Bhagavatam-daily 165 – 11.10.07 – Be self-interested, but after knowing the true self

Thank you Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.7 jaya patya griha kshetra svajanadravina adishu udasi naha samampashyan sarveshwar tamivatmanaham jaya patya griha kshetra jaya patya griha kshetra jaya patya this sort of list usually comes in the Bhagavatam about subjects or ways in which our attention can get misdirected how we may lose focus jaya jaya is wife jaya jaya is wife rather patya is children griha is home kshetra is land svajanadravina adishu svajana is relatives dravina is wealth Srila Prabhupada translates as bank account Srila Prabhupada’s followers translate as bank account dravina is a contemporary rendition of what that means udasinaha person has to be udasin towards all this not emotionally entangled in this detached from these things samampashyan and you see all of these equally sarveshva artham ivatmanaha sarveshva all of these artham purpose artha is meaning purpose ivatmanaha like self-situated that means atmanaha that means rather than getting caught in all these entangling things a devotee focuses on one self-interest what is the self-interest as generally it is said we should not be self-interested which is also true of course but we should not be self-interested in terms of being materially possessive in terms of being materially agitated in terms of being materially possessive tempted and titillated and consumed but as far as our spiritual growth is concerned we need to be concerned about it so nate svartha gatim bhi vishnu svartha gati svartha svartha is self-interest so there it is said our svartha gati is actually vishnu and people don’t know that our svartha gati is vishnu svartha gati is vishnu what this means is that although ignorant selfishness in terms of desiring the things which are actually not good for us and which are actually going to entangle us and cause us misery that sort of desire we should not have because that sort of desire that sort of self-centeredness will only lead to misery for us in the long run but a self-centeredness wherein we it is not exactly self-centeredness it is as it is the word is self-interestedness self-interestedness can also mean the word can have negative connotation but self-interestedness here refers to being interested in our true self knowing that our true self is the atma and it is the atma that is the ultimate that is who we are and unless the atma is given happiness actually we will not get lasting happiness and the atma is intimately connected with paramatma so unless we devote ourselves to the supreme lord we will not be truly happy so we should be concerned about the interest of our true self in all that we do so now if we get too caught in material things if we start thinking that material things alone will make me happy and then that’s how we let our whole consciousness get consumed by the desire for pleasure by the desire for pleasure and prestige that comes when we possess and parade our possessions and positions then we will deprive ourselves spiritually we will starve ourselves spiritually even the Mahabharata goes to the extent of calling such people as killers of the soul so people are killers of the soul so certainly that is an extreme of going to be the killers of the soul that we should avoid but there is also the other extreme which we need to be careful of which we need to avoid that is that we think that there is no swartha for me no swartha again the word swartha is being used in a positive sense here not a negative sense that there is no swartha for me in my worldly connections actually our worldly connections no longer remain worldly when we are practicing the path of bhakti it’s true that the path of bhakti centers on our vertical relationship with krishna but to develop that vertical relationship with krishna also means developing a horizontal relationship with people around us in this world and unless we develop that relationship often our vertical relationship says stays a little bit ethereal it doesn’t become tangible so what we need to do is work in our onward journey towards krishna by a program of balance balance wherein we seek both krishna and seek to serve krishna through the world so jaya patya graha kshetra soja nandravina these are the standard list of the wife the children the home the occupation the land or whatever the source of income is the relatives the wealth all these we need for living in this world and quite often we have those but if we get entangled in those so if we let our consciousness consume entirely by these then we cheat ourselves spiritual advancement on the other hand if we entirely neglect these things then also we cheat ourselves because we don’t realize that these are not mine and these cannot give me pleasure independent of krishna not sustainable pleasure but at the same time these are also not meant to be given up these are also meant to be why they are not meant to be given up because they are not mine to renounce they are not mine to enjoy but they are not mine to renounce also they are actually krishna’s and what krishna has given me if i am in the ashram say if i am in the grahastha ashram or if i am in a responsible position then i cannot become irresponsible negligent towards the things which i have been interested with and therefore we focus on seeing our connection with krishna in these things and seeing those things connection with krishna and seeing thereby that i am serving krishna by responsibly taking care of these responsibilities and also i am trying to get these souls who are also dear to krishna to come closer to him and these resources are krishna’s i have no right to be neglectful of them to reject them to be irresponsible about them so in this way we look at the spiritual interest in everything this is a materialistic person especially the greedy materialistic person sees everything in terms of money how can i get money or how much does this cost if i sell this how much money will come by this so materialistic person’s whole consciousness is money centered so similarly actually all of us we have we can since the pure god is consciousness in contrast is krishna centered everything a devotee sees in relationship with krishna is there any opportunity to serve krishna in this situation how can i serve krishna here what would it take to be able to engage this situation in service of krishna how can this particular thing be connected with krishna so in this way a devotee sees tries to see the krishna connection of everything and also if sentimentality during our krishna connection sentimentality carries us away from the the right response then we need to have towards sentimentality also the attitude that we have towards renunciation that just as sometimes bhakti is said to be not the path of renunciation which is because in our tradition is filled with the gauravakshina mahas who were the siddha swamis who were renounced but just because they were phenomenally renounced does not mean that they rejected the other varanas of life the bhajans all had a special role to play in the mahaprabhu’s pastimes and that’s why they took positions of renunciation whenever required but the principle is that whatever position we are in we can use that position to serve krishna so if our service doesn’t attain success that simply means that we will not be able to invest our consciousness properly in that service and if we have not been able to invest our consciousness then we can always easily invest that consciousness by doing the appropriate changes by praying to krishna to ensure that whatever things are required are made and once those changes are made then actually our culture will be truly preserved and propagated and our individual bhakti will also advance nicely