Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.5-6 Pradyumna: “…matter.” Prabhupada: So as we observe fire ceremony during initiation, [break] performing functions, this ceremony was held daily in the morning. That is Vedic system. There is a section of Hindus, they are called Arya-samajis. They do it regularly in the morning. Not exactly in the same way, but they also… [break] …fire ceremony daily in the morning. So not only the sages… [break] …we are also holding that ceremony. Agnir nirvapanad va. So the system was very strict and regular. It was not strict by anyone, but people rigidly followed. Anyone can follow the regulations; there is no difficulty. But they do not like to do. While walking on the path we see so many people unnecessarily sleeping. Not only in the park, in apartment also. Might be, nice keeping for unnecessary engagement, but according to the Vedic system, everyone should rise early in the morning before four o’clock. In India there is regular seasons also. Not like this country that during summer the nights begin at half past ten and in the winter the morning begins at half past ten. Here. But in India regularly the sun rises in the morning round about five, regularly. Either in the winter season or in the summer season. Round about five. Maybe half an hour, one hour difference. Not one hour, half an hour. So the Indian public still, even they are not very educated, because the culture is there in, especially, in the villages, they rise early in the morning and take bath. They go to the field for easing themselves, and after doing that, they take bath either in the river or in the well. In the villages there is no tap water. And by nature, in the morning either the river or the well water is very warm. The… With the advance of day it becomes cooler. But early in the morning… So those who are accustomed to take bath early in the morning, and because India is tropical country it is not so cold, so that is a system. And after taking bath, in the temple there will be mangala-arati and other ceremonies. One of the ceremonies is this pratar huta-hutagnayah, holding the fire ceremony. So, munayah rsayah, here it is said that ta ekada tu munayah. They were… Munayah, generally, they’re high-caste brahmanas. So regularly this principle was being observed. And the speaker, Suta Gosvami, was given his due respect, the vyasasana. Here it is said, sat-krtam. Sat-krtam means with due respects, the welcoming, receiving, sat-krtam sutam asinam. The speaker must sit very comfortably, sutam asinam. Sukha means certainly he should not feel any inconvenience. Then the speaking will go on nicely. Sat-krtam sutam asinam papracchuh. Then the questions. Idam adarat. The questions should be put not by challenging, by adarat, with great adoration. “I beg to submit, this is my question.” “Can you tell me like this?” No, that is challenge. Very submissively. Tad viddhi pranipatena [Bg. 4.34] The question should be put by surrender. If somebody challenges, he’ll never be able to understand. The question has to be very submissive. Here it is also said, adarat. You’ll find Arjuna was questioning Krsna, and at the end, “I have heard like this; if You think that I am fit to understand it, You can please explain it.” Similarly Pariksit Maharaja also asking submissively, “If you think I can understand, then please explain.” This is the process of question. Not that… Then, go on. Pradyumna: “Morning is the best time to hold spiritual services.” Prabhupada: Yes, this is very important. Therefore we are insisting everyone to rise early in the morning. Even though sometimes we rise early in the morning, we compensate in other time. (laughter) This should be practiced, you see. Reducing eating, sleeping, mating, that is spiritual advancement. This is the test. The more you reduce… The idea is to bring it to nil. Just like Gosvamis, they did it. Nidrahara-viharakadi-vijitau, they conquered over sleeping and eating and mating. Conquered over. So our ideal is… We are fighting with maya. So the fighting… We will conquer over maya when we see that we are not disturbed by these four processes; eating, sleeping, mating and defending. This is the test. Nobody has to take certificate from anyone else how he is spiritually advancing. He can test himself: “How far I have conquered over these four things, eating, sleeping, mating, and…” That’s all. That is the test. So it is not required that don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t… But minimize it; at least, regulate it, try. This is called austerity, tapasya. “I want to sleep, but still, I shall regulate it. I want to eat, but if my…, I must regulate it. I want sense enjoyment, so I must regulate it.” That is whole Vedic civilization. Go on. Pradyumna: “The great sages offered the speaker of the Bhagavatam an elevated seat of respect called the vyasasana, or the seat of Sri Vyasadeva.” Prabhupada: Vyasasana means… Vyasa means guru, because he’s our original guru. When spiritual master’s birthday is observed, it is called vyasa-puja. This vyasa-puja means a spiritual master is representative of Vyasa. Just as we are teaching this Bhagavata-dharma, the Srimad-Bhagavatam—we are following the footsteps of Vyasadeva. So actually, the preacher’s seat is Vyasadeva’s asana; it is the seat of Vyasadeva. Just like in the high court the seat of judgment, or what is called? That seat nobody else can sit there, in that seat. Only the high court judge, representative of king for giving law to the citizens, he can sit down. Similarly, the vyasasana is occupied by the representative of Vyasadeva, who can speak on behalf of Vyasadeva. This is the system. Go on. Pradyumna: “And all other prec… Vyasadeva is the original spiritual preceptor for all men, and all other preceptors are considered to be his representatives. A representative is one who can exactly present the viewpoint of Sri Vyasadeva. Sri Vyasadeva impregnated the message of Bhagavatam unto Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, and Sri Suta Gosvami heard it from him (Srila Sukadeva Gosvami). All bona fide representatives of Sri Vyasadeva in the chain of disciplic succession are to be understood to be gosvamis. These gosvamis restrain all their senses, and they stick to the path made by the previous acaryas.” Prabhupada: Yes, gosvami or svami, the same meaning. One who has been able to control his senses… Generally, everyone is controlled by the senses. When one becomes controller of the senses, then he’s gosvami. So generally, we give this designation to the sannyasis because sannyasa means who has fully control of the senses. One should not accept sannyasa whimsically. One must know about himself, how far he can control the senses. Therefore, generally, sannyasa is not accepted until one is sixty years old. But in this age there is no guarantee whether we are going to live up to sixty years old age. So sometimes younger generation also offered sannyasa. Because Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted at the age of twenty-four years. We are not, of course, imitating Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But for executing Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission, if we are sincerely working for Him, then we can take sannyasa at an early age. Then… But when one is actually a sannyasa, a sannyasi, master of the senses, he can be addressed as gosvami or svami. Yes? Pradyumna: “The gosvamis do not deliver lectures of the Bhagavatam capriciously. Rather, they execute their services most carefully, following their predecessors, who delivered the spiritual message unbroken to them. Those who listen to the Bhagavatam may put questions to the speaker in order to elicit the clear meaning, but this should not be done in a challenging spirit. One must submit questions with a great regard for the speaker and the subject matter. This is also the way recommended in the Bhagavad-gita. One must learn the transcendental subject by submissive aural reception from the right sources. Therefore these sages addressed the speaker Suta Gosvami with great respect.” Prabhupada: The next verse. Pradyumna: (leads chanting) rsaya ucuh tvaya khalu puranani setihasani canagha akhyatany apy adhitani dharma-sastrani yany uta Prabhupada: This puranani setihasani… These Puranas… You know, first of all, there is the Veda. Originally, the Veda, Atharva-veda. That is divided now into four: Sama, Yajur, Atharva, Rg. Then all the Vedic instructions are what is called skimmed, concentrated in the Vedanta-sutra, in one. The Upanisads, there are 108 Upanisads, and many others. So all the knowledge is concentrated in the Vedanta-sutra, or Vedanta philosophy. Then again, it is explained for common men by puranani, by Puranas. Just like this Purana, this Bhagavata-Purana. Bhagavata is also Purana. Purana means old, old history, Purana. And itihasa means history. But Vedic civilization was concerned with historical evidences which are very, very important. At the present moment, present age, they write history chronologically. One period may be important, one period may not be important, but they write all the history. The Vedic way of writing history was not like that. If you go on writing history… Suppose for millions years of history you write, then where you’ll keep the records? It is not possible. Every day so many things are happening, or every year. So that was not the process. Just like autobiography of life. Nobody used to write autobiography. But the life of great kings, sages, saintly persons, they were recorded in the…, here. So Suta Gosvami, he is addressed, “Sir,” tvaya khalu puranani setihasani canagha akhyatany apy adhitani dharma-sastrani yany uta Dharma-sastra. In the Vedic civilization there are twenty big, big books, dharma-sastra, for regulating life. Very difficult subject matter, dharma-sastra. So Suta Gosvami was offered the seat of vyasasana because he was aware of these things, itihasa, history, Purana, still older history, dharma-sastra, the scriptures, everything. Therefore he’s first of all addressing that “You have read… Not only you have read, but you have described.” Description means… You read something. Unless you fully assimilate, understand, you cannot describe it. So two things… Simply reading will not help us. When we shall be able to preach the reading matter, doesn’t matter whether in the same language or in my own language… It doesn’t matter. That is wanted. Akhyatany adhitani. Adhitani means “You have read.” And “You have explained.” In this way the saunakadi rsis… There were thousands of rsis in Naimisaranya… When you go to India, you must see this place, Naimisaranya. It is very, very old place. At least, from historical point of view, modern estimate is it is five thousand years old, because the first Bhagavata discussion took place there after instruction of Vyasadeva. So in India there are many places very suitable for spiritual advancement. Still they’re existing from the very, very old time, historical time. So the itihasa… Itihasa means history, and puranani, puranani means old itihasa. All the statements or narrations described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, they’re all historical evidence, they’re not imagination. Sometimes the so-called scholars and research students, they say it is fancy or something imagination. No. They’re all history. It is said here, itihasam. Itihasa means history. Then? Pradyumna: Rsaya… Prabhupada: No, no. Oh, yes. Pradyumna: (responsively) “…the sages; ucuh—said; tvaya—by you; khalu—undoubtedly; puranani—the supplements to the Vedas with illustrated narrations…” Prabhupada: Supplements. Because Vedic language is so difficult… It is sometimes very difficult to understand. So Purana, another meaning of Purana means supplement. So they are explanation of the Vedic knowledge in a supplementary way by taking references from the history, from the life of great saints and sages. So they are addition, addendum. Go on. The Mayavadi philosophers, they say that the Puranas are not Veda. That is not the fact. Here in the Bhagavata says the Purana is part of the Vedas. As Upanisad is part of Vedas… It is written in simplified language so that those who are less educated, less having brain substance… Now, this Mahabharata is especially written… Mahabharata. Mahabharata means the history of greater India. Maha. Maha means greater. Bharata. Bharata means India, Bharata-varsa. Mahabharata, greater India. Or at that time the whole world was Bharata-varsa. Therefore greater India, history in Mahabharata is there. So Mahabharata especially was written for three classes of men. What are those? Stri, sudra, dvija-bandhu. Stri means woman, sudra means worker class, and dvija-bandhu means persons who have taken their birth in higher caste, brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, but they’re degraded. They could not keep up their standard of culture. Just like at the present moment. They are introducing themself as brahmana, but degraded. Actually, they are not brahmana— degraded. Dvija-bandhu, friends of brahmana. Just like if I am son of a high court judge, unless I am qualified to become a high court judge I cannot say myself, “I am high court judge.” No. Simply by becoming the son of high court judge, one does not become a high court judge. He must have the qualification. So when one is simply proud of his high parentage, he is called dvija-bandhu. There are many instances. Just like in this country also, British nation was very powerful nation, but at the present time it is different. So simply by taking birth in England, one cannot be proud. Your forefathers were very enthusiastic, colonized. So at the present moment that is not possible. So I request you, all English boys and girls present here, now you become greater than your forefathers by taking this Krsna consciousness. That will make you more powerful, spiritually powerful. You can render service to the humanity, to you, I mean to say, family, your nation, it is so nice. Try to understand. Everyone, every human being should try to become very important. That importance can be achieved by culture, and not by simply “I belong to this nation. I belong to this family. I am the son of such big father.” No. You must be also qualified. So this Mahabharata was written for three classes of men: stri, sudra, dvija-bandhu. Women… It is not the question of… Women are generally less intelligent. Less intelligent. Similarly, sudras, they are also less intelligent, worker class. Similarly, those who are degraded from their high parentage, heritage, they’re also. For understanding of these three classes of men, Mahabharata was written. Now even… In the Mahabharata this Bhagavad-gita is included. Bhagavad-gita is part of Mahabharata, a chapter only, Mahabharata. Now we see… Practically, this Mahabharata was… Mahabharata, or Bhagavad-gita is included there. This high literature was meant for the less intelligent class of men, and at the present moment the highest intelligent class of men cannot understand it. So how much you have degraded, just try to understand. Which was written five thousand years ago for the less intelligent class of men, that literature is not understandable even by the highest and elevated, educated persons at the present moment. Try to understand this point. How much you have degraded! Formerly this Vedic literature was not in written pages. As soon as one will hear from… Just like Suta Gosvami. There is no question of taking notes. As soon as they will hear, they’ll immediately get it in the memory, and they will never forget. So memory was so sharp. At the present moment, our memory is so low-graded we cannot remember even what I have done two hours past. So this is Kali-yuga. We are in so many degraded positions; still, falsely we are proud that we are advancing. No that. It is false prestige. Actually, we are very, very much degraded. So the only means of our being elevated to the highest position is this means: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. That’s all. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
London, August 23, 1971