Bhagavatam-daily 154 – 11.09.29 – Tap immediately the rare potential of the human form

Bhagavatam-daily Podcast

Bahusambhavante labdha having attained or attaining sudurlabham that which is very rarely attained sudurlabham is extremely rare idam bahusambhavante after going through many births sambhava is actually to take birth to come into existence after many lifetimes one attains manushyam this human form and arthadam it can grant meaning to existence and discuss what that means so it can grant meaning but still it is also anitya it is temporary and because the duration in which we can attain meaning is limited therefore one should be dheeraha we should be sober so immediately endeavor if we fall at any time it is susceptible to death and therefore nishireyasaya nishireyasaya is to pursue the ultimate purpose of life nishireyaha is the sense objects sarvatah suddenly sarvataha it’s available everywhere the sense gratification is available everywhere so what is the purpose of existence so whereas nishireyasa the pursuing spiritual spiritual pursuit the long-term pursuit long-term gain that is available only in human form so this verse if you mistranslate it that having attained having attained that which is very rare and that which is attained after many lifetimes that human form that human form can grant meaning but it is temporary so be sober and what does being sober mean turnam yadet na pate dan vritya yavan strive immediately because the body is susceptible to fall and die at any moment endeavor for what for long-term gain for spiritual gain don’t waste time in sense objects because they are available everywhere sarvatah syad so in this text brahmana is speaking about the speciality of the human form and the urgency in using that form now the human form is said to be very rare nowadays when there is population explosion people may think what is so rare about the human form it is already there and there are so many human beings but actually if we compare the count of human population to the count of other living beings then we will realize the actually the human form is very rare and it is very rare because if you compare the number of a grass grass the number of germs the number of fish in the ocean then as compared we understand that all of them are souls like us and then we understand actually how rare and precious the human form is and actually the speciality of the human form doesn’t come only because of its rarity but it’s also because of its potentiality what is the potential of the human form so the rarity is there are out of so many species so the humans are actually very less and for the soul to come to the human form is not easy the soul has to go through many many life many many many bodies before it comes to human form to transmigrate through various species and the potentiality of this human form is that Artha dham in this meaningful gain can be attained the word Artha here doesn’t refer to Dharma Artha Kama Moksha where Artha refers to financial gain here Artha again here Artha refers to meaning in terms of the ultimate meaning of existence so animals struggle suffer and succumb whereas humans can understand the purpose of life and can attain the purpose of life by the serious practice of spiritual life they can actually attain the ultimate purpose of existence although all living beings are mortal are subject to death are sentenced to death but humans have the capacity to go beyond death by becoming spiritually conscious by realizing their spiritual identity and by learning to love the spiritual reality called Krishna by this they can transcend the mortality that characterizes mortal existence so this Artha dham this the potentiality of the human form is there and that has to be tapped however Anityam like the other form this is also Anityam and therefore if we the students if they understand that oh my exam is tomorrow and I only be eight ten hours to study then they become sober they think oh there is a whole year to study then you know I’ll study sometime in the future so that sobering so sobering and awareness of the finiteness of the time available to us bring sobriety because it’s temporary therefore become sober and so sometimes people think that when we become spiritual we become unambitious we become lazy however this Bhagavatam verse is saying what to speak of becoming lazy we have to become industrious you become immediately urgently industrious that is a sign of endeavoring is done only by those who are industrious so endeavor immediately the body can fall at any moment and it will fall sooner or later at any moment we may be just living peacefully and maybe get a heart attack or there may be earthquake or there may be a burglary burglary or whatever and death may befall us so knowing this death can happen anytime and therefore before death happens we have to become spiritually realized therefore generally to succeed in life we need to work on our strengths just like say in cricket if a team is good at batting the team works on its strength and if it has some ability which everyone else has if they have they have a good bowling decent bowling but everybody has decent bowling then that will not be their winning advantage whatever is their special talent if they have a particular batsman who can who can score runs very fast that will be their winning advantage so to success requires using our special strength using and making it using our special strength and making it into winning advantage so the sense objects are the pursuit of sense objects is a common characteristic of all living beings and in pursuing sense objects the souls in various species they struggle suffer and succumb to eventually to old age disease and death and to rebirth again so if we keep pursuing the same things then we will also struggle succumb and struggle suffer and succumb but if we want to transcend material existence then we have to tap our special advantage and that is and that strength is our capacity for was mentioned in the previous verse the capacity to perceive spiritual truth perceive perceive is to see and here strive for coming to spiritual consciousness because once we learn to love krishna and raise our consciousness of spiritual level then the destination that we attain is it eternal and we’ll get eternal happiness and thus our quest for meaning will be fulfilled and the human life will have given us artha dham will have granted us