KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.1.4
- This material world is called the world of death. Every living being, beginning from Brahmā, down to the germs who live for a few seconds only, is struggling for existence
- This life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all. No one will survive in this struggle with material nature. But yet humans want to win over the invincible material nature by the aid of bodily strength, children, wife, relatives, etc.
- His attachment to his body, family members, society, country, etc., makes him want to win over the impossible. He gets blinded and even though he has seen enough examples of his predecessors, he still does not see his inevitable destruction.
- Due to a lack of knowledge of self, we become victimized by the force of ignorance and thus spoil the valuable energy of human life in a vain search after permanent living conditions, which are impossible in this material world.
- Example: Two scientists from Spain are promising – Death will be ‘optional’ and aging ‘curable’ by 2045, say genetic engineers. An article published in 2018. They are saying they are not mad and that people just don’t know what they know.
- The whole materialistic advancement of human civilization is like the decoration of a dead body. Everyone is a dead body flapping only for a few days, and yet all the energy of human life is being wasted in the decoration of this dead body.
- Persons who are devoid of the knowledge of ātma-tattva are misguided, but those who are devotees of the Lord and have the perfect realization of transcendental knowledge are not bewildered.
- Even though we may understand Atma-tattva theoretically, we cannot put it into practice easily. It can only happen through “constant hearing” of the pastimes of the Lord every day from pure devotees.
- To become ideal householders, we “should follow” in the footsteps of Lord Kṛṣṇa as He displayed His daily activities, but we “cannot imitate” Him at any stage of our life.
- Lord Kṛṣṇa would immediately get up from bed exactly on the appearance of brāhma-muhūrta. An ideal householder should learn from the behavior of Lord Kṛṣṇa how to rise early in the morning, however comfortably he may be lying in bed embraced by his wife.
- After rising from bed, Lord Kṛṣṇa would wash His mouth, hands, and feet and would immediately sit down and meditate on Himself. We should rather meditate on the Lord rather than on ourselves.
- Krsna was teaching us that brāhma-muhūrta should be utilized for meditation on Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. By such meditation, Kṛṣṇa would feel very much satisfied.
- Śrī Rukmiṇī-devī and Kṛṣṇa acted as ideal householders are teaching the whole human society to rise early in the morning and immediately engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no difference between meditating on the eternal forms of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and chanting the mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
- We will also feel transcendentally pleased and satisfied if we utilize the brāhma-muhūrta period to meditate on Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa
SB 2.1.4 Translation
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.
CLASS NOTES:
(SB 2.1.4) THIS MATERIAL WORLD IS CALLED THE WORLD OF DEATH.
This material world is called the world of death. Every living being, beginning from Brahmā, whose duration of life is some thousands of millions of years, down to the germs who live for a few seconds only, is struggling for existence. Therefore, this life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all.Although he is sufficiently experienced in the matter by dint of past experience and previous examples of his deceased predecessors, he does not see that the so-called fighting soldiers like the children, relatives, society members and countrymen are all fallible in the great struggleNo one will survive in this struggle with material nature. The whole materialistic advancement of human civilization is like the decoration of a dead body. Everyone is a dead body flapping only for a few days, and yet all the energy of human life is being wasted in the decoration of this dead body.Śukadeva Gosvāmī is pointing out the duty of the human being after showing the actual position of bewildered human activities. Persons who are devoid of the knowledge of ātma-tattva are misguided, but those who are devotees of the Lord and have perfect realization of transcendental knowledge are not bewildered.
Our friends, relatives and so-called wives and children are not only fallible, but also bewildered by the outward glamor of material existence.
Wife, children is repeated 4 times. Las vegas looks good, when you stay there you will see the ugly side of it.
The history of human society definitely proves it, yet the foolish people still suggest that in the future they will be able to live perpetually, with the help of material science.
Srila Prabhupada based on Gnana Caksu is able to see the present, past and future.
This promise of immortality is a complete nonsense. Death will be optional and aging will be curable by 2045, 21st April 2018. Dying will be optional within just …. Thinkspain.com… Old age is an illness, cure can be extended through genetic manipulation techniques. The process will involve bad cells into good cells… He has chosen not to die and be younger than what he is in 35 years. Google and Microsoft are entering into this field of curing aging. The Death of Death will eventually be published in four languages at first – Spanish, English, Portuguese and Korean – and all proceeds from its sales will be ploughed back into the authors’ research…. (https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/30425/death-will-be-optional-and-ageing-curable-by-2045-say-genetic-engineers). This is called FOOLS GOLD. or Hava Mahal or Akash Mahal. It looks very wonderful, positive, but it is completely false and nonsense.
This poor fund of knowledge exhibited by human society is certainly misleading, and it is all due to ignoring the constitution of the living soul
If there is a soul it comes through the evolution of bodies, technology, no education system talks about soul.
this life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all. In the human form of life, a living being is competent enough to come to an understanding of this great struggle for existence, but being too attached to family members, society, country, etc., he wants to win over the invincible material nature by the aid of bodily strength, children, wife, relatives, etc.
This is a hopeless situation. The two silly scientists replaced children, relatives with science. All this is unverifiable. The whole experiment is taking place in Venezuala. The same experiments are not allowed in Europe or USA. They want to live long in this body. They are not thinking about soul. Science means no soul. Everybody knows they are going to die, but due to attachment they try the impossible. This is not new this has been going on for time immemorial. The christians, the fountain of immortality, ponsdaleon, came all the way to America to search for that fountain in America. Part of Alchemy was to transform base metals into Gold. They found allopathic medicine. It is using poison to kill germs or viruses and heal people. Often times they kill people. Example – radiation therapy, chemotherapy. Now a days they call it pin point chemotherapy. Iranian friend dies of cancer inspite of getting the pin point cancer.
Christian eschatology – Judgement of already dead about who should go to heaven and who should go to hell. everyone who dies and still in cemetary, they all resurrect and Jesus gives them a body and judges whether they go to hell or heaven. Christians, Jadiasm, Islam they have this concept of second coming. This is all based on the body.
Ravana built a tunnel in the middle of the earth to reach heavenly planets, There scientists, ravana, demons they are maya- aparihata jnana.
There is nothing new about elixir of keeping the body mortal.
Persons who are devoid of the knowledge of ātma-tattva are misguided, but those who are devotees of the Lord and have perfect realization of transcendental knowledge are not bewildered.
If we are attached to material condition – house, cars, junk foods, credit cards, family, children relatives aunties uncles, gadgets, technology, because ofthat attachment even though we hear the truth we will not follow. Everything is going to disappear even our body, but still we hang on to them. It can only happen if we constantly hear the pastimes of the lord.
(CHAPTER 70 KRISHNA BOOK) LORD KRSNA’S DAILY ACTIVITIES
Lord Kṛṣṇa, although playing the part of a human being, simultaneously maintains the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We can follow Lord Kṛṣṇa’s dealings with His wives as an ordinary human being, but His dealings with more than sixteen thousand wives at one time cannot be imitated. The conclusion is that to become ideal householders we should follow in the footsteps of Lord Kṛṣṇa as He displayed His daily activities, but we cannot imitate Him at any stage of our life.
Lord Kṛṣṇa would immediately get up from bed exactly on the appearance of brāhma-muhūrta. An ideal householder should learn from the behavior of Lord Kṛṣṇa how to rise early in the morning, however comfortably he may be lying in bed embraced by his wife.
After rising from bed, Lord Kṛṣṇa would wash His mouth, hands and feet and would immediately sit down and meditate on Himself. This does not mean, however, that we should also sit down and meditate on ourselves. We have to meditate upon Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. That is real meditation. Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa Himself; therefore He was teaching us that brāhma-muhūrta should be utilized for meditation on Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. By such meditation Kṛṣṇa would feel very much satisfied, and similarly we will also feel transcendentally pleased and satisfied if we utilize the brāhma-muhūrta period to meditate on Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and if we think of how Śrī Rukmiṇī-devī and Kṛṣṇa acted as ideal householders to teach the whole human society to rise early in the morning and immediately engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no difference between meditating on the eternal forms of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and chanting the mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa. As for Kṛṣṇa’s meditation, He had no alternative but to meditate on Himself.