761126 - Lecture SB 05.06.04 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

761126SB-VRNDAVAN - November 26, 1976 - 26.05 Minutes

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

nityaṁ dadāti kāmasya

cchidraṁ tam anu ye 'rayaḥ

yoginaḥ kṛta-maitrasya

patyur jāyeva puṁścalī

(SB 5.6.4)

(break) Translation: (01:36) "An unchaste woman is very easily carried away by paramours, and it sometimes happens that her husband is violently killed by her paramours. If the yogī gives his mind a chance and does not restrain it, his mind will give facility to enemies like lust, anger and greed, and they will doubtlessly kill the yogī." (break)

Prabhupāda: Purport?

Pradyumna: "In this verse the word puṁ . . . (indistinct) . . . who is easily carried away by men. Such a woman is never to be trusted. Unfortunately, in the present age, women are never controlled. According to the directions of śāstras, women are never to be given freedom. When a child, a woman must be strictly controlled by her father. When she is young, she must be strictly controlled by her husband, and when she is old, she must be controlled by her elderly sons. If she is given independence and allowed to mingle unrestrictedly with men, she will be spoiled. A spoiled woman, being manipulated by paramours, might even kill her husband. This example is given here because a yogī desiring to get free from material conditions must always keep his mind under control. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to say that in the morning our first business should be to beat the mind with shoes a hundred times, and, before going to bed, to beat the mind a hundred times with a broomstick. In this way one's mind can be kept under control. An uncontrolled mind and an unchaste wife are the same. An unchaste wife can kill her husband at any time, and an uncontrolled mind, followed by lust, anger, greed, madness, envy and illusion, can certainly kill the yogī. When the yogī is controlled by the mind, he falls down into the material condition. One should be very careful of the mind, just as a husband should be careful of an unchaste wife." (break)

Prabhupāda:

nityaṁ dadāti kāmasya

cchidraṁ tam anu ye 'rayaḥ

yoginaḥ kṛta-maitrasya

patyur jāyeva puṁścalī

(SB 5.6.4)

So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, everything threadbare discussed, very practical, and absolute truth. There are social, political, religious. Everything is discussed very scientifically. So here the example is given of the woman, puṁścalī. There are three kinds of woman: kāminī, svairendrī and puṁścalī, according to śāstra. So they become, because . . . just like children. They are innocent, and if they are given freedom they will be spoiled. Everyone knows it. If you don't give proper training to the children and allow him to do independently whatever he likes, that means that child is spoiled. Prāpte tu ṣoḍaśa-varṣe . . .

Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has advised,

lālane bahavo doṣās

tāḍane bahavo guṇāḥ

tasmāt putraṁ ca śiṣyam ca

tāḍayen na tu lālayet

This is required. And Tulasī dāsa, he has also said . . . Tulasī dāsa is big poet in Hindi language. He has written the Rāma-carita-manas. His opinion . . . not only his opinion; that is the Vedic opinion, that . . . he says, dhol gamar strī śūdra . . . paśu śūdra nārī, ei ei sab śāsana ke adhikārī. So this statement will not be very palatable to the Western girls. They want independence. In Chicago, when I was there, they talked about independence of the woman. They asked me question. So I replied, "No, womans cannot be given independence." So there was a great agitation against me. In many papers I was very much criticized. But actually it is the fact, because they are innocent, not so intelligent and . . . these are all practical. We may avoid discussing, but Bhāgavata is very open for discussing all subject matter. That is fact. We should not hide anything artificially. We must discuss the fact. Not only here, the mention it is, the Manu-saṁhitā. Manu-saṁhitā recommends, "A woman should not be given independence." For their interest they must be protected by father, husband and sons, because if they are polluted, they become very dangerous.

Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said that duṣṭā bhāryā.

duṣṭā bhāryā śaṭhaṁ mitraṁ bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ

sa-sarpe ca gṛhe vāso mṛtyur eva na saṁśayaḥ

"If the wife is not chaste and friend is cheater, or śaṭham . . ." śaṭham means duplicity, not very sincere friend. Outwardly he's showing he's very good friend, but inwardly he has got some intention. Such friend, duplicity, and unchaste wife, duṣṭā bhāryā śaṭhaṁ mitraṁ; and bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ, and servant giving reply; and sa-sarpe ca grhe vāsaḥ, and in your room if there is a snake . . . of course, in this big, big concrete building there is no question of snake, but in cottages, huts, made with mud, earth, there are sometimes snakes. So Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said that "If you live with a duṣṭā bhāryā and a duplicity friend and an answer-giving servant and a snake, then you are sure to die sometime. You'll be cheated."

So these things are there. The purpose is that our mind is like that, puṁścalī, unchaste wife. Not that everyone is unchaste. We have got many example, the character of woman. It is not that. It is not generalization. But there is chance. If they are not controlled, not properly educated, there is chance of becoming puṁścalī, and there have been many instances that woman, for being attracted by paramour, has killed even one's own son. There have been cases. So Bhīṣmadeva also advised that the shyness of woman, lajjā, is the control. If you break that shy, what is called, shyness, then there will be disaster. That is the control valve naturally given. And woman's shyness is one beauty, beauty. We have got practical experience. And command also. We have practical experience in our life. You have seen that my friend came, Dinanath Mishra. They were our neighbor. So one day we were sitting on the corridor of the house. One sweeper woman, she wanted to come within, but very shyful, with a covering of the head, although with broomstick and bucket, she was waiting because we were sitting both side. So she was feeling little shy not to enter the house. So we decided to move so that she may come. This example is given. She is a sweeper, not very respectable, maidservant or sweeper, but on account of her shyness we had to welcome, "Yes, we are moving. You come in." Just see. This is psychology. Therefore Bhīṣmadeva, at his dying stage, he advised that woman's shyness is the valve to control. If that shyness is broken, then it will create disaster. Puṁścalī. This is the psychology. So things are changing nowadays everywhere, not only in India, in other countries also. But this is the psychology. So all these examples are given. Why? Just to control the mind. In Hindi there is a proverb that "Money and wife, you should always keep in control." There are so many examples.

So the real purpose is . . . we are not talking of the sociology or politics. The example is given that we should not give freedom to the mind. That is the real purpose. If you give freedom to the mind, then mind will create so many ideas. I have practically seen in our Society. As soon as one is in charge, immediately he invents something new: "This should be broken, and this should be done." Then another man comes; he breaks the same thing again. There are practical experience I have got. Unless there is control over the mind, it will dictate something new: "Do it like this." There was a Bengali poet, he also sung a song, ek ta nūtana kichu koro: "Do something new." This is mind's business. He is not satisfied with the old things. Nūtana kichu koro. So that's a very big song. Why change? The whole material world is like that. Ei nūtana kichu koro: "Do something new," and be implicated. We are not satisfied with old things. "Old order changes, yields to . . ." "old order . . ." there is an English proverb like that, "yielding to the new."

But the Vedic civilization is that "Do not try to invent some order. That will create disturbance. Be satisfied. Whatever you have got by nature's way, be satisfied. Don't spoil your time. Save time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is Vedic civilization. That is the purpose of life, the valuable life. Bahūnāṁ saṁbhavānte. This life, human form of life, we have got bahu saṁbhavānte, after many, many years in the evolutionary process. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-sāṅkhyakāḥ (Padma Purāṇa). We are coming, one after another, from the lowest low-grade life in the water. Then plants, creepers, trees, then insect, then flies. In this way—then birds, then beasts—in this way, millions and millions years after, we have got this human form of life, especially those who are civilized. There are 400,000's forms of human life also—not all the same: the uncivilized and civilized, the black and white, and so many different grades of men. They have different intelligence. In this way, one who has taken birth in India, he is the most fortunate. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

bhārata-bhumite manuṣya janma haila yāra

janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

So unfortunately we are forgetting our culture; otherwise we have got a great mission, Indians, for the others, para-upakāra. They require the information of this Vedic knowledge, and they are now getting. They are appreciating. Therefore there is movement against it, but it is actual civilization. The Vedic culture is actual civilization, varṇāśrama-dharma. That is the beginning of civilization. Without Vedic culture and varṇāśrama-dharma it is the animal civilization. When Rāmānanda Rāya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu was talking, Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired from Rāmānanda Rāya, "What is the beginning of life?" Sādhya-sādhana. "What is the object, objective, of the ultimate goal of life, and how that objective of life is attained?" Sādhya-sādhana. Sādhya means the objective thing, and sādhana means the process. Sādhya-sādhana. So Rāmānanda Rāya, he said varṇāśrama. Varṇāśrama. That is the beginning of life. Because varṇāśrama means . . . the life is . . . human life is meant for understanding the Supreme Lord. That is human life. The cats' and dogs' life is not meant for understanding God; it is not possible either. They cannot understand. But the evolutionary process, when you come to the civilized form of life, especially the Vedic culture . . .

There are many living entities. Out of them, some of them are cala, and some of them are acala. Cala means moving. Just like tree is not moving, but it is life. But a small insect, it is moving. Sthāvara jaṅgama, they are called in technical words. Sthāvara means standing in one place, and the vegetables, trees, plants, they are more condemned. They cannot move even. They'll have to stand up in a place for thousands of years. There is no possibility even to move. If there is storm, scorching heat, pinching cold, they cannot move. They'll have to suffer. So it is very condemned life to become tree and plant, sthāvara. Then jaṅgama. The jaṅgama means moving. So there are many varieties of moving animals: the insects, the birds, the beast, then human form. So how out of the human moving forms, the civilized form . . . out of the civilized form, those who are in Vedic culture. Out of the Vedic culture, many are addicted to the fruitive activities, ritualistic ceremony, how to go to the heavenly planet, how to become members of rich family. They are working very hard, karmī. So out of many millions of karmīs, one jñānī . . . jñānī means who understands, "What is the use of this karma, fruitive activities?" So out of many jñānīs, one is mukta, liberated. And out of many millions of mukta—koṭiṣv api mahā-mune—one is a bhakta. This is the gradual development.

So we should be very careful. We have got this opportunity of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We should not waste a single moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Avyartha-kālatvam (CC Madhya 23.18-19). That is advised by Rūpa Gosvāmī. Every moment we shall count, "Whether I have wasted it or utilized it?" This is life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. (end)