740419 - Lecture Hindi - Hyderabad

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

740419LE-HYDERABAD - April 19, 1974 - 27:48 Minutes

(Translated from Hindi into English)

The Lord comes, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto (BG 9.34), the Lord says, "Always think of Me." Man-manāh, mad-bhaktah, "Become My devotee." The Lord says, "Become My devotee, not anyone else's." This you have to understand. If somebody says, " I am a devotee of somebody else. So will this not work?" No! The Lord says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto—become My devotee.

Everyone is actually a devotee of something always. Someone is devoted to his family life, someone is devoted to his country, someone to his society, someone is devotee to liquor, so devoted they are to something or other, without being so one cannot live. Because their real business it to be a devotee. But they have forgotten the Lord and everything else that is there, in the end they become devoted to the dog also. They have to be a devotee. But only they do not want to become devotee of the Lord, they want to be devoted to all other things. This is their disease.

That is why the Lord says, all other types of devotion is māyā. daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So māyā puts them to sleep – "why are you becoming the devotee of the Lord? Become my devotee! Become the devotee of the other demigods!" kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ yajanta iha devatāḥ (BG 4.12) and we get entangled. karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ, by approaching the other demigods we achieve siddhi very soon. But what is that siddhi all about? Material things.

Just like it is said in the scriptures that, "if you want a particular thing, then you worship this particular demigod. You will get it." This is an injunction in the scripture. And you get it also. So kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ yajanta iha devatāḥ, all these demigods they are demigods of this material world. The Lord does not belong to the material world. Just like Sankaracarya has said, nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt avyaktāt anya sambhavah, Narayana is avyakta, He is beyond the mahat-tattva. So this they do not know. mohitaṁ nābhijānāti (BG 7.13), they want to remain enamored by this only. They do not want to advance. But it is the business of the Lord and so He says, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7) when a person gives up dharma, dharma means devotional service. The Lord has said in this in the end, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ (BG 18.66), this is dharma.

The Lord is saying here, mām eva ye prapadyante (BG 7.14), this is real dharma. All the others are improvised material religions. Just try to understand, this body is there, till the body is there I say I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am a Christian, I follow such and such religion. Suppose we give up this body and become something else, there is no guarantee that we will get a human form of life only. According to our karma we will get our body. So if today I am a Hindu, Muslim or Christian, and tomorrow according to my karma if I get a birth somewhere else, an animal body to then my religion is finished. Everything ends with the ending of the body.

So the real dharma is surrendering to the Supreme Lord, just as the Lord says, mām eva ye prapadyante. Their devotional service is never lost. In this birth whatever effort you may have put in as devotional service, if the efforts are complete then we go back to Godhead, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9), back to Godhead. If devotional service is not complete, something is left unfinished then, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41) for one who falls down from bhakti yoga or devotional service then there is no loss for him in that.

If the process of devotional service is started and going forward he is not able to complete this process due to some reason, again he has fallen into the hands of māyā, this can happen because māyā is very strong. She defeats us all the time. So we should also be strong. So how can we be strong? mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14) If we catch hold of the lotus feet of the Lord very tightly then māyā cannot do anything. This is the solution.

So when we have such a simple solution to become liberated, mām eva ye prapadyante. To become liberated from māyā great jnanis take sannyas, give up family life, undergo great austerities, somebody goes to Himalayas, somebody goes to the forest, what all they do. Why? To get relief from māyā. Brahma bhutah, to attain brahma jnana. And here the Lord says mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te—if one takes shelter of My lotus feet, he is at once out of the clutches of māyā. Immediately, no delay, within a second.

A lot of people ask me that how many days it will take to attain devotional service? Not even a second! Why? The real business is surrender. If someone comes in front of the Lord and says, "O Lord, for so many days I have been the servant of māyā." And to be the servant of māyā means to the servant of my senses. kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās (Brs 3.2.35). The senses make us do what we are not supposed to do. So therefore, "For so many days I have been the servant of senses." kāmādīnāṁ—lust, anger, greed—the servant of these. "But by being such a servant I did not experience any happiness." And of whom I was servant even they were not happy.

Just see, this is the reality, rule of the material world. All of you please think over this point. Gandhiji, Mahatma Gandhi, he did such great service for the nation, served the nation. But at the end a person from that country killed him. Just see a great person like Gandhiji, who can serve better than him. So what to talk about us! You can serve the world as much as you want but they will never be happy with you. They will never say: "O you have worked a lot, served a lot. Now sit at home. No need to serve anymore." Ask you wife in the old age that, " I have tried so long to keep you all happy. I will now go to Vrindavana and stay there." Everyone will be upset, "O how can you go to Vrindavana? This work is left to be done, this work is left to be done, this work is left to be done." Something is always pending.

Therefore, surrender, if one understands this point that, "For lust and anger I served everyone in this world but nobody achieved happiness. Neither they nor me achieved happiness. So O Lord, I have come to You. From today I am Your servant. I am always Your servant but I had forgotten." So just doing this will liberate you. At that very moment you are liberated. If he speaks from his heart, with sincerity that, "O Lord, from today I am Your servant. I am already Your servant, but I have forgotten and become someone else's servant." This is called mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te.

So at any moment if we bow our head at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and say this much that, "O Lord, for so many days I have served someone else as a servant. Nor he whom I served nor I achieved happiness. Now I have got my intelligence. Since I have to serve anyways I want to serve You. Please accept me." Just by saying this he is liberated.

It is very simple. Now the question arises that if there is such a simple thing available to be liberated, why doesn't a person accept this? Huh? If this is really so simple if with sincerity in heart we tell the Lord only once that we are from today your servant and I will do Your bidding. So what is the difficulty in this? By becoming the servant of the Lord is there any reduction in his honor? No! Look, we are serving the Lord as His servants, travelling all over the world and preaching this only that, "You become the servant of God." There is no magic involved in this. It is not a fact that I show some magic, produce some gold, something else. No we don't have all these things. We only say, that kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28) and the Lord has spoken, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ( BG 18.66) and I am also requesting you the same thing that you become the devotee of God, serve the Lord. That's all we say.

By doing this servitorship for the Lord is our honor less because of this? Wherever we go you honor us. So by becoming the servant of God the honor given by the world does not reduce. The honor given by the world increases even more. Just like in the material world if we become the servant of someone, so he becomes the master and I have become the servant, so our honor will reduce. No! No! No! You become the servant of Kṛṣṇa your honor will increase tremendously, even more. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā, but he will not do this. Māyā is so strong that it will not let this happen. It will not let this happen.

So it is said that who cannot be a devotee of the Lord. The Lord Himself says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). It is a very exalted position. Who doesn't want to the servant of the Lord? He says, one is duṣkṛtinaḥ, na māṁ duṣkṛtino, duṣkṛti means one who is always engaged in sinful activities. He is a duṣkṛtinaḥ. kṛti means one who performs meritorious activities, very intelligent. But all his intelligence is used up in finding out ways and means to perform sinful activities. So this person, na māṁ duṣkṛtino prapadyante, the Lord says "Surrender unto Me and get liberated that moment. Māyā will leave you alone." But he will not do this. Why? The reason for this is the constant sinful activities he performs. duṣkṛtinaḥ.

Who else does not do this? mūḍhāḥ. Big big acaryas have given a lengthy explanation of this. You do not have time to hear the lengthy explanation and I also don't have the time. But as far as possible try to simply understand this. duṣkṛtinaḥ means one who is always engaged in sinful activities. And another is mūḍhāḥ. mūḍhāh means ass. Why is he called an ass? An ass is less intelligent. He works hard the whole day, lugs the washerman's clothes on his back, cant walk also as he carries so many clothes. But what does he get in return? A handful of grass. So the ass does not have so much intelligence that this grass he will get from anywhere, why do I have to work so hard for the washerman? This intelligence he does not have. He thinks that the washerman is feeding him. A handful of grass, the washerman is giving me. This two tons of grass that he puts on me, I should stop this. So this is called ass.

So the ordinary karmis work very hard day and night, earn a lot of money but for others, just like the washerman. He himself eats only two rotis, that's all. Its not that if I earn two lakhs of rupees today so I can make rotis made of gold and eat them. He won't eat rotis made of gold, but he will eat rotis only, wheat rotis.

So we should have this intelligence that if by the grace of God I am able to get two rotis so why I should work so hard. Whatever little we need for family life we should be satisfied with that, the rest of the time discuss about the Lord. This intelligence they don't have. They don't have time. People do not have time to eat. They have time to do everything else but to hear about the pastimes of the Lord they don't have time. The scriptures call this mūḍhāḥ.

The real thing, the business of the human form of life, to understand oneself, to understand the Lord, to understand what is our relationship with the Lord, to understand such things, Athāto brahma-jijñāsā (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.1) this is the business of human form of life. But he has left all this and only works like an ass. And what is the result? Two rotis!

Mūḍhāḥ, na māṁ prapadyante duṣkṛtino mūḍhāh. Who else is there? na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). And narādhama, narādhama means, nara means human being and the most fallen of them. Why? The human form of life is meant for engaging in devotional service. But that we have given up and are now engaged in so many other things. In all other matters we have a lot of enthusiasm but for doing devotional service, to understand God, we have no time. That's why narādhama, he got the human form of life, another name for him is kṛpaṇa,

etad viditva yah prayati sa eva brahmana gargi,

etad aviditva yah prayati sa eva krpana

(Garga Upanishad)

The human form of life that we have received to use it appropriately, to get the fruits, to get the benefits, to achieve the association of the Lord, to achieve these ends. But they don't do it. Hence they are called narādhama.

And then there is another class called māyayāpahṛta-jñānā (BG 7.15), someone can say that you are saying all this but we see big big philosophers who don't believe in God but believe that they themselves are God. So what is this about? They are big big philosophers. So the Lord says, they are philosophers but the knowledge that they have received from scholarship that has been snatched away by māyā. Just like you have some valuable item, diamond, and you are thinking that the valuable diamond is there in your house under lock and key, unperturbed. But when you go home you see that the diamond has been stolen by someone.

Similarly the so-called philosophers they don't understand God. They are not called philosophers. Vidya means one who understands God by that, such a person is a philosopher. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19), this act of surrendering can be done by whom? After doing austerities for many births when he is situated in perfect knowledge, only then can he surrender to the Lord. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19) so these so-called knowledge of M.A., PhD., but they don't understand God, they deny existence of God.

Big big philosophers write commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā but the underlying thought is to deny the existence of Kṛṣṇa. "Only I am Kṛṣṇa, I am God." That's why it is said apahṛta-jñānā (BG 7.15), māyā has snatched away his knowledge from these people. So these kinds of people are there.

So why does this happen? Those who are very sinful, those who are mūḍhā, narādhama, and those knowledge is snatched away by māyā, why does all this happen? So the Lord answers this also āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ (BG 7.15). Because he has accepted the demoniac mentality. What is demoniac mentality? Atheism. They don't accept God, who is God? We are all God, God is loitering on the streets. Why are you going to the temples to search for God? This is spoken by big big swamis. This is called āsura bhāva.

There are two natures (bhāva), āsura bhāva and deva bhāva. āsura daiva eva ca (BG 16.6), those who are devotees of the Lord they are demigods, daiva bhava. And those who are not devotees of the Lord, those who do not accept the Lord, they are asura bhava. There are two kinds of people in this world, daiva āsura eva ca visnu-bhaktah smrto daiva asuras tad-viparyayah (CC Adi 3.91). Those who are not devotees of the Lord they are called asura.

By having this asura bhava they engage in sinful activities, they work hard uselessly day and night, they don't know the purpose of human form of life and the so-called knowledge that they have acquired abcd the results of which are snatched away by māyā. That's all! There is no result of passing MA BA in the university because the real intelligence is stolen away by māyā. āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ (BG 7.15).

So what is the solution? We see people like this fill the world. So who will do devotional service? The Lord answers this also. What does He say?

catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ

janāḥ su-kṛtino 'rjuna

ārto jijñāsur arthārthī

jñānī ca bharatarṣabha

(BG 7.16)

He says, there are four kinds of people who don't do sinful activities, they do pious activities sukṛti. That was duṣkṛti, this is sukṛti, they do pious activities. That's why the scriptures advise that do good work, do pious work, do sacrfices, do charity, perfrom austerities, take Ganges bath, go on pilgrimage, don't speak lies, don't eat nonsense food stuff from here and there, eat sattvic food, these things are there. This is called sukṛti, those who don't do sinful activities. Those who follow the injunctions of the scriptures and mould their life that is called sukṛti. That's why religious scriptures should be adhered to so that in the future we can understand about the topics on the Lord.

And if we don't follow the injunctions of the scriptures, act whimsically, eat whimsically, act whimsically, then in the future we will not be able to connect with God. And if we don't connect with God then we will have to roam around in the 840000 species of life—sometimes aquatic, sometimes ant, sometimes elephant, sometimes demigod, sometimes human being, sometimes demon, sometimes Brahma, sometimes the worm in the stool. Then we get stuck in janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). That's why it is said in the scriputures do pious activities, do good work. If you do good work then heart is cleansed and if heart is cleansed then one can understand God and life becomes successful. sukṛti.

So in Kaliyuga human beings are so fallen that he is not able to perform pious activities according to scriptural injunctions. mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10) Their brain power is dulled, mandāḥ sumanda-matayo and manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10) and they are unlucky also. Even if one wants to engage in devotional service he gets stuck somewhere, some demon claims that I am God, he gets stuck with him. manda-bhāgyā. So these are the inconveniences of Kaliyuga. That's why in Kaliyuga the scriputural injunction is that the people are so much fallen that they cannot engage in devotional service and practice. Only one thing should be given to them. What is that?

harer nāma harer nāma

ha Purāṇasrer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

(CC Adi 17.21)

In Kaliyuga sacrifice, charity, austerity and activity this cannot be performed by the human beings. Therefore it is said three times, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. All the other injuctions that are there in the scriptures—do sacrifice, do charity—these cannot be performed as human beings are so fallen. So what is to be done? harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam. All the time only chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

You can see the result. All these western boys who are with me are doing harinama and all that I guide them to do, see how advanced they have become. This is the only medicine for Kaliyuga, bhavauṣadhi, harer nāma harer nāma.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)