Bhagavad-gita 5.22
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Manipal · 2024
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Recitation of Bhagavad Gita verse
I'm very happy to be with all of you this evening and I was asked to speak on On a specific verse from Bhagavad Gita, that is the twenty-first verse from the fifth chapter of Bhagavad Gita.
Hehi sam spasaj Boga, Lokayone Evate, Adjantavanta Kontaya Natesu, Ramate Buddha. Bhagavate Sudevaya Omnamo Bhagavate V Sudeva Omnamo bhagavate vasudevaya.
Narayan namaskritya, Naramchayva Narottama, Naramchaiva Notam, Didim Sara Swatim Ya Sam. Okay, so which verse 21st or 22nd? Twenty first. Huh? Twenty second. Twenty second. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
He samspars, Boga, Dukkhayona, Eva Te Adi Anta Vantaha kantea, na Teshu Ramate Buddha, Yehisam Sparsha Jaboga, Ehi sam sparshabo, yehi sam sparsha jab Dukkha yonaya evate, dukkhayona, dukkha yonaya, Adyantavanta Conteya, Adyantavantaya, Adhyantavanta Contea Nate Suramate Buddha, Suramate Buddha, Nate Shuramate Buddha, yeh sam sparcha ja boha, ehi sam sparcha ja boha, dukkayvate, Adhyantavanta kontea, nate suramate buddha.
Somebody else. Yeah. Those. He certainly. Sparshajā. Sparshaj. By contact with the material senses. By contact with the material senses.
Bogaha enjoyments dukkha distress Yonaya Sources Eva certainly. Certainly they they are Adi Adi Beginning Ananta Vantaha Subject to End Kontea Osana of Kunti Osana kun No never Teshu Indose Ramathe Ramate take delights
Buddhahaha the intelligent person.
Translation and purport of the verse
Translation and purport by his divine grace, Asi Bhaktividanta Swami Prabhupada. An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery which are due to the contact with the material senses.
Osan of Kunti, such pleasures have the beginning and end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. Purport.
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: Ramate Yoginon Te Satyanande Chidatmani iti rama padena so paramh Brama Bidiyate.
The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasure from the absolute truths and therefore the supreme absolute truths, the personality of Godhead, is also called Rama.
In the Shrimad Bhagavatam it is also said: Nayam deho deha-bhajām loke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye tapo divyam putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyam tv anantam. Sokyam to 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 and hogs 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 in material miseries. Yeah he sam sparsa ja boga duka yona evate adjantavanta kontaya nate su ramate buddha nam
Vishnu Pai, Krishna Praishtaya Bhutale, Srimate Bhtividanta, Swami, namaste saraswati deve, guraurani pracharine, Nirvisa, Sunyavadi, Paschatyadesho Dinabandho Jagatpate, Gopesha Gopikakanta,
Radakantana most te, Tapta Kanchana Gurangi Rade Vraneshwari, Vrisabanu sutidevi, pranamamiharivancha Kalpataru Vyascha, Kripasindu bevacha, patitaneby, Vaishnavy Maha, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabunanda, Sri Dvaitathara,
Srivassadigura Bhta Vrindam Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Ramahare Rama Rama Rama Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Mahare Rama Rama Ramahare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna
Krishna Hare, Hare Rama Hareare R rama ra. Yank pravishi mahpra Suktaam, Sanji Vaya, Te Kila Shapti Darah, Swadamna, Anjaam Shahsta Chernah, Srava Nath, Prananda, Maubhavathe, Burcha, Dübim.
Swasia stu Vishva sicalah, Prassidaam, Diandu Bhutani sivamithodia manascha badramba ja tata dokshacha tam nowatiru ki.
Saintly effort to relieve human suffering
Hare Krishna. Again, I'm very happy to address all of you this evening on the occasion of opening this center.
And by reading Bhagavad-gītā, uh, written, uh, sweated labored by Śrīla Prabhupāda with the only purpose to make people happy.
Actually, any saintly person or any avatar, any transcendental personality come to this world and acts in this world with sole purpose in mind to help people find happiness. And for this purpose they labor hard.
Srila Prabhupada and his sixty-nine years old, seventy years old went through this arduous journey to America and preached in undertaking unlimited difficulties. What is the reason? What is the purpose?
What is the goal which he has in mind? Only one, to make people happy.
The pain which saintly persons experience when they see the mistaken ideas which people take in this world and think that this is the happiness, actually is the greatest pain which is there.
When people like Śrīla Prabhupāda or Krishna himself see how people make this mistake.
They think this is happiness. But as it is said in this particular verse of Bhagavad-gītā, and Krishna speaks Bhagavad-gītā with the same purpose: to make us happy, to give us understanding which ultimately gītā with the same purpose: to make us happy, to give us understanding which ultimately will make us happy.
To change the system of judgment.
Now we have a particular system of viewing this world, and this is a mistaken system, and by using this mistaken system, we again and again and again encounter sufferings. Again and again and again we suffer and we cannot understand that the mistake is in the very first action.
Mistake is hidden very deeply. We think everything is logical. You know, what is happiness? Happiness means that I need to enjoy my senses. It's so logical, it's so natural.
And therefore, the more enjoyment I have, the more happy I become. And people act, uh, armed with this idea, but, uh, in reality what happens, the more enjoyment they have, the more unhappy they become.
You know, there are so many big great personalities in the history of humanity which proved it without any trace of a doubt that by amassing the quality and quantity of sense enjoyment they become more and more miserable.
You know all these stars, music stars or whatever, rock stars or all this cinema stars. They're miserable. They're totally completely miserable. I don't know how about Bollywood, but in Hollywood it's definitely so.
But uh I believe in Bollywood the same thing is happening. So, people they have enjoyment, but they suffer. Why? Because enjoyment is not happiness.
This idea, this foolish idea, although seems to be very rational idea, but actually mistaken idea, is the source of miseries, is the main source of miseries in this material creation. And Krishna here speaks very clearly.
He says, unfortunately, foolish people cannot understand this.
He very clearly says that only Buddha, only people who are awakened who have the ability to discriminate between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, only those people can understand this.
You know, you need to have little brain to understand this. Of course, if you are like a child, you know, if you tell this little child, you know, don't take pleasures in the sweets. The child will only cry.
The child will say, no, no, ma, give me some sweets. And you ultimately you'll give him some sweets, but you know you because he doesn't have the ability to discriminate. He can only be appeased by giving him what he wants.
Role of intelligence in foreseeing consequences
But those who can think rationally, those who can really see the consequences of their actions, they can understand that this is a mistaken notion, this is a mistaken idea.
The problem is that when Krishna says Buddha, he means person who can foresee what is going on in the future. And for that you need certain causal causal horizon.
You have to have some broad enough intelligence to foresee or to see the consequences of your action at the present moment.
Unfortunately, what happens with the people, why people, most majority of people, especially nowadays, especially in Kali Yuga, everywhere of people, especially nowadays, especially in Kali Yuga, everywhere their ability to see the consequences.
They only see immediate cause and effect. You know who is wise in this world? You call somebody wise, you call somebody Buddha. Buddha means enlightened person, Buddha means wise person.
You call somebody Buddha because he can see the cause and effect relationship to a greater extent.
If you are not very far sighted, if you are very short-sighted, and of course nowadays everyone is more or less short-sighted, and therefore all these glasses are sold so nicely all over the place.
But short-sightedness in a sense that the intelligence doesn't allow you to see what's going to happen. You only see the immediate gratification. Actually, uh it's uh uh it's not the modern phenomena.
People are like this, people are generally childish, but those people who develop discrimination, uh, with the discrimination they can see uh further away in a chain of cause and effect.
And by looking at this chain of cause and effect. They can foresee what's going to happen.
Actually, commending in this verse very interestingly some of the Acharyas they make a very interesting point. I will share this point with you. They say, why Krishna says here Buddha?
They say because Buddha is a particular kind of a person who can be totally unhappy and miserable in the midst of enjoyment?
It's a very special kind of person because normal people, when enjoyment is going on, they are enjoying it, and they usually don't think too far. And the comparison which they make is very interesting.
They say that in our body we have different organs which have different degrees of sensitivity. You know the skin is sensitive, but to make the skin pain you really have to work hard. You know, you you really have to pinch the skin so that you feel the pain.
But they say that the most sensitive organ in our body is our eyeball. Eyeball, you just press it a little bit and it's already pain and you feel uncomfortable.
So eyeball, the ability of eyeball, the specialty of eyeball is that eyeball can see. Skin cannot see. So they say Krishna speaks here about buddhi because buddhi can see, and he is like eyeball.
He can see what is going to happen and therefore he is miserable when there is no cause for miseries.
And the example which they make is that you take the cobweb, this very little you know strands of cobweb and the cobweb when it touches your eyeball it makes you completely uncomfortable.
You know if the cobweb touches your skin, you know, no problem.
But eyeball becomes immediately uncomfortable and they say in the same way, if you develop your discrimination, your reaction to this environment will be completely different.
You will be miserable in the midst of enjoyment, and you will be enjoying by doing tapasya. You know, this may sound very strange, but that's the sign of intelligence.
And the sign of intelligence is very simple, you can see the consequences.
Three factors making material pleasure painful
Actually, most of the ācāryas, Śrīla Prabhupāda does do this, but most of the ācāryas commenting on this verse they immediately remember some sutra from Yoga Sutra.
There is a famous sutra from Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Muni, which explains this phenomena, how the enjoyment is the cause of suffering.
The sutra goes something like this: Pariṇāma-tāpa-saṁskāra- duḥkha-guṇa-vṛtti-virodhāt duḥkhaṁ eva vivekinaḥ. Something like this. I mm you know I may uh miss one word in Sanskrit.
But basically it's it's the idea that vivekina or buddhi in this verse. It's the same.
Vivekina is the one who has the ability to discriminate, buddhi, again, somebody who has developed intelligence and can foresee what is going on.
So specifically, Patañjali Muni in Yoga Sutra explains why vivekina or buddhi is so sensitive to the enjoyment.
He is so sensitive to enjoyment because of three reasons: pariṇāma, tapa, and uh uh saṁskāra. He is sensitive to enjoyment because of pariṇāma, because of the result of enjoyment, because he knows that inevitable 100% case result of enjoyment is suffering.
You know, you enjoy pizza. You know, on the way here I saw domino. You know, nice. You know, what is the result of this enjoyment? Pure suffering. You know, and pizza is much more enjoyable than dull.
But when you eat dull, you know, you don't enjoy, but you don't suffer as a result. But when you eat nice pizza with all this, you know, cheese and everything, then the result is coming. It's it's the law of nature.
You know, the more you enjoy anything which is totally enjoyable, you know, intelligent people know, watch out. Something bad is happening, is going to happen.
Pariṇāma. Pariṇāma means the result. The result of enjoyment is either immediate or remote suffering.
It can come immediately, it can it can come in one hour, in two hours, in one week, but ultimately because the very act of enjoying is exploiting the abilities of this body, it ultimately causes suffering.
It actually drains your vital energy. You know if you're enjoying too much, your vital energy goes into this act of enjoyment, and ultimately you're being drained of energy. You don't you lose your energy.
The best example is, of course, sex. You enjoy this enjoyment, so-called enjoyment, but what is the result? You know, your vital energy is completely drained.
And uh, according to Ayurveda, you have to restore the energy which you completely wasted in this act of so-called enjoyment for 48 days or whatever.
You need to restore this by very arduous process of taking food and digesting this food and you know ultimately bringing it back into the this vital fluid, semen or whatever.
So the first reason why enjoyment is not good is pariṇāma. Because it always brings the opposite result. This is the law of nature. If you want to study the law of nature, this is one.
You know, the enjoyment brings about a day and suffering. The second is tāpa. Tāpa means that those people who enjoy, at the moment when they enjoy, they think it will come to an end.
They cannot really enjoy so much because of the simple reason, because they know it will end. Śrīla Prabhupāda actually bases uh his whole purport on this particular point.
You know, how you can enjoy something if you know that uh this happiness will end, you know, you may be in a very nice relationship, you may be completely in love, you may be very happy, but then you know it will end.
You know, the somebody whom you love will die or will you will get some separation with him or whatever.
So the very thought of the impending and inevitable separation or end of this enjoyment is also the cause of suffering. And then the third cause of suffering is saṁsāra.
The intelligent person know he knows that I enjoy now, and what is the result?
The result is that I will suffer as a result, I will lose this enjoyment, that's inevitable, but in the meantime, I develop the habit of this enjoyment. Saṁsāra.
I develop this craving to repeat this enjoyment again and again and again. And I will suffer when there is no availability of this enjoyment.
You know, I will suffer because I already attached and because this enjoyment is not coming, I cannot repeat it, I will suffer. You know, the of course the best example is uh drugs.
People take drugs so they uh they smoke marijuana and it gives them enjoyment.
Yes, it it gives I mean I cannot speak with authority because I never took any drug or smoked marijuana, but I have disciples who who know this.
So uh on the authority of their experience y I can say uh it gives you some sort of uh mental excitement which is being interpreted by our soul as enjoyment. But what is the result? The result is that craving.
You know, I want to repeat it and repeat it and ultimately it becomes complete obsession. You cannot peacefully sit, you cannot meditate, you cannot be peaceful for a moment,
you want to get another portion of this so-called enjoyment, saṁsāra. So these three reasons are good enough for intelligent people to understand that one should not be too much attached to these enjoyments.
One should try to find the source of happiness in something else.
Temporary nature of material sense enjoyment
It is very clearly, Krishna is very clear here. He says, Dukajonaivate. This so-called enjoyment.
This Boga, this enjoyment which is basically born from the touch, from the touch of the senses to the sense objects. You know, basically all the so-called enjoyment in this world has this nature.
The senses are touching the sense objects, and you know, they say, oh, great. This is my success. This is the best thing which happened with me. So Krishna says, dukkhayone.
They're the sources of miseries. They will bring misery. And you shouldn't even doubt it.
Krishna himself says, and he knows what he's saying. He is the creator of this world. He is the creator of the senses and sense objects. And he says, don't go into this trap.
You know, it's like some time ago, I saw a little cartoon on the internet, and the cartoon was showing a mouse and the mouse sees a big piece of cheese in the mouse trap.
And the mouse comes closer to this trap and sees this nice, very juicy piece of cheese. And the mouse says, oh. And he. The mouse starts singing.
You know, I believe in miracles, I believe in miracles. I believe in miracles. That this cheese is there for me. You know this little stupid mouse doesn't understand that this is a trap.
That this is something for you to do to make you miserable. So, but you know, he sings this nice song, I believe in miracles, goes into this trap, takes this cheese, and then suffers in this trap.
So Krishna himself says: this is the trap. I made this trap. I made these senses and sense objects in such a way that it creates some sort of illusion of enjoyment. But actually it's a source of miseries.
And therefore, why it is the source of misery is because it has beginning and end. Adi anta vanta. Because all this enjoyment, all this experience ultimately has beginning and end.
And by the fact that it will end, by the fact that it is temporary, you cannot really call it enjoyment.
Because we are entitled to have eternal enjoyment. We're craving for eternal enjoyment. You know, there's this, you know, nice movies or whatever, eternal love. There's no eternal love in this world. Or eternal spring.
There's no eternal spring, this summer is already coming, so the suffering is coming. But because we are eternal and because we are happy, deep inside the nature of our consciousness, the nature of our soul is enjoyment.
We want enjoyment, but we want first class enjoyment. We want the enjoyment which does not have an end.
Because of the very nature, we feel that this is our entitlement, that this is something which we are meant for, to have the enjoyment which doesn't have an end. But because we cannot find it, or because it's not so easy
to obtain, we go for second, third, fourth, fifth class of enjoyment, which actually don't last long. You know, some more intelligent people take more lasting material enjoyments.
They're more intelligent, you know, like sāttvik people, they're also into material enjoyment. But at least, uh, they choose the material enjoyment which are more lasting.
They value relationship, they, you know, they have nice families, they have nice children, they behave nicely, and it lasts for some time. You know, the very stupid people, they take immediate enjoyment.
In Upaniṣads it is said, śreyas and preyas. You know, the stupid people, people who don't have discrimination, they go for preyas, something immediately gratifying, something immediately pleasing, something which you immediately like.
Finding eternal happiness in spiritual connection
But intelligent people, they go for śreyas, for something which has long-lasting effect. And Prabhupāda explains that ultimately you can find happiness only when this happiness is eternal.
And he says, therefore, real yogis, real intelligent people, people with real discrimination, they find happiness in Rāma. Because the very word Rāma means eternal enjoyment.
Rāma is somebody who gives you pleasure, gives you pleasure eternally. That's why we established this Lord Rāma in Ayodhyā. Because he is the source of eternal happiness.
All other things in this material world are sources of miseries, because the illusion of happiness which they give, uh, cannot satisfy us.
It's like, you know, you're in desert. You're somewhere in the middle of a desert. I don't know in Rajasthan or whatever. And then you get one drop of water.
You're completely thirsty and you want to drink. And you get one drop of water. And for a split second you feel oh so nice. But for how long it will last? Will this one drop of water satisfy you?
Another example which is very good in this regard is, that uh you are in the middle of the sea and you are in a ship and there is no water. You know, the water is all over you, but it's not drinking water.
And you try to quench your thirst by drinking this salty water because you are so thirsty. And you're drinking the salty water, but what will be the result of drinking salty water?
What will happen with the thirst if you drink salty water?
For a split second it will give you an illusion, yes, I have relief of my quench or of my thirst, but then the thirst will become stronger. And ultimately it will kill you.
In the same way, people they want, as Prabhupāda put it very beautifully, he said, by nature all living entities are pleasure-seeking entities. We want pleasure. We want happiness. There is no doubt about it.
But the problem, the mistake which we make is that we try to find pleasure when there is no pleasure. There is no water in the mirage. There is no water in the desert.
But we are running like this stupid deer who is running after the mirage of water in the desert and ultimately he dies. It's actually the metaphor comparison from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In the fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said that living entity in this world is like a deer in the desert. He sees the mirage, he runs after this mirage, he comes to this mirage, there is no water and he dies.
So this is what we are doing. We are trying to find happiness where the happiness is not. We are trying to find happiness which we are entitled for in the material pleasures.
And Prabhupāda, being so compassionate, he says: no, no, no, this is not the way to become happy.
Experiencing bliss through chanting holy names
Try to become happy by connecting your soul with the super soul, by connecting your little ātmā with Paramātmā, by engaging your ātmā in the pastimes of Bhagavān, which are the embodiment of complete bliss.
Try to find happiness in chanting this holy name. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. You know, we were chanting this holy name, this kīrtana of mantra.
And you know how many how many times we chanted it? How many times we chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
Actually that was my story because I started chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and I thought, you know, I I I don't believe that you can become happy by repeating the same words again and again and again.
My friend told me you tried, and I said, okay, I'll try it, but the moment I will get bored, I will stop this chanting. I'm still chanting 40, 40, 4 years later. So this is the proof.
You know, this is the proof that this holy name can sustain you in a very happy state of mind. This is actually how Śrīla Prabhupāda preached his movement by showing how you can become happy?
You know, and Prabhupāda was very proud. He said, all these people, they came to me and they were hippies. But I made hippies happies. They were hippies and they were not happy.
They were looking for happiness but they were dirty, they were, you know, into these drugs and into free sex and free love and whatnot. But Prabhupāda says, I made this hippies into happies. How?
By showing how you can become eternally happy, how you can find the source of eternal happiness, but the real happiness is. The real happiness is in God. And God is not different from His name.
God is sac-cid-ānanda. He is not ānanda, he is concentrated ānanda. He is ānanda personified, he is ānandaghan, he is very concentrated, very thick ānanda.
You know there is some little not so thick, thin ānanda in Brahman or some other spiritual kind of experiences. But God is concentrated ānanda.
And when you come in contact with him, initially in the form of his holy name, even the holy name itself is the source of happiness. You can feel it.
Sometimes, you know, you chant the holy name and you cry. Cry of happiness. You're so happy you cannot contain yourself. You're just crying and crying and crying. Why without any reason?
You know, I remember I like to tell this little story. We had Janmashtami celebration some time back in Moscow, and
there was this last kīrtana before midnight. You know, very powerful kīrtana. And there were probably around, you know, around 1,000 people still there in the temple.
And I was going through the crowd because it was a big bundle and you know the people were not it was not very packed.
So I was going and and checking, I was really, I mean, happy to see how people are enjoying this holy name. And it's it was really amazing.
It was such a concentrated happiness and bliss, and I was going and I was so happy after this day of festivities, Janmashtami and fasting and everything else.
And of course I was happy because soon I will break the fast and eat something. But all in all, I was very happy and all of a sudden somebody tapped me uh from the back and I turned away and I saw a young man.
And this young man said, please can you explain to me what's happening with me? You know, I'm the for the first time here. I came for the first time.
I don't know how I ended up here, but I heard that there will be some festival. I'm here and I'm, you know, I'm singing together with all these people, and I'm crying and crying and crying. Something is wrong with me.
And I looked at him and I said, You're completely right, something is wrong with me because I'm not crying. You're crying. So this is the proof, you know. He doesn't know anything.
He's for the first time, he doesn't know who is Krishna, he doesn't know who is Rāma. But he chants this holy name, and while chanting this holy name, he experienced such a degree of happiness that he starts crying.
And he says, you know, I never was so happy. So that's what Krishna is trying to tell us. Please don't make this mistake. He's begging us. Please, you will suffer. Don't do this. Become a little more intelligence.
Cultivating spiritual happiness over material illusion
Try to see the cause and effect relationship between what you're doing now and what you will be experiencing in the future. Whatever you're doing now, the results you will experience in the future.
And not so remote future. So try to find the source of happiness which we need. We all need happiness. We we are entitled to be happy.
But the happiness really is not in the mirage of happiness. Not an illusion of happiness. Try to find happiness in God.
In relationship with God, in relationship with saintly people, in the practice of meditation and the practice of this chanting of Hare Krishna mantra. And ultimately you will never regret.
Because as Prabhupāda, he quotes this fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam verse, that śudhyatye-smat-brahma-saukhyam tv-anantam, That brahma-saukhyam, the happiness of brahma, happiness of spirit, That brahma-saukhyam, the happiness of Brahma, happiness of spirit, the real spiritual happiness is ananta.
You know, the material happiness is there, but it's anta. It's ādi-antavanta. It has the beginning and end.
But brahma-saukhyam, tv-ānantam, there is another kind of happiness which doesn't have any end, and that's Brahma Sukha. This is Brahmananda.
Or in the real sense of this world, it's ānanda of your eternal relationship with Bhagavan. So that's basically the essence of this verse which uh which uh calls us to rethink what is good and what is bad in this world.
Which calls us to think little deeply, little more deeply of what we're supposed to do in this world. And not to remain childish, foolish living entities which are prone to get this cheap and tedious material enjoyments.
So thank you very much. That's this is it. Now you can have real happiness of prasāda. Hare Krishna.