Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.42 Pradyumna: “O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You, without being diverted to anyone else.” Prabhupada: tvayi me ’nanya-visaya matir madhu-pate ’sakrt ratim udvahatad addha gangevaugham udanvati So in the previous verse, Kuntidevi prayed to Krsna, sneha-pasam imam chindhi: “Please cut off my attraction, the rope…” Just like rope is cut. If your hands and legs are tied up with rope, and if you want to be free, then the knot is cut into pieces. So our affection for this material world has to be cut into pieces. That is the aim of human life. The living being, nobody knows when he dropped into this ocean of material existence. Bhaktivinoda Thakura has sung, anadi karama-phale, padi’ bhavarnava-jale. Anadi. Adi means the beginning of creation, and anadi means before that. This creation, this material world, it is created and annihilated, as is the nature of anything material. We have got experience from our body, or any body. Everything here is created and annihilated. Even big, big empires like the Roman Empire, the Carthagian Empire, the Moghul Empire, and so many empires—they came, and they were annihilated. This is the nature. Therefore Vidyapati has sung, kata caturananam, mari mari yavat, na tuya adi avasana. Caturanana means the Brahma. Brahma, his life, duration of life, is very, very long. We know from Bhagavad-gita that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg. 8.17]. He’s not also immortal. He’s mortal. Although his one day is equal to our forty-three lakhs of years multiplied by one thousand, but still, he’s not immortal. When Hiranyakasipu pleased Brahma and he wanted to give him the benediction, so Hiranyakasipu wanted that “Please make me immortal.” So Brahma said, “That is not possible because I am, myself, is not immortal.” So nobody is immortal within this material world. And still, we are attached. We want to be immortal. That is the psychology. Just like last night, when the snake… We became disturbed. Why this psychology? Because we don’t want to be dead, because we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. Neither we wish to take the trouble of being changed of the body. Otherwise why we became disturbed? We know… Others may not know that we shall not be killed, even bitten by the snake. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. So why we became disturbed? What is the psychology? The basic principle is that we don’t want to be killed. We don’t want to change the body even. We have got attraction for the body. Even an animal or insect, living very wretched condition of life, still, if you want to kill it, it will protest. It will protest, “No, no. I don’t want to be killed.” This is the psychology. So the, our real business is how to attain that eternal life. That is real business. Other business, they are not important. Tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah. This is the instruction, that we should try how to become again immortal. We are immortal by nature, but we have covered by another nature, external nature, bahiranga-sakti And because we have been entangled with this material body, we have to die. Otherwise there is no death. Na jayate na mriyate va. The living entity does not take birth, neither it dies. Then why we are taking birth and dying? The…, this question does not arise to the fools and rascals of this materialist world. I was talking with one very big man in London, Lord Fenner-Brockway. He came to see me. So I asked him this question. He was old man. He was a, I think, older than me. He was eighty-four. So he said, “Yes, I’ll die peacefully.” You see? This question does not bother even any man. And I talked with that Professor Kotovsky in Moscow. He also said, “Swamiji, after death, everything is finished.” You see? Big, big men in Europe, very exalted position, they do not know even that there is life after death. They do not know. And in India, I think, when I spoke in Calcutta, the American Consulate… There is a club, Indo-American Cultural. They invited. So they gave me the subject matter for speaking: “East and West.” So in that meeting I said that “We don’t make any such distinction, ‘East’ and ‘West.’ Because everything belongs to Krsna. But there is little difference between East and West. What is that difference? Here even an ordinary man, a cultivator, uneducated villager, he believes in the next birth. He believes. He’s afraid of committing sin—‘Oh, I’ll have to suffer in my next life.” And in the Western world, the big, big men like Lord Fenner-Brockway and Professor Kotovsky, they do not know that there is life after death.” Therefore to take birth in India is a privilege. It is a privilege because it is not ordinary thing. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara [Cc. Adi 9.41] This para-upakara, doing welfare activities to others, that is meant for India. But the Indian should first of all make his life perfect. Bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara, janma sarthaka kari [Cc. Adi 9.41]’. First of all the Indians are requested to make his life perfect, because how to make life perfect, the process and everything is in India, because here there is varnasrama-dharma, the division of the human society: brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, and asrama. Now these things are rejected by the Indians, but this is the most scientific method for making life perfect. This is the most scientific method. This was the answer of Ramananda Raya when he was questioned by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, “What is the aim of perfection of life, and how to accomplish it?” This is the question was given by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So the answer was, immediately, varnasramacaravata purusena parah puman visnur aradhyate pantha nanyat tat-tosa-karanam “The aim of human life, the goal of human life, is to satisfy the Supreme Lord, Visnu.” Visnur aradhyate. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31] These rascals, they do not know that human life is meant for pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Kuntidevi therefore requested Krsna, sneha-pasam imam chindhi. We are, I mean to say, bounded here by the material energy in so-called sneha-pasa, society, friendship and love. People do not want to leave this material world. Even at the time of death… I have seen so many persons. That is natural. The old man is dying, and he is thinking that “So many of my business remained unfinished.” So he calls his dear son, “My dear son, if, if you… You take charge of the family, and so many things I could not finish, you do it.” You see? He does not know where he is going. I have seen in Allahabad one big man. He was dying at the age of fifty-four. He was of my age. And he was requesting the physician, “My dear doctor, can you not give me four years more to live so that I could finish my business?” This so much attraction, so much attraction. They sometimes cry, that “What will happen to my this boy, that children, that…” So therefore the family attraction especially, the family attraction is so strong that life after life one is bound up again in this material world, and he gets one body. To get body means to suffer. To get material body… Matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah. We are suffering the sitosna… Sometimes we feel some pleasure, sense pleasure. But actually we are suffering. Just see. We thought on the fourth floor, or third floor, such marble, I mean to say, level… And still, there is a snake. How it gone to such a high floor, and…? That is also surprising. But it has managed to go there. That’s a fact. And a snake means death. Sa-sarpe ca grhe vaso mrtyur eva na samsayah.(?) So you cannot avoid danger in any condition of life. This is material world. But still, they want to remain here. Death is in every step. Padam padam yad vipadam. This material world means in every step vipadam, danger. Such is the condition of material world. Still, they are trying to adjust. Mudha. Bahir-artha-maninah. Bahir-artha-maninah means they are thinking, “By utilizing this external energy, material world, we shall be happy.” Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31]. They do not know that, especially for the human being, the destination is to know Krsna. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15]. All these Vedic literatures, all these philosophy, science and everything… That is the verdict of Srimad-Bhagavatam, yad uttama-sloka-gunanuvarnanam [SB 1.5.22]. You may be talented in so many ways. You may be very big man, politician or philosopher or chemist or physicist. So many we are; we are occupied. So why you should become big man? What is the purpose? The purpose is to understand Krsna. Intelligent. So whatever talent you have got, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you may be. You may be engineer. But if you are intelligent actually, through engineering, you’ll describe Krsna, how Krsna is the greatest engineer so that He’s keeping all the planets floating in the air. That is engineer. You cannot do it. He is keeping… Gam avisya. He has said. Aham ojasa dharayami, Krsna says. So we have to understand Krsna like that. Krsna says like that, “I am keeping all these planets floating.” Now, if you are a physicist, then you try to understand how Krsna is keeping them floating. That is your perfection. That is your perfection. If you remain a physicist or chemist and don’t understand Krsna, it is a waste of time. It is waste of time. atah pumbhir dvija-srestha varnasrama-vibhagasah svanusthitasya dharmasya samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13] We are divisioned. Either you take it varna, asrama, or by occupation, anything, there must be some division, not that everyone is the same. Somebody is engineer. Somebody is medical man. Somebody is chemist. Somebody is philosopher. Somebody is brahmana. Somebody is sudra. You take. Division must be there. It is not possible to make everyone all the same. That is rascaldom. That is, means, they have no knowledge. Just like the communists. They tried to make one. They failed. That is not possible. Still, they are going on: “Laborer class and the manager class.” Why you make two? So if instead of two, if we make four, what is the difference in philosophy? They could not do it. That is not possible. There must be, because Krsna says, catur-varnyam maya srstam: [Bg. 4.13] “The four divisions is created by Me.” How you can nullify Krsna’s creation? That is not possible. So division may be there. It doesn’t matter. That is created by Krsna. But still, there can be oneness. What is that? Samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13] Everyone try to satisfy Krsna. Then it is oneness. The same story, udarendriyanam, that all our parts of limbs, parts of the body, limbs, and senses, they are working hard, very hard. What is the aim? To fill up the stomach. There is no other aim. Everyone is working so hard only for filling up the stomach. Udarendriyanam. Similarly, we, being… Mamaivamso jiva-bhutah [Bg. 15.7]. We are part and parcel of Krsna. So our only business is to satisfy Krsna. Then it is perfect life. That we have forgotten. Therefore Krsna comes and says, “You rascal, you fool, you just surrender unto Me. You’ll be happy. Why you are planning so many things, rascal planning? That will not make you happy.” Sarva-dharman pari… “You have planned so many rascaldom. You give up all this. Simply make, take this planning: surrender unto Me.” Saranagati. Saranagati. That is the beginning of Vaisnava philosophy. Anukulyasya sankalpa. anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama [BRS 1.1.11] This is wanted. Simply try to understand what Krsna desires and try to satisfy Him. This is perfection of life. atah pumbhir dvija-srestha varnasrama-vibhagasah svanusthitasya dharmasya samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13] If you want perfection, Caitanya Mahaprabhu said this perfection. Bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara, janma sarthaka kari [Cc. Adi 9.41]’. What is that janma sarthaka? This is janma sarthaka. What is that? When you learn how to satisfy Krsna. That’s all. If you learn this simple art, how to satisfy Krsna, then your life is perfect. Bas. Is it very difficult task? No, it is not at all. Krsna gives the formula how He’ll be satisfied. He says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru [Bg. 18.65] These four things: “Always think of Me…” Everyone can think of Krsna. He is thinking of so many nonsense things. Why not Krsna? Here is Krsna. If you simply think of Krsna and Radha-Madhava, then where… Is very difficult thing? Therefore temple is there so that you see Krsna always or at some interval, during aratrika, during mangala-aratrika, during bhoga. So the impression is always within your heart, and you think of. Where is the difficulty? Where is the difficulty? No difficulty. So Krsna says, man-manah. And if you have no time to come to the temple, all right, chant Hare Krsna. You hear the name of Krsna. That is not different from Krsna. The… After all, impression, either you hear or see, the experience is there. So you can think of Krsna very easily. It doesn’t require any university qualification. Anyone, any rascal, can do it. It is so easy. It doesn’t require high education to think of Krsna. Woman, children, anyone… So satisfy Krsna… Krsna directly says… If you want to satisfy me, then you ask me, “Prabhupada, what can I do for you?” If I say, “Do this,” then I am satisfied. This is the way of satisfaction, making one… So you ask Krsna, “Sir, my business is hari-tosanam. So how can I satisfy You?” Krsna directly—“Yes, you can satisfy Me. Think of Me.” Where is the difficulty? Why so much philosophy, humbug, to understand God? The rascals, they are thinking, “What is God? Can you show me God?” God is here canvassing. The rascals will avoid this by so-called erudite scholarship and this way, “There is no God…” God is there. Why not God? We are giving you the God’s name. God, Himself, giving, giving, presenting Himself. And big, big acaryas, they are accepting. Especially Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He is simply attached to Krsna. So we have to learn from Caitanya Mahaprabhu how to serve Krsna, how to become attached. How Caitanya Mahaprabhu is attached to Krsna is described so nicely. It will puzzle even the biggest brain of philosopher, how Caitanya Mahaprabhu is attached to Krsna. We are now trying to explain in the Antya-lila. So, of course, we cannot expect that one day we shall be so much attached as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but this preliminary attachment, to think of Krsna, there is no difficulty, to think of Krsna. Man-mana bhava mad-bhaktah. He’ll be satisfied. He’ll be sati… Tesam nityabhiyuktanam yoga-ksemam vahamy aham [Bg. 9.22]. And those who are so attached with Krsna, Krsna says, “I’ll supply whatever he wants. Yes.” So a devotee’s opulence does not mean it is due to his karma. It is supplied by Krsna. It is never to be diminished because it is supplied by Krsna. The karmis, they get opulence on account of his past karma. But a devotee gets opulence—it is gift of Krsna; it cannot be destroyed. It cannot be destroyed. It is gift of Krsna. We should always think of like that. And we shall try more and more to please Krsna. Dui lage hura huri.(?) Krsna is trying to make His devotee more and more opulent and comfortable, and the devotee is trying to please Krsna more and more. That is the business between devotee and Krsna. It is called, Caitanya-cari…: dui lage hura huri.(?) Just like if I want to please you or if you want to please me, so there is competition. So that competition should be there. But that competition, that realization, is impossible so long you are attached to this rascal material world. Therefore Krsna say…, Kunti’s first request is that sneha-pasam imam chindhi, “Please destroy this attraction, affection for this material friendship, society, family. Please destroy it.” So the Mayavadi philosopher, they simply want to destroy. Negative side. They have no information of the positive side, that after destruction… Suppose you are not satisfied with some business or some service. So you want to: “Oh, I want to leave this business. I want…” But you leave… Suppose you are getting, say, five hundred rupees. Then, if you leave, then you’ll be zero, no income. If you get another service which will fetch you six hundred rupees, then you are profited. But if you simply give it up, this service, and become zero, then you become unemployed, the miseries will increase. The Mayavadi, being disgusted with this material world… Brahma…, jagan mithya. Jagan mithya. That’s, that’s all right. Then Brahma satyam. That is theoretical. If you do not engage yourself as Brahman, then again you’ll fall down. Aruhya krcchrena param padam tatah patanty adhah anadrta-yusmad-anghrayah [SB 10.2.32]. That you give up disgusting—“This is mithya”—that’s all right. But that is zero. And what is your positive engagement? That they do not know. Therefore, after some time they again come to be positively engaged in opening hospital and daridra-narayana-seva and this and that and so many things. Because they could not get any engagement in the positive world. That positive world, here it is said, tvayi me ananya-visaya matih. This is positive. The negative side is to give up. To give up… Because we are living beings… Anandamayo ’bhyasat, part and parcel of Krsna, sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]. So we want ananda. So whatever I possess, now I give up. Then, if I don’t get better engagement, then where is my ananda? There is no ananda. So as we do not get ananda, so then I come back again. There is a Bengali hearsay, napad jimane na, na jamai batta.(?) When a widow, old woman, her husband is dead… We have got experience. And she talks very loosely with the grandson-in-law. I have got experience. When we were young, young married, so my grandmother-in-law, my father-in-law’s mother, she was talking very loosely, just like husband and wife. So that’s a practical… Because she… She is hopeless of getting another husband because she is old enough. So where is the husband? She accepts or talks like husband to the grandson-in-law. So similarly, the Mayavadi philosophers, they do not accept Krsna or Krsna’s lila. They think it is maya. They do not accept it. So there is no ananda. Therefore they come down again. Punar musiko bhava. Again open hospital because there is no engagement. And he has to raise fund. So this is very easy thing: “Sir I am going to open a hospital. Give me some fund.” Nowadays, especially, it is very difficult to collect fund. If you say, “I am going to open a temple,” nobody will give you. But if you say, “I am going to open a hospital,” he’ll give you. So therefore we must have positive engagement. Simply negation, jagan mithya… Why jagan mithya? We don’t say jagan mithya. This building, this nice building, is it mithya? It is not mithya. It is perfectly true because here Krsna is being worshiped, the devotees are chanting… This is life, this, truth. So why shall I say “jagan mithya”? You have to utilize jagat in such a way that it will become truth. That process is samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13]. Here only business is how Krsna will be satisfied. That is the only business. That is perfection. To become perfect means to learn how to satisfy Krsna. That is perfection. It doesn’t require education and doesn’t require big, big titles or… Nothing. You try to satisfy Krsna. Samsiddhir hari-tosanam [SB 1.2.13]. Therefore here Kuntidevi… Tvayi me ananya-visaya. Visaya means sense gratification. This is visaya: ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam ca. These are called visaya. Visaya means material subject matter for sense gratification. So one cannot be attached to Krsna as long as he is attached to visaya. Therefore Narottama dasa Thakura or Locana dasa Thakura, he says, visaya chariya, se rase majiya, mukhe bolo hari hari. Visaya chariya. So long you are attached to sense gratification, there is no question of chanting “Hari Hari.” That is not possible. Visaya chariya. So it is not possible to do it immediately, but if we practice the system given by the acaryas, as we have introduced, the Krsna consciousness movement, then one day we’ll be able. Visaya chariya. Then param drstva nivartate. When you gradually relish the transcendental mellow of devotional service… That Yamunacarya said, yad-avadhi mama cetah krsna-padaravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhamany udyatam rantum asit tad-avadhi bata nari-sangame smaryamane bhavati mukha-vikarah susthu nisthivanam ca So this is the process. The more you become attached to Krsna… That is very psychological. If you become attached to something, you become detached to something else. Attachment, detachment cannot be. So more you become attached to Krsna, then more you become detached to this material world. Just like… You, you, you cannot by artificial means, all of a sudden, brahma satyam jagan mithya: “I take sannyasa.” No, that will not be. First of all, you have to increase your attachment for Krsna. Then the sannyasa order will be durable. Otherwise you’ll fall down. Again you’ll be attached. Punar musiko bhava. There are so many instances. So both things should be performed simultaneously, parallel line that you should take up the process how to increase your attachment for Krsna, and then automatically detachment will be there. The same example, as given by Rupa Gosvami, that you are hungry. When you take food, that, gradually you become satisfied and your hunger is also satisfied. So when you are fully satisfied… Just like Dhruva Maharaja said, svamin krtartho ’smi varam na yace: “My dear Lord, my dear Sir, I am not hankering after any benediction. I am completely benedicted. No more benediction. I have got everything. I have got You, Krsna. So what do I want more?” Yam labdhva caparam labham manyate nadhikam tatah. If one gets Krsna’s favor, if one gets Krsna, what does he want more? He has got everything, because Krsna is everything. So try to possess Krsna like Kuntidevi’s… Tvayi me ananya-visaya matir madhu-pate asakrt. Asakrt means… Sakrt means once, and asakrt means continuously. Not that perform Krsna consciousness fifteen minutes’ meditation, and then do all nonsense things, twenty-four hours. No, no, no, no. Not that kind of… Twenty-four hours engaged in Krsna consciousness, that is wanted. That is called asakrt. Twenty-four. So you have to make your formula of life in such a way that not a single moment is gone without Krsna consciousness. Avyartha-kalatvam [Cc.Madhya 23.18-19]. This is Rupa Gosvami’s… A devotee, a pure devotee of Krsna, he always sees: “Whether my time is wasted unnecessarily?” He should be very much alert: “Why I’m sleeping so much, wasted so much time?” That is devotees, Krsna conscious. “Oh, I am wasting so much time without any engagement of Krsna consciousness?” That is called asakrt. Matir madhu-pate asakrt. And directly, addha. It is said, ratim udvahatad addha. Addha means directly, not indirectly. Indirectly, the so-called demigod worshipers, they say… Because they misuse that verse, ye ’py anya-devata-bhakta yajante sraddhayanvitah te ’pi mam eva kaunteya yajanty avidhi-purvakam They neglect this word, avidhi-purvakam. They simply say that to worship other demigods is also the same. No. It is not the… It is avidhi-purvaka. And if you… Suppose you are in trouble. You have to satisfy the police commissioner. But you are trying to satisfy the police commissioner by bribing the constable. That is avidhi-purvaka. If it is known, then you’ll be punished. So don’t try to satisfy Krsna—avidhi-purvakam. Vidhi-purvakam. That vidhi-purvakam is direct. Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. That is wanted. That is vidhi-purvakam. Otherwise avidhi-purvakam. And how? The avidhi… The vidhi-purvaka, how? Just as the Ganges water is flowing automatically toward the sea, similarly, your devotional service like that, automatically, without any check… Then your life is perfect. Thank you very much. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Mayapura, October 22, 1974