SB 5.11.15 – Seek a drive that will end misery not one that will continue misery endlessly

Transcript

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Vedātma-tattvaṁ brahmati hatāvat Here, Jada Bharata is telling how long one will stay in material bondage, tāvat, till that time one will stay, or nayāvat, till this time one does not do these things, till that time one will stay in bondage. So, etāṁ tanubhṛṇ narendra Narendra refers to Maharaja Raghugan, tanubhṛṇ is that embodied soul, vidhūya māyāṁ vayunodayena The influence of māyā has to be removed from us, vidhūya, vidhūya is to cleanse away, māyāṁ vayunodayena Udaya is to rise, vayuna refers to spiritual knowledge that arises by contact with the Supreme Lord, through the processes of bhakti-yoga, which connect us with the Lord, so vayunodayena. So, till we do not cleanse ourselves from māyā, by the manifestation of spiritual knowledge, till that time, we will stay in bondage.
brahmati hatāvat But when we cleanse ourselves, how do we do that? vimukta-saṅgo jītṣat sapatno When that cleansing happens, jītṣat sapatno, the six enemies, they normally refer to lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion. Here, this chapter is primarily talking about the mind, so here it refers to the five senses and the mind. And, when we conquer these six enemies, and we become free from bad association, the material things which drag our consciousness away from Krishna, ve ātmatattvam At that time, we come to know the spiritual truth, the spiritual reality, ātmatattvam.
brahmati hatāvat So, actually, the importance in life of purification through the activation of our spiritual knowledge is underscored here. Generally, we think that if I achieve this, if I just get a better job, or if I just get a bigger house, there are so many conceptions of external achievements which we think will make us happy. And often, these concerns, they occupy and preoccupy our mind.
And, when they also weigh into us, when we are trying to connect with Krishna. So, we can’t think of Krishna because we are thinking of these things. However, if we contemplate on the philosophy, we will understand that no matter how many things we are able to achieve, how many wrong things we set right, how many right things we make better in this material world, we are ultimately brahmateeha.
We are going to go on in the cycle of birth and death. And that’s why, although the mind makes a hype of various things, before we achieve them, when we achieve them, they turn out to be an anticlimax. They turn out to be punha-pudus-charvita-charvana-vrahaam.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything about the material situations that confront us, but it simply means that we don’t let the hope for material improvement become the driving and dominating hope of our heart. Because such a hope will only lead to frustration. It will not be fulfilled.
But if we recognize that effect of if I want to ultimately become free from misery, the only way it’s going to happen is by vayunodayena, by the awakening of spiritual knowledge. And spiritual knowledge awakens by contact with Krishna, by studying scriptures, by sharing scriptural message with others, and by living that scriptural message by remembering Krishna during chanting and at other times also. So, when we give adequate time and energy striving for this achievement, knowing that it is this achievement that is centrally important, that is going to be decisive in putting an end to our misery, then we will be able to focus on connecting with Krishna during our meditation.
So, by remembering the ultimate futility of all the hopes that the mind is driving us towards, we can let ourselves get a drive to focus on Krishna and thereby put an end to these unending desires of the mind which keep us in the cycle of birth and death.