Devotional Service Destroys All Sinful Reactions
А. Ч. Бхактиведанта Свами Прабхупада · Детройт · 1975
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Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.
The soul and material entanglement
[devotees repeat] [break] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] SB 6.1.50पञ्चभिः कुरुते स्वार्थान् पञ्च वेदाथ पञ्चभिः ।एकस्तु षोडशेन त्रीन् स्वयं सप्तदशोऽश्नुते ॥५०॥pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthānpañca vedātha pañcabhiḥekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīnsvayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnuteAbove the five senses of perception, the five working senses and the five objects of the senses is the mind, which is the sixteenth element. Above the mind is the seventeenth element, the soul, the living being himself, who, in cooperation with the other sixteen, enjoys the material world alone. The living being enjoys three kinds of situations, namely happy, distressful and mixed.[break] SB 6.1.50पञ्चभिः कुरुते स्वार्थान् पञ्च वेदाथ पञ्चभिः ।एकस्तु षोडशेन त्रीन् स्वयं सप्तदशोऽश्नुते ॥५०॥pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthānpañca vedātha pañcabhiḥekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīnsvayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnuteAbove the five senses of perception, the five working senses and the five objects of the senses is the mind, which is the sixteenth element. Above the mind is the seventeenth element, the soul, the living being himself, who, in cooperation with the other sixteen, enjoys the material world alone. The living being enjoys three kinds of situations, namely happy, distressful and mixed.
Prabhupāda: So we are fallen into great ocean of nescience, covered. First of all the five senses, knowledge-acquiring senses, jñānendriya; and karmendriya, working senses, ten; and sense object...
We have got eyes; therefore eyes are engaged for seeing something beautiful, rūpa. Rasa. Rasa means taste. That is the business of the tongue. And to see beautiful thing, that is the business of the eyes.
Rūpa, rasa, śabda. Śabda means sound. The ear..., we have got ear. We want to hear nice songs, music, radio, television. So ear is there; the objects are there. Rūpa, rasa, śabda, gandha, smelling.
There is good odor also, bad odor also. Rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśā. In this way we are entangled, completely under the laws of material nature.
Functions of mind and intelligence
I am the spirit soul.
Saptadaśaḥ. I have given my power of attorney to the mind, and mind is creating different varieties of the śabda, sparśā..., rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśā. In this way, life after life, as it is explained in the previous verse,
SB 6.1.49यथाज्ञस्तमसा युक्त उपास्ते व्यक्तमेव हि ।न वेद पूर्वमपरं नष्टजन्मस्मृतिस्तथा ॥४९॥yathājñas tamasā yuktaupāste vyaktam eva hina veda pūrvam aparaṁnaṣṭa-janma-smṛtis tathāAs a sleeping person acts according to the body manifested in his dreams and accepts it to be himself, so one identifies with his present body, which he acquired because of his past religious or irreligious actions, and is unable to know his past or future lives.
So naṣṭa-jan... I do not know. "I do not know" means I cannot remember what I did in my past life and what is going to happen in the next life.
In ignorance, tamasā. Ajñas tamasā upāste. This is tamo-guṇa. The present life as it is, we try to enjoy, that's all, without caring for the next life or without understanding what was my past life.
But human being should be intelligent enough that "Why...? I am enjoying or I am suffering. The other person, he is differently enjoying or suffering differently. Why the differences are there?" This is intelligence.
Why not one kind of enjoyment? Why not everyone millionaire? Why not everyone pauper, or poor? There are varieties. So they do not consider it. They are so fool, they... They should, that "Why I am put into this condition?
Why he is put into another condition? Why the other is put in another condition?" That is called tamasā. They do not care to know also. Tamasā. Tamase ca. So this is not life. This is animal life.
Human inquisitiveness and spiritual rectification
Therefore Vedic injunction is, "Don't keep in this animal life." Tamasi mā: "Don't keep yourself in this darkness." Jyotir gama: "Come to the light." So jyotir gama means...
That is tapasya. To come to the platform of light, it requires tapasya, austerity. That is required. The human life is meant for tapasya, to come to the life platform. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva
Tamasic or tamas, or darkness, means just like a person is attacked with tuberculosis, but he doesn't care for it. But intelligent man goes to the physician, asks that "Why I am suffering?
What is the medicine?" That is intelligence. So human life begins when one is inquisitive to know, "Why I am suffering?" That is human life. And if he keeps himself in darkness—"Oh, this is... Suffering is suffering.
Let me enjoy..." Sometimes they want to forget the suffering by another suffering, drinking or LSD, to forget suffering. That is another suffering, another suffering so much so that one becomes crazy and commits suicide.
This is going on, a very precarious life. And human life is the only opportunity to rectify these mistakes and come to his original position, constitutional position, means the spiritual platform.
BG 18.54ब्रह्मभूतः प्रसन्नात्मा न शोचति न काङ्क्षति ।समः सर्वेषु भूतेषु मद्भक्तिं लभते पराम् ॥५४॥brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmāna śocati na kāṅkṣatisamaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣumad-bhaktiṁ labhate parāmOne who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.
That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. As soon as one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, then immediately he becomes prasannātmā, jubilant.
Just like one is suffering from a disease, and some way or other, when he is relieved from that disease, immediately he becomes jubilant. That is required. That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
And when one becomes jubilant, then in that attitude, one can enter into devotional service of the Lord, not in the material condition, which is always suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
But we go on suffering just like animal. Animal is being taken to the slaughterhouse; still, he is eating very jubilantly. Next item, he will be killed. So this kind of consciousness is called animal consciousness.
SB 10.84.13यस्यात्मबुद्धि: कुणपे त्रिधातुकेस्वधी: कलत्रादिषु भौम इज्यधी: ।यत्तीर्थबुद्धि: सलिले न कर्हिचि-ज्जनेष्वभिज्ञेषु स एव गोखर: ॥ १३ ॥yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātukesva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥyat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicijjaneṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥOne who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth — such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.
Go-kharaḥ.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to deliver people from this ignorant..., ignorance platform and bring him to the light platform, or..., and knowledge platform, so that one can understand what is his constitutional position, how he can stop the sufferings of life, and how one can become eternally blissful life of knowledge.
[break]
...consciousness.
True education and brahminical qualities
Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He has given us the Śikṣāṣṭaka. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra... [break] ...in the Bhāgavata says tapasā. Tapasā means by undergoing severe austerities, penances.
Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā This is the instruction in the śāstra. One has to become perfect by tapasā, by austerities. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa. And becoming brahmacārī, celibate. What is called?
Celibate life? Eh?
Jagadīśa: Celibacy.
Prabhupāda: Celibacy, yes. Life of celibacy, controlling the sex desire. This is tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā These things are education.
And what is this nonsense education how to become a big mechanics of motorcar parts? This is not education. This is śūdra, śūdra education. It is not education.
It is called śilpa. Śilpa-vidyā, brahma-vidyā. Vidyā means brahma-vidyā. Therefore, in the Vedic society, education was meant for the brāhmaṇas. Education was not meant for the śūdras. Education was meant for the brāhmaṇas, and partially of the kṣatriyas, neither of the vaiśyas nor of the śūdras. What education?
Vaiśya's livelihood is, or his occupational duty is, how to produce food, how to give protection to the cows, and if there is excess stock, how to trade with it. So anyone can learn by seeing only.
It doesn't require any high education. If the father is tilling the field, the son can learn it by seeing it. If the father... Just like in Vṛndāvana, we... Kṛṣṇa...
Kṛṣṇa was going to tend the cows and calves of Nanda Mahārāja. There was no education. It can be learned simply by seeing others doing that.
So at the present moment education means many Indians are coming to America to learn how to polish motorcar parts or how to create technology. So this is not education. This is not education.
But the Europeans and Americans, they are going to India for learning brahma-vidya. That is education.
The Europeans and Americans, when they go to Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, they do not go there to see how we have manufactured cycle and machine for sewing. They have seen enough of this.
We may be very proud in India = "Now we are manufacturing cycle and sewing machine or some motor parts, advanced." This is not advanced.
Education means how to make one brāhmaṇa, how to teach him how he become sense controlled, śama, dama, mind control, how to become truthful, how to become clean, how to become simple, how to become full of knowledge, how to apply knowledge in practical life, how to know God.
This is education. This is education.
Degradation of modern urban civilization
So the present situation of the human civilization is very, very dark, tamasā. They want to live in the city without working for producing their food. And there are butchers, they kill innocent animals.
And in the city they eat the meat, and to digest they drink and work like hogs and dogs whole day and night. This is civilization. This is not civilization. This is darkness, darkness of life.
So we are in the darkness of life at the present moment because it is Kali-yuga, and... The system is always there so long the material world is there and the living entities are fallen in this material world.
So they are implicated more or less. So in the Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga, they were not so implicated as they are implicated at this moment, Kali-yuga, because the age of misunderstanding...
And the duration of age is also very short. Prāyeṇa alpa āyuṣaḥ. In this age people are living not very long. Although the limit is hundred years, nobody is living hundred years. It is reduced, reduced, more and more.
In the Kali-yuga the memory will be reduced, the duration of life will be reduced, the strength of the body will be reduced, people's sense of mercifulness will be reduced.
In this way there are eight items mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it will be reduced. So this is the age of Kali, and we are in darkness, and a mode of life just like animals. So this is our position.
Mercy of Krishna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu
But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, He is sympathetic. He comes, therefore. He comes...
He came in the Dvāpara-yuga, by the end of Dvāpara-yuga, and He left behind Him this Bhagavad-gītā, being merciful upon these conditioned soul, that "You make your life perfect by reading this Bhagavad-gītā. I am leaving behind him.
Arjuna is My friend." So in the way of questions or answers and in the way of Arjuna's falling in difficulty... Arjuna was not difficulty. He is personal friend of Kṛṣṇa.
But in order to derive the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he showed himself as in ignorance. The benefit is our..., that we have got this Bhagavad-gītā. But still, we are so fallen.
Because Kṛṣṇa said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, therefore people misunderstood. Again Kṛṣṇa came in this Kali-yuga as Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya nāmne. The Rūpa Gosvāmī, he prayed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, namo mahā-vadānyāya. Kṛṣṇa came. That's all right. But He was not so liberal. He wanted first of all surrender.
BG 18.66सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥६६॥sarva-dharmān parityajyamām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajaahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyomokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥAbandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
Kṛṣṇa made condition. Kṛṣṇa is personal Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. He came to show His mercy, and therefore He left Bhagavad-gītā to be read by common... Any common man can understand.
But the rascals are so rigid that they will misinterpret.
Understanding scriptures and divine love
Kṛṣṇa left it for reading it by everyone. Any common man can understand. Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ This is the beginning. Any common man can understand.
The Kurukṣetra is still there, and it is dharma-kṣetra. Still people go there to take bath in the Brahma-kunda during lunar and solar eclipse.
It is a great dharma-kṣetra. But they will interpret, "Dharma-kṣetra, kuru-kṣetra means this body." Where they get this meaning? Where is the dictionary? No, because he is scholar, he has invented some meaning.
This is going on, and people are misled. So the time is very, very bad, and even there is attempt to deliver them, they are so rigid and so stubborn, dog obstinacy, they want to remain in the doggish condition of life.
It is very, very difficult. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind. Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā, BG 7.3मनुष्याणां सहस्रेषु कश्चिद्यतति सिद्धये ।यततामपि सिद्धानां कश्चिन्मां वेत्ति तत्त्वतः ॥३॥manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣukaścid yatati siddhayeyatatām api siddhānāṁkaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥOut of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
To understand Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu After many, many millions of persons, one tries to become siddha. Siddha means to understand what he is, jñāna. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
And yatatām api siddhānām... Just like there are two classes of transcendentalist = the Māyāvādī and the Vaiṣṇava. That is all over the world.
So Māyāvādī, they are supposed to be siddhas. They are not siddha, but they are trying to become siddha, to understand the spiritual position.
Neti neti: "I am not this; I am not this; I am not this." But they are not siddhas. Siddhas, when they will understand that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
when they will understand Kṛṣṇa, that "Kṛṣṇa is everything," sa mahātmā, that mahātmā, not this ordinary mahātmā, "Nārāyaṇa, namo nārāyaṇa..." He is ordinary. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. Very rare mahātmā. Who is?
Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā = "Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is everything." That is siddha. Siddha. And again, yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is very kind, that without considering whether he is a siddha or viddha or anything else, "Let them take kṛṣṇa-prema." Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī prayed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu,
CC Madhya 19.53নমো মহাবদান্যায় কৃষ্ণপ্রেমপ্রদায় তে ।কৃষ্ণায় কৃষ্ণচৈতন্যনাম্নে গৌরত্বিষে নমঃ ॥ ৫৩ ॥namo mahā-vadānyāyakṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya tekṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ“O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.
He understood that "Here is Kṛṣṇa, but He has come now in the most liberal way. Everyone He is giving kṛṣṇa-prema." How? "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance, and become a lover of Kṛṣṇa." So nice.
Simply by chanting and dancing, one is becoming... Practical, it is. All these boys and girls, four or five years ago they did not know who is Kṛṣṇa. That is surprising to everyone.
The whole world is praising this movement because they see practically that how these European-American boys and girls are so much, I mean, absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's gift.
Namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te, kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne So very simple thing. Don't think I have played something wonder. No, it is not my wonder. The process is wonderful, the process itself.
Delivering the message with humility
You have to simply accept; then your life will be successful. It is not that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has brought this." They say. They give me the credit. That is my good fortune also. But actually I am just like a peon.
I have brought, but I am delivering it without any adulteration. That may be my credit. And if you take it without any adulteration and practice it, then your life is successful. This is the secret of success.
Chant, dance, take prasādam, live very happily and look very brilliant, and next life go to home, back to Godhead. So kindly... I am very pleased that you are doing nicely. But don't be proud.
Always remain humble, meek, that "I am nothing. I cannot..." That will be nice. And if you think, "Now I have become liberated. I can chant and dance," no, don't think like that.
Just like even Caitanya-caritāmṛta author, he says, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha
= "I am lower than the worm in the stool." Jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha: "I am more sinner than Jagāi-Mādhāi." In this way... That is not artificial. A Vaiṣṇava must think like that, that "I am rotten.
I have no value." Don't be proud. Then the things will go on nicely. And as soon as you become proud, then māyā—"Yes, you are God. Come on. I will kick you on your face.
Come on." [chuckles] [laughter] These rascals becomes God, and the māyā kicks on the face, and they think that they have become God. Don't become like that. Always remain humble servant, and you will be happy.
Thank you very much.
Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda! [end]