Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.43

Prabhupāda:

...mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha- māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān [SB 7.9.43]

[O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.]

Here is a verse spoken by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja you know, a great devotee of Kṛṣṅa. From the very beginning of his life he was a great devotee. From the womb of his mother, he was a great devotee. It is possible. When his mother was pregnant, the demigods... There was fighting between the demigods and the demons. And while his mother was pregnant, she was being dragged, taken by Indra under custody, and on the way Indra was met by Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni objected, "What is this, that you are dragging a pregnant woman? What is this?"

Indra explained that "Because she is the wife of Hiraṅyakaśipu, a demon with whom we have just finished our fighting; she [he] has gone away. So we are taking this lady under our custody so that as soon as she gives birth to a child, we will immediately kill so that the demonic descendants will be no more." Nārada replied that "This child is not a demon. He is a great devotee, mahā-bhāgavata. So do not do this. Better give this lady under my custody. I shall take care of her, and you can go."

So Nārada Muni is the spiritual master of all demigods, so he immediately accepted the words of the great sage Nārada. Not only accepted, but they offered their respect by bowing down to the child who was in the womb of his mother. A Vaiṣṅava, it doesn't matter whether he is a child or in the womb of his mother, he's respectful. Just like Kṛṣṅa, when He was in the womb of His mother, Devakī, the demigods also offered their prayers and obeisances, you know, garbha-stuti; that is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

So the Vaiṣṅava and the Lord are equally respected, even by the demigods. A Vaiṣṅava is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Advaya-jñāna. In the material world, there is difference between the master and the servant. But in the spiritual world, the servant is as much respectful as the master. That is spiritual world. Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ [Cc Madhya 13.80].

[I am not a brāhmaṅa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.’]

Vaiṣṅava means that to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said like that. We don't want, as the Māyāvādī philosophy, they want to become God, advance. No. Nobody can become God. That is not possible. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-nitya kṛṣṅa-dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]: the real identity of living entity is eternal servant of the Lord, kṛṣṅa-dāsa.

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly explained, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta [Bg 15.7]. In the Bhagavad-gītā, or any Vedic literature, there is no such mention that the jīva is as good as the Supreme Lord. It is never stated. Aṁśa, minute particles. Just like the sun and the sunshine. Sunshine is combination of minute luminous molecular parts. There are finer atomic parts, lumination, combined together, that is called sunshine. That minute particle, shining minute particle, is never equal to the sun. Similarly, jīva is minute particle of the supreme sun, Kṛṣṅa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta [Bg 15.7]. So as the small molecular particle, shining particle in the sunshine, cannot become the sun, similarly, the molecular particle of the Supreme Soul, the jīvātmā, is never equal to the Supreme Lord.

The another name of the Supreme Lord is asama-urdhva. Asama. Asama means never equal. What to speak of ordinary living entities, in the śāstra it is stated that even Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva cannot be equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the injunction.

yas tu nārāyaṅaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ samatvenaiva vīkṣeta sa pāṣaṅḍī bhaved dhruvam [Cc Madhya 18.116]

If anyone thinks that Nārāyaṅa, Kṛṣṅa or Viṣṅu... They're all viṣṅu-tattva, bhagavat-tattva; Rāma. If somebody thinks that Nārāyaṅa is as good as Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā, sa pāṣaṅḍi bhaved dhruvam: he becomes a pāṣaṅḍī.

So this human form of life is meant for realizing our relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is the mission of this human form of life. So our duty in this human form of life is to realize our original relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prahlāda Mahārāja says... There is a stotra offered by Prahlāda Mahārāja. When Prahlāda Mahārāja's father, Hiraṅyakaśipu, was killed by Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, He was very angry. Because this Hiraṅyakaśipu, although father of Prahlāda Mahārāja, he persecuted him in so many ways. The only fault was that he was a devotee. That is the nature of the demoniac world. Even one's son becomes a devotee and if the father is demon, then he'll be angry. That was actually happening.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja, Vaiṣṅava, he is speaking to the Lord, naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṅyāḥ [SB 7.9.43]: "My dear Lord," para. Para means He is transcendental, not of this material world. Udvije: "I am not anxious." Because everyone is anxious. In this material world, everyone is always anxious, either in peace or war, it doesn't matter. In peace, so-called peace... There is no peace. Actually, it is a place for struggle for existence with māyā. So there cannot be any peace.

So everyone is full of anxiety. That is also explained by Prahlāda Mahārāja, that sadā samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahāt [SB 7.5.5].

[Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṅa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.]

When his father... After all, father and son, the relationship is very affectionate. So even though father was not happy that his son was growing to be a great devotee, still, one day he called his son, "My dear son, what best thing you have learned from your teachers?" So Prahlāda Mahārāja is answering. He knew that his father was a demon, so he is addressing directly: tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehinām. Asura-varya. "My dear father, you are the best of the asuras." [laughter] Asura-varya. Varya means the best. "My dear father," tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehinām, "I think," dehinām, "for the living entities who have accepted this material body..."

There are living entities who do not accept this material body. They are in the spiritual world. Their number is greater than the number of the living entities within this material world. They are called nitya-siddha, eternally perfect. And here in this material world, the living entities are called nitya-baddha. Nitya-baddha means eternally conditioned. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says, tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehinām. Dehinām means in this material world. We are not this deha, this body. We are dehī: only accepting. Just like I am not this shirt; I am different from this shirt. This is called self-realization. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am spirit soul. That is jñāna. So long I am identifying with this body, then my..., I am in ignorance, I am a go-kharaḥ. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke, sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

But unfortunately, these people are going under the identification of this body: "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am white," "I am black," "I am learned," " I am fool," " I am rich," "I am poor." All these designations are our ignorance. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says dehinām. Anyone who has accepted this body, tat sādhu manye 'sura-vārya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyam. Because the living entity, although spirit soul, he has accepted this material body, asat. Asat means which will not exist. This body will not exist, but we forget that. This is the most wonderful thing in this material world. Everyone is dying every moment, still, one who is living, he thinks that he will live forever. That is the most wonderful thing.

ahany ahani lokāni gacchanti yama-mandiram śeṣaḥ sthitam icchanti kim āścaryam ataḥ param [Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 313.116]

So our position is in ignorance, and therefore we are always full of anxiety. Just like this war between India and Pakistan, [indistinct], the anxiety is not yet over; it is going on. There may be another war. So in this material world you cannot be free of anxiety. That is not possible. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahāt [SB 7.5.5].

[Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṅa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.]

Asad-grahāt means because we have accepted something which is temporary, not permanent—take, for example, this body—therefore, we must be always full of anxieties.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja advised that "The best thing which I have learned is that you should give up this material world." Tyaktva... Gṛham andha-kūpaṁ ātma-pātaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta: "My dear father, I have learned this best thing," that tyaktva... Gṛham andha-kūpam. "This world, material world, which is just like a dark well..., if a man is thrown into this dark well as he is in this precarious condition of life, similarly, anyone who is in the material world, he is put into the dark well.

Therefore, somehow or other, we have to get out of this and," vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta [SB 7.5.5], "we shall accept the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari." The father became very much angry. Mūrkhāya upadeśa hi prakopāya na śāntaye: if you give good instruction to a mūrkha, to a foolish person, he will be angry. He will not rectify himself, but he will be angry on that count[?].

So Prahlāda Mahārāja was [indistinct] the great devotee in the world. There are many descriptions of his characteristic and activities. In Bhāgavata, Prahlāda-caritra is everyone knows. So when his father was killed, he said, naivodvije para deva duratyaya vaitaraṅyāḥ. Duratyayā. Duratyayā means very..., very difficult to cross over this ocean of nescience, material world. It is very difficult. We do not know how we have been put into this ocean of nescience. We are traveling, going through 8,400,000 species of life. Sometimes in different species of life in different types of planets and different types of body we are passing through.

We do not know that. We know. We know even in this life we can understand that I have passed over so many bodies. I had my childhood body, I had my boyhood body, I had my youthhood body, now I have got a different body, which is old man's body. Similarly, I shall give up this body and I will have to accept another body by the laws of nature. Tatha dehāntara-prāptir. As we are changing our body even in this present life, similarly, after giving up this body, I have to accept another body. Tathā dehāntara prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

But the problem is what kind of body I am going to have in my next life. That is to be thought over.

Therefore, there is no guarantee. And this time I may have so very nice body in a very aristocratic family; next life it may be the same aristocratic standard or in the higher planetary system in heavenly body, and it may also be that I can get the body of a cat and dog. Therefore, it is very essential that we should be prepared for the next body. Because after we will give up this body, and our pains and pleasure is according to the body. That is also the statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām: we get a standard of happiness or distress. Take for example only happiness; forget our distress.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. One who has got his body in the Khatau's family or any nice family, so his standard of happiness is already fixed up according to the body. He has got a body in such family or in such species of life, so his standard of life is also fixed up according to his karma-yogena. Jantur dehopapattaye. Karmaṅā daiva-netreṅa jantur deha upapattaye [SB 3.31.1].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.]

Karmaṅā, by our act. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī [SB 1.8.26].

[My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted, because one who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot address You with sincere feeling.]

By pious activities, one can get these four things: birth in high family, rich family, brāhmaṅa family, cultured family, janma; aiśvarya—riches, opulence; śruta—education; and śrī—beauty.

So I say to my American and European disciples always that your nation, American nation, you have got your birth in a very rich nation or rich family. In America every family is rich, because there the poorest man earns monthly not less than four to five thousand of rupees, according to our [indistinct]. The poorest man. And what to speak of the richest man. So janma, aiśvarya, śruta, śrī, these things are achieved out of pious activities. Therefore in the Vedas, the karma-kāṅḍa vicāra, mean, performing great sacrifices, they are mentioned, saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā, performing yajña.

In order to keep ourself happy within this material world, we have to perform yajña. That we are forgetting. There is no yajña performance. Therefore, as we are forgetting to live according to the direction of the Vedas, we are meeting with so many dangerous ways of life. Take, for example, in our country, twenty years ago, there was no fight between Punjab and Bengal. Now, because we are advanced, we have got independence, now the fighting is between Punjab and Bengal. This kind of advancement we are making, and we have to face such calamities more and more if we forget performance of yajña.

yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva kilbiṣaiḥ bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṅāt [Bg 3.13]

[The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.]

Everything is explained there.

So unfortunately, we are forgetting our Vedic culture, and we are very much puffed up as if we are advancing. This is not advancement. We learn many industrial houses, commercial houses, they have contributed enough lumps of money to the war fund, defense fund. What for? To burn the money in gunpowder, that's all. But they are not prepared to burn the money in sacrifice.

So you have to meet all these calamities more and more. This is the fact. You cannot avoid. The law of nature, the law of God is there. You may deny the existence of God, but the God's agency, Durgā-devi, Cāṅḍī, is there. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā [Bs 5.44].

[The external potency Māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.]

Durgā, the goddess Durgā, the material energy, she is working under the direction of Kṛṣṅa.

It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā,

mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ suyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

So Kṛṣṅa also says, daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg 7.14], the same thing.

[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]

As Kṛṣṅa says mama māyā duratyayā, similarly, Prahlāda Mahārāja also says duratyayā: it is very difficult to supplant the laws of nature. If you don't act according to the direction... Veda means knowledge. So in the Vedas, they are giving direction how to live. Even if you want to be materially prosperous, you have to follow these rules and regulations. And if you want to get out of this material world, these are the rules and regulations. Otherwise, we have to meet always... Already there are calamities. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9],

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

the calamities of birth, the calamities of death, the calamities of old age, the calamities of disease, they are already there. And above that, the calamities of war, pestilence, famine, earthquake and so many other things.

So we are passing through, but we are not aware how to avoid it, how to become free from this life of anxiety. That is being described by Prahlāda Mahārāja. He says that "For me, my Lord, I am not at all anxious. I am completely free from all these calamities." Just see. He was a boy of five years old only, but he is confident that he is not subjected to the calamities. Duratyaya-vaitaraṅyāḥ. Why? Tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ [SB 7.9.43], "Because I have learned to fulfill my heart by glorifying Your wonderful activities." Kīrtanam. Kīrtanam means to describe or to sing the glorious activities of the Lord. That is called kīrtanam. Kīrtana does not mean always that we have to chant or sing with musical instrument. I am speaking to you Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this is also kīrtanam.

So we have to accept this principle, kīrtanam, always. This kīrtanam is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Every one of us, never mind, this happiness is already fixed up. When you are born in this family, your standard of happiness is already fixed up. Don't bother. The time which you have got, valuable time, save it for becoming Kṛṣṅa conscious. That is required. Save it. Don't bother always for further happiness, further happiness, further happiness. Happiness already is standard[?]. This is...

tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ tal labhyate duḥkha vad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā [SB 1.5.18]

The standard of happiness and distress. Just like this morning I was walking in the [indistinct]. I saw some poor men, they were taking bath in the pit and washing their cloth. So I told them that he is also living in Bombay and here are other gentlemen, so why they could not become like them? The opportunity is open for every one of us. So why one man is like this and one man is like that? That is destined; that is called destination. Kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. The standard of happiness and standard of distress will be there according to karma. Therefore, our duty is not to be disturbed by this so-called happiness and distress. We should save time and must advance in Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ [SB 7.9.43]. Simply always thinking of the wonderful activities of the Lord.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "For personally I have no anxiety, because I have learned the art how to become happy. I have learned the art, always thinking of Your glorious activities." There are so many glorious activities of Kṛṣṅa, so we can think of. If you take a flower, you can think of glorious activities of Kṛṣṅa: how artistically, how nicely the flower is made. You cannot say it is made by nature. It is made by Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa says, mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ [Bg 9.10].

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

Prakṛti, nature, is producing, that's all right, but under the direction of Kṛṣṅa. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8].

[The Supreme Lord has nothing to do. Nothing is equal to Him or greater than Him. He acts in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His unlimited, variegated potencies. Each potency acts quite naturally in sequences, providing Him full knowledge, power and pastimes.]

Just like your mill is running. A common man cannot see where is Mr. Dharamsey Khatau, but it is going on under your direction, that's a fact. Similarly, everything is going on under the direction of Kṛṣṅa. If we understand this fact, that is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. So while drinking water, we can remember Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi sūryayoḥ [Bg 7.8],

[O son of Kuntī [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.]

"The taste of the water I am." So we are drinking water several times in a day. As soon as we drink water, we can remember immediately, "Oh, Kṛṣṅa, how nice Kṛṣṅa. He has given us this nice water, tasteful water. This is Kṛṣṅa." This is Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

So we have to practice this Kṛṣṅa consciousness, we have to teach others to become Kṛṣṅa conscious, and that requires huge amount of energy. We should be prepared. This is India's gift. The people are taking all over the world. Unfortunately, I am trying single-handed; nobody is cooperating in India. They will throw millions of dollars in the gunpowder, but not for this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. It is very important movement. Every philosopher, every scientist should come forward, try to understand this movement and do the needful. That is my request.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]