Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.9

Harikeśa: ...Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Seventh Canto, Sixth Chapter, ninth verse. [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

ko gṛheṣu pumān saktam ātmānam ajitendriyaḥ sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham utsaheta vimocitum [SB 7.6.9]

[break] [00:27]

Translation: "Who is the person who is too much attached to household life on account of being unable to control the senses and liberate himself because he is bound up very strongly with the rope of affection for the family, namely wife, children, relatives, etc?"

Prabhupāda:

ko gṛheṣu pumān saktam ātmānam ajitendriyaḥ sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham utsaheta vimocitum [SB 7.6.9]

The point is discussed, how one can get out of the bondage of material existence, vimocitam. But people do not know that "This is my business, how to get out of this entanglement." They do not know even what is that entanglement. Such foolish civilization is going on. And they are passing as scientist, philosopher, big, big politician, but do not know what is the aim of life. The aim of life is vimocitam. We are spirit soul, eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, nityo śāśvato 'yam [Bg 2.20]. They do not know. At the present moment almost everyone, 99.9 percent people, they do not know what is our problem and how to get out of it. They do not know. Ignorance, stupidity, mūḍha.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṅu durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ [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.]

Again the same thing. Īśa tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ.

We are bound up, hands and legs, by the tantryām, the shackles or ropes of nature, or God. We are not free. 'Pīśa tantryāṁ baddhāḥ. We are not free; still, we are trying to excel the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The modern scientists, they are very much proud that they have advanced very much so that there is no need of talking about God. This is the material civilization. So many wonderful things are going on. They cannot explain even how things are going on, and still they are proud of scientific advancement and declare, "There is no God." This is foolish civilization, narādhama. 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.]

And they are engaged in sinful activities. To solve the population—janma, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9]—they are killing.

[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.]

That means increasing problem. They do not know the actual fact, that by this killing process they are increasing the problems of life. So what is due to? This is due to sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham. We are bound up by the shackles of nature, and it is due to our attachment for material existence. Attachment. And we have to undo this attachment, vairāgya. Undo this attachment means vairāgya, detachment. That is the thing necessary.

So how we become detached? We are so much attached; how we can become detached? That is also given. The process is given in the Bhāgavatam: vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ [SB 1.2.7].

[By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṅa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.]

If you engage yourself in executing devotional service to Vāsudeva, vāsudeve bhagavati... Vāsudeva means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, most opulent, bhagavati. Bhagavān means the most opulent, full six kinds of opulence. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ—no other means. You cannot become liberated by any other means except bhakti-yoga. That is Bhāgavatam. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tat... [Bg 18.55],

[One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.]

Kṛṣṅa says. "You can simply become liberated by the bhakti process." There are many processes. Accepting those..., they are also different processes. But nothing is powerful except the process enunciated by God Himself, Kṛṣṅa. He says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyam [SB 1.2.7]. That is detachment. And bhakti-yoga means vairāgya-yoga. Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam [Cc Madhya 6.254].

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya explained this verse in connection with Caitanya Mahāprabhu's activities, that "Who is this personality?" So he explained. He composed one hundred verses in..., with reference to Caitanya Mahāprabhu's activities. Some of them are available, mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So first of all, ascertaining Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya says that "This movement, Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, enunciated by..., inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, what is this? Now, vairāgya-vidyā. This is the instructional lesson, or education, vidyā, education." It is vairāgya-vidyā, detachment education. It is not attachment education.

The material education means attachment education. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, 'yara vidyā sa māyā boyba: our attachment for this material world, it is māyā, illusion. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān [SB 7.9.43]. This material happiness is made by māyā, and they are making gorgeous arrangement, these fools and rascals, māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān. They're making gorgeous arrangement. Why? Because they are vimūḍhān, all rascals. "Why rascals? They are scientists, they are philosophers." That's all right, but after making all these arrangements, you are under the clutches of māyā. You are not free from the clutches of māyā. So why you are wasting time in this way? You cannot..., you did not make any solution or any assurance that whatever you are creating for enjoyment you will be able to enjoy. No. That is not possible. That they do not see. They are constructing big, big roads, motorcars and skyscraper building, but there is no assurance that you'll be able to enjoy it. That is not possible. At any moment, finished. Your skyscraper building, your big, big road, your big, big motorcars, it will remain where you manufactured, and you have to leave. That they do not see. This is called mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti. They..., they're not... They are afraid of death, but on account of foolishness they declare, "Oh, we don't... We are not afraid of death." They're afraid.

So actually we should not increase our foolishness. Human life is meant for utilizing our intelligence. That is human life. Instead of utilizing intelligence, if we increase our foolishness, that's the wrong type of civilization. That is not actual civilization. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu very kindly inaugurated this civilization, Kṛṣṅa consciousness, the same thing as it is confirmed in the Vedas: vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyam [SB 1.2.7].

[By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṅa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.]

Āśu: "very soon." The examples are here. You are Europeans and Americans; you were attached to so many things. But because you have taken to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, means vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogam. This, you have come to Vṛndāvana to worship Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa, or in your country we have established so many temples. In account of being engaged in the devotional service of Vāsudeva, although you are young boys and girls, you have given up so many nonsense things. This is called vairāgya. This is called vairāgya, detachment. Meat-eating is the general life of Europeans and Americans, but at the present moment if somebody offers you millions of dollars and he requests you that "You take some meat with me," I think you will deny it. This is called vairāgya. This is called vairāgya. I've actually seen our Gargamuni was sent to his father. I advised him that "Your father has big business. Just take it for Kṛṣṅa consciousness." So father was very glad, his father, but he offered meat, and when he said, "Father, Daddy, I cannot take meat," then the father became angry. He drove him away. Hiraṅyakaśipu father. So he came back. The young man, father's property, he refused to take it.

So this is vairāgya. And the whole Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement means vairāgya-vidyā, the education of vairāgya, detachment. Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam [Cc Madhya 6.254]. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṅa, and He wanted to teach the people this vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam. As Kṛṣṅa He commanded, "Just give up all this nonsense engagement." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66]: "Just surrender unto Me. That is good for you. I shall save you from the reaction of your sinful activities." Material life means simply sinful activities. Simply. Even though there is some covering of pious activities, that is also sinful. Here in this world... It is said in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, dvaite bhadrābhadra sakali saṅgām. Dvaite means "in this world of duality," bhadra and abhadra. We have manufactured so many things. We say, "This is very good" and "This is bad." Bhadra abhadra. Bhadra means good, and abhadra means bad. But Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kav, Kṛṣṅa dāsa Kavirāja Goswami, he says that this good and bad—concocted. They are neither good nor bad. They are the same thing—material quality. Dvaite bhadrābhadra sakali saṅg... Then how things are going on, "This is good; this is bad"? Ei bhāla ei manda saba manodharma [Cc Antya 4.176]. This is mental concoction.

In the material world there cannot be anything good. It is bad. If there is real goodness, that is spiritual world, śuddha-sattva. Sattva-guṅa. In the material world there are three guṅas. Of these, sattva-guṅa is accepted as very good—the modes of goodness. But above this mode of goodness there is śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. "Goodness is goodness"—no. This goodness is polluted with ignorance and passion. Therefore we see in the material world a person very good... But yesterday morning we were discussing about Brahmā: very good, but sometimes he is also polluted. Therefore it is not pure goodness, this material world. Even there is goodness, it is not pure. There is always chance of becoming polluted by the other base qualities—ignorance and passion.

Therefore here cannot be pure goodness. Pure goodness is Kṛṣṅa consciousness platform, devotional service. If you keep yourself rigidly on the platform of devotional service, then you are pure goodness. And as soon as you are slack, immediately the other two base qualities will attack you. Therefore it is very difficult to keep pure goodness. Take for example: goodness is brāhmaṅa. How at the present moment the brāhmaṅa, the hereditary brāhmaṅa by birth, how they have fallen on account of attack of these base qualities. But they're trying to keep their brahminical platform in spite of being polluted by the other two base qualities. Therefore the Caitanya-caritāmṛta author's statement that ei bhāla, ei manda, saba bhrama: even if you are raised to the brāhmaṅa quality, there is always chance of falling down. So therefore you have to keep always in the transcendental platform, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati... [Bg 18.54]. E

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

ven from brahma-bhūtaḥ platform one falls down. One who is already mixed, or merged into the Brahman, they fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

[[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.]

Why? Anādṛta yusmad aṅghrayaḥ. Unless one is very rigid devotee, even he has approached the other feature—namely the Brahman feature: Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān—so he falls down, very, very... And why? That is this attachment—sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham. Dṛḍhair baddham. That I was citing. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's song,

jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā jīvake karaye gāḍha [Vidyāra Vilāse 3]

[All the so-called knowledge of this world is born of the flickering potency of Your illusory energy (māyā). It is an impediment to the execution of devotional service to You. Indulgence in mundane knowledge verily makes an ass of the eternal soul by encouraging his infatuation with this temporary world.]

Materialistic studies are the glare of māyā only, for they are an obstacle to spiritual progress. The infatuated person is trapped in the impermanent world, falsely trying to enjoy it, and such studies make him as foolish as an ass.

Gāḍhā means ass. Uṣṭra khara. Śva-viḍ uṣṭra khara [SB 2.3.19].

So this so-called advancement of civilization means the living entity is always compared as an ass, mūḍha. So instead of becoming intelligent, by material education one becomes more and more first-class ass, jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā. Because the more you become advanced in so-called material civilization, you'll forget God, māyāra vaibhava. Māyā's business is to keep you always sleeping, forgetting God. This is māyā's business. Daivī hi eṣā guṅa-mayī 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.]

This is māyā's business. The more you forget Kṛṣṅa, the more you are under the influence of māyā. Jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava. So if you increase your volume of material civilization, then more and more you'll forget God and you'll be attached to this material world, māyāra vaibhava.

So people are increasing more and more and becoming under the clutches of māyā. That is janma-mṛtyu-jāra-vyādhi [Bg 13.9].

Clutches of māyā means birth, death, old age and disease. This is māyā's shackles, or ropes. But they do not care for it. They do not take into account that "I am eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. I do not die even after the destruction of this body. So why shall I suffer in this way repeatedly birth and death?" And that is also not only inconvenient, but very much painful. Today you are American or something, or Indian, but tomorrow if you become a tree in the American land, then what is your position? But they do not care for it, do not understand it; therefore it is māyāra vaibhava. This advancement of material civilization is māyāra vaibhava.

Therefore the Vedic civilization is voluntarily accepting poverty. Voluntary. Big, big kings, they voluntarily accepted poverty. Rūpa Gosvāmī. Don't go to the past, big, big..., Bharata Mahārāja and others. Even Lord Rāmacandra. Take recent history, within five hundred years. Rūpa Gosvāmī, the chief minister of the government of Bengal, most opulent position: tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīm [Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ Gosvāmy Aṣṭaka 4].

[I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvāmīs, namely Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, and Śrī Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, who kicked off all association of aristocracy as insignificant. In order to deliver the poor conditioned souls, they accepted loincloths, treating themselves as mendicants, but they are always merged in the ecstatic ocean of the gopīs' love for Kṛṣṅa and bathe always and repeatedly in the waves of that ocean.]

They became mendicant, voluntarily accepting, tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-mandala-pati-śreṅīṁ sadā tucchavat. "What is this nonsense position, minister, opulent life? Kick it out." They are not fools. They are politicians. But why they "Kick it out"? Then what they became? Bhūtvā dīna-gaṅeśakau karuṅayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau. They become mendicant.

So voluntarily accepting poverty, this is Indian civilization, this is Vedic civilization. Not to increase material opulence but to decrease. The more you decrease, you are civilized. And the Western country, if you decrease, if you instruct them that "Decrease these nonsense activities. No more tire civilization," they'll say, "Oh, this is primitive. Primitive. This tendency is primitive." But actually, the primitive civilization... Not primitive; that is very sober civilization, anartha. Instead of increasing unwanted necessities, decrease it. That is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje lokasya ajānataḥ vidvāṁś cakre sātvata saṁhitām [SB 1.7.6]

This sātvata saṁhitām bhāgavata is there, simply to decrease this unwanted so-called material civilization.

It is very difficult to understand, but our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is for that purpose. We are interested to construct a nice temple, but we are not interested to construct a very big skyscraper building for people's general living. No. We should live very humbly. But for Kṛṣṅa we can... In India you'll find there are so many valuable temples which cannot be constructed at the present moment. You will see in this Vṛndāvana that the broken Govindajī's temple, it is not possible to construct such costly temples at the present moment. Even by spending crores of rupees you cannot construct. But one who had money, they used to do that. It should be engaged for Kṛṣṅa's comfort. This is bhakti. This is bhakti. For Kṛṣṅa's... The Vṛndāvana means everyone is engaged how to keep Kṛṣṅa in comfort. This is Vṛndāvana life. Not for personal comfort. The whole Vṛndāvana is engaged, beginning from Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, the young gopīs and the young cowherd boys—that is Vṛndāvana. Kṛṣṅa is the center.

So the more we become engaged with the view to give Kṛṣṅa the comfortable position, that is our aim of life. Then we can be liberated. Sneha-pāśair dṛḍhair baddham. So we should not be very much interested for personal comfort, but the comfort of the superior, Kṛṣṅa. Then it will be possible to get out of these material clutches. That is called vairāgya. Sneha-pāśair baddham. At the present we are bound up by the laws of material nature, and if we want to undo it, then we should learn vairāgya-vidyā.

vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yoga śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṅaḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-caitanya-śarīra-dhārī kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye [Cc Madhya 6.254]

This is Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. If you want to get out of this material bondage, vairāgya-vidyā, then learn bhakti-yoga, vairāgya-vidyā. And how to learn? Kṛṣṅa Himself is teaching, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Just see His vairāgya. At home is the most affectionate mother and the most beautiful young wife, Viṣṅu-priyā—He renounced everything. Tyaktvā su-dustyaja-surepsita-rājya lakṣmīṁ dharmiṣṭha ārya-vacasā yad agād araṅyam [SB 11.5.34]. He became sannyāsī. In full young time, twenty-four years, having nice wife at home, very affectionate mother, they're very..., mother and wife, they take care of very nicely. The home appears to be very, very happy home due to mother and due to wife. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu had both of them. Not only that—He was a learned scholar, very influential in Nabadwip. He could gather 100,000 men by His order only. He was so influential and so beautiful, so learned—everything. Su-dustyaja-surepsita-rājya lakṣmīm. His opulence was very, very great, but He gave up. Tyaktvā tūrṅam. Similarly, the Gosvāmīs also gave up their position.

So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement means vairāgya-vidyā: to get detached. Don't increase attachment. Try to decrease attachment, then you'll be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya... [end]