20100206 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.15.27

H.H.Jayapataka Swami gave a live morning class Los Angeles.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande paramānanda-mādhavam
śrī caitanya īśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

So Prabhu would you read the translation and the purport.

Prabhu: Reading from the 5^th Canto, Chapter – 15, Verse -27

adhvany amuṣminn ima upasargās tathā sukha-duḥkha-rāga-dveṣa-bhayābhimāna-pramādonmāda-śoka-moha-lobha-mātsaryerṣyāva-māna-kṣut-pipāsādhi-vyādhi-janma-jarā-maraṇādayaḥ.

Translation: In this materialistic life, there are many difficulties, as I have just mentioned, and all of these are insurmountable. In addition, there are difficulties arising from so-called happiness, distress, attachment, hate, fear, false prestige, illusion, madness, lamentation, bewilderment, greed, envy, enmity, insult, hunger, thirst, tribulation, disease, birth, old age and death. All these combined together to give the materialistic conditioned soul nothing but misery.

Purport: The conditioned soul has to accept all these conditions simply to enjoy sense gratification in this world. Although people declare themselves great scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians and sociologists, they are actually nothing but rascals. Therefore they have been described as mūḍhas and narādhamas in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15):

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ 

“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind. whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.”

Due to their foolishness, all these materialists are described in Bhagavad-gītā as narādhamas. They have attained the human form in order to get released from material bondage, but instead of doing so, they become further embarrassed amid the miserable material conditions. Therefore they are narādhamas, the lowest of men. One may ask whether scientists, philosophers, economists and mathematicians are also narādhamas, the lowest of men, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead replies that they are because they have no actual knowledge. They are simply proud of their false prestige and position. Actually they do not know how to get relief from the material condition and renovate their spiritual life of transcendental bliss and knowledge. Consequently they waste time and energy in the search for so-called happiness. These are the qualifications of the demons. In Bhagavad-gītā it says that when one has all these demonic qualities, he becomes a mūḍha. Due to this, he envies the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore birth after birth he is born into a demonic family, and he transmigrates from one demonic body to another. Thus he forgets his relationship with Kṛṣṇa and remains a narādhama in an abominable condition life after life.

So there are many people who think that politicians, philosophers, ...6.40...(inaudible), s scientists – that they are not so bad, they are quite Ok because they ... but Prabhupada said, “Do they know how to get out of the material world? If they don’t know that, then in spite of rising very high in their fields they are still conditioned souls and they are no better off than anyone else.”

So it is important that if somebody like the previous kings of this world during the vedic time – they were Krsna conscious. They knew how to – they and their citizens, how to get out of this world.

Like in the Padma Purāṇa, also in the Bhāgavata, it describes about Yayāti Mahārāja. In the Padma Purāṇa, it says how he was convinced by one Vaiṣṇava to preach the chanting of the holy names amongst his associates. Now he didn’t make it obligatory, but he himself did it and had a priest.

So most of the citizens, if not all of them they began to chant. So because of what’s like in the previous age – the chanting was so powerful that nobody died, nobody got old, they all stayed young. So like that three generations we all living together, grandfather, son and grandson, and all were young and healthy, and then Indra went on a tour in the universe. So he saw like in the hellish planets all the Yamadūtas were sitting around, nothing to do. They said, “What kind of king are you. We got nothing to do. We are wasting our time here because nobody is committing any sinful activities, nobody dies, nobody comes here. You are useless Indra.”  So they got this evil grin.

So he thought, “Ok, I have to take care of this Yayāti.” So he called Cupid. “You please tell me how I get Yayāti to.... you go and you get him to fall down “ So Cupid went but he came back. He said, “You see, he loves his wife, he knows about self-realization. Its not easy. He is not like some yogi meditating alone. He is happily married and he is well protected, not only by his wife, but by Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.  So I don’t think I can make him fall down

“What you rascal. You must make him fall down. You must. This is Indra speaking. I am the king of the angels, the king of the devas. You must do it “

“King you must be insane. Its not going to be easy. Then I am going to get involved in vaiṣṇava-aparādha, in kṛṣṇa-aparādha. This is the only thing... The Lord will protect him.”

“Whatever takes I don’t care. This is question of honour.”

In this verse it is said that, this honour could cause difficulties. Why Indra should be disturbed? He can engage all those Yamadūtas in menial service or something. So he can engage them in doing something, but instead he got this ego – inflated ... and he wanted... he devoted the whole heavenly planet to make this Yayāti fall down.

So in general we see the demons and the materialists, but sometimes even the devas are against the devotees, because the devotee may become so powerful.

I told one story last night about the 4^th chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā, how one bhakti-yogi in the Satya-yuga, he was meditating and Indra thought that he wanted to take over his position. So he sent some apsarās, but in the end he didn’t... “Indra what? Phaa... Never, I want to go back to Kṛṣṇaloka, I want to love Krsna.” So the apsarās were fell in a nascence, they were encouraged to become trees. Indra hadn’t told them that there was a downside to this, trying to make pure devotees fall down. So then he said, “Ok... I will .............Please, please, please, forgive us, we were sent, we didn’t know, we heard you were going to take over Indra’s position." "Indra ah .... ph .........never.”

Anyway so later he said, “Ok, you will be delivered by some brahmana who will come and sit under your tree and you braches and by the side of the Ganges and read the 4^th Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā. When he touches both the tree, you will be liberated. Like this eventually they got liberated from that curse, and they wanted to.... this time didn’t go back to the heavenly planet, forget it. Indra had mislead them. So they went to the house of the brāhmaṇa, and they studied the 4^th Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā.

So like that Cupid was forced to take a position against Yayāti Mahārāja. So what he did is, he said, “Well, I need the whole crew of devas and apsarās to make a drama troop.” So he was preparing pure Krsna conscious dramas. So eventually this drama troop became very famous and Yayāti Mahārāja sent his spiritual guys to go and see. So they said, “It was ok. It was good.” So then Yayāti started to see the dramas. So after a while his guard was let down, he had conferences with a bonafide drama troupe. Then Cupid, he said, “Ok, .Plan A - here is our chance, [inaudible] at this position....  Now I want you to commit a kṛṣṇa-aparādha, and when you do that he will be shocked, and you have that second, seconds only you have. That opens the window. Because of Krsna aparadh he will lose his protection. I will hit him with an arrow chk.... One of the apasaras has to drop their clothes. Quick. A lusty thought will come in his mind because he won’t have protection.

Ok. You have got exactly 1,2, 3,4, you only got a few seconds. He prayed to Krsna, “Please I don’t want this aparadh. I don’t believe in this thing.” You have few seconds . Here is our chance.

No, I was amazed, “Wow, the devas would do such a stupid, so low.” I was thinking, “Really. Amazing kind of thing to read. It’s in the Padma Purana, that they had this pure devotee Yayati Maharaja to fall down. They went to such an extent. So even then all they could do – chu... one thought came to his mind he aged like 10 years bhoop.. one shot. Then he....”Krsna forgive me. I don’t want....” and dham... he was protected

So meanwhile, the second thing was they had to get out of there real fast because they were going to get killed for what they did. So 1,2,3,4 – they escaped bhoo....Where did they go? They were all  went back to Indra. Indra said, “Thats all you could do? It took years together. I wanted him to fall down.” So it goes on this story.

We have to be very determined to engage in Krsna’s service. Now all the things that we have read – people take these things for granted, but they are not in the spiritual world, they are in the material world, and people suffer this because they want to enjoy the senses because they don’t know the science of self-realization. So therefore we should – it is our duty as one to understand what is the purpose of life, what is self realization and to impart that to others

Now through the internet all kinds of horrible stuff is being transmitted. At least we have some sights where the deities can be seen. By the way, looking at L A lights at  U.S ,sometimes you can’t see the deities, because they way the lights are, but anyway thats.... I will show you...

But this is ......Prabhupada said, “We can use the modern technology for spreading Krsna Consciousness. So he used the airplane. He travelled around the world how many times? 14 times, and he spread Krsna consciousness. As we used that time – we didn’t have much video, we had ... very ends on video but we had high aid... So a few devotees took some films  of  Prabhupada which has been reproduced here by ITV. So whatever technology was available Prabhupada wanted to use that, but at the same time he taught us, “We should be careful not to listen blindly to whatever the newspapers say.” He would question, “Did you really go to the moon?” That is kind of interesting, because when Bush was the President, he said, “In 10-20 years we will go to the moon again.” So if they already went, why take them 10-20 years? You know you wonder. “They went there. So what is the big deal? Did they go?”

So Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he also... his appearance day was on a  Wednesday. So one of his upākhyānas, one of his examples was the Dash Chakre Bhagavan bhoot – that the conspiracy  of ten turned Bhagavan into a ghost. Dash Chakre Bhagavan bhoot. You heard that story? You haven’t? You want to hear it? You are sure?

So there was a king. His name was Narsingha Maharaja. It is a popular name among the kings, and he had all his ministers there, but he had one brahman advisor who was his post man. He was known as Bhagavan Das. Every day Bhagavan Das would come and advice the king. So as a result none of the ministers could cheat the king because Bhagavan was always there to tell everyone what was really happening.

So all the ministers got together and said, “If we want to make some money we have to cheat the king. As long as this Bhagavan is there we can’t do it.”

So they made a plan... You want to hear more... Ok, you asked for it.

Next day Bhagavan came to the palace and he was not allowed in. The guards said, “The minister has given us the order that you can’t come.” He went to all the different gates. Every guard was informed the same thing, “I am sorry. You are not allowed to come.” He said, “Why not? I am the friend of the king.”

“I am sorry but you are not allowed to come.”

So the king said, “What happened to Bhagavan Das?”

And they all said, “Oh, he got sick, he suddenly died, and sometimes it does happens”

“But he was healthy. He was ........”

“We know he was healthy but he died.”

He called the royal physician. Please check what happened to my friend Bhagavan.

So they said, “Yes Sir”

The minister said, “Listen, we are going to kill you or we give you 5000 gold coins. You got to tell the king, ‘Bhagavan died out of sudden heart attack.’ ”

So they came back, Ok... they didn’t have much of a choice.

I don’t know convincingly, but they took 5000 gold coins anyway and then they told the king, “Bhagavan he died of a heart failure.”

So Bhagavan was never allowed to enter. So finally ... of course Bhagavan Das knew all the movements of the king. So he knew months every year he came out to meet the citizens in his capital. So he would walk and he would check everyone’s hand, and like leaders and politicians do sometimes. An so, but the ministers were ready. They had the guards. “You watch out for Bhagavan Das . Don’t let him approach the king.” So the guards blocked Bhagavan Das. Finally Bhagavan Das – he knew the king walked this way. He climbed up into a tree and there he, “Maharaja, Maharaja, it’s me your friend Bhagavan Das“ So they saw, “Oh, no what to do, what to do?” So they said, “Mahararaja! That’s the ghost of Bhagavan. That’s the ghost.”

And then, although he saw him, because 10 ministers were telling him that this is ghost.

“Oh Yea. It’s a ghost. Oh my God. Yes, it is ghost. Oh it is a ghost It is a ghost.”

So the king he thought.... all the information he got, all the intelligence and everything, “Bhagavan Das is dead” So who I am seeing must be the ghost.

So, Dash Chakre Bhagavan bhoot – by the conspiracy of ten, they turned Bahgavan Das into a ghost.

So this story we use, that don’t listen to the Newspapers (laughter)

Because it’s just like before the attack on Iraq, they said they had dangerous, dangerous weapons of destruction, and it would be great threat to America. We were all waiting. When they are going to discover? But they never discovered any great weapons of destruction. It turned out that it was an exaggeration, and all the newspapers later participated.

Somehow of course Saddam Husain, he was overthrown, but anyway it tells how the newspapers are so powerful. The pretend something, but later on of course they reveal that there is no such thing but first they were all party to the mis-propaganda, either purposefully or either they were sucked into it. They were fooled. So somehow you see, we get so much information on different sights, we can start to believe that even Bhagavan is a ghost, even someone we know very well ... we may think that, “He is really. He is actually dead.” When he is not dead.

So we got to be ... like Prabhupada used to be very careful that we should not just blindly accept anything we read. We should be a little bit pessimistic to material thing, optimistic to spiritual things. It’s the opposite of the materialists. They are optimistic to materialistic thing and pessimistic to spiritual things.

So anything... “What is the use of all this spiritual life? I am happy. I can enjoy. So let me enjoy now and I will think about spiritual life later.” So this kind of mentality where they put off spiritual life, this is termed by Srila Prabhupada as a ... they are rascals. Now, rascal in the sense that they are given a human life to solve the real problems. They don’t solve their problems, they solve some other problem, but if they don’t know what is the purpose of life, they may be a big scientist in this life, the next life they can become a vulture, fly high and look down at the dead bodies. They can become anything.

So if they don’t know the science of self-realization, so what they going to do? All these  people?

Like ... little.. some of the Lord Caitanya’s followers they approached on Muslim leader. They said, “Sir, you are very intelligent, you are very good looking, you are handsome, you are.... All the traits he saw. But please, one humble request. You don’t mind if I ask you.

“No, please.”

After getting so much praise he was ready to hear.

“Please forget all these,  because it is all superficial. Chant Hare Krsna. Understand what is the purpose of life.”

So then, of course someone said, “Well, I can’t chant Hare Krsna now, but I will chant later”

“Haribol, Haribol, you just chanted Hare Krsna. You just start chanting. You don’t stop.

So like that we are trying to get people chant.

Our doctor Achyutanada at the.... he has given everyone simple names so that they are called at the rehab centre. Kṛṣṇa Dāsa, Rāma Dāsa, Nitāi Dāsa. These are Iśvara Puri Mahārājas selection, they can’t, so he is Gaurāṇga Dāsa, and he is Jaya, but you know over ... I said,