When bhakti is transcendental, why do scriptures give importance to bodily designations like birth in India or birth in a royal dynasty?

Transcript

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Although we say that Krishna Conscious is universal And beyond everything bodily Or material designation differences But we see that bodily Designations are also given importance Those who are born in India They should do welfare activity for everyone Or Maharaj Vena The Rishis try to get A son out of Maharaj Vena’s body Because in that dynasty they want a son So isn’t this bodily designation? Not necessarily The important point to recognize is That Paradharma is most important But that does not mean that Paradharma is entirely unimportant The condition tendency Is often to go into extremes To make something all important Or to make something utterly unimportant So to make birth As all important Somebody is not born in a Brahmin family Somebody is not born in a Hindu family Then that’s useless That is one extreme Such a person can never become a Never become a Devotee and certainly Never become a spiritual master That sort of thing is one extreme The other extreme is to think that it’s not important at all It’s of no importance That is also not true Although Janma Although it is Chatur Vandana Manasastram Guna Karma Vibhagya Saha That Vandana Manasastram Is divided according to Qualities and activities But still The birth has some effect Even from a practical point of view If If a child wants to become a doctor And a child is born in the family Where both the parents are doctors There is so much that the child learns Just by being in that family So that means the birth in a particular family Has some effect So it’s not Inconsequential But the mistake is to make that only As the single criteria For deciding things So now going to the specific examples Bharat Bhoomite Hoyla if we see Now What the word Bharat meant 500 years ago Is a question that is Open for discussion Now at that time Afghanistan was a part of India Pakistan was a part of India Bangladesh was a part of India So Bharat could be much much bigger Than the geographical Bharat that we call about Today And The point of that Verse is That it essentially says That These people have a special responsibility Janmasarthakari Karaparokka So that means that Those who are born in India As I told in the class also that It requires a certain level of piety Just like to be born in the heavenly planets Requires some level of piety So like that even on the earth To be born in places Which are relatively conducive For piety and spirituality That requires some amount of piety Just like somebody is born in Vrindavan That doesn’t itself make a person a pure devotee But certainly Being born in Vrindavan Makes devotion The possibility of devotion Much more probable Much more likely So like that birth in a pious land Like India Is a factor which Contributes a lot in the positive direction So that cannot be said to be Inconsequential So the point of this verse is That those who have been given much They should cherish that And they should use that To whom much is given much is expected So it’s more of a Not of a restriction or a Discrimination But more of a recognition That some facility has been given And that should be utilized And its benefits should be used not only for oneself But for others also Now going back to The principle of dynastic succession In Royalty The idea is that The kings If they are Cultured If they are trained Then it is an important responsibility For the kings to continue Their lineage In fact Not just Vedic culture We see whether it is Europe Or whether it is Russia Russia had their czars Europe had their Their own lineage, they have their princes And they have their dukes And they have their earls And they all had their lineages and that’s how they would continue So the idea was that The continuation Of a dynasty Is not wrong, the principle So if a king is As I said, if a king is living a Cultured life Then the king’s Progeny Is also likely to be expected to be Cultured.
So we see Dakshinath Maharaj, when he decided to make Lord Ram the king He did not just Do that by fear Yes, Ram is going to be the king He called the assembly and he proposed it And he told If any of you, I feel that he is Quite competent and I am elderly now And If you have any concerns, please tell And everybody accepted that So the idea was that There is If the dharma is being followed The king’s son is likely to have good qualities And the king’s son Has good qualities, then he should Become the king. Now in some cases We see that In the Fourth canto only In the dynasty of Maharaj Uthanapada So he described that That in some cases The Older son was not qualified The younger son would become And in some cases when that didn’t happen There would be a whole system of You have a daughter You give the daughter and then The daughter has a child and that child comes back And that becomes a son. The point is That the Kshatriyas, again Birth was not inconsequential So normally the kingship would pass down From dynasty but It would not pass down blindly in dynasty The king would also be Expected to have the Prospective king, the regent Would be expected to have the good qualities And if he did not have the good qualities Then he could be removed from the post That’s what happened in Trayana Prithviru Maharaj definitely had the qualities So the idea is We can’t minimize this We can’t Sort of Make that As the only thing to decide If we see that way.
In the Bhagavad Gita also you will see Deheno Smrnyatha Dehe Krishna says We are not the body That is 2.13. But 2.14 itself Krishna is referring to Arjuna Based on body that he may see What is this? Matras Parshastu Kaunteya. Kaunteya is You told I am not the body. Why are you referring to By the person who gave me my body And out of that one second time Kirtosha Sukkadukada Agamapayana Uttis Tamasitikshasva Bharata So why is he referring like that If the bodily Designations are not important.
The idea is That if you have bodily Designations then Whatever Can be used in an Uncool way for practicing devotional service For inspiring a person to Live a life of Dharma. That should be accepted So yes Normally all of us will have A certain level of designation Certain level of connection with our body And when We have that kind of connection with our Body If that can be used If that You belong to this dynasty That itself doesn’t make you great We don’t say that. But what we say is that If you belong to this dynasty then act in a worthy way And do great activities So you know we don’t have to Sort of pinch The false ego of people We don’t identify with this Nor do we have to massage that false ego But we can Pat the false ego so that it inspires people To move along in the right direction So Prabhupada Would do that.
You know when the devotees Lived there. When the American devotees Came to India and they did this big Pandal Festival in Mumbai. So Prabhupada Said all of you are Americans Unless you do something wonderful what is the use Of you being Americans And after this Pandal Festival was organized By the Americans And the Indians came and Prabhupada told them All of you are Indians.
If you don’t take up this culture What is the use of you being Indians So what is he doing That means So the material Designations don’t have to be rejected But they can be Used to encourage people To practice devotional service The kings we will see often They are referred to by their dynasties They are referred to by their Names of their parents or their ancestors And that is used to Inspire them to act In worthiness So We don’t reject Aparadharma But we use Aparadharma Aparadharma means one’s Connection based on family or country Or things like that But we use Aparadharma To inspire people towards Dharmic activities including Aparadharma Clear? Thank you