Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.6

Pradyumna: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [break]

evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat [SB 5.5.6]

[01:22]

Translation: "When the living entity is covered by the mode of ignorance, he does not understand the individual living being and the supreme living being, and his mind is subjugated to fruitive activity. Therefore, until one has love for Lord Vāsudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from having to accept a material body again and again." [break]

Prabhupāda:

evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat [SB 5.5.6]

This is another important verse. The problem is presented, deha-yogena. Deha-yogena, this body, contact with this material body, this is the problem. But nobody knows it. Especially in these days they cannot understand that "This material body is a foreign element, and somehow or other I am victimized, I am entrapped within this body." This problem is real problem. But they do not know. And this is called avidyā, ignorance.

There are two kinds of strong avidyā, ignorance, unawareness. Sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. Rajo-guṅa and tamo-guṅa is covering. Tamo-guṅa is very densely covering, and rajo-guṅa little open, and sattva-guṅa means prakāśa, there is illumination, brahminical qualifications. When one is in the sattva-guṅa, then he can understand that "I am not this body. I am different from this body." For them, those who are in the sattva-guṅa, for them it is easier. So therefore the process is... Human civilization means not to drag somebody who is already in the sattva-guṅa or in the family of sattva-guṅa, to drag him down to the tamo-guṅa. The modern civilization is like that. The allurement of material civilization is so strong and so bad that those who are by pious activities born in brāhmaṅa family, they are being dragged to the tamo-guṅa behavior like śūdras. They are learning how to drink, how to eat meat, how to have illicit sex. These are the symptoms of tamo-guṅa, lowest type of tamo-guṅa.

There are different degrees of guṅa. The degrees are so mixed up. Therefore three guṅas is manifested into 8,400,000's of different forms of life, mixture. You can calculate—we have several times calculated—three multiplied by three equal nine. Nine multiplied by nine, eighty-one. So therefore there are so many varieties. So human civilization should be so arranged that never mind it is so mixed up, you have to gradually draw him again to the sattva-guṅa. That is human civilization. Not that drag him again to the tamo-guṅa. Somebody, by pious activities, by good work, he's already in the sattva-guṅa, but the arrangement, the social, political, economical arrangement, is so bad that one is dragged to the tamo-guṅa. This is not civilization. This is degradation. Civilization means elevation. The aim is how to become disconnected with this material body. This is civilization. Otherwise that is not civilization, it is animal life. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

So the Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is an attempt to bring the human society into the proper platform of civilization. It is a very scientific movement. How it is done? Here it is said, prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. Prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat. This is the problem. So by gradual process, to bring one to the platform of vāsudeve prītir, that is bhakti. Prītir means love, how to love Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa. That is civilization—to bring one to the platform of loving Kṛṣṅa, prītir to Vāsudeva. Vāsudevah sarvam iti [Bg 7.19].

[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]

Just like if you love somebody, the intense love is that your lover or beloved is everything. That is love. Just like a mother loves her child. So she is always anxious to take care of the child. Whole attention is on the child. These are examples. These are not actually love, but a perverted reflection of love. We can understand what is love. This love does not stand, but nature dictates that you love your child like this, you love your husband like this, your wife like this, your country like this, your society like this. There are different grades of loving demonstration. That loving demonstration, when it will be concentrated on Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa, that is the highest perfection of life.

Therefore it is said, prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. One may have prītir... Because we do not know Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa, we have got natural tendency to love, but we do not know where to place love. If we place our loving tendency unto Kṛṣṅa, Vāsudeva, then that tendency becomes fruitful and perfection. That is wanted. Therefore it is said that,

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ notpādayed ratiṁ yadi śrama eva hi kevalam [SB 1.2.8]

[The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.]

vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānam ca yad ahaitukam [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 place your loving tendency to Vāsudeva, then vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ. This can be done perfectly by bhakti-yoga, not by any other. There are different yoga system. Everything is mixed up with little bhakti, but... Just like karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, there are different. But the real yoga means loving Vāsudeva, Bhagavān. Therefore Bhagavān says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yogināṁ api sarveṣāṁ [Bg 6.47].

[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.]

All other yoga system, there is little tinge of vāsudeva-bhakti, but not cent per cent pure. It is mixed. Miśra-bhakti. Miśra-bhakti will not be immediately fruitful. It will take long, long time. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg 7.19].

[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]

Everything, there is some bhakti-yoga, but if it is not pure, then it will take very, very, very, very long time, bahūnāṁ janmanām. One janma means hundreds of years. We are not talking of any other janma. Even human form of life. Because those who are advanced in spiritual life, there is every possibility for getting next life a human being. Otherwise nobody knows. Those who are ignorant, they do not know. There will be change of body—tathā dehāntara prāptir—that is a fact. But those who are in the sattva-guṅa, they are sure to get next life in the human society. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sanjāyate [Bg 6.41].

[The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.]

This śucīnāṁ, pure brāhmaṅa, and śrīmatāṁ, very rich vaiśya, or kṣatriya... Kings and mercantile community, they are rich, śrīmat. Śrī means opulence, and mat means one who has. Śrīmatām.

So this is a chance that even if you are failure in this life, somehow or other you get chance next life again human form of life, either in a very nice pure brāhmaṅa family or Vaiṣṅava family. Vaiṣṅava family is better than brāhmaṅa family. [break] ...ringing the karatālas, chanting, dancing, offering obeisances to the Lord, temple atmosphere. Don't think it is ordinary opportunity. It is very great opportunity. From the very beginning of life they are getting impression, bhakti-yoga. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yoga. These are not going in vain. Even a child is playing karatāla, imitation. Not imitation; he's given the chance. He was previously Vaiṣṅava. Somehow or other, he could not make his life perfect. Therefore he is given again chance. So naturally he has got tendency to play the karatāla, to offer flower here, to offer obeisances. They take pleasure. It is due to previous life, yogas. But it was not perfectly done, so somehow or other they are getting chance from the very beginning of life. It does not mean that if somebody did not get the chance from the very beginning of life he cannot. He can be also. So..., but the ultimate aim is vāsudeve. Prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. This is the ultimate goal. You have to come to this stage, vāsudevah sarvam iti, fully, firmly convinced that "Vāsudeva is my life. Vāsudeva is everything. Kṛṣṅa is my life." And the highest perfection is visible in the Vṛndāvana atmosphere, especially by the gopīs. Everyone in Vṛndāvana, even the trees and plants, even the grains of sand, everyone is attached to Kṛṣṅa. That is Vṛndāvana.

So not all of a sudden we can get that highest stage of life, of Vṛndāvana attachment. But still, wherever we stay, if we practice this bhakti-yoga, as we are preaching... And it is becoming successful. People are taking. Those who were so-called mlecchas and yavanas, they are also taking to Vāsudeva. Their love for Kṛṣṅa is increasing. That is natural. It is said in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, nitya siddha kṛṣṅa bhakti [Cc Madhya 22.107].

[Pure love for Kṛṣṅa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.]

Nitya siddha. Just like I am, or you are, we are eternal. Nityo śāśvato 'yam na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. We are not destroyed by the destruction of the body. We remain, continue to remain. Similarly, our devotion to Kṛṣṅa continues. It is simply covered. Avidyayātmāny upādhiyamāne. Avidya. This is avidya. We forget Kṛṣṅa, that is avidya. And as soon as we take Kṛṣṅa as our life and soul, that is vidya. You can do. Anyone can do very easily. Kṛṣṅa says, therefore, sarva dharmān parityajya mam ekam śaraṅaṁ [Bg 18.66]. Why? Any other so-called religious system, that is avidya—will keep you in ignorance. There is no light. And the Vedic injunction is that "Don't keep yourself in the darkness of ignorance." Tamasi mā jyoti gamaḥ.

That jyotiḥ means to love Kṛṣṅa. And loving affairs of Kṛṣṅa is in the spiritual world. That is jyotiḥ, jyotirmāyā dhāma, self-effulgent. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koti [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.]

There is no darkness. Just like in the sun there is no question of darkness. The examples are here. We can understand what is jyotiḥ. We can see that there is no darkness in the sun planet. It is all glowing effulgence. Similarly, in the spiritual world there is no ignorance. Everyone is śuddha-sattva. Not only sattva-guṅa, but śuddha-sattva. Sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vāsudeva-śabditaḥ. Here, in this material world, there are three qualities: sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. So none of these guṅas are pure. There is a mixture. And because there is mixture, therefore we see so many varieties. But we have to come to the platform of sattva-guṅa. And that process is hearing. This is the best process. Śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ [SB 1.2.17].

[Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.]

If you hear regularly Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... We are therefore stressing: "Always hear, always read, always hear." 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.]

Nitya. If you can constantly, twenty-four hours, if you hear and chant... Hear means somebody chants or you chant yourself or hear, or some of your colleague may chant, you hear. Or he may hear, you may chant. This process must go on. This is śrāvaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ [SB 7.5.23].

[Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṅu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṅa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.]

Viṣṅoḥ. That is Bhāgavata. Not any other nonsense talks, gossiping. Simply hear and chant. Then śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅa. If you seriously hear and chant, seriously—"Yes, this life I shall engage only for increasing my love of Vāsudeva"—if you are determined, it can be done. There is no difficulty. And as soon as you do this, you increase fully your love for Vasudeva, then there is no more chance of contacting material body.

janma karma ca divyam me yo janati tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti... [Bg 4.9]

[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]

That is the same thing.

And if you do not understand Kṛṣṅa, if you do not increase your natural love for Kṛṣṅa, then na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat. There is no chance. They have no chance. You may take birth next life in a very rich family, in a brāhmaṅa family, yogo-bhraṣṭaḥ, but that is also not release. Again you may fall down. Just like we see there are so many... Just like you Americans, you are born in rich family, rich nation, but falling down, becoming hippies. Falling down. So there is chance. Not that it is guaranteed, "Because I am born in a rich family or brāhmaṅa family, that is guarantee." No guarantee. This māyā is so strong that it is only trying to drag you—drag you down, drag you down. So many influences. So therefore we sometimes see that these Americans, they are so fortunate they are born in a country where there is no poverty, there is no scarcity. But still, because the leaders are rascals, they have arranged for meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication and gambling. Advertise. Advertise naked woman and, what is called, beef-eaters, and liquor. This is going on. Advertise cigarettes, just to pull them down again, go to hell. Punar mūṣiko bhava. They do not know what dangerous civilization this is dragging them. Therefore sometimes some saner section of the old men, they come to me, they offer their thanks: "Swāmījī, it is a great fortune that you have come to our country." They acknowledge. Yes, that's a fact. This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is a great fortunate movement. And especially in the Western countries, that's a fact.

So those who have taken, take it very seriously. Increase your love for Kṛṣṅa. Prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha yogena... They do not know what is the actual problem of life. The actual problem of life is deha-yoga, this foreign body. We are accepting one type—bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19]—accepting one type of body. Therefore they have, these rascals, leaders in Europe and America, they have concluded there is no birth. That's all. Because if they accept there is life after death, then it is horrible for them. So they have dismissed: "No, there is no birth." Big, big so-called professors, learned scholars, they talk foolishly: "Swāmījī, after this body is finished, everything is finished." That is their conclusion. And the body comes by accident, kim anyat kāma-haitukam. Asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśvaram [Bg 16.8].

So this kind of civilization is very dangerous. Very, very dangerous. So at least those who have come to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, they should be very, very cautious about this dangerous type of civilization. People are suffering. Take to Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement and be happy and perfect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]