740814 - Lecture SB 01.05.33 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

740814SB-VRNDAVAN - August 14, 1974 - 26:19 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ

jāyate yena suvrata

tad eva hy āmayaṁ dravyaṁ

na punāti cikitsitam

(SB 1.5.33)

Is very important verse. Actually, this is the essence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. What is that? People become diseased by sense gratification. Everyone knows. Too much sense gratification means creating disease. For example, some nice eatable. But if you . . . because it is very nice rasagullā, therefore I shall devour one dozen, that's not very good. That will create indigestion immediately. So in this material world, people are so much enthusiastic in the matter of sense gratification. Whole world—not only now—this is the place for competition of sense gratification. Advancement of civilization means, the so-called civilization, material civ . . . means how much you are able to gratify your senses. That is civilization. How much you are given facilities to gratify your senses. This is the modern idea: hedonism. More eat, more drink—eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. Sense gratification.

This is not only new. Formerly, the Cārvāka Muni, he also advocated, ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. In India, they want to eat very nice foodstuff prepared from ghee. So he advised that ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet: even you have no money, then beg, borrow or steal, get ghee and eat very nice. Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā, the word is . . . suppose one has no money, then how to get money? Either cheat somebody, beg . . . or beg. But begging for gṛhastha is not very good thing, but sometimes they do so, beg, borrow or, promising, "Give me now money. I shall pay you." And when credit is lost, then steal, pickpocket. This is as theory. Similarly, Cārvāka Muni, ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet, "Never mind." "No, I will have to pay." "No, that we shall see later on, never mind." "No, I will be sinful, I will have to pay next life." This is within the blood of every Indian, that if I cheat you or if I take some money from you without your benefit, without repayment, then I will have to suffer. Still in India they believe this.

There are some incidences that a man . . . his father took some loan from some gentleman and his father died, and his son came to pay the money to the creditor: "Sir, my father took so much money from you. Now my father died without payment. So I have got money. You kindly take it." He says: "Let me see my book whether your father took it." So he said: "All right, consult." So after consulting the books, he said, "I don't find any item that I gave loan to your father." "No, sir, I know. My father said at the time of death that, 'I owe so much money to that gentleman. I could not pay; you pay it.' " So the trouble was, the man says: "I don't find any debit to your father's name. How can I take your money?" And he is insisting, "Yes, my father took money from you. Kindly take." This was India. This was India. They knew that, "I cannot cheat you." Karmī, in the karma-kāṇḍa, if I cheat you, then I will have to pay you four times this life or next life. That is the law of karma.

Therefore, we are collecting money; we should not cheat. Every paisa should be spent for Kṛṣṇa; otherwise we shall be liable to pay. If we use one farthing for our sense gratification, then we will have to pay for it. This is the law of karma. The charity is given, why? Why charity is given to the brāhmaṇa? Nowadays they have manufactured charity to the daridra-nārāyaṇa, poor man, gāñjā smoker, bīḍī smoker. But in the śāstra, it is not. Śāstra says, tasmin deha: those who are devotee, those who are brāhmaṇa, they should be given, he should be given, he should accept. Why? Because if a brāhmaṇa takes some money from you, if a Vaiṣṇava takes money from you, he everything will employ in the service of the Lord. This is utilization.

So at the present moment, people are becoming more and more poor, and they are simply educated to gratify senses. So the whole world becoming chaotic, diseased condition. Even in the topmost level, the President of United State, he was also caught dealing very unfavorably, and he was forced to resign. And what to speak of others? He is not a poor man, he is not uneducated—the topmost man, elected President of USA—but there is cheating even there. Just see. And what to speak of others? Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is, tat tad eva itaraḥ janaḥ, sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate (BG 3.21). If a person, president, cheats his countrymen somehow or other, and why not others? They will also do that. "Oh, president does it. What I am? What can I know?" In this way, the more we are inclined to sense gratification, the more we are becoming sinful. And more we are becoming sinful, the more we must suffer. That is the law of nature. Āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ jāyate yena suvrata.

So by this karma . . . vikarma rather. Karma means when you act according to the śāstra, that is called karma. Lawful activities. The lawful activities is very good. But unlawful activities, you are punishable. So the business of sense gratification is unlawful activities. You cannot gratify your senses more than necessity. Everywhere that is the stringent laws of nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot surpass it. Duratyayā. If you surpass, then you will be punished. There is simultaneous law of nature. The example is that you can eat, say, four ounce or eight ounce foodstuff. If you eat ten ounce, then there will be suffering, indigestion, you cannot eat, There will be dysentery, so many things. That is nature's law. So people are becoming entangled in karma. Yajña sa karma: one should work for Yajña, for Kṛṣṇa. But they are not doing that. They are doing for sense gratification. Ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇā. Bhuñjate te aghaṁ pāpaṁ ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt (BG 3.13). That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you live only for sense gratification, then you become entangled in the law of karma.

So here it is suggested that āmayo yatra bhūtānāṁ. In the previous verse Nārada said, karma brahmaṇi bhāvitam. Karma, your activities, should be dovetailed in the matter of satisfying the Supreme Lord. That is the way of devotional service. But how karma can be engaged, that is prescribed in this verse, that āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ jāyate yena suvrata. You get disease. Suppose you have taken too much milk and you become diseased, dysentery, could not digest, have taken too much sweetrice or rābṛi, so there is dysentery. That must be there. Too much eating will cause. So āmayaḥ, āmayaḥ means mucus or disease. So there is mucus, yatra bhūtānāṁ, due to eating too much milk preparation. Tad eva hy āmayaṁ dravyaṁ na punāti cikitsitam. So cannot be cured even by that milk preparation. The same milk preparation which has caused your mucus, disease, it can be cured by the same milk preparation, cikitsitam, but it should be medically treated. The same milk. The milk is the cause of your dysentery, but the same milk, when it is medically treated, can cure it. This is the secret. How? One milk preparation . . . milk is the origin. Rābṛi, you take too much and there is dysentery. And cikitsitam, the same milk converted into yogurt, add little black pepper, little salt and lime, it will cure. The origin is the milk. So one way you become diseased, and the other way you become cured. But the preparation is the same—milk.

Similarly, our activities in this material world with these material elements, when we violate the laws, we become entangled. But the same material activities, when it is turned into Kṛṣṇa prasādam, dovetailed with Kṛṣṇa for hearing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra . . . what we are doing? We are also doing the same thing. Here is the temple. What is this temple? The same ingredients: the same cement, same brick, same stone, same worker, same plan as the skyscraper. But what is the difference? Because it is cikitsitam; it is for Kṛṣṇa. You spoil your energy by the same purchase of cement, bricks and other things for sense gratification—a theater hall, a dancing hall. The same energy spent for dancing for Kṛṣṇa, the same hall, you become liberated. By one dancing hall you go to hell, and by another dancing hall you become liberated. This is the secret.

So people have got the tendency for sense gratification. That is the material disease. So instead of satisfying your senses, try to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa. Then you become liberated. This is called cikitsitam. There is sense gratification. Here, when you chant and dance, this is not your sense gratification; this is Kṛṣṇa's sense gratification: "Oh, these devotees, they are glorifying Me, they are dancing. Blessed they are." Immediately you draw attention of Kṛṣṇa, because it is bhakti.

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ

smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ . . .

(SB 7.5.23)

Bhāgavaty tan manye adhītam, this is the best thing. The Māyāvādī, they do not know this. They simply stop dancing. They do not know that this ball dancing may lead one to hell, but the chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is not like that. They do not know it. They simply take the negative side: stop dancing. We say: "No. No stop it. We shall dance for Kṛṣṇa, we shall eat for Kṛṣṇa, we shall print books for Kṛṣṇa—not newspaper. We shall secure money for printing for Kṛṣṇa." The same thing—the same printing, same working, same dancing, same eating—but for Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply you have to change the, what is called, interest. Everyone is acting for self-interest, but bhakti-mārga, devotional service of Kṛṣṇa's interest, that is real interest. Same example: If somebody is working hard securing foodstuff, for whose interest? He is walking, the leg is walking, the hand is collecting, the eyes are seeing, and so many things they are done. Now what is to be done now? Do everything, cook everything nicely, and put it into the stomach. Not that the leg will say: "I have worked so hard"; the hand will say: "I shall eat." No, you cannot eat. The stomach will eat, you simply work. But if the stomach is allowed to eat, then automatically the hands and legs will be happy.

So this is cikitsitam. Don't work for sense gratification or personal interest. Real interest is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is real interest, but they do not know it. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇu (SB 7.5.31). Everyone is, "I have got my interest." But you do not know what is your interest. Your interest is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. But the rascals, they do not know. They say: "Why Kṛṣṇa? Myself, I shall enjoy everything." This is karma and bhakti. When karma . . . karmī means they are working for their so-called interest, and bhakti means they are working for Kṛṣṇa's interest. They . . . superficially, the activities are the same. Same means superficially, not in essence. So our senses are so trained up that we want to satisfy the senses. Now these devotional activities means instead of satisfying my personal senses, if we want to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses, this method is called bhakti. So the activities of the senses should not be stopped; it should be repaired or reformed. That is cikitsitam, "properly treated." Cikitsitam, this is the word. Cikitsitam means properly treated, under the direction of physician. The physician is guru, and guru's business is to instruct the disciple, "My dear son, you do not work for your so-called sense gratification, you try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses, then your life is perfect." This is the physician's duty, and this is the patient's duty. Cikitsitam. Cikitsitam is purification. You have got disease; purify yourself.

So this process, this changing of, transformation . . . to work for Kṛṣṇa's sense gratification and to work for one's own sense gratification, this transformation change, this changing process, is called bhakti. Process is the same; simply account should be changed. That's all. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Everyone is working, daridra-nārāyaṇa sevā or this community sevā, the country sevā, nationally sevā, this sevā, that sevā. Nobody is for Kṛṣṇa sevā. Nobody will be happy, sir. Go on with your so-called sevā. It will never be successful. You will be more and more entangled in diseased condition. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Simply by your so-called activities you will be entangled in the law of karma. And according to your karma, you will get a different type of body and you will live for some time, again you will die, again you will get body, again you will . . . and you do not know what kind of body you are going to get. This is the entanglement. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9).

So if we want to be free from the entanglement of this karma, then we must work for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa's another name is Yajña, Yajñabhuja, Viṣṇu. Yajñārthāt karmaṇaḥ, this is the cikitsitam. The material activities you are becoming entangled, and you are becoming more and more diseased. So you should be treated. How? The same thing. Milk is . . . rābṛi is also milk preparation and dahī is also milk preparation. So you are becoming diseased by this process. Now you take this process, you will be cured. Then you will be happy.

Therefore it is said, tad eva hy āmayaṁ dravyaṁ na punāti cikitsitam. Cikitsitam. We should handle everything material properly treated. Properly treated. Not to work for anyone. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us lesson that you are jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109). Every living entity is eternally the servant of Kṛṣṇa. So instead of becoming servant of your senses, just try to become the servant of Kṛṣṇa, then your life will be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)