KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.43 TODAY (3/15/22):
- The whole creation is made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form of Brahmā, it is maintained by Him in the form of Viṣṇu, and it is destroyed by Him in the form of Rudra, or Śiva, all in due course.
- The nature of the material world is that it is first created very nicely, then it develops very nicely and stays for a great number of years (even beyond the calculation of the greatest mathematician), but after that it is again destroyed during the night of Brahmā, without any resistance, and at the end of the night of Brahmā it is again manifested as a creation to follow the same principles of maintenance and destruction.
- The foolish conditioned soul who has taken this temporary world as a permanent settlement has to learn intelligently why such creation and destruction take place.
- Instead of wasting his energy in matter, which is sure to be destroyed in due course by the supreme will, the conditioned soul should utilize his energy in the devotional service of the Lord so that he can be transferred to the other, eternal nature, where there is no birth, no death, no creation, no destruction, but permanent life instead, full of knowledge and unlimited bliss.
- The temporary creation is thus exhibited and destroyed just to give information to the conditioned soul who is attached to temporary things. It is also meant to give him a chance for self-realization, and not for sense gratification, which is the prime aim of all fruitive actors.
- BG 8.19 – Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly annihilated.
- BG 8.20 – Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.
- We are, in the material world, we are seeking the favor of goddess of fortune, but in the spiritual world, hundreds and thousands of the goddess of fortunes, they are eagerly trying to serve the Supreme Lord. So He is full. He has nothing to accept from you. But He likes that you should offer Him something.
- Why should we not offer? Then we are ingratitude. Suppose the father is supplying everything, and if I do not offer anything to my father, is it very good business? No.
- “Swāmījī, do you think God eats?” I said, “Yes.” “Then how do you think?” “Because God says, ‘I eat.’ ” Here is, Kṛṣṇa says, aśnāmi. “So God says, ‘I eat.’ Who are you that He does not eat?” I replied him like that. “Who are you? You say that God does not eat, but here God says, ‘I eat.’ So whom shall I believe—a loafer like you, or Kṛṣṇa?
- I accept that I am the fool number one, but whom shall I accept, you or Kṛṣṇa? You said that… What you are? What is your position? You are an ordinary man. So you say that God does not eat, but God says, ‘I eat.’ Why shall I not believe?”
- So this is the question of faith. This is the question of faith. And without faith, you cannot reach the kingdom of God. Your experimental knowledge, your so-called defective reasons and arguments and philosophy, that will not be applicable in the transcendental field. You have to believe. You are believing in every sphere of your life. When you purchase a ticket for transferring yourself in the aeroplane, if you go on arguing whether…, “Sir, I am purchasing ticket. Whether this aeroplane will reach? Whether it will not, I mean to say, crash in the way?” If you go on arguing, there is no question of, I mean to say, getting on the aeroplane. You have to believe that “Aeroplane will take me to the other side.” You are doing that. There is no argument.
- So similarly, you have to believe. We must have faith. And we see that many faithful, great ācāryas and devotees of the Lord, they achieved success by this faith. Why shall I not follow them?
SB 2.10.43 TRANSLATION:
Thereafter, at the end of the millennium, the Lord Himself in the form of Rudra, the destroyer, will annihilate the complete creation as the wind displaces the clouds.
This creation is very appropriately compared to clouds. Clouds are created or situated in the sky, and when they are displaced they remain in the same sky without manifestation. Similarly, the whole creation is made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form of Brahmā, it is maintained by Him in the form of Viṣṇu, and it is destroyed by Him in the form of Rudra, or Śiva, all in due course. This creation, maintenance and destruction are nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.19-20) as follows:
The nature of the material world is that it is first created very nicely, then it develops very nicely and stays for a great number of years (even beyond the calculation of the greatest mathematician), but after that it is again destroyed during the night of Brahmā, without any resistance, and at the end of the night of Brahmā it is again manifested as a creation to follow the same principles of maintenance and destruction.
The foolish conditioned soul who has taken this temporary world as a permanent settlement has to learn intelligently why such creation and destruction take place. The fruitive actors in the material world are very enthusiastic in the creation of big enterprises, big houses, big empires, big industries and so many big, big things out of the energy and ingredients supplied by the material agent of the Supreme Lord. With such resources, and at the cost of valuable energy, the conditioned soul creates, satisfies his whims, but unwillingly has to depart from all his creations and enter into another phase of life to create again and again. To give hope to such foolish conditioned souls who waste their energy in this temporary material world, the Lord gives information that there is another nature, which is eternally existent without being occasionally created or destroyed, and that the conditioned soul can understand what he should do and how his valuable energy may be utilized. Instead of wasting his energy in matter, which is sure to be destroyed in due course by the supreme will, the conditioned soul should utilize his energy in the devotional service of the Lord so that he can be transferred to the other, eternal nature, where there is no birth, no death, no creation, no destruction, but permanent life instead, full of knowledge and unlimited bliss. The temporary creation is thus exhibited and destroyed just to give information to the conditioned soul who is attached to temporary things. It is also meant to give him a chance for self-realization, and not for sense gratification, which is the prime aim of all fruitive actors.
- The purpose of life is to become free from the cycle of birth, death old age and disease and it is not
- Doing things in the incorrect way – complete waste of time and energy.. All you will be left with is bad karma..
- Intelligently plan your life with the eye on your ultimate goal
- We do not want to die with boots on
- If it is not sinking in our mind.. There must be something we did in past life that Yamaraj is not allowing ..
- Law of nature & Material conception of life.
BG 8.19
Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly annihilated.
BG 8.20
Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.
The sign of intelligence – you put the hand in the pocket there is money.. They made money honestly.. People who have lot of money .. they know that they cannot take it with them when they die, so they are investing a lot of money in preventing death..
CRyonics – freeze the body right at the moment of the death.
Type: Bhagavad-gita
Date: Dec. 16, 1966
Location: New York
Audio file: audio/transcripts/1966/661216BG-NEW_YORK.mp3
[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]
Now, the Lord Kṛṣṇa says that “Anyone who offers Me in devotion these four things,” patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, “a bit of leaf and a bit of flower, a little fruit, a little water…” So He is pleased to take, accept. Why? Because we are offering Him with devotion and love. That is the only way. Just like if you offer me varieties of foodstuff and very palatable dishes, but if I am not hungry, then all these palatable dishes and varieties of foodstuff is useless. I cannot accept anything.
Similarly, if you offer anything to the Supreme Lord, He is full; He does not require your offering. He is always being served by hundreds and thousands of goddess of fortune. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam [Bs 5.29].
We are, in the material world, we are seeking the favor of goddess of fortune, but in the spiritual world, hundreds and thousands of the goddess of fortunes, they are eagerly trying to serve the Supreme Lord. So He is full. He has nothing to accept from you. But He likes that you should offer Him something.
Just like a rich father: He does not like any help from the son, but if the son, after he is grown up, he is earning, and if he offers something to the father, oh, he becomes very happy. This is natural. So our connection with the supreme father is like that. He is not in want. He does not require anything from me. But it is for my interest. If I offer something, then I become a very pet son of my father. This is called bhakti. This is devotional service, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And why should we not offer? Then we are ingratitude. Suppose the father is supplying everything, and if I do not offer anything to my father, is it very good business? No.
So here the ultimate, even the poorest of the poorest, he can offer these four things. Otherwise if you have got means, oh, you should prepare very nice foodstuff for the Lord. At Vṛndāvana in India there are temples still, they are spending thousands and thousands of rupees for palatable foodstuff, offering to the Deity. And those foodstuff are distributed to the, I mean to say, the devotees. Not only devotees, even nondevotees come and take, because by eating, one shall be devotee. Nobody shall eat… If I ask somebody, “Please come and hear Bhagavad-gītā,” oh, he may not agree. But if I offer some palatable dishes, foodstuff, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, oh, everyone will accept. Everyone will accept.
So that is one of the process of devotional service, that we should offer very sumptuously to the Lord, and the prasāda should be distributed. The Lord is not taking away to His abode, to His kingdom. It is for you. But if you eat and if you distribute that sort of prasādam to the public, you are doing great service and the public is getting spiritual consciousness, God consciousness. Just establish, just propagate this everywhere. In the hospital, in the charitable societies, in industrial places, everywhere distribute this prasādam and chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa. Just see what is the result.
You want peace? These are the process of peace. But we do not take care of this, what is peace. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram [Bg 5.29], just we have discussed previously.
We should simply acknowledge. There is a process of worship of the Ganges. You have perhaps heard the name of the Ganges River. The Ganges River is the sacred river, Ganges and the Yamunā, the most two sacred rivers in India. Millions of people take bath early in the morning in the two rivers, all parts of the country. It is very wide and very long river, from Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal. So it is very long river, and all the tracts of land, they are considered to be sacred place, and in each and every part, thousands and thousands of people, they are taking their bath early in the morning. Either in the winter season or in the summer season, it doesn’t matter.
So there is a process of worshiping the river Ganges. And what is that? After you take your bath, you stand up to your waist filled up with water and take little water from the Ganges water, and you offer: “Mother Ganges, I am offering this respect.” This is the process. Now, suppose you take a handful of water from the Ganges. What is the loss of Ganges water? And if you offer some handful of water in the Ganges, where is the gain? So this patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, a bit of flower, a bit of, I mean, a fruit and a bit of leaf, if you offer to the Supreme, do you mean to say He gains something? Or if you take it out of nature’s—you are taking so many things—is He in loss? So He has no gain or loss. It is for your interest. When God accepts, He says, “Yes, I…” Aśnāmi: “I eat.”
One Ārya-samājist… You see, in the Hindu society since a very long time, especially since the days of India’s disruption of the original culture, so many offshoots they have come out under the name of so many isms. So there is one section who are called Ārya-samājist. Their business is only to criticize all the scriptures. That is their business.
So one of the member of the Ārya-samājis, he… They do not favor the temple worship. So he asked me, “Swāmījī, do you think God eats?” I said, “Yes.” “Then how do you think?” “Because God says, ‘I eat.’ ” Here is, Kṛṣṇa says, aśnāmi. “So God says, ‘I eat.’ Who are you that He does not eat?” I replied him like that. “Who are you? You say that God does not eat, but here God says, ‘I eat.’ So whom shall I believe—a loafer like you, or Kṛṣṇa? [laughter] I am a third person, and you are also a third person, and Kṛṣṇa is recognized the Supreme Personality of God. Whom shall I believe? I am…, I accept that I am the fool number one, but whom shall I accept, you or Kṛṣṇa? You said that… What you are? What is your position? You are an ordinary man. So you say that God does not eat, but God says, ‘I eat.’ Why shall I not believe?”
So this is the question of faith. This is the question of faith. And without faith, you cannot reach the kingdom of God. Your experimental knowledge, your so-called defective reasons and arguments and philosophy, that will not be applicable in the transcendental field. You have to believe. You are believing in every sphere of your life. When you purchase a ticket for transferring yourself in the aeroplane, if you go on arguing whether…, “Sir, I am purchasing ticket. Whether this aeroplane will reach? Whether it will not, I mean to say, crash in the way?” If you go on arguing, there is no question of, I mean to say, getting on the aeroplane. You have to believe that “Aeroplane will take me to the other side.” You are doing that. There is no argument.
So similarly, you have to believe. We must have faith. And we see that many faithful, great ācāryas and devotees of the Lord, they achieved success by this faith. Why shall I not follow them? Therefore the Vedic literature says that you have to follow the footprints of great ācāryas. Ācārya means great devotees who come to teach the people in general about God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He is called ācārya. He behaves in his life how? To think of Kṛṣṇa, and he teaches his students about that. He is called ācārya. Acinoti śāstrāṇi. He knows the purport of the scriptures, and he behaves in his life and he teaches his student in that way. He is called ācārya.
So we have to… In the Bhagavad-gītā in the Thirteenth Chapter you have read it that ācāryopāsanam. Ācāryopāsanam. You have to approach an ācārya. That is the way of learning transcendental knowledge in all Vedic scriptures. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12]: