760525 - Lecture SB 06.01.25 - Honolulu

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Lecture

760525SB-HONOLULU - May 25, 1976 - 24.05 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Twenty-seven?

Hari-śauri: Twenty-five.

Devotee: Sa baddha.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-five. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevaya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevaya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevaya. (devotees repeat) Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One, verse number twenty-five. (leads devotees in chanting)

sa baddha-hṛdayas tasminn

arbhake kala-bhāṣiṇi

nirīkṣamāṇas tal-līlāṁ

mumude jaraṭho bhṛśam

(SB 6.1.25)

(02:06)

So the youngest child was very dear. Everyone . . . Sneha. Sneha is, another meaning of sneha is oil, liquid. So sneha means affection. So this sneha word is used that there is a liquid, how you say it, goes to down. Liquid does not go up. Slow. Similarly, we have got some affection, the affection goes to the lowest. Therefore father, mother's affection generally goes to the youngest. So here also Ajāmila, although he's a cheat, he's a rogue, he's a thief, he has learned all the bad quality, but still the sneha, the affection, that is not lost. So this is natural. Similarly, we have got a natural feeling for Kṛṣṇa. If you study thoroughly, that is called meditation, that "Whom I love." Say for the first time, I love my body. If there is some danger I try to protect myself from the danger. That means I love my body. So the next question will be: "Then why don't you love a dead body?" Suppose your wife or husband, you love, because the husband and wife is in the body, within the body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). So I love the body because the spirit soul is there. This is right conclusion. Otherwise who is going to love a dead body? Nobody. Now if one's husband has died, or son has died, he's crying. You can say that "Why you are crying?" "Now my son is gone, my husband is gone." "No one has gone. It is lying here." "No, no, no. He's not." So after death we understand that this dead body is neither my husband nor my son. Late experience. But in the beginning there is no such experience. That is called illusion. He will understand it that this dead body is not neither my father, nor my husband, nor my son. He's different from. And that is practical example. Otherwise why not take the dead body of your husband or son, and keep it? No. That is not possible.

So it is clear that the soul is different from the body. But because we are fools and rascals, we learn it after death. That is foolishness. Not in the beginning. In the beginning the Bhagavad-gītā says, Kṛṣṇa says, that asmin dehe, "Within this body, the soul is there." "No, no. I don't believe." Dull brain cannot understand. But after death, he sees, "Yes. The body is not my son. The body is not my husband." So that is foolishness. The foolish person understands late, and intelligent person understands very quickly. That is the difference. So I love my body. I love my husband's body or wife's body. Why? The real husband, wife or son is within the body. Therefore I love. Then the conclusion is that the soul is important more than the body. Then the question will be that "Why you love the soul?" Then the answer will be, "Because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). So ultimately the conclusion is that I love Kṛṣṇa and, because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore I love the soul. And because the soul loves within this body, therefore I love . . . There is no difficulty to understand. But so long one is under illusion, he's under the bodily concept of life. Therefore śāstra says that one who is in the bodily concept of life, he's animal. He's animal.

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke

svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ

yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij

janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ

(SB 10.84.13)

Go-kharaḥ. Go means cow and kharaḥ means ass. I repeatedly say this. So unless we understand that I or you, we are not this body, there is no question of spiritual understanding or spiritual education.

So here the Ajāmila, because, although he was a brāhmaṇa, but due to association of a prostitute he lost everything. This is the version. We have already studied, that,

kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid

dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ

nāmnā naṣṭa-sad-ācāro . . .

(SB 6.1.21)

Sad-ācāra. Sad-ācāra, just like we are teaching sad-ācāra, rise early in the morning, take your bath, change your cloth, wash your mouth, and then go to the Deity room and have maṅgala ārotika, then study, so many, so many, simply sad-ācāra. Sad-ācāra means . . . Sat means "that will exist," and ācāra means "behavior." Sad-ācāra. So here it is said that Ajāmila, he became the husband of a prostitute. It is not the śāstric injunction. You can become husband, but not the husband of a prostitute. Then your life is finished. Naṣṭa sad-ācāra. You will be lost all . . . (indistinct) . . . Therefore so much stress is given that wife should be chaste and the husband should be very well behaved, then life will be successful. Arjuna argued with Kṛṣṇa that "You're asking me to kill my brothers and relatives on the other side, so don't You think that if I kill them, their wives will be widowed and they will be polluted? And as soon as they will be polluted, there will be varṇa-saṅkara." Varṇa-saṅkara, the practical example of varṇa-saṅkara is the hippie in your country: no caste, no creed, neither useful for the material world, neither useful for the spiritual. That is called varṇa-saṅkara. Then he said, "My . . ." Arjuna . . . Strīṣu duṣṭāsu varṇa-saṅkara virabhyati (BG 1.40): "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are asking me to kill my . . . There will be widow, and they will be polluted, and there will be varṇa-saṅkara, and what is the loss? And when there'll be varṇa-saṅkara, then the whole world will be hell. It will be no more suitable for habitation of gentlemen. Finished."

Therefore in the Vedic civilization two things are very much stressed: to teach the man from childhood how to become expert in sad-ācāra, and woman trained up how to become chaste. So this chaste woman and this sad-ācāra, brāhmaṇa—ideal is brāhmaṇa —if they combine then there will be peace, there will be progress, there will be peace in the society, peace in the family. There is a poetry in English, "Society, friendship and love, divinely bestowed upon you." But that society is not this society. If we become husband of the prostitute, no, that is not possible. Then sad-ācāra will be finished. Nāmnā sad-ācāra. Dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ (SB 6.1.21): as soon as you become associated with prostitute, then everything will be lost. Sad-ācāra lost means your progress in spiritual life is lost. Therefore we are stressing so much on the four points: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. This is the way. If you are serious . . . But if you take it as a fashion, that is another thing. But if you take it seriously, to progress, then these things should be done. This is the basic principle of spiritual progress.

Otherwise we shall learn, bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś cauryair garhitāṁ vṛttim āsthitaḥ, bibhrat kuṭumbam . . . bibhrat kuṭumbam aśucir (SB 6.1.22). Aśuci, aśuci. Aśuci means unclean. Peaceful life means purification. So if you purify and again become unclean, that we have discussed hasti-snāna, the elephant. Elephant takes bath very nicely, and as soon as come on the shore, take some dust and throw on. Kuñjara śaucavat. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that "What is this cleaning?"

But without cleaning, your life is spoiled. If you don't clean your life, then you'll have to accept another body according to karma. We have to accept. But the whole human mission is to stop this repetition of birth. They do not know. There is no science, there is no philosophy, there is no education throughout the whole world that the aim of life is to stop these four things: birth, death, old age and disease. They cannot think of. Yes? Birth can be stopped? They cannot think of. They're trying in a different way—contraceptive method or killing the child. That is not the way of stoppage. No. Nature's law is so strong that if you kill the child in the womb then you'll be also killed. You'll be also killed. "Tit for tat." There is no escape. "Life for life," just like in the law. You cannot do that. So this is very important things to understand. You are thinking very free but no, there is: prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Exactly. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from it. That is natural law. You cannot avoid. There is no escape. So similarly, this spiritual life, this human life is a chance that you learn how to purify yourself. That is human life. And if you don't purify yourself, you remain impure, without any endeavor, then what is the difference between you and cats and dogs? There's no difference.

So, kuṭumbam aśucir yāyatām āsa. So in that aśuci bhṛta āsa, the sneha is there. This Ajāmila, although became the rogue number one, but the affection, natural, that is there. Affection is there. Sa baddha-hṛdayas tasminn arbhake kala-bhāṣiṇi. Attract. The child is talking in broken language—that is very pleasing, pleasing to everyone, especially to the parents. So nirīkṣamāṇas tal-līlām. And he's walking, or he's crawling, he's coming to the father, coming to the mother . . . These things, very attractive, and we become more and more attracted, and we forget our real business. The real business should always be remembered. These things are natural. It is very good, be affectionate to your children. But don't forget your real business. Otherwise this kind of affection is there in cats and dogs also. Cats and dogs, you'll find they carry, the cat, they carry the . . . What is called? Kitties?

Devotee: Kittens.

Prabhupāda: . . . on the mouth. They have no hands. And they give protection to the . . . (break) . . . so one thing is for his kitties and one thing is for the . . . Similarly, Nṛsiṁha-deva—one thing for the Hiraṇyakaśipu, one thing for Prahlāda. So that is not God's discrimination, but that is natural. That is natural. He says. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, samo 'haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu (BG 9.29): "I am equal to everyone." Otherwise, if He's not equal to everyone, how He can be God? If He's partial to somebody and He's affectionate to some . . . No. That is not God's business. God is equal to everyone. Samo 'haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo 'sti na priyaḥ: "Nobody is My enemy and nobody is My friend, but still," ye tu bhajanti māṁ bhaktyā teṣu te mayi (BG 9.29), "but anyone who is devotee, I take special care for him." The same thing that the cat carries in the mouth the cat as well as the mouse. The mouse, for mouse it is death, and for the cat it is pleasure. Similarly, Hiraṇyakaśipu, when he's captured by Nṛsiṁha-deva, He's death. Tava nakha. Kara-kamale nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgaṁ dalita hiraṇ . . . Immediately. Finished. The same hand on the head of Prahlāda Mahārāja, "My dear child, be blessed." The same hand. This is the position.

So we should try to purify ourselves from sinful activity so that Prahlāda Mahā, Nṛsiṁha-deva may keep His hand on our, blessing. That is wanted. Then our life is successful. Otherwise nature will not excuse. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Hiraṇyakaśipu will be killed. Demons will be . . . That is true business of Kṛṣṇa, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8), to kill the demons. Of course, any demon killed by Kṛṣṇa, he also gets salvation. But if the demon also gets salvation being killed, but just imagine what is the position of devotee to whom Kṛṣṇa is so affectionate. Just imagine what is his position. And His name is Bhakta-vatsala. Kṛṣṇa's name is "very much affectionate to the devotee."

So you have taken Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Take it seriously. Follow the rules and regulations. Then Kṛṣṇa will give you all protection. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati (BG 9.31). If you are sincere devotee . . . It is very easy thing to become devotee. Simply four things: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Four things. A child can; they are learning. They're also offering a flower, mad-yājī. This is worship. If a child can do it, you cannot do it? What is the difficulty? If you offer a flower to the Deity, if you offer your obeisances . . . The child, it's learning. Don't think it is going for nothing. Everything is calculated, "Ah, here is this child. He is offering obeisances." Credit. "He's offering flower." Credit. This is . . . (laughter) Yes. From the childhood, if one becomes . . . simply deposits credit, then someday it will be a big balance, big good bank balance. So therefore this institution means to give everyone the chance to do these four things: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). And Kṛṣṇa says maṁ evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 8.7): "Without any doubt, simply by doing these four things, you'll come back to Me." So what is the difficulty? Do it properly and be happy.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (end)