KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.16 – II TODAY (04/13/21):
- When the mind is materialistic or absorbed in material contact, it acts for material advancement of knowledge, destructively ending in the discovery of nuclear weapons. This is also stated in BG 16.9
- The materialists, who have no concept of God, are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. They think that they are advancing. But according to Bhagavad-gītā, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all.
- But when the mind acts under spiritual urge, it acts wonderfully for going back home, back to Godhead, for life in complete bliss and eternity.
- Therefore the mind has to be manipulated by good and unalloyed intelligence.
- Perfect intelligence is to render service unto the Lord
- One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. (BG 6.9)
- The mind is the central point of yoga practice. The purpose of the yoga system is to control the mind and to draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience.
- The pure soul is entangled in the material world because the mind is involved with the false ego, which desires to lord it over material nature.
- Therefore, the mind should be trained so that it will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature, and in this way, the conditioned soul may be saved. One should not degrade oneself by attraction to sense objects.
- The more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence. (This is a law of nature).
- The best way to disentangle oneself is to always engage the mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- “For man, the 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.” (Amṛta-Bindu Upaniṣad 2). The mind which is always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation.
- One should be intelligent enough to understand that the living being is, in all circumstances, a servant of the circumstances.
- Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and enviousness — all materially affected. But even while executing such dictations of different temperaments, he is perpetually unhappy.
- When one actually feels this and turns his intelligence to inquiring about it from the right sources, he gets information of the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
- Instead of serving materially for the above-mentioned different humors of the body, the living entity’s intelligence then becomes freed from the unhappy illusion of materialistic temperament, and thus, by unalloyed intelligence, the mind is brought into the service of the Lord.
- The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane. Therefore the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally.
- When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction.
- In his pure, unalloyed state, the living being attains the stage of full bliss, labdhopaśānti, and ceases all material hankerings.
- “servant of the circumstances”, “Every living being is serving the dictates of desire,…” “different temperaments” ” perpetually unhappy” ” unhappy illusion of materialistic temperament,” “different humors of the body” – Srila Prabhupada has used words that no one will be able to use. This is a very subtle profound purport to be able to understand it, you should be able to carefully understand the words that Prabhupada is using. He is using words that we don’t know that are perfectly pertinent to the complex concept he is trying to convey.
SB 2.2.16 TRANSLATION:
Thereafter, the yogī should merge his mind, by his unalloyed intelligence, into the living entity, and then merge the living entity into the Super self. And by doing this, the fully satisfied living entity becomes situated in the supreme stage of satisfaction, so that he ceases from all other activities.
CLASS NOTES:
This is a very important purport and we shall read it again today thoroughly. There are a lot of very important psychological points made by Srila Prabhupada.
If you read this verse alone you might think that it is Mayavadi philosophy and it is not. That is why you need to carefully read the purport. if you just read verses it is very easy that you misinterpret them, that is why you will have to read the verse and purport of SP to be able to understand correctly. Otherwise, you will read SB and think that is Mayavadi’s philosophy.
“When the mind is materialistic or absorbed in material contact, it acts for material advancement of knowledge, destructively ending in the discovery of nuclear weapons.” This is a verse from BG 16.9.
(BG 16.9)
Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.
“lost to themselves” means they are far away from who they really are.
“who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.” – that is what prof. Oppenheimer realized. He was in charge of making the atomic bomb. Under him, he had 1000’s of scientists working frivolously. The atom bomb was asked to be made to bomb the Nazis. Churchill convinced to throw the bomb on Japan instead of Germany. Because Japan was supporting the Indian independence army led by Subash Chandra Bose. Japan surrendered right away. The only time in history an atom bomb was thrown on the citizens and not the army.
(BG 16.9) THE DEMONIAC IS ENGAGED IN ACTIVITIES THAT WILL LEAD THE WORLD TO DESTRUCTION. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent.
The materialists, who have no concept of God,
- are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction.
- think that they are advancing.
- But according to Bhagavad-gītā, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense.(It is not according to some humans it is according to BG which is eternal and spoken millions of years ago… Sastra Pramana)
- They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification.
- Such materialistic inventions are considered to be the advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings.(So many monkeys and animals are killed for scientific experimentation.)
- they have no idea how to behave towards one another.
- animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people.
- such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all.
- One should be intelligent enough to understand that the living being is, in all circumstances, a servant of the circumstances. Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and enviousness — all materially affected. But even while executing such dictations of different temperaments, he is perpetually unhappy.
- The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane. Therefore the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally.
- When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction.
- In his pure, unalloyed state, the living being attains the stage of full bliss, labdhopaśānti, and ceases all material hankerings.
(BG 16.9) INDIRECTLY, THIS VERSE ANTICIPATES THE INVENTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, OF WHICH THE WHOLE WORLD IS TODAY VERY PROUD.
At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc.
Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here.
Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world.
(North Korea is proud to have the atomic bomb, Israel, India, Pakistan, All of them are proud and they all say they are trying to stop of nuclear power but they get the bombs… )
Srila Prabhupada’s statement is not a personal statement, every line of his purport is backed by the sastric evidence. That is why if you want to be a preacher you have to back up every statement with the sastric evidence. Then people take your words seriously, you are not making things up as Mayavadi’s do…
(SB 2.2.16) “But when the mind acts under spiritual urge, it acts wonderfully for going back home, back to Godhead, for life in complete bliss and eternity. ”
The real focus of all yoga is the mind. The body is easy to control.
Controlling the body is not that difficult. What is almost impossible to control is the mind. Mind is the center of all focus in yoga. Mind is fickle. It can go from one thought to another. It can remember things from the past which has sinful, it can be angry, envy, greedy, completely illusioned. It can be so many different things.
(SB 2.2.16) “Therefore the mind has to be manipulated by good and unalloyed intelligence.”
What is pure intelligence – means always be engaged in pure dev service to the lord. Understanding who Krsna is, unless you understand who Krsna is your mind gets corrupted. Therefore there is a direct correlation between Krsna Consciousness and pure intelligence. When intelligence is corrupted by the dictation of the frivolous mind, people go into the illusion of things that are never true. At no time we were this body, but we believe that we are the body. At no time we are the body we are the soul in the body. We go through whole life without understanding it. We go through the Pandering of serving the mind that is full of lust, anger, envy, greed, and insanity. These six things cease the mind by the influence of the modes.
(SB 2.2.16) “Perfect intelligence is to render service unto the Lord”
This purport explains the basis of psychology. If you want to be a psychologist you need to read this purport. The mind is compared to that of a chariot.
Horse – 5 senses
Rings – Mind
Driver – Intelligence
Chariot – Body
Owner /passenger – Soul
When intelligence is corrupted by the mind, this is explained in the 6th chapter of BG.
(BG 6.5) THIS IS THE REAL PSYCHOLOGYuddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ
One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.
(BG 6.5) The word ātmā denotes body, mind and soul – depending upon different circumstances.
What is a circumstance – is a condition connected with action.
The context in which a word is used can have a different meaning according to different circumstances. You not only learn sanskrit – word, the grammar you also have to learn context. In this verse, “atma” is mentioned 7 times. It is referring different meanings … based on the context.
(BG 6.5) THE PURE SOUL IS ENTANGLED IN THE MATERIAL WORLD BECAUSE THE MIND IS INVOLVED WITH THE FALSE EGO
In the yoga system, the mind and the conditioned soul are especially important. Since the mind is the central point of yoga practice, ātmā refers here to the mind. The purpose of the yoga system is to control the mind and to draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed herein that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience. In material existence one is subjected to the influence of the mind and the senses. In fact, the pure soul is entangled in the material world because the mind is involved with the false ego, which desires to lord it over material nature.
Intelligence is not mentioned here, because the mind supersedes intelligence, corrupts it. So the intelligence is now inferior to the mind. It should be the opposite. The mind is connected to the false ego and therefore every decision the person makes is wrong.
The mind receives the impressions of the five senses and quickly makes decisions based on feelings and not based on intelligence – real discrimination (right from wrong, good from bad, beneficial from unbeneficial), based on sastric basis. A person who has a weak mind, quickly changes his mind – one minute they hate their husband and again they love, one minute they take care of children, and another minute they do not. Mind is Chanchal…
(BG 6.5)THEREFORE, THE MIND SHOULD BE TRAINED SO THAT IT WILL NOT BE ATTRACTED BY THE GLITTER OF MATERIAL NATURE, AND IN THIS WAY THE CONDITIONED SOUL MAY BE SAVED.”
What is the glitter of the material nature – Las vegas. In Vedic tradition, we dress the deities in glittery clothes. In Christianity, since they do not have the deity, they dress the priest in glittery clothes. Now they are dressing the women as deities and then men are being dressed as woman deities… These are all the agents of maya….
When people stop looking at revealing dresses, high heels, lipstick, stockings, perfumes, rings, necklaces… Worn by women and men today and stop being attracted to the lights in a broadway, Las Vegas, Disney land. In this way, the conditioned soul may be saved.
(BG 6.5)ONE SHOULD NOT DEGRADE ONESELF BY ATTRACTION TO SENSE OBJECTS.
The more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence. ( This is a law of nature). The best way to disentangle oneself is to always engage the mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada considers lipstick and mascara as nonsense. They are distraction and not the real attraction. The real attraction is – being kind, confident, compassion, affection, self-control, competent, merciful, goodness, cleanliness, submissiveness… all these are the beautiful things about a person. A person may be physically ugly but they are beautiful because of these transcendental qualities… That is the story of Quasimodo (Story of a hunchback) When you take away lipstick, perfumes, cell phones, cars what is left, what may end up is the greedy nasty person or it may be a saintly person..
The best way to disentangle from the glitter is to always engage in KC…
(BG 6.5) The word hi is used for emphasizing this point, i.e., that one must do this.
Your kids must do it, relatives must do it. Otherwise, you will be surrounded by people who drag you down.. The kids who belong to Vaishnava families in US are gradually degraded… by eating meat and doing other nonsense..
(BG 6.5) “For man, the 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.” (Amṛta-Bindu Upaniṣad 2) Therefore, the mind which is always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation.
This is real psychology. KC is the solution to mental problems. Often the psychologists are more troubled than the ones who see them. According to Freud, everyone has an Oedipus complex. This is nonsense. Psychologists are worse than psychiatrists. They say kids have ADHD and they need to take drugs that are nonsense. They are the most depressed and attempted suicide.
(SB 2.2.16) One should be intelligent enough to understand that the living being is, in all circumstances, a servant of the circumstances. Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and enviousness — all materially affected. But even while executing such dictations of different temperaments, he is perpetually unhappy.
Servant of the condition, influenced by the modes of material nature. If you are surrounded by people in modes of passion and ignorance.. You will be influenced, by it. It is impossible to escape that influence. “Every living being is serving the dictates of desire, anger, lust, illusion, insanity and enviousness” – It does not mention Krsna. We read yesterday purorts of BG 6.7 & BG 6.8 – Dictation is discussed several times. We must follow the dictation of Krsna and not the anger, lust,…..
When one actually feels this and turns his intelligence to inquiring about it from the right sources, he gets information of the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Instead of serving materially for the above-mentioned different humors of the body, the living entity’s intelligence then becomes freed from the unhappy illusion of materialistic temperament, and thus, by unalloyed intelligence, the mind is brought into the service of the Lord. The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane
“servant of the circumstances“, “Every living being is serving the dictates of desire,…” “different temperaments” ” perpetually unhappy” ” unhappy illusion of materialistic temperament,” “different humors of the body” Prabhupada is very poetic here. Srila Prabhupada has used words that no one will be able to use. This is a very subtle profound purport to be able to understand it, you should be able to carefully understand the words that Prabhupada is using. He is using words that we don’t know that are pertinent to everything he is saying.
When he was translating he would always do it in a calm time he said it should be absolutely quiet. He is translating from one language to another and he should use words that explain the Complicated concepts – he has to choose words to explain to them which have no proper words in English.
(SB 2.2.16) “The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane” – Mayavadis and materialits do not agree to this… for karmis, mayavadis everything is relative.
(SB 2.2.16) The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute plane. Therefore, the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord transcendentally.
We discussed yesterday the seer and the seen, it is a profound concept, only Mayavadis talk about it and not many Vaishnavas. The only Vaishnava who talks about is Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur…..
When the living entity is directly seen by the Lord, the Lord dictates to him to act according to His desire, and when the living entity follows Him perfectly, the living entity ceases to discharge any other duty for his illusory satisfaction.
In his pure, unalloyed state, the living being attains the stage of full bliss, labdhopaśānti, and ceases all material hankerings.
Lord Caitanya says if you try to understand Mayavadi philosophy you will never be able to understand KC. They make it so complicated and say one needs to reject I. Individual is illusory. You have to reject everything including your individuaity. People read all that study memorize it and they become complete idiots. Mayavadi philosophy is the basis of psychologists. and this is all bla bla, whereas this purport is the truth.
You see how one purport can contain the whole section of knowledge. The words Srila Prabhupada used are all perfect. That is why we need to pay attention when hearing and carefully study it..