Bhagavatam tenth canto study 55 -10.10.10-14 Narada curses not impulsively, but after deep reflection

We’ll continue the discussion in our next session. Thank you.
Chapter 10, Entitled Deliverance of the Yama-Larjuna Trees. Text 10 Naradbhuni is continuing his reasoning before he curses the Kurin mani-griha. deva-sangita-apyante The deva-sangita, even the body in this life belongs to or is designated as designated as very exalted such as a president or a head of state or even a god apyante, still it is going to edati.
And what is its end going to be? krumi-bhasma-sangitam It is going to krumi, worms, stool or ashes. So the end of the body is inglorious even if its present state is glorious. What this means is, the body is after all temporary, it is made of material elements whose combination doesn’t stay in the same state for a long time.
That is for example, earth, water, fire, air, ether all these may be combined in a particularly attractive way or even in a particularly effective way at a particular time but it’s not going to stay that way for long. So attractive means somebody may be very good looking, effective means that they may be able to do a particular thing very well. Some bodies may be able to fight very well, some bodies may be able to sing very well, some bodies may be able to do artisans work very well but that is just temporary.
Beyond that, krumi-bhasma-sangitam So if the body is burnt, then it is reduced to bhasma, to ashes. If it is buried, then its remnants are eaten by worms in the earth. If or it is sometimes in some traditions, the bodies are offered to jackals or vultures or something like that, then it gets reduced to their excreta after it’s eaten and digested by them.
Now we don’t like to think of such a destination even for the inert things that are connected with us. The food that we eat after a few hours, before we eat it, it is attractive and delicious. After we eat it and it is gone, it is processed by our body digestive system and then it assumes a very unattractive form.
So similarly for us, what is needed is the important thing to focus on recognizing that while the body has utility, we use it positively. But at the same time, we don’t get carried away thinking that the utility of the body at present determines its utility permanently. That means that the way the body is right now is the way it is going to be forever.
If we can see a thing in its future, in fact one characteristic of knowledge is to see things in time, not just in the present, but how they are going to be in the future. A doctor, an ordinary person may be coughing, a medically educated person may be coughing, and a doctor may see them coughing also. So the medically educated person may think that this cough will go away soon.
But the medically educated person, the doctor will see that actually this cough is indicative of some serious disease, maybe some tuberculosis, and this is going to worsen. So if that is understood, then that would mean that there is very little remedial action that has to be taken immediately. So krimi with bhasma, this is the ultimate destination of the body.
When we see that, then that brings some detachment within us. bhuta-dhrupta-tatkṛte svārthaṁ So why should one become intoxicated, neglectful of scriptural injunctions, envious towards others, tatkṛte svārthaṁ for the pleasure of the body, kim ved nirayo yatah One doesn’t know nirayo yatah. Nirayo is hell.
That means for such a body which is anyway not going to last for long, for that why should one commit activities that will send one to hell and make one suffer in hell. If somebody, for example, breaks into a hotel to eat some food, one meal, and if somehow that person knows that for eating that one meal, and it might be a delicious feast, but I’m going to enjoy it for a few minutes, but after that I’m going to be put in jail, then is it worth it? Is the pleasure worth the trouble? So philosophical vision helps us to see that beyond the pleasure lies the trouble, and not only that beyond the pleasure lies the trouble, but the pleasure itself is the womb of the trouble. That means from the pleasure trouble will come.
When that is understood, then tatkur tesvatam, kim ved nirayo yatah So what is the value of doing something like this? Why do we need to sleep to get into these kind of things? We don’t need to. So text 11 deha kim anadatusvam nishektur maturevacha maturpiturva balina kretur agne shunopiva deha kim anadatusvam deha kim So now it goes on further. Actually this body which we are working for, swartha, is it really our body that we are laboring for so much? When the body belongs to anadatu, especially when there is a kind of bonded labor, then the employer feeds the person, but the employer actually has the capacity to extract, to demand labor from the person.
The body is almost like the bonded property of the employer. Nishektur maturevacha Does it belong to ourselves? Nishektur means, does it belong to the person who actually gave it the seed in the form of the semen? Or does it belong to the mother who maintained it within her womb and looted it by her breast milk? Maturpiturva balina So maturpitur Or does it sometimes belong to the mother’s father? In some situations, some other relative may adopt the son. Sometimes if in a family there is no heir, then the daughter may get married to someone and then the condition is made that the daughter’s son will become the heir for that person’s family.
Not the daughter’s family, but the father’s family. So in that way, kretur agne shunopiva If somebody is sold and a person purchases the body as a slave, agne shunopiva Or when the person dies, the crematorium, the funeral pyre, the fire burns it away. The fire claims the body to be its.
Or if it is not burned, then dogs or vultures may eat it. So basically, this is a sobering vision to have that our body is not going to stay attractive the way it is now. Nor is it actually our body for long.
Why? Because it’s not essentially our body. It is just something which has been given to us by material nature and we can use it for our purpose, not let it use us for its purposes. Just like we have got a car.
Now we need to use the car to go where we want it to go. But suppose we had some kind of programmed cars which had certain destinations already fixed within them and they were automatic driving cars. And those cars started going towards those destinations.
And it’s we who are paying for the fuel of the car. It’s we who are going to pay for the rent of the car. But if the car goes off in some direction where we don’t want to go, in fact the car goes into a no driving zone, then we get into trouble because we have to pay the fine over there.
So if we see the car to be like a program which goes in certain directions, then that will help us to see that things are not going in our direction, that things are not going for our pleasure or our purpose. Also, the body takes us in a direction which is neither for our pleasure nor for our purpose like a automatically programmed car that is going in some unwanted direction. So this way the vision, the whole purpose of this analysis, because we come from a different culture, it might be a little difficult to follow this reasoning.
But we identify ourselves with the body so much that to think of ourselves to be anything other than the body is difficult. But if we can do that, if we can focus and recognize that there is something higher going on, that we are, just like clouds are pushed by the wind, similarly we in our bodily dresses or bodily vehicles are being pushed. And do we want to let ourselves be pushed like this? And or worse still, while we are being pushed, do we want to think that we are drivers? So, suppose a person is driving a car and somebody suddenly comes up behind and holds a gun at their back and says that drive in this direction.
Now the person from behind is forcing this person, forcing the driver to go in a particular direction. The driver thinks, I want to go in that direction. That’s an illusion, complete illusion.
So, text 12 एवं साधारणं देहं अव्यक्त प्रभवाप्ययं को विद्वान आत्मसाथ कृत्वा हन्ती जन्तुन्दु तेसत्थ एवं साधारणं देहं साधारणं देहं This body is like a common thing, it’s a common property. अव्यक्त प्रभवाप्ययं From the unmanifest, it becomes manifested. And then अप्ययं, at the end it even becomes unmanifested over there.
From dust we come, to dust we go. Thus thou art and thus thou shalt return. As Prabhupada quotes in his translation over there.
को विद्वान आत्मसाथ कृत्वा So, why would such a person consider आत्मसाथ, consider this body to be one’s own? हन्ती जन्तुन्दु तेसत्थ हन्ती जन्तुन्दु Why would such a person kill? रते सत्थ जन्तुन्दु Now the word जन्तु can refer to animals and it can refer to how people who are people who are very materialistic soon end up eating animals. And thus they create distress for themselves. They do bad karma, the karma of killing animals.
And thus they create distress for themselves as well as for others. In other words, जन्तु can also refer to the आत्मा. So, that means it can refer to how those who are those who are materialistic like this, they become killers of their own soul.
They destroy their own spiritual prospects by their nefarious actions. Thus the Bhagavatam is helping us to see that so पश्यवो When one commits violence to the soul sometimes compared to a पश्यू and because the soul is currently living in bodily consciousness of life also but if one can rise beyond their conception then that is more enlightened, that is more elevated. And if one stays stuck in such a conception, that is unfortunate.
One is living in great ignorance. Not recognizing the great opportunity that we all have to rise to a higher level of consciousness. We stay in delusion.
Does the body deserve such unquestioned devotion from us? Why should the body be given a right to such unquestioned devotion? That is the question being raised over here. And it is a serious question if we can contemplate the nature of the body and the way it is going to go. निरयोपी As I mentioned, just for the pleasure of the body why should one why should one commit such terrible sinful activities? Text 13 now.
असत्थः श्रीमधान्धस्य दारिद्यं परमञ्जनं आत्मो पम्येन भूतानि दरिद्रः परमिक्षते असत्थः श्रीमधान्धस्य So why would a person do like this? The last verse concluded with रुते असत्थः Unless that person is असत्थः Unless that person is infatuated with the temporary, with the unreal. And then असत्थः, now if somebody is infatuated with the unreal and then their श्रीमधान्धस्य also that they have lot of materialistic desires and they also have a lot of materialistic resources they have a lot of wealth by which they can enjoy their desires then श्रीमधान्धस्य they become maddened by that wealth दारिद्यं परमञ्जनं For such people who are intoxicated then दारिद्यं परमञ्जनं, दरिद्यं poverty can be a great benefit provider आत्मो पम्येन भूतानी because how is it? Anjana, how is it medicine? because it brings empathy it helps us to see oneself as similar to others दरिद्यं परमिक्षते thus one is able to, in poverty one can see sufferings of others just like an intoxicated person cannot see anything except what their mind is showing in their intoxicated, stupefied stage similarly, a person who is intoxicated by wealth can’t see many things much other than the infatuation with pleasure that it is going through at that time so in such a situation आत्मो पम्येन भूतानी दरिद्यं परमिक्षते if one can become de-intoxicated then now some people go high with drugs some people go high with alcohol now it’s very difficult to become sober at that time if there was some drug which would counter the intoxicating influence of alcohol then they would temporarily feel better they would be able to counter it so it’s very difficult to counter the intoxicating influence of drugs but it’s possible that if somebody is intoxicated by wealth take away that wealth bring poverty and poverty will have a medicinal effect on people परमजनम् it will act as ointment it’s a painful ointment but ultimately it’s a beneficial ointment sometimes some people have spells of mania, of madness and at that time disciplining them, regulating them managing them is extremely difficult but it has to be done unless that is done they just can’t it’s impossible to function so if we could provide them the facility by which they could calm themselves, by which they could become de-intoxicated then all the crazy things that they might have done under the spell of the intoxication they are saved from that and although coming down from their high of intoxication may be annoying for them but they will be eventually grateful for it similarly somebody is intoxicated by wealth to lose wealth and become poor is very bad but दरिद्रः परमिक्षिते if one could see that if we could see that we are actually meant to be equal that we are all living beings are actually equal there is no need to get ourselves unnecessarily intoxicated then we can stay pure, we can stay focused text 14 यथा कन्टक विद्धान्गो जन्तोर नेच्छति तां यथां जीवसाम्यं गतोलिंगैर तथा विद्ध कन्टक यथा कन्टक विद्धान्गो यथा कन्टक विद्धान्गो now the आत्मा उपमियन, the empathic vision how it comes is described in this verse now if somebody has been pierced by a prick then that person knows how painful it is and that person will be careful not to hurt others similarly if somebody has जन्तोर नेच्छति तां यथां one doesn’t want that others should also be why should others go through the same pain जीवसाम्यं गतोलिंगैर similarly one who has seen that other living beings are equal to them others are also similar to me थाविद्ध कन्टक so they will not want others to suffer but if somebody has not known that pain at all they won’t know if somebody is suffering what is that suffering going to be, what kind of pain they are going through so basically empathy we can actually when we go through painful situations in our life sometimes we may just resent why am I suffering like this why did I have to go through this pain but if we can maintain our sobriety and we can persevere in contemplating that actually there is no easy way forward that we are here to do our step by step progress in life and that step by step progress requires us to go through pains and when others go through pains essentially they are going through a pain which is similar to ours when we appreciate the situation then we do not want them to suffer so basically theme is that poverty can actually have a medicinal effect in terms of engendering empathy so how this reasoning goes to its conclusion with Narada mercifully cursing the sons of Kubera that we will discuss in our next session