Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.27.2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Ireland · 2022
Chapters
Value of Srimad-Bhagavatam teachings
Hare Krishna. I am very happy to be with all of you tonight. Feel very awkward. Because I don't know many of you, but obviously you know me, so we are not in an equal position.
And it's always very difficult to speak in a new place where you don't really know people who don't know them very well to say something relevant. But because we are speaking from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it's always relevant.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is an eternal scripture which speaks about the highest truths in the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said vedyam vastamatravam tapot rayon mulanam that this scripture atra in this śrīmad bhāgavatam vedyam vastavam atravastu vastavam vastu can be known we can understand not just Vastu, not just some things which exist, but Vastuva Vastu. The most important truth about reality can be understood.
And when we know this truth, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it brings about auspiciousness in our life. It makes us happy. Tapotrayon mulanam and it frees us from uh threefold miseries of material life.
So any endeavor which we apply to understand the message of Srimad Bhagavatam is ultimately very beneficial for all of us. So let's try to do it. And what I wanted to read today and tomorrow we have three lectures here.
I wanted to come to the verse, very unique verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is repeated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam five times. There is no other verse in the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which is repeated that many times.
There are verses which are repeated two times, several verses, maybe something repeated three times, but five times only this one verse and
uh the section from which I read uh in this section this verse appears for the first time in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And because it's repeated three five times, obviously Śukadeva Gosvāmī wants to drive point home. He wants us to really understand the point which He is making in this verse.
So, this verse is first. Appears in the 27th chapter of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, verse number four, then two times it appears in the fourth canto, and then twice it appears in the eleventh.
So hopefully by tomorrow we will come to this point and try to understand what is so important about this verse and how we can apply this verse practically in our life and how by understanding this verse very clearly we will be able to really make changes in our life.
Recitation of Srimad-Bhagavatam verse
So that's the plan for today and tomorrow.
So I will start with the second verse of the twenty seventh chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is entitled Understanding Bhagavatam, of the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, which is entitled Understanding the Material Nature.
So let's chant Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,
bhagavate vāsudevāya, Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamam, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, bhagavaty uttama-śloke
bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. Yṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ dvaipāyano viraha-kātara ājuhāva, putreti tan-mayatayoritaro 'bhineḍus taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim nato 'smi. So
please repeat this verse. Saiṣā hy eva prakṛter guṇair abhi-vi-sajyate, ahaṅkṛti-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate.
Sah — that very living entity. Eṣaḥ — this. Yarhi — when. Prakṛteḥ — of material nature. Guṇeṣu — in the modes. Abhi-vi-sajyate — is absorbed. Ahaṅkṛti — by false ego. Vimūḍha — bewildered. Ātmā — the individual soul. Mudhatma, Hankrity Mudhatma, Kartasmitabi manyate, Somebody
else. Anyway. Sah that very living entity. Eshaha this Yarhi Yarhi Wend Prakritehe of Material Nature Guneshu in the modes Abhisa Jate Abhivisa Jate Abhivisa Jate is absorbed Hankrity by false ego.
Vimudha. Bewildered. Atma. The individual soul. Karta Karta the Dur Asmi I am It das Abhimanyate Abhimanyate he thinks. Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda ki jad.
When the soul is under the spell of material nature and false ego. Identifying his body as the self, he becomes absorbed in material activities and by the influence of false ego, he thinks that he is the proprietor of everything.
Actually the conditioned soul is forced to act under the pressure of the modes of material nature. The living entity has no independence.
When he is under the direction of the supreme personality of Godhead, he is free, but when under the impression that he is satisfying his senses, he engages in sense gratificatory activities.
He is actually under the spell of material nature. In Bhagavad-gītā it is said, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. One acts according to the particular modes of nature. He has acquired. Gun refers to the qualities of nature.
He is under the qualities of nature, but he falsely thinks that he is the proprietor This false sense of proprietorship
can be avoided simply by engaging oneself in devotional service under the direction of the Supreme Lord or his bona fide representative.
Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā was trying to accept for himself the responsibility for killing his grandfather and teacher in the fight, but he became freed from that proprietorship of action when he acted under the direction of Krishna.
He fought, but he was actually freed from the reactions of fighting, although in the beginning, when he was non-violent, unwilling to fight, the entire responsibility was upon him.
That is the difference between liberation and conditioning. A conditioned soul may be very good and act in the mode of goodness, but still he is conditioned under the spell of material nature.
A devotee, however, acts completely under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Thus, his actions may not appear to be of a very high quality to the common man, but the devotee has no responsibility.
Can congratulate you, you have no responsibilities. Anyway. Seshayarhi Prakrite Gunesh abhivi sadjate ahankritya vi mudhatma kartasmit abhimanyate.
When the soul is under the spell of material nature and false ego, identifying his body as the self, he becomes absorbed in material activities.
And by the influence of false ego, he thinks that he is the proprietor of everything. Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-swāmin iti nāmine Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe jaikāraṁ kṛpā-sindhu-bāchār-pati-ānām-pāvane vāṁśī-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvane vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupā Nityānanda Śrī Advaita
Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare
Process of liberation from matter
pravišni, Mamma Vachimam Prasuptam, Sandjivata Kila Shakvi Darah Swadamna, Anjam Shahasta Charana Shravanat Vagadim, Pranandam Bhagavatam, Purusha YouTube, Swash Vishwasi Palah Pracyda tam, dyandu butani s me to diabadramba chatada dokscha, no mati radia tuki, Hare Krishna.
So Kapiladev in this particular chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam will explain the process of liberation of the soul from the spell of material nature.
And we know that so many different religions, so many different disciplines, invented many different methods just for this particular purpose, how to get free from the entanglement in this material world.
This salvation is a big thing. And sooner or later people they become sick and tired of this material world.
Initially, in the beginning, we're all very enthusiastic, we think that we will become the conqueror of this material world, we will make it, we will become successful, we will become very happy.
You know, a few years later, the same enthusiastic young man who was hoping to conquer over the material energy becomes little less enthusiastic. Then he becomes uh uh IT engineer somewhere in America and
gradually gradually becomes more and more frustrated with life. And then she starts thinking: you know, what this life is all about.
What do I need to understand about this life and how to deal with all these endless problems of material existence?
And yes, there are some material solutions to the problems of material existence, but all these material solutions they are just giving a little hint how to get little relief from the sufferings.
There is no material means or solutions which can solve the problem of birth, death, old age and disease. You know the only material solution for old age is to give you the wheelchair. That's the material solution.
Not a very lucrative prospect. Otherwise body gets old and ultimately body dies and you know now of course they think that they will you know take your information and create some artificial intelligence of yours.
But it's ridiculous, you know. Your soul will be in hell and your artificial intelligence will be working in some computer. It will not solve the problem.
These most fundamental problems of the existence cannot be solved by material means. And therefore, any serious person has
to think what what is the solution for these most fundamental problems which I have, which I have to face. I'm here in this matter, and there is something wrong in this combination between me, the spirit, and the matter.
I, the spirit, uh consciousness, uh I want to live forever. I want to know, I want to love, I want to enjoy.
But because of this incompatible combination between the spirit and matter, I have to undergo this miserable and very uh humbling process of birth, death, old age and disease.
All the time, again and again and again, again and again and again.
So therefore Kapiladeva in this third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and particularly in this chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He is teaching us very interesting process of how to be free from this condition of material life.
And this process is very much different than the processes which are adopted in other religious or spiritual traditions if we take for example Christianity which is a very you know time-tested spiritual tradition. Very, you know, very deep with a lot of spiritual experience accumulated over the years.
But we see how much endeavors really if you really want solution if you really want to get free from this karma, from the sins, you know the you can see how much endeavors you have to apply to get to the stage.
You have to go somewhere, you know,. You have to be in a monastery. You have to restrain yourself live very strict and very austere life. Perform så mycket så er det som this, you know, and you have to
really, you know, do something very drastic. Because the idea, please listen very carefully because there is a very important underlying idea or the basis for this sort of processes.
That spirit is something which is diametrically opposed to the matter. Therefore, if you want to free your spirit from the clutches of matter, you have to reject matter completely.
And because you are in such a grip of matter, you know, because the material nature is uh you know really tightly keeps you in this bondage you really have to do something very dramatic to get free.
You always have to hate this material nature. Material nature is bad. It's something which is which was created because we have this original
sin and because of this original sin ultimately we have to somehow or other to To to do something very dramatic to get free från the klats of material nature.
Distinct nature of the soul
But here in this chapter, Kapila Dev starts in the first verse. He says that actually soul is not connected with matter at all. He starts from this very uh very nice statement. Very reliving statement.
He says that uh yeah, prakriti purusha. Even though Purusha, the soul, the little spark of consciousness, is situated in the matter. Prakritista Api. Na ajate ma prakritair gunaihi.
Actually he is not really bound with all this gunas of material nature.
He is avikarat because he is not changed, he is not undergoing any change, akartritvam, he is not doing anything, Nirgunatvat, because he is completely free from the gunas of material nature. Jala Arkavat.
As much as the sun is not connected with the water, even though we sometimes see that the sun is reflected in the water.
We see the reflection of the sun in the water, and we see that you know I don't know if you see reflection of the sun here probably not so often.
But when there is a sun on the sky and it is reflected in the water, you can see the reflection of the sun in the water, but in reality, sun is sun, water is water. It's just an illusion that the sun is connected with the water and it's illusion that the sun is changed when the wind blows there is the reflection of the sun also seems to be changed.
But in reality we know sun is sun. Sun is not affected by the condition of the water. The wind may blow as much as he likes. Sun remains the sun. So from the very beginning, Kapiladev gives a completely different idea.
He says it's not that the matter is uh that that the matter is tightly uh holding us in its grip. In reality we are not connected with matter. There is no connection whatsoever. And here it is said, what is the problem?
The problem, ahaṅkārād vimūḍhātmā. The only problem is that we think that we are connected with the matter. We have this idea and we are bound not by the matter. We are binding ourselves by this idea that I am this matter.
Why? Because I am guṇeṣu sajate,
because I am very much attached to these guṇas of material nature. I have no connection with them, but uh through some mental procedures, through some you know some ideas, some meditation on the modes of material nature, I got attached to them.
And because of this attachment, uh I am uh I think that karta asmi, it abhimanyate. I think that I am the doer.
So Kapiludev says that actually there is no so much point of trying to liberate yourself from matter by this artificial minimum. That this artificial means that ultimately not very effective.
What we should understand, we should understand very simple thing that I'm not really connected with this matter so much. It's only my reflection in the matter.
Like just a few days before I was in one city and one young girl approached me and she was in a very bad state of mind.
She was very morose and she started telling me very frankly her uh story and she said that uh as a child I was molested not once many many times and uh she said how can I get free from this thing?
Because uh it just it's so heavy. I'm always I'm living with this uh with this consciousness
and I feel myself that I'm so contaminated, that I'm so dirty. That m you know, will I be able sh her question was basically will I be will I ever be able to free myself from this dirt which is there in the soul?
So the answer is yes of course, because there is no dirt on the soul. So, ātmā has no connection with this dirt. The dirt is there. But the substratum of the dirt, uh where the dirt is, is on our subtle body.
It's like this, you know, when we are in front of the mirror. And the mirror is very dirty.
You know, sometimes we know then the flies they sometimes they they like to sit in the mirror and uh leave some you know byproducts of their existence you know
And if the mirror for a long time was there and there was a lot of you know flies who sat down on this mirror. And we come to the mirror and we look at this mirror and we see that there is all dirt all over our face.
But actually there is no dirt all over our face. The dirt is in the mirror, right? So if you clean the mirror, you come to the same mirror and you look and you see, oh, I am very clean, I am nice, I'm fine.
You know, you are as you are. Nothing changed with you.
You're not changeable, but because we are so closely and intimately connected with this mirror of our uh subtle body, and because we are identifying through this process of a bias, we are identifying or superimposition, we are identifying us with this subtle body, we undergo all these immeasurable problems of contamination, guilt and all these things.
And it's there. The dirt is there. But uh where? Not in the soul. The soul is free.
Illusion of the false ego
And the only problem is this uh is this identification and uh therefore we have to understand how this identification process is taking place, how it really happens that the spirit soul, which originally has nothing to do uh with this matter uh gets attached through which process uh it gets attached to this material body and therefore undergoes so much suffering.
So here a very beautiful hint Śrīla Prabhupāda is giving. Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining this.
He says that basically: ahaṅkārā-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. Kṛṣṇa explained the same idea in Bhagavad-gītā in the third chapter of Bhagavad-gītā and the verse number 27. Kṛṣṇa says that the spirit, the actually, all the activities whatever is happening uh is being done by the modes of material nature.
We have this amazing mechanism. Amazing mechanism which actually has some sort of independence.
There is a lot of experiments which scientists do now trying to prove that there is no soul as the source of consciousness independent of the matter.
It's a big science, uh neuroscience, uh and very elaborate experiments which they do. Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja. They
say all these people, religious people, they say there is soul in the body, that the soul is the source of consciousness. And therefore they say that ultimately you have the free will.
And therefore they say that ultimately you should use this free will to do something good to people and this and that. You know, but they say it's all it's all completely rubbish and useless.
It's just an impression which you have that you have free will. And how do they prove it? Listen very carefully. It's a very interesting experiment and you have to know how to disprove it or how to defeat this argument.
They start measuring your brain functions and some physiological functions, and they suggest to you Some soul is really suffering in the material body. It's a warning for all of us. Not to be born again.
It's not a very good condition.
So uh uh They say, you know, they give you two buttons and they say you can you're free completely. You're free citizen of free of a free country. You can push either this button or that button.
You know, this is the choice which you have. So you make the decision. The decision is yours. You can push this button or that button. It's just you know when you make this, you know.
Anyway, and uh and you you do this, you know, pushing the buttons, making this choice or sometimes they do it in in other settings but in any case what they're trying to fix they're trying to fix that uh you know the moment when you uh think that you're making free choice.
And then they're showing that already before you consciously think that you're making choice yourself, free choice. There is some physiological changes within your brain which indicate that you will do this choice.
So they say that the real process, what is happening in reality that something is going on in your brain, some matter is reacting, is acting somehow or other, and then it prompts you, it pushes you to make a choice, you make this choice and you think that you made this choice.
But actually, this is the matter which made this choice for you, you're just an illusion that you made this choice. And actually that's right because Kṛṣṇa said the same thing in Bhagavad-gītā. Gītā.
Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. You know, if we only take this particular verse, that this particular verse exactly describes this experiment of the scientist.
There's nothing Krishna says, yes, there is a mechanism. This body is a mechanism.
Everything is being done by the mechanism and you are foolish, stupid, bewildered spirit soul sitting in this mechanism and thinking, you know, I am doing this. But actually, this is the mechanism which is doing.
There's nothing new in in uh their finding uh the problem is that it's not all because if it was only like this if it yes.
And that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining here, that uh when we are under spell that I'm the doer, when we are completely attached to the modes of material nature.
When we identify with these modes of material nature and think I am the doer and I am doing what everything which I am doing, the reality is exactly the opposite.
You are just ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. You are just little soul bewildered by this false ego. So when we are under this impression that I am the doer, actually we're completely bewildered.
But the moment when we stop thinking that I am the doer, we become uh free free from this illusion.
Neuroscience experiments on free will
And uh Śrīla Prabhupāda explains very beautifully how to do it. But uh let me first explain uh why scientists are wrong. Because otherwise, you know, I'm not sitting here on Vyāsāsana to prove that scientists are right.
My sacred duty is to prove that they're wrong.
And they're wrong because yes, there is a very strong material influence or the influence of the matter on the consciousness, there is no doubt about it. And as long as we are conditioned, this connection between the body influencing our mind will be there, there is no doubt about it.
And again Krishna himself said about this. But there are also completely different opposite processes. When the spirit, the consciousness influences the matter.
If the spirit was only the product of matter, then only this process would take place, that the matter influences consciousness. But like for example, there is placebo effect. What is placebo effect?
You take some little chalk, you know, which is nicely formed as a tablet.
And the doctor told you this is the best, the very best medicine, and you are the first lucky one to take this medicine. And this medicine will work for sure. And you take this calcium CO3,
iff I am not mistaken from my chemistry course, you take this uh calcium carbonate and you miraculously cured. Why?
Because in your consciousness you think that you will be cured, and the matter is following your consciousness.
So this simple experiment which has so much you know experimental data which has been there, this effect has been there for you know more than hundred years discovered that it's there, proves uh without a trace of a doubt that consciousness is also under some circumstances is influencing matter. That consciousness is independent of matter and even higher than the matter.
So, but the only problem is that there is this problematic connection between consciousness and matter, which we have to solve somehow or other.
And this is exactly what Kapiladev is explaining here, and what he is trying to explain that Śrīla Prabhupāda explained very beautifully in the purport that as long as we have this false ego, I am this body, I am connected uh somehow or other with this body, or as long as we have this attachment to this material thing or material nature and goodness of material nature, as long as we have this feeling that I'm the doer, this doer will be doing two things.
Either he will try to enjoy this matter. And that's the initial premise. You know, we are here to enjoy this matter. Why I'm here? Why am I here? To enjoy.
You know, so nice. You know, I can be the Lord of Govindadvīpa. You know you know if not Gavindadvip little you know little apartment in uh uh in Dublin or you know somewhere else. Uh depending on your ambitions.
Some people have big ego, so they need big to be Lord and Master. Somebody may think I am the Lord of Russia. You know and big country. So and I will enjoy it.
Somebody will think I am the you know the Lord of America or whatever. It doesn't matter. Different people have different, you know, different people have different conceptions and different sizes of their ego.
You know, uh in India ego is not so big therefore you can see you know 30 people arriving on one little riksha. Some people I wanna manage to be on the top of and they're so close to each other.
You know, Western people will never be able to do this because just ego will not allow them to be so close to each other. You know, Western people they need big distances.
The bigger distances, the better it is, the safer you feel. Because if you come too close to somebody. So anyway, so you know but ego is ego. You may have small ego or big ego.
You know, your ego will want to enjoy, and this is the initial idea which every one of us has.
You know, I will become the master of little domain in this material world, whatever I will manage to uh to take over from other people. You know I will conquer all my enemies and I I'll start enjoying.
You know but then uh uh when you completely fail your when you you know when y y you couldn't even enjoy your own wife or your own husband you know and y you feel completely frustrated, uh then you renounce.
And for some time you renounce and then somebody is laughing very heartily having full experience of And basically uh renounce basically uh renunciation
means uh you know it's like this famous fox uh from the Aesop fable when the fox couldn't enjoy the grapes after jumping for long time couldn't get the grapes.
He said, you know, no, grapes are actually anyway, who needs these grapes? Nobody needs these grapes. They're anyway sour. Sour grapes. Yeah, sour grapes. So that's what's going on. That's the pendulum.
That's the pendulum in this material world.
You try to enjoy, you try to renounce, then after you know you sick and tired of renouncement, you try to enjoy again and then very soon you realize that it doesn't work, you try to renounce again.
But ego remains the same. You have either the ego of somebody who is enjoying or the ego of somebody who is renouncing. Ego is intact.
You're big, uh renouncer, you know, and then you know this renouncer in saffron robe, you know, somehow or other it's being revealed that he's enjoying it. That's the history of humanity. Why?
Because ego, you know, why there is no change? Because there is no change in the ego. The conception that I'm doing, I'm renouncing or I am enjoying remains the same.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that Arjuna in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā he was still responsible. Because he still had ego. His responsibility was: I want to renounce, I want to run away from the battle.
And Krishna said, now today you run away from the battle, tomorrow you will again enter this battle, and it will just go on. You will be just running away and coming back and running away and coming back.
And that's what we are doing. We are trying to renounce the world or we're trying to enjoy the world, but we are not renouncing the attachment to the modes of material nature.
And this attachment, the attachment is coming through this ahaṅkāra, through this false ego, false identification. You know, and that's what we see.
And actually, we can see also if we look deeper within our heart, if we really sincerely and honestly try to analyze what is going on within our heart, we can see both of these tendencies simultaneously living within our heart.
We want to enjoy and we want to renounce at the same time. You know, the the the both are there, you know, and and therefore I, uh, they seem to be opposite, but, uh, actually this is two sides of the same coin.
The coin is the same. It's just the same, the false ego, the same false ego. Therefore, solution is neither enjoyment nor the renunciation of this material world.
And therefore people, you know, when they try to when they try to renounce this material world because they are so attached to this material world, the renunciation is so difficult.
You know, it's such a as I said it's such a dramatic thing you know you really have to fight uh with this attachment uh uh whereas if you understand that spirit soul actually is not there.
But how you understand this? That's the problem. It's a very nice theory. But what to do practically? How to solve this problem practically?
Because you know you want to make the solution which is created by your false ego, and you're trying to make this illusion created by the false ego by employing false ego.
Because in any spiritual society they will say you have to do something, right? And when they say you have to do something, what do they mean? Yeah. They mean that you're the doer. Right?
So when they say when when we say sitting here, you should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. How's it different than anything else? You know. There's something wrong with this.
Because you know, I'm chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mantra. Not only you should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you should nicely chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. You should really concentrate your mind on Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
Does it not sound is there is anything wrong in it? You know, and we're trying. No? How it's not wrong? You know, I'm trying to chant my Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in that. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa.
You know it's sometimes I see how devotees they you know they have such a terrible face when they chant as if they're being crucified, you know. Something really heavy is going on Krishna. Why?
Because ahaṅkāra is doing you know, your false ego, you're trying again to free yourself by the same by by employing the same mechanism of false ego and the doer.
Developing the real ego of service
So, but uh there is a very nice thing which which is there, which Srila Prabhupada actually explains in the commentary to this verse. He explains what we're really supposed to do.
We should definitely we should still live in this world. We should still perform our duties in this world. We should not try to renounce these duties or or uh try to enjoy
but what we should do we should really understand that it's not uh that uh it's not that I'm doing it because I want to do it, I'm doing it because Krishna wants me to do it. Because my spiritual master wants me to do it.
That's the solution which Śrīla Prabhupāda so beautifully explains in this verse. And of course, there is more to it, but in the beginning he says when he is under the direction of this no, where is it? Just yeah.
Uh the false sense of proprietorship can be avoided simply by engaging oneself in devotional service under the direction of the Supreme Lord of his bona fide representative.
Please try to appreciate the beauty of the solution which Śrīla Prabhupāda is giving to us and which our scriptures are giving to us. You know, instead of thinking that I'm the doer, that I'm doing this.
And you know naturally what when we are the doers it's uh it's a very uh common thing if we think I am the doer of my spiritual activities I am doing this chanting we have come together to hear this is spiritual activity, we have come together to have some kīrtana, this is again spiritual activity.
If I think that I'm the doer of all these spiritual activities and I'm doing this because I'm the doer, then naturally you want what from the spiritual activities? You want to enjoy the spiritual activities. Isn't it?
You know I and you know you try to chant and it doesn't work and you say no this process doesn't work because I'm not enjoying this chanting. Who told you that you were supposed to enjoy this chanting?
It's your it's your false ego. It's your false understanding. You know. Why am I doing this? Not because I want to enjoy. And then you know what will happen?
You know, y you couldn't enjoy these spiritual activities, then naturally what you do with the spiritual activities? You renounce spiritual activities. You give up. And you you try to enjoy something else.
You know, the same pendulum is going on again and again and again with the same thing.
Even in our little community, you know, if we have this false understanding that I'm doing the spiritual activities, how to change this? Śrīla Prabhupāda gives the hint.
You know, if we have very clearly established within our heart, why am I doing this because Krishna wants me to do this because uh my spiritual master wants me to do this I'm doing this and I'm doing this to please them and if this is established, then I'm not doing it from the false ego.
I'm still doing it. But not from the platform of false ego.
And therefore it is said that you know how to deal with the problem of the false ego that to deal with the problem there is only one way to deal with the problem of false ego is to surrender you know with surrendering our false ego by coming to spiritual master, by coming to spiritual discipline and performing everything which we are doing because it's not my will.
Because Krishna wants to do it. Because this is the you know this is this is his will and this is his desire and I'm just trying to become his servant. So that's the solution.
Instead of having ego of enjoyer or renounce it, renounce it. Instead of these two forms of false ego, we should have one form of real ego, the ego of the servant. You know, and that's why we are coming together.
You know, because if you are alone practicing Krishna consciousness trying to practice your Krishna consciousness you will never be able to really develop the ego
of the servant you can only develop the ego of the servant if you are together in the society of devotees and you are trying to fulfill this role and this expectation.
What is so nice about the society of devotees is that you know everyone expects that you should be the servant and you feel these expectations and that's good We are coming here and this is our real role.
And by serving the devotees, by being in the society of devotees and trying to really fulfil this uh you know this role or this uh this expectations of other people you know ultimately we become attached to become to to be the servant it's actually very nice.
In the beginning it's so bad. You know, yesterday I spoke with one Chinese girl, and I gave in in Bhaktivedanta manner a class where I said that actually the word Das of Dasy doesn't mean servant.
The word Das Audasi means slave. You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he mildly translates this as a servant, but in reality it's slave.
And she's a she's a very nice devotee, but she's very new. And she came to me and she said, you know, slave, what are you talking about? You know. So you you mean to say that this is human trafficking?
No, it's not human trafficking. It's our sincere attempts to come to the reality and to understand that by nature, by our svarūpa, by our real nature, we are servants. We always serve.
Śrīla Prabhupāda he gave this beautiful example of beautiful proof that you know that people you know they they only happy when they surf and when there's nobody to surf uh then they uh you know they adopt some cat or dog and they start start serving cats and dogs.
You know, especially I'm coming from America. In America, you know, the service to the dogs is, you know, it's excelled to a greater extent, you know.
People are you know they they're wearing special clothes to you know to clean the stool of the dogs. They will never do this to any other human beings. But they're so diligently cleaning the stool of the dogs.
Because you by nature you're the servant. You cannot be otherwise. And if you don't serve God, you will serve dog, no problem. Congratulations, you are so but
here Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that instead of this false ego or false enjoyer because you can never enjoy, or false renouncer, because you can never renounce.
You know how you can renounce this matter? There's no way to renounce this matter. You know, to renounce this matter to start with you have to stop breathing. If you really want to renounce the matter, you know.
It's it's of course they try, you know, for one minute it may work. Maybe for two minutes. But in reality it's not practical. You cannot renounce matter. You cannot enjoy matter.
You're not supposed to enjoy matter, you're not supposed to renounce matter. This matter is not given to you to renounce or to enjoy it. This matter is given to you to serve, to use this matter in the service of God.
And this is being done in your relationship in the society of devotees and in your relationship with your spiritual master.
When you come and you surrender to him and you say to him that I'm your servant and I will be your servant till my last breath and I'm not going to renounce and I'm not going to enjoy. I'm going to serve. And that's uh the solution of the problem. Everything else is the false solution. Everything else doesn't work. Everything else only creates problems, only creates miseries, only creates all kinds of suffering to us and to others.
None of this works. So, and when you develop this ego of the servant, then together with this ego of the servant you feel naturally detached from the modes of material nature.
You feel happily detached from the modes of material nature. You are not really so much entangled and so much absorbed in the modes of material nature.
You are more concerned with the service and that's the byproduct of this and you know the liberation becomes natural and easy.
It's not such a difficult and arduous job as it is sometimes being presented in different traditions. It's actually very very natural process but there is a difficulty.
The difficulty is that our ego doesn't want to go away. So we really have to be in very deep and real relationship with our spiritual master and with the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the process.
And how to do this, we will speak maybe tomorrow or after tomorrow. Thank you very much.
Practical mind control and service attitude
Okay. Are there any questions?
1, 2, 22, 1, 10, 10, 1 K0ris, 1hnov, a
the basically the question is that Krishna says in the tenth canto of in the tenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that out of the senses, indriyāṇām ahaṁ manas. I am the mind of the senses.
And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda used to say that you should beat your mind with the with the shoe or with the stick and you know what to do with the mind to beat him or to worship him because it's he's a representative of Krishna and it's definitely not very polite to beat a representative of Krishna with the shoe,
see, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains it very clearly in Bhagavad-gītā in the sixth chapter, and by quoting verse from Upaniṣads, from Yoga Upaniṣads, that mind can be your worst enemy and mind can be your best friend.
The only problem is that mind, mind is your worst enemy if he doesn't follow your instructions. You are the soul and you are higher than the mind. And if the mind exercise its independence and tries
to order you, which is usually the case, kamadina katina kati da palita durni desha tesam Jatamain Tesam Jatamain Nakaruna Natrapa na Pashanti You know this this beautiful prayer from Bhaktira Samrita Sindhu.
It is said that you know I've been fulfilling the orders of my mind for so long. And I diligently was trying to fulfill his orders.
The problem is that mind uh you know in in uh quote unquote normal case, case of normal devote or normal people and normal devotees here, ordering us instead of fulfilling our orders.
Mind is our servant, should be our servant. So, the initial training of the mind needs to be there to make him obedient. You know, if the mind is obedient, then you can worship him, no problem.
But before you have to beat him to make him obedient, but yeah but when when he starts behaving himself as he is supposed to behave, then you can worship him.
Now he is m doing some mischief to you, so that's the idea behind it.
And please don't be too too harsh to the mind because you you know you should also you know some days give him some sweets and mahā-prasāda so you know, beat him little a bit and then him give him some mahā-prasāda and then he'll say, okay, I I follow your order.
You beautifully explained like we uh have to develop the attitude of service rather than the attitude of enjoyer or renunciation.
So at the beginning stage in order to build a servitude um attitude, does this mean like before doing any taking any action or taking any decision or using any object, should we think first like how can I serve this and how can I use it in the how to build that attribute at the beginning stage?
Yeah. Thank you. It's a possibility, it's some sort of practice before you're doing something, you kind of tune up your mind in a proper way.
But in most cases, it's not going to work because you know it's very cumbersome and not very practical every time you know you have to really f you know tune up your mind.
So but there is much more simple and much more profound and more effective method, you know, that is to develop the ego, I'm the servant.
If it's deeper, you know, if this is just an intellectual concept on the level of your conscious mind. Then you know for some time, sometimes it will work, sometimes you will forget about it.
Because it's not so deep, it's just on this very thin layer of your consciousness.
So the idea is that through spiritual practice and most importantly through the association of devotees you develop this ego, yes, this is the way I want to live. This is my this is who I am. I am the servant.
Then you don't have to remind yourself all the time because you already will be like this.
And of course, it requires a little training, but it also requires if the relationship between devotees are very sweet, and if you really get a lot of reciprocation by serving somebody and receiving so much love in return and so much emotional feel emotional protection then you you on a deeper level will feel that I'm the servant and then you will not have to remind yourself all the time.
You will remember about it automatically because that will be that's who you are. That's my nature. And you will. It's like also that's why we we wear this clothes, because this clothes is kind of reminder who I am.
You know that there was during the Second World War in Kolkata, and there was a big billboard. And in the billboard, there was a military uniform.
And the slogan underneath the billboard was wear this, and you will understand what you're supposed to do. So the idea here is that why people wear special clothes again to reinforce the ego, you know.
Why people have special names, why they receive specialty names in the initiation. Again, to reinforce, I'm this. This is what I'm supposed to do.
So this is all very subtle processes of forming your proper real ego of a servant. And then you will not make well, you will mm also make mistakes every now and then because. But it's more uh more sure process. uchitel.
Qualifications for surrendering to a guru
231- It was said that we should uh surrender to the spiritual master, and that's the solution of the problem. But is there any pre-qualification uh before we surrender to spiritual master?
The yes, the pre-qualification is uh is definitely there. That's uh some sort of attachment to him.
When we are sincerely attached to Him and to His instructions, and we feel that this instruction, that I really want to follow these instructions, then surrender becomes very natural. Because what is surrender?
Surrender means that you are doing what somebody tells you.
And if you uh hear somebody and you try to apply it in your life and you feel that it works, then it's easy to surrender because you know that you know he says something which is good and you you try to do something and it works and you you feel the good result.
So the m main qualification is that you're attached to hearing the spiritual master.
Hearing and not only hearing, śrū-śuḥ, so this very beautiful Sanskrit word śrū-śuḥ means eager to hear and it also means eager to follow what is heard.
You know, because there is no meaning in eagerness to hear if you're not going to apply what you heard in your life. So this is the qualification. śrū-śuḥ, desire to hear with the idea to follow what is being said.
That's the qualification.
Not just because you want some new name and you know nice name, you know. You're sick and tired of being Alexander or and you want to become Ananda Swarupadas or more correctly Ananda Swarupa Prabhu Anyway, that's the qualification.
That's as simple as it is. Okay. Oh, okay. I try to resist, but I can't help it.
Just regarding your class today, maybe if you've ever heard the story where Uddhava comes to Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa says, look, you're such a pure devotee of mine that I won't fulfill any desire you want, you know, tell me what you want.
And Uddhava says, What is the goal of yoga?
And then Kṛṣṇa tells him the story about the is it four Kumaras, right? That went to Lord Brahmā to their father and said he asked them, they asked him, why should I try to control my senses when they're so naturally attracted to the object of my senses? Why?
Should I try and bother control my mind? If it's so naturally attracted to it, what is the point of yoga? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
And the Brahman becomes bewildered because he says, Yes, I created the senses, sense objects and the senses that they match together. You know, it's true, and the mind is so attached.
So what what what to do? This is just a natural marriage between the sense objects and yeah. And then Hansawatar comes and says, yeah, the the goal of yoga is not to renounce the sense objects.
It's just to renounce the mind who is attached to sense objects. Anyway, so we're trying to explain the same point in this way. Hare Krishna Maharaj.
Maharaj, as you said, we sometimes have guilt which we think that we did something wrong which is possible. And we are not dead. But guilt helps us to avoid doing the wrong things.
So like sometimes we fall traps to the mind. So guilt helps us to not do that again. But uh we can't also avoid guilt.
Difference between guilt and repentance
So what's the right way to see when we talk about it.
See, there is a difference between guilt and repentance. It's a subtle difference. Repentance is good. We have to repent about our past deeds. And repentance is purifying. Repentance is called anutap.
Anutap means basically, you have this tap, the fire inside, which is Anu, which follows something wrong, which you did. So the Anu Tap repentance helps you to free yourself from this. But guilt is different.
Guilt, it has an element of repentance maybe in it, but it's mostly the fear of the consequences and it's very debilitating and yes, you know, it it may be it's a mechanism to prevent you from doing this that's true.
But you know repentance gives you impetus and enthusiasm to act in the proper way.
Whereas guilt sometimes puts you in complete depression and you cannot do anything and you just become depressed and you become I'm so bad, I'm so bad, I'm so bad. How can I get rid of it?
And it becomes a vicious circle, you know, it becomes even worse than the initial thing. So you know, repentance is good because it helps you to purify your mind, you know. And yes, I will never do this.
But there is an element of some you know dynamic force in repentance. I want to do something proper. And I will not do this wrong thing again. Whereas guilt is very debilitating. Okay, thank you very much.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!