So in this Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa Himself explains Himself, analytical study, and Vyāsadeva presents Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, "Here is God, Kṛṣṇa." Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Now it is up to you to take it or reject it. That is your business, but things are ready for acceptance. So everyone is searching after what is God. Somebody says, "There is no God." Somebody says, "God is dead." Somebody, "Something, something," but no. God is neither dead nor the action, action that "There is no God"—both of them foolishness. God is not dead; neither we are dead. Because we are part and parcel of God. So if God is alive, then part and parcel are alive. Just like if my body is alive, the finger is alive, because finger is part and parcel of my body, similarly, if God is alive, we are alive. And because we are now in material condition of life, therefore we do not understand what is God and what is our aim. Therefore it is called ajñāna, ignorance. Therefore one who dissipates this ignorance, he is called guru.
Material condition (Lectures, SB)
Expressions researched:
"material condition"
|"material conditional"
|"material conditioned"
|"material conditioning"
|"material conditions"
|"materially conditioned"
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
You may believe or not believe; the God's law will apply upon you forcibly. Exactly like the state law, you may have faith or no faith; you must accept it. Otherwise it will be forcibly imposed upon you. So dharma, as it is explained in English dictionary, "a kind of faith," that is not proper meaning. Dharma means that you are obliged to obey the laws given by God. Just like our material condition, birth, death, old age and disease. So one may say that "I do not believe in death. That is false." You may believe or not believe; you have to die. Similarly, one may believe or not believe; he has to take birth. Death means to give up this body and accept another body. That is very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Just like a child. He must accept the body of a boy. The boy, he must accept next the body of a youth, and the youth must accept the old man's body.
That is a kind of faith. But religion means the order or the laws given by God. Therefore here it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra. Kaitavaḥ means cheating type of religious system. Real religion means "God is there. I am there. God is great. I am subordinate. I must abide by the laws of God." This is religion. At the present moment, under the spell of illusion in this material condition, we have forgotten our real religion. Real religion means to revive our consciousness—we say, "Kṛṣṇa consciousness"—or God consciousness, by which we agree to abide by the laws of God. So Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā at the end, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). He says that "You have manufactured so many religious system. So you give up all these. You simply surrender unto Me." Therefore real conclusion is, real religion means, to surrender unto God.
That is marginal stage. We must come this side or that side. So even if we are liberated, if we are not engaged in the activities of liberation, then we are to be considered on the marginal stage. And marginal stage means we may fall down in this material condition. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Āruhya kṛcchreṇa. Kṛcchreṇa means with great difficulty. The philosophers, they try to understand the Absolute Truth by mental speculation. But simply by mental speculation you cannot stay in that understanding. Or, in other words, by theoretical knowledge you cannot escape. It must be practiced. Practiced.
Oh, yes. Why not? Just like I had my small body. Then I had greater body, another body, another body. So every moment there is incarnation, reincarnation, every moment. That is medical science opinion. We are changing our bodily condition, material condition, but I am existing. Therefore, as I have passed over my childhood body to be incarnated into boyhood body, from boyhood I have reincarnated in a youthhood body. From youthhood body I reincarnated my old body. Similarly, after leaving this body I must have to accept another body. That I have already explained. Just like we change our dresses. So soul is eternal; the body is not permanent, temporary, and there are 8,400,000's of different types of bodies. We are migrating or transmigrating from one to another. This business, if we want to stop... Because we are eternal, our aims and object should be to attain that eternal status. That we can attain by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
And if we discuss about Kṛṣṇa, if we question about Kṛṣṇa, if you try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then our life becomes perfect. Simply by trying to understand Kṛṣṇa, your will be perfect.
What is the perfection of life? The perfection of life means to get out of this material condition and to be situated in our original, spiritual life. Originally we are all spiritual spark, we all, sitting here, not only we, human beings, even other living entities, everyone—the trees, the plants, the aquatics, birds, beasts, insects, microbes, everyone. Wherever you'll find living symptoms, they are all part and parcel of God. But according to their karma, according to their pious and impious activities, they have been obliged to accept a certain type of body. That is in the hands of nature. Your science will not help. Your science will not help. It will be considered by the material nature.
Therefore here Sūta Gosvāmī says that yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśnaḥ. So our business should be always to inquire about Kṛṣṇa, or God, and try to understand, because as soon as you understand God, then your this material conditioned life will be finished. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). You should know Kṛṣṇa, or God, in truth not by manufacturing your own ways, concoction. Scientifically. It is a great science. Yad vijñānaṁ samanvitam. Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānaṁ vakṣyāmi yat aśeṣataḥ (BG 7.2), in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sa-vijñānam: "It is science." Yaj jñātvā bhūyo 'nyaj jñātavyaṁ na avaśiṣyate. If you try to understand God, then you have nothing to understand again any more. Every, all knowledge is there. Because God is everything, so you understand everything.
A hog has got a certain type of body; he feels pleasure by eating stool. He cannot improve it, because he has got the body like that. So according to our body, we get our happiness. So our time should be saved for improving Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the law of nature. Don't try to improve your material condition. The material happiness, whatever is destined according to your body, which is already given to you, and you'll have it, without any endeavor. Yathā dukham ajajñātaḥ. Just like you have to enjoy or suffer also, that is also according to the body, ajajñātaḥ. You don't endeavor for the distress, but you get it. Similarly, you don't endeavor for happiness—you'll get it.
There are different stages of bhakti. The first-class bhakti is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, without any material desires, ahaituki. Apratihatā and cannot be checked by any material condition. Bhakti, or devotional service is not such a thing which can be checked. "Sir, I was feeling very sick, therefore I could not chant." No, that is not bhakti. We are subjected to all these tribulations utterly, but bhakti... Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he was going to die, or he's change his body, he's going to Vaikuṇṭha. Caitanya... He was chanting daily 300,000s. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised him, "Now you are sick-willed, you can reduce your chanting." Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, "No, sir. That I cannot do." That is Haridāsa Ṭhākura. We cannot imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura.
"Now you are sick-willed, you can reduce your chanting." Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, "No, sir. That I cannot do." That is Haridāsa Ṭhākura. We cannot imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Even at the point of death he was chanting 300,000s of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Apratihatā, this is called apratihatā, without being checked by any material condition. So if you want to become a devotee, no material condition can check you. It is so nice, so easy, ahaituki apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. The real thing is that we want satisfaction of our self, so if we want actually satisfaction of self then we shall take to this devotional service without being checked by any material condition or for without any material reason, then you shall be happy. Thank you very much.
There is motive. But here it is said ahaitukī, without any motive. If you can love God who is beyond your sense perception and without any motive, that activities of love will never be stopped. Ahaituky apratihatā—without being impeded. Without being impeded by any material condition. That means that if you actually love God, there is no condition. Because you are poor man you cannot love God, that is not the fact. Or because you are rich man you cannot love God, no, that is also not fact. Because you are not educated you cannot love God, that is also not acceptable. Because you are very much educated, highly philosophical... So many conditions you can bring but all these conditions are not applicable in the business, in the transaction, of loving God without motive. So this is the description of love of Godhead and if we practically try to cultivate this knowledge of Godhead, that is called, that process is called bhakti. That process is called bhakti.
It is very difficult. You are trying to be happy by adjustment of material conditions, but that is not possible. Māyā is very strong. She'll not let you become happy under material condition. That is not possible. Then how one can become happy? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). As soon as you become obedient, surrender to Kṛṣṇa, you become transcendental to the laws of material nature. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Those who are mahātmās, they are not under material condition. They are under spiritual guidance. Daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ. And what is their symptom? Bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ. Without any diversion, they are engaged in bhajana. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. This is bhajana.
So that is not wanted. That is not religion. Religion means without wanting all these things. Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye. Not for any material... Ahaituky apratihatā. "Oh, I am a poor man, I cannot love God. I cannot enhance my devotional service." No. Devotional service is so nice, apratihatā, it cannot be checked by any material condition. That is dharma. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). This is re... This is test how much I am religious, how much I am devotee. This is the test.
So we should be always alert to test our advancement, how we are making advancement. Because unless we become first-class devotee, there is no question of our being relieved from this material condition of life. That is not possible. That is not possible. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati.
Of course, if you take the meaning of artha as paramārtha, that is required. But material profit, as it is stated here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Sūta Gosvāmī, that to go to the church or to the temple or to become a religious person, does not mean that it is meant for improving your material condition. Generally, people come to us or the temple for asibha (?). What is that asibha? "Now I have got five hundred rupees income. Please give me asibha it may become five thousand." So this is not the purpose of dharma. Here it is stated, dharmasya hy āpavargasya na artaḥ arthāya upakalpate.
Then we require artha. Without artha, without money, how we can live? That is also explained here, nārthasya dharmaikāntasya kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ. You require money, that's all right, but not for sense gratification, not for going to the cinema.
Then what about their knowledge?" They... Kṛṣṇa says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ, "Their knowledge has no value. Actual essence of knowledge has been taken away by the māyā."
So therefore dharma means one should be very serious to get out of this material conditional life. That is real dharma. Nārthāya upakalpate. Not that simply we go to temple or church and ask God for some material benefit. Arthāya, dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). These are called catur-varga. That is... In the Vedic civilization a human body, or human being, is recognized when he's interested in these four things: dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. First of all, dharma. Without religious life, animal. What is the value of? Dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. Anyone who has no religion... It doesn't matter what religion he's following, he must follow some religion.
Simply if we become engaged for economic development, fulfilling the belly, and we forget our real business, developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is not very intelligent work.
Therefore it is said here, dharmasya hy āpavargyasya. To perform religious..., religiosity means how to get out of this material conditional life, apavarga. Pavarga means hard work. Pa pha. And so much hard work that there is foam in the mouth, phena. Pa pha ba. And vyarthatā. In spite of working so hard, we are confused, baffled. Pa pha ba bha. And still there is bhaya, fearfulness, "Whether it is done, or whether I shall get tomorrow, any food?" Bha. In this way, at the end, ma, mṛtyu. This is called pa pha ba bha ma-pavarga. So to take to religiosity means to get out of this pavarga. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya. Not pavargyasya. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya na arthāya upakalpate. We go to temple or church or mosque to get some material benefit: "O God, give us our daily bread." The Christians pray like that.
This is the beginning. Just like a child learns to eat, little, little. Otherwise there will be no more food. Therefore dharma is required to stop this miserable condition of life. That is real dharma.
Therefore to come to the real point of dharma, transcendental position, in the material conditional life, the dharma, varṇāśrama-dharma... Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Viprādayo guṇaḥ pṛthak cātur-varṇyam. Ya eṣaṁ puruṣaṁ sākṣād ātma-prabhāvam īśvaram, na bhajanti vā ajānanti... Puruṣasya āśramaiḥ saha. Tyakta jagṛhe varṇa vipro aday guṇaḥ pṛthak(?). These are the statements of śāstra, that the human society, just to make it real human society, not cats' and dogs' society, there must be varṇāśrama. That is dharma. In the material stage, when we have to take care of this body, there must be this varṇāśrama.
Similarly here also, the same spiritual our duties are there, but because it is covered by this material body, it is perverted. So, just like when you are diseased, we cannot enjoy life; that is forbidden. If one is suffering from tuberculosis, and if he wants to enjoy sex life, that means he is bringing death. Similarly, in this material condition of life if we want to aggravate our sense gratification process, then we invite very from..., very quickly death. Death means, spiritual death, to become more and more entangled in material things.
Therefore Bhāgavata says, Sūta Goswami says, that this life, human life, or the purpose of the Vedic civilization, they are not meant for kāmasya nendriya-prītir (SB 1.2.10). Kāma, that should be utilized for better purpose, not for sense gratification.
He washes all the dirty things.
The dirty thing is that "I shall be happy by material enjoyment." This is the basis of dirty things. The rascal does not know that he cannot be happy in any condition, any material condition. Brahmā is unhappy, Indra is unhappy, what to speak of you, you are teeny creature. Nobody can be happy in this material world. They must be always in anxiety because they have accepted something which will never make him happy. Therefore we have to counteract it, these dirty things, that we are trying to be happy in this material world. These dirty things are accumulated within our heart. Life after life, we have selected so many bodies. "Now I shall become tiger. I am eating flesh, but I cannot attack the animal and eat fresh blood." Kṛṣṇa is so kind: "All right I am giving you the chance to become a tiger.
Therefore in the beginning, if somebody all of a sudden becomes a Vaiṣṇava and in a solitary place, "I am chanting," that is cheating. How you can be...? How you can chant? You cannot, because your mind is not fixed up. Your mind is not... Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. Unless you are purified, your mind is always disturbed. That is the material condition. The mind must be disturbed.
Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Prahlāda Mahārāja says. That is the material symptom. What is the material symptom? Always full of anxiety. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Why? Asad-grahāt. Because he has accepted the temporary position, asat. Asat means "which will not exist." Here everything will not exist. This body, it will not exist. But I have taken this body as everything. "I am Indian." "I am American." "I am the father of this family." "I am the manager of the so big business."
Just like human civilization, they're discovering so many laser weapons, atomic bomb, so many things. So it is improving the defending condition. But modern civilization is in the opinion that if they can improve their material condition of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, that is advancement of civilization. But that is not advancement of civilization. Advancement of civilization means brahma-darśanam. That is advancement. Because so long we do not come to the platform of understanding that "I am spirit soul, I am part and parcel of the Supreme Spirit," we are in the ignorance—in different forms. The example is given very nicely. Just like raw wood, just from the trees, you cut the trees, it is raw, it is not immediately fit for burning. But when it is little dried you can ignite fire, and, igniting fire, immediately there is no flame, there is smoke.
"Previously, all the great sages rendered service unto the transcendental Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān, due to His existence above the three modes of material nature. They worshiped Him to become free from material conditions. Whoever follows such sages is also eligible for liberation from the material world."
So, in the beginning, there was no impersonalists or voidists. These are later additions. In the Vedas it is stated oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. It is a Vedic mantra. Sūrayaḥ, those who are great sages, they're always looking forward to see the lotus feet of Viṣṇu, tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam.
"Previously all the great sages rendered service unto the transcendental Personality of Godhead (Bhagavān) due to His existence above the three modes of material nature. They worshiped Him to become free from material conditions. Whoever follows such sages is also eligible for liberation from the material world."
So bhejire munayaḥ athāgre bhagavantam adhokṣajam. There are some theories—that is not fact—that ultimately the Absolute Truth is impersonal. But here we find that agre, in the beginning, after creation, all the sages... First of all, there was Brahmā. And then he created so many saintly persons. Marīcyādi, great sages. And they also engaged themselves in worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not impersonal, from the very beginning. Bhejire munayaḥ atha agre.
So we should be interested in that liberation. Mumukṣava. Mumukṣa icchavaḥ, "those who are desiring." Those who want to remain within this bondage, material bondage of transmigrating from one body... Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. We are trying to improve our material condition. Sometimes we are going up, sometimes we are coming down. This is going on.
But actual life, this human form of life, is meant for to get out of this darkness of material world. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. This is the information, Vedic information: "Don't remain in this darkness." Darkness, this, this material world is dark. Just like night. It was dark. actually it was dark. And because the sunshine is there, now we are seeing each other. Actually it is dark. And dark also—ignorance. We do not know what is the aim of life. Therefore, the whole world is darkness.
That is real characteristic. And actually we are servant. We are serving. That is our characteristic. Either he may be Hindu or Muslim or Christian, but the real business is that everyone is serving. It is not that because I am Hindu, I don't serve. Or because one is Christian, he doesn't serve. No. Everyone is serving. But he's serving māyā. He's serving kāma, krodha, lobha, mātsarya. He's serving. In this material condition, we are serving our whims, kāma. Sometimes I become angry and I serve my anger—I beat others. That means I am serving anger. I am serving my lust. I am serving my greediness.
So we have become, instead of becoming servant of Kṛṣṇa, we have become the servants of our, these enemies. Practically they are enemies-kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Or in other words, we are servants of the three material modes of nature. But we are servant. That we cannot deny.
There is no doubt about it. Conditioned means no freedom. No freedom. As spirit soul we are free. Sarva-ga, we can go everywhere, anywhere. Even those who get some mystic powers by perfection of yoga practice, they can also exhibit some powers. So why? As we become free from material conditions, our original freedom comes.
So one of the qualification of the spirit soul is sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means he can go anywhere and everywhere. But because we are conditional stage, we are trying so much to go to the moon planet, we cannot go. But Nārada, because he is free, he has got full spiritual body, he can go anywhere he likes. Go on.
Upendra: "The nitya-baddha or the eternally conditioned souls have the sense of individuality or ahaṅkāra which dictates them for sense enjoyment which they are unable to have constitutionally.
There is no distress. But that happiness can be attained in cooperation with the Supreme. We are sparks of fire. So with the fire, if the sparks are "fut-put"... You see sometimes, the sparks; it looks very beautiful. The same spark, as soon as falls down from the fire, extinguished. The fiery quality immediately extinguished. So our material condition is like that. We have given up the company of Kṛṣṇa, and we wanted to be happy in this material world; therefore we are suffering. So same spark, particle of carbon, if you put again to the fire, it will again become red hot and fire. So this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that we are trying the sparks, which by chance has fallen down from the fire, to pick it up again and put it in the fire. That is real happiness.
That is not religion. According to Vedic understanding, this is religion. This is natural function.
So, ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet tato dharmaṁ tato dhanam.(?) First of all you try to protect yourself, then take to real religion, natural function of the ātmā. Then try to... Because we are in this material condition, we require economic development also. So that is very easy also. Kṛṣṇa has given you enough land—you just little work. The animals are there. The cows will give you milk. If you till a little land, you get some grains. That is sufficient. Economic development. You don't require big factories, big workshop, and whole day and night with motorcar going this way and that way. No. There is no necessity for economic development. This is māyā. Simply at the end he will eat some grains or some this or that, little. And by whole day... Therefore they are called mūḍha.
Nārada Muni is instructing his disciple Vyāsadeva to write books specially by which one may be helped, everyone will be helped, to cross over the nescience, akhila-bandha-muktaye, to become liberated from all conditional stage. We are spirit soul. We cannot be under any material condition. Just like our normal condition is healthy life, not under feverish condition. That is abnormal life. If one is attacked with fever, that is not his normal life. That is temporary, abnormal life. Actual life is healthy life. We should nicely eat. We shall nicely sleep. We shall work very nicely. We..., our brain must work very nicely. These are healthy signs. But when I cannot work nicely, I cannot sleep nicely, I cannot work nicely, I cannot act my brain very nicely, that means abnormal condition. So at that time, he requires to be treated by expert physician.
"Therefore you write literature in such a way that people will become attracted to Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord." Simply official understanding of Kṛṣṇa—"God is great" or "Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful"—but my attention is only how to improve my material condition... So this picture was given in our Back to Godhead. Perhaps you all remember that a bridegroom party was to go to the bride's home. In India the marriage party, bridegroom party, the bride, his father, his relatives, go with the bride, bridegroom, to the bride's home, and the marriage ceremony takes place there in the presence of all kinds of relatives. That is the system. So the marriage was to take place in a different village some miles away, and in Bengal the land is full of rivers. The rivers are considered to be high roads.
So our main business is how to improve Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We should not divert our attention in any other material condition of improvement. That is actually not improvement. It is simply illusion, that "I am making improvement." What improvement? Suppose you are earning now, say, five hundred dollars per month. If you earn, say, five million dollars, so then what? Will you eat more than four cāpāṭis? (laughter) You'll eat the same four cāpāṭis. And you'll occupy the same six feet bed. You may acquire the whole property of West Virginia, (laughter) but you'll have to lie down on six feet. (laughter) That's all. And you'll have to eat four cāpāṭis. So this is māyā. This is māyā, "I am improving." What you are improving? You'll not be taller. You'll not be great eater, nothing of the sort.
Therefore it is said in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. Nitya-siddha means eternally perfect. It is not that we are artificially acquiring this kṛṣṇa-bhakti. No, it is not artificial. It is natural. This is actual fact. So we are simply... Because our present, in the present material condition, our heart is covered with so much garbage of different types of body... Just like all of a sudden something comes to your mind. It has no connection. Just like a bubble, comes out. Because so many dirty things are reserved on account of our material conditional life for millions and millions of years. Anādi karama-phale paḍi' bhavārṇava-jale. Anādi, we cannot... Anādi means... Ādi means the creation. So before this creation. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We are in this material contamination not that in this millennium-before that. Just like millennium after millennium.
When one is inquisitive about himself, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "Why I am suffering?"... Ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya.
So that realization is here. Therefore Nārada Muni says, tāpa-traya-cikitsitam. Cikitsitam means treatment. By the grace of guru, he could understand that "I am in this condition, material condition, means suffering from threefold types of miseries, and I am uselessly wasting time for material comforts, for economic development." Śrama eva hi kevalam. "Even I act as a perfect brāhmaṇa or as a perfect kṣatriya or a perfect vaiśya or śūdra, still, I am wasting time. Still, I am wasting time." How?
Simply. Simply waste of time. But if he develops Kṛṣṇa consciousness and he learns how to serve Kṛṣṇa, how to please Kṛṣṇa, that is perfect. That he understood... Etat saṁsūcitaṁ brahmaṁs tāpa-traya-cikitsitam. This is the cikitsā, treatment, of tāpa... If you want to get relief from this material condition of life, then you should learn how to please Kṛṣṇa, how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is called bhakti. Without bhakti, you cannot be relieved. Jñāna, karma, yoga will not get you released from this tāpa-traya. And if you execute devotional service, then immediately, immediately you become free from this tāpa-traya.
Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2). Kṛṣṇa says. It is so nice. Devotional service is so nice that susukhaṁ kartum avyayam, it is very pleasing to transact. And avyayam. And whatever you do, that is your permanent asset. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam.
Therefore the learned Vyāsadeva compiled this Vedic literature, which is in relation to the Supreme Truth." (SB 1.7.6)
Prabhupāda: Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣāt. Anartha means... Artha means which is essential, artha. So anartha means just the opposite. So our present material condition is that we have increased some unwanted things, anartha. Therefore we have been entangled. Just like yesterday I was speaking with that president. He was thinking the problem of economics. And what is the problem? There is no problem. Anywhere, any part of the world, you live, you just have some land, and some animals. Animals means cow. Other animals also, you can keep. There is no harm. But cows must be there, animals. And you cannot destroy the cows. If you want to eat meat... That is the Indian system. Indian system, for meat-eaters, there is concession. Just like for sex life there is concession, similarly, for meat-eater also,
And they are passing on as scientist. How misleading these things are, and how people are being misled. You see.
So Kali-yuga is a very precarious condition: no knowledge, ignorance, and no nirvṛtti. Everyone is in pravṛtti. So whatever their condition may be, but if you want actually freedom from this material conditional life, then you should follow ācārya. Ācāryavān puruṣaḥ. Ācāryopāsanam. Kṛṣṇa is personally acting as ācārya. He's coming again as ācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He has got so many representatives ācārya: Śrī Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Viṣṇu Svāmī, so many ācāryas. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2). So take lesson from the ācāryas. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is ācārya. Vyāsadeva is ācārya. He's making the next ācārya by teaching him—adhyāpayām āsa, śukam adhyāpayām āsa—so that he is becoming ācārya. So we have to go the ācārya and take lesson. Then, in the previous verse we are advised,
Now I am a householder and pet husband of these women." So he came to his senses. Again he went to the forest for tapasya.
So this material life, however opulent it may be, it is māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ. It has no value. It has no value. Why? Because in this life I may be very favorably situated by arrangement by improving my material condition. But after death—dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13)—you do not know, we do not know what kind of body we are going to get. It may not be as comfortable. So karmīs, they, those who are little advanced than the ordinary foolish persons... There are... First of all, ordinary foolish person means animals. They are just like animals. And little above that, they are karmīs, and little above that, there are jñānīs. And little above that, there is yogis. And above all them is the bhakta. Therefore bhakta life is the summum bonum of life.
That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not to become a lazy fellow, eat and sleep. No.
So this is dharmasya glāniḥ. But you have to change your angle of vision. In the material conditioned life your aim is how to satisfy your senses. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness means you have to work in the same spirit, same vigor, but you have to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual life. Not that to become lazy fellow. The difference is, as it is said by author, Kṛṣṇadāsa, ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā tāre bali 'kāma' (CC Adi 4.165). What is kāma? Kāma means when one desires to satisfy his own senses. That is kāma. Kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare 'prema' nāma. And what is prema? Prema means when you engage yourself for satisfying Kṛṣṇa's senses. Why gopīs are exalted? Because their only endeavor was to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses.
So that is... He's also dharma-vit. His name is Dharmarāja. Not that because he is punishing... Simply his only business is to punish. But still he's Dharmarāja, dharma-vit. He knows how to punish a person on religious principles.
So we are, in this material world, we are pramatta. We are thinking "These material conditions will save me." That is pramatta, half-mad, crazy. Pramatta. We are thinking, dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu (SB 2.1.4). I am thinking "I am very strong body..." (break) ...cannot achieve self-realization. Now some of our big sannyāsīs, he took it that unless you become very strong and stout by eating meat and exercise, gymnastics, you cannot understand spiritual life. This is their interpretation. But that is not the fact. Bala, bala means Balarāma. Do you think that because you are very strong and stout, a big wrestler with muscles, you'll live? No. For Yamarāja there is no consideration that "Here is a weak person, lean and thin, and here is a very strong person; therefore the strong person should be left over and the lean and thin will be taken to Yamarāja." No.
Now, because tato vimukha-cetasaḥ. Śoce tato vimukha-cetasaḥ. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "I am aggrieved for the rascals who are not devotees." Tato vimukha-cetasaḥ. Vimukha means they are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So a Vaiṣṇava is disturbed, perturbed. How these rascals are suffering so much in material condition. So how to teach them Kṛṣṇa consciousness. How to make them happy. This is Vaiṣṇava's concern. Vaiṣṇava concern, personal, there is no concern. Vaiṣṇava is not satisfied that "Because I have no problem, I can chant anywhere and enjoy." No. Still, Vaiṣṇava takes the risk. As Prahlāda Mahārāja said, that "I do not wish to go alone to Vaikuṇṭha or anywhere, my Lord, unless I can deliver all these rascals." This is Vaiṣṇava. He knew that all the..., Vimukha-cetasaḥ. These materialistic persons, they are engaged in planning for material happiness. They are working so hard, becoming baffled without any benefit.
If the distress comes without any invitation, the happiness also will come without invitation. Without any invitation. Because you are destined already that so much happiness, so much distress you will have. Destined.
So you cannot change it. Try to change your lord, this material condition of life. That is your only business. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ...Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. You have tried. bhramatām upary adh... Upari means higher planetary systems. Sometimes we get our birth in higher planetary system as demigods, and sometimes, adhaḥ, as animals, as cats and dogs, germ of the stool. This is going on. This is going on according to our karma. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). Only fortunate living entity gets this opportunity of association of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's devotee. Then his life becomes sublime.
You are no more American, Indian or African or this or that. You are Kṛṣṇized, Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is wanted.
Therefore Kuntīdevī says, "Hṛṣīkeśa, my dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the master of the senses, and for the sense gratification, we are fallen in this material condition of life, different varieties of life." So we are suffering, and suffering to the extent, even one becomes Kṛṣṇa's mother... Because this is material world, she's also put into suffering, what to speak of others? Devakī is so advanced that she has become the mother of Kṛṣṇa, but still she's put into difficulties. And difficulties by whom? By his brother, Kaṁsa. So this world is like that. Try to understand. Even you become Kṛṣṇa's mother, and even your brother, who is very nearest relative. So you, the world is such jealous, that if one's personal interest is hampered, everyone will be ready to give you trouble. This is the world. Everyone.
Mean they cannot, shudder, to think of another life, again eating, again sleeping, again working. Because he thinks eating, sleeping, means on the bed. That's all. And suffering. He cannot think otherwise. So the negative way, to make it zero. That is void philosophy.
But actually that is not the case. The case is that you are in trouble on material condition. you get out of this material condition. Then there is real life, eternal life. Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is Aja. Aja means who has no birth and death. So we are also aja. How we can be otherwise? If Kṛṣṇa, I am Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. The same example we can see. If my, if my father is happy, so I am the son of my father. Why I shall not be, I shall be unhappy? This is natural conclusion. Because I will enjoy my father's property as my father is enjoying.
The matter is not created. Matter is created by the spirit soul. Not the soul is created by matter. This is rascal theory, that this living condition, living force, living energy which we have got, it is created by material condition. This is Buddhist theory. At the present moment, the whole world is going on on this Buddhist theory. That under certain condition the matter develops living force. No, that is not. Actually the fact is: upon the living force, matter increases.
That we can understand very easily. Apart from our knowledge within the womb of the mother, how the body develops, we can see if a child is born, he grows, his body develops. But if the child is born dead, no spirit soul, it will not develop.
One of the potencies is the pleasure potency. Just like we want some pleasure. Pleasure is the constitutional position of spirit soul, or the Absolute Truth. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). God and we, being of the same quality, we are by nature always joyful. So our joyfulness is checked when we are in material condition. Therefore there is struggle. We are hankering after, to revive that joyfulness, but this contamination of material energy, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, they are checking, obstacles.
Therefore we have to get free from obstacles. Sattva-guṇa, we have to go above the sattva-guṇa, śuddha-sattva. Then again we revive our original position of joyfulness. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). This is the joyfulness: no lamentation, no hankering.
That is called karma-bandhana. Karma-bandhana means so long we do not know what is our duty, we create our position differently and therefore sometimes we suffer, sometimes we enjoy. Therefore we must know what is our duty. That we have forgotten. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). In this material condition of life we have forgotten what is our actually aim of life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). Our duty, when we forget our dharma, that is called dharmasya glāniḥ. Dharma is not a religious sentiment. Dharma means our occupational duty, real meaning. I think I have given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So when we forget our duty, that is called dharmasya glāniḥ. Glāniḥ means deterioration of our real occupational duty.
We do not take it seriously. That is the difficulty. Actually, as Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, that viṣaya-biṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jwale, juṛāite nā koinu upāy, "My heart is always burning on account of this material condition of life, and I did not make any means to get out of this entanglement"... So everyone should be intelligent. Intelligent person will admit that his heart is always burning. That's a fact. Now, if we want to get out of it, then, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu advises, all the ācāryas advises, and here Arjuna also... Arjuna directly listened to Kṛṣṇa, and he says, "This is my practical experience, that when I..." He was a politician, a fighter. He had so many anxieties. So he used to remember the instruction given by Kṛṣṇa directly to him.
So the child is confident that "I'm secure." So it has no more any second desire. In the material world, because we have not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa we are always wandering helpless. Everyone here feeling helpless. Even though one is millionaire, even though one is president, but he's feeling helpless. This is the position, material conditional life.
- bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ
- praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ
- kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ
- praharṣayiṣyāmi sanātha-jīvitam
This is a prayer by Yāmunācārya. He's aspiring, bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ: "I shall always live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Bhavantam. He's addressing the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, bhavantam. Bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ. Nirantara means without any stop, continually. "When I shall live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness without any stop?"
This chariot is this body. The mind is the coat-man or the chariot driver, and the senses are the horses. So, in this way, we are being forced to wander in so many planets, in so many species of life. This is our material condition. Bhrāmayan yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Bhrāmayan yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.
This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
- bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
- yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
- (BG 18.61)
So īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is there. Now He's giving chance, "You living entity, you did not surrender to Me. You wanted to enjoy this material world. So you take this chariot and take this driver and go on." This is going on. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "Whatever you want, you do it. But you'll never be happy." That is the point. "You can do whatever. I will give you chance. I'll give you." Just like you want a Rolls Royce car.
Now Kṛṣṇa has, because at the present moment in the Kali-yuga... Kṛṣṇa formerly came to kill big, big giant demons like Rāvaṇa and Kaṁsa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, very, very big giant. But that the present moment where is that big giant? They are all poor. There is no... Although by mentality they are all rogues and rascals and demons, but in material condition they are very very poor. That is stated. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). People are so unfortunate that even the bird and beast, they can get their two meals, eating, sleeping, mating; they have got their arrangement. At the present moment a human being has no arrangement what he is going to eat in the morning or in the evening, whether he has got any chance of sex life. These things are preliminary requirement, but nobody is guarantee of these things, they are so unfortunate. They are not getting the preliminary necessities of life, what to speak of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are so unfortunate.
So at the time of death they could utilize, how to give up this body. That is perfection of yoga. The yogis, they can give up the life or give this, relinquish this body, according to his own desire, not compelled by the material condition. That is yoga system. Generally, a man dies under the obligation of material laws. But a yogi, he controls in such a way that he leaves the body...
Just like Bhīṣmadeva. Bhīṣmadeva especially, his father gave him the benediction that so long he would not himself like to die, he'll never die, Bhīṣmadeva. He got this benediction from his father because his promise was very stern, severe. You know the story, that Bhīṣmadeva's father was captivated by the young girl, Satyavatī, and he wanted to marry her. A kṣatriya could do that. But Satyavatī's father disagreed. Although he was king, he could marry anyone he likes. But his (her) father... Still, with the permission of the parents.
So if we can see by our practical experience, there are living entities in the water, so why not living entities in the fire? And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that living entity, this spiritual spark, is not affected by material influence. In the Vedas also it is..., asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. It has nothing to do with this material condition. Adāhya. This special word is used that it cannot burned by the fire. Aśoṣya, it cannot be dried up by air. Acchedya, it cannot be cut into pieces. These things are there. So we are firmly convinced that in the sun planet there is also living entity, and the king or the president there is called Vivasvān, his name is Vivasvān. And our gāyatrī-mantra is worshiping the sun planet. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi. So this is the Vedic conception. Every planet there is king, and the king's duty is to see that everyone is executing his professional occupational duty.
That is the condition. If you have got material body, you must suffer. It is not the question of European, American or white, black. There is no such question. If you are animal or man, as soon as you have got this material body, you must suffer. This is condition. This is material condition. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not meant for, I mean to say, mitigating the so-called sufferings of the body. When there is body, there must be suffering. So we should not be very much disturbed by the sufferings of the body. Because you'll have to suffer. Even though you make very nice arrangement. Just like in comparison to Europe and America. In European cities we see so many nice arrangements, living condition, big, big house, big, big road, nice cars. In comparison to India, if some Indian comes from Indian village, he'll see, "It is heaven, so nice house, so nice building, so nice motorcars." But do you think you are not suffering? He may think, the rascal may think that "Here is heaven."
This life of spiritual execution cannot be hampered by any material condition. From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we understand that sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). That is the highest type of religious performances by which one can achieve the perfection of loving God. Yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. Bhakti means to offer transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord. Bhakti. Bhaj-dhātu sevayā(?). Bhaj. Bhaj-dhātu, it is a verb, bhaj. Bhaj means to render service just like servant renders service to the master, friend renders service to the friend, wife renders service to the husband, husband renders service to the wife. This service-rendering process is going on everywhere. Nobody is absolute that he does not render service to anyone. That is not possible. I have repeatedly explained that if somebody has no master to serve, he voluntarily accepts a cat or dog as his master to serve. The nice name is pet dog, but it is serving. The mother serves the child. So one who has no child, he takes the cat as her child and serves.
There is no reason why she is loving. That is natural. Similarly, when we invoke our natural love for God, that is the highest perfection of religious principle. Ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means it cannot be checked by any material condition. Just like we want to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; this is service. This is the beginning of service, chanting the glories of the Lord, or praying the Lord, "Hare, O the energy of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa, O Lord, please engage me in Your service." This is the prayer. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, repeatedly, "Please engage me. Please engage me." But God can give you many things. Whatever you want, He is giving. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). He can give you even salvation, but very rarely He gives you the chance of serving Him.
Whatever you want, He is giving. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). He can give you even salvation, but very rarely He gives you the chance of serving Him.
So service is not an ordinary thing. So this is, this service is unimpaired, unchecked by any material condition. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he gives us some definition how you can be completely independent to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now our problem is eating-sleeping. Eating-sleeping. After sleeping, there is mating or fearing. These are the problems of bodily demands. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends for a serious devotee, he says, cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi. Cīrāṇi means worn-out, rejected garments. In your country it is very usual to find in the dustbin so many things are thrown away. So sometimes nice dress is also thrown away. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that if you have problem of dressing yourself, just pick up some old garments from the street.
We living entities, we are part and parcel of God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Some way or other, we are now fallen in this material condition, and we are changing bodies. This is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. There are so many commentators on Bhagavad-gītā, but nobody has pointed out what is the real business of Bhagavad-gītā. The real business is, as Kṛṣṇa says in the beginning of His teachings,
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
This is the first instruction, that we are changing body on account of the spirit soul, and when the spirit soul changes... We are changing every day, every moment, our body—kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. I was a child. You were a child. We have now changed our bodies. Similarly, now I am old man. Some of you, you are also old man. We have changed the body.
So roundabout way, their philosophy is to satisfy one's own sense gratification.
That's all. The Māyāvāda philosophy means, impersonalist means, the same material condition. The material condition means everyone is busy in sense gratification. And ... therefore they cannot understand. And when there is a question of sense gratification ... Just like, "We are dancing here, ball dance. So this is material māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's dance with the gopīs, that is also māyā." This is Māyāvāda symptom. The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth, he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. All bitter medicine, injections, always suffering. So if he is informed that "After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa," he cannot believe it. He says, "Again eating? Oh, it is horrible."
Society means that you'll get here the cause of being elevated. Just like there are so many societies, equal class of men. "Birds of the same feather flock together." So here is a society. Who will flock here? Who will come here? Because this society is meant for liberation... People are suffering so much on account of material condition of life. Nobody is happy. That is a fact. But because they are in ignorance, they are accepting unhappiness as happiness. This is called māyā. This is called māyā.
Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). This māyā is very much manifest in sex life. They accept the sex life is very nice, but after that, there is so many distresses. Legal or illegal, it doesn't matter. Legal distresses or illegal distresses, but it is distress. Every one of us, we know. Therefore everything—to make the best use of a bad bargain. We have got this material body.
There is no necessity of tracing out the history when the living entity desired this, but the fact is that as soon as he desired such, he was put under the control of ātma-māyā by the direction of the Lord. Therefore the living entity in his material condition is dreaming falsely that this is 'mine' and this is 'I.' The dream is that the conditioned soul thinks of his material body as 'I' or falsely thinks that he is the lord and that everything in connection with the material body is 'mine.' Thus in dream only the misconception of 'I and mine' persist life after life. This continues life after life as long as the living entity is not purely conscious of his identity as the subordinate part and parcel of the Lord. In his pure consciousness, however, there is no such misconceived dream. And in that pure conscious state the living entity does not forget that he is never the Lord, but he is eternally the servitor of the Lord in transcendental love."
So as soon as you understand that "This is not... I am not in contact with tiger. It is all a dream," then you are delivered. Similarly, as soon as you understand, "All this material condition of life we are simply dreaming; I am actually servant of Kṛṣṇa," then you are liberated. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. If you keep in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa," then you are liberated. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyaa kalpate (BG 14.26), Kṛṣṇa says. Immediately brahma-bhūtaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). He has no more lamentation, no more hankering. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. He can see everyone on equal vision. Because he knows, "Here is also another living entity." He is not a Chinaman. He is a part and parcel of God. He is not a Christian.
We are purely part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We are actually the senses of Kṛṣṇa. And when we forget this position and we want to satisfy ourself, that is our material condition.
- kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare
- nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
- (Prema-vivarta)
Then that is māyā. When we are in ignorance that we are the part and parcel of the Supreme Being and our duty is to satisfy Him... Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is called bhakti. When we forget it, then we are fallen in this material world, and we are busy in our personal sense gratification and implication. Implication means so long we'll have, we'll continue to have this desire to satisfy our senses, we have to accept another body, according to our desire. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. If we want to become a tiger, Kṛṣṇa will give our next life a tiger's body. And if you want to be a devotee, He will give you the same body.
So he must follow the rules and... Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam... (BG 18.42).
So cleanliness is next to godliness. So the... Actually, our material conditioned life means the mind is covered with dirt, all unclean, dirty things. That is the disease. When we are in the lower stage of tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, these dirty things are very much prominent. Therefore one has to raise himself from the position of tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa to sattva-guṇa. The process is recommended, how to cleanse the mind: śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). One has to hear the kṛṣṇa-kathā. Kṛṣṇa is within everyone's heart, and when He sees that a conditioned soul... Because the individual soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa wants that "This individual soul, rascal, he is so much attached for material enjoyment, which is the cause of his bondage, birth and death, old age and disease, and he's so fool that he does not take into consideration that 'Why I should be subjected to repetition of birth, death, old age and disease?'
This is called vairāgya. How they attained this vairāgya? Only for this bhakti. Bhakti-yuktena.
So the real purpose of life is to attain jñāna and vairāgya. This is the meant for human life. Because we are suffering in this material condition on account of ignorance, no jñāna. I am not this body, but I am thinking "I am this body," "I am American." I am not actually so. I am thinking "American," "I am Engli...," "Pakistani," "I am Hindustani." And fighting. This whole world is going on on this ajñāna. Because I am not this body. But the whole world is being conducted this ajñāna. And there is no vairāgya. Very much attached. The so-called family, society, love and... Everything will be finished as soon as this body is finished. No more love, no more family, no more attraction. So this is going on—ajñāna and attachment.
For this reason, Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he, the first question was, "My dear Lord, some way or other, You have dragged me to Your lotus feet, but I am inquiring from You that ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya, 'What is my actual position? Why am I forced to suffer these three kinds of miserable life of material condition?' " Nobody's inquire, inquiring.
So therefore these discussions which are going on, that is only for how to get liberation from the four principles of material condition, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is called mokṣa. Mokṣa, or liberation. So the... It is just like beating the dead horse. Nobody is interested about mokṣa. Or nobody can conceive even that there is something as mokṣa. Mokṣa means to get free from this condition of birth, death and old age. That is called mokṣa, liberation. So at the present moment modern educated persons, they do not know that there is something like mokṣa and it can be achieved and there is process and the whole Vedic śāstra is trying to educate us for getting mokṣa. They do not know it. So we have become so dull.
That's all. Minimum. Minimum necessities of the body. But how they lived? They were so big men. How they adopted such life and lived? Because if a man, rich man, adopts immediately renunciation, that affects his material condition of life. That we have seen. Just like in Bengal, C.R. Das, he had fifty thousand rupees' income in those days, and he gave up everything and joined Gandhi's movement. He died within one year, because he could not tolerate. So without spiritual engagement, one cannot give up this material engagement. That is the real fact. One must... Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati... They gave up this material enjoyment. That's all right. How they lived? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhuḥ. They dipped into the ocean of the transcendental loving affairs of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa. That was their asset. Therefore they lived very peacefully and very happily.
So we have got enough to become sādhu if you simply hear about Kṛṣṇa and speak about Kṛṣṇa. Tapanti vividhās tāpā naitān mad-gata-cetasaḥ. The immediate relief will be that we shall be saved from the sufferings of this material condition of life.
So these are the symptoms of sādhu, and Kapiladeva is summarizing, "Mother," ta ete sādhavaḥ sādhvi sarva-saṅga-vivarjitāḥ, "these symptoms are visible when one has no more any material attachment." Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is sādhu, no more designation, "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American"—these devotees, they have got no such conception. They are... Every one of them is thinking, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. These are upādhi.
Kṛṣṇa says, "My dear Arjuna, you are My very dear friend and devotee." So people may say, "Oh, he is not a Vedantist, he is not even brāhmaṇa, he is not a sannyāsī. How Kṛṣṇa accepts him as bhakto 'si?" That is called bhakti. Bhakti is ahaituky apratihatā. If you become a devotee there is no impediment. No material condition can check your progress of bhakti, if you are a bhakta.
- sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
- yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
- ahaituky apratihatā
- yayātmā suprasīdati
- (SB 1.2.6)
If you want real life, prasanna... Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). If you take to bhakti, automatically you become prasannātmā. Yayātmā suprasīdati. What is that? Ahaituky apratihatā bhakti. Without any motive. "I shall serve Kṛṣṇa with a motive," that is also good in this sense, that he is pious, he has approached Kṛṣṇa. He is not impious like the atheist, like the nonbeliever.
So, so long as we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, our duty is to give service. That is the description given by Lord Caitanya. Everywhere in every śāstra, that is the... Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). Eternally we are servant.
So as in this material condition... Of course, a devotee is not under material condition. As soon as he becomes servant of Kṛṣṇa and gives pure devotional service with love and faith, immediately he becomes spiritually situated. Therefore it is said, jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṇam analo yathā. Just like if you put something in the fire, immediately it is burned and turned into ashes, similarly, as soon as you put yourself in the devotional service without any material desire, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), immediately your subtle body and gross body become dissolved; you remain only spirit soul, immediately. The same example is given here. Immediately.
Bhagavān means ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa, almighty Lord. Nobody can give you protection. Just like when one is condemned to death by the justice, so there is no other way to save him than by the mercy of the king or the president—he can save—similarly, we are all condemned. We are suffering this material condition of life, constantly a chain of body, and suffering the threefold miseries. Tīvraṁ bhayam. This is very fierceful, but we do not understand. We are living in such condition. But by the spell of māyā we are thinking we are very happy. But that is not actual fact. It is tīvraṁ bhayam.
But if you want to get relief, then you must have to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He says, and revive your old connection. Revive your... What is that old connection? That we are eternal servant of God. Don't foolishly... Don't become rascal, that you are one with God or equal to God, that you have become God. This is all rascaldom, simply rascaldom.
Under the laws of nature we are getting different types of bodies, different types of opportunities. And it is going on. But we are spirit soul; we are not this material body.
So we must have sense and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to save ourself from this material condition of life, repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. And if you think, when Kṛṣṇa says that "You surrender unto Me. I will give you protection"... So because we are foolish, we think Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because we are mūḍhas, rascals, we think that Kṛṣṇa is a person like us. Mānuṣīm. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. He comes to be visible by us exactly in the same way as we are. Mānuṣīṁ tanum. But we think, when Kṛṣṇa comes, "Oh, He is a man. He is a man like us. God is different." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ. Because we are mūḍhas. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ.
So Kṛṣṇa, being father, Kṛṣṇa, being friend of everyone, He comes, and He canvasses, and at last He says, "You rascal," sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam... (BG 18.66), ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyaḥ. "You are rotting here by repeatedly committing sinful life. Therefore you are changing from one body to another, and this is your material condition." Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). "You are thinking... When you are a human being or American, you are thinking, 'Now I am in very good position,' but next moment you can become a dog, you can become an insect." Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). But the rascals, they do not know. They, he's thinking, "I am secure." And although he is fearful, he is thinking secure. This is called māyā. He is always fearful. Still, he is thinking that he is secure. This is called māyā.
So by our desire we get a particular type of form. It may be human being, it may be demigod, it may be elephant, it may be cat, it may be dog, it may be tree—in this way, in different forms, 8,400,000 different forms, we are trying to enjoy this material world. This is called material conditional life. Because we are failing to understand ātma-darśana. Because the purpose is ātma-darśana. Jñānaṁ niḥśreyasārthāya puruṣasya ātma-darśanam. Ātmā, one should see his real identification: "What I am?" That is the inquiry of a human being. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That when I understand that "I am not this body; I am Brahman," then we should go on inquiring about further about Brahman: "What is the form of Brahman? What is Para-brahman? What is the relationship between Para-brahman and the Brahman? Why Brahman has come to this material world and he has got this material body?
This is the process, that you may be pure or impure. Material condition means impure, contaminated, conditioned. So to get out of this contaminated condition, the śāstra says, yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣam: "If you always constantly think of Puṇḍarīkākṣa, the lotus-eyed Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu," yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ, "he becomes externally and internally śuci, purified."
So at the present moment our position is contaminated position by the contact of the three modes of material nature. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. You see so many varieties of life, different varieties of life. Uccāvaca. Some of them are higher, in higher position; some of them are lower position. But this vicitra, soul, is pure. That is one quality. But this vicitra quality, why? Vicitra means variety. Because guṇaiḥ. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Why one has become dog and one has become god? God means demigod. They are also living entities within this material world, but they live in higher planetary system.
We... Vicitra: there are so many varieties. So we may go sometimes up to Brahmaloka. That is not very difficult. But ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Either you go to Brahmaloka or Pātālaloka or any loka, this form or that body, you will have to go through these four principles of material condition: birth, death, old age and disease. That is not possible to overcome. That you can overcome only—mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). Therefore the conclusion is that instead of serving under the spell of material nature, let us immediately transfer our position to become the original. Original means eternal servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). That is our constitutional position. We are eternal servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. So if we take to it immediately... Kṛṣṇa says also, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14).
That is illusion. Ramante yoginaḥ anante satyānande cid-ātmani. Cit, that is spiritual, spiritual ānanda. Really we want ānanda, happiness, blissfulness. That is our natural instinct. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). So... But we are searching after ānanda in this material world, and that is described here that saṁsṛtir bandhaḥ pāra-tantrya, under material condition and changing this body one after another. This is not ānanda. Satyānande cid-ātmani. Ānanda is available on the spiritual platform. Satyānande cid-ātmani. Ramante... Iti rāma-padenāsau paraṁ brahma abhidhīyate. Therefore the yogis, they enjoy, ramaṇa, in the spiritual world. That ānanda is called Rāma, Hare Rāma. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is also attractive, and Rāma is enjoyment. So when we dovetail our activities with Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, then our life becomes happy. Before that there is saṁsṛtiḥ.
Vyāsāvatāra. That is stated in the śāstras. So Vyāsadeva made all this literature. That means Kṛṣṇa made through His incarnation. Therefore in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta we find this verse: anādi-bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli' gela, ataeva kṛṣṇa veda purāṇa karila.(?)
So some way or other, we are fallen in this material condition of life, making a... Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). This manasaś cendriyāṇi, as it is stated here, manasaś ca indriyāṇāṁ ca bhūtānāṁ mahatām api. Mahā-bhūta, mahā-bhūta, these five elements, kṣitir āp tejo marud vyoma, and mind. So in this way we are entrapped, and there is struggle. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati, mamaivāṁśa: (BG 15.7) "They are My part and parcel. They can live as good as I am, but unfortunately, they are undergoing a struggle for existence on account of this polluted mind." What is that pollution? Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare. He thinks that.
These are the moha, that when these two things, kriyā-śakti, this kriyā-śakti under the spell of passion and spell of ignorance, is almost gone... Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā.
So this is the only process. Let us hear from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, not these professional. But just like here Kapiladeva is explaining Sāṅkhya philosophy. Every word of Bhāgavatam, sublime. And this is given to us by Vyāsadeva, because we do not know how to get out of this entanglement of material envelopment. Anartha upaśamaṁ sākṣāt, anartha. On account of being entangled in this material modes of nature, we have accumulated so many unwanted things, anartha. That is called anartha. Artha means substance, and anartha means illusory things. So many things. So that is our material condition of life, and the only remedy is become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and that is... How we can become Kṛṣṇa conscious? Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). Viṣṇu means Kṛṣṇa. Simply hear and speak about Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So he became madlike. He has come back. He could not stay there without serving. He has written me letter. So that is bhāva. He cannot stay without worshiping the Deity. That stage comes. You have to simply adopt it. Tato bhāvaḥ. Tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Anartha. Anartha means we are accustomed to this material condition of life, so many anarthas. Just like there are so many people, they are going to the cinema in the evening. But those who have attained bhāva, his anartha nivṛtti is already done. He is not attracted any more by the cinema. He is attracted, bhāva, in the worship of the Deity. That is called bhāva. That bhāva means prema. Only thinking of Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa, simply busy in Kṛṣṇa's service—that is the perfection of life. And if we can maintain that bhāva, that situation, mentality, then yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6), and at the time of death, if that bhāva is maintained, that is saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ.
So this is to be practiced, that we should not be disturbed by the ethereal transformation in touch with the skin and be disturbed in our regular activities in devotional service. That is called sthita-prajña. In the... The word is used in the Bhagavad-gītā, sthita-prajña. So a devotee is sthita-prajña. He should not be disturbed by this material condition, or change of ethereal activities. We should be fixed up, ātma-stha, ātma-stha. And then our progress in spiritual life will be unhampered. Actually, as it is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā.
- sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
- yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
- ahaituky apratihatā
- yayātmā suprasīdati
- (SB 1.2.6)
When we are firmly fixed up in devotional service, that is the highest transcendental form of religion.
This is daivī-prakṛti. And the result is bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ: "Without any deviation they are engaged, the devotees are engaged, in Kṛṣṇa's service." That is the perfection of life. And in this life, so long we are in material condition, we are practicing how to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service twenty-four hours. And when it is perfection... Tataḥ, tattvato jñātvā.
Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). If you want to understand Kṛṣṇa or if anyone wants to understand Kṛṣṇa perfectly, tattvataḥ, in truth, then he has to understand it through bhakti, not any other process, although there are many other processes, different ways. Some so-called philosophers, they say that "We can adopt any process. It leads to the same goal." That's all right, provided you make progress. Then you'll reach to the same goal.
"All these rascals may give up their so foolish engagements and surrender unto Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ (BG 18.66). That was Kṛṣṇa's last word in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa wants this, that "These rascals they are suffering in this material condition of life, three miserable condition, and still, they are so rascal, they do not come to their senses. Still, they want to remain servant of māyā. So let Me directly say, 'You rascal, give up all this engagement. Surrender unto Me.' " That is Kṛṣṇa. But they will not do it. "Why shall I surrender? I have got so many things. I have got my nation, I have got my family, I have got my this, I have got Why shall I surrender to You? Give up everything?" Such a rascal, cannot be convinced any way. Whole world is servant of somebody, but he declines to become servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is the disease, material disease.
No. That is called ahaituki, without any motive. Nobody. "Kṛṣṇa is my lovable, worshipable. I shall worship Kṛṣṇa." This is wanted. Ahaituky apratihatā. And if you have got this intention, that "Kṛṣṇa is my Lord. I must love Kṛṣṇa. I must learn how to love Him," then apratihatā—no material condition can check it. Either you become American or African, black and white or this or that, nothing can check you. You can go on—if it is motiveless. This is wanted.
So I am very glad that you are trying to capture what is real Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And this is the only process. Think always... Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām (BG 18.65). Think always, "Kṛṣṇa is my Lord." That is thinking. This thinking should be always. It doesn't cost anything. If you think, "Here is Kṛṣṇa. He is my Lord," what does it cost? And where is the loss? There is no loss, but the gain is enormous if you simply think of Kṛṣṇa. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ.
So if you simply concentrate on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa as it is described—there are marks—then, in contact with such vision, your hṛdayāndhakāram, the dirty things, andhakāram... Andhakāram means darkness or dirty things. That will be āhata, off, attacked: "Get out!" Āhata. Jyotsnābhir āhata-mahad-dhṛdayāndhakāram. Mahat means very great. This is our material condition, that we are covered, absorbed in so many darkness, and still we want to show some intelligence. This is material existence. Therefore we always say "fools and rascals." He is... He does not know anything clearly, and simply he wants to see with imperfect eyes, imperfect instrument, microscope, telescope. What is the value of this? It is simply andhakāra. The whole world is... This is called darkness. We can... We experience every moment. If there was no sun, then what is the value of this world? We have got good experience. In the Western countries where there is no sun, it is hell, simply hell, simply hell without sun.
What is that? Manmanā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68). If you simply follow these four principles without arguing foolishly and rascally, manmanā bhava mad-bhakto (BG 18.65), these four principles. "Always think of Me," Kṛṣṇa says. Not I am saying, but Kṛṣṇa personally saying, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto: "Just become My devotee," and māṁ namaskuru, "worship Me." So it doesn't require any M.A., Ph.D. degrees. It doesn't require that Apratihatā. Bhakti is apratihatā, without any hindrance. Nobody can say that "Because I am poor," "Because I am uneducated," "Because I am black," "Because I am white"—no "because." Any condition of life, you can become a devotee and go back to home, back to This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. No material condition can check you. This is our movement.
Similarly, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4), Kṛṣṇa impregnates this material nature with the living entities, and when there is creation they come out. This is the process.
So we are fallen in this material condition of life, and because we have disobeyed without the permission of father, we have misused our independence, therefore we are condemned within this material world. The īśāvāsya, the Īśopaniṣad teaches us, therefore reminds us, that "My dear human being..." The śāstras, the scriptures, the Vedas, they're meant for human being, not for the dogs, cats. Those who are not taking advantage of these scriptures of Vedic literatures, they are no more than animals. Because animals, they cannot take advantage of this knowledge. But human being can take. Therefore it is said, indicated in the śāstras, that this body is very suitable boat for crossing over this ocean of nescience.
"I am your servant, you are my master." But that should be practically exhibited. That is called tapasya, to learn all these things.
Without tapasya, we cannot get out of this conditioned state. That is not possible. Those who are thinking that "Let us do whatever nonsense I can do, and at the same time I become free from this material condition..." No. That is not possible. One has to undergo tapasya. Just like if you are diseased you have to undergo some tapasya. Just like first of all you go to a medical man. Immediately he charges ten rupees, twenty rupees. In our country. In your country it is more. No doctor charges less than ten dollars. Ten dollars means in our exchange it is ninety rupees. So who can pay ninety rupees in this country? That is the minimum charge. Then there is medicine. So you have to pay it because you have got disease. And you have to earn this money with hard labor. So to cure your disease you have to undergo some penances, some austerities. This is an ordinary...
So because we have got this body, we are subjected to threefold miseries of life. And we are hankering after eternal life, blissful life, life of knowledge. If you want to attain that perfectional stage of life, which is called brahma-saukhyam—Brahman, Brahman means the greatest—then you have to follow some regulative principles of austerity so that your existence will be purified and, Ṛṣabhadeva says, then you'll be eligible to enjoy eternal life. Brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). Anantam means unlimited. We are hankering after happiness, but due to our material condition, the happiness is not eternal, neither blissful. But there is life where happiness is eternal, never disturbed. Unlimited. There is life of full knowledge. There is life of full bliss. And there is life of eternal.
That is called mukti. The mukti definition is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: muktir sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ, muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. This is called mukti. We are not in the svarūpa. Svarūpa means spiritual form. That is called svarūpa. At the present moment, our material conditional body, that is not svarūpa. Last night I tried to explain, svarūpa means sac-cit-ānanda-rūpa. That is svarūpa, eternal, blissful life of knowledge. This is not svarūpa. This body is not eternal, neither it is blissful. It is full of miseries and without any knowledge. So this is not svarūpa. Svarūpa means eternal life, blissful life, and full of knowledge. That is called svarūpa.
That is stated here. mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ (SB 5.5.2). And the other way. One path to mukti, another path is bondage. Two things are there: bondage and mukti. Andhā yathāndair upanīyamānās te'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. Baddhā means bound up. We are, in our material condition of life, we are bound up tight, hands and legs are bound up. We cannot do anything independently. It is not possible. That we must know. People are declaring independence. That is not possible. That is our foolishness. Baddhāḥ, uru-dāmni baddhāḥ, just like uru means this waste. If you are bound up by rope just like thieves are carried, handcuffed and bound up on the waist, what you can do? So we are uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. Uru means very strong, and dāmni means rope, baddhāḥ. Just like the bulls are bound up in the nostril and the driver is moving like this, immediately he has to move this way, immediately. Although he's very strong bull, but uru-dāmni baddhāḥ.
Otherwise you'll not be able to get out of these clutches of māyā. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta (SB 11.3.21), every śāstra you go.
So therefore here it is said that if you are actually anxious to become free from this material condition of life, then you must accept the service of mahat-sevā. Mahat means one who has fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. He's mahat. Vāsudeva sarvam iti. One who has taken this conclusion, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manaso (BG 9.13). These are the formulas. So mahātmā means the fully surrendered soul unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. He is the first-class mahātmā. Sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ, not ordinary mahātmā, but su-durlabhaḥ. And what are the signs? Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim, bhajanty ananya-manaso (BG 9.13).
In the next verses it is said, mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ. Then what is the symptoms of mahātmā? He says, Ṛṣabhādeva says, sama-cittāḥ. Equilibrium, not disturbed by material conditions. Sama-cittāḥ, sama sarveṣu bhūteṣu. The same thing. Sama-cittāḥ praśāntā. Peaceful. Praśāntā. Pra means prakṛsta rūpena, fully blissful. And when one can become fully praśāntā, fully peaceful? When he has no more desire. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), no more desire. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Everything is described. So praśāntātmā. It is described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, so long you will want something there is no question of praśāntā. So therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta says bhukti mukti siddhi kāmi-sakali aśānta. Bhukti means karmis. Karmis means those who are working very hard to get some material benefit. They are called karmīs, either in this world or the next world or heavenly planet, there are different types of karmīs. So the bhukti... Bhukti means bhoga, sense enjoyment. They are called karmīs.
So Kṛṣṇa is open for everyone. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32), it doesn't matter you are born in a low-grade family. It doesn't matter. Still, striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim, you'll get the highest result of life by seeing Kṛṣṇa. So kṛṣṇa-bhakti is ahaituky apratihatā. It cannot be checked by any material condition if you are serious about it. Then Kṛṣṇa will help you. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam (BG 10.10), "I'll give you intelligence how to see Me." These things are there. So if you are serious to see Kṛṣṇa then Kṛṣṇa is ready to be seen by you. It is not very difficult task.
The spirit soul, nitya, eternal, śāśvata, inexhaustible... Na hanyate, clearly says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So this death is artificial. Therefore we do not like to die. We do not like to be unhappy. We do not like to be without any knowledge. This is our nature. But because this nature is hampered on material condition, therefore the business of the human being is to cure this disease—birth, death, old age and disease. This is the mission of life, not to waste time, not to waste our life, duration of life, just simply jumping like dog and hog. That is not human life. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1).
Therefore we have to undergo tapasya. We should not indulge whimsically to anything. That is not human life. Therefore human life, there is need of education; there is need of regularities; there is need of following the instruction of the authorities. That is in human life.
So here it is said, mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā, always very peaceful. Prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa śāntā. There is no disturbance. Because he knows himself, he is not disturbed by any material conditions. Ahaituky apratihatā. Spiritual advancement of life is never hindered by any material condition. It is not that "I am under such and such condition. I cannot make any advancement in spiritual life." No. Spiritual advancement is never checked by material condition. Therefore it is said praśāntā. Vimanyavaḥ: "He is never angry, never angry." Vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ. Su... And well-wisher for everyone. That is the vision of mahānta. He is seeing that "Without God consciousness, without his relationship with God, he is suffering." Suhṛdaḥ sādhavaḥ. Sādhava, sādhu. The sum and substance... Sādhu means saintly person. So who is saintly person? Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām (SB 3.25.21). Sādhu means, saintly person means, titikṣava, tolerant, tolerant, without being disturbed. Now, in the Western countries Lord Jesus Christ, the tolerant.
The material diseases are birth, death, old age, and bodily diseases. They are material disease. Because I am spirit soul, I am eternal. I have no death. I have no birth. But because I am contaminated with this material body, therefore with the birth and death of this body I am thinking that I am taking birth and dying. That is my material condition of life. Actually I am not subjected to birth and death. These things are very nicely described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So the immortality of the soul, transmigration of the soul, everything is described there. So there are books of authority. If we learn, if we'll be trained, then our spiritual liberation is open. Therefore it is recommended here that one should associate with great souls. Without associating with great souls we don't get all this information.
Why? Why this distinction? Both of them have worked hard to improve economic development, but one has become very quickly millionaire, another is still struggling. He does not know how to eat tomorrow. Why this arrangement? Who has made this arrangement? So this is actually study—that you cannot change your fate. Already fixed up. The material condition of life, as soon as you get a certain type of body, your pains and pleasure already fixed up within the body routine work. You cannot make any change. Just like the—I have given many times—the pig, he's destined to eat stool. Therefore he has been awarded that type of body. So however you canvass this pig, "Why you are eating the stool? Take this halavā," he'll not take. It will not take. Because his destiny means he has got that particular type of body. So these are finer studies.
In this way we have to tolerate whatever is going on in this material world. Tolerate does not mean unnecessarily we shall suffer. As far as possible, let us struggle, but we should not forget our real business. That is human life. Real business is that I am part and parcel of God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). Some way or other, I am fallen in this material condition. There is a Bengali poet, he has sung, anādi-karama-phale paḍi, bhavārṇava-jale, tarivāre na dheki upāya. "Somehow or other I am fallen in this material ocean and struggling for existence." Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore prayed... He does not pray for any material benefit. He is teaching us, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye: (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4) "My Lord, Jagadīśa, I do not want any material happiness or wealth," na dhanaṁ na janam, "or great followers," na sundarīṁ kavitām, "or beautiful wife." These are the demands of the karmīs: "I must have wealth, I must have position, I must have beautiful home, beautiful wife."
The same pain. So janma. Then again, as soon as you accept some material body, you will have to suffer the bodily pains and pleasure. Then, at the time of death, the same painful condition.
So it doesn't matter whether one is rich, one is poor, the material condition, both of them will have to suffer. The material condition. So karmātmakam. If you continue to absorb your mind in fruitive activities, that "I shall work and I shall get the result and I shall enjoy," this is called karmātmakam. So if you do not fulfill your desire, then nature will give you next life another body to fulfill that desire. This is going on. So therefore it is parābhava. Your business is that to know that you are not this body, you are spirit soul, part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa. So your real business is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious fully and go back to home, back to Godhead, finish this business of repetition of birth and death. But who will understand this?
You cannot get free. Even Brahmaloka, the Brahmā, he is subjected to die. He is also undergo the principles of death, and what to speak of others. Nobody will exist here. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16).
So we should know that, that we are trying to improve our material condition—it doesn't matter you are now a poor man, and by doing something you get, I mean to say, great amount of wealth. That does not mean that you are free from dangerous condition of life. That is not. Sarvatra. Either in this planet, or in other planet, or this condition, that condition, the threefold miseries, adhyātmika, adhidaivika, and adhibhautika, and these miseries, and janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi... Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Kṛṣṇa never says that "Within this universe, if you go to the heavenly planet, then you can avoid janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi." Never says. Nobody says. Kṛṣṇa says,
The one monkey, he jumped over the Indian Ocean, went to the other side. So there were other monkeys also. They were asked, "Can you do it?" And mata kare het:(?) "He simply bowed down." So this plan is meant for how to, by chanting "Jaya Rāma," I'll jump over the other part of the material world. That is required. Not to work hard to improve your material condition. That will never be possible. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). You cannot get happiness within this material world. Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upary adhaḥ means, upari, in the higher planetary system, and down, lower planetary system. We are wandering like this, sometimes in the Svargaloka, sometimes in the Patalaloka, sometimes in naraka, sometimes in heaven. This is going on. Ei rupe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpa pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151).
Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). You cannot get happiness within this material world. Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upary adhaḥ means, upari, in the higher planetary system, and down, lower planetary system. We are wandering like this, sometimes in the Svargaloka, sometimes in the Patalaloka, sometimes in naraka, sometimes in heaven. This is going on. Ei rupe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpa pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). So try to take bhakti-latā-bīja by the mercy of guru, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, and make your life successful. Don't engage yourself in the material fruitive activities for improving your material condition. That will never be successful.
When she is young, she must be strictly controlled by her husband, and when she is old, she must be controlled by her elderly sons. If she is given independence and allowed to mingle unrestrictedly with men, she will be spoiled. A spoiled woman, being manipulated by paramours, might even kill her husband. This example is given here because a yogi desiring to get free from material conditions must always keep his mind under control. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to say that in the morning our first business should be to beat the mind with shoes a hundred times, and, before going to bed, to beat the mind a hundred times with a broomstick. In this way one's mind can be kept under control. An uncontrolled mind and an unchaste wife are the same. An unchaste wife can kill her husband at any time, and an uncontrolled mind, followed by lust, anger, greed, madness, envy and illusion, can certainly kill the yogi. When the yogi is controlled by the mind, he falls down into the material condition. One should be very careful of the mind, just as a husband should be careful of an unchaste wife."
When He was twenty years old the Kazi broke the mṛdaṅga in saṅkīrtana. Kazi means the Mussulman magistrate. And He started the civil disobedience movement and He called for one lakh of men, 100,000 men, to join the saṅkīrtana and go to the Kazi's house. Immediately it was done. Just see how much influential He was. So, so far material condition, He had His very affectionate mother. He was a only son of His mother. All brothers and sister died. And His wife was very Lakṣmī-priya... Lakṣmī-priya died first, then He married, second time, Viṣṇu-priya. So very happy life. But He left. Tyaktvā... surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīm (SB 11.5.34). He was so happy in His family life that even the demigods cannot expect such happiness. Surepsita. Sura means demigods. They had no so much happiness. Tyaktvā, but He gave up. Why? Māyā-mṛgaṁ dayitayepsitam anvadhāvat. He took this mission just to show mercy to the fallen conditioned souls who are suffering in this material world. That was His...
When he first met Caitanya Mahāprabhu, his spiritual master, the first question was that "I am considered as very learned scholar and very good administrator." Grāmya-vyavahāre kahe paṇḍita, satya kori māni. "And some, my ignorant friends, they call me I am very big man, very learned man." But āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni: "Unfortunately, I do not know how to get out of this material condition of life. I do not know." So that is the position, everyone. We are big, big scientist, big, big philosophers, big, big statesmen, politician, but I do not know why I am forced to die. Big, big scientists, they are discovering so many things, but he cannot discover something which will stop his death. That is not possible. So punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). We may attempt so many things, but if we do not know how to stop the mental activities which is prone to commit sinful activities That is our first business. That cannot be done by any other means except Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Except Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is not possible to control the mind.
"To stop next birth." Punar-janma-jayāya, the Buddhist philosophy, punar-janma-jayāya means they take it that no more birth, but finish this business in the different way. They do not believe that there is next life, but dismantle this material condition of life. That is their nirvāṇa theory. Because Buddha philosophy was taught not amongst very intelligent person, atheist class of men. So that is punar... They are also trying for punar-janma-jayāya. The Christians, the Lord Christ, he also said that "Come to kingdom of God," not repetition of birth here again and again. That is the principle of all religious system. Punar-janma-jayāya. So it is not for the Hindus, Muslim, or Christian. Every human being should try his best, how to avoid to get another material body. This is the basic principle of civilization. But this can be attained only when you agree to live a regulative life. Just like we see one..., what is called? "Repent sinners." What is that?
If you are infected with some disease, you should try to cure it. That is your business. If you don't care of it, then you are nonsense. You are not very intelligent man. If you keep yourself always in diseased condition, that is... You are not very intelligent man. Similarly, we are part and parcel of God, a small God, but under material conditions we are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. We should understand this. This foolish brain cannot understand, that... This question must rise: "Why I am put into this tribulation? Why I am in distressed condition? I do not want it. Why I am diseased? I do not want it. Why I become old? I do not want it. Why I am subject to death? I do not want it." These questions do not arise. Arise, but they cannot make any solution. That is less intelligent.
This business will be stopped. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Somehow or other, if you become fit to go back to home, back to Godhead, yad gatvā, then you haven't got to come back again. But they do not understand that this material conditional life is always miserable. They have accepted, "It is very nice." Animals. Animals Just like in the slaughterhouse, livestock godown, there are so many animals, and they are going to be slaughtered. Everyone knows. They also know, the animals. But on account of their animal quality, they cannot do anything. Similarly, we are also put into the slaughterhouse of this material world. It is called mṛtyu-loka. Everyone knows that he will be slaughtered. Today or tomorrow or fifty years after or a hundred years after, everyone knows that he will be slaughtered. He will die. Death means slaughter. Nobody wants to die.
Practiced, we are practiced to so many bad habits life after life in this material condition. So sometimes, one who is engaged in devotional service to the Lord may, on account of old practice, he commits some sinful activities. Kṛṣṇa forgives him. He knows that he is sincere, but on account of his old practice, he has done something mistake. There is a verse, saḥ pāda-mūlaṁ bhajatāṁ priyasya(?). Somehow or other, you become recognized by Kṛṣṇa, priya. Kṛṣṇa may know that "He is sincerely trying to do something for render..." Kṛṣṇa does not require your service or my service. He is self-sufficient. If we render service, that is for..., that is good for us. Kṛṣṇa, He recognizes, "Oh, now he has again begun service. That's nice." So to such person Kṛṣṇa excuses. Saḥ pāda-mūlaṁ bhajatāṁ priyasya. That verse. Now I forget. There is a verse like that.
You must know where is the destination, where you have to go. That is your business. The business... Of course, it is secondary. If you want to know what is the car, that is secondary; that is not your main business. The main business is how to utilize the car and go to my destination. That is intelligence.
So we are fallen in this material condition in different forms. So long we are in this bodily concept, "I am this car," that is ignorance. I am not this car, but I have to utilize this car for going to my destination. That is wanted. So I am not this body. I am spirit soul. My destination is how to go to the spiritual world, how to meet the supreme spirit, God, and live with Him in His association. So this life is meant for understanding what is the Supreme Lord, where does He live, what does He do, what is my relationship with Him. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. That is actual education. And I am given this machine. If we simply study the machine, then what is the use of it?
That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. As soon as one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, then immediately he becomes prasannātmā, jubilant, just like one is suffering from a disease, and some way or other, when he is relieved from that disease, immediately he becomes jubilant. That is required. That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). And when one becomes jubilant, then, in that attitude, one can enter into devotional service of the Lord, not in the material condition, which is always suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). But we go on suffering just like animal. Animal is being taken to the slaughterhouse; still, he is eating very jubilantly. Next item, he will be killed. So this kind of consciousness is called animal consciousness.
On account of this sex relationship, the man or woman is bound up. Hṛdaya-granthi. Granthi means knot, and hṛdaya means heart. So the man is thinking of the woman, and the woman is thinking of man. Hṛdaya granthim āhuḥ. Then we require material possession. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This is our material, conditional life.
So this man, although he was being trained up as a brāhmaṇa, his attention was diverted all of a sudden by seeing one śūdra and śūdrāṇī embracing, kissing, talking. So that became his meditation. Instead of meditating on Viṣṇu, he began to meditate on that śūdrani. Svayam eva toṣayām āsa. In the first verse, tan-nimitta-smara vyāja-graha-grasto vicetasaḥ. He became mad, vicetasa, bewildered, as if haunted by ghost. Tām eva manasā dhyāyan. Always meditating, "How shall I get that woman?
Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, sakali viṣera bandha. "Either you become pious or you become very learned philosopher, they are all poison pots because by cultivating such things you cannot become liberated from this material condition."
Therefore pure devotion means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (Brs. 1.1.11). Pure devotion means one should be freed from all material desires, even from the desire of being elevated to the heavenly planet or Brahmaloka, Satyaloka—that is karma—or to try to understand, just like the philosophists, they do. By speculation, by philosophical speculation, they try to understand what is God. So they are not pure devotion. They are karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa. And Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura warns that karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, sakali viṣera bandha, amṛta baliyā yebā khāya: "A person, by mistake if he takes to the pots of karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa, then the result is: nānā yoni bhraman kare, he wanders in various species of life, sometimes as demigods, sometimes in heaven, sometimes..." But does not mean liberation. Nānā yoni bhraman kare, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. And within these different varieties of life he may be sometimes a worm in the stool, a hog. Kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare.
This idea, perhaps not even one percent men know that the ultimate end of, ultimate goal of life is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31)—Viṣṇu, God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They do not know that the real interest is to go back home, go back to Godhead. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They have accepted that "We shall be happy by adjusting this material world." Therefore they cannot make any progress.
Actually, religion does not mean to improve your material condition. That is not religion. Śrīmad-Bhāgavata therefore says that sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje: (SB 1.2.6) "That type of religion is first class which elevates one to the platform of pure devotional service to the Absolute Truth." That is religion. People are not attracted to the bhāgavata-dharma, or the religion. Bhāgavata-dharma is actually sanātana-dharma. Sanātana-dharma does not mean that one must have a certain type of religious life. Sanātana-dharma means the eternal religion.
There are so many troubles. And why this happens? Because their unconscious activities of sinful life... Just like we are walking on the street. Unconsciously, we are killing so many small ants and insects, unconsciously. I do not wish to kill, but we are, having situated, we are, being situated in material condition of life, we are unconsciously killing so many living entities. Therefore, according to the Vedic rites, the injunction is that one has to perform yajñas, sacrifices. And without that sacrifice you'll be liable to be punishment for that unconscious killing of small animals. As such, those who are actually fearful of a sinful reaction of life, they perform yajñas. But here it is said that the mahājanas, the great leaders of religions, without knowing this simple method of getting out of sinful life, they take to so many yajñas prescribed in the Vedas. Prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ na mahājano 'yaṁ devyā vimohita-matir bata māyayālam: "
We have seen when our saṅkīrtana is performed, especially the children, they immediately imitate... Because they cannot vibrate, small children, but they give claps. The saṅkīrtana movement is so perfect that there is no question of any material condition. In any condition Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be aroused, provided it is in touch with a Kṛṣṇa conscious bona fide spiritual master.
So this child, Prahlāda Mahārāja, from, in the womb of his mother he learned spiritual instruction and he became Kṛṣṇa conscious. Therefore from his birth he was chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and his father was very, very much unhappy: "What kind of child is born? He is Kṛṣṇa conscious." Because he is, he was very much against Viṣṇu. Because Lord Viṣṇu killed his brother Hiraṇyākṣa, so Hiraṇyakaśipu always considered Viṣṇu as the enemy.
Unless we are in spiritual life or in the spiritual world, we cannot be happy. That is our position. Everyone is trying for that spiritual realization, but he does not know. Therefore he is trying to be happy here in material condition. He is becoming frustrated, confused. So we have to withdraw this understanding that "We shall be very happy by making adjustment of this material world." That we have to understand first of all. Then Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be effective. As I told last night, that our students, these boys and girls, they have been very much detestful in the materialistic way of life. Otherwise, they are coming of great nation. Just these American boys and girls, their fathers and their guardians, they are not poor. There is no scarcity of food or any material enjoyment. Why they are being frustrated? In India... You may say that India is poverty-stricken. They may be frustrated due to poverty, but why American boys and girls are being frustrated? That is the proof that materialistic way of life cannot make you happy.
So it is his duty to know that "I have committed this criminal activity; therefore I have been put into this jail or prison life. Some way or other, complete it, and let me decide not to commit again any criminal acts so that I may be put again into prison life." This is intelligent. Similarly, we should be educated how we have been put into this material conditional life and how we can get out of it and then again in our spiritual life we can go back to home, back to Godhead. That should be the aim of life. But na te viduḥ: "They do not know." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatim. The progress should be towards Viṣṇu, Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, back to home, back to Godhead. They do not know. Why? Because durāśayā. They are thinking that "We shall make adjustment in this material life, and we shall be happy."
Similarly, everyone wants to be treated, that he is not body, he's spirit soul. Then he'll understand his real position. At that time, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Oh, as soon as he understands, "Oh, I am spirit soul, I have got a spiritual kingdom," so many things, then brahma-bhūtaḥ prasanna, he has no more any anxiety for this material condition of life. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). He has no more any anxiety, no more any desire. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, and he looks equally to everyone. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate, and again engages himself in the matter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is awakening. And the Vedas say uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata. "My dear sir, you have got this human body. Just wake up. Don't sleep any more like animals." Prāpya varān nibodhata, "You have got this fortunate body. Just utilize it." Tamasi mā jyotir gamaḥ. "Don't remain in darkness. Come to the light." These things are to be learned. Yes?
The sūraya, those who are demigods or Aryans, they are, their destination is Viṣṇu. But ordinary men, they do not know that. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know that their ultimate goal of life is to understand Viṣṇu. Why? Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are trying to become perfect with this material condition. That is not possible. You have to know Viṣṇu. Then you become perfect. Otherwise, you have to change this body one after another. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You have one body, you remain for some time, then it is destroyed, you get immediately another body, again enter into the womb of mother, again form your body from little, a pulse-like body to this body and grow to your higher status in your younger age. Then again become dwindled, become old man, and again vanish. So bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Everything material will have to change like this. And there are 8,400,000's of different kinds of bodies, and you have to evolve in the cycle of such body.
We are thinking, "Oh, I am Christian. Oh, I am Hindu. I am this. I am that." Nobody's thinking that, "I am Kṛṣṇa's. I am God's." So this designation disease has to be first of all cured. Then you become pure. So long you keep your designation you are not pure. You are in the material condition. Therefore
- sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam
- tat-paratvena nirmalam
- hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-
- sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
- (CC Madhya 19.170)
That is bhakti. You have to be free from all designation. Then when you begin service, then Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam (BG 10.10). He is within you. He'll give you intelligence, "This is this. This is this. This is this. This is this." Why? When? Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-purvakam. "When he's in love and faith engaged in My service." Then? Why, otherwise, why Kṛṣṇa will talk with you?
If it is male child, then it moves toward the right side. If it is female child, then it moves to the left side. So these are description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So by the movement of the child you can understand whether it is male or female. (woman exclaims) So this transcendental sound is not checked by any material condition. Therefore it reaches. Therefore it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). One who cannot execute the full course of yoga system, he's given chance to take birth in the family of a pious man or a rich man. So, as you parents, you have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the child who is coming, he's not an ordinary child. He must have executed in his previous life the yoga siddhi. If you believe Bhagavad-gītā you have to accept.
He is the supreme father, and as the father and the sons are related eternally, you cannot be separated. There may be misunderstanding between the father and the son, but the son is always the son, and the father is always the father. That cannot be separated. So our present material condition of life means that we are forgotten of our relationship with God. This is our position. Therefore people are... Some of them are agnostics. Some of them are atheist. Some of them are this, that, so many. They want to forget God. They have already forgotten, and on account of their forgetfulness they are conditioned by nature. The father wants the sons may come back, and the sons have forgotten the father. Therefore the father comes as incarnation. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). Why Kṛṣṇa comes? Not only He comes, He sends His so many incarnation.
Well, there is no guarantee of holding up your body even if you have no sleep or have sleep. The material condition is so cruel that body can be finished at any moment. So that is no consideration. The consideration is how to advance in the spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And if you make, I mean to say, considerable advance, then the eating and sleeping and sex demand or defense, these things will be negligible. Negligible. These things are depending on our practice. Because actually, I don't depend on sleeping or eating or mating or defending. It is simply due to my bodily consciousness these things are required. But when one is actually spiritually advanced, he has no such appreciation.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja said that people are engaged for improving economic condition. He has cancelled that tat prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur vyayaḥ param. Prahlāda Mahārāja derides that "These people who are simply wasting time for improving material condition, āhāra-nidrā-bhayaṁ maithun, they are not at all intelligent, because simply wasting time, valuable time." That I have explained yesterday, how important is this human form of life. Every moment should be utilized. Every moment is so valuable that if we lose one moment we lose so many hundred thousands of dollars. That they do not understand.
So how time can be utilized very nicely, that was also explained yesterday, mukunda-caraṇāmbujam. Just to take shelter of Mukunda. Mukunda means who can deliver you from this conditional life. He is called Mukunda.
Don't be disturbed." Śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Āgamāpāyino 'nityas tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya, śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Just like we are covering because it is cold, but actually as spirit soul, I am not affected. Asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣa. In the Vedas it is said that the soul is unaffected with this material condition. I have several times given this example, that a person has got a good car, and it is somehow or another broken, and he becomes upset, because his car Although he knows that "I am not this car," but his thoughts being absorbed by the attraction of the car, when the car is broken somehow or other he becomes almost unconscious. So this is due to our attachment. So spiritual life means how to get out of this attachment. This is spiritual life. We are "No, what is the wrong if we are attached?" The wrong is that so long we remain attached to these temporary illusory things, you'll not be able to get out of it. That is the whole program.
Better tolerate it. Tolerate. That is spiritual, tapasya. That is called tapasya. When one can learn how to tolerate these temporary so-called pains and pleasure, then he is advanced.
So if one is simply attached to these pains and pleasures of material skin and bone, then how he can be free from the material condition of life? Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja is describing. It has to be... Prahlāda Mahārāja's proposal is that spiritual life should begin from very childhood, kaumāram ācaret prājño dharmān bhagavatān. Otherwise that attachment will continue, and you'll never be able to give up this attachment, and the spiritual..., material condition of life, the accepting one body, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), accepting one body and accepting another body, this will continue. But the real business of human life is to end this materialistic way of life, that die and again take another..., janma, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), to be implicated in these four things.
We have got attachment for our family, for our home, for our children, for our wife, for our society, for our nation, for our country, and so on, so on, so on, so on—so many. Attachment is there. But with this attachment, gṛheṣu saktasya, if you keep your attachment for these things, then you'll never be free from this material condition of life. Therefore you have to convert or divert your attachment to Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we have got attachment, but we have got attachment for false things, temporary things. And if we divert our attachment, that is bhakti. Bhakti does not mean that you give up your living conscience. Attachment is the function of the living being. The living being is attached to his family, wife, children, because he is living being. So living being cannot give up attachment. But if we continue our attachment for this false and temporary materialistic way of life, then we'll never be free from this bondage of material condition.
So nidrāhāra, this is spiritual life. This is called tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Spiritual life means purifying our existence. Unless we purify our existence, if we keep ourselves in the material condition, then we have to accept birth and death repeatedly. The human life is the opportunity that we can purify our existence. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). We have to become purified. Nirmalam means completely purified. That is the mission of human life. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1), purify. Why purification required? Because we are after happiness. That is our nature. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Everyone, we want happiness. But we are so blind that happiness in the material world is faced with so many other troubles. Just like I want to be happy, I am sitting peacefully, the mosquito will come and disturb me.
Who could give up such comforts? The attached householder is like a silkworm, which weaves a cocoon in which it becomes imprisoned, unable to get out. Simply for the satisfaction of two important senses—the genitals and the tongue—one is bound by material conditions. How can one escape?" Purport: In household affairs the first attraction is the beautiful and pleasing wife, who increases household attraction more and more. One enjoys his wife with two prominent sense organs, namely the tongue and the genitals. The wife speaks very sweetly. This is certainly an attraction. Then she prepares very palatable foods to satisfy the tongue, and when the tongue is satisfied one gains strength in the other sense organs, especially the genitals. Thus the wife gives pleasure in sexual intercourse.
Anyone who is engaged fully, cent per cent, unalloyed devotional service, he is already Brahman. He is not under the material conditions. Sa guṇān samatītyaitan, these guṇas, the sattva-guṇa, raja-guṇa, tamo guṇa, he has already surpassed, he has already transcended. Sa guṇān samatītyaitan, he is already on the platform of Brahman. Brahma-bhuyāya kalpate. Kalpate, this word is used. Although you find that he is working within this material world, but actually he has become already Brahman. Brahma-bhuyāya kalpate. So any pure devotee, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), without any desire than to serve Kṛṣṇa, simply one who has dedicated his life for Kṛṣṇa, he is already on the Brahman stage.
What is the Absolute Truth? The Absolute Truth is that from which everything is emanating—the source, the fountainhead, the fountainhead of everything. So whatever we see... Now, of course, we are in condition, material condition. We see everything material. But even this material energy is also spiritual because it is coming from the spirit, the Supreme Spirit. Suppose anything comes from the fire, it is hot. Fire, anything coming from... Anything you take. You are cooking daily, and as soon as you cook something it becomes very hot, and you take it from... It is hot. You cannot touch it. So by nature, everything is hot or everything is spirit because it is coming from the spirit, by nature. Just like sunshine. Sunshine has got all the qualities of the sun. Sunshine has got temperature.
Not that because you are a very big businessman, you are very successful, therefore it will be easy for you to understand Kṛṣṇa. No. That is not possible. Or if you think one is very poor in knowledge, lowborn, no education, still he can understand bhakti and Lord, provided he is pure devotee.
So material conditions, they are not practically applicable to spiritual life. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, therefore, He said, eho bāhya āge kaha āra. Whatever Rāmānanda Rāya was proposing, "This is the beginning of bhakti..." He suggested varṇāśrama-dharma, karma-tyāga, karma-sannyāsa, even full surrender, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). All, everything, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, eho bāhya āge kaha: "These are external formality. If you know something better than this, please explain." So Rāmānanda Rāya, when, I mean to say, quoted a verse from Brahma's prayer, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ prāyeṇa ajita api jito... Kṛṣṇa is ajita. Nobody can conquer Him.
And so far knowledge is concerned, you will get it automatically. You will get all knowledge. Our material conditional life is simply due to ignorance, and when you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the full moonlight of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all knowledge, will be at your feet. Everything you will know. Vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam. And ānandāmbudhi-vaṛdhanaṁ: then you increase the ocean of transcendental bliss. The ocean. The ocean never increases, but the transcendental ocean of bliss increasing daily, daily, and you enjoy it. Ānandāmbudhi-vaṛdhanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ. Sarvātma-snapanaṁ. Just like when you take your shower bath or a dip into the ocean, you feel fully comfortable, similarly, by taking your dip into the ocean of bliss of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will feel fully refreshed, fully refreshed, without any doubt. Paraṁ vijayate śri-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Therefore Lord Caitanya gives, "All glories to the saṅkīrtana movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa."
Let me be engaged in Your service." That is Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ (devotees chant) Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. This is the meaning of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra: "O Kṛṣṇa, O energy of Kṛṣṇa, I am Your servant. Somehow or other I have now fallen in this material condition. Kindly pick me up and engage me in service." Ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ māṁ viṣame bhavaṁ budhau. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching us. Bhavaṁ budhau. This material world is just like a great ocean, bhava. Bhava means repetition of birth and death, and āmbu means āmbudhau, means in the sea, in the ocean. So we are struggling hard for existence in this ocean. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ayi nanda tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ mām: "I am Your servant eternal. Somehow or other I have fallen in this ocean and struggling. Pick me up." Ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ mām viṣame bhavāmbudhau kṛpāya. By Your causeless mercy...
He is called vipra. For spiritual elevation there are gradual evolutionary stages. So vipra stage is just before becoming a qualified brāhmaṇa. That is called vipra. The first stage, by birth everyone is śūdra. Śūdra means affected by the miseries of this world. He is śūdra. Śocati. The material condition is full of anxiety, so anyone who is full of anxiety, he is śūdra. This is the... So if you analyze the present society, that who is not anxiety, full of anxiety, oh, nobody will say that "I am not full of anxiety." "I have got so many anxieties." So that means he is a śūdra. Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: "In this age, everyone is śūdra." That is concluded. A brāhmaṇa is not afraid. He is not anxious because he is dependent on God. He knows that "I have surrendered unto God completely, and He is all-powerful. Therefore I have no anxiety." Just like a small child, he has no anxiety. Why? Because he is completely dependent on the parents. He knows confidently that in any danger, "Oh, my mother is there."
This verse we have already discussed, that naivātmanaḥ prabhur ayaṁ nija-lābha-pūrṇaḥ (SB 7.9.11). He does not require any ser..., anyone's service because He's complete. There is no want. Unless He's perfect, how He can be Supreme? The perfect means... We have got so many wants because we are imperfect. Especially in this material condition, we have got so many demands, wants, because we are living in an atmosphere which is imperfect. But Kṛṣṇa is perfect, pūrṇam. Pūrṇa-brahma. Pūrṇa-brahma. Another name of the Absolute Truth is Pūrṇa-brahman. Brahman means the greatest, the great and the greatest. And pūrṇa, pūrṇa means complete. Greatest.
Now, in our idea, because we are very teeny, we can see this Pacific Ocean before us—"the greatest." But even in comparison to the universe, it is not even a drop of water.
Just like this morning you have news that the Russians have captured Czechoslovakia. How much distressed they are. I heard from the newspaper that several of them were crying. So this is the position. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). Every step, there is danger. The material conditional life is so obscure that every step. Therefore the first-class process of yoga is this bhakti-yoga. Simply you turn your attention to this vibration and chant it according to your capacity. It does not require any pre-education. Prahlāda Mahārāja said yathā manīṣam. Yathā manīṣam means "as far as it is in my power." So you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa as far as in your power. That means you can chant whenever it is possible. It is not that you have to go to a temple on a particular time and chant. No. While you are walking, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Practically we see, when we pass on the street, some of the children, seeing us, say, "Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa." Even the children, they can also chant. It is so nice thing. Because they have no convention. So this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa will give him some effect.
Dayānanda: "Therefore, although I am born in a demonic family, even still, without any doubt, I may offer prayers to the Lord as far as possible by me. Any person who is engaged in offering prayer and hearing glories of the Lord becomes purified from the material condition of life."
Prabhupāda:
- tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava īśvarasya
- sarvātmanā mahi gṛṇāmi yathā manīṣam
- nīco 'jayā guṇa-visargam anupraviṣṭaḥ
- pūyeta yena hi pumān anuvarṇitena
- (SB 7.9.12)
This verse is given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu in another distinct form, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12). It doesn't matter where I am born. That is not important thing. Nīco, even one is very lowborn by breaks of nature... Nobody can guarantee where he'll take his birth. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). I'll have to take my birth according to my fruitive activities, controlled by nature.
So this is our material condition of life. Prahlāda Mahārāja is describing one after another. So sometimes foolish person accuse God that "Why He has put us into this miserable condition, different status of life? Somebody is rich, somebody is poor, somebody is diseased, somebody is healthy, and so many varieties." Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, keśava tuyā jagata vicitra. Vicitra means varieties. "So if God is kind, why He has made so many varieties?" This is not the common question you meet? You are preaching. They inquire like this: "Why God is not kind to everyone? Why He has made this distinction?"
We may live for many years, hundred years, in comparison to the ant's life, and similarly, we may live hundred years, and Brahmā is living for millions of years. So it does not mean there is no death. Death must be there. One who has taken birth, he must die. The janma-maraṇa. And as soon as you take birth, all the material conditions, tri-tāpa-yātana, adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika, you have to accept. There is no rescue. As soon as you take birth, janma-maraṇa, jarā... Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). As soon as you take birth, then you have to take jarā, old age, and vyādhi, and disease, and last, maraṇa.
So we do not understand this. This is called ignorance, foolishness. Prahlāda Mahārāja, Vaiṣṇava, he understands this, that "I am fallen in this miserable condition," evaṁ sva-karma-patitam, "by my own activities. Not only I, everyone in this material..." That we should know. Don't think that "He's suffering. I am enjoying." I am also suffering. If I am not suffering now, I will have to suffer. Suffering must be there. This world is meant for suffering.
You cannot stop Kṛṣṇa's supremacy. That is not possible. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). So that cannot be. Therefore it is sure and certain that if you work very sincerely for Kṛṣṇa to spread His message, the message of Bhagavad-gītā, there cannot be any check. It is not possible. Ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means it cannot be checked by any material condition. You go on with your duty sincerely. There will be no power to check your progress. That is, Prahlāda Mahārāja says. But endeavor must be there, as Prahlāda Mahārāja says.
So we are followers of mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Prahlāda Mahārāja is one of the mahājanas, out of the twelve mahājanas. There are also described, who are mahājana. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. The indication is there. The question will be, "Who is mahājana?" So mahājana means...
So if we simply decide that "I shall do nothing except to serve Kṛṣṇa," this dṛḍha-vrata... If you want to take vow, take this vow. Then you haven't got to work very hard. So āpavarga. A means not, negative, and pavarga means five principles of material condition. First thing is pa—you have to work very hard, pariśrama. And then pha. Pha means you have to work so hard that foam will come through your mouth. You have seen sometimes in horse, in man, after hard working there is foam. So pa, pha, and ba. Ba means vyarthata. Vyarthata means disappointment in spite of working so hard so that foam is coming in the mouth, vyarthata. Just like you see, you have seen, horse or bulls. They are working so hard, and the master beating with whips, and still, the master is not satisfied and the animal cannot get sufficient food-vyarthata. In spite of so much working hard...
He'll canvass, "My dear devotee, whatever you want, you take. You can take from Me." Varaṁ vṛṇīṣva. "So why shall I beg from You?" Now, kāma-pūro asmi: "Whatever you desire, I can fulfill. I am so powerful." Kāma-pūro asmy ahaṁ nṛṇām. Nṛṇām, ordinary person. Because a devotee is above the nṛṇām. So, so long we are, remain in the material condition, we have so many kāmas, desires. But as soon as we come to the spiritual platform... Because there everything is ready, why shall I be desiring to have this thing or that thing? Everything is ready. Everything is ready. That is spiritual platform. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu (Bs. 5.29). Kalpa-vṛkṣa. Everything, everything you want, it is ready immediately because there is Kṛṣṇa only, and He is always ready. What is that song? Gopījana-rañjana. Sing this song.
When Kṛṣṇa gives you protection, that is real protection. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). That is real protection. So ekāntitvāt. Simply depend on Kṛṣṇa, bhagavati.
So one who is such devotee, simply depending on Kṛṣṇa, naicchat, he doesn't require, neither he desires all those material profits. Tān asurottamaḥ. Asurottamaḥ. Although he was born in the asura family, materialistic family, still, he is uttama; he is no more in the material world. Uttama. Udgata-tama hy asmād. Tama means this material world. So those who are devotees, they are not living in this material world. They are in the spiritual world, uttama. It doesn't matter in which family he is born. Everyone can become a devotee. There is no hindrance, and there is no check in any material condition to become a devotee. Simply one has to desire how to become a devotee. Then it is fulfilled.
That is preya. But his guardians are anxious that the child may not be spoiled, he may be educated for his future life. That is śreya. So Bhāgavata says that in this life, we should not be after preya, immediate benefit or immediate object of sense gratification. We should be thoughtful what I am, why I am put into these material conditions of life, and what is the way to get out of it. That is śreya. Śreya ācaraṇam.
So, people should be engaged, in the human form of life, for activities of ultimate goal of life, and that is Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu. That they do not know. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). Being captivated by the external energy, māyā, we have forgotten our interest. We are working for a different interest. That is preya, not for śreya. The śreya is Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. So I do not wish to take much of your time, you are all busy men. And I thank you very much that you have come.
| Page Title: | Material condition (Lectures, SB) |
| Compiler: | Mayapur, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 05 of Oct, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=146, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 146 |