KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.6 today (02/28/21):
- ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ – The highest perfection of human life achieved by all other methods (jnana, mystic powers, perfect discharge of occupational duty) is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life.
- Life should be molded in such a manner that one is able to progressively remember the Personality of Godhead in every step of life.
- Constant remembrance of the Personality of Godhead is possible only by the association of a pure devotee.
- Lord Krsna’s confidential pastimes are so attractive that they attract even the Lord, and thus He relishes them in the form of Lord Caitanya.
- Yogamāyā is the name of the internal potency that makes the Lord forget Himself and become an object of love for His pure devotee in different transcendental mellows.
- The erotic principles of amorous love reflected in mixed material values are perverted reflections of the reality of spirit, but one cannot understand the reality unless one is sufficiently educated in spiritual science.
- The reason the Lord displays the rāsa-līlā is essential to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy reality.
- A person who actually understands what the rāsa-līlā is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life.
- For the realized soul, hearing the Lord’s rāsa-līlā through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.
- The love of the gopīs is called rūḍha-bhāva. It is pure and spotless. It is not at any time lust.
- Lust and love have different characteristics, just as iron and gold have different natures.
- The desire to gratify one’s own senses is kāma [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is Prema [love].
- The predominated gopīs were bound to Kṛṣṇa in such pure love. They dedicated their souls only for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. There was not the slightest tinge of sexual love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa.
- Their only engagement in life was to see Kṛṣṇa happy in all respects, regardless of their own personal interests.
- Transcendental stage in which one feels himself to be only an eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa, the absolute Personality of Godhead. All acts performed in this sense of servitude are called pure love of God because they are performed for the absolute sense of gratification of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
- The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta advises everyone to give up all engagements of sense gratification and, like the gopīs, dovetail oneself entirely with the will of the Supreme Lord. That is the ultimate instruction of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā.
SB 2.1.6 TRANSLATION:
The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by the practice of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life.
CLASS NOTES:
(SB 2.1.6) ONE CAN ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST PERFECTION, PROVIDED ONE IS ABLE TO REACH THE STAGE OF NĀRĀYAṆA-SMṚTI,
or constant remembrance of the Personality of Godhead. This is possible only by the association of a pure devotee, who can give a finishing touch to the transcendental activities of all jñānīs, yogīs or karmīs, in terms of prescribed duties defined in the scriptures.
None of the devotees of the Lord ever deviated from the path of devotional service by taking to other methods as adopted by the jñānīs or yogīs.
Everyone is anxious to achieve the highest perfection of his particular activity, and it is indicated herein that such perfection is nārāyaṇa-smṛti, for which everyone must endeavor his best. Life should be molded in such a manner that one is able to progressively remember the Personality of Godhead in every step of life
Ante narayana smriti – this is the most important line. You cannot think one day suddenly you chant narayana like Ajamil and go back to Godhead. It will only happen with constant practice of chanting the lord and thinking about the Lord through out our life. We never know what condition we might be in in our last stages. May be we are sedated or in comma…
Gradually her house was getting empty, furniture, tables… she began to be more careful and started watching the 7 ladies who come to house and clean the house. She found the lady who was stealing the things. She was stuck and she could do nothing. She was in deep anxiety, everything she collected was stolen by the dishonest labor. When she left the body she was thinking of her possessions and the labor who stole it.
Yam yam vapi smaran bhavan… BG 8.6 (Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.)
People might think
We have to practice remembering Him every minute of our life so at the end of the life we remember nothing but Him .
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The following verses from CC AADI explains the reasons for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to appear and the difference between pure love and conditional love for Krsna.
(CC ADI 4.27 -28) LORD KRSNA’S CONFIDENTIAL PASTIMES ARE SO ATTRACTIVE THAT THEY ATTRACT EVEN THE LORD, AND THUS HE RELISHES THEM IN THE FORM OF LORD CAITANYA.
“Taking these pure devotees with Me, I shall descend and sport in various wonderful ways, unknown even in Vaikuṇṭha. I shall broadcast such pastimes by which even I am amazed.
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa presents His most confidential pastimes as He enjoys them in His transcendental realm. Such pastimes are so attractive that they attract even the Lord, and thus He relishes them in the form of Lord Caitanya.
He is taking the position of RadhaRani who is most intensely relishing Krsna and His pastimes.
To appreciate the way She appreciates Krsna
To understand the things about Himself that are attractive to Her
To experience the transcendental bliss that She is experiencing with Krsna
(CC ADI 4.29) YOGAMĀYĀ IS THE NAME OF THE INTERNAL POTENCY THAT MAKES THE LORD FORGET HIMSELF AND BECOME AN OBJECT OF LOVE FOR HIS PURE DEVOTEE IN DIFFERENT TRANSCENDENTAL MELLOWS.
“The influence of yogamāyā will inspire the gopīs with the sentiment that I am their paramour.”
Yogamāyā is the name of the internal potency that makes the Lord forget Himself and become an object of love for His pure devotee in different transcendental mellows.
The erotic principles of amorous love reflected in mixed material values are perverted reflections of the reality of spirit, but one cannot understand the reality unless one is sufficiently educated in the spiritual science.
(CC ADI 4.30) THE REASON THE LORD DISPLAYS THE RĀSA-LĪLĀ IS ESSENTIALLY TO INDUCE ALL THE FALLEN SOULS TO GIVE UP THEIR DISEASED MORALITY AND RELIGIOSITY, AND TO ATTRACT THEM TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO ENJOY THE REALITY
“Neither the gopīs nor I shall notice this, for our minds will always be entranced by one another’s beauty and qualities.
Yogamāyā creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Kṛṣṇa. A devotee naturally does not like to transgress the laws of reverence for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but by the influence of yogamāyā he is prepared to do anything to love the Supreme Lord better.
Those under the spell of the material energy cannot at all appreciate the activities of yogamāyā, for a conditioned soul can hardly understand the pure reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee. But by executing devotional service under the regulative principles, one can become very highly elevated and then begin to appreciate the dealings of pure love under the management of yogamāyā.
In the spiritual loving sentiment induced by the yogamāyā potency, both Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and the damsels of Vraja forget themselves in spiritual rapture. By the influence of such forgetfulness, the attractive beauty of the gopīs plays a prominent part in the transcendental satisfaction of the Lord, who has nothing to do with mundane sex. Because spiritual love of Godhead is above everything mundane, the gopīs superficially seem to transgress the codes of mundane morality. This perpetually puzzles mundane moralists. Therefore yogamāyā acts to cover the Lord and His pastimes from the eyes of mundaners, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.25), where the Lord says that He reserves the right of not being exposed to everyone.
The acts of yogamāyā make it possible for the Lord and the gopīs, in loving ecstasy, to sometimes meet and sometimes separate. These transcendental loving affairs of the Lord are unimaginable to empiricists involved in the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore the Lord Himself appears before the mundaners to bestow upon them the highest form of spiritual realization and also personally relish its essence.
The Lord is so merciful that He Himself descends to take the fallen souls back home to the kingdom of Godhead, where the erotic principles of Godhead are eternally relished in their real form, distinct from the perverted sexual love so much adored and indulged in by the fallen souls in their diseased condition. The reason the Lord displays the rāsa-līlā is essentially to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity, and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy the reality. A person who actually understands what the rāsa-līlā is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life. For the realized soul, hearing the Lord’s rāsa-līlā through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.
CC ADI 4.162 THE LOVE OF GOPIS PURE AND SPOTLESS
The love of the gopīs is called rūḍha-bhāva. It is pure and spotless. It is not at any time lust.
CC ADI 4.163
“The pure love of the gopīs has become celebrated by the name ‘lust.’ The dear devotees of the Lord, headed by Śrī Uddhava, desire to taste that love.”
(CC ADI 4.164 )LUST AND LOVE HAVE DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS, JUST AS IRON AND GOLD HAVE DIFFERENT NATURES.
One should try to discriminate between sexual love and pure love, for they belong to different categories, with a gulf of difference between them. They are as different from one another as iron is from gold.
(CC ADI 4.165) THE DESIRE TO GRATIFY ONE’S OWN SENSES IS KĀMA [LUST], BUT THE DESIRE TO PLEASE THE SENSES OF LORD KṚṢṆA IS PREMA [LOVE].
If there is ample reason for the dissolution of a conjugal relationship and yet such a dissolution does not take place, such a relationship of intimate love is called pure.”
The predominated gopīs were bound to Kṛṣṇa in such pure love. For them there was no question of sexual love based on sense gratification. Their only engagement in life was to see Kṛṣṇa happy in all respects, regardless of their own personal interests. They dedicated their souls only for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. There was not the slightest tinge of sexual love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa.
ACTS OF SENSE GRATIFICATION MAY BE PERFORMED UNDER THE COVER OF
public welfare, nationalism, religion, altruism, ethical codes, Biblical codes, health directives, fruitive action, bashfulness, tolerance, personal comfort, liberation from material bondage, progress, family affection or fear of social ostracism or legal punishment, but all these categories are different subdivisions of one substance — sense gratification. All such good acts are performed basically for one’s own sense gratification, for no one can sacrifice his personal interest while discharging these much-advertised moral and religious principles.
PURE LOVE OF GOD
But above all this is a transcendental stage in which one feels himself to be only an eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa, the absolute Personality of Godhead. All acts performed in this sense of servitude are called pure lovef God because they are performed for the absolute sense gratification of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
However, any act performed for the purpose of enjoying its fruits or results is an act of sense gratification. Such actions are visible sometimes in gross and sometimes in subtle forms.
(CC ADI 4.166) THE OBJECT OF LUST IS ONLY THE ENJOYMENT OF ONE’S OWN SENSES. BUT LOVE CATERS TO THE ENJOYMENT OF LORD KṚṢṆA, AND THUS IT IS VERY POWERFUL.
(CC ADI 4.167 – 69) GOPIS HAVE FORSAKEN ALL SOCIAL CUSTOMS AND WENT THROUGH MANY DIFFICULT THINGS, JUST TO PLEASE THE LORD
Social customs, scriptural injunctions, bodily demands, fruitive action, shyness, patience, bodily pleasures, self-gratification and the path of varṇāśrama-dharma, which is difficult to give up — the gopīs have forsaken all these, as well as their own relatives and their punishment and scolding, for the sake of serving Lord Kṛṣṇa. They render loving service to Him for the sake of His enjoyment.
(CC ADI 4.170) ACTIVITIES IN PURE LOVE OF GODHEAD ARE AS SPOTLESS AS WHITE LINEN THAT HAS BEEN COMPLETELY WASHED.
That is called firm attachment to Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is spotlessly pure, like a clean cloth that has no stain.
The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta advises everyone to give up all engagements of sense gratification and, like the gopīs, dovetail oneself entirely with the will of the Supreme Lord. That is the ultimate instruction of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā. We should be prepared to do anything and everything to please the Lord, even at the risk of violating the Vedic principles or ethical laws. That is the standard of love of Godhead. Such activities in pure love of Godhead are as spotless as white linen that has been completely washed.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVINODA ṬHĀKURA WARNS US
in this connection that we should not mistakenly think that the idea of giving up everything implies the renunciation of duties necessary in relation to the body and mind. Even such duties are not sense gratification if they are undertaken in a spirit of service to Kṛṣṇa.
What helps a person to understand this, needs complete surrender to Krsna. Arjuna has to do things which he did not enjoy doing. He did not want to fight
Attachment to following the principles without understanding – is a form of sense gratification
Attachment to not following the principles – is also a form of sense gratification
No one can fake the love of Krsna, because it is the absolute truth. Srila Prabhupada was the only one who was able to do it of all the god brothers. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati thakur initiated so many disciples. Prabhupada went way out of his comfort zone and his life was at risk when he came to US, he was never wavered in His faith in Krsna and in his spiritual master’s instructions.
Purity of the Gopis is superior to that of Arjuna’s purity. Because of that the Gopis were able to achieve the oneness with the Lord. SB 1.9.40. Differential conception is completely eradicated for the Gopis. What he is saying – Gopis do not become Krsna. They achieve the perfect ecstasy as the same level as the God, by seeing Krsna being happy. Surrender to the God’s will and is only their
We might express with words. To understand we need to experience it.
BG 4. 11
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.
SB Introduction