Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.23
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Вашингтон · 2005
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Recitation of Srimad Bhagavatam verse
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Sudeva.
Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtyaṁ, naraṁ chaiva narottamaṁ, naraṁ chaiva narottamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ, devīṁ vyāsaṁ, tato jayam udīrayet. Reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto 7, Chapter 9, Prahlāda pacifies the Lord with
prayers, text number 23. Dṛṣṭā dṛṣṭa-mayaḥ vibhō 'khila-diśāṁ pānām akhilāna āyur āyuḥ śrīḥ śrīr vibhāva icchati yaḥ, janaḥ, ya asmat piṭuḥ, kupitasya vijṛmbhita-bhrū-visphūrjita- visphūrjitena visphūrjita-lulitaḥ saha dṛṣṭam ayaṁ divok- -lādiśānāṁ, diśām akhila-diśānāṁ, dṛṣṭam ayaṁ divok-lādiśānāṁ, diśām āyuḥ śrīr vibhava icchati yaṁ jano 'yaṁ, āyuḥ śrīr vibhava icchati yaṁ jano 'yaṁ, āyuḥ śrīr vibhava icchati yaṁ janaḥ śrīr vibhava icchati yaṁ jano 'yam.
yas mat-pituḥ kupitasya vidhṛbhrūs mat-pituḥ kupitasya vijṛmbhita-bhrū. yas mat-pituḥ kupitasya vijṛmbhita-bhrū. smat-pituḥ kupitasya visphūrjita-bhrū.
Visphūrjitena lulitaṁ satenāṁ raṁstāḥ dṛṣṭāḥ have been seen, Maya, by me. By me. Divi, in the higher planetary systems. In the higher planetary systems. Vibho, O my Lord.
Akhila, all diśānāṁ, the chiefs of different states of planets, of different states of planets, āyuḥ, the duration of life. The duration of life. Śrīḥ. Śriyā. The opulences. Vibhava. Glorious. Influence. Influence.
Icchati, desire. Yaḥ, all of which. Janaḥ ayam, these people in general. Yaḥ, all of which. All of which: duration of life, opulence, etcetera. Duration of life, opulence, etc. Asmat Pituhu of our Father. Hiranyakashipu.
Kupitaha sa by his critical laughing. By his critical laughing. When angry. When angry.
Vijrimbita Vijrim Bita being expanded Bro of the eyebrows of the eyebrows Vispurjitena Vispur Jitena Simply by the feature. Lulitaha pulled down or finished.
Saha He my father to but te byu Nirastaha completely vanquished My dear Lord, people in general want to be elevated to the higher planetary system for a long duration of life, opulence, and enjoyment.
But I have seen all of this through the activities of my father. When my father was angry and he laughed sarcastically at the Demigods, they were immediately vanquished simply by seeing the movements of his eyebrows.
Reading the purport on impermanent power
Yet my father who was so powerful has now been vanquished by you within a moment. Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Within this material world one should understand by practical experience the value of material opulence, longevity and influence.
We have actually experienced that even on this planet there have been many great politicians and military commanders like Napoleon, Hitler, Subhas Chandra Bose and Gandhi.
But as soon as their lives were finished, their popularity, influence, and everything else were finished also.
Prahlāda Mahārāja formerly gathered the same experience by seeing the activities of Hiraṇyakaśipu, his great father. Therefore, Prahlāda Mahārāja did not give any importance to anything in this material world.
No one can maintain his body or material achievements forever. A Vaishnava can understand that nothing within this world, not even that which is powerful, opulent, or influential, can endure.
At any time such things may be vanquished. And who can vanquish them? The Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore one should conclusively understand that no one is greater than the Supreme Great.
Since the Supreme Great demands sarva-dharmān parityajya māṁ ekāṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, Raja. Every intelligent man must agree to this proposal.
One must surrender unto the Lord to be saved from the will of repeated births, deaths, old age and disease. Śrīla Prabhupāda tri-satyam dhāmnā svena Dishnapanam Sriovivava eachanoyam, Yes Matpitu Kupitahasta Vishrin Bita Bru Vispurjiten Lulita Satuteni Rasta. My dear Lord, people in general want to be elevated to the higher planetary system for long duration of life, opulence, and enjoyment.
But I have seen all of this through the activities of my father. When my father was angry and he laughed sarcastically at the demigods, they were immediately vanquished, simply by seeing the movements of his eyebrows. Yet my father, who was so powerful has now been vanquished by you within the moment.
Ramon Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prishtai Butadeshimati Bhaktividanta Swami Dinamini Namaste Sarasvati Devi Goravani Pracharini, Nirvisesunyavari Paschatadesarini, Vanchakalpatarobas Chakripasinduve Vachapatitanampa Nebyovashneve Bionamonamaha Jaisri Krishna Chaitana Prabhunitananda Sriadvaita Gadata Rashivasadigaura Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare So
Prabhupada is explaining this verse or starts explaining this verse by explaining the word drista Dristaha which means I have seen it with my own eyes.
Ralad Maharaj starts his prayers to Hiranya Kishapu by saying that I have seen that all these goals which human beings I so anxiously desire to achieve are useless. And I've seen it with my own eyes because I've seen the example of Hiranyika Shippu in front of me.
Who could be more powerful than him? Who couldn't have longer duration of life or can have more opulence?
So Prabhupada is stressing this and he's giving the example from our own history, saying that Napoleon, Hitler, so many other great leaders were there, and they were all vanquished.
So why people are so mad by struggling or fighting after achieving these goals. If all these goals prove to be again and again useless.
So many examples are there in the history of the human uh society that people varulenta, people were powerful, people were very long-lived but still, they var not happy.
Somehow, or other this illusion is there, and even our practical experience is not strong enough to prove the opposite. And therefore, despite our experience Vi still try to find the meaning of this.
The illusion of prolonging physical life
Vi still try to samhare we still value this things basically, uh Prahlad Maharaj is saying that these three things, Ayu, Shriyaha and Vaibhava or Vibhhava, is very very valuable in the human society.
Everyone is trying to prolong his life. By all means, by hook and by crook. By inventing different medicines, different things. You know, everyone wants to live long. But the problem with this is that nobody lives long enough.
Because no matter how long you live, you are still attached to the same life. And moreover, the longer you live, the shorter your life becomes.
Because when you live long, psychologically the time becomes faster and faster and faster. When you are young, the life is very long.
But when you are older, the life, you know, the years just, you know, they just, they just, you know, run, and you don't know what's happening with them, and you're never satisfied no matter how long your life is.
Because the desires are as strong in the old age as they are in the young age. There is a Sanskrit saying, which I don't remember exactly how it sounds in Sanskrit, but it is said that somebody is lamenting.
You know, I lost everything. I lost my teeth and I lost my hairs, and my hairs are grey, and I lost my power of digestion. Everything is diminished. The power of my eyesight, the power of my taste and anything.
But the desire is as strong as you. Everything else is diminished by power, but the power of desire is the same. In the old age, and therefore, in the old age, one is never satisfied, one is never satiated so to speak.
Because the desires cannot be satiated no matter how much you try to do it. And therefore, Ayu is not such a big thing.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says one can live for many, many years, for hundreds of years, but what is the use? If one is not really getting the meaning of life.
And people are used to live this useless life which is just experience of the same thing. Experience punas punas charvitacharvananam, just chewing the same thing again and again and again.
And therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says this is not very valuable. Ayu is not the value. It's not something which we should strive for because this is first of all it's predetermined anyway.
First of all, nobody can cheat the Supreme Lord. You will die when you're supposed to die.
Cāṇakya Paṇḍit also says that there are five things which are definitely predetermined. And one of them is the duration of your life. He says that you can see it on the forehead of the human being.
If you have a certain mystical vision or if you can read the karma, because the karma is there on the forehead and you can see this guy will live you know for two more years or five more years and no matter what you do you you cannot really change it it's within the stars you know the very powerful Rahu will come in a very appropriate moment of your life when you're most attached to your life and says okay it's finished.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says this is not a value. This is not something which you should strive for because it's useless.
Impermanence of material wealth and influence
And then he says, āsuk-śriyā. Śriyā means opulence. And opulence means also temporary. Śrīla Prabhupāda says no matter what you have in this material world, it will be finished at one point, uh, sooner or later.
You may have so much opulence. But uh an opulence is a very valuable thing in one sense, but you will leave everything behind. Alexander the Great, the greatest conqueror of the world, he died very young.
He was twenty something, twenty-eight years old or something like this, very young. And in the meantime he conquered over the whole world.
So when he was about to die, uh he said to his associates, please when you take me to the graveyard stretch my hands like this. And they asked, my dear king, why do you want the hands to be like this in this position?
Because usually they put hands like this in a very humble way of the dead body. And he said so that everyone would see that I am going to the graveyard empty-handed.
So nobody would be nobody would be in this illusion that he is such an opulent person and he is taking something with him. You cannot take anything with you, you know.
I mean we Hare Krishna know this, but but still we are attached. Still even being Hare Krishna because these desires are very psychologically strong, and we all want to have these things.
Even though we know theoretically we know this is useless, but still we want these useless things. And then he says vibawa, vibawa means influence or power, and that's another problem of the human society.
We want to live, we want to enjoy life, we want happiness in this life or opulence in this life, and we want power. And they say that power, the desire for power is even stronger than the desire for happiness.
Successively, there were three psychologists in the And the first one was, of course, Freud.
And he was the first one, and he said that the most powerful desire, the most powerful impetus, he basically interpreted the whole human existence in terms of sexual desire.
And everyone was very happy when they heard this. Finally somebody is honest enough to say that this is the meaning of life. You know, we live just to satisfy or gratify our senses or sexual desire.
And he explained everything. He said this is the main impetus for life. You want to enjoy sex. But then after him, his successor was psychologist, very famous psychologist Adler. And he said, no, Freud is wrong.
Sexual desire is very strong. There is no doubt about it, he said. But even more powerful is desire to get power. Even stronger the desire for people to rule over or to control others.
And we can see because actually the sexual desire is just um a manifestation of the same, very same desire to control others. It's just a very subtle or not well not very subtle very gross very gross manifestation of our desire to control others.
And other said that actually even stronger for the human being is to desire to get the power. And he explained it so many examples he gave.
That there are so many people who are even neglecting sexual desire but still they cannot neglect or they cannot really control the desire to control. Like for example Stalin who was a great dictator on world.
And he was not. Sexually was quite restrained, so to speak. But he had this. Mad desire to control. Because this is even uh greater enjoyment in the world.
Sexual desire is definitely or sex is definitely a very great enjoyment, but the experience of controlling others is greater. Therefore, Adler says that even greater is impetus to have the power.
Finding true meaning in divine service
But then the next one in this Austrian school of psychology was uh Frankl and Frankl, he came after Freud and uh Adler and he said this is all okay what you say this is all true.
There is this desire for sex and there is this desire for power. But he said even greater in a human being, in the heart of the human being, is desire for the meaning of life.
He was the most intelligent of all three because he said that people are the deep down desire, the greatest desire for human being, and the desire which have to be fulfilled in our human existence is desire for meaning.
And if our existence is meaningless, that is, no matter how much sex we have, no matter how much power we have, if there is no internal meaning of everything, if there is nobody, and basically meaning means that the sexual desire is not in itself. It's not self-sufficient so to speak.
Gorny Taiki and this is this is again very important that uh that the human being because he said that the human beings uh cannot be happy unless their life is full of meaning.
And full of meaning means that uh even if you have fulfilled your sexual desire. Even if you have fulfilled all other desires, you still have to have higher meaning.
In other words, you have to offer whatever you achieve to somebody. Meaning, and that is explained by Rāmānujācārya, who is even deeper in his understanding of the human nature.
Because ultimately all this Western stuff is quite superficial. The deeper understanding of human nature or human psychology, much deeper understanding
is there in the Vedic literature and the great ācāryas, they explain this. And one of the very essential points of Rāmānuja's philosophy, which is carried over in our Gaudi Vaishnava Sampradaya, is the
understanding of śeṣatva. Śeṣatva means śeṣa means how you say the śeṣa means the limit and śeṣa means the The remainder, or how do you say remainder? Or reminder? Not reminder, remain something which remains.
And he says that śeṣatva by explaining the nature of the limited soul, he says the limited soul, the human soul, jīvātma, has the nature of śeṣa. Śeṣa means it's limited. And being limited.
Limited means in this particular sense is that the soul, limitation of the soul, is that the soul is not for itself, for himself. The only one who is for himself is the Lord because he is unlimited.
Here Prahlāda Mahārāja calls him vibhu. And vibhu means unlimited. Vibhu means great. And the soul means aṇu and aṇu means śeṣa, śeṣa means we
cannot be happy when we are living for ourselves because our deeper internal nature is not we are not meant to live for ourselves. We are not for ourselves. We are not self-sufficient, so to speak.
The Lord can be very happy when He fulfills all His
desires because this is His nature, His vibhu. Vibhu means the one who is fulfilling all his desires, and this is the meaning of his life. The meaning of his life is to fulfill his desires.
But when we try to imitate the Lord, because we have the completely different nature because our nature is limited.
And when we try to live only for ourselves, when we only try to fulfill our own desires, we can never be happy. Because this is this goes against our nature, this is contrary to our nature.
Because we are not for ourselves, we are for him. He is for himself and we are for him.
The meaning of our life uh which is the impetus, the greatest impetus, according even to Western psychology, of the human being, is to find the object for whom to live.
This is what of course Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in his introduction to Bhagavad-gītā. He says that our dharma is to serve. He's explaining the same, basically the same thing.
When we try to live for ourselves without serving, without uh you know, without having the object of the service, then it's useless. It's it's it's it's it's totally useless.
I recently visited one devotee in Moscow and he lives in a flat, an apartment. Uh and um next to him when I entered his door, it's a big house and there are so many apartments there.
Next to him there is a I you know the uh when I entered there was so many dogs were barking and I asked what what is it all about? Why so many dogs are there? He said there are six dogs living in the next apartment.
There is one one room and one old lady, one room apartment, yeah, one room apartment. And there is one old lady lives there and she has six dogs.
And he said that this lady she's very lonely and whenever she goes out when when she sees some you know street dog she takes this dog and brings brings it to his uh to her uh apartment. And and he says that, you know, that they they love each other very strongly, this lady and the dogs.
When the lady goes out the dog starts, you know, howling, you know, please don't leave us here. And the lady also, you know, she loves the dogs, they are attached.
But the point is being here is that you know the meaning of life, the strongest impetus which is there, not the power, not the opulence, not the long life, but the object of our service.
If we don't have an object of our service, our life is meaningless. If we don't have anyone to serve, it's it's boring.
You know, especially it is very clearly seen psychologically, and the people who are great achievers, so to speak. I recently spoke with one psychologist, and this psychologist told me
that the most miserable people, the people who have more problems than anyone else is the people who achieved everything in this world.
They're very suicidal in their approach because when you when you are not fulfilled so to speak, when you are on the lower ranks of the society, you still have some illusion.
You know, I'm striving for this and that and that. And if I achieve this opulence or this goal or that goal of my life, I will be happy.
But the people who have achieved everything, who have everything, and still they have no object for their service. They they don't know for what it is. They don't know how to use this. They're totally miserable.
They don't know, you know, they there is so— So, uh, and, uh, Prahlāda Mahārāja here, he says that Vibhu, you are Vibhu, you are great, you are the object of the
service because, uh, uh, when we don't understand this— and he says, I, I know it by my own experience.
Achieving peace through spiritual detachment
You know, my great father was finished by you within one second. Another point of this verse is of course the point of detachment.
Prahlāda Mahārāja says that actually, you know, it's all useless and you have to be detached. To be happy, you have to be detached. He's saying here that those people who are attached they cannot be happy.
It's also interesting that Gautama Rishi who wrote Nyāya-sūtra. The logical explanation of life. Nyāya. Nyaya means basically logic. He very logically. He explains the nature of human existence.
And uh he he asked what is suffering. Yeah. Because basically at the point of Nyaya Sutra uh uh and any basically classical darshan is how to achieve mukti or the release from suffering.
So he analyzes very logically the nature of the sufferings in this world and of the miseries of this world, and he gives a list of 21 causes of sufferings. He lists 21 causes of suffering.
He says the senses is the cause of suffering, the object of the senses is the cause of suffering.
There is a long list of the causes of sufferings, the clashes, the internal causes of sufferings which are produced by our own karma.
The kleśas, which are avidyā, asmita, rāga-dveṣa, abhiniveśa, this is all, uh, uh, this is all produced suffering.
And then he says amazingly enough uh the the cause of suffering, the twentieth, the number twentieth, not the last, but the one before the last, is sukkha, which is happiness. He says happiness is the cause of suffering.
How is it so? How is it logical? And he explains that you know sukha is the cause of suffering because when you experience uh happiness in this world, enjoyment in this world, you get attached to this enjoyment.
And because you get attached to this enjoyment, it becomes the cause of your suffering. It becomes the cause of your suffering when you lose it, because you're so attached to this. Krishna says this in Bhagavad-gītā.
That one who is attached to this happiness which is produced by the touch of the senses and the sense object is dukayone evate, it's the cause of suffering.
And then he says, not only this, it's the cause of suffering because sooner or later you will lose it. And it's the cause of suffering because it makes you attached to this human existence which is full of sufferings.
It makes you attached to the birth, old age, and disease.
You know, implicitly you're attached to the suffering, to the happiness but uh with this attachment to the happiness you attached to the being born again and again being you know uh you attached to to the diseases which is uh which is concomitant of uh human existence, you attach to old age and all this kind of stuff.
So he uh he explains that this that even happiness is the cause of suffering. And Prahlāda Mahārāja says that the only way to be happy is to be detached.
The detachment, the real happiness in this world is the detachment, the happiness of detachment or renunciation.
And uh of course, Krishna explains the same in Bhagavad-gītā when he says that the uh the last chapter is the perfection of renunciation. And the perfection of renunciation is what?
Sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, you know, the perfection of renunciation and the way to be renounced in this world or the way to be happy in this world is to be attached to the Supreme Lord.
You have to be renounced to be happy in this world because this is the way to be happy. You know, the one who is renounced is very happy. Because he cannot care less about whatever is happening in this world.
And uh, but the way to be the way to be uh renounced in this world is to be attached to the Supreme Lord. This is the only way to be renounced.
The renunciation comes when the attachment comes, but the attachment to the proper object of our attachment.
We are attached to the futile things of this world because we are unfulfilled, because we are not pūrṇa, because we are not complete. And this psychological feeling of incompleteness, which
psychologists call inferiority complex. You know, we all have this complex, you know. I'm incomplete. And therefore we want this, we want this. And we think that by achieving this we will achieve the completeness.
But the way to achieve the completeness is to get attached to the Supreme Lord because when the attachment to the Supreme Lord is there, we attach to the complete whole. Om pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate.
This Purnam, who is the Supreme Lord. And then when the attachment to the Supreme Lord is there, then with this attachment, the feeling of happiness comes.
Overcoming suffering by connecting with Krishna
Because the feeling of unhappiness is again uh is this um uh psychological feeling of our limited nature.
Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and his introduction to Govinda Bhāṣya in his introduction to Vedānta-sūtra, explanation of Vedānta-sūtra, he again he asked the same question, the same eternal question.
What is suffering and what is happiness? And he quotes Chandogya Upanishad while explaining what is happiness. He said that happiness by definition means bhūmā. Bhūmā means unlimited.
To be happy, you have to be connected with the unlimited.
You have to be psychologically connected with the unlimited because when you are disconnected with the unlimited, when you feel your own imperfection by being limited, by being incomplete, you cannot be happy.
So this is the way. And Prahlāda Mahārāja says this, you know, I've seen it. This is all useless, and I want to be connected with you, and this is the way to be happy.
And actually, this is the crux of the issue: how to get connected to the unlimited. Yesterday I was in an airport in London and I was uh
sitting there, uh, you know trying to chant and concentrate on the holy name, and one guy approached me and he said, Oh, you are Hare Krishna. I said, Yes I am Hare Krishna.
Can you tell me within three minutes what is it all about? You know, I I want to know. Please please tell me, you know, I only have only a few minutes so before I go to the plane.
So and I you know, I started uh I was trying to figure out what to tell him. And I said, you know, this is uh this is religion, but it is also yoga.
This is a mystical process because you want to somehow rather intrigue somebody. This is a very mystical process, meditation and this and that. This is a very scientific process. How to get connected with the Supreme Lord.
And he was somewhat interested and he said, so now you're connected? He kind of confronted me with this very blunt question. So now you are connected with him? And I started thinking for myself, am I connected or not?
Am I am I really connected or not? And well I I said I I'm kind of connected.
But the point here which Prabhupāda makes is in this prayer is that you can understand whether you're connected or not by the feeling of your happiness.
When Prabhupāda said chant and be happy, chant Hare Krishna mantra and be happy, he meant a lot.
The deeper meaning of this sutra or statement is that when you are connected with the Supreme Lord through the process of chanting, which is the mystical process, but despite of our
chanting, it's not automatic, the connection is not really that good because we may be connected, but uh there are some kind of disturbances in the in the line, you know, there are some some noises there.
And we can see that when our consciousness is really connected with this unlimited consciousness of the Supreme Lord, we are happy. And there is no other way around. It has to be, these two things have to go together.
If you are connected with the Supreme Lord, you have to manifest, visibly manifest detachment. And with the detachment you have to manifest happiness because this all are the visible or practical signs of your connection.
If you're connected with the Lord you are happy by being detached. You have nothing in your life, you know, but you are happy.
But if you are attached, if you are not happy, if you are still in this uh complexities of the human mind, it means you're not connected. It means the connection does not take place.
So this is this is very important things. It's also explanation of Siddharswami.
Śrīdhara Svāmī explaining Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11th skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says that the detachment and the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is of course the main topic of the 11th canto of Śrīmad Bhagavatam is detachment. Detachment to the superior to the material world by the attachment to the Lord?
And he says that you know the happiness uh uh which comes from the attachment to the Supreme Lord can be tested by the way of or the extent how you are detached from the material world.
The detachment of the material world is a very important quality. Here uh Prahlāda Mahārāja he gives uh he says uh in a very simple way, he says that you know what is the use of being attached to this world?
There is no use. There is no use. It's not a fanatical kind of attitude. It's not a you know, it's it's just it's it's not logical. It doesn't make any sense to be attached to this world. It's just it's just ridiculous.
And he says, you know and you are the Supreme, you are Vibu. And you say, Sarvadharman Parityajama Kam Saranam Raja. Give up everything else. Don't be attached to anything else. And surrender unto me. This is logical.
And when you do this, you get happiness, you get all your desires fulfilled, and you become very fulfilled and very happy being very happy thing. So this is this is more or less the meaning here.
He says, you know, everything else is illogical. The only logical thing in this world, the only reasonable thing, the only clever thing in this world is to be attached to the Supreme Lord.
And not to be attached to anything else. And that's what we are struggling to achieve, which is not so easy because he's so far away and all the objects of our attachment is very close to us.
So therefore it's not so easy to get attached to him. But again, he's only far away from us because our consciousness is far away from him. He is the closest friend, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām.
Realizing divine help in difficult situations
And this is uh what we should try to achieve. Recently uh one devotee told me his story. Um very amazing story. Uh he had some kind of criminal background because before he became a devotee.
He was quite you know because in Russia, you know he was a businessman and businessman in Russia more or less means criminal. It's a it's it's more or less synonymous terms. So he was a businessman. Means little criminal.
And then you know of course Krishna took everything from him, you know, within a few months
he was very rich, very opulent, this and that, and then at one point, you know, Krishna took everything, took care of him very nicely. And he didn't have any other way out as to surrender to him. He he came to the temple.
But still, you know, the attachment was there because he was so attached to his former opulence, to his situation, to this and that.
And he was trying to be a devotee, but still the attachment was there and it was kind of struggle for him.
And it's not only struggle for him, it's struggle for us as well, you know, because we are still attached to our way of life.
So what happened to him and a very interesting story happened to him which kind of was an eye opener to him.
Uh the Temple President of course I'm afraid to say these things in front of the communication minister of the whole ISKCON, but it still happens.
The Temple president told him to smuggle books within the country outside of the border because because you know if you do it in a legal way uh then you have to pay taxes.
And we of course very law obedient people but still sometimes we have to we have to do this.
The temple knowing his background because he was a little criminal so the the temple president told him, You're very um fit for this very important service. You have to smuggle the books, you know, through the border.
And is that yeah, no problem. I have my connections there. I know the ways how to do this because I used to do it. I used to smuggle different things.
So better I do it, I you know I dovetail my propensity to serve Krishna I will be smuggling the books through the water.
So he went to to this other country which produces the books and he put uh a couple of tons of books, you know, thousands and thousands of books in a in a truck.
And he went to a little village and he had his friends and the friends knew the way through the border, how to do it, and during the night he was supposed to go through this border.
And it was springtime and it was a field because the border is like a field.
And he took the he had a couple of people with him, uh guiding him through this way, and he was driving, and in the middle of this neutral territory, neutral land between the two borders, border of one state and another
state, uh the truck was stuck. And it was, you know, he was trying to put the but the more he was, you know, pushing the the truck was getting deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper inside.
And it was it was of course it was around two o'clock in the morning and around five o'clock or six o'clock, all the people you know they would check all the borders.
And he's right there in the middle of this whole thing with the truck full of Bhaktivedanta book trust books and he's just there and uh you know and he's
he's trying and trying and trying and everyone is cursing him and everyone is saying you're you're a useless guy and he's cursing himself and he's trying and trying and trying and then then they run to this village and they find somebody else uh with another truck to pull this truck out from this position.
And in the meantime, the truck is already sitting on the uh on the practically sitting on the mat and uh the wheels are there just you know just uselessly uh rolling and rotating in a in a empty space.
It made you holes and you know there's there is no land under the wheels and the truck is sitting on the mud. There is no way to really do anything.
So they they they uh took another truck and another truck is you know trying to pull this but there's no way. There is no way.
He's just you know everyone is cursing him and everyone is uh and it it's uh only half an hour before the sunrise.
And uh during the sunrise, you know and he's already meditating how he would be put in prison and how the whole society will be you know blamed for doing this illegal things.
And at this particular moment, which is amazing.
For hours he has been trying to disentangle himself from this difficult situation and he's you know all he's already uh more or less he's already ready to go to prison and everyone else is cursing him and fleeing away from him, leaving him with this truck there.
And he's cursing his temple president who told him this and everything else.
And then this moment and and uh and the other truck is trying to pull this but they uh the the they broke the rope is broken and everything it just doesn't work. Nothing works and uh everyone else is going to leave him.
And then somehow or other he says, for the first time I remembered about the Lord. For the first time during this whole experience, I remembered about Krishna, you know.
And I started praying to him, to Lord Nṛsiṁha, he said, in a very intense way, because in this situation you you cannot know, you cannot do anything but be very intense in your prayers, you know. He's praying in a very sincere way.
And then everyone else saying, you know hell is with you, we're leaving you. And then he says, please let us try again. Just just little last last attempt.
And they say this is useless, it's not possible, it's just impossible. And uh uh uh but somehow or other they say okay, this is the last attempt. We will try to pull you out.
Uh and you know few people trying to pull this huge truck full of uh of books and this other truck is trying to pull and he says, okay, this time I will pray to the Lord and then let's see what happens.
And then he he starts his car and he prays to the Lord by from within his heart and to the utter amazement of everyone the car starts moving it didn't move before it didn't move it couldn't move but it starts moving and moving and moving.
He says the happiness which I felt at that time is indescribable. I cannot really describe the happiness by human words because this was amazing.
You know, I I could feel that at this moment I'm connected with the Lord. He hears my prayers. Because there is no other way, there is no other explanation, you know.
And everyone else is just cannot believe their eyes, you know, the car is moving and it is just it was somehow other pulled out from this situation and safely m brought to another side of the border and when when it stopped when, they were on the safe side so to speak, you know the sun rose very gracious and you know at this very moment it was it was a question of minutes before they would be discovered and arrested and put in troubles.
And he said, you know, and he said, now I'm I'm I'm ready to go again through this experience just to remember, you know, how happy I was because at this particular time I was totally completely detached from this world.
I I I I lost all my attachment to everything which I had before. I was ready to go to prison and everything and then and I was attached to my lord and that was amazing thing in this particular situation.
So uh here Prahlāda Mahārāja says the same thing. Drishta, I have seen it. I know this by my own experience. Somehow other you know because I know this I'm lucky and therefore I am surrendering unto you.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this to us as well.
We know this, but still we're stupid enough to be attached again and again and again to all these things to this 📜āyu, śriyai and Vaibhava, to the longevity, to the opulence and to the power of life. Okay.
Developing spiritual vision through saintly association
Thank you. Thank you very much. Your class is always so transformational. I I want to ask you about this wish to see you sound five years old. And you could see it.
So and as you said, many people will go through the whole experience of light and they still cannot see. So what does it take to see?
Um well, paśyann api na paśyati, Śukadeva Gosvāmī starts Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam saying that people paśyann api they see na paśyati, but they don't see. They see this, they don't see.
And this explanation which Acharya gives of the transformational experience which the devotees have is the meeting with another devotee.
The power of seeing comes for us uh uh from the uh seeing or experience of other devotees when we see this with other devotees on well in case of Prahlad Maharaj why he could see because he could see it through the eyes of Narada Muni. Narada Muni explained.
And because he met Narada Muni, this meeting with Narada Muni gave him this power to understand so to speak or the power to see.
Others despite their mm see they don't really see because again they still have some hope or whatever.
The hope dies the last, this is a Russian saying, you know, hope dies the last. Still they still they have some hope. They don't see because they have some hope for the future happiness. They see maybe I'm not happy now, but I will be happy uh in the future or this and that.
But when we, uh, see somebody who is detached and at the same time happy, then we have practical experience of what it means to be happy and to be detached at the same time.
We can see that this is this is the way to be happy. This is the only sure way to be happy.
So it it it requires a meeting with somebody who has this deep experience and then he can communicate this experience to us and in this way we can see. Okay, thank you very much.