Bhakti Shastri (134) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 Text 18 to 24

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Shrimad Bhagavad Gita ki Jai Hare Krishna Welcome back to the Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course We are now in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita discussing the last section of the 16th chapter Let’s have a quick overview of the 16th chapter before we move to 16.18 So 16th chapter is First the divine and demoniac qualities and activities of the demoniac and then the consequences and the causes of the demoniac activity and the choice between the divine and the demoniac that is 23 to 24 So these last two sections 19 to 22 we will discuss and then 23 to 24 after discussing the 18th verse So Krishna is describing in one verse the various qualities that are present in the demoniac Ahamkara is false ego or arrogance Ahamkara Ahamkaram, palam, dharpam So the ungodly, the demoniac they delight in brandishing their strength and bragging about their power and they think that power is the ultimate source of power they think that physical power itself is physical or political power is the ultimate source of power they don’t understand that there is spiritual power there is divine power that is higher than all this so ahamkaram, palam, dharpam dharpam is showing off especially for the sake of attracting praise and things like ahamkaram, palam, dharpam kamam krodham jasamshrutaha so kamam krodham so we discussed about kama and krodha earlier also kama krodha parayanaha is talked about in 16.12 kama krodha is a combination of kama several times in the bhagavad gita in the third chapter also when arjuna asks what impels one to do sinful activity krishna first says kama and then he says krodha and in the fifth chapter also krishna talks about similarly he talks about kama and krodha together so in 5.23 5.26 so like that he talks several times about kama and krodha together in the fifth chapter also so generally lust is the desire to enjoy and the krodha is the frustration and the rage that comes when the attempt to enjoy is frustrated kamam krodham jasamshrutaha so samshrutaha so again shrutaha means ashray it comes from that to take shelter so instead of taking shelter of krishna they take shelter of material things of all these negative material emotions when one makes lust lust makes one into a devil that means that lust makes one do devilish things what does it mean to make lust into a god it is same as to take shelter of lust that means to think that that lust will be the source of pleasure and lust will be the source of relief and release from problems but lust is not and similarly different people can take not just lust of power of bragging of arrogance when some people get angry and when they face reversals and they just start using their fists on others beating others, blowing at others and they think that by exhibition of brutal anger they can solve all problems but this is taking shelter of these things so generally the idea of shelter can be understood simply first from physical to emotional and spiritual physically say if there are heavy rains then we try to look for some shelter so what does the shelter do if I go under a tree or I find some shack or some house and when I go under that then essentially what am I doing I am basically protecting myself so if there are heavy rains then the shack may provide me some relief from those rains and along with that the shack will also provide me some comfort so like that the idea is shelter, they take shelter of these things the shelter is completely misdirected so from here Krishna brings maam in this chapter till now maam has not come in the 17 verses prior to this so maam will come in this verse 18, 19, 23 it comes quite prominently now Krishna is telling so now the divine and the demoniac Krishna has talked about their qualities but he has not focused so much directly on their relationship with him so if you look at the divine qualities also Krishna has not talked about bhakti as being among the divine qualities because the qualities which are being talked about here are material qualities abhijat, siddhartha so these are material in the sense that Prabhupada calls them transcendental qualities in the first chapter Prabhupada calls them 1, 2, 3 that’s in the sense that these can help one to move towards transcendence but divine and demoniac they are basically they are features of our material nature at the level of the spiritual nature the soul is always devoted to Krishna so the soul cannot be demoniac so there are these divine and demoniac when talking about divine qualities Krishna has talked about the qualities according to varna and ashram he has not talked about bhakti he has not talked directly about the relationship of the godly with him yes the godly can and should have a relationship with him and a relationship of devotion and service but that has not been the focus of Krishna till now in the Gita now after that when he talks about the demoniac also he talks in terms of their infatuation obsession and almost mania over lust and greed and power but he doesn’t talk about their relationship with him till now so in this 16.18c he says maam aatma par deheshu so maam aatma par deheshu maam is I aatma par deheshu I am present in their hearts and in the hearts of others so Krishna is referring to here presence of the super souls present everywhere pradhvishanto abhyasuya kaha pradhvishanto pradhvishanto is their envious because of pradhvishanto is they blaspheme out of envy so here Krishna comes to the main point where he says that their attitude towards him is very unfortunate it is very negative envy is inside envy may be inside also but blasphemy is when it comes out as verbal criticism unreasonable irrational and insensitive and harsh castigation so that is blasphemy pradhvishanto abhyasuya kaha so now what is the relevance of saying maam aatma par deheshu Krishna has talked earlier about suratam sarvabhutanaam jnatvamam shantim rchati in 5.29 he has said that he is the well-wisher of all living beings so Krishna has also said that how he is present in the heart of all living beings just in the previous chapter sarvasya ca aham hrdi san nivishto in 15.15 but actually I am the well-wisher of all so I am the well-wisher even of the godly people even of these demoniac people but they are envious of me and they blaspheme me and they are actually they are envious of me who is the well-wisher of all living beings including them so normally you may think it is normal to treat our enemies as inimical if somebody is inimical towards me, I will be inimical towards that person but somebody is my well-wisher and then to be inimical to that person that is unfortunate especially that well-wisher is not just a well-wisher in terms of wishing us good but is also a benefactor in terms of wanting to do good and also is knowledgeable, he knows how to do good also so Krishna is that kind Krishna is not just wishing us good Krishna is trying to do good for us and not only is he trying to do good he actually knows what is good for us so he is actually knower of everything 7.25 says Vedaham Samatitani 26 so Vedaham Samatitani knows everything he knows everything about us and actually he wants the best for us like a doctor so if this world is like a hospital and the patient the very least the patient can do is to be hospitable to the doctor in the world of the hospital be hospitable to the doctor but if one instead of being hospitable is hostile to the doctor then that is that ruins all, most chances of that person getting cured makes it much more difficult if the person has a inimical attitude towards the doctor so Pradhvishanto Bhesu Ekha these people are envious of Krishna so Prabhupada explains in the Parpot so this person, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and denies scriptural authority so further he says if he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities he makes plans to cut him down by his own power much people don’t care for anyone else anything else except their own enjoyment so then Krishna now describes what happens to these people consequences So Tan Aham Tan Aham means those people Dushyatah Krooran the envious and the mischievous Krooran, Prabhupada translates as the mischievous Samsareshu Naradhaman Naradhama whereas Purushottama so Purushadhama or Naradhama Purushottama is the best among persons so Krishna is ultimately Purushottama so Naradhama is those who are the worst among all living beings so Samsareshu Naradhaman those who are the lowest among all living beings, what happens Shipam Yajasram Ashubhan Shipam throw them Ajasram Ashubhan Ajasram means for a long time Prabhupada translates as forever Ajasram Ashubhan Ashubhan is not specious Ajasram Ashubhan Asurishwe Vayonishu then he says into demoniac species now we have already discussed about how demoniac is not just a species it is also a mentality so Duryodhana had a human body but he had a demoniac mentality but there are also species themselves which are demoniac so for example there are Rakshasas there are Yakshas there are Daityas they are demoniac species in the sense that it is normal in that body to have a demoniac mentality of course the body does not entirely determine the mentality that’s why there can be exceptions like Prahlad, Daschans, Midaityanam as Krishna says in the in the Bhutiyoga chapter in the 10th chapter that he says that among the Daityas I am Prahlad because Prahlad is godly, Similarly Uttarasura is godly but these are exceptionals so in those bodies, Asuri bodies normally the normal mentality will be Asurik so Krishna says I throw them now, it’s interesting this may seem to be a little is Krishna a god who seeks personal Vendetta you are envious of me so I will throw you into hell I will throw you into hell not only that Ajasura means for almost forever so now what does this actually mean in the Christian tradition and some other religious traditions there is the concept of eternal damnation so eternal damnation means that if a person doesn’t accept god in this lifetime then that person has to go to hell forever eternal damnation so is this verse actually supporting eternal damnation so Ajasura means forever so there are two serious questions here, is Krishna personally having something against these people and does Krishna cast him to eternal damnation so now here we have to understand everything from its context if you divorce a subject from its context it can be very misleading so now Krooraan the word Kroora can often mean cruel but Prabhupada translates Krooraan as mischievous so Krishna is like the father and no matter how terrible the activities that the children do from the father’s point of view they are mischievous, they are not grown up they are small kids right now they are doing mischievous activities now suppose a child wants to do something terrible and the parent says if you do this then you will never be allowed to come in my house you will have to go out of my house and you will never be allowed to come back in my house now the point the emphasis and purpose of the statement is not that get out of my house and never come back the point is don’t do it don’t do it so similarly when Krishna is speaking like this the emphasis is not that he will throw them into hell the emphasis is that don’t do this so that from Krishna’s point of view is mischievous so Prabhupada when he gives this it is a Bhavanuvaad a Bhavanuvaad means that in Bhavanuvaad what happens emotion and intention are conveyed whereas in Arthanuvaad Arthanuvaad is literal meaning so semantic accuracy is preserved semantic is the subject which deals with meaning semantics so now now actually speaking if you want to get proper understanding semantics and aesthetics need to be combined if only semantics is given then that doesn’t lead to proper understanding because there are different theories of meanings so some people have the idea that words are like pipelines that means for example when I speak so the words which I speak the words are like pipes and in the words I put the meaning and when they come out the meanings come out that means the idea is that the words are simply the carriers of meaning and we invest meaning in the words so the other idea is that words always have their meanings and the meanings of the words are preserved in dictionaries so we draw those words out from the dictionaries and we use them according to their meaning so that means words are the carriers of meanings and the words contain the meanings themselves so carriers means meanings inserted into them the other idea is words are the containers of meaning that means meanings are contained in the words and then the meanings are so we choose the word and then accordingly we speak so what is the actual reality are words the carriers of meanings or are they the containers of meanings actually it is a combination of both certainly we cannot use any word and invest any meaning in it, it won’t work but at the same time the words are not just the containers of meaning they are also carriers, the way something is spoken so for example if somebody does something for us and we are not at all happy, we didn’t want a person to do that that is actually a thank you now if I just make a sour face and thank you that thank you is actually an expression not of thanks at all, it is an expression of annoyance so through the tone through the expression if somebody says if a child is angry with the mother and the mother is angry with the child and the child says you never love me, the mother says I love you now I love you is being said over there but is that really an expression of love it is more an expression of anger so now if I love you, if we say I love you is just itself the container of meaning then however I love you is spoken it won’t make much difference but if I love you is just the words of the conveyor of meaning, then can I say I hate you, and I say actually I use the word I hate you but I meant I love you no, that will also not work so that’s why actually when we talk about meanings meanings have to be talked about in a very careful way, so we have to understand that there is a literal aspect to it but there is also a contextual aspect to it and both have to be combined together so that’s a semantics and aesthetics when in the computers also, now there is google translate and there are computer programmes which try to translate sentences, and they do a fairly good job at times, but often they can get completely messed up there is this some people say this story this incident is apocryphal apocryphal means it is made up, but either way whether it is real or whether it is made up but important point is it does convey how things can get messed up there is a biblical saying the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak so the idea of that saying is that you know a person wants to do good but the temptations of the flesh drag the person down, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak so now if if a machine is just going to translate what are the possible meanings of the word spirit and then what are the meanings of the word flesh like that you take all of them so just by that the translation that came out machine translation was the vodka is strong but the meat is rotten so the vodka is strong, so spirit actually here means intention, determination but what happened is spirit was translated as like wine and in Russia when it was translated into Russian equivalent of English equivalent English so spirit was translated as wine and then wine is vodka so the spirit is willing so that means the vodka is strong but the flesh is weak so flesh is weak became the meat is rotten so what is a philosophical statement about the nature of man nature of human being became condition about the state of food on the table so it can things can get completely lost in translation that’s why translation has to be done it has to be done by those who are not just experts in language but those who are also experts in context, so there is content and there is context so words are words are both the containers and the carriers of meaning and there has to be a combination of both we look at the, that’s why in English there is said to be there is denotation and connotation denotation means what does the word mean and connotation means what does the word imply so connotation is not necessarily contained but it is implied by the word so if you look at these words literally it may appear that Krishna is casting a person into hell but we will see several other places in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna talks about how even the lowest of all people can get elevated Krishna talks about he says no matter how sinful they are they can become elevated so 9.31, 32 is there, 30, 31 is there and similarly Krishna talks about that even most sinful people can get elevated he talks about he talks about in 4.36 and then he also talks about how whatever situation one may be in that person can surrender to him and that person will get elevated 18.57, he says whatever karma one might be doing if one actually surrenders to him, takes shelter of him that person can attain perfection so the point is we have to look at other places in the Bhagavad Gita also to clearly understand what verse is saying so here this is more an expression of Krishna’s displeasure and annoyance and loving anger so loving anger is an expression of Krishna’s tough love sometimes the parents have to express tough love so that the children learn the lesson that is intended learn the lesson that is intended so here Krishna says Krishna is mischievous why mischievous? because from Krishna’s point of view there are children why are they so mischievous? they should grow up, they should act maturely if they don’t act maturely they are ruining their lives so Prabhupada explains in the Parpur that that how the soul goes into the many kinds such demoniac species of life are held to be always full of lust, always violent, always unclean many kinds of hunters in the jungles are considered to belong to the demoniac species of life so basically those who live insensitively causing hurt to others so they are said to be demoniac so Prabhupada is talking here about two things demoniac species can be physical form and he says even hunters biologically they will be in the human form even if they are in the human form they have a demoniac mentality so Prabhupada is using the word species over here not just in terms of biology, he is using it in terms of consciousness that’s how we understand the word species so the species is not according to biology as it is used in as it is used in normal scientific or normal conversation now Krishna goes on further continues that stream of thought आसुरिञ्योणिमापन्ना मूर्हा जन्मनि जन्मनि मामप्राप्पेव कौन्तेय ततोयां त्यदमांगतेम आसुरिञ्योणिमापन्ना आसुरिञ्योणिमापन्ना so after attaining such आसुरियोणि मूर्हा जन्मनि जन्मनि the foolish person for many many lifetimes जन्मनि जन्मनि मामप्राप्पेव कौन्तेय without attaining me ततोयां त्यदमांगतेम and that person will go into further lower destinations so here what is Krishna saying over here that those people will go further and further away from him that is if they keep misusing their free will now they don’t have to misuse their free will but if they misuse then they will have to suffer so now we have to understand that the concept of now Krishna will talk in the future verses about hell also the Vedic concept of hell is significantly different from the Judeo-Christian concept of hell in the Abrahamic religions hell is considered to be a place of eternal torment that is once a person goes to hell that person has to suffer in hell forever that is never the Vedic understanding the whole universe is considered to be like a classroom or university with many classrooms and hell is also one classroom it is definitely a difficult classroom but the important thing is it is not a compulsory classroom it is not a compulsory classroom and we are souls who can best experience happiness by loving and serving Krishna and Krishna personally comes if you look at the whole Gita Krishna the Bhagavad Gita reveals a concerned, compassionate, committed God who stays in our heart and works tirelessly for our elevation and liberation so the teacher in the school is concerned that the students get elevated students get promoted and succeed but then if some students are determined not to study then what happens is hell is not meant to cause us suffering hell is meant to save us from suffering how is that possible? hell is a place for suffering, isn’t it? how can hell save us from suffering? the point is as long as we are disconnected from Krishna we are suffering there is a basic denominator of suffering always there in the material world because of disconnection from Krishna and because of the and because of the there is basically suffering always in this world so the education that Krishna gives through Guru Sadhu Shastra through the various systems of religion is ultimately meant to help the souls come back to Krishna so when the souls try to come back to Krishna at that time Krishna helps them and they come back then they become free from all this misery now if they don’t come back if they defy Krishna then for many many lifetimes they will have to stay on suffering in this material world so just like a student who is undisciplined, unruly disruptive in a classroom may be punished may be sent somewhere else where there is stricter discipline and punishment the purpose of that is not to just punish the student the purpose is so that the student comes back to the classroom behaves in a more disciplined way and then studies and gets promoted so if our actions did not have consequences then the result would be that we would have to suffer more and more because we just continue on cycle of birth and death but when actions have consequences then those consequences remind us for this I got so much suffering I don’t want this suffering therefore the soul reforms and then the soul becomes sober and soul starts practising and returns back to Krishna so the purpose of hell is to actually save us from the miseries of material existence in general and for that purpose there is the congenial ways that the soul learns properly by hearing from Guru Sadashiva but if the soul refuses to do that then the alternative ways the soul is forced to do the opposite is forced to go through situations where the soul has to suffer in cycle of birth and death so either way the important point is that the soul can get liberated and even through hell it’s just a classroom it’s a tough classroom as you say life is like a school of hard knocks so all of us get hard knocks in this life and we learn from those hard knocks at least we should learn from them so similarly you can say hell is a school of super hard knocks but we all are meant to learn so it’s asuram, yonima, panna so even if one goes to hellish situations, goes to demoniac species still the super soul doesn’t leave.
The super soul is there in the heart of everyone and the super soul is working to redeem even those people. So Prabhupada explains based on Chakravarthipada’s commentary that sometimes such souls, demons may be killed by the supreme lord when he descends and then also they will get elevated so basically nobody is hopeless everybody has hope and the devotees, their mission is to make the unfortunate fortunate to make the durbhagyavan bhagyavan as it is said so how does one get the bhakti latha bheej? by guru krishna prasade and then so the devotees and the spiritual master work to make the unfortunate souls fortunate so they normally cannot attain krishna but by krishna’s intervention when he confronts the demons or by the devotees intervention, they can their downward journey their trap in the lower species and the lower lokas that will get annihilated and then they will be able to attain krishna so Prabhupada was asked this is hell eternal? i agree prabhupada asked this and this is reported in his book the hari krishna explosion so there he says is hell eternal? prabhupada smiled and said nothing except ecstatic devotional service to krishna is eternal everything is temporary so all the miseries of this world they are all temporary ultimately only devotional service to krishna is eternal so that is the eternal reality to which krishna is taking us he wants to take us now let’s look at the next verse so now krishna will tell that it’s not a personal vendetta because of which he takes people now there are gates to hell trividham is three narakasya narak is hell so there are doors to what? to the destruction of the soul and what are these? so lust, anger and greed therefore one should give these up give up these three so there are several significant points in this first of all there are dual metaphors there are two metaphors in this first metaphor is that it is the metaphor of dwaram door door is the means by which we go if i am inside this room the door can be wait by which i go out if i am outside the room door is the means by which i can come inside so now lust, anger and greed so now if we are going to think of door as a physical thing and lust, anger and greed are not physical so what does it mean? that means that actually when we let ourselves be consumed by these emotions then our consumption by those emotions becomes the pathway by which we go to hell so those emotions will make us act in ways whose consequences will be that we will have to go to hell so actually we have all these big big advertisements with explicit sexual imagery so each advertisement it’s injecting into us lust, it’s injecting anger it’s injecting greed so the advertisements are doing that so what is happening? we can say that each advertisement is like a gate to hell and in today’s times there are so many gates to hell that instead of people going to hell hell has come to the people that means that hellish conditions are created when people become madly lusty or madly greedy the kind of actions that they do horrible brutal actions that they do they can kill others, torture others exploit others dehumanise others and that’s how they can cause so much suffering so we see, we discussed earlier also about it how lust, anger, greed they are the cause of all the crimes in the world all sexual abuse largely it comes from lust or it comes from anger where one wants power over others so most then similarly most violence brutal violence comes because of anger and most of corruption and greed and despotism nepotism, not despotism all this comes because of greed, where a person wants I want to be great, I want the people around me to be great so that I can be considered greater also so all these, if you look at the major crimes in society, they all come because of lust, anger and greed so to counter lust, anger and greed one needs something substantial, what is that? one needs some higher way to live higher way to experience happiness that will be given by scripture and Krishna law which is slightly later, but here right now he is telling, one has to be careful beware, otherwise one will be trapped so here the word is used in a metaphorical sense the point of Terbinga so what are two metaphors? Dwara is a metaphor for mentality and lust, anger and greed, you can remember that as acronym, lag this cause the soul to lag behind so the soul cannot move forward it is held behind and lag behind in the journey towards Krishna so these are the mentality that take a person to hell similarly, Nashinam Atmanah is also a metaphor Krishna has 2.17, he has said Avinashi tu tadviddhi so he has called the Atma to be Avinashi non-destructible or indestructible so if the Atma is Avinashi then how can the Atma Krishna talk about Nashinam Atmanah so there is, he talks about Nashinam Atmanah so here, what does Nash indicate? Nash represents the destruction of the spiritual inclination of the soul it talks about how the capacity of the soul to live spiritually and to perceive spiritual reality that is lost when the soul gets overwhelmed by these and this Nashinam can be correlated with the Atmaha the killer of the soul that is mentioned in the Isopanishad as well as in the Bhagavatam now, this is a metaphor what is Krishna telling in this verse that tasma detatrayam tejet therefore, one should give up all these three and Prabhupada explains that a sane man you know, people who people who succumb to lust, anger greed, they become insane but there is one one has to be sane and what does Prabhupada say if they kill the self to such an extent there will be no possibility of liberation from this metal entanglement no possibility means, it is not that permanently it is impossible, it means that as long as the person has, a person succumbs to lust, anger and greed like that till that time, it will be impossible there will be no possibility of liberation from this metal entanglement and after that Krishna tells atmanashreyas tato yatiparangatim etair vimuktah etair vimuktah after being independent of this kaunteya tamodwarais tribhernara tamodwarais the doors to darkness, to ignorance so etair vimuktah after one becomes liberated from this tamodwarais tribhernara these three, that human being achirati, that person acts in what way? atmanashreyas for the well-being of one’s soul and thereafter tato yatiparangatim and thus can attain the supreme destination supreme destination so for us on the spiritual path often we are our greatest enemies that means we often act in ways which are self-defeating, self-destructive so that can, at a very gross level be seen when people smoke or drink at the grossest level say people commit suicide, then they are destroying themselves physically, literally itself one way that they may drink poison and commit suicide but another is that they may also actually commit do slow suicide that means they are drinking alcohol or taking drugs or they are smoking in a completely uncontrolled way, totally addicted to it they are dark and they may commit suicide they may not be intending to die, wanting to die but the way they are living, they are committing slow suicide by that so there are others who may not be doing suicide literally but they are also acting in self-defeating ways, when we act according to lust, anger, greed often these make us act in ways which are harmful to us harmful to us not just spiritually but harmful materially also when people say become lusty and then they want to have they want to have promiscuous relationships with many people and then they may get some terrible disease and that disease may be fatal, may be crippling so then that is self-defeating, self-destructive or a person may, because of greed try to manipulate the law and try to defraud people, corrupt and be corrupt and try to do frauds and then a person gets caught who goes to jail, so the consequences are there some people say no, there are so many people who are corrupt and who don’t get caught yes, they may not get caught but that is simply because they have some past good karma because of which their current karma consequences are not coming immediately but what current karma they are doing, the consequences will come sooner or later, the consequences will come the consequences will catch up to them so therefore they are all these impellers towards terrible actions, towards negative actions so when one becomes free from this now, the significant point is Krishna has used the word tajet in the previous verse last verse, tajet, give them up and then here also he used the word vimukta etai vimukta kaunteya becoming free from this what does it indicate? it indicates that it is possible to become free from this it is not impossible it is possible to become free from this and once one becomes free from this it’s like a actually a fever or the haunting of a ghost when a ghost haunts a person then the person just can’t behave rationally but when the person that ghost may have possessed and once the possession goes away the person can act calmly, act clearly like that so tamo dvaare istri bherna raha so these are three gates to hell, one becomes free from them then one can think clearly so then one can actually act for one’s long-term well-being, one can make choices that are in pursuance of one’s enlightened self-interest one will be able to perceive what is truly good for me and then perceive that so perceive and pursue so both will happen and gradually by this one will attain the supreme destination so Prabhupada explains the purport, he talks about the whole varanashram system which is all meant to elevate a person if a person is able to follow them that means the rules and regulations as per the varanashram he will be automatically raised to the highest platform of his then he can have liberation without a doubt yaha shastra vidhi mutsuriccham vartate kama karataham na su siddhi mavabnoti na sukham na parangatim yaha shastra vidhim utsrujya one who utsrujya utsrujya means to give up, reject one shastra vidhi one gives up the vidhi of shastra that means one rejects it, neglects it and then we have to act so how will we act? vartate kama karataham one acts because of selfish desire then na su siddhi mavabnoti a person will not attain perfection na sukham certainly na parangatim one will not attain the supreme destination when one is impelled by lust lust cannot really help us to think about long term perfection so lust covers our spiritual nature there is no question of parangatim and lust keeps us perpetually dissatisfied more, more, more that is a fire that is insatiable an indulgence is like a fuel that makes the fire blaze more and more so na sukham one cannot gain happiness na siddhim avapnoti one cannot get siddhi there are different kinds of perfections there are material perfections there are yogic perfections and there are spiritual perfections so yogic are also material perfections but they may not be as gross but actually lust makes it difficult for a person to achieve anything even if a person is in sports and there also a person has to control selfish desires short sighted desires for enjoyment a person has to be fit a person has to maintain one’s energy a person has to eat in a regulated way act in a regulated way discipline is important for success in any field and if the desire is unregulated an unregulated desire will not allow a person to do anything properly that’s why in the Vedic culture education would normally there will not be co-education the idea was when man and woman, boy and girl are together then they just get obsessed with thoughts about each other and then it becomes difficult for them to focus on anything higher, focus on studies especially after puberty comes up then co-education can become very distracting so then siddhi becomes difficult to achieve so traditionally, not just in Vedic culture but even in western culture there would not be so much co-education there would be separate education so just one example of Kaamakarat how Kaam can distract a person now Shastravidhi Shastravidhi is the injunction of scripture when one gives it up one acts according to as Prabhupada explains in the Purport that again Prabhupada uses the word we should be sane in the human form of life one is expected to be sane so sane means not just giving in to short term impulses which make a person act insane be sane and the word Prabhupada writes Kaamakarata, what does it mean? a person who knowingly violates the rules acts in lust he knows that it is forbidden but still he acts this is called acting whimsically acting whimsically whimsically means that a person just based on whims so based on some whim the person decides so the person just starts thinking that I feel like doing it I will do it right away and when a person acts like that actually our feelings can be our enemies feelings can sometimes kill faster than bullets so why? because feelings can make us act in impulsive ways which can be destructive terribly destructive so therefore one has to be careful so of course we say bhakti is all about feelings, that’s true but that is pure, sublime, spiritual feelings right now our material feelings can weaken us, can wound us can even destroy us so we have to be cautious our feelings have to be guided by our intelligence and not just our intelligence it is Krishna’s intelligence coming through scripture so we don’t deny or reject our feelings but we regulate and direct our feelings according to scripture according to intelligence based on scripture so that means a man is attracted to a woman so now that feeling is something which comes because of the biological nature so that feeling if it is according to scripture that means man and woman if they are attracted to each other the attraction is within the within the sacred bonds of marriage then that feeling is not they can come together and they can together live harmoniously materially and advance spiritually so that is accordance with scripture but when it is not in accordance with scripture the feeling has to be rejected so our feeling has to be regulated and directed according to scripture if it is not then those feelings can be our enemies so that’s why one has to be careful now Krishnaji in the last verse asmat shastram pramanam te karya karya vyavasthitam jnatma shastra vidhanoktam karma kartum iharase asmat shastram pramanam te so therefore according to shastra pramanam according to the the decision scriptures have made shastra pramanam te so karya akarya vyavasthitam when you decide properly what is karya, what is to be done and what is akarya which is not to be done, which is forbidden vyavasthitam, one understands it, determines it properly jnatma shastra vidhanoktam jnatma shastra vidhanoktam after understanding this after knowing what is shastra vidhanuktam, what is spoken in shastra karma kartum that one acts according iharase iharase it behoves you, befits you to act accordingly, according to scripture so lets try to understand why it is so important to act according to scripture so actually yeah, so we will come back to the others also so guidance for choosing our actions people generally act according to four things the mood the logic, fashion and tradition so lets look at all of them one by one fashion means mood, logic, fashion, tradition fashion means all of us do it everyone is doing it, you know everyone is doing it, so for example why some people have blonde hair so one film star gets a blonde hair and then everybody wants to have blonde hair or somebody wears high heel sandals everybody says i want to wear high heel sandals somebody wears a particular kind of jacket, everybody wants to wear that kind of jacket so one person does, second person does so everyone does it so fashion means everyone has done it, so we will do it so actually fashions are one of the most most misleading and incorrect ways of deciding our actions because fashions are no basis in truth or reality they are just trends which come and go and when we live according to fashions then we are just becoming becoming like leaves whichever way the wind is blowing we just get blown in that way and we won’t attain any destination by that that doesn’t mean that a devotee has to defiantly reject all fashions, the point is that a devotee has to have some direction in life and it’s not that deliberately devotee has to be unfashionable to be unpopular, that’s not the point the point is the devotee has to recognise that fashion cannot be the parameter by which i decide what i should do in my life then second can be tradition so fashion means everybody is doing it currently tradition means oh we have always done it we have always done it so when people think that’s how we have acted that’s why we should do it now the tradition itself is not necessarily a parameter of truth because there can be so many traditions which are wrong for example in much of the western world for much of the recent historical memory people have eaten meat so then what the idea comes up is that why do we eat meat we have always done it, our parents have eaten it our grandparents have eaten it, our great grandmothers have eaten it that’s why we eat meat now the question comes up whether we eat meat or not whether our grandparents have eaten meat or not what does meat eating involve it involves killing animals so the animals they have life like us they have they have consciousness like us they feel maybe not as developed as ours but their consciousness is more or less similar you know when a say a cow embraces a cow hugs and cuddles a calf in its own way or a kitten hugs and cuddles a cat oh that is that love or a puppy is held by its mother a dog actually that love is very much like maternal love very similar to human maternal love so they have emotions like us and they suffer terribly when they are killed just because somebody is doing it and the ancestors have been doing it that doesn’t make it right some non-vegetarians say that even birds, even plants when we kill them there is suffering over there so what’s wrong with this even in plants killing there is pain and that’s why just being vegetarian is not enough we have to take prasad but apart from that also it’s not just not safe no that is scientifically intuitively and behaviourally we know there is a difference scientifically the extent of pain that is experienced differs based on how much nervous system is developed, the plants don’t have as much developed nervous system as animals that’s why they suffer much lesser pain so a sensitive human being would want to cause as less pain as possible and intuitively we all know there is slaughterhouse if somebody goes to slaughterhouse then there are screams and there is blood it’s a ghastly scene over there whereas if you go to a farm where harvesting is happening it’s a mood of celebration there is no mood like a crematorium over there it’s a mood of celebration, people are singing and another point is that the crops they are going to fall anyway if they are not harvested, they will get wasted so it’s a mood of celebration and jubilation over there emotionally and then behaviourally if parents are told the school announces tomorrow we are going to take your children for experiential learning session so we will take them to a farm where harvesting is going to happen how many parents will object and if they say tomorrow experiential learning we are going to take your children to slaughterhouse how many parents will allow so we know it from our behaviour also we know it so basic point now is, we are not talking about we are talking simply about the point that just because something has been done in a tradition, doesn’t make it right so tradition alone is not the criteria for deciding what is right or wrong nor is fashion and third could be mood mood means I feel like doing it so we will discuss how our feelings can be so misleading tomorrow is my exam and today I feel oh I feel like watching the movie I feel like watching the movie and I go and watch the movie and then I come back and tomorrow I am giving the exam and then I can’t answer any of the questions and then I feel like beating myself so my feelings if I use as a parameter I can be very misled by it, then the last could be logic oh it makes sense it makes sense that’s why I will do it now logic seems to be the most logical among all most sensible among all these parameters but even logic is not always sound because logic can mislead us because sometimes we may have incomplete understanding of things for example if a doctor decides ok this patient has got got this fracture there are two ways, one is that we can just let the hand rest and the hand will heal gradually the other is we can do the surgery and by surgery the hand will heal faster, the doctor decides ok we want the patient to recover faster so let’s do surgery but then if afterwards the doctor finds that it may seem to be a logical decision but afterwards the patient finds that doctor doesn’t know and later on it finds out that patient has got some health problem because of which giving anaesthesia is very dangerous if the person is giving anaesthesia it’s likely that the person will just die because of that so then doing surgery can be a disastrous decision in that situation so generally whenever doctors do diagnosis they have to know the complete case history at least the main detail main information, main features if they don’t then they take a decision which seems right at one moment but it turns out to be wrong later so logic also is not always sound therefore what we need as a guide for our actions is scripture scripture is yes it is the first and the last basis for our action because scripture is like a lighthouse the others may also seem to be like lighthouses but the lighthouses themselves are moving lighthouses are supposed to be fixed and say ok here there is safe landing situation and here that side it is dangerous but if the lighthouse itself moves and where we think it was safe that part turns out to be rocky and the boat that is coming is just cut and destroyed by that so we can use other logic and other things also for subordinate decision subordinate factors in contributing towards making a decision the scripture should be the first and the final authority and based on that we make the decision so that’s why तस्मात् शास्त्रं प्रमाणं दे which shastra one decides कार्या कार्य व्यवस्तितों ग्यात्वा शास्त्र विदानो तम् कर्म करतुमि हारसी so then Prabhupada talks about the basic principles of devotions of his chanting Hare Krishna and he talks about how the shastras are free from the four defects without the four principled effects and then he talks about how there are personalists and impersonalists but both of them lead their lives according to the principles of the Vedas. Their understanding of what the Vedas teach may be different in terms of their conclusive understanding of the absolute truth but both follow Vedic culture and both say for example protect cows and both respect the Vedas and they both talk about the Varanasi system so in this sense both are harmonious at least with the broad principle of following scripture and then Prabhupada writes in human society aversion to the principles of understanding Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of all falldowns so there are different kinds of falldowns.
Lust may cause a falldown. Greed may cause a falldown but the root cause of all the falldowns is aversion to the principles of understanding the Lord once we understand him then we can understand everything else and then falls will not happen and then therefore that is the greatest offence of human life. So here greatest is a superlative used in the sense of indicating how tragic it is.
So suppose a person is given a billion dollars and that person just throws away the billion dollars and then starts going to her husband to look for some food to eat see how tragic it is it’s not just tragic it’s offensive somebody is giving you a billion dollars and you throw that away and go and look for garbage so like that sense gratification is available in all species of life and now we have got the human form the human form is offering us eternal life and eternal happiness. That’s much more than billion dollars and sense gratification is like garbage just going around and so if somebody gives up the opportunity in human form of life that human form of life brings to attain eternal happiness and in Jesus after sense gratification that person is extremely unfortunate and in that sense it’s offensive and then Prabhupada explains towards the end of the Purport that if one is guided by the spiritual master then under that guidance one can attain the supreme destination. So Shastra Pramana so when we study scriptures for example now we are studying the Bhagavad Gita and we are studying it so that we can understand the principles of life and mould our life accordingly and then by this we will be able to attain Param Gatim attain the supreme perfection of life.
Thank you very much.