19901203 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.31.29

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on Dec 3rd, 1990 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3rd Canto, Chapter 31, Text 29.

Jayapatākā Swami: (reads ŚB 3.31.29 translation and purport) With the growth of the body, the living entity, in order to vanquish his soul, increases his false prestige and anger and thereby creates enmity towards similarly lusty people. 

Purport: In Bhagavad-Gītā, Third Chapter, 36 verse, Arjuna inquired from Kṛṣṇa about the cause of a living being’s lust. It is said that a living entity is eternal and, as such, qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord. Then what is the reason he falls prey to the material and commits so many sinful activities by the influence of the material energy? In reply to this question, Lord Kṛṣṇa said that it is lust which causes a living entity to glide down, from his exalted position to the abominable condition of material existence. This lust circumstantially changes into anger. Both lust and anger stand on the platform of the mode of passion. Lust is actually the product of the mode of passion, and in the absence of satisfaction of lust, the same desire transforms into anger on the platform of ignorance. When ignorance covers the soul, it is the source of his degradation to the most abominable condition of hellish life.

To raise oneself from hellish life to the highest position of spiritual understanding is to transform this lust into love of Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya of the Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, said, kāma kṛṣṇa-karmārpaṇe: due to our lust, we want many things for our sense gratification, but the same lust can be transformed in a purified way, so that we want everything for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anger also can be utilized towards a person who is atheistic or who is envious of the Personality of Godhead. As we have fallen into this material existence because of our lust and anger, the same two qualities can be utilized for the purpose of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and one can elevate himself again to his former pure, spiritual position. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has therefore recommended, that because in material existence, we have so many objects of sense gratification, which we need for the maintenance of the body, we , we should use all of them without attachment, for the purpose of satisfying the senses of Kṛṣṇa; that is actual renunciation.

Jayapatākā Swami: Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to Text 29 Chapter 31, Canto 3 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the matter of ‘Allurements of the living entity’. - 3rd December, 1990, 534 Gaurabda. Kuala Lumpur ISKCON 

saha dehena mānena vardhamānena manyunā
karoti vigrahaṁ kāmī kāmiṣv antāya cātmanaḥ
(ŚB 3.31.29)

With the growth of the body, the living entity, in order to vanquish his soul, increases his false prestige and anger and thereby creates enmity towards similarly lusty people.

In continuation of the teachings of Kapila Muni, the movements of the living entities on sāṅkhya, the nature of the conditioning of the living entities is detailed in this chapter. What is cousing the living entity to go from one body to the next, why the pure living entity the spirit soul is kept in conditioned life, it has been explained here in detail.

Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned in the Bhagavad-Gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa reveals that lust was the cause of our conditioning in material life. that because in material existence, we have so many objects of sense gratification, So, here this is further detailed. Śrīla Prabhupāda portrayed the modern society, the society in the west which is more like a jungle and the competitors are like tigers or lions, where heavy competition is survival of the fittest. It is not an usual for... people become so frustrated that they commit suicide. On the stock market crash, in America couple of years ago, some people jumped out of the window, they lost 150 million dollars in one hour, one month, 2 months. Like this, a very heavy tension, very strong lust, so this also compels people to break the law. Recently some of these big multi-millionaires were arrested by the security agencies for breaking the regulations, insiders tradings, various kinds of stock market regulations where they are misusing information for taking advantage, making more money. So, this is seen that people even in public places, the Mayor of Washington DC was arrested for taking cocaine drugs. Of course, here in Malaysia, it’s an offense for carrying or travelling with cocaine. But in America, the Mayors of the city are using, getting caught, giving full of money, they release.

So strong desires, lusty desires are keeping people in this bodily concept of life. So Prabhupāda states that you need to take this tendency and purify it by engaging them in the service to Kṛṣṇa. The strong desire to satisfy, gratify your senses can be purified and he marked here in Italics. Instead of wanting everything for our senses, if we want everything for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to have all the nicest facilities for Kṛṣṇa. Just like for Māyāpur, he said we can have airport, we should have ships going, one ship going between Calcutta and Māyāpur, little boats, should have all the nicest facilities. In fact, during the time of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he had an automobile. Now, everybody has an automobile. But at that time, this was nearly only the second or third automobile. First by any private citizen in the whole eastern India, apart from maybe the viceroy of India and England and few other British rulers, he was the only one to have a car. So, when he drove down the street, everybody was like “Wow! Automobile! Iron horse!” ....Something they all come and see. So, he was using that for preaching. Actually, when some of his sannyāsīs were going down to the drug store or something, then he wrote a letter which said, ordering that for preaching you can use the vehicle to go out and preach. But if you want to just go down to the market to get something, then walk. [Aside: He was quite open]. Its for your own self, because at that time a vehicle was rare so he wanted that we should...something valuable like that, this was a very valuable thing then, not like now, you can’t live without a vehicle practically. Everything is so spread out. Actually, Prabhupāda mentioned that the modern society we think that this is a luxury because we have a vehicle but actually, before everything was compact, people lived together with their family members, all the places were in walking distance.

Now if we just want to meet a friend, we have to drive 10, 20 miles, if we want to do some shopping or some other, so everything is so spread out. When we go right next speeds, or any moment, a little bit of inattentiveness and you can have an accident. Actually, life becomes more filled with tension, more dangerous because of expansion of the mode of passion. So, what we think is the advancement of civilization is actually putting us into many more hardships. To counteract the hardships, we have to put the machines. But then to maintain those machines is another hardship and so on. So, things become very complicated unnecessarily. But the sense gratification just becomes a headache. When we use that for Kṛṣṇa, when we use anything and everything for Kṛṣṇa, then it becomes a source of our deliverance. So, the devotee wants the best for Kṛṣṇa.

One-time Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned that there were some yogīs or some professional lecturers or gurus in India, they refuse to touch money. They don’t touch money. Actually, they collect lacs of rupees every night, check account and they sign cheques, but officially they don’t touch money. The secretaries take the money. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said that I don’t have any problem. I can take money with two hands. (Devotees Laugh). Because I’m not using it for myself. I’m only using it for Kṛṣṇa. He wanted to do so many things for Kṛṣṇa. But if the devotees or someone gives a million dollars, the next day again he will be a beggar, he would spend it all for Kṛṣṇa, building nice temples, building nice facilities for spreading Kṛṣṇa conciusness. the Lord, for propagating His message. I hear Kuala Lumpur want to build a nice facility for the Lord,for propergating His message.

So here in a country where 15, 16% of the population is basically Hindu, there shouldn’t be any difficulty in convincing them of the importance of spreading the Vedic culture, of devotion in its pure form, in a form which can reach the masses. There’s some kind of difficulty in convincing people to give for renting a house, but to give for starting this kind of a public facility which would be their asset, the asset of their community. As well as Not only the Hindus, but any member of the society could do that. So, naturally, this has a wide appeal to many people in this particular society. There is [Not Clear 12:52] to convince people of the need to engage their energy in spiritual pursuits. People are generally convinced that we need material and social welfare work and so they are putting their energy in that. But they don’t realize that if adequate spiritual purification of the society is not performed, then people will go on creating bad karmas, go on creating this type of material situation. So, there is no end to the social welfare work that has to be done. So long as people are eating meat, there is going to be suffering various kinds of cancer and other diseases due to the poisons in the blood. As long as people are overwhelmed by lust and engage in illicit sexual activities, there is going to be glamorous diseases, AIDS and so many other problems of that nature. As long as people are ignorant of their eternal self, the spiritual purpose in life, they might feel all these anxieties of this trans culture, with a very variability of hayward and other drugs from the golden triangle., [Not Clear 14:12] in Thailand

The people of Malaysia, the poor people, they take shelter of this intoxication. So, of course, when I was preaching there, some Chinese chap would say, “I can follow the principle of vegetarianism, no problem. I can handle that. And intoxication, alright, but no gambling- that’s impossible.” There is a very big habit amongs the Chinese community to gamble. So, in different countries and different places, people are attached to different illicit activities. In America, may be gambling is the easiest thing to give up. But meat eating and intoxication may be more difficult. Maybe in other countries, people are more attached to gambling.

So, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Kali is depending on these four activities for his strength. If you stop these four activities, then the influence of Kali is curtailed. Then it is possible to establish a society based on higher spiritual values. So generally, people in this part of the world appreciate, although they may not be able to practice, at least they appreciate that this type of high, pure standard of living is something very laudable, something very important. I know that in Thailand, where there are 200,000 monks , when the people hear about our principles, immediately they appreciate that this is the highest principle of personal behavior. Unfortunately, they admit, very few people, even the monks are able to follow. That’s why they appreciate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as imbibing the highest principles not only of Vedic culture but also Buddhistic culture. There is a very wide appeal. We can simply project our own image, what we actually stand for, purest standard of living.

Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted us to make that sacrifice of not compromising on our principles. There are so many Māyāvādī groups who say jagat mithyā, brahma satya, the world is false, only the absolute is eternal, real. But in practicality, they simply open hospitals, open clinics, open different material welfare activities, they talk about the world being false, but they simply engage in worldly activities. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that in the world, there is only one organization which is based on pure spiritual principles. One organization that people can know that this organization is uncompromising the pure spiritual nature and although initially there may be many materialistically attached people, who may not appreciate that. But as our books are distributed, as we properly explain to them what is the real purpose of life, what is the nature of life, those who are intelligent, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, they will appreciate. of course many pure spiritual activities appear like welfare activities like food for life programs, our counseling to people, to get them out of these influences of Kali, get them rehabilitated from drugs and from other bad habits. Many of our members had bad habits before they came, but we help them get cured, some came without any bad habits, many people. But those who take Śrīla Prabhupāda’s cure, about 99% we get good results. If you follow completely, you get 100%. [Aside: It is a fact, But the problem is not everyone is able to follow strictly]. This way, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very concerned that we maintain the purity of our presentation and the purity of our image. He said that Kṛṣṇa conscious people should be known as very honest, straight-forward people. He is interested that BBC, watch dogs to see that the image of ISKCON is pure. Fortunately, some indoor [Conch blowing sound] envious …. hopefully have been eradicated from ISKCON, we are facing now difficulty, but those persons left to engage in various kinds of unfavorable activities those have been projected as a kind of image of ISKCON. 

So, this is the trick of Kali. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, did a little mistake. He put a snake on the shoulder of the sage who was in meditation being overwhelmed by hunger, thirst thinking that the sage was just hiding and ignoring him. When the son of the sage heard that, then he cursed Parīkṣit to die saying what type of kṣatriya is this. When the father heard, he didn’t take it seriously at all. He threw the snake off from his shoulders think that it’s just a dead snake and even in this modern society, if you had to do something like that, put a dead lizard on somebody's lap, he would go to the police, it would not be a major crime. He probably has to pay a fine. Not considered a It is certainly an offence, but not kind of offense [Not Clear 19.43]. Certainly, Parīkṣit Mahārāja felt out of place doing such a foolish thing, at the time, he had become overwhelmed showing how under extreme circumstances, even a great person can become affected. Of course, in this circumstance, we know that Parīkṣit was brought under by the direct will of Providence, will of Kṛṣṇa to enable the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to be spoken. In Kali-yuga, an opportunity to enter into this planet and for a little offence, Parīkṣit was given a death sentence. So Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that we should be very careful about bad images that Lord Caitanya said that even a small defect on the part of a person in all part of a life, people will pick it up just like in a white sheet having a black spot, everyone will see the black spot. If you are wearing a black sheet and you have a black spot, nobody will see it. White sheet, people will pick it up.

Those who are practicing pure spiritual standards, even a small defect can look big. Therefore, the preachers have to be very careful. Due to lacksity or carelessness, some black spots came out and they create this bad image in the past. Now people found some other things outside of ISKCON, what we found, trying to correct, and it can be corrected the acts of people [Not Clear 21:00]. [Not Clear 21:40] By exception, the rule shows the exception, exceptions shows the rule [Not Clear 21:40] Binamy negative …….. Shows actually how ISKCON is meant for something called [Not Clear 21:41]/ And people knows the devotees are proper representatives of [Not Clear 21:42], they get convinced.

Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness personally. The supreme personality of Godhead, He told His followers to avoid this type of sense gratification. In His Śikṣāṣṭaka, He also espoused complete dedication to Kṛṣṇa, non-desire for the attractive features of material sense gratification.

na dhanam na janam na sundarīm
kavitām vā jagad-īśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaituki tvayī.

We want no wealth, don’t have desire for accumulating lot of money, no desire for beautiful women, no desire for many material followers and material followers. Sometimes the devotees will have a musician bug. There want to be the famous musicians. When they become famous musicians, that time they can preach to their followers. But actually, modern fans, material followers, they are not so flexible.

We heard George Harrison, one time, was playing Indian music and trying to present a spiritual type of music and his followers throwed shoes at him, telling him to play some rock and roll. We don’t want to hear all that music. We personally had Balasubramaniam, Yesudas, these big south Indian singers. At a program in Madras. Yesudas would play Mandra, Kannada, Karnataka, classical music and his fans would start shouting out to sing cinema songs, carrying out the names of different cinema songs because of it is meant for a charity, he just told them that I have come here to sing this type of classical spiritual music. he just told them that I have come here to sing this type of classical spiritual music. If you don’t like it, get out. (Devotees Laugh). He is that type of person, don’t scare anyone and the people in India arent so heavy they didnt throw any shoes at himit is chaos. (loughing) [Not Clear 24:00] [Aside: He walked out] So, still, they were demanding doing... They weren’t happy and the next Balasubramaniam, he surrendered. He just started singing nice cinema songs. Our Janmāṣṭamī gala, could not maintain the pure mood sabha because everybody wanted it to have the sense gratification. Once they get money, they want to grab the attention. We do free drama, free program, then people are inocent, they appreciate. Once they pay, they want to get what they get paid for. So, in this way, these big famous people, they are actually at the mercy of their fans. Their material followers are always in some kind of gratification.

If you see in India how, the followers want from their political leader, many gratifications. So, the relationship is actually not kind of pure devotional relationship at all its very much a relationship at all, its a very much a relationship of mutual gratification. Recently I visited Śāntipura , the birth place āśrama of Śrīla Advaita Gosvāmī for the release of one movie on Advaita Ācārya. One of the famous Bengali actor who had featured in more than 200 featured films Mr Kalidarji, famous film on the screen. He is quite old now. He was going to play Advaita Gosvāmī. Quite a [Not Clear 25:31] gentleman called So he was very well known. So thousand, they didn’t advertise. They didn’t tell anybody. But somehow the word got out, so hundreds and hundreds or may be thousands or more of Indians watched that out. Cinema, actors, stars, you know... they all just appeared out of nowhere, but we are trying to have like a formal clap stick opening, you know, clap the stick... So the head of the āśrama came up to speak something but whats happening is that when the actress, the star who was going to play Viṣṇupriya, she came out and you know in the back all the little hooligans there you know, whistling, and you know cat calling, people standing up and jumping over each other to take a glimpse of the star lit and the actor and then With (Audio not clear) so then the kind of formal religions, they thought to go to the holy place and have a formal blessing from Advaita Gosvāmī you know. Still, all the village people, you know “ah! Movie star”. So, then, they they were like, going wild. So they had to take the stars to the back room and had them all locked up in a cage. People were clamoring and police are taking a stick and beating them up, POW, POW! and then beating them up again! So the police they came and said just show your face for a minute. Then they come out. Goggle-eyed, looking, you know, Ah! Then they were quiet for a minute and then again, they go back and again after a few minutes again and again becoming mad, screaming, pulling all over. Police, beating them all up. (Devotees laugh). So then that āśrama guru, he was commenting, what a life they have. [Aside: Guru Maharaj’s discussion with the devotees Inaudible 27.18 to 27.22, Guru Maharaj laughs], they are crazy followers, and if they get a chance, they start ripping up the clothes and everything, ........ take a suvineer, sometimes people get killed. It was very dangerous. It is very dangerous. The point is, its very dangerous. In the west, one of these rock and roll woman singer was molested by the fans. They got wild! Its not imposible, its completely madness! So, it is very dangerous and they have to have high security. Because people can do anything if they get some kind of offensive. So, these material followers are very dangerous. They are completely in the mood of passion and ignorance. So, who wants it? What’s the use of that kind of followers? The people are mad.

Lord Caitanya told, “na dhanam na janam na sundarīṁ”. Even Life after life I simply want to engage in Your devotional service. So, the Hussain Shah, emperor of Bengal, he couldn’t appreciate that Lord Caitanya, he had many followers. Lord Caitanya, I dont know how many followers He had. Oviously lord Chaitanya had many followers. Millons, hundeds of thousands. But Hussain Shah Emperor, he did not understand that Lord Caitanya’s followers were of a different kind. Lord Chaitanya was not desiring any material followers. But people are running after Him to get spiritual knowledge, spiritual blessings. So, one time when Lord Caitanya was just few miles from the capital of the empire, Rāmakeli, He met Rūpa and Sanātana Goswami. That time the Emperor, actually his security told him that his intelligence heard that Lord Chaitanya was there. He asked his ministers, who is Caitanya Mahāprabhu? So, the ministers were very shy to speak, because they thought, maybe Hussain Shah, would tell how popular He is. He may get envious or something and may kill him as a Mogal rule. So, they said, He is not from here. He is one of these mendicant, going around, He doesn’t have any money, He has no material possessions. then the Hussain shah said: well you know, I dont know anything. so they asked Hussain shah, so who do who you think He is, you are the Emperor? You are the representative of God on Earth to protect the people. So, if you ask yourself, you can say better who He is. The Emperor said I think, He is non-different from Allah, non-different from (Hora?) Everyone was shocked. How could a Mohammedan ruler say that Lord Caitanya was non-different from Allah? Then they said, Lord, how is it that you have come to this conclusion? He said, all of you, why are you working for me? You are my material followers. Why you are working for me? Why my generals are working for me? Why my governors are working for me? Because I am paying all of you. If I didn’t give you money, you wouldn’t be working for me. I think if I didn’t give any material gratification for my wife, she may also leave me. Everybody is working because I am paying them, because I have the treasury of the king. Paying everyone. If I didn’t have that, who will be working? Who is going to work for me free? Maybe I am the biggest emperor, nobody wants to work for me. They all want something. But Lord Caitanya has nothing. He has nothing material. He must have the spiritual potency of God. Because why everybody is going after Him, even big ministers, big people, society lords, they are surrendering unto Him, woking for him. serving Him without any remuneration, completely free of all gratification, giving up the whole world unless He has the power of God, it’s not possible and they are satisfied. They are staying with Him. Lord Caitanya had demonstrated by presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness purely. There was actually no lack of followers. There was no lack of publick sapport. And subsequently, although similarly, the six Gosvāmīs, they lived in Vṛndāvana. They have no material facility, whatever. They are just living with a little kaupina and little cloth.

But the biggest temples in India, Northern India, still today, although some of them have been knocked down by the invaders, are those in Vrindavan. But they all built by mendicants who had nothin but a little kaupina, a litle cloth, and a water jug and a deity of śālagrama-śilā of Kṛṣṇa / Deity of Kṛṣṇa. Living under a different tree every night but they built the biggest tembles. In nothern India, which are standing over 500 years (audio not clear) because if we want spiritual type of followers, followers who can understand the importance of engaging their energy in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Those people who will actually be gratified, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura convinced one gentleman, To give his entire wealth. He gave every thing to the last penny and took [Not Clear 32:35] , he was (audio not clear ) he gave everything. So then, Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura gave him “bābājī”. Whatever he fulfilled all his material duties; he gave everything remaining. He was the one singly built the birthplace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Temple. Yogapīṭha temple. So, all the previous acāryas showed that somebody has wealth and they gave that in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that’s glorious. Devotees remain in the same simple life style. They don’t need to increase their own liabilities, but for Kṛṣṇa, they can do something wonderful. Here, Malaysia is a country, where people are advanced country. This is what they call it – newly industrialisation – NIC , Newly Idustrialised country. One of the richest countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia. Here theres some fabulous mosque. It would be nice to have one very functional preaching temple. It’s not gigantic, but at least something very functional, it’s a very good example of practical service-oriented facility where people can assemble and practice Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Chant

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

Have a meditation. People in this country, the chinese people, like meditation. So, we can introduce, Just like amonst marcial arts we hear that Tai chi is considered like the best. They shouls know that amongst all meditations, amongst all yogas, Bhakti-yoga is the best. Tai chi and yoga. (Devotees laugh). yajñānāṁ japa-yajño ’smi - amongts all types of meditation, all type of sacrifice (japa), meditating on the name of Kṛṣṇa, we should introduce that. (Devotees laugh) According to time, place and circumstance, we have to present so that people can relate to it. People who begin to chant, then they can quickly get results. They can quickly appreciate. Somehow or other we have to get them to chant. That’s why Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books are important. If they read the books, they can immediately understand the need of chanting. If they don’t have taste for chanting, but if they have taste for prasādam, prasādam also give them the taste for chanting, by purifying their senses. Process is very complete. So we can see here in this verse, how the spirit is vanquished by false prestige, anger, lust. The same thing, if we use it in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then we can liberate the soul from this.

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī!

Devotees: Jaya!

Bhakti-yoga kī

Devotees: Jaya!

Harināma-sankīrtana mahā-yajña kī

Devotees: Jaya!