Srimad-Bhavatam 1.17.3
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Vrindavan · 2004
Chapters
Distress of cows in Kali-yuga
Read in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Chapter 17, Punishment and Reward of Kali, that's number three. धर्मो विग्रहवान्ऋषः शूद्रपादैस्त्वसत्तमः प्रतिचक्रमे श्लम्यमानं पदं पदे पदे Kaw.
The cow is dharma, or religion, beneficial because one can draw religion from her. Deenam now render poor.
dīnaḥ, now rendered poor, vṛṣam, distressed; śūdrā, the lower caste; parāhataṁ, beaten on the legs, divatsama, without any cause; aśru-vadana, with tears in her eyes; śām, very weak; yāvasam, grass; as if desiring to have some grass to eat.
Translation: By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her. She was now rendered poor and colourless. Her legs were being beaten by a śūdra. There were tears in her eyes and she was distressed and weak. She was hankering after some grass in the field.
The next symptom of the age of cali is the distressed condition of the cow. Milking the cow means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form. The great riches and munis would live only on milk.
Srila Sukhadeva Gaslami would go to a householder while he was milking a cow, and he would simply take a little quantity for his subsistence.
Even 50 years ago, even 50 years ago, no one would deprive a śūdra of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would give milk like water. For a sanātanīist, a follower of Vedic principles, it is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk, but also for deriving religious principles.
The sanātanīist worships cows on religious principles and respects brāhmaṇism. The cow's milk is required for the sacrificial fire, and by performing sacrifices, the householder can be happy.
The cow's calf not only is it beautiful to look at, but also gives satisfaction to the cow. And so she delivers as much milk as possible.
But in the Kali-yuga, the calves are separated from the cows as early as possible for purposes which may not be mentioned in these pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The cow stands with tears in her eyes.
The śūdra, milkman, draws milk from her artificially, and then there is no milk, and when there is no milk, the cow is sent to the slaughterhouse. These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society.
People do not know what they are doing in the name of economic development. The influence of Kali will keep them in the darkness of ignorance.
Despite all endeavors for peace and prosperity, they must try to see the cows and bulls happy in all respects. Foolish people do not know how one earns happiness by making the cows and bulls happy.
But it is a fact by the law of nature. Let us take it from the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and adopt the principles for the total happiness of humanity. Siva propa key.
Ram chatharma du gam dinam brisham sho drapa data ma su badana ksamamya wasama chatin Although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her, she was now rendered poor and coless.
Her legs were being beaten by a shooter.
Fallout of selecting unqualified leaders
There were tears in her eyes. She was hankering after some grass in the field. So in these verses, Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī explains the chain reaction.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses this in his purports that there is a chain reaction of the age of Kali which starts from electing low-class people in the position of leadership.
This is the beginning of the fall-down of the whole society. But everything else more or less follows after this thing.
We're living in this age of Kali, and in the age of Kali the leaders of the society are lowest men, lowest possible men.
And in fact the whole system is designed in such a way that the lowest possible man will be promoted to the highest possible position. The democratic society, the democracy means that only the
ambitious people who basically ambitious because they are not fit to be the leaders, are promoted to be the leaders. And this is the beginning of the fall-down and ultimately unhappiness of the whole society.
In this book, Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses that because of this, because of this unfortunate chain reaction of the events, everyone is unhappy. And nobody knows how to solve all these problems in the society.
Because everything starts from the qualities of the leaders. The qualities of the leaders is the guarantee for the happiness of the society if the qualities are good.
And vice versa, if the qualities are bad, everyone will be unhappy. It is said here that the śūdras become the leaders of the society. And śūdras means people, ambitious people, who always unsatisfied.
This is actually the definition, the śāstric definition of śūdra. Śūdra means one who laments. One who laments because he is dissatisfied, because he doesn't have satisfaction.
And uh because he's not satisfied he's hankering for more and more, and therefore grief develops, and therefore everything else develops from this low qualities of the leaders.
And then because of that, because the leaders are low class, then the dharma is neglected, dharma is ignored, or dharma is harassed.
As yesterday uh his following Jay Baitaswani was explaining how Dharma is totally ensembles in Kali Yuga. -> enmeshed in Kali Yuga.
Because the leaders don't take it as their mission to their heart that the main duty is to protect Dharma.
And moreover, even those people who are so called religious, even those people who claim to be religious in the age of Kali, they also lost of kind, they also have low qualities.
They' alsore Shudras basically. -> They're also śūdras basically.
Flaws in modern religious leaders
And the Shudras, how they can protect religion. -> And the śūdras, how can they protect religion? Like recently I was told a nice story about one of the religious leaders of the world.
He's the biggest religious, one of the biggest religious leaders and most respected religious leaders in the world is a Nobel Prize winner, his Holiness Dalai Lama. So the story goes like this.
One of the Iskondiologists was sitting in a business class on a plane and -> One of the ISKCON devotees was sitting in business class on a plane and lo and behold next to him was sitting his holiness Dalai Lama.
He was curious what is it all about he's a celebrity. He's the world-class celebrity. Everyone worships him. And he's the leader of Buddhist communities.
So he was next sitting next to him when the hostess came, and the hostess offered the choice, what would you like, wage or non-wedge, Dalai Lama -> offered the choice, what would you like, veg or non-veg, Dalai Lama without thinking twice at non-wedge. -> without thinking twice, ate non-veg. So this responding body, he was won't they? -> So this ISKCON devotee, he was wondering,
he He was really surprised. -> He was really surprised. So very humbly he asked, Your holiness, we know that the main message of Lord Buddha is a himself. -> Buddha is ahimsā. The Buddha came just for this message.
Basically he didn't give any elaborate religious principles to Paul, he didn't give -> Basically he didn't give any elaborate religious principles to follow, he didn't give very high understanding.
He said, just be non-violent, and this is the guarantee of your more or less progressive life.
So he said, how come Lord Buddha's message is to be non-violent? And here you are choosing to convey. -> And here you are choosing to eat non-veg?
So Dalai Lama, listen, it's very important to understand how Kali Yuga mentality works. Dalai Lama, he gave a very nice explanation to this fact. He said, I'm a monk, and because I'm a monk, I have to be humble. Correct?
Humility is the higher principles, right? And yesterday, uh very beautifully proving this point. You know, I have to be humble because I am humble. -> You know, I have to be humble. And humble means I'm not choosing.
Whatever is offered to me I take. So for mom is, you know, if you offer me, you take me. If you offer something else, you take something else. All the humility.
Because, you know, if you just rigidly follow the principles, you may become, as again judged by this one is said, you may become self-righteous. You say, you know, I'm this and then that.
You know, so we are humbly accepting everything else which is being offered. Nice explanation. Isn't it? You know, glorifying the quality of humility.
But then this devotee very aptly said, Your holiness, this is very correct. It's a very nice explanation. But can you ask one more question?
It's not that you were offered to meet, you were offered the choice. Rather you want wage or non-wage and you consciously have chosen non-wage. How come? Can you explain this?
You know it's one thing if you offered something and you reject something that may be considered not humble and even this is bogus ultimately but he said how come you
have chosen consciously you made this conscious choice and he became so distorted he just turned away he didn't speak the whole time because he didn't have any explanation
for this and this is how Kali Yuga mentality works you know the people uh they they don't follow basic principles and even though they don't follow basic principles, they have a high philosophical explanation why they don't follow basic principles.
Everyone, you know, who is promoting so-called religion in the age of Kali have the foundation for it.
Government duties and general dharma
And its foundation is basically focused. Like Prabhupada in the purport of this chapter, later on he will say that religion, and this is also the sign of Kali Yuga, the religion, the society is declared secular.
And Prabhupada says, yes, society may be secular, the government may be secular. But the government, it doesn't mean that the government should be indifferent to the basic principles of religion.
Yes, uh, the government can and even should be impartial, the government should should be not be partial to one particular religion because we know what happens if the government is partial to one religion.
But Prabhupada says that the general principles of religion, such as cleanliness, mercy, austerity, and truthfulness, the government cannot be impartial.
If the government is impartial to this principle, the whole society goes to heaven. The government has to protect these general principles of religion.
Whereas now we see that not only the government is totally useless, but even the religious leaders they are totally neglectful about these principles of religion, the mercifulness, truthfulness.
And this is again the sign of Kali. In each verse of this chapter, basically, the word Shudra is mentioned.
And śūdra, actually, Madhvācārya in his ṭīkā, in his Bhāṣya to Vedānta-sūtra, he gives the definition of śūdra, he gives another definition of śūdra. I know that literally śūdra means one who laments, but there is another definition of śūdra and Madhvācārya says, śūdra means dishonest. The basic quality of śūdra means dishonest. Is this dishonesty?
And we know, you know, we know that in Kali Yuga everyone is more or less śūdra. And it means everyone is dishonest. Especially here in India we can see very clearly. Mostly people are cheaters.
And because they are cheaters, because they have this quality, that that means, that betrays that they're cheaters, in fact. And because they're dishonest, this is basic quality of śūdra.
They're not allowed to study Vedas. This is also a very interesting point because in our democratic society people they
have a hard time to understand how it is that, you know, the śūdras here, you know, the sentiments for the downcast, downtrodden people
are being invoked, you know, and then it's said the Vedic society is bad. Because in Vedic society, śūdras are not even allowed to study Vedas. Right? Madhvācārya explained this point. He gives this explanation.
He said, because śūdras are dishonest, if they study Vedas, they will inevitably misinterpret the Vedas. And this is worse than if they don't know that.
Because of the misinterpretation, they will give so many false explanations of these holy scriptures and the whole society will go to hell.
So therefore śūdras forbidden they cannot study the Vedas because they will they will be cheaters. They will cheat people.
On the name of the Vedas, they will say. This is this is what Vedas says, but Vedas will not say this. So this is the state of religion in this age of Kali.
Failure to protect innocent creatures
And because of that, the next consequence of this, the next problem in the age of Kali is that cows and bulls and in fact innocent people, harmless people, harmless creatures in the society are not protected.
In the society the Dharma is protected. The first duty is to protect innocent people. The first duty of the ruler is to protect harmless and innocent creatures.
But in Kali Yuga, everyone is more or less you know unprotected. The harmless creatures like cows and bulls and children and women, they're not protected properly. And because of that, everyone suffers.
It is said in Mahābhārata. In Mahabharata, Bhīṣmadeva, while instructing King Yudhiṣṭhira, he gives a very nice explanation. He says there are three things in this world which are unbearable.
He says, the first one is the eyes of the muni. Because when the muni, when the sage looks at you, he sees through, he pierces you, pierces your heart with his eyes.
So he says the first thing is the eyes of the muni because he knows what is going on in your heart. He said the next thing is the eyes of the snake.
You know, when the snake looks at you, you know, the snake has so much envy inside it that's it's just unbearable. You cannot look you just turn away again.
So and the third thing which is unbearable he says it's eyes of the weak. If the weak person is unprotected and he's begging for mercy, he's standing in front of you with folded hands, and he's looking at you, and you're not giving him protection.
It is said, Bhīṣmadeva says, you are doomed. If the weak people in the society are not protected. The whole society he he goes on to explain that the whole society is doomed if the weak creatures are not protected.
And here we see in the modern society that the cows, the most innocent creatures in the society, you know, with the tears in their eyes, as it is described here, with the tears in their eyes, they're being mercilessly slaughtered. And that means that the society is doomed.
That means, as Prabhupada explains, according to the laws of nature, everyone will be unhappy. Because the innocent harmless creatures are not protected in this society.
And this all starts, this whole chain reaction starts from this one point, from the low qualities of the leader and low qualities in general of the people. It's actually very interesting.
You say Prabhupada was very strong about this point.
He would say that it's not the caste like here we say śūdra śūdra śūdra and some people with who are being politically correct, even in our society, they kind of avoid all these definitions, you know, śūdras and vaiśyas and brāhmaṇas because it means unequal. But people are not equal. And they're not equal because they have different qualities.
And the definition as it is explained in the by Nārada Muni in the seventh chapter, uh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam The definition of the caste is according to the quality. There is a very interesting story in this regard in Chandogya Upanishad.
And in fact, in Vedānta-sūtra, both Madhvācārya and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, they quote this story to prove that the position of the people and the society should be defined according to their qualities and the story goes by this.
King Janasruti and Raikva Muni
It's a very interesting story which is directly related to this topic.
In fact, we know that in the same Chāndogya Upaniṣad there is another famous story about Satyakāma, Jābāla Satyakāma who was accepted as a brāhmaṇa even though he was born as a śūdra, he was born from an unknown father. Because he was honest.
And honesty is the quality of brāhmaṇa. But there is another story in the same Chandogya Upanishad just before this Jabala Satyakama story which is quoted as I said by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and Madhvācārya.
And this is a story about Raikva Muni and, uh, Janaśruti, Mahārāja Janaśruti. It's also interesting because it, it shows, uh, how the degradation takes place.
The story goes like this: that this Mahārāja Janaśruti, he was a very pious king. He was a powerful kṣatriya. And not only he was powerful, he was very pious.
He was feeding people, he was feeding thousands and thousands of people, giving free meals. He was making universities.
Not only he was feeding people, he was arranging for free universities, free lodging, free education for everyone, you know, people were trained in better. And he acquired so much pious credit.
And because of this he was little puffed up. And everyone was praising him.
Everyone in the society, everyone was saying, you know, he's the greatest king, you know, he's giving free food because, you know, people don't need much, you feed them and they give them education and that's it, and he became—because everyone was praising him, he became puffed up.
So, two sages, they decided to—the sages, two sages, they spoke with each other and said, you know, this king, he seems he is doing the greatest welfare for the society, He's so puffed up.
And uh you know at the same time he misses the point. He misses the point of human life. He's doing all this charity and he's singing he's okay. You know like sometimes people think you know if I'm pious if I'm doing
a good work, I'm okay, don't touch me, you know, don't speak with me, I'm, I'm okay, you know, I'm, I'm a good man, so this, uh, Janaśruti, he was like this. And these two sages, they decided to save him.
And it took the shape of swans. Swans. And Janaśruti—it was a hot summer and there was no fence at that time. So he was sleeping on the roof of his palace. And there was a nice sky there.
And these two sages they were flying over him. And when they came to this place where Janaśruti was sleeping, but he was not sleeping, he was just about to sleep. He was in his bed. And he looked and he saw the swans.
And he heard the man's swan is talking to another swan. And they spoke in there. In Sanskrit, of course. As it is common. So the man's one told to another swan, "Do you see this king?" This king is so pious.
And he started praising the king. This king is so pious. That you better watch out. If you fly over him, he will burn you by his glory. So you better somehow or other. And actually he was joking.
Actually that was some humorous connotation in this statement because the meaning which actually this sage wanted to convey to another swan was you know, if you fly over him and don't praise him, he will put you in prison because he is used to be praised by everyone. So he said, don't fly over him, otherwise he will be burned by his fame. You know, he's so famous that he cannot tolerate that somebody will not glorify him.
So that's the hidden meaning of the statement and uh and then uh the other swan he's uh answering for this and he says, "This king, he doesn't have a drop of pious traits." And the first one was a little amazed.
They were playing roles, of course. They knew what they were going to say. So this the first one said, "How come? See how much pious activities he's doing? And how come you say that he doesn't have any pious traits?"
And the first the second swan said, "Because, you know, when you play dice, right when you play dice then whoever wins, whoever gets the highest numbers, then the credit of everyone goes to him."
He says, "And in his kingdom, he thinks he is the most pious, but in his kingdom, there is a muni, right, Raikva is his name, and he's not doing anything directly, he's just sleeping under the cart.
But because he knows brahma-jñāna, spiritual knowledge, he gets all the pious traits from the king and from everyone else. And he just lies under the cart and he gets the pious credits without doing anything."
So that's what the other swan said. Swan said. So and this Raikva, this Jānaśruti Mahārāja, he heard about this and he became he became hurt. He became offended. And he became actually remorseful.
He was so kind of, you know, he was hurt. He said, "I'm doing this and this is all in vain.
And one rishi is sleeping under the cart and he's just taking all my pious credits." He was kind of, you know, he says, "It's not just." So he wanted to see this strike for Rishi. And he he got up early.
He couldn't sleep the whole night. He was in such agony. His heart was burning. So he called his attendant and he said, you go and find where is Raikvarishi, you go everywhere. Ask everyone, and find this right position.
Bring him to me. And his attendant went and he said and he looked here and there. He couldn't find. And he came and he said, I looked among the citizens of our state. There is no right relationship. Nobody is there.
And the king said, no. You go and find this right where you see. And unless you find him, don't come back. Otherwise I will choke your head.
So this man he decided he was getting serious, you know. We better not joke with this man. So he started looking everywhere. Before that he was looking only in the uh you know nice palaces and houses.
Here he went somewhere far away near the forest and he saw a cart. And under the cart there was some rising.
And this rising was kind of you know and when he saw this man coming to him, he started scratching his body. Like this. He was scratching and scratching.
So this attendant of the king, he He looked at this right where issues and he didn't recognize that he's a great moon. He looked strange, he looked dirty, you know, he's lying under the car, he's like, you know, little sleepy, he's yawning, and he's scratching his body.
So he said, why he thought for himself, why he's scratching his body? The answer which he came, probably he wants money, because this is what all sādhu want, right? want, right?
This is the definition of sādhu, one who wants money. You go to any holy place and there's plenty of sādhu who are begging money there.
Because he had this materialistic mentality, he interpreted everything according to his level of understanding.
So he came back to this king and he said, oh I found this right where he's lying under the car and he's scratching his body. He means he wants money. And he's not going to come to you because he's too lazy.
Better you go to him. So the king he took some money and he took some something and he came and his heart is burning. And he's, you know, he's came to this.
And with folded hands he put all these riches in front of this triple money and said, O sage, could you please me give me Brahma jñāna? The sage looked at him and said, you śūdra, go away and take your riches with you.
I'm not going to be bribed by all this riches. Just run away. He yelled at him. And uh the king was shocked.
First of all, he was shocked because he said, you śūdra. No, this is, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, see why the kṣatriya, the pious kṣatriya was called śūdra, because king and because this man he immediately saw his lamenting. And because he's lamenting, he's a śūdra, he came with this burning heart and the muni said, go away, don't stand in front of me, don't contaminate my eyes.
And because of that, the king became little respectful. Like we also know, if we go to a holy place and some somebody is asking us money, then we are not giving to them. We don't really have any respect to them.
But if somebody rejecting money, you know, we try to give some money, somebody rejects the money, we immediately get respect towards him, right? He's rejected. So the king, he developed some kind of faith in him.
And he decided, and another actually another explanation or another interpretation of this, because he was lamenting, immediately the sage could understand he's attached.
And because he's attached, he's not worthy of getting spiritual knowledge. Because if you are attached and you're getting spiritual knowledge, you will misuse the spiritual knowledge. This is the problem.
And he said, śūdra, get out of here. And then the king he went back and he took everything which he had. He took all his riches, all his treasury. Because he said, I have to give something to him.
And this time he didn't want to bribe. This time he wanted to give everything which he had just to get spiritual knowledge. And he came to this and he took his daughter.
And he took his daughter with him and he said, My dear sir, I came again and I brought you all my riches. And I brought even my daughter. Please can you get married with your and the sage said, okay.
was pleased because he saw the transformation of the heart. He saw that this attachment, he was so attached to his riches and to everything, to his position, to fame and glory.
He came to him very humbly with folded hands. He asked him, please give you give me spiritual knowledge because this is the highest. When this understanding is awakened in the heart, then only you can stop being a śūdra.
Otherwise if you are attached, and if you are attached to all this material, you know, trifles. Petty material things, you know, you're still remaining in the position of a śūdra.
So when the when this Raikva Muni saw that the king, the transformation took place in the king. He said, okay, I will get married with your daughter.
But of course there is another interpretation of this statement that the daughter was
not really daughter, that it was ātma-jā, that if even though in uh in uh Chāndogya Upaniṣad it said duhitri, duhitri means daughter, uh somebody says that it's the daughter which he which is born by Ātma, by the soul, which means śraddhā, faith.
So and the second time he came to the sage with faith and approached him with faith. And because he approached him properly, because he saw that there is a proper preparation which took place in his heart.
Cultivating good qualities through bhakti
Then the sage started imparting the spiritual knowledge to this king.
And this is actually the solution for all the problems, as Prabhupāda says here, that the problems of the society are coming from the bad qualities. That the unhappiness of the society is coming from the bad qualities of the leaders and bad qualities of the people.
And the only solution for all the problems which Prabhupada wants to offer,
and he says on the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we have to take this: that the solution of all the problems in the society and the key to happiness in the society is to develop good qualities and this is the only lesson
of all these stories that even though the Kali-yuga is so bad, by this process of bhakti-yoga, by this chanting process of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, man can change the heart.
And the purification of the heart, that's another prerequisite of the changing of the heart. Like this king, Jānaśruti, his heart was changed only because he had this moment of association with the pure devotee, with
with this great ṛṣi. And the great ṛṣi, he just he abused him then. He used abusive words, he said you're śūdra, you're low-class. But this was the mercy of this great devotee.
And the transformation of the heart took place. And therefore he was able to get the spiritual knowledge only after the changing of the quality.
And actually, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he says a very interesting thing. He says that you can judge whether you offensively chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or offenselessly according to the qualities which you develop.
Jīva Gosvāmī lists five qualities, five bad qualities which you develop if you offensively change the man. And I will not go into detail because it's another subject matter.
But Bhaktivinoda says that as soon as you start offenselessly changing Hare Krishna mantra, then the five essential qualities appear in your heart. And he says the first quality is simplicity.
And simplicity saralata or ārjavam. Simplicity means he specifically says saralata. Specific uh simplicity means honesty too. Honesty means, you know, you're not cheater.
You know the first quality which develops, which should develop from the chanting of Hare Krishna mantra is this brāhmaṇical quality of honesty. You have to be simple.
You have to become very, very simple and not, you know, not crooked in your mentality and the second quality he says is dṛḍha-tā. Dṛḍha-tā means determination, if you chant offensively then you lose determination in your heart.
And vice versa, that offenseless chanting gives you a lot of enthusiasm for determination to go on with the process. To go on with the process of devotional service.
This is the strength which you are getting from this process itself. And the second quality is ekāntatā, and ekāntatā means ekānta. Anta means goal, eka means one goal. It means one-pointedness.
Ekāntatā also means that you have implicit faith in the Supreme Lord. This is the third quality which develops that you know that there is no other goal in this world.
That everyone else is all other balls which maybe there are bowls. So this is the third quality which has to appear in the heart of the offenseless chant. And then he said the fourth quality is uncompromising nature.
You develop this quality of not you are not going to compromise. Like we know that again this cheating mentality manifests as the way of compromise, you know.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that the fourth quality is that you are like also sometimes, you know, in our preaching, when we see some people, there is a tendency or there is a temptation to give some compromising advice. Because sometimes people take it better.
And in this age of political correctness, you know, even sadhus, they sometimes become little compromising.
Of course the best example of this uncompromising nature is Jayādvaita Swami is famous for being straightforward, for saying something which is unpleasant to everyone and saying it straight in their face.
But anyway, this is, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, this is a very essential quality which uh which should appear in the heart of somebody who is uh chanting offenselessly.
And then he says the crown quality of this offenseless chanting of offenseless chanting of the crown quality which actually makes everyone makes the person happy, which brings the highest happiness.
He says it's humility, but he gives a very profound and interesting definition of humility. He says that humility means you don't expect anything from anyone.
And this is this is the this is the greatest achievement in human life. You don't expect anything. And just imagine for one second the state of mind when you don't expect, but you are not expecting anything from anyone.
If you are in the stage, in the state of mind, you will be totally, completely happy. Because you're not expecting anything.
You're unhappry because your expectation always false proof, you know, you expect this and that, this honor and this benefit and this and that and nobody gives you and you're unhappy, you're always bitter.
So the humility means the real humility. Because sometimes, you know, the Buddhists they have strange understanding what humility means.
They think that humility means if you're somewhere in a corner and you're, you know, you're you're sitting like this and you're making some, you know, strange face, and this is this is what humility means.
I'm very humble, you know. You're always with folded hands.
But the real humility in the heart, it doesn't mean anything of this, anything external, the real humility of the heart, how it manifests is that you don't expect anything. This is humility.
And it means that uh you're not offended by anyone, you're not bitter about anything, you're not you know uh There is no problem with you because you're not expecting anything. This is what humility is.
And this should appear in the heart. If we are chanting this Hare Krishna mantra properly. And if this appear in the heart, everyone will be happy. And this is the key for happiness.
This is the how the subtle nature, subtle laws of nature works. And this is how we can counter up this bad influence of the age of Kali just
by chanting the holy name in the society of the bhaktas and trying to develop the real qualities, not just you know remaining śūdras as we all are, but developing developing real qualities of a civilized human being.
Questions on chanting and humility
And the only key for this and the only solution for this is to try to chant the holy name with all sincerity, in the heart. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And try to associate with the bhaktas. Thank you very much.
What is the book of Bhakti Nathanpura just referred to? It's a it's an article, the question is what is the book of Bhakti Nathanpura referred to?
It's an article in Sajana Tash Koshani and the article is called Bhakti Pratya Paratha. What you have to do to find Tarat Apparatas. It's an article which Bhakti Vinata could publish in Sajana Prosh. Yes.
You still do that if one challenge is very Krishna. Without offenses, you get, suppose, good qualities. And if it changes with offenses, you get, suppose, bad qualities.
However, was also said that if you keep chanting the topics, we might eventually come to our business, chanting. So the question is, what's the chanting point?
The turning point, that's a very good question, thank you very much. As far as I could understand, the turning point is that you're chanting with offenses and it's inevitable.
In the beginning we can achieve offenselessly, but at the same time you're trying to get rid of offenses. And uh while and you're you're using uh or exploring all different methods of how to get rid of offenses.
It's not that you're chanting offensively and you're satisfied with it. I'm okay, you know, I'm chanting, don't touch me. So this is the wrong attitude.
If we are if we develop this neglectful attitude towards chanting, then uh Rupa, this is the worst offense. And then Jiva Goswami explains, then the five qualities of bad qualities develop in your heart. You lose faith.
The first actually it very closely corresponds to this list of good qualities. Because the first quality which Jiva Goswami lists is the crookedness. He says you become kuṭila, means you become crooked in your mind.
Whereas the first quality of aparādha-śūnya-chanting is you become simple. You become very straightforward. And so on and so forth.
Then faithlessness, you lose faith in God, then you become neglectful uh towards your sādhana. So the turning point is that uh you you chant offensively but at the same time you are not uh complacent about it.
You're trying to get rid of the offenses by uh associating with devotees by you know trying to be as attentive as possible and then uh you're not going to this course to this course of downfall which is described in Bhakti-sandarbha by Jiva Goswami, that's fine, but they're going upwards. So that's all I could understand.
Śrīla Prabhupāda talks about divisions of society. And he speaks about śūdras being asked about their masters, being supplied, foods, clothes, shelter, and being very happy in their position and serving their masters and uh yet you spoke about should you have been disturbed and dishonored would you please elaborate on that scene See there are
śūdras and there are śūdras. By nature śūdras are dishonest. That's what Madhvācārya says. There is no honesty in them. But still there are proper codes of conduct.
And the only codification which is also listed by Nārada Muni in the in the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Or śūdras is that even though they're dishonest by nature, they should try to be honest and loyal.
So like Dharma-śāstras, like Manu-smṛti and other Dharma-śāstras they enumerate Dharma or the duties of every caste or every varṇa. So the only duty of śūdra is to be loyal. And duty is uh is something which you have to force yourself a little bit to do, right? It's not that uh it doesn't mean that necessarily you do it you know automatically. Otherwise there would not there is there is no need to list it as the duty, right?
So in Dharma-śāstras there is a very elaborate list of the duties of brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas and much uh less qualifications for vaiśyas and for śūdras it is said you they should try to be loyal.
It means that they should try to overcome this basic quality of their nature which is there. Then they become real śūdras.
If they are not doing this, then they are a-tad-ācāra, then lower than śūdra. They they they they they become beyond the the framework of varṇa.
He's asking for what I meant when I said not expect anything from others. It's simple. Because we have this fruitful mentality. The fruitive mentality means that we always expect something in return, right?
We do something and we expect, we expect all of we expect. Or like sometimes we preach. This is also very much relevant to the preachers.
We preach and we expect that people will appreciate what we say to them, you know, because we are the saviors, they are giving them the path of salvation and they have to really worship us for this.
Not expect anything means this simple quality of not expecting anything. It means that you're doing, but you're not expecting any return for you.
And this is very difficult because everyone is programmed to expect returns, you know you because this is the mentality of this world. How is that possible? I will not get anything in return? This is not possible.
Why should I do that? If I'm not getting anything in return. So but humility, real humility means a manina manadana mani means you know you you do what is your duty.
And that's the basic teaching of Krishna, of course, as well. Humility means you do, but you don't expect. You don't expect. You don't expect anything from you. Not the subtle return, not the gross return, nothing.
You just do because because you're supposed to give. And this is actually the the the basic quality of civilized human beings.
You have to give without expecting the return, without expecting any interest for this, otherwise, otherwise it's not correct. She's asking but what about mercy? You should expect some mercy. Should expect some mercy.
This is the only exception we should expect mercy. But we have to know the way how to get mercy. The way to get mercy is not to expect anything, including mercy.
So, and if you don't expect the mercy, it will come. You don't have to expect it. The more selfless you are, the more straight way to get mercy is there to be, uh, can
you expect love from sādhu? sādhu already has love for everyone. And it's only the way to sādhu means compassionate. sādhu means somebody whose heart is overflowed by love.
And if you approach him properly, you will get it. You should want it, but you should also know how to how to deal with it, how to get it. Because sometimes sādhu may be harsh, because sādhu means one who cuts.
But this is also his mercy because surgeon also cuts. But this is his mercy. So you have to be ready to accept love not in the form which you want.
The problem of people sometimes is that they accept love how they understand love. And you know, sadhu is supposed to smile and all the time. No.
sādhu means sādhu and you have to know that he already has the love in your heart.
Like yesterday with mātājī, she was explaining about her encounter with Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, and she had the doubts that if Śrīla Prabhupāda loves me or not.
And like Śrīdhara Mahārāja forced her to repeat three times in a loud voice, you know, Prabhupāda loves me. So this is this is the understanding which we have to have. That sādhu means he loves me.
How he loves me, that that may be different. You know, that we may not understand immediately because it may take different forms and shapes. But we have to know that he loves me.
And if we approach him properly, we will be able to feel it and to understand it. I think I should finish now. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya.