The ISKCON Toronto Srimad Bhagavatam Class on 05 May 2024 at 7:30 AM (Eastern Time) will address the guidance of Lord Rishabhadeva on understanding our actions, the motivation behind them, and their consequences. The class will be recorded and shared. Join in person or online to explore how to avoid long-term pain for short-term gain, and how to find lasting happiness devoid of undesirable reactions.
Hare Krishna!
ISKCON Toronto Srimad Bhagavatam Class on 05 May 2024 7:30 AM (Eastern Time)
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.
When facing physical pain, it’s natural to feel anxious. This anxiety can be debilitating if not channeled properly. However, this can be channeled to deepen Krishna Consciousness. Just like a cricket batsman flicks away a fast ball from an aggressive bowler to score many runs, embracing verses like 10.14.8 from Srimad Bhagavatam within the heart and leveraging hardships to increase devotion can lead to liberation. Just as a legitimate son inherits from his father, a sincere devotee will gain the mercy of the Lord and attain the kingdom of God.
Question
When I get any physical pain or physical health problem, I tend to get extremely anxious. How to deal with that?
Answer
The anxiety in response to physical pain is natural. After all your body is your home, home of the spirit soul.
If there is a fire or flood in our home we get anxious and take care to mitigate the issue. People spend their whole life maintaining their house and clothes and car.
India is full of people who are mad after cricket. So here is a cricket analogy… when a fast bowler sends a very fast ball the batsman who is skillful channels the energy of the bowler to score runs, just by flicking the ball away to the boundary.
We may not be able to avoid anxiety but we can channel that anxiety to increase our Krishna Consciousness. We can use the opportunity to remember that the present body is temporary, to remember Krishna and take to His shelter more deeply. Whenever I feel such pain I ask if this may be my last moment in this life and try to remember Krishna very sincerely and cry, even if internally, that I am not yet Krishna Conscious.
Verse 10.14.8 from Srimad Bhagavatam is my favorite to take shelter of when facing adverse situations. Learn it by heart and take shelter of that verse whenever you feel anxious.
तत्तेऽनुकम्पां सुसमीक्षमाणो भुञ्जान एवात्मकृतं विपाकम् । हृद्वाग्वपुर्भिर्विदधन्नमस्ते जीवेत यो मुक्तिपदे स दायभाक् ॥ ८ ॥
tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk
Translation My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.
Purport Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains in his commentary that just as a legitimate son has to simply remain alive to gain an inheritance from his father, one who simply remains alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga, automatically becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the Personality of Godhead. In other words, he will be promoted to the kingdom of God.
The word su-samīkṣamāṇa indicates that a devotee earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord even while suffering the painful effects of previous sinful activities. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains in the Bhagavad-gītā that a devotee who fully surrenders unto Him is no longer liable to suffer the reactions of his previous karma. However, because in his mind a devotee may still maintain the remnants of his previous sinful mentality, the Lord removes the last vestiges of the enjoying spirit by giving His devotee punishments that may sometimes resemble sinful reactions. The purpose of the entire creation of God is to rectify the living entity’s tendency to enjoy without the Lord, and therefore the particular punishment given for a sinful activity is specifically designed to curtail the mentality that produced the activity. Although a devotee has surrendered to the Lord’s devotional service, until he is completely perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he may maintain a slight inclination to enjoy the false happiness of this world. The Lord therefore creates a particular situation to eradicate this remaining enjoying spirit. This unhappiness suffered by a sincere devotee is not technically a karmic reaction; it is rather the Lord’s special mercy for inducing His devotee to completely let go of the material world and return home, back to Godhead.
A sincere devotee earnestly desires to go back to the Lord’s abode. Therefore he willingly accepts the Lord’s merciful punishment and continues offering respects and obeisances to the Lord with his heart, words and body. Such a bona fide servant of the Lord, considering all hardship a small price to pay for gaining the personal association of the Lord, certainly becomes a legitimate son of God, as indicated here by the words dāya-bhāk. Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord.
Once upon a time there was a bull. Then there was a warrior. And then there was a great saint. The bull became the warrior who became the saint when reminded of his legacy… how come? How does a bull become a saint?
Picture this…
A wealthy, handsome young man in full armour on horseback. A hot day in South Central India, where temperatures routinely exceed 40 Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit. They’re thirsty, parched, both the warrior and the horse.
Dhondo Pant Raghunath, our dashing warrior, suddenly chances upon a river. It’s cool waters were irresistible on the searing hot day. So, the young man rides his horse straight into the cool refreshing waters of the river, and both horse and man eagerly quench their thirst.
A sage sitting on the bank remarks “kim pashuh purva dehe? / किं पशुः पूर्व देहे?” or “why, were you an animal in your previous body?”.
Hearing this question instantly brought back a flood of past life memories in our young Dhondo Pant.
tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ labhate paurva-dehikam yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana
On taking such a birth, he revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he again tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru.
In his former lifetime, Dhondo Pant had been a bull.
Yes, four-legged bovine with horns, used as a beast of burden. He was in the service of the great Ananda Tirtha, or Sripad Madhvacharya. The bull was engaged in carrying the manuscripts of various scriptural texts and commentaries.
Madhvacharya is famous for having written commentaries, “bhashya / भाष्य” on the various fundamental texts of Vedic literature. If you have come across the commentaries of Sripad Madhvacharya, you may have noticed that they are not very easy to understand, even for a well-educated reader. Many of his disciples therefore requested permission to write commentaries on the commentaries “teeka / टीका”… but Madhvacharya refused them all.
He said “This bull here shall write the commentaries on my works“.
And the great sage on the riverbank recognized the soul, he saw the soul who wore the body of a bull, now wearing the body of this rich young man. The sage was the great Akshobhya Tirtha, a spiritual descendent of Sripad Madhvacharya. Such is the mercy of the spiritual master, who appears at the right time, at the right place, to claim a soul on behalf of God.
I am fortunate to be initiated in the same line of discplic succession.
By the mercy of my eternal spiritual master His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari and his divine spiritual master His Divine Grace A. C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In a similar way, my spiritual master approached me through the Internet, and answered my questions patiently, writing over 600 replies, before I recognized him as my spiritual master. I offer my respectful obeisances to my spiritual master for helping me recognize who I am and be myself. However, I am still unworthy, to be honest.
In any case, our bull-turned-young man immediately decided…
To renounce his materialistic life in a rich family, and take Sannyasa, the monastic order of pure devotion to Sri Krishna. He was now known as Jayatirtha. His father, Raghunath Deshpande, like any rich father, tried his best to stop his son, but in the end had to acquiesce to the divine destiny that was unfolding before his eyes.
Sri Jayateertha is famous as “Teekacharyaru / ಟೀಕಾಚಾರ್ಯರು”, or “The Master of the Commentaries. The word Acharya means one who teaches purely the instructions of God and personally lives those teachings. “Teeka” means commentary upon a commentary.
So, by the grace of Sri Jayatirtha…
the complex instructions of the Vedic literature of Madhvacharya was revealed to us, to study, understand, discuss, teach, and follow ourselves. His Samadhi still exists in Southern India, in Malkhed, Kalaburgi District, Karnataka. A saint who has entered Samadhi is not “dead”, one can go and receive their blessings just as one can receive blessings from a saint who still walks the earth amongst us. Near the Samadhi of Jayatirtha is the Samadhi of his spiritual master, Sri Akshobhya Tirtha.
What can we learn from this incident…
Of the warrior turned sage who was a bull in his former lifetime? That no matter how we engage in the service of God, it is always beneficial. What is more, no matter how small a thing someone does for God, that soul benefits beyond our comprehension.
नेहाभिक्रमनाशोऽस्ति प्रत्यवायो न विद्यते । स्वल्पमप्यस्य धर्मस्य त्रायते महतो भयात् ॥ ४० ॥
nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti pratyavāyo na vidyate sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt
In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.
The great Jayananda Prabhu is a perfect example… he would often call out to a passerby, “Hey can you just hold this nail for me?”, and before you know it, by service to Krishna, the dull, unclean passerby has transformed into a bright-faced Vaishnava devotee!
In a similar way, we request donations from everyone we speak to. The donations are not for us, we don’t need anyone’s money. Krishna has given us enough. But anyone who gives, they benefit.
दातव्यमिति यद्दानं दीयतेऽनुपकारिणे । देशे काले च पात्रे च तद्दानं सात्त्विकं स्मृतम् ॥ २० ॥
dātavyam iti yad dānaṁ dīyate ’nupakāriṇe deśe kāle ca pātre ca tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛtam
Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person is considered to be in the mode of goodness.
Sometimes we get a ride from someone, sometimes, we ask someone to help move some boxes or hold open a door… sometimes, we give an animal Krishna Prasada, or chant the Holy Name of Krishna loudly so they hear it.
prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate prasanna-cetaso hy āśu buddhiḥ paryavatiṣṭhate
For one thus satisfied [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one’s intelligence is soon well established.
Anyone who comes in contact with someone engaged in devotional service is benefited. Whether it is the ant who comes in contact with the dust from the altar, or the bee who was intoxicated on some leftover nectar offered to Krishna, or the cockroach who lives in Radharani’s kitchen and feeds on leftover Prasadam.
When I got out on Harinam, pigeons and seagulls sometimes surround me. I am 100% certain that all those souls will come back as devotees, and Krishna will help me serve them again. I can’t wait to see them again, as bright-faced Vaishnavas!
There is also eyewitness evidence to the power of Prasada… food offered to the Lord, but more on that another day.
It doesn’t matter what your present condition is. Just engage somehow or other in Bhakti, pure devotional service. You will benefit beyond your wildest imagination! As one of my teachers, Vaisesika Prabhu, likes to say “do what you can, with what you have”
P.P.S: This is the disciplic succession with which I have received my spiritual knowledge and impetus to share this knowledge. Many branches and sub-branches of this disciplic succession have helped me, not to mention souls from so many other traditions from around the world. I am grateful to them all, too numerous to mention.
Do you strive to look good? Body building? Sculpting? Plastic Surgery? Fashion? Chic? Couture? Do you know that you may be bound up, trapped, shackled, your freedom of choice stripped from you? Do you know you could be trapped?
Are you into body building or body sculpting? Like for example, making sure those abs, biceps, triceps are just perfect? Do you invest in protein shakes and supplements just so you can make your body look just so? Have you undertaken plastic surgery to hide the ravages of time? Does it make you feel good when people admire your body?
Are you into trendy fashion or hair or makeup? Are you always up-to-date with your wardrobe striving to look like that fashion model on the ramp? Are you a fashionista? Do you strive to dress up or look chic? Are you constantly striving to turn heads with the way you look?
If you answered even a partial yes to one of the above questions, I’m sorry to say that you are a prisoner. You have been forcibly taken away from yourself and bound up, hand and foot. But your shackles, yeah, they look amazing.
Needless to say, it doesn’t matter how nice those shackles look, they’re still shackles. A shackled person has no freedom of movement. A shackled person also has extremely limited freedom of choice.
Why do I equate a sculpted body or a keen sense of fashion consciousness you ask? Please consider this.
देही नित्यमवध्योऽयं देहे सर्वस्य भारत । तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ ३० ॥
Let’s say you drive a car, let’s say the car is of a particular brand, let’s say it is an old Honda. One fine day, if the car stops working while you are out and about, it just won’t go, you gotta’ get it towed. Were “you” towed or was it the car that was towed?
Now, let’s say you drive another car… and this time, the car is a brand new 2023 Jaguar. Now let’s say you were feeling hungry and you went to a service station… the attendants at the service station fawned over your new car, refueled it, inflated the tires, and handed you a bill. But they didn’t give you anything to eat. But did they not refuel you? Ah, not you? They refueled your car?
There is a story about a woman and her bird in a cage. She polished and polished and polished the cage every single day. But no matter how hard she polished her cage, the bird inside kept getting weaker and weaker… until one day the bird in the cage dropped dead. Well, duh, you might say, the woman forgot to feed the bird!
And that is exactly what being overly conscious of our body or our clothes does to us… this applies to our other vehicles too, our bikes or cars, our homes or offices… ultimately we are not these body, clothes, vehicles or dwellings.
We are spirit souls. Each and every one of us. Including the trees and the insects and the birds and the fish and the animals. Every living being is a spirit soul.
विद्याविनयसम्पन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि । शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिता: समदर्शिन: ॥ १८ ॥
vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini śuni caiva śva-pāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].
When I flex my muscles and look in the mirror, when I dress to attract the attention of whoever is likely to be attracted by my attire, I am causing myself to forget that I am a spirit soul. I am causing the others to forget that I am a spirit soul. I am entrapping myself and others!
This consciousness is so pervasive and has become so deeply rooted in our psyche, that we feel we’re doing this for “me”, for ourselves. But it’s a mere reflection of us, a shadow at best.
Why is bodily consciousness so bad for us? Because this makes us forget the core of who we are, spiritual beings living in a world of illusory perceptions, unnecessarily suffering through the travails of the material realm.
Excessive attachment to the body and mind, to the point where a person neglects their true needs, which are spiritual in nature, is the cause of all our problems. In other words, a person may be in the human form of life, but is acting no better than a lifeless object or a soul living in the lower species.
तरव: किं न जीवन्ति भस्त्रा: किं न श्वसन्त्युत । न खादन्ति न मेहन्ति किं ग्रामे पशवोऽपरे ॥ १८ ॥
taravaḥ kiṁ na jīvanti bhastrāḥ kiṁ na śvasanty uta na khādanti na mehanti kiṁ grāme paśavo ’pare
Do the trees not live? Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe? All around us, do the beasts not eat and discharge semen?
Ultimately, bodily consciousness traps us in the most enticing of sensual pleasures, sex. Even if a person has become old or invalid, someone who has not cultivated spiritual consciousness is still entrapped by this deadly attraction.
Indeed, sex is the main thing that keeps a spirit soul entrapped!
yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ
Sex life is compared to the rubbing of two hands to relieve an itch. Gṛhamedhis, 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 kṛpaṇas, the fools who are just the opposite of brāhmaṇas, 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.
As a child of God, we have a most wonderful life in the spiritual realm, complete in every respect. We are now just like a rebellious child of prosperous loving parents, living on the street without proper food, clothes, and shelter.
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.
Yes, to stay healthy, a body needs a balanced diet and exercise. Despite all this care, the body does grow old, get sick, and die. So doing anything beyond the minimum for the body is but a waste of time and energy.
Why, you ask? Well, just think about what will happen to our body after our death? Either it is offered to the fire and burned to ashes, or it is buried underground and becomes earth… or, in some cultures, the body is fed to the vultures, and ends up as the droppings of those birds.
deva-saṁjñitam apy ante kṛmi-viḍ-bhasma-saṁjñitam bhūta-dhruk tat-kṛte svārthaṁ kiṁ veda nirayo yataḥ
While living one may be proud of one’s body, thinking oneself a very big man, minister, president or even demigod, but whatever one may be, after death this body will turn either into worms, into stool or into ashes. If one kills poor animals to satisfy the temporary whims of this body, one does not know that he will suffer in his next birth, for such a sinful miscreant must go to hell and suffer the results of his actions.
To keep the mind healthy, it needs some amount of recreation and social interaction. The body assists the mind with this, giving it the stimulation it needs through the senses. The mind needs some amount of exercise too, but beyond that, no matter how much you serve the mind, it will remain as flickering, as unpredictable as ever. It will not stop flip-flopping either, one moment like, the next moment hatred… one moment happy, one moment sad. Now agreeing, now disagreeing. Will you make up your mind, my dear mind? No, the mind is the mind.
Unless the mind is engaged in the service of the intelligence it will remain bound up in its own little petty nonsense. The intelligence, which is beyond the mind, must be engaged in the service of the spirit soul.
And the spirit soul, which is a part-and-parcel of the Supreme Spirit, must be engaged in the service of the Supreme Divine. This Supreme Divine is referred to by many names depending on the knowledge and culture, but ultimately, is referred to as God in the impersonal sense. But of course, God is a Person, just not a person like us.
God is the eternally ever-perfect, manifesting each of us in order to have a loving personal relationship with us. He manifests uncountable living entities, and uncountable Universes. As long as we remain trapped in bodily consciousness, we can never make spiritual advancement.
Would you like to be free of your shackles? Ask me how!
Not long ago, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. With over $209B in assets, it still collapsed. Where is your wealth? What is your wealth really? Who or what can protect your wealth?
Not long ago, Silicon Valley Bank, a large American bank, with over Two Hundred and Nine Billion Dollars in assets experienced a meltdown situation, where depositors tried to withdraw forty two billion dollars in one day. This is called a “run on the bank” and resulted in the bank collapsing.
Why did the depositors of the bank scramble to withdraw their money so quickly? Banks take your money, and then they try to invest it, keeping some of your money in cash, but most of it locked away in various types of investments, making them (usually) handsome returns. The amount of money they keep as cash, divided by the amount of money they invest, is called a “liquidity ratio”. And that liquidity ratio is strictly regulated. Despite this regulation, clearly, sometimes, the bank may just not have enough money to pay out!
The external reason of why Silicon Valley Bank crashed is because they had their money invested in bonds, which were dropping in value as interest rates rose. So, the bank was selling their bonds at a loss, and they were short by a couple billion dollars. The news got out and it was mayhem after.
Now, to put all that into perspective you know how much US$209B is? That is more than the total wealth of 103 different countries… Belarus, Jordan, Serbia, Slovenia, 103 of them. And it is more than the collective wealth of the world’s 44 poorest countries.
Think about it. Silicon Valley Bank had more wealth than 44 countries put together!
Ultimately the bank was bailed out by the US Government and purchased by another bank, but otherwise depositors would have lost a lot of money.
In this particular case, the US taxpayers were left holding the bill for the collapsed bank.
In general, people assume that such things, like banks, governments, police, armies, weapons, communities, families, wealth, and our own bodies and minds can be actually relied upon. But all of them are fallible soldiers, liable to fail at any moment without notice.
If a bank with that much wealth can collapse from one day to the next, what to speak of your wealth? Surely you don’t have US$209B to your name at a bank?
Neither will your wealth, nor your family, nor your community, society, country, your own personal strength or intelligence save you!
देहापत्यकलत्रादिष्वात्मसैन्येष्वसत्स्वपि । तेषां प्रमत्तो निधनं पश्यन्नपि न पश्यति ॥ ४ ॥
dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati
Persons devoid of ātma-tattva do not inquire into the problems of life, being too attached to the fallible soldiers like the body, children and wife. Although sufficiently experienced, they still do not see their inevitable destruction.
Further, on a related note, Srila Prabhupada writes this…
Such persons complacently believe that their nations, communities or families can protect them, unaware that all such fallible soldiers will be destroyed in due course of time.
In other words, nothing that we have anywhere in this world is safe.
So how to protect what is ours?
There is only one way.
In general, only that which we give away, we get to keep.
Give away money? You will get it back in your future lifetimes. Give love? You will receive much love. What you have today is a sum total of what you have given away in the past.
What do I mean by that? That the credit for giving something away is what we take with us. As in the case of Alexander the great, he left his wealth behind upon death, but the results of his activities – all his conquests – the karmic reactions for so many killed, hurt, etc., that he took with him to suffer afterwards. For every death, he had to suffer a death, for every maiming, he had to be maimed himself, for every bit of gold stolen from others, he had to be robbed himself, and so on.
What is your real wealth, anyways?
यं लब्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं तत: ।
yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ
upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain
What is it that will satisfy you so much that you will think there is no greater gain? It cannot be money or any other possession, because with money, no matter how much someone has, they are never fully satisfied by it. It cannot be posessions, because the satisfaction one gets from one’s possessions is a continuous downward trend. It cannot be sensual experiences, because when one has some sensual pleasure, they only hanker for more.
There must be something more, something on a completely different dimension!
What is that greatest wealth?
It is the wealth of the soul, which is spiritual in nature. Not material.
The example that comes to mind is that of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan. When Rupa Goswami retired, his wealth equalled a boat full of gold coins. The Goswamis were exalted in every respect, born in rich, aristocratic families, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, and yet, it is said about them…
tyaktva turnam asesha-mandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat
who kicked off all association of aristocracy as insignificant
So there you go, any wealth in any bank or locker or any kind of wealth we rely upon in the material world, whether it be our family, society, community, country, or any institution… we will have to leave it all behind, insurmountable time will take it all away.
What you will keep eternally is this:
नेहाभिक्रमनाशोऽस्ति प्रत्यवायो न विद्यते । स्वल्पमप्यस्य धर्मस्य त्रायते महतो भयात् ॥ ४० ॥
nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti pratyavāyo na vidyate sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt
In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.
So, if I work very hard, results are sure, right? Wrong, so many people work so very hard, but get no results… on the contrary their results are the opposite of what they were hoping to achieve! So what determines success? Should we just stop working altogether? How to understand all this?
Vishal Puri, 28 June 2016
Hare Krishna,
Dandavats Pranam,
Can devotees please help me in understanding Bhagavad Gita Sloka 2.47
‘You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.’
What other factors bring results, other than my efforts ?
And under what conditions/mentality does a person not want to do things or put efforts ?
Please guide me.
Hare Krishna
Vishal
Haladhar Das, 21st July 2016
Hare Krsna Vishal,
Thank you for your nice question.
You have rightly mentioned that other than my own efforts, there are other factors which bring results. The same is mentioned described in Bhagavad Gita verse 18.14 as below:
The place of action [the body], the performer, the various senses, the many different kinds of endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul – these are the five factors of action.
So we can see for any result, only our efforts are not involved. Ultimately the control is in the hand of the Supersoul, He is the super-cause and all our activities depend on His will. So foolishly if we try to enjoy ourselves independently of Him, we will suffer the consequences whereas if we go as per His will, we will remain liberated even when we are here.
Your second question, under what conditions/mentality does a person not want to do things or put efforts? What I understand from your question in context to the verse 2.47 is that when one is told that you are not entitled to results, naturally one will not endeavour. That’s why people are surprised when being told, that we should not ask from God, (We should try to serve with love.) then they say then what for we should go to temple.
Hope it meets your query.
Jaya Srila Gurudeva. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.
your servant,
Haladhar Dasa
Shridhar Das, 21 July 2016
Hare Krishna Vishal,
Please accept my humble respects!
All glories to Srila Gurudeva!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Sorry for the delayed response. Your question is very significant and deserves clarification.
First, I prefer to emphasize the term “Prescribed duty”. The purport states:
Prescribed duties are activities enjoined in terms of one’s acquired modes of material nature.
It has been discussed in the past posts on this group that just as a doctor “prescribes” a medicine to the patient as per one’s disease, similarly we are all diseased or intoxicated by the modes of material nature in varying degrees. Everyone is uniquely entangled depending on the past actions (past of this life and past lives).
If we do not act as per prescription or try to work out with our disease just by our own, we are most probably running towards death in near future or far future. This is definitely a very fatal act.
Similarly, any act which is not according to an expert prescription is worsening our already ruined consciousness. If we place a dog food, a dog won’t be able to control his senses, he’ll keep seeking for the food by nose, tongue, mind, etc… Similarly, if we keep following our defective mind, without any control whatsoever, we are heading for animal life next birth.
This may sound bitter but it’s a basic fact about this human birth (tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam). That is why in so many places throughout Vedas it is recommended to approach a spiritual master with humility, to gain knowledge and apply it in our lives. That inquiry regarding the self and it’s application is performing our prescribed duties.
If work is worsening our disease in this material world, some class of men renounce work altogether to avoid further sickening. That is why Srila Prabhupada is stating in the purport:
The Lord advised that Arjuna not be inactive, but that he perform his prescribed duty without being attached to the result.
Addressing your two questions:
What other factors bring results, other than my efforts ?
That is clearly answered in Bhagavad Gita 18.14:
Translation
“The place of action [the body], the performer, the various senses, the many different kinds of endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul – these are the five factors of action.”
Purport (Read slowly)
The word adhiṣṭhānam refers to the body. The soul within the body is acting to bring about the results of activity and is therefore known as kartā, “the doer.” That the soul is the knower and the doer is stated in the śruti. Eṣa hi draṣṭā sraṣṭā (Praśna Upaniṣad 4.9). It is also confirmed in the Vedānta-sūtra by the verses jño ’ta eva (2.3.18) andkartā śāstrārthavattvāt (2.3.33). The instruments of action are the senses, and by the senses the soul acts in various ways. For each and every action there is a different endeavor. But all one’s activities depend on the will of the Supersoul, who is seated within the heart as a friend. The Supreme Lord is the supercause. Under these circumstances, he who is acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness under the direction of the Supersoul situated within the heart is naturally not bound by any activity. Those in complete Kṛṣṇa consciousness are not ultimately responsible for their actions. Everything is dependent on the supreme will, the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So we are souls, we desire and use the senses to fulfill our desires. If senses are themselves uncontrolled we can expect mismanagement which is what this material world is about, chaos (or Kaliyuga). Even if they are controlled, The Supersoul is the ultimate sanctioner.
Please note, Supersoul is IMPARTIAL. Srila Prabhupada gives an example of a court judge who sometimes awards death sentence to someone and sometimes declares millions of cash to other, but in both cases he is detached. Similar relation can be assumed between the Supersoul and the conditioned soul.
So the conclusion is – we are not the ultimate doer. Krishna hence warns:
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
“The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.” (BG 3.27)
And under what conditions/mentality does a person want to do things or put efforts ?
When he meets severe failure and is not able to accept the above instruction of Krishna, that he is not the doer and he must act under the guidance of a bonafide spiritual master.
Example: If a car is rammed by another, and even if driver is not injured, he definitely would be in severe anxiety. Why? Because he strongly identifies himself with his car, while at the same time being a spirit soul, he has nothing to do with car, he can reject it plainly. Because he is attached to the car considering himself to be the enjoyer of car, which is natural for an owner, he is hurt.
That is what BG 5.29 states, peace prevails when we understand that the owner of all energies and whatsoever is Krishna Himself and when one accepts this truth faithfully, one finds peace in all ups and downs of life, knowing Krishna to be the real enjoyer.
So if we submit ourselves unto Krishna’s representative, the spiritual master and work for his pleasure knowing him to be the goal of our life, then we will be able to find the purpose of every activity in our lives and by obtaining the meaning of every actions that we perform in our life, we will find peace amidst success, as well as failures.
Did this answer your doubt?
your servant
Shridhar Das
Vishal Puri, 02 August 2016
Hare Krishna,
Thank you for the detailed explanation of the Sloka, it was very informative.
Dandavats Pranam
Vishal
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Pride is celebrated these days. Be proud of this or that, we are told. But what is the price of pride? And why is humility better? How to be humble? What is the big deal about humility? Why not celebrate humility for a change?
Recently there have been a number of festivals focusing around pride. Different kinds of pride, but all material in nature. For example someone is proud that they are heterosexual in their preference, and yet others are proud that they are homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, trans-sexual or queer.
It is fashionable to celebrate pride these days
Yet others are celebrating their pride of being of a certain colour skin, or others are celebrating their profession or nationality or ethnic origin.
It is another matter that in the kaliyuga, or the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, everything is mixed up… souls are born in the body of a man, but the consciousness of a woman… or the body of a woman but the consciousness of a man. This is due to incomplete karmic accounts, and these mixed-up births are actually a form of punishment, but the spirit souls are trying to turn them into perverse enjoyment.
They parade these material designations, and the various festivals involve getting inebriated, and having some silly sense indulgences which bind them further into their attachments, causing yet another painful material death, and leading to many more such materially designated lives.
All of these are essentially material designations. And we should be ashamed of material designations. OK, this is not just a matter of sentiment, but we should know that these material designations are the cause of all of our sufferings.
I am not this body, I am a spirit soul. You too, dear reader, are a spirit soul.
So why should we adopt all these material designations? Why should we make the mistake of thinking we are these bodies? Why should we identify with some temporary thing that comes and goes? Today you might be a heterosexual, and tomorrow you might become a homosexual! Today you might be Chinese or American or Russian or Indian, but what were you before were born into this body?
Instead however if we realize that we are spirit souls, we then inquire into the activities of the spirit soul, which are spiritual in nature, and which give the spirit soul great joy “ananda” bliss. In fact, we are composed of “sat” (eternality) “chit” (knowledge), and “ananda” (bliss).
In the material condition, we are simply trying to find that bliss but not at all finding it, and hence, the lawyer becomes a politician, the heterosexual becomes lesbian, the lesbian becomes straight, the businessman becomes a philanthropist, the Hindu becomes Muslim, the Muslim adopts Christianity, and yet, as life wanes and death nears, there is a sense of disgust, frustration, and dissatisfaction, which is usually hidden under a veneer of distraction, such as attempts at sense gratification, intoxication and so on.
People identify with different religious symbols, which become another material designation
What is the solution to this problem?
To free ourselves of all designations of course!
Krishna says the following in the Bhagavad Gita…
अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्र: करुण एव च । निर्ममो निरहङ्कार: समदु:खसुख: क्षमी ॥ १३ ॥ सन्तुष्ट: सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चय: । मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्त: स मे प्रिय: ॥ १४ ॥
adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī
santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī yatātmā dṛḍha-niścayaḥ mayy arpita-mano-buddhir yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me – such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.
All these material designations qualify as “false ego”. “ego” means identity. Then what is “true” ego?
What is our true identity?
True ego means to realize oneself as an eternal part-and-parcel of Krishna.
jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’
sūryāṁśa-kiraṇa, yaiche agni-jvālā-caya svābhāvika kṛṣṇera tina-prakāra ‘śakti’ haya
“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa and a manifestation simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire. Kṛṣṇa has three varieties of energy.
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.
Krishna Lifts Govardhan, to protect from the deluge sent by Indra, and the residents of Vrindavan enjoy close proximity with Him
Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport:
Every living entity, as an individual soul, has his personal individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated. In either case, he is qualitatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his liberated state he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditioned life he is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to struggle very hard to maintain his existence in the material world.
There you go. Instead of being proud of the material designations, we should feel humbled that such an exalted spirit soul is now in illusion and anxiety as some idiotic little temporary designation.
And when the soul feels humble, then that is cause for celebration. Why is that? And how to accomplish this freedom from material designations?
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.
Recently, an accomplished young lady committed suicide. What is the root cause of it? What is the consequence of it? What can we do to stop this?
In recent classes on the Srimad Bhagavatam, my spiritual master mentioned this sad news.
Why did a beautiful, young, highly educated young lady, crowned as Miss America recently commit suicide? Yes, Cheslie Kryst, former Miss America, an attorney, committed suicide on Jan 31, 2022! This was incredibly sad that such a gifted person thought it fit to end her valuable human life in this way.
Not long ago, a young school girl, Mallory, just 12 years of age, committed suicide too.
These are just two sad examples of many, many.
Some people are faulting social media, and Big Tech. The argument goes that these platforms are designed and created to be addictive, and these platforms don’t enforce discipline or proper behavior among the users, and so, harassment from others is the cause of the suicide. There is some truth to this.
But just like all other material solutions to material problems, it is only a partial truth. Partial truths only create more problems further down the road.
It is true that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are designed to be addictive. In Mathematics, there is a concept called “necessary and sufficient condition”… sometimes a condition is “necessary” but not “sufficient”. This means that unless all the necessary and the sufficient conditions are met, a certain statement is not true.
The fact is that there are a lot of different causes that cause this problem. If you start analyzing the problem, you will find that our entire social order, our systems, our institutions, and our societies each contribute to this problem. But how to attack the problem at it’s root?
When we examine harassment on social media, negative body image, resulting depression, and reduction of self-confidence to the extent of committing suicide, the primary condition to cause all the other problem is bodily consciousness.
What is “Miss America”? It is an external material designation, awarded to someone almost arbitrarily, on the basis of their body, and to some extent, their mind. So, the very “achievement” deepens and locks someone into bodily consciousness. So this Miss America thing is a big part of the problem, because of course, every idiot has their own idea of what is beautiful and what is not. Everyone who organizes it, everyone who participates in it, everyone who watches it, and everyone who attaches any value or any importance to it is a victim of this terrible disease of bodily consciousness.
Yes, bodily consciousness. Thinking that we are these bodies is the fundamental root cause of the problem.
We are spirit souls, or “Atma”. We are completely non-material.
In fact, the spirit soul wears two bodies, just like we wear outwear and underwear… The “outerwear” in the case of the spirit soul, is these gross material body. And the “underwear” in the case of the spirit soul is the subtle material body, consisting of mind, intelligence, and false ego.
What is false ego? Exactly the very root of the problem. False ego means “I am this body, I am this mind”. To confuse and conflate the identity of the pure spirit soul with temporary identities like the gross and material bodies is the pastime of fools like Descartes. And due to these very smart and clever fools, innocent people are being misled, even to the point of suicide.
In the material energy, the principal manifestations are eight, as above mentioned. Out of these, the first five manifestations, namely earth, water, fire, air and sky, are called the five gigantic creations or the gross creations, within which the five sense objects are included. They are the manifestations of physical sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Material science comprises these ten items and nothing more. But the other three items, namely mind, intelligence and false ego, are neglected by the materialists.
Spiritual life begins at the point when we realize our identity as spirit soul. Any religious, philosophical or scientific tradition which does not clearly help us understand this is purely material in nature.
It is extremely sad that violence is being committed upon God’s dear souls every single day. And one should be extremely angry with those who are perpetrating this violence?
What is violence and what is non-violence? Violence means denying someone their right. If you have a right to be somewhere, and someone denies you that right, then that is violence against you.
Dear Spirit Soul, you are not this body, you are spirit soul, an eternal associate of God. Why are you accepting this horrible violence being perpetrated on you, making you believe that you are this body, you are this mind?
Wake up! Free yourself from these shackles! And the moment you do, you will no longer be fodder for those peddling sense gratification. You will not be addicted to Wordle, you will not be addicted to Facebook, you will not be addicted to Instagram, you will not be addicted to LinkedIn, and you will never have a negative thought about yourself for all of eternity.
Because you will know who you are, and you will be who you are. Eternal, Full of Knowledge and Ever-increasing Bliss – these are your qualities as a spirit soul.
You will then participate in the most enlivening, adventurous, loving interactions, together with other spiritually perfected beings, in the service of God.
Are you struggling with any negativity because of being misled like these unfortunate souls? Do you know someone suffering like this? Send them this article! Let me know, I will gladly point in the right direction, and you will be ever-increasingly happy.
To the gross materialist who cannot see anything beyond the gross material body, there is nothing beyond the senses. Therefore his occupational activities are limited to concentrated and extended selfishness. Concentrated selfishness centers around the personal body—this is generally seen amongst the lower animals. Extended selfishness is manifested in human society and centers around the family, society, community, nation and world with a view to gross bodily comfort.
At the minimum, you should know the consequence of committing suicide… when someone kills their gross material body, they are not released from their subtle material body. So, the soul, because it is not yet time to acquire a new gross material body, has to remain in the subtle material body till the allotted lifetime is finished.
This is called, remaining on as a ghost. The ghosts, they do not possess a gross material body or senses, though they have many material desires for sense gratification. Just imagine how frustrating it is to want to drink water but have no hands, no tongue, no throat, and no stomach! Such is the fate of the ghost. In order to enjoy material experiences, ghosts have a need to inhabit other material bodies… and this happens when a person becomes intensely angry, or unspeakably morose, drunk, drugged, or otherwise inebriated. When this happens, a ghost finds it easy to enter such a body, and act through that body.
Ghosts are bereft of a physical body because of their grievously sinful acts, such as suicide. The last resort of the ghostly characters in human society is to take shelter of suicide, either material or spiritual. Material suicide causes loss of the physical body, and spiritual suicide causes loss of the individual identity.
This is why we find instances of perfectly normal people doing things they would have never dreamed of doing. For example a gentle schoolteacher might murder someone, a devoted mother might abuse their child, a policeman may end up committing a most heinous crime. Of course, the ghost cannot be punished in a human court of law!
So it is all very very sad. This intense bodily consciousness and the resultant side effects must be stopped.
How can you stop this? First you have to perfect yourself. How can you do it?
And to understand who you really are, read this book carefully The Bhagavad Gita As It Is. To be free is your right, don’t surrender it! I can help you get your own copy!
O Lord, with this corpselike body, always full of fear, we bear the burden of the relative happiness of kings, which is just like a dream. Thus we have rejected the real happiness of the soul, which comes by rendering selfless service to You. Being so very wretched, we simply suffer in this life under the spell of Your illusory energy.
Why is the body called corpselike? Well, it has no value, no use after the soul leaves it! No matter how beautiful a man or woman may have been, while millions might desire that person while they were alive, no one wants to associate with a dead body (with exceptions, there are always exceptions).
Why is that? If it was the body we really wanted, we’d have no problems associating with corpses. What we really crave for is the association with the spirit souls that animates and enlivens that corpse.
Which brings us the point – how do we get a ‘corpselike’ material body?
Material desires! What are material desires? Desire to be #1, the desire to be Lord and Master of all I survey, Desire to be the Center of the Universe, the Desire to be this, that, and other, the Desire to be what we are not.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown
William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, 1597
Well before Shakespeare, it was known that material desires create material bodies.
One material body per material desire, at least.
Influenced by the illusory material energy that is all around us, we’re creating our next millions and billions of material bodies right now. The desire for money, the desire for sex, the desire for fame, the desire to be powerful, the desire to have blue eyes or smooth skin or long hair, the desire to do this or that… all corpses in disguise, seductive but deadly.
But why do we want to create yet another corpse? How many have we carried already? How many do we have yet to carry?
Better to be free of this material bondage, repeated, birth, death, old age, and disease!
जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदु:खदोषानुदर्शनम्
janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-
duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam
the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease
A genuine spiritual practice, devoid of the trickery of material sense gratification disguised as religion leads to this perception of who I am, not this body, but a pure spirit soul, eternally part-and-parcel of God.
Not carrying a corpse in the material world, as a spirit soul, free to be me!
![The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]. BG 5.18](https://dasadas.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/image-31.png?w=1024)
Freedom through Genuine Spiritual Progress 