When the Bhagavatam simply condemns household life, how can we as householders get encouragement from it to face life’s problems?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, do our duties, we face so many, then when we study Shrimad Bhagavatam, it is full of condemnation of the Grihastha Ashram. And the solution that it offers is that one should not have attachment to worldly things and one should renounce everything. But that is not practical for most people.
We are expected to do our duties as Grihasthas and only in the later stages are we expected to renounce our worldly life. So in the intermediate stage, when we have to face the challenges of daily life in the Grihastha Ashram, the Bhagavatam doesn’t seem to offer us any practical encouragement or guidance, except for saying that ultimately the Grihastha Ashram is a source of problems and misery and one should renounce it. So where do we get encouragement to face the daily struggles of life? Answer, every scripture has a context and a central message.
The context of the Bhagavatam is that Parikshit Maharaj now has renounced the world and is focusing the mind on Krishna so that he can depart from the world in Krishna consciousness. He has only seven days to live and he has to fix his mind completely on Krishna. So the Bhagavatam describes stories from that perspective that the seeker is about to die and therefore one should fix the mind completely on Krishna.
So now with this context in mind we understand the Bhagavatam will have sections where strongly anything that distracts our mind from Krishna will be pointed out and critiqued so that we don’t get attached to it and so that our mind doesn’t get distracted from Krishna. But we have to understand at our stage that it is for us, it is possible that we can also die in seven days or even seven moments. It’s possible but in general when we are in the world we also have to do our worldly duties responsibly.
So the Bhagavatam essential message is not the rejection of Grahasthashram. The essential message of the Bhagavatam is the acceptance of Krishna’s love as life’s central reality. And Krishna’s love is available to us not just by rejecting worldly love and worldly responsibilities but also in the middle of worldly love and worldly responsibilities.
If we try to serve Krishna enthusiastically, we do our sadhana, we do our svadhaya, we do our seva, then by this we understand that Krishna is available to us even now. That Krishna is present in our heart and by offering our devotion to Krishna we can gain inner strength. So the focus when we study the Bhagavatam should not be primarily on renunciation.
The focus should be on connection, devotional connection with Krishna. Now at that point for Parishad Maharaj the devotional connection with Krishna also required renunciation of everything mundane. For most of us it is not that we have to renounce everything material for connecting with Krishna.
Yes we do have to renounce our sinful activities because that’s important. That will endure our devotional connection. But when we have to do our worldly duties, at that time the connection with Krishna will give us strength to go forward in our life and to do our duties responsibly, to do our duties diligently and confidently.
How is that? Because we’ll understand that we are not alone. We’ll understand that even in the rough and tough of life in the world Krishna is there with us. So we see Prahlad Maharaj had faced far far more problems than us.
What was Prahlad Maharaj’s solution? Didn’t he think that oh my father has a demon, let me renounce the home and go to the forest and become a sanyasi. No that was not what Prahlad Maharaj did. Prahlad Maharaj lived in that situation.
And we didn’t focus on the point that the Lord came miraculously to protect him. The focus of the Bhagavatam is on what was Prahlad Maharaj’s consciousness. That he was always fixed in devotion and the Lord may not come in miraculous ways to help us If we try to cultivate a devotional consciousness that will give us strength to face the challenges of life.
So here we understand that there is a material reality in which there is no God element and people are just trying to battle it out to get more and more power and pleasure. And that is quite a scary and dreary reality. It’s scary because anybody can turn against anyone, anybody can betray anyone and nothing is certain and death can come at any time and when we die everything is over.
It’s scary and dreary. Ultimately everything is meaningless because everything is temporary and everything will be destroyed. We are just lump of chemicals.
That godless, soulless view of life is scary and dreary. Then beyond that there is the devotional way of looking at life in the world. So the devotional way of looking at life in the world is that even in the world we don’t have to live materialistically.
We are souls and we have our material duties but by keeping our spiritual consciousness, our devotional consciousness we will not get consumed, we will not get overwhelmed by material ups and downs. But by knowing that we are eternal, we are greater than the big, big problem that come our way because we are connected with the greatest being, Krishna, that will help us to face the problems. So our Krishna connection will bring sense and order and meaning and purpose and strength and power and joy.
Even in our worldly life, not just in our devotional life but even in the way in which we deal with our worldly activities. So that is what we should focus on. Now in some exceptional cases, some devotees just like we have Bhajananandis and Ghostanandis.
Ghostanandis are those who just renounce the world and focus only on doing bhajan. So there are some people who may want to renounce the whole world and focus only on Krishna entirely. Now that cannot be done in an irresponsible, premature way.
If at all it is to be done, it has to be done with guidance. So the Bhagavatam in its specific context is telling, Prahsit Maharaj has chosen to give up the world, having seven days alone remaining and is focusing exclusively on Krishna. So at that context, the Bhagavatam says that he should not think about anything else.
So we have to keep things in perspective. The ultimate reality is that Krishna is our only relative. Krishna is our only eternal relationship.
So that has to be our priority. And we should not neglect this in the name of mundane material sentiments. But at the same time, we should not just think that because Krishna is the only ultimate reality, everything else is to be dismissed.
Within everything else also, there is dharmic and there is adharmic. So the adharmic is something just to be rejected. But a dharmic has to be engaged in and utilized for our own material well-being and for our spiritual advancement also.
So that means that when we are battling the problems of life, we don’t just have a dismissive attitude thinking all this illusion and all this is temporary, all this has to be given up. No, we don’t have that realization right now. We may feel that when the problems come, Oh, this is so miserable, it is so frustrating.
I want to give it all up. But when the pleasures come, we will think, Oh, this is so enjoyable. I want it.
If we truly renounce, if we are truly at the level of Parishad Maharaj, then we will be attracted to not only be not attracted by the pleasures, but we will also not be so troubled by the problems. So renunciation, the desire, the problems of life are making us feel the need to renounce the world. Then we are not understanding things properly.
The purpose for renunciation as the Bhagavatam talks about is not the problems of the world. The purpose for renunciation is to focus on the devotion of the Lord. And the problems may be one impetus, but the primary impetus has to be the exercise of our free will and our own desire to serve Krishna.
And that desire to serve Krishna can be executed, can be acted upon even when we are in the world. And that is what the Bhagavata talks about. The Bhagavata tells Arjuna to stay in the world.
We may say that we have some problems, we need encouragement. Now Arjuna had to fight a war. You can’t think of a much bigger problem than a head-on war with the enemy, where not just one’s own life, but the life of all our loved ones is at stake.
So in such a situation, what did Krishna tell Arjuna? Krishna told Arjuna that I am with you. Krishna told Arjuna that, oh Arjuna, I am with you. Do not worry.
I will be there for you. I will take care of you. Go ahead and engage in fighting the war.
And by my arrangement, you will attain success. So Arjuna’s fighting the war was a great success. Now is our doing worldly duties also devotional service? Yes, definitely.
It may not be pure devotional service because our heart is not pure. But to the extent that we have accepted Krishna as our ultimate goal and to the extent that we want to pursue our life with Krishna, pursue that ultimate goal, to that extent everything that we are doing contributes to that goal. So the focus when we study Bhagavatam should not be that we have to reject the world, but that we have to connect with Krishna.
And Krishna is waiting and willing and working to connect with us. He is there with us right now in our heart. And the focus, the essential message of Bhagavatam is the supreme reality of Krishna’s love.
And that reality is not meant to cause the rejection of the reality of this world, but the subordination of the reality of this world. So what the Bhagavatam should give us an understanding is Krishna and his love for us are far greater and far more real than this world and its problems. So therefore when we understand this from the Bhagavatam, the reality of Krishna’s love, then when we face problems in life, far from being discouraged, we feel encouraged because we know that Krishna is there with me.
And that is how the study of the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavatam, the chanting of the holy names, the association of devotees, that will strengthen us, not weaken us, in facing life’s daily challenges and fighting its daily battles. Thank you very much.