SB 4.9.12 – The higher taste of devotion frees us from captivation by material emotion

Transcript

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Thank you Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4912 tena smaran tathitirāṁ vyameśa-mṛtyaṁ ye chāṇyātaḥ sūrya-surya-dhṛhavit-padāraḥ ye tvābhyanābhavadīya-padāravindhā sauganyal-updardaye śukṛta-prasangah sauganyal-updardaye tena smaran tathitirāṁ those people no longer remember atitirāṁ vyameśa-mṛtyaṁ so for the mṛtyam for the material body which is bound for death so atitirāṁ actually that which is extremely dear for most people ye chāṇyātaḥ sūrya-surya-dhṛhavit-padāraḥ so the things associated with the body the children, the relatives the friends the home, the wealth, the wife all these are extremely dear to the conditioned soul but that soul never remembers doesn’t get attached to, doesn’t remember these things.
Who is that soul? ye tvābhyanābhavadīya-padāravindhā that that lord who is abhyanābh, who has a lotus-like navel and who has lotus-like feet, padāravindhā so those devotees who are saugandha-lubdhṛdayeṣu-kṛta-prasangahā so those devotees who have who become greedy for the fragrance saugandha-lubdhṛdayeṣu whose hearts are greedy for the fragrance of your lotus-feet oh lord, if one gets prasangahā, the association of those devotees, then one is no longer attracted to any of the worldly pleasurable things like family and other material things which are mentioned here so here Prahlad Maharaj is talking about the higher taste that comes by the association of devotees who are attached to the higher taste not Prahlad Maharaj, this is Dhruv Maharaj speaking, so Dhruv Maharaj he was so overwhelmed by the desire to demonstrate his glory to his family members now that anger which was there towards his step-mother and towards his father because of which he left home, that anger is also because of attachment, only when we are attached to something do we get angry and we don’t get that thing so he loved his father and that’s why he wanted to sit on his father’s lap and when he was refused and he was denigrated he became enraged now Dhruv Maharaj is saying that actually now that I have tasted your lotus feet and this has happened by the mercy of Narad Muni who is the kind of devotee which he is describing here padarvind saugandhan udhrudesh that whose heart is captivated with the greed for relishing the nectar of your lotus feet because of his association and because of following his instruction I have got some kind of similar taste and because of that taste now I feel no longer captivated motivated to try to prove my greatness to others, all that I am focusing now on is trying to love and serve you and to seek the association of your devotees more and more, if I have that association then I have everything and I do not need anything more because in that association I will gain you and you are the greatest wealth so now there is adharma, there are sinful temptations which can drag us away now for a person who is born in a cultured family like Dhruv Maharaj there is no question of sinful temptations but there can be pious temptations so there is adharma, aparadharma and paradharma so aparadharma is material religiosity so taking care of family members is important as a part of our material dharma but the material dharma should not be allowed to interfere with our spiritual dharma and here he is explaining that as a spiritual dharma he has now got so much higher taste that he is no longer feeling worked up agitated by what happened to him at the level of material relationships so it’s not that Dhruv Maharaj immediately became a renunciate after this, no he went back to the kingdom and neither will he after getting the blessing and the power of the lord break vengeance on those who had hurt him he actually forgave them and actually later on when Uttara, when his step brother was killed by the yakshas he went out to get justice for his step brother so it was not that he became either averse or indifferent or pathetic towards his relatives but he did his duty but he was no longer emotionally captivated by by the reactions of his relatives so similarly when we become fixed in the devotion of the lord we will no longer be emotionally captivated by worldly events, emotions and reactions of others so when we are chanting Hare Krishna we may occasionally experience this disturbance but if we keep persevering steadily in the practice of devotional service then over a period of time we will experience that these disturbances will be less and less and while chanting we consciously don’t let ourselves get disturbed by the upheavals in material life then that will also help us that will show Krishna the intention that we want to focus on spiritual emotions and we are ready to neglect the material emotions for that and then Krishna will strengthen our spiritual emotions and weaken our material emotions and that will enable us to both make spiritual advancement and also do our material duties more responsibly but with less