6.41). This śucīnāṁ, pure brāhmaṇa, and śrīmatāṁ, very rich vaiśya, or kṣatriya . . . Kings and mercantile community, they are rich, śrīmat. Śrī means opulence, and mat means one who has. Śrīmatām.