Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.11

Pradyumna: Translation: "Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, son of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, was not only transcendentally powerful, he was also very dear to the devotees of the Lord. Thus he underwent the study of this great narration Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."

Prabhupāda:

harer guṅākṣipta-matir bhagavān bādarāyaṅiḥ adhyagān mahad ākhyānaṁ nityaṁ viṣṅu-jana-priyaḥ [SB 1.7.11]

This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, mahā-purāṅam... It is called mahā-purāṅam. Mahad ākhyānam. Ākhyānam, narration, history. It is not fictitious; it is history. The activities of the Kauravas, Pāṅḍavas, many other activities mentioned here—Dhruva Mahārāja, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja—many, many devotees and their activities, their history, it is not mythology. The rascals, they say mythology. No. It is history. Mahābhārata. Mahā means greater, and bhārata means this planet. So Mahābhārata means the history of this planet. Now it is minimized, "India." India is given..., the name given by the Britishers or the Europeans. Real name is Bhārata, Bhārata-varṣa, according to the name of Mahārāja Bharata. So this greater India, Mahābhārata, this is also history. Itihāsa. Itihāsa-purāṅa. Purāṅa means old history. Purāṅa means old. It is not mythology. Purāṅa.

So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is amalaṁ purāṅam. Amalam. Mala means dirty things, and amalam means without any dirty things. What is that dirty things? The dirty things means the material modes of nature—sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. Because it is material it is called mala, dirty. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: amalam, without any material contamination, because simply narration of Bhagavān and Bhagavān's devotee. Bhāgavata, bhakta. Therefore it is named Bhāgavatam: dealings between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His devotees. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

So who will be interested in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? That is mentioned here: harer guṅākṣipta-matiḥ. Kṣipta, kṣipta means madness. Here is a man kṣipta, means he's mad. So there are two kinds of madness. One madness is for material enjoyment. They are also mad, pramatta. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. The material madness entangles people more and more in the process of birth and death. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, anādi karama-phale paḍi' bhavārṅava-jale taribāre nā dekhi upāya. Anādi karama-phale paḍi' bhavārṅava-jale. Somehow or other, we have fallen in this material world, the ocean of nescience, bhavārṅava. Arṅava means ocean, and bhava means repetition of birth. In this ocean we have fallen. Therefore our prayer should be not for any material opulence, as we generally do. Dhanaṁ dehi rūpaṁ dehi: "Give me money, or mitigate my distress." This is very lower stage of devotion, to ask something from the Supreme Lord. Ārto arthārthī jijñāsur. In the beginning, provided one is..., background is pious... Because without piety nobody can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṅya-karmaṅām [Bg 7.28].

[Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination.]

Those who are simply acting piously, such person can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not impious person can...

Therefore we shall be very, very careful about impious activities. Impious activities..., we know the four legs of impious activities: illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. So therefore we should be very, very careful about these impious activities. You cannot make any spiritual progress by simultaneously acting impiously and at the same time... It may... Not it may; it is sure it will go, but it will go very slow. Just like if you have got dry wood, then the fire ignites very easily. And if you bring wet fuel, it takes time. Of course, as soon as there is fire, the wetness of the fuel will dry. But it will require extra energy. And if you put dry fuel, then it ignites very easily. So in order to keep us dry without being wetted by the impious activities, then spiritual progress will be very quick. We should remember that. Actually, if we want to be advanced in Kṛṣṅa consciousness, it is our duty to keep ourself dry from material wetness. That is our duty. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam.

Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said especially two things: viṣayiṅāṁ sandarśanam atha yoṣitāṁ ca [Cc Madhya 11.8]. Two things: woman and money. If we become attracted... Woman means for man the woman is woman, and for the woman, the man is woman. Not that woman means a particular class. Woman means which are enjoyable. So in this material world, the man is enjoyable by the woman, and the woman is enjoyable by the man. So for both of them, viṣayiṅāṁ sandarśanam atha yoṣitām. Yoṣit means enjoyable. This body is superfluous. The bodily structure, it can be changed. Perhaps you know, now in medical science they can change the woman's body into man's body and the man's body into woman's body. It was formerly being also changed. In Bhāgavata you'll find that in a garden... I forget the name.

Pradyumna: Sudyumna.

Prabhupāda: No, no. In a garden where Lord Śiva was engaged with Umā, husband and wife, so all of a sudden many saintly persons entered to see Lord Śiva. At that time Umā, Pārvatī, became very much ashamed—she was not very properly dressed. So immediately the saintly persons, they left, that "Lord Śiva is now in his private affairs." So Lord Śiva, to please Pārvatī, he immediately said, "Henceforward, anyone who will enter this forest, he'll become woman." So one king, I forget the name, with his party, without the knowledge he entered the forest, and all of them became women. So the idea is that the man's body can be transformed into woman's body and a woman's body can be transformed into man's body. Because we are not this body, dress. Suppose I have got this dress. This man's dress I can transform into woman's dress with a sārī; but that does not mean I am woman. So every one of us living entity, we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. The outward dress, man and woman, that is dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṅāni yathā vihāya [Bg 2.22]. We are changing this dress.

So in this material world, because our mentality is to enjoy, therefore he is called puruṣa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṅān [Bg 13.22]. Puruṣa, here puruṣa, the living entity... It is said puruṣa. Puruṣa means both men and women, because everyone has got the spirit, "I shall enjoy." Therefore he is described as puruṣa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi, in this material world, bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṅān, kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. We are getting different types of bodies on account of our different desires. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. According to the desire, Kṛṣṅa is so kind, as we are desiring, He is supplying some body. That is also explained: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, īśvaraḥ, He is situated everyone's heart. So He knows what I want. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe. It is pointed out, hṛd-deśe, "in the core of the heart." You haven't got to search throughout the universe. He is within the heart. He's there. Therefore the yogīs, they try to find out the Supreme Lord within the heart. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1].

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

That is yogī—who tries to find out the Supreme Personality of Godhead within the heart. That is dhyāna. That is meditation. Meditation does not mean anything nonsense. To see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṅu, Lord Viṣṅu.

So prakṛti-stho hi. We are in this material world. What is this material world? Material world means three modes of material nature: sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. So according to the association, kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo, either sattva-guṅa, or rajo-guṅa or tamo-guṅa. This is going on, and therefore we are getting different types of body. So this is going on. It is called bhavārṅava. So if we want to get release from this entanglement of being polluted by the three modes of material nature, then we have to come to this platform, nirguṅa. Nirguṅa. Nirguṅa means to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead or to be engaged in devotional service. That is nirguṅa.

māṁ ca vyabhicāreṅa bhakti-yogena ya 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.]

Immediately. Immediately you can be placed on the transcendental platform as soon as you begin your devotional service. Avyabhicāreṅa: without any deviation. Ananya-bhakti. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. That is wanted. What is that ananya-bhāk? Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11]:

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

without any material desires. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc Madhya 19.170]. That is pure devotion.

[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.]

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore recommends that niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya [Cc Madhya 11.8]. Anyone who is aspiring to become advanced in Kṛṣṅa consciousness, bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya... Why bhagavad-bhajana required? Pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣor bhava-sāgarasya [Cc Madhya 11.8]. For a person who wants to go to the other side of the ocean of nescience, pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣoḥ.

[break] ...means one who is very rich man. No. Rich man and poor man doesn't matter. If one is interested simply with the four principles of the bodily necessities, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna [Hitopadeśa 25]

[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.]

—eating, sleeping, sex and defense, they are called viṣayīs. Viṣayiṅām... Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. If viṣayī means rich man, then why the śāstra says, viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt: the enjoyment of these four necessities of body, it is available everywhere? The sparrow, he's also enjoying viṣaya. There is a male and female, and they are jumping from one tree to another, from here to there. And as soon as they require, they are enjoying sex and eating something. So eating, sleeping, mating, this is going on. That viṣaya is available... I have seen at night a small insects, they are also enjoying eating, sleeping, mating. A small, very small ant is captured. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One life is meant for being eaten by another life. You can see, might be very small, he has got all the same tendencies. So viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. So one has to become free from this viṣaya. Viṣayiṅāṁ sandarśanam atha yoṣitāṁ ca hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṅato 'py asādhu [Cc Madhya 11.8]. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... So we should be very careful. Viṣayiṅām, a devotee, if he thinks, "Oh, here is a nice woman. If I could enjoy her," or "Here is a nice man. If I could enjoy him," this is viṣayī. Viṣayiṅāṁ sandarśanam. To see one woman is not dangerous, but to think of enjoying, that is dangerous. Similarly, to see one man is not dangerous—you cannot avoid that; you are on the street here—but to see with the spirit of enjoyment, that is dangerous.

So we should be very careful. That requires, I mean to say, training, very strong training in Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Unless one is strongly in Kṛṣṅa consciousness, that long habit of enjoying spirit cannot be given up. This is, loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantoḥ. Jantu, animals. Anyone who is addicted to vyavāya, sex life; āmiṣa, meat-eating; madya-sevā, intoxication... That is the natural tendency of anyone in this material world. Vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityāḥ. So spiritual advancement means to give up this āmiṣa-madya-sevā. That is spiritual life. Spiritual life does not mean you have to grow four hands and four legs. No. Simply you have to give up these tendencies of vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. Therefore śāstra gives you training how to... Therefore here it is said, harer guṅākṣipta-matir bhagavān bādarāyaṅiḥ. [aside:] Don't do that. Don't divert attention. If you cannot understand, you can go play there. Harer guṅākṣipta. So you cannot be mad after harer guṅa unless you give up your madness of material enjoyment. So long we are mad after material happiness, then we do anything wrong, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. Vikarma means activities which are forbidden. Just like vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā—these are forbidden. But they indulge in these things nowadays all over the world, this vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. This is vikarma, forbidden activities. But they indulge in. Why? Because pramatta. They have become mad.

So madness there is. So one madness you have to give up—this material madness—and you have to become mad after Kṛṣṅa. Then your life is successful. That madness is exhibited by Caitanya Mahāprabhu:

yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṅa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṅa me [Śikṣāṣṭaka 7]

[O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.]

That madness wanted. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṅa: one moment appears to be one yuga. One yuga means twelve years. So yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṅa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam. Crying. There is tears in the eyes like the torrents of rain. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṅa cakṣuṣā... Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam: "I feel the whole world is vacant." Why? Govinda-viraheṅa me. This madness is wanted, without Govinda; that madness. So that madness fully exhibited in Vṛndāvana by the gopīs. They were mad after Kṛṣṅa. When Kṛṣṅa left Vṛndāvana, went to Mathurā, they became so mad that they had no other business than cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, simply crying torrents of rain. That is wanted. That is Vṛndāvana life. Not that seeking after sex in Vṛndāvana. That is... That means such person will have to take birth as monkey next life. Monkey. Because they have taken shelter of Vṛndāvana, and still they're indulging, monkey's business, so they have to... It is Kṛṣṅa's mercy. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṅaḥ [SB 10.14.8]. In Vṛndāvana the land, transcendental land, that will not go in vain. But these persons who are indulging unnecessary sex life in Vṛndāvana, they'll have to take birth as monkeys in Vṛndāvana, and then next life they'll be liberated. So otherwise, why in Vṛndāvana the monkeys? They are also devotees, but they could not proceed nicely. So animal life means stopping sinful activities, and whatever sinful reaction is there, in one life finished. We should be very, very careful. Dhāma, dhāma-aparādha. In the dhāma... In other places if you chant Hare Kṛṣṅa, the result of such chanting will be increased thousand times if you chant in Vṛndāvana. Similarly, in other place, the sinful activities, if you commit that sinful activities in Vṛndāvana, then it will be thousand times increased. So we have to be very careful.

So Kṛṣṅa is very kind. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣa..., bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam. If we act impiously, we have to suffer. But for a devotee, karmāṅi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām [Bs 5.54].

[I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who burns up to their roots all fruitive activities of those who are imbued with devotion and impartially ordains for each the due enjoyment of the fruits of one's activities, of all those who walk in the path of work, in accordance with the chain of their previously performed works, no less in the case of the tiny insect that bears the name of indragopa than in that of Indra, king of the devas.]

Karmāṅi nirdahati. Others, for sinful activities, they will have to continue, but if a devotee is in sinful activities, in one life it is finished. But don't take this concession. We should be very much careful not to commit. So we shall have to increase our madness for harer guṅākṣipta-matir bhagavān bādarāyaṅiḥ. And bādarāyaṅi... Śukadeva Gosvāmī is also addressed as Bhagavān. If one is mad after Bhagavān, he's as good as Bhagavān. Harer ākṣipta. One who is mad after Bhagavān, he's as good as Bhagavān. Therefore bādarāyaṅi is addressed here as Bhagavān. In the spiritual world, Bhagavān and His paraphernalia, there is no difference. Don't think that the calf or the cows in Vṛndāvana is less than Kṛṣṅa. No. They're as good as Kṛṣṅa. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ [Bs 5.37].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

They are expansion of Kṛṣṅa's ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. Kṛṣṅa wants to play with the cows and calves. So He's ānanda-cinmaya. His spiritual potency appears as cows and calves. Therefore we see Kṛṣṅa is embracing the calves and cows. He's not embracing a material cow. He has nothing to do with material. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ.

So a pure devotee of Kṛṣṅa is also addressed Bhagavān. Pure devotee. Not that a magician. A pure devotee. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

Bhagavān bādarāyaṅiḥ adhyagān mahād ākhyānam. This is mahād ākhyānam. It is not ordinary ākhyānam. Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṅam. [SB 12.13.18]. He was liberated person, but being to hear about Kṛṣṅa more and more, this is not material; this is spiritual. Mahad ākhyānaṁ nityaṁ viṣṅu-jana-priyaḥ. Nitya. Bhāgavata is not for a saptāha. Bhāgavata is meant for nityam. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu 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.]

Not that one is completely free from the modes of material nature, but prāyeṣu: almost finished. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu. Then he becomes interested. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Or by serving Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly, nityam. As it is said, nityaṁ viṣṅu-jana-priyaḥ. Viṣṅu-jana and hari-jana. Hari-jana does not mean cāmāras and bhaṅgis. Hari-jana means... Cāmāras and bhaṅgis can be elevated to hari-jana, but not by rubber-stamp, "Viṣṅu-jana." Viṣṅu-jana and hari-jana, the same thing. So viṣṅu-jana-priyaḥ. Those who are viṣṅu-jana, their most favorable subject matter of understanding is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṅam.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]