Scriptures act as Map, Model and Muscle

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Hare Krishna Mantra Shreemad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 10, Verse 19.
Tadaham Matayor Madhvaya Varunya Shreemadandayo Tamo Madham Harishyami Strenayor Ajitaatmano Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Shila Prabhupada. Translation. Therefore, since these two persons, drunk with the liquor named Varuni or Madhavi and unable to control their senses, have been blinded by the pride of celestial opulence and have become attached to women, I shall relieve them of their false prestige.
Purport. When a sadhu chastises or punishes someone, he does not do so for revenge. Maharaj Parikshit had enquired why Narada Muni was subject to such a spirit of revenge, tamaha.
But this was not tamaha. For Narada Muni, in full knowledge of what was for the good of the two brothers, wisely thought of how to cure them. Vaishnavas are good physicians.
They know how to protect a person from material disease. Thus they are never in tamoguna. sagunan samatityaitan brahmabhuyaya kalpate.
1426, Bhagavad Gita. Vaishnavas are always situated on the transcendental platform, the Brahman platform. They cannot be subject to mistakes or the influence of the modes of material nature.
Whatever they do, after full consideration, is meant just to lead everyone back home, back to Godhead. So today we will discuss on the topic of two main topics. First I will discuss about discrimination.
How Narada Muni is exhibiting thoughtful discrimination in deciding how to act. And then I will talk about how Guru Sadhu Shastra help us to develop discrimination in four ways. By acting as a mirror, as a model, as a map and as a muscle.
So, one of the things that fascinated me about Krishna conscious philosophy, when I was first introduced to it, was the idea that the only difference between humans and animals is dharma. At first sight, this seems to challenge our normal observation. Because we see that humans do so many other things.
We have language, we have civilisations, we have science, we have architecture. So much of it animals don’t seem to have. And on the other hand, we may see that even people practise religion for Aahaar, Nidra, Bhai, Maithun also.
Isn’t it? So I had gone once to Varanasi for some programmes. So there was a Bajrangbali temple over there. And there some people were singing the verse, Tum to ho baal brahmachari, mujhe dedo ek naari.
So, this is dharma being practised for material things. So, what does it actually mean when Mahabharata says that, dharmo hi tesha madhiko vishesho, dharme nahina pashubhi samana. Dharma is what differentiates between humans and animals.
So actually, the word dharma, Prabhupada explains, is not religion as we understand it. Religion is just a bodily designation that we acquire because of being born in a family that has a particular kind of faith. Whereas dharma comes from the root Dhruv.
Dhruv also leads to dharayate, to sustain. So dharma is that which sustains. That which sustains us, Prabhupada explains, that which is our original inalienable characteristic, that which is our inherent nature.
So dharma is that activity that enables us to act according to that nature. So in that sense, dharma just doesn’t refer to activities that comprise religious rituals. Dharma refers to those activities that enable us to return back to our original nature.
So dharma at the highest level means, At the highest level, dharma means that we serve Krishna. And that is what the pure devotees will naturally do. Now for us, as sadhakas, dharma are those activities which enable us to return to our dharma.
So dharma in that sense is like stairs as well as the destination on top of the stairs. So the activities that will enable us to return to our nature. So our original nature is to love and serve Krishna.
So now, even now we are loving and serving. But we are not loving and serving Krishna. We are loving and serving Krishnetara, things other than Krishna.
So for us, dharma are those activities which enable us to redirect our love and service from Krishnetara to Krishna. So that is dharma for us. So that means that what the Mahabharata is talking about is not just in terms of external activities.
It is talking about internal purposes of those activities. Now people may be building big, big skyscrapers. They may be doing scientific research.
But what is the ultimate purpose of those activities? If you look at the way materialistic people live, I did my electronics, telecommunications engineering. So I was quite interested in how telecommunications works. But when I came to the final year, then I came to know that actually the major application of electronics and telecommunications engineering is to make TV and TV-related products.
That is one of the major applications. And what does TV actually do? It facilitates people in eating, mating and maybe doing virtual defending. So when people are energetic, people do eating, sleeping, mating, defending themselves.
When people are lazy, they watch others doing eating, sleeping, mating, defending. So that is secondhand eating, sleeping, mating, defending. So ultimately there may be lofty scientific research.
But even within scientific research, very few scientists are actually seekers of truth. Most scientists are basically trying to earn a living and trying to gain prestige through their jobs. And earning a living is basically for eating, sleeping, mating and getting prestige is for defending.
I want to defend my false ego. So like that, all the activities that we do are ultimately motivated by the desire for eating, sleeping, mating, defending. And when you talk about Dharma, that means changing our motivation.
So in this particular pastime, we see the behaviour of three personalities or three groups of people. The Nalakuvar Manigriha, they are acting entirely without discrimination. They have lost their sense of what is right and what is wrong, infatuated by the desire to enjoy.
Then we have the women who were sporting with them. Now, they have some sort of conventional discrimination. Oh, a saintly person has come.
We should not be undressed in front of him. Immediately they cover themselves. But whether they had any clear philosophical understanding of why this is to be done or not, that is not indicated in the Bhagavatam.
Narada Muni, on the other hand, is showing proper discrimination. He is not just angry. Why are you doing like this? He is thinking.
They are doing like this. Why are they doing like this? And we see, interestingly again, that at first sight, this particular transgression from Nalakuvar Manigriha would seem to be impelled by lust. They are sporting with women and that is, directly speaking, a lusty activity.
But Narada Muni is not just seeing the form. He is going behind. Yes, they are acting lustily, but why are they acting lustily? That is because they are intoxicated by pride.
That is, they are thinking that we are the sons of such wealthy people, so we can do whatever we like. So he is going back to the deeper cause, that lust is actually caused by pride. So therefore, he is thinking, how will I cure them of the pride? He is using discrimination.
So essentially, coming to the topic of difference between humans and animals, one of the primary things that differentiates us from animals is our faculty for discrimination. The word discrimination has nowadays got a negative connotation. We have caste discrimination, we have race discrimination, we have gender discrimination.
But in the spiritual context, discrimination doesn’t mean to be unfavourable to certain group of people and to be partial to some group of people. Discrimination means to recognise what is beneficial and what is harmful for me and to act accordingly. So what exactly? Now, in the scriptures, this discrimination is called as Viveka Buddhi.
Viveka, the ability to understand what is right and what is wrong. So this Viveka Buddhi, in one sense, if we analyse, we can say it has four components. So I have studied a lot about this.
I always wanted to understand what is the difference between humans and animals. So I studied what Srila Prabhupada says in various places. And I looked at what previous Acharyas have written on this topic.
Then I looked at ethologists. Ethologists are people who study the behaviour of animals. So what they say is the difference between humans and animals.
Then I looked at what psychologists say is the difference between humans and animals. So maybe in the future, I’ll write a book about this. But for the time being.
So this is basically four points. So basically, animals just behave according to their instincts. They have no understanding of any rightness or wrongness.
Their understanding of rightness and wrongness is simply in terms of survival value or survival danger. Something is right if it helps me to survive. Something is wrong if it causes danger to my survival.
So today is Ekadashi. If a cat sees a rat, the cat can’t say, today is Ekadashi, I have to fast. Now, why can’t it do that? Because it is simply guided by its instincts.
It is simply going to act according to its instincts. So we human beings also have our instincts. But whereas animals are almost forced by their instincts, we are pushed by our instincts.
We are not forced. We are pushed. What is the difference between force and push? Force means the animals can’t counterpush.
Push means we can counterpush. So for us, our instincts impel, but don’t compel. They impel, they push us.
But we have the facility to counterpush. Now, how will we counterpush? So the first faculty that we human beings have is sometimes called as self-awareness. Self-awareness means to understand my own behaviour.
So psychologists say that this capacity for self-awareness develops in children by the age of four or five. How old are you? Seven. So you have a lot of self-awareness.
So what is this self-awareness? So they do a simple experiment for this. That means, can a person be aware of his or her own thoughts? So, for example, they take a child, say a child less than four years of age and tell him. So this is often they call it a Mary Allen experiment.
There are two girls, Mary and Ellen. So they tell Mary that there is a chocolate bar kept in this basket. And then Mary goes away from there and then Allen comes over there and Allen takes this chocolate and puts it in a drawer.
And then after that, then Mary comes back. So the child is asked, this is a story being told to the children, to a child. And the child is asked, where will Mary look for the chocolate? So before the age of four, all the children say in the drawer.
Because children can’t conceive that anybody can have a perception that is different from reality. They can’t ascribe false belief to anyone. That means that when children are small, they think they identify perception with reality.
They can’t differentiate perception from reality. And because they can’t differentiate perception from reality, they can’t be self-aware. So self-awareness means I should be able to look at my own thoughts.
But what happens with respect to small children, by the time they come to four or five, then they all start saying that, yes, she will look in the drawer, not in the she will not. She will look in the basket. Mary will look in the basket because that’s what Mary knew when she went away.
They start understanding that that our information is not necessarily the same as reality. Our perception can be different from reality. So the ability to evaluate our beliefs and to ascribe them as true or false, that is a preliminary level of self-awareness.
And when people are not self-aware, they think that their perception is the reality. So when we try to practise Krishna Consciousness, we start becoming aware of our thoughts. Actually speaking, the first step in Krishna Consciousness is to understand that I am not the body.
And that a little philosophical analysis can help us understand that. But after that, to understand that I am not my mind, that is a big challenge. And how do we understand that? We understand that when we try to do something against our mind.
When I try to chant attentively and the mind doesn’t allow me to chant attentively, then I want to chant, why can’t I chant? That means that there is some agency in my thought process which is distracting me from doing what I want myself to do. So when we try to do something substantial against the liking of our mind, then we start understanding that actually the mind is different from me. So this is how now at this level, when we’re talking about self-awareness in the Western intellectual tradition, there is no clear differentiation between the mind and the soul.
So they often think they confuse the soul and the mind to be the same. Anything beyond gross matter, they think that is the source of consciousness. But the Vedic understanding is that there is a source of, there is a root of consciousness, which is the soul, and there is a root of consciousness, R-O-U-T-E.
That root is the mind. So there is a difference between the two. The source of consciousness of the soul and the pathway by which the consciousness comes to the body is the mind.
So these two are different. So essentially self-awareness at that level means awareness of our mind. And now awareness of my mind in and of itself cannot take me very far.
Then I need, OK, this is how I am. So actually at this level, scripture acts like a mirror for us. When we study the scripture, then we study about three modes of material nature.
Oh, I am influenced so much by Tamoguna, Rajoguna. And scripture acts like a mirror to us, to show us where we are, to show us how we are, just like a mirror. When we look at it, the mirror shows us physically how we look.
But the scriptures act as a mirror, which show us as we are internally, how we are. Now, a mirror alone is not enough. This first role.
Now we are talking about how scriptures help us to develop discrimination. So the first is that I become aware of myself. Then the second is scriptures offer as a model.
I mean, this is how I am. But this is the ideal. This is the ideal.
This is how an ideal human being should be. A person should be free from lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion. A person should be having moral and spiritual integrity, should be devoted to God.
So the scriptures offer as a model. And only when we have a proper model, then there is any chance for us to actually improve ourselves. If we don’t have proper models, then or if we have improper models.
Nowadays, society is seriously endangered and jeopardised by people having undesirable role models. What do we mean by undesirable role models? Who are people’s role models today? Maybe 50 years ago, there are some independence fighters might have been the role models. They at least had some level of selflessness and dedication to society and nation.
But now the role models are mostly film stars, sports stars, maybe cricketers, maybe business icons or maybe people who are materially, visibly, glamorously successful. They are the role models for society. And we’ll see how the society culturally and subtly changes the values that we have by giving us false models.
For example, in the movie industry, the movies portray women who exhibit their bodies and act in sexually explicit ways. They call them as bold. Now, actually, that is not boldness, that is shamelessness.
Isn’t it? But by calling it as bold, what happens is everybody wants to be bold. Who knows a few years down the line, women who dress themselves properly, people start calling them cowardly. So this is a subtle and sinister way in which our values are changed.
Nobody wants to be called cowardly. Everybody wants to be bold. But boldness is not just being a public slave of one’s lowest impulses.
That is not boldness. But that is how the society portrays it. And what happens by this is when people get wrong role models, wrong role models, then actually speaking, human beings are meant to curb their instincts and develop their discrimination.
But the role models of society today actually are those people who completely give in to their impulses and who just act according to their impulses. Whenever I want, whatever I want, however I want, I do it. But the problem is what I want keeps wanting me even when I don’t want it.
That means what I want keeps wanting me even when I don’t want it. If I think that, OK, I will watch cricket, I’ll watch movies whenever I want. But then I have to study for my exams.
But that desire keeps coming and dragging me away. Keep dragging me away. And then I can’t do what is beneficial for me also.
So we over a period of time lose control over our own selves when we give in to our impulses. So the scriptures offer us models. So first is they offer us a mirror of where we are, how we are.
Then they offer us models of how we should be, how we can become. Now the scriptures may offer us examples of very lofty saints who have completely transcended their bodily drives and mental pushes. But they also are not unrealistic models.
There is a gradual process. If we keep climbing up, climbing up, we will also attain that stage. So that brings us to the third gift that the scriptures offer us.
The scriptures offer us a map. So, OK, a mirror shows me where I am. A model shows me where I should be.
Then the map offers a chart by which how I can go there, how I can go there. So this is what the scriptures offer us through the do’s and the don’ts. Do this.
Don’t do this. And Vishwanath Chakrathakur explains that the scriptures contain a lot of statements. But statements in the imperative are instructions.
What does imperative mean? Imperative means those which are do this. For example, This is an informational statement. It is not an imperative statement.
There is no instruction in it directly. Of course, we can take some instruction from it. I am not the body, I am the soul.
But among all the innumerable statements that are there in the scriptures, Abandon all varieties of religion and surrender to me. These are imperatives. These are instructional statements.
So they are imperatives. So this imperative statement act like maps for us. This is what we should do by which we can move upwards.
This is what we can do. Now, generally speaking, in the heavenly planets, the law of karma does not apply to the heavenly residents as it applies to us. It is not that they are not under karma at all.
In the material world, everybody has to act as a morally responsible agent. And if I act irresponsibly, I have to bear the consequences. But the freedom for enjoyment that is available in the heavenly planets is much greater than that is there on the Earth.
On the Earth, whatever sense enjoyment we have is under strict regulation by the scriptures. In the heavenly planets, when Arjuna went to heaven at that time, the Mahabhaya described that Indra saw that Arjuna was looking repeatedly at Urvashi. So Indra thought that maybe Arjuna is attracted to Urvashi.
And then he thought that Arjuna is like my son and he has come as my guest. So he told Urvashi, you go and satisfy her. Now, actually, Arjuna was attracted to Urvashi for an entirely different reason.
He was looking at Urvashi because he knew that he was actually a descendant of Yayati. Arjuna was a descendant of Yayati and Yayati had, no, Pururava, not Yayati, Pururava. Pururava had earlier been attracted to Urvashi.
So he was, now Pururava had practically lost all good sense because of that infatuation. So Arjuna was thinking, who is this lady who had infatuated my ancestor so much? So that’s why he was looking at her. But then when Urvashi came to him at that time, Arjuna eventually looked away and he said, yes, how can I serve you? So Urvashi, Urvashi was also attracted to Arjuna.
And she said that I have come with a desire to you. He said, no, no, no. And he said, actually, your father has sent me to you.
But he said, no, actually, I see you like my mother. Because you are, you are the consort of my great ancestor. So you are as Sachi or Kunti is to me.
He said, I cannot unite with you. So Urvashi said, no, no, no, no. Actually, we heavenly residents are not bound by morality like you earthlings.
He says, you are in heaven right now. So you are also not bound by morality. So actually for Arjuna, this was as much of a licence that anyone will need.
For most people, if a beautiful woman comes and approaches herself, then most people will not even think back and forth. They will just jump for the opportunity. But here Arjuna was so sense controlled.
He was thinking, is this right or wrong? He told her why it is wrong. And then she told him how it is not wrong. And still he controlled himself.
He says, see, you may be in heaven, but I am not a resident of heaven. I only come here as a guest and earthly morality applies to me. He says, I cannot unite with you.
So Urvashi became angry at that time. And she said that because you have spurned a woman who has come to you with desire, because you have disobeyed what your father wanted you to do, I curse you. You are acting like an impotent male.
You become an impotent male. So here it may seem that Arjuna’s sense control backfired on him. No, he tried to be sense controlled and that had led to him getting cursed.
Normally, if we are tempted and if we resist the temptation, and then today is Ekadashi, if we decide to fast Nirjala Ekadashi, if we decide to fast Nirjala, and the next day we go and maybe we expect some appreciation from others. Oh, you fasted Nirjala. Oh, you are so sense controlled.
You are so determined. You are so this. So we go and tell, I fasted Nirjala.
You fasted Nirjala? I curse you that you will have to fast Nirjala for the next full week. Hey, what is this? So it is like that for Arjuna. You know, he resisted the temptation and he was punished for that.
So Arjuna was quite disturbed. He went to Indra. But then while going to Indra, he was thinking that actually when Indra sent Urvashi to me, I’m sure Indra, he’s a god and he would have known what I would have done and he would have known this would have happened.
So why did you like that? So as he was going to Indra, Mathali, the charioteer of Indra, he came along and then they went to Indra. And then actually Indra said that whatever has happened, your sense control exceeds that of even the great sages, Arjuna. And it is glorious.
And don’t worry about the curse that has come to you. That curse will be of great use to you at a future needy moment. And that curse was useful to him during the Agyatvas.
Actually, when they had to be in Virat undiscovered and all the Pandavas were famous, but among them Arjuna was the most famous. And for Arjuna to stay unconcealed, to stay concealed, undetected would have been impossible. The only way Arjuna could have stayed undetected was, practically speaking, by especially when people were looking for him.
Earlier also the Pandavas had stayed undetected when they had taken on the garb of Brahmins after the palace in Varanavarth had been burnt and they had fled from there. But at that time the Kauravas were complacent that the Pandavas have died already. They burned in the fire.
But this time Duryodhana had sent thousands of spies in every corner of the world to see where are the Pandavas. And Arjuna would have been very easy to detect. So this was actually the ultimate arrangement of the Lord by which Arjuna could hide his identity.
So in a short term, it may appear that sense control or discrimination creates some problems. But in the long run, it will give us rewards. It will give us rewards in the way in which we cannot even fathom beforehand.
So in the context, the point that I was making over here is that the rules of morality are different for different people in the different realms of the existence. And even for different individuals within different species within the planet also, it is different. Sometimes people ask that Lord Ram killed Vali because he cohabited with Sugriva’s wife.
When Sugriva was living. But then after Vali was killed, Sugriva accepted Vali’s wife as his wife, Tara. So isn’t that the same sin being committed? But Lord Ram did not punish Sugriva.
So how is that? Actually the Mahabharata, Ramayana explains that first of all, the crime is especially when for older brother to cohabit with the younger brother’s wife, when the younger brother is alive, that is terrible adultery. That is terrible adultery. On the other hand, according to the course of the Vanaras, the Vanaras are a different species.
They are not Manavas, although they may have human-like emotions and they may act in ways that seem to be similar to humans, but they are a different species. And for them, the rules are different. So actually at that time, when Vali is departing, Vali tells Angada that, please don’t bear any malice against Sugriva, because it is not he who has killed me, nor is it Ram who has killed me.
It is actually my own misdeed that have killed me. And he says, you serve Sugriva as you have served me. And you assist Sugriva in serving Ram, just as Hanuman and others are assisting.
And then he told Lord Ram that, please let Sugriva not take out his anger against me on Angada and Tara, because Tara tried to stop me. But it was my own wrongdoing. So then Lord Ram assured him, don’t worry.
He said that Angada will become the prince regent after Sugriva and he will be given all royal dignity and Tara will also be taken care of. So actually, there what was done, was done with Vali’s consent. So Angada was, although he was chivalrous, still he was not mature enough to be a king and Angada needed the care of his mother.
And the woman, according to the codes of the behaviour of the Vanaras, if the husband has passed away, then the wife can stay with her husband’s brother. That is allowed and that was with the consent of Vali. So the point is this morality can often be quite intricate.
And if we try to impose our moral standards on others, then it can create problems. So Urvashi tried to impose her moral standards on Arjuna. And she found him wanting and she tried to criticise him.
And she tried to curse him. Similarly, people may try to judge the Ramlila accordingly. But the point here is that the moral standards, they appear like, they are like maps for us.
The scriptures tell us, do this, don’t do this. They are like maps which guide us along. And actually speaking, without these maps, we’ll be lost.
We may understand, OK, this is what I have to do. But how do I do it? I say, OK, I want to become free from anger. I want to become free from greed.
I want to become free from lust. But how do I do that? The scriptures offer us processes. The scriptures offer the specific processes by which we can become purified.
So sometimes people think that self-transformation is just a matter of willpower. It’s just a matter of willpower. That if I want to give up smoking, I can give up smoking whenever I want.
And then after a few days, you start smoking again. Why did you start smoking again? He said, no, I changed my mind. Actually, he didn’t change his mind.
His mind changed him. The mind changed him. So what happens is, people think that by my own willpower, I can change myself.
Now, in a few cases it might happen. But in general, willpower alone is not enough. Why? Because the anarthas are like diseases of the mind.
They are like germs that infect the mind. And if I have a disease, a disease cannot be cured just by willpower. Suppose somebody has loose motions and he says, by my willpower.
No, willpower. He’ll just torture himself and he’ll fail in the end. Isn’t it? So we cannot cure a disease by mere willpower.
That’s what Lord Krishna says when responding to Arjuna’s question about how to control the mind. He says in 6.36, So Arjuna has asked the question, controlling the mind is impossible. It is like controlling the wind.
It’s not possible. So Lord Krishna agrees and he says, It is my mati, it is my also understanding, it is almost impossible to control the mind if one does not endeavour by the right process. But he says, If I endeavour by the right process, by the right process, it is surely possible.
So many times people feel that trying to follow moral standards, trying to follow the four regulatory principles, trying to become advanced devotees, this is all impractical, it is all impossible. But people feel like that because they don’t know the process to do that. So when we start cultivating remembrance of Krishna, Actually Prabhupada explains in the third canto, Parpot, that the remembrance of Krishna acts as an antiseptic to remove our material desires.
It is antiseptic. Antiseptic means whenever there is an infection, if I take antiseptic, the infection doesn’t spread. So similarly, when we remember Krishna, the remembrance of Krishna acts like antiseptic that removes the germs of material desires.
So therefore, even when we are chanting Hare Krishna, the important thing is not just to chant, but to remember Krishna, to concentrate on the sound of the holy name, then the purification happens. Otherwise, if it’s just a ritualistic repetition of the holy name, there will surely be some purification by that also. But it will be very gradual.
And in the meanwhile, we’ll be tormented by our lower desires. So the remembrance of Krishna is the process by which we can become purified. So essentially the scriptures are very vast.
But for us, the map is important. For example, if I am here in Mumbai and if I have to go to Mayapur, now if I just get the map of the world, now you find out on the map of the world, where is Mumbai, where is Mayapur, what is the way, then you go along. It will be quite complex.
But if on the map, the path is charted out for me, the path is charted out. Okay, this is how you should go. Then what happens? Then it becomes easier for me to go.
Similarly, the scriptures are very vast. अनेक शास्त्रम् बहुवेदि तव्यम् अनेक शास्त्रम् There are so many scriptures. बहुवेदि तव्यम् And every word in the scripture can have so many meanings.
I had gone once to one Madhava Vaishnava scholar’s place. So he showed me this big volume of Bhagavad Gita. And he says, it was bigger than our Bhagavatams.
And then I looked at it. It was just chapters one and two of the Bhagavad Gita. And so it was Madhavacharya’s commentary, then Vyasatirtha’s commentary on Madhavacharya’s commentary, then Jayatirtha’s commentary on Vyasatirtha’s commentary.
And like that, each verse had seven commentaries. And all of it was in Sanskrit. So like that, there were nine volumes this big of Bhagavad Gita itself.
So अनेक शास्त्रम् बहुवेदि तव्यम् अल्पश्च कालः बहुवश्च विग्णः So there are so many scriptures and they have so many meanings. And अल्पश्च कालः, the time that we have in Kali Yuga lifespan is so small. बहुवश्च विग्णः We have so many obstacles.
When we start studying, when we sit down for studying, our mind is like a bird sitting on the edge of distraction. Isn’t it? A bird is sitting, just one clap, it will fly away. So like that we sit down, the smallest distraction, internal or external, where the mind flies away, only after the mind is flying away and we are having an aerial view of God knows what, then we understand, oh, I was supposed to study scripture, what happened? So, बहुवश्च विग्णः तद्सारभूतम् उआसितव्यम् Therefore it is said, तद्सारभूतम् Therefore take up the essence.
उआसितव्यम् Worship that essence. So what Srila Prabhupada has given us, is the essence of the scriptures. The scriptures are so vast, that it is very very difficult for us to actually start understanding them.
But Srila Prabhupada, तद्सारभूतम् उआसितव्यम् He has made things very very easy for us. And now when we start studying Srila Prabhupada’s books, sometimes we may find that, Srila Prabhupada’s books are saying things very repetitiously. Again and again, give up sense gratification, and you are a servant of Krishna, you are not the enjoyer, you are not the body, you are the soul.
I feel this is so much repetition again and again and again. And sometimes our mind may start saying, I want something new, something new. So, of course, looking for new information is not wrong.
But that new information should not be as a substitute to our main philosophy that Prabhupada has given us. It can be a supplement, not a substitute. It can be an addition for us to get deeper understanding.
But if we start looking for new information, just for the sake of intellectual titillation, then we miss out on the purpose of scripture. So this brings us to the last point, that scripture acts like a muscle for us. Scripture acts as a muscle.
How does it act like a muscle? Ultimately, scripture is the conveyor of Krishna’s desire to us. Ultimately, scripture may contain a lot of information, but scripture is a conveyor of Krishna’s desire. Krishna wants us to love and serve him, to return back to him.
And scripture conveys Krishna’s desire to us. So when we read the verse of the scriptures, actually speaking, it’s not just intellectual information that is there. You know, this is a whole elaborate subject, that actually in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, third canto, when Kapil Dev is talking about sound, he says sound exists at various levels.
There is Vaikhari and so many other levels are there. So material sound exists only at material levels. But spiritual sound exists at higher levels also.
So what happens is, when we hear the sound of scripture, that sound of scripture is conveying the desire of Krishna. And when we are reading Shila Prabhupada’s purports, it is conveying the desire of Shila Prabhupada. So actually every time we read, Shila Prabhupada says, give up sense gratification.
That is conveying Prabhupada’s desire to us to give up sense gratification. And by that, reading that instruction, our desire to give up sense gratification will become stronger. So what will happen is, we will receive Prabhupada’s and Krishna’s desires by coming in contact with scripture submissively.
And that is how our muscles will be built. Of course, the most powerful way we build the muscles is by chanting Hare Krishna. By chanting Hare Krishna, we are directly coming in contact with Krishna himself.
And when we come in contact with Krishna, we are also praying to Krishna, please engage me in your service. So that is the mood in which we chant. So that actually stimulates the desire to serve within us.
It strengthens whatever little desire we have and it creates desire where we don’t have. So that’s how when we study scripture, it enables us to develop the desire to serve Krishna. Now in the case of Nallakuvair Manigreev, Naraguni saw that they were not in a process where they could get philosophical education.
They could not develop discrimination through the process of getting a mirror, a model, a map and a muscle. So Naraguni decided to use a special treatment for them. What is that treatment? He just deprived them of the position that was causing them prestige and intoxication and then put them in a position where they would become helpless materially and receptive spiritually.
They became helpless materially because as trees, how much can trees actually enjoy? We say all living beings do eating, sleeping, mating, defending, but actually what are the trees actually? They are just sending their roots down, down and searching for some water. That’s all is their eating. And what is their mating? Actually just some spores fly in the air and they go from the Andrushyam and they fall in the Gyanushyam.
Where is the pleasure in that actually? The pleasure is Prabhupada explains in the Parpot of 3.38 Avartam Gyaname Tena Gyanate No, the next verse before that. Dhumena Avriyate Vahaneer He explains that when the soul exhibits lust excessively, then the soul is put in a body where he cannot exhibit lust or he can exhibit lust very little. So those are either tree bodies or there are some species which reproduce asexually.
So actually sex is the primary pleasure in material existence. But if one indulges in it too much, then material nature takes away that pleasure. And that’s how the asexually reproducing species, they exist without even material pleasure.
So he says what Narada Muni did was make them helpless materially. And then they became helpless materially as trees, but they became trees in the courtyard of Nanda Maharaj. And in the courtyard of Nanda Maharaj, Vraja is eternally a holy place.
And just their existence in Vraja was purifying them. But later on when Krishna manifested his pastimes, and they actually had darshan of Krishna, they had darshan of all the Vrajavasis. As all the Vrajavasis were playing around, the dust from the Vrajavasis’ feet went on their bodies.
They became purified by that. And as they became purified more and more and more, eventually when Krishna delivered them, then we will see that they will offer such extraordinary prayers. Vani gunanu kathane shravanau kathayam.
They say, oh dear lord, what is my desire? My desire is let my tongue be used to glorify you. Let my ears be used to hear your glories. Hastau cha karma sutatpa dayorna.
Let my hands be used to serve you. Let my mind be used to contemplate on you. And then lastly they say, Drishti satam darshanestu bhavatanunam.
What do I want to do with my eyes? With my eyes, I want to see your devotees. Satam darshanestu bhavatanunam. It says, the form of your devotees is non-different from you.
It’s not mayavad that devotees and Krishna are the same, but actually it is the devotees who give us Krishna. So they are remembering that they were intoxicated in the material life, but the sight of Narada changed their destiny. Therefore they are saying, Drishti satam darshanestu bhavatanunam.
Let me forever see your devotees. So by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, we have this opportunity to develop discrimination by practising Krishna consciousness and also eventually return back to the spiritual world where we can become a participant in Krishna’s pastimes. And that is our ultimate spiritual success.
So I’ll summarise what I discussed. I started by talking about how the difference between human beings and animals is not just religious ritualistic activity. It is the capacity to do those activities which will return us to our original nature.
Our original nature is to love and serve Krishna. We alone among all species have the capacity to do the activities by which we can return back to Krishna. And this capacity to do those activities comprises our discrimination.
And that discrimination is the essential difference between humans and animals. So this discrimination is given to us by Guru Sadhu Shastra in four ways. First is as a mirror.
The mirror tells us where we are. We become aware of our own thoughts. We become aware that my mind is different from me.
Then the scripture offers us models. Okay, how should I actually be? And then it offers us a map. How do I go from where I am to where I should be? And then it offers us muscles.
How I can actually climb up there? And in this way, by following what Guru Sadhu Shastra has given us, although spiritual advancement may seem very difficult for us right now, especially attaining lofty states, that will all become possible and joyful for us as we keep practising Krishna Consciousness. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Yes, Prabhu.
Thank you, Prabhu. An ecstatic class. Very, very inspiring to know that scriptures provide this mirror No, no, mirror, model, map and muscle.
Very, very clear. Very, very nice. Prabhu, I had one question for some time.
I think you must have addressed it also in the class. But if you can just explain this. You know, you were talking about discrimination.
Now there is something also, like there is something called as deception also. So inherently we have deception mentality. One of the four defects of the conditioned living entity is cheating.
So because of this inherent cheating and deception mentality, so when I am reading scriptures, so when I read devotee, you know, in the scriptures, so I think it applies to me. When I read about demon, I think it applies to this devotee, that person. Or when I read about Vaishno qualities, I think it’s about me.
And when I read about, you know, anarthas or when I read about false ego, I think, oh, it applies to everybody else. So this deception mentality is there because we are rebelling against Krishna. We have come to this material world.
And then I thought maybe, okay, this is there, so we should take shelter of a spiritual master. We should study scriptures not independently. We should be under some devotee and study.
Now devotee will reveal to us, expose us. But the problem there is again the mentalities. See, if the devotee is exposing us, our anarthas, then we may think, maybe I have chosen a wrong devotee as my authority.
Maybe I have chosen a wrong spiritual master. So basically this deep-rooted envy against Krishna, which is manifested like this, through this deception mentality. So because of this, I may learn many verses, give a lot of classes, so many things, but still we are so far away from Krishna.
So I wanted to know, how do we address this problem? You know, how do we address this situation of inherently being envious of Krishna? Generally speaking, we look at everything through our mind. That means we have certain preconceptions, conditionings, and we look at everyone through our mind. But we need at least one devotee in our life to whom we look not through our mind, but separate from our mind.
That means we have such implicit trust in that devotee. Generally, it may be a spiritual master, it may be Srila Prabhupada, it may be the previous Acharyas. If we are fortunate enough, if we have a counsellor whom we can have that much implicit trust, that’s very fortunate.
But even if we don’t have it, at least we should have some devotee. Generally, we evaluate everyone through our mind. But we need one devotee through whom we evaluate the mind.
If anybody says something, Prabhu, you are proud, then we evaluate through our mind. Probably, you know, I am getting so much glorification, he is not getting so much glorification as me. That’s why he is envious of me, that’s why he is thinking I am proud.
So what happens is, we evaluate through our mind everyone. And that’s why it is difficult for us to benefit even when we are living with devotees. It’s difficult.
And, you know, sometimes we may say neglect the mind, reject the mind, but ultimately we have to live with the mind. We have to live with the mind. We can’t exile the mind or execute the mind.
We have to live with the mind lifelong. Hopefully only lifelong. We won’t have to take another birth to live with the mind once again.
But we have to live with the mind. So then we need some source of wisdom. If it’s a living devotee, that is the best.
But even if it is not, generally it will be the spiritual master for us. If not, then it is the book Shastra that is there. So if we can, we may even use our rational outlook to study some part of scripture.
For example, say how the Bhuv Mandala and all the other planets are there. It may be difficult for us at this stage to have implicit faith in that. That’s why when you talk about the map, it is the imperative section of the scriptures.
So if those we can study submissively, ultimately Krishna wants us to come back to him. And even whether it is a devotee guiding us, it is Krishna guiding us through that devotee. And that same Krishna can guide us through scripture.
That same Krishna can guide us as a super soul in our own heart. So in one sense, we have that voice of deception, which is making us imagine that we are greater than what we are. But on the other hand, we also have the voice of the super soul.
So in general, if we if we have to make major decisions in our life, if we do them in the heat of the moment, often at that is the time when Rajoguna is prevailing. And that time it’s quite likely that we may be deceived by our false ego. But if we do serious sadhana, chant the holy name, chanting the holy name like silencing and silencing and subordinating the mind, basically, we study scripture submissively.
Then after that, to some extent, we come to the platform of Sattva Guna. Sattva Sanjayate Gyanam, Lord Krishna says. So that time we can see things more clearly.
So that way, if we don’t have a devotee who can guide us in this way, either we don’t have anyone or we don’t have anyone available to us when we need at particular times, then actually calming ourselves down through sustained purification, either by hearing, by chanting and bringing ourselves to goodness, then that helps us to see things properly. So in general, serious Krishna conscious practises help us to catch the mind. And loose Krishna conscious practises help the mind to catch us.
So it works in two ways. So if we are seriously remembering Krishna, the mind becomes subordinated, it becomes silenced. And when the mind starts doing something wrong, we can catch it.
This is the mind speaking. Of course, all this is very easy to speak. And actually when we are in the battle, the mind can deceive all of us.
And I often get deceived by my mind also. But in general, if we keep some time for introspection, when we are in proper mode of goodness based on purification, then we can actually catch the mind. And by catching the mind, we can understand, okay, this is what I did right.
This is what I did wrong. This is where I need to improve. And especially for those devotees who have an introspective nature, it’s very important for them to have this kind of time.
Some devotees are more gregarious. They’re more extrovert. And for them, they may not feel the need for this.
And if they’re doing their services nicely, that’s wonderful. But some devotees may feel the need for that. They are by nature introspective.
And this can help us actually to catch our mind and then to correct it. Any other comments? Questions? Thank you very much.