Bhagavad-gita 4.30
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Sweden · 2006
Chapters
Invocation and introduction to sacrifice
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtyaṁ naraṁ caiva narottamam, deviṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ.
I will read the thirtieth verse from the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. This chapter is called Transcendental Knowledge. I was asked today to speak about yajña or sacrifice, the meaning of sacrifice.
And it's a very significant term in the very culture. And in fact in any human culture.
And in fact, in any human culture, and Kṛṣṇa speaks a lot about it in the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, which describes karma-yoga. yoga. Yajña is the basis or foundation of karma-yoga.
So let's change the verse to Sanskrit and then we'll speak on it. sarve 'py ete yajña- vido kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo yānti brahma sanātanam. Sanatana Sanatana.
sarve 'py ete yajña-vidaḥ sarve 'py ete Sarvepiety, yagyavidh, yagaksābita kalmaṣāḥ, yajña-kṣapita- kalmaṣāḥ, yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta- bhujo, yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo, Yay, yenti Brahma Sanatana, yinti brama sanatana, sarve piety, yagavido,
yagavido, yaksapitakalmasah, Yayaksamitakalmasah, Yagyas Stamritabuj, Yagasishamritam, Yanti Brahma Sanatanam, ti braham sanan, sarve 'py ete yajña-vido yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ.
yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ. yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo, yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo, yānti brahma sanātanam, yānti brahma sanātanam. Sarve, all, api, although apparently differently different this
This yajña-vidāḥ, yajña-vidaḥ, those who know the purpose of sacrifice, yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ: being cleansed as the result of such performances of sinful reactions, Of sinful reactions.
yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo: those who have tasted such nectar, of Yagya. Amrita Budja Amrita Bhuda. Those who have taste those who have tasted sorry those who have tasted such nectar those who have tasted such nectar yanti do approach brahma the Supreme Sanatana Sanatana Eternal Atmosphere Translation All this performance who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reactions.
And having tasted the nectar of the results of sacrifice, they advance toward the Supreme eternal atmosphere.
Purport reading on sense gratification
From the foregoing explanation of different types of sacrifice, namely sacrifice of one's possessions, study of the Vedas of philosophical doctrines, and performance of the yoga system, it is found that the common aim of all is to control the senses.
Sense gratification is the root cause of material existence.
Therefore, unless and until one is situated on a platform apart from sense gratification, there is no chance of being elevated to the eternal platform of full knowledge, full bliss and full life.
This platform is in the eternal atmosphere of Brahman atmosphere All the above mentioned sacrifices help one to become cleansed of the sinful reactions of material existence.
By this advancement of life, one only does not only does one become happy and opulent in this life, but also at the end he enters into the eternal kingdom of God, either merging into the Prasumu Brahman or associating with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna.
Sri Prabhupada Sarvaya te yagyavido, Yagyakshavita Kalmasaha Yagyashtamrita Bujo Yanti Brahma Sanatana. All these performers who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reactions.
And having tasted the nectar of the results of sacrifice, they advance toward the supreme eternal atmosphere.
Namam Vishnu Padara Krishna Prishtaya Vutaleshrimati Bhaktividanta Swami Dinami. Namaste Saraswati Devi Kurabani, Pracharini, Nirvishes, Susanavadi, Paschatades, Manchapal Patarubes Chakripashi Dube Patitanam Pavane Byovishnavi, Djri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhupunitananda, Sri Advaita Badata Rasiva Sadigura Bhakta Brinda, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hale Hare, Relay Rama Rama Rama Bare Hare.
So I will speak about this important verse of Bhagavad Gita where Krishna sums up the previous discussion of different kinds of yagyas and he explains here Here that those who know the purpose of sacrifice, the meaning of sacrifice, those who know what they are doing by being engaged in different kinds of sacrifice, these people they basically get three results.
They become very pure and clean in their heart and their consciousness and their understanding.
Yagesish Tamrita Bujo. They enjoy the remnants of the sacrifice or results of the sacrifice and basically they become happy in this life.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that even in this life they become opulent and prosperous. The opulence and prosperity comes as a result of sacrifice. And Yanti Brahma Sanatana ultimately the ultimate
result of the sacrifice is that they approach this eternal atmosphere or basically they, obtain their eternal nature, they come back to the eternal existence.
Like Prabhupada explains here, they come to the full bliss, full knowledge and full life. So this is the three very amazing and wonderful results of sacrifice. You become clean.
And everyone knows that if he becomes clean, it means basically that the sufferings are gone. Because all the sufferings within our body and mind is because of impurities.
Whatever sufferings we experience is just the result of some impurities of some dirt
which is there either within the heart or within the consciousness or within the body or within the mind or within the intestine, or within the liver or, was in the whatever you take. It's all result of our dirt.
So Krishna says first result of sacrifice you become clean. Second result of sacrifice you become happy here and the third result of sacrifice you become uh eternal at the end. It's very tempting promise.
And therefore the central point of this verse is that Yagya Vido or Yaya Vidaha, those people who know the purpose of sacrifice or the meaning of sacrifice they achieve this result.
Because you may be engaged in sacrifice or in some kind of ritual. And some kind of religious ritual. And Krishna before explains that there are so many sacrifices. Those yogis who do pranayam they are engaged in sacrifice.
Those yogis who just sit in one posture, they engage in sacrifice. Those people who are living regulated family life, they also sacrifice. I know it's a big sacrifice. To live a family life.
And so many other types of sacrifice, and I will speak a little bit about this later. But there could be many different sacrifices, and ultimately, everyone is engaged in one sacrifice or another.
We're sacrificing for our family, we're sacrificing for our near and dear ones, we're sacrificing for our motherland so many different ideas of sacrifices there within this life but
Krishna explains that only if you know the real meaning of the science of sacrifice, you will be able to achieve these three results. So therefore it's very important to know the science of sacrifice. What is it?
What is the meaning?
Overcoming karmic slavery through sense control
Yagya vide. Basically, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport, and this is the meaning of this whole chapter, is that the ultimate result of the sacrifice is to get rid of karma.
When people are engaged in sacrifice that uh it results in the purification of karma. And the Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the purport that you will be able to control the senses.
Because when we are slaves of karma, we are slaves of our senses. Our previous activities basically push us to do all this kind of stuff which we have been doing. Chewing the chew. And you started smoking.
After some time you become the slave of this habit. Or you take little drug. Very innocent, just for curiosity's sake, little heroin or whatever. Let me see how it feels. So then you become the slave of this stuff.
And when Prabhupada says speaks about sense control, he basically speaks about this lamentable situation of the human being being enslaved by their senses.
Senses are pushing them to do what they have been doing for so many years and they cannot stop doing it. They just are doing and doing and doing.
And uh uh this is how karma works and uh this is ultimately the main benefit of the sacrifice. Sacrifice is a science which is developed in the ancient uh human civilization to help people get rid of this slavery.
Actually this whole world is a very dark place. You might have noticed it. It's very dark. Dark in the sense that you know we are we are being enslaved in so many ways.
The government is trying to enslave us, all our you know little bosses and chiefs are trying to really squeeze us out. But the most uh lamentable type of slavery is inside.
We are slaves of our karma, we are slaves of our sinful habits, we are slaves of our mind. The mind tells us something, I want this.
And you're running to fulfill these crazy desires of the mind, no matter how crazy they are. And the mind has a limited number of crazy desires. Just one crazy desire after another crazy desire. And you do it.
It's very humiliating in reality. And this is how this world is working upon us.
Understanding the true essence of giving
So ultimately, sacrifice is to make us free. Sacrifice is to make us happy and to give us the feeling of complete absolute freedom in this world.
So Krishna explains the science of sacrifice, and the science of sacrifice is ultimately to teach people that they should give. This is the essence of sacrifice. Sacrifice you give something.
The first type of sacrifice is that you give something some object. Usually the symbol of sacrifice, the um Metaphor of sacrifice is this fire sacrifice.
Those who come often to Hare Krishna temple for sure are familiar with this ritual of sacrifice. There is this fire and people sit around it
And there is a priest and the priest is pouring clarified butter. And everyone is throwing some grains by chanting mantras. So this is called dravya-yajña or sacrifice of some material objects.
But the symbol it's a very symbolic thing. Actually this whole thing is a metaphor, which we have to very clearly understand.
And this way we can become yajña-vidah or uh the knowers of the meaning of sacrifice. What is fire? The meaning of fire is that there is a very peculiar characteristic of fire. Fire burns, of course.
But there is another important characteristic of fire is that Fire never goes down. Go down or going even to the side. Even if there is very strong wind, still the fire goes up. Fire is the fire of knowledge.
The fire symbolizes this fire of knowledge and this fire of knowledge which is supposed to be burning within our heart should uh uh burn away the sinful reactions or karmic reactions.
All the seeds which we throw in the fire are the seeds of karma.
It is explained by Patañjali Muni in his Yoga Sūtras that there is avidyā-kṣetra within our consciousness. Avidyā means ignorance, and kṣatra means soil, kṣetra means field.
This avidyā, very thick soil of ignorance within our heart, this is where we're sowing the seeds of our karma. We are ignorant. We don't know who we are, what we are about, what is the meaning of life.
So we are doing this action or that action just to become happy. But as a result of every action, every action like a seed, we're sowing this seed and after some time, in due course of time, every seed will bring water.
Yeah. More seats and more seats and more seats. Every action has many, many reactions. We're doing just little action. And so many reactions are there.
Like in the laws of Manu, in Manu-saṁhitā, is explained that if you are eating cow, if you are somewhat guilty in killing the cow, you will be born as many times as there are uh uh hairs in the body of karma. Oh cow.
So many times you will be born as a cow to experience this horrible pain. So you do one action.
Just very innocently kill the cow because this is the custom of the land. Because everyone has to eat beefsteak or something like this. Nothing wrong with it, right? Everyone is doing this.
But the law of Manu says that the result which will come after some time will be multiplied many, many times. And in the same uh manner, if you do something good, the result will also be multiplied many, many times.
If you do something little good, uh you will get a lot of good in the future. So this is how karma works. Karma is not proportionate. Karma is not that you do something little and you get something little. No.
Because if you do something bad to somebody. This evil action towards somebody or the pain which you inflict to somebody actually is being multiplied many times.
Let's say you inflicted pain to somebody and this people because you inflicted pain, he experienced this pain and his mood became very bad, and he will go and he will inflict this pain to many, many people. So indirectly you are guilty in the pain he is inflicting to others.
Like for example uh uh there is this horrible thing in the modern world as a child abuse. Sometimes people they abuse little children. Sexually abuse or physically they abusing them.
But what happened with this children, when they grow up, they will start doing the same thing to other children. They were victims, but these victims, they become uh culprits uh after some time.
So the original culprit or criminal who inflicted pain to this little creature, he is indirectly guilty of the pain which this little boy will inflict to other children when he will grow up.
And therefore he is responsible for this and sooner or later this will come back to him. All this pain which he inflicted, which he is guilty of doing, will sooner or later come back to him. And this is how karma works.
Or if you do something little good, this little good actually again multiplies in the chain of uh human connections or connections of the nature. And ultimately uh you will get the good results of this karma.
But the metaphor or symbol of fire sacrifice is that you throw the seeds in the fire. What happened with the seeds if you throw them in the fire? What will happen with them? Yeah, they will burn.
Will they be able to bring fruits? No. The sacrifice means that you're sacrificing your karma. You're turning away your karma. You're saying that no more. I don't want. I don't want the reactions of my activities.
I'm destroying the seeds of my karma within the fire. And it basically means that uh the reactions will not come to me. And moreover, when you throw the seeds in the fire, what effect it will have?
It burns or fries the seeds, the fries, the seeds, the fried seeds will not be fructified. But besides that, the fire becomes stronger. As I said, the fire which goes up is a symbol of knowledge.
And if you do proper action and sacrifice, there's nothing else but karma. We are doing different karma in this material world, but usually the karma brings bad reactions.
But if you do the karma in a spirit of sacrifice, whatever you do, if you do it as a sacrifice, then not only uh the reactions of the previous actions will be burned, but the fire of knowledge will become stronger.
You will get ultimately uh the transcendental knowledge within your heart. And of course we know that you know anyway, it really depends.
If you take a big bag of the seeds to come to the little fire and throw the whole back on the fire. Then the fire can be extinguished. So we should be very careful with our karma. When we come to the spiritual paths.
All our actions should be in the spirit of sacrifice, but we should be very careful about actions which we perform, not just throw the whole bag of it and the little fire of spiritual knowledge which is there.
Devotional significance of offering butter
But the most essential ingredient of the sacrifice is this ghee, clarified butter, melted butter, which is produced after a very long chain of actions. And this ghee symbolizes bhakti.
And the priest, and the main priest is supposed to uh uh be someone who conducts the yagya.
We need somebody who leads us into the spirit of yagya, into the spirit of sacrifice. We need somebody who really knows what he is doing. And he is not throwing the seeds. He's supposed to be free from all these karmas.
He is throwing the clarified butter. And the clarified butter has a very amazing effect on the fire. First of all, it burns immediately.
When you throw seeds, the fire goes little down and then after some time it goes up again. But if you throw if you pour clarified butter, then what happens with the fire? Immediately it burns.
And there is no uh ashes from this clarified butter. The clarified butter which is produced after so long time is actually only gives food for this fire.
So the clarified butter is the symbol of bhakti or symbol of devotion. Because ultimately this fire of transcendental knowledge only burns because of devotion.
Only this fire of transcendental knowledge or which is being fed by our devotion, by our devotion to God, is capable of burning away all the karma.
But ultimately in all the sacrifices the the essence, the ultimate goal of all the sacrifices is uh to teach us how to love. And the transcendental knowledge is nothing else but the knowledge of love.
Even in the material world we know if you love somebody, if you really love somebody, if you don't pretend that you're loving, but you really love somebody. What do you do?
What is the desire which comes from your heart when you love somebody? What you do towards this person? You love somebody.
You try to please him, you try to serve him, you try to give him something. And it's even more important for you to please him than to please yourself. The amazing result of love is that your selfish desires vanish?
You love somebody and you want to do something for him, you want to serve him, you want to do something for him. So this is the meaning of love. The sacrifice is coming from love. That ultimate root of sacrifice is love.
And when the love is there, we naturally engaged in this abnegation, self-abnegation. We natur'really engaged in this self-sacrifice. We're naturally doing something. We're naturally serving.
But Krishna is teaching us vice versa. He says you don't have love now. Krishna is not a love. And unfortunately this is a uh very sad state of our consciousness. We don't have this love within our heart.
But Krishna says if you still engage in the sacrifice in the proper manner, ultimately you will get love. Ultimately you will get devotion. And he explains this here.
He says, if you are engaged in sacrifice, if your actions are performed in the spirit of sacrifice that you're not doing it for yourself but you're doing it for Krishna, you're doing it for the devotees, you're doing it for the sake of uh igniting spiritual knowledge within your heart, then the result of this will be bhakti.
You will get love. When the fire is strong enough within your heart, then the love will come. And all the unwanted things will disappear.
Actually, what Krishna is saying here is very um scientific consequence of the spirit of sacrifice. If I understand that sacrifice means that I have to give.
Performing prescribed duties as sacrifice
And I can give in many different ways in many different capacities. Like uh here Krishna explains that if you just perform your duties, your duty is a husband or your duty as a wife.
And do it very nicely and very properly. And know that you are doing this duty ultimately for God. For God's sake. That will be purified. And that's not so easy. Because usually people are very selfish. Did you notice this?
We always think about ourselves. You know, I need this and I need this and I need this and this guy doesn't give me what he's supposed to give me.
The family relationship is so difficult because everyone is thinking what he wants to get. The husband knows the duties of the wife very perfectly and the wife perfectly knows the duties of the husband.
The only problem is that husband doesn't know the duties of the husband and wife doesn't know the duties of the wife. And that's that's how it becomes spoiled. Everyone is thinking he's supposed to do this. Rascal.
He's not doing what he's supposed to do. But uh sacrifice means I'm thinking what am I supposed to do. And this is sacrifice. What is my duty? What I have to give, not what I have to get.
And this is a big science because uh usually people don't know how to give. Everyone knows how to get. When the little child is crawling, the first thing which he knows,
he doesn't know anything else, but he already knows how to get something and to put it inside. You know, he's taking everything, every garbage which is there, you know, he is just, and this habit remains during our life.
We're just collecting all kinds of garbage. Did you notice this? If you go to anyone's apartment or home, it's just a big collection of garbage. Because everyone is just getting and collecting and collecting and collecting.
But human life means to learn how to give. This is what little children have to know and this is what adults have to know, how to give. And how to give means I have to know what are my duties, what am I supposed to do.
Kṛṣṇa says there are many different ways of doing it. But ultimately by doing this you develop the habit to give.
And when you develop this habit to give, the habit for sacrifice, when you really develop this habit to give or habit for sacrifice, then you feel happiness in the act of giving. Because we're greedy now.
We're so greedy and so, so completely miserly, you know, you know, I cannot give it because because I need it myself. Kṛṣṇa says just throw a few grains to start with. And you will get the taste.
Actually, this is much more pleasurable, pleasing if you give than even you get.
Cultivating the spirit of generosity
Like when you give some charity. In India there is a very interesting uh custom which I didn't understand for a long time. Uh there is this custom that you have to feed people.
In India one of the mottoes or one of the sacrifices which every civilized human being should do uh uh sounds like atiti bhagavan.
If somebody comes to you, knocks at your door, and he comes to you uh not in a proper time, he's uncalled, you don't want to see him, but he just still comes to you. You have to treat him as Bhagavan.
If some guest comes to you at night, at one o'clock in the morning, knocks at your door. Your duty, if you want to be called civilized human beings, is to open the door and to do whatever you can just to please him. Because this is how your relationship with Bhagavan attested.
If you receive this unwanted guest properly, it means that you're ready to receive Bhagavān within your heart. But not only this, there is this custom of you know accepting of hospitality of accepting
people of feeding people and I was once experiencing this I was received in a traditional Indian home and what did they do? I mean they really treated me as Bhagavān. It's it's definitely very literal.
They did all kinds of pujas to me, they chanted all kinds of prayers to me, they bowed down the whole family, they washed my feet, you know, I didn't know what to do I uh
it was very embarrassing because you know of course we all want to be Bhagawan but to take it that literally it was quite unexpected. So anyway, they were doing all kinds of stuff, then they were feeding me.
And at the end of this, which is the most amazing, because all the time I was thinking how much they will ask for this service. Being spoiled, uh being totally completely corrupt in my mind,
I was thinking, you know, they will definitely give me a bill or invoice, you know this is for this puja and this is for this prayer and this is for this food but at the end they
gave me money. They gave me envelope with hundred rupees. I couldn't figure it out. You know, they were serving me and serving me and serving me and serving me and at the end they paid me.
And when I asked what is the esoteric meaning of this action, then you serve and then you pay. Somebody explained to me. When you serve somebody, you get so much pleasure that you have to pay to the object of your service.
Because you get the pleasure. And you have to pay for this pleasure.
So what Krishna is saying here, what Krishna is recommending to us, what uh Bhagavad-gītā is recommending to us is that when you get accustomed to the science of sacrifice, a custom of giving, then uh gradually you will develop the taste for this.
And when you develop the taste for this giving, you know now sacrifice is really something horrible, you know. You immediately think, you know, Sacrifice. This is something really uncivilized.
Material desires cause human suffering
No, this is a very nice uh custom or the very nice uh ritual or the very nice basically pillar of life and if you develop this custom of giving then uh you will get all these results immediately because you will get this taste of giving and when you get this taste of giving your own desires will disappear.
One of the greatest mistakes of modern people is that they think they take it as an axiom that desire is something which makes you happy.
Once I was speaking with one lady, she was a very religious uh not religious, she was a professor, professor of religion. And she knew all kinds of religion.
She knew all kinds of stuff about Buddhism, about Hinduism, about Christianity, about Muslim. She had all kinds of different knowledge in her little head. And she started speaking about Buddhism.
And she said that in Buddhism she started to explain explain to me the essence of Buddhism. And he said in the Buddhism it is said that the root cause of all problems is the desire.
And then we know you know we have these desires which are burning within our hearts. But then she said that the solution which they give is really backwards. It's really strange.
I agree that unfulfilled desires is a problem. We know. If I have very strong desire which I need to fulfill, this is a problem.
But then she said, you know, somehow or other this Buddhists say that you have to get rid of desires. And I think you should not get rid of desires, you should fulfill this desire. This is how it should be.
But people don't understand that desire in itself, whether fulfilled or non fulfilled, is the cause of suffering.
The desire in any stage, and Krishna says this, kām eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-समुद्- bhavo mahāśano mahā-pāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam. This is your enemy. The desire is your enemy and it's Mahashana Mahapapma.
Mahashana means it cannot be satisfied at any stage. It's voracious. It eats more and more and more. You satisfy this little desire, the desire becomes big. It grows faster than you feed it.
You know, and you feed this big desire and it becomes even bigger. Until it swallows you completely. It's mahāśana. You cannot satisfy the desire. It's like the fire, again the same metaphor.
The fire is burning and you you pour ghee in the fire. The fire asks, please give me some food. And you put some food in this fire. And what happens with the fire?
It does for more and more and more. So this fire of desire in our heart there could be only two fires. Either the fire of desire, which ultimately will swallow us, or the fire of transcendental knowledge which ultimately will elevate us, which ultimately will bring us up to the spiritual atmosphere.
So people in this world, mahāśana mahā-pāpmā, first effect of the desire is that you can never satisfy it.
Second effect of the desire, it's mahā-pāpmā means it's very sinful. It pushes us to commit sinful activities after sinful activities after sinful activities. And all these desires, actually, is the cause of anxiety.
Lesson on detachment from Pingala
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is a very nice story. About a prostitute. So people like to hear about prostitutes. So I will tell you a story about a prostitute.
About the prostitute in the city of Mithila and her name was Pingala. She was a nice prostitute. She was a very pretty and she had a very strong desire within her heart.
Sexual. And besides that, that was her you know, daily bread. That's how she would get her sustenance and maintenance. But she loved her profession. She was a very, very good prostitute. So she was living.
And once—and one day—she dressed very nicely, very beautifully, and she was sitting in her house, waiting for the clients. She was waiting and waiting and time was passing and passing and passing, minute after minute, hour after hour, and she would become more impatient and more impatient and more impatient.
And she was listening to every sound. Oh, maybe one client is coming, maybe my lover is coming, maybe somebody else is coming. But it was not to her, it was to somebody else.
To some other prostitute, oh, I don't know to whom. You know, nobody was coming to her. And the time was passing and passing and passing and the desire in the heart was becoming stronger and stronger and stronger.
And ultimately she became totally in complete anxiety. And nobody came. The night came and nobody came and half night passed and she realized that nobody will come.
And at that point of time she said, What am I doing? Am I crazy? What am I doing? She at one point realized that the happiness is not to fulfill the desire but to get rid of the desires.
She said, she said, uh, āśā paramam duḥkham. Asha paramamdukham means asha means the hope for the enjoyment which is burning within our heart.
We really want to enjoy and we hope that we will get enjoyment and the hope becomes stronger and stronger
and stronger no matter what and we have so many problems within our life but the hope to enjoy is still there and she at that point
when she realized that nobody is coming, she said better I kill this hope within my heart. No more hope to enjoy. And she said and she felt very happy.
She said really good, you know I don't need to hope that somebody will come. I don't need to expect somebody, I don't need to wait, I don't need to listen all these noises and you know sounds I just can sleep peacefully.
And believe it or not, she lay down on her bed and slept very peacefully. And that was her first peaceful night in her life because she killed this hope. There is a very good Russian saying that the hope is dying the last.
You know. We we have so many hopes. And the life is always contrary to this hope, but still we hope like in English they say hope against hope. There is no hope but we'll still have some hope.
Everything goes wrong in my life but we still have the hope after some hope after hope and ultimately we die very hopeful. You know it's a very hopeful death. We die with a very strong hope to become happy.
What Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is saying is that you have to get rid of these hopes. Have to get rid of these desires.
Attaining fearlessness and eternal peace
And the only way to get rid of the hopes and desires is the sacrifice. When you develop this habit of sacrifice, this sacrifice is burning away all these hopes and desires.
And when in the fire of sacrifice all our sinful desires or sinful hopes are being burned, then we become totally completely peaceful. And this peace is coming. And Krishna is explaining this.
He says this is the first effect.
Again, the three effects of sacrifice if you develop this spirit of sacrifice within your heart that I'm doing, I'm doing my duty, I am doing it not for myself, I am doing it for God, I am doing it for my spiritual master, I'm doing it not for myself.
Then the three results will come. First, you become cleansed, cleansed, you become totally pure from the sinful reactions of the past. Second you become happy. And that's very amazing.
Krishna doesn't say that you know if you sacrifice, if you give and give and give and give and you will be left with nothing.
No, Kṛṣṇa says you will be bhujo, bhuja means you will enjoy śiṣṭāmṛta. You will enjoy śiṣṭāmṛta. Śiṣṭa means the remnants of the sacrifice, the results of the sacrifice. And this results of the sacrifice is Amrita.
What is Amrita? Who knows what is Amrita? Deathless nectar. Yeah. This is the nectar of deathlessness. What you get as a result of sacrifice, you get deathlessness. You will become amṛta. You become deathless.
You become totally free from death. When you engage in sacrifice, you get happiness, material happiness, material enjoyment. That's for sure. That's the law of this world. If you do this, you will get whatever you need.
But besides that, you will taste this nectar of deathlessness. You will become deathless. You will actually understand that there is no death for you. You will get rid of the fear.
Now we are very fearful because we are afraid of death. But if you engage in this spirit of sacrifice, uh, if you develop this spirit of sacrifice within yourself, you will feel that there is no death.
And in this way you become totally fearless. Who wants to become totally fearless and free from death? We all want.
And that's Kṛṣṇa says you will become happy in this life because you become free from the sphere of death due to the spirit of sacrifice, and you will get a lot of opulence too as a result of sacrifice, and then yanti brahma sanātana, you approach the eternal atmosphere of the spiritual world.
You become Brahman, Brahman yourself. Because you develop this eternal spirit or eternal nature. And since you have this eternal nature, then, uh, your next existence will also be eternal.
You will come to this eternal atmosphere because your consciousness has become eternal again as a result of sacrifice.
Chanting as the supreme sacrifice
So that's the meaning of sacrifice. And that's how important the sacrifice is. And therefore, we have to understand that our whole life should become the sacrifice.
We are engaged in saṅkīrtana-yajña. And this is the best way of engaging in yajña when we chant this holy name:
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. This is the biggest sacrifice.
Because the ultimate result of sacrifice is that you have to sacrifice yourself, your false selfish false ego. And the best way uh to sacrifice your false ego to get rid of your false ego is to develop relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
And when we chant the holy name, if we chant it in a proper spirit, in a spirit of sacrifice, this is to get rid of our false identity.
Now our identity is false because we think I'm on my own, I'm independent. I can do whatever I like.
And I have this desire and that desire and this little desire and this little hope and let me do it and I will become happy in this way. But when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare,
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma. The meaning of this sacrifice, of this chanting of sacrifice means that we say to
God, let your desire be fulfilled, not mine. My desire is not very important. My desire is not significant at all. Because I know it doesn't work anyway. I already tried. Just doesn't work.
So we say to God, let your will reign supreme. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. But saying to God, I am not independent anymore, I am dependent on you. I am dependent on your will, I am dependent on your kindness, I am dependent on your mercy.
And in this way we burn this selfish false identity of ours, which is called the ahaṅkāra, which is the cause of all our problems. And this is the sacrifice in which we should be engaged. This is saṅkīrtana yajña.
And this is the most pleasant sacrifice because you chant and Śrīla Prabhupāda said that you know it's natural for people to chant something, to dance, they like music, they like to dance.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda said in this way we will dance our way back home, back to Godhead.
So we will just dance and at one point we will not even notice but dancing here and we will start dancing there. We are chanting and singing here, we'll start chanting and singing there. Because we will go to this place which is suitable to our consciousness.
And if we develop this eternal consciousness of somebody who belongs to God, I am not my own. Not on my own. I belong to God. I'm part of him. Krishna promises to us.
He says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. How one relates to me, I reciprocate with him accordingly.
If he knows that I am eternal and if he wants to serve me eternally, then he will get his eternal life and I will serve him eternally in the eternal kingdom of God. So this is uh how the life goes.
This is deep science, great science. And again the most important word in this world is this yagya vidor. When we are engaged in this yaja, we have to know the meaning of what we are doing.
We have to be very conscious and very precise in the purpose of our sacrifice. I'm chanting this Hare Krishna mantra not to get some futile material results.
I'm chanting this Hare Krishna mantra to get rid of my karma as the first result and ultimately to develop love.
And if we know this purpose very clearly and if we engage in this sacrifice and this action with very clear vision of the goal, then this goal very quickly will come to us.
And everything else will be included within this goal.
As Krishna says, you will be purified, you will become happy here in this world, you will totally be free from the fear of death, and ultimately you will go back home back to Godhead.
So this is the meaning of our sacrifice. We are chanting Hare Krishna mantra to get rid of our false material identity, which is totally useless.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama.
Okay, this was a little lecture about the meaning of sacrifice. Sarve 'py ete yajña-vido yajña-kṣapita-kalmaṣāḥ, yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta-bhujo yānti brahma sanātanam. So this is the very nice sacrifice. Very nice process.
Dangers of compromising spiritual practices
It can bring us so much if we do it properly.
Moreover, nowadays, as time is going by and many devotees are not so much fully engaged, they have some kind of philosophy that they can engage in this process of bhakti-yoga with material desires and even though they have to take results but still at at the end it'll turn out good because it was said so in the Vedas.
So is it is it actually possible to calculate like that that we can lower our purity of performance for bhakti-yoga and then still wish that according when time passes we will still attain the ultimate goal.
Is it like possible? Or is it like that work that's a point where one starts going down down faster? What do you think yourself? Well I feel that when one starts making this like a compromise
it's it's like beginning of endless compromises. Somehow I feel like that.
Well, weak. And Krishna explains again this is a science. What you get you cannot get something which you didn't deserve. You only get what you deserve. And Krishna explains that Sadat
Bhava Bhita Yam Bhitzmaram Bavamtea Levaram Tamtamevaiti Kamteaya Sadata Bhava Bhavita. Krishna explains that Yam Yamba Pismarambhavam Tyachatan tekalevaram
when you give up your body at the moment of death uh you will get uh what you will remember at that time, right?
What you remember what whatever image or thought will come to your mind at that moment, at the moment of you leaving body, you will get in the next life this. You will only get this much.
And he explains what exactly you get. This last line is very important. Sadatat Bhava Bhavita. You will get in the next life or at the end of your day, at the end of life.
Only the thought which you have cultivated during your lifetime sadhat bhava bhavita constantly. If you have been cultivating something, that only you will get at the end of life.
If your practice was adulterated by different desires Because
how is that possible It's very difficult to you know, even when we're healthy and we have relatively peaceful mind, we know how difficult it is to think about Krishna.
The mind goes here and there, and there are so many important things which I have to think about all of a sudden and so much garbage there, and you have to think about this garbage and that garbage and all kinds of garbage is which is there.
And it's difficult. But when you're dying, just imagine you're dying. I know it's not easy but it will happen at one point. You will be totally completely in panic. In pain.
And if you didn't cultivate very properly, this consciousness, eternal consciousness, consciousness of God. Who can guarantee you that you will think about Krishna? Nobody.
If it's so difficult to think about Krishna at the moment of life when we're relatively healthy, why should we think about him at the moment of death?
There was one devotee who was who was drowning in the water, in the river. And then somehow or other he was rescued from the water.
And somebody asked him, What did you think at the moment of death when the death was approaching? He said, I got a I got an ad advertisement about some washing powder. This is the image which came to me.
Because so many advertisements around that when we watch TV
and I know those devotees whom you meant by asking you a loaded question they sometimes have nice TV it's a part of their paraphernalia for worship Krishna somewhere near the altar and they do some TV yagya.
Every evening they ignite the fire of this yagya by turning on the TV and they sacrifice this consciousness into this tube. But what happens as a result of this so called yagya is that uh uh they get so many desires.
This is the most demonic invention of the modern civilization. By far the most demonic invention is this little innocent TV. Because specifically this the whole purpose of T V is to create desires within your heart.
As if you don't have it enough. You know, we already have so many desires, but T V is just the source of new desires and new desires and new desires. And T V you see some, you know, advertisement.
And in advertisement there is some some beautiful apsara. And she's she's eating this you know chocolate. And you think this is the perfection of life.
To have this apsara eating the chocolate. And it creates a hope in you. That you know actually these apsaras they don't exist in real life, they only exist in the TV, right?
You notice they don't exist because even there they they have so much cosmetics and everything to look. So but you developed already desire and you look at your wife.
She she's not similar to this apsara. You just think you know I wasted my life with this ugly lady. And I could have enjoyed with this Afsara who is eating this chocolate so nice. And you divorced with your wife and you start looking for this apsara which doesn't exist in reality.
And in the meantime you buy a lot of chocolate because at least you get something. No, if not Apsara at least some joke. But this is how it works. This is how it's foolish, it's stupid, but that's how it works.
But you know, when you see when you watch TV and at the same time you're very Krishna conscious because you're chanting japa. And the same time. Just guess what you will see at the moment of that.
Most probably some apsara, not Kṛṣṇa. You will not remember him. You will remember everything else. So Krishna is very specific about this.
He said sadā-tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ, whatever mood you have been cultivating during your lifetime, only this you will get at the end of your life. So we have to be very careful. The mind is is a very dangerous fellow.
It's like vacuum cleaner. You know how vacuum cleaner works. It just sucks the dirt. That's the dharma of vacuum cleaner. Vacuum cleaner is just loves to suck in the dirt.
Regulating sense inputs for happiness
So the original vacuum cleaner is this mind which loves to suck in the dirt. And the vacuum cleaner, the difference between the vacuum cleaner and the mind is that vacuum cleaner has only one outlet.
And we have five outlets to suck in the dirt through the eyes, through the mouth, through the ears, through the nostrils. So this all the scanning inside.
Therefore Krishna while naming different yagyas he says he actually lists twelve different yagyas in this list in the previous verses before the verse which we chanted.
And one of the yajñas is that you have to regulate your food, āhāra, and the meaning is that not only just āhāra food, gross food, but āhāra for your eyes, food for your eyes, food for your ears, food for your nose.
So you have to regulate. And this is yajña. The real tyāgī is that you take only nice clean sāttvika food for your eyes, for your ears, for your nose, uh for your mouth.
So all those people who say that we can do whatever we like at the end the end somehow or other by some unbelievable strike of good luck, but if they develop this habit, they will become happy.
This is actually the happy thing to speak about Krishna. Like today I was speaking with Arjuna and she was telling me her experience.
She said when I speak about Krishna even little Krishna. Even things which I know and which I repeated hundreds of thousands of times. Simple things about Krishna, I become happy. And everyone knows this experience.
When I speak about Krishna, I become happy. And this is sacrifice because normally we we like to speak about ourselves, right? You know, I'm sick and I'm tired and I'm you know I'm and oh you know this and that.
We always speak about ourselves. We like to speak and hear about ourselves.
But when we speak about Krishna or when we hear So the the solution is not to lower the standard, the solution is to be engaged in sacrifice in a very sincere way. And then you become happy.
These people they why they do it? Because somehow or other they're not satisfied and they try to find satisfaction in some lower engagement. But the real solution is to find why I'm not satisf Krishna promises to me.
If you be engaged in the sacrifice, you will be happy. I'm not. Why? Krishna. So this is how it is. This is the proper logic which we should uh develop. There any other questions? Okay.
There is no questions, then we can stop now. Thank you very much.