Bhagavatam study 82 1.15.45-51 Our spirituality is our responsibility, not anyone else’s responsibility

Bhagavatam text 45 chapter 15 the Pandavas retire timely canto 1 the context here is that Yudhishtir has already renounced the world and he has gone towards the north and seeing him now, his brothers will also start going towards the north text 45 sarve tam anirjagmur bhratar krutanishchaya kalina dharmamitrena dhrishtva sphrishtha pajabhuvi sarve tam anirjagmur so sarve tam sarve means all of them all have followed him his younger brothers followed him anirjagmur they followed his elder brother bhratar krutanishchaya seeing that he had gone, his brothers also went krutanishchaya kalina dharmamitrena kalina dharmamitrena so actually the age of Kali had already arrived and this age of Kali which is dharmamitrena adharmamitrena kalina adharmamitrena that means Kali is the friend of a religion that means that wherever Kali comes, there the religions their religion goes down dhrishtva sphrishtha pajabhuvi they saw that the citizens had already been affected by it so again one might think that oh if the kingdom is so badly affected by Kali then isn’t it the responsibility of experienced veterans to actually stay and help the young parikshit to manage it all yes that’s one way of thinking but another way of thinking is that like we discussed in a previous session life is like a relay race and we have to relay the torch to the distance that we are meant to relay and then after that hand the torch over to someone else and we focus on our own spiritual growth kalina adharmamitrena kalina adharmamitrena so Kali is the friend of adharma and such a friend of adharma has to be very carefully understood and dealt with in a very sensitive way te sadhukuto sarvartha jnatvatyantika atmātmanah manasādhārayāmāsur vaikuntacharanāmbujam vaikuntacharanāmbujam they decided to meditate on the lord who is vaikuntacharanāmbujam and that goal is unattainable by the materialists manasādhārayāmāsur that in their mind sustained in their mind conviction jnatvatyantika atmātmanah they understood that which was the ultimate purpose of life life’s ultimate perfection te sadhukuto sarvartha they had performed actions worthy of a sadhu of a saintly person so here the stress is that actually we cannot renounce the world simply by the intention of renouncing intention is important but pandavas had the culture they had the background they had the serious planning and preparation which had been their life of spiritual service which enabled them to do what they had to do without serious preparation in the past it would not have been possible for them to suddenly renounce the world so the key thing is not just renunciation the key thing is connection the key thing is absorption the key thing is the conviction about the object of absorption so without absorption renunciation will not be a fruit the purpose of renunciation is absorption or at least the conviction for spiritual absorption to the extent this is understood that he is the lord and we are his servants and in this way we understood that we understand that we are meant to serve him through different roles in life and if one role is over that doesn’t mean our service is over that means then now we take up another role which is appropriated for our service so in this way the pandavas followed in the footsteps of their brother takes 47 and 48 so here how the pandavas moved forwards in attaining perfection is talked about with the intelligence purified with their mind solely on the lord with devotion Narayanapade unto that supreme lord who is Narayan to his food they were devoted they had one pointed consciousness focus on him those those whose consciousness is caught in vishaya in the sense of objects they cannot attain this but the pandavas attained this that which is very difficult to attain they attained it with the pure bodies the self-same bodies departed to the world that all their impurities were cleansed away by their determination by their pure absorption the idea here is the pandavas were so exalted so exalted that actually no one could even to go to heavens in this body is difficult what to go to spiritual world in this body but the pandavas were able to do that because they have a sublime purpose of going towards the lord they have the sublime purpose of recognizing that it is the lord who is their ultimate goal and it is that lord who is to be attained so they focus on him virajena means to depart without any material passion viraja river is there and we leave behind the passion of this world and they go in the in the same body that abode which is difficult to attain extremely difficult to attain they have attained it out of thousands few endeavour to know me and even among those who endeavour to know me actually very few succeed in coming to know me very few endeavour for enquiring even about transcendence so it’s a very very gradual process it’s a very difficult so one among millions of even great sages that is a exalted devotee such is the situation of the pandavas and such is the exalted perfection that they have attained in their life text 49 now so now the what happened to the various characters how the whole knowledge approaches that is described so vidura also gave up his body vidura could have given up his body any time but he had waited for a long time wandering around in the world so that the right time would come when when Dhritarashtra would be ready to renounce and Dhritarashtra renunciation was described two chapters earlier based on the strong words of Vidura so at the sacred place of Prabhasha he gave up his body his consciousness was absorbed in Krishna he attained the pitra loka he attained the pitra loka now it was described that actually Aryama was the person who had been officiating as Yamraj in the absence of Yamraj who had been cursed to come to the earth as Vidura but here he decides to end it all and now he gets elevated to appropriate higher destination and in this way he moves forward in attaining perfection Swakshayamaya who is welcomed by the pitras thus the chapter it’s like the lord’s pastimes are like a drama and the drama is ending, the curtain is falling now and before the curtain falls then what happens to various various characters is described over here in a way that is universally intelligible, in a way that makes sense and a way that can help us to understand and be elevated without this basic understanding we can’t elevate ourselves so earlier also the word was used that this is a this is a opportunity for elevation earlier the word was used that this is all a drama which the lord performs like a magician and the whole idea, the performance of this drama is at one level to demonstrate the pure activities of the lord in this world and attract our hearts to him and thus by the attraction of our hearts towards him we all can attain him now Draupadi text 50 now Draupadi jyatha dhagnyaya patina mana pekshatam Vasudeve bhagvati ekantam matirapatam Draupadi jyatha dhagnyaya so dhagnyaya so now Draupadi she saw that her husband just left her and went patina mana pekshatam mana pekshatam they didn’t watch over her, they did not care for her but she did not resent them, you are meant to care for me, what is this you are announcing the world like this, no Vasudeve bhagvati she knew, she jyatha dhagnyaya she understood that the ultimate goal of the lord is lord Vasudev life is lord Vasudev ekantam matirapatam with one pointed attention, consciousness she became absorbed in that lord, ekantam matirapatam she became absorbed in that so the idea here is that everyone of us has to choose our battles and everyone has to fight our own battles Prabhupada writes in the parport that we all have to fly our own plane that means that in life when we face problems we are together in facing these problems as a family as a community and the sense of belonging is a very valuable and healthy thing which helps people to move forward in their life, recognizing what it is that they are meant to do but there comes a time when we have to recognize that nobody else can fight my battle for me, I have to fight it alone and I have to fight it myself if I don’t fight it then I lose and that is especially the time of death at the time of death each one of us will have to face that battle alone so association is vital but association is meant to inspire personal or individual responsibility, it is not an excuse for individual responsibility excuse for rejecting or renouncing the individual responsibility it’s not that we can just think that everything is going to be alright because I am in association well whether I am in association what I am doing in association is important so in a war to be casual is to be suicidal if a soldier is nonchalant looking here looking there not caring for the weapon one bullet can come from somewhere and just destroy that warrior, kill that warrior, similarly we all can be destroyed in the in the war for protecting our consciousness ultimately what is the war that we are fighting for we are fighting for our consciousness with our consciousness we are fighting for our consciousness means that our consciousness we want to install Krishna there and we want to install Krishna in our consciousness, we want to make him the lord of our heart and lord all of our life, we want him to reign supreme in with the kingdom of our consciousness.
And how do we do that? We can say that consciousness is both the terrain and the surveyor of the terrain. So, we could conceive of consciousness as a kingdom as well as the king of the kingdom. So, the king of the kingdom, of course, if the king wants to offer the kingdom to an emperor, who is much bigger than that king.
The king has to ensure that the kingdom is not overrun by some other predators, some other aggressors, because then the kingdom won’t be his to offer to anyone else. So, similarly, the terrain of our consciousness at present has many enclaves where the enemies have camped. So, there is a camp of lust, there is a camp of anger, the camp of greed and all these camps are tormenting us.
All these camps are in their own way, creating problems for us. And no one except we can deal with those problems. And the only way we can deal with these problems is by raising our consciousness.
So, to the extent we give our consciousness to the weaknesses and to wherever those weaknesses direct us, that means we give our consciousness to lust and let it be directed towards the objects that promise to gratify our lust. To that extent we stay bound. But if we direct our consciousness towards Krishna, then we invoke his presence.
So, this inner battle for becoming conscious of Krishna is a battle that each one of us has to fight on our own. It is the international society for Krishna consciousness. That means, for means it is a purpose to be fulfilled.
It is for this purpose. And who is the society is meant to help the individual do this. We don’t know when our final exam comes, when we have to face death.
How we are going to face death, we don’t know. Will it be with many other devotees around us helping us remember Krishna or will it be we all alone fighting to remember him. We just don’t know that.
All that we know is that we have to keep fighting. We have to make sure that we just move onwards in our life no matter what happens. It is only by moving forward like this that we can attain Krishna.
It is only by being determined that no matter what happens, I have to fight my fight. It’s my life. It’s my choice.
It’s I have to take individual responsibility for my consciousness. And no amount of external support systems can replace the sense of individual responsibility. Of course, we have to take help from others, we can get inspiration from others.
And often that kind of inspiration is vital. It’s indispensable. But that alone is not enough.
We need to take individual responsibility, inspiration from outside, responsibility from inside. And even when the inspiration doesn’t come, the responsibility will keep us moving. And that’s how we will be able to move forward in our life and attain success.
Now the last verse of this chapter is the over here labdhva. We will attain harau bhakti, devotion to Lord Hari, upaiti saddhim and we’ll attain that perfection of devotion. And with that devotion, everything else follows.
yashraddhaya itad bhagvat priyanam If with shraddha we hear the narrative of those who are bhagvat priyanam, those who are very devoted to the Lord and therefore are very dear to him. It’s a beautiful word. We all would like to become bhagvat priyanam.
Upando suthana mithisam priyanam There’s a beautiful poetic rhyme over here. Priyanam and priyanam. So yanaam and yanaam, there’s a rhyme over there.
So bhagvat priyanam pando suthanaam. So that is, actually if you’ll see that that nam sound, am sound comes several times, ma sound. yashraddhaya itad bhagvat priyanam pando suthanaam mithisam priyanam rotyalam swasthayanam pavithram swasthayanam pavithram swasthayanam It’s auspicious, pavithram, it’s pure.
labdhvaharo bhaktim upaiti siddhim So in the last line there’s the im sound, not the am sound. First is the naam naam naam, then am am and im im. So we could say that the ma sound being repeated in this verse several times.
It’s once in the first line bhagvat priyanam second line two times pando suthanaam mithisam priyanam in the third line it is three times swasthayanam pavithram and then in the last line again two times. So labdhvaharo bhaktim upaiti siddhim bhaktim and siddhim. So actually one three three and two, nine times the ma sound in its variance is coming.
So there are the bhagvatam is a philosophical work it’s also a poetic work and in some verses the sweet poetry becomes very apparent to us and then its sweetness can be appreciated but it’s not just the poetic sweetness that is important it is the profound message that is conveyed with poetic sweetness that is important that is what is supremely sweet. So with faith if we hear these pastimes of Krishna pando suthanaam mithisam priyanam they departed from this world. How they departed from this world? If you hear the story sunothyalam swasthayanam pavithram this story can seem very sobering.
Oh they all die what happens if they die I mean it’s what is so pleasant to hear about it doesn’t seem very pleasant but no it is swasthayanam pavithram it is auspicious and is pure and the result would be we will gain devotion to the lord. We all have to pass this final test one day and by Krishna’s grace if we stay devoted then we all will pass this test and move towards him. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.