Author: JayaSri Devi Dasi

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.3

1. The whole universe, or for that matter all material existence, is moving on as jagat, simply for planning business to make one’s position very comfortable or secure, although everyone sees that this existence is neither comfortable nor secure and can never become comfortable or secure at any stage of development.
2. The whole material creation is a jugglery of names; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter. 
3. The buildings, furniture, cars, bungalows, mills, factories, industries, peace, war, atomic energy and electronics, are all simply bewildering names of material elements with their concomitant reactions of the three modes. 
4. The devotee of the Lord knows them perfectly well, he is not interested in creating unwanted things for a situation which is not at all reality, but simply names of no more significance than the babble of sea waves.
5. The great kings, leaders and soldiers fight with one another in order to perpetuate their names in history. They are forgotten in due course of time, and they make a place for another era in history. But the devotee realizes how much history and historical persons are useless products of the flickering time.  
6. The fruitive worker aspires after a big fortune in the matter of wealth, woman and worldly adoration, but those who are fixed in perfect reality are not at all interested in such false things. Devotees consider fruitive activities to be merely a waste of time.
7. Since every second of human life is important, an enlightened man should be very careful to utilize time very cautiously. One second of human life wasted in the vain research of planning for happiness in the material world can never be replaced, even if one spends millions of coins of gold.
8. Human life is simply meant for self-realization. One should act accordingly, accepting only the bare necessities of life and depending more on God’s gift without the diversion of human energy for any other purpose, such as being mad for material enjoyment.  
9. The transcendentalist desiring freedom from the clutches of māyā, or the illusory activities of life, is warned herewith not to be captivated by the external features of fruitive actors. For him, it is a suicidal policy to be intimately in touch with the sense gratifiers of the world, because such a policy will frustrate the ultimate gain of life.
10. The transcendentalist is specifically warned herewith to be fixed in mind, so that even if there is difficulty in plain living and high thinking he will not budge even an inch from his stark determination.
11. Śukadeva Gosvāmī met Mahārāja Parīkṣit when the latter felt a necessity for such a meeting. It is the duty of a transcendentalist to help persons who desire real salvation and to support the cause of salvation. One might note that Śukadeva Gosvāmī never met Mahārāja Parīkṣit while he was ruling as a great king.
12. (SB 1.2.8) we have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord, and any occupational activity which does not help one to achieve attachment for hearing and chanting the transcendental message of Godhead is said herein to be simply a waste of time. 
13. (SB 1.2.8) This is because other occupational duties (whatever ism they may belong to) cannot give liberation to the soul. 
14. (SB 1.2.8) The gross materialist can practically see that his material gain is limited only to time and space, either in this world or in the other. Even if he goes up to the Svargaloka, he will find no permanent abode for his hankering soul. 
15. (SB 1.2.8) The hankering soul must be satisfied by the perfect scientific process of perfect devotional service.
16. (SB 1.2.9) One should not engage himself in any sort of occupational service for material gain only. Nor should material gain be utilized for sense gratification. 
17. (SB 1.2.10) Bhāgavatam says that one should not live for sense gratification. One should satisfy the senses only in as much as required for self-preservation, and not for sense gratification. Because the body is made of senses, which also require a certain amount of satisfaction, there are regulative directions for the satisfaction of such senses. But the senses are not meant for unrestricted enjoyment.
18. (SB 1.2.10) In every sphere of life, 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.

SB 2.2.3 TRANSLATION: 

For this reason, the enlightened person should endeavor only for the minimum necessities of life while in the world of names. He should be intelligently fixed and never endeavor for unwanted things, being competent to perceive practically that all such endeavors are merely hard labor for nothing.

CLASS NOTES: 

“For this reason” –  SB 2.2.2 – The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that it directs the intelligence of the people to meaningless things like the heavenly kingdoms. The conditioned souls hover in dreams of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.

This should be read by the jihadis who are promised of 70 virgins in the zennet> what is the difference between 70 virgins in Islam and heavenly planets with apsaras in Hinduism. Both are similar. They are trying to get sense gratification by doing sacrifices or suicide by killing others. 

“For this reason the enlightened person should endeavor only for the minimum necessities of life while in the world of names.”  This does not mean that people have to walk half naked like Gandhi. Real sadhu does not put arms around the women. Gandhi was even sleeping with women, his claim is I was proving that I am not attached to sex. He was not a yogi and he looked like a yogi, he was not a politician and he acted like a politician. He was so involved in politics that he did not answer SP letter about asking to making preaching BG through out the country, now that the independence is achieved.
endeavor only for the minimum necessities – If you earn a million dollars a day that does not change what your stomach can hold. You can only eat 2 -3 rotis, sabjis. Life style should not change, spending all the rest for the service of the Lord. 

Example of Sudama Vipra – His wife forced him to go to Krsna in Dwaraka and ask for money to get rid of their poverty. He tied up the chipped rice in a dhoti and he goes walking. Krishna receives him so well and respects him by washing his feet, gives Prasadam and asks his reason of arrival. Krishna asks what is that in your bag and it has the chipped rice. Krishna eats and finds out why he came and blesses him. Sudhama vipra does not even tell him, but Krsna knows. When Sudhama gets back home, he does not see his village any more, he sees all these palaces. He sees a lady waving and smiling… that is his wife in opulent clothes living in this palace. He knows that Krsna blessed him. He did not change his style of living. He lived like a modest Brahmana. So that is what it means by minimum necessities of life. Remaining very very humble and simple in all your habits and very strictly doing sadhana..

THOSE WHO ARE CAPTIVATED BY THE ILLUSORY ADVANCEMENT OF MATERIAL CIVILIZATION (FOLLOWING THE WAY OF PHANTASMAGORIA) ARE CERTAINLY MADMEN

The whole universe, or for that matter all material existence, is moving on as jagat, simply for planning business to make one’s position very comfortable or secure, although everyone sees that this existence is neither comfortable nor secure and can never become comfortable or secure at any stage of development.

NAMES OF NO MORE SIGNIFICANCE THAN THE BABBLE OF SEA WAVES. 

The whole material creation is a jugglery of names only; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter like earth, water and fire. The buildings, furniture, cars, bungalows, mills, factories, industries, peace, war or even the highest perfection of material science, namely atomic energy and electronics, are all simply bewildering names of material elements with their concomitant reactions of the three modes. Since the devotee of the Lord knows them perfectly well, he is not interested in creating unwanted things for a situation which is not at all reality, but simply names of no more significance than the babble of sea waves. 

SP uses very interesting language in this purport, he talks about the “The world of names” Names are different from the kings. You can say coco-cola through the day but you cannot taste it. But when you chant Krsna, it is nondifferent than Krsna. 
This is the correct description of the material world. Someone who is a sense gratifier reads this they are bewildered. “What, he is belittling everything I am attached to and working hard for”

Society, family, friendship, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.. Are all part of the jugglery of names.. In Hindi there are names for different relationships – Babhi, batija, chacha… all names at the end everyone dies and there is only name on the cemetery. Maharaj asked mom if she wanted to go to her country – she did not want to go as everyone died and no one is left…. Just names are left.

HISTORY AND HISTORICAL PERSONS ARE USELESS PRODUCTS OF THE FLICKERING TIME.
The great kings, leaders and soldiers fight with one another in order to perpetuate their names in history. They are forgotten in due course of time, and they make a place for another era in history. But the devotee realizes how much history and historical persons are useless products of flickering time. 

So much time is wasted in school by teaching History and studying history. 

Poet Colrich when doing research – He comes across the tribute to great ancient egypt king – Ozymandias. It was in the middle of the desert in noman’s land. It said “ He was a greatest king, everyone was scared of, he had so many horses, elephants…… “ What is there to remember – a broken monument in middle of no where and a tribute no one sees…
Anytime people work for sense gratification the end result is nothing. Just some sort of hazy memory, nothing tangible, it is all subject to birth, oldage, disease and death.

FRUITIVE RESULTS ARE ALL FALSE THINGS

The fruitive worker aspires after a big fortune in the matter of wealth, woman and worldly adoration, but those who are fixed in perfect reality are not at all interested in such false things. For them it is all a waste of time.

People thought Hitler was God’s gift to humankind, what did it lead to the complete death of so many germans. There are many theories that he got away… usually there is lot of lies in history… the history is generally written by the conquerors.
 

VALUE OF TIME
Since every second of human life is important, an enlightened man should be very careful to utilize time very cautiously. One second of human life wasted in the vain research of planning for happiness in the material world can never be replaced, even if one spends millions of coins of gold. Therefore, the transcendentalist desiring freedom from the clutches of māyā, or the illusory activities of life, is warned herewith not to be captivated by the external features of fruitive actors.

HUMAN LIFE IS NEVER MEANT FOR SENSE GRATIFICATION, BUT FOR SELF-REALIZATION. SB TEACHES THE SAME.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam instructs us solely on this subject from the very beginning to the end. Human life is simply meant for self-realization. The civilization which aims at this utmost perfection never indulges in creating unwanted things, and such a perfect civilization prepares men only to accept the bare necessities of life or to follow the principle of the best use of a bad bargain. Our material bodies and our lives in that connection are bad bargains because the living entity is actually spirit, and spiritual advancement of the living entity is absolutely necessary. Human life is intended for the realization of this important factor, and one should act accordingly, accepting only the bare necessities of life and depending more on God’s gift without diversion of human energy for any other purpose, such as being mad for material enjoyment.


THE MATERIALISTIC ADVANCEMENT OF CIVILIZATION IS CALLED “THE CIVILIZATION OF THE DEMONS,” which ultimately ends in wars and scarcity. The transcendentalist is specifically warned herewith to be fixed in mind, so that even if there is difficulty in plain living and high thinking he will not budge even an inch from his stark determination.

FOR A TRANSCENDENTALIST, IT IS A SUICIDAL POLICY TO BE INTIMATELY IN TOUCH WITH THE SENSE GRATIFIERS OF THE WORLD, BECAUSE SUCH A POLICY WILL FRUSTRATE THE ULTIMATE GAIN OF LIFE.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī met Mahārāja Parīkṣit when the latter felt a necessity for such a meeting. It is the duty of a transcendentalist to help persons who desire real salvation and to support the cause of salvation. One might note that Śukadeva Gosvāmī never met Mahārāja Parīkṣit while he was ruling as a great king. For a transcendentalist, the mode of activities is explained in the next śloka.

How to lead life with MINIMUM MATERIAL NEEDS and aim for ultimate perfection is described in SB 1.2.8 – 10.

(SB 1.2.8) ANY OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITY WHICH DOES NOT HELP ONE TO ACHIEVE ATTACHMENT FOR HEARING AND CHANTING THE TRANSCENDENTAL MESSAGE OF GODHEAD IS SAID HEREIN TO BE SIMPLY A WASTE OF TIME.

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. 

 But less intelligent people have no information of the needs of the spirit soul.
Because foolish people have no information of the soul and how it is beyond the purview of the body and mind, they are not satisfied in the performance of their occupational duties. The question of the satisfaction of the self is raised herein. The spirit soul’s needs must be fulfilled. Simply by cleansing the cage of the bird, one does not satisfy the bird. One must actually know the needs of the bird himself.

The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead. There is a dormant affection for God within everyone; spiritual existence is manifested through the gross body and mind in the form of perverted affection for gross and subtle matter. Therefore we have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord, and any occupational activity which does not help one to achieve attachment for hearing and chanting the transcendental message of Godhead is said herein to be simply a waste of time. This is because other occupational duties (whatever ism they may belong to) cannot give liberation to the soul. Even the activities of the salvationists are considered to be useless because of their failure to pick up the fountainhead of all liberties. The gross materialist can practically see that his material gain is limited only to time and space, either in this world or in the other. Even if he goes up to the Svargaloka, he will find no permanent abode for his hankering soul. The hankering soul must be satisfied by the perfect scientific process of perfect devotional service.

(SB 1.2.9) OCCUPATIONAL SERVICE SHOULD NEVER BE PERFORMED FOR ULTIMATE LIBERATION

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.

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.

This does not mean that you cannot have a business and cannot earn money. Be an honest businessman and earn even a million dollars – but you decide what your minimum needs are and stick to them. Eating, sleeping, dressing modestly, Time for KC while performing duties as Grihasthi. This is the minimalist Ethos. SP SP lived for self preservation so he can have maximum time for KC and he demonstrated tremendous energy in those 11 years of his life travelling around the world 7 times and establishing so many temples and preaching and making disciples all over the world. 

(SB 1.2.10)  THE ONLY THING TO DESIRE FOR &  THE GOAL OF ONE’S WORK

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.

Self-preservation – regulated eating, sleeping and mating as per KC. 

The completely bewildered material civilization is wrongly directed towards the fulfillment of desires in sense gratification. But the Bhāgavatam says that one should not live for sense gratification. One should satisfy the senses only in as much as required for self-preservation, and not for sense gratification. Because the body is made of senses, which also require a certain amount of satisfaction, there are regulative directions for satisfaction of such senses. But the senses are not meant for unrestricted enjoyment. 

Foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth. 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. And what that Absolute Truth is is explained as follows.

KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.2.2:

1. The conditioned soul is always engaged in laying out plans for happiness within the material world even up to the end of the universal limit.
2. One thinks of a superior way of life in this country or that, or on this planet or another, but nowhere in the material world can he fulfill his real desire of life, namely eternal life, full intelligence and complete bliss.
3. There are innumerable universes and also innumerable planets in each of them. But none of them is immune to the chief miseries of material existence – birth, death, old age and disease. 
4. Conditioned souls are strictly under the laws of fruitive activities, and as such they sometimes go up to Brahmaloka and again come down to Pātālaloka, as if they were unintelligent children on a merry-go-round
5. The real happiness is in the kingdom of God, where no one has to undergo the pangs of material existence. Therefore, the Vedic ways of fruitive activities for the living entities are misleading.
6. People, in general, are not very intelligent, and due to their ignorance, they are most attached to the fruitive activities recommended in the karma-kāṇḍa portions of the Vedas. They do not want anything more than sense gratificatory proposals for enjoying life in heaven, where wine and women are available and material opulence is very common.
7. It is stated in Vedas that anyone desiring elevation to heavenly planets must perform sacrifices. Men with a poor fund of knowledge think that this is the whole purpose of Vedic wisdom (enjoying in heavenly planets). It is very difficult for such inexperienced persons to be situated in the determined action of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
8. They have no faith in liberation from material bondage, and they are very much attached to the pompous ceremonies of Vedic sacrifices.
9. Happiness derived from a combination of the senses and the sense objects is always a cause of distress and should be avoided by all means. (BG 18.38)That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects is like nectar at first but poison at the end.
10. (BG 5.16) When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime.
11. (BG 18.46) By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work.
12. The Supreme Lord is the beginning of life of every living entity. One should know that as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord one has his duty to render service unto the Supreme. In whatever occupation one may be engaged, if he serves the Supreme Lord he will achieve the highest perfection. The Supreme Lord Himself takes charge of delivering such a devotee. 
13. Everyone should be engaged in devotional service to the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
14. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī affirms that Mahārāja Parīkṣit, in the last stage of life, should not desire to transfer himself to the so-called heavenly planets, but should prepare himself for going back home, back to Godhead. 

SB 2.2.2 TRANSLATION:

The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that it directs the intelligence of the people to meaningless things like the heavenly kingdoms. The conditioned souls hover in dreams of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.

CLASS NOTES: 

THE CONDITIONED SOUL IS ALWAYS ENGAGED IN LAYING OUT PLANS FOR HAPPINESS WITHIN THE MATERIAL WORLD, 

even up to the end of the universal limit. He is not even satisfied with available amenities (nice things for comfort)  on this planet earth, where he has exploited the resources of nature to the best of his ability. He wants to go to the moon or the planet Venus to exploit resources there.

NONE OF THE MATERIAL PLANETS, NOR THE AMENITIES AVAILABLE THERE FOR LIVING CONDITIONS, IS EVERLASTING; THEREFORE ONE MUST HAVE A FACTUAL RELUCTANCE TO ENJOY SUCH TEMPORARY HAPPINESS AS THEY AFFORD.

There are innumerable universes and also innumerable planets in each of them. But none of them is immune to the chief miseries of material existence, namely the pangs of birth, the pangs of death, the pangs of old age and the pangs of disease. 

Conditioned souls are strictly under the laws of fruitive activities, and as such they sometimes go up to Brahmaloka and again come down to Pātālaloka, as if they were unintelligent children on a merry-go-round

The real happiness is in the kingdom of God, where no one has to undergo the pangs of material existence. Therefore, the Vedic ways of fruitive activities for the living entities are misleading.

One thinks of a superior way of life in this country or that, or on this planet or another, but nowhere in the material world can he fulfill his real desire of life, namely eternal life, full intelligence, and complete bliss.

Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī affirms that Mahārāja Parīkṣit, in the last stage of life, should not desire to transfer himself to the so-called heavenly planets, but should prepare himself for going back home, back to Godhead. 

When we talk about Sastra/ Vedas – “The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that it directs the intelligence of the people to meaningless things like the heavenly kingdoms. The conditioned souls hover in dreams of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.” Then why those sections of vedas called Karma Kanda are offered for material benefits. It is to attract the people who are not interested in KC. The whole idea is to wean them off gross sense gratification and bring them to the regulated sense gratifications. Vedas are big tents and everyone can fit under it. Those enticements – you can do the sense gratification is a nobler way, at the same time get regulated and gradually become KC. But those ritual performances for regulated sense gratification is not the purpose of Vedas. There is high purpose. This verse is related to BG 2.40

When there is something too good to believe do not believe it.
People know that people want sense gratification and they cheat them for that. The sophisticated way of fleecing is through offering Vedic rituals for sense gratification without telling the ultimate purpose of the Vedas.
Everyone wants Vaikunta in the material world. But that is not possible. 

(BG 5.16) KNOWLEDGE OF KRSNA
When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime.

What is needed is Knowledge of Krsna and actively performing service to please Krsna. 

(BG 18.46) IN WHATEVER OCCUPATION ONE MAY BE ENGAGED, IF HE SERVES THE SUPREME LORD HE WILL ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST PERFECTION.

By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work.

Really important verse in BG. 

The Supreme Lord is therefore the beginning of life of every living entity. Therefore one should worship the Supreme Lord with His energies. Generally, the Vaiṣṇava devotees worship the Supreme Lord with His internal energy.  The Supreme Lord by the expansion of His plenary portion as Paramātmā is situated everywhere. He is the Supersoul of all demigods, all human beings, all animals, everywhere. One should therefore know that as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord one has his duty to render service unto the Supreme. Everyone should be engaged in devotional service to the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is recommended in this verse.
Everyone should think that he is engaged in a particular type of occupation by Hṛṣīkeśa, the master of the senses. And by the result of the work in which one is engaged, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, should be worshiped. If one thinks always in this way, in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then, by the grace of the Lord, he becomes fully aware of everything. That is the perfection of life. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (12.7), teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā. The Supreme Lord Himself takes charge of delivering such a devotee. That is the highest perfection of life.

(BG 2.42-43) MEN OF SMALL KNOWLEDGE ARE VERY MUCH ATTACHED TO THE FLOWERY WORDS OF THE VEDAS

Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this

This is pointing out the danger of becoming addicted to regulated sense gratification by the performance of rituals of karma kanda section of vedas. The purpose is to calm down the beast with regulation, but to eventually go towards, giving up the sense gratification and satisfying only Krsna’s senses.

People in general are not very intelligent, and due to their ignorance they are most attached to the fruitive activities recommended in the karma-kāṇḍa portions of the Vedas. They do not want anything more than sense gratificatory proposals for enjoying life in heaven, where wine and women are available and material opulence is very common.

It is stated in Vedas that anyone desiring elevation to heavenly planets must perform sacrifices.

men with a poor fund of knowledge think that this is the whole purpose of Vedic wisdom. It is very difficult for such inexperienced persons to be situated in the determined action of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As fools are attached to the flowers of poisonous trees without knowing the results of such attractions, unenlightened men are similarly attracted by such heavenly opulence and the sense enjoyment thereof.

This is due to the corrupted priests, no one tells the ultimate purpose of vedas and everyone propagates only sense gratifications. There are 2 themes in every religion –
Shreyas and Preyas – Immediate result and ultimate result. 

In the karma-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas it is said, apāma somam amṛtā abhūma and akṣayyaṁ ha vai cāturmāsya-yājinaḥ sukṛtaṁ bhavati. In other words, those who perform the four-month penances become eligible to drink the soma-rasa beverages to become immortal and happy forever.

Abraham bhuvana loka… everywhere from Brahma’s highest planet to the lowest planet patala loka are places of misery. There is no question of eternity and unabated happiness. 

Even on this earth some are very eager to have soma-rasa to become strong and fit to enjoy sense gratifications.(Super foods, energy drinks, coffee , tea, … ). Such persons have no faith in liberation from material bondage, and they are very much attached to the pompous ceremonies of Vedic sacrifices

By performing vedic rituals people become attached to getting to heavenly planets and then dream of having sensual pleasures. “but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.” What starts as nectar ends as poison is in BG 18.38 

(BG 18.38) WHAT STARTS AS NECTAR ENDS AS POISON

That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects and which appears like nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion.

Happiness derived from a combination of the senses and the sense objects is always a cause of distress and should be avoided by all means.

ACTING OUT OF DUTY –  GRIHASTA ASHRAMA
BG 1.31 Lecture – https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/730724bglon/

So gṛhastha means to live with wife and children, and cultivating spiritual life. That is called gṛhastha.It doesn’t matter, you live with your wife and children, or you live with brahmacārī, sannyāsī. Anything. It doesn’t matter. Therefore there are so many divisions of life. Whichever status of life is suitable for you, you can accept—brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa āśrama. Āśrama. When the word is added, āśrama, that means it has got reference with the cultivation of spiritual life. So gṛhastha-āśrama. One can live at home with wife and children, but the business should be Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

We don’t accept the Māyāvādī sannyāsī, because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply by becoming sannyāsī… Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: “This world is false. Brahman is truth. So I give up this world.” That kind of sannyāsī we do not accept. Either you become gṛhastha or sannyāsī or brahmacārī, there must be Kṛṣṇa. Then it will be called āśrama. Gṛhastha-āśrama, sannyāsa-āśrama, brahmacārī-āśrama. Therefore this word is added, āśrama.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.2.1

1. Lord Brahmaji, being the incarnation of the passion mode of material nature, is empowered by the Lord to generate the beautiful material manifestation.
2. Yet due to his being one of the numerous living entities, he is apt to forget the art of his creative energy.
3. This forgetfulness of the living being — beginning from Brahmā down to the lowest insignificant ant — is a tendency which can be counteracted by meditation on the virāṭ-rūpa of the Lord.
4. If a human being follows the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and begins to meditate upon the virāṭ-rūpa, then revival of his pure consciousness and counteraction of the tendency to forget his eternal relationship with the Lord can follow simultaneously. 
5. And as soon as this forgetfulness is removed, the vyavasāya-buddhi follows at once. 
6. This ascertained knowledge of the living being, leads to loving service to the Lord, which the living being requires. All jivas being parts and parcels of the Lord and are meant for rendering a particular pattern of service to the Lord.
7. The conditioned soul, even in the position of a Brahmā, forgets this by the influence of the illusory material energy generated out of false egoism. One can counteract such false egoism by invoking God consciousness.
8. Liberation means getting out of the slumber of forgetfulness and becoming situated in the real loving service of the Lord, as exemplified in the case of Brahmā. 
9. The service of Brahmā is the sample of service in liberation distinguished from the so-called altruistic services full of mistakes and forgetfulness. 
10. Liberation is never inaction, but service without human mistakes. 
11. Vyavasaya Budhir – (BG 2.41) –   Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.
12. A strong faith that by Kṛṣṇa consciousness one will be elevated to the highest perfection of life is called vyavasāyātmikā intelligence.
13. Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime. When one is engaged in the duties of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he need not act in relationship to the material world with obligations to family traditions, humanity or nationality. 
14. When one is awake in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, 
    • he need no longer endeavor for good results in his activities. 
    • all activities are on the absolute plane, for they are no longer subject to dualities like good and bad. 
15. The resolute purpose of a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is based on knowledge. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ: a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the rare good soul who knows perfectly that Vāsudeva, or Kṛṣṇa, is the root of all manifested causes
16. By acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can render the highest service to everyone – namely self, family, society, country, humanity, etc. If Kṛṣṇa is satisfied by one’s actions, then everyone will be satisfied.
17. Service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is best practiced under the able guidance of a spiritual master who is a bona fide representative of Kṛṣṇa, who knows the nature of the student and who can guide him to act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
18. “By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

SB 2.1.1 TRANSLATION

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Formerly, prior to the manifestation of the cosmos, Lord Brahmā, by meditating on the virāṭ-rūpa, regained his lost consciousness by appeasing the Lord. Thus he was able to rebuild the creation as it was before.

CLASS NOTES: 

THE EXAMPLE CITED HEREIN OF ŚRĪ BRAHMĀJĪ IS ONE OF FORGETFULNESS. MEDITATION ON THE VIRAT RUPA OF THE LORD CAN COUNTERACT THE FORGETFULNESS.

Brahmājī is the incarnation of one of the mundane attributes of the Lord. Being the incarnation of the passion mode of material nature, he is empowered by the Lord to generate the beautiful material manifestation. Yet due to his being one of the numerous living entities, he is apt to forget the art of his creative energy. This forgetfulness of the living being — beginning from Brahmā down to the lowest insignificant ant — is a tendency which can be counteracted by meditation on the virāṭ-rūpa of the Lord.

AS SOON AS THIS FORGETFULNESS IS REMOVED, THE VYAVASĀYA-BUDDHI FOLLOWS (RESOLUTE IN KC)

And as soon as this forgetfulness is removed, the vyavasāya-buddhi, as mentioned here and in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.41), follows at once. This ascertained knowledge of the living being leads to loving service to the Lord, which the living being requires. 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS UNLIMITED; ALL JIVAS ARE MEANT FOR RENDERING A PARTICULAR PATTERN OF SERVICE TO THE LORD

 therefore the number of the assisting hands of the Lord is also unlimited. The Bhagavad-gītā (13.14) asserts that the Lord has His hands, legs, eyes and mouths in every nook and corner of His creation. This means that the expansions of differentiated parts and parcels, called jīvas or living entities, are assisting hands of the Lord, and all of them are meant for rendering a particular pattern of service to the Lord. 

The conditioned soul, even in the position of a Brahmā, forgets this by the influence of the illusory material energy generated out of false egoism. One can counteract such false egoism by invoking God consciousness.

LIBERATION IS NEVER INACTION, BUT SERVICE WITHOUT HUMAN MISTAKES.

Liberation means getting out of the slumber of forgetfulness and becoming situated in the real loving service of the Lord, as exemplified in the case of Brahmā. The service of Brahmā is the sample of service in liberation distinguished from the so-called altruistic services full of mistakes and forgetfulness. Liberation is never inaction, but service without human mistakes.

 
If we want to be a liberated person engaged in service without human mistakes that is possible.People are making mistakes everyday. A man is filing a divorce, that is a biggest mistake a man can ever do. His dharma is to protect his wife.

Liberation is never inaction – Mayavadis think that liberation is inaction. That type of renunciation is false. They are rejecting everything including Krsna. 

“The service of Brahmā is the sample of service in liberation distinguished from the so-called altruistic services full of mistakes and forgetfulness.”

Altruistic service – good natured and trying to do good to others. There is a man around the corner holding a board saying, “Vietnam vet, god bless, anything helps” –  If you give money to him, if he buys liquor then you will get the sin. If you really want to give something to him, you can give him prasadam. Service offered based on feelings and not any sastric evidence.
Analogy is not a proof, but it is not sastric. Proof is Sastra. But even there you have to be careful.  Lets read tomorrow’s verse – 

SB 2.1.2

“The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that it directs the intelligence of the people to meaningless things like the heavenly kingdoms. The conditioned souls hover in dreams of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.”

We have to depend on vedas as explained by the acharyas in the line of Krsna, but not on our own feelings. Arjuna had his feelings.
Doing things based on feelings,  – blood is thicker than water, my family, my country, my house, Familial bonds are more important than friendships. I wake up in the morning and think, I dont feel like going to mangala arti that is feeling. BUt vow is no matter I do what I vowed for. 

Vyavasaya Budhir – (BG 2.41)
Srila Prabhupada gave so many lectures on this verese what is Krsna Consciousness, guru disciple relationship, how disciple can be successful. 

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca
buddhayo ’vyavasāyinām

Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.

vyavasāya-ātmikā — resolute in Kṛṣṇa consciousness;
avyavasāyinām — of those who are not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Resolute in KC – I am going to keep my vows in hell of heaven.
Resolute in purpose – I am only going to do things pleasing to Guru and Krsna.
Irresolute – One day they want to become rich, one day they want to increase sense gratification, one day they want to leave and become buddhist…

A strong faith that by Kṛṣṇa consciousness one will be elevated to the highest perfection of life is called vyavasāyātmikā intelligence.
The Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.62) states:

‘śraddhā’-śabde – viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya
kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya

FAITH MEANS UNFLINCHING TRUST IN SOMETHING SUBLIME.

When one is engaged in the duties of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he need not act in relationship to the material world with obligations to family traditions, humanity or nationality. 

It does not say obligations to family it says family traditions. 

FRUITIVE ACTIVITIES BOTH GOOD AND BAD ARE BAD

Fruitive activities are the engagements of one’s reactions from past good or bad deeds. When one is awake in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he need no longer endeavor for good results in his activities. 

WHEN ONE IS SITUATED IN KṚṢṆA CONSCIOUSNESS, ALL ACTIVITIES ARE ON THE ABSOLUTE PLANE, 

for they are no longer subject to dualities like good and bad. The highest perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is renunciation of the material conception of life. This state is automatically achieved by progressive Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Frutive is not a word in english. It is a word that was coined by Srila Prabhupada. It means selfish interest. It is a negative context. Fruit is a positive word. Fruits from both good and bad deeds are bad as both are binding. 

Karma Good and bad are both bad. Because they keep you in ignorance.

Karma Good and bad are both bad. Because they keep you in ignorance.
he need no longer endeavor for good results in his activities.  – Doing puja for material benefits is bad. Puja by itself is good, but doing it for fruitive results is bad. 

When one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all activities are on the absolute plane, for they are no longer subject to dualities like good and bad – Everything is based on duality in this world.  Heat and cold, happiness and sadness.. 

THE RESOLUTE PURPOSE OF A PERSON IN KṚṢṆA CONSCIOUSNESS IS BASED ON KNOWLEDGE. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ: a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the rare good soul who knows perfectly that Vāsudeva, or Kṛṣṇa, is the root of all manifested causes. As by watering the root of a tree one automatically distributes water to the leaves and branches, so by acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can render the highest service to everyone – namely self, family, society, country, humanity, etc. If Kṛṣṇa is satisfied by one’s actions, then everyone will be satisfied.

SERVICE IN KṚṢṆA CONSCIOUSNESS IS, HOWEVER, BEST PRACTICED UNDER THE ABLE GUIDANCE OF A SPIRITUAL MASTER WHO IS A BONA FIDE REPRESENTATIVE OF KṚṢṆA, WHO KNOWS THE NATURE OF THE STUDENT AND WHO CAN GUIDE HIM TO ACT IN KṚṢṆA CONSCIOUSNESS.

 As such, to be well versed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness one has to act firmly and obey the representative of Kṛṣṇa, and one should accept the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master as one’s mission in life. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura instructs us, in his famous prayers for the spiritual master, as follows:

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi
dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri-sandhyaṁ
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

“By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I should, therefore, meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day, and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master.”

The whole process, however, depends on perfect knowledge of the soul beyond the conception of the body – not theoretically but practically, when there is no longer a chance for sense gratification manifested in fruitive activities. One who is not firmly fixed in mind is diverted by various types of fruitive acts.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.39

1. The great gosvāmī Śrīla Śukadeva tries to impress upon us that instead of diverting our attention to several branches of self-realization, we should concentrate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the supreme object of realization, worship and devotion.
2. Self-realization is offering a fight for eternal life against the material struggle for existence, and therefore by the illusory grace of the external energy, the yogī or the devotee is faced with many allurements which can entangle a great fighter again in the bondage of material existence.
3. One is warned against such allurements (yogic powers, wealth, women) because entanglement again in such illusory pleasure means degradation of the self and further imprisonment in the material world.
4. Lord is the Supersoul of everything. When a man sees anything, he must know that his seeing is secondary and the Lord’s seeing is primary. One cannot see anything without the Lord’s having first seen it. That is the instruction of the Vedas and the Upaniṣads.
5. The virāṭ-rūpa, or the gigantic feature of the Supreme Lord, includes everything materially manifested, and therefore virat rupa of the Lord is the Supersoul of all living and nonliving entities. 
6. But the virāṭ-rūpa is also the manifestation of Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu, and going further on and on one will eventually see that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate Supersoul of everything that be.
7. The conclusion is that one should unhesitatingly become a worshiper of Lord Kṛṣṇa, or, for that matter, His plenary expansion Nārāyaṇa, and none else.
8. Being an emanation from the glancing potency of Nārāyaṇa, the whole material creation is non-different from Him. But because it is the effect of His external energy (bahiraṅgā māyā) and is aloof from the internal potency (ātma-māyā), the whole material creation is different from Him at the same time.
9. The whole material creation, therefore, is one with and different from Nārāyaṇa, simultaneously, and this supports the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
10. This material creation is exactly a dreamlike creation of the Lord, but He, being the transcendental Supersoul, is neither entangled nor affected by the reactions of such a dreamlike creation. He is always in His transcendental position, but essentially, He is everything, and nothing is apart from Him. 
11. As a part of Him, one should therefore concentrate on Him only, without deviation; otherwise, one is sure to be overcome by the potencies of the material creation, one after another.
12. BG 9.7 – “O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I again create.”
13. The human life, however, is an opportunity to get out of this repetition of creation and annihilation. It is a means whereby one may escape the Lord’s external potency and enter into His internal potency

SB 2.1.39 TRANSLATION:
One should concentrate his mind upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who alone distributes Himself in so many manifestations just as ordinary persons create thousands of manifestations in dreams. One must concentrate the mind on Him, the only all-blissful Absolute Truth. Otherwise, one will be misled and will cause his own degradation.

CLASS NOTES: 

Sukhdev Goswami tries to impress upon us that instead of diverting our attention to several branches of self-realization, we should concentrate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the supreme object of realization, worship and devotion.

SELF REALIZATION IS A FIGHT FOR ETERNAL LIFE AGAINST THE MATERIAL STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

Self-realization is, as it were, offering a fight for eternal life against the material struggle for existence, and therefore by the illusory grace of the external energy, the yogī or the devotee is faced with many allurements which can entangle a great fighter again in the bondage of material existence. A yogī can attain miraculous successes in material achievements, such as aṇimā and laghimā, by which one can become more minute than the minutest or lighter than the lightest, or in the ordinary sense, one may achieve material benedictions in the shape of wealth and women. But one is warned against such allurements because entanglement again in such illusory pleasure means degradation of the self and further imprisonment in the material world. By this warning, one should follow one’s vigilant intelligence only.

Self realization offers a fight – almost everyone is bewildered by the struggle for existence that they do not have the time for the self realization. Without the self realization, we will lose the battle. Yogi can do miraculous things but they are all material benedictions and binding. All of us are re·cid·i·vist (a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly). We are repeatedly making the same mistake of getting entangled in this material world.

LORD IS THE SUPERSOUL OF EVERYTHING. 

The Supreme Lord is one, and His expansions are various. He is therefore the Supersoul of everything. When a man sees anything, he must know that his seeing is secondary and the Lord’s seeing is primary. One cannot see anything without the Lord’s having first seen it. That is the instruction of the Vedas and the Upaniṣads. So whatever we see or do, the Supersoul of all acts of seeing or doing is the Lord.

This is a huge statement. Primary quality of everything is super soul. Secondary quality is all the measurable things. If you read philosophers, they say primary quality is something you can measure. If you do not see that primary quality is krishna then you are in illusion.

THE VIRĀṬ-RŪPA, OR THE GIGANTIC FEATURE OF THE SUPREME LORD S THE SUPERSOUL OF ALL LIVING AND NONLIVING ENTITIES.

This theory of simultaneous oneness and difference between the individual soul and the Supersoul is propounded by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. The virāṭ-rūpa, or the gigantic feature of the Supreme Lord, includes everything materially manifested, and therefore the virāṭ or gigantic feature of the Lord is the Supersoul of all living and nonliving entities. But the virāṭ-rūpa is also the manifestation of Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu, and going further on and on one will eventually see that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate Supersoul of everything that be. The conclusion is that one should unhesitatingly become a worshiper of Lord Kṛṣṇa, or, for that matter, His plenary expansion Nārāyaṇa, and none else.

People who stop at the virat rupa, the mayavadis go till brahman effulgence,  yogis go till paramatma, few stop at Narayana is the source of Krsna.

Sri Vaishnavas who say Krsna is source of Narayana – Kulasekara, Goda devi, Alwars,
If we cannot see something that does not mean that things do not exist. Animals can see and hear much better than human beings. Our senses are imperfect. 

The whole material creation, therefore, is one with and different from Nārāyaṇa, simultaneously, and this supports the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

THIS MATERIAL CREATION IS EXACTLY A DREAMLIKE CREATION OF THE LORD, 

but He, being the transcendental Supersoul, is neither entangled nor affected by the reactions of such a dreamlike creation. He is always in His transcendental position, but essentially He is everything, and nothing is apart from Him. As a part of Him, one should therefore concentrate on Him only, without deviation; otherwise one is sure to be overcome by the potencies of the material creation, one after another.

REPITITION OF CREATION AND ANNIHILATION 

Bhagavad-gītā (9.7) as follows:
sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya
prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām
kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni
kalpādau visṛjāmy aham
“O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I again create.”

THE HUMAN LIFE, HOWEVER, IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET OUT OF THIS REPETITION OF CREATION AND ANNIHILATION. It is a means whereby one may escape the Lord’s external potency and enter into His internal potency.

Start a project starting today, where we do some research and write down how Krsna is different from a living entity, but yet there is a grain of similarity also. Also, every living entity is a microcosm of Krsna.  Write down How Krsna is One and different.

The ability to understand if a person is genuine or nonsense is absolutely important.
Difference between being clever and being intelligent. Clever guy knows how to obfuscate. (obscure, unclear, bewilder someone). This is what all charletons do. They are selling snake oil. It heals everything. 

SB 2.1.38

This process of concentrating on the different bodily parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord. Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord. This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.

If you talk about the toddler who sucks the breast and that woman is killed and body becomes 12 miles long. People will not understand. If you talk about the Bones, teeth, veins, limbs, hands of virat rupa, people can understand… Talking about confidential past times of Rasalila , people will diminish Krsna. Lord caitanya never preached in public. He only preached to his close associates. In the public he did sankirtan and distributed prasadam. People do not want to sit in rituals. When there is kirtan, jumping up and down, throwing flowers, taking prasadam. Lord Caitanya did large sankirtan where every living entity including animals participated with ecstasy.

They talk about inclusion, racial equality in the school, but they do not include animals…
 “diminish one’s pride”  – people are pride about car, watch, finger nail colors, dress,

Questions: 

What happens to the supersoul when the creation gets annihilated.

BG 15.18
The Supreme Lord, in His localized aspect of Paramātmā, is also described in the Vedas themselves. The following verse appears in the Vedas (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.12.3): tāvad eṣa samprasādo ’smāc charīrāt samutthāya paraṁ jyoti-rūpaṁ sampadya svena rūpeṇābhiniṣpadyate sa uttamaḥ puruṣaḥ. “The Supersoul coming out of the body enters the impersonal brahma-jyotir; then in His form He remains in His spiritual identity. That Supreme is called the Supreme Personality.” This means that the Supreme Personality is exhibiting and diffusing His spiritual effulgence, which is the ultimate illumination. That Supreme Personality also has a localized aspect as Paramātmā. By incarnating Himself as the son of Satyavatī and Parāśara, He explains the Vedic knowledge as Vyāsadeva.

KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.1.38

1. One who seriously desires liberation should concentrate his mind on the Virat rupa form of the Lord because there is nothing more than this in the material world.
2. The goal of yoga is to fix one’s mind on Lord Krsna whether it is Virat Rupa form or Personal form of Krsna.
3. Material nature is only an order-carrying agent of the Lord.
4. Lord’s appearance in the material world as one of us is also His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls.
5. He is transcendental to all material conceptions, but by His unbounded mercy upon His pure devotees, He comes down and manifests Himself as the Personality of Godhead.
6. Materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engrossed with atomic energy and the gigantic situation of the universal form, and they offer respect more seriously to the external phenomenal feature of material manifestations than to the noumenal principle of spiritual existence. 
7. The materialistic philosophers and scientists think of everything in terms of their own experience. Because they are unable to accept the personal feature of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is kind enough to demonstrate the virāṭ feature of His transcendental form.
8. Sukhdev Goswami concludes that there is nothing beyond this gigantic feature of the Lord. None of the materialistic thoughtful men can go beyond this conception.
9. Each and every item of the material manifestation entails a part of the body of the gigantic form, and thus the flickering mind can be fixed in the Lord only and nothing else.
10. This process of concentrating on the different bodily parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord.
11. Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord.
12. This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body. 
13. When Kṛṣṇa comes He has no needs, for He is pūrṇa, ātmārāma. Nonetheless, He descends to this material world to protect the devotees and vanquish miscreants
14. This is the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotees also have the same mission. 
15. One who executes this mission of para-upakāra, performing welfare activities for people in general, is recognized by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as being very, very dear to Him. 
16. Similarly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised this para-upakāra, and He has especially advised the inhabitants of India:“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of  all other people.” (Cc. Ādi 9.41) On the whole, the duty of a pure Vaiṣṇava devotee is to act for the welfare of others.
17. You simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you become guru. To become guru is not… But if you want to be a bluffer, cheater, then you can talk all nonsense. But if you actually talk only Kṛṣṇa’s words, then you become a guru. It is not very difficult.

SB 2.1.38 Translation: 
I have thus explained to you the gross material gigantic conception of the Personality of Godhead. One who seriously desires liberation concentrates his mind on this form of the Lord, because there is nothing more than this in the material world.
CLASS NOTES: Material nature is only an order-carrying agent of His
In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10), the Supreme Personality of Godhead has verily explained that the material nature is only an order-carrying agent of His. She is one of the different potencies of the Lord, and she acts under His direction only. As the supreme transcendental Lord, He simply casts a glance over the material principle, and thus the agitation of matter begins, and the resultant actions are manifested one after another by six kinds of gradual differentiations. All material creation is moving in that way, and thus it appears and disappears in due course.

Less intelligent persons with a poor fund of knowledge cannot accommodate the thought of this inconceivable potency of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, by which He appears just like a human being (Bg. 9.11).His appearance in the material world as one of us is also His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls. He is transcendental to all material conceptions, but by His unbounded mercy upon His pure devotees, He comes down and manifests Himself as the Personality of Godhead.
Materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engrossed with atomic energy and the gigantic situation of the universal form, and they offer respect more seriously to the external phenomenal feature of material manifestations than to the noumenal principle of spiritual existence. NOUMENOL- Exists but we cannot see, electro magnetic waves atoms, you can only know them by their work. For example, you have a maid, she comes when you are not there and she cleans the home. Once you come back and see the house clean, you know that maid came and cleaned the home. The seasons are cycling one after the other., renewal of spring every year, rising and setting of the sun, the child growing… .. This proves that something exists but you might not be able to see it with eyes… The transcendental form of the Lord is beyond the jurisdiction of such materialistic activities, and it is very difficult to conceive that the Lord can be simultaneously localized and all-pervasive because the materialistic philosophers and scientists think of everything in terms of their own experience.   

Obviously, it is a very limited level. They try and put God in their limited level. Two fish looking at the moon. One fish asks the other what is that shining in the sky, the other says it is a fish. The fish asks why it is shiny. The other fish says it is a shiny fish. The fish says now I understand. The Atheist says there is no God. Bringing everything to our level of consciousness is the work of less intelligent people. 
Because they are unable to accept the personal feature of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is kind enough to demonstrate the virāṭ feature of His transcendental form, and herein Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī has vividly described this form of the Lord. He concludes that there is nothing beyond this gigantic feature of the Lord. None of the materialistic thoughtful men can go beyond this conception of the gigantic form.

Therefore whether you meditate on one part of Virat rupa or all parts of Virat rupa you gradually become Krsna Conscious. It is the strategy to preach to atheists or impersonalists.The minds of materialistic men are flickering and constantly changing from one aspect to another. Therefore, one is advised to think of the Lord by thinking of any part of His gigantic body, and by one’s intelligence, only one can think of Him in any manifestation of the material world — the forest, the hill, the ocean, the man, the animal, the demigod, the bird, the beast or anything else. Each and every item of the material manifestation entails a part of the body of the gigantic form, and thus the flickering mind can be fixed in the Lord only and nothing else
This process of concentrating on the different body parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord. The whole point of yoga is to fix the mind on Krsna, whether it is Virat rupa or the personal form

Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord.
When we realize that God is everywhere, there is nowhere we can hide or be private. We can’t get away, He is witnessing everything we think and everything we do. Body of the ant, body of the plant everything is sacred to the devotee of the lord and for a nondevotee they are not because devotee sees everything relation to the Lord. 
This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body. 
Srila Prabhupada in his purports is explaining how everyone in this world can cooperate and work towards one common goal – everything belongs to Krsna and everything should be used in the service of Krsna.  People are being misled due to improper education, it is making people separated than united. Kali-yuga will get so bad that every home becomes a country, It has its own borders and flags and currency, No unity at all..
(ISO 5) hymns of ĪśopaniṣadThe Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.

Here is a description of some of the Supreme Lord’s transcendental activities, executed by His inconceivable potencies. The contradictions given here prove the inconceivable potencies of the Lord. “He walks, and He does not walk.” Ordinarily, if someone can walk, it is illogical to say he cannot walk. But in reference to God, such a contradiction simply serves to indicate His inconceivable power. With our limited fund of knowledge, we cannot accommodate such contradictions, and therefore we conceive of the Lord in terms of our limited powers of understanding. For example, the impersonalist philosophers of the Māyāvāda school accept only the Lord’s impersonal activities and reject His personal feature. But the members of the Bhāgavata school, adopting the perfect conception of the Lord, accept His inconceivable potencies and thus understand that He is both personal and impersonal. The bhāgavatas know that without inconceivable potencies there can be no meaning to the words “Supreme Lord.”
An athiest and a mayavadi cannot accommodate the inconceivable potencies of the lord. We see it everyday, yet people deny it due to envy and ignorance. As long as we try and bring God to our level we become atheists. A devotee is defined as Paraupakari, one who acts for the true welfare of others. One of the best descriptions for a devotee is Paraupakara. This is the major theme. Why does devotee act like that, because Krsna also is Paraupakari. He shows the Virat rupa to help the atheists and impersonalists to gradually come to the platform of devotional service. he does not have to do that. He explains how the virat rupa actually exists in the real way. He does not ignore devotees. Prabhupada talks about this in SB 10.8.4(SB 10.8.4) ParaupakaraAs factually stated by Nanda Mahārāja, Garga Muni, being a devotee, had no needs. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa comes He has no needs, for He is pūrṇa, ātmārāma. Nonetheless, He descends to this material world to protect the devotees and vanquish miscreants (paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām). This is the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotees also have the same mission. (BG 18.69)One who executes this mission of para-upakāra, performing welfare activities for people in general, is recognized by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as being very, very dear to Him (na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ). 
Similarly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised this para-upakāra, and He has especially advised the inhabitants of India:
“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.” (Cc. Ādi 9.41) On the whole, the duty of a pure Vaiṣṇava devotee is to act for the welfare of others.

BG 9.3 lecture – Toronto (https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/760620bgtor/)

So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to enlighten people so that they can accept these principles of Bhagavad-gītā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mission is para-upakāra. And He advises everyone, especially Indians, to become a guru. He said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] = “Every one of you, you become a guru and try to deliver the persons where you are living.” “So how can I become guru?” “Yes, it is very easy.” “What is that?” Yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128], then you become guru. You simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you become guru. To become guru is not… But if you want to be a bluffer, cheater, then you can talk all nonsense. But if you actually talk only Kṛṣṇa’s words, then you become a guru. It is not very difficult.

This is the message of Krsna, Lord Caitanya and all Vaishnava acharyas. Simply repeat what Krsna said in Bhagavadgita and become a guru. It is important we understand what the aim of life is – to learn Bhagavadgita and teach it to others and acting for the true welfare of others. Do not become a miopic speculator to bring the Lord to your own level. BG 9.11 – The whole world is controlled by the Lord. That is why everything, works, everything is predictable, every year there is the repetition of season, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle that is functioning and working in a predictable way.

This purport today is very important. – This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.37

1. Krishna Consciousness is Monotheistic. All varieties of demigods are included in the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; they are only the parts and parcels of the original whole. 
2. The divisions of the orders of human society, namely the brāhmaṇas (the intelligent class), the kṣatriyas (the administrators), the vaiśyas (the mercantile community) and the śūdras (the laborer class), are all included in the body of the Supreme. 
3. Hence all classes of men are recommended to perform sacrifice to the Supreme Lord, with feasible goods in order  to please the Lord. One does not have to perform sacrifices to many demigods under different names as mentioned in the Vedic literatures.
4. Generally, the sacrifice is offered with clarified butter and grains, but with the progress of time, human society has produced varieties of goods by transforming materials supplied by God’s material nature. 
5. Human society, therefore, must learn to offer sacrifices not only with clarified butter, but also with other *manufactured goods* in the propagation of the Lord’s glory, and that will bring about perfection in human society. – THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE TO USE EVERYTHING IN LORD’s SERVICE.
6. By development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can know that everything has its use in the service of the Lord.
7. Those who are without knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness artificially try to avoid material objects, and as a result, although they desire liberation from material bondage, they do not attain to the perfect stage of renunciation. Their so-called renunciation is called phalgu, or less important.
8. On the other hand, a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord; Thus everything becomes spiritualized, and there is no danger of a downfall and he does not become a victim of material consciousness.
9. By the cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.
10. The sacrifice of Congregational Chanting of the holy name of the lord it not only benefits human beings, but every living entity both moving and non moving. This is demonstrated by Lord Caitanya Maha Prabhu. 
11. Various birds, including the peacock, saw Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and began to follow Him, chanting and dancing. They were all maddened by the holy nam.e of Kṛṣṇa.
12. When the Lord loudly chanted “Haribol!” the trees and creepers became jubilant to hear Him.The loud chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is so powerful that it can even penetrate the ears of trees and creepers, what to speak of those of animals and human beings. 
13. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu once asked Haridāsa Ṭhākura how trees and plants could be delivered, and Haridāsa Ṭhākura replied that the loud chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would benefit not only trees and plants but insects and all other living beings. One should therefore not be disturbed by the loud chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, for it is beneficial not only to the chanter but to everyone who gets an opportunity to hear.
14. Thus all living entities in the forest of Jhārikhaṇḍa — some moving and some standing still — became maddened by hearing the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa vibrated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
15. In all the villages through which the Lord passed and in all the places He rested on His journey, everyone was purified and awakened to ecstatic love of God.
16. First, the holy name is vibrated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When someone hears from Him directly, he is purified. When another person hears from that person, he also is purified. In this way the purification process is advanced among pure devotees.
17. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one can claim His potency. 
18. Nonetheless, if one is a pure devotee, hundreds and thousands of men can be purified by his vibration. This potency is within every living being, provided he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra offenselessly and without material motives. 
19. When a pure devotee chants offenselessly, another person will become a Vaiṣṇava, and from him another Vaiṣṇava will emerge. This is the paramparā system.

SB 2.1.37 TRANSLATION: 
The virāṭ-puruṣa’s face is the brāhmaṇas, His arms are the kṣatriyas, His thighs are the vaiśyas, and the śūdras are under the protection of His feet. All the worshipable demigods are also overtaken by Him, and it is the duty of everyone to perform sacrifices with feasible goods to appease the Lord.

CLASS NOTES: 

MONOTHEISM IS PRACTICALLY SUGGESTED HERE

Offering sacrifices to many demigods under different names is mentioned in the Vedic literatures, but the suggestion made in this verse is that all those varieties of demigods are included in the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; they are only the parts and parcels of the original whole. 

The divisions of the orders of human society, namely the brāhmaṇas (the intelligent class), the kṣatriyas (the administrators), the vaiśyas (the mercantile community) and the śūdras (the laborer class), are all included in the body of the Supreme. 

SACRIFICE TO THE SUPREME LORD IS RECOMMENDED 

Sacrifice by all divisions of the human society,  in terms of pleasing the Supreme by feasible goods is recommended. Generally, the sacrifice is offered with clarified butter and grains, but with the progress of time, human society has produced varieties of goods by transforming materials supplied by God’s material nature. Human society, therefore, must learn to offer sacrifices not only with clarified butter, but also with other manufactured goods in the propagation of the Lord’s glory, and that will bring about perfection in human society.

The intelligent class of men, or brāhmaṇas, may give direction for such sacrifices in consultation with the previous ācāryas; the administrators may give all facilities to perform such sacrifices; the vaiśya class or mercantile community, who produce such goods, may offer them for sacrifice; and the śūdra class may offer their manual labor for the successful termination of such sacrifice

Thus by the cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.

This is a brilliant explanation of text 37 by Srila Prabhupada. It begins by explaining different parts of Virat rupa, and he explains Monotheism is practically suggested here. Krsna Consciousness is monothiestic. Western people claim that monotheism begin with persians…zoroastrianism. . It was a speculative theory and was false. In modern times many are propagation of polytheism.

The concept of Godhead should be understood also. God is defined by Pancha tattva. Caitanya mahaprabhu, Advaita Acharya – Vishnu, Gadhadhara pandit – Radha rani, Srivas – Narada muni devotee.

Krishna – Balaram – 1st Chaturvyuha, 2nd chatur vyuha,
Ksirodakasayi Vishnu –
Krishna is never alone, he always expands Himself and appears along with his associates.
KC is strictly monotheistic, but yet you have acintya abeda beda tattva, simultaneous oneness and different … Lord Caitanya exhibits this through the Pancha Tattva.
The whole concept of Godhead is the KC.
Muslims – strict oneness – only one God
Christians – one god… 
Jewish Christian, Zoroastrianism – Speculative oneness
They all do not have the knowledge who God is, how he expands, what are his activities.
Mosses – prophet, they do not put him on the same level as Allah.
To know the truth we need to go back to the original Vedas.
Compartmentalism – We only use ghee or grains for sacrifice. We dont use subways, planes, laptops, bridges, roads.. 
Human society, therefore, must learn to offer sacrifices not only with clarified butter, but also with other manufactured goods in the propagation of the Lord’s glory, and that will bring about perfection in human society. – THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE TO USE EVERYTHING IN LORDS service
When I go to temple I can pray once I go out,  I can do whatever I want. 

(BG 2.63) SHOWS INCOMPLETE NATURE OF RENUNCIATION OF MAYAVADIS AND IMPERSONALISTS AND ALSO DESCRIBES HOW EVERYTHING CAN BE USED IN THE SERVICE OF THE LORD

By development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can know that everything has its use in the service of the Lord. Those who are without knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness artificially try to avoid material objects, and as a result, although they desire liberation from material bondage, they do not attain to the perfect stage of renunciation. Their so-called renunciation is called phalgu, or less important. On the other hand, a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord; therefore he does not become a victim of material consciousness.

Incomplete nature of renunciation of Mayavadis and Impersonalists

For example, for an impersonalist, the Lord, or the Absolute, being impersonal, cannot eat. Whereas an impersonalist tries to avoid good eatables, a devotee knows that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme enjoyer and that He eats all that is offered to Him in devotion. So, after offering good eatables to the Lord, the devotee takes the remnants, called prasādam. Thus everything becomes spiritualized, and there is no danger of a downfall. The devotee takes prasādam in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whereas the non devotee rejects it as material. The impersonalist, therefore, cannot enjoy life, due to his artificial renunciation; and for this reason, a slight agitation of the mind pulls him down again into the pool of material existence. It is said that such a soul, even though rising up to the point of liberation, falls down again due to his not having support in devotional service.

Christians, Muslims, Jews, …  have knwodledge of some parts which are useful, but they do not have complete understanding. Hence they have wars, fights,…
General theme in India when Father dies – who gets what, fight between siblings..
Incomplete knowledge is a dangerous thing. Therefore we have to read the whole BG, whole SB one verse at a time. Drop by drop the cup is filled.
In the same way knowledge and wealth are gained drop by drop. Someone who becomes rich overnight will not be able to benefit out of it.

Dad and son story – Son asked for money and Dad said you need to work for it. 

Moral of the story – Everything belongs to Krsna, and you have to do everything for Krsna and use everything in the service of Krsna. 

Unless you understand who owns everything you will never be able to deal with money properly. It will be an obstacle to Spiritual life rather than being a help for spiritual life.
 By development of KC one can know that everything has its use in service of Krsna.

The love of money is the root of all evil. It does not mean that money is evil. It means if one is too attched to use Money for sense gratification that is root cause of all evil.  Therefore the first thing one must learn is the concept of proprietorship. It isnot known in capitalism, socialism, anarchism, communism,,,,  it is only known through Krsna Consciousness. Everything belongs to Krsna and only be used in the service of Krsna. 

Even if one has more needs due to being married, those needs have to be minimized or controlled  as per acoording to spiritual principles and that way one does not become victim of maya. But as soon as one deviates, gets entangled in Maya and has less time for spiritual life and engages more and more time in material things. 

If you Have money – you are worried about how not  tolose it
If No money – you are worried how to earn more money,,, 

Thus by the cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.

The basis of cooperaation of all classes of society is to perform the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord. There will be harmony across all classes(national level, individual level, family level….) because of one over riding purpose everyone is working towards, that is pleasing Krsna, Guru and cooperate, so that everyone can make spiritual progress, not only humans, but animals and plants too.. This is what Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu demonstrated. 

CC MADHYA 17.34: 

Sometimes Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chanted very loudly while passing through the jungle. Hearing His sweet voice, all the does came near Him.
CC MADHYA 17.35: 

Hearing the Lord’s great vibration, all the does followed Him left and right. While reciting a verse with great curiosity, the Lord patted them.
CC MADHYA 17.36: 

“ ‘Blessed are all these foolish deer because they have approached Mahārāja Nanda’s son, who is gorgeously dressed and is playing on His flute. Indeed, both the does and the bucks worship the Lord with looks of love and affection.’ ”

CC MADHYA 17.37: 

While Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was passing through the jungle, five or seven tigers came. Joining the deer, the tigers began to follow the Lord.

CC MADHYA 17.38: 

Seeing the tigers and deer following Him, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately remembered the land of Vṛndāvana. He then began to recite a verse describing the transcendental quality of Vṛndāvana.

CC MADHYA 17.39: 

“ ‘Vṛndāvana is the transcendental abode of the Lord. There is no hunger, anger or thirst there. Though naturally inimical, human beings and fierce animals live together there in transcendental friendship.’ ”

CC MADHYA 17.40: 

When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said “Chant ‘Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!’ ” the tigers and deer began to chant “Kṛṣṇa!” and dance.

CC MADHYA 17.41: 

When all the tigers and does danced and jumped, Balabhadra Bhaṭṭācārya saw them and was struck with wonder.

CC MADHYA 17.42: 

Indeed, the tigers and deer began to embrace one another, and touching mouths, they began to kiss.

CC MADHYA 17.43:

When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw all this fun, He began to smile. Finally He left the animals and continued on His way.

CC MADHYA 17.44: 

Various birds, including the peacock, saw Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and began to follow Him, chanting and dancing. They were all maddened by the holy name of Kṛṣṇa.

CC MADHYA 17.45: 

When the Lord loudly chanted “Haribol!” the trees and creepers became jubilant to hear Him.

The loud chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is so powerful that it can even penetrate the ears of trees and creepers, what to speak of those of animals and human beings. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu once asked Haridāsa Ṭhākura how trees and plants could be delivered, and Haridāsa Ṭhākura replied that the loud chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would benefit not only trees and plants but insects and all other living beings. One should therefore not be disturbed by the loud chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, for it is beneficial not only to the chanter but to everyone who gets an opportunity to hear.
CC MADHYA 17.46: 

Thus all living entities in the forest of Jhārikhaṇḍa — some moving and some standing still — became maddened by hearing the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa vibrated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

CC MADHYA 17.47
In all the villages through which the Lord passed and in all the places He rested on His journey, everyone was purified and awakened to ecstatic love of God.

CC Madhya 17.48-49
When someone heard the chanting of the holy name from the mouth of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and someone else heard this chanting from that second person, and someone again heard this chanting from the third person, everyone in all countries became a Vaiṣṇava through such disciplic succession. Thus everyone chanted the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and Hari, and they danced, cried and smiled.

THE TRANSCENDENTAL POTENCY OF THE HARE KṚṢṆA MAHĀ-MANTRA IS HEREIN EXPLAINED. 

First, the holy name is vibrated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When someone hears from Him directly, he is purified. When another person hears from that person, he also is purified. In this way the purification process is advanced among pure devotees. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one can claim His potency. Nonetheless, if one is a pure devotee, hundreds and thousands of men can be purified by his vibration. This potency is within every living being, provided he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra offenselessly and without material motives. When a pure devotee chants offenselessly, another person will become a Vaiṣṇava, and from him another Vaiṣṇava will emerge. This is the paramparā system.

This explains the prime importance of Chanting of Hare Krsna Maha Mantra in Kali Yuga. If it is very very effective if it is done properly Without commiting any offense, with the pure desire to please Krsna. It not only benifits human beings but also all living entities, moving and non moving. So this loud chanting of Hare Krsna is very important. At every step of our life we must be chanting in one way or the other and encourage others to take up chanting. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.34-36

1. The aesthetic sense of the Lord is manifested in the artistic, colorful creation of varieties of birds like the peacock, parrot and cuckoo
2. The musical rhythm of the celestial species of human beings, like the Gandharvas and Vidyādhara, represents the musical sense of the Lord.
3. Lord’s musical taste, artistic sense, and standard intelligence, which is never fallible, are different signs of His supreme personality. How then can He be impersonal?
4. Human society is the residential quarters for the Lord. This means that the human being is meant for God-realization and association with God.
5. This life is a chance for the conditioned soul to regain his eternal God-consciousness and thus fulfill the mission of life. 
6. Disruption in the matter of discharging the specific duty assigned to each and every living being is the cause of disharmony between one living being and another.  
7. But when the relation is reestablished in relation with the Supreme Lord, there is complete unity between all living beings, even up to the limit of the wild animals and human society.
8. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu displayed this living unity in the jungle of Madhya Pradesh, where even the tigers, elephants and many other ferocious animals perfectly cooperated in glorifying the Supreme Lord. That is the way to peace and amity all over the world.
9. BG 2.66 – One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
10. This verse tells us how  – transcendental intelligence, steady mind => Peace => Happiness are connected in a progressive way. 
11. One cannot be a successful preacher if one is not happy. 
12. The gopīs were aware of the reason for Kṛṣṇa’s sudden disappearance. They could understand that when they had been enjoying Kṛṣṇa they thought themselves to be the most fortunate women within the universe, and since they were feeling proud, Kṛṣṇa had disappeared immediately just to curb their pride.
13. Kṛṣṇa does not like His devotees to be proud of their service to Him. He accepts everyone’s service, but He does not like one devotee to proudly consider himself better than others. If sometimes there are such feelings, Kṛṣṇa ends them by changing His attitude toward the devotee.
14. Worship means to adore or to show respect and honor to the worthy one. But service with love and faith is especially meant for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 
15. One can avoid worshiping a respectable man or a demigod and may be called discourteous, but one cannot avoid serving the Supreme Lord without being thoroughly condemned. 
16. Every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus every living entity is intended to serve the Supreme Lord by his own constitution. Failing to do this, he falls down. 
17. SB 11.5.3 – “Anyone who does not render service and neglects his duty unto the primeval Lord, who is the source of all living entities, will certainly fall down from his constitutional position.”
18. When Goips saw that it was getting gradually darker, they stopped. Their mind and intelligence became absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa; they all imitated the activities of Kṛṣṇa and His speeches. Due to their heart and soul being completely given to Kṛṣṇa, they began to chant His glories, completely forgetting their family interests. In this way, all the gopīs returned to the bank of the Yamunā and assembled there, and expecting that Kṛṣṇa must return to them, they simply engaged in chanting the glories of Śrī Kṛṣṇa – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

SB 2.1.34 TRANSLATION: 

O best amongst the Kurus, the clouds which carry water are the hairs on His head, the terminations of days or nights are His dress, and the supreme cause of material creation is His intelligence. His mind is the moon, the reservoir of all changes.

SB 2.1.35 TRANSLATION:

The principle of matter [mahat-tattva] is the consciousness of the omnipresent Lord, as asserted by the experts, and Rudradeva is His ego. The horse, mule, camel and elephant are His nails, and wild animals and all quadrupeds are situated in the belt zone of the Lord.

SB 2.1.36 TRANSLATION: 

Varieties of birds are indications of His masterful artistic sense. Manu, the father of mankind, is the emblem of His standard intelligence, and humanity is His residence. The celestial species of human beings, like the Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas and angels, all represent His musical rhythm, and the demoniac soldiers are representations of His wonderful prowess.

CLASS NOTES: 

(SB 2.1.36) HIS MUSICAL TASTE, ARTISTIC SENSE AND STANDARD INTELLIGENCE, WHICH IS NEVER FALLIBLE, ARE DIFFERENT SIGNS OF HIS SUPREME PERSONALITY.

The aesthetic sense of the Lord is manifested in the artistic, colorful creation of varieties of birds like the peacock, parrot and cuckoo.The celestial species of human beings, like the Gandharvas and Vidyādharas, can sing wonderfully and can entice even the minds of the heavenly demigods. Their musical rhythm represents the musical sense of the Lord. How then can He be impersonal? His musical taste, artistic sense and standard intelligence, which is never fallible, are different signs of His supreme personality.

Human society is the residential quarters for the Lord. 

This means that the human being is meant for God-realization and association with God. This life is a chance for the conditioned soul to regain his eternal God-consciousness and thus fulfill the mission of life. 

None of the living beings is away from the Lord’s gigantic body. Each and everyone has a particular duty in relation to the supreme body. Disruption in the matter of discharging the specific duty assigned to each and every living being is the cause of disharmony between one living being and another, but when the relation is reestablished in relation with the Supreme Lord, there is complete unity between all living beings, even up to the limit of the wild animals and human society.  That is the way to peace and amity all over the world.

People need peace to be happy. Inorder to attain love they need happiness. Peace, love, happiness is connected in a progressive way. 

BG 2.66

nāsti buddhir ayuktasya

na cāyuktasya bhāvanā

na cābhāvayataḥ śāntir

aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?

Happiness > Peace > transcendental intelligence, steady mind

A person who is not happy cannot be a successful preacher.
If you are constantly thinking of Krsna then you are a liberated person whether you are in Goloka or on this planet.
Kaamsa was constantly thinking of Krsna, how to kill him. This is not a favorable way of thinking.  Cowherd boys, Gopis, Nanda Maharaj & Yasodamayi are thinking in a favorable way.
Just like the sun can clean dirty things without becoming contaminated. Anyone who thinks even in an unfavorable way gets liberated. Prophylactic and antiseptic.
When you see a peacock, hummingbird you will be amazed by the creation.  The hummingbird stays at one place in the sky for a long time. There are many wonderful things in the world. You will look at them when you read about them.

False pride – incapable to perform austerity
Too much attraction to the opposite – cleanliness is destroyed
Meat eating – agitates mind and causes contamination


Meat-eating, gambling, intoxication, illicit sex – Department of argumentation.
If you read SB carefully, you begin to understand how material life is destroyed by these four things.

People who are Krsna Conscious are Tolerant, forgiving, peaceful, they diminish the material needs to the bare minimum. Krishna Consciousness is a science and not sentimentalism based on the solid foundation of Spiritual Absolute truths. 

The other day we were discussing how the wives of Krsna were meditating on HIm. Now we will learn about the Gopis.

KRISHNA BOOK CHAPTER 30 

The gopīs were aware of the reason for Kṛṣṇa’s sudden disappearance.

He has disappeared because of our pride.” The gopīs were aware of the reason for Kṛṣṇa’s sudden disappearance. They could understand that when they had been enjoying Kṛṣṇa they thought themselves to be the most fortunate women within the universe, and since they were feeling proud, Kṛṣṇa had disappeared immediately just to curb their pride. Kṛṣṇa does not like His devotees to be proud of their service to Him. He accepts everyone’s service, but He does not like one devotee to proudly consider himself better than others. If sometimes there are such feelings, Kṛṣṇa ends them by changing His attitude toward the devotee.

When someone is in transcendental love of Krsna they cannot divert their mind on anything else except Krsna. When we develop the love for the transcendental past times of the lord… 

BG 6.47
yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ

And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.

4 requisite qualities to become a pure devotee.

1. One has great faith in the Lord
2. Always is completely dependant on the Lord
3. Always thinks of the Lord
4. Always engages in the devotional service of the Lord

What is a pure devotee – intimately united with the Lord in consciousness without any deviation. 

A DEVOTEE IS ALWAYS ACTIVE AND PERFORMING DEVOTIONAL SERVICE. 

The word bhajate is significant here. Bhajate has its root in the verb bhaj, which is used when there is need of service. The English word “worship” cannot be used in the same sense as bhaj. Worship means to adore, or to show respect and honor to the worthy one. But service with love and faith is especially meant for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can avoid worshiping a respectable man or a demigod and may be called discourteous, but one cannot avoid serving the Supreme Lord without being thoroughly condemned. Every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus every living entity is intended to serve the Supreme Lord by his own constitution. Failing to do this, he falls down. The Bhāgavatam (11.5.3) confirms this as follows:

If you go to a church you are a spectator, if you do a puja you are a spectator. You are not involved. But in devotional service there is constant activity. Cooking, cleaning, bathing, … Full engagement in Krsna’s service.

ya eṣāṁ puruṣaṁ sākṣād
ātma-prabhavam īśvaram
na bhajanty avajānanti
sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ

“Anyone who does not render service and neglects his duty unto the primeval Lord, who is the source of all living entities, will certainly fall down from his constitutional position.”

Direct Krsna Consciousness is constant direct activity all the time. What inhibits that activity- meat-eating, gambling, illicit connections, intoxication.
Incorporate culture, they play these games to help people to cooperate and conduct seminars to bond people. How can people cooperate they eat meat, drink wine and have sex… This does not work.
The Gopis much further in this type of craziness which is transcendental.

GOPIS ARE EXTREMELY SENSITIVE TO THE STIMULI OF KRSNA

It appears,” they addressed the deer, “that Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supreme Nārāyaṇa Himself, must have passed through this way along with His companion, Lakṣmī, the goddess of fortune. Otherwise, how is it possible that the aroma of His garland, which is smeared with the red kuṅkuma from the breasts of the goddess of fortune, can be perceived in the breeze blowing here? It appears that they must have passed through here and touched your bodies, and thus you are feeling so pleasant and are looking toward us with sympathy. Will you kindly, therefore, inform us which way Kṛṣṇa has gone?

It appears that the flowers of the creepers must have been touched by the nails of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, how could they feel so jubilant?”

They were very much intense in the love of Krsna….Different levels of Intensity of love for Krsna. 

When they saw that it was getting gradually darker, they stopped. Their mind and intelligence became absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa; they all imitated the activities of Kṛṣṇa and His speeches. Due to their heart and soul being completely given to Kṛṣṇa, they began to chant His glories, completely forgetting their family interests. In this way, all the gopīs returned to the bank of the Yamunā and assembled there, and expecting that Kṛṣṇa must return to them, they simply engaged in chanting the glories of Śrī Kṛṣṇa – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

HOW DO WE DEVELOP THAT KIND OF LOVE FOR KRSNA-

Krsna Consciousness is an active service with love and affection. We are the Humble servant of the lord. We should not become proud. Active service is always serving to please the Lord.
A devotee never goes away from the service, they never give up their service. Rather, They add more services.  Chanting, preaching, cooking, dancing…
To actively engage in service – 
Not eat too much, sleep too much, not eat too little not sleep too little. Lead a balanced life, so we are always active and can serve Krsna. Srila Prabhupada till the last moment was active dictating the translations of Srimad Bhagavatam.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.33

1. By studying the rivers, trees, air, and passing ages, one can conceive of the Personality of Godhead without being misled by the formless conception of the Lord. 
2. In BG (12.5) it is stated that those who are much inclined to the formless conception of the Supreme Truth are more troubled than those who can intelligently conceive of the personal form.
3. The Personality of Godhead is not a dead stone, nor is He inactive, as is poorly thought by some schools. 
4. The power behind the activities is the supervision of the Lord, and thus the Lord is never inactive as is wrongly conceived. Not a blade of grass moves without His sanction. 
5. BG 3.22 – O son of Pṛthā, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything – and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties.
6. BG 3.23 – For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Pārtha, certainly all men would follow My path.
7. From the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is understood that Lord Kṛṣṇa was performing all the religious duties at home and out of home, as required of a householder.
8. BG 3.34 – If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the cause of creating an unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all living beings.
9. Although the rules and regulations are for the conditioned souls and not Lord Kṛṣṇa, because He descended to establish the principles of religion He followed the prescribed rules. Otherwise, common men would follow in His footsteps, because He is the greatest authority.
10. Although we have to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, we still have to remember that we cannot imitate Him.  
11. BG 3.25 – As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.
12. A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and a person not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness are differentiated by different desires. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not do anything which is not conducive to the development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
13. He may even act exactly like the ignorant person, who is too much attached to material activities, but one who is not Krsna Conscious is engaged in such activities for the satisfaction of his sense gratification, whereas the other is engaged for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa.
14. BG 3.26 – So as not to disrupt the minds of ignorant men attached to the fruitive results of prescribed duties, a learned person should not induce them to stop work. Rather, by working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of activities [for the gradual development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness].
15. The learned Kṛṣṇa conscious person may act in such a way that the ignorant person working for sense gratification may learn how to act and how to behave. 
16. A slightly developed Kṛṣṇa conscious person may directly be engaged in the service of the Lord without waiting for other Vedic formulas. For this fortunate man, there is no need to follow the Vedic rituals, because by direct Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can have all the results one would otherwise derive from following one’s prescribed duties.
    

SB 2.1.33

O King, the rivers are the veins of the gigantic body, the trees are the hairs of His body, and the omnipotent air is His breath. The passing ages are His movements, and His activities are the reactions of the three modes of material nature.

CLASS NOTES: 

(SB 2.1.33) EVEN BY STUDYING THE RIVERS, TREES, AIR AND PASSING AGES, ONE CAN CONCEIVE OF THE PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD WITHOUT BEING MISLED BY THE FORMLESS CONCEPTION OF THE LORD. 

The Personality of Godhead is not a dead stone, nor is He inactive, as is poorly thought by some schools. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.12), the modes of nature act under His direction only, and as such no natural functions are blind or automatic. The power behind the activities is the supervision of the Lord, and thus the Lord is never inactive as is wrongly conceived.

The Vedas say that the Supreme Lord has nothing to do personally, as is always the case with superiors, but everything is done by His direction. As it is said, not a blade of grass moves without His sanction. 

So even by studying the rivers, trees, air and passing ages, one can conceive of the Personality of Godhead without being misled by the formless conception of the Lord. 

In the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is stated that those who are much inclined to the formless conception of the Supreme Truth are more troubled than those who can intelligently conceive of the personal form.

More detailed information on Virat rupa which is recommended to people who are materially inclined and are envious of the personal form of the lord.
Baby, child, adult, old… we have a material body, he has a spiritual body. Even though Lord appears as baby, child, man…. He retains his absolute nature. He is cognizant of every nook and corner of the creation. He is active. Philosophers of sankya yoga say, even if there is God, he does creation and retires and laws of nature take over. No, He is active he controls the 3 modes and is not controlled by them. 

(BG 3.22) THERE IS NO WORK PRESCRIBED FOR THE LORD WITHIN ALL THE THREE PLANETARY SYSTEMS
O son of Pṛthā, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything – and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties.

(BG 3.23) LORD KṚṢṆA WAS PERFORMING ALL THE RELIGIOUS DUTIES AT HOME AND OUT OF HOME, AS REQUIRED OF A HOUSEHOLDER
For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Pārtha, certainly all men would follow My path.

Although such rules and regulations are for the conditioned souls and not Lord Kṛṣṇa, because He descended to establish the principles of religion He followed the prescribed rules. Otherwise, common men would follow in His footsteps, because He is the greatest authority. From the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is understood that Lord Kṛṣṇa was performing all the religious duties at home and out of home, as required of a householder.

Krishna is not obliged to do anything, but as the maintainer of dharma, he performs duties.

(BG 2.34) IF THE LIVING ENTITIES ARE MISGUIDED, INDIRECTLY THE RESPONSIBILITY GOES TO THE LORD
If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the cause of creating an unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all living beings.

Varṇa-saṅkara is an unwanted population that disturbs the peace of the general society. 

The Lord is the father of all living entities, and if the living entities are misguided, indirectly the responsibility goes to the Lord.

We have to follow lord”s instructions, but we may not imitate him at any time. 

although we have to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, we still have to remember that we cannot imitate Him. Following and imitating are not on the same level. We cannot imitate the Lord by lifting Govardhana Hill, as the Lord did in His childhood. It is impossible for any human being.

Anusara – Following – example of the lord as grihastha – should be followed

Anukara – Imitate – Lord lifting Govardhan hill – should not imitate

Shivoham – Means I am Shiva. Sadguru says he is drinking poison, he is not able to drink ocean of poison like Shiva. Unless we understand the sophistry of these imposters, people get fascinated by the glittery presentations of the imposters.
There is a preacher called Jim Jones – used to display all theatrical miracles and He organized a massive suicide… later get prosecuted. If anyone claims to be God they have to show the Virat Rupa.

There is a large population of children who are not being properly educated by the parents and they end up causing the social disturbance.

(BG 3.25) (V IMP VERSE) DUTY OF THE DEVOTEE

As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.

A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and a person not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness are differentiated by different desires.
A Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not do anything which is not conducive to development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He may even act exactly like the ignorant person, who is too much attached to material activities, but one is engaged in such activities for the satisfaction of his sense gratification, whereas the other is engaged for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, the Kṛṣṇa conscious person is required to show the people how to act and how to engage the results of action for the purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

What do they do with the result of their work and what is the aim of life – to please guru and Krsna. We have to show the right example. 

(BG 3.26) A DEVOTEE BY WORKING IN THE SPIRIT OF DEVOTION, HE SHOULD ENGAGE THEM IN ALL SORTS OF ACTIVITIES

So as not to disrupt the minds of ignorant men attached to the fruitive results of prescribed duties, a learned person should not induce them to stop work. Rather, by working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of activities [for the gradual development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness].

Examples – washing pots and dishes in the temple. Initiated devotees not doing that and engaging non initiated devotees to do that. That is an extremely bad example to show. This is indicating that we are higher, we are Brahmanas, we cannot wash pots… so we engage non initiated devotees,,, Even though one may not tell so, the actions imply.

Washing the dishes or dressing the deities it is the same. The person who thinks otherwise is nonsense. You serve along with other people and You train other people and give them a chance to do it.

A realized soul in Kṛṣṇa consciousness should not disturb others in their activities or understanding, but he should act by showing how the results of all work can be dedicated to the service of Kṛṣṇa. The learned Kṛṣṇa conscious person may act in such a way that the ignorant person working for sense gratification may learn how to act and how to behave. Although the ignorant man is not to be disturbed in his activities, a slightly developed Kṛṣṇa conscious person may directly be engaged in the service of the Lord without waiting for other Vedic formulas. For this fortunate man there is no need to follow the Vedic rituals, because by direct Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can have all the results one would otherwise derive from following one’s prescribed duties.

Jayananda – he was a devotee who did this. He was a highly advanced devotee who did mundane labor and engaged people. He made many many devotees. He trained many devotees. He built the first rath yatra cart. He got leukemia, he inherited a lot of money, he gave the whole amount to Srila Prabhupada.  SP asked him to get cured with that. He sent it back and said SP you can use it for the service of the Lord. He was the first saintly devotee.

Train people, engage them, not look down on people. We should all be extremely humble by giving association and engaging them in Krsna Consciousness.

Activity – Chanting, Mangal Arti, hearing lectures, cooking, cleaning,
People who use pots have to clean them.
The kitchen is as holy as the altar.
Krishna Consciousness – The more you advance the more humble you become. The exalted position is humility and unmotivated service.
Our duty – always be active, never any nonsense during the day. Be active in training and engaging people in the Krsna Consciousness.
We do not have a class consciousness movement. We are DAS’s any little service is done with enthusiasm. Every part of the temple and every service in the temple is holy. Unless we have that attitude.

Many possibilities to preach as a Grihasta. We should always attach ourselves to someone to cultivate. Indians love cows. If we don’t understand that we missed something big. Our duty is to inspire others to take Krsna Consciousness.

There was a couple who used to come and wash dishes together in the temple. After they stopped coming their relationship drifted apart. Serving Krsna together will bond us well. That should be the prime duty of Grihastas.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.1.31 -32

1. The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme Person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literature. But His personality is different from what we can conceive.
2. Those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Lord’s transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, certainly see Lord’s lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.
3. When Śrī Kṛṣṇa was personally present on the face of the globe, not everyone could see Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
4. Even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision. This necessary qualification is developed by the process of devotional service only, beginning with hearing about the Lord from the right sources. 
5. When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way. 
6. One must hear about the Lord from the very beginning, as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any other scriptures, and that will help the hearer attain perfection by progressive development.
7. According to Vedic assertion, this material creation is the result of the Lord’s casting a glance over the material energy, which is described herein as the most alluring illusory energy.
8. Although the queens’ beautiful smiles and furtive glances were all spotless and exciting, and although they could conquer Cupid himself by making him give up his bow in frustration, and although even the tolerant Śiva could fall victim to them, still, despite all their magical feats and attractions, they could not agitate the senses of the Lord.
9. This is because the Lord is all-perfect ātmārāma, or self-sufficient. He does not require anyone’s extraneous help for His personal satisfaction.
10. The queens could not satisfy the Lord by their feminine attractiveness, but they satisfied Him by their sincere affection and service. 
11. Being satisfied by their unalloyed service only, the Lord reciprocated the service just like a devout husband. Otherwise, He had no business becoming the husband of so many wives.
12. This unalloyed affection for the Lord is never to be compared to mundane lust. It is purely transcendental. And the grave dealings, which the queens displayed in natural feminine ways, were also transcendental because the feelings were expressed out of transcendental ecstasy.
13. Lord appeared like a mundane husband, but factually His relation with His wives was transcendental, pure, and unconditioned by the modes of material nature.
14. Those who are on the path of salvation for going back home, back to Godhead, are especially advised by all scriptural instruction to become free from the paraphernalia of material attraction (Attraction to the opposite, sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth). And that is possible only by the association of the devotees of the Lord, who are called the mahātmās. 

SB 2.1.31
They say that the Vedic hymns are the cerebral passage of the Lord, and His jaws of teeth are Yama, god of death, who punishes the sinners. The art of affection is His set of teeth, and the most alluring illusory material energy is His smile. This great ocean of material creation is but the casting of His glance over us.

SB 2.1.32
Modesty is the upper portion of His lips, hankering is His chin, religion is the breast of the Lord, and irreligion is His back. Brahmājī, who generates all living beings in the material world, is His genitals, and the Mitrā-varuṇas are His two testicles. The ocean is His waist, and the hills and mountains are the stacks of His bones.

CLASS NOTES: 

(SB 2.1.31)

ACCORDING TO VEDIC ASSERTION, THIS MATERIAL CREATION IS THE RESULT OF THE LORD’S CASTING A GLANCE OVER THE MATERIAL ENERGY, WHICH IS DESCRIBED HEREIN AS THE MOST ALLURING ILLUSORY ENERGY. The conditioned souls who are allured by such materialism should know that the material temporary creation is simply an imitation of the reality and that those who are captivated by such alluring glances of the Lord are put under the direction of the controller of sinners called Yamarāja. The Lord smiles affectionately, displaying His teeth. The intelligent person who can grasp these truths about the Lord becomes a soul fully surrendered unto Him.

The most alluring illusory material energy is His smile – this alluring material energy is present in the material world and also in the spiritual world. One takes away from the Lord and another brings closer to the Lord. 

(SB 1.11.36) QUEENS’ BEAUTIFUL SMILES AND FURTIVE GLANCES COULD CONQUER CUPID AND COULD NOT AGITATE THE SENSES OF THE LORD

Although the queens’ beautiful smiles and furtive glances were all spotless and exciting, and although they could conquer Cupid himself by making him give up his bow in frustration, and although even the tolerant Śiva could fall victim to them, still, despite all their magical feats and attractions, they could not agitate the senses of the Lord.

It is clear herein that the feminine attractive features which can conquer Cupid or even the super most tolerant Lord Śiva could not conquer the senses of the Lord. Cupid’s business is to invoke mundane lust.

Cupid was himself captivated by the grave and exciting dealings of the goddesses of fortune, and he voluntarily gave up his bow and arrow in a spirit of frustration. 

Such was the beauty and attraction of the queens of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Yet they could not disturb the transcendental senses of the Lord. 

This is because the Lord is all-perfect ātmārāma, or self-sufficient. He does not require anyone’s extraneous help for His personal satisfaction. Therefore, the queens could not satisfy the Lord by their feminine attractiveness, but they satisfied Him by their sincere affection and service. Only by unalloyed transcendental loving service could they satisfy the Lord, and the Lord was pleased to treat them as wives in reciprocation. Thus being satisfied by their unalloyed service only, the Lord reciprocated the service just like a devout husband. Otherwise, He had no business becoming the husband of so many wives. He is the husband of everyone, but to one who accepts Him as such, He reciprocates. This unalloyed affection for the Lord is never to be compared to mundane lust. It is purely transcendental. And the grave dealings, which the queens displayed in natural feminine ways, were also transcendental because the feelings were expressed out of transcendental ecstasy. It is already explained in the previous verse that the Lord appeared like a mundane husband, but factually His relation with His wives was transcendental, pure, and unconditioned by the modes of material nature.

Manifestation of Material Existence 

The whole universe is moving, being agitated by Cupid’s arrow. The activities of the world are being carried on by the central attraction of male and female. A male is searching after a mate to his liking, and the female is looking after a suitable male. That is the way of material stimulus. And as soon as a male is combined with a female, the material bondage of the living being is at once tightly interlocked by sex relation, and as a result of this, both the male’s and female’s attraction for sweet home, motherland, bodily offspring, society and friendship and accumulation of wealth becomes the illusory field of activities, and thus a false but indefatigable attraction for the temporary material existence, which is full of miseries, is manifest. 

Those who are, therefore, on the path of salvation for going back home, back to Godhead, are especially advised by all scriptural instruction to become free from such paraphernalia of material attraction. And that is possible only by the association of the devotees of the Lord, who are called the mahātmās. 

(SB 2.1.32) THE SUPREME LORD IS NOT IMPERSONAL

The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme Person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literatures. But His personality is different from what we can conceive.

When the Lord is described as impersonal, therefore, it should be understood that His personality is not exactly the type of personality found within our imperfect speculation. One can, however, worship the Lord even by seeing the hills and mountains or the ocean and the sky as different parts and parcels of the gigantic body of the Lord, the virāṭ-puruṣa. The virāṭ-rūpa, as exhibited by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, is a challenge to the unbelievers.

There is a description of the complete body of the Virat Rupa. He has all the bodily parts as might be found in the human body. But he does not have the human type of body. To understand this one has to read the purports of SB.
Now we see that the human body is the microcosmic representation of creation. If we understand our body then we can understand how this creation works.  It is only if we use the body in Krsna’s service then it is the perfection of life.  Srila Prabhupada said that he put everything in 1st canto. If we carefully study just SB Canto 1 we have all the knowledge. 

(SB 1.8.36) ONE CAN SEE THE LOTUS FEET OF THE LORD ONLY WHEN ONE CONTINUOUSLY HEARS, CHANTS, AND REPEATS TRANSCENDENTAL ACTIVITIES OF THE LORD.  

O Kṛṣṇa, those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, certainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.

Even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision.

The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa cannot be seen by our present conditional vision. In order to see Him, one has to change his present vision by developing a different condition of life full of spontaneous love of Godhead.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa was personally present on the face of the globe, not everyone could see Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Materialists like Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Kaṁsa, Jarāsandha and Śiśupāla were highly qualified personalities by acquisition of material assets, but they were unable to appreciate the presence of the Lord. Therefore, even though the Lord may be present before our eyes, it is not possible to see Him unless we have the necessary vision.

This necessary qualification is developed by the process of devotional service only, beginning with hearing about the Lord from the right sources. 

The Bhagavad-gītā is one of the popular literatures which are generally heard, chanted, repeated, etc., by the people in general, but in spite of such hearing, etc., sometimes it is experienced that the performer of such devotional service does not see the Lord face to face. The reason is that the first item, śravaṇa, is very important. If hearing is from the right sources, it acts very quickly. Generally people hear from unauthorized persons. Such unauthorized persons may be very learned by academic qualifications, but because they do not follow the principles of devotional service, hearing from them becomes a sheer waste of time. Sometimes the texts are interpreted fashionably to suit their own purposes. Therefore, first one should select a competent and bona fide speaker and then hear from him. When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way. 

There are different transcendental activities of the Lord, and each and every one of them is competent to bestow the desired result, provided the hearing process is perfect.

But sometimes people, in an unauthorized hearing process, take more interest in hearing about His dealings with the gopīs. Such an inclination indicates the lusty feelings of the hearer, so a bona fide speaker of the dealings of the Lord never indulges in such hearings. One must hear about the Lord from the very beginning, as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any other scriptures, and that will help the hearer attain perfection by progressive development

One should not, therefore, consider that His dealings with the Pāṇḍavas are less important than His dealings with the gopīs. We must always remember that the Lord is always transcendental to all mundane attachments. In all the above-mentioned dealings of the Lord, He is the hero in all circumstances, and hearing about Him or about His devotees or combatants is conducive to spiritual life. It is said that the Vedas and Purāṇas, etc., are all made to revive our lost relation with Him. Hearing of all these scriptures is essential.

Regular hearing –  3 times a day, besides all other devotional activities. 

(SB 1.18.31)
Upon returning, he began to contemplate and argue within himself whether the sage had actually been in meditation, with senses concentrated and eyes closed, or whether he had just been feigning trance just to avoid receiving a lower kṣatriya.

Repentance comes in the mind of a good soul as soon as he commits something wrong.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, the plan was made by the will of the Lord, and by the will of the Lord the situation of frustration was created. The plan was that for his so-called misdeed the King could be cursed by an inexperienced brāhmaṇa boy infected by the influence of Kali, and thus the King would leave his hearth and home for good. His connections with Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī would enable the presentation of the great Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is considered to be the book incarnation of the Lord. 

This book incarnation of the Lord gives much fascinating information of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, like His rāsa-līlā with the spiritual cowherd damsels of Vrajabhūmi. This specific pastime of the Lord has a special significance because anyone who properly learns about this particular pastime of the Lord will certainly be dissuaded from mundane sex desire and be placed on the path of sublime devotional service to the Lord. 

The pure devotee’s mundane frustration is meant to elevate the devotee to a higher transcendental position. (Frustration that Maharaj Parikshit is important, when people who are not devotees who get frustrated they seek revenge, Whereas a devotee’s frustration, elevated him to a higher transcendental position)  

 (There are situations we are going to be in, we are placed in those by the Lord, they are for purification, so one becomes much more serious about devotional service)

KEY TAKEAWAYS from HH Harivilas Maharaj’s Morning Bhagavatam class on SB 2.1.30

1. Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras’. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.
2. We must accept the description of the śāstras and concentrate more on the form of the virāṭ-rūpa than on common sense.
3. All material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature. They are meant for fruitive results, which cause bondage in the material world.
4. All the living entities who are in the material world are struggling very hard for existence. For them the Lord, after creation of the material world, gave the Vedic wisdom advising how to live and get rid of the material entanglement. The Upaniṣhads mark the beginning of transcendental life.
5. By tolerating dualities one can becomes free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness when one is fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa.
6. As long as one is in material, conditioned life, strict discipline is required in the matter of moral and immoral activities. 
   There are no sexual activities in the spiritual world. The transactions between lover and beloved in the spiritual world are pure transcendental love and unadulterated bliss.
7. The activities of the sahajiyās simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind. 
8. Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādṛśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa.
9. But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvāmīs.
10. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, in his prayers to the Gosvāmīs, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs: “When I shall be eager to understand the literature given by the Gosvāmīs, then I shall be able to understand the transcendental love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”
11. Unless one is trained under the disciplic succession of the Gosvāmīs, one cannot understand Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. 
12. Neophytes will be able to understand these affairs only after being elevated by regulated devotional service under the expert guidance of the spiritual master. Then they will be competent to hear of the love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.
13. The conditioned souls are naturally averse to understanding the spiritual existence of the Lord, and if they try to know the transcendental nature of the Lord’s pastimes being absorbed in materialism, they are sure to blunder like the sahajiyās.
14. By understanding the conjugal love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman.
15. One who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection.
16. If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers. 
17. If one is attracted by servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, one will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future.
18. One who sees the greatness of Kṛṣṇa in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy.
19. If one is not attracted by the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, one is sure to be attracted to material enjoyment, and becomes implicated in the clinging network of virtuous and sinful activities and continues material existence by transmigrating from one material body to another. 
20. Only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can one achieve the highest perfection of life.

SB 2.1.30 TRANSLATION 
The sphere of outer space constitutes His eye pits, and the eyeball is the sun as the power of seeing. His eyelids are both the day and night, and in the movements of His eyebrows, Brahmā and similar supreme personalities reside. His palate is the director of water, Varuṇa, and the juice or essence of everything is His tongue.

CLASS NOTES: 

(SB 2.1.30) Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete.

To common sense the description in this verse appears to be somewhat contradictory because sometimes the sun has been described as the eyeball and sometimes as the outer space sphere. But there is no room for common sense in the injunctions of the śāstras. We must accept the description of the śāstras and concentrate more on the form of the virāṭ-rūpa than on common sense. Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras’. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.

If something seems contradictory it is because we do not have information about it. However there is nothing contradictory in vedas we need to be patient. We need to focus on the virat rupa. Virat rupa is encompassing the past, present, future… obviously we will be having difficulty in understanding the description of the sastras, but the key is to focus on the form of Virat rupa. In schools today they are taught to question everything, they are excluding themselves from the possibility of understanding the Lord.
People question everything because –  for them Everything has to be rational, by their own false ego they want to observe everything on theri own and use their speculation to understand things.
Bonafide verses and purports, cannot be rejected by our own imperfect theories.
Mayavadis say Krsna has a material body like us. This misinterpretation is purposefully done so that Krsna can be brought to mundane level. Famous line of reasoning – everything has a cause. So Krsna also has to have a cause. We say Krsna has the cause of all causes. Atheists want to bring God down to the human level – they do it through word jugglery, …
Speculators use broad logic and reasoning. Most of the time it is false logic and reasoning. Yamaraj is perfect Brahmana. Brahmana will not touch stool. If I want to escape I will smear stool on my body, as Yamaraj will not touch me. That is through lame logic and reasoning. Yamraj does not need to touch to take him away. We have avoid these false reasoning and speculation to avoid being misled.
Therefore the premise does not have dimensions. Point has infinite density. All …
Unless one is engaged in devotional service one cannot be guarded against these false theories. One might think devotional service is for less intelligent people. That is not true. Lord Caitanya, the lord Himself in a devotees mood has introduced it.
We can waste our entire life believing things which are not true and deny ourselves the possibility of going back to Godhead.
Our scope time and space module increases exponentially when we hear transcendental subjects.
Most of the time is spent in small rooms. We measure times in seconds, days and years we do not measure in terms of yogas. When we hear about Virat rupa it is almost impossible for them to understand. We are so limited, by time,and space. When we hear about Krsna expanding into catur vyuha.. Narayana… these gigantic manifestations are beyond our manifestation.

What limits us the most – the sense gratification. The reason we came to this world is for sense gratification.  Even though we are Das and Dasi we want to be prabhu, masters.

(CC ADI 4.33) MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO BE FIXED IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE TO THE LOTUS FEET OF THE LORD, EVEN THOUGH I MAY CONTINUE TO TAKE BIRTH HERE LIFE AFTER LIFE

King Kulaśekhara has written similarly, in his book Mukunda-mālā-stotra (5):

nāsthā dharme na vasu-nicaye naiva kāmopabhoge
 yad bhāvyaṁ tad bhavatu bhagavan pūrva-karmānurūpam
etat prārthyaṁ mama bahu-mataṁ janma-janmāntare ’pi
 tvat-pādāmbho-ruha-yuga-gatā niścalā bhaktir astu

“I have no attraction for performing religious rituals or holding any earthly kingdom. I do not care for sense enjoyments; let them appear and disappear in accordance with my previous deeds. My only desire is to be fixed in devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord, even though I may continue to take birth here life after life.”  This is the same as nadhanam nasundarim….

(BG 2.45) FREE FROM ALL DUALITIES AND FROM ALL ANXIETIES FOR GAIN AND SAFETY, AND BE ESTABLISHED IN THE SELF.

The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self.

All material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature. They are meant for fruitive results, which cause bondage in the material world.

(BG 2.45) THE VEDAS DEAL MOSTLY WITH FRUITIVE ACTIVITIES TO GRADUALLY ELEVATE THE GENERAL PUBLIC FROM THE FIELD OF SENSE GRATIFICATION TO A POSITION ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL PLANE. 

Arjuna, as a student and friend of Lord Kṛṣṇa, is advised to raise himself to the transcendental position of Vedānta philosophy where, in the beginning, there is brahma-jijñāsā, or questions on the supreme transcendence. All the living entities who are in the material world are struggling very hard for existence. For them the Lord, after creation of the material world, gave the Vedic wisdom advising how to live and get rid of the material entanglement.

(BG 2.45) THE UPANIṢADS MARK THE BEGINNING OF TRANSCENDENTAL LIFE.

When the activities for sense gratification, namely the karma-kāṇḍa chapter, are finished, then the chance for spiritual realization is offered in the form of the Upaniṣads, which are part of different Vedas, as the Bhagavad-gītā is a part of the fifth Veda, namely the Mahābhārata.The Upaniṣads mark the beginning of transcendental life.

(BG 2.45) BY TOLERATING DUALITIES ONE CAN BECOME FREE FROM ANXIETIES REGARDING GAIN AND LOSS.
As long as the material body exists, there are actions and reactions in the material modes. One has to learn tolerance in the face of dualities such as happiness and distress, or cold and warmth, and by tolerating such dualities become free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness when one is fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa.

We decided to engage in fruitive activity. There is no limit on how much we want.
fully dependent on the good will of Kṛṣṇa. – We have to trust Krsna words and interested in serving the lord. 

(CC ADI 4.34)THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SAHAJIYĀS SIMPLY LOWER ONE DEEPER INTO THE MATERIAL CONTAMINATION OF THE SENSES AND MIND. 

Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service.The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be ordinary affairs.The rāsa dance is arranged by Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency yogamāyā, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person.Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādṛśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa.

But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvāmīs. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, in his prayers to the Gosvāmīs, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs:

rūpa-raghunātha-pade ha-ibe ākuti
kabe hāma bujhaba se yugala-pīriti

“When I shall be eager to understand the literature given by the Gosvāmīs, then I shall be able to understand the transcendental love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.” In other words, unless one is trained under the disciplic succession of the Gosvāmīs, one cannot understand Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.  (Most of the Sri Vaishnava cannot understand Radha Krsna and they do not agree that there is Goloka Vrndavan) 

(CC ADI 4.35)

Here the use of the verb “bhavet,” which is in the imperative mood, tells us that this certainly must be done. Noncompliance would be abandonment of duty.

IN THE EXPERT GUIDANCE OF SPIRITUAL MASTER EVEN NEOPHYPTES WIIL BE COMPETENT TO HEAR THE LOVING AFFAIRS OF SRI RADHA AND KRSNA

This imperative is applicable to pure devotees. Neophytes will be able to understand these affairs only after being elevated by regulated devotional service under the expert guidance of the spiritual master. Then they too will be competent to hear of the love affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

AS LONG AS ONE IS IN MATERIAL, CONDITIONED LIFE, STRICT DISCIPLINE IS REQUIRED IN THE MATTER OF MORAL AND IMMORAL ACTIVITIES. 

The absolute world is transcendental and free from such distinctions because there inebriety is not possible. But in this material world a sexual appetite necessitates distinction between moral and immoral conduct.

BY UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT RASAS BETWEEN KRSNA AND HIS DEVOTEES ONE IS FREED FROM THE GRIP OF SO CALLED MATERIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND ATTACHMENTS

But by understanding the conjugal love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman. Similarly, one who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection. If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers. If he is attracted by servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, he will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future. Similarly, one who sees the greatness of Kṛṣṇa in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy. If one is not attracted by the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, one is sure to be attracted to material enjoyment, thus to become implicated in the clinging network of virtuous and sinful activities and to continue material existence by transmigrating from one material body to another. Only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can one achieve the highest perfection of life.