Understanding the unborn’s understandings 4 – What the embryo’s desire to stay in the womb implies

[Bhagavatam class on 3.31.20 at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
What is the relationship between comfort and spirituality? I started by, this child, although is in extreme discomfort in the mother’s womb, is saying, out there, there is maya.
So, I want to stay here. Because, I have your remembrance. And, we discussed about how these four quadrants, that was center of the class, that what is the relationship between discomfort and spirituality? Is discomfort the producer of spirituality? Is discomfort desired for those who want to be co-spiritual? So, if there are cases of no comfort, no spirituality, first quadrant, then that is a state of extreme misery.
And, you just have to get out of that. And, the recent last 400-500 years, we could say, we have progressed materially, where we moved from no comfort, no spirituality, to comfort and no spirituality. And, although we have lot of comforts, still we are unhappy.
Because, the hearts are empty, the souls are devoid of anything higher. And, people are comfortably unhappy. Now, the ideal situation is where we have both comfort and spirituality.
That is what is sustainably required for the practice of bhakti. And, Varanashram was about providing material comfort. I talked about, is comfort bad? Is comfort is what a basic, you could also think a basic body is needed in every situation.
We try to be as comfortable as possible. Whether we are sitting, we are walking, exercising. But, the idea is comfort is valued in neutral.
What are we using the comfort for? Are we using the comfort to become lazy? Or, are we using the comfort to become more focused? the when somebody is in the quadrant of comfort and spirituality, that means that they don’t have to worry about material things constantly. And, that’s how they can focus on their spiritual growth. And, after 4, 8 and 9, Krishna established this material dharma.
Dharma doesn’t necessarily mean morality. It just means predictable order in society. The needs are taken care of.
By which, one can focus on spiritual dharma. That is Janma, Karma, Chima, Nitya. And, Parashar was heroic because he stopped, for many reasons, but one was, he stopped the disruption of material dharma by Kali.
Also. But, life will sooner or later take away comfort from us. And, then we are in the 4th quadrant.
So, when bad things happen to good people, rather than philosophically trying to analyze that, the Bhagavatam models right response. What do good people do when bad things happen? So, good people see that discomfort as an opportunity to deepen their spirituality. Now, we discussed elaborately that discomfort itself doesn’t lead to spirituality.
And, our purpose is not that we make people uncomfortable so that they become spiritual. No. And, because that discomfort, when it is in this quadrant, they might just go to this quadrant.
No comfort and no spirituality, instead of comfort and spirituality. So, we don’t humiliate others in the hope that they will become humble. We respect others, but we try to be humble ourselves.
And, but, so we try to find the place where we have reasonable material comfort in terms of stability and then we focus on spirituality. But, when life puts us in this 4th quadrant of no comfort and spirituality, we can take inspiration from characters like these in the Bhagavatam and deepen our spirituality. And, even if we are in the situation of comfort and spirituality, still, can see how great must be the absorption in Krishna because of the joy of absorption in Krishna that even that which is so, we consider so vital, that is being stripped away and still, these characters are there.
So, that absorption in Krishna is so great, let me seek it also. So, God is not the provider of good. God is the provider of something better than good.
And, the Bhagavatam addresses the problem of evil. Why is there bad in a good world, in a world governed by God, by saying that God offers us not the good, but something beyond the polarities of good and bad. That is He.
And, so, love for Him. So, thank you very much. Hare Krishna.