Bhagavatam-daily 50 – 11.07.40 – Sense of purpose and urgency will keep us undistracted by circumstances

Thank you. Bhagavatam 11.7.40, the Brahmana, Avadhut Brahmana is speaking to Maharaj Yadu, explaining how he has learned from his 24 gurus. And here he describes what he has learned from vayuvat, from the wind.
So Vishayeshwavishan yogi, the yogi, one who is a spiritual seeker, yoga is to connect, so one who wants connection with spiritual reality, even such a person cannot avoid entirely contact with the sense objects. So Vishayeshwavishan yogi, when such a person enters into contact with sense objects, nana dharmesh sarvatah, sense objects will be of different kinds, sense perceptions may be pleasant, unpleasant. Sarvatah, actually, wherever we go in this world, there will be some sense objects, there will be some sense contact, you cannot avoid that.
But guna, dosha, vipetatma, vipetatma, one who has gone, the atma, the person who has gone beyond all this, has transcended the guna and dosha, doesn’t get infatuated, thinking, oh, this is very good, and this is very bad. And doesn’t become entangled, just like the wind. Now, the wind flows through many places, but the wind itself does not let itself get contaminated by that place, the wind does not get itself locked into that place.
The wind flows through an area, it goes through that area for some time, and then it passes out of that area. So, similarly, the detached soul goes through different situations, goes through different sense objects, goes through areas, places where there are some level of contact or sense objects. But because of vipetatma, because of having transcended, there is no vishajyata, there is no attachment or entanglement.
Now, actually, entanglement comes from attachment, and attachment comes from the hope for enjoyment, the expectation of enjoyment, the dream of enjoyment. Just like, say, a person is in a room and there’s a TV over there. Now, the TV itself is motionless, it is closed, but there is a hope for enjoyment, or maybe there’s some good program that I can watch.
So, the person starts, turns on the TV and starts watching it. And once the person starts watching the TV, then there is attachment, oh, this was a good joke, this is a good match, this is a good movie, this is a good song, whatever. And then, as the attachment develops, then there is entanglement.
One thinks, okay, I’ll just watch, glance through the channels for a few minutes, and a few minutes become a few hours. And as that pattern repeats day after day, it can become an addiction, which continues for life. So, the hope for enjoyment causes attachment and entanglement.
Krishna talks about this in 13.22 that the soul desires to enjoy, the Purusha becomes situated in Prakriti, why? Because of the desire to enjoy. The products of material nature, the various sense objects, the soul desires to enjoy. Now, when that desire to enjoy is not there, then one can be Vipedatma and Navishadjit, one can stay unentangled.
Now, actually, one may argue that if you’re talking about a wind, sometimes the wind carries the aroma, isn’t it? So, if a wind goes to a particular place, it carries the aroma. So, then what is the point of saying that the wind does not get entangled? Yes, we cannot avoid contact entirely. But actually, the extent to which the wind may carry the aroma, and the extent to which that aroma lasts, depends on a lot of things, such as how much the wind lingers, the wind goes very slowly, it’s barely a gentle breeze, then the wind will take in a lot of fragrance and aroma from that place.
But actually, if the wind is just a storm, you’re just going through, rushing through, then actually it will not take much, it will just destroy over there. So, the point here is that the wind does not get restricted to that place, wind keeps flowing. And like that, the unattached soul will keep moving forwards.
And it is not that the unattached soul is blind. When Prabhupada found himself in the Lower East Side with a drunkard, with a drug high David, who came to attack him. So, it was not that at that time Prabhupada just was blind to that reality.
Prabhupada saw what was happening and immediately left that place. He fled, practically speaking. So, now, that was what was the response was necessary.
And Prabhupada chose that. So, this does not mean, so the point here is that it’s not that a devotee has to be completely passive in order to be unaffected. Yes, it was Prabhupada saw that his life was meant for the service of Krishna and this person had gone crazy and this person threatened his life and threatened his service to Krishna.
So, Prabhupada took action. The point is that when we are in a particular circumstance, we may have to temper or modulate our responses according to circumstances. But our intention underlying those responses is not changed.
Our intention is to serve Krishna, to glorify Krishna in whatever way is best possible in those circumstances. So, internally, a devotee is not changed by going into various worldly situations, although externally the devotee may behave appropriately according to circumstances. Now, if one is not having an internally strong motivation, then going into that external situation will make us influenced by that external situation and internally our motivations may also change.
Indians often go to America and their dream is that to settle in America and enjoy what is called the land of opportunity. Prabhupada went to America, he saw the same statue of liberty that Indians would see and on approach to India, America, he saw the same coastline, same skyscrapers, similar cars, but then he did not get allured by that. So, whether he was in the peaceful, serene, devotionally charged surroundings of Vrindavan or whether he was in the noisy, smelly, hedonistically surcharged surroundings of the lower east side of the Hedashbari, he was vayuvad.
He was unaffected because he was focused on his purpose of serving Krishna and connecting others with Krishna. Now, we are not at a level that we can go through any and every circumstance without being affected. That’s why we have to be careful of what circumstances we enter ourselves into.
So, we don’t deliberately go into tempting situations to prove that we remain unaffected. No, our goal is to go closer towards Krishna and during the course of our service to Krishna, if we are required to go into certain situations which are likely to be tempting, then we go into that situation not to prove our sense control or to prove our purity, but to render a service over there. So, that is essentially means that we strengthen our inner connection, we strengthen our inner motivation and remind ourselves that this is just a passing phase, that I will not waste my precious human life on seeking a temporary titillation when permanent satisfaction beckons me, when everlasting fulfillment awaits me in my progressive devotional service to Krishna.
Why should I let my devotion be distracted and compromised for the sake of some titillation? So, that sort of purposeful focus on Krishna and devotion to Krishna will give us a speed, a momentum, just as a forceful wind has and we will go through situations affecting those situations wherever possible, wherever people are receptive, we may be able to give Krishna to them also in some small or large way depending on circumstance, but we won’t get unduly affected by the situation. We may behave, we can and should behave appropriately according to the circumstance that we are put in, but we don’t let our inner values and our intention to serve Krishna change and that way we can be in this world and still we will be a petaatma, will not get affected by the faults and the good qualities of things, but we will stay fixed in service to Krishna, go closer to Krishna through whatever situation we are put in and help others also move closer to Krishna. Just as the wind is always on the move, similarly a devotee is always on the move permeated with a sense of urgency and purpose.
Firstly, purpose, yes, I have to do some service to Krishna and urgency means that life is short and I want to do as much service as possible, as quickly as possible. So, the sense of urgency and purpose will enable us to remain unscathed,