Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.33

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads devotees in chanting]

[03:01]

Translation: "Dear sirs, whose servants are you, where have you come from, and why are you forbidding us to touch the body of Ajāmila? Are you demigods from the heavenly planets, are you subdemigods, or are you the best of the devotees?"

Prabhupāda:

kasya vā kuta āyātāḥ kasmād asya niṣedhātha kiṁ devā upadevā yā yūyaṁ kiṁ siddha-sattamāḥ [SB 6.1.33]

So the Yamadūtas, their description of the body already given. They are not very good-looking. So when they saw the Viṣṅudūta—the description of the Viṣṅudūta is in the next verse—they were surprised, that "Wherefrom such nice features of the body..." They have been described here, sarve padma-palāśākṣāḥ. They saw that their eyes were just like petals of the lotus flower, so beautiful. Sarve padma-palāśākṣāḥ pīta-kauśeya-vāsasaḥ [SB 6.1.34]. And all dressed in saffron cloth, yellow. Kirīṭinaḥ, with helmet; kuṅḍalino, and earrings. Kuṅḍalino. Lasat-puṣkara-mālinaḥ, and with flower garland. Just imagine if somebody is very good-looking, with helmet and nice earring, bedecked with jewels, and the helmet bedecked with jewels, and cloth yellow, with garland, four hands. Sarve ca nūtna-vayasaḥ. And all young, not old, like me; all young, like you. Nūtna-vayasaḥ. Just immediately very young. Sarve ca nūtna-vayasaḥ sarve cāru-caturbhujāḥ. And four-handed. Here we get two hands. In the Vaikuṅṭha planet you get four hands. Dhanur niṣa aṅgāsi-gadā-śaṅkha-cakra-ambuja śriyaḥ [SB 6.1.35]. And each hand is decorated with bow, arrow, sword and conchshell and disc. Like that. This is the description of Vaikuṅṭha features.

So always young. There is no old age, disease or birth and death. Here in this material world these four things are there: birth, death, old age and disease. In the spiritual world the men are so beautiful, and imagine the women also still more beautiful, very attractive. But there is no sex. That is the feature, we'll find it. Why there? Because, after all, we want pleasure. So in the material world the topmost pleasure is sex, because there is no other idea. So all people, even so-called yogīs, svāmīs and... Ultimately they are coming down to sex. Whatever they have got asset, the culmination is sex. Old man, he has got money, he has got everything—still he is going to the nightclub. So here in this material world, yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham [SB 7.9.45].

[Sex life is compared to the rubbing of two hands to relieve an itch. Gṛhamedhīs, so-called gṛhasthas who have no spiritual knowledge, think that this itching is the greatest platform of happiness, although actually it is a source of distress. The kṛpaṅas, the fools who are just the opposite of brāhmaṅas, are not satisfied by repeated sensuous enjoyment. Those who are dhīra, however, who are sober and who tolerate this itching, are not subjected to the sufferings of fools and rascals.]

In the material world, gṛha-medhi... Gṛha-medhi means those who are entrapped within this universe or within this body, same thing. This is also entrapment, I am within this body. Or even in any part of the universe, either you go to the moon planet or sun planet or any other planet. You see the sky is just like egglike, within that. They are called baddha-jīva. Baddha-jīva means entrapped. So entrapped living entities, they are in different grades of life, 8,400,000 different forms of life. Now, how they are entrapped? The sex. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. This is their pleasure. And in the spiritual world there is no sex. So one may question, "How they are living? Life is finished if there is no sex." So somebody committed suicide—who was telling?—because doctor asked him not to have any more sex. Who told me the other day? Somebody told me. Some big man. He was famous man. So he was forbidden. Especially when one is attacked with tuberculosis, the medical man advises, "No more sex. Then you will die soon." So this was ordered, and he committed suicide.

Devotee: Ernest Hemingway.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: Ernest Hemingway

Prabhupāda: Ah, you know him. Just see. It is practical. Because he thought the life is finished, there is no sex life. So actually that is the fact here. Birds, beast, you will find the pigeons, the dogs, they are enjoying sex at least four times in a hour. So there are men also like that. So here in this material world the sex life is this top pleasure. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. But it is very abominable. Just imagine what kind of happiness it is. But we are forced to act like that. So tuccham, very insignificant. Yan maithunādi gṛhamedhi sukhaṁ hi tuccham [SB 7.9.45].

[Sex life is compared to the rubbing of two hands to relieve an itch. Gṛhamedhīs, so-called gṛhasthas who have no spiritual knowledge, think that this itching is the greatest platform of happiness, although actually it is a source of distress. The kṛpaṅas, the fools who are just the opposite of brāhmaṅas, are not satisfied by repeated sensuous enjoyment. Those who are dhīra, however, who are sober and who tolerate this itching, are not subjected to the sufferings of fools and rascals.]

What kind of pleasure? Kaṅḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. It is just like itching between the two hands. And tṛpyanti neha kṛpanā bahu dūḥkha-bhājaḥ: the aftereffects of sex life is very, very bad.

So in that interview I gave that information, that woman's freedom? So I gave this reply, that "Where is the woman's freedom? The boy and the girl intermingle, and the girl becomes pregnant, and the boy goes away without any responsibility, and the burden..., the child is a burden for the woman. Either she should kill or beg from the government. Is that independence?" They are trying to be independent. This is not civilization. There is no question of independence. The woman must be given protection in childhood by the father unless she is married, and in youthhood by the husband, and in old age by grown-up sons. This is Vedic civilization. Na striyaṁ svatantram arhati [Manu Saṁhitā 9.3].

[Women should not be given independence.]

Just like children, they must be always protected. It is not dependence; it is protection. So there should be responsible father, responsible husband, responsible sons to keep woman very happy. In India still it is going on.

So the point is that here the sex life is the highest pleasure, and in the spiritual world there is no sex. So what is that pleasure? That pleasure is this chanting and dancing, Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra. That is stated in the śāstra. They are so much absorbed in this chanting and dancing, they are no more interested in sex. That is the only way. If you want to stop the pleasure of sex, then you have to take this pleasure, this transcendental pleasure. You'll forget everything. That is said by Yamunacārya:

yad avadhi mama cetāḥ kṛṣṅa-padāravindayor nava-nava-dhāman udyata rantum āsīt tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

Yamunacārya was a very big king. So he had very good opportunity for sex life, he was king. But later on he became perfect Vaiṣṅava, devotee. So after he became devotee, he was expressing his experience, that "Since I have taken to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and I am enjoying that ecstatic love for Kṛṣṅa, whenever I think of sex with woman, I spit on it." Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca [SB 11.2.42].

[Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things—these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.]

So if we want to be free from the entanglement of this world, then we should practice. That practice, simply artificial practice will not help. Unless we advance in Kṛṣṅa consciousness, unless we become accustomed to enjoy this ecstasy of chanting and dancing, it is not possible.

So they were surprised, wherefrom these beautiful... They've never experienced. Because these Yamadūtas, they generally... Just like police. Police go to the thieves, rogues and criminals. They have very little opportunity to see very beautiful, aristocratic, nice family. They have no possibility, because they are invited by this class, or they are forced to go there. So these Yamadūtas, they are accustomed to go to the sinful men like Ajāmila and many others. Their business is to arrest the sinful soul and take the soul to Yamarāja. So they were very much surprised by seeing these beautiful Viṣṅudūta, the Viṣṅudūta. So don't take it is mythology. No. This is fact. Vyāsadeva or big, big saintly person, they have no business to present before you something mythology. Why they should waste time in that way? It is simply rascaldom to think all the statement as mythology. Not mythology. We have no knowledge. In the śāstra we understand, yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40]. Yasya prabhā. The rays of Kṛṣṅa's body, when it is expanded, brahma-jyoti, within that brahma-jyoti there are innumerable universes. Just like within the sunlight, sunshine, there are innumerable planets. We are seeing daily. Similarly, there are innumerable universes in the brahma-jyoti. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40]. And koṭiṣu, and each and every universe, millions, koṭiṣu. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

Vasudhā, vasudhā means planet. Just like this is also vasudhā, this planet here. We can see there are so many millions of planets, at night we can see, and each of them is peculiar, different from the others. Why they have failed to utilize the moon planet? It is a different atmosphere. It is different atmosphere. These rascals cannot go there. It is not possible. They have simply made false propaganda. They cannot go there. So because the atmosphere is different... There is also blazing fire surrounded by ice. That is the description. I am speaking from the description. And therefore at night it is so pleasing. You have got experience. Fire coming through ice, the rays, that is very pleasing. Therefore sunshine is making the whole thing very hot, and the moonshine making them pleasing.

So God's arrangement is so nice that everything is going on nicely. There is brain behind it. Why there is sunshine, why there is moonshine, everything described. You'll read in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, moon is the cause of vegetation, and there is no vegetation. Just see. Moon is the cause of vegetation in all planets, and they say there is no vegetation, it is simply dust. So we have to believe that? And when you present actual fact, it is mysticism or mythology. Anyway, we are not concerned with their statement. Our process is to know things from the śāstra. Sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya tinete kariya aikya. Our process is deductive, not inductive. We take knowledge, just like this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam written by Vyāsadeva under the instruction of his guru, spiritual master, Nārada. So Nārada advised him that "You have written so many books: Purāṅas, Vedas, Vedānta." But Vyāsadeva said, "Still I am not feeling very satisfied." So Nārada Muni advised him that "You are not feeling satisfied because you have not described about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the defect. So now you have got mature experience, you describe simply about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṅa." So therefore he wrote the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, eighteen thousand verses. So each verse, we are reading suppose one verse daily, or two verse daily. So eighteen thousand verses, how long it will take? At least nine thousand days. So nine thousand days, how many years?

Devotee: Seven years?

Prabhupāda: Seven years? Nine thousand verses. Anyway, so we have got enough stock in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, at least whatever we have published. One thousand days, how many years?

Devotee: Three years.

Prabhupāda: Three years?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṅa: It would take between twenty-five and thirty years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not seven years. [laughter] No, if we regularly read two verses. That will be also not possible. Anyway, we can read. Not once reading we can understand. Repeatedly, punaḥ punaḥ, we shall have to. Then the stock which we have already got, you can study and take lessons from the Vedic literature and make your life perfect. What kind of residential quarters are there throughout the whole universe, how many universes are there, what is the special features of different residents. But don't take this nonsense instruction that "Except on this planet there is no life other planet." This is simply nonsense. Every planet is congested with living entities. This is the description of the śāstra. Janakīrṅa. Janakīrṅa means "congested with," but different types. Just like they have come from Vaikuṅṭha, their bodily feature is different. We have got experience here on this planet in some portion there are black people, some portion there are white people, some portion there are yellow people color, so many colors, manifestation, within this planet. So just imagine how many... This is God's creation, different varieties. Just like we see on this planet. Why on this planet? Even on this Hawaii island how many beautiful things, flowers, trees and fruits. That is God's creation. Ānanda. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. If you want enjoyment, there must be variety. Impersonal, without variety, zero, these are not enjoyment. This is all rascaldom. The voidists make everything zero. Why zero? There must be varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment.

So Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Person... We are also. Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa we have got the same quality. So you see Kṛṣṅa, He is enjoying with the gopīs, with the cowherd boys, friends, in Vṛndāvana, in the forest, with cows, with calves. This is enjoyment—variety. Zero is enjoyment? No. Zero is not enjoyment. Ānanda mayo 'bhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12].

[By nature, the Supreme Lord is blissful.]

This is the Vedānta-sūtra, that the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, is simply enjoying. Everything enjoyment. You'll find Kṛṣṅa always, wherever He is, He is playing on flute with company, either gopīs or cowherd boy or somebody, somebody. This is enjoyment. And He comes personally on this planet to show His enjoyment life in Vṛndāvana—that place is Vṛndāvana; therefore Vṛndāvana is so important—to invite us that "Why you are rotting here? Come with Me and join with My dance." Similarly, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also you see dancing here. Śrī-kṛṣṅa-caitanya prabhu-nityananda śrī-advaita-gadādhara śrīvāsādi... All dancing. Saṅgo paṅgāstra-pārṣada [SB 11.5.32].

[In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṅa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṅa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.]

So the life is this enjoyment, dancing. That is life, not meditation, "For fifteen minutes' meditation I become God." That's all. [laughter] These are all rascaldom. Enjoyment is real life. Enjoyment. That enjoyment, not this material world, the sex. No. Above this. Transcendental. That we find information in Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

So I am very glad that you have all taken. Continue this Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Read books, chant, dance, eat nicely and be happy.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya. [kīrtana] [end]