Cultivating the mood for studying Bhagavatam

[Bhagavatam study program at Seattle, USA] Video:

Hare Krishna. So it's not many places that we get to discuss the Bhagavatam systematically or deeply. So we have that opportunity, all of you are fortunate.

And I'm happy to be of some service to you. So I'll speak today on two sections from the first canto, rather one verse from the Narad Vyasa Samvat and then the result of that. In order to understand the purpose of the Bhagavatam and appreciating that purpose will help us appreciate the mood in which to relish the Bhagavatam.

So when Narada Muni is instructing Vyasadev in the fourth, fifth, sixth chapters, therein he actually gives the essence of what is to be conveyed. The Bhagavatam has different, you could say, seeds. One seed is Parikshit Maharaj's question, what is the duty of a person about to die? Another seed is the question of the sage of Sainamisharanya.

Now these are what you could say historical seeds. At particular historical points these questions were asked. That is true.

Along with that we could look at what is the conceptual seed of the Bhagavatam. So Narada Muni instructed Vyasadev and then Vyasadev sat in meditation. So chapters 4, 5, 6 in the first canto describe the Narad Vyasa Samvat.

Actually it's 5 and 6, 4th describes Vyasadev's lamentation and then 5th and 6th is about Narada Muni speaking. And then 7th chapter, after Narada departs, Vyasadev sits in meditation. And Jivgoswami explains in his Shatsandarbhas that there 5 verses describe the vision of Vyasadev.

And it is this vision that he expands in the Bhagavatam. It is this vision which he elaborates throughout the Bhagavatam. So generally when an author writes a book.

So nowadays people when they read a book they want to know what is called the story behind the story. Okay this is the story you wrote but what made you write the book? What is the story behind it? How did it originate? How did you get this idea? How did this move forward? So the story behind the story is often vital for selling the story. So if the story behind the story is very attractive, okay this is how you wrote, oh really I want to know more about this, I want to read this book.

And often the story behind the story helps us appreciate the story better. So if somebody is writing a novel with a particular incident, particular say somebody has suffered from some abuse, somebody has gone through some great distress and they are writing a novel. Then their own autobiographical elements will come into it.

Their life characters, their life experiences will come in that novel. If somebody is writing a non-fiction, somebody is writing a book of say helping others, self-help or do-it-yourself, then how did you come to this conclusion? So that is what Narada Muni does, the Bhagavatam itself does, Narada Muni and Vyasadeva. So the Bhagavatam describes its origin in multiple levels.

So first it describes how Vyasadeva is distressed, he is dissatisfied. And then he comes to the conclusion that I should glorify the Lord. Then it describes how Narada Muni in his previous life as the Narada boy was distressed.

And then also he turned towards the Lord. So in that way both the teacher and the student, their narration of how they actually came to realise the Bhagavatam is described. So there in his instructions he says, etadhyātūra-cittānāṁ mātrā-sparśecchayāmo bhava-sindhu-plavodrśto hari-caryānu-varṇanam Narada Muni says that etadhyātūra-cittānāṁ.

The characteristic of material existence is that our consciousness is atūra. It is craving, it is hankering for certain things. For what? Mātrā-sparśecchayāmo.

We want pleasurable sensations. It could be attractive sense objects, it could be pleasant environments. We want pleasurable sensations.

Mātrā-sparśecchayāmo is a constant desire. I want enjoyable sensations. But this pursuit of enjoyable sensations actually is often pointless, is often fruitless.

Prahlāda Mahārāja's seventh canto says that, yasmāt priyā priyaviyoga sañyoga janma śokāgni nāsa kalayoni śuddhaya mānaḥ duḥkha-uśadhaṁ tad api duḥkham atadhyāham momān brahmāmi vadame tava dāsyayogam He says, in this world, everybody wants sañyoga with the priyo. And viyoga with the apriya. Whatever we like, we want to get it.

Whatever we don't like, we want to go away from it. But often the world gives us the opposite. It gives us sañyoga with the priya, it gives us what we don't like, and it gives us viyoga with the priya.

So, we get what we don't like and we don't get what we like. And therefore, śokāgni nāsa, everybody is lamenting. sakalayoni śuddhaya mānaḥ Everybody is burning in the fire of lamentation.

It can be as simple as, sometimes we don't get the food that we want. Often the weather is not the way we want it. Often our own body doesn't feel as healthy or as fit as we would like it.

Sometimes people don't speak to us the way we want them to. So, all the senses, they do not give us pleasant sensations. And then he says, sometimes we make arrangements for getting those pleasant sensations.

sakalayoni śuddhaya mānaḥ duḥkha-uśadam tadapi duḥkham But when we get that arrangement, actually that arrangement becomes a cause of greater problem. So, the medicine often turns out to be worse than the cure. In some ways, in today's environment, we have unpleasant sensations we shut out.

If it's too cold, we have heat, we have air conditioning, we have temperature adjustment. So, you adjusted that. But then, there may be sensations which we adjusted, but at the level of the mind, the emotions are agitated.

See, what happens? Technology is not just a functional tool. Technology also has a psychological component to it. The more we think that technology gives us the feeling that I can control things, and the more we are able to control things, the more we start believing I am meant to be the controller.

And the more when we are not able to control things, we just can't digest it. So, that's how mental health problems increase, not because physical problems have increased in the world. They are as it is.

But our expectation of being able to control the world, our expectation that we should be able to do what we want, get what we want, that has increased. A few things make us as unhappy as the belief that everyone else is happy. And through modern technology, through the media, through the movies, this belief that everybody is having a jolly time, that is so much drummed into us, that we feel, oh, what's wrong with me? Why am I not happy? Why is this problem there? Why is this problem? Everybody has problems, actually.

So, anyway, this matra sparshe chaya moho, this desire for pleasant sensation, is what is the cause of dissatisfaction. Atur chittana. We are craving, we are desperate.

Why is this not happening? And bhava sindhu plavo drishto. That in this way, we are in the ocean of material existence. And in the ocean, one wave comes, other wave comes, other wave comes.

And we think, okay, here the water is stormy, here the waves are turbulent, if I go there, it is calm. But by the time we reach there, the storm comes there also. So, in the bhava sindhu, in the ocean of material existence, there is no peaceful place.

So then what do we need? We need a boat. We need a boat to get out of that. That is, plover is the boat.

What is that? Hari charyanuvarnanam. When we discuss Hari katha, what does it do? It raises our consciousness above. When it raises our consciousness above the world, that is when we experience relief.

That is what we want. So the whole mood of the Bhagavatam, there are two broad ways of practising bhakti. We could say bhakti can be world transforming and bhakti can be world transcending.

So the Gita's mood of devotion is world transforming devotion. And Arjuna is told you have to fight a war to establish dharma. And the Bhagavatam's mood is world transcending.

Parishad Maharaj has already left, renounced the world. He has accepted. He could have chosen to counter the curse, but he has chosen the course of not countering.

So then now his focus is simply to transcend the world. And that is the Bhagavatam's thrust also. It is primarily presenting the world transcending mode of devotion.

Of course, it also describes how devotion can lead to a transformed world. It describes how when Yudhishthira Maharaj was ruling, there was such prosperity. When Pruthu Maharaj ruled, he removed the natural calamity, the shortage, the paucity that was there.

And he brought prosperity. So that is also described. But the overall thrust of the Bhagavatam is that it is world transcending devotion.

And now, so this is mood, that means material world is here, material world has its problems. And we raise our consciousness about the material world. So this, when we are functioning in the world right now, so we cannot simply transcend the world.

We have to transform the world. In the sense that we have family responsibilities, we have social responsibilities, we have preaching responsibilities. Preaching is also, we are talking about the message of transcending the world.

But to talk about the message of transcending the world, we have to transform the world. We need to have temples, we need to have devotional communities, we need to have so many things in the world set up so that the world can be transformed. So there is a time when we focus on world transforming.

The world can seem like a very big place. The world is metaphor for our own place in the world. We have to transform it at some times.

But when we are focussing on the Bhagavatam, at that time the mood is world transcending. Just let me get absorbed in Krishna. And let my consciousness go deep into Krishna.

So let's look at the vision of Vyasadeva. Do all of you have your Bhagavatam here? Or you can get access to the Bhagavatam somewhere? Maybe digitally? Project. So we will be discussing from 1.74 to 1.77. So four verses.

1.7.4 to 7. So it's the simple verses. You can recite after me. This is 1.7.4. bhakti-yogena manase samyak pranihite amale apashyak purusham poornam mayam chetada paashrayam mayam chetada paashrayam So here Vyasadeva is sitting in his ashram in meditation, contemplating what Narada Muni has told him.

samadhi na anusmarena Actually Vyasadeva was told by Narada Muni that go into samadhi and meditate on what I am saying. So Vyasadeva doesn't just, after hearing Narada Muni's instructions, doesn't immediately start writing the Bhagavatam. He first meditates.

He internalises. Without internalisation, actually we cannot really share authentically. Unless the message touches our heart, the message going from us won't touch others' hearts.

It might just come to our head, it might come to our tongues, but it will go only to the tongues and the heads of others. So Vyasadeva, even though he is himself an exalted soul, even though he has heard from another exalted soul, Narada Muni, still he internalises the message first. So after internalising the message, this is what he, when he goes into his trance, this is what he observes.

bhakti-yogena manasi By the practise of bhakti-yoga, manasi, his mind, samyak pranahite amale, completely amale, freed from contamination, pranahite, it became focused on, absorbed in. And then when it is absorbed in this way, apashyat, he saw. What? Purusham, poornam, the supreme person, the perfect person, the complete person.

Om poornamadha poornam is used in the Isopanishad. So he is the complete person. apashyat purusham poornam mayam chitad apashrayam And here, the Bhagavatam is poetry.

So here we have apashyat and apashrayam. The same sound comes in third line, first line first words and last line last words. So apashrayam, he says, and maya was subordinate to him.

So basically there are three tattvas, the Upanishads talk about three tattvas. Sometimes it's called the alliterative ja, jiva, jagat and jagdish. So jagdish is the supreme lord, jagat is the universe, jiva is the soul.

So here first vision it is that actually jagat is represented by maya, material energy. So there is a lord is here, but maya is under him. It's interesting that he sees Krishna and maya together.

Normally we say that Krishna surya sama maya hai andhakar. Yaha Krishna tahar nahi, maya radhikar. So where Krishna is, there is no maya.

But here he is seeing Krishna and maya together. But what he means over here is that here tad apashrayam. The word maya sometimes is used for the energy and sometimes the word maya is used for the influence of that energy.

The energy refers to the person mayadhi. She is a person who already exists. Her influence is illusion.

So when we say yaha Krishna tahar nahi, maya radhikar, what that means is that where there is awareness of Krishna, where there is consciousness of Krishna, there the influence of maya, illusion will not be there. But maya as a person does exist. And here in this vision the idea is mayam chitad apashrayam.

Maya is under Krishna's control. In the Bhagavatam, in the sixth canto, in Vritrasura's prayers, he uses the word to describe, the word is used there to describe maya, maya as vaishnavi janamuhini. So it's interesting, maya is referred to as vaishnavi.

Vaishnavi, she is also a devotee. Once Prabhupada gave one of his disciples the name Mahamaya Devi Dasi. Everybody started laughing.

And Prabhupada said, don't laugh, Mahamaya is also a devotee of Krishna. So, vaishnavi janamuhini. But it is her service to delude people.

Now why would she want to delude? It is to reciprocate with the soul's desire. So here, the principle is, so when this vision is given, what is our purpose here? This is the vision that we want to be rooted in as we study the Bhagavatam. By studying this Bhagavatam, we should become situated in this understanding.

And by this understanding, we will be able to navigate life's journey better. That Krishna is always in control. And whatever is happening in this world, it's happening by the material energy's arrangement.

But that material energy is under Krishna's control. Mayam jatat apashyayam. So, the Bhagavatam will later define illusion in the chatu shloki as rte artham yat pratiyet na pratiyet chaatman.

If we see anything as disconnected from Krishna, that is maya. So often we think of illusion as a defect of perception. Like if we see a mirage, that oh, I think there is water, I think, but there is no water actually.

Or say in the maya sabha, when Duryodhana slipped, he thought there was no water, but there was water. He lifted up his dhoti and walked, but there was no water over there. So that is illusion of perception.

The way we see things is wrong. But maya, the Bhagavatam explains, is not illusion of perception. It can be, but essentially maya is illusion of conception.

It's not how we with our senses see things. It's how we with our mind conceive things. So it is not that particular sense objects are maya.

It is how we see those sense objects that is maya. So it is that if we see everything connected with Krishna, then that is not maya. The Chaitanya Bhagavatam describes how, it's interesting, Chaitanya Bhagavatam's reference point.

It says Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descended, society was so degraded, and what was the degradation of the society? So the degradation was that, just see how, what are the pitiable condition of people, that they spoke on the Bhagavatam, but devotion to Krishna did not touch their hearts. Now if somebody is speaking on Bhagavatam, you will think, oh this is nice, good people, they are already studying Bhagavatam. But the point was, there can be, we can say there can be impious illusion, and there can be pious illusion.

Pious illusion means if somebody starts thinking that, oh this devata is supreme. That's not a sinful thing. But that's going to keep them distracted from Krishna.

If somebody is dharmik, like the yajnik brahmanas, they are in pious illusion. They are doing such pious activity, and they are so absorbed in that pious activity, that they are distracted from Krishna himself. So to see anything as disconnected from Krishna is illusion.

And the starting vision that the Bhagavatam offers us is, or the starting vision of Vyasadeva is, mayam chitta dapashraya, that maya is subordinate to Krishna. So whatever happens in this world, it is happening as per the material energy, but that is under Krishna. No matter how terrible, how many terrible things happen in life, it's not necessary that Krishna is doing it.

We'll talk about it later. We all have free will, but it is not outside Krishna's plan. In the Bhishma section, which will come later, there in 9th chapter it is said that, tasyanuhito rajan, Yudhishthira Maharaj is being told by Bhishma Pitamah, tasyanuhito, anuhito means arranged, sanctioned.

But Prabhupada translates that very precisely as, everything is within Krishna's plan. It's interesting, Prabhupada doesn't use directly that everything is Krishna's plan. What is the difference between the two, everything is Krishna's plan and everything is within Krishna's plan? It's like, say, if we have a school, and in that school a student fails.

Now that the student fail is not the school's plan. But there is a plan within the school to accommodate the failed students. So the failure of the student is because the student didn't study properly or whatever reason.

So we could say that, to make it a little more specific in terms of words, we could say that there is the school's purpose and there is the school's plan. The school's purpose is the student pass and get elevated. But if the student fails, there is a plan for them also.

So everything is Krishna's, everything is within Krishna's plan. So the material nature may sometimes do terrible things, and terrible things can happen even to devotees at times. And the Bhagavatam will actually repeatedly describe how so many terrible things happen to devotees.

Recently at the Bhadrapur Nema, I was in Chicago, I gave a class on how the Bhagavatam guides us to transform the intensity of our distress into velocity in devotion. Intensity of distress into velocity in devotion. The more the distress, the faster our devotional practise.

So actually we see for everybody, every character in the Bhagavatam, terrible things happen. But they are able to see it within Krishna's plan. They are able to see it in such a way that they become more devoted to Krishna.

So this mayam chitta dapashrayam, whatever has happened, it is, material nature is doing it, material energy is doing it, but she is under Krishna. So for example, when Vidura, in the second, third canto it is described that, when Vidura is insulted by Duryodhana, at that time he departs. He leaves his bow and goes to the forest.

It is described that the Duryodhana's actions were in Mahamaya. He was actuated, motivated by envy, arrogance, impudence, but although Duryodhana's actions were in Mahamaya, Vidura saw it in Yogamaya. Vidura did not just see what is Duryodhana doing.

He saw what Duryodhana was doing and it did hurt him. Duryodhana's harsh words. But he saw, through Duryodhana's actions, there is Krishna's plan.

And what is Krishna's plan? That I won't have to fight in this war against the Pandavas. I can disentangle myself from this. So, there is the wrongdoer.

Bhagavatam's message is, focus not on the wrongdoer, focus on the ultimate doer. Focus not on the wrongdoer. There are people who will hurt us in different ways in life.

And if you live in the devotee community, our quota of adhibhautik klesh will come from devotees then. So, there is some adhibhautik klesh that we have to go through. If we were living among non-devotees, we will get it from non-devotees.

If we are living among devotees, we might get it from devotees. It's not that particular devotee necessarily on a mission against us. Although it might appear like that sometimes.

But it is more that, actually, that's what the karma, by daiva somethings to happen. So, we have to deal with it practically in whatever way we can. But we don't focus on that.

So, Parikshit Maharaj doesn't focus on Shringi. In fact, there is no mention of Shringi after the first canto. Even in the first canto also, there is not much mention of him.

Actually, he speaks in the 16th chapter. He curses and then he laments. And then, in the 18th chapter, I think.

But then after that, things just move on. So, don't focus on the wrong-doer. Focus on the ultimate-doer.

Parikshit Maharaj's mood was, What is Krishna trying to teach me? Oh, Krishna wants me to focus exclusively on devotion. Let me do that. Let me do that right now.

So, if we want to absorb ourselves in the Bhagavatam, this is one thing which we have to do. There are so many things which will be happening in our life. And there is a time to deal with them.

There is a time and if there are practical problems, we need practical solutions. Generally speaking, what happens is, if we come up with a practical problem, and people give us a philosophical solution, it becomes very frustrating. So, we need to deal with practical problems at a practical level also.

But there is a time for that. And there is a time if somebody is a wrong-doer, we may have to deal with it appropriately. But there is a time for focussing on the ultimate-doer.

So, in general, we will have to consciously shift. When I am doing my practical services, we will be in the mood of world transforming. But when we are focussing on studying the Bhagavatam, we have to be in the mood of world transcending.

Let me absorb ourselves in Krishna. Actually, we talk about faith in Krishna. We can have faith at various levels.

I gave a class in New Zealand. We can have faith in God's existence. We can have faith in God's intelligence.

We can have faith in God's benevolence. We can have faith in God's relevance. There is a Christian who wrote a book.

God exists, so what? God exists and why it matters, rather. So people say, yes, God exists. One of my uncles, he told me, yes, I believe in God.

He is happy there, I am happy here. So, we could say that is pious illusion. So, faith in God can be at different levels.

But one aspect of faith which we need when we are studying the Bhagavatam is we have to have faith that Krishna can take care of the world without us. If for some time I switch off from doing this, doing that, doing that, Krishna will take care of things. Actually, even when Krishna is taking care of things through us, it is He who is taking care.

He uses the intelligence to do the responsibilities that we have to do. So, if we see, focus on the ultimate doer, as I said. When I am taking care of my children, when I am doing my job, actually it is Krishna who is giving me intelligence to do it.

So, if we see even our ability as connected with Krishna, as a gift by Krishna, then what will happen? We won't have this fragmented vision. Oh, this is my time for my devotion and this is my time for my material life. Our material life is also, can be done in devotional mode.

We see everything as under the purview of Krishna. So, sometimes we serve Krishna by striving to transform the world. Sometimes we serve Krishna by striving to transcend the world.

So, mayam chita dapashrayam. Everything is under Krishna's control. Now, if even maya is under Krishna's control, then what is the position of the jiva? So, that will be described in the next verse.

That is the fifth verse. Yaya is describing the previous verse. So, that mayam chita dapashrayam, that maya is under the control of Krishna.

But that maya is now controlling the jiva. Yaya sammohito jivo. The Chaitanya Charitamrita has two words that Krishna is mayadhish and we are mayadhini.

We are under maya. Yaya sammohito jivo. Now, this describes the state or the condition.

And then it describes the cause. Say, if you go to a doctor. Doctor may say, ok, he has got fever.

That is the condition. What is the cause? Oh, some germs are coming. Or say, he has got malaria, tuberculosis, whatever.

So, first it describes the condition that we are under illusion. And what is the cause? That is described in the next three lines. Atmanam trigunatmakam.

Paro. The soul is par, transcendental to the three modes. But, paro api manute anartham.

The soul is identifying with that which is anartham. That which is not meaningful. Tat krutam ca abhipadyate.

And is acting accordingly. So, what does it mean, identifying with some anartha? Sometimes we may see some people, maybe they are mentally disturbed, or they are just somebody walking along the road talking with themselves. And sometimes people are so lost in their head.

Yelling at someone, responding to someone's imagination. What is this person doing? There is no one here. So, they are just responding to something in their head.

There is nothing around them physically. But they are responding to that. So, what is happening? They are actually replaying something that is happening in their head.

So, physically there is nothing around them. So, because they are responding to that anartham, that is not real. But they are disturbed by it.

So, normally, if cricket world cup is going on, there is cricket fever everywhere. Then we might see some young people walking along the streets and one of them is just swinging the bat. Another is falling.

They are just going along in their heads. So, now they are imagining, oh, I am this champion batsman, I am this champion bowler. And they are just walking along the streets.

They are not even playing street cricket. And they are thinking, I will be international cricket champion. So, that is anartha.

Anartha means, the word artha has three different meanings. But three primarily in philosophical context. Artha literally means meaning.

Iska artha kya? Shabda artha. Artha. Artha also means value.

Like we have arthamantri, dharma, artha, kaam, moksha, money. So, artha is wealth. And third meaning of artha is purpose.

There are purush arthas, there are four purposes of life. So, anartha has meaning in all these three contexts. That which has no value.

That which has no meaning. And that which doesn't serve any purpose. So, for a person walking on the streets to be caught in imagining that I am playing a cricket match.

There is no reality to it. There is no purpose that is served by it. There is no value to it.

So, similarly for the soul who is transcendental to be caught in the illusions of this world. That is anartha. So, different people may be caught by different anarthas.

Somebody might be caught by the anartha of say alcoholism. I think that. If I don't drink, I can't live.

Actually, it is because they drink they can't live. That drinking is ruining their life. But that anartha has caught them so much.

I can't live without this. So, the anartha is what we identify with. Whatever we identify with a strong way, in an emotionally attached way.

That is what shapes our actions. A fundamental psychological principle is that whatever catches our attention catches us. Whatever catches our attention catches us.

A person may be just walking along the street, may be going home, going to office and then they see a movie theatre over here. Hey, maybe I can watch a movie. No, yes, no, yes, let me watch.

So, if it catches our attention, it can catch us. So, now when we are attached to something, then that object of attachment catches our attention very quickly. And then it traps us much faster.

So, therefore, here the anartha is that which catches our attention, that which consumes our attention. Talking about pious illusion, selfless illusion. So, now to the extent we understand this, that it is what we are identifying with.

That is the cause of our illusion. Now with respect to alcoholism, with respect to cricket, we can easily understand it. But there are some things which seem to have a lot of anartha for us.

Say for example, our jobs, our family, our health, our financial situations. So, all these, they do matter to us at our level. So, now there is anartha that can take us towards parmartha and there is anartha that can take us away from parmartha.

Parmartha is the supreme meaning. So, Krishna, the word parmartha is generally used for spirituality or transcendence. The supreme parmartha is Krishna.

So, what is artha in this world is not necessarily wrong. So, when does something become anartha? See, money, often we think that money is illusion, that money is temptation, money is illusion. That is one way of understanding it.

But money is considered to be one of the arthas. So, if the artha takes us towards parmartha, then that artha is not anartha. So, if our family responsibilities, they help us to become more responsible.

If in our family responsibilities we think, how can I help my children to become devotees, how can I help my family members to become devotees, how can we all practise bhakti together. That is the artha that can take us towards parmartha. And then, it is not anartha.

We could say, in the ultimate sense, if it distracts us from Krishna, it is anartha. But while we are functioning in the world, we have to focus on playing the role that we have to play. So, the anartha is when something takes us away from parmartha.

If it is not taking us away from Krishna, then it is not anartha. Sometimes, in our professional life, we face a lot of difficulties which are unmanageable for us. Sometimes that may make us call out to Krishna more.

Just hearing the bhagavata may not make us call out to Krishna. Oh yes, calling out to Krishna is nice, but I can do it later also. But when I am in trouble in my job, how do I call out to Krishna now? So, different situations can actually promote us, can push us towards the parmartha.

But when, when we are caught by an illusion, we act accordingly. That is when we get deluded. So, jagdish is here, maya is here.

The normal hierarchy, jagat is here. The normal hierarchy, jagat, the material nature is actually subordinate to the jiva. Because the material nature is unconscious.

Maya is of course conscious, but material nature is unconscious. But this is jagdish, jiva and jagat, this is the hierarchy. But this gets inverted.

Because the jiva identifies with the jagat. Jiva wants to control and enjoy the jagat. And that's why, so for example, a bottle of alcohol, it's insensitive.

It can't control a person. But to the extent that person's consciousness gets attached to the alcohol, then everywhere this is a bottle. Every bottle is a bottle of alcohol.

You start seeing like that. So, then that person is just not able to break free. So, anartha is the problem.

Now, if this is anartha, then what do we do about it? How does one get over the anartha? That is the next verse. So, that is told in the Bhagavatam now. So, anarthopashyamam sakshad bhakti-yogam adhoksha je lokasyajananto vidvams chakre sattvata samhitam So, anarthopashyamam.

That which is anartha, that becomes decreased, that becomes removed. Sakshad, directly you can experience this. How? Bhakti-yogam adhoksha je.

If you practise bhakti towards Krishna, then the anarthas in our heart will go down. But unfortunately, this solution people do not know. Lokasyajananto.

Because people don't know about it, what they are trying to do? Most people, if you see in today's world, people are focused largely on changing externals to get more and more things, so that they can become happy. But, say for example, if somebody has greed within them, then they think, oh, I don't have this car, I don't have this house, I don't have this thing, that's why I am not happy. And they work very hard to get it.

And they get it. But, what happens? Then greed makes them look at what else they don't have. So what happens? The dissatisfaction is not caused by the possession they don't have.

The dissatisfaction is caused by the disposition that they have. The disposition is that they are looking at the things they don't have. There is nothing wrong in possessing more things.

What is wrong is the thinking that this possession will make me happy. So what happens? Most people work on outer change. And they think by changing that outer, I'll become happy.

So most people don't think of purifying, most people don't think of removing the anartha, most people think of serving the anartha. I have greed, let me fulfil the greed, then I'll become happy. I have desire, let me fulfil the desire, then I'll become happy.

So here anartha upashamam sakshat. So there is a material solution that people talk about. Material solution is that we arrange for the desirables.

We make arrangement by which all the desirables that we want we'll get, then we'll become happy. But what the Bhagavatam is saying is it is our desires for worldly things as distracted from the desire for Krishna. That is the cause of the illusion.

So anartha upashamam. So what the Bhagavatam does is that it decreases the anarthas. And bhakti yoga madhokshaji, by the practise of bhakti, this potency of bhakti is what most people don't know about.

Even when we practise bhakti, it is important to know for what purpose we are practising bhakti. If we are practising bhakti so that Krishna will make our material life better, that's okay. Krishna can do that.

It's not that Krishna wants us to suffer in material existence. But that's not the purpose. The purpose is in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit there is this incident that Gopinath Patanayaka is in danger.

And the devotees one after another are coming. And they are saying, please, now he has been put on the Changa. He is going to be executed.

And then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's response at one level can seem very uncaring. He says that if he squandered the king's money, he has to suffer for that. And not only that, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, if you keep coming and troubling me like this, then I am going to leave here and go to Aranath.

He says, your devotee is in trouble and you are not even concerned. You are thinking only of your trouble. It is a headache for that person.

He is going to lose his life. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, especially in Gambhira, in Jagannath Puri, there he is demonstrating entirely the world transcending mode. He has gone preached for six years across North India, across South India.

There he is focussing on world transforming. But here in Puri, his whole mood is world transcending. And by the Lord's mercy, things are arranged in such a way that Gopinath Patnaik is saved.

But the mood is that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, don't trouble me for this. Prabhupada says in a lecture, how can we know whether we are Krishna conscious? So he says, if we come to the temple, if we come in front of the deities, and then we feel the deities are asking us, what are you doing for me? What are you doing for me? Then we are Krishna conscious. Now most people go to the temple and ask, what are you doing for me? I had this problem.

When are you going to solve this? I did this vrata. Why has this problem not been solved? So now, yes, certainly, it's not that Krishna wants to keep us in our problems. And we have to do the needful to solve the problems.

And Krishna will also help us in that. But that is not the thrust of a devotee's consciousness. If just solving our problems becomes the thrust of our consciousness, then we will feel, what is the use of practising bhakti? Now this is significant.

Sometimes we feel that I have such a big problem right now. I'll solve this problem, then I'll practise bhakti. And yes, sometimes some serious problem is there, it may require attention.

But in general, problem solving is subtle. If it's like weight lifting, the more energy we apply, the more we exert ourselves, the more weight we'll be able to lift. The more muscles we apply to it, the more we'll be able to lift.

But quite often with problems, it's not like that. It's not that the more we think about the problem, the more we'll be able to solve it. Of course, sometimes if we don't think about the problem, that is also a problem.

We have to think about the problem, apply our thinking. But there is a time when our thinking about a problem helps us to come up with solutions. And sometimes there is a time when thinking about the problem just burdens us.

The more we think about it, the more we feel exhausted, the more we feel drained. So that balance each one of us has to find. Especially in problems which involve some creativity to try to solve it, which involves some emotional intensity which can drain us.

Sometimes we feel this is a big problem. I have relationship problem, I have this problem, I have that problem. How can I practise bhakti? How can I focus on the Bhagavatam? I can't.

After this is finished, then I'll focus. But the problem would be that the more we focus on it, sometimes that focus itself may aggravate the problem. Because what happens, whatever we think about, that also consumes our energy.

So with respect to objects of thought also, there are some things which we think about, they give us mental energy. There are some things which we think about, they take away our mental energy. Some people who think about it say, this person has come now.

I was talking with one devotee about a senior devotee. And this devotee was telling me that, that devotee is a wonderful person to admire from a distance. In English there is a saying, to damn by faint praise.

To damn by faint praise means that we praise in such a way that the praise actually is a criticism. Suppose somebody invites us for prasad, and then we go there for prasad, and then after somebody asks, how was the prasad? It was edible. That's an insult.

So like that, sometimes we all feel that there are certain issues in our life, we just drain our energy. And if we keep thinking about them, thinking about them, only our energy gets drained. We can't solve them.

So directing our focus towards the Bhagavatam, directing our focus towards Krishna, that can actually rejuvenate us. Not just spiritually raise our consciousness, but also emotionally and mentally rejuvenate us. And then we can deal with the issue.

So bhakti yoga madhoksha jaya. How bhakti yoga has potency, that itself is a whole subject, but bhakti yoga can help us to deal with the anarthas. And because people don't know about it, so to tell them this, that is what the Bhagavatam is written for.

The Bhagavatam's purpose is, let's go back here now, that there is a jagat, there is a jagdish, there is a jiva and a jagat. But what has happened, the jiva has become subordinate to the jagat, to maya. So what has to be done is, because the jiva is subordinate to maya, is under maya's control, that's why the jiva is suffering.

The Bhagavatam's purpose is to actually raise the jiva's consciousness above. And that will happen if the jiva becomes attached to Krishna. If we are attached to Krishna, we rise above illusion.

If we are detached from Krishna, we sink into illusion. If somebody doesn't know to swim, they are in the water. There is a helicopter from above and that helicopter is given a rescue rope.

If that person holds on to the rescue rope, that person will be safe. As soon as they let go of the rescue rope, they will fall. So like that, if we are attached to Krishna, then we rise above illusion.

If we are detached from Krishna, we sink into illusion. The whole Bhagavatam's mood is to become attached to Krishna. So that's how, for that purpose the Bhagavatam is spoken.

Now let's go to the last verse in this series. So how does the Bhagavatam actually deal with the anartha that we are facing? I'll describe this verse. naktir utpadyate pumsam shokamoha bhayapaham So, yasyam vayi.

When we hear about that person, shruyamanayam, we hear about him. Who is that person? Krishna paramapurushe. So this apashyat purushampurnam, that was there in the first verse.

So paramapurushe, same point. So that person who is above illusion, when we hear about him, then just by hearing about him from the Bhagavatam, bhaktir utpadyate, bhakti arises in the heart, pumsa of the living being, and then shokamoha bhayapaham. So Prabhupada explains in the purport that these three refer to three phases of time.

About the past, we have shoka. About the future, we have bhaya. About the present, we have moha.

So this went wrong, that went wrong, that went wrong, why so many things went wrong, that will go wrong, that will go wrong. So that's bhaya. If we see, today there are two major mental health problems people face.

One is depression and the other is anxiety. So depression we can say is related with shock. So many bad things happen in my life.

My life is always filled with bad things. It's shock that will lead to depression. And anxiety is bhaya.

This may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong. Now, how exactly does hearing about Krishna or devotion to Krishna remove shokamoha bhaya? What happens actually? At one level, let's look at the past. That shoka, we feel that many bad things may have happened to us.

Sometimes people treated us badly. Sometimes just life gave us, life gave us a raw deal. Sometimes we ourselves made a mess of things.

Broadly speaking, these are three ways in which bad things can happen. Some people do something bad to us, sometimes just life goes wrong without any person to blame. Just life goes wrong.

Sometimes we ourselves make a mess of things. So broadly speaking, if you look at our past, what are regrets about the past? Or what are the things which we resent about the past? We'll fall in one of these categories. When we develop devotion to Krishna, then we understand that actually Krishna's plan can work even through our mistakes.

Krishna's plan can work even through the bad things that have happened to us. How is that? Actually, sometimes when we think of Krishna's plan, we may think that it is like one straight plan. I have to discover the road.

I follow this road, then I am on Krishna's plan. If I go off this road, I am off Krishna's plan. Things are not that simple.

It's like if you are travelling by road, then there is one road which you can go by. But suppose you are travelling by plane. Suppose say if you go from Seattle to New York.

Now there is no clear defined path in the sky for the plane to go through. It's not that the same plane will go today by that exact same path and tomorrow it will go by the exact same path. If the starting point is fixed, then any point is fixed.

But depending on the air pressure, the atmospheric conditions, the plane will go through the airway, but not exactly the same trajectory. So just as the path is clear, in the sense that where one is to go, the purpose is clear, but the path can be variable. So when you talk about Krishna's plan, it is not that Krishna has already made a plan for our whole life and if we go along that plan, everything is right.

If we don't go along that plan, everything is wrong. No, Krishna's plan is reciprocal. Based on how we act, Krishna modifies his plan.

And Krishna's plan includes or accommodates even our mistakes. It's not that because I made this mistake, now I am lost. How does Krishna's plan accommodate our mistakes? What that means is that say if we are driving to a particular destination, and we are taking GPS, and GPS tells us to turn right, and we turn left, then what happens? GPS re-routes and tells us how to go from there.

Similarly for us, even if we take a wrong turn in life, Krishna will re-route and tell us how to go right, right, right. Even if we take 2, 3, 4, 5 wrong turns, GPS will re-route and still tell us how to go. Now, it's not that the wrong turn is inconsequential.

Each wrong turn means it will take that much longer to get to the destination. But, no matter how many wrong turns we have taken, it's not that we are lost. From there also we can go.

So, Krishna's plan is always there for us. Even if we have supposedly taken wrong turns, Krishna will guide us through to the destination. So, we often feel bad about the past, but understanding that Krishna is in control, Krishna can bring good even out of the bad, that can free us from shok.

Okay, whatever has happened, has happened. Krishna will bring good out of it. Let me accept it and move on.

And as far as this point of how Krishna can bring good even out of the bad, I have seen so many times in the Bhagavatam, where for no reason people are subject to terrible things. Parishad Maharaj himself is an example. So, if we take a curse for a very small reason actually.

So, if we are supposed to take right, and then we turn left. And then after that we just start cursing ourselves. Why did I take the left? Why did I take left? Why did I take left? Now GPS is telling us, no, take right now.

No, why did I take left? Why did I take left? Why did I take left? So, if we keep beating ourselves up, then we will not get to the destination. So, sometimes if we commit a mistake, then, okay, that mistake is over. I gave a class in CNJ.

The topic of the class was, if we can't succeed in Krishna Consciousness, then we can fail in Krishna Consciousness. Not fail out of Krishna Consciousness. That means Krishna Consciousness is not just a particular standard.

If I don't follow that standard, then I am out of Krishna Consciousness. Krishna Consciousness is the consciousness. Sometimes we may not be able to meet a standard.

Sometimes we may not be able to do an activity. That doesn't mean that we will give up. So, fail in Krishna Consciousness, not fail out of Krishna Consciousness, what does that mean? Suppose, say we decide to wake up in the morning.

And we decide to wake up at 5 o'clock. And then we wake up at 5. We don't even know that we have woken up. We switch off the alarm.

And we wake up at 6 o'clock. We wake up at 5.30 or 6. And the first thing is, the mind is such a cunning thing. First at 5 o'clock when we wake up, it says, go to sleep.

And at 6 o'clock we wake up, you fool! And then, maybe for 2-3 hours we will be in a bad mood. Maybe we will wake up and chant, but we are chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Inside the mind is screaming, you fool, you fool, you fool, you fool.

So, what happens by that? There is no contact with Krishna through that chanting. So, okay, if somehow we didn't wake up, then what do we do? Actually, as soon as we wake up, we can fail in Krishna consciousness. In Krishna consciousness means we try to be prayerful.

Krishna, I have such strong conditioning. Without your help, I can't do this. Please help me.

My willpower is not enough. I need your divine power. So, if we pray to Krishna at that time, maybe that prayer of dependence can actually lead to more spiritual advancement than what we might have if I wake up at 5 o'clock and I start chanting and I look at everyone else.

Everyone else is sleeping. They are all so fallen. I am so advanced.

So, I may be chanting, but I may not be calling out to Krishna. I may not make much advancement. But if I wake up late, I am not licencing waking up late here.

I will say that Krishna consciousness is not about doing particular actions alone. It is about the consciousness. So, many times the mind makes us fail and then makes us fail out of Krishna consciousness.

But even if it happens somehow because of the mind or because of our situations, we can't do certain things. Say for example, if we decide I want to study the Bhagavatam. I want to study the Bhagavatam every day.

And then maybe one day, two days, three days, one week we study. Maybe 15 minutes, half an hour, one hour, whatever we can. And then something happens in our life.

And then for one week we don't even open the Bhagavatam. And then afterwards we are saying, you know, I can never stick to my resolution. I just can't do anything.

I am useless. And we have to see what is the purpose of our studying Bhagavatam. At one level, we want to study the Bhagavatam so that we can develop taste for Bhagavatam.

And then we can regularly be absorbed in the Bhagavatam. But another level, the purpose of studying the Bhagavatam is to connect with Krishna. So, if for seven days we are able to do it daily, so it is not that the eighth day when we are not able to do it, we have failed.

For seven days we succeeded. Seven days we connected with Krishna. Seven days we served the Bhagavatam.

So, okay, if eighth day I can't do it, ninth day I can't do it, for whatever reason. Then as soon as things come back a little under control, rather than beating ourselves up for not having done that, we start back again. Start back again.

So, there may be times when just life comes in such a way that things may not be possible. But rather than resenting, there are two possibilities. Say when our schedule becomes so overwhelming that we can't study the Bhagavatam.

There are two negative ways of looking at it. One is we keep resenting. Why do I have to do so many things? Why has this work come up? Why is this person doing like this? Why is this? Why is this? Now, when we resentfully do some activity, we can't actually do it wholeheartedly.

And often that ends up taking much more time. What could have been done in one hour, if you are doing it resentfully, it will take us two hours. And even after doing two hours also, it's like if you come suddenly from India to America, there is jet lag.

So, for us we have activity lag. Activity lag means, you know, something which we didn't want to do, we had to do it. And after doing it also, we are thinking, why did I have to do it? Why did I have to do it? So, one way is that we look resentfully at that activity.

And the other is, we just become hopeless about our devotion. I will not be able to do it all. There is one devotee I was talking with, he said, how is your Bhagavatam study going? I said, I have postponed it to my next lifetime.

You know, there is no need to do that. We become hopeless. Oh, I will never be able to do it.

So, both of these attitudes are negative. The attitude with Krishna, I want to study the Bhagavatam. In this situation, I am not able to do it.

Please guide me. Please help me. If, say, for one week we study the Bhagavatam, and one week we are not able to study the Bhagavatam.

And if during that one week we are longing, when will I get the time? When can I study the Bhagavatam? Then actually after one week, when we again start studying, that eagerness, in that eagerness, maybe in one hour reading of Bhagavatam, we may actually get more connection with Krishna than what we might have got throughout the previous week. So, actually, if inability to study the Bhagavatam increases our desire to study the Bhagavatam, then that is a success. Krishna says that, In sadhana, this is 12.9, in sadhana bhakti, the purpose of doing sadhana bhakti is to get desire for Krishna.

So if, by studying the Bhagavatam, our taste for Bhagavatam increases, that's wonderful. But if we can't study the Bhagavatam, by being unable to study the Bhagavatam, somehow, when will I get to study it? If we try to create that desire, that will also take us towards Krishna. So the shoka, there is no need for that.

We see that Krishna is in control and Krishna can arrange a plan for us. Krishna can bring good even out of the bad for us. So shoka, that can go.

Now, moha and bhaya. We'll talk about moha briefly. Moha means illusion.

Broadly, illusion can mean a very broad thing. But in this context, if you say illusion refers to the present, what it means is that we think that something other than Krishna is what we need. Moha is to think that, ok, only this thing gets fixed, this thing gets fixed, this thing gets fixed.

Whatever we feel we need, we actually need Krishna. Even when I say I need food, yes, that's a physical need. But actually, how does that food nourish us? It is Krishna who is giving us that food.

It is Krishna who is manifesting as a taste of water. Krishna who is manifesting as the juice of vegetables. So circumstantially we may need certain things.

But instead of thinking of only those things, actually it is Krishna who is reaching out to me through these things. So yes, sometimes at a particular time in our life we have to work for certain things. But if you see them as separate from Krishna, then that is a problem.

But if you see that, this is an opportunity for me to experience how Krishna is manifesting through this. Suppose we are sick and we need medicines. A devotee doctor was once treating me.

And he told me that his realisation after many years of practising medicine is that we can only treat. It is Krishna who heals. That we treat, we give the medication.

But sometimes the medication works, sometimes it doesn't work. It is Krishna who heals. So to think that what we need is something other than Krishna, that is illusion.

Whatever we need, if you see that actually it is Krishna who is manifesting through this for me. Then we won't see our effort to get that also as separate from our emotion. It is ultimately, if I get that, that's wonderful.

If I don't get that, that's also Krishna will provide. It is Krishna who is manifesting through this for me. And if Krishna doesn't manifest through you, Krishna will manifest through somewhere else.

I wrote a book on reincarnation, demystifying reincarnation. So people ask me questions online. So on my website somebody asked me a question.

He says that a boy asked this question. I want to marry a girl. She also wants to marry me but somehow our parents are not agreeing.

So can you tell me what karma I should do so that I can marry her in my next life? So actually because of Bollywood's depiction of reincarnation, people they have made reincarnation very romanticised. People talk about the soulmate. I want to find my soulmate.

Now actually we should focus on the soul, not the mate. But most people they focus only on the mate part. So anyway I answered elaborately that question.

So what I told him is that actually sometimes when two people come together, circumstantially by karma, it may be that two people can come together, two people can't come together. You can try if it doesn't work, but you see that everything is not in our control. But whatever attractiveness anyone manifests in this world, they are manifesting a spark of Krishna's attractiveness.

So if a boy finds a girl attractive, a girl finds a boy attractive. It is not just that they are attractive, they may be attractive, but they are manifesting a spark of Krishna's attractiveness. So sometimes our horizontal relationships may not work out.

That's just the way the world is. But if you understand that whatever I am getting through this horizontal relationship, I can get all that and more through my vertical relationship with Krishna. And I focus on developing that relationship.

Tameva mata cha pita tameva, tameva bandhu cha sakha tameva, tameva vidya dravinam tameva, tameva sarvam mama deva deva. This verse what it means is that whatever love we get from our mother, our father, our brother, our friend, even our wealth, our knowledge, whatever shelter, whatever love, whatever we get from any of the things in this world, it is ultimately Krishna who is giving it to them. So if we see that, okay, I need money, I'm working to get money, but actually money can't give me shelter, it is Krishna who will give me shelter through money.

So if we see money as a Lakshmideva, as a manifestation of Krishna, then we may seek it, but we won't be in illusion. Yes, this is the manifestation of Krishna that can give me shelter right now, I'll seek it. That way the moha can be avoided if you can see the inclusiveness, the pervasiveness of Krishna.

And as far as the bhaya is concerned, at one level fear is just natural, because the future is uncertain and things can go wrong in the future. But as devotees we understand that, you know, many people try to look at astrology to find out what is there in my horoscope, what is going to happen in the future. So we can't always know what the future holds, but we can know who holds the future.

Who holds the future means that Krishna is in control. Krishna has control in the past, he is in control in the present, and he is in control in the future. And even if some difficulties come upon us in the future, if we stay sheltered in Krishna, he will guide us.

So we can make our plans for the future, but the ultimate plan is to intensify our shelter of Krishna. That is the ultimate insurance. So we don't see, and there was an insurance advertisement, which said that, you know, if you are not insured with us, start saying your prayers.

So the idea was, start saying your prayers. And so the idea is that, yes, actually, even if you are insured with us, still you should say your prayers, isn't it? It is not that the insurance is giving us the shelter, it is Krishna who is giving us shelter through the insurance. So we don't see the material things as competitors to Krishna.

We see Krishna can act through those material things also. But Krishna is, there is nothing ultimately that is security, it is only Krishna who is the supreme security. So for us, the scripture tells us how so many devotees had so many difficulties, but it was Krishna who protected them.

Krishna, when Prahlad Maharaj, he was not Maharaj, he was just Prahlad, a small child at that time, when Prahlad was standing up to Hiranyakashipu, he had no idea if the Lord would come, when the Lord would come. And for him, actually, nobody was standing up. He was all alone in the kingdom, even the gods were bowing down.

Even his own Guru was bowing down. See, we all face different kinds of problems. Sometimes we face problems of our own making.

We make a mistake and then problems come up. We do something bad. The small bad Parashar did, but he got a big reaction.

Sometimes, just some people go against us. The Pandavas faced problems, they made no mistakes. Yudhishthir was virtuous, but the Kauravas were on a mission against them.

So when somebody is causing us a problem, we feel angry about that person. But still, okay, this person is my enemy, that's why I'm facing this problem. Sometimes we make a mistake, then we face a problem.

Okay, I made this mistake, that's why I'm facing the problem. But sometimes when we do good and then we face problems, that is most difficult to bear. Prahlad, if he had given up his devotion, he would have had no problem.

People practise devotion to overcome problems. For Prahlad, he got problems because of his devotion. And he had no idea what will come in the future.

But even then he was absorbed in Krishna. And then when Narasimhadeva appeared, he completely transformed the equation. What was the equation he transformed? That he made Prahlad the king.

There is Vamsidhar as a Vaishnavacharya. He's written a commentary on the Bhagavatam and he answers, he says, I'll conclude with this point that in the 7th canto, it begins with the question, Is God equal to everyone? So he says that, so actually Prahlad was delivered by the Lord and Hiranyakashipu was killed by the Lord. So how is the Lord equal? So he says that both Hiranyakashipu and Prahlad got to be on the lap of the Lord.

So the Lord is equal to both. It's an intimate position to be on the lap of someone. But because their mood was different, the Lord's response to them was different.

So Krishna is equal, but Krishna is also reciprocal. He's equal in the sense that he's not partial. But his equality is not stone-like neutrality.

Based on how we approach him, he responds. So Krishna reciprocated. He was equal to both, but he was reciprocal.

So he reciprocated differently with each of them. So Prahlad, he did not know how the Lord would intervene in the future. But he persevered in his devotion and the Lord reciprocated in an extraordinary way.

We say Prahlad is thousands of years ago, millions of years ago. We can look at Prabhupada just a few decades ago. When Prabhupada came to America, he didn't know what was going to come in the future.

He didn't know what was going to come, but he persevered. And Krishna had an amazing plan for Prabhupada. Even if we say that for some people, there doesn't seem to be any future like this.

There's old age, there's disease, there's death. But that is not the end. Even if somebody has some terrible disease and their life is going to end, but actually if they are devoted to Krishna, then there is an auspicious destination for them.

The Bhagavatam reveals if there is suspense movie. Sometimes you have some maybe Indiana Jones movie or something like that. You have to get to this treasure in one month.

If you don't get, you will die. And then the whole movie is the hero is overcoming this obstacle and going over this, going over that. And then finally, just in the nick of time, he gets to that treasure and he survives.

So we have the Bhagavatam starting with Parikshit Maharaj cursed to die in seven days. And by the end of the Bhagavatam in seven days, Parikshit Maharaj dies. So what is this? What kind of story is this? What kind of story is this? But the story is actually that the Bhagavatam as I said is the world transcending the ocean.

So suppose say there is a car which is rushing towards a cliff. And then people are trying to save that car. We are watching this car.

What happens? What happens? And then watching the car and the car rushes to the cliff and the car falls and crashes. What happened? That person died. But we are looking from one side.

We look from the other side as the car was rushing towards the cliff. Now there is a helicopter from above. And that helicopter throws down the rope.

It is a convertible. Person opens the car and catches the rope. And the car topples off and the person is pulled out to safety.

So like that the body will meet its death. But the Bhagavatam helps us to become attached to Krishna. So the Acharya described that it was not that when Takshaka bit Parikshit's body, that Parikshit died.

It was that even before that Parikshit becomes so absorbed in Krishna that Parikshit's consciousness had already gone to Krishna. His soul had already connected with Krishna. And Takshaka did not kill Parikshit.

Takshata only destroyed Parikshit's body. Now the curse acted at the material level. But the blessing acted at the spiritual level.

The blessing of the association with Dev Goswami, the blessing of Parikshit Maharaj's absorption in the Bhagavatam, that acted at the spiritual level. And this is the ultimate world-transcending nature of the Bhagavatam that Parikshit Maharaj, at the material level he died, but at the spiritual level he was liberated. So if we also understand this, there is the world-transforming aspect of devotion, but we focus on this world-transcending aspect, then we will be able to get wholeheartedly into the Bhagavatam.

Sometimes in life there will be pain, but if we absorb ourselves in Krishna, in Bhagavatam, then we may have to live with pain, but we won't have to live in pain. Live in pain means our whole consciousness becomes filled with pain, we can't think of anything else. But live with pain means this painful thing is there in my life, but there is Krishna in my life, there is Bhagavatam in my life, there is a positive practise Bhakti.

So this pain is manageable. So to the extent we focus on the Bhagavatam, the pain won't consume our consciousness, the pain won't become like the container of our consciousness, we can't think of anything else. Rather the pain will become a component of our consciousness.

Pain will be contained within our consciousness. It is there and I will see how to deal with it. But let me focus on Krishna and become absorbed in Krishna.

That absorption that Parishad Maharaj has is the blessing of the Bhagavatam. And that blessing we all can get if we strive to serve Krishna through his manifestation of the Bhagavatam, by studying regularly, by hearing regularly, by remembering regularly, and just trying to become immersed in Krishna's message through the Bhagavatam. I'll summarise.

I spoke about the mood for studying the Bhagavatam, by first talking about the various seeds of the Bhagavatam. There is Parishad Maharaj's question, the Shudra Goswami's question, the questions to Shudra Goswami, then there is Narada Vyasa Samvat, and there is Vyasa Dev's meditation. So I focused on Vyasa Dev's meditation.

Before that I started by Narada Muni's shloka that we are all distressed because matra sparshichchaya mohi. So we are looking for pleasant sensations and we are wanting to avoid unpleasant sensations. But life gives us the opposite.

And what is the solution? Raise the consciousness above. There can be world transforming devotion that the Bhagavata demonstrates, and world transcending devotion that the Bhagavatam demonstrates. So if we want to absorb ourselves in the Bhagavatam, we need to shift ourselves.

This is the time for world transcending devotion. Just focus. And then we discussed these four verses.

So the first verse was how mayam chitta parashrayam Krishna is in control, maya is under him. And I discussed with him that of how that wherever that our illusion, that whatever happens in this world, we don't see it as separate from Krishna. Krishna, the bad things that happen to us, they are not Krishna's plan, but they are within Krishna's plan.

Like a school doesn't want students to fail, but a school can accommodate the failure of the students. So whenever anything happens, maya is not just illusion in perception, it is illusion in conception. If we see something as separate from Krishna, that is maya.

We see even maya in Vaishnavi, then we see that whatever is happening, what is the plan of Krishna over here? Duryodhana acted because of maha maya, but Vidura saw it in yoga maya. And don't look at the, don't focus on the wrongdoer, focus on the ultimate doer. Then the second verse I talked about was how the anarthas are what is causing the jiva to become subordinate to maya.

And anartha means, artha is meaning wealth and purpose. Now we may have delusional meaning purpose, like it may, say somebody is imagining cricket match, somebody is alcoholic. So there can be artha which takes us towards parmartha and artha which takes us away from parmartha.

So for us, whatever is artha for us, if we arrange our family, our health, our finances, our career, if we arrange it in such a way then it is not anartha. But if we just get invested in that alone, then it becomes an illusion for us. Then it becomes anartha.

because of anartha we may think that external change, external possession will make me happy. But if my disposition is to look at what I don't have, I'll never be happy. Then I talked about how the bhagavatam removes the anartha.

So people think of serving the anarthas as a solution to their problems, but actually it is removing the anartha. Purifying ourselves of the anartha, that is the solution. And that happens by raising our consciousness above the world.

And lastly I talked about this verse, by hearing about Krishna, as described in the bhagavatam, bhakti awakens to him. And by that bhakti, we can become free from shoka moha bhaya. Lamentation about the past, we can avoid by understanding that Krishna's plan includes our mistakes.

Krishna is like the ultimate GPS. So, even if we fail, even if we can't succeed in Krishna consciousness, we can fail in Krishna consciousness, not out of Krishna consciousness. If we decide a particular standard, we can't follow it.

If we can't study the bhagavatam, rather than lamenting, resenting the situation because we can't study, or lamenting and giving up hope, we simply see that as an opportunity to increase our longing to study. And then, here we get so much nourishment from that also. And then I talk about moha is to think that my need can be fulfilled by anything other than Krishna.

Yes, we need material things in life, but we have to see that it is Krishna who is fulfilling my needs through those material things. So, food, it is Krishna who is acting through the food. It is Krishna who is acting through medicines.

It is Krishna who is giving me love through my loved ones. And then bhaya, we can't know what the future holds, but we can see the future. So, Krishna has acted wonderfully in the lives of many, many devotees.

And we perceive here that Krishna will act wonderfully in our lives also. We may have to live with pain, but we don't have to live in pain. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. Any questions or comments? Do we have time? Any one or two questions? Yes. You had a question? So, you said about how the intensity of the material distress can be converted into velocity of devotional service.

And also we see from the prayers of Queen Kunti that the more the distress, the more we can see the Krishna, more we can see the Krishna consciousness. But actually when the distress really comes, that is kind of, you don't remember the prayers. So, how do we really, distress and difficult situations are going to come whether now or later.

How do we really prepare ourselves, prepare our consciousness? Yeah. So, if distresses come, at that time it's very difficult to take shelter of Krishna. See, we don't have to necessarily see if we are taking practical steps.

Those practical steps can also be our means of taking shelter of Krishna. That means the devotion is manifest in two ways. There is dependence on Krishna and there is diligence for Krishna.

When I started giving classes first time about 20-25 years ago, I was given a 10 point guideline and the last point was depend on Krishna. In bracket, but only after you have prepared. So, sometimes when the heat of the situation is there, at that time we have to act to deal with it.

But if we see that this is my service to Krishna and I am trying to deal with it as well as I can. In our service, it is also a way of expressing our devotion. So, Arjuna, after hearing the Bhagavad Gita, did not raise his hand like Draupadi in surrender.

He raised his bow in readiness to fight. That means he expressed his devotion to diligence for Krishna. Draupadi expressed it to dependence for Krishna.

So, both modes are there. So, generally for us, for the things that we have control over, there has to be diligence. For the things we don't have control over, for that we have to have dependence.

Sometimes the situation comes that there is very little we have control over. Then the dependence becomes much more. When we have control over things, we have to be responsible, we have to be diligent at that time.

And rather than thinking of when difficulties come, I don't take shelter of Krishna, we don't have to see devotion as a digital logic one or zero. It is more of analogue. That means, okay, when somebody upsets me, okay, I get angry and do something which maybe a devotee should not do.

But then as soon as I realise, I course correct. So, rather than thinking, if I do like this, it's right, if I do like this, I'm wrong. If I do like this, as soon as I realise, I'll come back to this.

So, as soon as we realise, we take shelter of Krishna. It is not necessary that devotion has to be performed according to particular stereotype ways only. Devotion is dynamic.

And if we are, there are, if we are practising bhakti regularly, then our instincts become spiritualised. What does instincts become spiritualised mean? That, at that particular time, when the distress comes, we will, our consciousness will gravitate towards Krishna. That may not be able to do consciously.

At this, may not be able to, we cannot predict what our consciousness will be in future. But, if we right now try to spiritualise our consciousness, try to take shelter of Krishna, try to make it a habit of taking shelter of Krishna, then at that time, the shelter of Krishna will come as a, come as a prompting within us. Every action that we do, I'll speak on this in a class in the, in Microsoft elaborately, every action that we do, it forms an impression on us.

And that impression comes as a proposition. So, if we are performing devotional activities nicely, they will be forming impressions within us. And those impressions will come as propositions.

So, we can't, we don't have to worry too much about the future. We can just focus on doing our best in the present. Thank you Krishna.

So, shall we stop here? Thank you very much.