KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.27
- The Vedic wisdom guides us to understand our relationship with the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and to acting accordingly in order to achieve the desired result of returning home, back to Godhead. But materialistic men do not understand this
- For false happiness, they try to reach other planets, either by Vedic rituals or by spacecraft, but they should know for certain that any amount of materialistic adjustment for becoming happy in a place which is meant for distress cannot benefit the misguided man because, after all, the whole universe with all its paraphernalia will come to an end after a certain period. Then all plans of materialistic happiness will automatically come to an end.
- The intelligent person makes a plan to return home, back to Godhead. He surpasses all the pangs of material existence, like birth, death, disease, and old age. He is actually happy because he has no anxieties of material existence, but as a compassionate sympathizer he feels unhappiness for the suffering materialistic men, and thus he occasionally comes before the materialistic men to teach them the necessity of going back to Godhead.
- All the bonafide ācāryas preach this truth of returning home, back to Godhead, and warn men not to make a false plan for happiness in a place where happiness is only a myth.
- Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa puts to the test many of His pure devotees just to magnify the sense of duty. The gopīs were put to such tests as well. Prahlāda Mahārāja also was put to such a test. All pure devotees come out successful in the respective tests by the Lord.
- We have been discussing about the Sense of Duty
- Occupational activities are useless if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.
- The primary duty of a person is not serving the needs of a body but serving the needs of the soul. 99 percent of the people do not know what is the primary duty of their life and they are merrily wasting their time running after making attempts for better bodily comforts/ sense gratification.
- One should not engage himself in any sort of occupational service for material gain only. Nor should material gain be utilized for sense gratification.
- Human life is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.
- In every sphere of life, therefore, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth, and that sort of engagement will make one happy because he will be less engaged in varieties of sense gratification.
- Our primary duty is to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord, as they are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
- The more we hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord, the more we can know about His transcendental nature and thus make definite progress on the path back to Godhead.
- Our duty is to act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord as a servant acts only on the order of the master. Now, one may argue that Arjuna was acting under the personal direction of Kṛṣṇa but when Kṛṣṇa is not present how should one act?
- If one acts according to the direction of Kṛṣṇa in this book, as well as under the guidance of the representative of Kṛṣṇa, then the result will be the same.
- One has no goal in life save and except acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And while working in that way, one should think of Kṛṣṇa only: “I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Kṛṣṇa.” This is perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- One should, however, note that after doing something whimsically he should not offer the result to the Supreme Lord. That sort of duty is not in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- One should act according to the order of Kṛṣṇa. That order of Kṛṣṇa comes through disciplic succession from the bonafide spiritual master.
- Therefore, the spiritual master’s order should be taken as the prime duty of life. If one gets a bona fide spiritual master and acts according to his direction, then one’s perfection of life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is guaranteed.
- There is no time limitation for a pure devotee. He is always, twenty-four hours a day, one hundred percent engaged in activities under the direction of the Supreme Lord or the representative of the Lord, the bonafide spiritual master.
- To a devotee who is thus engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Lord is very, very kind. In spite of all difficulties, he is eventually placed in the transcendental abode or Kṛṣṇaloka. He is guaranteed entrance there; there is no doubt about it. In that supreme abode, there is no change; everything is eternal, imperishable, and full of knowledge.
SB 2.2.27 TRANSLATION
In that planet of Satyaloka, there is neither bereavement nor old age nor death. There is no pain of any kind, and therefore there are no anxieties, save that sometimes, due to consciousness, there is a feeling of compassion for those unaware of the process of devotional service, who are subjected to unsurpassable miseries in the material world.
CLASS NOTES:
Simply by becoming an academic scholar one cannot understand the Vedic statements; one has to approach the real authority who has received the Vedic knowledge by disciplic succession, as clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2).
A qualified brāhmaṇa, who has undergone strict training under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master can interpret the Vedic knowledge.The Vedic wisdom guides us to understand our relationship with the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and to acting accordingly in order to achieve the desired result of returning home, back to Godhead. But materialistic men do not understand this.
MATERIALISTIC MAN’S PLAN
For false happiness, they try to reach other planets, either by Vedic rituals or by spacecraft, but they should know for certain that any amount of materialistic adjustment for becoming happy in a place which is meant for distress cannot benefit the misguided man because, after all, the whole universe with all its paraphernalia will come to an end after a certain period. Then all plans of materialistic happiness will automatically come to an end.
INTELLIGENT MAN’S PLAN
The intelligent person makes a plan to return home, back to Godhead. He surpasses all the pangs of material existence, like birth, death, disease, and old age. He is actually happy because he has no anxieties of material existence, but as a compassionate sympathizer he feels unhappiness for the suffering materialistic men, and thus he occasionally comes before the materialistic men to teach them the necessity of going back to Godhead. All the bonafide ācāryas preach this truth of returning home, back to Godhead, and warn men not to make a false plan for happiness in a place where happiness is only a myth.
(SB 1.19.24) DUTY OF EVERYONE
O trustworthy brāhmaṇas, I now ask you about my immediate duty. Please, after proper deliberation, tell me of the unalloyed duty of everyone in all circumstances, and specifically of those who are just about to die.
(SB 1.7.40) TEST FOR THE SENSE OF DUTY
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa encouraged Arjuna outwardly just to test Arjuna’s sense of duty. It is not that Arjuna was incomplete in the sense of his duty, nor was Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa unaware of Arjuna’s sense of duty. But Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa puts to the test many of His pure devotees just to magnify the sense of duty. The gopīs were put to such tests as well. Prahlāda Mahārāja also was put to such a test. All pure devotees come out successful in the respective tests by the Lord.
Lord Krishna will test his devotees to see what his sense of duty is.
The purpose is to magnify the sense of duty of the devotees. This is further explained in SB.
(SB 1.2.8) OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITIES ARE USELESS IF THEY DO NOT PROVOKE ATTRACTION FOR THE MESSAGE OF THE PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD
The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.
People who don’t like to hear classes, come to classes, more concerned about maintenance, family duties and all ignore duties of hearing and chanting. They will not know Krsna Consciousness. Quality hearing and chanting is absolutely necessary every day.
Gross materialists – occupational activities are limited to concentrated and extended selfishness.
Mental Speculators – hover aloft in the mental spheres, and their occupational duties involve making poetry and philosophy or propagating some ism with the same aim of selfishness limited to the body and the mind.
Less intelligent – But above the body and mind is the dormant spirit soul whose absence from the body makes the whole range of bodily and mental selfishness completely null and void. But less intelligent people have no information of the needs of the spirit soul.
The primary duty of a person is not serving the needs of a body but serving the needs of the soul. The soul is the eternal servant of the supreme by constitutional position. 99 percent of the people do not know what is the primary duty of their life. They are wasting their time running after sense gratification, earning money, surrounded with gadgets, instruments meant for sense gratification and … and they never come to the primary duty of life.
(SB 1.2.9) ONE WHO IS ENGAGED IN THE ULTIMATE OCCUPATIONAL SERVICE SHOULD NEVER USE MATERIAL GAIN TO CULTIVATE SENSE GRATIFICATION
All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.
The cycle of occupational engagements
This cycle includes so-called religiosity followed by material gain and material gain followed by the fulfillment of desires. Sense gratification is the general way for all sorts of fully occupied men.
One should not engage himself in any sort of occupational service for material gain only. Nor should material gain be utilized for sense gratification. How material gain should be utilized is described as follows.
(SB 1.2.10) Primary duty is to inquiry about absolute truth
Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.
Without any anxiety of safety or our protection, we should engage in the service of Krsna. This is our primary duty. An example is – Presently Covid is killing people at an amazing rate in India. The situation in India is very dire. Why is it more severe in India than in the west? India is the land of Dharma. Rama, Krishna, was there, Vyasadev is there even now writing Vedas for the next age. In such a land of dharma, when people are engaged in horrendous sinful activities, the reaction is much more severe. Do they realize it? They do not see the correlation between meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, illicit activities… and many more crimes..
If a sinful activity is performed in Vrindavan the reaction is 1000 times more severe than in other places. India is full of holy places. Vrndavan, Benaras, Mayapur, Srirangam… Because people are committing so many sinful actions, the effect is much more. In India tremendous amount of cow killing, abortion, what can be expected.When things happen, we should ask why this is happening?
No one is serious about the problems of life. Even those who are on the path of salvation desire to become one with the Absolute Truth and desire to commit spiritual suicide for sense gratification.
Bhāgavatam says that one should not live for sense gratification. One should satisfy the senses only insomuch as required for self-preservation, and not for sense gratification
Seekers of the Absolute Truth are never allured by unnecessary engagements in sense gratification because the serious students seeking the Absolute Truth are always overwhelmed with the work of researching the Truth.
In every sphere of life, therefore, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth, and that sort of engagement will make one happy because he will be less engaged in varieties of sense gratification.
“Overwhelmed with the work of researching the truth” – Therefore you do not want to waste one second of your time focussing on things that are not connected to Krsna. However, you can make everything in your life connected to Krsna, work, spare time.. if you do not know how to do it you can seek the guidance of the siksha and diksha guru. This is called the art of work.
Sense of duty is further explained in SB 1.18.11.
(SB 1.18.11) Duty is to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord, as they are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
The good sages said: O grave Sūta Gosvāmī! May you live many years and have eternal fame, for you are speaking very nicely about the activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. This is just like nectar for mortal beings like us.
When we hear about the transcendental qualities and activities of the Personality of Godhead, we may always remember what has been spoken by the Lord Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9).
janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ’rjuna
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.
We must give premium to hearing about Krsna. That is the only thing that can save us.
The more we hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord, as they are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the more we can know about His transcendental nature and thus make definite progress on the path back to Godhead.
Hearing and chanting is the primary duty of our life, so we are always thinking of Krsna and putting that into actuality by offering the result of all our activities to Krsna.
The concept of amplifying the sense of duty is clearly understood, when we are put into difficulties. Just like so many people are put into difficulty in India. Everyone is put into difficulty in this material world. It is not a safe haven. Birth, death, the disease is present for everyone.. The time I am … Time is always pressuring us. We are experiencing time – past, present, future and it always puts us in deep anxiety.
- Force of Time
- 3 modes of material nature
- Miseries – adhyatmika, adi bhautika, adi daivika
- Lust anger greed envy illusion
- Sleeping eating mating & defending
- Birth death old age and disease
All these things are limiting us and conditioning us. These are the sources of problems. In all that, there is a test –
(CC Madhya 20.120)
bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir
anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
(Bhāg. 11.2.42)
This is the test by which one can tell whether he is advancing in devotional service. One must be detached from material enjoyment. Such detachment means that māyā has actually given the conditioned soul liberation from illusory enjoyment. When one is advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not consider himself as good as Kṛṣṇa. Whenever he thinks that he is the enjoyer of material advantages, he is imprisoned in the bodily conception. However, when he is freed from the bodily conception, he can engage in devotional service, which is his actual position of freedom from the clutches of māyā. This is all explained in the following verse from the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14).
Everyone is under the spell of illusory enjoyment. Sense gratification is illusory enjoyment. Law of nature – Sense gratification is followed by suffering. People do not agree, but that is the law of nature, it is the truth. Just like the law of gravity cannot be ignored, this law also cannot be ignored.
(CC Madhya 20.122) Māyā’s business is to keep the conditioned soul forgetful of his real relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
“The conditioned soul cannot revive his Kṛṣṇa consciousness by his own effort. But out of causeless mercy, Lord Kṛṣṇa compiled the Vedic literature and its supplements, the Purāṇas.
A conditioned soul is bewildered by the Lord’s illusory energy (māyā). Māyā’s business is to keep the conditioned soul forgetful of his real relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Thus the living entity forgets his real identity as spirit soul, Brahman, and instead of realizing his factual position thinks himself the product of the material energy. According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.7.5):
“Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.”
This whole thing is unnecessary, but due to bewilderment, we subject ourselves merrily to sense gratification and suffering, more sense gratification and more suffering..
You cannot be engaged in Sense gratification in India without being zapped, as India is the land of dharma.
All these things are explained in Vedic literature which is given by the literary incarnation of the Lord – Vyas Dev. The purpose of vedic literature is to instruct us who is krishna and how to get out of this cycle of suffering and become determined by magnifying our sense of duty. The Sense of duty is explained in last part of BG 18.56
BG 18.56) Ultimate duty is to always act under the direction of the Supreme Lord or His representative, the spiritual master.
Though engaged in all kinds of activities, My pure devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by My grace.
The word mad-vyapāśrayaḥ means under the protection of the Supreme Lord. To be free from material contamination, a pure devotee acts under the direction of the Supreme Lord or His representative, the spiritual master. There is no time limitation for a pure devotee. He is always, twenty-four hours a day, one hundred percent engaged in activities under the direction of the Supreme Lord. To a devotee who is thus engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Lord is very, very kind. In spite of all difficulties, he is eventually placed in the transcendental abode, or Kṛṣṇaloka. He is guaranteed entrance there; there is no doubt about it. In that supreme abode, there is no change; everything is eternal, imperishable and full of knowledge.
We should not be afraid of difficulties when we are devotee. It is a test that we must pass. Krishna is testing the sense of duty. By that test, He wants to magnify our sense of duty. If everything is going alright, you slippery slope into the death valley of Sense gratification, your sense of duty is demagnified. When there are trouble devotees naturally become more sincere in their service to Krsna, chanting, attending classes.. They understand cause and effect. They can see the correlation between the reactions of the actions. The reactions will come very quickly for devotees. For others the reactions will come sometimes after lifetimes..The devotees’ sense of duty is magnified if they are willing to be serious in their service… We should never be afraid of difficulties..
(BG 18.57) Our duty is to act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord as a servant acts only on the order of the master
In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me
When one acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not act as the master of the world. Just like a servant, one should act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. A servant has no individual independence. He acts only on the order of the master. A servant acting on behalf of the supreme master is unaffected by profit and loss. He simply discharges his duty faithfully in terms of the order of the Lord. Now, one may argue that Arjuna was acting under the personal direction of Kṛṣṇa but when Kṛṣṇa is not present how should one act? If one acts according to the direction of Kṛṣṇa in this book, as well as under the guidance of the representative of Kṛṣṇa, then the result will be the same.
Sikha and Diksha Guru –
Prabhupada’s reply to the letter of Jaya Pataka Maharaj 1972 Dec 19th – Is this an inappropriate attachment to my service? SP replies with 14 points for success in Krsna Consciousness.
The Sanskrit word mat-paraḥ is very important in this verse. It indicates that one has no goal in life save and except acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And while working in that way, one should think of Kṛṣṇa only: “I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Kṛṣṇa.” While acting in such a way, one naturally has to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
One should, however, note that after doing something whimsically he should not offer the result to the Supreme Lord. That sort of duty is not in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
This is what destroys one’s dev service – acting whimsically. One has to have a very high sense of duty and not act independently.
One should act according to the order of Kṛṣṇa. This is a very important point. That order of Kṛṣṇa comes through disciplic succession from the bona fide spiritual master. Therefore the spiritual master’s order should be taken as the prime duty of life. If one gets a bona fide spiritual master and acts according to his direction, then one’s perfection of life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is guaranteed.