KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.14
- The real purpose of life is to make contact with the Lord and be engaged in His service. That is the natural position of living entities.
- The Lord wants all living entities, who are His parts and parcels, to live with Him in the transcendental world, and for enlightening conditioned souls in the material world, all the Vedas and the revealed scriptures are there — expressly to recall the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead.
- Unfortunately, the conditioned living entities, although suffering continually the threefold miseries of conditioned life, are not very serious about going back to Godhead. It is due to their misguided way of living, complicated by sins and virtues.
- Some way or other, one must try to reestablish one’s forgotten relation with the Lord if one at all desires to gain real happiness in life, and to reclaim his natural unfettered condition.
- For the less intelligent beginners, meditation on the impersonal feature, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form of the Lord, will gradually qualify one to rise to understanding of personal feature of the lord.
- One is advised herewith to meditate upon the virāṭ-rūpa, in order to understand how the different planets, seas, mountains, rivers, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods and all that we can conceive are but different parts and limbs of the Lord’s virāṭ form.
- As soon as such meditation begins, one develops one’s godly qualities and the whole world appears to be a happy and peaceful residence for all the people of the world.
- Without such meditation on God, either personal or impersonal, all good qualities of the human being become covered with misconceptions regarding his constitutional position, and without such advanced knowledge, the whole world becomes a hell for the human being.
- The material world is not a fit place for living entities because they are spiritually one with the Lord and in the material world the living entities become conditioned by the laws of the material world.
- There are 2 sets of laws we have to follow. The first set is the laws set by Krsna. It is called Dharma, when we violate we entangle in birth and death. The second set of law is social laws set by the government which is imperfect and they are changing. We are obliged to follow them.
- The Laws of Nature are all given by Krsna in Bhagavad Gita.
SB 2.2.14 TRANSLATION:
Unless the gross materialist develops a sense of loving service unto the Supreme Lord, the seer of both the transcendental and material worlds, he should remember or meditate upon the universal form of the Lord at the end of his prescribed duties.
CLASS NOTES:
THE LORD WANTS ALL LIVING ENTITIES, WHO ARE HIS PARTS AND PARCELS, TO LIVE WITH HIM IN THE TRANSCENDENTAL WORLD, and for enlightening conditioned souls in the material world, all the Vedas and the revealed scriptures are there — expressly to recall the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead. Unfortunately, the conditioned living entities, although suffering continually the threefold miseries of conditioned life, are not very serious about going back to Godhead. It is due to their misguided way of living, complicated by sins and virtues. Some of them who are virtuous by deeds begin to reestablish the lost relation with the Lord, but they are unable to understand the personal feature of the Lord.
THE REAL PURPOSE OF LIFE IS TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE LORD AND BE ENGAGED IN HIS SERVICE. THAT IS THE NATURAL POSITION OF LIVING ENTITIES.
But those who are impersonalists and are unable to render any loving service to the Lord have been advised to meditate upon His impersonal feature, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form. Some way or other, one must try to reestablish one’s forgotten relation with the Lord if one at all desires to gain real happiness in life, and to reclaim his natural unfettered condition. For the less intelligent beginners, meditation on the impersonal feature, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form of the Lord, will gradually qualify one to rise to personal contact. One is advised herewith to meditate upon the virāṭ-rūpa specified in the previous chapters in order to understand how the different planets, seas, mountains, rivers, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods and all that we can conceive are but different parts and limbs of the Lord’s virāṭ form. This sort of thinking is also a type of meditation on the Absolute Truth, and as soon as such meditation begins, one develops one’s godly qualities and the whole world appears to be a happy and peaceful residence for all the people of the world. Without such meditation on God, either personal or impersonal, all good qualities of the human being become covered with misconceptions regarding his constitutional position, and without such advanced knowledge, the whole world becomes a hell for the human being.
This is a very important purport. IT EXPLAINS WHAT IS OUR REAL position in the material world. We are here because we voluntarily chose to be separate from Krsna. That is why we are put in this world to be an enjoyer and controller. But such an activity is destined for failure. It is the law of nature Everyone will fail in the process of being an enjoyer and a dominator and an exploiter of material nature and people. When we say the law of nature it is something that is insurmountable, we can never be successful, but people do not want to accept their failure and they want to keep on trying. Just like Rukmini’s brother, he would play chess with Krsna, every time he fails he would say he won… after some time it became intolerable and Krsna punishes him. This obstinacy keeps people in the material world birth after birth.
The Supreme Lord is the ultimate beneficiary and enjoyer of all worlds, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29). The material world is not a fit place for living entities because they are spiritually one with the Lord and in the material world the living entities become conditioned by the laws of the material world.
There are 2 sets of law we have to follow. First set is the laws set by Krsna. It is called Dharma, when we violate we entangle in birth and death. The second set of law is social laws set by the government which are imperfect and they are changing. We are obliged to follow them.
LAWS SET BY KRSNA (LAWS OF NATURE)
- BG 3.9 – Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. (Bondage means to come under the modes of material nature and you are forced to do things.)Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.
- SB 5.5.4 -6 – “People are mad after sense gratification, and they do not know that this present body, which is full of miseries, is a result of one’s fruitive activities in the past. Although this body is temporary, it is always giving one trouble in many ways. Therefore, to act for sense gratification is not good. One is considered to be a failure in life as long as he makes no inquiry about his real identity. As long as he does not know his real identity, he has to work for fruitive results for sense gratification, and as long as one is engrossed in the consciousness of sense gratification one has to transmigrate from one body to another. Although the mind may be engrossed in fruitive activities and influenced by ignorance, one must develop a love for devotional service to Vāsudeva. Only then can one have the opportunity to get out of the bondage of material existence.” (As long as we are mad after sense gratification, we do not understand the purpose of having the material body and how to use it. It is not our natural state to have material body. Body is full of miseries.)
- BG 8.16 – From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again. (The myth that one can be happy by going to higher planets….How are you going to learn these laws only by reading BG)
- 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. The process of changing one’s nature at the critical moment of death is here explained.
- BG 16.10 – Taking shelter of insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent.(Only engaged in impermanent activities, acts of sense gratification, resulting in perversion…extreme moral ethical degradation…)
- BG 16.19 – Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.
- In this verse it is clearly indicated that the placing of a particular individual soul in a particular body is the prerogative of the supreme will.
- The demoniac person may not agree to accept the supremacy of the Lord, and it is a fact that he may act according to his own whims, but his next birth will depend upon the decision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and not on himself. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, it is stated that an individual soul, after his death, is put into the womb of a mother where he gets a particular type of body under the supervision of superior power. Therefore in the material existence we find so many species of life – animals, insects, men, and so on. All are arranged by the superior power. They are not accidental. As for the demoniac, it is clearly said here that they are perpetually put into the wombs of demons, and thus they continue to be envious, the lowest of mankind. Such demoniac species of men are held to be always full of lust, always violent and hateful and always unclean. The many kinds of hunters in the jungle are considered to belong to the demoniac species of life.
- BG 16.20 – Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of Kuntī, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.Is there any hope for these demons – only sadhu sanga, a pure devotee can give mercy to the worst demon.. Krsna also gives a demo mercy by killing them – hiranyakasipu, ravana..
- BG 16.23 – He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.
- BG 5.22 – An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.
- BG 6.8 – A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything – whether it be pebbles, stones or gold – as the same.
- BG 4.31 – O best of the Kuru dynasty, without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next? (Sacrifice – is sacrificing sense gratification inorder to have time and energy for KC activities)
- BG 4.40 –But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.In school, they teach you to doubt everything, in a sense they call it socratic method. Socrates would go around and meet people and ask do you know what humility is? Socrates would ask some questions and that person would agree that he does not really know about humility… then he would say let su research and find out more about humility. That degraded and became you question everything, including God. If you deny the existence of God you deny the existence of yourself.. Doubting all the time is a disease… Can you doubt the fact that you have mother and father. In the same way can you doubt.. That there is a supreme Father..
- BG 4.5 – The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!
- You forget past life that is the law of nature. If you remember you will be forced to take KC, to give you the freedom of choice you forget..
- BG 3.37 – The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.
- Lust is something we all have, by education, bad education, by conceit, false pride, misconceptions.. lust is the greatest enemy of the living entity, and it is lust only which induces the pure living entity to remain entangled in the material world. Lust means excessive material desire, perversion which is uncontrollable desire..
Right from the beginning material education misleads the children. They teach that there is is only material body and there is no soul and there is no spiritual world and there is no GOD. They teach everything on this basis and so everything they teach is false. The kids are made to believe this, and they are taught to do the best to enjoy as there is only one life. This concept is glorified in the movies, social media – Sense gratification… The kids become cursed to work hard for sense gratification through their lives. They get the curse of Sisyphus… because of the material education and they will continue in this cycle of birth and death…
Body is a place of suffering. Pains, failing of organs, wounds of the body, viruses…