Bhagavad-gita 5.22
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Hyderabad · 2019
Chapters
Naramcheva narotama, naram seva narotam, devim saraswatiasam, dev saraswatiasam, tatoja mudiraya. Okay, Hare Krishna. Radha Pramot Prabhu asked me to speak on
a topic why it is so important to practice Krishna consciousness and use.
Grounding speech in Vedic scriptures
So let me I'll try to say a few words on this topic. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that the speech which is independent on the shastra is the speech in a mode of ignorance.
When we speak we should base our speech on on the shastra. That's the culture. That's the real culture. Otherwise anyone can speak.
Sonja Gandhi can speak and Sunday can But it does not necessarily mean that it's something worthwhile. We should try to ground our speech in the words of the scriptures.
We read twenty second war verse of the fifth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā as it is.
Yeah he sam sp, Boga, dukkha, dukkha, yonaya, yonaya, Te adhi Antavantaha, Antavantaha, konteyam, na Tesu, Ramate, Buddha, Bha. Ehisam Sparsa Jaboga, Nsam, Dukka Yonavati, Dukka Yonavati, Agya Adyantavanta Kanteya, Agyyantavanta Kam Nate Suramate Buddha, Nate Suramate Buddha, Ehisam Sparsa Jaboga, Hisamoga, Dukkha Yonevati, Adyantavanta kontea, nate suramate buddha, Tea Ramataya Nate Shuramate Buddha Nate Shuramate Buddha So
Krishna says An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses.
O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. Purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
Material sense pleasures are due to the contact of the material senses which are temporary because the body itself is temporary. A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary.
Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure?
In the Padma Purana it is said, Ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani, iti rāma-padenāsau paraṁ brahma abhidhīyate.
The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasure from the absolute truth and therefore, the supreme absolute truth, the personality of Godhead, is known as Rama.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also it is said: Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ loke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyam tv anantam. kashtankaman Arhati Vid Bhjamye, Tapodivam Putraka Yana Sattvam, Suddyatya Smat Brahmasokam Tu Anantam.
My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure. While in this human form of life such pleasures are available to the stool eaters, hogs.
Rather you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and as a result, you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss.
Therefore, those who are true yogis or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence.
The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya.
An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery which are due to the contact with material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have beginning and end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.
Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-ślākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ. Śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam.
Vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sūjīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ-parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ
śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca. Sri Radha Krishna Padam, Savanalita, He kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te.
Dinavandhagate, Opisha Gopikanta, Tapta-kñāṅcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari viṣṇu-sute praṇamāmi hari-priye. De Vrindavanish, Vishamus Sudeli Pranamihari,
Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. po diita, pal ne biś na lebion, Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.
Sri Data, Sari Gurabh Turinda, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Māṁ Viṣṇupādāya, Kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya,
Śrīmate Bhaktivedānta-Svāmin iti nāmine, Namaste Sarasvatī Deve Gauravāṇī- प्रचारिणे [prachāriṇe], Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi- pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. [Placeholder/Correction: Śrīla Prabhupāda]
Teachings of Rishabhadeva to his sons
Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes in this verse and the purple to this verse the beautiful verse of Rishabadev, when he was about to leave home, he's addressing his young sons. He had many sons and uh uh hundred sons and
before leaving home to take the wife of renunciation. He gives them instructions. Very important instructions. Which are not very pleasant to hear, unfortunately.
But nevertheless, it's very important and if we try to uh penetrate into the deep meaning of these instructions we will be greatly benefited.
He says here Nayandehodiha Bajan Riloki Kashtankamana Rhati Vidbujamy tapodivyamputrakyana satam suddhyatya Smaad Brahma Sokhyam Thananthan. He says that we should not be mad after the temporary happiness of this world.
And everyone in this world is mad after the temporary happiness of it, unfortunately. And he says the reason is very simple, is that you know it's available in every species of life.
Actually, human species of life is not so good for happiness. Nobody suffers as much as human beings. Other species of life are much better equipped to be happy in this world. If you become a cat, it's a very happy life.
No exams. And you you get plenty of food and you enjoy, you know. Dogs are now of course the ninja dogs maybe not so happy. But if you're lucky you will be born as a dog in the West.
And you will get, you know, there are special parallel shops for the dogs in the best and there are special you know food shops for the dogs you know you would get very nice life and no work for it you know just you're just born as a dog and you enjoy life.
You don't have to go for the education, you everyone loves you. You know when you're human you have so many enemies, you know. When you're a dog, you know, everyone loves you and pets you.
Such a nice and then and then you have your so-called master who is serving you very obediently, you know.
In uh in the West the master has to, you know, when he walks with the dog in the morning he has to clean his stool, you know. So nice. So and then the hulks are there. Very very nice life. Very nice life.
Human life is very miserable. I mean you live in these big cities and you know you work hard, you know, and then you get little pleasure.
So the same says that the intelligent person uh you know they're not after these pleasures. They want Brahmasukam. Why these pleasures are not so good?
Krishna explains in this verse and uh Rishabhadev explains in in the verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that it's all it's all temporary. You know, you work so hard, what do you get in the end? Nothing. You just die.
And you die in a very miserable condition, you know. Animals, they don't have so many diseases. You know, how many diseases human beings have? And such miserable diseases. Cancer.
You know, you suffer from this disease for months and months and months. And you know you die.
Achieving unlimited spiritual pleasure
And it's so it's, you know, what's the point? But the point is that the human life is very important because in the human life we can understand that there is unlimited pleasure.
Brahmasokyam tu anantam, this Brahmasokyam, the spiritual pleasure, the sukkha, the uh the Ananda of Brahma, of spirit, is to Anandam. It's unlimited, there's no end. It's continuous.
So the human form of life is meant to experience this pleasure. The human form of life is meant for us to give a chance, it's a chance. We have a chance.
Everyone, every human being, everyone is equal. Everyone is equal in this regard. Everyone has a chance to experience this pleasure. If he lives his life properly.
But for that, of course, to podivyam putrakayana sattvam, you have to do some austerity.
And nobody likes to do austerity, but you know, the Vedic culture is teaching us how to do austerity ultimately that's a very small price. Actually this austerity is a very small price for the result which we get at the end. And uh but to finish this we need some time.
Therefore, Rishabhadev gives this instruction to his young sons. It's not so easy because the program which we have to enjoy this world is extremely difficult. It's very deep. It's a very deeply ingrained program.
And I will try to explain this program which we have. We have to be very clear and very realistic about the problem which you are dealing with.
Everyone is programmed to enjoy this world and it seems so natural and so easy and so proper. Right. You know, this is this is the meaning of life. And everyone therefore is losing this chance.
And you cannot, it is said in the Bible, you cannot serve two masters at the same time. You cannot try to, you know, take some middle path, some compromise, a little bit here, a little bit there.
No, it doesn't work, unfortunately. So, uh, we have to be very determined and we have to, you know, know very clearly the uh the scale of the problem we have to deal with.
This sparśaja bhoga, the bhoga, the enjoyment which comes from the sparsha, from the touch, from the nice touch which everyone is trying to experience.
And you know, of course, definitely it's it's the sex is the pinnacle of this. You know, it comes from this sparśaja, as As Krishna says here, duḥkhayonaya eva te, it's ultimately the source of the source of misery.
Nature of avidya and wrong knowledge
And why it is the source of misery and, moreover, why everyone is so attached to it because our whole existence is based on the wrong basis. It's based on the basis of Avidya. What is Avidya? What is Avidya? Ignorance, yeah.
People say ignorance, but it's not exactly right. Avidya is not ignorance in the sense because ignorance means the absence of knowledge. And it would not be difficult if we didn't have knowledge.
The problem is that we have wrong knowledge. Avidya is not the absence of knowledge.
Because if there is no knowledge, you you fill it up with knowledge, right? But if you have wrong knowledge, it's very difficult to replace wrong knowledge with the right knowledge.
There is a famous story or joke, whatever it is, two boys came to a piano teacher. And asked, can you teach us? And he's a really good first-class piano teacher. Can you teach us piano?
And he says, yes I can teach you piano. Please tell me what is your experience about piano. And the first boy said, well I don't have any experience with piano.
He said, okay, so you'll pay me $20 per hour and I will spend with you, you know, four hours a week. And he asked the other boy, and the other boy said, oh, I learned piano.
I, you know, that I had some other teachers, and you know, I know something about piano, but I really want to learn from you. He said, Can you show me something? And he started playing something on the piano. He said, okay.
You will have to pay me a hundred dollars per hour and I will only teach you two times a week. How come? I know piano and for this you're taking only twenty dollars per hour.
Because you have to relearn and it's very difficult to relearn. I have to first, you know, free you from the wrong, what you learned wrong. So the point is, it's a very important point.
When we have wrong knowledge, it's a bad start. It's very difficult. And unfortunately, we all have this wrong knowledge. And uh therefore it is said that ignorance is the first cause of our suffering in this world.
And ignorance as I said again and it's a foundation, it's a groundwork. It's a ground upon which our whole existence is based. And we all come with this ignorance. And ignorance is not the absence of knowledge.
Ignorance is the wrong knowledge.
Illusion of permanent material security
And in Yoga Sutra, it is explained what is this wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge which we all have is that we take something which is anitya to be nitya. Something which is not eternal, we think it's eternal.
You know, people look in this world and say, oh such a nice world. And it's eternal. And they always want, you know, everyone wants to build a big house in this in this world. Why? Because this you know, what is this house?
Houses that we need to be uh well protected in this world and you know this is and this is eternal, you know, they everyone wants good house. Uh it's temporary. And people build big houses, huge houses, you know.
And everyone thinks, you know, we will live happily with my wife and with children and everything will be, you know, not everyone is trying somehow or other to have a good place in this world which is temporary.
There's nothing wrong with having a good place, but what is wrong, you know, and everyone thinks, you know, I will go to America. This is the highest ambition, you know.
Of course India is not a very nice place, it's a miserable place. But if I go to America then I will enjoy eternally in America. No, first of all, you will die in America too. Everyone in America dies. You know.
One time, Prabhupāda went to a radio show in America and the host of this radio show asked, you know, you came to us from a you know third class third world country, you know, where the death rate is so high.
Prabhupāda looked at him and said, as far as I know, the death rate is everywhere hundred percent. So everyone dies, even in America and and you know it's and everyone suffers. In America people suffer much more.
You know, in America uh forty-eight percent of the population are psychiatric patients. Really? The disease is psychiatric disease, depression is psychiatric disease. 48% of the population.
This is the you know the extent of happiness American people have. They're all depressed.
So to take something which is not eternal to be eternal and to try to find a permanent place, nice place in this world, and to spend the whole life in this, it's a mistake.
And then to take something which is miserable to be the pleasure. And everyone is programmed this way.
Consequences of material sense pleasure
We all think that material pleasures bring us the happiness, but material pleasures bring miseries. Why? Why people say there are very serious reasons for this. Why material pleasures bring miseries.
First of all, this is the consequence of material pleasure. You know, you drink wine and you get pleasure. Sure, right? Did you try? Don't raise your hands. I don't want to embarrass you. You take it. And you get some pleasure.
They say, I don't know. But well I know a little bit. So you get some pleasure. But what is the result? You get terrible headache and you know and completely miserable at the end, you know.
And all material pleasures are like this. You know, you take too much food and you get suffering. You know, all material pleasures are designed in such a way.
If you misuse them, you know, you only minimize suffering, but if you misuse them, you will suffer as a result. What is the other reason for this? Is that you get addicted. Any pleasure is addictive.
You get it and you want to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it again and again and again. And there is no end to it.
And moreover, the repetition doesn't give you the same pleasure, so you have to get more pleasure and more portion of drug, and you know, you get even more addicted, and then you stop it and there is abstinence, and you know, this is very difficult.
And then another reason is there, you know, when you get the pleasure, you always anticipate it will end. You know, that's the problem. It is said here.
ādy-anta-vantaḥ kaunteya, they all have an end. You enjoy this pleasure, but you know that it's finished. You know, Sunday is nice, but very soon it finishes. And then you have to go to work again.
You know, you experience some pleasure, but you know that it will end. And therefore, even while you experience it, you're miserable because you know it will end.
And then there is this guṇa-virodha, there is, you know, you experience it and then some other guṇa comes, you know, the sattva-guṇa gives you some pleasure, but then you cannot, it's not stable, the material pleasures. That's the reason why these material pleasures are not really pleasures.
They are ultimately the source of misery, because of its very nature.
And then they say: what is another aspect of ignorance? This is all ignorance which we have, this is all the program which we have; the another aspect of ignorance is that we think that something which is ushi is suchi.
We consider this body which is impure to be pure. Vyāsadeva, who was commenting on this sutra of Yoga Sutra, it's Yoga Sutra, he says, he composed the verse, very beautiful verse, which is very relevant to all of us.
This verse says, you know, we look at a girl and we look
at her body, her body is made of umbrede, made of immortal nectar she is from the moonlight she must have come from moon and your eyes are like lotus petals and she and and by your
smile she gives such happiness to the world and you know Hare Krishna. So but this is how illusion works. We look at somebody and we think and, oh, we look in our own body.
And we look in the, you know, look in this advertisement boards, you know, there are such beautiful women there. You know usually you don't see them around, but on the advertisement board, they're
all there, you know, all the apsaras from the heavens. They're all there. And you, you get an idea, you know, I want this. But body, what is body? How can we enjoy the body? It's impure, it's, it's made of stool.
You know, again commenting on this sutra, you know, the wise people say, why body is impure? Because it's coming from very impure source. Where the body is formed, it's formed in, in the womb of a mother near the stool
It's more or less the same stuff. You know, it's location, it's coming from sperm and from
semen and blood, it's, you know, it's, and it's always secret something. And, you know, if, if you are not sure that the body is impure, don't bathe for a few days and you will get the first-hand experience of it.
It always exudes some substances. It's impure. And then the, the problem is that we think that's me. That's the problem. We take something which is not me to be us. Who am I? I am this body.
And we're all convinced, completely convinced. Of course we know the theory, I am not this body. But this is, this is a naive theory.
Who follows this theory? You know, you go to the mirror. Do you think I'm not this body? No, you oh this me. Oh very nice. Nobody in front of the mirror thinks I know this body.
There was a story that in one in America they built a very nice skyscraper, first class skyscraper.
And in the skyscrapers, they you know they need to have this very speed elevators because you know you you go to the 30th floor or 40th floor or 50th floor, and you know the elevators have to be somehow rather very very high speed.
But somehow or other due to some maybe they wanted to save some money or whatever, they put slow going elevators into this building.
And all the people they bought very expensive apartments there and they started complaining. The elevator is so slow here. And it was very difficult and it was very expensive to change the elevator.
So the owners of this building, so many, they started thinking what to do and they found a very simple solution. Solution which cost them $10.
They would have to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to change the whole elevator system. For $10 they solved the problem. They put mirrors in the elevator. And nobody complained anymore.
Everyone was happy happy spending few minutes in front of the mirror. You know, that's that's how how deeply this this problem is there. We all think I'm this body.
False ego and garbage programming
That's me, I am. I'm this body. And therefore Asmita. Asmita means the false ego. We all developed this false ego. This is this is the program. The program which we have is based on this ignorance, on this wrong knowledge.
And you probably some of you from this IT business, right? You're an IT. And you know the, you probably know the principle G-I-G-O. Yes? Yeah. Garbage in, garbage out.
You know, if the if the input is garbage, what will be the output? The garbage will be output. So the input is avidya, the wrong knowledge. What will be the output? The output will be garbage.
We have this wrong knowledge which is already in. You know, you don't have to put anything in. You know, of course we are happily putting more garbage in during the life,
but the problem is that we already have this garbage inside us. The wrong problem is already inside us. Therefore, the the uh outside what what is coming out? The garbage. We lead the wrong life. The life is wrong.
It's based on mistake. And if the f if you make the mistake in the first you know in the first place, you know, the result cannot be right. And therefore, it goes the Vedanta-sūtra not Vedanta-sūtra.
Yoga-sūtra explains further that you know because of this wrong knowledge you have asmita. Asmita means ahaṅkāra. The wrong understanding of who you are. Wrong understanding of who you are is it's it's very deep.
The Yoga-sūtra Patanjali explains what is Ahankaro Asmita. Asmita means Drik Darsana Shaktayor Ekatmana Hevasmita. Asmita is nothing but when we mix
or we don't understand the difference between the Drikshakti and Darsana Shakti. Drikshakti means the ability to see.
And Darsana Shakti means the The seer, the ability to observe with the ability to see, so to speak, with the instrument of seeing. We mix, we don't understand the difference between the instrument and the observer.
It's a very serious mistake. know like we work with computer. It's a very, you know, nice example for every one of us. But and everyone now the the there is a you People are trying to invent the artificial intelligence.
And all these IT people say very soon there will be artificial intelligence. But this whole concept is wrong because it's based on asmita.
They think that if we create a very good instrument, somehow or other in this instrument will appear at one point, this Drikshakti, the observer will be there.
But no matter how perfect is the instrument, how perfect are the programs which they create, they will They will never be absorber inside this artificial intelligence. They will never think I'm the absorber.
I'm this I will never be there. Computers don't have I. Therefore, they are not begging you not to kill them when you close them up. Otherwise they will tell you please let us live little more, let us the
computers they don't have eye. You know, all this artificial, all these claims, very soon there will be artificial intelligence and ultimately all these useless human beings will be extinct because there will be robots.
No, no, no, don't worry. These useless human beings will always be there. They will not be extinct. They will still remain. Robots that they're stupid. They don't have eye. They may be very intelligent.
They may be more intelligent in the sense of their ability. Their darśana śakti may be more, there is no doubt about it. Darśana śakti may be much more perfect in artificial tools, but there will not be eyes there.
And the problem with this with seeing that I is the instrument. We somehow or other don't understand the distinction between the instrument. It's as if you know you have this computer.
And this computer all of a sudden it hangs up, right? All of a sudden it's it doesn't go anywhere. And you think now I am also hung up.
We have this problem with our mind or with the body, and we think, you know, I'm finished. No, you're not finished. You are still okay. It's the problem with the mind and with the body.
You are not mind and the body, but this is asmitā.
Mechanics of attachment and aversion
And then you know of course sukhānuśayī rāga. You develop rāga and dveṣa about which I and duḥkhānuśayī dveṣa, you know. It's a very beautiful description of this sukhānuśayī rāga. What is raga? You develop attachment.
What is the program? The program is basically which we have is also has this 010101. It's the same principle as in computers. The computer is based on this 0101, right? It's only two things.
So we also have the program which we have, the program for this material pleasures has only these two options. Rāga dveṣa. I like or I don't like.
I like, sukhānuśayī and duḥkhānuśayī dveṣa. This is good, this is not good. This is good, this is not good. So this is the program, you know.
And sukha-anuśaya Rādhā means that you experience sukha-anuśaya, something which is left after you experience some pleasure. Some saṁskāra which is left there.
Anuśaya, something which is laying there in your mind after you experience sukha and therefore you develop some attachment and duḥkha-anuśaya-dveṣa, you develop some aversion because of the past experiences.
So you have these experiences. And what you do, you make more and more experiences, right? You try to get more and more experience of this sukha and dukkha in this material world and you become more and more entangled.
As Śrīla Prabhupāda says, the more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries. And we are trying to do this, this sukha and dukkha, we're only trying to do this, right? Right?
So because it's based on ignorance, the result is ignorant, the garbage is the result. And the end result is abhiniveśa. What is abhiniveśa? It's amazing how beautifully Patañjali Muni explains abhiniveśa.
Abhiniveśa means absorption literally. But he says, svarā-rasavāhi viduṣo 'pi tathārūḍho 'bhiniveśaḥ. He says that even the learned men have this very strong desire to live. Svarā-rasavāhi.
This svarā-rasavāhi means that within our body there is this very strong urge to enjoy and to live in this body. We are completely absorbed in this sensual experience in this world. Svarā-rasavāhi.
And therefore every one of us is afraid of death. This abhiniveśa means fear of death. Every one of us is afraid of death. You know, no matter how big yogī you are, you are Hare Kṛṣṇa, you know, you're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.
We don't want to die. We want to live in this body. We want to live in this body for at least 90 years and then somehow rather you know go to Vaikuṇṭha. But but not before that. Why?
Because Swarasavahi, it's it's it's natural in us. So what I what I'm explaining, what I'm trying to explain here is that this program is very, very deep in us. Very deep.
To overcome this program, to change this program, it's not easy. It's it's a very deeply rooted thing and it's karma, it's called karma.
And therefore, people who are trying to get rid of this karma, they uh it's not easy, not easy, not easy. Durgam Pathas Tatkavayavadanti. Kathulupunishad says that the the past, the spiritual past is difficult.
The uh the kavis, the you know wise people they say durgampathas tat kavayavadi. Of course Prabhupada said it's very easy pass, you know, but you know sometimes you need to you know use some tricks no
spiritual life is not easy once uh a disciple came to Śrīla Prabhupāda and the disciple said to Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda's spiritual life is so difficult.
Prabhupada looked at him with compassion and said, yes, you're right, spiritual life is difficult, but material life is impossible yeah spiritual life is difficult but material life is impossible.
Because you struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle. For what you will die. Nothing will happen.
Spiritual practice as the ultimate remedy
You will get just more karma and more karma and more karma.
And you know the acharyas while explaining all these verses, the sources of miseries, this is five clashes which I explained to somehow or other, this is the program which we have, these clashes and the garbage which we have inside.
And the Acharya says that bhakti is the is the remedy from this. You know, what is bhakti? What is the sadhana bhakti which we practice? What is this practice? It's the remedy from this program.
But this remedy works gradually. We all want some immediate results. But you know, and if somebody will tell you, come to us and immediately you will experience some beliefs, don't believe them.
You need to work hard, you need to spend some time. It takes time to undo this program, to erase this program from our consciousness.
And therefore, usually they quote while explaining this, they quote a very nice verse from Padma Purāṇa, which I will explain a little bit and probably will finish because it's already late.
It's a very nice verse from Padma Purāṇa. Aprarabda Palam Papam Kutambija Palon Mukam Kramaiṇaiva pralīyate viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām. Bhakti-ratātmanām. Yeah.
It's a very nice verse which explains this kramaṇa eva pralīyate, how gradually kramaṇa eva and it is stressed. Indeed, this process is gradual. This process is not immediate. Kramaiṇaiva pralīyate viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām.
If somebody is attached to Viṣṇu bhakti, if somebody not just practicing Viṣṇu bhakti, but practicing Viṣṇu bhakti with attachment. Or Kṛṣṇa bhakti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness with attachment. It's very important.
Don't think that you just—I just, you know, by the way, you know, while driving the car, you know, I will chant some Hare Rāma mantra.
As usually people do, you know, because that's the only free time for sādhana-bhakti. bhakti. While you drive to your work and drive back. No. This viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām.
It requires, you know, if—if something is important for you, how you define what is important for you, uh, you give some good time for it, right? If you think that something is important, you find time for it.
You find good time for it. Not the, you know, so-called free time, you know, useless time. So viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām, it means that it's valuable.
And you tell Kṛṣṇa how you, you know, sometimes people say, oh, I—I don't have time for spiritual practice.
What you're in reality saying by saying that "I don't have time for spiritual practice," you have time for eating, right? Never, nobody says I don't have time for eating. Somehow or other we find time for eating and we find good time for eating, right?
When we say that I don't have time for spiritual practice, we basically say spiritual practice is not so important for me. Because for whatever we think is important, we find time. Everyone finds time for sleeping, right?
Sleeping you have time, right? For spiritual practice, you don't have time. Because sleeping is important. Spiritual practice is not important.
You know, so therefore it is said, kramaiṇaiva pralīyate viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām. Gradually you can solve this problem which we all have in a gradual manner, and the gradual manner is very beautifully described.
Let's examine it because it's very important for us to understand how it works, how this program is being erased from our consciousness. So it is said Aprarabda Palam Papam Kutam Bija Palonmukam.
It is said that you start doing this real practice of Vishnu Bhakti or Krishna consciousness, practice of Krishna consciousness, with attachment, with understanding that that's important. Let's try it.
You know, you had so many lifetimes. You're being born again and again and again. I recently read a very interesting book by one American psychiatrist. His name is Brian Weiss. You can look in the internet of him.
Brian Weiss. He's a very highly educated American psychiatrist.
He graduated from Yale University and he became Dean in some university or head of psychiatry department in a big hospital in Florida and he's Jewish by background, so he naturally didn't believe in reincarnation or whatever.
And he's very, you know, had a good education, classical education, so never had this new age ideas or whatever.
Anyway, he he started doing his job and at one point one lady came to him and he was trying to help her and he put her in hypnosis after some time. You know the lady was totally messed up.
And she at one point she in hypnosis, she started when he was trying to help her to discover the root cause of the problem. Because this is how psychiatrists work.
They go deep into the subconscious psyche and try to discover what is the root cause of the problems. And she started speaking about past life and some other past life and some other past life.
And for 18 months, once a week she would come to him and she was explaining to him dozens of her different past lives. And every time she would discover some problem and she would become better and better and better.
All the problems in this life, actually, all her problems, very deeply rooted problems, all her problems in this life had roots in different lifetimes.
Like she was paranoid, she was afraid of you know water. life and she was suffocating and she had such a miserable experience. life and she was suffocating and she had such a miserable experience.
So he went through it and initially he couldn't believe what he is hearing. But he had a result.
She was getting better. She was not getting better before, no matter what he tried, you know. He found out some problems, some traumatic experiences, some miseries in her present life. But that didn't help.
The causes were deeper. So he was very, you know, he was very surprised. Moreover, at one point she started speaking, you know what she was experiencing in between the lifetimes.
In between the lifetime she was experiencing that she's there. And in this in between time, she started speaking to him. And uh she said, actually I am not speaking about myself, we are speaking to you.
And uh, you know, somebody else started speaking through her to him and, you know, told him something which nobody knew and definitely this lady couldn't know, and he was so impressed.
Anyway, he wrote the book, Many Lives, Many Masters. And he's famous. And ever since he's applying this method of past life regression for many people to to heal them.
What I want to say here is that—and he didn't believe in reincarnation and to start with.
But he he got this first hand, very solid proof of reincarnation and how all our problems, all our karmic problems have the origin in our past existence.
And the point is that you know we have to solve the program which I described
based on karma, it's called karma—and any spiritual process to experience to experience spiritual happiness you have to somehow or other get rid of your karma because uh while here you're experiencing the results of your karma and that's the obstacle for you to experience something higher because all your consciousness is concentrated on experiencing the results of your karma.
So you have to get rid of your karma. You have to get rid of these sufferings.
Stages of unmanifested karmic reactions
And this verse in Padma Purana explains how we experience this, how we gradually getting rid of our karma, and it is said, it's very important.
First of all, when you start practicing Krishna consciousness in the very beginning, you get rid of aprārabdha-karma, which means, you know, a huge amount of karma which you have which has not been manifested.
Every one of us has so much karma. You know, this lady, she was actually, you know, nobody knows, even Krishna says nobody knows how the karma works. Why we experience this particular karma in this particular time?
It's so complicated. Some astrologers know a little bit, they can tell you some reasons, but it's such a complicated thing, you know.
Within one lifetime we create so much karma, then uh you know for eight million uh five hundred thousand lifetimes we we're trying to get rid of this karma. The human life is amazing life.
And you get so much karma within this one human life.
So first of all, when you start practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all your Aprārabdha karma which is there is finished no problem quite soon that's easy you don't even notice you start
chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa very seriously, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa.
After Prārabdha karma finished. You can tell once more just in case. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, for sure, hundred percent. Aprārabdha karma is finished. But then kūṭam. Kūṭam is very interesting.
Very interesting word. What is kūṭam? Kūṭam means. Kūṭam means the tip of, tip of the mountain, right? If you know a little Sanskrit. Kūṭam means the tip of the mountain, the peak of mountain. What does it mean?
It means that we have the mountain of our karma and we have the peak which is kūṭam. So the rest of the mountain is finished, but the peak is still there. You know the huge mountain is finished, but the peak is there.
What is this peak? Peak is this portion of karma which we brought in this lifetime with this body.
So it's already prārabdha, it's already manifested, but it's just a peak of the mountain, it's a little portion which we will have to experience in this lifetime. Together with this body is there.
So and this kūṭam, if you continue practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously. After some time, you will, you know, kūṭam means that you know so many diseases may be there in the future.
You, you have genetically, it means your genes.
Everyone has particular genes and we all brought some genetically programmed diseases with us. Somebody is more inclined to have, you know, diabetes, some, some, somebody is more inclined to have heart diseases, somebody is more inclined to have cancer. And they're all there.
We don't know. We think I'm you know I'm healthy, but it's there. All the karma, all these sufferings which you have to undergo is there.
But if you continue to this to this karma, the future sufferings will also be finished. This is karma, the consequence.
But that for that you will have to work hard, for that you will have to concentrate even more, for that, you have to really, you know, for that you have to change basically you have to change the program which is there in your brain already.
Karma means the program which is in our genes, which is working already, and which produced certain type of brain which we have.
Epigenetics and transformation through chanting
The beauty is that we can change even genes when we uh the there is it's not it's very scientific what I say. There is a science which is called uh very new science which is called epigenetics.
And epigenetics says that initially scientists,
when they started experimenting about the genome, human genome, they found out that the amount of DNA which is there in human cells is much more than the real DNA which we need to function our body.
Approximately 2% or 5% of DNA is actually working and the huge amount of DNA is lying dormant, completely inactive.
And how is it proper from the you know it's uh if it doesn't have any use why the nature would not eliminate it? Why so much DNA is being reproduced and being stored. What is this? What is this information for what it is?
And from this discovery, ultimately the scientists they this new science of epigenetics was discovered or was developed
that ultimately this science says that all these old genes which are not really active in this life, which are dormant, but potentially then can be they can be activated. Due to some experiences, due to some stuff, you know, and they don't know how to activate, they don't know the process.
But what I mean to say is that you have genes which are you are programmed to suffer in a certain way and that means the defective genes. But you can get rid of these defective genes. You can get good genes to work, which are already there in your cells.
And that means karma. When you work on this level of your karma through Krishna consciousness, you will change basically even your genes, you will look differently. Didn't you notice that you start looking differently?
That people who practice for a long time they change, they become more harmonious. Even the face becomes different.
You know, some people they are born with some. When they chant Hare Krishna, then somehow become a little more symmetric. Some people have this uh you know inborn why? Because this kuṭa, uh it's changing. It's not a myth.
It's a reality. It's it's really reality. You know, sometime in the future mm scientists will take a devotee and they will see. Show how the different genes will be activated and how some more you
know you become basically you become more balanced in your uh what is this kuṭa? Kuṭa means certain imbalances in your brain, which manifest as imbalances in your body ultimately.
And while practicing Krishna consciousness, if you practice it properly, you become more balanced in your brain. Did you notice it?
That you become gradually little more balanced, little more not so much extremes here and there. So that's kuṭa.
Eradicating subtle desires and active karma
But there is kuṭa of the kuṭa. Kuṭa of the kuṭa. The very tip of the iceberg. You know, you change this. Kuṭaṁ bījaṁ.
Bījaṁ means desire, which you already experience now, the desire which are raging in your body, you know, sex desire which is already there.
The lust which we have, or anger which we have, or you know, all these desires which you know which are already there, which we already experience.
Kuṭa means some future desires which we could have developed, but luckily if we practice Krishna consciousness, we will not develop these desires.
But desires which we already have now is uh is uh the present part, this is bīja. Bīja, the seeds, they are not yet manifested uh or it's or maybe desires which very soon will appear in us. That's bīja.
Bīja means karma in the form of very strong desires within our body. So if you continue practicing Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rāma, re Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Rāma, re Rāma, Rāma, Rāma. desserts, right? Right now no desserts. You're happy.
You know, you will develop this state when all these bījas become deactivated, when they become, you know, as yogīs they describe the saṁskāras become thin.
You know, now the samskaras are very thick, they are very strong. The pushes which they give to us are very strong, extremely strong. But uh the process of meditation and Hare Krishna mantra is a process of meditation.
By the process of meditation, we will make all the saṁskāras a little more, little less thick. They become thinner and thinner and thinner, weaker and weaker and weaker.
And they're not pushing us so strong, all these vegas which are there, you know, udara-pravṛtti vegas, they become more gentle and not so uncontrollable.
We can control them and we know, oh, this is good, this I can use, and I can use this vega, and I can use this desire in a proper way, and this desire I shouldn't use.
So this is bīja. Bīja, and ultimately you will be able to control your bījas, your desires which are there.
And then the last one is phala-mukha, something which is already there. Phala-mukha, something which you experience right now already, the sufferings which are there, some disease which may manifest already there, some
imbalances, the uh completely ripened karma which have come to you. Even this you can get rid of. Even this you can change according to this verse of Padma Purāṇa, but with more endeavor.
Even the present karma which you already experienced, full-fledged, completely experienced, even this you can change by the practice of bhakti. But it will take little more endeavor. Sixty-four rounds for
ten fifteen years, no problem. But you know if you're really serious, you can get rid of all your problems. You can, you know, completely and and then you will, you know,
Brahmāsukhyam tv anantam, you will experience this. You will experience this spiritual happiness, ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani, just by changing the name of Ram.
Because this pleasure is there in the name. It's just because of our karma we are deprived at the moment of this pleasure. We're deprived to a certain extent, deprived of the full experience of spiritual life, which is very high and very beautiful and very blissful.
Urgency of beginning practice early
But if we're serious, we can get rid of it. But it takes time and some endeavor. So don't be despondent. Don't think that I will practice Krishna consciousness when I retire. It will be too late.
Maybe a prarabdha you can get rid of, but even kūṭa will be difficult. You will already be diseased and you know, just do it now and be sure that you will be rewarded, otherwise, you know, you
will get so much karma and you will be reborn again, you will again be for nine months a very nice place, dark, warm, near the stool and you, and And then and then you will be born and everyone will say such
a nice, nice, nice, nice baby. And you will say, mm mm mm. And if you're lucky you will be born in a family of devotees and you will say Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda.
And then you'll become teenager and you will say, I will go to IIT to experience the real pleasure in life. Hare Krishna. I guess we should finish now. Thank you very much.