Bhagavatam-daily 83 – 11.07.73 – Don’t delight in duality – delight in Krishna

Bhagavatam-daily podcast:

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.73 Avadhut Brahmana is now giving the concluding lesson from the Kapota story. He is observer of nature and a learner from nature so he has narrated what he has observed quite a distressing narrative of how the Kapota and his family met with heart breaking death so now he is describing the lesson evam kutumbya shantatma so in this way kutumbya in family life a person who is in family life a family man a shantatma is always unpeaceful, not having peace dvandvaramaha dvandva is duality aramaha is delight so Krishna uses indriyarama in 3.16 in the Gita for sense gratifiers atmarama the Bhagavatam uses for those who delight in the soul so here the word is dvandvarama now interestingly we talk about duality is normally we refer to it as happiness and distress now how exactly may one take pleasure in the duality of happiness and distress so here that dvandva refers not to that duality but refers to duality of male and female wherein because of the duality one becomes attracted and captivated at the material level and thinks that this pleasure is itself the purpose and perfection of life and I don’t need to strive for anything higher so dvandvaramaha so the pigeon bird was captivated with the with his wife and the children that came from his union and he was dvandvarama he was delighting in his relationship with her and here this is patatrivat so those patatri is the bird the pigeon those who live like that patatri so what happens to those people who live like that pushnan kutumbam kripanaha pushnan kutumbam so one who maintains one’s family kripanaha which a person who is caught in just worldly activities saanubandho avasigati saanubandho with one’s relatives such a person who is like that avasigati avasigati means suffers greatly so the bhagavatam bhagavatam’s critique of grhastha ashram may seem disconcerting may seem discouraging what is this as it is we have to struggle so much to maintain our families and we have to do those responsibilities and on top of that if we are told that all these responsibilities are going to cause suffering so what are we supposed to do is it possible for everyone to become renounced the point here is it is not that renunciation itself is the solution to all tribulation that is also another misconception because even if one accepts the renounced order still one has a body and one has a mind and the body and the mind will create complexity, will create trouble we have in the fourth canto brahmaji telling priyavat maharaj he had not yet become maharaj he was the heir who was going to become the king I told him that even if you renounce the world still you will have your six wives the five senses and the mind and when you are with them you will still stay entangled so better be a regulated householder, do your responsibilities and by that you will purify yourself eventually getting perfection so the point here is not a drastic renunciation of ashram but rather a determined redirection of emotion that is being talked about that is being emphasized so if you look at the context of the Bhagavatam it is the it is being spoken to parichit maharaj who has you know quite suddenly because of the unforeseen unforeseeable curse of the brahmana shringi one moment he was the ruler of the world and next moment he was going to die in seven days he got the news and then within a few moments he just decided to renounce everything so sometimes if you are just told to travel from one place to another at a few moments notice it is very difficult to do but what to speak of if you are told that you are going to die in a few moments just give everything up how much more difficult it will be to emotionally accept it so now to enable Maharaj Parichit to keep his mind fixed on Krishna he is being repeatedly reminded through strong passages that that ultimate attachment to material things is entangling keep your mind off those things otherwise you will suffer greatly of course we could say Maharaj is a pure devotee but he is taking the role of a role of a conditioned soul who needs to hear to attain liberation he is taking our role so we also need to hear now for us also the important thing is we have to apply scripture according to our context, according to our situation so for us the redirection of emotion is much more important than the renunciation of ashram for most of us sthane shita shriti gataam tanuvaan manobher Jain Mahaprabhu considered this to be the top most instruction of all scripture that stay where you are shriti gataam tanuvaan manobher hear about Krishna and by that regular hearing offer your heart, offer your body offer your whole self to Krishna and then you will jito jito pito jito pito sthi lok that you the unconquerable lord will be conquered just by the process of hearing and thereby offering one’s heart and life to Krishna through hearing so sthane shita so here the important principle is that the problem was not that the the kapota the patatri was kutumbi, was in the family life problem was that he was not just kutumbi, he was kripanaha he let himself get so caught, captivated and entrapped in family life that he thought that this itself will be the source of pleasure so dvandvaram he felt that there is nothing more required for me so when we are in our ashram we need to remember that yes there are responsibilities and there are pleasures but along with that there is also the long term which I have to think about not in terms of this life but in terms of my eternal life and also the eternal life of my loved ones so when I understand, when we keep that focus or that balance between our material side and our spiritual side that balance comes when we hear regularly from scripture as Maharaj Yadu is hearing from Abdud Brahmana over here so in this world we will anyway hear a lot about material things the TV, the newspapers our colleagues even our family members even if our family members are devotees still we are living a material life together we have material obligations, material necessities material desires so the discussion between theirs will also be to some extent material so even in their devotees what to speak of their non devotees so we need to hear pure Krishna Katha we need to hear spiritual substance by which there will be a countering of the material propaganda that is attacking us from all sides and that would otherwise distort our priorities so by remembering, by hearing about Krishna regularly, we will we will be Kutumbi but we won’t become Kripanaha we won’t be Dvandvarama we will be Krishnarama we will be actually by hearing about Krishna by connecting with Krishna through our bhakti practices and through the devotional intention of our various activities we will stay connected with Krishna and as we experience a higher satisfaction in the relationship with Krishna our entanglement in material things will decrease even when we are engaging in those responsibilities seriously still we won’t get so emotionally entrapped in those things because our emotion our need our emotional needs, our need for love, our need for satisfaction will be filled in Krishna and that’s why we won’t be going too deep into these things emotionally to try to get some gratification here so here at a sober level the Kapota from the Kapota story the sobering narrative is that, the sobering lesson is that if we forget the spiritual truth, that this world is and we busily and foolhardily rush into it seeking pleasure then the more we seek pleasure in worldly things, the more is the misery that we will get and just as the Kapota suffered, we will also suffer but the Bhagavatam is not just here to give us warning that we are all going to suffer, the Bhagavatam is also here to give us the way out of suffering by revealing to us the beautiful pastimes of Krishna and the sweet verses of Bhakti Yoga by which we can gain spiritual fulfillment even while we are in this material world and thereby avoid material entanglement. Thank you.