How can we elevate those who are unfortunate and bereft of good sense? How can we make their lives auspicious and allow them to enjoy unending, ever increasing bliss for ever?
Hare Krishna!
In this most intriguing and enlightening conversation called the Srimad Bhagavatam, the tricky topics of attaining to the Supreme Absolute Truth are discussed in great detail.
In fact, the Bhagavatam says this “The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” SB 1.1.2 (fragment)
Relative truths may be good for some time, some place, and some circumstance, but that is not good enough because such partial truths leave out some section of living entities.
Join to find out!
TOPIC: ISKCON Mayapur English Bhagavatam Class
LOCATION: ISKCON Mayapur Campus, West Bengal, India
DATE📆: Monday, 2nd Sep 2024
TIME⌚: 10:30 PM. ET USA+Canada/ 8:30 PM. CT USA/ 8:30 PM PST USA/ 2:30 AM UK/ 11:30 AM MYT/ 8:00 AM IST
I will record audio, and the class will also be broadcast online on the ISKCON Mayapur English Channel.
दैवेन ते हतधियो भवत: प्रसङ्गा- त्सर्वाशुभोपशमनाद्विमुखेन्द्रिया ये । कुर्वन्ति कामसुखलेशलवाय दीना लोभाभिभूतमनसोऽकुशलानि शश्वत् ॥ ७ ॥
daivena te hata-dhiyo bhavataḥ prasaṅgāt sarvāśubhopaśamanād vimukhendriyā ye kurvanti kāma-sukha-leśa-lavāya dīnā lobhābhibhūta-manaso ’kuśalāni śaśvat
Synonyms daivena — by fate of misfortune; te — they; hata-dhiyaḥ — bereft of memory; bhavataḥ — of You; prasaṅgāt — from the topics; sarva — all; aśubha — inauspiciousness; upaśamanāt — curbing down; vimukha — turned against; indriyāḥ — senses; ye — those; kurvanti — act; kāma — sense gratification; sukha — happiness; leśa — brief; lavāya — for a moment only; dīnāḥ — poor fellows; lobha-abhibhūta — overwhelmed by greed; manasaḥ — of one whose mind; akuśalāni — inauspicious activities; śaśvat — always.
Translation O my Lord, persons who are bereft of the all-auspicious performance of chanting and hearing about Your transcendental activities are certainly unfortunate and are also bereft of good sense. They engage in inauspicious activities, enjoying sense gratification for a very little while.
Purport The next question is why people are against such auspicious activities as chanting and hearing the glories and pastimes of the Lord, which can bring total freedom from the cares and anxieties of material existence. The only answer to this question is that they are unfortunate because of supernatural control due to their offensive activities performed simply for the sake of sense gratification. The Lord’s pure devotees, however, take compassion upon such unfortunate persons and, in a missionary spirit, try to persuade them into the line of devotional service. Only by the grace of pure devotees can such unfortunate men be elevated to the position of transcendental service.
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!
Governments fund Universities and the same Governments fund prisons too. Where would you rather be? For 4 years or 80? For this lifetime or eternity?
Some of my nephews, nieces, children of friends, and even new friends recently started with their post-secondary studies. Some are going to trade schools, some to Universities. Some are staying with their parents in their home towns, some are moving to another city, some to another country… some of these students are moving continents.
Even though this is 2020, and many of these studies are happening online, still the students are all free to learn, to make friends, to have new experiences they never had before. They are free to explore and to grow. They have the freedom of choice.
While many of these students or their parents have paid varying amounts in various fees etc., it is understood that most of these educational institutions have been funded by the governments in those places… local governments, state or provincial governments, even national governments.
So, much of what the students are enjoying is paid for by the government.
There are other people, also in the same range as those young people going to colleges and universities. They live in funded facilities too, but their freedom is strictly restricted. They must eat whatever is given to them. They must stay in a cell. They must wear a uniform and follow a certain regime. They may not visit others, and others may visit them in strictly restricted environments… these are inmates in various jails, prisons, penitentiaries, and so on.
While the students have a lot of freedom, the inmates do not.
Why this this?
One set of people have decided to stay on one side of the government’s system, and many of them are practically enjoying the government’s largesse. Another set of people have made choices that lands them in another set of restrictive circumstances.
Is it that the government builds prisons because it wants citizens to go there?
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.
Similarly, Krishna creates the material world for those who make the choice to go against the laws He makes. He does not want any soul to come to the material realm, but they do, by their own choice. Once they do get here, Krishna diligently tries to help them out. He expands into their hearts, comes Himself personally, He sends His messengers, they leave their personal examples, books, societies and associations behind for those trapped in the material realm.
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभु: । अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तव: ॥ १५ ॥
nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ
ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ
Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.
It is up to us, the conditioned souls living in the material realm to accept these facilities, get rid of all material contamination and go back home, back to Godhead, where we belong.
Governments fund Universities and the same Governments fund prisons too. Where would you rather be? For 4 years or 80? For this lifetime or eternity?
Want to be free? Do whatever you want? Can a regulated life lead to freedom? Can we regulate to be free?
Sounds like an Oxymoron right? Regulated Freedom? Is this some kind of slavery?
After all, dictionary.com says this about the word “regulate”
regulate [ reg-yuh-leyt ]
verb (used with object), reg·u·lat·ed, reg·u·lat·ing. to control or direct by a rule, principle, method, etc.: to regulate household expenses. to adjust to some standard or requirement, as amount, degree, etc.: to regulate the temperature. to adjust so as to ensure accuracy of operation: to regulate a watch. to put in good order: to regulate the digestion.
And freedom is listed as follows:
freedom [ free-duh m ] noun the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc. the power to determine action without restraint. personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom. exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually followed by from): freedom from fear.
But we also see that a free society is a regulated society. If society is not regulated with laws, enforcement, etc., then no one is truly free, everyone has to live in fear as we see wherever there is anarchy.
When I began my journey in spiritual life, I was completely against all kinds of regulation. I stayed away from anything that looked like discipline or commitment.
My idea of freedom was to do anything I wished to do.
But then, I realized that I am not my mind, and doing what “I” wished to do, was, more often than not, doing what my mind wanted me to do. In other words, that a person doing what they wished to do, unless they were perfectly spiritual, were really, slaves of the mind!
mana eva manuṣyāṇāṁ kāraṇaṁ bandha-mokṣayoḥ bandhāya viṣayāsaṅgo muktyai nirviṣayaṁ manaḥ
“For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.”
When I looked around me, those that were the most free were those who had the fewest consequences to deal with. That’s right, thoughts and actions all carry consequences. While all karmic actions bind us to the resultant reactions, that is a topic for another day.
Right now, I wanted to mention the 4 things anyone could do to lead a more carefree and worry-free life.
Follow these regulative principles voluntarily, or at least do your best…
No Intoxication– no alcohol, mind-altering drugs, caffeine, coffee, or tea
No Meat Eating – including fish and eggs, avoid onions, garlic, and mushrooms also
No Illicit Sex – do not engage in any kind of sex except for procreation – this includes monosex, homosex, heterosex, or any kind of sexual titillation
No Gambling– do not engage in any kind of slot machines, car games, slot machines, or even lucky draws if you want to be safe. If you do want to gamble, give your life to the spiritual pursuit!
Anyone who follows these principles becomes strong, energetic, and attractive. And we will examine the effects of not following these regulative principles in other articles.
If you have any difficulties, of f you need any help or encouragement, let me know!
This is supported by the greatest spiritualists (and many materialists too!) who have ever lived, and here is what the Gita says about regulation…
रागद्वेषविमुक्तैस्तु विषयनिन्द्रियैश्चरन् । आत्मवश्यैर्विधेयात्मा प्रसादमधिगच्छति ॥ ६४ ॥ rāga-dveṣa-vimuktais tu viṣayān indriyaiś caran ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā prasādam adhigacchati
But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.
Of course, regulation is not possible without also developing a higher taste…
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः । रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ॥ ५९ ॥ viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.
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 