Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.63

Harikeśa: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sixth Canto, First Chapter, sixty-third verse. [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

tan-nimitta-smara-vyāja graha-grasto vicetasaḥ tām eva manasā dhyāyan sva-dharmād virarāma ha [SB 6.1.63]

[break] [02:04]

Prabhupāda:

tan-nimitta-smara-vyāja graha-grasto vicetasaḥ tām eva manasā dhyāyan sva-dharmād virarāma ha [SB 6.1.63]

So the one word is very significant in this connection: graha-grasto vicetasaḥ. Graha-grasto means ghostly haunted or influenced by bad star, graha-grasto. Sometimes we become... We are always graha-grasto in this material world. It is said by some Vaiṣṅava poet, piśāci pāile yena mati-cchana haya māyār graṣṭa jīvera sei dāsa upajaya. Piśāci, ghostly haunted or inspired by the witches, when one becomes so, mati-cchana, he becomes bewildered, and his intelligence becomes scattered. Mati-cchana. That is the condition of all living entities within this material world in different degrees. Everyone is ghostly haunted. And what is that ghostly haunted? That ghostly haunted, tan-nimitta-smara-vyāja. This Ajāmila had seen one śūdra and one śūdrāṅī was embracing, kissing, laughing, enjoying in lusty affairs. So he became tan-nimitta. By seeing these activities of the śūdra and the śūdrāṅī, naturally the lusty desire is there, which I explained yesterday. It is called hṛd-roga-kāma [Cc Antya 5.45]. This kāma, lusty desire, is a heart disease. So he was infected by the heart disease by seeing the scene, that one woman and man is embracing and kissing. Immediately.

So the nature's law is so nice or so perfect that by seeing only, you will be infected. By seeing only. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ [Bg 3.27].

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

We are put into such a position that every moment we are being affected by the three modes of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni. The prakṛti, the nature, is working so expertly. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni. And kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu [Bg 13.22]. In this way our transmigration from one body to another, 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.]

it is due to this infection of contacting different material modes of nature. The whole world is going on. So therefore our business of human life is how to protect ourself from this infection of material nature. That should be the aim of human life, not that allow us to be infected more and more and become implicated in the cycle of birth and death, sometimes lower, sometimes higher. This is not intelligence. The intelligence is how to get out of it. In the lower animal forms of life the nature takes care. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-sāṅkhyakāḥ [Padma Purāṅa]. From the aquatics to the plant life, then insect life, then bird life, then beast life, then we come to the human life. And that is also... When we come to the civilized life we should not waste our time like animals or lower creatures.

Therefore another important thing is that those who are born in India, Bhārata-bhūmi, they are to be considered the topmost. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said,

bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haile jāra janma sārthaka kari kara para-upakāra [Cc Ādi 9.41]

[One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.]

This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Those who have taken birth in India, Bhārata-bhūmi, they should make their life perfect by understanding the Vedic knowledge. And the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa comes here to teach the Vedic knowledge. He left Bhagavad-gītā. Then Vyāsadeva developed the idea of Kṛṣṅa consciousness from Bhagavad-gītā, Vedānta-sūtra, into Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāṣyayaṁ brahma-sutrānām. So we have got this advantage, and we are giving up these advantages. First of all, the advantage is that we are born in India, and we have got the stock of knowledge left by great sages, ṛṣis and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and you are not taking advantage of it. How much foolish we are becoming by so-called education, we should understand that. It is graha-grasta. We are thinking that... Our leaders are thinking that India, becoming too much religiously conscious, they have been poverty-stricken. No. That is not the fact. By Kṛṣṅa's desire, by Kṛṣṅa's will, everyone is provided.

In the Vedas it is said, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]. The Supreme Lord is quite competent to provide, to supply the necessities of life to millions and millions of living entities. There is no question of scarcity of supply. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. In the forest there are millions of elephants. Who is supplying them food? Kṛṣṅa is supplying. So there is no question of overpopulation. Overpopulation, there is no question of. If Kṛṣṅa has overpopulation, He is competent to supply them food. But it is the nature's restriction. When we become godless, the nature's trouble will be there. Daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg 7.14].

[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.]

Just like the flood is going on in many parts of the world. So this is due to our sinful life. Nature is punishing. Ādhidaivika. You cannot control. Nature will punish. Why nature is punishing? Because we are godless. That is nature's business. The more we become godless, the more we'll be punished by the laws of nature. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg 7.14]. You cannot surpass. You make many scientific plans to overcome—it is not possible. Then how it is possible? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. Unless you surrender to Kṛṣṅa... That is your business.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa openly says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66]. The Ajamila, he was brāhmaṅa, undoubtedly, but he fell a victim to māyā. But you know the story of Haridāsa. He was young man at that time, and one man instigated a prostitute, young prostitute, to deviate him, but she was unable. On the other hand, the prostitute became a Vaiṣṅavī. This is the difference between a devotee and a nondevotee. A nondevotee cannot surpass the stringent laws of material nature, but a devotee can do that, because a devotee is not affected by the influence of material nature. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that,

māṁ cavyabhicāriṅi bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate sa guṅān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [Bg 14.26]

[One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.]

"Anyone who is strictly engaged in devotional service, he surpasses the influence of the laws of material..." Sa guṅān samatītya etān. He can surpass. Sa guṅān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. This is the only way. Otherwise, how these European and American boys and girls, they are living strictly under regulative principles—no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication up to drinking tea, and no gambling? How they can surpass them? It is possible when one is a devotee, pure devotee. That is possible.

So this is the example. The Ajāmila was trained up as a nice brāhmaṅa, but he was not still expert to become Vaiṣṅava. Therefore... But still, the seed of Vaiṣṅavism was there, because a brāhmaṅa is trained up how to worship Viṣṅu, how to worship Nārāyaṅa. That is essential. So this boy was also trained up how to worship Nārāyaṅa, Viṣṅu. And it was beneficially at the last stage of his life. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt [Bg 2.40].

[In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.]

Even if you practice little of devotional service, it can save you from the greatest danger of life. That actually happened in the life of Ajamila. So tan-nimitta. So in this age, especially Kali-yuga, it is very, very difficult to save oneself from these infection of life. We have got already... We have come to this material world to fulfill our lusty desires. Naturally, whenever there is any lusty activities, our heart disease immediately becomes imperative[?], and the same thing happened to Ajāmila. And graha-grasto vicetasaḥ. Graha-grasta. Just like when we are haunted by ghost—a ghost captures, then vicetasaḥ, we are lost, lost of our consciousness, our intelligence—he became like that. Tām eva manasā dhyāyan. Then, instead of meditating on Kṛṣṅa, he began to meditate on the lusty affairs of the śūdra and the śūdrāṅī.

Therefore, in the Kali-yuga the so-called meditation is a farce. Because we are always seeing these lusty affairs before our eyes, naturally when we close our eyes and meditate, instead of thinking of Kṛṣṅa or Viṣṅu, we shall think of woman and other things. Therefore it is not possible. In the Kali-yuga it is not possible. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṅum [SB 12.3.52]. In the Satya-yuga it was possible, meditation on Viṣṅu, not on other things. But now, in this Kali-yuga, we are infected with so many lusty desires that it is not possible. Therefore śāstra said, kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṅuṁ tretāyāṁ majato makhaiḥ. You can realize Viṣṅu because Viṣṅu is the ultimate goal of life. But we do not know that. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṅum [SB 7.5.31].

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṅu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.]

So that Viṣṅu meditation was possible in the kṛte, in the Satya-yuga, when a man used to live for hundred thousands of years. And then reduce. The next age it is ten thousand of years. Then again, in the next age, it is one thousands of years. And now it is reduced to one hundred years. So therefore it is said that,

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṅuṁ tretāyāṁ majato makhaiḥ dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt [SB 12.3.52]

[Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṅu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra.]

In the Kali-yuga you'll perform perfect meditation by loudly chanting,

Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa Kṛṣṅa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

This is the recommendation of the śāstra—not only one, but many śāstras. In the Bhāgavata also it is said,

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan asti hy eko mahān guṅaḥ kīrtanād eva kṛṣṅasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet [SB 12.3.51]

[My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.]

So there are dangers in this material world. It is very dangerous place, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām [SB 10.14.58],

[For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murāri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf's hoof-print. Their goal is paraṁ padam, Vaikuṅṭha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.]

every step, not only spiritually, materially also. Suppose you are out of this temple, there is every chance you may be dashed by a motorcar and die immediately. So it is dangerous. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām. So our motive of life should be how to get out of this dangerous position of life. How to get out of it, that should be the aim, not that to become more and more implicated with this dangerous situation of life. That is not intelligence. The intelligence is how to get out of it. That is this movement, Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, how to get out of this dangerous position and go back to home, back to Godhead—this is the mission.

It is not that by spiritual advancement one gets material facilities to increase the income and increase the standard of sense enjoyment. This is karma-kāṅḍīya-vicāra, karma, to get the resultant action of our fruitive activities. And that is not very... They are called mūḍha. Those who are engaged in karma-kāṅḍīya entanglement, they are called mūḍha. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has commented on the word mūḍha described in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā. The mūḍha means karmīs. Karmīs, they work day, day and night, very hard. What is their aim? The aim is sense gratification. That is done by animals like dogs and hogs and asses. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye [SB 5.5.1].

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

This is the recommendation, that this life, human life, ayaṁ deha, nṛloke, in this... Everyone has got a material body, but one who has got a material body in the human society, nṛloke... Kaṣṭān kāmān na arhati. To work so hard simply to satisfy the senses is not desirable.

So modern civilization means that increase the activities of sense gratification. And especially... Of course in India, still there are peaceful land. But in the Western countries, from five o'clock in the morning we see on the streets thousands and thousands of motorcars, they are going to work. Thousands and thousands. And they will come at night. This has begun also in India. We see in big, big cities like Calcutta and Bombay, they are coming early in the morning from home, and going, night, going at home at night, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, and then sleep for two or three hours and again go to work. So there is a story that like a little child... Because when his father comes back, he is asleep, and when the father goes out of home, he is asleep. So one night he saw one man is lying there. So he is asking his mother, "Who is this man? Who is this man?" Actually this is the position, that we are working day and... Bombay and Calcutta we have seen that they are hanging on the, what is called, local trains, and there are sometimes accidents. So in this way, the gradually, we are coming to very dangerous, I mean to say, pattern of living condition with the age, with the advancement of this Age of Kali. And it is said that for earning our bread we have to work like an ass in this Kali-yuga.

This is not civilization. The civilization is... That is really Vedic civilization, that ayaṁ deha. Nāyaṁ deha nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān. We should make our life so simple and easy that we can get our necessities of life without any hard labor and save time to advance in Kṛṣṅa consciousness. That is perfect civilization. This is not perfect civilization. There is every chance of being influenced by these lusty desires, and that is going on, especially in the Western country. They lusty for fulfilling these lusty desires. There are so many clubs at night, nightclubs, bottomless and topless and so many advertisements. This is not civilization. Civilization is peaceful life, and we should be satisfied in simple mode of life and always think of Kṛṣṅa. Therefore Vṛndāvana life is like that, Vṛndāvana life, especially those who are engaged in devotional service. So we have opened this temple to give facility to the elderly section of the human being to come and live with us. We invite all elderly persons, especially retired person, they should come and live with us. We have got a nice guesthouse, and if required, we can construct many other guesthouses. At least those are retired. Everyone should retire after fiftieth year. That is the injunction of the śāstras, that pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. After fifty years one should give up family life and vanaṁ vrajet. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanam. Vanam means Vṛndāvana. Vanaṁ vrajet. Similarly, Prahlāda Mahārāja has advised,

tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt hitvātma-ghātam gṛham andha-kūpaṁ... hitvātma-ghātam gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta [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.]

Vanaṁ gato. One should go in the vana, in Vṛndāvana. Then what to do there? Harim āśrayeta. Otherwise, if we live in Vṛndāvana like monkeys and other animals, that will not be beneficial. Harim āśrayeta. Come here, live here, and take shelter of Hari. That is the ultimate goal. Therefore Hari personally says, Kṛṣṅa, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66]. Harim āśrayeta.

So we are not only inviting Indians—throughout the whole world. Now we have got connection with the whole world. We invite everyone. At least after the age of fifty they should come here in Vṛndāvana. They should live peacefully and take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa-Balarāma and be happy in this life and get salvation in next life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Haribol Prabhupāda. [end]