Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.11

Prabhupāda: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One, verse number twelve.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṅa: Eleven?

Prabhupāda: Thirteen? Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṅa: Eleven?

Prabhupāda: Eleven. No, eleven I have discussed. Yes. You have got eleven there?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṅa: Yes.

Hari-śauri: We did ten yesterday.

Prabhupāda: All right. [leads devotees in chanting]

śrī-bādarāyaṅir uvāca karmaṅā karma-nirhāro na hy ātyantika iṣyate avidvad-adhikāritvāt prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam [SB 6.1.11]

[break] [01:28]

...and I have several times said that what is the use of? That is the same, hasti-snāna. If he does not know how to keep, the elephant, how to keep neat and clean, if he has no this knowledge, so repeatedly he'll take bath and throw dust.

So Bhāgavata, Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the next step. Next step means to become cultured. First of all prāyaścitta: "You have done this wrong; you should be punished." But the punishment will not rectify him. And that is practical. There are so many rules and regu..., punishment. In common cases... Just like every day the police is giving a ticket to the motor driver; still, the same thing is going on. So to keep oneself in darkness and makes rules and regulation will not help. Just like your government has admitted that they have spent millions of dollars, they could not stop the intoxication habit of LSD. That's a fact. But in our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement one who joins, he gives up immediately. That's a fact. What is the difference? The difference is that to stop one kind of karma by karma will not help. Therefore it is said, karmaṅā karma-nirhāra. One kind of activity is criminality, and one kind of activity just to punish him, this will not stop criminality. This is the real fact. He must be in knowledge. Cultivation of knowledge required. He must come to the senses, that "I am suffering. Every time I commit some criminality, I am punished. This is not very palatable. So why I cannot stop it?"

This is the beginning of human life, that unless you come to this knowledge... Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. So that is possible in the human form of life. A dog cannot. A dog comes within your room, and you drive him away, you punish him, and still, with some plea he will come. So therefore Parīkṣit..., Śukadeva Gosvāmī suggests that we have to make him free from the avidyā, ignorance. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. Everyone is under the spell of māyā. Punaḥ punaḥ. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19], it is going on. But we do not inquire that "Why I am repeatedly accepting the cycle of birth and death?" That is avidyā. They are, rather, supporting, "Suppose if I become dog, what is the wrong there?" They say like that: "What is the wrong there?" So this means avidyā, ignorance.

So for eradicating ignorance from life, it requires culture, cultivation. That is suggested in the next verse:

nāśnataḥ pathyam evānnaṁ vyādhayo abhibhavanti hi evaṁ niyamakṛd rājan śanaiḥ kṣemāya kalpate [SB 6.1.12]

Just like if you go to the physician and the physician is giving medicine, and he's taking the medicine and cured, again he is affected with the disease, again going. So why it is happening? It is happening because he does not follow the rules and regulation given by the physician. Therefore it is happening. The physician... As soon as you go to a physician, you have to accept something "do not" and something "do." That is called regulative principle. Without regulative principle you cannot correct yourself. So that regulative principle cannot stay if you are not a devotee. This is the gradual process. Simply if I say, "Follow the rules and regulation," it will not stay unless you become a devotee. That is the test of devotional service, or Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Because it is so powerful, devotional service, that as soon as you become a devotee, gradually, immediately, all the good qualities of your original position...

Good qualities means we are part and parcel of God, so God is good, so we are also good. Otherwise how can I be part and parcel of God? If God is gold, then I am gold. So why I become iron? I am not iron, but I am covered with dirty things; I look like iron. This is the position. Actually I am not iron; I am gold, because I am part and parcel of God. If God is good, then I am good. So because I am covered by the material dirty things, I look like not gold. So this is the test. As soon as you become God conscious, your original all good qualities will manifest automatically.

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṅais tatra samāsate surāḥ harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṅā mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ [SB 5.18.12]

[All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. On the other hand, a person devoid of devotional service and engaged in material activities has no good qualities. Even if he is adept at the practice of mystic yoga or the honest endeavor of maintaining his family and relatives, he must be driven by his own mental speculations and must engage in the service of the Lord's external energy. How can there be any good qualities in such a man?]

That "One who has got unflinching faith, devotion to the Lord," yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā, "without any motive, then the all the good qualities of God will manifest in him very soon."

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṅaśyati [Bg 9.31]

[He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.]

api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ... [Bg 9.30]

[Even if one commits the most abominable actions, if he is engaged in devotional service, he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated.]

These things are there. The devotional service is so nice, if you simply take to devotional service, then all good qualities will come. You don't have to educate him, to send some reformatory school or this or that. That will be explained. The devotional service, Kṛṣṅa consciousness, is so nice. If you simply take to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, then all your... Because originally you are good. You have become bad on account of the material association. Therefore devotion means to be purified. This is a purificatory process from material contamination. Sarvopādhi vinirmuktaṁ tat paratvena nirmalam [Cc Madhya 19.170].

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

If you think... Vimarśanam. If we think little soberly, that "I am thinking 'I am American' or 'Indian.' Am I American or Indian? This is upādhi, designation. By accident or somehow or other, I have got this body in America. Therefore I am American. But next time I may not take the American body. I may take another, Chinese body or something else." So one has to understand that "I am neither American, neither Chinese, nor Indian, nor white, nor black." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God." That is knowledge. We have to come to that. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg 18.54]

[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.]

So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is to purify the designation. And so long we are in the darkness of this designation, that "I am this," "I am that," "I am this," "I am that," that is ignorance. Suppose a thief, he is thinking that "If I do not steal, I cannot exist. I'll die. So I cannot stop stealing. I must go on." So this is ignorance. But if he thinks over, that "The cats and dogs and the birds and beasts, they are very nicely eating. They are not stealing anyone's... Whatever he gets by the grace of God, he is happy," this is knowledge. Vimarśanam. Vimarśanam. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Īśo mantra 1].

[Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.]

Everything God's property. And we are all part and parcel, sons of God, so the property is for us; it is not for others. Just like father's property is meant for the son's enjoyment. That's a fact. So "If other sons, without any labor, without any endeavor, they can get their food, why I am stealing?" This is knowledge. This is knowledge. "Why I shall steal? There is enough food." But because I haven't got this knowledge that "God is the proprietor. I am His part and parcel, son. So if He has provided food for the elephant, who eats at a time forty kilos, he can eat, and I eat only, say, half a pound, I cannot eat?" This is knowledge. "Why shall I steal? I shall depend on God." This is knowledge.

So this is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. I am God's part... Why shall I starve? There are so many... Out of 8,400,000 forms of life, eight million forms of life are less than the human being. Human being, only 400,000. Out of that, civilized men very few. Out of that, Americans are very few, Indians are very few. So "If so many, 8,300,000 forms of life, they can get without stealing, why shall I steal?" This is knowledge. Prāyaścitta vimarśanam. As soon as he becomes in quite perfect knowledge, then whole problem solved.

So this is the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we take seriously, then there is no problem. Otherwise the problems will go on, and the so-called rascal scientists will give us bluff, that "We are making solution of all problem." It is never solved. It will never be solved in the future also, unless we take to Kṛṣṅa consciousness. That is a fact. If you like, you can take it; otherwise suffer.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya. [end]