Evening Darśana
Prabhupāda: Fifth Canto, fifth chapter.
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Fifth Canto, fifth chapter? I don't have the first volume, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We only have the second volume of Fifth Canto with us.
Prabhupāda: No other Bhāgavatam?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: We do. We have Prahlāda Mahārāja teachings, Seventh Canto.
Prabhupāda: No, Bhāgavata original?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Original Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Then?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Paṅḍitjī might have taken.
Prabhupāda: Ask Pradyumna.
Upendra: Is he downstairs?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: I don't think so.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Upendra: Paṅḍitjī's not here.
Prabhupāda: Why he does not remain here?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: He does his work at the Svargāśrama. He's supposed to come here to explain. He's been coming every day.
Prabhupāda: You recite that verse, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṅoti [SB 5.5.4]. The instruction of King Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons. He said that "This body, human body..." Ayaṁ dehaḥ. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Deha. Everyone has got deha, body. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13]:
[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]
"After this body is finished, another body." Because ātmā, na jāyate na mriyate vā, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. Ātmā is eternal. There is no birth, no death. Nitya, eternal; śāśvataḥ purāṅaḥ, the oldest; and na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. Therefore this is the problem. The ātmā has no birth, no death, and neither he is dead after the annihilation of this body. But we are put into this condition. We are not put, but we have put ourself. We are putting ourself in this condition of repetition of birth and death. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19]. Once we take birth, and again we annihilate this body.
So Ṛṣabhadeva says, "This ignorance of self-realization must be removed." Therefore He says, ayaṁ dehaḥ: "This body should not be misused like animals," āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna [Hitopadeśa 25].
[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.]
This is the advice. Ayaṁ dehaḥ nṛloke. He especially mentions, nṛloke: "in the human form of body." The dog, cat, or doglike man, catlike man, they may remain in ignorance. They have no chance. There are uncivilized men. Although they have got two hands, two legs, but because there is no knowledge, they have been described as dvi-pada-paśu. They are animal with two legs. Other animals, they have got four legs, and this rascal has got two legs. That is the difference. So ayaṁ dehaḥ, this body, na ayaṁ dehaḥ nṛloke... Nāyaṁ dehaḥ nṛlo..., deha-bhājām. Deha-bhājām. This is also very significant. There are innumerable living entities. Jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa anantyāya kalpate [Cc Madhya 19.140]. These jīvas, living entities, part and parcel of God, anantyāya kalpate. Just like the sunshine. What is the sunshine? The sunshine, this is very atomic parts of the sun brightness. They are individual, but they are combined. We see one shining. So similarly, God is compared with the sun, and we are atomic particles of God—the same thing in a very small quantity. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca. You take the tip of the hair and divide it into ten thousand parts, and that one part is the formation of the jīva.
keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa ānantyāya kalpate [Cc Madhya 19.140]
[If we divide the tip of a hair into a hundred parts and then take one of these parts and divide it again into a hundred parts, that very fine division is the size of but one of the numberless living entities. They are all cit-kaṅa, particles of spirit, not matter.]
You cannot count how many there are.
Now these, some of the jīvas... Not all of them. Majority of them, they live in the spiritual world, just like majority of the population of the state, they live outside the prison house. Prison house means some of the citizens who are criminals, they are put into the jail. Similarly, these living entities who are criminals, means who have rebelled against the order of God, they are sent here, in this material world. So they are suffering, one term after another. Therefore here is the chance, ayaṁ dehaḥ nṛloke. In the form of human body you can get out of it. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma [Bg 4.9].
[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]
This is chance. And therefore Ṛṣabhadeva says, "My dear boys, you don't spoil your life." "I am working and enjoying. I am not spoiling." "No, this kind of working is done by the cats and hogs." Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye [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.]
"For sense gratification the hogs and dogs, they also work very hard and then enjoy senses. So this body is not meant for that purpose." You are thinking that you are working so hard, karmī, and big, big skyscraper building and nice motorcar, nice roads. Electricity you have discovered. You are very advanced. Ṛṣabhadeva says, "This kind of advancement is..."
[break] ...motorcar. "Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" Therefore He warns, "No, no, no, no. This is not civilization." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān [SB 5.5.1]. "So much hard labor for sense gratification? This is not good." Then? What it is meant for? Tapa divyam.
So human life is meant for tapasya, self-realization, ātma-śuddhi. Ātmā can be purified from the contamination of the material modes of nature by tapasya. That is real civilization. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam. Your existence will be purified. Now your existence is not purified. Therefore you have to accept birth and death, old age and disease. It is not purified. So here is the chance to purify your existence. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam [SB 5.5.1]. Brahman means the greatest, unlimited. You are hankering after happiness, but if you purify your existence, then you get unlimited happiness of Brahman. Anantam: "There is no end." Here, whatever happiness you are getting, that is not unlimited. Limited. That limited happiness is available in the life of cats and dogs also. So the human life is meant for tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam.
So this tapasya can be practiced... Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ [SB 5.5.2]. You have to render your service to mahat, mahat, mahātmā. And who is mahātmā? Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ [Bg 9.13].
[O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.]
This is mahātmā. Kṛṣṅa says. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ.
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā [Bg 7.19]
[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]
One who has understood Kṛṣṅa—"Vāsudeva is everything"—he is mahātmā. Sa mahātmā. So that is recommended. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ [SB 5.5.2]. If you get the chance of getting such mahātmā, then try to give him service. Become his servant. Then your path of liberation will be open. And tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam: those who are after sense gratification, if you associate with them, then you are going to the darkness. Two ways are open: āhur vimukteḥ and dvāram, tamo-dvāram. Now make your choice, "In which way we shall go: in this way or that way?"
Everything is given, information, in the Bhagavad-gītā and all other śāstras. Bhagavad-gītā is the gist of all Vedas and Upaniṣads, Vedānta. Vedānta-kṛd vedānta-vit. Kṛṣṅa is vedānta-vit and vedānta-kṛt. Kṛṣṅa, in His incarnation as Vyāsadeva, He has compiled the Vedānta-sūtra. He has recommended also in the Bhagavad-gītā, brahma-sūtra-padaiś caiva hetumadbhir viniścitaiḥ [Bg 13.5]. Brahma-sūtra-padaiḥ, everything is established very reasonably. So Kṛṣṅa is speaking Vedānta-sūtra. Veda means knowledge; anta means the end of knowledge. The end of knowledge is to understand Kṛṣṅa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān [Bg 7.19]. Man of knowledge is jñānavān. So ordinary jñānavān, little knowledge, they cannot understand. Yatatām api siddhānām [Bg 7.3].
[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]
But a person cultivating knowledge for many lives, he can understand, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ [Bg 7.19]. So Vāsudeva personally explaining Himself, "I am like this; I am like that." Why should we not understand? What is the objection? Boliye.
Indian man (1): There should be no objection.
Prabhupāda: But people are not following Vāsudeva. They are creating new Vāsudeva. And somebody told that Kṛṣṅa is an ordinary man? Trivikrama Mahārāja or somebody told me. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam [Bg 9.11].
[Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.]
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Yeah, the people who are coming in at night are saying that.
Prabhupāda: Hmm.
vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam [SB 1.2.7]
[By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṅa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.]
In order to come to the position of that mahātmā, one has to render service to Vāsudeva. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ. Then jñāna-vairāgya automatically will be manifested. Janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Real life means vairāgya. Just like these boys known as hippies, they are trying for vairāgya. They are coming from countries, very opulent, rich father, mother, but they do not like; inclined to vairāgya, renunciation. But renunciation must be based on knowledge, jñāna-vairāgya. So that they are lacking. They are not fixed up. But there is a tendency of vairāgya. Is it not? That is also good. [Hindi] Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, there is compulsory vairāgya. As soon as one is fifty years old, he must give up family life. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Aiye. [Hindi] Jawaharlal Nehru, up to the end of his life he wanted to remain prime minister. [Hindi with scattered English words] Practical application. [Hindi] [pause] [Hindi] [Hindi conversation with scattered English] Ahaituky apratihatā. That is bhakti. [Hindi] Without bhakti, jñāna is never sufficient, but bhakti does not depend... Ahaituky apratihatā. It cannot be checked. [Hindi] Bhagavān is within. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].
[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]
And He assures... [Hindi] A special favor. [Hindi] The so-called jñānī, he wants to become liberated and become one with the Supreme—kāṅkṣati. When actually one is self-realized, na kāṅkṣati. Yogī kāṅkṣati. [Hindi conversation] Bhagavān is the Supreme. We are part and parcel. So I have already given you the example, these fingers, part and parcel of the body. The only desire should be how to serve the body. That is [indistinct]. [Hindi] Then where is that picture? The gopīs are pushing Rādhārāṅī to Kṛṣṅa? [Hindi]
Indian man (1): Kṛṣṅa likes Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no.
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: No, no, no, no.
Indian man (1): Rādhārāṅī, sorry.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (1): Therefore all the cowherd girls are trying to push Her to Kṛṣṅa.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (1): Kṛṣṅa likes Rādhārāṅī.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (1): Therefore all the cowherd girls are trying to push Her to Kṛṣṅa.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (1): [Hindi]
Prabhupāda: [Hindi] "Oh? Kṛṣṅa likes Her?" They become envious. But here: "Oh? Kṛṣṅa likes Her? All right."
Indian man (1): To please Kṛṣṅa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The purpose is to please Kṛṣṅa.
Indian man (1): [Hindi] I am explaining in Hindi [to another guest]. [Hindi]
Prabhupāda: [Hindi] That is Vṛndāvana. That is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that... Aiye. Ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā tāre bali kāma [Cc Ādi 4.165]. [Hindi] The gopīs' līlā with Kṛṣṅa... [Hindi]
Indian man (1): That is kāma.
Prabhupāda: The desire is "How Kṛṣṅa will be happy." [Hindi] The Western countries... [Hindi].
Indian man (1): That is all sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: That's all. There is no prema. There cannot be any prema within this material world. All kāma. [Hindi]
Indian man (1): This is prema.
Prabhupāda: [Hindi] This picture has appealed to me, this picture, "Kṛṣṅa likes Rādhārāṅī. Push Her." [Hindi] This is prema, in the beginning of. [Hindi] Arcanam. This is called arcanam. Arcanam. Arcā-mūrti-sevā. [Hindi conversation]
śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā- śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi vande guroḥ śrī-caraṅāravindam [Śrī Śrī-gurv-aṣṭaka 3]
[Hindi conversation] Thank you very much. [Hindi] Australia, Sydney. [Hindi] So next time you are here... [Hindi]
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: I have a photograph. Should I bring it? Sydney.
Prabhupāda: Yes. [Hindi]
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: All we had was this Melbourne photo. We don't have the Sydney... We have the Melbourne Deities. Still, it's nice.
Prabhupāda: Melbourne and Sydney, white.
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Yes, I knew it was Australia.
Prabhupāda: [Hindi] Melbourne. [Hindi] A section of Americans, they are Hindus. [Hindi]
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: It's about 6:30 now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Have saṅkīrtana.
Indian man (2): [Hindi]
Prabhupāda: [Hindi conversation]
Indian man (2): You haven't got a copy?
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: I have the original, not a copy.
Prabhupāda: You can give him this.
Indian man (2): If I... If I could have access to it?
Prabhupāda: He's done[?].
Indian man (2): Yes, you can safely believe. [Hindi] But I couldn't follow all the legal words. I thought it was...
Prabhupāda: [Hindi]
Indian man (1): He says that he passed his M.A... He passed his M.A.
Prabhupāda: [Hindi]
Indian man (1): And there he told it's all right to faith...
Indian man (2): Faith.
Indian man (1): Faith.
Indian man (2): Faith, yes, yes.
Indian man (1): Not Christianity or not Hinduism. Anything you like.
Prabhupāda: Not anything.
Indian man (1): Not anything?
Prabhupāda: Religion.
Indian man (2): Religion.
Prabhupāda: Not anything.
Indian man (2): Everyone has right to follow.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Every man has right to follow any, mean, established religion. And they have accepted this Hare Kṛṣṅa movement is established religion in India for many thousands of years.
Indian man (2): Only there should be no fault.
Prabhupāda: There is no fault. There is no fault. Everyone is learning voluntarily. [Hindi]
Tamāla Kṛṣṅa: Should we hold kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda? [kīrtana begins] [end]