20100213 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.14.32

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

Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.32

kvacid drumavad aihikārtheṣu gṛheṣu raṁsyan yathā vānaraḥ suta-dāra-vatsalo vyavāya-kṣaṇaḥ.

kvacit—sometimes; druma-vat—like trees (as monkeys jump from one tree to another, the conditioned soul transmigrates from one body to another); aihika-artheṣu—simply to bring about better worldly comforts; gṛheṣu—in houses (or bodies); raṁsyan—delighting (in one body after another, either in animal life, human life or demigod life); yathā—exactly as; vānaraḥ—the monkey; suta-dāra-vatsalaḥ—very affectionate to the children and wife; vyavāya-kṣaṇaḥ—whose leisure time is spent in sex pleasure.

TRANSLATION

Just as a monkey jumps from one tree to another, the conditioned soul jumps from one body to another. As the monkey is ultimately captured by the hunter and is unable to get out of captivity, the conditioned soul, being captivated by momentary sex pleasure, becomes attached to different types of bodies and is encaged in family life. Family life affords the conditioned soul a festival of momentary sex pleasure, and thus he is completely unable to get out of the material clutches.

PURPORT

As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.9.29): viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Bodily necessities—eating, sleeping, mating and defending—are all very easily available in any form of life. It is stated here that the vānara (monkey) is very much attracted to sex. Each monkey keeps at least two dozen wives, and he jumps from one tree to another to capture the female monkeys. Thus he immediately engages in sexual intercourse. In this way the monkey's business is to jump from one tree to another and enjoy sex with his wives. The conditioned soul is doing the same thing, transmigrating from one body to another and engaging in sex. He thus completely forgets how to become free from the clutches of material encagement. Sometimes the monkey is captured by a hunter, who sells its body to doctors so that its glands can be removed for the benefit of another monkey. All this is going on in the name of economic development and improved sex life.

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Guru Maharaja: sometimes what?

Devotee: Sometimes the monkey is captured by a hunter, who sells its body to doctors so that its glands can be removed for the benefit of another monkey. All this is going on in the name of economic development and improved sex life.

Guru Maharaja: The Srimad Bhagavatam is giving us a commentary on what we are experiencing in our daily life. That we are captured of our desires, are captive of our attachments of momentary sex pleasure. This verse sees things from a broader perspective, that although we go from one birth to the next, like a monkey goes from one tree to the next, alternatively, we are just chasing after the momentary sex pleasure, and this is the primal focus of the conditioned soul.

So, the idea of Lord Chaitanya’s movement is param dhstve nivartante, to develop a higher taste, a taste for Krsna conscious, a taste for love of Krsna, this is the whole purpose of material life.

In Krsna consciousness it is to deliver this higher taste. I was asked last night by one of the students, what is the purpose of human life? So, what is given here is not the purpose. This is not what we are meant to do, but unfortunately this is what everybody is engaged in. Now the Krsna conscious grihastas, the Krsna conscious devotees, they are trying to develop the higher taste. They … that was interesting because Lord Chaitanya, once he was cursed by one brahmana, “I will curse you to never enjoy material happiness again.” And Lord Chaitanya, he said, “Haribol, Haribol”, He took it as a blessing because he don’t want material happiness. He wanted spiritual bliss. So, this is … the brahmanas are giving the most heavy curse, but you see, that was the blessing of Lord Caitanya.

So, sometimes it takes time for us to understand that there is not the real happiness in the material world. The devas who came to Lord Caitanya when He was in the womb of his mother, they prayed to Lord Chaitanya, “We know you are coming to give pure love of godhead to everyone. We are your devotees, we are the devas, we are the... Devas… it seems that the devas are … in the Christianity they are considered as angels. So, this is Los Angeles, you see the angels. That’s why I don’t visit here, but in any case, that should be called in Sanskrit, the city of the devas.

So, the devas, they approached Lord Caitanya. They said, “We want your blessings. You are giving blessings to the human beings, but we want your blessings too. See, we don’t need the blessing of material happiness, because that is not our problem. We have enough material happiness. In fact, we have only two problems; one problem is sometimes we are attacked by the devas… by the asuras, and they plunder and they kill. There is big war with the asuras, those who are in the dark side of the power.

So, in any case, … the second problem is because we have so much sense gratification, we are not able to, we achieved, we are not able to experience what you have offered, we get distracted from devotional service, we get distracted from love of godhead, and instead we are just absorbed in this happiness of material life.

So, the deva and angel living in heaven, they get a lot of sense gratification. So, although they are supposed to be more Krsna conscious, in effect they often forget about Krsna, because so much happiness.

I think in Los Angeles we have book distributors. So, I asked them before, “who is your better customer? The poor people or the rick people?” And most of them said that the poor people tend to buy books easier than the rich. The rich although for them money is not an issue, they can easily give, but they are very proud. They think, I am happy, I don’t need the book. Whereas the people who are poor, they are suffering, maybe they think, “This book is good for me.” So, they read the book.

So, like that the devas, they have enough happiness, so they think, they don’t think about Krsna consciousness so much. So, these devas, they were praying to Lord Caitanya. So, we get cheated, so we want your mercy, that we will not be cheated from your love of Krsna, we will not be cheated and taken away, we will be able to have love for Krsna. So, this is their humble prayer to the devas, to Lord Caitanya from the devas. So, like this, this is…. Excuse me.

It is not so easy in one sense to get Krsna consciousness. Sometimes we are given suffering, and sometimes we are giving happiness. All to distract us from Krsna consciousness. So, we need to be very determined that “No, in this life I want to get Krsna, I want to get Krsna consciousness.” Like monkeys, we jumped from so many trees, we went from so many bodies. Brahmanda brahmite kuna bhagyavana jiva, guru Krsna prasade paya Bhakti lata bija. That somehow we have received the seed of bhakti from the pure devotees, we want to take the seed, water the plant, and in this way, we can grow our creeper of Krsna bhakti. So, it grows and grows and grows upto the spiritual world, and there it takes shelter of Radha and Govinda. So, in this way, the fruits and the flowers had come. The powers are bhava bhakti, and the fruits are prema bhakti.

So, we don’t want… see in Kali yuga this is not a good time. Very few people are happy materially. Even our Indian families who have come to the West, I was a talking a few days ago to one lady. She chants one round a day, she is relatively new to the … our Krsna consciousness movement, but she is in a fight with her husband. Her husband wants a divorce, because she can’t adjust with her mother-in-law. That is an Indian problem maybe more than a Western one. The solutions are here. Here she wants to be with her husband, but somehow she doesn’t want to adjust with her mother-in-law. He wants to follow the Indian tradition, and … his mother and father, but his mother doesn’t adjust with the wife. So, they take the American solution which is “divorce” So, this is easy. The judge said, “Well, if one wants to divorce, there is nothing I can do. If two of you don’t want it, we can change you to counseling and so on.” So, here even in… of course our Western devotees, our Indian devotees, they all face some problems, that maybe after some years the wife or the husband, they don’t want to stay. So, they go out. So, this is the other problem that… although this verse says, well, family life is a festival of momentary sex pleasure. If … that maybe interrupted very quickly if there is a divorce. So, there is a lot of difficulties here in the West. I was thinking how like in India, like now there is divorce, but still maybe less than one percent that somehow they had figured out, the husband and wife they are trained up, but even then to say this is 24.20… for the Indian, as much as the west, still it is a distraction of our real purpose of life. So, here it says more complicated, but even in India, this message goes that everyone should try to get Krsna consciousness, whether east, west, or wherever you are.

Now in the West, even if you want to have, even if you have money, even if you have everything, there is no guarantee that you will happy, you may get disease. Just like…. If they money they have insurance, they went for operations. The doctor leaves something inside. O it is bleeding. The x-ray…O sorry, we left the scissors inside, we have to operate again. Again open, take out the scissors. My sister died of a malpractice. She once was to be operated, she had a cold, they operated, she got pneunominia. She died. My nephews got hundreds and thousands of dollars. Doesn’t bring the mother back. So, like … so, in the West, still there is problems, it is not that there is no problem, and I met one Indian devotee, he thought I want to be born in Swarga or America. I said, you are… confirmed. Unfortunately he doesn’t have to figure out right now. Everything is in the Bhagavatam.

So, Lord Caitanya, he is there to give us all the real happiness. Even if for… some people they are more suited for the grihastha life, some people more suited for the renounced, but Prabhupada said in the eight canto, in the Gajendra moksha section, there is … whatever, you find a better position, but you should be fighting against the maya. The idea is that we are wanting to become Krsna consciousness. Now we can decide, “ok, for me, grihastha life is more suitable.” but then that doesn’t mean we become grihamedhis, and to surrender to sense gratification. Because then what is the point? That as a grihastha, we still have to develop our Krsna consciousness, and we have to fight against Maya. But we can have some regulated sex life, we can have. But if we go too overboard, then also we are attracted by maya, kicked up, and our life get wasted. So, whichever way, the idea is to fight against Maya.

So, grihasthas or brahmacharis, or sanyasis, or vanaprastas, they are all meant to fight against Maya. Now we can’t fight against Maya in one sense. She is more powerful. The only way we can fight against maya is by taking shelter of Krsna. Krsna says, daivi hi esa guna mayi mama maya durattaya…. That this maya is my divine potency, she is very hard to get over. Mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te…. But for those who are surrendered to me, I cross them over this illusion. So, we need to really hang on to the lotus feet of Krsna.

And in this way we can cross over the illusion, we can cross over the Maya. Now maya can test us in different ways. Just in case we think that this material world is a nice place, we can stay here, she gives a few kicks. Now once if you are successful and you go back to Krsna, Maya will serve you with folded hands, serve you with pranam. Ok you are free to go. Krsna will take. Now some people may get the mercy by some special arrangement. Like there was once… its like the glories of the Ganges, there was a brahmana, he would every day go to the Ganges, and he would take his bath and he would bring a bucket home to his family. Now there is another guy, he looked like a brahmana, he was born in a Brahman family but actually he was a politician. So, he had all kinds of …30.30… stuff. He also was involved and intrigues and murders and all kinds of horrible things. So, he was very proud, he was walking down the road, and he saw one bull, one bull … lying across the road. He said, what is this? He could walk around the bull, but he thought, I am the leader of the society, I am a politician, I am a brahmana, this bull should move aside. So, he picked up a branch… and the bull… not bothering anybody, but he was resting on the road. Now he didn’t like to be beaten. Now who is this guy beating me.

So, he started to… bulls like kill, with his… he lowered his head and his horns, he charged into this guy, he threw him up in the air, his horn entered into his heart, and he was thrown up, and lied on the road dead, 31.55….
So, because he was a great sinner, all kinds of Yamadutas had gathered. They are ready to take him, and are ready to put the cords around his neck. Just at that moment, this brahmana was everyday going to Ganga, he came out with his bucked, O look at this, another brahmana is somehow dead. He took the Ganga water, he sprinkled on him. Poured on guy, ganga, ganga, ganga…. So, he ….he walked down, and then as he walked down, he saw Yamadutas, chop arms, crippled, …. What happened to you guys, what happened to us, it is all because of you, you did it.

I didn’t do anything.

Yea, you did it.

What did I do?

You sprinkled that sinner with Ganges water. Because of you we …. Oh ho…

What you mean. What happened?

We want to take this sinner. He was a murdered, he was a thief, he was a rascal number one. Although he dressed like a brahmana, on the side he … your name. we had a special … for him, a special rehab program.

So, but you sprinkled the Ganges water, and all of a sudden came the Vsnudutas, now the Vsnudutas said, he has been sprinkled with Ganges water, we are taking him back to godhead.

But this guy is a sinner.

Whatever, he was purified by Ganges water. We will take him back.

You can’t take him back. He is a sinner.

We are going to take him. And they tied him with the ropes, and the Vsnudutas cut the ropes. Listen, don’t you get trained up. You can’t take him. We are taking him. And then, so then he threw hot cold inferno from hell on the Vsnu dutas, just held out their clubs… and a force field was created…. It forced hard cold back on the Yamadutas. So, then he understood… who are this guys anyway?

We are defeated by Yamaraja, the king of death. No one can stop us. Somehow they didn’t know about Vsnudutas. You don’t mess with them. They have the power of Vsnu. So, they went and started attacking the Vsnudutas. Vsnu said, listen you guys, what is wrong with you?

Weou have no choice.

chakre…

The chakre …. So, the Yamadutas got the idea real fast. Ok, let’s, we can’t mess with these guys. Who are these guys anyway?

So, they told this brahmana with Ganges water. It is all because of you. When he went back to Yamaraja, he explained to him. Anyone who is taken by the Vsnudutas, we don’t have any jurisdiction over them. They are the higher power. They are the spiritual angels. So, they can take you back.

Anyone who sprinkles the Ganges water, chants the holy name. So, like this, the Yamadutas got their training. That means that they usually don’t run up to anyone, who is a saivite of Vsnudutas. But it was a rare case. So, even the sinner, because he was sprinkled by Ganges water, he got purified. I am falling in a well, I wonder, you sprinkle Ganges water. Dead. But in any case I did this to my mother, I sprinkled Ganges water, and I hope that she took it.

In any case, that is why it is said that a son or daughter who save the parents from the hell, they are the putra or putri. So, one of my godbrothers in L.A, he told me, he went to Gaya, and he did a pinda, he did this special worship of Lord Vsnu for his diseased mother, and then he said his mother came in a dream and said, thank you very much… she was off…sorry.

So, most people don’t know the purpose of life is to get back to godhead. I was sometimes very late, I tried to take darshan, so I hear the clips of the Bhagavad-class. So, someone was speaking that how when people die, there is big surprise, how can he die? Oh no, he is gone. I heard a clip. That’s what I heard, but that’s the interesting point, is that most people they don’t know, somehow they think everyone else is going to die, or they are not going to die. Like it is not in our minds, but our devotees, they are trained to think that sooner or later we are going to die. So, we should prepare ourselves to go back to godhead. That is the purpose of our life. So, this is why we have the human form of life.

Now this … what the grishastha can do… it is quite reasonable for the grihastha to try to train up their children, at least one, and try to train up their child in Krsna consciousness, at least they should perform the sraddha when the parents are diseased. In this case, this is like a kind of a … escape … by the son or the daughter. Now I think we are the only religion 40.35… the vedic culture is the only religion that has a ceremony, that you can actually send a care package, a gift package of good karma, of sukriti to the forefathers, whereby they can actually get a better birth. So, someone said, O my child died, O what is this. The child died because … it was born in that family because of bad karma. And all of a sudden his son of daughter of the previous birth did puja… freed, ok elevated.

Who knows. We don’t know why people die, where they go next, but all this things are possible. So, there is one case that … there is time for one more lila?

Devotee: inaudible.

So, this is a place called Agradwip. So, Lord Caitanya was travelling with Govinda Ghosh. There are three brothers, Govinda, Madhava and Basu Ghosh. We sing in the prayers in the evening in the sandhya arati, basu ghosh adi kari… so, Basu ghosh… there are three brothers, Basu ghosh is one, and Govinda Ghosh is another. He was a brahmachari, he was carrying Lord Caitanya.

End of transcription.