730906 - Lecture SB 05.05.01-8 - Stockholm

Lectures by Date, 1973

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

730906SB-STOCKHOLM - September 06, 1973 - 40:03 Minutes

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

ṛṣabha uvāca

nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke

kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye

tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ

śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam

(SB 5.5.1)

Prabhupāda: Go on.

Pradyumna: All verses?

Prabhupāda: Yes, eight verses.

Pradyumna:

mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes

tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam

mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā

vimanyavaḥ . . .

Prabhupāda: Vimanyavaḥ. (corrects pronunciation)

Pradyumna:

vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ sādhavo ye

(SB 5.5.2)

e vā mayīśe kṛta-sauhṛdārthā

janeṣu dehambhara-vārtikeṣu

gṛheṣu jāyātmaja-rātimatsu

na prīti-yuktā yāvad-arthāś ca loke

(SB 5.5.3)

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma

yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti . . .

(SB 5.5.4)

(break)

Prabhupāda: . . . nice instruction by Ṛṣabhadeva. Ṛṣabhadeva was incarnation of God. He was instructing His sons before retirement. So He's instructing nāyaṁ dehaḥ, this body, deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Deha-bhājām means one who has accepted this material body. Actually, this body has no existence. It is simply a covering; therefore it is called māyā. Everyone, we have got experience that at night we forget this body. We act in a different body in dream. At night we feel there is no existence of this body, and at night, dreaming, we get another body, walking in a different place, creating a different situation, acting in a different body. It is a fact, every day, every night, we see it like this. And during the daytime we forget that night body.

So actually we are possessing the gross body and the subtle body. When we act on the subtle body, the gross body is no longer existing, and when we work in the gross body, the subtle body is not existing. But I am existing. I am existing both in the subtle body and gross body. This day's body is also a dream, but we are so foolish that we do not understand it. Mad. We are mad after. Therefore this subtle body and gross body, and their vanishing at daytime and night's time, the cats and dogs cannot understand. But a man, if he has got cool brain, he can understand.

(aside) What is that sound?

Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This daytime or nighttime, we work so hard, but what is the aim? Aim is to satisfy senses. Ask these people all over the world, especially in the Western country. They are making so many plans. Yesterday, when we were coming by the plane, the whole two hours one man was working, making some calculation. So everybody is busy, very, very busy, but if we ask him, "Why you are working so hard? What is the aim?" the aim, he has nothing to say except sense gratification. That's all. He has no more aim. He may think that, "I have got a big family, I have to maintain them," or "I have got so much responsibility." But what is that? That is simply sense gratification.

Even we manufacture so many "isms"—philanthropism, humanitarianism, nationalism, socialism, so many—but what are these "isms"? That is also sense gratification. I satisfy my senses. I want to see that the senses of my brother, senses of my sister, senses of my friends, or senses of my society people, or my nation, countrymen, they are satisfied. The business is sense gratification. Just like in our country we got Mahātmā Gandhi. So he started . . . he is supposed to be father of the nation. There are many leaders in different countries. But if we, I mean, take account of their business, it is sense gratification. That's all. Extended sense gratification. These are . . . just like Marx.

(aside) What is his name, full name?

Haṁsadūta: Karl Marx.

Prabhupāda: Karl Marx. He is thinking how the laborer, the worker, their senses will be gratified. That is his philosophy. Is it not?

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He's thinking that the capitalist, they are satisfying only their senses in luxuriously; why not the laborers, who are actually working? That is his philosophy. The central point is sense gratification. Just try to understand. The whole world is busy in different labels, but the central point is sense gratification. That's all. Is anybody has anything to say against this, here present? But here Ṛṣabhadeva says that, nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate, na arhate. Na ayam deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Such kind of hard work, it is done by the dogs and hogs also. So does it mean that we shall have to work, we have got this human form of body, and we have to work just like dogs and hogs?

Actually they're doing so. Nothing more than that. The dogs and hogs, they're busy all day and night for the same thing: how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex life, how to defend. The man is also working in the same way, under different label only—nationalism, socialism, this "ism," that "ism"—but the action of the dog and hog and the human society, so-called civilized, the point is the same. So Ṛṣabhadeva says that the dogs and hogs, they are working so hard for sense gratification, but this human form of body is not meant for that. It is for different path.

That the modern civilization, they do not know that. Modern men, society, they do not know. They simply think that, "Yes, dog is sleeping on the street. We must have very nice building, very nice apartment, very nice bedstead. That is advancement of civilization. Otherwise it is primitive, if we remain in the same standard, sleeping anywhere, without any furniture, without . . ." But after all, the subject matter is sleeping, nothing more than that. Similarly, you take eating also, or mating also.

Then the question will be, then what do you say the human life is meant for? The answer is, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed (SB 5.5.1). Human life is meant for tapasya. Tapasya. Tapasya means austerity. Denying this. Denying. The cats and dogs are satisfied—as they eat more, they think they're enjoying. Nowadays the human being also. They're using so many appetizer, drinking. We study this in the aeroplane. Before eating, they supply wine, makes the appetite very strong, then eat so much, huge quantity.

(aside) You have marked it?

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that is their enjoyment. But Ṛṣabhadeva says, or the śāstra says, "No, no, you should not eat at all. That is your perfection." Just see. These, these animal-like men, they are eating so much, they are enjoying. But your business should be to decrease up to the point of nil, no more eating. So are they prepared? No. It is very difficult. But that is the aim. Therefore you will find, those who are for spiritual advan . . . just like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī belonged to a very rich man's, son. His father and uncle were very rich men in . . . five hundred years ago, the income was twelve lakhs of rupees per annum. That one lakh, one hundred thousand of rupees, I think at the present moment, the value has increased one hundred thousand times.

Haṁsadūta: . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Within our life we see in our childhood, our boyhood we have seen rice was selling at three rupees four annas, first-class rice. My father used to purchase fifteen maunds of rice at a time, and the cost was three rupees four annas. Just like cumin seeds, so fine. First-class rice. Now that first-class rice, at least in India, no more available, because all first-class rice is exported. Indian government wants exchange; they want to get machine. So in exchange of machine, they are sending all nice foodstuff outside. Even killing the cows, they are sending meat, skin. With Russia they have got agreement.

So the Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī's father's income was one hundred thousand rupees per month. Now, I have heard that sometimes in one rupee, they were selling nine maunds of rice. So anyway, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, the point is, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was very, very rich man's son, only son, and had very beautiful wife. The father saw that, "This boy is a little restless. He's very much attracted with Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement. He wants to join, so he'll go away from home. So let him have a very beautiful wife, so that he may not go away." So rich man, to get a beautiful wife is not a very difficult thing. He got, and a special house, garden house, and with guard, so that the son may not go away. This was the position of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.

So one day Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī's . . . at that time he was not gosvāmī; Raghunātha. Raghunātha's mother was advising her husband, or Raghunātha's father, "Why don't you shackle him?" As woman she was suggesting that, "Better, just like in prison house they are locked up in iron chain, similarly you do for my son so that he'll not be able to go away." So the father was replying, "You mad woman, don't you see I have given such a nice wife, shackle, he's not attached at all. And what this iron shackle will do?" This was Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.

After all, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, somehow or other, in spite of vigilance of the father and mother, he left home and joined Caitanya Mahāprabhu at Jagannātha Purī. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very glad that Raghunātha has come. So his father thought that, "The boy has gone away. He's not inclined. So he may not suffer for want of money," so he sent four servants and four hundred rupees per month expenditure for Raghunātha. So Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, in the beginning he was accepting that four hundred rupees, but what he was doing, he was spending by inviting all the sannyāsīs, including Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

So gradually Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī said that all his men, father's men, "You better go home. I don't want your assistance. I don't want this money. You go away." The master . . . so they went back. And there was no invitation. Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired his personal secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara. So Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was entrusted for training to Svarūpa Dāmodara. He asked Svarūpa Dāmodara, "We don't receive any invitation from Raghunātha nowadays. What is that?" "No, he has refused his father's money. He doesn't take. These men have gone back." Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu went, "Oh, that's very nice. He became a mendicant by taking help from home, it is not good. He has refused, that is very nice. But how he is eating nowadays?" "Now he is standing on the staircase at Jagannātha temple. When the priests go home, they give him some contribution of the foodstuff. He is maintained."

Then after few days Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired from Svarūpa Dāmodara, "Oh, nowadays I don't find Raghunātha standing there. What he is doing?" Svarūpa Dāmodara replied that "Raghunātha has given up that business standing on this. He thought that it is standing like prostitute. 'No, I don't want.' " Then, "How he's eating?" "No, he is . . . collects some rice which is washed away from the kitchen, and he eats that." Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was doing that. Caitanya Mahāprabhu one day went to his place and He was searching, just He was encouraging, He was searching. He saw that a small pot some rice is kept. So, "Raghunātha, what is this?" He began to eat, "Oh, is very nice. You eat such nice things, you do not invite us?" (laughter) Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī said: "It is not for You. Don't take it, don't . . ." "No, no, it is very nice!" In this way Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī increased, and later on, when after departure of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he went to live in Vṛndāvana with the six Gosvāmīs—he is also one of the Gosvāmīs—he was taking three times bathing, but not eating. Every alternate days, he will take a little buttermilk. That's all. This is called tapasya, austerity—coming to the point of nil, no more eating. No more sleeping, no more sex life, no more defense. This is perfection. Who will accept this? (laughter)

Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva says, nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke, to collect for eating, sleeping and mating, whole day and night working, this is not good. Then what is good? Tapaḥ. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed (SB 5.5.1). Sattvam means your existence has to be purified. Our existence, this existence is not purified—therefore we have got this material body. Now what is the disagreement. "Let us have this material . . . we are enjoying very nicely. What is this bad?" But these rascals, they have no idea that we can avoid the, I mean to say, miserable condition of this body. We can avoid.

This, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudar . . . (BG 13.9), but they do not know that this is unhappiness, this is distaste. They are so callous, just like animal. They cannot think that there is possibility of not being slaughtered. When they are taken in the slaughterhouse, they agree to go because they know there is no other way: "We have been made . . . meant for being slaughtered." Actually that is the position. The poor animals, they have no power to protest, neither combinedly they can give you fighting to the human being.

You will see one hundred cows are being driven by one boy or one man. They are so helpless. If they combine, with their horns they can immediately kill that man, but they have no intelligence. They do not know how to fight. Sometimes they fight. But this is position of the rascals and fools. Take the example: one cow or one bull is quite strong enough to kill ten men. He has got so much strength. But because he has no intelligence, because he is animal, hundreds of cows and bulls are being driven by one man to the slaughterhouse.

So the . . . this intelligence, that is difference between the animal and the man. If one hundred men was being taken away like that, immediately the man who was taking to kill them, immediate . . . why one hundred? Ten men would have been sufficient, or two men would have been sufficiently stronger; they would not tolerate. Similarly, we are also being driven by the laws of nature to accept these inconveniences, repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. But at the present moment—why at the present moment; always—these people, these rascal people, they do not know that we can be rescued from this repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. They have no idea. And that is civilization.

How to get out of this birth, death, old age and disease, that is civilization. But no one, nobody knows—scientists no, philosopher no, politician . . . they can concede that there is such possibility. In the Bhagavad-gītā therefore it is said:

yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete

puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha

sama-sukhaṁ-duḥkham dhīraṁ

so 'mṛtatvāya kalpate

(BG 2.15)

Amṛtatva. Amṛtatva means no more births, no more death. No more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. That is called amṛtatva. Amṛta means eternity or immortality. Hiraṇyakaśipu tried. Hiraṇyakaśipu, you know Prahlāda Mahārāja's father, he was defeated by the demigods. Therefore he left home and went for tapasya, to become immortal. So he was a demon, so he was undergoing tapasya, other demigods, not Kṛṣṇa, because he was against Kṛṣṇa. Demons means against God. They'll never go to God. They'll go to somebody else for power. So Hiraṇyakaśipu, when Brahmā visited that, "Why you are undergoing so serious tapasya that the whole world is trembling by your tapasya? What do you want?" so he said: "I want to become immortal." Lord Brahmā said: "That is not in my power, because myself is not also immortal. How can I give immortality?"

So he was a demon. He thought by cheating Brahmā, indirect way, he took all the benediction, that "I shall not die by any . . . killed by any man, any demigod, any animal or any living being. I shall not die in daytime, I shall not die at night, I shall not die in the sky, I shall not die on the land, I shall not die in water." In this way, as much as possible, by the definition of negation—not this, not this, not this—he thought, "Now I have become immortal." But he was also killed by Nṛsiṁha-deva, keeping all the promises of Brahmā. He was not killed daytime, neither at night. He was not killed on water, he was not killed in the sky. He was killed on the lap of the Lord. So in this way . . . actually, even the demons in those days, they were thinking that, "Why should we be subjected to these laws of birth, death and disease? We must rescue." But the demons cannot. But there is possibility. But who knows? Ask anybody, ask any scientist, philosopher, that, "Have you any process by which we can become immortal?" What they will answer? "Up to date we have no such process, but we are trying. In future." They will say like that.

But no question of future. Immediately you can have. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says: "Simply if somebody knows what I am, what is My activities, janma, why do I appear in this material world . . ." janma karma. He appears like human being—not exactly, but it is supposed that He accepts one father and mother, and He appears, Devakī, Vasudeva. But that is not ordinary thing. Here also it is said that, "You undergo tapasya, but not like Hiraṇyakaśipu, for cheating Brahmā. Divyam: for understanding God." Just like Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam, transcendental, yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa, His transcendental position, if you try to understand, then Kṛṣṇa says, "What is the result?" Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ.

(aside) Where is that verse? Find out.

Where is Bhagavad-gītā? Yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Find it out, yes. Yes, read it.

Pradyumna: Translation? (break)

Prabhupāda: Yes. And one who does not take birth, for him there is no old age, no disease. So here it is summarized that he does not take any more birth within this material world. What is the purport? Read.

Pradyumna: "The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body." (break)

Prabhupāda: Janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). How Kṛṣṇa expands Himself, how He appears, what is the nature of His body, these things if you simply understand, then you become immortal. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Just to give the people a chance to understand Kṛṣṇa, then he becomes immortal. That is the mission of life. Not that to enjoy sense gratification in a polished way, but the business is the same as the dogs and hog enjoy. That is being instructed here. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Viḍ-bhujām means the pigs, who eat stool. They're also enjoying like that. They have got very free sex enjoyment. They do not care who is mother, who is sister—with anyone. We have seen, that is . . . nature has got examples. Everything, you can study.

You'll find in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that by studying nature you can get so many instruction, perfect. So one devotee made the nature his spiritual master, and studying nature and getting so much information. So if we study like that, here as it is given, the example, viḍ-bhujāṁ ye. So viḍ-bhujām means the pigs or the hog. They are also eating nicely, getting fat, and having sex intercourse very freely, so does it mean that human being is also meant for this business, like the hogs and dogs? This is the point. This is the instruction.

This body is not meant for such enjoyment of the senses, but this body is meant for tapaḥ, austerity, as Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī showed example. He came to the point of nil. How to come to that point, tapasya. Why? By that process your existentional position will be purified. And if you say: "What is the use of purifying?" there is use, because you want happiness, but your happiness is disturbed. You cannot have perpetual, uninterrupted happiness in this body. Therefore, if you really want happiness, then you purify your existence and you'll get continued eternal happiness of bliss and knowledge. This should be the aim of human life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda . . . (cut) (end)