Next Class: Why does someone act against their own self interest? Srimad Bhagavatam Class ISKCON Toronto Sunday 5 May 2024

Hare Krishna!

ISKCON Toronto Srimad Bhagavatam Class on 05 May 2024 7:30 AM (Eastern Time)

ISKCON Toronto Youtube

ISKCON Toronto, 243 Avenue Road, Toronto, ON, M5R 2J6

I will also record this class. Later on, I will send out a link of the recording to those who have expressed interest.

Please contact if you’re interested in this class.

Class Overview

Despite knowing that certain actions are not in one’s own best self-interest, why do people still act in that way? What impels them to hurt themselves?

This is one of the instructions spoken by Lord Rishabhadeva, an incarnation of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These instructions were given to his sons.

ŚB 5.5.4

नूनं प्रमत्त: कुरुते विकर्म
यदिन्द्रियप्रीतय आपृणोति ।
न साधु मन्ये यत आत्मनोऽय-
मसन्नपि क्लेशद आस देह: ॥ ४ ॥

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano ’yam
asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ

Synonyms
nūnam — indeed; pramattaḥ — mad; kurute — performs; vikarma — sinful activities forbidden in the scriptures; yat — when; indriya-prītaye — for sense gratification; āpṛṇoti — engages; na — not; sādhu — befitting; manye — I think; yataḥ — by which; ātmanaḥ — of the soul; ayam — this; asan — being temporary; api — although; kleśa-daḥ — giving misery; āsa — became possible; dehaḥ — the body.

Translation
When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his past misdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, is the cause of his misery. Actually the living entity should not have taken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body for sense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification by which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another.

Purport
Begging, borrowing and stealing to live for sense gratification is condemned in this verse because such consciousness leads one to a dark, hellish condition. The four sinful activities are illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. These are the means by which one gets another material body that is full of miseries. In the Vedas it is said: asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ. The living entity is not really connected with this material world, but due to his tendency to enjoy the material senses he is put into the material condition. One should perfect his life by associating with devotees. He should not become further implicated in the material body.