Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.3
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Vrindavan · 2004
Chapters
Mistreatment of cows in Kali-yuga
Gamma, the cow. Chata, also. Dharma du Gamma. Beneficial, because one can draw religion from her.
Biram, now rendered poor. Brisham, distressed. Sudra, the lower case. Paraahatam beaten on the legs, divatsam without any calf, asurvadhanam, this tears on varice. Shamam, very weak, yabasam, yabasam, grass, y chateem, as if desiring to have some grass to eat.
Translation. Although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her, she was now rendered poor and cautious.
Her legs were being beaten by sugar. There were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak. She was hankering after some grass in the field.
Purport The next symptom of the age of Kali is the distressed condition of the Kain. Milking the Kain means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form. The great rishis and munis would leak volume milk.
Shri Lushukha Nevl Aslami would go to a householder while he was milking a cow, and he would simply take a little quantity for his subsistence.
Every fifty years, even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a saddle of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would eat milk like water.
For a anatomist, a follower of many principles, it is the duty of every householder to have cows and woods as household preferences, not only for drinking milk but also for deriving religious principles.
The Sanatinist worship cow on religious principles and respects Brahmanus. The cow's milk is required for the sacrificial fire, and by performing sacrifices, the householder can inherit.
The cow's cow not only is beautiful to look at, but also gives satisfaction to the cow, And so she delivers as much milk as possible.
But in the Kali Yuga a cow is separated from the cows as early as possible, for purposes which may not be mentioned in these pages of Shimaibabad. The cow stands with tears in her eyes.
The shudra, milkman, draws milk from her artificially, and then there's no milk, and when there's no milk, the cow is sent to his slaughter.
These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society. People do not know what they're doing in the name of economic development.
The influence of Kali will keep them in the darkness of ignorance. Despite all endeavors for peace and prosperity, they must try to see the cows and bulls happy in all respects.
Foolish people do not know how one earns happiness by making the cows and bulls happy, but it is a fact by the law of nature.
Let us take it from that lorry to Shimabhagatha and adopt the principles for the total heaviness of humane.
Shiva Trompa Aditi. Ram Chadharmadukamdinamun Brisham Sudraparatam Divat Samma Sriva Adhanam Kshamamya Vasamucha Dimu. Over the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her.
She was now rendered poor and cautious. Her legs were being beaten by a sugar. There were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak.
Degradation caused by low-class leaders
She was angry after some grouts in the field.
So in these verses, Suzuta Gazvani explains the chain reaction, and Shilo Krumpar stresses this in his purport that there is a chain reaction of the age of Kayo, which starts from electing low plus people in the position of leadership. This is the beginning of the fall down of the whole society.
But, everything else more or less follows after this thing. We're living in this age of and in the age of Kali, the leaders of the society are lowest men, lowest possible men.
And in fact, the whole system is designed in such a way that the lowest possible men will be promoted to the highest possible position.
The democratic society, democracy means that only the ambitious people who basically ambitious because they're not fit to be the leaders, are promoted to be the leaders.
And this is the beginning of the fall down and ultimately unhappiness of the whole society.
In this proof of syllabus father stresses that because of this, because of this unfortunate chain reaction of the events, everyone is unhappy.
And nobody knows how to solve all these problems in the society because everything starts from the qualities of the leaders.
The qualities of the leaders is their guarantee for the happiness of the society if the qualities are good. And vice versa. If the qualities are not there, everyone will be unhappy.
It is said here that the śūdras become the leaders of the society and śūdras means people, ambitious people who are always unsatisfied. This is actually the definition, the śāstric definition of śūdra.
Śūdra means one who laments.
One who laments because he is dissatisfied, because he doesn't have satisfaction, and because he's not satisfied he's hankering for more and more, and therefore greed develops, and therefore everything else develops from these low qualities of the leaders. And then because of that, because the leaders are low class, then the dharma is neglected. Dharma is denied.
Or dharma is harassed, as yesterday his colleague, Jay Advaita, his family was explaining how dharma totally disintegrates in Kali-yuga.
Because the leaders don't take it as their mission to their heart that their main duty is to protect dharma.
And moreover, even those people who are so-called religious, even those people who claim to be religious in the age of Kali, they also, likewise, they also have low quality. They're also śūdras basically.
And these śūdras, how can they protect religion? Like recently, I was telling a nice story about one of the religious leaders of the world.
He's the biggest religious, one of the biggest religious leaders and most respected religious leaders in the world. He's a Nobel Prize winner, His Holiness. So the story goes like this.
One of the ISKCON devotees was sitting in a business class on a plane, and lo and behold, next to him was sitting His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He was curious. What is it all about? He's a celebrity.
He's a world-class celebrity. Everyone worships him. And he's the leader of Buddhist communities.
So he was next, sitting next to him, and then the hostess came and the hostess offered the choice, what would you like, veg or non-veg? The Lama, without thinking twice, said non-veg.
So this, this devotee, he was astonished and he feels pretty surprised. So, very humbly he asked, Your Holiness, we know that the main message of Lord Buddha is ahiṁsā. The Buddha came just for this message.
Basically, didn't give any elaborate religious principles to follow. He didn't give very high understanding. He said, just be non violent and this is the guarantee of your more or less progressive life.
So he said, how come? Well, Buddha's message is to be non-violent. And here you are, choosing non-veg. So Dalai Lama, listen, it's very important to understand how Kali-yuga mentality works.
Dalai Lama, he gave a very nice explanation to this friend. He said, I am a monk and because I am a monk, I have to be humble. Correct? Humility is the highest principle, right?
And yesterday, Jayati Devī Dāsī, she was very beautifully proving this point. I have to be humble because I am a monk. And humble means I am not choosing. Whatever is offered to me, I eat.
So for a monk, you know, if you offer meat, you take meat. If you offer something else, you take something else. All the humidity.
Because, you know, if you just rigidly follow the principles, you may become, as again, Jayadvaita Swami said, you may become self-righteous.
You may, you say, you know, I'm this and that, you know, so we're humbly accepting everything else which is being offered. Nice explanation, isn't it? You know, glorifying the quality of humility.
And then this devotee very aptly said, your holiness, this is very correct. It's a very nice explanation. But can you ask one more question? It's not that you were offered meat. You were offered the choice.
Whether you want veg or not veg. And you consciously have chosen the veg. How come? Can you explain this? You know, it's one thing if you offer something and you reject something, that's maybe considered no harm.
And even this is false, ultimately. But he said, How come? You have chosen consciously. You made his conscious choice. And he became so disturbed. He just turned away.
He didn't speak the whole word because he didn't have any explanation for this. And this is how Kali-yuga mentality works.
You know, the people, they don't follow basic principles, and even though they don't follow basic principles, they have a high philosophical explanation why they don't follow basic principles.
Everyone, you know, who is promoting so called religion in the Age of Kali had the foundation for it.
Government duty to protect religious principles
And its foundation is basically boldness. Like Prabhupada, in the purports of this chapter, later on he will say that religion, and this is also the sign of Kali-yuga, religion, the society is declared secular.
And Prabhupada says, yes, society may be secular, the government may be secular, but the government, it doesn't mean that the government should be indifferent to the basic principles of religion.
Yes, the government can and even should be impartial. The government should be, should not be partial to one particular religion because we know what happens if the government is partial to one religion.
But Prabhupada says that the general principles of religion such as cleanliness, mercy, austerity and truthfulness, government cannot be impartial.
If the government is impartial to this principle, the whole society goes to dust.
The government has to protect these general principles of religion, whereas now we see that not only government is totally useless, but even the religious leaders, they are totally neglectful about these principles of religion, the mercifulness, truthfulness.
And this is again the sign of Kali. In each verse of this chapter basically, the word śūdra is meant. And śūdra, actually, Madhvācārya in his ṭīkā and his bhāṣya to Vedānta-sūtra, he gives the definition of śūdra.
He gives another definition of sudra.
We know that literally śūdra means one who cries, but there is another definition of śūdra and Madhvācārya says, śūdra means dishonest. The basic quality of śūdra means dishonest, is dishonest.
And we know, you know, we know that in Kali-yuga everyone is more or less closer to some śūdra somewhere. And it means everyone is dishonest, especially here in India when you see, like, mostly people are cheaters. And because they're cheaters, because they have this quality, that means, that betrays, that they're cheaters, in fact.
And because they are dishonest, this is basic quality of śūdras, they are not allowed to study Vedas.
This is also a very interesting point because in our democratic society, people, they have a hard time to understand how it is that, you know, the śūdras.
Here, you know, the sentiments for the downcast, downtrodden people are being invoked, you know, and then it's said that Vedic society is bad. Because in Vedic society, śūdras are not even allowed to study Vedas. Right?
Marvacaya, he explained this point. He gives this explanation. He said, because śūdras are dishonest, if they study Vedas, they will inevitably misinterpret the Vedas. And this is worse if they don't know various, you know.
Because of the misinterpretation they will give so many false explanations of this Holy Scriptures and the whole society will go to heaven.
So therefore, śūdras, forbidden, they cannot study them because they will be cheaters, they will cheat people.
Consequences of neglecting the weak
On the name of the Vedas, they will say, this is what Vedas said, but Vedas do not say this.
So this isтовая state of religion in this age of Kali, and because of that, the next consequence of this, the next problem in the Age of Kali is that cows and bulls, and infected innocent people, harmless people, harmless creatures in this society are not protected.
In the society, the dark is protected. The first duty is to protect innocent people. The first beauty of the ruler is to protect harmless and innocent creatures.
But in Kali-yuga, everyone is more or less, you know, unprotected. The harmless richness like cows and bulls and children and women, they're not protected properly. And because of that, everyone suffers.
It is said in Mahābhārata. In Mahābhārata, Bhīṣmadeva, while instructing King Yudhiṣṭhira, he gives a very nice explanation. He says there are three things in this world which are unbearable.
He says the first one is the eyes of the muni, because when the muni, when the sage looks at you, he sees through, he pierces you, pierces your heart with his eyes. So he says the first is the eyes of the muni because he knows what is going on in your heart.
He says the next thing is the eyes of the snake, You know, when the snake looks at you, you know, the snake has so much envy inside, that it's just unbearable. He cannot look at the turn of the eye.
So, under certain things he says, it's the eyes of the weak.
If the weak person is unprotected and he is begging for mercy, he is standing in front of you with folded hands and he is looking at you and you are not giving him protection. It is said, Bhīṣmadeva says, you are doomed.
If the weak people in the society are not protected, the whole society... He goes on to explain that the whole society is doomed if the weak creatures are not protected.
And here we see in the modern society that the cows, the most innocent creatures in the society, you know, with the tears in their eyes, as it is described here, with the tears in their eyes that being mercilessly slaughtered.
And that means that the society is doomed. That means, as Prabhupāda explains, according to the laws of nature, everyone will be anxious because the innocent, harmless creatures are not protected in this society.
And this all starts, this whole chain reaction starts from this one point, from the low qualities of the leader and low qualities in general of the peoples. It's actually very interesting to say.
Prabhupada was very strong about this point. He would say that it's not the caste. Like here we say, śūdra, śūdra, śūdra.
And some people who are being politically correct, even in our society, they kind of avoid all these definitions, you know, śūdras, and vaiśyas, and brāhmaṇas, because it means unequal. But people are not equal, and they are not equal because they have different qualities.
And the definition, as it is explained in the, by Nārada Muni in the seventh chapter, Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the definition of the caste is according to the quality.
Story of Janasruti and Raikva Muni
There is a very interesting story in this regard in Chandogya Upanishad.
And in fact, in the Vedānta-sūtra, both Madhvācārya and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, they quote this story to prove that the position of the people in the society should be defined according to their qualities. And the story goes like this.
It's a very interesting story which is directly related to this topic.
In fact, we know that in the same Chāndogya Upaniṣad there is another famous story about Satyakāma, Jābāla Satyakāma who was accepted as a brāhmaṇa even though he was born as a śūdra, he was born from unknown father, because he was honest and honesty is the quality of brāhmaṇa.
But there is another story in the same Chāndogya Upaniṣad just before this Jābāla Satyakāma story which is quoted as I said by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and Madhvācārya.
And this is a story about Raikva Muni and Jānaśruti, Maharaja Jānaśruti. It's also interesting because it shows how the degradation takes place.
The story goes like this, that this Maharaja Jamsud, he was a very fierce king. He was a powerful Shakriya, and not only he was powerful, he was very fierce.
He was feeding people, he was feeding thousands and thousands of people, giving tree meals. He was making universities.
Not only he was feeding people, he was arranging the free universities, free lodge, free education for everyone. You know, people were draining weathers.
And he acquired so much pious bread and because of this he was a little puffed up, you know, and everyone was praising, everyone in the society, everyone was saying, you know, he's the greatest king, you know, he's giving free food because, you0, people don't need much.
You feed them and then you give them education and then they and he became, because everyone was praising him, he became puffed up. So two sages, they decided to save.
Two sages, they spoke with each other, but he says, you know, this king, he seems he is doing the greatest wealth versus for the society. He is so puffed up.
And, you know, at the same time he misses the point. He misses the point of human life. He's doing all this charity and he's thinking he's okay.
You know, like sometimes people think, you know, if I'm pious, if I'm doing a good work, I'm okay. Don't touch me, you know. Don't speak with me. I'm okay. You know, I'm a good man. So this Janashruti, he was like this.
And these two sages, they decided to say something. And they took a shape of a swans, swans, and Janashruti was a hot summer and there was no fans at that time.
So he was sleeping on the roof of his palace and there was a nice sky there and these two sages they were flying over him and when they came to this place where Janashruti was sleeping, but he was not sleeping, he was just about to sleep, he was in his bed.
And he looked and he saw the swans and he heard, the one swan is talking to another swan and they spoke in their assembly, of course, as it is common. The one swan told to another swan, do you see this king?
This king is so and he started praising the king. This king is so pious that you better watch out. If you fly over him he will burn you by his glory. So you better somehow rather. And actually he was joking.
Actually that was some humorous connotation in this statement because the meaning to which actually this sage wanted to convey to another swan was, you know, if you fly over him and don't praise him, he will put you in prison because he is used to be praised by everyone.
So he said, don't fly over him otherwise you will be burned by his fate. You know, he's so famous that he cannot tolerate that somebody will not glorify him. So that's the hidden meaning of this statement.
And then the other one, he's answering to this and he says, This king, he doesn't have a drop of pious credits. And the first one was little amazed. They were playing roles, of course. They knew what they were going to say.
So the first one said, How come? See how much pious activities he's doing? And how come you say that he doesn't have any pious credits? And the first, the second swan said, because, you know, when you play dice, right?
When you play dice, then whoever wins, whoever gets the highest numbers, then the credits of everyone goes to him.
He says, and in his kingdom, he thinks he is the most pious, but in his kingdom there is a muni, right, where is he? And he is not doing any philanthropy. He is just sleeping under the cart.
But because he knows Brahmajyan, spiritual knowledge, he gets all the pious credits from the kingdom, from everyone else. And he just lagged under the cart and he gets the pious credits without doing things.
So that's what the other Swan said, Swan said. So, and this right way, this Jana Shruti Maharaj, he heard about this and he became, he became hurt. He became a family. And he became actually remorseful.
He was so kind of, you know, he was hurt. He said, I'm doing this and this. It's the whole day.
And when Rishi is sleeping under the car and he just gave me all my fire credits, he was kind of, you know, he says, It's not just. So he wanted to see this right for Rishi. And he got up early.
He couldn't sleep the whole night. He was in such agony. His heart was burning. So he called his attendant and he said, you go and find where is right position. Go everywhere.
Ask everyone and find this right and bring him to me. And he's a tenant man and he said and he looked here and there and he couldn't find him. And he came and he said, I looked among the citizens of our state.
There is no right where you see it. Nobody is there. And the king said, No. You go and find this right where you see it. And unless you find it, don't come back. Otherwise, I don't choke your head.
So this man, he decided he's getting serious, you know. We'd better not joke with this man. So he started looking everywhere. Before that he was looking comely and, you know, nice palaces and houses.
Here he went somewhere far away near the forest and he saw a cart. And under the cart there was some rishi. This rishi was kind of, you know, and he saw this man coming to him. He started scratching his body. Like this.
And he was scratching and scratching. So this attendant of the king, he looked at this right for Rishi, and he didn't recognize that he's a great woman. Looked strange. He looked dirty, you know. He's lying under the car.
He was, like, you know, little sleepy. He's yawning, and he's scratching his body. So he said, Why he... He sought for himself. Why he's stretching his body?
And the answer when he came, probably he wants money because this is what all saddus want, right? This is definition of saddus, right? He wants money.
You go to any holy place and there's plenty of sādhus who are begging money there. Because he had this materialistic mentality, he interpreted everything according to his level of understanding.
So, he came back to this king and he said, Oh, I found this right person. He's lying under the car and he's scratching his body. He means he wants money. You know, and he's not going to come to you because he's too lazy. Better you go to here.
So the king, he took some money and he took some something and he came and his heart is growing and he's, you know, he's came to this and with folded hands he put all these riches in front of this Raikva Muni and said, dear sage, could you please give me brahmavidyā?
The sage looked at him and said, you śūdra, go away and take your riches with you. I'm not going to be proud by all these riches. Just run away. He yelled at me. And the king was shocked.
First of all, he was shocked because he said, You śūdra.
You know, this is, and Baladeva in the Bhāṣya says, Why the kṣatriya, the highest kṣatriya was called śūdra? Because king, in fact, because this Muni immediately saw his momentum, and because he's momentum, he's a śūdra, you know, He came with this burning heart and the Muni said to you, go away, don't stand in front of me, don't contaminate my eyes. And because of that, the king became little respectful. Like we also know if we go to a holy place and somebody is asking us money then we are not giving to them. We don't really have any respect for them.
But if somebody rejecting money, you know, they try to give some money, somebody rejects the money, we immediately get respect also, right? You know, he's rejected.
So the king, he developed some kind of faith in him and he decided, and another actually, explanation or another interpretation of this, because he was lamenting. Immediately, the sage could understand he's attached. And because he's attached, he's not worthy of getting spiritual knowledge. Because if you're attached and you're getting spiritual knowledge, you will misuse the spiritual knowledge. This is the problem.
And he said, śūdra, get out of here.
And then the king, he went back and he took everything which he had. He took all his rituals, all his treasury because he said, I have to give something to him. And this time he didn't want to grind. This time he wanted to give everything which he had just to get spiritual knowledge.
And he came to this and he took his daughter and he took his daughter with him and he said, my dear sir, I came again and I brought you all my riches and I brought him with my daughter. Please, can you get married with him?
And And the same said, Okay.
He's still a śūdra, but he was pleased because he saw the transformation of the heart. He saw that this attachment, was so attached to his riches and to everything, to his position, to fame and glory, he came to him very humbly with all the tense.
He asked him, please give you, give me spiritual knowledge because this is the highest.
When this understanding is awakened in the heart, then only you can stop becoming the śūdra. Otherwise, if you're attached, and if you're attached to all this material, you know, truthfuls, this techy material things, you know, you're still remaining in the position of a śūdra. So when the Raikva Muni saw that the king, the transformation took place, the king...
He said, Okay, I will get married with your daughter. But of course, is another interpretation of this statement that the daughter was not really daughter, that it was atmaja.
That the, that the, even though in, in Chāndogya Upaniṣad is said, Duhitṛ, duhitṛ means daughter. Somebody says that it's the daughter which is born by ātmā, by the soul, which means śraddhā, faith.
So, in the second time he came to the sage with face and approached him with face.
Essential qualities from offenseless chanting
And because he approached him properly, because he saw that there is a proper preparation which took place in his heart, then the sage started imparting the spiritual knowledge to this king.
And this is actually the solution for all the problems. As Prabhupāda says here, that the problems of the society are coming from the bad qualities.
That the unhappiness of the society is coming from the bad qualities of the innocent, bad qualities of the people.
And the only solution for all the problems which Prabhupāda wants to offer, and he says on the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we have to state this, that the solution of all the problems in the society, the key to happiness in the society is to develop good qualities.
And this is the only lesson of all these stories that even though the Kali-yuga is so bad, by this process of bhakti-yoga, by this that's another prerequisite of the changing of the heart.
Like this king, Jānaśruti, his heart was changed only because he had this moment of association with the pure devotee, with this great ṛṣi. And the great rishi, he just, he abused him.
He used abusive words, he said, your śūdra, your lowest plus, but this was the mercy of this great devotee. And the transformation of the heart took place.
And therefore he was able to get the spiritual knowledge only after the changing of the quality.
And actually, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he says very precisely, he says that we can judge whether you offensively chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or offenselessly according to the qualities which we develop.
Jīva Gosvāmī enlists five qualities, five bad qualities which you develop if you offensively chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. And I will not go into detail because it's another subject matter.
And but Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that as soon as you start offensively chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then the five essential qualities appear in your heart. And he says the first quality is simplicity.
And simplicity, saralatā, or ārjava. Simplicity means, he specifically says saralatā, simplicity means honesty too. Honesty means, you know, you're not cheaper.
You know, the first quality which develops, which should develop from the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is this brāhmaṇical quality of honesty. You have to be simple.
You have to become very very simple and not, you know, not crooked in your mentality. And the second quality he says is dhṛti. Dhṛti means determination. If you chant offensively, then you lose determination in your heart.
And vice versa. That offenseless chanting gives you a lot of enthusiasm for determination to go on with the process. To go on with the process of devotional service.
This is the strength which you are getting from this process itself. And the second quality is ekāntatā, and ekāntatā means ekānta. Anta means goal, eka means one goal. It means one pointedness.
Ekāntatā also means that you have implicit faith in the Supreme Lord. This is the third quality which develops, that you know that there is no other goal in this world.
And everyone else's, all other goals which maybe there are, are false. So this is the third quality which has to appear in the heart of that offenseless chanter.
And then he said the fourth quality is uncompromising nature. You develop this quality of not, you're not going to compromise. Like we know that again, this cheating mentality manifests as the way of compromise.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that the fourth quality is that you are, like, also sometimes, you know, in our preaching when they see some people, there is a tendency or there is a temptation to give some compromising advice because sometimes people take it better. And in this age of political correctness, you know, even saddles, they sometimes become little compromising.
Of course, the best example of this uncompromising nature is Jayādvaita Svāmī. He's famous for being straightforward, for saying something which is unpleasant to everyone and saying it straight in their face.
And anyway, this is, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, this is a very essential quality which should appear in the heart of somebody who is chanting offenselessly.
And then he says the crown quality of this offenseless chanting, of offenseless chanter or the crown quality which actually makes everyone, makes the person happy, which brings the highest happiness.
He says it's humility, but he gives a very profound and interesting definition of humility. He says that humility means you don't expect anything from anyone.
And this is, this is the, this is the greatest achievement in human life. You don't expect anything. And just imagine for one second the state of mind when you don't expect, but you are not expecting anything from anyone.
If you are at this stage, in this state of mind, you will be totally completely happy. Because you're not expecting anything. You're unhappy because your expectation always post proof, you know.
You expect this and that, this owner, and this benefit, and this and that. Nobody gives you, everyone happy, you're always bitter.
So the humility means, the real humility, because sometimes, you know, the way they have strange understanding what humility means.
They think that humility means if you're somewhere in a corner and you're, you know, you're sitting like this and you're making some, you know, strange face and this is what humility means. I'm very humble, you know.
You're always with folder chains. But the real humility in the heart, it doesn't mean anything of this, anything of external. The real humility of the heart, how it manifestes, is that you don't expect anything.
This is humility. It means that you're not offended by anyone, you're not bitter about it, you see, you're not, you know, there is no problem with you because you're not expecting anything.
This is what humility is and this should appear on the heart if we're chanting this Vaikuṇṭha mantra and if they disappear in the heart, everyone will be happy. And this is the key for happiness.
This is how the subtle nature, subtle laws of nature works. And this is how we can counter up this bad influence of the age of Kali.
Just by chanting the holy name in the society of new bodies and trying to develop the real qualities, not just remaining śūdras as we all are, but developing real qualities of a civilized human being.
And the only key for this and the only solution for this is to try to chant the holy name, the soul's sincerity in the heart.
Overcoming offenses and cultivating humility
Very much. Will the book of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura just refer to? It's an article. Book of aparādha. What you have to do to find the ten aparādhas. It's an article with Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura published in Sajjanatoṣaṇī. Yes.
Point is that you're chanting these offenses and it's inevitable. In the beginning, you cannot chant offenselessly, but at the same time, you're trying to get rid of offenses.
And while, and you're using or exploring all different methods of how to get rid of offenses. It's not that you're chanting offensively and you're satisfied with it. I'm okay, you know, I'm chanting, don't touch me.
So this is the wrong attitude. If we develop this neglectful attitude towards chanting, then this is the worst offense. And then Jīva Gosvāmī explains, then the five qualities of bad qualities develop in your heart.
You lose space. The first, actually, it's very closely corresponds to this list of good qualities. Because the first quality which Jīva Gosvāmī lists is the crookedness. He says you become fulguration.
Fulgilliant means you become crooked in your mind. Whereas the first quality of offenseless chanting is you become simple. You become very straightforward. And so on so forth. Then facelessness.
You lose faith in God and you become neglectful towards your southern arm. So the turning point is that you're changing offensively, but at the same time you're not complacent about it.
You're trying to get rid of the offenses by associated with devoted, by, you know, trying to be as attentive as possible.
And then you're not going to this course, to this course of downfall, which is described in Pakistan, Darwin by Guggenheim, but you're going upwards.
By nature, śūdras are dishonest. That's what Madhvācārya says. There's no honesty in them. But still there are proper code of conduct.
And the only qualification which is also listed in by Nārada Muni in seventh Skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for śūdras is that even though the individual is by nature, just should try to be honest and loyal.
So, like Dharma Shastras, like Manu-smṛti and other Dharma Shastras, enumerate Dharma of the duties of every caste, every varṇa. So the only duty of śūdra is to be loyal.
And duty is something which you have to force yourself a little bit to do. Right? It's not that it doesn't mean that necessarily you do it, you know, automatically.
Otherwise, there would not, there is no need to list it as your duty. Right? So in Dharma Shastras there is a very elaborate list of the duties of brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas and much less qualifications for vaiśyas.
And for śūdras, is said, they should try to be loyal. That means that they should try to overcome this basic quality of their nature, which is there. Then they become real śūdras.
If they're not doing this, then they are anti-ācāra and lower than śūdras. They, they become beyond their brain work or balance. And it's simple because we have this fruitful mentality.
The fruitive mentality means that we always expect something back, you know? Right? We do something and we expect, we expect follow-up. We expect or, like, sometimes we preach.
This is also very much relevant to the preachers.
We preach and we expect that people will appreciate what we say to them, you know, because we are the saviors, they're giving them the path of salvation and they have to really, you know, worship us for this.
Not expecting anything means this simple quality of not expecting anything. It means that you're doing, but you're not expecting any return for you.
And this is very difficult because everyone is programmed to expect returns, you know, because this is the mentality of this world.
Always, how is that possible, you know, that I will not get anything in return, this is not possible. Why should I do that if I'm not getting anything in return? Duty?
So, but humility, real humility means, amānitā mānadānitā, amāni means, you know, you do what is your duty. And that's the basic teaching of Krishna, of course, as well. Humility means you do but you don't expect.
You don't expect. You don't expect anything. Not the subtle return, not the gross return, nothing. You just do because you're supposed to give. And this is actually the basic quality of a human being.
You have to give without expecting returns, without expecting any interest for this. Otherwise, it's not correct. Okay. She's asking, but what about nursing? You should expect some nursing? You should expect some nursing.
This is the only exception. You should expect nursing. But we have to know the way how to get nursing. The way to get nursing is not to expect anything, including nurses. And if you don't expect, nursing will come.
You don't have to expect it. More selfless you are, the most straight way to get nursing is there for you. Can you expect love from sādhu? Sādhu already has love for everyone. It's only the way to...
Sādhu means compassionate, sādhu means somebody whose heart is overflowed by a lot. And if you approach him properly, you will get it. You should want it, but you should also know how to feel it, how to get it.
Because sometimes sādhu may be harsh, because sādhu means one who cuts, but this is also his mercy, because surgeon also cuts, but this is his mercy. So you have to be ready to accept love, not in the form which you want.
The problem of people sometimes is that they accept love, how they understand love. And, you know, is supposed to smile and, you know, they don't know all the time. No.
Sādhu means, sādhu, you have to know that he already has the love in your heart.
Like yesterday, Āśramavāsī-jī, she was explaining about her encounter with Śrīdhara Mahārāja, and she had the doubts that if Śrīla Prabhupāda loves me or not.
And like, Śrīdhara Mahārāja forced her to repeat three times in a loud voice, you know, Prabhupāda loves you. So, this is, this is the understanding which we have to have. That sādhu means he loves you.
How he loves you, that may be different. You know, then they may not understand immediately because it may take different forms and shapes. But you have to know that he loves me.
And if we approach him properly, we will be able to feel it better to understand it. I think I should feel it now. Thank you very much. See you tomorrow morning.