Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.7.3
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2003
Chapters
Appearance and instructions of Lord Kapila
Vahedip Simaal Bhagavatam, canto two, chapter seven, scheduled incarnations. Text number three. Jagye chakarda magrihet vijadivah utyam. Jagya took birth. Chava also. Also. Kardama. The Prajapati named Kardama.
Prajapati named Kardaman. Grehe in the house of Dvija of Brahmana. Devahuthyam. In the womb of Devahutti. Streeping by women. Samam. Accompanied by. Navadig. By nine. Atmadakim spiritual realization. Svamatre anto his own mother.
Ouchie attard. Yasya. By which? Atmashamalam. Coverings of the spirit soul. Gunasamga. Associated Kapila. O Lord Kapila. Lord Kapila. Гатим, liberation. Пратеде. Achieved.
The Lord then appeared as the Kapila incarnation, being the son of Prajapati, brahmana Kardama and his wife Devahuti.
Along with nine other sisters, he spoke to his mother about the self-realization by which, in that very lifetime, she became fully cleansed of the mud of the material modes, and thereby achieved liberation, the path of Kapila.
The instructions of Lord Kapila to his mother Devahuti are fully described in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And anyone who follows the instructions can achieve the same liberation obtained by Devahūti.
The Lord spoke Bhagavad-gītā and thereby Arjuna achieved self-realization. And even today anyone who follows the path of Arjuna can also take the same benefit as Shri Arjuna. The scriptures are meant for this purpose.
Foolish, unintelligent persons make their own interpretations by imagination and thus misled their followers, causing them to remain in the dungeon of this material existence.
Knowing the Supreme Lord through scripture
However, simply by following the instructions imparted by the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa or Lord Kapila, one can obtain the highest benefit, even today.
The word ātmā-gatim is significant in a sense of perfect knowledge of the Supreme. One should not be satisfied simply by knowing the qualitative, equality of the Lord and the living beings.
One should know the Lord as much as can be known by our limited knowledge. It is impossible for the Lord to be known perfectly as He is, even by such liberated persons as Shiva or Brahman.
Worth to speak of other demigods or men of this world.
Still, by following the principles of the great devotees and the instructions available in the scriptures, one can know to a considerable extent the features of the Lord.
His Lordship Kapila, the incarnation of the Lord, instructed his mother fully about the personal form of the Lord. And thereby she realized the personal form of the Lord and was able to achieve a place in the loka, where Lord Kapila predominates. Every incarnation of the Lord has his own abode in a spiritual sky. Therefore, Kapilab also has his separate Vaikuntha planet.
The spiritual sky is not void. There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets. And in each of them the Lord, by his innumerable expansions, predominates.
And the pure devotees who are there also live in the same style as the Lord and his eternal associates.
When the Lord descends personally or by his personal plenary expansions such as incarnations, Acolt, Aamsha, Kala, Guna, Yuga and Manlantar avatars. And when the Lord associates, Lord's associates descend by the order of the Lord, such incarnations are called Shakti Avesa incarnations.
But in all the cases, all incarnations are supported by the invulnerable statements of the authorized scriptures and not by imagination of some self interested propagandist.
Such incarnations of the Lord, in either of the above categories, always declare the Supreme Personality of God to be the ultimate truth.
The impersonal conception of the Supreme Truth is just a process of negation of the form of the Lord from the mundane conception of the supreme truths.
The living candidates by their constitution are spirit as good as the Lord.
And the only difference between them is that the Lord is always supreme and pure, without contamination by the modes of material nature. Whereas the living entities are apt to be contaminated by association with the material modes of goodness, passion and ignorance.
This contamination by the material modes can be washed off completely by the knowledge, renunciation and devotional service.
Devotional service to the Lord is the ultimate issue and therefore those who are directly engaged in devotional service of the Lord not only acquire the necessary knowledge of the spiritual science but also attain detachment from material connection and thus promoted to the Kingdom of God by complete liberation, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā fourteen twenty-six. Mām ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate | sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ||
Even in the non-liberated stage, a living entity can be directly engaged in transcendental loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, or his plenary expansions like Rama or Nara Simha.
Thus, with the proportionate improvement of such transcendental devotional service, the devotee makes definite progress toward Brahma-gati or Ātma-gati, and ultimately attains Kapilasya gati or the abode of the Lord without difficulty.
The antiseptic potency of the devotional service to the Lord is so great that it can neutralize the material infection even in the present life of a devotee.
Achieving self-realization through spiritual instruction
A devotee does not need to wait for the next life for complete liberation.
The Lord then appeared as the Kapila incarnation, being the son of Prajapati, Kardama Muni, and his wife Devahūti, along with nine other women, sisters.
He spoke to his mother about self realization by which, in that very lifetime, she became fully cleansed of the mark of material modes, and thereby achieved liberation, the path of Kapilam.
So here, Vyāsadeva is describing how, by following the instructions of Lord Kapila, Devahūti first achieved ātma-gati, which is self-realization, which is the realization of one's spiritual nature. And then ultimately, in the ultimate issue, when she was completely cleansed from all the contaminations which are there in the heart of the living entities, which is inevitable because of our close association with the modes of material nature.
And these modes of material nature are a constant source of mud, contamination.
So, after that, after achieving this ātma-gati, after some time, in the gradual process of self-realization, she achieved Kapilasya gati, which is the highest realization of the spiritual world, when she realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the person.
And this is a gradual process and Prabhupāda stresses here that for that you have to follow very strictly the scriptures. This is the incarnation of Lord Kapila who gives knowledge.
And in some incarnations of the Lord he gives knowledge. Not in every. In some incarnations he doesn't give any knowledge. In some incarnations he just plays. Like Varāha. He just plays in the mud. You know, kills Hiraṇyākṣa.
And in many incarnations he doesn't give any knowledge.
But in this particular incarnation of Lord Kapila, as well as in the incarnation of Krishna, He gives a particular knowledge which actually brings about the liberation.
The liberation is coming through this process of obtaining knowledge. And the knowledge which Krishna gives and which Lord Kapila gives follows the same progression.
If we look in the Bhagavad-gītā, the instructions of Lord Krishna to Arjuna, we will see that initially He will not even speak about God. He will not even mention the name God. He will not say Īśvara.
He will not say anything about God. He will say, You're just tiny, smallest spiritual spark and you cannot be killed. This you have to understand first.
And before we understand this, how tiny, small we are, that we are little spiritual spark, we will never be able to go further. This is a very essential thing and this is not a very simple thing.
You know, sometimes we think that, you know, I have heard this so many times. I know I'm spirit. So yes, great. But when it comes to act, we acting as if we're body.
We have heard so many times, I'm not this body, I'm not this body. Here it is stressed that first you have to achieve this realization of ātma-gaṇana. And who is Atma? Atma is this one ten thousand of the tip of the hair.
And it's a very painful realization. Actually, in this life we are programmed only to know or to realize something which is pleasant. The life is meant for pleasure, right?
And therefore whatever we are doing, we are doing for pleasure. And to realize that we are one ten thousandths part of the tip of the hair is not a very pleasurable thing. It's a painful thing, you know.
Can you imagine you take the hair and little tip you there and you cut it into hundreds of types. Can you imagine, right? And then you take one hundredths of this and again cut it into hundreds of times. And that's you.
Right? And that's me. It's painful because we want to be big.
I remember when for the first time somebody preached to me, my friend, and he started talking to me that there is God and he's so great, you know, and he's very great. I said, how how great he is? He said, you know, look.
This is the end. And this is you. So how much smaller the end is than you? And I looked at the end and the end was small and I was big. And I said, Yeah. He said, So the Lord is much bigger than this proportion.
This proportion is nothing. The Lord in comparison with you is much bigger. And in the leisure time I started singing about it and I I couldn't imagine this. I said, no, it's not possible.
Maybe this proportion and me, maybe somebody who is greater than me as much as I am greater than the ant, but not more than this.
This is the problem which we all encounter and therefore this realization I am not this body is not so easy to be achieved. It's not easy to achieve.
Cultivating genuine humility to receive knowledge
It's a very painful realization and therefore the first lesson which one has to learn in order to achieve this realization is the lesson of humidity.
Unless you become humble, unless you become utterly humble, unless you become totally, you know, crushed into the dust. You will never be able to understand that you are not this body not to speak about the Lord.
Because realization of the Lord requires much more greater humility. You know, even to learn something, to learn anything you have to be humble.
This is a very essential problem in all educations because unless you become humble you will never be able to understand anything.
In the very system of education children when they're taught, the first lesson which they have to know is this lesson of humility and how they're told, you know, that first they have to go down to Guru.
The Guru is teaching them and it doesn't matter. It may be mundane Guru. It may be a guru who is teaching them arithmetics. It doesn't matter.
But still the children have to bow down to him and then they have to pronounce their names and they have to do it like this. Know, there is a special, the very special significance of this. You try it.
You take like this, please. It makes you humble. No, no. You keep your ears. And in this situation you say, I have this and this and I have such and such rest. And I'm going down to you. This is the sign of utter humility.
Is what it is. And actually what you're trying to show by this is that I am ready to hear, because to achieve knowledge, to obtain knowledge, any knowledge, have to be ready to hear.
And for that, the preliminary qualification is this humility. There is a story from Akbar's times. Akbar was the greatest emperor. He was the Mogul emperor. He was a very generous person, a nice person actually.
Also, he was a Muslim, but he was favorably inclined towards spiritual knowledge and not a bad man. So, was interested in becoming wise. He wanted to get knowledge. He wanted to get wisdom.
Therefore, he invited the best sages to his court.
And nine best sages who were called nine treasures were kept there in the court and they were giving him some advice and this and that, but somehow rather, you know, he has noticed that somehow rather the the heart is still the same, the knowledge is not coming in the heart. And he became really angry at this, you know, sages.
So at one time he summoned all of them, all the sages to the court and he sat on the throne and started chastising them. You're useless guys.
I invited you, I keep you, I feed you, I give you money, I do everything for you and you're not teaching me. I'm not becoming wiser. What is this?
Even people notice this, you know, you are great sages, but and the sages they became very humble and they, you know, kind of, you know, close to to put down their faces and they didn't look at him because he was so angry.
And one sage, he brought a little son with him. Little tiny guy, you know, five years old. And when the son heard this and all the sages became silent, all of a sudden the son started laughing.
And it was so obnoxious, you know, in a very challenging way he started laughing. So Akbar became even more angry. He started yelling at this son. He said, you know, you stupid child, you son of this scene.
Who do you think you are? You don't know how to behave in presence of the great king. You don't know what you are doing, you know. Maybe your father is so clever that there is no speck of intelligence which is left for you.
Maybe this is the reason. Anyway, he was chastising his little son. And the son, he very humbly, walked down to the king and he said, please don't be offended.
Actually, I'm only laughing because I know the reason why you're not getting any knowledge. And I know the reason why all these sages are keeping silent.
And the Akbar, he looked at this little guy, he looked at his face and his face was bright. And he was so beautiful. So Akbar, he asked the son, You know this? He said, Yes, I know this. Can you tell me?
He said, Yes, I can tell you. Can you? And then Akbar looked at him and he said, Maybe you can teach me. And the son said, Yes, I can teach you. If you want, I can teach you. If you want knowledge, I said, No problem.
I can teach you. And the son said, Yes, you teach me. And then the son said, But first, I have to sit on the throne and you have to sit at my leg, at my feet. That's the proper position of the disciple.
If you want me to teach, I will teach you. But let's change the places. And Akbar agreed because he was so moved by this child. He was so amused and, you know, amazed.
He kind of, you know, he stepped down and he sat on the floor and the child said, and the child said, so what you want to know? Ask me, I will show you. And Akbar, he said like this, Thank you very much.
I already know everything because you taught me the very important lesson. Now I know what you mean, why I didn't get any knowledge. I immediately felt enlightened just by sitting at your feet.
He touched his feet and he put the dust on his feet and his head. So, that's that's the very first lesson which one has to understand because sometimes the devotees they tend to be so theoretical.
We know so many verses of Bhagavad-gītā, you know, this and that, you know. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāre yauvanaṁ jarā,
You know, when it comes to act, we again act as a proud fools because we didn't learn any knowledge. And the knowledge is not coming only because this first lesson is not learned properly.
And the first lesson is this being humble. Because without humility, whatever you do only make you more proud. You may do so many things.
You may chant mantras, you may go this, you may distribute books, you may do some austerities. But it'll only make you more proud. That's the point.
Because you're getting more and more proud, the less and less understanding is coming.
Overcoming false ego through surrender
Because the first understanding and the real understanding is only coming when you're humble. Like Devahūti, when she approached Kapila deva. She approached Kapila deva in this utter state of humility. She started crying.
She said, Oh my lord, I know I'm a wife of the great sage. I'm the wife of I'm the mother of the great sage and I'm here but still I'm suffering because of the false ego. And because of the false ego when they're going all these sufferings and unless this false ego is destroyed utterly we will not be able to understand anything and Deva Houthi was crying crying she said, please teach me something.
Tell me something how to get rid of the false ego? Because when the false ego is there, you will manage to enjoy this material life with the hellish condition. This is actually teachings of Lord Kapila.
And the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Kapila said that this is amazing. He's teaching to his mother. This is amazing.
He said, you know, the spirit soul is placed in the hell and somehow rather she manages, he manages to enjoy in hell. Now, did you notice this? You can enjoy in any situation. You can be put in prison.
You know, people are going to prison and then after some time they find it quite nice. Is some enjoyment there? Because of the false ego.
The false ego is a genius arrangement by the Lord which gives you the opportunity to enjoy in any situation. So unless you destroy this false ego completely, you will never be able to understand.
Moreover, you will do spiritual practices. And that's the problem. That's actually that trap on a spiritual path.
On the spiritual path, when we do something, then again, because of this false ego, because the false ego is not destroyed preliminarily, you tend to be proud by everything which you do. And you become more and more proud.
You're proud of the knowledge, you know, you chant thisśloka and thatśloka and thisśloka and thatśloka. And your heart is still empty. Even though you know so manyślokas. Even though you perform so much austerity.
So the first lesson is this to, you know, all the other lessons which are there on the spiritual path. You have to do. So many things you have to do.
You have to be austere. You have to be generous. You have to give donations. You have to do this. But this you can only do if you destroyed your vanity which is there in the heart. The vanity has to be destroyed.
The arrogance, this pride has to be smashed or at least we have to try it all the time. And then when this realization is coming, this is ātma-jñāna. And ātma-jñāna means you realize your own ātmā.
You realize how tiny you are. And when you realize this, you're happy. This is actually the first sign of realization. You become totally happy. Lord Krishna is teaching this to Arjuna.
Arjuna is also actually in the same situation. Lord Krishna is only teaching Arjuna. Lord Krishna only agreed to teach Arjuna when he saw how humble Arjuna was.
And before that he didn't want to teach him. He just looked at Arjuna and he said, Hey Arjuna, come on. Do something. But then Arjuna said, No, I cannot do anything. He started crying.
He said, kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-samūḍha-cetaḥ. You tell me what to do. I'm bewildered. I'm useless. I cannot do anything. And Lord Krishna at that point he started teaching.
At that point and in this frame of consciousness you can only understand something. Not before that. But you know the sufferings they usually make people humble.
But when they're happy they tend to be proud, you know, because I made it. You know, somehow rather I will show everyone. So, this is a very essential lesson which we have to learn first.
And when we learn this lesson, then the happiness of Atma Gatymo, self realization is coming. Because the self realization, the realizing our small tiny nature, this is actually very happy situation.
When we're really small and tiny, we are totally happy. Because nobody can hurt us. The first teaching of Krishna to Arjuna is that nobody can kill the soul because it's so small. It's too small to be killed.
It's too small to suffer. It's too small to undergo some pain. Therefore, you know, this realization of our smallness is a very happy realization.
Parable of the dog chasing its tail
That is also a very nice little story in this regard. Because people they're chasing for happiness. They're trying to achieve happiness. They're trying to get hold of happiness by all means to grab happiness.
But they don't understand that this happiness is easily available to everyone. Just the moment when you realize that your small tiny speck of Krishna, you will become absolutely happy. But people are trying to achieve it.
So there is a little story. There was a, how you call this, puppy? Puppy dog or? Pussy. Yeah, little dog. You know, and usually when people are young, they tend to be very foolish and very proud too.
So this little dog, this pussy dog, he was, you know, he was running around like the little dogs there running around. He was running and running and running and running and running.
And he was jumping and he was trying to get hold of his tail. He had the tail and he was in sweets and he couldn't get dressed, you know.
He was just running and and you know somehow rather he couldn't find it, the the end of the tail.
And then the old dog came and he looked at this little, you know, small guy who's running and trying to catch the end of his own tail. And he said, What are you doing?
And this little dog said, Listen, I know philosophy. I studied philosophy very well and I came to a very significant realization. I know all the kinds of philosophies. So, by this study of philosophy I came to a very significant realization that the dogs have to be happy. Right?
He said, Yes, you're correct. And he said, I also achieved a very secret knowledge that the happiness of the dog is in the tail.
So if I catch the tail, I will become utterly happy and in this way I will fulfill the mission of my life. Because dogs have to be here.
And the old dog, he said, was laughing and he said, You know, I also know some philosophy. And I agree with you. Dogs have to be used. And I also agree with you that the happiness of the dog is in the tail.
And like you, I was also trying to catch my tail. But after some time, I realized that my tail is always with me and I don't have to catch it.
I don't have to chase the tail outside of me because it's anyway always with me. So, you be happy. No problem. No need to run for this. No need to try to do this.
You know, people that are trying to catch the happiness outside. But as the happiness is inside, the happiness is there. And this happiness is coming when you understand who you are. Not before that.
Receiving transcendental truth through saintly association
And for that end, Lord Kapil is teaching this. And the teachings of Lord Kapil is very significant. Because he says that to understand and to realize all the truths there is only one essential knowledge.
The first teaching of Lord Kapila, the first lesson which Lord Kapila gives in his teachings to his mother Devakūti, when he says, satām prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati, he said that everything which you have to know, everything which you need to know, and everything which you can realize in this life is only coming through the association with the same thing person.
Only through sādhu you can become humble. Only through sādhu you can realize the higher levels of knowledge. Only through association with the sādhu you can achieve any wisdom.
This is the main and essential teaching of Lord Kapil. And he begins his teaching from this.
Only by associating with saintly persons you can feel this happiness which you are entitled to feel. Unless by, you know, some kind of self-proclaimed process you will never be able to achieve this high realization.
And this is actually what Lord Kapil is teaching. And we are trying to follow the footsteps of the sādhu.
Because the sādhu only by seeing them, only by looking at them and, you know, listening to them, you will be able to understand what it means to be the soul, to behave as a soul, what it means to be surrendered because the teachings is clear.
You know sometimes we have so much knowledge, we know this and that, you know all kinds of tooth breaking, Sanskrit terms are there, you know, we're so equipped with these terms. But still, you know, it's not digested.
The sadhu sometimes is compared with the fire of digestion. And this fire is necessary, the association with sadhu is necessary to digest the knowledge. You know, we have so much undigested knowledge.
You know, sometimes this knowledge is coming from the mouth. But it's not digested. It's like, you know, belching. You're belching with the knowledge. It's still there.
Know, it's not it has not become the part of your nature. And we think, you know, look, I'm preaching now. I'm preaching. But at the same time, you're preaching.
And for what you're preaching, you're preaching just to glorify yourself. Just to again feel your vanity. You know, you're sitting here and you're speaking something just to impress people.
Again, the same trick is there, you know, and it's just belching because the knowledge is not really digested. It's like somebody told me a story. There's one devotee. He is working sometimes in a church.
And he is working like an organ player. He is a musician. He just to earn some money he goes there. He told me a story that sometimes he listens to what the priest is speaking. And he said, you know, he told the story.
The priest told the story from his experience. He said that when he was young, he was a helper of one priest. He was working in the church. And the priest gave him, you know, fantastic lecture.
Fantastic, you know, sermon was there, you know. He was, you know, he was at his best. Know, he was speaking so brilliantly and people were completely amazed and completely amazed.
And then after that, so many people came to him and said, Thank you very much. It was so brilliant, so nice, so bright, you know. So much inspiration is there.
And then when they left, this priest told this helper of him, who was his disciple or something like this, he was training him to become a priest, he said, you know, don't believe this.
And people come to you and you're speaking, people coming to you and saying, thank you very much, you know, don't believe this. Because if you would really speak the word of God, people would feel pain in the heart. And they would not come to you, oh, thank you very much, was so nice, you know.
Because actually, you wanted to gratify their senses. And you gratified their senses because you wanted them to gratify your senses. And they're coming and saying, Thank you very much, you're so great.
And in this way, sense gratification is going on. The process is still on. He said, If you really speak the truth, the people will feel pain in the heart. And they will not come to you, they will just be ashamed.
That's how it is, you know. The science of self realization is not easy. Krishna says surrender, but it's very difficult to surrender. It's a very difficult process.
The process of surrendering, one's will means that from now on I don't have my own will. That's what surrender means. Surrender means, Krsna says sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.
You take shelter of Me only. You just take shelter of Me.
It means you don't have any more your own will. Only will of Krishna is ruling in your life, you know. And you don't have anymore this, you know, sense of individual being as an individual sense and joy. You are dependent on Krishna totally completely.
You know, and you expect and wait when Krishna will manifest some mercy upon you. That's that's what it means. That's not so easy.
Because even if we do service, or so-called service, sometimes we think it's service, but it's self-enjoyment. It's just sense gratification.
You know, and if somebody comes to us and say, you know, why don't you wash pots? You know, we say, what? Me washing pots? Look how great I am. I can't wash pots, you know.
This is... Or, you know, somebody says, Thank you very much for your service. Go somewhere else and surf somewhere else. We say, Well, now! You know, I become bitter. But it's all, it means that there was no service.
And before that, because service means whatever, you know, Krishna wants you to go some other place, you go to some other place. Service means you're servant and you always feel that I'm servant.
That I don't have my own kind of command over my life. Krishna is there. He is guiding me and He is telling me what I should do.
And in every moment of my life I'm painfully aware of this and I'm not trying to cheat myself through this so called service. That's what it means.
Concept of surrender in devotional service
That basically, like, our Ācāryas, they explain what śaraṇāgati is, what surrender is. Because, actually, any religion, any real religion which teaches the personal conception of the Lord, has to teach this concept of śaraṇāgati. How to surrender oneself. And the more elaborately it teaches, the more successful the teaching is.
Because to understand that the Lord is a person, you have to know what it means to surrender up with Him.
So, this śaraṇāgati is the most essential thing and therefore Lord Caitanya says, You can only get this gift of constant chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord. You can only be or remain in this condition of the constant chanting if you're total śaraṇāgata. If you're totally surrendered. And for that, you have to be tolerant and you have to be humble.
You know, humility means you destroy your false ego. Humility, this practice of humility is the conscious practice of destroying, smashing the false ego. The false ego is there and it's like Ravana.
You know, Rāvaṇa has 10 heads. And you cut one head and, you know, the head is again there. It grows up.
And the same way, you know, the false ego, it's like Rāvaṇa, you know. You you smash it like this. And the false ego is, you know, from another side and it's all there. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're great. Yes. Yes.
You're you're so great. You're smashing me so nicely. Yes. Yes, yes. So that's how it is. It's it's it's a constant struggle. So humility means you try to destroy your false conception about yourself all the time.
And before that, before applying this, and for that, try to understand what Krishna wants from. I'm your servant. And it means that, you know, if some suffering is coming, then you say, Thank you very much. This is great.
This good is because this is, for me, the chance to become a little more humble. Or if somebody comes to us and says, You're you're you're... Accuses you completely falsely. You have nothing to do with the accusations.
And he comes to you and says, and you say, Thank you very much for these accusations. This is great. The etiquette, Vaishnava etiquette, there is a very essential Vaishnava etiquette.
In Vaishnava etiquette, in Vaishnava circles, if somebody comes to you and says to you something that you are wrong, you're not allowed to defend yourself.
Because the first initial reaction is that somebody comes to you and says you're wrong, you're doing wrong. You know, he says no no no I'm right. You know, I haven't explained how it is. Because we're always right, right?
We're always in our own mind we're right but that etiquette is that somebody comes to you and says you're wrong you said yes I'm wrong even though if even if you're right even if you're 100 times right, you have to say, Yes, I'm wrong.
And if somebody comes to you and says to you, You're great, you know, thank you very much, you always have, this is the also the very strict rule of the etiquette.
You always have to say, No, no, it's not me. It's my spiritual master and this and that. I have nothing to do with this.
Because you have to fight with this tendency in the heart, you know, to defend yourself and to glorify yourself and to, you know, to pump up your false ego.
The false ego has to be destroyed and this is the teachings of Lord Caitanya. He says, You will never be able to chant the Holy Name unless you achieve this stage of self surrender and humility.
And therefore, the first items of Sharanabet is this Atmanik Shepa Karpanye. Karpanye means humility and Atmanik Shepa you give yourself to the Lord. You don't belong to yourself anymore. You belong to Him.
You're His property. He can do whatever He likes with you. This is the first teaching. And then, the other teachings of surrendering, you completely trust the Lord. You completely rely the Lord.
Whatever the Lord wants from you, you do. This is rakshuciai ti visvasu. You don't care about yourself, you know. You're sold animal to the Supreme Lord. And this is also difficult. It's all difficult.
The process of Self Realization is not easy. So, and at the same time you have to try all the time. Try, try, try. You you accept everything which is favorable for devotional service.
You reject everything which is unfavorable for devotional service. You try despite of all these problems, despite all these sanatras which are coming up from the from the heart.
And you you do this again and again and again.
And this is how you achieve this because Lord Kabila says that when the sage is coming to you, when Saddu is coming to you and he's speaking, by the words of his speech, by the sound of his speech, you achieve little particle of wisdom.
You achieve little bit. You start realizing what you have to do. But then you have to practice again and again and again.
And in this way he says, in this way first shrada and shrada means nishta, means very fixed face, face which is not shaking in any circumstance. But Lord Kapila Dev says, then Bhava is coming, Bhakti.
Oh, Rati. Rati is Bhava. The stage when your heart is totally melted and then Bhakti is coming. This is all coming in a gradual succession. But, you know, for that you really have to try. You really have to become humble.
You really have to become tolerant and dependent on the mercy of the Lord. And ultimately, you will have to follow everything which Lord wants from you to follow. And and if you do this, then the reward is there.
There is no doubt about it. The reward is coming. The the very endeavor of this is already rewarding because you will feel tremendous happiness just by doing this. But you know, and a greater reward is coming ahead.
But we have to try it. We have to really be we have to be real.
In other words, as a devotee, we we there are so many tricks which mind has and which we are trying to employ upon ourselves, you know, to self deceive ourselves.
But, you know, the devotional service is not that easy in one sense. And this is the path of self realization. And therefore, it is said here that first Devakuti achieved this Self Realization of Atmakati.
And then so many layers of dirt is still there. She already realized she is the Spirit Soul. But it is said here: Gunasanka Pankam. Yayatma shamalam. Shamalam means the coverings.
So many coverings are still there, starting with the false figure. And you have to Gunasanga, Gunasanga Pankam.
This dirt of the association with the modes of material nature is there and therefore, you know, it's coming again and again and again and you have to constantly warn this to achieve the highest plane.
And ultimately you achieve this plane when kapilasiagati when you know Lord is the person. Because what it means person, person means you know what that he has the will.
Person means somebody who has the desire, who wants you to do something. And that's the achievement through this practice of self surrender of Saranagadhi, which is, you know, not an easy science to do.
And it requires the constant work. That's what it is supposed to be. But otherwise, you know, so many ways of deceiving oneself.
So many times people who are practicing so called religion, so called practitioners of religion, they're just deceiving themselves and deceiving everyone else.
They think that they're doing some service, but actually they're just gratifying their own sense under different pretexts, you know, because this is how the false ego works. There is this also a little story.
I will finish now, I will tell the story and finish it. That, you know, when you achieve this state, then only you're real. Before that, you're kind of fake.
When you achieve this state of, you know, utter surrender to the Lord, surrender to His will and to His desire. But before that, you know, so much mis conceptions can be going on.
We also have this different misconceptions sometimes, because we still feel that I'm, you know, I'm the doer.
Parable of the monks and the fallen man
There is a little story, funny story, from China, from Chinese tradition actually. There was a big festival in one city. And the man, so much crowd and so much noise is there.
So the man went to his well and he wanted to get some water from the well. But the well didn't have this, you know, this, you know, little higher wall around it.
And he was trying to get something, and he fell in this well. Deep in the well. He started crying and crying and crying.
And nobody cared because everyone was, you know, in a very festival mood and they were both celebrating this and that nobody heard his, you know, desperate cry from the depths of the wells.
But ultimately, one Buddhist monk came. And Buddhist, they practiced this Buddhism. They're very, you know, a himself, this and that. And this man is down there in the well. He became so heavy. He said, oh, yeah.
Holy man, please save me. I'm suffering here. I'm all about to die. Please take me out of the well. And the Buddhist man looked and he said, look. Buddha told us that we are not allowed to get involved in another's karma.
See, it's your karma. You must have done something wrong in your life. And that is just the punishment for what you did wrong. And it's a very good chance for you to understand that you did wrong.
So you'll be there and I'm not allowed to help you anyway. And, you know, you don't cry. Better you don't cry because by crying you just do more karma.
You just try to understand that you are really, you know, you have nothing to do with this and then before the... The man is, you know, is crying for the you please, you please take me out, then you preach to me.
I'm ready to hear all your nice teachings. But you please first take me out. I'm about to die. He said, no. You sit there, I go away. So he went away. And the man is, you know, there and he's crying again. And again some...
Another monk is coming. And this monk is Shisigorni Taikija. This monk is from the kung fu tradition, from this great sage, kung fu, who was living there. And he was very, you know, socially minded.
And this monk is coming, and this other man is sitting there in the well, and he say, oh, help me. He said, really? You're there in the well? That's very good. He said, how is it good?
He said, yes, because the kung fu said that all the wells have to have the walls around them. And now I realize this wisdom of the great saint of the past. So now I will go. It's very good that you're there.
Know, you reminded me about this wisdom.
So I will go and I will start the movement and we will go to the government and we will demand that governments will put all the walls around the wells and, you know, nobody will fall.
He said, could you please help me first? He said, no, no, you sit there, it's no problem, you know. You should be happy that by your bad example nobody else will fall into the wells, you know. So the walls will be there.
We will do it, you know. And the man is, he's hopeless. He said, all these religious people, they just cannot help me, you know. I might try to, you know, and he's just crying there desperately.
And then the Christian monk is coming. The Christian priest is coming. And the man sees somebody and he's he doesn't even try to cry anymore. He he he knows, you know, especially somebody in a robe, you know.
But the Christian, you know, he takes the robe. He he sees somebody is in the well. He takes the rope and he pulls down the rope and he says, you know, take the rope, I will take you out, you know.
And the man is so happy, you know. He catches the rope, you know, and he's climbing over the well, you know. He's there out there. He says, thank you very much.
We help you. All other, you are the only one religious person, you know, because you have the compassion. Others still were coming and they were just preaching to me and I couldn't understand anything.
Thank you very much. I will never fall in the wells. I will be so careful. And the Christian monk says, no, no, no. No, you are not right. You're completely bewildered. Please fall down again and again and again.
And you teach all your children to fall down in the wells. And then we will save you. We will save you. Because it is said that whoever saves you he gets to the heaven.
You know, we will, you know, otherwise how we will get to the heavens? We have to save you. So you please fall yourself and you teach all your children to fall into the well. No problem. We'll go on saving.
But it means basically, in all these cases, you know, that so called practicing religion, but this selfishness is still there. And the case of this Christian monk, he wants to go to heaven.
And, you know, yeah, I will save you, but you know, you please fall down as soft as possible so that I could have opportunity to do something. You know, because the false ego is not destroyed. Because this is painful.
Because this is the the the center of the pain is. The spiritual life means to destroy the false ego.
The essence of the spiritual life is to somehow or other by the practices which we are doing by sādhana, the aim of the sādhana is to destroy the false ego. To destroy the false conception of who I am.
And not to cherish it, not to pump it up, to become more and more puffed out. So, that's the process.
And when you do this, and because the falsehood is the basis of all this ātmā-mala-malam, the coverings which are around the soul.
If you do this, then you first realize ātma-gati and then kapilasya gati or kṛṣṇasya gati, the highest destination of the spiritual world. That's what you that's what we are here to do, which is not easy. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya. So, ek ghaṇṭā? We have.
Six aspects of surrender explained
Yeah. Mahārāja, you are speaking about this śaraṇāgati. So, there are these six phases. But, this other humidity comes like after some first phases beginning. So is it like some other degree of humidity or?
See, when the order is like this: ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā ātma-nikṣepa-kārpaṇye ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ.
And kārpaṇyam means humility or meekness is gone last. But when Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining the signs of śaraṇāgati in his book, he starts from this. He starts from dainya.
Because dainya, which is the synonym, Bengali synonym of kārpaṇya. Humility means this regret.
You know, if you read Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's Śaraṇāgati, you will see that the first six or seven songs from this Dainya section, it's just, you know, total complete regret about the wasted life.
And it's so, so acute, you know. First he says that in the womb I was praying to you, but then as soon as I came out from the womb I started wasting my life on these, you know, pranks.
And then I started learning this is the next of Vidyaravilasi. I started these, you know, pastimes of my education and I was becoming more and more puffed up and I became the family man.
And then he says, āmāra jīvana sadā pāpe rata, nāhi puṇya leśa-leśa. He says that, Now I'm old and I'm looking back at my life and I don't see anything but sins, just which I committed.
So when Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining this, he is taking this humility the first as the basis. And he is taking the opposite order. He is taking humility first, Atmani Vedanam. Second, Atmani Vedanam means...
Basically what it means, if I have two minutes, can explain a little more about Saranagathi.
That, like, this humility at Atmani Vedanam, Karpanya and Atmani Vedanam, it means that you're destroying two aspects of your false ego. The first aspect of false ego is I. This is Aham. And Aham you can only destroy.
And Aham means I'm God, I'm I'm great. Right? I'm this, I'm that, I'm do it. Or sometimes Aham can be also I'm suffering.
You know, so many people they enjoy by presenting themselves how nicely or how beautifully they suffer. Such a beautiful suffering is there. Look, I'm, you know, I'm a martyr.
So, the first item of Sharan Nagat, of surrendering oneself to the Lord, is to destroy this principle of Aham.
Me, I, you know, I'm at the center, everyone else should serve me and everyone else is I'm doer, I'm sufferer, I'm this, I'm dead.
So, and for that, you know, you really look, I'm little insignificant, speck, you know, and at the same time I'm so sinful also, I'm so proud of myself. And I take any opportunity to become proud.
And then you have to destroy the second aspect of false ego, which is mama, mine. This belongs to me. I'm this, I'm that, you know, and this is my sphere of influence. This is my area, you know.
Don't come here, this is mine. So, and this is Atmani Veddin. Atmani Veddin you say, Nothing belongs to me. Everything belongs to you. I'm your dog.
I'm dog at your house and you put me to guard your house and I'm going to guard your house. And if you want to kick me, that's your right because I'm your dog.
And if you want to give me some remnants from your blade, I'm ready to take it. I will be, you know, whirling my tail and take these remnants. This is atmani vedanam how Bhakti Vinotapur is explaining atmani vedanam.
And this is the first practices. And then there are two other practices. Rakshisya Vishwaso Boktrikte Paranam Tatha. Again the same thing. Then rakshisyaiti vishwasu means that now what will happen with me?
If I'm not dependent on me, if I'm not only reliant on my strengths, then who will protect me? And then you say, Lord will protect me. This is also the practice.
When you try to understand that in many situations of my life, the Lord was there. His saving grace was there. He was protecting me. So my eye is actually much nicer protected when He's protecting me.
When not weak, myself is protecting myself. But when the Lord, mighty Lord is protecting me. And then, a-rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ, goptṛtve-varaṇaṁ tathāpi.
Goptṛtve-varaṇaṁ tathāpi means that, you know, whatever I need, He will give me. I don't need to really, you know, take care of myself because I don't need really to be overly anxious that I need to have this and that and this and that and something to eat. He will give me to eat.
And this is the fourth item of surrender. So it goes in this order. And then, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam.
It means that in order to achieve this, you do whatever is favorable and you don't do anything which is unfavorable.
It means that sometimes people they have this false conception that surrender means I don't do anything anymore because I'm surrendered, right?
You know, I will be sleeping here and the Lord somehow rather He will bring some prasāda to me and I will wake up, eat it and sleep again. This is surrender, right? No, this is not surrender. This is laziness.
Therefore, the next two items is that, but to achieve this you have to do this. You have to actively apply yourself. And it means you do whatever is good for self surrender, for devotional service, for your chanting.
And you reject anything which is bad. Uncompromisingly reject anything, you know? And this way you practice. And at the same time you chant the Holy Name.
And in this way the surrender sometimes look calm if you practice this. So, this is how Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining this surrender process. Okay. Thank you very much.