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[[Category:If You Want To]]
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[[Category:Intellectual Class - Brahmana]]
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[[Category:Administrative Class - Ksatriya]]
[[Category:Mercantile Class - Vaisya]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB177VrndavanaApril241975_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="164" link="Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, April 24, 1975" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, April 24, 1975">
<div class="heading">If you want to be a right gentleman, means according to your position... If you are a brāhmaṇa, you should act as a brāhmaṇa; if you are a kṣatriya, you should act as a kṣatriya; if you are a vaiśya, you act as a vaiśya; and if you are none of them, then you are a śūdra. In this way, if we live like a gentleman, then we can make progress further in spiritual advancement.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, April 24, 1975|Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, April 24, 1975]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So if we want to become free from anartha then we must follow the Vedic way of civilization. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāg... ([[Vanisource:BG 4.13|BG 4.13]]). According... The other day I was suggesting the governor that "Open varṇāśrama college." As we are training a medical practitioner and an engineer or any particular type of line, similarly, there must be training school and college where a person or a boy may be educated as a brāhmaṇa or as a kṣatriya. It is very simple thing. We should not... I was suggesting, "The secular government does not mean that let people do whatever he likes." No. Yata mata tata patha. No, that is not... A government's duty is, if anyone is proclaiming himself a Hindu, the government must see that he is acting as a Hindu. If a person is claiming to be Mussulman, he must act as a Mussulman. That is secular government. Secular government may be impartial, but it is not the government's duty to let the people to be whimsical: "Whatever he likes, he can do." No. That is not civilization. So we were discussing on this point.</p>
<p>So these anarthas will increase as long as we are godless rascals and demons. Therefore here it is suggested, anartha upaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. If you want to be a right gentleman, means according to your position... If you are a brāhmaṇa, you should act as a brāhmaṇa; if you are a kṣatriya, you should act as a kṣatriya; if you are a vaiśya, you act as a vaiśya; and if you are none of them, then you are a śūdra. In this way, if we live like a gentleman, then we can make progress further in spiritual advancement. If we live foolishly, whimsically, as we like, yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 16.23|BG 16.23]]),  whatever we like, and others engaged, "Yes, whatever you do, it is right," yata mata tata patha, this is rascaldom. No, you must act according to the śāstra. But there may be question that "Whether it is possible now to revive the old cultural position?" Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore not condemned but rejected. When He was talking with Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, so Caitanya Mahāprabhu was putting question, and Rāmānanda Rāya was answering. So in the beginning Caitanya Mahāprabhu enquired from Rāmānanda Rāya, "What is the aim of life?" Sādhya-sādhana. "What is the aim of life and how to achieve it?" So Rāmānanda Rāya, he was a learned scholar and devotee, he prescribed the varṇāśrama-dharma. He said, "This is the beginning of human life." And he quoted a verse from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa,</p>
:varṇāśramācāravatā
:puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān
:viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā
:nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam
:([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 8.58|CC Madhya 8.58]])
<p>Because our aim of life is to approach Lord Viṣṇu. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.31|SB 7.5.31]]). The modern civilization, they do not know it, na te viduḥ, that what is the aim of life. The aim of life is to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu. This the aim of life. Just like ordinarily, the common citizen, a good citizen, his duty is to abide by the laws of the state. That is called good citizen. And if you do not become a good citizen, then you are put into the prison house, good citizen and bad citizen. Similarly, the aim of human life is to approach Viṣṇu. But the materialistic persons, they do not care for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they manufacture their own plan with materialistic idea. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha... Bahir-artha, the external necessity, that is called bahir-artha. The bahir-artha and anartha is the same thing. Because that is not necessity. We are born under certain laws of the nature. Now instead of trying to improve this... That cannot be improved, because the destiny is there. If you are to enjoy a certain type of happiness, it is there already with your birth. A particular type of body which you have obtained, that is already there. You don't require to improve it. It will never be improved. So our main business is how to improve in spiritual life. That is required. Materially, but if you improve in spiritual life, then if you have got any desire for material improvement, that will be automatically served. You don't require to try for it separately.</p>
:tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido
:na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ
:tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ
:kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā
:([[Vanisource:SB 1.5.18|SB 1.5.18]])
<p>This is the conclusion of the śāstra, that "You have got this human form of life. Your only business is how to advance in spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is your only business."</p>
<p>But because we are surrounded by so many unwanted things, anartha, we are becoming entangled in the cycle of birth and death and old age and disease in different forms. So we do not know it. Most people, they do not know it. Therefore Vyāsadeva, lokasya ajānataḥ.  Because these fools and rascals, they do not know it, therefore he has compiled the sātvata-saṁhitā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the next, it is recommended,</p>
:yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ
:kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe
:bhaktir utpadyate puṁsaḥ
:śoka-moha-bhayāpahā
:([[Vanisource:SB 1.7.7|SB 1.7.7]])
<p>The bhakti-yoga means to become free from these anarthas, unwanted things we have created. Now, how it will be, how we shall become free from the anarthas, that is recommended, yasyāṁ vai śrū... "That sātvata-saṁhitā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if we hear regularly..." Yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām ([[Vanisource:SB 1.7.7|SB 1.7.7]]). Simply by hearing. You don't require to understand even; the hearing is so powerful. That is stated in other place, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.17|SB 1.2.17]]). Kṛṣṇa-kathā is puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ.  If you simply hear and talk about Kṛṣṇa, you become pious, pious. Even if you don't understand the Sanskrit or English, simply if we become eager to hear about Kṛṣṇa, then you become pious. It is so powerful. Therefore it is recommended, yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.18|SB 1.2.18]]). This should be our practice. We are giving this Bhāgavata translation all over the world. And you will be surprised that we are selling more than thirty, forty lakhs of rupees per month. This movement is helping the whole human civilization. So yasyāṁ vai... If one purchases... That is our propaganda. Some or other, we are giving one book. This is in the matter of following the footprints of our Guru Mahārāja. Our Guru Mahārāja, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, he was publishing one small paper, Dainika(?) Nadiya Prakash in Bengali. And if a brahmacārī would go and sell a few copies, he would be very, very glad. He would be very, very glad. And similarly, he advised me also that "If you get some money, publish book." And he used to say that "This press propaganda, the publication propaganda, is bṛhad-mṛdaṅga." So just to satisfy him we are trying to publish this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, very, very authoritative books, in English. And by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, it is unique in the history that religious book can be sold forty lakhs of rupees per month. It is record-breaking. There is no such instance. Because we are trying to give the opportunity, yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām ([[Vanisource:SB 1.7.7|SB 1.7.7]]). Simply by hearing he will become pious. People are suffering on account of becoming impious. So one cannot understand what is God, what is Kṛṣṇa, unless he has finished his impious activity.</p>
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