19940423 Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.31.19

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.31.19

paśyaty ayaṁ dhiṣaṇayā nanu sapta-vadhriḥ
śārīrake dama-śarīry aparaḥ sva-dehe
yat-sṛṣṭayāsaṁ tam ahaṁ puruṣaṁ purāṇaṁ
paśye bahir hṛdi ca caityam iva pratītam

Translation: The living entity in another type of body sees only by instinct; he knows only the agreeable and disagreeable sense perceptions of that particular body. But I have a body in which I can control my senses and can understand my destination; therefore, I offer my respectful obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whom I have been blessed with this body and by whose grace I can see Him within and without.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupda: The evolutionary process of different types of bodies is something like that of a fructifying flower. Just as there are different stages in the growth of a flower—the bud stage, the blooming stage and the full—fledged, grown-up stage of aroma and beauty—similarly, there are 8,400,000 species of bodies in gradual evolution, and there is systematic progress from the lower species of life to the higher. The human form of life is supposed to be the highest, for it offers consciousness for getting out of the clutches of birth and death. The fortunate child in the womb of his mother realizes his superior position and is thereby distinguished from other bodies. Animals in bodies lower than that of the human being are conscious only as far as their bodily distress and happiness are concerned; they cannot think of more than their bodily necessities of life-eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But in the human form of life, by the grace of God, the consciousness is so developed that a man can evaluate his exceptional position and thus realize the self and the Supreme Lord.

[A-side: Jaya Rādhā Mādhava Aṣṭa-sakhi kī! Jaya! Jaya Rādhā Mādhava Māyāpur-candra kī jaya! Jaya Narasiṁhadeva Prahlāda Mahārāja kī! Jaya! Sāṣṭāṅga-praṇāma]

The word dama-śarīrī means that we have a body in which we can control the senses and the mind. The complication of materialistic life is due to an uncontrolled mind and uncontrolled senses. One should feel grateful to the Supreme Personality of Godhead for having obtained such a nice human form of body, and one should properly utilize it. The distinction between an animal and a man is that the animal cannot control himself and has no sense of decency, whereas the human being has the sense of decency and can control himself. If this controlling power is not exhibited by the human being, then he is no better than an animal. By controlling the senses, or by the process of yoga regulation, one can understand the position of his self, the Supersoul, the world and their interrelation; everything is possible by controlling the senses. Otherwise, we are no better than animals.

Real self-realization by means of controlling the senses is explained herein. One should try to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead and one’s own self also. To think oneself the same as the Supreme is not self-realization. Here it is clearly explained that the Supreme Lord is anādi, or purāṇa, and He has no other cause. The living entity is born of the Supreme Godhead as part and parcel. It is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, anādir ādir govindaḥ: [Bs. 5.1] Govinda, the Supreme person, has no cause. He is unborn. But the living entity is born of Him. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, mamaivāṁśaḥ: both the living entity and the Supreme Lord are unborn, but it has to be understood that the supreme cause of the part and parcel is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahma-saṁhitā therefore says that everything has come from the Supreme Personality of Godhead (sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam [Bs. 5.1]). The Vedānta-sūtra confirms this also. Janmādy asya yataḥ: [SB 1.1.1] the Absolute Truth is the original source of everyone’s birth. Kṛṣṇa also says in Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: [Bg. 10.8] “I am the source of birth of everything, including Brahmā and Lord Śiva and the living entities.” This is self-realization. One should know that he is under the control of the Supreme Lord and not think that he is fully independent. Otherwise, why should he be put into conditional life?

Oṁ tat sat

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation purport to canto three, chapter 31, text 19 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhakivedanta Purport in the matter of “The Movement of the Living Entities.”

Jayapatākā Swami: This living entity is expressing his realization while present in the womb of the mother in the form of a ten-month-old embryo. As a fully developed embryo, he is realizing the benefits of having achieved the human form, because he has awakened to consciousness, so he is offering prayers with folded hands. Therefore, he is saying, “I offer my respectful obeisances to the Lord.” Tam ahaṁ puruṣaṁ purāṇaṁ.

The difference between animal body and human body is very clearly explained here. That animal sees by instinct. They are already programmed or organized by nature to see things in a particular way. They don’t have the intelligence to see things objectively. They see things according to what is agreeable or disagreeable to the sense perception of that animal. Just like a pig, who like to eat stool, that is agreeable to that animal. We cannot communicate with the pig and convince the pig that something else is better. Human being can by habit develop certain association with modes of ignorance, passion, or goodness. But you can convince someone to change their habit in the human form of life. That is why human being is considered to have higher intelligence, can’t convince an animal; by training, sometimes the animals are given a particular kind of food, and they get used to it; but their natural inclination is in a particular direction. Although human beings body is made for being a vegetarian by habit many have become meat eaters. And for this reason there are so many more diseases than may needed in human society.

So this devotee or this person in the womb of the mother is very happy to see that they have human form of life. Because with human form of life, one can realize Kṛṣṇa, one can realize the self and one can get out of the cycle of birth and death. If we control our senses, the whole key is sense control, some jump or… in control of the senses, the indriya is the system to go to higher levels. In previous ages, even the demons, who would do great tapasyas in order to get more power. They had an understanding about ātmā. Unfortunately, by their tapasyas, they could not understand the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rāvaṇa was famous for doing great tapasyas, his tapa-bhūmis are situated in different parts. Also, Hiraṇyakaśipu did a great tapasya. Many demons also do tapasya, but they do that temporarily to get more material power, to then again enjoy the sense gratification. So they miss the whole point of the real purpose of human life. Brahmanical culture means, Vaiṣṇava culture means to understand our relationship with the Supreme Lord, to control the senses for that higher purpose. In modern civilization, sense control is also expected of people. But the tendency is more in a demonic direction. Scientists have to exert a lot of sense control to do their research. They had to control their senses, their mind. There are many modern fields of technology and science, where a lot of sense control is required. Not a slight mistake. For instance, in this spatial launches seems to throw the whole thing off quite a bit. What if all the sense control is utilized to enhance sense gratification?

And Prabhupāda, he gave the example that the vulture is flying high in the sky with the vulture is looking down on the ground, where is the dead corpse, the dead body to eat the dead flesh. Although the ability is there to fly high, the consciousness is always down on the ground. So that type of sense control, which does not lead us to a higher understanding of life as compared to that of the vultures, it’s not really beneficial to the human society’s ultimate śreyas, ultimate welfare.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He encouraged His followers to exert sense control, to use the senses in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Chant the holy names.

jihvāra lālase yei iti-uti dhāya
śiśnodara-parāyaṇa kṛṣṇa nāhi pāya
[Cc. Antya 6.227]

Jagadānanda Paṇḍita, he is saying, someone who is attached to running after the dictates of the tongue, whose stomach, belly, genital, tongue, belly and genital are not controlled, they won’t get Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda stressed, we should eat only kṛṣṇa-prasādam. We should eat the remnants of prasādam that are offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa, that are taken by devotees. In Jagannātha Purī, all the offerings are offered to Jagannātha and taken then by Vimalā Devī, she is a great devotee of the Lord. We take her mahā-prasāda. In Bhubaneswar, the Ananta Vāsudeva Deity of Kṛṣṇa prasāda is offered to Bhuvaneśvara Śiva. So we take the mahā-prasāda. The point is we should take kṛṣṇa-prasāda in that prasāda, if it is offered to a great devotee like Śiva or Durgā or to the guru, or to some advanced Vaiṣṇava, then that’s considered a surcharge or the mahā-prasada.

In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there’s a pastime mentioned, who is that? Who is collecting mahā-prasāda? Kālīdāsa?

Devotees: Kālīdāsa! Yes! Kālīdāsa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Kālīdāsa used to go to get the mahā-prasāda of different Vaiṣṇavas. He would invite them to his house and then feed them and then he would get their remnant. One devotee came and he was so clever, he was not leaving any remnant. So then Kālīdāsa gave him a mango with a seed. That way he got the mango seed. He could not eat it, so that would be remnant. But that Kālīdāsa that the guest. Who was the guest?

Devotees: Jhaḍu Ṭhākura.

Jayapatākā Swami: Jhaḍu Ṭhākura, we were supposed to see Jhaḍu Ṭhākura śrīpāṭ. But there is no road there, so we could not take the devotees. It’s near Ādi Saptagrāma. Jhaḍu Ṭhākura, he took his leaf plate with a mango seed and he went deep into the woods to throw it. But the Kālīdāsa, he was like a Guerrilla warrior, he was going in the bushes, following to not be seen crawling in the ground, watching where does he throw? So finally, when he threw then Kālīdāsa knew where he threw. Then he went and he got the mango of seed and was sucking… getting the remnant. All these pastimes were very pleasing to Kṛṣṇa. When Kālīdāsa went to Jagannātha Purī, then immediately Lord Caitanya gave him His mercy. He got the mercy simply by having so much faith in Vaiṣṇavas. Having faith in Vaiṣṇavas. The power of Vaiṣṇavas is such a great quality that it can earn one the mercy of Lord Gaurāṅga.

So here, Kālīdāsa, he was going after the mahā-prasāda of the devotees. Generally, we say at least take prasāda. But he was more than wanting prasādam, he wanted mahā-prasādam. Lord Caitanya stressed sense control, but in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is much easier. You don’t have to go like the yogis, they are going in the mountains and doing severe tapasya. In this hot month of Vaiśākha, Jyaiṣṭha, they are going in the hot sun and putting four fires north, east, west, south, all around with the hot sun. And they are meditating to teach themselves tolerance. And in the month of Māgha, Pauṣa, they are going into the freezing cold rivers in the Himalayas and meditating in the cold water. Like this they are doing so many very severe types of sense control for their meditation. But in devotional service, we are not asked to do this type of tapasya. Our tapasya is to control the mind and senses, engage them in Kṛṣṇa’s service, to take kṛṣṇa-prasādam, not to eat bhoga. Lord Caitanya stressed we shouldn’t eat food cooked by non-devotees.

viṣayīra anna khāile malina haya mana
[Cc. Antya 6.278]

Some statement like that, if you eat the food of materialistic people, it will contaminate the mind.

One can get the tendency for sense gratification just by eating that food. Interesting example in Mahābhārata, when Kṛṣṇa visited before the Kurukṣetra war, He was invited for prasādam by Duryodhana. But He refused, He said, “I’ll take from Vidura.” Even though Vidura was not strictly of Kṣatriya caste, Lord Kṛṣṇa didn’t mind. He wanted to take from His devotee’s hand he wouldn’t take the food of Duryodhana. Explains how Dhroṇācārya was affected. Did not protest when Draupadī’s vastra-haraṇa was going on because he is eating the food of Duryodhana. That eating of food clouded the clear consciousness. We want to control the senses. We should eat what? Kṛṣṇa-prasāda. This is the austerity.

Where prasāda is offered to Kṛṣṇa that is accepted. The remnants are accepted. Today there will be some prasāda offered, I assume to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Devotees will have to take the austerity of accepting those remnants in due course. Prabhupāda said, for us feasting and fasting it’s the same. Of course, after every fast and there is a feast. This is the only spiritual process you can go back to Godhead by feasting. There is also control of the senses because we are only taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. If somebody offers a nice feast, but it’s not kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then we are not interested. But if it is even a simple prasāda offer to Kṛṣṇa, we are very happy for that. If they offer a feast for Kṛṣṇa with so much devotion, this is also very wonderful.

Lord Caitanya, He sometimes would cry, when He saw a very nice offering being made to the Deities. He would come in, “Oh, so much devotion!” When he saw that of an elaborate arrangements and the big prasāda being offered at Śāntipur on the occasion of the disappearance festival of Mādavendra Purī, Lord Caitanya was so pleased. He said, “Simply by taking prasādam here on this day, you can get Govinda-bhakti, pure devotion for Lord Govinda.” So devotional services are not difficult, but so a little sense control we had to utilize. Sometimes in India, you know, there is all kinds of people. Some are not favorable to the Vaiṣṇavas. Sometimes the devotees coming from West were innocent and someone would invite them to please take some sweet and offer rasagulla or sandeśa. But they are fed by some tantric people, who put some kind of roots and things inside those sweets. And by eating them, the devotees would get sick, and no doctor could cure them. They would be forced to leave India, or they had to go and get some tantric cure and they found so many weird things inside their intestines. So if a person is in a devotee, then they may be very friendly. We cannot accept their offerings. We can only eat from the hand of initiated devotees, food which is offered to the Lord. Otherwise, they give us ingredients, we cook and we offer. In some emergency, sometimes while traveling, we had to buy something and eat. That is for emergency case. But generally, we should avoid. Of course, when you buy something, you are protected from the karmas. But if it is in the mode of goodness, but still the consciousness of the cook is there in that food. So we should avoid as much as possible eating food from outside and eat their kṛṣṇa-prasādam. What is the difficulty? So many nice kinds of kṛṣṇa-prasādam are there.

Unfortunately, in India, which was mainly vegetarian previously. Now I heard about 80% of the people eat non-veg in some form or another at the present day, confirmed. So it is very difficult when we want to preach to people, we want to encourage them be Kṛṣṇa conscious, they think, “Oh, but then I have to eat vegetarian! I have to give up something!” This is the whole purpose of human life. We are reading in this verse sense control. By habit someone has developed tamasic tendency or rajasic tendency. Human being can by habit change their tendency. So that is why for preaching we have to give sometimes big feasts. If people get a big feast, they see, “Oh, this is so nice. If I could eat like many people told me, I am a non-veg, but if I could eat the way you eat every day, I would be vegetarian too. In your temples you eat so nice. But who will cook all? My wife will not cook all these things for me. She will not cook.” So in western countries what they are doing is they are having cooking course. Because people know how to cook nicely vegetarian preparation. Then it is very easy for them to be devotee. If we can control the tongue, then other senses are easy to control. Compared to the tongue. Tongue is very greedy. The Roman people, they were eating so much, they couldn’t eat anymore. Then they would put feather down their throat and vomit out. Then again eat more. So for they could go on eating like that. If the tongue doesn’t tire out, go on eating, only belly has limit. So they would solve the limit of the belly by vomiting. There is a special room to go and vomit. This is why Roman civilization got finished. Now in West, people were very skinny ladies. So even I heard now some ladies, they are eating outside, but later to keep skinny, they are also going and vomiting. In this way they are missing the whole point of human life. Human life is not meant to just enjoy the senses. But to go for the higher understanding. To actually understand the Supreme Lord, self, the world and the relation between. If we go running after the senses, there is no end to it. So we try to control that sense of taste by giving people prasādam. Control the other senses by engaging in devotional service, smelling kṛṣṇa-prasāda, incense, these flowers, so nice gardenias here, lotus…

So this one you find a description of heavenly planets. You see that there are so many auspicious trees. Like coconut, bakul, mango. Like there’s whole list of banyan, Asvata, all auspicious trees are there. Then flowers. So there is some definition, what is heavenly? What is auspicious? Someone was commenting. Whenever they see coconut, they feel like heavenly. That is correct. It’s not just a theory. That environment is mentioned in Vedas is existing in heavenly planet. If you create that environment on the earth, people will feel uplifted. They will feel peaceful in their mind. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was driving out from Calcutta to Pānihāṭi, Khardhāha to see the dhāmas of Nitāi Gaura. Then on the way on the Barakpur trunk road, he was seeing some other devotees saw on the parikramā. This time there’s now all factories and tea stalls, tire repair shop and so on, all lorries. He said that, “When I was a child, this was all garden houses, all gardens, big mansions were there, very beautiful to see. And now it has become all slum. But this urbanization of India has created its slum areas. People are suffering because of that degradation of environment.” So much pressure on the mind, so much anxiety that they start to drink, gamble, and prostitution, and they totally lose their finer nature of human being. So Śrīla Prabhupāda was definitely for an ecological sāttvika environment that human beings should grow in. So that they could develop the higher aspirations and sentiments and aspects of human life. So here in Māyāpur, our master plan designers take all this into account to create an environment, which is conducive in our urbanization of Māyāpur for our spiritual progress. That environment… some environment and more conducive to spiritual thought, development. So the human beings, they can create an environment, right? Tiger is not going to go out and plant the bushes to hide in it. Humans will go and destroy the bushes. That is another thing we can create or we can destroy. You can plant nice trees around your house, you can dig a pukur, you can swim in the pukur, you can have lotuses in it, so many things. You can do, you can create a nice environment. If you want, you can just create a slug, throw garbage all around, put concrete and asphalt everywhere, with no trees, human being has got the scope to do various things. So that is why the Caitanya-caritamṛta, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are giving us this clear picture, what we should do with our human life. If we didn’t have these books, we wouldn’t know… modern society, they don’t know clearly what they should do. By scientists experimentation, now they are finding, sāttvika diet is better for you, more plants and trees is better. Smoking is bad. They are by experimentation, they are finding out. Whatever Bhāgavatam is saying, they are confirming. So we want to see the true picture. We can just get it from the Bhāgavatam directly. We don’t have to go out elsewhere. So this is why we control our senses. Engage them in Kṛṣṇa’s service, chanting the holy names. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Any questions?

Vijaya Gopikeśa dāsa, Melbourne, Australia.

Question: Some devotees say that we cannot offer to demigods...

Answer: You can eat food offered to the devas, if it was offered to Kṛṣṇa first. The devas, they want to eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam. They recognized, they are part of Kṛṣṇa. In the Vedas, it says that those who are devotees of Viṣṇu are devas; and those who are against devotion to Viṣṇu are opposite... One is sura and one asura. So the devas, they want kṛṣṇa-prasāda, they want viṣṇu-prasāda, when you offer to śālagrāma and then deva, you can take. Those pūjārīs who don’t know this, who are directly offering to the devas as some type of independent controller, without any reference to their relationship with Viṣṇu. There is some offense, there is some misconception included in that offering. Therefore, devotees, they don’t want to take that type offering. We take and touch it to our head or something. We don’t eat. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t respect the devas as being exalted devotees. If it’s offered in a proper way, we will accept it.

In the future, as the Kṛṣṇa consciousness spreads, all these temples will be maintained by devotees. So in those temples they can establish small Deities of Viṣṇu or a śālagrāma-śilā and offer the worship to the Śiva and remnant to them. Even in some temples now, some of my disciples in Tamil areas, they are the Gaṇeśa pūjārī or Murugan pūjārī. So they are keeping one small śalagrāma on the side and offering like that.

Question: You said that consciousness of the living entities are like blooming to 84,00,000 species. So when it comes to the 400,000 species of human lives, which is like completely bloomed form of human.

Answer: Out of 400,000: brāhmaṇas, when you achieve brahminical culture, then you are considered to be fully developed. There is a progression in human being, human is one, and then you go Gandharva, Kinnara, like that, this all goes up to all 400,000 including devas are all of the level to have sense control and understanding. But amongst everything to be realized brāhmaṇa, Vaiṣṇava, that is considered more than all the 84,00,000 species – Postgraduates. Even Viṣṇu is respecting the brāhmaṇas. So we are born 84,00,000 species. But we are born again dvija into the Brahman, which is beyond that. So any other human beings by proper development saṁskāra, under the pure bona fide guru can become fully blossomed. You see, otherwise Brahmā is the best of all the entities. Then next to Brahmā comes Indra. Then from Indra all the devas, who are controlling devas and others are just devas, who are not controlling much. Then beneath them there are so many other, Maharloka, Siddhaloka, whatever, so many levels are there; that is given in Bhāgavatam. Human is this basic entry point. Within a human level there may be so many uncivilized human and whatever… They are taking civilized human like say the emperor of the planet, they are using him as one. Beneath that it’s, you know, 0.5, 0.7, whatever. But the point is, any other human being, they can go beyond these 84,00,000 species by getting initiated from bona fide Vaiṣṇava guru and completely dedicating themselves in the Kṛṣṇa conscious activity. They can become jīvan-mukta sa ucyate, they can be liberated, even while living, which is more than any species of life. This is already back to home, back to Godhead, brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (Bg 14.26). Why should we worry about… what species we are? We cannot change now, until we leave this body, again take birth, then again we can think about what next birth we can get. Right? You can get the deva birth or you can go down get the animal birth or asura birth. What the point is now having human birth, we can control our senses and we can achieve perfection by being a proper brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava. By being a Vaiṣṇava, we can achieve all the perfection. We can go back to Kṛṣṇa, we can achieve full love of Kṛṣṇa. We don’t have to worry about the 84,00,000 species of life again.

Question: You mentioned in your class one point sounds like a mechanism, when you bought something from prasādam, or some foodstuff, you didn’t take any karma for that. Could you explain that mechanism what you mentioned?

Answer: Whenever you get a donation of food from someone, they also giving you some karmas. That’s why people love to feed sādhus, because they are giving them, they are giving a lot of mercy and they are giving away a lot of karma. So that is why the sādhus, they don’t take food from anybody. They only take food from the pious people. Especially, the sādhus won’t take food from people who are not initiated or not following sāttvika habits. Otherwise, they get overloaded with the karmas. Sometimes they will take grain and cook and offer it to their Deity themselves, which time by offering to the Deity by [inaudible], they are just taking the raw ingredient, there is one way of burning out the karma. If somebody comes here and gives one bag of rice, you don’t know whether that person is sinful or pious. But they are giving a bag of rice to the Deity. We can cook that and offer to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa can absorb unlimited karma like a big fire, burn ups. But if somebody steals one kilo of rice and eats, they have to take the karma. That is why any donation we get, we give first to Kṛṣṇa, then we take from Kṛṣṇa, what we need. This is a general standard.

But Prabhupāda explained that when you buy something, say someone is traveling and you buy sandeśa or fruit or something, rice or milk because you are buying it. So that person is not giving you, you are giving him money, you are taking your food. So there is no karma transfer. If he gives you a gift, then with that he is also relieving himself from some karma. If you take that, it’s offerable and give to Kṛṣṇa. No problems. Understand? I mean, I can go more. I don’t have time for this.

Question: Apani prasāda, kwarte kaliju kintu amarato śuddha marta,

In order to get mahā-mahā-prasāda, first we have to offer to Viṣṇu, then to demigod or demigoddess…

Answer: You can also offer to guru, Kṛṣṇa and guru…

Question: My question is this, Caitanya-bhāgavata is says that,

bhakta-pada-dhūli āra bhakta-pada-jala
bhakta-bhukta-avaśeṣa—tina mahā-bala
[CB. Antya 16.60]

My question: if we don’t give to guru directly and worshipping guru and don’t spend your most time with guru and Vaiṣṇava. You most time in worshipping Deity and other thing.

Jayapatākā Swami: Couldn’t hear the question properly. What was the punch line?

Question: According to Caitanya-bhāgavata, bhakta-pada-dhūli āra bhakta-pada-jala/ bhakta-bhukta-avaśeṣa—tina mahā-bala, you understand what is the meaning of it. My question is this… you know worshipping Deities, and giving time in other devotional service, and if we keep on the faith on Vaiṣṇava, sādhu and guru. Then what will happen?

Answer: If one simply by worshipping a devotee, one can also get all the perfection it is there. Of course, one won’t neglect or offend any Deity or anything. Nārada Muni, He didn’t have any Deity. He didn’t mention there was any Deity. He just was taking the remnant of the prasādam from the great Bhaktivedāntas and by taking their remnant he got all the blessing he could become…