Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2016
Chapters
Recitation and verse reading
Omamo bhagavate vasude bagavate vastudeva bhagavate Vedin sarasmati yasaminha dojayamodhiraya Naštatray Sabades, Vitam Bhagavat Sajam, Bhagavaditama Swoke, Bhakti Bhavatinastiki, Yampravachantamanu Peta Mateta Krityand vaipayanavi Rahakatarajuhama, Udretamayatayotahu, Sarva Buta Vidamanatusmi Reading Srimad Bhagavatam 1011 chapter 2 Maharaj Nimi meets with the nine Yogandas
Text number two Ah no raja hindiavandam charana ambuja Baj Sarvata Sarvatyogasyamara Utamay Mautamay.
Konurajan Indriyavan, Konuraja Indriyavan, Konurajaan indriavan, Mukundacharanambujam, Mukundachanambujam, Mukundachanambujam, Mukundachnambujam, Nabhaj Sarvatumityu, Nabaj Sarvatum Nitu, Nabaj Sarvatumity, N Baj Sarvaton,
Upasyamarottama, pasamarotamai, upasyamarottamai, pasamarottamai, kunurajanindriavamindriyama Na badje sarva tu bridju, na badje sarva tu, upasia maartamai Vasamamarotamai Kaha
Hu No Indeed Rajana Rajan O King Indriavan possessed of senses Mukundacharana Ambujamdacharana Bujam the lotus feet of Lord Mukunda. The lotus feet of Lord Mukunda Nabhajat would not worship.
Consequences of material sense gratification
Would not worship Sarvataham Rityuhuamrityhu being faced by death by death on all sides Upasyam Worshipable Worshipable Amar Uttamay Amara Uttama By the best of liberated personalities.
My dear King, in the material world, the conditioned souls are confronted by death at every step of life.
Therefore among the conditioned souls, who among the conditioned souls would not render service to the lotus feet of Lord Mukunda, who is worshipable even for the greatest of liberated souls or for the
word Indriyavan is significant in this verse. Indriavan means possessing senses.
Although we are conditioned within the material world, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, we are awarded a human body which possesses distinct senses such as the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin.
Generally, the conditioned souls use these senses in a false attempt to exploit the material nature for sense gratification. But our material senses and their objects are temporary.
And it is not possible to become peaceful or happy in the attempt to gratify our temporary senses with the temporary sense objects worshipped or offered by Maya, the illusory energy of the Lord.
In fact, our strenuous endeavors to satisfy the material senses inevitably bring exactly the opposite result, namely material suffering. A man is attracted to a woman.
Being sexually aroused, he marries her, and soon there is a family that requires ever increasing support.
In this way his innocent and simple life is ended, and he spends the major portion of his life working hard like an ass to support the demands of his family.
In the Third Canto, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Kapila describes very clearly that in spite of the exhausting work a man performs throughout his life, his family is ultimately dissatisfied.
And when he and when the exhausted father reaches old age, the irritated family members look upon him just as farmers look upon an old and useless ox.
Sometimes the sons dream of receiving the father's money as an inheritance and secretly wish him to die.
Nowadays people strongly resent the trouble of caring for elderly parents and therefore send them to an institution where they die lonely and neglected after a life of hard work for their so-called loved ones.
One doctor in England is seriously proposing euthanasia for elderly persons who are no longer productive.
Nowadays, some people desiring material sense gratification but hoping to avoid the inconvenience of family life, try to enjoy free sexual relations with women without trouble of marriage.
Through birth control and abortion they eliminate the disturbance of caring for children. In this way they hope to enjoy material sense gratification without any material impediment.
By the laws of nature, however, such persons become bound in a network of sinful reactions by avoiding their real duty to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and by thoughtlessly causing violence and suffering to others for increasing their own sense gratification.
Caught in a network of impious activities, they drift further and further away from their original pure consciousness and gradually lose all power to understand the laws of nature.
Therefore it is stated here, sarvato mṛtyuḥ. Mrityu means death. Death suddenly appears, startling the confident sense gratifiers and destroys the entire program of so-called material happiness.
Often such persons are afflicted with ghastly diseases and undergo inconceivable suffering which ends in death.
If a sincere well-wisher points these facts to them, trying to inform them of the reality, they become angry and accuse him of being a pessimist or religious fanatic.
In this way they blindly ignore the laws of nature until these laws inevitably smash them down and drag them out of their fool's paradise.
Because of an excessive accumulation of sinful results, they are forced into situations of great distress by the laws of karma.
Sinking down into the lower species of life, they lose all awareness of what lies beyond their gross material senses.
Sometimes a living being is able to understand the miserable result of materialistic sense gratification.
Being frustrated by the pain and suffering of materialistic life, and being ignorant of any superior life, he adopts a neo-Buddhist philosophy and seeks shelter in so-called nothingness.
But there is no actual void within the kingdom of God. The desire to merge into nothingness is a reaction against material pain.
Purifying false ego through spiritual shelter
It is not a tangible concept of the Supreme. For example, if I feel unbearable pain in my leg and the pain cannot be cured, I may finally agree to have my leg amputated, ,
But it is far better to remove the pain and keep my leg. Similarly, because of false ego, we think I am everything. I am the most important person. No one is as intelligent as me.
Thinking in this way we suffer constantly and experience intense anxiety. But as soon as we purify the ego by admitting that we are insignificant, eternal servants of Krishna, our ego will give us great pleasure.
Shri Krishna, the Lord of the blissfully variegated spiritual sky called Vaikuntha, is always absorbed in transcendental enjoyment. In fact, Sri Krishna is the reservoir of all pleasure.
People absorbed in materialistic enjoyment are bound by the laws of omnipresent death.
But if we endeavor instead to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we can immediately be connected with His hladini-shakti or blissful potency.
If we serve Krishna under the guidance of his authorized representative, the spiritual master, we can immediately get relief from material distress.
Then we shall not yearn after nothing, but instead we shall be able to relish unlimited spiritual bliss in the service of the Supreme Lord.
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya also indicates that births and deaths occur in every planet of the universe.
Therefore, our so-called space travel and cosmic consciousness are useless since there is no eternal life anywhere within the material cosmos.
In conclusion, to understand the futility of engaging in the service of anything other than Krishna and to engage instead in serving that which is eternal and full of bliss is the highest possible development of intelligence.
Although our present intelligence is narrow, being conditioned by the laws of nature, we can create unlimited good fortune for ourselves by taking shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda is learning to discriminate between that which is temporary and useless, and that which is eternal and real.
Kaumāra-ācaritavyam, mukunda-caraṇāmbujam, na bhajet sarvatāṁ ratiḥ urupāsyam amaratamāyāḥ. My dear king, in the material world the conditioned souls are confronted by death at every step of life.
Therefore, who among the conditioned souls would not render service to the lotus feet of Lord Mukunda, who is worshipable even for the greatest of liberated
souls. Bhaktividanta Swami Vidinami Namaste Saraswati Devi Goravana Krachary Shashinavadi Pascha Desha Tari Panchawes Chakripasindurevacha Patianampavane Byovaisnava Byona Mo Maha Jay Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Sriadvaita Badha Sivashivora Bhaktavinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Here, Ajana Jokana Kamadha Sankirtanai Kapita Mawai Taksriambaru Dharma Fama Vande Jagat Priya Karokarnavata And
shall I end the class? Schedule?
Illusion of finding material happiness
Schedule is normally goes to half past my last but a few more minutes. I'm very happy to be with all of you. And I'm glad to speak a few words on this very important topic.
Basically this is a very fundamental truth which is difficult to understand. The commentator of this verse is explaining that usually people don't like to hear such things.
To the extent that they become aggressive to those who dare to speak them in the face that there is no happiness in the material world.
Because everyone is living under this illusion or strongly believes that I will be happy. I will be the sole exception of all other fools because I am so intelligent. Nobody is happy, but somehow or other I will make it.
So people so emotionally they they invest so much emotion in this concept and this hope and this desire to be happy by all means in this material world, that they cannot see the obvious fact that this world is not meant for happiness.
This is somehow or rather the premise that this world is created by God for us to be happy. And therefore, people sometimes wonder why there is so much suffering.
But the very question which they ask why there is so much suffering and why God created world where there is so much suffering just basically betrays the misunderstanding behind this question.
And the simple misunderstanding is that this world should have been created for my happiness. And if it's not, if it doesn't bring me happiness, then there is something wrong, either with the world or with the creator.
Nobody thinks that something is wrong with him because you know it's much more logical to suppose or to suggest that something is wrong with me, with my attitude towards the world, but everyone thinks that something is wrong with the creator, or something is wrong with his creation.
But no, this world is created uh to bring suffering by design. The sufferings are built in. And it's an open fact. Krishna doesn't hide it.
He says very openly, Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna. This world is full of sufferings.
But uh somehow or other it's very hard for us to believe and very hard for us to understand why and how. And therefore this basic understanding, very basic understanding, is the beginning of spiritual life.
Ultimately, this world is meant for frustration.
The very purpose of this world is to frustrate us in our endeavors to become happy in this fool's paradise, to become happy in an unnatural situation of so-called independence. And that's the point.
Actually, the Sanskrit word dukkha, which we usually translate as misery or suffering, it's not really suffering. Because for suffering there is a specific word in Sanskrit: tapa. Tapa means suffering. Tapa means agony.
Tapa means fire. Dukkha doesn't mean suffering. Dukkha means frustration. Dukkha means this state of mind where we are frustrated in our hopes and we are kind of trying to search for something real.
So So basically, this is uh however difficult it is, we should try uh be very sober and to understand that there is no hope for material happiness in this world. It doesn't mean that there is no happiness.
Happiness is there, but not material. Unfortunately, people equate the word happiness with material happiness. They already have the preconception, the conception of happiness
which is uh which is a sugar, which is basically contradictory, self-contradictory. Because uh as uh the great sages or and great philosophers show that there is no such thing as material happiness.
And basically, this is what is shown here by the word Indri Allah.
Vidura's inquiry on universal dissatisfaction
It's very interesting. In the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vidura asks the same question, more or less the same question to Maitreya. And it's also interesting how Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this verse.
Sukhaya Sukhaya Karmanika Roti Loko. Sukhaya Karmanika Roti Loko. Nathay Sukham Nathais Sukam Baniyak Uparamamba. So it's very interesting also how Śrīla Prabhupāda explained this verse.
Basically, this verse uh Maitre is asking uh why everyone is trying to become happy in this world, but nobody becomes. It's a very you know wise question.
Everyone is trying Sukhaya, Karmani, Karodil, Loko. In this world, everyone, everyone is working for happiness. Karmani is doing his work sukhaya to become happy.
Sukhaya Karmani Karoti Lako. But nobody becomes happy and nobody becomes satisfied. Uparama. Natay sukham. By this nobody becomes happy. By this attempts to become happy, nobody becomes happy.
And Prabhupāda, he very interestingly explains this verse.
He says that when Udava met Vidura and sent Vidura to speak with Maitreya, he specifically told Vidura: please ask him about the Lord. Please ask him about his pastimes. Please ask him about his abode and all these confidential subject matters.
But instead, Vidura, when he met Maitreya, asked this question, which is of a lower grade, so to speak. He is, mm, basically asking it not about the Lord and His pastimes and His spiritual world.
He is asking why nobody is happy. And Prabhupāda explains why Vidura asks this question.
He says because before we understand anything about the Lord, before we understand the necessity of approaching the Lord, the necessity of spiritual practice, we have to understand this basic truth, that there is no happiness in this world.
Before we are convinced, we will not be able to really put all our attention into the spiritual practice. And that's usually what happens when we engage in spiritual practice.
We are trying to engage in spiritual practice, but there are some you know it's as if we're trying to drive the car with the brakes on.
The brakes are there, and we are trying to Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna. But the brakes are there.
And this is the brake. The only brake which we have, the very but very strong brake, good brake, nicely made brake for our spiritual practice, is our hope against hope to become happy in this world.
And therefore the question of Vidura is very interesting because Vidura asked again, sukhāya karmāṇi karōti lōkō na tad-sukhāyāpy alpa-sukham sukhāya He says, why is it? Let's think about it.
Let's think about it for a moment. Everyone is trying to become happy. But nobody becomes happy, first of all, nobody gets sukha, nobody. Believe me. Nobody I know I sound like a religious fanatic. But that's a fact.
That it would be even fact. Nobody. So that's the first thing. Uparamārambha, nobody even becomes satisfied in this world.
Even if you get some some of your desires satisfied, you're not satisfied. Your desires only grow and grow and grow.
You know, there was one funny story, there was one the richest man in the world at that time, it was in 20s in America. He was the richest man, I don't remember his his name and you know hell with him. Doesn't matter.
So just before before few days, few days before his death, he's basically dying.
So he is interviewed by one uh journalist, and the journalists asked him what's your what's your motto in life? What's your basically what's your driving force? What is there which drives you?
The man is dying, he is the richest man in the world. And he says, I have only one more. What does it mean? It means that he's not satisfied. He's not happy. Because if he is happy, why why does he need more?
Why does he need to change this situation if he would be happy? So the the the simple point, first of all, uh Binduḷā says everyone is trying, nobody becomes happy, nobody becomes even satisfied, but this is not so bad.
This would not be so bad. Even this would not be so bad. But the most paradoxical thing he says, bindu-lā guhyāt tataḥ eva duḥkham. Nobody becomes happy, nobody becomes satisfied.
On the contrary, everyone is just completely miserable in this world. Why? And nobody asked the question why.
Patanjali's analysis of material pleasure
So this very truth is being explained by Patañjali Muni in one very beautiful and very important sutra of Yoga Sutras where he gives four reasons why there is no such thing as material happiness, as happiness for senses.
Just impossible. He excludes all possibility, and the earlier and the more clear we understand this truth, the better it will be. Because this will help us to release the breaks in our spiritual life.
Because still there is some lingering hope. You know, sometimes Mahārāja What he told me. He said, I wanted to become the greatest sportsman. It didn't work.
Then he said, then I wanted to become the greatest military man. It didn't work. And then he said, I became a devotee. Now I want to become the greatest devotee.
But basically it doesn't matter what is after the greatest, what is standing after the greatest.
He doesn't want to become the boy, he doesn't want to become sportsman, he wants to become the greatest because he has the concept. The concept is there.
This is the ego about which Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja speaks in the purport. This ego which causes the miseries. The concept that the happiness is to become the best, the first, the greatest, the whatever.
So and that's that's it. And therefore Patañjali Muni he explains the four reasons why material happiness is not possible and not possible under any circumstances. He says, what is this sutra? He says Parinam.
The first reason parinam. Second reason tapa, third reason saṁskāra, dukkha, and then he says, Guna briti virodha. Dukha Saraya Videka. He says basically this sutra means for those who are the Viveki,
for those people who have discrimination, as Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks in the in the end of the purport, he says that the main thing is to have discrimination.
The intelligence which is capable of discriminating what is happiness, what is unhappiness, what is temporary, what is eternal, what is worth our endeavours and what is basically useless in this world.
So he says: for the for men of discriminating intelligence, intelligence, sharp intelligence, intelligence which can see the truths, not clouded by the illusions, the false hopes, the false conceptions or whatever and dreams which are there.
So he says that there are four reasons as I said why everything is brings unhappiness and these four reasons are very simple. First is parinam.
Parinam basically means that no matter how happy you are, it will finish. Sooner or later and unfortunately much sooner than you think. It will not last long. It will it will it will be finished.
It will be finished and very soon it will be finished. Abruptly. You will just be woken up from your dream of happiness, from your happy dream.
And you know, you know, to to wake up after a happy dream uh it's a very painful experience. You know, you're enjoying, enjoying, enjoying, and you think that everything is fine? But it it will inevitably be ended.
And what kind of happiness it is which will end. It's not happiness in the true sense of the word. It's really not happiness. Parinam. It will be changed. Parinam basically means it will be changed.
Whatever experience you have, no matter how nice it is, and all people know this.
Those people who enjoy so-called happiness, they always live in anticipation that it will end. And that in itself uh uh already completely overshadows their happiness.
And sometimes they become so impassioned that they you know, anyway, let's not go into it. He says first is, uh, pariṇāma, uh you will get ultimately frustration. Second one is tapa.
Tapa means that no matter which in which situation you are, you will experience sufferings anyway. There are you know three kinds of miseries, three kinds of tapas. And you know, if not one, then another one will be there.
It can be ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, or ādhidaivika, whatever it is, you know if if your body doesn't inflict your pain, which basically means that you are you're under 30 years old because after 30 years old uh you know, as one wise man said, if you if you get up and uh there's no pain in your body it means that you are dead.
That's basically what you should understand that you are dead. After 30 years old, you know, you wake up and my goodness
you know, if it's not body, then it's mind; even if everything is fine with your body, then something is wrong, something will be wrong in your mind, you will be in anxiety, in the in frustration, or you know, you will desire something.
And even if—which is practically an impossible proposal— then something—everything is fine with your body is and with your mind—then, uh, you know for sure something will be wrong with the body or the mind of the people around you and they will inflict pain to you.
Because how they can tolerate that somebody is okay when they are not okay they will definitely make sure that you are also not okay. This is what people are doing all the time, you know.
They're frustrated themselves, they're miserable themselves. And the very logical conclusion is that let's make everyone suffer as we suffer.
So if it's not adhyātmika, then it's ādhibhautika, somebody else. You know, human species of life is a unique one in many regards.
And the most distinctive feature of the human species of life, there is no other species of life which would be so cruel towards the same members of the same species.
Nowhere else you will you will see the same thing, you know, people just torture each other. Other cruel species of life, they're just torturing other species of life.
But human beings they have a special pleasure to torture their fellow humans.
I was told that in one German big city there is a zoo and there is a special building where the most dangerous species of animals are kept, the most poisonous snakes and the most, you know, carnivorous animals and all these cruel species of life are there.
So, and you know, there is an explanation in front of every cage what is going on and how dangerous it is, how poisonous it is, how bad it is, how, how, you know, horrible species of life it is, but the very last is a big mirror.
And the table under this mirror says that this is the most dangerous species. There is no one as dangerous as this one. And that's a fact. The most cruel.
No other species of life would invent such tortures as human beings are inventing and inflicting to others.
So you know, uh, Ādhibhautika, it means that tortures which uh or miseries which are inflicted by other uh uh people or other living beings, and then you know even even if this happens, you're completely healthy. You're completely mentally healthy and you are happy. And everyone around you is so nice and gives you garlands and say hi, smiles.
Then still you are not out of it.
Because something wrong will happen with the, you know, with this universe, there will be some some monetary calculation will be there, you know. If not earthquake, then you know some other thing, you know.
If not earthquake, then at least global warming will be there. You will be worried, you know, what happened with this nice England, how long it will take for it to sink under the ocean and all the uh ice will be melted.
You know, one thing or another or another. Therefore, therefore, Patañjali Muni says, first reason is pariṇāma. Pariṇāma means it will change. Second reason is that tāpa.
Tāpa means basically misery which is inherent to the material life. Which is basically inseparable from material life.
As soon as you have body with the senses you will be you will experience this tāpa which basically means miseries, suffering. And then he says saṁskāra. He says that it's not enough.
There is the third reason why the so-called material happiness is not really happiness.
It says that saṁskāra basically means that even if you are happy then what will happen because of the previous samskaras, because of the impressions in your mind, the memories in your mind, you will develop certain cravings.
These memories, these samskaras, these impressions in the mind will overwhelm you. And by overwhelming you, they will push you into something. You know, these saṁskāras, they're never satisfied.
We want more and more and more and more. Even if we get happiness, what will happen? This experience which we will have, will demand to reproduce it. It will basically very strongly demand, "Do the same."
The problem is that even if you repeat the same thing, you get some experience, some pleasurable experience, whether it is sex or whatever,
and you get some sort of happiness, you get some saṁskāra, the saṁskāra will uh very strongly demand from within, "Do it again, do it again, do it again," and you try to do it again. The problem is that you do it again, you don't get the same experience. the same happiness is not there.
It's it's less. And you think, what's wrong with it? And you try it again and it's not there again. And you try it again and it's not there again. But this thing, some scara within, is really crying out.
I want to be repeated. The same experience should be repeated. But it's not reproduced. It's not being reproduced.
So therefore people are trying to do it the same thing in a more uh how you say perverted way because if you do it in a perverted way your absorption is more and it's it's simple why it is not the same thing because your absorption is not the same.
You can only have the same sort of experience, exact same experience, if you are as absorbed as when you're doing it for the first time.
But you will never be as absorbed for the second time as you were for the first time. So and so on and so forth.
Basically what it means, and this is uh what is it uh stated in uh Mānava-dharma-śāstra, in Manu-saṁhitā, uh that no matter how much you try to satisfy the senses, they will demand more and more and more and more and more. And the fire will burn more and more and more from within.
You try to pacify this, to become happy and peaceful; it doesn't work because of saṁskāras. If you are trying to get happiness through the senses, then this is what you will get.
So this is the third reason so what are the three reasons which I listed first one is pariṇāma, parināma, yeah, pariṇāma, it will change; the second one tapa the misery the the third one? Samsara. Samskara.
The impression which is there. And then he says Gunavriti Viroda. Gunavriti Viroda basically is that happiness is the mental condition, is the state of our mind, which is only possible when there is sattvaguna.
Krishna explains this very clearly in Bhagavad-gītā. He says that the only guna, the only quality of nature, the only mode of nature which brings happiness is sattva guna.
It's actually not uh it's not the external things, it's the state of your mind. And if your mind is more or less satvik, you're happy. If your mind is not satvik, if you if if the mind is rajasic, you are miserable; if
the mind is tamasic, you are dull and completely, uh, you know, desolate and, uh, uh, desperate or depressed. This is what it is. And therefore, Patanjali Muni says, Guna Vriti Biroda, he says that this
vriti which is there, Vriti basically means the state of mind caused by material goodness, by material qualities. So you are after happiness. The happiness is caused by the gunas, specifically by Sattvagun, and
only by Sattva Gun, not by any other guna. But the problem is that uh in Sattvagun uh in material world there's always a some sort of tinge or mixture of other gunas. So sooner or later, by the law of nature, which is stated
in Bhagavad Gita that the gunas are always competing. Now Sattva Guna is dominating in your mind. Therefore you feel happiness. But because there are other gunas there, Tamas and Rajas,
and because of this eternal competition that is which is there, and they are kind of you know even if Satvaguna is dominated now, sooner or later Rajaguna will take over, and sooner or later Tama Guna will
take over, and your happiness will be finished. So these are the four reasons according to uh Patangeli Muni why uh uh everything i if you try why you will be frustrated for sure if you try only to be
happy in the material sense.
Futility of attempting material reform
And again we have to be very clear. There was a funny story in Prabhupada's life about this. Once in Mayapur he was a delegation of some yogis came to him and the chief of this delegation was a lady.
She was called Yoga Shakti Ma. And she had flowing you know hairs, black hairs, and she was dressed in a saffron robe, and there were a few men following him.
And they came to Śrīla Prabhupāda and offered to Śrīla Prabhupāda to take part in the conference which they called Karma Yoga and jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga and kriyā-yoga and whatever yoga for peace and happiness and harmony.
And Prabhupada looked at the leaflet which they gave to him and he immediately understood what kind of bluff it is. This and this and this for peace and happiness and harmony and so on and so forth.
And then while they were explaining to him what they're going to do, they said, we will do this conference, and that will be the best service to the humanity and to the Lord.
And Prabhupada immediately took advantage of this situation and he said, Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? You're talking about the service of the Lord. Who is the Lord?
Can you say and they say mmm mmm and then somebody says oom what kind of service it is if you y you know you're speaking about serving the Lord but you don't know who he is.
You don't know what he wants because service basically means you do what the the object of your service wants and you don't do what he doesn't want.
So Prabhupada he made it very clear and then he said he said it's a very nice idea. He said very nice idea. It's almost as nice as you go to the toilet, and he doesn't mean Western toilets, he means real Indian toilets.
But the truth of life is very obvious. It's not it's not hidden by all these modern things. So he says you go to the toilet, the Indian toilet, where there is a hole in the earth and there's nice substance inside this.
And he says, and you take the nice perfume and you sprinkle nice perfume over this toilet. Will it work? They became so disgusted by this, you know.
They came with all this idealistic proposal, let's make everyone happy and hardly Prabhupada says do kala-i-ma shaswatra you can you can't make the toilet a nice place by sprinkling a few drops of perfume over it.
Because that's the nature. That's what we have to understand. The nature of this world is to make us frustrated and to try us to strive for reality, not for illusion.
The problem in this world that everyone is trying to get some illusion. And because everyone is trying to get some illusion, everyone is endlessly suffering, and there is no happiness.
And as Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, and ultimately they say then okay, they become Buddhists. And they try to eliminate their sufferings of frustration by this conception that there's nothing ultimately. Nothing is there.
But what kind of solution it is? Very clearly, according to Vaishnava philosophy, it's a futile attempt to commit spiritual suicide. Basically to completely eliminate the consciousness.
But consciousness by its very nature is eternal. If you exist, you will exist eternally. If you feel that you exist, you will always be existing. And it's not a question of trying to eliminate it.
It's not a question, it's not a solution to trying to become happy because it's not possible. For anyone who has a material body, it's not possible. It's a futile attempt.
It's not a question or it's not a solution to become nothing because you cannot become nothing. Because you are something.
You know, you are trying to reduce yourself to nothingness, but uh this very attempt is is very you know useless crazy
Realignment of ego in divine service
uh uh but then there is there is a real solution and the real solution is to change ego, to change this conception which pushes us in this wrong direction.
What is pushing us in the wrong direction is our understanding of happiness, is our concept of happiness. Our concept of happiness is false. I'm the greatest. But I'm not.
Sometimes people say like somebody came to Śrīla Prabhupāda says, Prabhupāda I'm the most fallen. Śrīla Prabhupāda looked at him and said, you're not anything the most.
People they they cannot become the most elevated, then they decide, let me become the most fallen. It doesn't really matter again. The main thing is the most.
Basically, you want to put yourself in the center, but we're not. We're not in the same. We're small. Surprising, you are nothing most, you are insignificant.
And the sooner we understand this that we are insignificant, and this is there is a great the great significance in being insignificant and the significance is that first of all it's true and you are you are in touch with reality you're not in some clouds that I'm
remorseful and by uh you know taking this starting point, making this starting point, this reality the starting point, you be you can become the most significant.
Because your significance comes in relationship with the most significant. You can become the most significant if you are in touch with the most significant.
And Prabhupāda gave the example, the zero is zero, but zero becomes very meaningful if it's in connection with one. Only if the one is the first and the zero is the second.
If the zero tries to put himself before one, then he remains zero. But if he's in connection with one and if he goes after one then the zero becomes very significant, extremely significant.
So it's not a question of, uh, changing the world. It's a question of changing our conception of happiness. The happiness is possible. This verse is not saying that the happiness is not possible. The happiness is possible.
The happiness is actually should be there. It's our rightful claim to be happy in this world.
But how to be happy, and it is said there Mukunda-caraṇāmbujam, why? Because this Mukunda-caraṇāmbujam, the lotus feet of the Lord, Lord Mukunda is upasya for whom? Amritottamaya.
The best of the most elevated people, they worship to the lotus feet of the Lord.
For them it's upāsya, upāsya means the worshipable object. For them, they are keeping it as something very essential and central in their life. And that's the way to become happy.
Otherwise, we can only be frustrated in this attempts to find the false happiness in this world. And happiness is attainable and the whole Bhagavatam is about this, how to attain happiness.
The whole Bhagavatam is not about anything else. The whole Bhagavatam is how to make us happy, completely happy, eternally happy without any tinge of unhappiness or frustration.
But uh before we achieve this state, this elevated state of consciousness, we have to be very clear that there is no use of trying to find happiness in the place where it's not, where it doesn't exist.
Not to waste our time, energy, intelligence in this futile endeavor and to try to invest all our time, energy and intelligence into the attempts to find happiness where it really is. Okay, thank you very much.
Any any or I should finish that question. Any questions?
Overcoming false hope through holy association
Yes. So thank you very much.
As far as I understood basically we're still in spite of all the instructions that we get from you know from the from the Vedas, from the religious people in the world and uh um from all the experience that we get that everything is temporary in this world, there is still this hope.
Lingering hope. Lingering hope. So what is the basis of this hope and how to get rid of it?
Because kind of trying to In Russian there is a saying and devotees they enhance this saying in Russian there is a saying that hope dies the last and devotees they They improved this common saying.
The common saying hope dies the last and devotees say but it should be killed first. On its own it will never die. It's eternal.
You know the the the cause of this false hope is basically ignorance because our intelligence is clouded by avidyā and that's basically the analysis of all the great Indian philosophy.
That avidyā is the cause of all sufferings. And what avidyā does, avidyā means ignorance. Ignorance basically clouds our perception, clouds our understanding, clouds our intelligence.
And unless we get rid of avidyā, and avidyā brings about asmita, false ego. And asmita brings you know generates two nice twins, Rāga and dveṣa, very cute twins, attachment and hatred.
And ultimately it's all culminated in the fourth generation of progenies of avidyā that abhiniveśa basically means fear of death. Or clinging to life when one really clings to this material concept of life.
And that's how it is. Because of this admiration, we are very we are not we're really we're really emotionally attached to this sort of concepts ideas hopes and everything you know the the nice story about
this about uh that's about Ashtavakramuni when Ashtavakramuni was in in the court of King Janatha somebody asked him or the topic was you know how to get rid of illusion, how to get rid of these hopes.
And to show this, he ran from his place where he was sitting. And he embraced the column of the palace and started crying, leave me, leave me, leave me, leave me.
And at the same time he's clinging to this uh calling, to this pillar. Uh so that's uh that's our situation. We are very much attached to these things and therefore it's very difficult.
We hear this again and again and again. I mean it gradually kind of penetrates, but when it comes to reality, we still behave in the same manner, we still attached to the same concepts.
So how to get rid of this hope is basically to continue with the process which ultimately will dissipate alivia and continue with the process means
we study, means we associate with each other, especially we associate with celebrated souls. Because when we are on our own it becomes very difficult or almost impossible.
But when we are in contact with an elevated soul, immediately it becomes easy. I am sure everyone has this experience. It's very difficult, it's hard, it's a struggle to do some spiritual practice.
Then you associate a little bit with a sadhu and it becomes so easy. But then it comes break. So no problem. Basically it's a process and the main the main thing is that not to cling to it too hard. What happens?
Why why do we call why one of the main names of the Lord is Hari? Hari means he wants to take away unwanted things. And therefore we first say Hare, Hare, oh Hari, please take away all this nonsense.
But then we say Hare, but then at the same time we say, but not now, please. I'm not ready yet. And he says, okay, no problem. If you still want to do it, there is this nice story about Augustine,
Saint Augustine and Christian the he he sa he writes it himself in his autobiography, he says, in his confession, he says, When I was young, I was so perverted, he says I was I would be praying to God.
God please free me from lust. But then immediately I would say, but not now, please. So that's our situation. That's what we do all the time. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Oh Hari, please take away all this thing. But little later.
Let me still play with it. Little bit more. I am still young. Who knows what's going to happen. Maybe I will be a glaring exception of the gloomy room. Okay, I guess yes. There's no question. Okay.
I guess it it can mean two things. One thing I want to forget about it as soon as possible and go back to my old ways. Another one I understood and yeah. Anyway, whatever it is.