741022 - Lecture SB 01.08.42 - Mayapur

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

741022SB-MAYAPUR - October 22, 1974 - 42:41 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (devotees repeat) (leads chanting of verse, etc.) (break)

tvayi me 'nanya-viṣayā

matir madhu-pate 'sakṛt

ratim udvahatād addhā

gaṅgevaugham udanvati

(SB 1.8.42)

(break)

"O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You, without being diverted to anyone else."

Prabhupāda:

tvayi me 'nanya-viṣayā

matir madhu-pate 'sakṛt

ratim udvahatād addhā

gaṅgevaugham udanvati

(SB 1.8.42)

So in the previous verse, Kuntīdevī prayed to Kṛṣṇa, sneha-pāśam imaṁ chindhi (SB 1.8.41): "Please cut off my attraction, the rope." Just like rope is cut. If your hands and legs are tied up with rope, and if you want to be free, then the knot is cut into pieces. So our affection for this material world has to be cut into pieces. That is the aim of human life. The living being, nobody knows when he dropped into this ocean of material existence. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, anādi karama-phale, paḍi' bhavārṇava-jale. Anādi. Ādi means the beginning of creation, and anādi means before that. This creation, this material world, it is created and annihilated, as is the nature of anything material. We have got experience from our body, or any body—everything here is created and annihilated. Even big, big empires like the Roman Empire, the Carthagian Empire, the Moghul Empire, and so many empires, they came, and they were annihilated. This is the nature. Therefore Vidyāpati has sung, kata caturānanam, mari mari yavat, na tuyā ādi avasana. Caturānana means the Brahmā. So Brahmā, his life, duration of life, is very, very long. We know from Bhagavad-gītā that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). He's not also immortal. He's mortal. Although his one day is equal to our forty-three lakhs of years multiplied by one thousand, but still, he's not immortal. When Hiraṇyakaśipu pleased Brahmā and he wanted to give him the benediction, so Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted that "Please make me immortal." So Brahmā said: "That is not possible because I am, myself, is not immortal."

So nobody is immortal within this material world. And still, we are attached. We want to be immortal. That is the psychology. Just like last night, when the snake . . . we do not . . . we did not want to be killed by the snake. We became disturbed. Why this psychology? Because we don't want to be dead, because we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Neither we wish to take the trouble of being changed of the body. Otherwise, why we became disturbed? We know . . . others may not know that we shall not be killed, even bitten by the snake. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. So why we become disturbed? What is the psychology? The basic principle is that we don't want to be killed. We don't want to change the body even. We have got attraction for the body. Even an animal or insect, living very wretched condition of life, still, if you want to kill it, it will protest. It will protest, "No, no. I don't want to be killed." This is the psychology.

So our real business is how to attain that eternal life. That is real business. Other business, they are not important. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). This is the instruction, that we should try how to become again immortal. We are immortal by nature, but we have been covered by another nature, external nature, bahiraṅga-śakti And because we have been entangled with this material body, we have to die. Otherwise there is no death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā (BG 2.20). The living entity does not take birth, neither it dies. Then why we are taking birth and dying? The . . . this question does not arise to the fools and rascals of this materialist world. I was talking with one very big man in London, Lord Fenner Brockway. He came to see me. So I asked him this question. He was old man. He was, I think, older than me. He was eighty-four. So he said: "Yes, I'll die peacefully." Just see. This question does not bother even any man. And I talked with that Professor Kotovsky in Moscow. He also said, "Swāmījī, after death, everything is finished." You see? Big, big men in Europe, very exalted position, they do not know even that there is life after death. They do not know. And in India, I think when I spoke in Calcutta, the American Consulate . . . there is a club, Indo-American Cultural. They invited. So they gave me the subject matter for speaking: "East and West." So in that meeting I said that, "We don't make any such distinction 'East' and 'West,' because everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. But there is little difference between East and West. What is that difference? Here, even an ordinary man, a cultivator, uneducated villager, he believes in the next birth. He believes. He's afraid of committing sin—'Oh, I'll have to suffer in my next life.' And in the Western world, the big, big men like Lord Fenner Brockway and Professor Kotovsky, they do not know that there is life after death."

Therefore to take birth in India is a privilege. It is a privilege, because it is not ordinary thing. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says:

bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra

janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

This para-upakāra, doing welfare activities to others, that is meant for India. But the Indian should first of all make his life perfect. Bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya janma yāra, janma sārthaka kari’ . . . (CC Adi 9.41). First of all the Indians are requested to make his life perfect, because how to make life perfect, the process and everything is in India, because here there is varṇāśrama-dharma, the division of the human society—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, and āśrama. Now these things are rejected by the Indians, but this is the most scientific method for making life perfect. This is the most scientific method. This was the answer of Rāmānanda Rāya when he was questioned by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, "What is the aim of perfection of life, and how to accomplish it?" This is the question was given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So the answer was, immediately:

varṇāśramācāravatā

puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate pumsām

nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

(CC Madhya 8.58)

"The aim of human life, the goal of human life, is to satisfy the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu." Viṣṇur ārādhyate.

Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These rascals, they do not know that human life is meant for pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Kuntīdevī therefore requested Kṛṣṇa, sneha-pāśam imaṁ chindhi. We are, I mean to say, bounded here by the material energy in so-called sneha-pāśa: society, friendship and love. People do not want to leave this material world. Even at the time of death . . . I have seen so many person. That is natural. The old man is dying, and he is thinking that, "So many of my business remained unfinished." So he calls his dear son, "My dear son, if, if you . . . you take charge of the family, and so many things I could not finish, you do it." You see? He does not know where he is going. I have seen in Allahabad one big man, he was dying at the age of fifty-four. He was of my age. And he was requesting the physician, "My dear doctor, can you not give me four years more to live so that I could finish my business?" This so much attraction, so much attraction. They sometimes cry that, "What will happen to my this boy, that children, that . . ."

So therefore the family attraction especially, the family attraction is so strong that life after life one is bound up again in this material world, and he gets one body. To get body means to suffer. To get material body . . . mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). We are suffering the śītoṣṇa . . . sometimes we feel some pleasure, sense pleasure. But actually we are suffering. Just see. We thought on the fourth floor, or third floor, such marble, I mean to say, level. And still, there is a snake. How it gone to such a high floor, and . . .? That is also surprising. But it has managed to go there. That's a fact. And a snake means death. Sa-sarpe ca gṛhe vāso mṛtyur eva na saṁśayaḥ. So you cannot avoid danger in any condition of life. This is material world. But still, they want to remain here. Death is in every step. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). This material world means in every step vipadām, danger. Such is the condition of material world. Still, they are trying to adjust. Mūḍha. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ.

Bahir-artha-māninaḥ means they are thinking, "By utilizing this external energy, material world, we shall be happy." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know that, especially for the human being, the destination is to know Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). All these Vedic literatures, all these philosophy, science and everything . . . that is the verdict of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, yad uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22). You may be talented in so many ways. You may be very big man—politician or philosopher or chemist or physist. So many we are, we are occupied. So why you should become big man? What is the purpose? The purpose is to understand Kṛṣṇa. Intelligent. So whatever talent you have got, it doesn't matter. Whatever you may be—you may be engineer—but if you are intelligent actually, through engineering you'll describe Kṛṣṇa, how Kṛṣṇa is the greatest engineer so that He's keeping all the planets floating in the air. That is engineer. You cannot do it. He is keeping . . . gām āviśya (BG 15.13). He has said. Aham ojasā dhārayāmi, Kṛṣṇa says. So we have to understand Kṛṣṇa like that. Kṛṣṇa says like that, "I am keeping all these planets floating." Now, if you are a physist, then you try to understand how Kṛṣṇa is keeping them floating. That is your perfection. That is your perfection. If you remain a physicist or chemist and don't understand Kṛṣṇa, it is a waste of time. It is waste of time.

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

We are divisioned. Either you take it varṇa, āśrama, or by occupation, anything, there must be some division, not that everyone is the same. Somebody is engineer. Somebody is medical man. Somebody is chemist. Somebody is philosopher. Somebody is brāhmin. Somebody is śūdra. You take. Division must be there. It is not possible to make everyone all the same. That is rascaldom. That is, means, they have no knowledge. Just like the Communists. They tried to make one. They failed. That is not possible. Still, they are going on, "Laborer class and the manager class." Why you make two? So if instead of two, if we make four, what is the difference in philosophy? They could not do it. That is not possible. There must be, because Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13): "The four divisions is created by Me." How you can nullify Kṛṣṇa's creation? That is not possible. So division may be there. It doesn't matter. That is created by Kṛṣṇa. But still, there can be oneness. What is that? Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). Everyone try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Then it is oneness.

The same story, udarendriyāṇām, that all our parts of limbs, parts of the body, limbs and senses, they are working hard, very hard. What is the aim? To fill up the stomach. There is no other aim. Everyone is working so hard only for filling up the stomach. Udarendriyāṇām. Similarly we, being . . . mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So our only business is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Then it is perfect life. That we have forgotten. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and says, "You rascal, you fool, you just surrender unto Me, you'll be happy. Why you are planning so many things, rascal planning? That will not make you happy." Sarva-dharmān pari . . . "You have planned so many rascaldom. You give up all this. Simply make . . . take this planning: surrender unto Me." Śaraṇāgati. Śaraṇāgati. That is the beginning of Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Ānukūlyasya saṅkalpa.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

(Brs. 1.1.11)

This is wanted. Simply try to understand what Kṛṣṇa desires and try to satisfy Him. This is perfection of life.

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

If you want perfection, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said this perfection: bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya janma yāra, janma sārthaka kari’ . . . (CC Adi 9.41). What is that janma sārthaka? This is janma sārthaka. What is that? When you learn how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That's all. If you learn this simple art, how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, then your life is perfect. Bās.

Is it very difficult task? No, it is not at all. Kṛṣṇa gives the formula how He'll be satisfied. He says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). These four things, "Always think of Me . . ." Everyone can think of Kṛṣṇa. He is thinking of so many nonsense things; why not Kṛṣṇa? Here is Kṛṣṇa. If you simply think of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā-Mādhava, then where . . . is very difficult thing? Therefore temple is there so that you see Kṛṣṇa always or at some interval—during ārati, during maṅgala-ārati, during bhoga . . . so the impression is always within your heart, and you think of. Where is the difficulty? Where is the difficulty? No difficulty. So Kṛṣṇa says, man-manāḥ. And if you have no time to come to the temple, all right, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You hear the name of Kṛṣṇa. That is not different from Kṛṣṇa. The . . . after all, impression, either you hear or see, the experience is there. So you can think of Kṛṣṇa very easily. It doesn't require any university qualification. Anyone, any rascal, can do it. It is so easy. It doesn't require high education to think of Kṛṣṇa. Woman, children, anyone.

So to satisfy Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa directly says . . . if you want to satisfy me, then you ask me, "Prabhupāda, what can I do for you?" If I say: "Do this," then I am satisfied. This is the way of satisfaction, making one . . . so you ask Kṛṣṇa, "Sir, my business is hari-toṣaṇam. So how can I satisfy You?" Kṛṣṇa directs, "Yes, you can satisfy Me. Think of Me." Where is the difficulty? Why so much philosophy, humbug, to understand God? The rascals, they are thinking, "What is God? Can you show me God?" God is here, canvassing. The rascals will avoid this by so-called erudite scholarship and this way, "There is no God . . ." God is there. Why not God? We are giving you the God's name. God Himself is giving, presenting Himself. And big, big ācāryas, they are accepting. Especially Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is simply attached to Kṛṣṇa. So we have to learn from Caitanya Mahāprabhu how to serve Kṛṣṇa, how to become attached. How Caitanya Mahāprabhu is attached to Kṛṣṇa is described so nicely. It will puzzle even the biggest brain of philosopher, how Caitanya Mahāprabhu is attached to Kṛṣṇa. We are now trying to explain in the Antya-līlā.

So of course, we cannot expect that one day we shall be so much attached as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but this preliminary attachment, to think of Kṛṣṇa, there is no difficulty. To think of Kṛṣṇa. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. He'll be satisfied. He'll be sati . . . teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). And those who are so attached with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says: "I'll supply whatever he wants. Yes." So a devotee's opulence does not mean it is due to his karma. It is supplied by Kṛṣṇa. It is never to be diminished, because it is supplied by Kṛṣṇa. The karmīs, they get opulence on account of his past karma. But a devotee gets opulence—it is gift of Kṛṣṇa; it cannot be destroyed. It cannot be destroyed. It is gift of Kṛṣṇa. We should always think of like that. And we shall try more and more to please Kṛṣṇa. Dui lage hura huri. Kṛṣṇa is trying to make His devotee more and more opulent and comfortable, and the devotee is trying to please Kṛṣṇa more and more. That is the business between devotee and Kṛṣṇa. It is called, Caitanya-cari . . . dui lage hura huri. Just like if I want to please you or if you want to please me, so there is competition. So that competition should be there. But that competition, that realization, is impossible so long you are attached to this rascal material world. Therefore Kṛṣṇa say . . . Kuntī's first request is that sneha-pāśam idaṁ chindhi: "Please destroy this attraction, affection, for this material friendship, society, family. Please destroy it."

So the Māyāvādī philosopher, they simply want to destroy. Negative side. They have no information of the positive side, that after destruction . . . suppose you are not satisfied with some business or some service. So you want to, "Oh, I want to leave this business. I want . . ." But you leave . . . suppose you are getting, say, five hundred rupees. Then, if you leave, then you'll be zero, no income. If you get another service which will fetch you six hundred rupees, then you are profited. But if you simply give it up, this service, and become zero, then you become unemployed; the miseries will increase. The Māyāvādī, being disgusted with this material world . . . Brahma . . . jagan mithyā. Jagan mithyā, that's, that's all right. Then brahma satyam. That is theoretical. If you do not engage yourself as Brahman, then again you'll fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). That you give up disgusting—"This is mithyā"—that's all right. But that is zero. And what is your positive engagement? That they do not know. Therefore, after some time they again come to be positively engaged in opening hospital and daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā, and this and that and so many things. Because they could not get any engagement in the positive world.

That positive world, here it is said, tvayi me ananya-viṣayā matiḥ. This is positive. The negative side is to give up. To give up . . . because we are living being, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). So we want ānanda. So whatever I possess, now I give up. Then, if I don't get better engagement, then where is my ānanda? There is no ānanda. So as we do not get ānanda, so then I come back again. There is a Bengali hearsay, napad jimane na, na jamai batta. When a widow, old woman, her husband is dead—we have got experience—and she talks very loosely with the grandson-in-law. I have got experience. When we were young, young married, so my grandmother-in-law, my father-in-law's mother, she was talking very loosely, just like husband and wife. So that's a practical . . . because she . . . she is hopeless of getting another husband because she is old enough. So where is the husband? She accepts or talks like husband to the grandson-in-law. So similarly, the Māyāvādī philosophers, they do not accept Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's līlā. They think it is māyā. They do not accept it. So there is no ānanda. Therefore they come down again. Punar mūṣiko bhava. Again open hospital, because there is no engagement. And he has to raise fund. So this is very easy thing, "Sir, I am going to open a hospital. Give me some fund." Nowadays, especially, it is very difficult to collect fund. If you say, "I am going to open a temple," nobody will give you. But if you say: "I am going to open a hospital," he'll give you.

So therefore we must have positive engagement. Simply negation, jagan mithyā . . . why jagan mithyā? We don't say jagan mithyā. This building, this nice building, is it mithyā? It is not mithyā. It is perfectly true, because here Kṛṣṇa is being worshiped, the devotees are chanting . . . this is life, this truth. So why shall I say: "Jagan mithyā"? You have to utilize jagat in such a way that it will become truth. That process is saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). Here only business is how Kṛṣṇa will be satisfied. That is the only business. That is perfection. To become perfect means to learn how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection. It doesn't require education and doesn't require big, big titles or . . . nothing. You try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13).

Therefore here Kuntīdevī . . . tvayi me ananya-viṣayā. Viṣaya means sense gratification. This is viṣaya: āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. These are called viṣaya. Viṣaya means material subject matter for sense gratification. So one cannot be attached to Kṛṣṇa as long as he is attached to viṣaya. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, or Locana dāsa Ṭhākura, he says, viṣaya chāṛiyā, se rase majiyā, mukhe bolo hari hari. Viṣaya chāṛiyā. So long you are attached to sense gratification, there is no question of chanting "Hari, Hari." That is not possible. Viṣaya chāṛiyā. So it is not possible to do it immediately, but if we practice the system given by the ācāryas as we have introduced, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then one day we'll be able. Viṣaya chāṛiyā. Then paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). When you gradually relish the transcendental mellow of devotional service . . . that Yāmunācārya said:

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde

nava-nava dhāmany rantum āsīt

tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame

bhavati suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ mukha-vikāraḥ

So this is the process. The more you become attached to Kṛṣṇa . . . that is very psychological. If you become attached to something, you become detached to something else. Attachment, detachment cannot be. So more you become attached to Kṛṣṇa, then more you become detached to this material world. Just like . . . you, you cannot by artificial means, all of a sudden, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "I take sannyāsa." No. That will not be. First of all, you have to increase your attachment for Kṛṣṇa. Then the sannyāsa order will be durable. Otherwise you'll fall down; again you'll be attached. Punar mūṣiko bhava. There are so many instances.

So both things should be performed simultaneously, parallel line, that you should take up the process how to increase your attachment for Kṛṣṇa, and then automatically detachment will be there. The same example, as given by Rūpa Gosvāmī, that you are hungry. When you take food, that, gradually you become satisfied and your hunger is also satisfied. So when you are fully satisfied . . . just like Dhruva Mahārāja said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42): "My dear Lord, my dear Sir, I am not hankering after any benediction. I am completely benedicted. No more benediction. I have got everything. I have got You, Kṛṣṇa. So what do I want more?" Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ (BG 6.22). If one gets Kṛṣṇa's favor, if one gets Kṛṣṇa, what does he want more? He has got everything, because Kṛṣṇa is everything.

So try to possess Kṛṣṇa like Kuntīdevī's . . . tvayi me ananya-viṣayā matir madhu-pate asakṛt. Asakṛt means . . . sakṛt means once, and asakṛt means continuously. Not that perform Kṛṣṇa consciousness fifteen minutes' meditation, and then do all nonsense thing twenty-four hours. No, no, no, no. Not that kind of . . . twenty-four hours engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is wanted. That is called asakṛt. Twenty-four. So you have to make your formula of life in such a way that not a single moment is gone without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Avyartha-kālatvam (CC Madhya 23.18-19). This is Rūpa Gosvāmī's . . . a devotee, a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he always sees: "Whether my time is wasted unnecessarily?" He should be very much alert, "Why I'm sleeping so much, wasted so much time?" That is devotees, Kṛṣṇa conscious. "Oh, I am wasting so much time without any engagement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" That is called asakṛt. Matir madhu-pate asakṛt.

And directly, addhā. It is said, ratim udvahatād addhā. Addhā means directly, not indirectly. Indirectly, the so-called demigod worshipers, they say . . . because they misuse that verse:

ye 'py anya-devatā-bhaktā

yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ

te 'pi mām eva kaunteya

yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam

(BG 9.23)

They neglect this word, avidhi-pūrvakam. They simply say that to worship other demigods is also the same. No. It is not the . . . it is avidhi-pūrvaka. And if you . . . suppose you are in trouble. You have to satisfy the police commissioner. But you are trying to satisfy the police commissioner by bribing the constable. That is avidhi-pūrvaka. If it is known, then you'll be punished. So don't try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa avidhi-pūrvakam. Vidhi-pūrvakam. That vidhi-pūrvakam is direct. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). That is wanted. That is vidhi-pūrvakam. Otherwise, avidhi-pūrvakam. And how? The avidhi . . . the vidhi-pūrvaka, how? Just as the Ganges water is flowing automatically toward the sea, similarly, your devotional service like that, automatically, without any check. Then your life is perfect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)