720522 - Lecture SB 02.03.01-3 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720522SB-LOS ANGELES - May 22, 1972 - 37:28 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (leads chanting of verses) (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat)

śrī-śuka uvāca

evam etan nigaditaṁ

pṛṣṭavān yad bhavān mama

nṛṇāṁ yan mriyamāṇānāṁ

manuṣyeṣu manīṣiṇām

(SB 2.3.1)

brahma-varcasa-kāmas tu

yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim

indram indriya-kāmas tu

prajā-kāmaḥ prajāpatīn

(SB 2.3.2)

devīṁ māyāṁ tu śrī-kāmas

tejas-kāmo vibhāvasum

vasu-kāmo vasūn rudrān

vīrya-kāmo 'tha vīryavān

(SB 2.3.3)

Prabhupāda: One more. (Pradyumna chants verse again) So, anyone, chant. (Hṛdayānanda leads chanting) Thank you. Next? (more devotees chant) Any . . . (indistinct) . . . girls? (devotee leads chanting) Very good. Next? (other devotees lead, with Prabhupāda correcting chanting) That's all. (break)

So in this way, if you chant ten times, you'll get it better. It is not difficult. So we are giving this diacritic mark, English transliteration, only for this purpose—so that you can chant, you can vibrate these mantras. So practice. Here you hear, and in your leisure time, you practice. If you chant these mantras anywhere, you'll be honored. Sanskrit language is so nice. And direction, everything is there: purport, word meaning and translation.

So we are taking so much trouble in writing book, and not for simply making market. It is for you to read it. Not that simply you go and sell books, and the . . . if the customer says: "You read it first of all," then what you will say? You'll say, "No, I cannot read. I can sell only." (laughter) (laughs) Then what will be your position if you say like that, that "I can sell; I cannot read"?

Anyway. Then? Word meaning?

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of synonyms)

devīm—the goddess; māyām—unto the mistress of the material world; tu—but; śrī-kāmaḥ—one who desires beauty; tejaḥ—power; kāmaḥ—one who so desires; vibhāvasum—the fire god; vasu-kāmaḥ—one who wants wealth; vasūn—the Vasu demigods; rudrān—the Rudra expansion of Lord Śiva; vīrya-kāmaḥ—one who wants to be very strongly built; atha—therefore; vīryavān—the most powerful. (break)

Prabhupāda: So these are kāma, these material desires. Somebody is wanting wealth, somebody is wanting beauty, somebody is wanting strength, somebody something else. All these are . . . the beginning from brahma-varcasa-kāmas tu. And ultimately, they want to merge into the brahma-jyotir. So up to that point, everything that we want, that is material, and that is lust. Therefore it is said kāma. The just the opposite word of kāma is prema, love.

So in the material world there cannot be prema. Prema means love. The prema is only possible in the spiritual world. Here, what is going on as love, that is not love, that is lust. A boy loves a girl, a girl loves a boy—that is not love, that is lust. As soon as there is some disturbance in lusty affair, they divorce. So therefore that is not love. So we should note it, that so-called love is bogus in this material world. Love cannot be possible. This very word, love, prema, is specially reserved for Kṛṣṇa. Premā pum-artho mahān (Caitanya-manjusa). That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's preaching, that the highest perfection of life is to evoke one's dormant love for Kṛṣṇa.

The love is there. It is reserved for Kṛṣṇa. But due to our foolishness, we are distributing that love in so many ways, up to the dog. This is called illusion. We do not know where to apply love. In this way . . . all these words is touched with the word kāma. Kāma. Kāma means lust. There is no question of love. And love . . . prema and kāma is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, what is prema and what is . . . prema and kāma. Ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā tāra bali kāma (CC Adi 4.165). Kāma. What is lust? Ātmendriya-prīti, to satisfy one's own senses. That is kāma. Here, a boy and girl love. They say "love," but no, it is not love. The boy wants to satisfy his senses, and the girl wants to satisfy her senses. That's all. Therefore, ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā. Everyone is trying to satisfy her own senses. That is kāma, lust. And then, what is prema? Kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare prema nāma, that when the same propensity is transferred for satisfying Kṛṣṇa's senses.

Just like gopīs. The superexcellence of gopīs is due that they wanted to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. They dressed very nicely because they thought that "Kṛṣṇa become very pleased seeing us nicely dressed." Not that . . . in this material world, a woman or a girl dress very nicely just to attract the opposite sex for his sense gratification. That's all. So everyone, all this description is given there: brahma-varcasa-kāma, vīrya-kāma, then vasu-kāma, devīṁ māyāṁ tu śrī-kāmaḥ. Śrī.

(aside) You can stand near the wall. Others may not . . .

Śrī means beauty. In the Durgā-pūjā, Devī-pūjā, they ask, after offering Mother Durgā all sorts of paraphernalia, then they puṣpāñjali, they pray favor, dhanaṁ dehi rūpaṁ dehi balaṁ dehi. Dehi, dehi. Dehi means "give me." After pūjā . . . therefore it is called pūjā. Pūjā, just like in business circle, if you want to take some business from a big merchant, so you satisfy him, flatter him, and sometimes invite him in hotel and give him nice dinner. In this way, after he is satisfied, "Sir, if you kindly give me this contract." (laughter) Or "If you give me this post." The ultimate aim is his post and contract, not to satisfy the person. No. He's spending some money for his own sense gratification. Similarly, all these pūjās, the demigod pūjā, that is for his sense gratification. That's all. Kṛṣṇa therefore condemns this: kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānā yajante anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). This very kāma, these words, kāma, kāmas, kāma, kāma.

So Kṛṣṇa also says . . . so you won't find any difference between Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any Vedic literature. It is to be understood through proper channels. So all these kāmas have been condemned by Kṛṣṇa. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānā yajante anya-devatāḥ. The persons who go to worship other demigod like Devī, Māyā, Durgā, Śiva, or Indra, Candra, so many . . . there are thirty-three, I mean to say, crore. One crore equal to?

Devotee: Ten million.

Prabhupāda: Ten million. And thirty-three. Just see. There are so many demigods, and so many desires also. So they are not prohibited. Everything is there in the Bhāgavata that, "If you want this particular . . ." Kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ yajanta iha devatāḥ (BG 4.12). That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: "Those who want quick success in fulfilling some material desires, they worship the demigods."

The Māyāvādī, Śaṅkarites, they have made a hodgepodge. They have made so much blunder in understanding the Vedic conclusion. Misleading, simply. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has especially warned that, "Anyone who hears about the Māyāvāda commentation, he's doomed." He's gone forever, lost. He will have no understanding, either this way or that. The Vedas, they give us information of the demigods, but they are not imagination. And neither Kṛṣṇa is imagination. The Māyāvāda says everything is imagination. So the Bhāgavata is giving this direction. Bhāgavata means Vyāsadeva is giving direction, that "If you want this profit, then worship this demigod." So he's playing childish, foolish things? He's giving some wrong information? Imagination? What business he has got to do that?

But these Māyāvādī rascals will say that, "The demigods are also māyā, Kṛṣṇa is also māyā, everything is māyā." Therefore we call them Māyāvādī: everything māyā; kṛṣṇa-bhakti is māyā. They say it is good for raising oneself to the platform of impersonalism. Their process is that you, if you want to go higher platform, you take one staircase and get on it and then throw it away. Because you don't require to come down again. That is their philosophy. So you take any means. The Ramakrishna Mission also says like that: yata mata tata patha. "You can worship brahma-varcasa, you can worship Devī-māyā; you can worship Vasūn; you can worship Rudra; you can worship anyone; ultimately, you become one with the Supreme." Most misguiding. Here it is . . . but if you want this particular thing, then you worship this.

In the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is confirmed, yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25): demigod worshipers will go to the demigods. There are different planets. Thirty-three crores of demigods, and there are thirty-three crores of planets also. The moon planet, according to Vedic literature, that is also one of the planet belonging to the demigod Candra. It is one of the higher planets. So this is the list. If you want something particular . . . if you want to merge into the effulgence, brahma-jyotir, then you worship . . . yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim. Brahmaṇaḥ. Brahman means also Vedas, śabda-brahma. Tene brahma hṛdā, in the Bhāgavata, beginning. Brahman means this sound, transcendental sound of knowledge. That is Veda. So there is Upaniṣad. So Upaniṣad, they generally, those who are scholars in the Upaniṣad, they want to become one with the . . . so that is not a very difficult thing. Anyone can do that. There is a process.

But we Vaiṣṇavas, we do not accept that suicidal policy. We want to keep our individuality, not merge. We don't want to finish our identity. Our real identity is eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa: jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109). So we want to keep that identity, and we want to serve Him eternally. Eternally means now we are in this material world, we are being trained up how to serve Kṛṣṇa. This Deity worship, this is a training. The same thing will continue when you go to Vaikuṇṭha or Vṛndāvana. The same way we shall personally serve. Here, Kṛṣṇa . . . this is also personally. But due to my imperfectness, I cannot see Kṛṣṇa in His actual spiritual form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Therefore Kṛṣṇa has assumed a form which you can approach. It is for your facility. And Kṛṣṇa, in any form He appears, He is transcendental, either this form or that form. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). Everything.

That is Kṛṣṇa's speciality. He can appear . . . just like if you have got a photograph of some of your friend, so you cannot derive the benefit of directly meeting him. But in Kṛṣṇa's form, if you have a Kṛṣṇa's photograph, it is as good as Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. You can get the same benefit from the photograph picture of Kṛṣṇa as you get benefit by directly meeting Him. Therefore, meeting this photograph, Deity of Kṛṣṇa, is as good as Kṛṣṇa. Advaya-jñāna, nonduality. Here in this material world there is duality, but in the spiritual world, there is no such duality.

Brahmā-varcasa-kāmas tu yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim, indram, indram, indriya-kāmas (SB 2.3.2). Indriya means senses. Those who are too much lusty satisfy simply . . . the most important indriya is the genital, sex. So for them, it is recommended that, "You worship Indra." Indra, the demigod, he is number-one sexually inclined demigod. He has got eyes, eyes over all his body. Śata-cakṣuṁṣi. These eyes were originally vagina. He was cursed by Gautama Muni that, "You are so fond of vagina that I curse you that you get all over your body vagina." Then, when he surrendered, he began to cry that "It will be very much, I mean to say, abominable for me." Then he asked, offered, that "These vagina may be turned into eyes." Therefore his body is full of eyes. Śata-cakṣuṁṣi.

So those who are too much lusty, lover of the vagina, they may worship Indra. This is the recommendation. Everything is there. If you want vagina instead of Kṛṣṇa, all right, do it. You have it. So unfortunately, if our student falls a victim of vagina instead of Kṛṣṇa, that is very regrettable. Then better he worship, instead of Kṛṣṇa, let him worship Indra. That is the Bhāgavata direction. Indram indriya-kāmas tu prajā-kāmaḥ prajāpatīn (SB 2.3.2). Prajā, many children, dynasty. Just like aristocratic family. One is working very hard to establish a family. In England, it is very prominent, "Lord family," "Duke family." And where the rascal is going himself, he does not know. But he's establishing a family, Lord family. You see? Prajā-kāmaḥ. People want that son, grandson, great-grandson, his son, his son, the family will be filled up with so many . . . in India especially, the karmīs, they want like that.

Śrī-aiśvarya-prajepsavaḥ. Śrī, beauty, beautiful women. Śrī, aiśvarya, wealth, and prajā. Prajā means many children. They are spending their whole time earning money, amass money, huge bank balance. Then his sons are married, the same thing. He begotten so many children by sex, so he's giving indulgence to his sons, "All right, you also take this sex indulgence and produce many children." Prajepsavaḥ. And then, grandchildren are also . . . "You also take another. You also produce children." So they are called prajepsavaḥ. They want . . . they are happy to see that he has got many children. Just like Dhṛtarāṣṭra: he has got . . . he had hundred sons, and the hundred sons had another hundred sons. So he was after, "How this kingdom should be mine, sons' hand?" That is the cause of Kurukṣetra war. So prajepsavaḥ, prajā-kāmaḥ.

So . . . so there are so many kāmas, desires. Different people, different kāma. Therefore they are all hṛta-jñānāḥ. Anyone who is impeded by this kāmas, they are less interested. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20). Hṛta-jñāna means one who has lost intelligence. They are captivated by this kinds of lusty things. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Prajās-kāmaḥ, those who want children, great-grandchildren . . . in Bengali there is a proverb, nāti nāti svarge vati.

Nāti means grandson, and grandson's grandson. Therefore, "I am living, my son is living, my grandson is living, his son is living, his son is living," in this way, up to seventh generation if one sees, then immediately he goes to heaven. These are the conception of the materialistic person, that "If I can see a grandson of a grandson, then my life is successful." (laughter) And he's working hard for that purpose. They are called prajā-kāmaḥ. Prajā means many sons in the family. That is considered very aristocrat. Prajā-kāmaḥ prajāpatīn.

Devīṁ māyāṁ tu śrī-kāmaḥ. Śrī means beauty. If you want to become very beautiful, either man or woman, then you worship Durgā. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktiḥ. Tejas-kāmo vibhāvasum. Vibhāvasum. There are Vasus, eight kinds of Vasus. So you can worship one of the Vasus. If you want to be very influential person, like Mr. Nixon, then you worship vibhāvasum. Vasu-kāmo vasūn rudrān. Vasu means wealth, if you want wealth, riches.

So list is there, but Kṛṣṇa says: "This will not make you happy, My dear friend. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). You kick off all this nonsense. You just surrender unto Me." That is Kṛṣṇa's instruction. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. Because He's the Supreme, He's giving supreme advice. But there are other persons. To regulate them . . . because . . . these are called yajñas. Saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā (BG 3.10). There is little touch of devotion, indirectly. Because if you want to worship Indra, you must worship at the same time Nārāyaṇa. That is the system. Nārāyaṇa-śilā will be there. Because the benediction you want from the particular type of demigod, he cannot give independently. When he takes permission from Nārāyaṇa, that "He is after this benediction from me, and he's worshiping me. So shall I give him this benediction?" so with His order . . .

Because, after all, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1), everything is Kṛṣṇa's property. How . . .? Suppose somebody is cashier in our institution. He's getting a thousands of dollars in his custody. So he cannot distribute without being sanctioned. That is not good. So he must take the superior sanction that, "Shall I give him?" Similarly, all these demigods, they cannot give you anything directly. With the permission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mayaiva vihitān hi tān (BG 7.22). That benefit which they derive from the demigod, that is ordained by Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says. When the demigod appeals to Kṛṣṇa that, "This person is hankering after this thing, and he's worshiping me," so just to keep the position of the demigod, Kṛṣṇa says: "All right, give him." Because the demigods are servant of Kṛṣṇa. So if one has approached the servant of Kṛṣṇa, to keep the position of the servant, Kṛṣṇa orders, "Yes, you give."

Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. Hiraṇyakaśipu took benediction from Brahmā so many things: "I shall not die at daytime, I shall not die night, I shall not die on land, I shall not die on the water." In this way, all definition by negation. Brahmā said, "Yes." Now, to keep the words of Brahmā . . . Kṛṣṇa is so kind—Brahmā is servant—He appeared in such a way that all the prayers of Hiraṇyakaśipu was not touched. Hiraṇyakaśipu said that, "I shall not die by any man or any animal or any demigod." So He appeared in Nṛsiṁha-mūrti, who is neither animal nor man nor demigod; you cannot define. Then Hiraṇyakaśipu prayed for that "I shall not die in daytime, at night." "Yes." So Hiraṇyakaśipu was killed in the sandhyā, between the junction of day and night, just in the evening. You cannot say it is day, neither it is night. In this way, Kṛṣṇa kept all the words of Brahmā and still killed him. That is Kṛṣṇa.

That is Kṛṣṇa, that you may be very intelligent to avoid Kṛṣṇa or the laws of Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa is more intelligent. He will also cheat you. Because you wanted to cheat Him, so He will also cheat you in such a way that you . . . beyond your imagination. Yes. That is Kṛṣṇa. You cannot excel Kṛṣṇa. You have to be always under Him, even your cheating process. This is Kṛṣṇa.

So take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and be happy. Thank you.

Devotees: Jaya. (obeisances) (end)