Bhagavatam-daily 115 – 11.08.31 – Giving up the proximate and potent Lord for anyone else is pathetic

Shri madbhagavatam 11 8 30 31 santam samipe ramanam ratipradam santam is being being one who is where one is situated that is samipe very close intimately right in the heart that is implied over here samipe ramanam he is the lover one who gives pleasure he is the god lord of the goddess of fortune so he can give it also and he is always there he is always in my heart and he’s always the giver of pleasure and the and the giver of wealth he’s always the possessor of both these things unfortunately i gave him up so that lord who was right close to me and who is the giver of wealth and pleasure i gave him up for what to turn towards someone else who are those people akamadam those who cannot actually give pleasure instead what they give is so they give misery is fear are these mental distress mental agitation eventual lamentation and overall there is illusion pradam they are the givers of these things and so overall they are insignificant they are insignificant people and that i served them instead of serving the eternal lord i worship them i worship sir basically i i gave myself to them how foolish i am the word agya is similar to the word balisha which was there in the 30th verse i’m foolish she’s saying and now she is highlighting her foolishness by contrasting so she’s speaking that the lord is there right in my heart and the lord can give me all happiness whatever i need the lord can give me so unfortunately why did i give up such a lot and why did i turn to someone else what folly prompted me to do that now normally if there is some influential person some famous person even if that person is far away we will try to go and contact that person because we will say that if that person puts in a good word for me or that person decides to help me then whatever trouble i may have to go through to get to that person it’s all worth it but in this case he says that that great person is right here in my heart i don’t have to go anywhere far out to search for him he’s right inside me and i simply have turned to him but unfortunately i turned away from him i gave him up imam vihaya so now she gives some indication of his greatness he says what what is this now actually krishna already loves us and krishna’s love for us is based on who we are on who he is not who we are means even if we are sinful and fallen still krishna loves us we may not be able to realize his love and he may express his love differently but his loving intention remains universal for all living beings this lord who loves me in a relationship with him that is great pleasure rathi pradam now sometimes the word rathi rathi is used for sexual pleasure but we’ll see that as she talks about she’s talking about detachment from body and bodily pleasures so the word rathi doesn’t necessarily have to mean sexual pleasure it actually just means intense pleasure and the sexual pleasure often tends to be intense although it is temporary but while it is there it is quite captivating so sometimes words similar words are used for describing the pleasures of devotion as are used for describing the pleasures of sex because there are similarities in the sense that both are relational pleasures both involve two people both are intense pleasures and in fact at a deeper philosophical level the sexual attraction is a distortion of our original attraction towards krishna so the scripture doesn’t treat uh although scriptures do emphasize no doubt that spiritual pleasure is an entirely different category of pleasure our devotional happiness in relationship with krishna is an entirely different category of pleasure but still if that pleasure that spiritual pleasure is placed in such a high pedestal that we can’t even compare it and we can’t even we can’t get even an understanding of what it is then we won’t even aspire for it so so to give us uh an some glimpse of that pleasure or some inkling of an understanding of that pleasure and to create within us a desire to seek that happiness by devoting ourselves in our relationship with krishna the scriptures sometimes use terminology which we often tend to associate with worldly pleasures with sensual pleasures even specifically sexual pleasure so prabhupada also once when he was asked what is Vaikuntha like you know he was asked by a hippie like an ocean of lsd now lsd itself is a spiritually taking drugs is not spiritually conducive and to compare the pleasure of the spiritual about ocean of lsd may seem may seem jarring but the point is that prabhupada is using that comparison to illustrate the to convey to people in an intelligible way what the nature of the pleasure is how immense it is so of course then prabhupada also gives the rules in which he says that don’t we have to give up drugs and you have to raise your consciousness so that is there but still of you know concepts have to be present spiritual concepts although they are quite different from material concepts they have been presented in a way that at least they seem intelligible and appealing to people and then they will aspire for them and for that they may people may have to make some significant lifestyle changes and they may have to revise their conceptions also but still at least things have been presented in an intelligible and appealing way that’s why the words like rati pradham which may seem to connote sexual pleasure is also used to describe over here now he is he gives pleasure intense pleasure and then with pradham he’s the lord of the goddess of fortune so if he is pleased with someone what can he not give and there is of course the classic story of sudama who was abundantly blessed by the lord with wealth so with the pradham and nityam his position is eternal his love for me is eternal and he is eternally positioned in my heart also imam vihaya such a lord who is so glorious so potent in giving wealth and pleasure normally these are the two things that we desire krishna also says in 2.44 at the material level we are attracted to these two things wealth and pleasure but can i say that this lord could have given me both if only i had worshipped him but unfortunately i gave him up and what did i do he says that i worship somebody else and and in keeping with the parallel structure she’s describing what all is the what are the limitations of that these people whom i i worship them as an ignorant person what are their character akamadham so she was hoping for gratification of her desires but the nature of the body is that we cannot be gratified and even the little pleasure that is there in sex that also is is something which is not to be had if one’s lover is not expert if one’s lover is uncouth is rough one’s lover is insensitive or now actually such a person you not even call even a lover also but the point is if one’s partner there are many even the little just like food the pleasure in it is limited but sometimes the food is badly cooked and even that pleasure is not there so like that even in sexual intercourse there may there is a there is a little pleasure but even that pleasure is not there if the if the person is person is harsh or whatever akamadham dukkha bhaya dhishokham akamadham dukkha dukkha is instead they give me misery so when people come to a prostitute for enjoyment they are they think that i am entitled to enjoy because i have paid and they are not concerned about her pleasure at all so she was thinking that there will be a reciprocation where they will get pleasure and i’ll they will i’ll give them they will give me pleasure but these people have simply given me misery because sometimes when people are there are so many things i mean when people are in the madness of fashion they may hurt the other person also and overall there is the secure fear that oh there is no job security we could say in that particular job by aadhi shoka aadhi is overall there is great mental distress shoka the shoka is that sometimes don’t get hope for gratification don’t get gratification as it happened with her and the shoka and overall there is moha pradham these are this all needs to moha moha so i stay caught in the bodily consciousness i stay hoping for pleasure which never comes the pleasure is insignificant that’s what pralad nara says in his famous so the pleasure is tuccham and even these people are insignificant now she’ll talk about how there is no these people are also not of much attraction that she’ll talk about in future was aham bhajeya gyan so she talks about how her she has been so foolishly misdirected and she is lamenting this misdirection of her service and by the end of this meditation she by the end of her song meditative song she will become determined to redirect correct this misdirection similarly we can also think that if we serve the lord there is so much that we can get in devotion but unfortunately we give up the lord and we we may not be engaged in this kind of profession but we also search for pleasure in so many other directions so again so this sort of meditation can help us meditating on this sort of meditations by realized souls can help us