700115 - Lecture SB 06.01.19 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1970

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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700115SB-LOS ANGELES - January 15, 1970 - 34:56 Minutes

Prabhupāda:

sakṛn manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor

niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgī yair iha

na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhatān

svapne 'pi paśyanti hi cīrṇa-niṣkṛtāḥ

(SB 6.1.19)

We have been discussing sinful activities and their reaction for the last three weeks. So here, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that there are many different processes for counteracting our sinful activities, but he summarizes that sakṛn kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgī yair iha: anyone who has fixed up his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-padāravinda . . . padāravinda means the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Aravinda means lotus flower, and pada means feet. Some way or other, if anybody fixes his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then, he says, na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne 'pi paśyanti.

It is, according to Vedic scripture, the sinful persons are taken to the superintendent of death, and there, according to his different, I mean to say, volumes or proportion of sinful activities, a living entity is punished. The spirit soul is taken in that planet where the Yamarāja is there, and in that subtle form . . . subtle form means the spirit covered in the subtle form of mind, intelligence and false ego, he is put into various trouble.

Sometimes, just like we are also, even in this life, we are put into such troublesome position in dream. That is our experience. Suppose we are put into some narrow space and I am just going to be suffocated, or I am in the face of some dangerous animal, or deep into the ocean. Sometimes we dream like that. A similar punishment is given after death, and when the living being or the living entity becomes accustomed to such habit, then he is put into the womb of a certain type of animal or man where that suffering will continue. He is made into practice.

Māyā has got two things: āvaraṇātmika and prakṣepātmika. Āvaraṇātmika means just like a dog or a hog, he is in a . . . encaged in a body, eating stool, living in a very filthy place, but still, the hog is feeling himself that he is happy, he's happy. This is called āvaraṇātmika-śakti. Any abominable condition we may live, but māyā will cover our intelligence, and we'll think that we are living very nice. This is called āvaraṇātmika-śakti. Otherwise, he cannot live.

If an animal or a dog or hog thinks that he's in most abominable condition of life, then he cannot live. But he enjoys. A dog is chained up by the master, but he thinks that he's very happy. He does not think that, "I am completely dependent and I am chained up. I have no independence. I cannot freely move." Even his chain is taken away, he wants to be chained. This is māyā. In any condition of life, everyone thinks that he's happy. But actually he does not know what is happiness. This is called māyā.

But here it is said that a person, for a short period, if he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, sakṛt, manaḥ, if his mind is some way or other placed on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then, even in dream he'll never see what is the punishment in the planet of Yamarāja. That means a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is guaranteed not to be touched by the Yamarāja or his attendants or his police force or constables. They . . . a living entity is taken away. After his death, if he's sinful man, then his soul is taken away by force. He doesn't want to . . . through a desert. These things are described. You may believe or not believe, but we believe, because we believe in Vedic literature.

So these descriptions are there, and practically we experience also in our this life: sometimes in dream we are put into great troublesome position and we suffer. Although when we wake up we do not see anything like that, but still, the consequence of the dream we suffer. So here, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives guarantee that a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is never to be troubled by the Yamarāja or his agents.

atra codāharanti imam

itihāsaṁ puratānam

dūtānāṁ viṣṇu-yamayoḥ

saṁvādaṁ taṁ nibodha me

(SB 6.1.20)

Now, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is giving one historical examples. Example is better than precept. Generally, common men, if they see one example, they understand better. So how, one's mind being fixed up in the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, even for a moment, he can get relief from the greatest danger, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is narrating one story.

This fact is corroborated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Those who have read, you know. Lord Kṛṣṇa said, svalpam apy hi dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt (BG 2.40). This Kṛṣṇa conscious, you call it a culture or religion, whatever you call, if one executes this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness even very little, then there is chance of his being saved from the greatest danger. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya. Asya, this devotional service, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is so nice that even very little done, it can save one from the greatest danger.

Now, that example is being narrated by a practical historical reference. Here it is said that itihāsam, codāharanti: it is exemplified from the historical reference. So all the narrations are stories that are mentioned in the Purāṇas and Vedic literature, they are historical references. They are not manufactured. Actual fact. Just like history, you know the historical facts are facts—they are not manufactured. So here this very word is used, itihāsam. Itihāsam means history. Itihāsaṁ purātanam: but it is very old. All these Purāṇas . . . this Purāṇa means . . . purāṇa means "very old". Very old history. Purāṇa, this word, very word, means "old".

So there are eighteen Purāṇas in Vedic literature. Because there are three kinds of living entities—some of them are in goodness, some of them are in passion and some of them are in ignorance—for all people, there are different kinds of Purāṇas. Those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, they cannot generally understand the historical references made in the sattvika Purāṇa. Just like this Bhāgavata . . . Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is also one of the Purāṇas, essence of history. Whole history. Similarly, Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Viṣṇu Purāṇa, these are Purāṇas in the modes of goodness.

There are different types of people. The example is given just like there are different types of birds. A pigeon class . . . "Birds of the same feather flocks together." You see? That is natural. The pigeons will flock together and the crows will flock together. The swans will flock together. The swans will never go to the crow or the crow will never go to the swan. In human society also, the same natural tendency is there. Of course, now we are becoming more liberal. Otherwise, formerly, the white people will not mix with black people. So this is not new; it is by nature. Everyone has got a particular type of society, environment.

So literatures also, there are different kinds of literature. For the crowlike men there are different kinds of literature, and for the swanlike men there are different kinds of literature. So swanlike men . . . swan means haṁsa. From nature's study you can see, the swans, they have got a special qualification. What is that? If you give a swan milk mixed with water, the swan will take out only the milk portion, and the water portion will remain. That means those who are swanlike men, they take the essence, not the adulteration. Similarly, there are elevated persons who are also called paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa, the same example of the haṁsa, swan. Paramahaṁsa means they are interested with the essence of this world, not with the adulteration.

What is the adulteration? The adulteration is matter and the essence is spirit. Just like this body. What is this body? This body is that I am a spirit soul, living entity. I am encaged in this material body. Everything. Even in the atom there is some active principle. A drug, there is some active principle. So similarly in this body, my body, your body or any body, what is the active principle? The active principle is that living soul. As soon as the active principle is gone, then it is useless. "Dust thou art, dust thou be-est." Then this body is made of this earth, and it again becomes earth—either as stool or as earth or as ashes. These are our experience.

Just like Hindus, they burn this body. So this body become ashes. And there are communities, they throw out the body for being eaten up by birds and beasts. So it becomes stool. Because after eating they will pass stool. So the after-effects of this beautiful body will be stool or ashes. We are now soaping so nicely, dressing so nicely this body, but the (laughs) after-effects will be stool or ashes. Or earth. In your country you bury the body. So after few days it will be moth-eaten, and it will be turned into earth.

So we have to utilize. The paramahaṁsa means they take the essence. What is the essence of this body? The essence of this body is the spirit soul. So one should try to understand what is science of that spirit soul. They are not interested with the adulteration. Just like the example is given: the swan. The swan takes out the active principle. The swans, they live in a very nice place where there is very clear water, nice garden, nice fruits, flowers, birds chirping. You will find, these white swans are there. When I was in London I saw there was a . . . there is a nice Regent Park. There are many swans. That park is mostly flower, rose flower, nice park. So they are living there.

And the crows, where they live? They'll go where you throw away all nasty things. They will go and enjoy there, you see, the crows. Why? Why the crows does not do like the swans, and the . . . why swans do not do like these crows? These are the different qualities. The whole world is moving in different qualities. Therefore the quality of goodness, that has to be acquired in human form of life.

This temple is meant for the persons who are in the quality of goodness, those who are after the essence of the world—paramahaṁsa. And this our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is also meant for the paramahaṁsas. Not for the crowslike men but swanslike men, those who are white swans, trying to live in a very nice place, clear water, nice tree, nice fruits.

So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the beginning you'll find in the introduction, paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satām. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra. Atra means "in this book," "in this transcendental literature," dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra . . . (SB 1.1.2). Kaitavaḥ means cheating; dharmaḥ means religiosity. Religiosity or the cheating type of religiosity is not here. It is for paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ, for persons who are not envious.

The crowlike birds or crowlike men, or karmīs, they're envious. You'll find. And even, without any offense . . . just like dog, you pass on without any offense, he'll bark, "Ow, ow, ow, ow." (laughter) You have no offense. You have no offense, but it will try to pick up some quarrel with you. Sometime it will come to bite you, unless you have got sufficient stick to show. (laughter) So, similar . . . there are dogs and cats and hogs, there are similar men also. They will simply pick up quarrel unnecessarily. Sometimes political leaders . . . just like in Europe, Hitler unnecessarily picked up some war, and there was devastation all over the world. You see? There was no gain. The Germany become defeated and bifurcated. So this leader could not do anything good to the nation, but unnecessarily picked up some quarrel.

So that is the cause of world trouble: the crowlike men, the doglike men, the hoglike men. So we have to create paramahaṁsas, good men. Then you can expect peace and prosperity. If you create cats and dogs, then how can you expect that there will be peace, there will be no war, there will be no disturbance? No. Paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstava-vastu vedyam atra (SB 1.1.2).

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to create a population of paramahaṁsa. That is our propaganda. We are not trying to create a class of men like crows or cats and dogs, but like the haṁsas. Of course, it is very difficult. When you try to create some M.A. pass, boys and girls, their number will be very little. Because anything valuable, the customer is very little. If you want to sell jewel, in the jewelry shop hardly you will find one customer in a day, or two customer in a day. But in a beef shop or a meat shop you will find hundreds of . . . you see?

So as soon as a thing is valuable, the number of customer will be less. So don't consider the quality of the good by estimation of the number of customers. The customer may be very little, but you should try to understand what is the quality of the thing.

So in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement you will please try to understand what kind of things we are going to deliver. Don't try to understand that, "These people have no very many customers." The customers will be less, because we have so many restriction, so people do not like it. Everyone thinks, "Why I shall be restricted? I shall be free." But actually, he is not free. Just like the dog thinks that he is very free, but he is chained up.

Similarly, every one of us are chained up by the laws of material nature. We cannot go even a inch beyond the laws of material nature. You cannot eat more what you can digest. The law of nature immediately will try to inflict punishment upon you. This is practical experience. You have to eat as much as you require. If you eat more, then you get indigestion, and if you eat less, then you become weak. You have to eat exactly what you require. That is the law of nature. Similarly, these Kṛṣṇa consciousness boys and girls, they're being taught not to eat more, not to eat less; not to enjoy senses more, not to enjoy less. Similarly, the paramahaṁsa life is a regulated life.

So here, how the person of whose history is mentioned here became irregulated and how he was to be punished, this story is narrated. Kindly hear. He says:

kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid

dāsī-patiḥ ajāmilaḥ

nāmnā naṣṭa-sadācāraḥ

dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ

(SB 6.1.21)

Just try to understand. Here it is said that in a Kānyakubja city . . . there is a city, now it is called, by the British period, it is now known as Kanauj, a city in the northern India near Kanpur city. So that is very old city, because it is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, and Bhāgavata was written five thousand years ago. So it means that city is famous since five thousand years ago, and it was inhabited by learned brahmins.

So here it is said that kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid. Dvijaḥ, dvijaḥ means brahmins, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas. Especially it is meant the brahmins and the Vaiṣṇavas. Just like in this morning we had ceremony, initiation. The second ceremony will be for offering sacred thread. So one who has got this sacred thread, he is called dvijaḥ, twice-born. Twice-born: once born by the father and mother, and the next birth is given by the spiritual master and Vedic literature. Vedic literature is the mother, and the spiritual master is the father. As in every birth the necessity of father and mother is there, similarly, in this birth also, spiritual rebirth, there is necessity of mother and father. The mother is this Vedic knowledge, and the father is the spiritual master.

So there was a dvijaḥ. Dvijaḥ means he was born in the family of a brahmin. And he was sanctified also. From the life history of this man we understand that in his early age, when he was up to his youthful life, sixteen or seventeen or up to twenty years, he was very well behaved boy. He was under the care of his father and mother. And how by bad association he became a debauch, that is stated here.

It is stated that kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid āsīt dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ. Ajāmilaḥ: his name was Ajāmila, and he was a brahmin. But he contacted some woman which is called dāsī, or prostitute, and he remained with him . . . with her. Dāsī-patiḥ. In India also, still, the practice is that if anyone, any person, wants contact of more woman than his wife, then he cannot disturb in the society. He has to search out this dāsī, or some prostitute.

So from time . . . very long, long ago, even in Kṛṣṇa's time we find that there was a prostitute class. When Kṛṣṇa entered Dvārakā, these, some of the . . . they were still devotee. Although their profession was prostitute, prostitution, still, they were devotee. So we find from this narration of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that many devotee prostitutes also went to receive Lord Kṛṣṇa. So it does not matter even if one is prostitute, she cannot be devotee. She can be devotee also.

So this man, Ajāmila, contacted a prostitute. Dāsī-patiḥ ajāmilaḥ, nāmnā naṣṭa-sadācāraḥ dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ. And because . . . although he was born in a nice family, he contacted the association of a prostitute, his sadācāraḥ, his well-behaved life, became lost.

Well-behaved life . . . sadācāraḥ and durācāraḥ. Sadācāraḥ means those who are following the regulative principles, they are called sadācāraḥ. And those who are not following the regulative principles, they are called durācāraḥ. So here it is said that dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ. Being contaminated by the association of the prostitute, he lost his life of well behavior.

And what is that? How did he lose his well behavior? Bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś cauryair garhitāṁ vṛttim āsthitaḥ (SB 6.1.22). He accepted the profession of cheating, gambling. Bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś. Stealing, cauryaiḥ, and garhitāṁ vṛttim. Those are condemned profession. Now these condemned professions have become ordinary profession in the civilized society, but according to the Vedic civilization, these things are condemned things. Cheating or gambling, cheating and speaking lie, bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś. And stealing. These are condemned profession. But he adopted all these things because he was associated with a woman for illicit sex.

So illicit sex is so bad thing. This is the example. If we indulge in illicit sex life, then we won't care for all these abominable actions. That was the example by Ajāmila. We shall come to understand later on that he was married, but he left his legal wife, and he contacted a prostitute, and the association of this prostitute, he became a thief, a cheater, a gambler, a liar and so many nice things, simply for maintaining the family.

So we shall not take much of your time. This is a long story. We shall narrate again next week. Please come.

Thank you very much. (end)