KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.7
- The materialists are always worshiping some minor demigods,In the Vedas, it is said that persons who are attached to demigods to the exclusion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are like the animals who follow the herdsman even though they are taken to the slaughterhouse.
- The materialists, like animals, also do not know how they are being misdirected by neglecting the transcendental thought of the Supreme Person. They are always worshiping some minor demigods, although this is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20).
- As long as a person is illusioned by material gains, he petitions the respective demigods to draw some particular benefit which is, after all, illusory and nonpermanent.
- No one can remain vacant of thought. It is said that an idle brain is a devil’s workshop because a person who cannot think in the right way must think of something which may bring about disaster.
- The enlightened transcendentalist is not captivated by such illusory things; therefore he is always absorbed in the transcendental thought of the Supreme in different stages of realization, namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.
- Intelligent persons who can see properly may look into the general conditions of the living entities who are wandering in the cycle of the 8,400,000 species of life, as well as in different classes of human beings.
- It is said that there is an everlasting belt of water called the River Vaitaraṇī at the entrance of the Plutonic planet of Yamarāja, who punishes sinners in different manners. After being subjected to such sufferings, a sinner is awarded a particular species of life according to his deeds in the past. Some of them are in heaven, and some of them are in hell. Some of them are brāhmaṇas, and some of them are misers
- But no one is happy in this material world, and all of them are either class A, B or C prisoners suffering because of their own deeds.
- The Lord is impartial to all circumstances of the sufferings of the living entities, but to one who takes shelter at His lotus feet, the Lord gives proper protection, and He takes such a living entity back home, back to Himself.
SB 2.2.7 TRANSLATION
Who else but the gross materialists will neglect such transcendental thought and take to the nonpermanent names only, seeing the mass of people fallen in the river of suffering as the consequence of accruing the result of their own work?
CLASS NOTES:
THE MATERIALISTS ARE ALWAYS WORSHIPING SOME MINOR DEMIGODS,
In the Vedas, it is said that persons who are attached to demigods to the exclusion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are like the animals who follow the herdsman even though they are taken to the slaughterhouse.
The materialists, like animals, also do not know how they are being misdirected by neglecting the transcendental thought of the Supreme Person. No one can remain vacant of thought. It is said that an idle brain is a devil’s workshop because a person who cannot think in the right way must think of something which may bring about disaster.
The materialists are always worshiping some minor demigods, although this is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20). As long as a person is illusioned by material gains, he petitions the respective demigods to draw some particular benefit which is, after all, illusory and nonpermanent.
THE ENLIGHTENED TRANSCENDENTALIST IS NOT CAPTIVATED BY SUCH ILLUSORY THINGS;
therefore he is always absorbed in the transcendental thought of the Supreme in different stages of realization, namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. In the previous verse it is suggested that one should think of the Supersoul, which is one step higher than the impersonal thought of Brahman, as it was suggested in the case of contemplating the virāṭ-rūpa of the Personality of Godhead.
Intelligent persons who can see properly may look into the general conditions of the living entities who are wandering in the cycle of the 8,400,000 species of life, as well as in different classes of human beings. It is said that there is an everlasting belt of water called the River Vaitaraṇī at the entrance of the Plutonic planet of Yamarāja, who punishes sinners in different manners. After being subjected to such sufferings, a sinner is awarded a particular species of life according to his deeds in the past. Such living entities as are punished by Yamarāja are seen in different varieties of conditioned life. Some of them are in heaven, and some of them are in hell. Some of them are brāhmaṇas, and some of them are misers. But no one is happy in this material world, and all of them are either class A, B or C prisoners suffering because of their own deeds.
The Lord is impartial to all circumstances of the sufferings of the living entities, but to one who takes shelter at His lotus feet, the Lord gives proper protection, and He takes such a living entity back home, back to Himself.
If you weigh through the whole nonsense that is there in this world, then you can see the absolute truth. Lord Ramachandra says anyone who comes to me and bows I accept them. People come to America – Material profit and sense gratification. They leave India, every country in the world to have American dream.
Why should we stay in the cycle of birth and death? Why don’t we understand what happened to us previously and what is going to happen in the future and come out of this cycle? “Similarly, because we are all part and parcel of the Lord, the Lord is always affectionate to us, and He always tries to get us back home, back to Godhead. But we, the conditioned souls, do not care for Him and run instead of after the illusory bodily connections.
We must therefore extricate ourselves from all illusory connections of the world and seek reunion with the Lord, trying to render service unto Him because He is the ultimate truth. Actually we are hankering after Him as the child seeks the mother. And to search out the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we need not go anywhere else, because the Lord is within our hearts.” What is ignorance – “Nasato vidyate… “ We are living with the dreams of the things taht are no longer there. Here we have a chance to come in contact with SB, BG, Srila Prabhupada and disciplic succession. Why ignore this? We have to become serious.
The dilemma of being attached to material gain leads one to the worship of Demi Gods. They think that I do not want to go to Krsna he takes everything away from me, he wants me to think of him all the time and serve Him. I do not want to serve Him. I want to make money and have sense gratification. Correlation between wanting material success and material profit and worshiping demigods. In Iskcon there was one devotee who asked Prabhupada about worshiping Ganesha. He was making money in questionable ways. He was attached to it.
People think let me go to Ganesha, Shiva, Durga and get what they want. It is true that you will get some material benefits if you worship demigods. If a 10 year child has 10 dollars in his pocket where did he get it from. He got it from his father. Krishna gives them to demi Gods and they give it to the people who worship them… The demigods do not own anything; they get things from Krsna. The dramatic difference between devotee and nondevotee.
Akbar went to Rajasthan and he felt very thirsty. He approached a farmer and asked for water. He asked do you know who I am? The farmer said I do not. I know that you are a person who is thirsty and I need to help you with water. Akbar said you can come to Delhi if you need any help. One summer there was a severe drought and no water and people are in difficulty. The farmer goes to Delhi to meet Akbar. Akbar goes to prayer. After prayer he comes to the farmer. The farmer tells him I came to ask you something, you yourself are asking from God and I will pray to God and ask him and saying that he leaves.
There are millions of misconceptions in this material world. There are many things that are causing sufferings. “Who else but the gross materialists will neglect such transcendental thought and take to the nonpermanent names only” “What does it mean by non permanent names – We discussed about “World of names” in previous verses. SB 2.2.3 “The whole material creation is a jugglery of names; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter. “
“seeing the mass of people fallen in the river of suffering as the consequence of accruing the result of their own work?” This river is the Vaitarani river surrounded by Yamaraj. There are different perceptions of it in different sections of Vedas. It is very interesting. People offer a cow when people die they do not know… everything becomes diluted and people just do things out of custom and not of knowledge.
When a child is not properly engaged by the parents. They give phone, tv, computer. The child exposed to the millions of nonsense people in this world. “No one can remain vacant of thought. It is said that an idle brain is a devil’s workshop because a person who cannot think in the right way must think of something which may bring about disaster.” We want kids to be engaged in the right way. One is “ One who does good is never overcome by evil” “Paraupakar” “Tamasoma jyothirgamayi… “ “Leave the ignorance and come to light” …
Unless we fill the child’s mind with positive things in their childhood. “The child is the father of man” Whatever the child learns in their childhood, that will remain with them through their life. The process in when the child is 5 years old, goes to the Guru in gurukul. The guru trains the child in education. The british stopped all that and gave the english education in schools and no vedas and only scientific pedagogy. We end up in this non permanent names – Black holes, big bang, point of infinite density. Can you ever see them or even get near them. You will die. Mathematics is a specialized language. Few equations only few people in the entire world know. This is all to confuse people to make an elite class of people and everyone else is excluded. This elite class will take advantage of others who do not know these names.. i