A Structural Review of the Main Topics of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lecture 9
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Overview of Srimad-Bhagavatam cantos
I'm very happy to uh uh I don't know what to do, to to to speak in front of all of you whom I don't see unfortunately at this moment of time. And if you can mute your microphones, it would be nice.
So I wanted to remind you the journey which we together made coming to this point. We started describing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in general and what are the difficulties.
It's a very difficult piece of literature with so many topics, so on and so forth.
Then we in detail studied the ten topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam according to Śukadeva Gosvāmī in his description in the second canto of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam.
And then ultimately we came to this point where we are describing the essential message of every Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Every Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam serves a particular role in bringing us closer to Krishna and helping us to understand ultimately the topics of Krishna carita in the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the pastimes of Lord Krishna in the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So, and it's not an easy topic to understand because there are so many internal impediments which precludes us from understanding the pastimes of the Lord properly and to hear past times of the Lord properly.
The pastimes of the Lord hearing of this pastimes is extremely powerful, but because of the deficiencies and defects of our perception, oral perception, we are not capable of experiencing these pastimes.
Basically, the philosophy of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that just by hearing about the Krishna's pastimes, our consciousness is transported into this realm of uh spiritual realm where this pastimes eternally taking place, but because of the defects of our perception we are not experiencing it at least in the beginning immediately.
And therefore the preliminary cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam they serve this purpose, they are if we study them properly and hear them properly, they're removing these obstacles, internal obstacles from our heart.
And ultimately in this way we'll be able to provide us with the real tenth canto experience.
Tenth canto is not just a book, it is uh it is uh real life of Krishna. It's the uh spiritual life full uh blossoming spiritual life completely, totally, uh you know, without any uh any defects or whatever.
So as much as Maharaja Pariksit who was hearing this, he was transported into this reality and ultimately just by hearing this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam he became not self-realized, he became God-realized and he developed his spiritual form and everything else.
So that's the result, that's the proper result of hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
But the preliminary cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are very important to facilitate this understanding of the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the main message of the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Without understanding them, we will not be able to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly. And together we described the meaning of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is describing the adhikāra or qualification.
And the result of hearing the first canto would be complete eagerness on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as much as Mahārāja Parīkṣit was eager to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So that's the proper result.
If we hear the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly, we will understand that this is the most important activity in our whole life, in the whole existence, and nothing else will be able to distract our attention
from hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in detail describes the different sādhanas.
How differently the sādhanas can be different and ultimately it explains the glory of this bhakti-sādhana in the form of hearing śravaṇam and kīrtanam.
And the second canto, okay, we will describe it a little later, but first let me read the verse from the fourth canto, which in my humble opinion very beautifully summarized the essence of the
fourth canto, what fourth canto is supposed to do, what it is, uh, what is the main message of it, what uh it wants to tell us.
Unfortunately in my I don't know now the exact number of the verse but I will tell you later. It's from the twenty-ninth chapter of the fourth
canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but you will be able to track it down or I will tell you the exact uh verse I. didn't put the reference here exact.
Nectar of hearing from pure devotees
Okay, so let's read the verse and purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's two verses together. Yatra Bhagavatara Jan Sadhavo Vishadasayah Bhagavat Gunana Gunanukathana Bhagavat Guna Nukathana
Shravana Vyagracheta Saha and And uh very important first, Tasmin Mahan Mukarita Madubitcharitra Piyusha Sesha Saritah Paritah Shravanti Taypi Banta Vitrisnon Ripagadhakar Nice Translation
My dear King, in the place where pure devotees live, following the rules and regulations, and thus purely conscious and engaged with great eagerness in hearing and chanting the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In that place, if one gets a chance to hear the constant flow of nectar, which is exactly like waters of a river, one will forget the necessities of life, namely hunger and thirst, and become immune to all kinds of fear, lamentation, and illusion.
Purported by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
The cultivation of Krishna consciousness is possible where great devotees live together and constantly engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord.
In a holy place like Vrindavana, there are many devotees constantly engaged in chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord.
If one gets the chance to hear from pure devotees in such a place allowing the constant flow of the river of nectar to come from the mouths of pure devotees, then the cultivation of Krishna consciousness become very easy.
When one is engaged in constantly hearing the glories of the Lord, he suddenly rises above the bodily conception.
When one is in the bodily conception, he feels the pangs of hunger, thirst, fear, lamentation, and illusion. But when one is engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, He transcends the bodily conception.
The word Bhagavat Gunanu Kathana Shravana Vyagra Cheta Saha, meaning always eager to find the place where the glories of the Lord are being heard and chanted is significant in this verse.
A businessman is always very eager to go to a place where business is transacted. Similarly, a devotee is very eager to hear from the lips of liberated devotees.
As soon as one hears the glories of the Lord from the liberated devotees, he immediately becomes impregnated with Krishna consciousness.
This is also confirmed in another verse, Satam Prasanga Mamavirya Samvidobhavanti Krit Karnara Sayana Katha, Tatjoshanat, Ashvapavar Gavartmani, Shradharatir Bhaktira Nukra Mishyati.
In the association of pure devotees, the discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and to the heart.
By cultivation such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced in the path of liberation and thereafter is freed and his attraction becomes fixed, the real devotion and devotional service begin. Then the real devotion and devotional service begin.
In the association of pure devotees, one becomes attached to hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. In this way, one can cultivate Krishna consciousness.
And as soon as this cultivation is advanced, one can become faithful to the Lord, devoted to the Lord and attached to the Lord, and thus one can very quickly attain full Krishna consciousness.
The secret of success in the cultivation of Krishna consciousness is hearing from the right person. A Krishna conscious person is never disturbed by the bodily necessities, namely eating, sleeping, mating and defending.
Critique of material exploitation in third canto
Śrīla Prabhupāda, ki jaya! Nama o viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmitin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे निर्विशेष-शून्यवाद- पाश्चात्य-देश-तारिणे जय श्री-कृष्ण-चैतन्य प्रभु-नित्यानन्द श्री-अद्वैत गदाधर श्रीवासादि-गौर-भक्त-वृन्द हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे mukhaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayatē girim yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurum dīna-tāraṇam vāṁchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
So let's continue and see how Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam works, because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is our best friend who is helping us to overcome very important internal difficulties.
So first Kanto is Adhikar Tattva, second Kanto is Sadhana Tatva.
Third Kanto, as we discussed already a couple of times while discussing the third Kanto, is talking about the very essential and primordial flow of every living entity, the desire to exploit material nature.
And this desire to exploit material nature in the human society manifests as different philosophies, materialistic philosophy like charvaka muni or modern materialism or scientific philosophy, which is a variation of the same charvaka materialism and Sankhya and so many other philosophies, which ultimately deny that God is the cause of all causes.
All these philosophies more or less unanimous in the sense that they say that there are some other causes which are independent from the Lord.
And basically what it does, if you have this understanding, if this conception, then you will be able to exploit the material nature. For you, the material nature will become a mechanism.
And because the material nature is mechanism, you're entitled to exploit it.
You are higher than the mechanism, you are living entity, you have some consciousness, which is the product of matter, but it doesn't matter. That's the highest product of matter.
So basically, the whole idea is just to make the material nature exploitable, easily exploitable. And for that, what people do, they narrow down the conceptual horizon which they have.
They have to narrow down the understanding of cause and effect. They will never be able, they will say that, to say that God is the cause of all causes is unscientific. Why it is unscientific?
Because we cannot see him and this and that.
So the only thing which is scientific is to make this conceptual horizon very narrow and within this framework very narrow conceptual framework to figure out how it works, how the the mechanisms work and exploit to your heart's content the material nature.
So that's basically the flow which all of us has, and the third canto is proving again and again and again and again that this is suicidal.
That ultimately if you live the life and try to exploit the material nature, it will bring about the destruction of yourself and material nature. And that's exactly what we see.
You know, the scientists who achieve a lot in this material world, ultimately, their ultimate achievement is the destruction.
And destruction of this earth, destruction of environment, and the destruction of the finer sentiments within the human beings, destruction of human culture, this is what is going on. This is we are witnesses.
And the third canto is warning us against this. And the third canto also indicates the root cause of this mentality which breeds such philosophies.
The root cause of this mentality is greed, internal greed, the desire for enjoyment which is insatiable. You cannot satisfy or satiate your desire to enjoy.
So this insatiable greed will bring about unbridled uh completely unregulated exploitation of material nature and ultimately uh will bring about uh ruination of the whole creation.
So therefore, the third canto very carefully drives back the point that this is not your nature. And this nature is ultimately not dead because the Lord is behind this nature. You have to reverse this nature.
You have to change the exploitative spirit, the spirit of exploitation to the spirit of worship because this is not your nature. This is not your energy.
And the Lord is completely present within the energy and He is controlling this energy. He is the cause of all causes. So don't try to think that you know better than the Lord.
Because this is what exactly the scientists do all the time. They say we know better. We can improve the creation of the Lord.
We will make some gene, uh put this gene somewhere else uh in some other organism and this organism will do something very wonderful.
You know, I'm a scientist myself and when I was doing my PhD degree uh in the next door in the uh next uh department of our research institution there was uh there were people who were doing uh genetic engineering. At that time it was really you know cutting edge. It was the the really you know, something very new.
So in the table, there was a table there, and there was a big drawing in this table. And in this table, there was a mythological plant which was the dream of those people who were doing this genetic engineering.
This mythological plant, which they were, I mean not seriously, but the idea nevertheless is very vividly described in this. So it was, it had potatoes inside and strawberry on the surface.
So they wanted to make a plant which would give you potatoes and strawberries at the same time. So that and that's basically the idea of the whole scientific enterprise.
Scientific enterprise is to improve the material nature. God is a little senile.
He is uh you know he has been there for too long and uh you know God knows whether God exists or not. And we definitely don't know about this. But we are scientists, we know we exist and we will improve this creation.
So the result is very destructive. All these genetically modified you know products they are extremely dangerous and God knows what else will be there. So that's the third canto.
And in the third canto, I already told, but I want to remind you that there is a very important episode or clash, clash between Hiranyaksha who represents this approach to life.
Hiranyaksha is this primordial demon who wants to exploit the material nature and therefore the material nature goes down, down, down, down, down.
Hiranyaksha is the manifestation or allegorical manifestation of greed, human greed. And he's fighting with Varāhadeva. And Varāhadeva, as is clearly explained in the third canto, is the manifestation of Vedic sacrifice.
When Varāhadeva appeared, all the Vedic sages started glorifying him, explaining that every part of the body of Varāhadeva is the representation of Vedic sacrifice, how you know the bristles on his body,
this and that, so he is Vedic sacrifice personified. So from this description the
Dangers of subtle Vedic materialism
wrong conclusion which we can make is that Vedic way of life is the alternative to the scientific way of life, or materialistic way of life, or exploitative way of life - it is an alternative, there is no doubt about it. It's definitely better and Varagadev he enjoys victory over Hiranyaksha.
So but the third cantus specifically deals with the problems of the Vedic way of life to show to us that Vedic culture, even though it's much better culture, it's not so grossly exploitive, nevertheless, it has a lot of hidden problems.
And this obstacle of being enamored by the Vedic way of life is a very important obstacle which we all may experience in our life.
We can see this is basically Vedic materialism, slightly covered Vedic materialism which has the basis in the sacrifice. But the idea is the same. I will enjoy, but enjoy in a very in a very subtle Vedic way.
I will follow the rules and regulations, I will do sacrifice, I will do this and that. So that's the alternative and that's the internal impediment which every one of us again have. Every one of us again has.
So if we overcome this then the next idea which we will have if we will overcome this gross materialism that the next idea, okay, fine.
There is the better better way to enjoy this material world through the Vedic uh Vedic materialism, through Vedic sacrifices, uh, through Vedic way of life.
So that's basically the whole idea of the fourth cantle to make us to make us understand very very clearly that this is not an alternative. This is an alternative but that's not the final alternative.
This is not the final end. This is okay, very way of life. There's nothing wrong with it unless we become attached to it, unless we declare it as the ultimate end or goal of life.
And that's the mistake which many, many people do.
You know, like now in India, there is this revival of Vedic sort of culture and so many people uh you know that they they try to uh uh some sort of revival they try to uh kind of
re-established sort of varṇāśrama, we can see within our society some people they actually place varṇāśrama as O Vedic way of life over bhakti.
And the fourth canto, the main message of the fourth canto is that Vedic way of life is good but it's dangerous.
There are hidden dangers inside and without bhakti it's ultimately vseful. Ultimately completely useless. Only if bhakti is there, because it facilitates bhakti to a certain extent, then the Vedic way of life is acceptable and good.
So that's the general message of the fourth Kanto, which is illustrated in many different ways and I will try to explain now.
I will try to actually be brief so that there will be some time for questions which we left unanswered last time.
So the first little story which is oftentimes goes unnoticed, but nevertheless very important story of the fourth canto is the story of Atrimuni.
When Atrimuni was performing his austerities and praying to the Lord and saying, My dear Lord, I don't know who you are, but please be born as my son. Or please give me the son like you.
And as a result of these prayers, three gods appeared to Atrimuni, Shiva, Brahmā and Vishnu, together and was said, you know, you pray to all of us, so all of us came to you.
So the first problem which is indicated by this story is the blurred some sort of confused vision of reality due to the Vedic way of life.
Ultimately you know Vedas one may think because of the Vedic way of life, because of Vedic culture and so on and so forth, that Vedas promote many gods. That's one very big problem.
I remember once Shankaracharya came to Russia. I believe he was the Śaṅkarācārya från Sringerja no either från Srineri or from Rameswaram från
south math there are four main Śaṅkarācārya, who retained the same title as the original Shankaracharya.
And this Shankaracharya he came in the yatra to promote it was some Hindu arranged yatra and they came to our temple. And he's he was very knowledgeable.
He was speaking from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He was quoting beautifully verses from Srimad Bhagavatam, Barathapidam, Navaramapu, Karnayok, Karnikaram.
He was telling the story how Śukadeva Gosvāmī was attracted back by Vyāsadeva, sending his disciples to the forest and chanting the verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and how Śukadeva Gosvāmī heard this verses and was so attracted that he came back to Āśrama of Vyāsadeva. He gave beautiful lecture for a selected group of people.
We of course didn't give him the chance to speak to general devotees. But nevertheless, he spoke.
And then and it was beautiful. It was all bhakti and it was so touching to the heart. And then when we were alone, he told me, you know what, your Śrīla Prabhupāda, he cheated you. He purposefully cheated you.
He said there is only one God. But we all know there are many gods. There is not one God, there's many gods.
And because Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the Christian, to people from Christian background who believe in one God, he said there is one God. But ultimately, there are many gods. We all know this.
So that's a blurrid vision, this confused sort of understanding is one of the problems, very essential problems, which inher which is inherent to Vedic culture.
Vedic culture is basically breeds this sort of misconception because ultimately the Vedic culture is how to live happily in this world by exploiting not the material nature directly but by using different methods like sacrifices.
Illustrative stories of the fourth canto
And this is the first problem. I will enumerate six or seven different problems which are inherent to this Vedic way of life, which are illustrated in this fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So next we come to this beautiful story of the conflict between Shiva and Daksha.
And again, what we see in the story: in the story, we see the main topic of the fourth canto allegorically or not allegorically, but you know described in a way of stories.
This is the Puranic way to teach us and, the Puranic way to teach us is to tell the story.
So, what this story about the conflict of Shiva and Daksha is teaching us, it's again teaches us how dangerous Vedic life is because Daksha is the greatest sacrificer.
You know the sacrifice which he arranged is was so amazing. All the gods were there directly. They were present right there. And the best priests were there. The mantras were chanted so beautifully.
So, what was the result of this sacrifice? Complete failure. Total, complete destruction of everything, complete mess.
As a result of it, uh Daksha, the main sacrificer, instead of becoming happy because this whole sacrifice was to become to make him happy. So instead of becoming happy he got the goat's head. You know, that was the result.
So this is how alluring uh the uh Vedic life is. You know, it says you do this, you do this in a proper tit, and I'm sure the sacrifice was done expertly in the proper Tithi, astrologically, in a very right way.
And nevertheless, the result was completely inauspicious. So uh what does it teach us? It teaches us uh many, many different lessons.
Uh one uh lesson is that uh sacrifices are extremely difficult to perform and even if you perform them perfectly, it's not clear whether they will bring the desired result or not. Not at all.
And there are many such stories in the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Not only this, you know, we know that Maharaja Prithu, much more powerful personality than Daksha, he wanted to perform hundred horse sacrifices.
He couldn't do it. He was trying hard, he couldn't do it. Ultimately Lord Vishnu said and said, just give it up, no problem. I appeared, so all your sacrifices are successful.
But the sacrifices themselves, even though they're promoted as the sure means to bring about prosperity and happiness in life, ultimately bring completely different result.
In other story, Maharaja Anga, the father of well, maybe grandfather of uh Maharaja Prithu, father of Maharaja Venu uh Venna.
He created sacrifice, he performed sacrifice, he wanted to have a good son. As a result, Venna was born. He wanted to become happy because of the sacrifice. As a result, he just renounced everything.
Dhruva Maharaja, another example, for 36,000 years Dhruva Maharaj was ruling perfectly and was performing Vedic sacrifices, 36,000 years. What was the result?
The result was that he renounced everything, went to Badarikashrama, started performing austerities to purify his heart from the attachment which he developed due to this Vedic way of life.
So, and of course, the last story in the Fourth Canto, the story of King Prachinabarhisat is again Narada Muni comes to King Prachinabarhisat and warns him. You want happiness, what will be the result?
The result will be completely opposite because you're killing all these animals, and by killing all these animals, nothing good will come to your life.
So the difficulty, the uh very dangerous path of sacrifice when we uh kind of stress this point and make the sacrifice as our uh m main method of living in this world is very beautifully depicted in this Fourth Canto.
But not only this, this is not the worst part of the whole thing. The worst part, and actually the main message of the Fourth Canto, is that Vedic way of life makes you attached. And this attachment to the material life ultimately brings about
many many evils in your life, invokes many evils in your life. And if we look or again review the whole fourth canto, we will see that the fourth canto is describing this conflict between the attachment and detachment.
The first story, which we already told, the second story about Shiva and Daksha. What is this? This is the conflict between the attachment and detachment.
And then again, the next story when Sati wants to go to her father to attend the sacrifice. And Lord Shiva says, Don't go there. And Sati says, No, no, no. But he's my father. I love him. He's nice.
And I love my sisters and everyone else and let's do something. So again, this is the conflict between attachment and detachment. And then again Sati and Daksha, again the same conflict.
And then the next story with Dhruva Maharaj, and when we see Maharaja Uttānapāda Uttānapāda, and, uh, he's attached. He's attached to, uh, Suruci. And there is a conflict internally.
It's actually very important to know what it means also, because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam being Purāṇa in Purāṇa genre teaches us by these stories, lessons of the stories, but also, you know, every name in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is important. So we can see Mahārāja Uttānapāda and his two wives. What are his two wives? One is, uh, Sunīti. Sunīti means Sunīti. You follow the nīti, you follow the rules, you follow the discipline, Sunīti, you strictly follow the good, beautiful discipline. And another one is Suruci. Suruci means the good taste. You know, the taste for enjoyment. So these two wives are there.
And these two wives every one of us has within our heart, whether we are brahmacārīs or sannyāsīs or gṛhasthas, it doesn't matter. We all have these two wives, Sunīti and Suruci.
And Suruci, she has the son born from her, and his name is Uttama. You know, it basically means he's the best. So the enjoyment which is uh which is given, you know, gives gives you the fruit, this Uttama.
And of course, Suniti has another son whose name is Dhruva, which means determined, which means one who is ready to go to the end with determination and conviction.
So this is what Suruchi, if we follow sorry, Suniti, if we follow niti, if we follow discipline, then we will develop this attitude or this quality of determination to come to the ultimate goal of life.
So again we can see that this attachment and detachment is depicted in the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to explain to us that ultimately we have to become detached.
That if we live the Vedic way of life, even though we follow the Vedic culture properly, but if we remain attached, there is actually no benefit to it.
And we can see there is another story in this section of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam about Dhruva. The story of Dhruva when he became angry against Daksha. So what is the result of this anger? Anger is the result of attachment.
We all know dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgasteṣūpajāyate. The krodha is coming from kāma. Kāma means attachment, kāma means desire, desire to enjoy.
And even Dhruva Mahārāja who achieved the highest goal of life, he saw Lord Vishnu himself and even he became unnecessarily or inordinately angry.
And another problem which is, and of course, you know the attachment and detachment is there in the story of Maharaja Anga, who was the father of Mahārāja Veṇa?
I'm speaking not telling the stories, I assume that you know the basic plot of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, I don't explain the story itself, but I'm explaining the essential message which is there.
And when we come to the story of Mahārāja Pṛthu again we see this meeting of attachment and detachment but in a proper way. We see how Mahārāja Pṛthu meets with the Kumāras and how he receives Kumāras.
He is supposed to be attached person. Of course he is not attached, he is the śāktāveśa-avatāra of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but nevertheless he is playing the role of the king.
But this meeting is there that there is a proper conflict between attachment and detachment, as in case of Daksha and Shiva, which creates the destruction ultimately.
But the Bhāgavatam also explains that if somebody who is attached or who has the position of being attached, like householder or whatever, if he is respectful towards the renunciates, if he welcomes them and serves them and considers himself to be their menial servant, then his attachment will not bring the poisonous fruits.
The attachment and detachment uh when we live in this material world we have to be attached. When we live the uh grihastha life, uh the attachment, certain attachment has to be there.
But how to uh mitigate this attachment or the pernicious effect of this attachment by serving those people who are renounced and who are coming to our homes to deliver from these attachments.
And again the last story of the fourth Canto: when Nārada Muni comes to the king Prācīnabarhiṣad, and again teaches him the same thing and telling him the allegorical story.
And this allegorical story of King Purandjana told by Nārada Muni to Prācīna Barhiṣad is again saying beautifully this thing, you know, how King Puranjana, even though he was the perfect Vedic culture man. He was following it perfectly. He knew astrology, he knew everything, you know, he he was doing everything properly,
how he became totally attached and became a woman in the next life.
Internal obstacles and spiritual offenses
And how he went to forest to hunt, which basically means became sinful.
So the message uh which the fourth Canto is driving us uh is is bringing to us or trying to explain to us is that uh don't rely on the Vedic way of life as such.
It will bring attachment, attachment will bring pride, pride will bring offenses. Offences is a very important point of the whole fourth canto. Actually, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in every Kanto we see description of offenses.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam being Bhakti literature, the Bhakti-śāstra, the main bhakti grantha which we have is warning us again and again and again against the main obstacle on the path of bhakti which is aparādha.
And therefore in every canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we can see the examples of somebody who committed some offense and bad results of this offense.
But the most uh amazing uh Canto of all Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is definitely the fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which describes one offense after another offense after another offense, and their bad results.
You know, Suruci offended Dhruva. And what was the result?
She was burned in a fire. Not only she, her son was born in a fire. Druva, of course, offended Yaxus, but you know that was that didn't have bad effects because but in the beginning Daksha offended Shiva.
What was the result? He had the goat's head. It's not exactly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it's the supreme personality of a god, of the head of a god. This is what Daksha has become. As a result of the offense.
And Sati committed an offense. Sati didn't Sati didn't follow her husband. Please mute your microphones. Sati didn't follow her husband Shiva, and as a result of this offense, she had to burn herself in the yogic fire.
And then Indra committed offense against uh against uh Maharaja Prithu.
And then uh even Bhumidevi Prithvi uh committed offense and Prithu Maharaja was chasing her and chastising her and giving punishment to her because of her offense of not doing her duty.
So the offense is, of course, and then at the end result, you know we see again the ten sons of Maharaja Pratina Bharchi, ten Prachetas who again become angry against the trees.
You know it's very rarely that you become angry against the trees. It basically means that there is a lot of internal anger in you. Then you know any tree can can become a trigger to manifest your anger.
So again, that's that's the result of uh problems which are connected with this Vedic recipes, so to speak.
And another very interesting and very beautiful topic of the whole Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the religious hypocrisy. How the Vedic way of life or following the Vedic religion quote unquote religion, not Bhakti, because Bhakti is not religion.
How you if you follow the religion which has a selfish end, which we follow because we want something for ourselves. This is the most subtle way of exploiting the energy of the Lord or the Lord Himself.
So, how it breeds the hypocrisy.
You know, we uh see it in the curse and counter curse section where the Nandishvara as the leader of the followers of Lord Shiva and Brigumuni, as the leaders of the Brahmanas, who are conducting sacrifice, cursing each other, and saying that this is how you will be degraded, how all these followers of Lord Shiva will be degraded, and how the followers of Bhrṛgumuni or brāhmaṇas will be degraded, how they both of them will become atheistic.
It's actually a very interesting lesson.
And then again we see how Lord Indra stealing the horse of Maharaja Prithu from his horse sacrifice, aśvamedha-yajña, how he pretends himself and how he becomes the progenitor of all kinds of atheistic creeds, atheistic philosophies, atheistic religions, so to speak, in this world.
So this hypocritical nature of religion is being established in the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that if you rely on the religious ritual and Bhagavatam, that if you rely on the religious ritual and
the power of religious ritual and the power of this, you know, basically and and you become basically ritualistic because what is, uh, Vedic way of life? It's all kinds of rituals which you do uh uh to ensure your prosperity.
Uh then ultimately you will become hypocritical, you will become offensive, and in this way it will not bring to you what it is promised in the Vedas and the result will be opposite.
So basically this is what we see: this is the little description of the whole whole uh, fourth canto and I wanted again, uh, to reiterate the conclusions.
What are the problems of Vedic way of life, of following Vedic culture. Which again, as I said, it's not a theoretical problem. Somebody may say, you know, what is the Vedic way of life? We don't follow it anyway. No, no. No.
There is this Vedic materialism, it creeps in. In this connection we can see many, many manifestations of this Vedic materialism, this proliferation of astrology, for example. You know, I like astrology myself.
I study astrology. But I know the dangers of astrology. When astrology becomes something higher than bhakti, when the sacrifices become something higher than bhakti, when anything else
becomes something higher than bhakti, when varṇāśrama becomes higher than bhakti.
Varṇāśrama, all of a sudden being the secondary principle, secondary, important but secondary principle, all of a sudden in the minds of many devotees becomes the primary, the primary idea.
If not the primary message of the whole teaching of Śrīla Prabhupāda. There are so many strange sort of misconceptions in
this regard floating around because again, because they are there in our heart and because people don't treat the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And don't study the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly. The fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is supposed to remove all these problems from our understanding.
So again to reiterate what is it first of all it blurries our vision of reality. It does not really really uh concentrate us on one end.
We are supposed to be ekāntas, uh we are supposed to be concentrated on one end and basically understand that ultimate reality is one. Vadanti tatva vidas tattvam yajgyyanam advayam. There is only one Advaya Jyan.
Only one tatva reality, God, Supreme Lord. But then you know when you become Vedic you say yeah yeah everyone is okay everyone is fine. Let's worship everyone, not forget anyone, Modi is included, you know, just in case.
So So uh th th this is this is important. This is very important mm message of m misunderstanding. We become kind of visible.
And instead of you know concentrating our endeavors in one achieving one goals we become uh all over the place you know and then uh sacrifices are very difficult to perform perfectly uh and any mistake ruins the sacrifice.
And even if there is no mistake, still it ruins the sacrifice. You know, even if you perform perfectly, there is no guarantee As I said, Mahārāja Aṅga performed his sacrifice. He wanted son. Yes, he got his son.
And then he was lamenting that he got such a cruel and cold-hearted son, who was a demon basically. Even though he was a nice man and he was performing good sacrifices.
And ultimately he wanted to have a son because uh he couldn't perform sacrifices. So sacrifice is difficult.
Uh it's practically impossible to achieve desired result by performing sacrifices. Even if you do everything properly.
You know, I heard a story from one sannyāsī about one astrologer who is a great astrologer and he was his really good great astrologer and he was while doing astrology to others he kind of on a side was doing astrology for himself he, was looking for a perfect match for himself, perfect lady who would become his ideal wife.
And you know, screening after screening, and so many people approached him asking him to give astrological advice. And he was collecting all the data.
And in the meantime, he was matching horoscopes of different ladies with his horoscope. And ultimately he found amazing match. Everything was totally, completely perfect. To minutest details.
Everything, well, maybe little details were there because nothing is perfect in this world. But ultimately it was just amazing. He was amazed. For many years he was doing this.
He was not, he was very Vedic devotee, he was not risking his life, you know, he was not entering gṛhastha āsrama without proper consideration. So he did perfect match. He found the lady of his dream.
He ultimately got married with her. In two months, it was a bloody divorce. Bloody divorce. It just didn't work. So So it's basically that's the message of the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Don't rely on these Vedic rituals. You know, you do them. We're not against Vedic rituals. Prabhupāda did all this Vedic sacrifice and everything else. But this is not the ultimate.
And I'm still not I'm only uh talking about the negative part of the message of the fourth canto. There is a very important positive part of the fourth canto, which I will explain in a minute.
So first it uh blurs your vision and you know distracts your focus from achieving one goal because it uh doesn't stress the existence of one God.
It uh concentrates your energy on creating seq performing sacrifice which is very difficult to perform and uh which is not sure.
Uh the sacrifices uh ultimately, it creates internal and external conflicts and the spirit of competition. You know, we can see this in example of Indra and Maharaja Prithu,
how Indra became envious, Daksha became very envious, because all this opulence which is coming as a result of this Vedic way of life is ultimately feeds your competitive spirit.
Does not really create humility within yourself. You want to become more prosperous and you want to show how you're performing the best sacrifices and everything else. And it creates conflicts inevitably.
It inevitably because competitiveness, this rivalry, jealousy towards others, it's not a solution and it it doesn't therefore it's not it's not a solution to all our problems, it creates more problems.
Then it creates pride. And because of the pride, instead of creating humility, which is the proper attitude towards life? It creates pride, and because of the pride, it creates offenses.
You know, the many offenses which we mentioned, you know, and uh including the offense of uh Maharaja Uttānapāda who uh couldn't stop Suruchi and so on so forth. It creates f uh offenses. And then it creates attachment.
It's all more or less the same thing, but not exactly. We have to know very clearly different results of this Vedic culture, so to speak.
And then it also brings about ultimately pushes you to create some sinful activities. Like in case of Indra. Indra is a perfect representative of Vedic culture. But because of this inherent problems of Vedic culture.
Because of this attachment and competitiveness, you ultimately are forced to commit sinful activities.
And of course, Puranjana, the story of Maharaja Puranjana says very clearly that uh he he was hunting and hunting basically means that he was doing some uh very sinful activities.
Hunting hunting uh you know this is how it is. It starts nicely. It starts as a very pious alternative for life.
But unfortunately, this pious alternative, if it doesn't have the foundation of bhakti, if it does not include bhakti as an integral part of this, it It will become corrupt, the whole thing.
So uh and then it breeds religious hypocrisy and atheism, uh breeds all kinds of atheistic uh uh ideas
in yourself, and the most important flaw of this Vedic culture, of Vedic way of life, is that it does not bring liberation.
And of course the hilarious way to uh uh explain it is to start the fourth canto from the story of Shiva and Daksha and then to end the fourth Kanto with Daksha being born again.
Daksha even though he supposedly was remorseful and he was begging forgiveness, still offense was there and he was born again with the same problems.
His problems, of course, will be described in another canto, but it's not an occasion, it's not an incident that the story
Solution through hearing Krishna katha
starts with Daksha and ends with Daksha. Daksha was not liberated.
Even though he was performing sacrifices and everything. And Pracetas, their whole story is also not even though it's positive and depicted in a positive life light, but nevertheless the result of all the endeavors of
Prachetas is that Daksha was born to them. So it means that some attachment was there in them. Even though they were trying to follow all the rules of the Vedic way of life and everything else.
So what is the conclude- what is the resolution? That's the problem. So far I was only describing the problem which is uh explained in the fourth canto. So what is the solution? Solution is also given in the fourth canto.
And this solution is given in the prayers of Dhruva Maharaj. This solution is given in the prayers of Prithu Maharaj.
And this solution is also given in the prayer which I read from the end when Narada Muni is explaining the allegorical meaning of the story of King Puranjana.
In all the prayers, the one important point in all these prayers in the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the same important point is there.
What you are supposed to do, you're supposed to live your Vedic life, you're supposed to be cultured, civilized person, you're supposed to do all these rituals. That's all fine.
But at the same time you have to have desire to hear from the mouth of devotee.
If this desire is there, then all the poison which is there in the Vedic way of life will be neutralized by the nectar which is flowing from the mouth of devotees.
Like Prahlad Maharaj, sorry, not Prahlad Maharaj, Dhruv Maharaj, he says, Bhaktim Muhuh Pravahatam Tvaime Prasanga, Puyahana This is one of the most important prayer of Dhruv Maharaj, there are eleven verses or ten verses of his prayers.
And in this prayer, he says that you know Bhaktim Muhuh Pravahatam Twaime Prasanga What I want to have in my life, Buyata Nanta Mahatam Amalashayan. I want to hear Mahat. I want to hear great devotees.
Because when your devotees speak, their speech is like pravahatam. It's like pravaha, it's like flow, flow of nectar. Bhaktim Muhuhpravahatam Twaime Prasanga.
In the association of your devotees, my consciousness will be taken by this flow which is coming from their mouths and will be brought to your lotus feet.
And therefore, this is the only thing which I want. And the same thing in our verse which we read today, Tasmin Mahan Mukharita Tasmin Mahan Mukharita Madhubi Chaita. Same thing is there.
The river is flowing from the mouth of devotees. What this river does, it takes my consciousness, my individual consciousness, and purifies my individual consciousness. Therefore, I don't want to have anything else.
And Prahlāda Mahārāja says, yāvan ṁghri-padَم... Bhidis Yana by this Anjas Ulbana Uruvya-sanaṁ bhavābhyām, and this ocean of material life there is such great problems. Uruvya-sanam.
When we go through this material life, there are so many problems. All these emotional problems which we have.
And actually, by the way, the Fourth Canto is describing all these emotions of attachments, anger and grief and you know frustration.
All this emotional spectrum which is there, which is the main characteristic of material life, is described in the fourth canto.
So Prahlāda-- oh sorry, Dhruva Mahārāja says, yāvan ṁghri-padam... Bhavābhyām, by this I will be-- I will easily, uh, cross all these problems. Even though they are huge like a waves in the ocean.
Like the during the storm storm the waves are huge, but very easily I will do this. And what will happen with me nesie bavadgunakathamritapana Matah?
I will just even not notice how I will be transformed or transferred into another sphere of life.
From this material life, I will not even notice how I will become spiritual because I will be intoxicated by this nectar which is flowing from your devotees.
The only point is that I have to find a place where such devotees exist and I have to hear them and again and again and again.
As Prabhupada explains in the purpose to the verse which we read and which I said, uh, in the beginning, this verse is the real message of the, uh, Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The solution of all our problems is not Vedic way of life, is not following the Vedic culture properly.
That we have to do. That's not a problem. But that's not an issue. The issue the real uh the real solution to all our problems is to find a place where devotees live and not only devotees live, real devotees live.
And when the real devotees live, they always speak about Krishna. And when they speak about Krishna, everything else will be solved. What will be solved? The fear will be solved. The attachment will be solved.
The hunger will be solved. The problem of thirst will be solved as we read in this thing. There will be no bewilderment or confusion. No bhaya, no śoka, no hunger, no thirst. This is the place which we have to find.
The place where there is this flow of nectar which will solve our problems in reality.
If we don't find such a place, if we don't find such an association, and luckily for us we have now internet and we can just find a proper site where there is this place. When we can here.
If we don't do this, then the problems of material existence will still haunt us, will still chase after us and we will still be fearful. We will still be immersed in grief and we will still be bewildered.
Bhaya, śoka and moha will be with us and of course hunger and thirst and mating and defending, and all these four pillars of animal life, animalistic life will rule supreme.
These four pillars, eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, it's a very basic instinct, and they will keep us attached to this material life, and there is only one solution to break free from this bondage of eating, sleeping, mating and defending is to hear Krishna Katha from the mouths of devotees.
So that's the real message of the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam therefore is very important establishing this point.
How the basically it's the refutation of Pūrva-mīmāṁsā you can say, uh the philosophy of Pūrva-mīmāṁsā which says that you can be happy, you don't need anything else, you just perform sacrifice, mm do the follow the
Vedas very properly. And if you do follow the Vedas very properly, then you will become happy in this material world. Bhagavatam says, no, you will not become happy.
If you want to become happy, yeah, you follow Vedas, no doubt about it, but please make it a point that you do it in connection with the devotees, by hearing the devotees. Again and again and again.
Bhaktyā mukunda-padavīr anujīvatāṁ śṛṇvatāṁ kathā rajas-tamaso hareḥ muhuḥ. Again and again and again, Dhruva Mahārāja says, I want to hear you.
And Pṛthu Mahārāja in his prayer, he says again, the same thing, I don't want anything else. I own the only thing which I want, I want to have millions of ears to hear how your devotees speak.
And he says, when your devotees speak uh then the saffron particles uh because they speak by taking shelter of your lotus feet your feet like lotus and the saffron uh particles uh of this lotus uh goes into their mind and from their mind comes from their mouths.
And by coming from their mouth, the saffron particles of your lotus feet, they purify kuyogi. And they establish this Kuyogi on the proper path. So again, who is kuyogi?
Kuyogi is the person, bewildered person who wanted to become a yogi, wanted to have connection with the Lord, but because of the problems of bewilderment associated with this material life, he became deviated.
So how for us kuyogis who want to re-establish our relationship with the Lord to become re-established. Really for that we need to hear the devotees who convey
the message of the Lord or speak about this mahad-vicarita, caritra, the beautiful past times of the Lord.
So that's description of the fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, short review of the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the structure of the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is the essential place of this particular canto?
And I'm ready to answer your questions. Uh I'm not in a hurry, I don't know about you, but uh I can answer your questions if there are some, if there is no, we can finish now. Thank you very much Maharaj.
So we do have questions and uh so let's go straight to the questions.
Um first one, we see through the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in various yugas great kings and demigods involved in various sacrifices. Why do they do so?
Purpose of performing Vedic sacrifices
Knowing the supreme position of the Lord? This is from Anupah Maradhan. Again, sacrifice. What is sacrifice? Sacrifice is uh I'm staying now in an ashram where in the morning, four o'clock they do long sacrifice.
And the one thing which you always hear during the sacrifice uh uh uh uh this Achuttaya Namaha uh Govindaya Namaha uh So the main point of sacrifice is namaha. This is the main mantra of sacrifice, namaha oswaha.
You know when you pour oblations into the fire. This is the mantra which you are supposed to chant. Svaha and Namaha. And it's the same. Svaha or Namaha, the meaning is the same. There is a name of the Lord.
There is a bīja om, there is the name of the Lord in dative case to you. I invoke the I invoke Lord, I address Him by His name to you, and then Namaha, I give.
Sacrifice teaches us very important thing is that I'm not the center of the universe. That the meaning of life is sacrifice. I have to sacrifice, I have to give.
So sacrifice teaches us this very important lesson that I have to give, to give, to give, to give, to give. And therefore, sacrifice, but in the beginning. And Namaha means I relinquish my false ego, false identity.
Svaha means the same. Svaha. Sva means me, myself, ha means to kill. Svaha, I burn myself. I'm not for myself. I'm for the Lord. The meaning of my life is for the Lord.
So therefore, the whole ritual of sacrifice is very important. The meaning of sacrifice is very important. The sacrifice is very important. Please don't misunderstand what I wanted to say.
I didn't want to say that sacrifices are useless. I wanted to say that when you perform sacrifice, not with the idea to give yourself to the Lord, but with the idea to get something in return, then it's very difficult.
And usually that's why people do sacrifice. This is how Vedas teach. Vedas they say, it's very interesting, the Yaj Datu. I don't know I if I explained it already or not. Yaj Datu has three meanings.
The first meaning is saṅgati, yaj saṅgati, the another meaning yaj dāna, and the third meaning is yaj deva pūjā.
So yajña is meant first of all to do deva pūjā, to pūjā to the Lord, to the second of all, it's dāna, it means you give something. You learn how to give. You learn how to live by giving.
Now we all know how to live by taking, but the sacrifice teaches us how to live by giving. And the third meaning, Yaj Sangati, means that during the sacrifice you associate with devotees who perform sacrifice,
who sing beautiful bhajans.
Like today I was walking uh in the ashram and they were doing sacrifice and then at the end of the sacrifice they were uh chanting Madhurashtakam, Adharam madhuram, vadanam madhuram, nayanam madhuram, hasitam madhuram, hridayam madhuram, madhuradhipater akhilam madhuram, they were glorifying sweet Lord.
So the sacrifice is important because it gives us proper association, gives us all the Puranas were uh told or were uh and Mahābhārata was told during sacrifice.
Usually people would come and in the in the breaks between sacrifice they would hear devotees speak about the Lord. So teaches us how to live by giving and teach us to respect the Lord.
So sacrifice itself is very important lesson. And everyone has to be engaged in sacrifice. We also engaged in sacrifice.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Ram Hare Hare, the saṅkīrtana yajña is also sacrifice. So I was not talking about the problems of sacrifice,
I was talking about sacrifice become problematic when you imply some other meaning in the sacrifice. I want to get something. I want to get a son as a result of the sacrifice. I want to become happy.
I want to become wealthy as a result of this sacrifice. Then sacrifice becomes problematic. Because of your initial insincerity.
But if you do sacrifice properly in a proper mood with understanding that this is you're sacrificing your false ego in this fire of sacrifice, then it's fine. There is nothing wrong.
So therefore all the kings they were teaching their subjects. They may be c they themselves may be pure devotees. They don't need sacrifice.
But they were engaging all their subjects, they were performing these great sacrifices, people would come, people would eat prasadam, remnants of the sacrifice, and people would hear uh the great devotees to speak and people would respect uh you know gods by doing this sacrifice.
So the next question you know which relates to
Perspectives on animal sacrifice in scriptures
this one is uh was animal sacrifice followed in all yugas? Why is it extensively mentioned in the Vedas? In Mahābhārata there is a very interesting story about uh King Uparicaravasu. Uparicaravasu.
This king was a very great devotee of the Lord, and he was also a great devotee of Sun God. As far yeah, I think Sun God. And Sangad gave him the Vimana, the chariot.
And And with this Vimana he was able to travel in the space and therefore his name was Uparicharavasu. He is Charu traveling uppary up there.
So once he was traveling and he saw the priests Brahmanas and the demigods who were quarrelling over this question: whether the sacrifice should involve sacrificing of the animals or not.
In the Vedas it is said that you should sacrifice Aja. And Aja may mean God. And the demigods they were saying that it is very clearly said in the Vedas that God has to be sacrificed in this particular sacrifice.
But ajya may också minn rice sid, which are are uh you know the the proper rice seeds, not uh how you say this, n uh without husking when when the rice seed is is is there.
So and the Brahmanas were saying no no no no this is this is very ridiculous, you know. Why you saying that the gods have to be sacrificed? Why do you want to have this bloody mess instead of sacrifice. Aja means seeds.
And they asked this Upari Charavasu, what is his opinion? They took him as a referee. And And he knew that the proper answer is that sacrifice does not mean the sacrifice of the animals.
Sacrifice means the sacrifice of fruits and grains and ghee ultimately. But because being in the moment of weakness of the heart, he kind of ruled in the favor of these animal sacrifices.
And therefore he was cursed and he ultimately went to hell and suffered for some time in hell, but he met a devotee, and therefore, even in hell he met a devotee. But that's the side story.
Basically, this story shows that this argument whether the animals should be sacrificed or not is a very long-standing one.
And there is opinion that all the statements of the Vedas which says that you should sacrifice this animal or that animal they are misinterpreted.
Of course, Aswameda Yagya was there, and Aswameda Yaya means the Yagi of the horse, but you know in Ashwameda Yagya the horse is supposed to be uh walking out from the fire alive.
You know, it was just a demonstration of the efficacy of the mantras. If mantras were chanted properly, then the sacrifice then the killing of the animal would not take place. And there are so many other debates.
So this debate uh whether the uh uh sacrifice uh involve animal killing or not is long uh is is a long debate and our opinion, our Vaishnava opinion is that no Vedas do not prescribe animal sacrifice.
Vedas prescribe sacrifice of the grains and fruits and vegetables and milk and milk products to purify the heart
and this is the corruption of the very which I said is more or less inevitable that ultimately Vedic way if if somebody is uh just following Vedas without having bhakti uh as a foundation for this following that inevitably uh it will be corrupt. It will bring about some atheistic or deviant philosophies, deviant practices and and uh uh uh ultimately m bring about also sinful acts.
Thank you Maharaj. So we've got two more questions.
Scientific approach versus holistic knowledge
The next one is uh Dinesh Prabhu. Uh the question is does genetic modification is it good and is it okay according to Shastra?
Well actually all the modern achievements which which are there they are described in one way or another in the Shastras, and it implies that you can change your genes.
Like, for example, even in Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a story of uh Sudhyumna uh who would become women uh who changed his gender so this gender uh modification or how to say it transgender sort of thing is there in Shimad Bhagavatam.
He would become woman and then become man again and woman and man again. So that implies some genetic manipulation, manipulations with his genes, certainly.
So Vedic procedures they imply certain modifications which may be there but uh uh vedas teach us how to manipulate this material nature in a wholesome way, not in an unhealthy way as the modern scientists do.
But the problem with the modern science is that as I said, it consciously narrows the horizon, the conceptual horizon of the cause and effect relationship.
It only, you know, it can only solve the problem where the cause and effect localized. They have to localize the cause and by changing the cause, change the effect.
What they want, they want to change some effect, therefore, they try to modify the cause, but to do this, they isolate this particular cause and effect.
And by isolating this cause and effect from the broader context, they don't really know what other consequences of modification of the cause will be there.
They change the cause, but the nature is designed in such a way that every cause has multiple effects. And it's involved and in fact the cause is an effect of something else and something else.
So it's a huge very complicated mesh, very complicated chain of cause and effects. So what scientists try to do by solving particular problem, they see a problem and an effect, they try to modify the cause, and it works.
Definitely in this cause and effect relationship, everything works, but the problem is that they don't know what else happens at the same time. Like, you know, recently I had to take antibiotics, you know, I had to take.
And they worked wonder. You know, I was trying to solve the problem by some other way, but I couldn't solve the problem by some other way. So I had to take antibiotics. Within three days my problem was solved completely.
But unfortunately, there was another problem.
You know, I had a problem, some infection in one place, and because of taking antibiotics, uh I was infected all over the body. My whole body was rushing and you know it was uh the allergy was all over the place.
So this is the price which I had to pay for this solving this problem in a scientific way. So that's the problem that science cannot deal with complicated systems.
Science simplifies the system and then deals with the consequences.
And then of course you know when I said to the doctor, what shall I do? You know, they said, Oh, I'll take another medicine, and I said, you know, if I take another medicine, there will be some other kind of side effect. They said yes of course there will be some but there is medicine for this other side effect, no problem. So for every side effect there is a solution which creates some other side effect. Because again, because of this approach, general approach.
Therefore, the third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the most broadest, the broadest approach by which you can understand or see how the local approach can also be solved, you know.
Like unfortunately more holistic systems which uh deal with the system as a whole not with the particular cause and effect relationship, they are more or less lost. Like Ayurvedic system is more holistic.
You know it's interesting again what the modern medicine does. The modern medicine purifies one substance.
And this one substance, it's usually, you know, if you see the description of any allopathic medicine, you will see that this is a very simple molecule. Simple or not so simple, but it's still one substance.
And this one substance, it's very effective, and they know how it you know how it modifies certain things, how it interacts with certain receptors, for example, receptors in the brain or receptors in the cell. So it's one substance.
When we take Ayurvedic medicine or any other holistic medicine, we see it's very complicated stuff. There are many many substances, and there is of course there is uh probably one main substance or few main substances which are there which affect and some other substances need to be there to
counteract the side effects because they are using the complicated thing uh uh by uh you know by effecting the complex you know, two complicated systems interact with each other.
You know, to correct one complicated system or complex system. To correct one complex system, you need another complex system. Because only in this way the correction can become proper.
But scientists cannot do this, they cannot figure it out. Therefore, they try to correct complex systems with a simple system. And by correcting the complex system with a simple system, they create so many other problems.
And therefore, this is what happened. And the same with genetic engineering.
They yes, they solve some problem, but they create so many other problems because again they only deal with very simple uh understanding without trying to understand the uh uh you know and uh to understand how the complex system interact with each other, you need revelation.
If you take any Vedic discipline, whether it is Ayurveda or Yoga or whatever it is, the knowledge which is behind this, it's not Akshaja knowledge, it's not pratyaksha knowledge, it's not the knowledge of our senses, which is limited, which is always imperfect. It's yogaja knowledge. In Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, he speaks about two kinds of knowledge.
One is pratyaksha, the knowledge which you derive from the senses or experiment experiential knowledge, which the scientists deal with. And yogaja is the knowledge which you get through meditation.
If you purify your mind and you meditate on a certain object, this object becomes one with your mind.
And you study the object not in outside world when you cannot study it properly, but you study the exact and proper replica of the object within your mind through the meditation.
And this information which is uh you derive from this process is much more complete and much more and wholesome and gives you amazing results.
So, you know all the fathers of Ayurveda they just say that this is the herb for this sort of problem or disease but they never say there was no laboratory laboratories at that time. They didn't do experiments.
How did they do? Actually Ayurveda himself itself describes they would go to the forest and they would start speaking with the different herbs.
You know, the herb would tell them, I am for this and I am for that, and you know, this is yogaja knowledge.
So, and uh if scientists become yogis and learn this art or science how to get the knowledge from meditation, from yoga, then maybe they will be able to do some genetic manipulation.
Otherwise better they just don't do anything. Better they just retire. It only creates harm. Harm. Thank you so very much Maharaj. The last question is, uh, there was there was questions from the last time.
You know the you you mentioned that Radha Pramod wanted to ask something. So what happens is yeah, so you'll try to get those
Recognizing devotees and avoiding offenses
questions out, and, uh, till that happens, we will ask these two questions. Yeah, you just hear.
You know, you can recognize devotees not by uh seeing because who we are to see. There is some sort of haughtiness in when we try to judge the level of advancement of a devotee just by seeing him or by using your own discrimination.
You just hear and see how your heart how your heart reacts.
You know if you hear and the hearing process inspires you, this inspiration is the indication that this is what you need, what your heart needs. It's like Maharaja Parikshit.
He was hearing Śukadeva Gosvāmī again and again and again, and he says that I don't have any worries, I don't have any fears, I'm not fearful of this Takshaka snake. And I don't have hunger and thirst.
So if you hear somebody and you can hear him again and again and again without being satiated, this is the place where we should strive for.
Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura, by commenting on this verse which we read, he says, you know, if you find devotees who just, you know, who say, oh, fi on me, I slept so long today and I missed Bhagavatam class.
And what shall I do? But now they describe the qualities of the Lord. Let me run there.
You find devotees who live there with such an eagerness to hear. Then you have to run to this place and stay with this place, where the rivers of nectar flow. Devotees only when they feel the eagerness to hear...
It's not just the devotee who speaks need to be there; the devotee who wants to hear needs to be there.
When this combination is there, then the proper place where as Prabhupada says, where we can practice Krishna consciousness very easily without any problems, this is the proper place where we can do this.
So that's answering the last question. In the meantime, I forget what was the beginning in this question. Uh, yeah, how how to avoid offenses? How to avoid offences.
Uh basically again uh if you hear in a proper mood you know, to what what does it mean to avoid offenses? To avoid offenses means, uh, to avoid pride to cultivate humility.
You know, when somebody I have seen many people, unfortunately, not many but few people, but quite a few people, who were reading a lot of books, and by reading a lot of books they became very offensive.
And we know unfortunate stories from Prabhupada's life and his disciples who were reading books, knowing Sanskrit and this and that, and ultimately uh would become very offensive to Prabhupada.
So the cause, root cause of offense is pride or self reliance when we rely on our own ability to understand Shastra. When we are fixed, and therefore actually this First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is there.
is there. The first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the remedy from this offensive mentality because if we read properly we will develop this eagerness to hear and uh being a hearer is uh a humble position.
You know, if we are eager to hear uh it it is a manifestation of humility. If we are eager to speak, it may not be it's not necessarily a manifestation of pride.
We may speak in a service attitude as Śukadeva Gosvāmī was speaking. But um uh there is certain devotees perhaps you have seen
them uh who become very morose when they have to hear somebody, but when they themselves speak they become very enthusiastic and you know if If they lead the kīrtana they are very enthusiastic.
If somebody else leads the kīrtana they're much less enthusiastic. So, you know, to to develop humility you have to develop attachment to hear. This is one one recommendation.
Of course in general we have to to become humble, we have to take, accept spiritual master, and always consider oneself as a fool. You know, who am I?
I'm speaking this theoretical knowledge, what do I understand in reality? I don't understand anything.
So my only way to understand this difficult subject matters, spiritual subject matters which reflect the spiritual reality is to serve my spiritual master.
If this attitude is there then it's a good antidote against offenses. Thank you.
Importance of horoscope matching in marriage
Next question is the importance of matching horoscope in early modern for the purposes of marriage since you feel like devotees in particular. It is very important. We should not neglect.
Again, the point of my lecture was not to neglect Vedic culture.
Varṇāśrama culture with all the details and matching horoscopes uh in Varṇāśrama culture is one of the details of Varṇāśrama culture, of proper matching of the marriages.
My whole point of the lecture was not to denigrate this great culture. It's our culture, we should follow this culture, it's important culture.
The problem is that we should not elevate the details of this culture over the essential principle of this culture which is bhakti. And we should put everything into proper perspective.
Bhakti is the main principle, everything else is subsidiary.
So in one sense bhakti is a subsidiary and if you have two pure devotees and they somehow rather by some freak or by some good fortune want to live together, then matching is not maybe not important.
But I believe there will be difficulties even in this case. Because yeah of course if if they don't have material mind, uh then there will be no friction between the material mind. But what is matching?
Matching is the matching of the minds. Uh mostly matching of the minds. And if the minds match together then it's easy, then there's no undue problems in the material relationship which we have.
But if they don't match, what will happen, you know, somebody will say something and it will be misinterpreted by somebody by the husband or by the wife, and there will be just an endless chain of misunderstandings, and ultimately it will come to the point when you will just hate each other because of this too intimate uh or too close connection uh uh m uh which which is mismatched.
It it will be difficult. It's like, you know, mind is material. You know, you try to you try to ignite the fire and at the same time pour water there.
Fire and water they you know they don't match with each other and therefore they they always will be smoke. Uh if you don't match uh your chart the the other thing is that it's not the only consideration.
Matching of the horoscopes is only part of the matching, and you have to have a proper astrologer who will tell you how to do this.
But there are some other considerations you have to see uh that your background is similar. Like in Vedic culture it was very important that the people from the same caste uh would marry each other. Why?
Because their value system was the same. You may have by some coincident horoscopes which match, but because people from different backgrounds, their value system will not match.
You know if somebody why it is not recommended to have intercaste marriage, this mixed marriages, especially prati loma marriages, when when the wife is from the higher higher caste than than husband, because their value system is different.
So so if you try to match, for example, you know, boy who is a Brahmana with girl who is Vaisha by nature, it will be very difficult because he' uhs detached and he wants to study and she wants to have a luxurious life with all kinds of facilities. It will be very difficult.
So it's just a common sense to to do matching. But But you know matching is not only according to the chart but according to the in general uh the background and so many other considerations are there. So it's important part.
I myself personally see recently some marriage which totally broke, which was arranged much by very traditional Indian people, but they neglect matching the horoscopes and ultimately the the boy and girl almost killed each other. So bad it was.
So all right, so here we we have no more questions. Okay.