Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.6.3

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

tathā coktam- na kuryāt karhicit sākhyam manasi hy anavasthite yad-viśrambhāc cirāc cīrṅaṁ caskanda tapa aiśvaram [SB 5.6.3]

[break] [01:44]

Translation: "All the learned scholars have given their opinion. The mind is by nature very restless, and one should not make friends with it. If we place full confidence in the mind, it may cheat us at any moment. Even Lord Śiva became agitated upon seeing the Mohinī form of Lord Kṛṣṅa, and Saubhari Muni also fell down from the mature stage of yogic perfection."

Prabhupāda:

tathā coktam- na kuryāt karhicit sākhyam manasi hy anavasthite yad-viśrambhāc cirāc cīrṅaṁ caskanda tapa aiśvaram [SB 5.6.3]

So it is advised herewith, tathā ca uktam. Although definitely from where it is quoted, it is not described, but it is heard by the paramparā system. That is also authority: not necessarily to know wherefrom it is quoted, but if it is current, it is also evidence. So it is said by paramparā system, we can understand, that "Do not make any friendship or," what is called, "compromise with mind. Do not do this." As I was saying yesterday, my Guru Mahārāja used to say that "When you get up, you beat your mind with shoes hundred times, and when you go to the bed, you beat your mind with broomstick hundred times." Then there will be no compromise. If you simply beat your mind... That is required. This is Vedic system. Now, if you want to bring somebody under your control, then you must always chastise him; otherwise it is impossible. Cāṅakya Paṅḍita, the moral instruction, he also says, lālane bahavo doṣās tāḍane bahavo guṅāḥ: "If you pat your subordinate, then it will increase the faulty habits." Bahavo doṣaḥ. And tāḍane bahavo guṅāḥ: "And if you chastise, then they will improve." Tasmāt śiṣyaṁ ca putraṁ ca tāḍayen na tu lālayet. Therefore it is advised, "Either your son or disciple, you should always chastise them. Never give them lenience."

So little leniency, immediately so many faults will grow. Now for our practical life we are known all over the world as shaven-headed. Is it not? Now we are becoming hair-headed. We are forgetting shaving, because there is little leniency. Immediately faulty things are creeping in. So we should be known as shaven-headed, not long-hair-headed. This is discrepancy. At least once in a month you must be clearly shaven-headed. In the bright fortnight on the day of pūrṅimā, four days after ekādaśī, once in a month in the bright fortnight, you must be shaved. It is not desirable that in grown-up ages also you should be chastised. That is not desirable. That is also difficult, because when the disciple or the son is grown up, if he is chastised, then he breaks. So before being chastised, you..., we should be conscious that "This is our rules and regulation. We must observe." Therefore it is advised by Cāṅakya Paṅḍita, prāpte tu ṣoḍaśe varṣe putraṁ mitra-vad ācaret: "After sixteenth year of the disciple or the son, he should be treated as friend." Because if you chastise when he's grown-up, then he'll break up. That is also another risk. So our request is that instead of chastising, with folded hands I request you, don't you become hippies again by growing hair. Keep your head cleansed at least once in a month. That is my request. Neither I can chastise you. I am also old man; you are young men.

So here the same thing, na kuryāt karhicit sākhyam. To the subordinate never make compromise. We must keep always under control. Of course... Similarly, our mind... The mind is the cause of our material existence, mano-dharma. Why we are in this material world? On account of this change of mind. Our position is jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṅa dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. We are eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa. But sometimes the servant thinks, "Why shall I remain a servant? Let me become master." That is natural. A master is always in comfortable situation. Sometimes the servant becomes envious: "Oh, why this man should always remain in comfortable position and we shall serve? Why not we become also in comfortable position? Let me eat as he eats," or "Let me sleep..." These are so-called comforts. So they want to imitate. When the living being imitates the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he falls down.

kṛṣṅa bhuliya jīva bhoga vañcha kare pāśate māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare [Prema-vivarta]

[When an individual soul forgets his eternal relationship with God and tries to lord it over the material nature or resources, that condition, that forgetful condition, is called māyā, or illusion.]

As soon as he forgets his position—he wants to imitate—that is the beginning of māyā, falldown. You should be very careful. Therefore the brahmacārī... We have to teach the brahmacārī. Brahmācāri guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam [SB 7.12.1]. This is brahmacārī: not for his personal benefit, but guror hitam. Then he is brahmacārī. Not that a brahmacārī has to become a very learned scholar in grammar and turīya... These are secondary things. First thing, he has to learn how to control the senses, dānta; how to control the mind. Śamo damaḥ. This is the beginning of brahminical life. If you cannot control your mind, if you cannot control your senses, there is no question of becoming brahmacārī. Brahmacārī, brahme cārati iti brahmacārī. And brāhmaṅa means brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṅaḥ. So these are the beginning, brahmacārī. Brahmacari means who is always in Brahman activities. That is brahmacārī. Or brāhmaṅa means one who knows the Supreme, Supreme Brahman, Paraṁbrahman. So if you understand Kṛṣṅa, then immediately you are liberated. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān [Bg 10.12].

[Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.]

So if we understand Kṛṣṅa, then we are both brahmacārī or brāhmaṅa, brahma-jñāna, brahma-bhūtaḥ. These words are there in the śāstra: athāto brahma jijñāsā. Therefore the real life is to inquire about Brahman. Inquiring, inquiring, when the conditioned soul... Now it is jīva-bhūtaḥ. So long we are conditioned by the material nature—prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ [Bg 3.27],

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṅān [Bg 13.22]—then we are jīva-bhūtaḥ. Otherwise, when we come to our real position, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ.

So that brahma-bhūtaḥ position can be attained. If we strictly follow the rules and regulation of brahmacārī or brāhmaṅa, then it is possible. Otherwise it will be simply formality. Practical life, brahma-bhūtaḥ. And how do I know that he has become brahma-bhūtaḥ? Prasannātmā [Bg 18.54]:

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

no more moroseness, always jolly in any condition of life. Not that "For want of this, one is suffering." There is no want. That..., that mentality, that attitude, should be increased. And when it is fully increased, then he's fully satisfied, ātmārāma. That is called ātmārāma. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi, "Oh, I am fully satisfied." Naivodvije para duratyayā-vaitaraṅyās tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahā amṛta-magna [SB 7.9.4]. As Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "Now I am in the ocean of nectarean. I have no suffering." That is brahma-bhūtaḥ. So this brahma-bhūtaḥ... [break]

Yoga indriya-saṁyamaḥ. And the king, head of the indriyas, is the mind. So manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg 15.7]. We are struggling in this material world, prakṛti-sthani, bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṅan. Because we are in this material world—there are three modes of material nature—either of them controlling me. Prakṛtijān guṅan. Therefore you find three kinds of men. Practically we can see richer class, a middle class and a poorer class. That is always existing. I thought, before going to your country, USA, I thought that "The Americans, they are all rich." That's a fact. I don't say that you are poor. You are rich in comparison to India. But still, when I saw that on the Bowery Street so many drunkards are lying down on the footpath, then I thought, "Here is also third class." So either by drinking they are lying on footpath, or by becoming hippies they are lying in the park, and the police is kicking on their face. That means that three classes are always there, either you go to America or hell or heaven—anywhere—because there are three guṅas: sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. Prakṛtijān guṅān. You cannot escape it. There is no question of becoming poor. In the Western countries the government arrangement is so nice. And still, voluntarily they will become poor. That is hippies. Because nature is working. Most of these hippies, they are coming from very respectable family, rich family. I have seen. In Beverly Hills when I was walking in the morning I saw nice boy, there is car, he is coming from a very nice house, but he's a hippie. I have seen it. [laughs] Why he has become hippie? Prakṛtijān guṅān. He might have taken his birth in a very rich family, respectable family; because the mode of nature is working, voluntarily he has become hippie. This is going on all over the world. Therefore we have to come to the platform of sattva-guṅa, brāhmaṅa platform. Brāhmaṅa platform.

So one endeavor is gradually to come to the brāhmaṅa platform. But if we take bhakti-yogam, immediately you become on the brāhmaṅa platform. This is the advantage. Kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṅāḥ, aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena... [SB 6.1.15]. What is that?

Pradyumna: Nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ.

Prabhupāda: What is that word?

Pradyumna: Nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ.

Prabhupāda: Nīhāram?

Pradyumna: The darkness.

Prabhupāda: No. I forget. Mist, what is the English? Nīhāram iva, yes. Nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. Bhāskaraḥ means sun. So when there is mist, kuyāśā as soon as there is sunrise, immediately everything... Otherwise it is very difficult to drive away the fog. The railway train, I have seen it also. In the mid-ocean, immediately there is fog, and the ship immediately stops because there is danger of collision with other ship. At least the ship in which I was going to your country, Jaladuta, so the captain, Mr. Pandia, he immediately used to stop in the mid-ocean and giving horn, "gaw, gaw," like that. So that was danger, very dangerous. When the sea is rough there is no fog. And as soon as the sea is not rough there is fog. So whether you will go this way or that way, there is misery. Therefore this world is called duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg 8.15].

[After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.]

You subdue something, and another problem is there. And you solve that problem—another problem... Problematic. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. Kṛṣṅa is recommending that this is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. How we'll subside this duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam? And we are... Our struggle is... Kṛṣṅa said, "This is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This place is for miseries," and these rascals are trying to adjust things. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ [SB 7.5.31].

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṅu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.]

These rascals, they are trying to bring peace by material arrangement, mūḍha. Therefore they are mūḍha. It is not possible. Kṛṣṅa has made it suffering. How you can become happy here? But these rascals will not understand. Within the suffering they will try to become happy. That is not possible. The toilet room he wants to make a Deity room. How it is possible? That is not possible.

So it is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg 8.15], and you have to practice tapasya if you want to get out of it. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva [SB 5.5.1].

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

We are now accustomed to this miserable condition of life. If you want actual happiness, then you have to undergo austerity, tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. You are hankering after happiness. That happiness, brahma-sukha, eternal happiness, you will get by practicing tapasya. So don't believe, don't make friendship with your restless mind. This is the instruction. Don't make friendship. Simply beat the mind with shoes and broomstick; otherwise cannot bring in control. And other alternative is kevalayā bhaktyā. So if you can engage your mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa, then it is possible. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṅa-padāravindayoḥ [SB 9.4.18].

[Mahārāja Ambarīṣa always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa, his words in describing the glories of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the Lord's temple, and his ears in hearing the words spoken by Kṛṣṅa or about Kṛṣṅa. He engaged his eyes in seeing the Deity of Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa's temples and Kṛṣṅa's places like Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, he engaged his sense of touch in touching the bodies of the Lord's devotees, he engaged his sense of smell in smelling the fragrance of tulasī offered to the Lord, and he engaged his tongue in tasting the Lord's prasāda. He engaged his legs in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his head in bowing down before the Lord, and all his desires in serving the Lord, twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa never desired anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free from all material desires.]

Then Kṛṣṅa will control. Kṛṣṅa means light. Darkness..., you are suffering in the darkness. So somehow or other if you bring a light, there is no darkness.

kṛṣṅa—sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra yāhāṅ kṛṣṅa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra [Cc Madhya 22.31]

[Kṛṣṅa is compared to sunshine, and māyā is compared to darkness. Wherever there is sunshine, there cannot be darkness. As soon as one takes to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, the darkness of illusion (the influence of the external energy) will immediately vanish.]

If you keep always within your mind Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa's lotus feet... You can see Kṛṣṅa's lotus feet, Deity, Baladeva, Balarāma, how He is nicely standing. You can see the nice lotus feet. Don't try to see the face all of a sudden. Try, practice to see the lotus feet constantly. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṅa-padāra... This is a chance. This temple means to practice how to think of Kṛṣṅa's lotus feet, Balarāma's lotus feet, always. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. Immediately you become bhakta. And as soon as you become a bhakta, kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṅāḥ, dhunvanti aghaṁ kṛtsnam [SB 6.1.15]: all kinds of disturbances will be subsided, dhunvanti. Nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. This is the śāstra injunction.

So in this Kali-yuga, to control the mind the yoga practice and this practice and..., this is all failure. It will never be possible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṅum [SB 12.3.52].

[Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṅu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra.]

Now they have manufactured so many meditation. The real meditation is dhyāyato viṣṅu, the Viṣṅu form, four-handed Viṣṅu form, and always try to see Him. That is wanted. These rascals have manufactured something, some light, some this, some that—yoga practice, sleeping. This will not help. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1].

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

Yogīs' meditation means to see Viṣṅu mūrti. That is wanted. But they are impersonalists: "Viṣṅu is māyā. Why shall I think of Viṣṅu? Let me see some light." What is that nonsense light? That is also māyā. So what is the wrong there, instead of seeing the light if you see the Viṣṅu form? "No, the light is good. Oṁ is good." But when there is question of personal meditation, they protest.

Therefore tad-vijñānarthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

In order to learn everything very clearly, he must have the shelter of a bona fide guru. Ādau gurvāśrayam. If we want release from all this disturbance of the material world, then the first and foremost thing is ādau gurvāśrayam. Then,

tad viddhi praṅipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ [Bg 4.34]

[Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.]

Guru means tattva-darśī. Tattva-darśī. Otherwise he's useless, waste of time. One has seen the tattva. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam, brahmeti paramātmeti [SB 1.2.11].

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

Guru means one who knows what is Brahman, what is Paramātmā, what is Bhagavān—not partial knowledge. The jñānīs, the so-called jñānīs, they reach up to the brahma-jyoti, that's all. But that is not complete knowledge. The yogīs, they reach, utmost, Paramātmā. That is also not complete. Better than the jñānīs, but it is not complete. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti. When he comes to the platform to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then that is bhakti. That is bhakti. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says,

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntaratmānā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ [Bg 6.47]

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

So if you want to be first-class yogī, always think of Kṛṣṅa within your mind. Do not make friendship, that you have become very much advanced: "Now my mind is controlled." It is not so easy, sir. Therefore it is warned, na kuryāt karhicit. Never trust your mind. Always distrust. In any moment it, the mind, can drag you. The example is given here, caskanda tapa aiśvaram. Yad-viśrambhāc cīrṅaṁ caskanda tapa aiśvaram. Even Lord Śiva—he is called Mahadeva; not only deva, but Mahādeva—he became captivated by seeing the young woman's incarnation, Mohinī-mūrti. Became so much captivated. The description is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But as soon as the Mohinī-mūrti demonstrated the features of the breast, immediately Lord Śiva became so mad that he forcibly went there and embraced, and there was discharge, Lord Śiva. And what to speak of us? What we are? [laughter] Therefore it is... Lord Śiva is all right, but by their example they are teaching us that "A personality like me become victimized by this māyā's influence. What you are?" Why you should trust and make friendship with your mind, that "I am now complete," artificially? Don't do that. Therefore it is warned, na kuryāt. Na kuryāt karhicit. Never trust your mind; always try to control. And the easiest method recomended in the śāstra and confirmed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu—harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma iva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty... [Cc Ādi 17.21].

[In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.]

Devotees: ...eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda! [end]