Bhagavatam-daily 134 – 11.09.09 – All lessons don’t have to be taught to be learned

Srimad Bhagavatam, Level 9, 9. Anvashiksham imam tasya Upadesha marindama Lokan anucharan etan Lok tattul vitsaya So I have learned by seeing with my own eyes. Imam tasya Imam this, tasya that girl Upadesha marindama So I learned this lesson by seeing myself Arindama Arindama That means one who is the Ari is the enemy, Dama the subduer of the enemy like Parantapa is that, similarly Arindama So this is the way the Brahmana is glorifying King Mara Yadu in the course of the conversation Lokan anucharan etan Lokan anucharan Lokan anucharan in the world while I was wandering etan is Lok tattul vitsaya of the world the truth while I was going around in the world the truths vitsaya So I was moving around in the world to learn the truths of life At that time, I observed this girl and I learned this So what that lesson was will be mentioned in the next text But suffice it to say that let’s focus on this principle The Avadhut Brahmana has mentioned that he has got 24 Gurus from whom he has learnt Now interestingly we don’t see any of the Gurus as having taught him anything In the previous he has learnt something by seeing the Kurura bird or he has learnt something by seeing the bird couple Kapota kapoti he learnt something from Pingala but Pingala none of them actually gave him any instruction it was not that he sat down at their feet to learn anything from them No, he observed and he learnt So he says I learnt this Updesh while I was looking around to learn the truths of life So with a desire to know when I was looking around in the world So the 24 Gurus of the Avadhut Brahmana are Gurus who teach without teaching That means it is not that they have to give classes and he has to sit and hear the classes in order to learn No simply hears from them and they learn accordingly So or rather he observes them and by observing he learns So in fact some of them so actually among the 24 Gurus none of them does he directly interact with any of them and yet he learns from them So how does he learn? It is by observing So lessons don’t have to be taught to be learnt Actually lessons can be learnt just by observing Yes There has to be some amount of teaching of course otherwise we will not know what to learn but a lot of learning happens by careful observation Now sometimes it is said that devotees should be like a tortoise who withdraws its limbs into its body like that we withdraw our senses within so that we don’t get attracted to sense objects That is definitely true but at the same time once we have a certain basic level of detachment then we can look at the world and then we can learn from the world So we don’t look at the world to see to see sense gratification to see opportunities for sense gratification but we look at the world to see demonstrations of the truths that we have learnt from Guru Sadhu Shastra We cannot live in this world with closed eyes We cannot walk around, we cannot live around So if we do sadhana strictly and we develop a strong connection with Krishna in our heart then that connection with Krishna gives us inner stability by which we can resist the lures of this world and when there is that inner stability then even when we interact with the world when we observe the world rather than focusing on all the sense gratificatory opportunities that are glamorized by the world, we can also see the truths of life that are being taught in the world As devotees we don’t have to go necessarily to materialistic and sense gratificatory things to learn but just by observing the world and just by being aware of things we can see we can learn many things and in that way a devotee can use the senses we know that bhakti we use the senses for glorifying the lord and for serving the lord with the eyes we can behold the form of the lord but you may wonder how practical is it to use the eyes only to behold the lord how long are we going to behold him we have to do so much practical work and most of the time our eyes are going to be in other directions yes, that is definitely true and during that time we have to be devotionally purposeful that means if you are aware what I am doing and why I am doing ok right now I am serving Krishna why am I serving Krishna or how am I serving Krishna ok I have this job, this family and then I am interacting with people who are either devotees who are potential devotees or this whole service is meant for the service of Krishna so that way if we are purposeful then we avoid distractions just like if we are going on a road and we want to go fast and the road is clear then we keep our eyes fixed on the road and we move onwards we don’t turn left and right and do sightseeing so if we are aware of our purpose then we won’t get involved in sightseeing but now by keeping our eyes and ears open we can learn things and here so the point is lessons don’t have to be taught to be learned lessons we can learn them by observation so that is of course something which we learn by studying Guru Sadhu Shastra very important foundation and then we can be we can observe the same truths being demonstrated through the actions of the world and in this way we can have the wisdom reinforced so for example Shri Prabhupada asked told us that we should try to see the world with Shastra Chakshu so what does that mean? that means we study scripture and internalize scripture and adopt the world view of scripture and with that world view when we look at the world then we find that we can actually see the truth of scripture demonstrated in the world and by seeing the truth of scripture demonstrated our faith in scripture increases and our our connection with Krishna, our sense of gratitude to Krishna for the wisdom we have got that also increases and that way we can keep moving onwards closer to Krishna so I have learned you conquer enemies in this world there are temptations but I have conquered temptations I don’t get caught in the temptations in this world but rather I learn lessons from this world while while moving around in this world I am observing and I am learning so we don’t necessarily look at sense gratificatory things to imagine that we can learn something from it but in the general course of action in this world we look around keep our eyes open with our head and heart fixed in Krishna then we can our eyes can show us the truth shared by Krishna being demonstrated in the world and that’s how the lessons learned from scripture can be reinforced by being demonstrated in the world