Bellows of the blacksmith

Expressions researched:
"bellows in a blacksmith's" |"bellows in a blacksmith's" |"bellows in blacksmith" |"bellows of a blacksmith" |"bellows of the blacksmith" |"blacksmith's bellows"

SB Canto 2

SB 2.3.18, Translation and Purport:

Do the trees not live? Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe? All around us, do the beasts not eat and discharge semen?

The materialistic man of the modern age will argue that life, or part of it, is never meant for discussion of theosophical or theological arguments. Life is meant for the maximum duration of existence for eating, drinking, sexual intercourse, making merry and enjoying life. The modern man wants to live forever by the advancement of material science, and there are many foolish theories for prolonging life to the maximum duration. But the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam affirms that life is not meant for so-called economic development or advancement of materialistic science for the hedonistic philosophy of eating, mating, drinking and merrymaking. Life is solely meant for tapasya, for purifying existence so that one may enter into eternal life just after the end of the human form of life.

SB 2.3.18, Purport:

Prolonged life without spiritual value is not very important. One may doubt that trees have life because they do not breathe. But modern scientists like Bose have already proved that there is life in plants, so breathing is no sign of actual life. The Bhāgavatam says that the bellows of the blacksmith breathes very soundly, but that does not mean that the bellows has life. The materialist will argue that life in the tree and life in the man cannot be compared because the tree cannot enjoy life by eating palatable dishes or by enjoying sexual intercourse. In reply to this, the Bhāgavatam asks whether other animals like the dogs and hogs, living in the same village with human beings, do not eat and enjoy sexual life. The specific utterance of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in regard to "other animals" means that persons who are simply engaged in planning a better type of animal life consisting of eating, breathing and mating are also animals in the shape of human beings. A society of such polished animals cannot benefit suffering humanity, for an animal can easily harm another animal but rarely do good.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 2.31, Translation and Purport:

“Topics about Kṛṣṇa are like waves of nectar. If such nectar does not enter one's ear, the ear is no better than the hole of a damaged conchshell. Such an ear is created for no purpose.

In this connection, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura quotes the following verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.17–24):

āyur harati vai puṁsām udyann astaṁ ca yann asau

tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta uttama-śloka-vārtayā

taravaḥ kiṁ na jīvanti bhastrāḥ kiṁ na śvasanty uta

na khādanti na mehanti kiṁ grāme paśavo ’pare

śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ

na yat-karṇa-pathopeto jātu nāma gadāgrajaḥ

bile batorukrama-vikramān ye

na śṛṇvataḥ karṇa-puṭe narasya

jihvāsatī dārdurikeva sūta

na copagāyaty urugāya-gāthāḥ

bhāraḥ paraṁ paṭṭa-kirīṭa-juṣṭam

apy uttamāṅgaṁ na namen mukundam

śāvau karau no kurute saparyāṁ

harer lasat-kāñcana-kaṅkaṇau vā

barhāyite te nayane narāṇāṁ

liṅgāni viṣṇor na nirīkṣato ye

pādau nṛṇāṁ tau druma-janma-bhājau

kṣetrāṇi nānuvrajato harer yau

jīvañ-chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ

na jātu martyo ’bhilabheta yas tu

śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ

śvasañ-chavo yas tu na veda gandham

tad aśma-sāraṁ hṛdayaṁ batedaṁ

yad gṛhyamāṇair hari-nāmadheyaiḥ

na vikriyetātha yadā vikāro

netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ

“Both by rising and setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead. Do the trees not live? Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe? All around us, do the beasts not eat and discharge semen? Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils. One who has not listened to the messages about the prowess and marvelous acts of the Personality of Godhead and has not sung or chanted loudly the worthy songs about the Lord should be considered to possess ears like the holes of snakes and a tongue like that of a frog. The upper portion of the body, though crowned with a silk turban, is only a heavy burden if not bowed down before the Personality of Godhead, who can award mukti (freedom). And the hands, though decorated with glittering bangles, are like those of a dead man if not engaged in the service of the Personality of Godhead Hari. The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu (His forms, names, qualities, etc.) are like those printed on the plumes of a peacock, and the legs which do not move to the holy places (where the Lord is remembered) are considered to be like tree trunks. The person who has not at any time received upon his head the dust from the feet of a pure devotee of the Lord is certainly a dead body.

CC Madhya 2.33, Translation:

“One's nostrils are no better than the bellows of a blacksmith if one has not smelled the fragrance of Kṛṣṇa's body, which is like the aroma of musk combined with that of the bluish lotus flower. Indeed, such combinations are actually defeated by the aroma of Kṛṣṇa's body.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 87:

The personified Vedas continued: “Dear Lord, it is imperative that the living entities be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always rendering devotional service by such prescribed methods as hearing and chanting and executing Your orders. If a person is not engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service, it is useless for him to exhibit the symptoms of life. Generally if a person is breathing he is accepted to be alive. But a person without Kṛṣṇa consciousness may be compared to a bellows in a blacksmith's shop. The big bellows is a bag of skin which exhales and inhales air, and a human being who simply lives within the bag of skin and bones without taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and loving devotional service is no better than the bellows. Similarly, a nondevotee's long duration of life is compared to the long existence of a tree, his voracious eating capacity is compared to the eating of dogs and hogs, and his enjoyment in sex life is compared to that of hogs and goats.”

Krsna Book 87:

The Māyāvādī philosophers consider ānanda-maya to be the state of being merged in the Supreme. To them, ānanda-maya means that the Supersoul and the individual soul become one. But the real fact is that oneness does not mean merging into the Supreme and losing one's own individual existence. Merging into the spiritual existence is the living entity's realization of qualitative oneness with the Supreme Lord in His aspects of eternity and knowledge. But the actual ānanda-maya (blissful) stage is attained when one is engaged in devotional service. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). Here Lord Kṛṣṇa states that the brahma-bhūta ānanda-maya stage is complete only when there is an exchange of love between the Supreme and the subordinate living entities. Unless one comes to this ānanda-maya stage, his breathing is like the breathing of a bellows in a blacksmith's shop, his duration of life is like that of a tree, and he is no better than the lower animals like the camels, hogs and dogs.

Krsna Book 87:

The Vedic recommendation, therefore, is that one make the lotus feet of Viṣṇu the target of all one's efforts. Tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam: the Viṣṇu planets, or Viṣṇuloka, are situated above all the material planets. These Vaikuṇṭha planets are known as sanātana-dhāma, and they are eternal. They are never annihilated, not even by the annihilation of this material world. The conclusion is that if a human being does not fulfill the mission of his life by worshiping the Supreme Lord and does not go back home, back to Godhead, it is to be understood that he is breathing just like a blacksmith's bellows, living just like a tree, eating just like a camel and having sex just like the dogs and hogs. Thus he has been frustrated in fulfilling the specific purpose of human life.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.3.18-19 -- Los Angeles, June 13, 1972:

Suppose you increase the duration span of life to a very extensive way. In reply to that, it is said that "What is the use of living for so many years?" If the life is not properly utilized ... Now, the living for many, many years, so the trees are also living, standing in one place, living for many years. In San Francisco we saw. They say that one tree, red tree, very tall, very stout and strong, and they said that this tree is standing there for seven hundreds of years. So what is the benefit? So we can argue that "You cannot compare with tree and us. Because we have got so many facilities." What facilities? That facility ... The tree's life ... That is life, admitting, but it cannot breathe. So immediately the answer is bhastrāḥ kiṁ na śvasanty uta. Bhastrāḥ, bellow ... You have seen big, big bellows in blacksmith shop. That is also made of skin. Just like our body is made of skin, that bellow is also made of skin, and it has got a big nose and breathing is coming, "bas, ghans, ghans, bas."