SB 11.23.54 – Krishna consciousness addresses the root of suffering that goes deeper than karma

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. PURUSHOYAM SUPARNAH PURUDHYETU KASMAYU NAHI KARMA MULAM Avanti Brahmana, by analyzing the various possible causes of suffering, now comes to karma.
KARMASTU HETU SUKHA DUKHA YOSHCHET CHIT So if we assume, for argument’s sake, ASTU, let’s assume for argument’s sake, it’s granted, KARMASTU HETU, let’s assume that karma is the cause, SUKHA DUKHA YOSHCHET So sometimes the falsity of a proposition can be analyzed by hypothetically accepting its truthfulness and then highlighting the fallacies and the contradictions that result as implications of that proposition. So let this be true. And then we look at, OK, this is true, then this will happen.
This cannot make sense. This is not logical. This happens, this is not logical.
And therefore, this original proposition can’t be true. Like that he is doing over here. So if we assume karma is the cause of suffering, then KIM AATMANAS TADDHI JADA JADATVE Still, where is the Atma coming into the analysis? JADA JADATVE Is it Jada and Ajada? Jada is insentient, unconscious.
AJADATVE So Ajadatve is non-material. So actually, suffering results because of a combination of the material and the non-material. At least at our level.
How is that? The material body is highlighting that in the next line. What is that? DEHASTU ACHIT PURUSHA VARGAM SUPARANAHAM DEHASTU ACHIT The body is achit, is not having consciousness. And the soul, purusha, is suparanaham, is transcendental.
So the body being unconscious cannot experience suffering. It cannot experience anything at all. And the soul being transcendental can’t be affected by material suffering.
And while we do karma, there has to be a transcendental actor and a material instrument. So we can do karma only when we have some material thing to do with, with which to do karma. It’s like if I’m playing a video game, I want to do some action.
I have to have some tool by which I can play in the video game. I have to have some interface. so the interface is, it is in the interface that the interaction occurs and it is in the interface that suffering occurs.
So therefore, actually, the suffering cannot be because of karma. Because karma, the interaction would not take place without the interface. And so the interaction is not the cause of suffering.
When I play a video game and I lose, then actually, when you’re talking about karma here, here we are referring to material fruitive action. So is material fruitive action the cause of our suffering? We might say yes, at first thought. But here the Avanti Brahmana is going deeper and is analyzing that actually the material fruitive action is an expression, is done only when there is an interface.
Without an interface, if there were no console, there were no screen, there were no keypad, I would not be able to play the video game. And without playing the video game, I would not engage in suffering. I would not get suffering.
So to just assume that, okay, because I press that button and that button, that’s what caused suffering, that is an incomplete analysis. Because that in itself is not involving the soul directly. So we will see as the analysis moves forward, in the future verses he will explain that actually it is not the interaction, but the system that causes the interface and which promotes the illusion, that prompts the interaction, that’s actually responsible.
So when a video game is brought tantalizingly in front of us and then we find it irresistible and we succumb to it, we make some moves and we lose, especially if it’s not just an ordinary video game but that people are gambling and money is taken, they lose money. Suffering is enormous sometimes. So here he is analyzing that material fruitive action cannot cause suffering to the spiritual soul.
Therefore whom can we blame? Because karma, fruitive action cannot be the cause of, cannot be the root cause of suffering. So in normal conversation we do say that fruitive action is the cause of suffering. Karma is the cause of our suffering.
But, I mean, in normal conversation means normal conversation among people who have some philosophical understanding. But here the Avanti Brahmana is going deeper and is inquiring what is it that makes us do this karma. What is it that makes us engage in fruitive activities and that factor which engages in fruitive activities he will identify as the cause of suffering.
So here we will see that the Avanti Brahmana does not succumb to the blame game with the blame game turned onwards to oneself also. There is the whole analysis of philosophy is not to make us feel so miserable and so crippled and so unworthy and so in a mood of self-flagellation. Self-flagellation means whipping oneself that we lose all our motivation, inspiration and energy to do anything worthwhile.
So through a thorough philosophical analysis the ultimate purpose should be that we feel enlivened to follow the process that will free us from suffering and that process centers on cultivating remembrance of Krishna. So once we start cultivating remembrance of Krishna and start experiencing real spiritual happiness thereof then we no longer feel attracted by the by the temporary illusory pleasures of this world and then even when the opportunity for karma is there and even when the mechanism by which we can do karma that is the mind is there prompting and prodding us still we will not succumb to it. So chanting offers us the opportunity to experience real happiness and thereby break free from the alluring promises of karma and the mind which prompts us towards karma.