750708 - Lecture SB 06.01.24 - Chicago

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Lecture

750708SB-CHICAGO - July 08, 1975 - 33:03 Minutes

Nitāi: (leads chanting of verse, etc.)

tasya pravayasaḥ putrā

daśa teṣāṁ tu yo 'vamaḥ

bālo nārāyaṇo nāmnā

pitroś ca dayito bhṛśam

(SB 6.1.24)

Prabhupāda: (interrupting to correct synonym) You can . . . (indistinct) . . ., "was very old." Pravayasaḥ.

Nitāi: Beg your pardon?

Prabhupāda: It should be "was very old."

Nitāi: "Was very old."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Pra means prakṛṣṭa-rūpa.

Nitāi: (continues leading chanting of synonyms)

(02:57)

"Ajāmila had ten sons. The youngest son, named Nārāyaṇa, was a child begotten while Ajāmila was very old. Because he was the youngest son, he was naturally very dear to his father and mother."

Prabhupāda:

tasya pravayasaḥ putrā

daśa teṣāṁ tu yo avamaḥ

bālo nārāyaṇo nāmnā

pitroś ca dayito bhṛśam

(SB 6.1.24)

So a small child of very old man, because when the child, baby, is within two, three years, they are taken care of especially by the parents. And the youngest son. . . When the child is two, three years, naturally he is youngest. So youngest is taken more care. Sneha, affection, is compared with oil. Sneha means oil. So affection is just like oil. Why? Now, you put oil in the ground, it will glide down where there is slope. What is called? Slope. So generally, the affection goes down to the youngest child. The particular point in this connection is pravayasaḥ. Pravayasaḥ means very old. Yes, he was eighty-eight years old. So this child might be three years or two years, less than three years. That means when he was eighty-five or eighty-six he begot a child. This is the purpose, to point out. This is family life. He is going to die after one or two years, and still, he is begetting child. Therefore this word is used, pravayasaḥ.

This is not proper life that up to the point of death one has to beget a child. This is animal life. Human life, maximum fifty years, that's all. After that, by force, pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet, give up this family life. And if you don't give up, then you remain and go on begetting children. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). What is the happiness of this gṛhamedhī life, attached to family life? The only happiness is this sex, that's all. Otherwise there is no happiness. They are working day and night. Therefore, at the present moment the tendency is to kill the child. Because to enjoy sex life means there must be pregnancy. But when there is pregnancy, either illicit or. . . legal or illegal, the child-bearing, the giving birth to the child, then taking care of it, then growing, raising, feeding him, education—so many troubles there is. But tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45).

The kṛpaṇa, those who are not brāhmaṇa. . . The brāhmaṇa means liberal, or advanced in knowledge, and kṛpaṇa means miser. So the opposite word of brāhmaṇa is kṛpaṇa. Kṛpaṇa. . . Because one who is liberal, he knows how to utilize this life; therefore he is called brāhmaṇa. Brahma jānāti. This life is meant for knowing Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth. That is brāhmaṇa. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. And if somebody, getting this human life, he does not become a brāhmaṇa, then he remains a kṛpaṇa, miser. Kṛpaṇa means miser. You have got some millions of dollars, but you do not spend it. You keep it in the safe and see daily, "Oh, I have got so much money." They are kṛpaṇa. Why you keep money? Utilize it. Distribute it for Kṛṣṇa. That is brāhmaṇa. Why should you keep it? But the kṛpaṇa, they do not know how to utilize the money. The money belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. That's a fact. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). So He is the proprietor. Some way or other. . . Just like in our Society somebody is entrusted with millions of dollars to spend. But that money is Kṛṣṇa's money; it is not his money. Similarly, you take big society, the nation, the community, whatever money is there, that is Kṛṣṇa's money. So if we spend it properly, conscientiously, for Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then it is properly utilized. Otherwise he becomes a kṛpaṇa, miser. He got the opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa gave him so much money—but he kept it without any use. That is called kṛpaṇa.

So brāhmaṇa and. . . Brāhmaṇas, I have already explained, that brāhmaṇa's business is dāna-pratigraha. He will collect. Brāhmaṇa has the right to collect from his disciples, spiritual master. But he will distribute it. Dāna-pratigraha. He will be also a man charitably disposed, spending that money for public welfare, for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So kṛpaṇa. Kṛpaṇa, this word, is used, kṛpaṇāḥ phala-hetavaḥ. The kṛpaṇas, they are simply trying to get some benefit. Another word is used:

yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ

kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham

tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ

kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ

(SB 7.9.45)

Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). This word is used, dhīra. So if one is not dhīra, adhīra, agitated always, they will go on begetting children one after another, up to the eighty-ninth year. Why? Tṛpyanti. . . They are not satisfied, although to beget a child means so many troubles if you are responsible father. And those who are not responsible father, mother, they want to kill it, that's all. This is the psychology of killing children nowadays, because they know that "This child, I have to take care so much," bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. There are. . . Tṛpyanti. . . By very analytical study. . . Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). This happiness of the gṛhamedhī, family attachment. . . Family you can utilize, gṛhastha. If you are inconvenienced to accept sannyāsa or brahmacārī life, remain in household life, but the purpose is the same: to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If one is in the family life and is trying to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is called gṛhastha, and his family life is called gṛhastha-āśrama. Just like sannyāsa-āśrama. Āśrama means where there is activities, spiritual. That is called āśrama. So if you remain as gṛhastha, or family man, there is no harm. But utilize for advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then you are gṛhastha. But if you do not know that, if you simply remain a family man for satisfying your senses and begetting children up to the point of death, that is called gṛhamedhī. These two words. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām (SB 2.1.2). So one should not be gṛhamedhī. One may become gṛhastha. That is the difference.

So this man, Ajāmila, was not a gṛhastha, because his beginning of life is that he gave up his married life. He was married with nice wife, coming from respectable family, but he gave up that, and he was attached to a maidservant. And he gave up his real family life. He became a family man with this maidservant, and go on begetting children. That was his life. Therefore this word is used particularly, tasya pravayasaḥ. He was old enough; still, he was begetting child. But one who is brāhmaṇa, he would not stay in family life more than fiftieth year. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. One must go to the forest. Forest means vana, and therefore, one who goes to the forest, from the word vana, it is vāna, vānaprastha. Prastha mean one who has gone. This is regulative life. One has to take leave from this family life and accept the vānaprastha. Vānaprastha means prior to accepting the renounced order of life. The husband and wife goes out of home and travels in many holy places to associate with holy man and take his instruction just to prepare for sannyāsa. So when one is fully equipped in knowledge, then he asks his wife to go to home to be taken care of by the elderly children, and he becomes a sannyāsī.

This is called varṇāśrama-dharma. This is real purpose of life: four varṇas, four classes of men, up to fourth class, not up to tenth class. And then spiritual life: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This institution is called varṇāśrama-dharma: four varṇas and four āśrama. So when one is educated or trained up by this varṇāśrama institution, then his human life begins. Otherwise he is animal. One who does not take to this varṇāśrama-dharma, he remains in the animal life. That is the Vedic system. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu enquired from Rāmānanda Rāya, "What is the aim of life?" Rāmānanda Rāya immediately replied that,

varṇāśramācāravatā

puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā

nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

(CC Madhya 8.58)

The real purpose of life, goal of life, is to satisfy Viṣṇu—Viṣṇu, Lord, the Supreme Lord, or Kṛṣṇa. This is life, to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, to know Kṛṣṇa and try to satisfy Him. That is life.

So to enter into this elevated life, fulfilling the desire or the aim of life, is varṇāśrama-dharma. Varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān, viṣṇur ārādhyate. Viṣṇur ārādhyate, that is required, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious or Viṣṇu conscious and to worship Him. So that begins with this varṇāśrama. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He knew that this is Kali-yuga; it is very, very difficult to engage people strictly in the varṇāśrama-dharma. Actually it is difficult. Who is going. . . If you open a varṇāśrama college, there will be no student, because they will think, "What is this nonsense, varṇāśrama? Let us learn technology. We shall get good salary. We shall earn money." Yes. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately said, eho bāhya, āge kaha āra (CC Madhya 8.59). In this age it is not possible, varṇāśrama-dharma. So āge kaha āra: "If you know something better than this, you say." So in this way Rāmānanda Rāya recommended that karma-tyāga, sannyāsa, so many stages. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu went on saying, eho bāhya āge kaha āra: "This is useless now. If you know better, then something, something."

So then at last—not at last; in the middle—Rāmānanda Rāya said that jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. . . namanta eva, bhavadīya-vārtām, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. The purport is that all these processes recommended in the śāstra—varṇāśrama-dharma, acceptance of sannyāsa, or other, karma-tyāga, miśra, karma-miśra-jñāna. . . There are so many things. So Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, eho bāhya. But when he quoted one passage from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, quotation. . . That is the statement of Lord Brahmā,

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva

jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir

ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām

(SB 10.14.3)

Our aim is how to realize God. That is the aim. So there are so many different processes recommended in the śāstra: varṇāśrama-dharma, karma-tyāga, karma-sannyāsa, jñāna-miśra-bhakti, karma-miśra-bhakti. So all of them were rejected by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But when he quoted this verse. . . What is this? Jñāne prayāsam. People are trying to understand the Absolute Truth by speculation, according to one's knowledge. The so-called philosopher, theosophists, theologists, these are useless. You cannot speculate to understand the Absolute Truth. That is not possible. Therefore Brahmā recommends that one should give up this nonsense practice. It is not nonsense, but at the present moment it has no use. The so-called theosophists and theologists or philosophers, they do not know—speculators. So this sort of practice, jñāne prayāsam, endeavoring after knowledge, udapāsya, give up this. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya.

Then what is required? Namanta eva. Just become submissive. Don't think yourself as very great philosopher, theologist, scientist. Just be humble. "My dear sir, just be humble." Namanta eva. "Then what will be my business? All right, I shall become humble. Then how I shall make progress?" Now, namanta eva san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām. "Just hear the message of God." "From whom?" San-mukharitām: "through the mouth of the devotees." Not professional, not gramophone—through the mouth of, through the lips of real devotee. "So then? Next? I will have to become sannyāsa or gṛhastha or what?" "No." Sthāne sthitāḥ: "You remain wherever you are. Either you are a gṛhastha or a vānaprastha, or apart from that, either you are a medical man or engineer or politician or businessman or shopkeeper—something, your position is there—so you remain in that." Sthāne sthitāḥ: "You remain in your position. Simply you have to hear the message of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, through the realized saintly person." This recommendation. If you go on speculating, you will never be able to understand. Therefore give up this practice. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. "Be submissive." If you think, "Oh, I am so much advanced. I can speculate. Why shall I go to a devotee and hear from him?" No. You have to adopt this. Why? Yadi. . . If you want to conquer the ajita. Ajita, ajita means Kṛṣṇa, or God. Nobody can conquer Him. But you can conquer Him. How? By this process. Remain your process. . . remain in your situation, in your occupation, but try to hear from the realized soul. Very simple thing.

So this process is recommended to realize God. Yadi. . . If somebody follows this process without mental speculation, and if he has got intelligence by hearing from the realized soul, he will realize everything. Kṛṣṇa will also help him from within. Guru means Kṛṣṇa without, and Supersoul means Kṛṣṇa within. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He is ready to help us from within and without—both ways. We have to take advantage of this. So if we become devotee, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ, and engage our body, mind, tanu. . . Tanu means body, and vāṅ means words. Tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. And mano means mind. We have got three things: mind, this body, and words, vāṅ. So we can serve Kṛṣṇa according to the direction of the śāstra. Śāstra, guru, satām. Satām means one who. . . Ācārya means one who knows śāstra. He will not speak anything which is not in the śāstra. He will never say, "In my opinion you can do like this." No. He must give evidence from the śāstra. Therefore our practice is, whenever we speak something, immediately we quote from authoritative śāstra. In this way. . .

So here it is said, tasya pravayasaḥ putrā daśa. So in his so-called gṛhamedhī life. . . That I was going to explain. Gṛhamedhī life means darkness. He will know simply how to beget child, that's all, up to the eighty-fifth year. He is going to die next moment. So he is fortunate that he named his son Nārāyaṇa. This is God's grace. This was done—Kṛṣṇa is so kind—because in his youthhood he was a devotee. Not devotee; he was trying to become a devotee. Dvija, he was initiated. We have begun his life that kānyakubje kaścid dvijaḥ (SB 6.1.21). He was initiated, but he fell down. Later on, he fell down in contact with a prostitute. Therefore he lost his all qualification, and he was busy. . . Instead of serving Kṛṣṇa, he was busy in begetting children, up to the eighty-fifth year. Therefore pravayasaḥ. Although he had made. . . The last one is tenth. Although he had nine sons, still, at the eighty-fifth year he is begetting another. That is called kṛpaṇa.

tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ

kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ

(SB 7.9.45)

Dhīra, one who is sober, he thinks that "What is the use of simply begetting children? One, two, three, that's all. Let me engage now in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is dhīra, sober.

So we should not be like this Ajāmila, go on begetting children, children, children, children up to eighty-fifth year. No. Teṣāṁ yaḥ avamaḥ. The most junior, the small, the latest edition, they are very much fond, father and mother. It is said, bālo nārāyaṇo nāmnā pitroś ca dayito bhṛśam. Pitroḥ, pitroḥ means parents, father and mother; naturally dayitaḥ, very merciful upon him than all other; bhṛśam, sufficiently. So the idea is that by God's grace, because in the beginning of his life he engaged himself to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, and he was initiated, but later on. . . But the first assessment of his life, that helped him, that Kṛṣṇa gave him the advice, "All right, you keep your this youngest son's name Nārāyaṇa, because you will be naturally attached to this boy, and you will call him, 'Nārāyaṇa, please come here. Nārāyaṇa, take your food. Nārāyaṇa, take your drink.' So you will chant 'Nārāyaṇa.' " (pause)

All right. Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end).