Bhagavatam-daily 179 – 11.10.21 – Extension of vision from this world to the next doesn’t help without extension of conception of self

11, 10, 21 Shrutam cha dhrishtavad dhrishtam Spardha suyatayavyayai bhava antaraya kamatvad Krishivachapinishvalam Krishna is continuing to instruct Uddhava about the ultimate futility of materialism even if it is pious materialism, religious materialism in terms of living according to dharma as is proposed by thinkers like Jaimini and Karna Vimamsa so here Shrutam cha dhrishtavad dhrishtam Shrutam some people think okay that the happiness in this world is contaminated it is temporary there’s not much happiness but the scriptures talk about heavenly pleasures and we will delight in those pleasures so Shrutam cha dhrishtavad dhrishtam Shrutam cha here Shrutam refers to that which is heard now heard refers to that which is heard in the Shrutis like especially the Karmakanda section of the Shrutis which talk about worldly pleasures so dhrishtavad so that is actually similar to the pleasure which we are seeing dhrishtam now dhrishta can mean wicked or dhrishta can also come from the word dushyata that means contaminated so spardha suyata spardha spardha as in it means competition and the feelings that generally put on competition or jealousy aasuya now jealousy is usually a milder version aasuya envy is a much stronger version aasuya atyaya death vyayayi decay bhava antaraya kamatvaat bhava antaraya antara means distance and that which creates a distance is obstacles so that many obstacles are there kamatvaat for the fulfillment of desire krishivaccha panishvalam krishivaccha just as somebody does agriculture chaapinishvalam now there are so many variables involved that there may be there may be pests that may come the rains may not come some other factors may come up and one may not get any results so krishivaccha panishvalam so diseases droughts plagues in this way the results may not come at all so similarly the idea of karma is often compared with sowing seeds and generally when we sow seeds we expect that we will get crops so that same example is now taken by Krishna but in a different context that sometimes a farmer may work diligently to sow the seeds but as is talked about the Puranas there is karma and daiva and then there is phala and the example that is given is of farming for this that sometimes a farmer may do the work but if rains don’t come or if pests attack or the crops get some diseases then that means that is an indication of unfavorable destiny and then when the daiva is not favorable even if the karma is favorable the phala will not come so like that even when now ultimately we can say that it is the karma only that is created by daiva that is okay but the point is that as far as our present cause-effect correlation is concerned we don’t always see actions producing result we don’t always see that people who live people who aspire for living properly materially they don’t always get proper results materially and similarly somebody may try to do a very good sacrifice for going to heavens but somehow some mistake might happen sacrifice some Brahman might get offended and just like it happened to Maharaj Riga instead of going to heaven he ended up as in the lower species as he described in the 10th cant of Srimad Bhagavatam so like that things can always go wrong and then we are trying to seek stability, security, satisfaction at the material level so generally the material is external to us and when it is external to us it is not really in our control and though we may understand certain causal principles by which we may try to bring certain things under control it’s not possible to keep such things under control for very long and our control is always limited, limited in terms of extent, limited in terms of duration that means a person may even become a king but how long is that person going to stay the king and in the person is the king still there are other kings over whom the king does not this king does not have control so the extent and duration things our capacity to control things is limited and that means that even if we want to do good there is no guarantee of good results here we are by the word good referring to not in terms of spiritual good but in terms of materially good things so essentially Krishna is saying that the extension of the vision of life from this world to the next world does not really make much difference if there is not an extension of the conception of self from the material to the spiritual if one is still conceiving of the self in terms of material now people may not even think of what their self is but we can understand how they are conceiving their self by considering how they are conceiving their conceptions of happiness so if people are thinking in terms of happiness even in the next life in terms of material pleasures of wealth and sense gratification and things like that then the even if that arena for sense gratification is changed from earth to heaven it won’t make much difference because essentially it’s the same thing being repeated now the exact same obstacles may not be there in heavens the facilities for pleasure may be more the duration of life may be more but even there there are dangers there Indra can come at offenses because of pride or negligence as it happens described in 6th canto when he disrespects his Guru Brahaspati demons may attack and threaten and devatas who are reigning in such opulence may suddenly have to flee and live like fugitives as it happened in the 9th canto and then their mother had to launch a transcendental emergency rescue operation by performing sacrifice for invoking the descent of Vishnu who came as Vamana and then restore the kingdom to the devatas so wherever we go if we are conceiving of pleasure in material terms then we will meet with frustration that’s why what Krishna is saying over here is that what we have heard oh in heard in terms of heard of material pleasure that is similar to what we have seen and what we have seen here is that yes even if there is material pleasure it is temporary it never brings lasting satisfaction that’s why there is no point in pursuing such pleasure in the terms of hoping that it will bring some lasting happiness and that is of course problems of going to heaven or problems that one may face in heaven are all after one attains heaven but even the attempt to go to heaven can be fraught with so many difficulties and problems and dangers and therefore rather than spending one’s endeavors on trying to make better material arrangements a wise person focuses on making better make making greater efforts for changing one’s consciousness for rising to the transcendental level because at the transcendental level of consciousness where one relates to the Supreme Lord with pure love there there is there and there alone there is everlasting happiness there