Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.16

[loud sound of firecrackers in background throughout]

Nitāi: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat]

ahaṁ mamābhimānotthaiḥ kāma-lobhādibhir malaiḥ vītaṁ yadā manaḥ śuddham aduḥkham asukhaṁ samam [SB 3.25.16]

[break] [01:11]

"When one is completely cleansed of the impurities of lust and greed produced from false identification of the body as 'I' and bodily possessions as 'mine,' one's mind becomes purified. In that pure state he transcends the stage of so-called material happiness and distress."

Prabhupāda:

ahaṁ mamābhimānotthaiḥ kāma-lobhādibhir malaiḥ vītaṁ yadā manaḥ śuddham aduḥkham asukhaṁ samam [SB 3.25.16]

In the previous verse it has been advised, guṅeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya rataṁ vā puṁsi muktaye [SB 3.25.15]. The process is that... [firecracker noise] The process is, the mind has to be cleansed of all dirty things. Mind is the friend; mind is the enemy of everyone. If it is cleansed, then it is friends, and if it is dirty... Just like if you keep yourself unclean, then you contaminate some disease, and if you keep yourself clean, then you don't contaminate. If you take action, remaining... Therefore according to Vedic civilization, one has to cleanse himself three times a day, tri-sandhyā: morning, early in the morning, again at noon, again in the evening. Those who are strictly following the brahminical rules and regulation... Vaiṣṅava also. Vaiṣṅava means he's already brāhmaṅa. So he must follow the rules and... Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjava jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam... [Bg 18.42].

[Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness—these are the qualities by which the brāhmaṅas work.]

So cleanliness is next to godliness. So the... Actually, our material conditioned life means the mind is covered with dirt, all unclean, dirty things. That is the disease. When we are in the lower stage of tamo-guṅa and rajo-guṅa, these dirty things are very much prominent. Therefore one has to raise himself from the position of tamo-guṅa and rajo-guṅa to sattva-guṅa. The process is recommended, how to cleanse the mind: śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ [SB 1.2.17].

[Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.]

One has to hear the kṛṣṅa-kathā. Kṛṣṅa is within everyone's heart, and when He sees that a conditioned soul... Because the individual soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa wants that "This individual soul, rascal, he is so much attached for material enjoyment, which is the cause of his bondage, birth and death, old age and disease, and he's so fool that he does not take into consideration that 'Why I should be subjected to repetition of birth, death, old age and disease?' " He has become so fool. Mūḍha. Therefore they have been described: mūḍha, ass. Ass... Just like ass does not know why he is loading so much, so many cloths of the washerman. What for? He has no profit. None of the cloth belong to him. The washerman gives a little morsel of grass, which is available everywhere. If the... But the ass thinks that "This morsel of grass is given by the washerman. Therefore I must carry the heavy load, although not a single cloth belongs to me."

This is called karmīs. The karmīs, all these big, big karmīs, big, big multimillionaires, they are just like ass, because they are working so hard. Not only these big—small also. Day and night. But eating two cāpāṭis or three cāpāṭis or utmost, four cāpāṭis. But he's working hard, so hard. These three, four cāpāṭis can be had easily even by the poorest man, but why he's working so hard? Because he's thinking, "I am responsible for maintaining such a big family." Similarly, a leader also, public leader, a politician, he's also thinking like that, that "Without me, all the members of my nation will die. So let me work day and night. Up to the point of my death or up to the point until I am killed by somebody, I have to work so hard." These are called dirty things. Ahaṁ mameti [SB 5.5.8]. Ahaṁ mameti. Ahaṁ mamābhimānotthaiḥ. These dirty things that... Take individual, social, political, communal or national—any way—these two things, ahaṁ mameti, is very prominent: "I belong to this family," "I belong to this nation," "I belong to such-and-such community. I have got such and such duty." But he does not know these are all false designation. That is called ignorance. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore begins His instruction that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṅa-dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. The actual position is that eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa. That is the actual position. But he's thinking, "I am servant of this family," "I am servant of this nation," "I am servant of this community," "Servant..." So many. Ahaṁ mameti. This is due to ignorance, the mode of tamo-guṅa. Tamo-guṅa.

Therefore in the previous verse it is said, guṅeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya [SB 3.25.15]. So long you'll be attached with these guṅeṣu... Even you be attached to the sattva-guṅa, that is also bandhāya. Suppose... Sattva-guṅa means execute... The symbolic presentation is perfect brāhmaṅa. So even if we are very perfect brāhmaṅa, so I think that "I am so..., such a learned person. I understand the Vedic principles. So I..." The same, ahaṁ mameti. The same principle, ahaṁ mameti. But if you are raised in the sattva-guṅa, then there is chance of understanding your position. In the tamo-guṅa and rajo-guṅa you cannot. Tamo-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, you remain like animal, like cats and dogs. But when you come to the platform of sattva-guṅa... That you can come by following the principles, and then the attachment... Guṅeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya. Then your conditioned life on account of being attached to the material qualities will be finished. How? Simple thing. Everyone can attain to the platform of sattva-guṅa if he follows the instruction.

In the Bhagavad-gītā the same thing is said in different Vedic languages and Vedic scriptures:

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nitya-yuktā upāsate [Bg 9.14]

[Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.]

This is the process. And in another place it is said,

śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ-stho abhadrāṅi vidhunoti suhṛt satām [SB 1.2.17]

The process is that you try to hear about kṛṣṅa-kathā. Kṛṣṅa-kathā. Kṛṣṅa-kathā is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṅa is speaking. That is kṛṣṅa-kathā. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: about Kṛṣṅa. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, janmādy asya yataḥ... [SB 1.1.1]. Speaking about Kṛṣṅa, the original person.

So we have to hear the kṛṣṅa-kathā. This temple, or this center, is open to give chance to the people in general, "Come and hear kṛṣṅa-kathā." The sat-saṅga. This is called sat-saṅga. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṅa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ [SB 3.25.25].

[In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.]

If you hear, gradually... Because we do not hear kṛṣṅa-kathā on account of dirty things in the heart. So we have to cleanse the dirt. That process is ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanam, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṅa-saṅkīrtanam. If we chant and dance, then the dirty things become cleansed. Ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanam [Cc Antya 20.12].

[Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṅa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṅa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.]

This is the process of cleansing the mirror of the heart. Mirror, when it isCetaḥ khalu asya bandhāya muktaye cātmano matam. Cetaḥ, this heart, is the cause of our bondage, and the heart is the cause of our liberation. When it is dirty, then it is cause of bondage, conditional life. Conditional life means that 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.]

I take one birth, one body, and I stay for sometimes, enjoy or suffer. There is no question of enjoyment, only suffering. And then again I die. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [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.]

And I get another body and again begin another life. May be very good life, or may be cats' and dogs' life, a tree's life. That we do not know. But dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But there is change of body. As soon as I die, give up this body—another body. Immediately. Immediately I'll have to enter the womb of certain mother through the grace of the father, and I'll have to develop another body, and when it is fit for working I come out, and again another chapter of my life begins. This is conditioned life.

So the human life is meant for understanding that how we are undergoing this tribulation of birth and death, old age and disease. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand. That is not possible. Therefore for human life so many Vedic literatures are there, not for the cats and dogs. If you don't take advantage of this Vedic literature... There is no need of education. It is not needed that one has to become very learned scholar. No. Sat-saṅga. Hear. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. You remain in your position, but go to a person who is speaking kṛṣṅa-kathā. Hear him. That's all. Everyone can do that. Where is the difficulty?

So our this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is there. We give chance to the people to hear about Kṛṣṅa. That is our meth... Therefore we have specifically mentioned: Kṛṣṅa consciousness. We don't talk any other nonsense things. We don't talk. We have no other business. Simply we talk of Kṛṣṅa. That will purify. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ [SB 1.2.17]. If you... Even if you do not understand a single word, if you simply hear, then you become pious. It is so nice. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ. Śravaṅa means when there is talks of Kṛṣṅa, somebody is hearing and somebody is talking. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanam. Just like here in this meeting, I am talking, you are hearing. Both of us are being benefited. Śravaṅa kīrtana. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ. Kṛṣṅa wants this, that "These rascals may begin to hear and chant about Me." That's all. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām [Bg 9.14].

[Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.]

Mām, Kṛṣṅa. Not others. You don't talk politics, or don't talk sociology or this or that, nonsense. This is all dirty things. Don't waste your time. There is no use of reading so many rascal novels. They are called tad vāyasaṁ tīrtha. Tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavaḥ, na tad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśaḥ [SB 1.5.10]. Any literature which does not glorify the Supreme Lord Hari, that is vāyasa-tīrtha. Vāyasa-tīrtha means the place where the crows enjoy. Vāyasa-tīrtha.

So this is, this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, is giving chance people to become pious. Puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ. "How? I have no money. How can I become pious? I cannot give in charity. I cannot go to take bath in the Ganges, and..." So many, there are pious activities. Tapasā brahmacaryeṅa tyāgena yamena niyamena [SB 6.1.13].

[To concentrate the mind, one must observe a life of celibacy and not fall down. One must undergo the austerity of voluntarily giving up sense enjoyment. One must then control the mind and senses, give charity, be truthful, clean and nonviolent, follow the regulative principles and regularly chant the holy name of the Lord. Thus a sober and faithful person who knows the religious principles is temporarily purified of all sins performed with his body, words and mind. These sins are like the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree, which may be burned by fire although their roots remain to grow again at the first opportunity.]

There are so many processes to become pious. In the śāstra there are recommendation, "You do this to become pious." So in this Kali-yuga people have lost all stamina how to become pious. They are so sinful. But here is the only means: you simply come here and hear about Kṛṣṅa. You have got ears; Kṛṣṅa has given you ears. And Kṛṣṅa has given you tongue also. You can speak. Just like we are reciting the verses. So the tongue is there, the ear is here, there, and you can hear from realized soul and make your life perfect simply by hearing. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ [SB 1.2.17].

Because one cannot be devotee unless he is purified. A sinful man cannot become a devotee. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ [Bg 7.15].

[Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.]

One class of men, duṣkṛtinaḥ, always committing sinful life. Such rascals, such foolish men... Duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Narādhama means lowest of the mankind. Why lowest of the mankind? Because the human life is meant for purifying your existence. You are under condition of birth, death, old age, and here is the chance to purify yourself. If you don't do that, then you are mūḍha, duṣkṛtina, narādhama. You don't take chance. Mūḍha, narādhama.

So this class of men, they are not interested. They will suffer this material existence continually, one after another, one of chapter, one of chapter... Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19], one life. And if he gets one life very opulent, that is, then he doesn't care for what is next life. "Let me drink and enjoy. Eat, drink and be merry and en..." This is going on all over the world. But śāstra says, "No, no, no. It is not good. You are doing mistake. You are doing mistake." Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. You have become mad, and you are engaged in doing all forbidden things which you should not do. You are doing that. And why you are doing that? Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma. Karma, vikarma, akarma. Karma means regulated principle work, and vikarma means just the opposite. Unlawful. Unlawful activities. That is called vikarma. And akarma means you can work, but you are not affected by the result. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yajñārthāt karmaṅo yatra yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ [Bg 3.9].

[Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṅu has to be performed, otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage.]

If you act for Kṛṣṅa, for Yajña, then you are not affected, good or bad result. Neutral.

So generally people, they act vikarma. They are in the tamo-guṅa, rajo-guṅa. They don't care for future life, and they are habituated to do anything. They eat anything—just like hog, even stool. They do not care for śāstric injunction. Irresponsible. Just like street boy: he has no education; he doesn't care for anything. Whatever he likes, he does. Then father, mother does not take care. So life in tamo-guṅa or rajo-guṅa is that carelessness. So such person simply act unlawfully. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma. Why? Yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṅoti. Simply for sense gratification. Simply for sense gratification. I have seen one hotel man in Calcutta, he cut the throat of a chicken, and the chicken, half-cut, it was flapping and jumping. The child of the hotel man, he was crying, and the hotel man was laughing. He was taking pleasure, "Oh, how this chicken, half-cut throat, and how he is jumping... Why you are crying? Why you are crying?" And in Western countries I think students are sometimes taken to slaughterhouse to see? Is it a fact? Yes. You see? They take pleasure. Doing something sinful, they take pleasure. For pleasure's sake they do that. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaye. Simply for the matter of sense gratification.

So śāstra says, "No, no, this is not good. This is not good." Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ [SB 5.5.4]. But they have no brain. This body is temporary, but it is full of suffering, although it is temporary. One can say, "This body is temporary, so what do I care for...?" But it is painful. We have to suffer.

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṅoti na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśadaḥ... [SB 5.5.4]

They have no brain that this material body is kleśada, is simply miserable. That they understood. So dull brain. That is tamo-guṅa. Tamo-guṅa means completely darkness. Just like animals. You take one animal, you cut its throat. Another animal is standing and eating grass. He does not know, "The next time, next term is mine." This is animal life.

So people have become—especially in this Kali-yuga—mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ [SB 1.1.10].

[O learned one, in this iron Age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.]

But this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is trying to give these rascal little sense, that "Don't remain animal. Become human being." This is the propaganda. The Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that,

kṛṣṅa bhuliya jīva anādi-bahir-mukha ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha [Cc Madhya 20.117]

[Forgetting Kṛṣṅa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.]

Kṛṣṅa-bhuliya, forgetting his relationship with Kṛṣṅa, one is simply acting foolishly, and the māyā is giving him miseries one after another, one after another, one after another. Another place it is said that,

anādi-bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṅa bhuli' gela ataeva kṛṣṅa veda-purāṅa kailā

We have forgotten Kṛṣṅa. Therefore there are Vedas and Purāṅas and Vedic literature. It is for human being. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

If we study this Vedic literature... Vedic literature means four Vedas, eighteen Purāṅas, and Vedānta and Upaniṣad, Rāmāyaṅa, Mahābhārata, and any literature which is connected with this Vedic literature. That is also Vedic literature. So Veda-Purāṅa, this Vedic literature, should be utilized. They have got time to read so many nonsense literature, rubbish literature, and waste time, but if you invite them that "Come here, we shall discuss Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Vedānta-sūtra, similar literature," nobody will come. But simply by hearing... If we want... Vītaṁ yadā manaḥ śuddham. If we become free from this contamination of tamo-guṅa and rajo-guṅa, that is the highest stage of perfection.

That can be done simply by hearing kṛṣṅa-kathā. No education required. Simply come and hear. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ. Because you will be purified. As you hear and repeat, chant, you become purified.

śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṅi... [SB 1.2.17]

These dirty things, mala... Here it is said, kāma-lobhādibhir malaiḥ. Mala, mala means dirty things. And what are these? Kāma and lobha, lusty desires, lobha, greediness and lusty desires. These are mala. So one has to become free from these two things, kāma and lobha. The whole world is going on kāma and lobha. One is getting money. When he has got one thousand, he wants one lakh. If he gets one lakh, he wants more and more and more. This is called kāma. And why? Lobha. They are making profit. They have got enough money, still, they will hold stock, will not sell, so that people may not get stock and they will be hankering, they will pay any price demanded. These are going on, kāma and lobha. Kāma-lobhādibhiḥ.

So we have to cleanse this heart, the ahaṁ mameti. They are doing all these things. These are not good things. Asādhu ayam. Na sādhu manye. These, this is not good for human being. Why it is not good? Because according to your karma you'll get another next life, another next body, and you'll have to suffer. Again you have to suffer. You are already suffering. You may be very rich man, but does it mean that you'll not be diseased, because you are rich man? No. This is suffering. You may be very rich man, very, I mean to say, influential man, prime minister... Even Jawaharlal Nehru—last time he became paralyzed. So you cannot avoid these things. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

You should not be puffed-up because you have got some bank balance, you are happy. No. Your real unhappiness—these four things: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That any intelligent man should always keep in front, that "These are my distresses." These temporary distresses and to relieve it, that is not very good. You must make ultimate finishing of all distresses. That is bhakti-yoga. That is bhakti-yoga. And that bhakti-yoga begins this, by hearing and chanting.

śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṅi... [SB 1.2.17]

If you continually hear, then gradually all the dirty things, kāma-lobhādaya, these things will be finished, and you will be purified, and then that is the way of your liberation. Muktaye. Guṅeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya rataṁ vā puṁsi muktaye. The process is also given that you hear about Kṛṣṅa. Then you will be purified. Because this life is meant for sattva-śuddhi. Śuddha-sattva. Our existence is not uncontaminated. It is con... The human form of life is meant for to make this existence uncontaminated: no more birth, no more death. They do not know. Where is the university, where is the school, college to teach this science how one can become uncontaminated? There is no such institution except this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.

So vītaṁ yadā manaḥ... So how it is possible? That is also said, that nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18].

[By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.]

Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu. Abhadra, the dirty things... Because you hear, go on, go on hearing, chanting, then the dirty things will be diminished. Kṛṣṅa says that hṛdy antaḥ-sthaḥ. Kṛṣṅa is also within the heart, and the dirty things are also there. So..., but Kṛṣṅa helps you cleansing. So it is not completely cleansed, but even it is fifty percent or sixty percent cleansed, naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu... How? Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Regularly hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and chant Hare Kṛṣṅa. These two processes recommended by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Chant your rounds regularly. Make a fixed-up... We have fixed up only minimum. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was chanting 300,000 times, and we have made sixteen times. And still, etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nā... "I could not perform even sixteen rounds. Such unfortunate I am." You see? Etādṛśī tava kṛpā... We have mini..., minimized, the lowest number, the easiest process. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra. Don't talk nonsense; don't waste your time. Then you become purified. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ [Bg 4.10]. Kṛṣṅa says.

[Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.]

In this way... Here it is, vītaṁ yadā manaḥ. When the mind is cleansed. This can be done, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18]. Nityam. Not Bhāgavata-saptāha. The Bhāgavata-saptāha, that is a business. Real business is nityam. We don't find in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by so many big, big commentators—Śrīdhara Svāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī and Vīrarāghava Ācārya, many, many... They never recommend Bhāgavata-saptāha. I do not know wherefrom it has come. Bhāgavata says, nityaṁ bhāgavata... Why week? Every day. If it is possible, twenty-four hours. Therefore one has to retire from these family, social, political responsibilities, and whole time devote for chanting and Bhāgavata reading. That is required. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. At least, as much as possible. Don't waste time. Cāṅakya Paṅḍita has says that āyuṣaḥ kṣaṅa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṅa-koṭibhiḥ. Āyuḥ, the duration of life... Suppose I shall live for hundred years. Even one moment of this hundred years, if..., it cannot be returned back, even if you are prepared to thousands and millions of dollars. No. One moment passed out of a hundred, that is minus. That's all. You cannot add again. Āyuṣaḥ kṣaṅa eko 'pi. Even, even moment. Sa cen nirarthakaṁ nītaḥ... If you cannot get returned back even a moment of your life by payment of millions of dollars, if that moment is wasted, just how much you have lost money, you consider. How much you have lost. Therefore not a single moment should be lost, human life. It should be utilized. Simply by chanting, simply by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We are publishing so many books. We have to read. We have to chant. Then life will successful. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodha [Bg 4.10]. Then we shall be free from this attachment, ahaṁ mameti, kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye.

So the process is that nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Daily we should devote our time for understanding Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And bhāgavata-sevayā means to serve the person bhāgavata, whose life is simply Bhāgavata, to serve him. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā.

naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī [SB 1.2.18]

By this process, then you attain the stage of bhagavad-bhakti, naiṣṭhikī, fixed up; not tiltering, fixed up. Bhagavati naiṣṭhikī. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā [Cc Madhya 23.14-15]. This naiṣṭhikī, or niṣṭhā, firm faith, is achieved when anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Anartha. This anartha means ahaṁ mameti, kāma-lobhādibhiḥ. This is anartha. We don't require all these things. Why I shall think, "This is my country, my family, my body..."? Nothing is mine. It is false. But people are wasting time in this way: "my country," "my nation," "my body," "my family." Ahaṁ mameti. They are wasting time.

So nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. We can vanquish all these false conception of life. Then sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. These are the... Kāma-lobha... But even if it is not completely finished, these dirty things, but even if you come to the platform of sattva-guṅa, then you'll not be disturbed. But these tamo-guṅa and rajo-guṅa always disturb. Then if you are not disturbed by these kāma and lobha, then sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. Then you will be pleased, you'll feel happiness, when you are on the sattva-guṅa. And then you have to surpass the sattva-guṅa. Śuddha-sattva. Sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam [SB 4.3.23]. The vāsudeva platform: oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya [SB 2.1 invocation]. Then you will understand your relationship with Kṛṣṅa, and then you'll be happy.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]