Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.5.41
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · USA · 2004
Chapters
Reading scripture on Prajapati Daksha's philosophy
So we read today the 41st verse of the sixth canth of the fifth chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The chapter is entitled Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksha.
Nanobuya najanati umanvishayatiksnataman vicha nirvidya te swayamtasmayamtasma Natatha bina di parai. Translation and purports by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
Material enjoyment is indeed the cause of all unhappiness. But one cannot give it up unless one has personally experienced how much suffering it is.
Therefore one should be allowed to remain in so-called material enjoyment while simultaneously advancing in knowledge to experience the misery of this false material happiness.
Then without help from others, one will find material enjoyment detestful. Those whose minds are changed by others do not become as renounced as Purport. Śrīla Prabhupāda.
It is said that unless a woman becomes pregnant, she cannot understand the trouble of giving birth to a child. Bandiaki Budjibi Prashava Vedana.
The word bandhya means a sterile woman. Such a woman cannot give birth to a child. How then can she perceive the pain of delivery?
According to the philosophy of Prajapati Daksha, a woman should first become pregnant and then experience the pain of childbirth. Then, if she is intelligent, she will not want to be pregnant again.
Actually, however, this is not a fact. Sex enjoyment is so strong that a woman becomes pregnant and suffers at the time of childbirth, but she becomes pregnant again despite her experience.
According to Daksha's philosophy, one should become implicated in material enjoyment so that after experiencing the distress of such enjoyment, one will automatically renounce.
Material nature, however, is so strong that although a man suffers at every step, he will not cease his attempts to enjoy it. Tibyanti Nehripana Bahuduka Baja Under
Under the circumstances, unless one gets the association of a devotee like Nārada Muni or his servant, in the disciplic succession, one's dormant spirit of renunciation cannot be awakened.
It is not a fact that because material enjoyment involves so many painful conditions, one will automatically become detached. One needs the blessings of a devotee like Narada Muni.
Then one can renounce his attachment for the material world. The young boys and girls of the Krishna consciousness movement are given out the spirit of material enjoyment, not because of praxis, but
by the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his servants Śrīla Prabhupāda.
vi shayati kna Material enjoyment is indeed the cause of all unhappiness, but one cannot give it up unless one has personally experienced how much suffering it is.
Therefore, one should be allowed to remain in so-called material enjoyment while simultaneously advancing in knowledge to experience the misery of this false material happiness.
That without help from others one will find material enjoyment detested.
Daksha's logic on experiencing material suffering
Those whose minds are changed by others do not become as renounced as those who have personal experience. So here Prajapati Daksha explains his reasoning why Narada Muni should not have done what he has done.
And his reasoning seems to be apparently quite solid. He says that unless you experience yourself the sufferings of material enjoyment, your understanding of this sufferings will remain theoretical.
And because it remains theoretical, it will not really awaken the spirit of renunciation. And he is a strong advocate.
And he's explaining this according to the terms of Vedic philosophy: that ultimately material enjoyment is not enjoyment. In old Vedic literature, it is very strongly stressed that there is no enjoyment in matter.
In Chandogya Upanishad, there is a very beautiful statement that if you want to experience bliss, then the preliminary requirement which have to be there is that it has to be unlimited.
If the bliss is limited, it's not bliss, it's misery.
Lord Krishna says the same thing in the Bhagavad-gītā, he samsparśa-jāḥ. He says that na Buddha Ramat Ramate Buddha, that the intelligent man will not enjoy something which has beginning and end.
If something, if it's even really enjoyable, has an end, then it is in itself the cause of suffering.
You may try to enjoy this and you are enjoying this, but because you feel that sooner or later it will come to an end, you will feel kind of you know unhappiness.
And then when you lose this enjoyment, you will be unhappy again. So therefore, Chāndogya Upaniṣad strongly says, bhūmā, if you want to experience happiness, happiness has to be unlimited.
The same thing is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Rishabhadev says that Brahmasukhatvanantam, that spiritual happiness doesn't have an end.
Whereas material happiness is not happiness at all. It is so-called happiness because it has the beginning and end, just because of the simple reason.
The happiness has to be complete, has to be absolute. It is relative if it is relative, it is not happiness. So this is the statement, and the Vedic literature is strong about this point.
Therefore, Prajapati Daksha being a man of Vedic culture, one of the Prajapati, one of the founders of Vedic culture, so to speak. And in the next verse he will say, I perform this yagya and that yaya. See how pious I am.
He says that ultimately there is no happiness, but you have to experience this yourself. Unless you know this on your own experience, your renunciation will not be complete, so to speak.
And he said there is no need to be nadik, there is no need to try to convince somebody about this.
Rebutting the necessity of material experience
He has to know this from his own experience. But Prabhupada very cleverly disproves this.
He explains in the purport that actually this is a fact, that there is no happiness in material enjoyment. But still everyone is after it.
Actually, this is a fact, and we all know that there is no happiness in material enjoyment, but still we cannot give it up. And no matter how much we enjoy, we will not be able to renounce it.
And Prabhupada he quotes Prahlāda Mahārāja, that's one of his favorite verses, Yangrihamedi Sukamhi Putcha. And Prahala Maharaj says in this verse, Khandutidva Manasi Jam Vishhaheeta Diraha.
He says that the reason why people are enjoying this material enjoyment so, to speak, and cannot give it up, even though it is a cause of suffering.
And Prahlāda Mahārāja says that someone is itching, scratching and scratching and scratching till it becomes bleeding. And still, despite this bleeding, he continues scratching.
Despite the suffering, he continues trying to squeeze out enjoy it. And Prabhupada was really amazed to see it.
Once Prabhupada was coming late or very early in the morning from his program, and he saw in France, and of course, France is not famous for very for being very renounced. The people in France they like material enjoyments.
So Prabhupada saw very old man, old, you know, totally senile man, trembling, you know, coming back from the you know from the prostitutes.
Prabhupada said, look, you know, these men they cannot do anything, they cannot really enjoy. The body cannot enjoy. But still they're trying to enjoy.
Still they're trying to squeeze out the enjoyments from this body, which is good for nothing. So Prahlāda Mahārāja, in this verse, which Prabhupada quotes in this purport, he explains why people cannot give it up.
He says kaṇḍūyatiur vishaheta dhīrāḥ that the real reason why people cannot give up material enjoyment is that it is manasi ja it has the nature of mental enjoyment. The body is limited, and the capacity for body to enjoy is very limited. But the capacity in the mind to enjoy is unlimited. The mind has unlimited greed.
The body is very limited. And that's the reason why we never can really satisfy the desire to enjoy. Because the desire to enjoy is in the mind.
Whereas the enjoyment as we understand it, the conception of enjoyment as we understand it is connected with the body. And capacity of the body to enjoy is very limited.
You know, you want to eat when you're hungry, you want to eat the whole universe, basically. But unfortunately, you eat a few spoonfuls and you are full.
And you cannot do anything and you eat little more and little more and then you're full completely.
But still the desire to enjoy because it's manasi ja, manasi ja it has the mental nature, because it has the mental nature, it's not satisfied.
And you cannot satisfy it on the physical level because the physical capacity of your senses is very much limited, much more limited than the capacity of the mind to enjoy.
And another reason of course is that, and Śrīla Prabhupāda also explains this, he says that because it's it has this mental nature, because the enjoyment and the spirit of enjoyment is within our mind then we want to enjoy and we try to enjoy not just because we really want it but because others enjoy it.
You people in order to enjoy despite all these sufferings, when they see that other people are enjoying, they try to enjoy themselves. They constantly agitate their minds.
They go to see some pornography, you know, pictures or whatever videos or some erotic kind of things, just to agitate the mind.
They see how others enjoy, and they don't enjoy themselves. They know this, but they see how others enjoy and they think this is good. I also have to do this. So the example is very simple.
Because it has the mental nature, like if you see the monkeys, the monkeys, they are very mental. And monkeys they have very acute sense of enjoyment. And usually they do it by scratching their bodies, right?
They either scratch themselves or they scratch the bodies of their female friends or you know male persons. So if one monkey, and when they do this, they do this with such gusto.
So when one monkey starts scratching the body, you know, scratches and scratches, then immediately another monkey starts scratching too. Because, you know, the mind, being contagious, wants to experience the same thing.
And exactly the same is going on in the human society. In the human society, one monkey is scratching the body, another monkey watches this. And then another monkey in human form tries to imitate this monkey.
And this is going on and on and on. And therefore, Prabhupada says that despite of the experience of the miserable situation of so-called material happiness, nobody gives it up. Nobody wants to give it up.
There is no chance for this. They will try to do it again and again and again till they are totally unable and capable of doing it. Still they will do it. This is not the solution.
Scriptural guidance on avoiding mental agitation
And in fact, what Daksha, Prajapani Daksha says in this verse seems to be also confirmed by Krishna himself. Krishna himself says: here he says in this verse, Anabina Dik.
One should not really try to convince some other people to give up material enjoyment. And Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gītā says the same. Na budhi bhedam janayat. He uses exactly the same phrase. Na budhi bhedam jnanayad.
One should not really. If somebody is really attached to the course of material enjoyment through karma, through material activities, then one should not really distract him from this.
Krishna says that the wise man should not do this. He should not try to convince somebody else to give up the material enjoyment. And the natural question is how is that so? Why? Why Krishna says this?
And of course, Krishna says this because he's being liberal. And even commending to this verse in the Bhagavad Gita, Prabhupada says that, yeah, Krishna says this, but we still have to do it.
Prabhupada explains that devotees being merciful and compassionate, they have to still tell people about the miserable nature of material enjoyment. And it's not that we tell them just to spoil their enjoyment.
If we tell this in a proper spirit of compassion, then people will be able to experience ultimately the unlimited happiness.
The problem with the material enjoyment, and this is also explained by Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā in the certain in the 17th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna explains Gita in the certain in the 17th chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains that the problem of material enjoyment, why people cannot give it up, why they will never give it up because the experience which they have is so strong that even though the consequent unhappiness is coming it's still being very firmly fixed in their mind.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this. He says that the reason for people not being able to give up their particular situation within the modes of material nature.
And what actually happiness in the material world means, it means happiness in the modes of material nature.
It may be happiness in the mode of goodness, it may be happiness in the mode of passion, it may be happiness in the mode of tamas. But still some happiness is there. And even Krishna explains that there is happiness.
In each material mode of enjoyment there is some kind of happiness. But the reason why people cannot wait - again, because they're experiencing this happiness, and because by experience happiness, they get used to it.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura calls it prejudice. People become prejudiced to their particular situation in the modes of material nature.
They just get attached to this particular situation and they develop very strong faith into it. Krishna explained this that śraddhāmayo ’yaṁ puruṣo yo people are made from sattvānurūpā sarvasya śraddhāmāyam puruṣaḥ,
that the faith of people is coming from their experience. In other words, you experience something, some kind of happiness.
And because you experience this kind of happiness, you develop very strong sense of attachment to this kind of happiness.
And you develop the faith in this kind of happiness and you develop the mental conception that this is good.
This is what Krishna explains in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā: that people develop this artificial position or attachment to the artificial happiness in the modes of material nature because they have very strong convincing within the mind that this is good.
This is what's going on. Like for example, if you want to experience some happiness in the mode of tamas, you take something, you take intoxication, which is the typical happiness in the mode of tamas.
You know what it means, you just take some vodka. And of course I'm from Russia therefore I'm giving a very typical Russian example. And you know, and initially when you take this stuff, you know, it's not really tasty.
I tried it once. Because you're supposed to do it, because you're Russian. This is the Russian belief, Russian religion. So you experience it. It's not nice.
In the beginning it's not nice, but because you have this by the power of association, you have this initial phase that this is good, and so so many people enjoy by doing this, then you try it and try it and try it, and just by experience, uh after some time you like it.
And after some more time, you very much like it. And after some more time, you cannot give it up. You're just totally addicted to it. So this goes like in a vicious circle. You experience some kind of happiness.
And even though in the beginning it may be abominable for you, you experience this, you know, cigarette or whatever. It's abominable. It doesn't really have taste.
But because of experiencing, you kind of slowly, slowly get used to it and you development very strong faith into it. And because you develop faith, you experience it again and again and again.
And by experiencing your faith becomes stronger. And your faith becomes even stronger. And then you have the more impetus to experience it again. And this is the vicious circle. You cannot give it up.
You know, and after some time you're totally degraded. Everyone is despising you. Everyone sees how degraded you are.
You look in you in the mirror and you you you cannot really look in the mirror anymore because it's so horrible what you see there. But still you do it.
You cannot give it up because your faith has become very strong. And this is the artificial position which people develop within the modes of material nature. They're developing certain prejudice.
That's what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains. And because they develop this prejudice, this fixes their position within the modes of material nature. This is how karma works.
You associate with some modes of material nature and you cannot really break this association because this is also explained in the 13th
chapter of Bhagavad-gītā where Krishna says that your whole life is dependent on association.
Factors shaping human karma and behavior
It's actually interesting that and this is basically the basic law of karma. Law of karma is as such: if you have association, you will continue with the same association again and again and again.
And Parāśara Muni, he is the biggest astrologer that is. He wrote this Bṛhat-pārāśara-horā-śāstra, the treatise on Vedic astrology. And in the Vedic astrology, some people they have this understanding that
everything is determined by the stars. But in Bṛhat-pārāśara-horā-śāstra, Parāśara Muni says that actually it is not that the nature of person is determined by three factors.
One factor is stars, and stars basically is the manifestation or explanation of our previous association. In a previous life, we have certain karma, and this certain karma is reflected upon the moment of our birth.
But then he says that you can change your nature or you can develop completely different nature by two other means. First, he says by the environment in which you are brought up.
Therefore, the family environment, the influences in your family is very strong. And this can change your karma. This is the opinion of Parāśara Muni.
And the third factor which really is very important in the formation of your nature, even your conditioned nature is your association. And everyone can know this.
You know, with whom you associate, if you want to degrade yourself, it's very easy. What you should do?
You should go to a degraded person and say, My dear sir, can you please share with me your experiences and he will very gladly open his heart to you and you open your heart to him. And this is how the degradation starts.
So Parāśara Muni says that because of the power of association, you can change your karma.
And this is actually the only way to change one's karma because the karma or conditioned nature is formed by association, is formed by association with different persons, with different modes of material nature, and characteristically with the persons in these modes of material nature.
Therefore the key for real renunciation, the key for a real way of life is to choose the proper association. And we know this today's Srinivasacharya appearance day and there is a very beautiful story in his life how just
the power of association, especially the power of saintly association. It is said also in Chaitanya Chaitamlita, Lava Matra Sadhu Sanghas, Sarvasidi Hoe, just for a second, not even a second, split second.
Lava means one eleventh part of a second. If you associate with the saintly person for a split second, it can completely change your life. Completely change the course of your life.
And of course, Srila Prabhupada says that all these young boys and girls in Krishna consciousness movement is the living proof of this.
Not because they experienced the unhappiness, but because they had this saintly association.
So in the life of Srinivasachary, there was this story when Srinivasachary was sitting in the terrace of his house and he was explaining Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to the young people from his village, Jatigram.
And at the same time the wedding procession was going on. And you know in India wedding procession is a big thing. And at that time, Ramachandra Kadirach was going home in a palanquin with his bride.
And you know, it's a very happy moment in everyone's life, especially in India. In India, everyone can experience and can feel himself as a king during his wedding.
You're put in a big throne and you know there is a big procession is going on and usually the bridegroom is is in a horse and he has a very stupid look on his face you know and he's sitting in the big throne and everyone is giving gifts to him and this is the happiest moment in the whole life of kulturell people.
So Ramachandra Kaviraj was coming home with an his newlywed wife and he was very handsome and very intelligent. But he was from his background a Śākta.
Of course his father was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, but his grandfather with whom he associated was Śākta. And because his father passed away, and because he was living with his grandfather, he also became Śākta.
This is again another proof of the power of association. You are with whom you are associate. You are what you know with whom you have the close association. So he became Shakta.
And in this moment of his in his day of his life, Śrīnivāsācārya was giving class and Śrīnivāsācārya saw this beautiful handsome boy who was coming back to his home in the palanquin. And he became very attached to him.
He felt uh natural uh connection with him, natural bond, and he became very compassionate. And he started saying very loudly so that Ramachandra Kaviraj would hear it. Look at this young boy. Look how happy he is.
He is putting the rope around his neck. This is what marriage is, according to Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. I'm just quoting the previous ācārya, so I'm not doing it myself.
He's putting the rope around his neck and he thinks that this is the happiness. He feels and he hopes that this is the greatest experience in my life. So look how stupid he is. And Ramachandra Kaviraj he heard this.
He heard these few phrases and he saw he heard this voice of Śrīnivāsācārya.
And because this voice was so strong and penetrated, and this is a special power of the voice of a pure devotee, these words of Śrīnivāsācārya went through his heart, and he couldn't sleep this night.
He went to home and there was a big celebration there, but he couldn't sleep. He was sleepless the whole night, and then early in the morning he ran to this village, Jajigram,
and he found Śrīnivāsācārya and he said, what did you mean by saying that I have a rope around my neck? And Śrīnivāsācārya said, do you really want to hear this? And that's how he became Ramachandra Kaviraj.
That's how his life was finished more or less. And this is how his hopes for material happiness was completely destroyed on the day of his marriage. But this is actually the power of the saintly association.
Breaking the endless cycle of karma
And the only way is to change our way of life, is to change our karma. Actually the karma is a vicious circle. And sometimes we are being criticized. I heard, I spoke with some orthodox people from Christian tradition.
And they say, your philosophy is very bad. Why is your philosophy bad? Because you have this conception of karma. Why this conception of karma is bad? Because it's a vicious circle.
They say, you know, karma, there is no end to karma, right? And then they knew something about the Vedic tradition and they explained about karma and they were correct. And that's a fact.
You cannot really break this vicious circle of karma. As soon as you are caught up in this material world, you cannot really get out of it
because karma perpetuates itself, karma just, you know, perpetuates itself again and again and again. You experience something, you want to experience it again. This is called saṁskāra.
You know, you experience some happiness, even though it's abominable happiness. Some feeling of happiness is there. Some people become so attached to murdering others.
Because by murdering others it creates such a strong experience within them and this is kind of perverted happiness which they feel.
And because they feel this kind of happiness, because this strong impression is there, some scar is in their mind, they do it again and again and again, and they become maniacs. This whole material life is just maniacal.
Everyone is a maniac here. You know, and Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that this is what māyā is. Maya means some kind of material enjoyment. But this material enjoyment narrows your mind.
When you experience some material enjoyment, what you feel, you feel your whole mind totally absorbed in this material enjoyment. And because of this, your mind becomes very narrow.
Somebody once said to Prabhupāda that, you know, these drugs are very addictive.
and Śrīla Prabhupāda said, you know, drugs is nothing. What is the real drug in this life is māyā. This is the real drug. This is what you get addicted to, really. And this is what karma means.
Karma means you are addicted to Maya. You're addicted to this illusory enjoyment of this world. You cannot give it up. No way. No way to res uh to renounce it on its own. So the real way and the only way to
renounce this is to experience the transcendental happiness through the power of association. It is said very interestingly, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada, he explains this.
He quotes the verse from Garuda Purana, which we all know. And if I quote this verse now, uh you will all experience some happiness because we usually chant this verse before taking prasāda.
Mahāprasāde Govinde namaḥ brahmaṇi vaiṣṇave śvalpapuṇyavatāṁ rājan viśvāsas naiva jāyate So this verse is interesting because it is said that you will not be able to develop viśvāsas naiva jāyate.
The viśvās of conviction of faith into mahāprasāda, and the holy name of Lord Govinda, namaḥ brahmaṇi, that his name is totally spiritual, namaḥ brahmaṇi vaiṣṇave And in vaiṣṇavas, you will not be able to experience this space if you don't
have enough pious karma, enough sukṛti.
But the real meaning of this verse is actually while associating with these three items which are the agents of spiritual energy and the only three agents of spiritual energy, you develop the strong faith which was strong conviction into these items.
In other words, to counteract material enjoyment, to counteract the experience of material enjoyment, you have to get the sense or experience of spiritual enjoyment. And there are three agents of this spiritual enjoyment.
This is, of course, mahāprasādam, the simplest one. This is the simplest way to experience some bliss of spiritual life. Just taking mahāprasad. I know one little story from Russian experience.
In the beginning, when the devotees they started preaching Krishna consciousness in Russia, they didn't really know how to cook. You know, and they were young boys, mostly it was boys and they were young, you know.
And boys they don't know how to cook, especially in Russia, they just take some sausage and that's it.
So and uh and they became vegetarian and they started concocting something and I still remember very clearly, I have very strong saṁskāras of that beginning days of Krishna consciousness
in Russia the something which was called prasādam at that time was not really according to some human standards because one problem was that uh prasāda was supposed to be transcendental, right?
And um and you know in Russia uh there is not a custom and a culture they don't use spices. When they cook, they never use spices. Maybe sometimes they put some little pepper somewhere. But this is this is about it.
This is as spicy as it could go. So so and when devotees heard that this prasadam, prasadam must be something special.
So when they heard that prasadam means cooking with spices, and at that time the only spice which was spices which was available in Russia was chili.
So usually the first prasadin was cooked there was equal amount of rice and chili. It was cooked together
and uh the first vegetarian dish which as well I was taught to cook was halava with chilies inside. It was very special. Oatmeal halava with chilies in. I highly recommend you. You will never forget it.
I still remember the taste. And not just little cheese, a lot of chilies. Anyway, so the um I wanted to tell a story of how the Mahaprasadam is the agent of spiritual energy.
So the story goes like this in one little town in Russia there was one devotee and he was cooking this you know chalava with chilies or something like this. This one devotee told me this story.
So for the first time this devotee came and this person who was not a devotee at that time and he was really addicted to smoking. He was smoking at that time two packages of cigarettes a day, and he couldn't stop smoking.
He was smoking and smoking. He was an addicted smoker.
So he was invited to this home of this devotee and this devotee said, you know, then it was everything was strange and this person was a little uneasy because everything was so strange.
And ultimately the culmination of this strangeness was that he was invited to eat something.
He was seated behind the table and this devotee put some halava and this halava was really burnt and it was with chilies of course and this. You know, it smelled strange.
And this person who is the newcomer he doesn't know that Prasadam has to be transcendental, so and means with a lot of chilies. And he doesn't know anything about this.
So and this his host is convinced trying to convince him, you please eat something and he is very suspicious. He says, no, I'm not hungry, thank you very much.
But the host says no you have to do it. You have to do it because you know because this is this is our custom, you know. You have to avoid it. We are followers of Vedic tradition.
Vedic tradition is very hospitable, so you have to eat. And he's trying to avoid it. By all means. He cannot do it. You know. So again, okay, he he decided to give in.
So he sits down and he takes little just one teaspoon of this halava and it tastes horrible you know it's it's it's burnt with chilies with you know and it's sweet and burnt and it's terrible.
So he eats you know, despite of his you know repulsion, he somehow or other he forces himself to eat a couple of teaspoons of this halava and he says, thank you very much. The Vedic culture is great, I know this.
Please let me go. And naturally, you know, he didn't have really material enjoyment. But then, you know, after eating these two teaspoons of halava, he feels that he doesn't feel like smoking.
He wants to smoke, he cannot smoke. For half a day he didn't smoke, and this is this was something really unbelievable for him. So he wants to smoke. He doesn't want to smoke.
He he is somehow rather, you know, it's just doesn't feel like smoking, and he's not smoking and not smoking and not smoking. So he goes back to this person and he says, what did you put in this halava?
Must have been some drug inside. I'm sure you know. What did you do this? No, nothing. I just chanted some mantras. He said, no, I don't believe it. He says no. This is what I did. I didn't do anything else.
I just chanted some little mantras over this prasāda. Anyways, this how this this is how this devotee became a devotee by taking little Mahāprasāda because he immediately experienced the power.
And in this mantra in Garuda Purana which glorifies it, it is said that there are there are three agents by which you can really break your karma, by which you can break the vicious circle of your karma. Because these are the agents of the of spiritual energy.
Mahāprasāde Govinde nāmāni brahmaṇi vaiṣṇave This is three powerful agents. One is Mahaprasadam and other one is the holy name of Govinda.
And it is also explained in this particular verse, according to the sequence, that the easiest to experience the spiritual power is within Mahāprasāda, within the food offered to Kṛṣṇa. And then you can experience it in the Holy Name.
Because when we come and when we hear the Holy Name, the kirtan of the Holy Name, we feel that something is there.
I also remember in my own experience that when the bodies were trying to convince me or convert me so to speak. They invited me for a program and at that time it was kind of public program in one hostel in a campus
and I was invited there and at that time you couldn't speak about God in Russia. If you would just say God, you would be in prison in no time. You know, especially publicly, no way, you know, you cannot speak about God.
If you believe in God, you are you are totally off, you know, and you have to be locked uh up, otherwise you're too dangerous.
So and then that program, the devotees, they were saying about Mahā-mantra and they were quoting Mahā-mantra because nobody knew who Kṛṣṇa is, who Rāma is, so they said you should chant this.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare, Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare, Hare. If you want to see the aura around the bodies of people, and they had a very clever way of you know cheating people.
So if you want to see the aura and diagnose different diseases, you know, and they would say you know you have this really brown aura and this is very bad.
If you want to have the bright aura, you have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. So this is this is how I was hooked up. They basically told me you should chant it. And I decided, why not?
I still don't see any aura around people. But I still chant. So so this is the experience which one has and I remember very clearly
I started chanting it and you know I was and I didn't know who Kṛṣṇa is, I didn't know who Rāma is, I didn't know what Hare is, you know, I didn't know what I'm doing, I didn't know anything about God.
I was just chanting it because I wanted to see aura.
But because of the power of the holy name, because the holy name, it is explained by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, that by chanting of the holy name, the vṛtti, the inclination in the heart towards the Lord develops automatically. in the heart towards the Lord develops automatically.
It's the way to counteract the karma.
Because what happens when we experience karma or material happiness we develop very strong vṛtti or very strong inclination towards the material happiness and towards the material life.
And vice versa, if we experience the holy name then naturally this inclination towards the Lord appears. Naturally. You may not even, in my case it was a very pure experiment. I didn't know anything about God.
And I didn't know that this Mahā-mantra is about God.
Transforming consciousness by hearing pure devotees
I was very diligently chanting it because I thought that I will see aura. But then naturally I developed this inclination towards God.
And then the third agent is of course vaiṣṇavas. And vaiṣṇavas is in fact even though it is it has the third place in this verse, it's by far the most powerful agent.
And Prabhupada he says this: that the association with Mahaprasadam, with uh he doesn't say this, but my association with Mahaprasadam with holy name.
And by far association with the devotees is the way to experience spiritual happiness, is the way to renounce material world. Because you cannot really renounce material world unless you experience something higher.
And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī explains, commenting on this verse, and he explains in one beautiful article which was published in the Harmonist magazine that the only way actually to have the real experience is to hear Vaishnava, is to hear his voice.
And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that the voice of a pure devotee has the particles of nectarine particles of dust of the lotus. Because the pure devotees are standing under the lotus feet of Krishna.
And this lotus feet from this lotus feet of Krishna is some particles of nectar are coming to the heart of devotees.
And when devotees speak, then who hear them, he hear the same kind vibration which is coming ultimately from the lotus feet of the Lord.
The nectar which is there in the lotus feet of the Lord, the devotees taken to the heart by taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. And when they speak, the same nectar is being distributed.
And everyone can feel or experience this nectar.
And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī says that actually, the only way to experience spiritual happiness or to have spiritual experience, the real spiritual experience, is through hearing.
He explains that all other senses which we have, like eyes or nose or sense of touch they're different from the sense of hearing.
By other means you cannot have transcendental or spiritual experience because any experience which you have through other senses you have to be directly in touch with the object of the senses.
Like for example if you see something the eyes have to touch the object of your seeing. If you touch something you have to touch by your hand.
If you smell something, then you have to smell this smell or aroma of something by your nose. But by hearing, he explains that the only sense by which you can get the transcendental experience is that by hearing you of course the ear touches with the sound.
But the sound can contain the object of the transcendental world. So the only sense by which you can have the transcendental experience is the sense of hearing. And how you should hear the pure devotee?
Because when the pure devotee speaks, no matter what he speaks, even if he speaks some mundane thing.
Even in the mundane speaking of the pure devotee, there is this that the tone of his voice contains the spiritual vibration. This is how it works.
Therefore Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, he says that when the villagers in Vrindavana speak, even if they speak grāmya-kathā, even if they speak some mundane things. I prefer to listen to them.
Because everyone who is the inhabitant of Vrindavana, of the holy dhāma, has this pure love of Krishna. And the very, the very sound of the voice of such people has a very potent experience in your heart.
And you just listen what they say, and by listening what they say, by hearing what they are speaking, you will get your life totally transformed. Your life will be completely totally transformed.
Therefore, it's so important, and therefore Prabhupāda says that by associating with the servants of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, with the sincere servants of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, so many people change their lives completely.
So many people completely change the course of their lives by hearing this the sound vibration of the spiritual world. And this is the only way. It is said in nīti-śāstra that the dog sees this world through the nose.
Basically, the dog he has very bad eyes and he has a big nose, right? It's one big nose. It's one big nose. So his whole experience of the world is through the nose.
It is said that the materialists they experience the world and they see the world through the eyes. Because this is how they understand the world. Mostly they understand the world through the eyes.
But in nīti-śāstra, it is said that spiritual people, the spiritualists, the people who want to have the spiritual way of life. They see the world through the ears. This is how they see.
Śāstra-dṛṣṭā, it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that for the devotees the ears become the eyes.
And we have to really see the world through what we hear, through what we hear from Vedic literature, and by far from the mouths of pure devotees, from the lips of pure devotees.
Because when we hear the pure devotees speak, then only we have the chance to experience the spiritual world.
And by experiencing the spiritual world, we will be able to renounce this stale material happiness and in this way become totally happy.
So this is something which I could say about this awesome good part. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda. Do I have time? Shall we finish now?
Attaining divine mercy through spiritual practice
If somebody has questions. Yes. Maharaj, it says that um that your all your progress comes from the mercy of Lord Chaitanya and the servants, not by practice. So why practice?
Because the practice is the way to obtain the mercy. Ultimately, it is a fact, and that we should not consider that the progress which comes to us is coming from our practice because it's it's not proper.
But by practice we prove to the devotees of the Lord, that we are sincere, And we prove to the Lord Himself that we are sincere.
And in this way, we obtain the mercy of the Lord, and by mercy we get the spiritual advancement. So it goes like this: we have to practice sadhana, but we have to really understand that bhakti is not coming from sādhana.
Bhakti can only come from mercy. Bhaktia samjataya bhaktia. Bhakti is coming from bhakti and bhakti means mercy. It is the mercy of the devotee or mercy of the Lord Himself directly.
But sādhana is the means to obtain mercy because by doing sādhana, by performing austerities, by doing what we do, we are proving that we are sincere, that we want to have this.
It is also very beautifully explained by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta, where he explains that there are different demons which have to be killed within our heart.
And he says that there are two demons which we have to kill ourselves with the mercy of our spiritual master.
The rest of the demons, and there are many of them, the rest of the false are being removed more or less automatically by the mercy of the holy name and by the mercy of the process of devotional service, so to speak.
And Krishna himself kills them if you are engaged in this process. But there are two demons which you have to deal with yourself. And one of them is the demon of pride.
And this demon of pride is represented or manifested in the There are two demons which Balaram kills. This is the Nukasura and Pralambasura. So pride and lust. Pralambhasura is the manifestation of lust and pride.
This is pralambasura. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very beautifully explains how you deal with them. He says, you become humble because you understand that pride is bad.
And you try to behave yourself humbly, you try to become humble. And then what happens?
Then Balaram comes to your heart in a form of spiritual master because Balarama is the original spiritual master and he kills the pride.
It's not that by becoming humble you immediately become prideless. It's not a simultaneous process, so to speak. Humble means you consciously try to become humble. Humble means you know that this is good.
Humble means you know that pride is bad. And you become humble in your behavior and in your dealing with the devotees. And then by the mercy, pride is removed from your heart. You cannot really get rid.
Even this, which you have to deal yourself, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, but he still stresses by the mercy of Krishna or Balarama, this pride is being removed. So this answers your question. First we become humble.
First, we try to practice something. And this is not real devotional service as such, it's just a practice of devotional service. It's a shadow devotional service.
It's ābhāsa, a reflection, dim reflection of devotional service. But by doing this, we obtain the mercy and by the mercy we get the real devotional service, real bhakti. What? Yes.
So the second one is this two demons, one is represented by the Dhenukasura, and the Dhenukasura is the gross material conception of ourselves, of the holy name and of God.
And you cannot really this you have to remove first before you start the process of devotional service by the mercy of your spiritual master with the help of your spiritual master.
You have to get the spiritual conception of who you are, of who the Holy Name is, and of who Krishna is. This is the first step in the spiritual life.
You have to really understand the spiritual nature of your soul and therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda repeats again and again and again.
You're not this body, you're not this body. This is this is a very difficult concept to get rid of. And this is what the dhenukasura is: as. as means very stupid. And this is what we are.
With our gross understanding of the spiritual matters, because we tend to apply our material experience in this life to the spiritual matters.
And when we hear you know not this body it sounds good but it really doesn't feel like because we are this body right you know and we behave like this
body and when we hear the holy name, we think it's just a sound, you know, it's a material sound. And when we hear about God, we think this is some kind of old man who is sitting on the cloud.
So the dhenukasura is this is this actually application of our material experience towards the spiritual matters.
And this has to be removed with the help of spiritual master and the second one is this pride which is manifested manifested in four forms.
One is kama or gross lust which we experience and then lābhah, pūjā and pratiṣṭhā, two subtle forms of pride or karma lust. That is profit, adoration, and distinction.
So this is what we have to remove again, ourselves with the help of our spiritual master.
Other people criticize that concept because they say that it eliminates the conception of compassion that it's their karma to suffer.
So um and I recall that in the Bhagavad-gītā the picture of the sādhu he's walking and there's some people suffering in the street and says that you know he doesn't lament.
So if uh if the vaiṣṇava is para-duḥkha-duḥkhī then what is uh the transcendentalness does as momentum for those who are suffering then what's the impetus to actually benefit others who actually accept it's also explained by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very beautifully he says that sādhu he
is mainly absorbed in his service to the Lord and his main objective is of course to achieve the love of God which, is the highest goal.
But when he achieves love of God, the very same feeling, the exactly same feeling, when it is directed towards the living entities, becomes compassion. In other words, there is no difference between love of God and compassion towards the suffering living entities.
As soon as you have love of God, and as much as you have love of God, you feel the compassion towards living entities. And this compassion is not material compassion, it's spiritual compassion.
But this goes in direct proportion with the development of love of God. He says this is exactly the same feeling, but when it's directed towards the devotees, it becomes friendship.
If you have love of God, then you naturally have friendship with the devotees. Because this is the same kind of emotion within the heart which is applied towards the devotees.
And if you have love of God, the same emotion, the same very feeling, when it's applied to the living entities, it becomes compassion. So answering your question, what is the impetus? Impetus is love of God.
And when the love of God is, then natural compassion is there. But compassion not because of some material kind of mundane compassion, the spiritual compassion is deeper, is more profound.
The spiritual compassion means that you feel not just for the temporary suffering of the living beings, but for the sufferings due to their forgetfulness of the Lord.
Like, you know, sometimes people in this world are happy, and there are many people who are happy. Once there was one devotee in Russia, he was a young book distributor.
And when he was taught by his saṅkīrtana leader how to distribute books, he was taught certain mantras. And the mantra started something like this. Everyone is totally miserable in this world.
Please take this book if you want to behave, or something like this. So he was a young devotee, and he came to a house of a rich new Russian. New Russian means you know very rich and very obnoxious person.
And he knocked at the door, and one you know fat big guy opened the door. And he said, everyone in this world is miserable. Please take this book. And this guy, he kicked him really. He said, really? Why don't you come in?
And he sat him down and he said, you know, and he put all kinds of food and his wife came, beautiful wife, and this and then he said, I'm very happy. What do you mean?
And this devotee he became really doubtful whether the philosophy is correct or not. So sometimes people are happy in a sense in this material world.
But spiritual compassion means that you still feel that even though you know they have this illusion of happiness, that they're still an illusion.
And this is a much deeper feeling which is there and which cannot be imitated, which can only be really experienced when you have love of Godhead. Okay, I think I should stop now. Thank you very much.
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