Bhagavatam-daily 303 – 11.13.36 – Devotion is the ultimate intoxication

Thank you chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting chanting so here Krishna is giving an example to illustrate the condition of the self-realized soul so it’s a dramatic example he said that just as a person becomes drunk and not just drinks but becomes intoxicated so drunk that person loses all external awareness then people often when they are drunk they don’t even know what they are doing so a person doesn’t even know whether one is wearing clothes or not is completely lost in intoxication so like that the person who has realized one’s spiritual identity does not know about external situations external situations means bodily situations the body is external to the soul so whether one has one body or another body the person who has realized one’s spiritual nature stays absorbed like intoxicated with that spiritual nature alone so here there are two metaphors which are combined together one is of course the familiar body as a press metaphor Krishna talks about this in 2.22 in the Bhagavad Gita when he states so he says that a person gives up the old body old dress when it is worn out and he takes up a new dress similarly the soul gives up an old body when it is worn out and takes up a new body so that metaphor is used over here body is compared to a dress but here the focus is not so much on giving up the body because of old age and the natural taking up a new body like wearing a new dress here the focus is not whether the dress is there or not at all normally we are quite conscious of the way we dress because people see that first and there is of course a difference between dressing attractively and dressing to attract so either way whether one is dressing attractively or dressing to attract others the point is that people pay a lot of attention to their dress and sometimes people wear a very scanty dress now that is also a lot of attention to their body and they want others to notice the contours of their body and become attracted to them they want to be the center of attention so both when people dress in an elaborate costume like dress and when people dress scantily in both situations they are both very externally conscious they want to draw attention to their body to their appearance like body and the dress and so now Krishna is talking here about how a person who is very absorbed in Krishna doesn’t care about their body so just as a person who is drunk doesn’t care about whether I am dressed properly or not whether I am dressed or not that person is not aware so here the important thing is or rather two things are important here the second example that is of intoxication now usually intoxication is used in a negative sense so durmadan so the Bhagavatam talks about durmadan intoxicated by wealth so intoxication means to be intoxicated means to become so so carried away so infatuated by something as to forget the overall picture the proper reality so specifically it refers to the effect of alcohol alcohol gives one a feeling of high and that makes one forget the overall reality now a similar intoxication may also come because of other things and the other thing for example wealth the person starts thinking that just because I have wealth so now I have become a very great person and less can cause intoxication so usually the word intoxication conveys an unhealthy forgetfulness induced by something external and artificial be it brick or be it greed or lust or whatever and why is that unhealthy because during the intoxication phase one does things which are quite often injurious which often hurt oneself and hurt others so now that being the case here intoxication is used in a positive sense and there are precedents for that especially in the Vaishna and Gaudiya Vaishna literature so for example frequently in Chaitanya Amrit we find the theme of Prem Onmaat Prem Onmaat means that one feels battered by love Prem Onmaat so when one is battered by love like this at that time Divya Onmaat, the word is also used divine madness so the devotee who is absorbed in love for Krishna feels such a rush he forgets where he is and what he is doing this is actually for getting everything in divine ecstasy and that divine madness is considered positive it is considered glorious so it is in that positive connotation that Krishna uses the word the metaphor of intoxication there is actually once we realize our true nature especially when we realize that we are all connected with Krishna and that we have a real eternal blissful life with him then we become so absorbed in that life that external worldly situations don’t matter at all they matter only to the extent that they affect us that is to Krishna Krishna Prabhupada when he was in a magnificent palace like building in New York this one had a magnificent multi-story building in New York so either Prabhupada was in a grand suite or he was in a small room in Vrindavan Prabhupada was absorbed in Krishna and he was focused on serving Krishna there was no difference in the external situation whether he was riding in a blue whale or whether he was riding a bullock cart the point was for what am I going? I am going to glorify Krishna similarly we too as sadhakas can strive for not getting caught in material situations but focusing on the devotional intention that underlies and unifies and ultimately enables us to transcend all material situations