Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.27

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

mano-vaco-dṛk-karaṅehitasya sākṣāt-kṛtaṁ me paribarhaṅaṁ hi vinā pumān yena mahā-vimohāt kṛtānta-pāśān na vimoktum īśet [SB 5.5.27]

[break] [01:40]

Translation: "The true activity of the sense organs—mind, sight, words and all the knowledge-gathering and working senses—is to engage fully in My service. Unless his senses are thus engaged, a living entity cannot think of getting out of the great entanglement of material existence, which is exactly like Yamarāja's stringent rope." [break]

Prabhupāda:

mano-vaco-dṛk-karaṅehitasya sākṣāt-kṛtaṁ me paribarhaṅaṁ hi vinā pumān yena mahā-vimohāt kṛtānta-pāśān na vimoktum īśet [SB 5.5.27]

So the entanglement is made by the senses. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung that śarīra avidyā-jāl, jonendriya tāhe kāl, jīve phele vinaya-sāgore. This body is covering of ignorance, śarīra avidyā-jāla. Everyone has got a material body, and according to the different proportion of ignorance

[child loudly crying in background]

[aside:] This child is so crying. From three miles we can hear. Balanar rodanar balam. This is strength of the children: crying. They can disturb the whole world [laughter] simply by crying. So just see. This is the body, immediately. You cannot cry like that. Even if you are aggrieved, you cannot cry so loudly that up to four miles one can hear. That is not possible. Why it is not possible? Because he has got a different body and you have got a different body. Everything is going on according to the body. This is mahā-vimoha. This is going on, 8,400,000's of different forms of body according to mano, vaca, dṛk, karaṅa, etc. This body is the entanglement, and the senses are the instruments, and we are acting with the senses and we creating another type of body. This is going on. Śarīra avidyā-jāla, jaḍendriya tāhe kāla.

Therefore the first business is how to purify the senses. Bhakti means that. Bhakti, devotional service, means purifying the senses. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said... What is that verse, the body and the senses? I forget now.

Hari-śauri: Indriyāṅi parāṅy āhuḥ?

Prabhupāda: Ah, very good. Thank you. Indriyāṅi parāṅy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhiḥ [Bg 3.42].

[The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.]

These are finer. This body means indriya, and finer than the indriyas is the mind. And finer than the mind is intelligence. And finer than the intelligence is the soul, very minute part and parcel of the Supersoul. That is also mentioned: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca [Cc Madhya 19.140].

[If we divide the tip of a hair into a hundred parts and then take one of these parts and divide it again into a hundred parts, that very fine division is the size of but one of the numberless living entities. They are all cit-kaṅa, particles of spirit, not matter.]

So minute, you cannot imagine it. Keśa agra, the tip of the hair, it is a small point. Divide into ten thousand, then you can get an idea what is the measurement of the soul. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya, jīva bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ. Everything, measurement, is there. It is not that without body. It is. There is body. And the impetus is coming from there. Intelligence is working, then mind is producing the senses, and the senses are transforming into a gross body. This is material existence. How finely it is. Where is the science? The rascal do not know except this body. Dehātma buddhi.

Therefore one who sticks to this body only, gross body, atheist class... Just like in our country the Cārvāka, he says, bhasmī-bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar-āgamano bhavet: "Why you are thinking of next birth? It is not possible. We see this gross body is burnt into ashes. And where is the soul? Who is coming back again? Don't care for all these things. Live happily. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy." Yāvaj jīvet sukhaṁ jīvet. This philosophy is going on: "There is no mind, there is no intelligence, there is no soul, only this gross body, and so long we possess this gross body, let us enjoy the senses." But this is called, it is described, mahā-vimoha. This is the greatest bewilderment, mahā-vimoha. So because people have no education how we are existing in this material world, vimohana, vimūḍha, prakṛti, how nature is working... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā [Bg 3.27].

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

Vimūḍha. Mahā-vimoha. This rascal is thinking that there is no other life. That is not the fact. It is very great entanglement.

So intelligent person, they will try to get out of this śarīra avidyā-jāl, joḍendriya tāhe kāl, to get out of these gross senses. Senses are there. The spirit soul is a person. Person. As Kṛṣṅa is person... Just like the father is person, the child is also person. It cannot be otherwise. Or if the child is a person, the father must be a person. Kṛṣṅa says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg 14.4].

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

So all living entities, we experience it that we are all persons. Even a small insect, a small ant, it is a person. An ant is going this way. If you stop, it will struggle: "Why you are stopping me?" That is person. It will try its best to go this way and this way to avoid your checking. You will find it by practical experience. Even a small ant, it has got all the propensities. 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.]

these propensities—eating, sleeping, sex, and fearing—you will find everywhere. Viṣayaḥ sarvataḥ puruṣya[?]. Viṣaya. Viṣaya does not mean to become rich man. Viṣaya means enjoyment of the senses. That is called viṣaya. Viṣaya chāriyā, se rase majiyā, mukhe bolo hari hari. This is instruction, that we can chant the Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra, we can chant the holy name of the Lord, purely, without offense. Because if we can chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra once only—if it is pure—then immediately you become liberated. Eka hari-nāme yata pāpa hare, pāpī haye tata pāpa karibāre nāre. Hari-nāma is so powerful that once chanting immediately vanquishes the accumulated sinful reaction of millions of lives. Pāpī haye tata pāpa karibāre. Every pāpī, sinful man, is very expert in committing sinful activities. But hari-nāma is so expert that once chanted, the pāpī, the sinful man, will be failure to commit sin anymore.

But the difficulty is that we cannot come to the pure stage of chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra. Due to our past habits our mind is disturbed. We cannot concentrate. Therefore we have fixed up the minimum. We cannot imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura. That is not possible. If somebody imitates Haridāsa Ṭhākura... We can see this chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa and smoking bīḍī. We can understand what is the position. The offense is going on. Therefore we should try to avoid the ten kinds of offenses. Of course, in the beginning the offenses will continue. But chanting, chanting, chanting, chanting, as soon as we become purified... Ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṅam [Cc Antya 20.12].

[Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṅa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṅa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.]

By chanting, chanting, chanting repeatedly, when our the core of heart will be cleansed, ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanam, then immediately bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṅam, this mahā-vimoha... This is mahā... This is bhava-mahā-dāvāgni. They do not know that what kind of position we are now passing through. Kṛṣṅa says the same thing: mṛtyu saṁsāra vartmani. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu saṁsāra vartmani [Bg 9.3].

[Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.]

So we are rascals, we do not know what is that mṛtyu saṁsāra vartmani. We have dismissed everything, all instruction of the śāstra, all instruction of Kṛṣṅa, all instruction of guru. We have all dismissed, "Oh, these are all mythology. There is no life after death." This is going on, maha... Ahaṅkāra vimūḍhātmā. Vimudhātmā. This is the position. We should understand that what is our position. But they have become so dull, just like a stone or a tree. You cut it; it does not respond, does nothing. But if there is life, little pinching—immediately, "Why you are pinching?" That is the difference between life and dead body, or jaḍa and cetanā. So long one is not conscious, he's as good as the stone or the wood. Therefore sometimes Vaiṣṅava poets say that āmāra hṛda pāṣāṅa to galala nā, pāṣāṅa hale gale yeta. We have created such a strong heart of material existence that it does not respond even after suffering so much. This is our position.

So Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement means to bring him to the right position of consciousness. Consciousness we have got. The more it is covered, dull, it cannot respond. But it can be brought into the proper existence, and the process is hearing, hearing. Go on hearing, hearing. Kṛṣṅa has given us one chance, this ear. If we properly use it... Therefore Vedic knowledge is to be heard, hearing. Listen. It is therefore called śruti. The Vedic instruction has to be gotten from the right person through aural reception.

śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṅi vidhunoti suhṛt satām [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.]

So this is the process, that we should engage our ear to receive the knowledge, Vedic knowledge, very attentively. And therefore we have to approach to the proper person and inquire and hear. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanam. Tad viddhi praṅipātena paripraśnena sevayā [Bg 4.34].

[Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.]

Not to hear like animal, but paripraśnena sevaya. Then our knowledge will be developed. This is the process.

So mano-vaco-dṛk-karaṅehitasya sākṣāt-kṛtaṁ me paribarhaṅaṁ hi. So we can worship the Lord by mind, by words, by seeing—all senses. Hṛṣīkeṅa hṛṣīkeśa sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate [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.]

[aside:] You sit down. Yes.

Hṛṣīkeṅa hṛṣīkeśa sevanaṁ bhakti ucyate. Bhakti means hṛṣīka. Hṛṣīka means the senses, karaṅa. Mano-vaca. Mind is the king of the senses. So mind is also one of the senses. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg 15.7]. Mind and the indriyas combined together, we are trying to be happy in this material world, but there is no happiness, simply struggling. Prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṅān [Bg 13.22]. He is put into this prakṛti, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ buddhi, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā [Bg 7.4].

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

So we are put into this prakṛti. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ buddhi mano. These are material. There is also mana. Mind is subtle matter; it is not spirit. So in this way, separated energy and the jīva, the living entity, although he is part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, he wanted to enjoy life separately or independently without Kṛṣṅa, and that is called material world, struggle for existence. Without Kṛṣṅa. Therefore he has to come to Kṛṣṅa. If he wants to stop his struggle for existence with mind and senses, then he must come to Kṛṣṅa. That is the natural position.

But these rascals are not taught about Kṛṣṅa, but they are already in ignorance and they are kept into ignorance. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṅum [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.]

These rascals, they do not know that his real self-interest is how to approach Viṣṅu or Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa, Viṣṅu, therefore comes personally just to show His causeless mercy upon them, to exhibit Himself, how He can be friend to everyone. Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntiṁ ṛcchati. If you want śānti, then you must accept Kṛṣṅa, suhṛdaḥ. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaraṁ, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg 5.29].

[The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.]

He is friend of everyone; therefore He comes. He is not only friend of Arjuna. Arjuna is symbolic friend. He is instructing Arjuna Bhagavad-gītā, His friend, but He is friend of everyone. Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām.

So we must take advantage of the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. It is not meant for... Arjuna is already liberated, but he is placing himself as one of us just to take the lessons of Kṛṣṅa for the benefit of the whole world. Arjuna, who is living with Kṛṣṅa as friend not only in one life... Bahūni me janmāni vyatītāni tava cārjuna [Bg 4.5]. So Arjuna is always with Kṛṣṅa. He cannot be in ignorance. Kṛṣṅa-sūrya-sama, māyā andhakāra, yāhāṅ kṛṣṅa tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra [Cc Madhya 22.31].

[Kṛṣṅa is compared to sunshine, and māyā is compared to darkness. Wherever there is sunshine, there cannot be darkness. As soon as one takes to Kṛṣṅa consciousness, the darkness of illusion (the influence of the external energy) will immediately vanish.]

Who is constantly living with Kṛṣṅa, he has no ignorance, but he's putting himself as ignorant. Just like Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is asking question from Rāmānanda Rāya. Does it mean that Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not know; Rāmānanda Rāya... No. Just to make a scene that how we can get knowledge from hearing from the authorities. Similarly, Arjuna placed himself—it is a theatrical stage—that ignorant. But actually he is liberated. When Arjuna was advised to practice haṭha-yoga, he said, "Kṛṣṅa, it is not possible for me."

cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṅa pramāthi balavad dṛḍhaṁ tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye vāyor iva suduṣkaram [Bg 6.34]

"I cannot do this." He was frank enough. Or on behalf of us he said frankly that "It is impossible," at least in the Kali-yuga, "to control the mind." Yoga indriya saṁyamaḥ. It is not possible. Cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṅa pramāthi balavad dṛḍham [Bg 6.34]. Five thousand years, Arjuna is denying to accept this yogic process. "It is not possible to give that. I am a politician. I am a military man. I have to fight. I have to see so many things. How can I control my mind? It is not possible."

So that is fact. This controlling the mind by the yogic process, by meditation, is impossible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga: kīrte[?]-yajñāya... [break] ...read so many śāstras, the essence of the śāstra. That is the duty of the ācārya. The essence of the śāstra should be presented to the fools and rascals so that, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He presented Himself before His guru that guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsana [Cc Ādi 7.71]: "My guru found Me a great rascal." Caitanya Mahāprabhu was not a rascal, but He presented Himself as a rascal because we are rascals. These people of this age, they are all rascals. Therefore He presented Himself, guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsana: "My guru saw Me a great rascal; therefore he has asked Me, chastised Me, that 'You rascal, You cannot understand Vedānta. You cannot read even.' " Mūrkha tumi nāhi tomāra vedānta adhikāra: "You cannot read Vedānta." That means the rascals of this age, what they will understand with Vedānta? They will simply misrepresent. They will simply mislead the persons. You see so many big, big politicians, scholars, simply misleading people from Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is spoken on the battlefield, and they want to prove that it is nonviolence. In this way people are being misled.

Therefore avoid this rascal process, to read something and interpret in a different way. Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to do that. Guru more mūrkha dekhi karila śāsana. So we should not try to become very learned scholar by misreading the Vedic literature. Take the instruction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu—the śāstra, the Bṛhad-nāradīya Purāṅa. Sādhu śāstra guru vākya [Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura]. Sādhu will not speak anything which is not in the śāstra. That is sādhu. Sādhu cannot manufacture anything. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said that,

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalaṁ kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir... [Cc Ādi 17.21]

[In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.]

Chant Hare Kṛṣṅa as many times as possible and be liberated.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]