Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.19.20
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Kanpur · 2024
Chapters
Recitation of invocatory prayers
Omna Mo Bhavavateva Sudevaya, Omna no Bhavavateva Sudevaya. Omnam Bhagavateva Sudevaya, Sudeva,
Narayanamas Kritya sritya, naram cheva narotamarotam, devim saraswatiasam, devim saraswatiam, Tado dja mu dira, nashta praya shva Badrishu, nitam Bhagava ta sevaya, Bhagavatam, Bhakti Bhavati na stiki, stiki, Yamprajanta Manu Peta Mapeta Kritiem Dwaipaya no virahaka putreiti tanmayatayota rabobi ne dustam sarva buda kridayam mu nima tos mebikna.
So we are reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Mahāpurāṇa. 10th Canto, chapter 19, King Yayāti achieves liberation text number twenty Drisham
Shutam Asat Budva Nam anudya, na sandishet, samsritim, chaatmanachamana, Cha Tatra Vidvan, Saha Atma. Dristam sutama sadbuddva, dristam shtama sattva, dristam sutama sadhva, sham sutama sattva
Nanudhy Nasandishet, Nanudhya Nasandish, Nodhy Nasandishet, Samsritim Chatmanachamcha, Samstriam Chatmanach, Sam Sritim Catmanachamcha, Samstritam Chmach, Tatravan sat madrid, Tatravan Sattman, Satt Madrid.
Dristam Srutam Asadbudvad, sutamasadva, nanuddya na sandishe, nudya nash, sam sritim chatmanachamch, Tatravidvan Sadam Dreh, Travidvan Samu. Dristam. The material enjoyment we experience in our present life. Srutam.
Material enjoyment as promised to the fruit of workers for future happiness. Either in this life or in the next. In the heavenly planets and so on.
Asad, all temporary and bad. Buddh knowing na not anudhyayat one should even think of one should even think of na Na nor Sandishet should actually enjoy some sritim prolongation of material existence and Atmanasham Forgetfulness of one's own constitutional position.
Purport on temporary happiness and self-realization
Cha as well as Tatra in such a subject matter with one one who is completely aware saha such a person at madrik as self-realized soul.
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. svami praupadaki.
One who knows that material happiness, whether good or bad, in this life or in the next, on this planet or on the heavenly planets, is temporary and useless. And that an intelligent person should not try to enjoy or even think of such things is the knower of the self.
Such a self-realized person knows quite well that material happiness is the very cause of continued material existence and forgetfulness of one's own constitutional position. The living entity is a spiritual soul and the material body is his engagement. This is the beginning of spiritual understanding.
Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṃ yauvanaṃ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati. praptir dhirastatrana mukhyati. As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death.
The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. The real mission of human life is to get free from engagement in the material body.
Therefore, Krishna descends to teach the conditioned soul about spiritual realization and how to become free from material bondage.
Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata. The words dharmasya glāniḥ mean pollution of one's existence.
Our existence is now polluted and it must be purified. Satvam should yet the human life is meant for this purification, not for thinking of happiness in terms of the external body, which is the cause of material bondage.
Therefore, in this verse, Maharaja Yayati Advises that whatever material happiness we see and whatever is promised for enjoyment is all merely flickering and temporary,
Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna. Even if one is promoted to Brahma Loka, if one is not freed from material bondage, one must return to this planet earth and continue in the miserable condition of material existence.
Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate. One should always keep this understanding in mind so as not to be allured by any kind of sense enjoyment in this life or in the next.
One who is fully aware of this truth is self-realized, Saat Madrik. But aside from him, everyone suffers in the cycle of birth and death, Mrityu Samsaravartmani.
This understanding is one of true intelligence and anything contrary to this is but a cause of unhappiness.
Krishna Bhakta Nishka Matha Vashanta. Only a Krishna conscious person who knows the aim and the object of life is peaceful. All others, whether karmis, jnis or yogis, are restless and cannot enjoy real peace.
Srila Prabhupada ki chay. Dristam srutam masad bhutva nanudyain na Sandishet Samstritim chatmanasam cha tatravidvan sa atma drik.
One who knows that material happiness, whether good or bad, in this life or in the next, on this planet or in the heavenly planets, is temporary and useless.
And that an intelligent person should not try to enjoy even or even think of such things.
He is the knower of the self, such a self realized person knows quite well that material happiness is the very cause of continued material existence and forgetfulness of one's own constitutional
position Nam Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prastaya Bhutale Srimate Bhaktividanta Swami Nitinami Namaste Sarasvati Devi Gurawani Prachari, Nirvissa, Sunyavad, Paschatya Deshatari, Manchakau Pataru Beschripa sind dubevacha Pattitanam Pavaneby
Vaishnavy Namonamaha Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunityananda Sri Advaita Gadadaraas sivadi gora bhakta vrinda Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare
Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare.
Lessons from the life of King Yayati
Ajanu Lambita Bujoka Nagavadatu Sankirtanaikapitaroka Malay Taksa Vishwam Brad Vija Ruyuga Dharma Palu Vand Jagat Priya Karoka Runavataru Yuntah Pradisha Mamavacham Prasupta, Sandji vaya, ta ki la shakti darah, swadam na jaam, šcha sta, charna shravan, t-gardi, Prananam, Bhagavad, pure tobiem. Swasia stu Vishva sia lahprasida damjayantubhutani sivam mitodiya, manascha badramba ja ta doksa ja vesatam no matira to ki.
Hare Krishna.
I am very grateful and honored to be with you this morning and uh I am especially very grateful for giving me the opportunity to speak on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Mahāpurāṇa and on this particular beautiful verse from the ninth canto.
This verse is spoken by Maharaja Yayati and this story - very well-known story of Srimad Bhagavatam. The main lesson of this story is to teach us healthy spirit of vairāgya.
Maharaja Yayati had an opportunity to enjoy life to the fullest extent. And still at the end he was totally, utterly frustrated. None of us have the same opportunity to enjoy life to the fullest extent. None of us is king.
None of us has the facility to live for thousands of years. None of us have such beautiful wives as he had. He had two of them. And you know, all the facilities of enjoyment were under his command.
He could enjoy to the fullest extent and still at the end he said it was all useless. Of course he had this advantage to experience so-called material enjoyment to the fullest extent, and he knew the truths.
We don't have this advantage. And therefore, we still may have some little hope that maybe I will become happy by getting all the opportunities for material enjoyment. But he is teaching us to forget about this hope.
It's hopeless. The main point of this story is that this life is hopeless. That the attempts of enjoying the material life are futile from beginning to end.
Misconceptions of material happiness
It's just futile. Vedic culture is a very ingenious gift of Krishna to the human beings because Vedic culture does provide an opportunity for material enjoyment.
If you live a pious life of a pious member of Vedic culture, you will get the opportunity of material enjoyment.
You will get nice wife, nice children, you will get all whatever is required for you to feel happy, and then at the end you will feel frustration.
Kali Yuga is a very difficult time because now nobody follows Vedic culture and therefore nobody has good wife and nobody has good children.
And because of this everyone is frustrated before he gets the experience of happiness and therefore everyone has this crazy idea that maybe if I go to America I will become happy. Especially in India, people have this illusion, you know, if if somehow or other I make it to America, because America is something like Svarga, uh, Bhumi Svarga, the heavenly planets on this earth, then I will become happy.
No, nobody is happy in America. Believe me, I was there. I witnessed 50% of American population attack anti-depressant drugs, not because they are happy, because they are totally depressed by the way of life.
And of course in India everyone is depressed too. So there is no exception to this rule. And we have to be very clear about this sobering fact of life. That material life is not meant for happiness.
Sometimes people who are not familiar with Vedic culture or with Vedic philosophy. With the philosophy of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, with the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā,
sometimes even people who believe in God they develop some doubts about God's existence by absorbing so much suffering in the world.
They say, you know, how is that possible that God has created this world uh with so much sufferings. And observing these sufferings, they become an atheist. Actually this is the single most important reason for
people to become atheist, uh, when they see and experience the suffering and then they say, no no, uh merciful God could not create such a miserable place.
Little do they know that this place is the place of suffering not by mistake but by design.
Sometimes people they try to explain it out that God is good but He's little I mean not very skillful let's put it gently, uh little senile, you know, little dementia he has because he lives too long. And therefore he created this world not in a very perfect way.
Krishna has created this world in a completely perfect way. Because the idea, the design of this world is to make us frustrated in the hopes of material happiness outside of God.
You know, this is the place of enjoyment, of independent enjoyment. This is the place is specifically meant for those people who are under illusion that they can become happy independently on God.
Those souls who are rebellious against Krishna and who want to become happy independently on him.
The illusion of independence from God
And indeed the independence is viewed as the main condition for happiness. In this world, people think that only if I am independent I can be happy. If I can do whatever I like, I will be happy.
This is the greatest illusion which is there in this material world that people think that if I'm independent, and independent basically means that I can do whatever I like, then I'm happy. It's it's such a stupid mistake.
You know, people are fighting for independence. You know, they are always declaring independence.
Now, you know, India declared independence, now Jammu Kashmir wants to declare independence, or you know, this is this is the story of this material world, everyone is trying to declare independence. Independence of what?
Can we become independent? There's no way for us to become independent. Independent means, you know, I don't depend on anything. It means, you know, I don't depend on the air. Can you become independent of breathing?
Can you become independent of water, on food, or whatever? You know, we're dependent. We are by design, we are by nature dependent. There is only one who is independent.
He is Swarat. You know, he's Svarāja, he's svarat, he is independent. Everyone else is not svarat. We are totally dependent.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda has his beautiful essay or lecture, which is called Declaring, Declaration of Dependence. Everyone else is declaring the independence.
You know, there is this beautiful or famous declaration of independence, which has become the foundational document of American state. Declaration of Independence. And Śrīla Prabhupāda said, no.
Let's declare our dependence on it. Let's be very clear about this. Let's declare it openly and loudly. We are dependent on God.
Because unless we have this clear understanding of our dependence on God, we will be under the illusion that we can become happy independently on God. And this illusion will be the cause of suffering.
Because this is illusion, an illusion by definition is the cause of suffering. And therefore, as I said, Krishna created this perfect world which is perfect because of its imperfections.
It's perfectly created by the Lord with all its imperfections to give us the chance to enjoy, to give us the facilities to enjoy, to give us all the varieties of enjoyment and to ultimately get us frustrated in this enjoyment and try to find something different.
You know, this idea of trying to find something different is very much prominent in this world because people are always looking for some different ways of enjoying.
They enjoy the facilities which are available to them and then after some time they think let's try something different.
And if we really understand the nature of whatever is available here, then we will really try to try something different, and that is not try to enjoy this world, but try to serve the Lord by declaring our dependence on Him.
To give up, to relinquish this completely ultimately foolish idea that we're independent, that we can become independently happy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this very beautifully in the introduction to Bhagavad-gītā, where he says that everyone Gita, where he says that everyone
is trying to enjoy independently on the Lord, but uh and we do deserve enjoyment. By nature, we need the enjoyment. The enjoyment is not bad. Independent enjoyment is bad. Enjoyment is good.
We are meant to be happy, but we are meant to be happy together with the Lord in cooperation with him.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this point that if you try to operate this world independently then you will become inevitably frustrated.
But if you become the co-operator of the world or of the enjoyment, if you partake the enjoyments of the Lord available in the spiritual world, then you will be truly truly happy.
Analyzing temporary material enjoyment
And here Maharaja Yayati is explaining very beautifully, let's examine this verse, how he explains this idea. He says, Dristam srutam asad budva.
Buddva means having understood this, Budva means it's from the Sanskrit root bud, which means being awakened to this idea. Because people are only enjoying this world in semi-uncons conditions.
If they're semi-sleeping, you know, everyone who come to Krishna consciousness I think has this experience that my previous life was like a dream.
I was living uh in semi sleepy condition. I was doing something, doing this, doing that, but I I was not really awakened to the truth of this life, to the truth of the reality in which we are living.
And therefore he says, Drisham srutam asadbuddva. He said there are two kinds of enjoyment in this material world. One kind of enjoyment in this material world is drisham, which you experienced already yourself.
Like we were traveling now in this beautiful city of Kampur, and there was an advert advertisement: you know, buy one pizza and get the other one for free.
So if you got all the free pizzas in the world and experienced it, it's called dristam. Dristam basically means you have seen it, you experienced it yourself. And if you understand, this is the one kind of enjoyment.
Another kind of enjoyment is shrutam.
The enjoyment which you heard of, you have not experienced it, but you have heard about it either from the scriptures as it was the custom in the previous age or in this age you heard about this from you know fiction from all kinds of novels or from Bollywood movies.
You know, because it's it's the way of uh experience some happiness which you have not experienced yourself, but uh supposedly somebody else experienced it.
And therefore Bollywood movies, they explaining this kind of, you know, there is this this kind of happiness and this kind of of course I never I never watch Bollywood movies, so I don't know what they're explaining, but I believe that they are telling that there is some sort of happiness.
So he says these two kinds of happiness are there. Some happiness which you already know by your own experience, and another kind of happiness which you didn't experience yourself, but supposedly it's there.
And there is some hearsay, yes. This is the happiness which some other people experience this. And he said, Dristam srutam asadbuddva. When you awake to the fact that this is all asad.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda beautifully translates this word asat as temporary and useless. Not only temporary, but useless as well. Because asad means useless.
Whatever is asad, whatever is not permanent, whatever is uh flickering. Whatever is temporary and flickering, it's useless because now it's here, it's there, it's it's right here available and the next moment is not there.
It's like you are trying to catch something and there's something which is you you almost caught it and then uh uh you feel like you caught it and then it's not there.
And you get frustrated, but you still think maybe if I catch it, then I will become happy. But the point is that no matter how you try to catch it, it's asat. By the definition, it's a sat. It's temporary, so you will never be able to really catch it.
Therefore, in the Western culture there is this there is this myth about the blue bird of happiness. In the West, the happiness is called blue bird. And it's a very special blue bird.
Because you know, here in India you can see the real bluebirds, you know, big cocks are walking around kingfisher is catching the food. So you can see the real blue birds. But in the West there is no real blue birds.
When you say to somebody in the West that there is a blue bird, he will say you're just making it up. You're just trying to uh fool me.
So they say that happiness is like the bluebird, and this bluebird has a very peculiar uh feature. You're chasing after this bluebird, you're trying to catch this bluebird, you almost catch it and you feel, yeah, it's there, it's there, it's there, and the next moment it's not there. It flew away from your embrace.
So the happiness is like this, the material happiness is like this by its very nature because it's asat.
Stopping material desires at the root
So when you awake to this understanding, when you really realize this understanding, Dṛṣṭaṁ śrutaṁ asad buddhvā, then what will come to you, then you will forbid yourself even to think about the happiness.
This is exactly what Yayāti Mahārāja is saying there: na nudyat na sandishet. You even forbid yourself to contemplate on the idea that I may become happy. Because you know, you're already awake.
You have to know better. You know better. Because this is the problem, people, this is where the problem starts, the beginning of the problem, when we start contemplating on the objects of so-called happiness.
So, sober person, the person who knows the truth, he stops himself when this idea of uh maybe I will become happy this way or that way. You know, he uh nips uh this idea at the very beginning when it's it never developed.
Usually what happens with people uh they fantasize about the happiness and they create this big dream. They create, you know, yeah, I will be unhappy, I have I will have a big house and big wife.
I don't know if big wife is good or not, but and I will have nice, very obedient children who will never become Hare Krishna devotees. Krishna devotees.
And they will do whatever I like, and uh and I I will achieve this position and that position and they create this grandiose dream,
grandiose fantasy in their mind just by going from this little tiny idea in the beginning, let me be happy in this material world. And then they leave to fulfill this dream.
And of course they will fulfill the dream, you know.
They will you know they will get some two rooms apartment somewhere in Kanpur, not a big house, yeah, big wife, Fatty, few rebellious children and some some work by IT engineers, some office or whatever,
and uh little car. But they will waste their time. So Maharaja Yayati said, please, if you understand that
this is wrong idea from the beginning, if from the very beginning you understand that this is just a dream, this is just an illusion. Ultimately you will become frustrated.
You will become diseased, you will become old, you will become senile, and you know you will be abandoned by your relatives. So whatever will happen with you, nothing good will happen with you.
If you clearly understand this, Maharaja says don't allow yourself to think about it. Naudya yet, na anudya yet, naud I don't really know this word. Yeah, Nasandishet Sandisha. Don't try to experience it.
What to speak about experience it? Don't even allow to contemplate about this. Don't even allow to dream about these things.
Breaking free from the cycle of samsara
Why? Because of very important reason, because by dreaming, by experiencing, by developing these desires, by nourishing these desires, by reinforcing these desires, you will continue with saṁsṛti.
And the very word saṁsṛti which is used here, from which saṁsāra is there is very important. Samsṛti, it comes from the root sar which means to go. And sam saṁsāra saṁsṛti is something which completely goes away.
Something which is totally temporary and moving.
Samsara is something which is not permanent. Saṁsāra is something which you will never be able to acquire permanent condition, it will always revolve. You will always be in a flux.
Saṁsāra basically means this word, saṁsāra means something which is in a constant flux, which is never stable.
And Prabhupāda explains this: that to be in a very unstable situation, you will never become happy because of the nature of this place. It's unstable. Something is constantly changing. How can you become happy?
You know, the government is changing, the weather is changing, your situation is changing, your health is changing, your body is changing, everything is changing.
And by uh nourishing these desires, you continue with saṁsāra. Śrīla Prabhupāda also very beautifully explained it in many many places in his lectures. He said that people are dying. They are on the deathbed.
They're totally, completely hopeless, but still they have hope.
And Prabhupada said that usually when the people are dying, they say, my dear doctor, please give me two more weeks, two more months, one more year, two more years, three more years to fulfill my desires.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that when you die with this idea that my desire was not fulfilled, you will get the next chance to fulfill your desire, no problem.
So it's very important to die, at least by the moment of death, to be free from desires because in this way you can go back to Krishna. But if you have desires, Krishna will give you a chance. No problem.
You want to fulfill this desire, next life, you will fulfill this desire, and you will understand that by fulfilling this desire you didn't become happy. You didn't come close to your goal to become happy.
Even though your desire is fulfilled. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this. He said that I had a friend who was dying and he was begging the doctor, please give me two more weeks. Two more weeks. You know, what's the use?
No problem, not two more weeks, next life. And the next after that.
But why? It's ultimately completely useless and futile. You're dying, and as a result of it, the result of this samsara, what is the result of this samsara? Ātmanāśaṁ, he says, Ātmanāśaṁ means you forget your real nature.
You never really approach, you, you, you never really come close to the understanding who you are. You are in this constant flux, and because it's constantly moving, you don't have time.
Uh you're trying to orient yourself in this situation, in this moving, changing situation, and you never have time to understand who you are, what you really need.
You're always trying to catch this illusion, this, this movie. You know the movie is called movie because it's it's it's movie. Because it's moving. And uh what is it?
We know this is the the series of different static uh images which are constantly moving and it's moving and the movie of your life is constantly moving, and you're moving, and you don't know the end of this movie.
Of course, you know, if you're a little sober, you know the end of this movie. You will die. I remember when we started preaching in Russia, one governmental official came to us and he started preaching to us.
He said, You're nice boys, you're nice guys, but I will give you some idea how to make yourself very successful.
You have to make the predictions about the future, because people are very much into the predictions about the future.
When you meet somebody, you have to develop the skill of making predictions and then they will become your followers. And I said to him, you know, we always make predictions.
When we meet somebody, we always make predictions. And this prediction is always correct. And he became very surprised, and you know, he expected something.
I said, when we meet people we say you will die and this is a very correct prediction hundred percent correct. People don't want to be reminded about this because they live in this movie. Uh in this movie of their life.
But they are the main hero. This is the, and of course they have the uh nāyaka they are nāyakas and they have nāyikās and uh they are living this movie which is useless.
And he says, therefore, he says this: saṁsṛtiṁ ātmanāśaṁ ca that if you understand that, that by doing this you kill your soul. This very heavy Sanskrit word, Ātmanāśaṁ, you destroy your soul.
It, the soul of course, is not destroyable. You cannot destroy the soul. The soul cannot be killed.
But the idea behind this when Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says Ātma or ātmanāṁ, the idea is that you destroy your soul because you destroy your chances to understand that you are eternal soul.
By being immersed into this samsara, into this moving condition of material life, you will never be able to understand who you really are and what your real need is.
And therefore, Atmanasham, you kill your soul and you will never be able to realize who you are.
And therefore you can only become ātmādṛk. You can only become the seer of the soul, to see the soul, to really experience that your spirit soul, which is eternal, which is not supposed to be afraid of death only if you are frustrated with this material dream, material dream of happiness in this world.
Yes, we have to live the world the life, we have to be responsible, we have to do whatever we have to do. But at the same time, we have to understand the nature of the life which we live.
And that's very important because Because before understanding this nature, if you don't understand the nature of the life, you're doomed to waste your life.
You're doomed to completely waste your time in chasing this chasing these fantasies and dreams which you have.
And therefore, Prabhupada says that the beginning of spiritual life is to understand that the nature of the soul,
which is constant in the material body, is to experience the changes of the material body and ultimately to go into another body, into another body, into another body.
Prabhupāda says that's the beginning of spiritual, that's the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. That's the third verse of Bhagavad-gītā, right? When Krishna starts his teaching to Arjuna, this is the verse number three.
He starts in the eleventh verse. So this is the third verse from the very beginning, Dehina Smin Yathadehe Kumaram Yavanam Jaratatradehandara Prabtir Adirastatranamukyati.
Krishna says, oh Arjuna, you are adhīra. And Śrīla Prabhupāda translates this word dhīra as a sober person.
So basically Krishna is looking at Arjuna and looking at all of us and says, You're a little drunk. You're not sober.
When people become drunk, they live in the completely illusory world. They don't know who you are, who they are, what they need. They just feel this illusion of chemical happiness created by alcohol or by some drugs.
So he says that if you're sober you understand this simple thing. It's very simple. We all know it already. We all know that the soul never died. We all know this.
Purifying polluted consciousness
But uh Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, and there he explains very beautifully. I don't know if you notice this. He gives a m uh amazing translation of dharmasya glāniḥ.
He translates dharmasya glāniḥ as the pollution of our nature.
He says, by coming in contact with matter, the soul which is pure spirit, by trying to exploit the matter, by trying to engage himself with the matter, completely experiencing the matter, we in the meantime pollute our nature.
Usually he translates, Śrīla Prabhupāda translates dharmasya glāniḥ as a decline of religion. But he also translates and explains that the word dharma means nature.
And dharmasya glāniḥ means you developed nature which is polluted. Polluted nature is being developed and we are developing this polluted nature by 100%, 108% convinced that we are body.
The consciousness which is pure, which has nothing to do with matter, by coming in close contact due to this to this idea that I will be happy in this material world.
Due to this idea the consciousness becomes totally polluted and we are experiencing this pollution of the consciousness through the journey in life and we will never become really free from this polluted consciousness.
And therefore Prabhupāda emphasized this point. What is the meaning of life? Yes, we have to do our duty. We are professional man, family man, no problem.
This is not my class, not about brahmacārīs and not about living the responsibilities.
Class is about the meaning of life, which Prabhupāda explains, and the meaning of life is the life is meant not for enjoyment. Life is meant to become frustrated with the attempts to become enjoyer in this world.
And it's meant to purify the consciousness. That's the idea which Maharaja Yayati explains to us. The meaning of life, the essence of life, the goal of life is to purify the existence.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I don't know if you noticed it, he quotes the verse from Ṛṣabhadeva.
It's interesting because we're here in this city of Kanpur, and Maharaja Yayati's kingdom is close by, and Maharaja Rishabhadev was teaching his sons also close by.
Teachings of Lord Rishabhadeva
Today, we went to this place where Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva was giving his sermon to his hundred sons. And his very first verse in his
teachings to his son is about this he says that uh how is it uh Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ loke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujaṁ ye tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam.
So in this word somebody who has deha, uh, he is not supposed to exploit this deha for the purpose of material enjoyment. Because material enjoyment is available to the dogs, it's available to the hawks,
it's available to viḍ-bhuj, whoever whoever in fact human body is useless when it comes to material enjoyment. You know what you can enjoy, you can enjoy very limited. Human body is not meant for enjoyment.
The enjoyment of the hog is much better. The body of the hog is much better adjusted for material enjoyment. For us to enjoy, we need so much complicated condition to be fulfilled.
We can only be enjoyed if the weather is nice, if the air conditioning is there, if it's not too cold, if it's not too hot. The hog enjoys any weather. When it's cold it enjoys.
When it's hot it enjoys because the you know the mud is there and he can always be there. We we cannot, you know, if we try to enjoy the similar way we will be totally miserable.
We can go to the mud and you know and try to experience what hog is experiencing. No, but his body is meant for enjoyment. Our body is not meant for enjoyment. Just look into the mirror and understand.
You're not meant to enjoy the same way as the hog is enjoying or the dog is enjoying.
Sometimes we become so frustrated with our attempts to achieve self-realization that we think, you know, I I I I have to admit this is my confession in front of all of you pure devotees at first I was so frustrated with my life and with my spiritual life as well.
I was looking at the dogs and I was thinking maybe it's better to become a dog. Because they're so carefree. They're sleeping during the day and they're sleeping during the night.
We can hardly sleep during the night and the dogs they're sleeping the whole day and the whole night and they're totally happy. They're always happy.
And we are unfortunate brahmacārīs, we have to work hard or whatever we are. So, but anyway,
uh, Ṛṣabhadeva, he's saying that uh that uh this is not this is not something which is dignified people would do. It's not what you're supposed to do. You're not supposed to enjoy like the dogs.
Sattvaṁ śudhyati. Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes this word Sattvaṁ śudhyati, and śudhyati means this is the order that Ṛṣabhadeva is ordering us what we should do, sattvaṁ śudhyati. The meaning of life is to purify our sattva.
Sattva means existence, but sattva also means the mind. Sattvaṁ śudhyati means the meaning of life is we should purify our existence and we should purify our mind by chanting Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. And by listening, uh, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So that's the meaning of life.
Finding peace through spiritual realization
And when we become purified, then we become peaceful. When we live in this illusion of material happiness, we are always in anxiety. But when we become purified, we become peaceful.
And uh, Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā, uh, aśāntasya kutah sukham: how is it possible to become happy without peace? If you want happiness, you should first obtain peace.
But how is it possible to obtain peace in completely changing the world? The only way to obtain peace in this changing world is to understand that I am not changing. The hell is with the world.
Let it go to hell where it is supposed to go and where it is happily goes. I'm spirit soul. I'm not changing. And when you understand that I'm not changing, then you get the chance to become peaceful.
Because the soul is by nature peaceful. And when you are peaceful, you become happy. And being happy, you happily you will happily live in this world and you will happily die. And this is the most rare gift in this world.
Not only to live happily. Some people live relatively happy life full of anxieties and dreams. But nobody dies happily.
Only devotee can die happily. Because they already realize that I'm not the part of this changing world. And I don't want to continue.
I don't want to continue with this useless material existence. I want to finish this saṁsāra. There is no point of prolonging agony in this world. There is no point of prolonging the sufferings in this world.
And for that, we have to understand the nature of material enjoyment. I actually wanted to tell something completely different, but anyway, I was carried away by this verse.
I wanted to speak about the beautiful sutra from Yoga Sutra, where Patanjali Muni is explaining four reasons why the material so-called material enjoyment are actually suffering.
He says Pariṇāma, Tāpa, Saṁskāra, and Guṇa-vṛtti-virodha. He gives the four reasons why the material enjoyment will never be able to be in the enjoyment, will never be able to make you happy.
The only way to become happy is to become frustrated and understanding that by the nature, by the very nature of material enjoyment is the cause of suffering.
And of course Krishna says the same, yeah he says some sparsajabhogabdukayana evate atyantavanta kontaya nate rama. But anyway, next time when I I'll come to Kanpur I will explain this verse. Now it's I'm already too late.
Thank you very much.
Questions on material enjoyment and impressions
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Huh? Okay, if somebody has a question. That's okay. Uh very wonderful class.
Uh in this I have one question Maharaj means uh yeah Raji Maharaj is getting a realization after many many years that uh how much enjoyment is frustrating.
But initially, he also asked for the ungate of his own son because he was not satisfied till that time. He wanted to enjoy more. And then in our case, we find that if we give... But it increases the hankering.
So for him, was it time factor which led to the liberation? Because then we will never get that liberation. It's the arrangement of the Lord. He wanted to show this example. He wanted to give us the glaring example.
Look at somebody who was enjoying for so long, having all the facilities for enjoyment.
So it was uh I think he himself became frustrated much sooner, but he had to go through the whole ordeal because the Lord wanted him to show the example. That's the only reason.
We are getting frustrated much much faster. Of course, Kali Yuga helps to frustrate our hopes. And actually, this is the correct translation of the word dukkha.
Sometimes, oftentimes, we translate, uh habitually translate the word dukkha as suffering. But suffering is associated, the English word suffering is associated with the notion of pain. Suffering means experiencing pain.
But dukkha doesn't mean necessarily suffering. Dukkha means frustration.
And what this sutra, actually, this sutra is about this, how uh we are getting very quickly frustrated with the attempts to material enjoyment by getting the material enjoyment and understanding that there is these four causes which uh deprives the material enjoyment of the nature of real happiness giver substances so to speak.
So that's what it is. Dukkha means frustration. Dukkha actually means it's it's interesting. We traveled for a long time here. And when you travel on the bumpy road, it's very frustrating.
When you travel on a smooth road it's it's a good travel.
So dukkha actually means it's coming from this old age when they had these bullock carts. And in the bullock carts, if the axle is good, then and the rod is of course good, then the ride is smooth. But when the axle is bad, then the ride is always bumpy.
So dukkha means bumpy bumpy ride. When you are on this bumpy ride. And basically dukkha means uh that our journey in this material world is always bumpy. It's never smooth. It's never becoming smooth.
So that's the idea of dukkha. Thanks for the wonderful example. You say human body is not made for enjoyment. But it is all so many things for human enjoyment.
So many, as we are, and so many fans and a camera, etc. And I have so many electronic gadgets for our enjoyment, mobile phones, TV, etc., whatever, whatever.
But I think when Krishna concept after in Krishna concept I left this electronic gadget because I am not used for Krishna concept after preaching so what I think See yeah the people they always that's the whole idea, especially of Western civilization.
Vedic civilization was not like this, but Western civilization they always try to make the life comfortable.
And they all this modern uh invention, fans and then AC and then YouTube and uh iPhone and uh uh i, this and i that, uh iCloud uh and IMAC and uh i what uh so the all this series of i, this is very self-centered understanding of life.
But the point is that yes, no matter how many iPhones you have, you will never be happy. You may have many iPhones or the latest iPhone. The latest iPhone I heard is this is a little advertisement for the Apple company.
So to create the desire in your mind to get the latest iPhone. The latest iPhone has the artificial intelligence uh built in and it it has many amazing new functions.
So try for it and understand that ultimately it will never bring you happiness because of the nature of this material enjoyment. It's temporary. It is said in Upaniṣads, very important statement in Upaniṣads.
If you give up the eternal things and try to chase the temporary things, that you will lose both.
You will lose eternal because you already gave it up and you will up never — wait, let me just fix the typo: You will lose eternal because you already gave it up and you will never obtain it, and you will lose temporary because it's temporary and you're destined to lose it.
So you're a loser.
If you're giving up the hope for eternal and trying to chase the temporally, you you will be left with nothing. But if you're trying to get eternal even if you don't get it, still you will come closer and then you will you will feel much more happy and much more fulfilled if you go this direction, but not that direction.
Although we are practicing and we know these uh things cannot make us happy and it's temporary, but still the saṁskāras.
Yeah, therefore it is said we have to really clearly understand what is the cause for us to continue saṁsāra, the cause for us to continue saṁskāra is the impressions which are there, saṁskāras which are there of the previous happiness. And therefore the happy saṁskāras are much worse than the painful saṁskāras. The saṁskāras which of so called happiness in this world they are much more pernicious because they force us to continue with this futile
hopes. Therefore we have to understand very clearly the nature of this how saṁskāra shows us the image of so-called enjoyment, gives us the from the memory gives us image of material enjoyment.
But, uh, sooner we understand that this is, uh, all my illusion, futile, the better it will become for us. Therefore, we have to understand very clearly the nature of saṁskāras.
Therefore, I said that this pariṇāma tāpa saṁskāra guṇa vṛtti virodha. This is the four reasons why we will never become happy. Even if we get some happy experience, it will leave
saṁskāra and saṁskāra will demand to relive this experience. And we will become the slave of this saṁskāra, like people who take drugs. They they take heavy drugs and they experience some happy moment
and then they have to work hard to get another drug, another drug, and they become more and more frustrated and will never become happy.
So saṁskāra, the happy saṁskāras is one of the very important reason why we should avoid proliferating these saṁskāras. Making more of this so-called happy saṁskāras because it will only prolong our agony in this material world according to Maharaja Yayati.
So we have to understand this very very clearly. Like people, they have this photo albums in their family.
And in these albums they are supposed to keep the happy moments, then all the happy saṁskāras of their life. Sometimes they look, oh yeah, right, I was happy like this, I was happy like this.
Actually they were not happy like this. They were just artificially smiling for the photo.
There's nothing special there, just, let's make hope, you know, let's make the happy face, you know, say cheese, you they cannot even, uh, make the smile, they have to say cheese, you know, to make the smile, but the saṁskāra is there and they they think you know maybe I was happy at that time and let me try to do the same.
Anyway, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Premanandé!