760707 - Lecture CC Madhya 20.102 - Baltimore

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

760707CC-BALTIMORE - July 07, 1976 - 24.11 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (devotees repeat) (leads chanting)

'ke āmi', 'kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya'

ihā nāhi jāni-'kemane hita haya'

(CC Madhya 20.102)

(break) (01:18)

Prabhupāda: . . . like that, but there is no mistake. But the (laughs) technical. So it is finished? Kene? Finished? (laughter) There was one governor, a Mr. Carmichael. So in India, in British period, every officers had to learn the local language. We were student in the Scottish Church College. Our all professors were Europeans, but during their service they had to learn Bengali. So one governor, Mr. Carmichael, he was called for presiding over a meeting. So he wanted to speak in Bengali. So he said, dekhite dekhite kimbhasa kartiya gel. So the pronunciation is galo, but he said gel. So people were smiling. (laughter) The audience, they were smiling. So there are some technical. Just like we pronounce something, and not to the correct current pronunciation. So, but when we are reading Bengali, let us do it, as far as possible, as the Bengalis do. That's all. Otherwise there is no mistake. Finish? Go on.

Pradyumna: (reads word-for-word synonyms) Translation: "Who am I? Why do the threefold miseries always give me trouble? If I do not know this, how can I be benefited?"

Prabhupāda: So, jāre tāpa-traya.

'ke āmi', 'kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya'

ihā nāhi jāni-'kemane hita haya'

Ke āmi: "Who am I?" Now, suppose I am sitting here, you are all sitting here, some fly comes and disturbs. We have got daily experience. And he'll disturb. I want to get him out, and he comes again, stops on his mouth and creates some disturbance. A fly, a small fly, not a very big man. So, but after all, this is disturbance. I don't like it, but the fly will come and disturb me. So there is no question that "Why this fly is coming and giving me disturbance and I do not want it?" This is sane man's inquiry. But there is no inquiry. I do not want . . . there are three kinds, jāre tāpa-traya, three kinds of miserable condition. One is called adhyātmika, another is called adhidaivika, another is called ādhibhautika. Ādhyātmika means pertaining to the body and mind. All of a sudden my mind is not in order. Suppose a friend has come to talk with me, so I refuse to talk, I am not in mood. We have got this experience. "I cannot talk with you. Mind is not in order." This is happening daily, every moment. This is called adhyātmika. I did not want it, but it has come. All of a sudden I am feeling some headache. I did not want it, but it came. This is our practical experience.

So these kind of troubles I don't want. There are always, either adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika, that is you are suffering. In this material world means the suffering is going on. We are thinking we are very safe, running in the car. At any moment there may be accident. At any moment. I do not want it—my life may go. So this is sane man's life, that "So many things, I do not want them, but they are enforced upon me, and I do not know how to get out of it." The fly is coming, disturbing. I can simply make some spray to kill it, as you do generally. But that killing is another risk. But those who do not know, they kill it. Because you have no right to kill. Suppose a man is disturbing you. So if you kill, you become a murderer and you'll be taken into the court and you'll be punished, and if you say, "This man was disturbing me; therefore I have killed him," that is no excuse. You have killed this man; you must suffer. This is ordinarily we find in our general living condition. So in the state of the Supreme Lord, you cannot kill even a mosquito or even a fly. You'll be punished. Because God says that "Everyone is My child." Just the same example: Suppose I have got so many brothers. One brother is a fool, so he creates me some disturbances; I kill him. So will the father be happy? If you say, "Father, your this child was disturbing me. I have killed him," the father will be sorry, "Why you have killed him?" This is natural. Because one child of the father is a fool, the other intelligent child cannot kill him. Then the father will be angry or sorry.

So we do not know. We are doing irresponsibly. Therefore Sanātana Gosvāmī has gone to his spiritual master, he's asking this . . . this is also common, also very grave questions, that "In this material world, I do not want so many things, but they are enforced upon me. Why?" This is human life, to inquire why. Not to . . . the modern theory is struggle for existence. There are troubles, and you try to save yourself, and survival of the fittest. But nobody is fit, nobody survives. Nobody wants death, but . . . we are talking of survival; who can escape death? There is no possibility. So there are so many slogans, but actually there is no remedy. There is remedy, but we do not know. That is the defect of modern civilization. There is remedy. Otherwise, why we are talking this śāstra? Why Sanātana Gosvāmī is putting this question? Just to get the solution from the spiritual master. Otherwise there was no need of putting these questions, that "What is my position? Why these threefold miseries always give me trouble? Why I die? Why I become old? Why I become diseased? Why I have to take birth?" They are simply struggle for existence, that here is a child, and the child-bearing is very troublesome, and if I give birth to a child . . . the mother is killing. This is going on. But that means she is implicating herself again in another way of life. This is going on.

So this question, at the present moment, nobody asks this question. But this is very intelligent question. We are completely under the laws of nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham . . .

(BG 3.27)

We are not independent. Just like in the state, in your country, although you have observed the independence ceremony, but you are not independent. If you go . . . "Keep to the right," you go to the left, immediately your independence finished. You'll be punished. So this so-called independence is conditional. It is not absolute independence. If you want absolute independence then you have to go back home, back to Godhead. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are hankering after independence, but so long we remain in this material world, there is no question of independence. So intelligent man, when he inquires about, when he thinks over, that "I want independence from so many things, but I am not independent. I am forced to accept, then where is my independence?" When this question arises, then he is human being. Otherwise, he's as good as the cats and dogs. Because the cats and dogs, they cannot inquire. Just like an animal is being sent to the slaughterhouse, he cannot say, "Why I am . . . what I have done? Why you are sending me to the slaughterhouse?" He cannot protest. Even he protests, nobody hears him. Nobody hears. He protests by crying, by screaming, but we have made our own theories: "This crying is nothing. It has no soul. We can kill."

So in this way the whole world is going on under a gross atmosphere of ignorance. There are so many things to be discussed. Just like we do not know what is the problems of life, how life comes into existence. We see a child is born, but we do not know wherefrom the life came. The lump of matter of the child is not the child. If the child takes birth dead, without life, it has no value; it is a lump of matter. You throw it immediately. But if it has a life, then we take care of it, we raise it, give him food, give him breast milk, and so much care. The life is so important. But nobody cares to know what is this life, where it begins, wherefrom it comes, what is the destiny. No question. Similarly, if we . . . we are seeing every night so many planets. We are making tiny attempt to go to moon planet or some other planet, but there are . . . we see there are so many millions and trillions of planet. What about their situation? We have made our calculation from here that they are simply decoration; there is no life. No, there is life. There is life, but we do not know it. So yesterday our scientist, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara, was speaking that in the history of human society, actually these two things are ignorance: what is the beginning of life and what are these planetary systems.

So we are after knowledge, but so many things are unknown to us. Therefore Sanātana Gosvāmī is teaching us by his practical behavior to approach the spiritual master, and putting his case that "I am suffering in this way." He was minister; there was no question of suffering. He was very well situated. That he has already explained, that grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita, tāi satya kari māni (CC Madhya 20.100). "There are so many questions I cannot answer. There is no solution. Still, people say that I am very learned man—I accept it foolishly." Nobody is learned man unless he goes to the guru. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Therefore Vedic injunction is that if you want to be learned, then go to guru, bona fide guru, not the so-called guru.

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ

jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

(BG 4.34)

Guru means one who has seen the Absolute Truth. That is guru. Tattva-darśinaḥ. Tattva means the Absolute Truth, and darśinaḥ, one who has seen.

So this movement, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is for this purpose, to see the Absolute Truth, to understand the Absolute Truth, to know the problems of life and how to make a solution. These things are our subject matter. Our subject matter is not material things, that somehow or another you get a car and a good apartment and a good wife, then all your problems solved. No. That is not solution of problems. The real problem is how to stop your death. That is the real problem. But because it is very difficult subject matter, nobody touches it. "Oh, death—we shall peacefully die." But nobody peacefully dies. If I take a dagger and I say, "Now die peacefully," (laughter) the whole peaceful condition finished immediately. He will cry. So these are nonsense, if somebody says, "I will die peacefully." Nobody dies peacefully; that is not possible. Therefore death is a problem. Birth is also a problem. Nobody is peaceful while within the womb of the mother. It is packed-up, airtight condition, and then nowadays there is risk of being killed also. So there is no question of peacefulness, birth and death. And then old age. Just like I am old man, so many troubles I have got. So old age. And disease, everyone has got experience, even headache is sufficient to give you trouble. The real problem is this: birth, death, old age and disease. That is the statement given by Kṛṣṇa, that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If you are intelligent, you should take up these four problems of life as very dangerous.

So they have no knowledge; therefore they avoid these questions. But we take up these questions very seriously. That is the difference between other movement and Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Our movement is how to solve these problems. The śāstra says that if you cannot solve these problems for your children . . . that is real contraceptive method. Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum (SB 5.5.18). If you cannot protect your child from the imminent death and repetition of birth, then don't become a father, don't become a mother. This is śāstra's injunction. If you are actually father and mother, you should give him such educational knowledge that this is the last birth. Next he'll not have any such body subjected to birth and death. That is possible. That the Bhagavad-gītā says: tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if you simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then the whole problem solved. What is the problem solved? Tyaktvā deham, this body we have to give up. Because it is material body, you must have to give up. But those who are Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in the . . . after giving up this body, no more material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. Punar janma means next birth. If you accept a material body, then there is question of next birth. But if you remain in your spiritual body, there is no question of next birth. That is spiritual salvation, or liberation. If you remain in your spiritual body, then you go back to home, back to Godhead. Kṛṣṇa is complete spiritual body. The kingdom of God is also spiritual, and you go there, and you live there eternally. Tyaktvā deham. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāmaṁ paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Where going, you do not come back again to this material world, that is the supreme abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So this benediction is offered by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who has very kindly come here, Nitāi-Gaura. So you take advantage of His mercy. You are very fortunate that Nitāi-Gaura is here. If you simply chant Nitāi-Gaura and dance, then you'll become happy. There is no difficulty. There is no difficulty. And you are chanting, "Jaya Śacīnandana." This simple chanting, "Jaya Śacīnandana," "Hare Kṛṣṇa," this chanting and dancing, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtanair prayaiḥ yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32), this is not I am manufacturing. It is the injunction of the śāstra. In this age, simply by chanting and dancing, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtanair prayaiḥ, you get complete spiritual service.

So I am very glad you are taking care of Nitāi-Gaura so nicely, They are so nicely dressed. So continue these activities, and even if you cannot do anything, simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and dance and "Jaya Śacīnandana." That will make your life perfect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (end)