19800617 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.5.19

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 17, 1980, in Nepal. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam second canto, chapter 5, verse 19.

[…] described. How the three modes of nature manifesting as matter, knowledge and activities conditions the living entity. Putting the living entity under the laws of cause and effect, making the living entity responsible for every activity he performs. People wonder, how is it that they are forced to suffer, even though they don’t want to. If they don’t wonder why they are forced to suffer, they should wonder. And this is the answer: is that everyone is responsible for the activities they perform in this material world? This is due to the action of the three modes of material nature.

In a family, sometimes it is seen that one brother is born healthy and another brother is born deformed. Sometimes people criticize that, “Why a baby shall be born deformed? What sin has the baby committed to be born deformed?” Of course, the answer is that baby may not have committed any sin in this life. But carrying over from the previous life, there are so many reactions. There was one baby crawling and some devotee said to Śrīla Prabhupāda, “How nice is that baby, so innocent.” Prabhupda said, “Yes, innocent, until he grows and develops sex desire. Then everything is spoiled.” Children are innocent because they don’t have sex desire. This material world means the basic moving force is kāma – lust. So children, they appear to be so innocent, because they are not so much filled with lust. But as they grow and their body develops and the natural conditioning of lust in this material world manifests, then all kind of bad natures become more prominent. The all-devouring enemy in this material world:

kāma eṣa krodha eṣa
rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
mahāśano mahā-pāpmā
viddhy enam iha vairiṇam
(Bg. 3.37)

Vairiṇam, the enemy. The greatest sin, the great enemy of the living entity is lust which covers the real knowledge. Why does a living entity get put into these three guṇas? Why does he get involved in this cause and effect? How it is happening that is described. You won’t find this in any scripture of the world. How the living entity is conditioned from his pure state. What we are finding in the Vedas, here in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But how? Why this is happening? This is due to lust. Because the living entity wants to enjoy rather than want to be enjoyed. He wants to lord rather than serve. Therefore, due to this lust which manifests as sex desire, specifically, living entity is forced to take birth after birth after birth—bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni [Bg. 18.61]—wandering in this material world, bahu janme—so many births birth after birth. So it is not possible simply to shut off the lust. It is not possible to just suddenly stop desiring. We cannot all of a sudden become a stone that, “From this moment I will become a stone and stop feeling, thinking and willing.” It is not possible. Therefore, at the same time we are forced to suffer; because so long as we maintain this lusty attitude. So what is the cure? What is the solution? The solution is that we have to develop a higher taste. We have to develop a higher taste, is for one who is meditating upon the sense objects while practicing austerity, that person is a pretender. So Arjuna would ask Kṛṣṇa that, “How to control this lust?” Even, we don’t want to it, it’s coming. Of course, then Kṛṣṇa admitted that, “Yes, so long as we have a body, this lusty desires of different forms due to the contact with the senses and the sense objects will come.”

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ’nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
(Bg. 2.14)

Titikṣasva means to tolerate. We must tolerate. Sometimes we will be attacked by the desire to enjoy sense gratification. So there has to be some tolerance. There is no absolute immediate cure that suddenly, just by one thing, all the accumulated desires for millions of births will be ended. One has to tolerate. And simultaneously one has to cultivate higher taste. That cultivation of a higher taste comes from chanting, comes from association, comes from remembering, comes from developing a higher taste. Higher taste is developed automatically as we cleanse the dirt from our heart.

If someone says that, “No, I have no attraction to chanting. I have no desire to chant. What should I do?” You should chant. That person should chant. Because his heart has become covered. The heart has become covered by dirt. And simply if the dirt gets cleansed away, then automatically you will get a taste for chanting. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ (Śikṣāṣṭakam). The heart is like a mirror. A mirror covered with dust – ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. The consciousness is cleansed by chanting. Hare Kṛṣṇa namā-saṅkīrtana – congregational chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chanting of japa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Someone who chants, you automatically develop a spontaneous attraction to Kṛṣṇa. Because that is our natural condition. To be attracted to Kṛṣṇa artificially. We see how māyā has imposed her conditioning upon us, because we have desired to be separate from Kṛṣṇa. That the tri-guṇas to ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika effect; cover the condition soul giving knowledge, matter and activities. These binding one into the law of cause and effect making one responsible for every activity which is performed. And this way one becomes completely bound and feels that, “By my own activity I am gaining my fruit” and so becomes very attached to the fruits of activity. Not knowing that those fruits do not belong to the conditioned soul. Who do the fruits belong to? The fruits belong to Kṛṣṇa. That is why it says:

yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra
loko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ

That work which is not done as a sacrifice is the cause of bondage for the people in this world.

tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya
mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara
(Bg. 3.9)

But work which is done to please Kṛṣṇa. That work frees one from material bondage, frees one from material attachment. That is a wonderful thing. In this world today, where is the program for training people to do yajñārthāt karmaṇa – to do work as a sacrifice for Kṛṣṇa. Yajña means Kṛṣṇa – yajño vai viṣṇuḥ. Yajña means to please Kṛṣṇa. Sacrifice means to please the Supreme Godhead. There is no question of sacrifice for any other purpose. That is not sacrifice, that is simply kaṣṭa – trouble. One may go to university and stay up long nights to study to get degree. So he can get jobs, so he can enjoy his senses in a better way of life. That is not a tapasya, that is not a yajña. That is simply kaṣṭa – trouble. Because it is for sense gratification. Yajña means has a higher goal, a spiritual goal. So in this world we are living in, where is the training to perform sacrifice for Viṣṇu? People are trained to sacrifice for themselves, for their own future interest. They are trained to sacrifice for their family, they are trained to sacrifice for their society. They are trained to sacrifice for their community and their race. And they are trained to sacrifice for their nation and even to some extent for humanity. But where is the training to sacrifice for all living entities, for the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, where is that training? So as a result, person is trained that he should sacrifice. But it’s not a real sacrifice. That means he is trained to accept trouble for the material consideration or designation – upādhi.

Just like in Assam. For the Assamis, they are giving the Nepali so much trouble. So many Nepalis had to leave Assam. There was no difficulty between Assamis and Nepalis. They are living happily. But some politicians are telling them that, “No, you Assamis. There are so many foreigners here.” Even people are born there for generations, Nepali people. But politicians say, “No! No, you drive everybody out. Otherwise politically you will be weakened.” So to get some political position, these leaders have inspired the people and they are going. And so many Nepalis had to leave Assam for what? So there we see that one person, he is trained, you should love Assam. (Assamese) Glories to Mother Assam. That is what they write on every bus. This is natural.

They are being trained like that in the school. The one person being trained, “You should love Bengali.” One, “You should love Nepali”, “You should love China”, whatever their race may be. So then what happens, this clash. There is no peace from that. There is more clashes. Because to love one’s own race means to hate other races. When that other race will have some conflict of interest. Similarly, they have here Indian nation. Then there is Chinese nation, Pakistan nation, Russian nation, American nation, French nation. America wanted all the countries to boycott Russian Olympics. Some boycotted, some don’t boycott. In this way there are so many because of all the different national interests, they have to consider. So although there is United Nations, where is the unity? Because everybody has their own interest. So where is the question of common interest? Only common interest is each nation’s personal interest, they are looking out for. Where is the question of common interests? What is the common denominator? So all these things in the name of peace, in the name of prosperity, create further conflict. One nation will naturally have conflict with another nation, when their sense gratification is conflicting. What is good for one place will not be good for another place. Why should one place sacrifice the position? So therefore, there is trouble, all the time – cold war, hot war, boycott, diplomacy in the world today. Because there is no training to sacrifice for Viṣṇu.

Instead, they are giving this so called sacrifice for solving materialistic interest. And even someone said, “No, we should help humanity.” But what is this humanity? We are trying to help humanity. And then we are killing the cow, killing the goat, killing the chickens. For helping humanity, they are putting so much industrial waste in the ocean that all the fish are dying. And eventually the humans are also dying. So how we can isolatedly see that all humanity? What about the other creatures? According to Vedas, the animals are like the younger brother of the human being. What type of civilized person is that? If he will kill his younger brother and eat it is barbaric. But that is the world standard. You speak humanitarianism and you kill all animals and eat. Animals also have a right to live. And so for killing the animals, there must be war in human society. Do you know how many animals in one year are killed, and only in America? As many as there are humans in the world population are animals killed in one year in the United States alone. Four billion animals per year are slaughtered. Four billion. That means four billion means about 400 crore or about you can say, 40,000 lakhs animals yearly killed. And only in the United States and Russia, they kill more, because they don’t even grow vegetable hardly. So difficulty is there. But when so many animals are dying against their free will for nothing, it’s saying that in Asia, the human is eating about one fifth to one tenth the amount of people in the western countries. That means there is so much waste is there, simply for stooling, what is the need for eating so much? So for satisfying the tongue, so many animals are being killed that pollutes the ether, the ākāśa becomes polluted by that papa, by that sinful reaction for murdering so many animals. Why does the Bible say, “Thou shalt not kill?” But all the Christians are killing. So the result is that the ākāśa becomes polluted. Just like the Vedas say that in a court when the judge, the Hakim and the advocate the Vakils; when the two people are speaking lies that pollutes the atmosphere. Because judge means he is supposed to be saying the truth. The advocate is supposed to be representing the truth. When both people lie after swearing on oath before God that pollutes the atmosphere and creates epidemic, creates plague and cancer. And different types of disease. Where did disease come from? 100-years ago, was there cancer? Now everyone is worried cancer. Where did it come from? It comes from all these activities, which pollute the atmosphere on the subtle plain, bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ [Bg. 7.4] khaṁ, this ether is all pervading. You see, if that gets polluted then all the material elements on the gross level, they become polluted. So because people are not being trained to perform sacrifice for Viṣṇu. Because they are thinking of all these material interests, which are creating so much conflict. So therefore, they are lying, they are cheating, they are murdering, they are doing anything for that interest. Thinking that this is all right. Forgetting God’s law. Forgetting God’s interest, Kṛṣṇa’s interest. So this pollutes the atmosphere, creates war, creates disease, creates earthquakes, creates volcanoes, creates all types of distress for people. And all the planning commissions in the world cannot solve this problem. All the United Nations, all the Summit Conferences cannot solve this problem. Because the cause is subtle. The cause is the unregulated, sinful, vicious activities of the human being. And they cannot simply stop. They have to get a training. They have to get a change of heart. Then only they can change. [break] …going blind, they can’t stop drinking. You pass a law. So they are buying bad booze, bad alcohol. People are smelling the worst thing as alcohol and they are drinking. So simply by passing a law, “No more drinking.” How will they do? They won’t find it. They will spend millions and crores of rupees to enforce the law by arresting; but they won’t spend one paisa to train the people how to be God conscious (then) automatically they will stop drinking. This is the nonsense. They are spending so much money for prevention and about nothing for cure. Simply put into the jail. So there is no change. So this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is meant to bring a change of heart. All these problems in society can be solved, if the people are purified from their lusty propensity, which becomes uncontrolled, if it’s not purified by yajño vai viṣṇuḥ. By performing work for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. The leaders of the world, they should wake up and understand this is of prime importance. The duty of every leader is to engage his people in sacrifice for Viṣṇu. By performing the sacrifice, you see, the atmosphere becomes purified. That means the disease becomes reduced. That means the propensity of quarrel of descent is reduced. It means that the natural happiness of the living entity, his quality of goodness and purity become increased. All the evil qualities of Kali are destroyed. Śukadeva Gosvāmī went on like this describing all the bad qualities of Kali. How the people: no good fortune, no memory, no proper duration of life, always quarreling. Asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. But there is only one good quality, one exceptional wonderful quality in this Kali-yuga – kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet [SB 12.3.51] – there is kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Because in this Kali-yuga, otherwise completely unqualified people, if they simply take shelter of kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Mukta-saṅgaḥ – they become freed and everyone in contact with them becomes freed from this reaction of karma. No one can help another person, if he is bound up within the laws of karma. Because he is not free to help anyone. He is not free to act independently. He can only create a disturbance because he is governed by the stringent laws of karma. But by chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name, one is freed from that saṅga, guṇa-saṅga. Paraṁ vrajet and ultimately reaches the supreme goal, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, dhāma (you see).

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
[Cc. Ādi 17.21]

Chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name is the only way in this Age of Kali. The only way, the only way, the only way. There is no other way, no other way, no other way – Nāsty eva, nāsty eva, nāsty eva gatir anyathā. No other way. This is not our version. This is not that, now we are saying, because we are fanatics and we are simply trying to push, you see an idea, because we are infatuated with this idea, we are presenting Kṛṣṇa’s words. It’s a scientific fact. If you go into the drugstore and say, “Give medicine.” “You say, what is your disease?” “No, no, give medicine.” A man can’t be cured. You have to say, what is your disease? There may be so many practices, so many principles of religion, but in this fallen Age, you see the practices of meditation, practices of austerity, practices of simply studying the scriptures or pūjā, worshipping the Deities, alone does not have the potency. Just like someone, he may have such an infection that he has to get a huge dose. So it describes Nārada-pāncarātrika. The Nārada-pāncarātrika describes that all the Vedic mantras which are filled with all the potency of God of Kṛṣṇa, they have all been combined, they have been compressed, they have been compact and concentrated within the eight words of “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare” in those eight names, all the potency has been put. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis – and in this Kali-yuga, Kṛṣṇa is so kind by Lord Caitanya’s mercy that there is no… just rule and regulation. When to chant, how to chant, even one is physically dirty or clean in an impure state, so called pure state. Whatever he may be, whether on the road or whether in the bathroom, any place, one can chant.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

So nowadays people are analytical minded, they want to understand the thing. It’s not necessary. One can simply chant without understanding anything. If you put your hand in fire, you will get burnt. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, there will be an effect. If someone is courageous, if he is actually brave, if a person is not a coward and a hypocrite, then what is the problem in trying to chant as an experiment, if nothing else, as a verification, as a pioneer activity, to see what is the result. Someone who is not prepared to chant should be considered not to be broad minded. Having so many conditions, conditioned by so many designations, “What do we care what people think? If this is the best thing for me, why not try it?” So it’s mentioned that this mahā-auṣadhi, that this is the medicine you see in this Kali-yuga. In the Upaniṣads it says,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ -- these sixteen names, kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ -- destroy all the bad qualities of this Kali-yuga, nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ -- there is no other alternative, sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate -- this is a verdict of all the scriptures.

Every ślokas is directing one in the same direction. So where is the doubt about the importance of chanting in this Kali-yuga? All of the schemes are simply doomed, if they do not include sacrifice for Viṣṇu, sacrifice for the Supreme Godhead. And the sacrifice authorized in this Kali-yuga: yajnaih sankirtana prayair is saṅkīrtana, that is the yuga-yajña – the sacrifice for the Age. Easily performed, simply singing and dancing and taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Where is the difficulty? Who doesn’t like to do these things? So because people are so analytically minded, so many books have been given, so many literatures have been provided. They can read, they can understand, they can explain to others. And if they get convinced by reading, they can take the cure which is chanting. Chanting goes beyond the mind. If one reads without chanting, he may mentally understand. But by chanting that will actually penetrate to the heart, and one will get the actual vision of Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. So this is the special gift of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Lord Caitanya has come down with associates, Nityānanda, Advaita (Sītānātha) and others, countless devotees to distribute this mercy. But some people are so expert in avoiding taking the mercy. So for them also we have to by hook or crook get them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Once they engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service, you see, then they will benefit so much. They will be so grateful once they can appreciate Kṛṣṇa. So just like sometimes a child is forced to feed medicine, they don’t like to take it. But mother has to give. So he put some sugar coating here. “You take one sandeśa! Oh yes! You say you take a pill.” “No, no!” They will fight and kick and spit. “No! No! You take one sandeśa.” Inside you put the pill, you take here. So like that, it’s been given to sugar coated. The medicine is there but no one can see, where is the medicine? It’s simply chanting, dancing and taking prasāda. But within there, you see, there is medicine. So especially the Indian people, they know that within Harināma there is some medicine. Even it appears to be great fun. They know that. My mother, my grandmother has told me that, “There is some dharma there, religion”, that means medicine. So I don’t have time for medicine. The western people, you see, they are completely tricked. When they came and said, “This is yoga. You just dance and sing, and you take a big feast.” So they are enjoying and then before they know it they completely in love with Kṛṣṇa. They forget all their attachments. How to get the Indian people to chant? They already know this is a medicine. “No, no. This is fun, you take a piece.” “No! No! Chanting means dharma, it means medicine. I don’t take. Anything but that not chanting.” You see, there are some diehards like that. So therefore, we have to outsmart them. We have to make chanting more attractive to them, so that they will chant. And once they chant a little bit, then they can understand. “Yes, actually this is not medicine. In that way it is nectar. It is all elixir. It is a painless medicine.” But they have been brainwashed to think that dharma means medicine is bad thing. Don’t take it. No matter what they tell you, whatever you don’t do any dharma, unless it is exclusively with a specific material purpose. You can do dharma, if you go to the God and pray, “Kill my baby boy, he is suffering from some illness.” “Give me some money, make my house…” specifically for some immediate material benefit, then you can do dharma. Otherwise, don’t do any dharma. Either it has to be for material, immediate benefit, or you have to merge and become God. For any other reason, don’t perform. Even if they have immediate desire, even if they want to become liberated, even then, Kṛṣṇa said,

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param
[SB 2.3.10]

Even then, if they want sarva-kāma, they want all types of material things. What if they are coming akāma, they have no desire. What if they want liberation. Whatever their status, yajeta puruṣaṁ param – they should perform bhakti-yoga for the Supreme Person, pleasure. Then they will get their desired result. So there is no need to take shelter of any other process than chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name. Performing one’s duty as an offering to Kṛṣṇa, purified by chanting His name, under the direction of bona fide spiritual master – this is a process for the Age. And so to educate the people, we are distributing books, transcendental literature. We are holding festivals. We are trying to attract the people to inquire, to participate. They like it. They have a natural attraction in India, only the educated people are now a little bit tough nuts. But naturally, all the Indian people love this. The Nepali people love these things. It’s only the educated youth now that are giving so many excuses. Because they have been trained in a British way, in the western way, in these school systems, that religion is opiate of the people. Religion is no good. And this way they have been educated, so therefore they can also be reached. But for that, we need Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. We need Lord Caitanya’s mercy. Then they can be reached. Even Lord Caitanya, He had trouble with His school, college boys. He took sannyāsa because of the students. Students become very proud of their education, and so it’s hard to penetrate their skull. They fill their brain with so many useless knowledge, and that makes a hard shell to penetrate. So even Lord Caitanya had difficulty. So He took sannyāsa, and this way He was finally able to also bring them under His mercy. So it can be done by Caitanya. Nityānanda’s mercy. So Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya, They have come here to Kathmandu valley. They are being worshipped nicely. They have come here to distribute their mercy to everyone, young and old. Bālaka, yuvaka, vṛddha, to the men, to the women, to the babies, to the students, to the ignorant, to everyone. Now we have to become Their instruments to distribute that mercy. We have to become transparent via medium, understanding Their desire and simply performing on Their behalf through the guru-paramparā. Then you can see that there will be a massive transformation. Just like in the hills, sometimes there is avalanche. Expedition is going up to mount Everest, and suddenly a little snow starts to turn. And this creates a ball, and the ball is rolling down, and as it’s going, it’s getting bigger and bigger. And finally, it becomes the whole side of the mountain crashes down. You see, an all expedition is submerged within the snow. So just like that avalanche is, from a small beginning comes a huge landslide, snow slide, avalanche. In the same way, with this small, humble beginning, we are simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if we are truly surrendered to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Nityānanda through the guru-paramparā, then we become empowered. And this small, humble beginning has ultimate, unlimited results. Like an avalanche, everyone is swept away. Thank you very much.