Tag: Srimad Bhagavatham Canto 2

Srimad Bhagavatham Canto 2 notes for HH Harivilas Maharaj’s classes.

Posted on

SB 2.10.30 Notes – 3/4/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.30:

  • The heart of every living entity is the seat of the Supersoul, Paramātmā, a plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 
  • Without His presence the living entity cannot get into the working energy according to his past deeds. 
  • The living entities who are conditioned in the material world are manifested in the creation in terms of respective inclinations inherent in them, and the requisite material body is offered to each and every one of them by the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. 
  • When, therefore, the Supersoul is situated in the heart of the conditioned soul, the requisite mind is manifested in the conditioned soul, and he becomes conscious of his occupation as one is conscious of his duty after waking up from slumber. 
  • Therefore the material mind of the living entity develops when the Supersoul sits on his heart, after which the mind, the controlling deity (moon), and then the activities of the mind (namely thinking, feeling and willing) all take place. 
  • The activities of the mind cannot begin without the manifestation of the heart, and the heart becomes manifested when the Lord wants to see the activities of the material creation.
  • The idea that we don’t want this material opulence, that is called vairāgya. And why you want Kṛṣṇa? Because Kṛṣṇa is your eternal master, eternal father. That is called jñāna. Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktena. Not sentimental. 
  • We must know very clearly what is Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna—what is my relationship with Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna—and what is my duty to Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna. And as soon as you know all these things—what is Kṛṣṇa, what you are, what is your relationship, and what is your duty—then naturally you become reluctant to these material activities. That is called vairāgya.
  • My relationship with Kṛṣṇa is nitya-siddha. Nitya-siddha means it is eternal; it is not artificial. Not that we accept Kṛṣṇa as my master or father or like this, artificially. This is eternal fact. But by forgetting Kṛṣṇa, I am suffering. 
  • A Vaiṣṇava who is in connection with Kṛṣṇa, his business is to go door to door and canvass everyone, “My dear sir, you are not this body. You are wasting your time only under the concept of body. You are Kṛṣṇa’s. You become Kṛṣṇa’s servant.” This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. 
  • “My dear sir, you are not this body. You are not American. You are not Indian. You are not brāhmaṇa. You are not śūdra. You are not cat. You are not dog. You are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and you serve Kṛṣṇa.” This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 
  • Nature is giving us all facilities. God, as the Paramatma within the heart of everyone, knows what the living entity wants, and orders nature to give it to him.
  • Regardless of the amount of scientific research, the conclusions will always be imperfect because the senses are imperfect. 
  • We can actually see that the human race has become degraded.
  • Hayagrlva dasa: What is the cause of this?
  • Srila Prabhupada: Improper education. Every individual person is a soul, and each has a particular type of body. The human body in particular requires education. The soul evolves through various species according to his desires. Material nature supplies the bodies, acting under the orders of God. 
  • God exists within the core of everyone’s heart, and when the individual soul desires something, material nature, following the orders of God, gives him a machine in the form of a body. When we attain the human form, we can either regress to the animal form, or make spiritual progress. Animals also have desires, but they change bodies and species according to the laws of nature. The human body in particular is meant for understanding God, acting accordingly, and returning home, back to Godhead. If we do not utilize this opportunity, we regress to lower species.

SB 2.10.30 TRANSLATION:

When there was a desire to think about the activities of His own energy, then the heart (the seat of the mind), the mind, the moon, determination and all desire became manifested.

The heart of every living entity is the seat of the Supersoul, Paramātmā, a plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without His presence the living entity cannot get into the working energy according to his past deeds. The living entities who are conditioned in the material world are manifested in the creation in terms of respective inclinations inherent in them, and the requisite material body is offered to each and every one of them by the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). When, therefore, the Supersoul is situated in the heart of the conditioned soul, the requisite mind is manifested in the conditioned soul, and he becomes conscious of his occupation as one is conscious of his duty after waking up from slumber. Therefore the material mind of the living entity develops when the Supersoul sits on his heart, after which the mind, the controlling deity (moon), and then the activities of the mind (namely thinking, feeling and willing) all take place. The activities of the mind cannot begin without the manifestation of the heart, and the heart becomes manifested when the Lord wants to see the activities of the material creation.

Everything depends on the desire of the lord and then the fate of the living entity depends on the desire and inclination. 

Krishna wants to see the activity of His own energy – the inferior spiritual energy of the lord called material energy. 

Relationship between the mind and the heart of the living entity is taken for granted. 

Mind is not the brain. The heart is the seat of jiva and paramatma. 

Mind is subtle and not the brain. 

Mind is more subtle than the brain

Mind is above the brain. 

Brain has its function.. 

Mind, Intelligence and False Ego 

Heart, mind, moon, determination, all desire became manifested.. 

Without the paramatma one cannot function. Jiva itself is not enough to function.. Supersoul is the source. Supersoul in the heart gives knowledge, remembrance, forgetfulness.. 

Determination – thinking, feeling and willing

Nothing can happen without Krsna’s superintendent.. 

Scientists ignore all this an fluff over the crucial steps in the creation

Primordial soup – electric thunderbolt striked and an amoeba got created and thus creation started everything got created.. 

The sequence is very interesting… 

The lord desires to see His own activities – Heart, Mind, Moon, determination, and all desire…. All became manifested.. 

The working energy is coming from the super soul.. And HE is investing this working energy in the heart of the living entity so that he can resuscitate the desires and inclination he had from her previous life. 

Nothing is happening without the super soul. 

Lecture on SB 3.25.43

https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/741211sbbom/

Just like you, boys and girls who have joined this movement, you have understood to some extent that “We didn’t require this material opulence. We want Kṛṣṇa.” So the idea that we don’t want this material opulence, that is called vairāgya. And why you want Kṛṣṇa? Because Kṛṣṇa is your eternal master, eternal father. That is called jñāna. Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktena. Not sentimental. We must know very clearly what is Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna—what is my relationship with Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna—and what is my duty to Kṛṣṇa—that is jñāna. And as soon as you know all these things—what is Kṛṣṇa, what you are, what is your relationship, and what is your duty—then naturally you become reluctant to these material activities. That is called vairāgya.

It is better to be poor. Mataji grew up in Guyana. She dropped out of school. She wanted to be a devotee of Krsna all life. She comes every afternoon and does service to Krsna. Is that a good life yes very good life. Rasavathi mataji born in Fiji she is a devotee all her life.. No high education.. She is always Krsna Consciousness.. 

So jñāna-vairāgya-yuktena bhakti-yogena [SB 3.25.18]. How this jñāna and vairāgya can be awakened? The jñāna is there, but it is now covered. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya. It is stated in the Caitanya…, that my relationship with Kṛṣṇa is nitya-siddha. Nitya-siddha means it is eternal; it is not artificial. Not that we accept Kṛṣṇa as my master or father or like this, artificially. This is eternal fact. But by forgetting Kṛṣṇa, I am suffering. This is your fact. So if we want to be free from this fearfulness, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām… That is the Prahlāda Mahārāja’s advises. Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked by his father, “My dear boy, what best thing you have learned from your teachers?” So he said,

tat sādhu manye ‘sura-varya dehināṁ

sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt

hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ

vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta

[SB 7.5.5]

“That is the best thing.” He said, tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehinām. Anyone who has accept this material body… This is asat. It will not stay. But we have accepted this body. But we are so foolish that we do not know that “I am not this body; I am separate from this body. Somehow or other, I am now entrapped or encaged in this body.” Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said, tat sādhu manye ‘sura-varya dehinām. Dehinām. Dehī means… Dehinām means one who has accepted this material body. And Vaiṣṇava is suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām [SB 3.25.21]. Kapiladeva has said. A Vaiṣṇava who is in connection with Kṛṣṇa, his business is to go door to door and canvass everyone, “My dear sir, you are not this body. You are wasting your time only under the concept of body. You are Kṛṣṇa’s. You become Kṛṣṇa’s servant.” This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. “My dear sir, you are not this body. You are not American. You are not Indian. You are not brāhmaṇa. You are not śūdra. You are not cat. You are not dog. You are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and you serve Kṛṣṇa.” This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That’s all.

This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s advice. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa. It is not very difficult. You haven’t got to become very learned scholar to become guru. Guru’s business is to give the right information. That is guru. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā: “Every one of you become guru.” “Oh, I am not a learned man,” or “I am this, I am that. How can I become guru?” Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “No, it is very easy thing.” Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa.

āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa

[Cc. Madhya 7.128]

“You become guru simply by advising everyone the instruction which Kṛṣṇa has given.” That’s all. You become guru. It is not at all difficult thing. But if you want to cheat others that you are Bhagavān, you are this and that, you are yogī, you are very powerful, and “I am God,” then you will cheat, because you are neither God; you are less than a dog. You are falsely claiming that you are God. That is not your position. You are servant of God, that is your position. That is real jñāna. Therefore Kṛṣṇa…, er, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that don’t talk all nonsense thing. Simply say the real thing.

Material education – chasing after the phantoms. Phantoms – illusory things.. You get exhausted chasing them and waste your life.. 

DIalectic Spiritualism – Page 318 

prakr:te}J kriyamar;u’ini gul}ai}J karmiil}i sarvasa}J ahankara-vimuqhatma kartaham iti manyate “The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Bg. 3.27) Nature is giving us all facilities. God, as the Paramatma within the heart of everyone, knows what the living entity wants, and orders nature to give it to him.

 Syamasundara dasa: But presently we see that on this planet there are no longer any dinosaurs. That type of apartment is no longer available.

 Srila Prabhupada: As I said before, you may or may not have seen dinosaurs. In any case, you have certainly not seen all the 8,400,000 species of life. This does not mean that these species are no longer existing. They may be existing on some other planet. You have no information of this. Scientists are experimenting with their imperfect senses, but we are receiving knowledge from a different source. Regardless of the amount of scientific research, the conclusions will always be imperfect because the senses are imperfect. 

Hayagriva dasa: At first, Darwin was a Christian, but his faith in the existence of a personal God eventually faded. He finally wrote: “The whole subject is beyond the scope of man’s intellect …. The mystery of the beginning of things is insoluble by us, and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic …. ” He based The Origin of Species on evidence he had amassed on a voyage around the world from 1830 to 1836. 

Srila Prabhupada: In any case, his research was limited. He certainly could not have investigated all the species on the planet. 

Hayagrlva dasa: He spent the rest of his life writing about the information he gathered during this voyage. According to his theory of natural selection, the best and fittest survive, and therefore the race necessarily and steadily improves. But then, in Kali-yuga, isn’t there steady degeneration? 

Srlia Prabhupada: Yes, we can actually see that the human race has become degraded.

Hayagrlva dasa: What is the cause of this? Srila Prabhupada: Improper education. Every individual person is a soul, and each has a particular type of body. The human body in particular requires education. The soul evolves through various species according to his desires. Material nature supplies the bodies, acting under the orders of God. God exists within the core of everyone’s heart, and when the individual soul desires something, material nature, following the orders of God, gives him a machine in the form of a body. When we attain the human form, we can either regress to the animal form, or make spiritual progress. Animals also have desires, but they change bodies and species according to the laws of nature. The human body in particular is meant for understanding God, acting accordingly, and returning home, back to Godhead. If we do not utilize this opportunity, we regress to lower species.

Posted on

SB 2.10.27 & 28 Notes – 3/2/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.27 & 28:

  • Even in the matter of evacuating stool, the refuse is controlled, so how can the living entity claim to be independent?
  • The prāṇa-vāyu continues the life, and the apāna-vāyu stops the living force. Both the vibrations are generated from the abdominal hole, the navel.
  • This navel is the joint from one body to the other. Lord Brahmā was born of the abdominal hole of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as a separate body, and the same principle is followed even in the birth of any ordinary body. 
  • The body of the child develops from the body of the mother, and when the child is separated from the body of the mother, it is separated by cutting the navel joint. And that is the way the Supreme Lord manifested Himself as separated many. 
  • The living entities are therefore separated parts, and thus they have no independence.
  • The forms are already there from the beginning of creation. There is evolution, however, but Darwin thinks that this is an evolution of the body. That is incorrect. The body never evolves, but the soul within the body evolves and transmigrates from one body to another. The soul is within the body, and as he desires, he evolves.
  • Whatever is taking place in material nature is being directed by the Supreme Lord, who maintains everything in order. When one species becomes overly dominant, nature arranges to curb it. According to the theory of Malthus, whenever there is overpopulation, there must be some war, epidemic, or earthquake. These natural activities do not take place by chance but are planned. If Darwin says it is a matter of chance, his knowledge is insufficient. 
  • Srila Prabhupada:  We accept evolution, but we also accept the fact that the species are all existing simultaneously now. If they are not existing on this planet, they are existing on some other. Of course, Darwin had no chance to study that. We accept the proposition that there is an evolutionary process from aquatics to insects to birds to animals and to humans, but we do not accept Darwin’s theory that one species becomes extinct as another survives. All are existing simultaneously. 
  • Syamasundara dasa: But there are many forms that are extinct on this planet. 
  • Srila Prabhupada: But has Darwin seen all the planets and all the universes? Has he the power to see everything? Since our powers are limited, we cannot conclude that a particular species is extinct. Of course, the scientists do not accept the fact that our senses, by which we are gathering information, are limited. But they are. It is not possible to excavate the entire earth. We can only take samples. Our first charge against Darwin is that human life was always existing. He cannot prove that at a certain time there was no human life. It is not that the bodies of the species are changing. These bodies are already there. Rather, the soul is changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another, and this is actual evolution. It is the evolution or progress of the soul from one body to another. 
  • If you see a plan or design, you must ask, “Whose design?” As soon as you admit that there is a design, you must admit a designer. Behind the great machine of nature there is a brain that has set it in order. We explain the original source of everything as Brahman, the Absolute Truth, Krsna.
  • Scientists admit that they do not know where things are coming from, but when they see them, they suddenly claim to have invented them. But that is not invention. These things are already there. 
  • Syamasundara dasa: When the Padma Purana says that there are 400,000 species of human life, what does it mean?
  • Srila Prabhupada: There are differences in culture and in body types. Scientists will say that human beings are all of one species, but when they speak of species, they mean something different. The Vedas, for instance, would consider the Negroes and Aryans to belong to different species. As far as Krsna consciousness is concerned, bodies may differ; it doesn’t matter. Our classification is on the basis of the soul. The soul is equal despite different types of bodies. The soul is one and does not change.

SB 2.10.27 – 3/2/22

Thereafter, when He desired to evacuate the refuse of eatables, the evacuating hole, anus, and the sensory organ thereof developed along with the controlling deity Mitra. The sensory organ and the evacuating substance are both under the shelter of the controlling deity.

Even in the matter of evacuating stool, the refuse is controlled, so how can the living entity claim to be independent?

SB 2.10.28 – 3/2/22

​​Thereafter, when He desired to move from one body to another, the navel and the air of departure and death were combinedly created. The navel is the shelter for both, namely death and the separating force.

The prāṇa-vāyu continues the life, and the apāna-vāyu stops the living force. Both the vibrations are generated from the abdominal hole, the navel. This navel is the joint from one body to the other. Lord Brahmā was born of the abdominal hole of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as a separate body, and the same principle is followed even in the birth of any ordinary body. The body of the child develops from the body of the mother, and when the child is separated from the body of the mother, it is separated by cutting the navel joint. And that is the way the Supreme Lord manifested Himself as separated many. The living entities are therefore separated parts, and thus they have no independence.

Step by step creation of the body. Every part of the body is under the control of devas who are under the control of Krsna. The matter of birth, construction of body and death is all controlled by Krsna.  

SB tells us who God is where He lives, what he eats, all the information, if we do not take advantage of this then we are stuck in this material world birth after birth.. No absolute guarantee what the next body will be it depends on our desires. To be able to focus on the Lord and purify our desires Lord Caitanya gave the method of chanting Hare Krsna and going out on sankirtan.. Prayer is one way of connecting to God, Mahamantra is more than a prayer it is not asking for anything material. It is only asking Krsna to protect us so we can always engage in the service of the Lord. 

Human body is meant for – 

  • To cultivate the culture of KC- Sleeping early, waking up early, taking bath, chanting in brahma muhurta.. 
  • To get knowledge of Krsna. 

Vedas base species on Culture and knowledge of Krsna 

Darwin base species on body types. 

Dialectic Spiritulism – Page 300

Hayagriva dasa: Darwin’s conception of evolution rests on the premise that there is a real genetic change from generation to generation. In other words, he rejects the Platonic eidos (idea, type, or essence) for a species. Whereas Knn)a says that He is the generating seed of all existences, Darwin would reject the existence of a particular seed for a particular type. There are no fixed species, but shifting, evolving, physical forms, sonstantly changing. 

Srila Prabhupada: No. The forms are already there from the beginning of creation. There is evolution, however, but Darwin thinks that this is an evolution of the body. That is incorrect. The body never evolves, but the soul within the body evolves and transmigrates from one body to another. The soul is within the body, and as he desires, he evolves. A man may desire to change apartments, and he may move from one apartment to another, but it is the man who is doing the changing, not the apartment. According to the Vedic conception, the soul evolves, not the body. 

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin originated the doctrine of natural selection and survival of the fittest. An animal, he maintains, will develop in a way that is best suited for survival in his environment, and he will pass on his superior qualities to his offspring. Some species survive, and others, not so suitable to the environment, die out. 

Srila Prabhupada: A snake gives birth to many hundreds of snakes at a time, and if so many snakes are allowed to exist, there will be a disturbance. Therefore, according to nature’s law, the big snakes eat up the small snakes. Nature’s law is not blind, because behind it there is a brain, and that brain is God. mayiidhyak�erJa prakr:til} suyate sa-cariicaram hetuniinena kaunteya jagad viparivartate “This material nature is working under My direction, 0 son of Kuntl, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. ” (Bg. 9.10) Whatever is taking place in material nature is being directed by the Supreme Lord, who maintains everything in order. When one species becomes overly dominant, nature arranges to curb it. According to the theory of Malthus, whenever there is overpopulation, there must be some war, epidemic, or earthquake. These natural activities do not take place by chance but are planned. If Darwin says it is a matter of chance, his knowledge is insufficient. 

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin also sees a plan or design in nature. 

Srila Prabhupada: If you see a plan or design, you must ask, “Whose design?” As soon as you admit that there is a design, you must admit a designer. It is nonsense to say that nature is simply working mechanically. If so, there must be some mechanic to set it in motion. The sun rises exactly to the minute, to the second, and the seasons also come according to plan. Behind the great machine of nature there is a brain that has set it in order. We explain the original source of everything as Brahman, the Absolute Truth, Krsna. Scientists admit that they do not know where things are coming from, but when they see them, they suddenly claim to have invented them. But that is not invention. These things are already there. 

Syamasundara dasa: From scientific research, it is concluded that through the years, animals have evolved toward more and more complex forms, from very simple forms found in the sea to more complex forms, such as dinosaurs and so on. These forms eventually died out, and other forms evolved from them. 

Srila Prabhupada: When you say they died out, you mean that those animals no longer exist on this earth. But how can you say that they are not existing somewhere else? Now, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the human body evolved from the simians. 

Syamasundara dasa: He claims that they are related, that they come from the same ancestor. 

Srila Prabhupada: That is another thing. Everything is related. But he claims that the ape’s body or monkey’s body developed into a human body. If that is the case, why haven’t the simians ceased to exist? We can see that apes, monkeys, and human beings are existing simultaneously. Scientists cannot prove that no human being existed aeons ago. If man evolved from the ape, the ape should no longer exist. Karyakarana. When the effect is there, the cause is finished. 

Syamasundara dasa: It is not that the monkey caused the man to exist; rather, they came from a common ancestor. 

Srila Prabhupada: We say that we all come from God, the same ancestor, the same father. The original father is Krsna. sarva-yoni!ju kaunteya milrtayal], sambhavanti yal], tiisiim brahma mahad yonir aham bfja-pradal], pita “It should be understood that all species oflife, 0 son of Kuntl, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. ” (Bg. 14.4) 

Syamasundara dasa: Any any rate, according to Darwin’s theory, there is an evolution from simpler forms to more complex forms, from small one-celled animals to more complex animals like man. 

Srila Prabhupada: But at the present moment, the simple forms are existing along with the complex. It is not that the simplest developed into the most complex. My present body has developed from my childhood body, but that childhood body is no longer existing. Presently, the species are simultaneously existing. 

Syamasundara dasa: But they find no evidence that all these complex forms existed in earlier times. Srila Prabhupada: Earlier times or modern times are not in question. When I see all the 8,400,000 species still existing, where is the question of development? You may not know or have evidence that these forms existed long ago, but that is due to your imperfect knowledge. These species are all existing now, and they were existing millions of years ago. You may not have evidence of this, but that is a different thing. We accept evolution, but we also accept the fact that the species are all existing simultaneously now. If they are not existing on this planet, they are existing on some other. Of course, Darwin had no chance to study that. We accept the proposition that there is an evolutionary process from aquatics to insects to birds to animals and to humans, but we do not accept Darwin’s theory that one species becomes extinct as another survives. All are existing simultaneously. 

Syamasundara dasa: But there are many forms that are extinct on this planet. 

Srila Prabhupada: But has Darwin seen all the planets and all the universes? Has he the power to see everything? Since our powers are limited, we cannot conclude that a particular species is extinct. Of course, the scientists do not accept the fact that our senses, by which we are gathering information, are limited. But they are. It is not possible to excavate the entire earth. We can only take samples. Our first charge against Darwin is that human life was always existing. He cannot prove that at a certain time there was no human life. It is not that the bodies of the species are changing. These bodies are already there. Rather, the soul is changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another, and this is actual evolution. It is the evolution or progress of the soul from one body to another. 

Hayagriva dasa: Concerning the soul, Darwin writes: “A few persons feel anxiety from the impossibility of determining at what precise period in the development of the individual, from the first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man becomes an immortal being, and there is no greater cause for anxiety because the period cannot possibly be determined in the gradually ascending organic scale.” That is, it is i_mpossible t9 know at what point the immortal soul inhabits these species. 

Srila Prabhupada: The soul is the most important factor, and in order to understand the soul, education is required. It is the soul that moves the body, whether that body be that of an ant, bacteria, a human being, animal, or whatever. Nothing can move without the presence of the soul, and each and every individual soul is immortal. 

Syamasundara dasa: As mentioned, Darwin doesn’t accept the fact that there are a fixed number of species. Rather, he maintains that the species may vary at different times according to natural selection. There are new s ecies always evolving. 

Srila Prabhupada: But what does he know of all the species? Does he have a complete list of all the species in the universe? From Padma Puriil}a, we learn that there are 8,400,000 species. First of all, we must understand what all these species are. You may walk through a market and see many different types of people. As you walk, you continue to see different types of people, but you cannot say that a particular type no longer exists because you do not see it anymore. The point is that you can neither see nor comprehend the beginning or the end. 

Syamasundara dasa: Well, they claim that everything started with a one-celled animal. $rila Prabhupada: But where did that animal come from? Syamasundara dasa: From chemical combinations. 

Srila Prabhupada: Then who supplied the chemicals?

Syamasundara dasa: Scientists are not so concerned with who, but with the existing phenomena. 

Srila Prabhupada: Mere study of phenomena is childish. Real science means finding the original cause. Darwin may have studied this island or that island, or he may have dug holes in this desert or that desert, but he has not seen the other millions of planets that are existing in the universe. He has not excavated and dug into the depths of all the other planets. How, then, can he conclude that this is all? He speaks of natural selection, but he has not perfectly studied nature. He has only studied nature functioning in a particular place, and a very small place at that. When we speak of nature, we refer to prakr;ti. We refer to the universe. There are millions of universes, and Darwin has not studied them, yet he is drawing all these conclusions. There is certainly natural selection, but Darwin does not know how it is working. Darwin’s defect is that he has no information of the soul.

Syamasundara dasa: The fact remains that excavations throughout the world prove the existence of species that no longer exist on this planet. 

Srila Prabhupada: But nature is not confined to this one planet. When you speak of material nature, you must include all the planets in the umverse. 

Syamasundara dasa: But the scientists have no evidence that all the species have been existing from time immemorial. 

Srila Prabhupada: You cannot give evidence that the sun existed millions of years ago; still, we conclude that it did. The sun was not just created this morning. Within the sun, everything is existing, and if the sun is existing, other things must be existing also. Darwin draws conclusions about nature from a limited study of this one planet. This is not full knowledge. If your knowledge is not perfect, why should we accept your theories? Whether complex life-forms were existing on this planet millions of years ago is not really the point. All these forms are existing in nature. According to the Vedas, the species in nature are fixed at 8,400,000: These may or may not be existing in your neighborhood, but that is not important. The number is fixed, and they are simultaneously existing. There may be an evolution from simpler forms to more complex, but it is not that a species becomes extinct. Real evolution is the evolution of the soul through the existing species. Now, we admit that with the changes of seasons, or with extreme heat or cold, differences may arise, but it is not that the species are new. If there is a great flood, and all the men on earth are drowned, the human species is not extinct. Man may or may not survive certain catastrophes; this does not affect the species. We cannot say that the human species is extinct, but that under these circumstances man has survived or not survived. Whatever the case, human beings are existing somewhere else.

Syamasundara dasa: When the Padma Purana says that there are 400,000 species of human life, what does it mean?

 Srila Prabhupada: There are differences in culture and in body types. Scientists will say that human beings are all of one species, but when they speak of species, they mean something different. The Vedas, for instance, would consider the Negroes and Aryans to belong to different species. As far as Krsna consciousness is concerned, bodies may differ; it doesn’t matter. Our classification is on the basis of the soul. The soul is equal despite different types of bodies. The soul is one and does not change.

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin would claim that all living things on earth are evolving from lower to higher. 

Srila Prabhupada: Generally, that may be accepted because at certain periods people may be constructing certain types of apartments, but the apartments themselves are not evolving. Evolution takes place within the apartment according to the desire of the jiva , the living entity. Darwin thinks that it is the apartment that is changing, but actually it is the desire of the ji:va. According to our mentality at the time of death, we get a certain type of apartment. In any case, the apartment is already there. It is not that I have to create it. The types of apartments are fixed at 8,400,000, and we can enter into any of them. You cannot conceive of a type of apartment beyond this number. A hotel keeper knows that different customers want different types of facilities; therefore he makes arrangements to receive all kinds of customers. Similarly, this is God’s creation, and God knows how many different ways a living entity can think and desire; therefore God has created all these species. 

Posted on

SB 2.10.26 Notes – 3/1/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.26:

  • This material world is created to give the conditioned souls a chance for rejuvenation for going back home, back to Godhead, and therefore generation of the living being is necessary for upkeep of the purpose of creation. 
  • Sexual pleasure is an impetus for such action, and as such, one can even serve the Lord in the act of such sexual pleasure. The service is counted when the children born of such sexual pleasure are properly trained in God consciousness. 
  • The whole idea of material creation is to revive the dormant God consciousness of the living entity.
  • One can beget hundreds of children and enjoy the celestial pleasure of sexual intercourse, provided he is able to train the children in God consciousness. Otherwise begetting children is on the level of the swine. Rather, the swine is more expert than the human being because the swine can beget a dozen piglets at a time, whereas the human being can give birth to only one at a time. 
  • So one should always remember that the genitals, sexual pleasure, the woman and the offspring are all related in the service of the Lord, and one who forgets this relationship in the service of the Supreme Lord becomes subjected to the threefold miseries of material existence by the laws of nature. 
  • Perception of sexual pleasure is there even in the body of the dog, but there is no sense of God consciousness. The human form of life is distinct from that of the dog by the perception of God consciousness.
  • We should understand that we have nothing to do with this material world, which is the production of the material will. We are spiritual, and when we will spiritually, we are Krsna conscious. When we will materially, we get different types of material bodies.
  • It is true that the basis of material life is sex. We always say: yan maithuniidi-…”Sex life is compared to the rubbing of two hands to relieve an itch. Grihamedhis, so-called grihasthas who have no spiritual knowledge, think that this itching is the greatest platform of happiness, although actually it is a source of distress.
  • The kripanas, the fools who are just the opposite of brahmanas, are not satisfied by repeated sensuous enjoyment. Those who are dhira, however, who are sober, and who tolerate this itching, are not subjected to the sufferings of fools and rascals. ” (SB 7.9.45).
  • The basic principle of those who are addicted to the material world is maithuna, sexual intercourse. This strong desire for sex continues as long as we are in material existence, because that is the center of all pleasure. 
  • However, when we get a taste of Krsna’s pleasure, we can give this up. “The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. ” (Bg. 2.59)
  • Sex is animalistic. It is not love but lust. Sex means the mutual satisfaction of senses, and that is lust. All this lust is taking place under the name of love, and out of illusion, people mistake this lust for love. 
  • Real love says, “People are suffering from a lack of Krsna consciousness. Let us do something for them so that they can understand the value of life.” 

SB 2.10.26 TRANSLATION:

Thereupon, for sexual pleasure, begetting offspring and tasting heavenly nectar, the Lord developed the genitals, and thus there is the genital organ and its controlling deity, the Prajāpati. The object of sexual pleasure and the controlling deity are under the control of the genitals of the Lord.

The heavenly pleasure for the conditioned soul is sexual pleasure, and this pleasure is tasted by the genitals. The woman is the object of sexual pleasure, and both the sense perception of sexual pleasure and the woman are controlled by the Prajāpati, who is under the control of the Lord’s genitals. The impersonalist must know from this verse that the Lord is not impersonal, for He has His genitals, on which all the pleasurable objects of sex depend. No one would have taken the trouble to maintain children if there were no taste of heavenly nectar by means of sexual intercourse. This material world is created to give the conditioned souls a chance for rejuvenation for going back home, back to Godhead, and therefore generation of the living being is necessary for upkeep of the purpose of creation. Sexual pleasure is an impetus for such action, and as such, one can even serve the Lord in the act of such sexual pleasure. The service is counted when the children born of such sexual pleasure are properly trained in God consciousness. The whole idea of material creation is to revive the dormant God consciousness of the living entity. In forms of life other than the human form, sexual pleasure is prominent without any motive of service for the mission of the Lord. But in the human form of life the conditioned soul can render service to the Lord by creating progeny suitable for the attainment of salvation. One can beget hundreds of children and enjoy the celestial pleasure of sexual intercourse, provided he is able to train the children in God consciousness. Otherwise begetting children is on the level of the swine. Rather, the swine is more expert than the human being because the swine can beget a dozen piglets at a time, whereas the human being can give birth to only one at a time. So one should always remember that the genitals, sexual pleasure, the woman and the offspring are all related in the service of the Lord, and one who forgets this relationship in the service of the Supreme Lord becomes subjected to the threefold miseries of material existence by the laws of nature. Perception of sexual pleasure is there even in the body of the dog, but there is no sense of God consciousness. The human form of life is distinct from that of the dog by the perception of God consciousness.

Everything in the material world has a purpose. Sex has a purpose it is to engender good children who can be trained to be KC and go back to Godhead. If one engages in sex for any other reason than this the parents will suffer.. 

Sexual pleasure is due to a coating of liquid on the genitals, which gives that taste to the genitals. Whole enterprise of sex is full of anxiety because wheteevr pleasuer that is flet is always accompanied by great responsibility which is ever lasting. If one cannot make children KC then one suffers then we have not acted according to the purpose of sex. That suffering is very painful. We are forced to eat, sleep, mate and defend and we cannot do them independent of the lord. If we do it the right way we do not get entangled. If we do it the wrong way then we suffer. Both mother and father suffer.  Suffering is intense. 

There are many things that can go wrong. – sexual act is an act of passion and not of duty then it ends up in suffering.. 

Example – Boy who killed students with gun and parents convicted for purchasing gun

Animals – sexual drive is very powerful eg- goats

Society – images in the movies, novels, news papers, pornographic images even in daily newspaper, culture degraded, bollywood movies, 

If you stop procreating by contraceptive methods then there wont be any future generations. Then there is a bottle neck of the possibility of the living beings to go back to Godhead. 

Population can go down in some areas artificially by contraceptive methods but it will go up in another place. 

BSST said – if I could have KC children I can have sex 100 times and beget 100 KC chldren 

BVT had 13 children 

SP suggested 3 or 4 max

Dialectic Spiritualism (Pg 299-300)

Hayagriva dasa: In The World As Will, Schopenhauer writes: “My body is the objectivity of my will …. Besides will and idea, nothing is known to us or thinkable …. The genitals are properly the focus of the will, and consequently the opposite pole of the brain, the representative of knowledge …. In this respect. .. they were worshipped by the Hindus in the lingam, which are thus the symbol of the assertion of the will. Knowledge, on the other hand, affords the possibility of the suppression of willing, of salvation through freedom, of conquest and annihilationof the world. ” 

Srila Prabhupada: As I said before, willing is done in accordance with the body, but we should understand that we have nothing to do with this material world, which is the production of the material will. We are spiritual, and when we will spiritually, we are Krsna conscious. When we will materially, we get different types of material bodies. It is true that the basis of material life is sex. We always say: yan maithuniidi-gr:hamedhi-sukham hi tuccham kary… “Sex life is compared to the rubbing of two hands to relieve an itch. Gr:hamedhis, so-called gr:hasthas who have no spiritual knowledge, think that this itching is the greatest platform of happiness, although actually it is a source of distress. The kripanas, the fools who are just the opposite of brahmanas, are not satisfied by repeated sensuous enjoyment. Those who are dhira, however, who are sober, and who tolerate this itching, are not subjected to the sufferings of fools and rascals. “ (Bhiig. 7. 9.45). The basic principle of those who are addicted to the material world is maithuna, sexual intercourse. This strong desire for sex continues as long as we are in material existence, because that is the center of all pleasure. However, when we get a taste of Krsna’s pleasure, we can give this up. v4ayii vinivartante niriihiirasya dehinal], rasa-varjam raso ‘py asya param dr:�!vii nivartate “The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. ” (Bg. 2.59) 

Syamasundara dasa: Schopenhauer considers sex to be selfishness, whereas real love means sympathy. 

Srila Prabhupada: Sex is animalistic. It is not love but lust. Sex means the mutual satisfaction of senses, and that is lust. All this lust is taking place under the name of love, and out of illusion, people mistake this lust for love. Real love says, “People are suffering from a lack of Krsna consciousness. Let us do something for them so that they can understand the value of life.” 

In every situation of life there is the right way and the wrong way. If we dont hear about the right way we end up in the wrong way and end up .. misery..

We can avoid a lot of problems suffering in life by tolerating them. It is by itching, becoming susceptible to engage in illicit activities – one suffers.. We need to tolerate the itch and develop that higher taste.. 

Sympathy – Not impelled to do good for someone

Compassion – to suffer together, feel motivated to relieve the suffering of others

GBC is trying to help the devotees in Ukraine. 

SB 1.11.31 – nature of spiritual sexual relationships

As mentioned above, the Lord entered His home palaces occupied by 16,108 queens. This means that the Lord at once expanded Himself in as many plenary expansions as there were queens and palaces and entered in each and every one of them simultaneously and separately. Here is another manifestation of the feature of His internal potency. He can expand Himself in as many forms of spiritual identity as He desires, even though He is one without a second. It is confirmed by the Śruti-mantra that the Absolute is one alone, and yet He becomes many as soon as He so desires. These manifold expansions of the Supreme Lord are manifested as plenary and separated portions. The separated portions are representations of His energy, and the plenary portions are manifestations of His Personality. Thus the Personality of Godhead manifested Himself in 16,108 plenary expansions and simultaneously entered into each and every one of the palaces of the queens. This is called vaibhava, or the transcendental potency of the Lord. And because He can do so, He is also known as Yogeśvara. Ordinarily, a yogī or mystic living being is able to expand himself at utmost to tenfold expansions of his body, but the Lord can do so to the extent of as many thousands or infinitely, as He likes. Unbelievers become astonished to learn that Lord Kṛṣṇa married more than sixteen thousand queens because they think of Lord Kṛṣṇa as one of them and measure the potency of the Lord by their own limited potency. One should know, therefore, that the Lord is never on the level of the living beings, who are but expansions of His marginal potency, and one should never equalize the potent and the potency, although there is very little difference of quality between the potent and the potency. The queens were also expansions of His internal potency, and thus the potent and potencies are perpetually exchanging transcendental pleasures, known as pastimes of the Lord. One should not, therefore, become astonished to learn that the Lord married so many wives. On the contrary, one should affirm that even if the Lord marries sixteen thousand million wives, He is not completely manifesting His unlimited and inexhaustible potency. He married only sixteen thousand wives and entered in each and every one of the different palaces just to impress in the history of the human beings on the surface of the earth that the Lord is never equal to or less than any human being, however powerful he may be. No one, therefore, is either equal to or greater than the Lord. The Lord is always great in all respects. “God is great” is eternal truth.

Therefore, as soon as the queens saw from a distance their husband, who was away from home for long periods due to the Battle of Kurukṣetra, they all arose from the slumber of meditation and prepared to receive their most beloved. According to Yājñavalkya’s religious injunctions, a woman whose husband is away from home should not take part in any social functions, should not decorate her body, should not laugh and should not go to any relative’s house in any circumstance. This is the vow of the ladies whose husbands are away from home. At the same time, it is also enjoined that a wife should never present herself before the husband in an unclean state. She must decorate herself with ornaments and good dress and should always be present before the husband in a happy and joyous mood. The queens of Lord Kṛṣṇa were all in meditation, thinking of the Lord’s absence, and were always meditating upon Him. The Lord’s devotees cannot live for a moment without meditating on the Lord, and what to speak of the queens, who were all goddesses of fortune incarnated as queens in the pastimes of the Lord at Dvārakā. They can never be separated from the Lord, either by presence or by trance. The gopīs at Vṛndāvana could not forget the Lord when the Lord was away in the forest cowherding. When the Lord boy Kṛṣṇa was absent from the village, the gopīs at home used to worry about Him traversing the rough ground with His soft lotus feet. By thinking thus, they were sometimes overwhelmed in trance and mortified in the heart. Such is the condition of the pure associates of the Lord. They are always in trance, and so the queens also were in trance during the absence of the Lord. Presently, having seen the Lord from a distance, they at once gave up all their engagements, including the vows of women as described above. According to Śrī Viśvanātha Carkavartī Ṭhākura, there was a regular psychological reaction on the occasion. First of all, rising from their seats, although they wanted to see their husband, they were deterred because of feminine shyness. But due to strong ecstasy, they overcame that stage of weakness and became caught up with the idea of embracing the Lord, and this thought factually made them unconscious of their surrounding environment. This prime state of ecstasy annihilated all other formalities and social conventions, and thus they escaped all stumbling blocks on the path of meeting the Lord. And that is the perfect stage of meeting the Lord of the soul, Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Posted on

SB 2.10.25 Notes – 2/28/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.25 TODAY (2/28/22):

  • Every human being is engaged in his particular occupational duty, and such activities are visible as men go hither and thither. This is very prominently visible in big cities of the world: people are going all over the cities with great concern, from one place to another.
  • But in all these movements the real purpose is to earn wealth for comfortable life. For this comfortable life the scientist is engaged, the artist is engaged, the engineer is engaged, the technician is engaged, all in different branches of human activity. But they do not know how to make the activities purposeful to fulfill the mission of human life.
  • Because they do not know this secret, all their activities are targeted towards the goal of sense gratification without control, and therefore by all this business they are unknowingly entering into the deep regions of darkness.
  • But such a wrong conception of life cannot give anyone the desired peace of mind, and thus in spite of all advancement in knowledge by use of the resources of nature, no one is happy in this material civilization. 
  • The secret is that at every step they should try to execute sacrifices toward the path of world peace.
  • By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, the saṅkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age.
  • The Lord said to Arjuna: “Just hear from Me how one can attain the highest perfection in life simply by discharging his specified occupational duty. Man can attain the highest perfection of life by worshiping the Supreme Lord and by performing sacrifice for the sake of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, who is all-pervading and by whose control every living being acquires his desired facilities, according to his personal propensity.”
  • There is no harm in having different propensities in life because every human being is proportionately independent to chalk out the plan of his life by different occupations, but one should make it a point in his life to know perfectly well that he is not independent absolutely. 
  • One is certainly under the control of the Supreme Lord and under different agencies. Knowing this, one should make it a point that by his work and the result of his labor he serves the Supreme Lord as prescribed by the authorities expert in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu
  • For performing such occupational duties of life the leg is the most important instrument of the body because without the help of the legs one cannot move from one place to another, and therefore the Lord has special control over the legs of all human beings, which are meant for performing yajñas.

SB 2.10.25 TRANSLATION:

Thereupon, because of His desiring to control movement, His legs became manifested, and from the legs the controlling deity named Viṣṇu was generated. By His personal supervision of this act, all varieties of human being are busily engaged in dutiful occupational sacrifice.

Every human being is engaged in his particular occupational duty, and such activities are visible as men go hither and thither. This is very prominently visible in big cities of the world: people are going all over the cities with great concern, from one place to another. This movement is not limited only to the cities, but is also visible outside the cities from one place to another, or from one city to another, by different means of vehicles. Men are moving by cars and rails on the roads, by subways within the earth and by planes in the sky for the purpose of business success. But in all these movements the real purpose is to earn wealth for comfortable life. For this comfortable life the scientist is engaged, the artist is engaged, the engineer is engaged, the technician is engaged, all in different branches of human activity. But they do not know how to make the activities purposeful to fulfill the mission of human life. Because they do not know this secret, all their activities are targeted towards the goal of sense gratification without control, and therefore by all this business they are unknowingly entering into the deep regions of darkness.

Because they have been captivated by the external energy of the Supreme Lord, they have completely forgotten the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, and thus they have taken it for granted that this life, as presently manifested under the conditions of material nature, is all in all for enjoying the highest amount of sense gratification. But such a wrong conception of life cannot give anyone the desired peace of mind, and thus in spite of all advancement in knowledge by use of the resources of nature, no one is happy in this material civilization. The secret is that at every step they should try to execute sacrifices toward the path of world peace. The Bhagavad-gītā (18.45-46) also advises the same secret in the following verses.

sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ

saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ

sva-karma-nirataḥ siddhiṁ

yathā vindati tac chṛṇu

yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ

yena sarvam idaṁ tatam

sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya

siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ

The Lord said to Arjuna: “Just hear from Me how one can attain the highest perfection in life simply by discharging his specified occupational duty. Man can attain the highest perfection of life by worshiping the Supreme Lord and by performing sacrifice for the sake of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, who is all-pervading and by whose control every living being acquires his desired facilities, according to his personal propensity.”

There is no harm in having different propensities in life because every human being is proportionately independent to chalk out the plan of his life by different occupations, but one should make it a point in his life to know perfectly well that he is not independent absolutely. One is certainly under the control of the Supreme Lord and under different agencies. Knowing this, one should make it a point that by his work and the result of his labor he serves the Supreme Lord as prescribed by the authorities expert in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. For performing such occupational duties of life the leg is the most important instrument of the body because without the help of the legs one cannot move from one place to another, and therefore the Lord has special control over the legs of all human beings, which are meant for performing yajñas

All wars are wars for sense gratification…

Putin is not happy, Ukraine’s PM not happy, Biden is not happy, Borris Johnson is not happy, 

BG:3.10

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home – back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: patiṁ viśvasyātmeśvaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (2.4.20) Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

śriyaḥ patir yajña-patiḥ prajā-patir

dhiyāṁ patir loka-patir dharā-patiḥ

patir gatiś cāndhaka-vṛṣṇi-sātvatāṁ

prasīdatāṁ me bhagavān satāṁ patiḥ

The prajā-pati is Lord Viṣṇu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety, and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, the saṅkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Saṅkīrtana-yajña and Kṛṣṇa consciousness go well together. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the saṅkīrtana-yajña:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ

sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair

yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña.” Other yajñas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended in Bhagavad-gītā also (9.14).

BG 18.46 – what is real work – DS
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.

As stated in the Fifteenth Chapter, all living beings are fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. Thus the Supreme Lord is the beginning of all living entities. This is confirmed in the Vedānta-sūtra – janmādy asya yataḥ. The Supreme Lord is therefore the beginning of life of every living entity. And as stated in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the Supreme Lord, by His two energies, His external energy and internal energy, is all-pervading. Therefore one should worship the Supreme Lord with His energies. Generally the Vaiṣṇava devotees worship the Supreme Lord with His internal energy. His external energy is a perverted reflection of the internal energy. The external energy is a background, but 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. In whatever occupation one may be engaged, if he serves the Supreme Lord he will achieve the highest perfection.

Posted on

SB 2/10/24 Notes – 2/27/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.24:

  • No one, therefore, can claim any proprietorship of the senses. The living entity is controlled by the senses, the senses are controlled by the demigods, and the demigods are the servants of the Supreme Lord. That is the arrangement in the system of creation.
  • The whole thing is controlled ultimately by the Supreme Lord, and there is no independence either of the material nature or of the living entity. 
  • The illusioned living entity who claims to be the lord of his senses is under the clutches of the external energy of the Lord. 
  • As long as a living entity continues to be puffed up by his tiny existence, he is to be understood to be under the stringent control of the external energy of the Lord, and there is no question of liberation from the clutches of illusion (māyā), however much one may declare himself a liberated soul.
  • BG 6.17 -He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
  • BG 5.18 – The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].
  • BG 5.20 – A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God is already situated in transcendence.
  • A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary. Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure?
  • “My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure while in this human form of life; such pleasures are available to the stool-eaters [hogs]. Rather, you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and as a result you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.1)
  • Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
  •  The living entities are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. 
  • Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gītā for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.

SB 2.10.24 – 2/27/22

Thereafter when the Supreme Person desired to perform varieties of work, the two hands and their controlling strength, and Indra, the demigod in heaven, became manifested, as also the acts dependent on both the hands and the demigod.

In every item we can note with profit that the sense organs of the living entity are never independent at any stage. The Lord is known as the Lord of the senses (Hṛṣīkeśa). Thus the sense organs of the living entities are manifested by the will of the Lord, and each organ is controlled by a certain type of demigod. No one, therefore, can claim any proprietorship of the senses. The living entity is controlled by the senses, the senses are controlled by the demigods, and the demigods are the servants of the Supreme Lord. That is the arrangement in the system of creation. The whole thing is controlled ultimately by the Supreme Lord, and there is no independence either of the material nature or of the living entity. The illusioned living entity who claims to be the lord of his senses is under the clutches of the external energy of the Lord. As long as a living entity continues to be puffed up by his tiny existence, he is to be understood to be under the stringent control of the external energy of the Lord, and there is no question of liberation from the clutches of illusion (māyā), however much one may declare himself a liberated soul.

FACT : No one, therefore, can claim any proprietorship of the senses.

FICTION: We are the controllers

As long as you have one desire you are not in control 

The mystic yogi also has a desire – They want to develop yoga siddhis, when they develop1 or 2 siddhis they get satisfied. 

Viswamitra creates an alternate universe to elevate a sudra to his own heavenly planets..

Jnanis are attached to is development of knowledge. 

Einstein also went to India – but he did not meet Bhakti Siddhantha Saraswati Thakur. 

He met Ravindranath Tagore

As long as one does not have association of a pure devotee one remains completely incomplete. 

Everything depends on our desire. If we have spiritual desires there is no limit on how much Krsna can fulfill them. As long as we have material desires, we are only limited to our karma. 

Animals have no free will???

Humans have free will – whether to accept Krsna or Reject Krsna. 

He gives that free will because Love is voluntary. 

CIvilized human form – one has free will and that is nor forced. 

When we reject krsna we are completely under the control of Material nature

When we accept Krsna we are under the protection of Krsna. 

Laws of Material Nature – 

To go back to Godhead we need to know – 

  1. What we should not do 
  2. What we should do

What is spiritual life – Who is a civilized human being –  

BG 6.17

He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

BG 5.18

The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].

He sees every living entity as a walking temple. 

BG 5.20 

A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God is already situated in transcendence.

The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self-intelligence. He is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or self-realization. Such steady consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

BG 5.22

An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.

Material sense pleasures are due to the contact of the material senses, which are all temporary because the body itself is temporary. A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary. Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure? In the Padma Purāṇa it is said:

ramante yogino ’nante

satyānande cid-ātmani

iti rāma-padenāsau

paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate

“The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rāma.”

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (5.5.1) it is said:

nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛ-loke

kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye

tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ

śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam

“My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure while in this human form of life; such pleasures are available to the stool-eaters [hogs]. Rather, you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and as a result you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss.”

Therefore, those who are true yogīs or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.

Everyone has a mixed bag of karma – positive and negative – pleasure and misery. So one does not need to work hard fpr pleasure. Rather one should work hard for the eternal 

If you please Krsna every other positive goal will be attained..

Laws of nature – 

  1. Birth, old age, disease and death
  2. Eat, sleep, mate and defend (only way to diminish them is through KC 
  3.  The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.
  4. The material desires are unsatiated they lead to anger, .. 
  5. Suffering of humanity is due to the forgetfulness of Krsna as the supreme enjoyer.. Proprietor and Supreme friend. 

“Bhoktaram.. Tajna tapasa 

BG 5.29 

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ

sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.

Any type of penance which is for material – hurting body, and Krsna Consciousness – 

This type of penance is demoniac. 

Living a minimalist life

Krsna is the supreme best friend. Teaches how to get of the material body. 

Even in mode of goodness we are forced to do things. Only in transcendental goodness one is nor forced.. 

  1. False Attachment  to friendship, family & so called love based on sense gratification will just create anxieties.. 

Family – teach purpose of life is to become a Hare Krsna.. Work honestly to maintain the family.. Minimalism, life should be simple, thinking – how to please Krsna 

  1. Whatever is produced in the material world in the name of the economic development, supreme lord in the time factor destroys it.. 
  2. We should be concerned with things that are sat and not asat

BG 2.16 

This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole. In the Vedānta-sūtras, as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences. The living entities belong to the superior nature, as it will be revealed in the Seventh Chapter. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as the Supreme, and the energy or nature is accepted as the subordinate. The living entities, therefore, are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gītā for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.

We should be concerned by only the eternal.. For what is not eternal we should be using them in the service of the lord so we are not entangled 

Grihamedhi – 

Grihastha –

BG 9.4

By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.

BG 9.5 

And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.

BG 9.6 

Understand that as the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, rests always in the sky, all created beings rest in Me.

BG 9.30 

Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination.

Posted on

SB 2.10.23 Notes -2/26/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.23 TODAY (2/26/22):

  • There is an intimate relation between the hairs on the body and the vegetation on the body of the earth. The vegetables are nourishment for the skin both as food and medicine, as stated in the Third Canto: tvacam asya vinirbhinnāṁ viviśur dhiṣṇyam oṣadhīḥ.

SB 2.10.23 TRANSLATION:

When there was a desire to perceive the physical characteristics of matter, such as softness, hardness, warmth, cold, lightness and heaviness, the background of sensation, the skin, the skin pores, the hairs on the body and their controlling deities (the trees) were generated. Within and outside the skin is a covering of air through which sense perception became prominent.

The physical characteristics of matter, such as softness, are subjects of sense perception, and thus physical knowledge is the subject matter of the touch sensation. One can measure the temperature of matter by touching with the hand, and one can measure the weight of an object by lifting it with the hand and thus estimate its heaviness or lightness. The skin, the skin pores and the hairs on the body are all interdependent with the touch sensation. The air blowing within and outside the skin is also an object of sense perception. This sense perception is also a source of knowledge, and therefore it is suggested here that physical or physiological knowledge is subordinate to the knowledge of the Self, as above mentioned. Knowledge of Self can expand to the knowledge of phenomena, but physical knowledge cannot lead to knowledge of the Self.

There is, however, an intimate relation between the hairs on the body and the vegetation on the body of the earth. The vegetables are nourishment for the skin both as food and medicine, as stated in the Third Canto: tvacam asya vinirbhinnāṁ viviśur dhiṣṇyam oṣadhīḥ.

Permanent material body in an impermanent world. 

Somatosensory – ability to study sense of touch

Touch – non verbal communication 

Kinetics – how do we use body movements and  facial expressions, eye contact 

Haptics- study of touch 

Babies and parents 

Everything begins from Krishna – Spiritual vision 

Material education – limited in scope , piecemeal, incomplete, people remain incomplete they do not attain fulfillment and they do not attain love 

Spiritual education – everything in scope – 

Never – Love, sustained happiness, immortality, 

Mundane activities, mundane subjects

Article – Last 30 sec of life a part of brain becomes very active

Plethora of information of how creation took place in detail in  SB. 

Dandelion – very useful herbs – edible and medicinal

Land cress – Barbarea verna

Chlorophyll is a very healing substance

Interconnectedness of things is much more important than the things that we can only see and receive.. 

All the things that cause cancer in the home

Round up – Human carcinogen 

Natural products, how to grow them, use of microcausla funguses and bacteria in the soil 

Morning cereals – very detrimental to the health

We need only small qty of vitamins and minerals 

If we eat food which is nutritionally depleted, we get hungry very soon, we cannot stop eating.. 

Real Intelligence – Eat your medicine everyday – Vegetables

Posted on

SB 2.10.22 Notes – 2/25/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.22 TODAY (2/25/22):

  • The power of hearing and the instruments for hearing were given to them by the Lord for hearing about the Self, or about the Lord. Unfortunately the power of hearing is misused in hearing the vibrations of mundane affairs. 
  • The great sages were interested in hearing about the Lord through Vedic knowledge and nothing more. That is the beginning of aural reception of knowledge.
  • A brahmacārī hears only words concerning Kṛṣṇa consciousness; hearing is the basic principle for understanding, and therefore the pure brahmacārī engages fully in harer nāmānukīrtanam – chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. 
  • He restrains himself from the vibrations of material sounds, and his hearing is engaged in the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
  • BG 10.18 – O Janārdana, again please describe in detail the mystic power of Your opulences. I am never satiated in hearing about You, for the more I hear the more I want to taste the nectar of Your words.
  • “One can never be satiated even though one continuously hears the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by excellent prayers. Those who have entered into a transcendental relationship with Kṛṣṇa relish at every step the descriptions of the pastimes of the Lord.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.19)
  • Now as far as amṛtam, nectar, is concerned, any narration or statement concerning Kṛṣṇa is just like nectar. And this nectar can be perceived by practical experience.
  • Modern stories, fiction and histories are different from the transcendental pastimes of the Lord in that one will tire of hearing mundane stories but one never tires of hearing about Kṛṣṇa.
  • BG 11.36 – Arjuna said: O master of the senses, the world becomes joyful upon hearing Your name, and thus everyone becomes attached to You. 
  • A devotee does not need to practice aṣṭāṅga-yoga in order to transfer his soul to the spiritual planets. The responsibility is taken by the Supreme Lord Himself. He clearly states that He Himself becomes the deliverer. 
  • The Lord picks up the devotee from this material existence. One simply has to practice the easy process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and fully engage himself in devotional service. Any intelligent man should always prefer the process of devotional service to all other paths
  • One should give up all other processes of self-realization and simply execute devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That will enable one to reach the highest perfection of life. 
  • There is no need for one to consider the sinful actions of his past life, because the Supreme Lord fully takes charge of him. Therefore one should not futilely try to deliver himself in spiritual realization. Let everyone take shelter of the supreme omnipotent Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest perfection of life.
  • One who is engaged in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service lives in a direct relationship with the Supreme Lord, so there is no doubt that his position is transcendental from the very beginning. 
  • A devotee does not live on the material plane – he lives in Kṛṣṇa. The holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent; therefore when a devotee chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and His internal potency are dancing on the tongue of the devotee. 
  • When he offers Kṛṣṇa food, Kṛṣṇa directly accepts these eatables, and the devotee becomes Kṛṣṇa-ized by eating the remnants. 
  • One who does not engage in such service cannot understand how this is so, although this is a process recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā and in other Vedic literatures.

SB 2.10.22 TRANSLATION:

By development of the desire of the great sages to know, the ears, the power of hearing, the controlling deity of hearing, and the objects of hearing became manifested. The great sages desired to hear about the Self.

As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, by advancement of knowledge one should try to know about the Supreme Lord, the summum bonum of everything. Knowledge does not mean knowledge only of the laws of nature or physical knowledge, which are working by the direction of the Lord. The scientists are eager to hear about the physical laws working in material nature. They are eager to hear through the medium of radio and television about things taking place far away from them on other planets, but they should know that the power of hearing and the instruments for hearing were given to them by the Lord for hearing about the Self, or about the Lord. Unfortunately the power of hearing is misused in hearing the vibrations of mundane affairs. The great sages were interested in hearing about the Lord through Vedic knowledge and nothing more. That is the beginning of aural reception of knowledge.

Most imp for introducing one to KC or Steady progress in KC is hearing. If we engage in hearing, we make in genuine progress. 

One learns by hearing. Upto the age of 5 children dont know how to read, but they speak sentences they learn by hearing. Most of the books are read to them and they hear. 

They can learn any language in the world by the time they are 5 years.. Just by hearing. 

By hearing from Bonafide authority one learns the real knowledge. 

Real reason – Power of hearing is specifically given to hear about Krsna. 

If we hear nonsense then there are consequences. 

BG 4.26 

Some [the unadulterated brahmacārīs] sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the fire of mental control, and others [the regulated householders] sacrifice the objects of the senses in the fire of the senses.

The members of the four divisions of human life, namely the brahmacārī, the gṛhastha, the vānaprastha and the sannyāsī, are all meant to become perfect yogīs or transcendentalists. Since human life is not meant for our enjoying sense gratification like the animals, the four orders of human life are so arranged that one may become perfect in spiritual life. The brahmacārīs, or students under the care of a bona fide spiritual master, control the mind by abstaining from sense gratification. A brahmacārī hears only words concerning Kṛṣṇa consciousness; hearing is the basic principle for understanding, and therefore the pure brahmacārī engages fully in harer nāmānukīrtanam – chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. He restrains himself from the vibrations of material sounds, and his hearing is engaged in the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the householders, who have some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with great restraint. Sex life, intoxication and meat-eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratification. Marriage on the principles of religious life is therefore current in all civilized human society because that is the way for restricted sex life. This restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yajña because the restricted householder sacrifices his general tendency toward sense gratification for higher, transcendental life.

BG 10.18 

O Janārdana, again please describe in detail the mystic power of Your opulences. I am never satiated in hearing about You, for the more I hear the more I want to taste the nectar of Your words.

A similar statement was made to Sūta Gosvāmī by the ṛṣis of Naimiṣāraṇya, headed by Śaunaka. That statement is:

vayaṁ tu na vitṛpyāma

uttama-śloka-vikrame

yac chṛṇvatāṁ rasa-jñānāṁ

svādu svādu pade pade

“One can never be satiated even though one continuously hears the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by excellent prayers. Those who have entered into a transcendental relationship with Kṛṣṇa relish at every step the descriptions of the pastimes of the Lord.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.19) Thus Arjuna is interested in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, and specifically how He remains as the all-pervading Supreme Lord.

Now as far as amṛtam, nectar, is concerned, any narration or statement concerning Kṛṣṇa is just like nectar. And this nectar can be perceived by practical experience. Modern stories, fiction and histories are different from the transcendental pastimes of the Lord in that one will tire of hearing mundane stories but one never tires of hearing about Kṛṣṇa. It is for this reason only that the history of the whole universe is replete with references to the pastimes of the incarnations of Godhead. The Purāṇas are histories of bygone ages that relate the pastimes of the various incarnations of the Lord. In this way the reading matter remains forever fresh, despite repeated readings.

BG 11.36 

Arjuna said: O master of the senses, the world becomes joyful upon hearing Your name, and thus everyone becomes attached to You. Although the perfected beings offer You their respectful homage, the demons are afraid, and they flee here and there. All this is rightly done.

Arjuna, after hearing from Kṛṣṇa about the outcome of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, became enlightened, and as a great devotee and friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead he said that everything done by Kṛṣṇa is quite fit. Arjuna confirmed that Kṛṣṇa is the maintainer and the object of worship for the devotees and the destroyer of the undesirables. His actions are equally good for all. Arjuna understood herein that when the Battle of Kurukṣetra was being concluded, in outer space there were present many demigods, siddhas, and the intelligentsia of the higher planets, and they were observing the fight because Kṛṣṇa was present there. When Arjuna saw the universal form of the Lord, the demigods took pleasure in it, but others, who were demons and atheists, could not stand it when the Lord was praised. Out of their natural fear of the devastating form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they fled. Kṛṣṇa’s treatment of the devotees and the atheists is praised by Arjuna. In all cases a devotee glorifies the Lord because he knows that whatever He does is good for all.

BG 12.6-7

But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā – for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

It is explicitly stated here that the devotees are very fortunate to be delivered very soon from material existence by the Lord. In pure devotional service one comes to the realization that God is great and that the individual soul is subordinate to Him. His duty is to render service to the Lord – and if he does not, then he will render service to māyā.

As stated before, the Supreme Lord can be appreciated only by devotional service. Therefore, one should be fully devoted. One should fix his mind fully on Kṛṣṇa in order to achieve Him. One should work only for Kṛṣṇa. It does not matter in what kind of work one engages, but that work should be done only for Kṛṣṇa. That is the standard of devotional service. The devotee does not desire any achievement other than pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His life’s mission is to please Kṛṣṇa, and he can sacrifice everything for Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction, just as Arjuna did in the Battle of Kurukṣetra. The process is very simple: one can devote himself in his occupation and engage at the same time in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Such transcendental chanting attracts the devotee to the Personality of Godhead.

The Supreme Lord herein promises that without delay He will deliver a pure devotee thus engaged from the ocean of material existence. Those who are advanced in yoga practice can willfully transfer the soul to whatever planet they like by the yoga process, and others take the opportunity in various ways, but as far as the devotee is concerned, it is clearly stated here that the Lord Himself takes him. The devotee does not need to wait to become very experienced in order to transfer himself to the spiritual sky.

The purport of this verse is that a devotee does not need to practice aṣṭāṅga-yoga in order to transfer his soul to the spiritual planets. The responsibility is taken by the Supreme Lord Himself. He clearly states here that He Himself becomes the deliverer. A child is completely cared for by his parents, and thus his position is secure. Similarly, a devotee does not need to endeavor to transfer himself by yoga practice to other planets. Rather, the Supreme Lord, by His great mercy, comes at once, riding on His bird carrier Garuḍa, and at once delivers the devotee from material existence. Although a man who has fallen in the ocean may struggle very hard and may be very expert in swimming, he cannot save himself. But if someone comes and picks him up from the water, then he is easily rescued. Similarly, the Lord picks up the devotee from this material existence. One simply has to practice the easy process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and fully engage himself in devotional service. Any intelligent man should always prefer the process of devotional service to all other paths. In the Nārāyaṇīya this is confirmed as follows:

yā vai sādhana-sampattiḥ

puruṣārtha-catuṣṭaye

tayā vinā tad āpnoti

naro nārāyaṇāśrayaḥ

The purport of this verse is that one should not engage in the different processes of fruitive activity or cultivate knowledge by the mental speculative process. One who is devoted to the Supreme Personality can attain all the benefits derived from other yogic processes, speculation, rituals, sacrifices, charities, etc. That is the specific benediction of devotional service.

Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare – a devotee of the Lord can approach the supreme destination easily and happily, but this destination cannot be approached by any other process of religion.

The conclusion of Bhagavad-gītā is stated in the Eighteenth Chapter:

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

One should give up all other processes of self-realization and simply execute devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That will enable one to reach the highest perfection of life. There is no need for one to consider the sinful actions of his past life, because the Supreme Lord fully takes charge of him. Therefore one should not futilely try to deliver himself in spiritual realization. Let everyone take shelter of the supreme omnipotent Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest perfection of life.

BG 12.8 

Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.

One who is engaged in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service lives in a direct relationship with the Supreme Lord, so there is no doubt that his position is transcendental from the very beginning. A devotee does not live on the material plane – he lives in Kṛṣṇa. The holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent; therefore when a devotee chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and His internal potency are dancing on the tongue of the devotee. When he offers Kṛṣṇa food, Kṛṣṇa directly accepts these eatables, and the devotee becomes Kṛṣṇa-ized by eating the remnants. One who does not engage in such service cannot understand how this is so, although this is a process recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā and in other Vedic literatures.

Project for Ananda Mela this year: 

Connect with a larger number of people – another religion, not happy with organized religion, atheists.. How do we connect with them? 

Connect with enlightened knowledge. Millions of books and classes on how to do something? 

Biggest problem people have- Suffering 

Suffering cause by the body other bodies, other natural calamities.. 

How to be free of suffering and be happy? Message everyone resonates with. 

Stepping stone or path to that is called – DAIVI VARNASHRAMA DHARMA

Organization of spiritual society 

Mode of goodness – one begins to understand spiritual knowledge

To instruct people who they can come upto the mode of goodness. Become free from all these sufferings. 

From mode of goodness we can further instruct on how to go to the mode of transcendental goodness. 

BOOK – “Dance for peace and social harmony”

Education for peace

Communications for peace

Meditation for peace

Social order for peace

Ideas for display from this book. 

Life’s problems and solutions book is theme and framework for the Anandamela.. 

CREATING A COALITION FOR GOODNESS
Explaining a way the society can become peaceful, happy, prosperous, spiritually enlightened, cultivating the mode of goodness. 

Stepping stone for getting spiritually enlightened

Many are are in passion and ignorance.. They cannot understand.. Vedic solutions.. 

Posted on

SB 2.10.20 Notes -2/23/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.20 TRANSLATION:

  • The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. 
  • This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, and therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. 
  • The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. 
  • Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.
  • Arjuna has addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa as Govinda because Kṛṣṇa is the object of all pleasures for cows and the senses. By using this significant word, Arjuna indicates that Kṛṣṇa should understand what will satisfy Arjuna’s senses. 
  • But Govinda is not meant for satisfying our senses. If we try to satisfy the senses of Govinda, however, then automatically our own senses are satisfied. 
  • Materially, everyone wants to satisfy his senses, and he wants God to be the order supplier for such satisfaction. The Lord will satisfy the senses of the living entities as much as they deserve, but not to the extent that they may covet. 
  • But when one takes the opposite way – namely, when one tries to satisfy the senses of Govinda without desiring to satisfy one’s own senses – then by the grace of Govinda all desires of the living entity are satisfied.
  •  India’s wise men of yore easily realized that the threefold miseries we humans are condemned to suffer can never be mitigated by the political condition controlling the country—whether foreign rule or freedom from it. 
  • At the dawn of modern history, the Armageddon fought in India over a political question lasted only eighteen days. On that historic battlefield the problem of human suffering and its permanent solution was discussed, and this discussion was compiled in the form of the Bhagavad-gitä. 
  • It is impossible for anyone to surmount the two-pronged attack of daivé mäyä—that is, her covering potency and her throwing potency. The more we try to conquer this divine energy, the more powerfully she defeats us by exciting us through the mode of passion and punishing us with the threefold 6 miseries, culminating in all-devouring death. 
  • Despite repeatedly tasting defeat at the hands of divine energy, the evil forces cannot understand why “mankind cannot have any rest.” Yet in the Bhagavad-gitä the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains this.

SB 2.10.20 TRANSLATION:

Thereafter, when the supreme puruṣa desired to smell odors, the nostrils and respiration were generated, the nasal instrument and odors came into existence, and the controlling deity of air, carrying smell, also became manifested.

The nasal instrument, odor, and the controlling deity of air, smelling, etc., all became manifested simultaneously when the Lord desired to smell. The Vedic mantras confirm this statement in the Upaniṣads’ statement that everything is first desired by the Supreme before the subordinate living entity can act upon it. The living entity can see only when the Lord sees, the living entity can smell when the Lord smells, and so on. The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, a nd therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.

Every desire we have we cannot get satisfied, our karma plays into picture. 

Very important to understand this about desire – 

BG 1.32-35

Arjuna has addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa as Govinda because Kṛṣṇa is the object of all pleasures for cows and the senses. By using this significant word, Arjuna indicates that Kṛṣṇa should understand what will satisfy Arjuna’s senses. But Govinda is not meant for satisfying our senses. If we try to satisfy the senses of Govinda, however, then automatically our own senses are satisfied. Materially, everyone wants to satisfy his senses, and he wants God to be the order supplier for such satisfaction. The Lord will satisfy the senses of the living entities as much as they deserve, but not to the extent that they may covet. But when one takes the opposite way – namely, when one tries to satisfy the senses of Govinda without desiring to satisfy one’s own senses – then by the grace of Govinda all desires of the living entity are satisfied. Arjuna’s deep affection for community and family members is exhibited here partly due to his natural compassion for them. He is therefore not prepared to fight. Everyone wants to show his opulence to friends and relatives, but Arjuna fears that all his relatives and friends will be killed on the battlefield and he will be unable to share his opulence after victory. This is a typical calculation of material life. The transcendental life, however, is different. Since a devotee wants to satisfy the desires of the Lord, he can, Lord willing, accept all kinds of opulence for the service of the Lord, and if the Lord is not willing, he should not accept a farthing. Arjuna did not want to kill his relatives, and if there were any need to kill them, he desired that Kṛṣṇa kill them personally. At this point he did not know that Kṛṣṇa had already killed them before their coming into the battlefield and that he was only to become an instrument for Kṛṣṇa. This fact is disclosed in following chapters. As a natural devotee of the Lord, Arjuna did not like to retaliate against his miscreant cousins and brothers, but it was the Lord’s plan that they should all be killed. The devotee of the Lord does not retaliate against the wrongdoer, but the Lord does not tolerate any mischief done to the devotee by the miscreants. The Lord can excuse a person on His own account, but He excuses no one who has done harm to His devotees. Therefore the Lord was determined to kill the miscreants, although Arjuna wanted to excuse them.

If we give up all nonsense desires and only desire for Krsn there is no limit on what Krsna can grant you. If you desire for yourself then you are limited by your karma.

Key Achievements of temple & its partner Northwest share. 

Future of America 

America can change significantly by being away from bad karma all the time – 

  • Cow Protection 

Peace, happiness, love, transcendental liberation from the martsya loka – world of death

  • Creating prosperity by sharing – Food trucks, Helping people – self sufficient village, sustainable model for the future.. Making money and sense gratification – is not sustainable.  – PIONEER VILLAGE
  • Opening temples – Daivi Varnashram – Societal emphasis – pleasing God – In God we trust
  • Learning to be a minimalist in life
  • Real education 
  • Reprint the book – Life’s problems and solutions
  • Create people of good character – related to the points we make 
  • Reformation of society from Misery to happiness 
  • Show the problem – outline the solution BG 7.14 
  • Transform bad people into good people 
  • Revive “IN GOD WE TRUST “political party 

Renunciation through wisdom – 

The editor of the daily Amrita Bazar Patrika, published from Allahabad,

began the editorial the other day on a rather sad note:

The nation’s week began with memories of ‘Jalhianwallah-Bagh(1),’ and political

serfdom no longer troubles us. But our troubles are far from being at an end. In the

dispensation of providence, mankind cannot have any rest. If one kind of trouble

goes, another quickly follows. India, politically free, is faced with difficulties that are

no less serious than the troubles under foreign rule.

Now, if one consults the accounts ledger of India’s serfdom and freedom, and views the contents from a spiritual perspective, the conclusion will be as follows: The four yugas, or ages, namely Satya, Tretä, Dväpara, and Kali, add up to 4,320,000 years. Kali-yuga, which lasts 432,000 years, began from the time of Mahäräja Parékñit’s rule, some five thousand years ago. For approximately one thousand of these five thousand years—i.e., since the invasion of Mohammad Ghori in A.D. 1050—India has been experiencing foreign rule. In other words, when we calculate according to scripture, India has exercised absolute sovereignty over the entire planet Earth for a period of 3,772,000 years, till Mahäräja Parékñit’s rule. Hence the meagre thousand years of foreign subjugation are not such a lamentable thing. Neither in the past nor at present has India’s political serfdom or freedom been the prime concern of India’s greatest thinkers and philosophers, who well knew the actual value of such things. The kings of India up to Mahäräja Parékñit were able to rule the 5 entire world, and not for a mere couple of centuries but for hundreds of thousands of years. The reason for their rule was not a political one. India’s wise men of yore easily realized that the threefold miseries we humans are condemned to suffer can never be mitigated by the political condition controlling the country—whether foreign rule or freedom from it. At the dawn of modern history, the Armageddon fought in India over a political question lasted only eighteen days. On that historic battlefield the problem of human suffering and its permanent solution was discussed, and this discussion was compiled in the form of the Bhagavad-gitä. Thus millennia ago the Bhagavad-gitä comprehensively discussed the same topic the editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika writes about in a despondent mood: “If one kind of trouble goes, another quickly follows.” In the Gitä (7.14) Lord Krsna says, “This divine energy of mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” The Sanskrit words daivé mäyä used here can be translated into modern terms as “nature’s law.” This natural law is so stringent that it is impossible to overcome it, in spite of our prolific articles in the newspapers or our big conferences tabling motions that run into volumes. Our advanced technological and scientific efforts aimed at protecting us from the clutches of nature’s law are futile because they are all controlled by the very same nature’s law, or daivé mäyä. Therefore trying to utilize mundane science to overpower nature’s law is like creating a Frankenstein. Efforts to extirpate human suffering through advanced technology and bring about lasting happiness have brought us to the Atomic Age. Western thinkers have become gravely concerned about the extent of destruction an atomic explosion can cause. Some leaders are trying to calm the alarm with platitudes about how atomic energy is to be used solely for peaceful purposes, but this is another form of deception caused by daivé mäyä, or nature’s law. It is impossible for anyone to surmount the two-pronged attack of daivé mäyä—that is, her covering potency and her throwing potency. The more we try to conquer this divine energy, the more powerfully she defeats us by exciting us through the mode of passion and punishing us with the threefold 6 miseries, culminating in all-devouring death. This struggle between the divine energy and the evil forces is eternal. Our inability to understand this struggle has led us to lament, “In the dispensation of providence, mankind cannot have any rest.” Despite repeatedly tasting defeat at the hands of the divine energy, the evil forces cannot understand why “mankind cannot have any rest.” Yet in the Bhagavad-gétä the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains this. At first He sternly warns the evil forces with these words, daivé hy eñä guëa-mayé mama mäyä duratyayä: “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome” [Bg. 7.14]; and then in the next line He tells them how to overcome this divine energy, mäm eva ye prapadyante mäyäm etäà taranti te: “But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.
Regards,JayaSri Devi Dasi

Posted on

SB 2.10.19 Notes – 2/22/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.19:

  • The activities of the sense organs are controlled by the will of the Supreme. The senses are, so to speak, offering a license for the conditioned souls, who are to use them properly under the control of the controlling deity deputed by the Supreme Lord. 
  • One who violates such controlling regulations has to be punished by degradation to a lower status of life. 
  • After death the next body is offered by superior control, not blindly. A human being, therefore, must be on his guard as to what sort of body he is going to have in the next life. An irresponsible life of indiscrimination is risky, and that is the declaration of all scriptures.
  • In the Bhāgavatam, First Canto, second chapter, it is also confirmed that one who engages in devotional service of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, has complete transcendental knowledge and renunciation, and there is no further explanation for these attainments. Ahaitukī – without reason, they come.
  • To anyone who has full faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual master, all the import of the Vedic literatures is revealed. 
  • One cannot be sure of entrance into the spiritual realm – in either the impersonal brahma-jyotir effulgence of the Lord or the Vaikuṇṭha planets within that Brahman effulgence – unless he is surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. The surrendered souls are called akuto-bhaya. 
  • They are doubtless and fearless, and their entrance into the spiritual kingdom is guaranteed.
  • Devotional service is most important because there is danger in every step in this material world. At any moment our life can be finished. We may be walking along very nicely, but at some moment we may slip and break our neck; therefore this planet is called Martyaloka, the planet of death, the place where death is a certainty.
  • Everyone wants health and security, but actually there is no security. There is simply a struggle for existence. People are struggling for security, but in reality this is all foolishness. 
  • People are always fearful because they have forgotten or rejected Kṛṣṇa. We have forgotten that we are Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servants, His eternal parts and parcels, and that we have a most intimate relationship with Him. 
  • In the material world we are situated in asat, a nonpermanent situation. When a child has lost his father and mother, he is always in a fearful condition. He cries in the street, “Where is my father? Where is my mother?”
  • If we no longer want to be in such a fearful condition, we have to take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is begging us to come to Him because we are all His sons. He says, “You are rotting here by repeatedly committing sins. You are changing from one body to another, and you are thinking that you are a human being, an American, this or that. The next moment you may become a dog or an insect.
  • Knowledge, jñāna, means understanding our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. A wise man asks, “What is my duty to Kṛṣṇa?” Once we understand our relationship with Kṛṣṇa and our duty to Him, we naturally become reluctant to engage in material activities. 
  • Bhakti means surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. Without surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, we cannot understand our situation. Kṛṣṇa reserves the right of not being exposed to fools and rascals. He is simply meant for the devotees. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa without becoming devotees.
  • According to the śāstras, there is śreyas and preyas. Śreyas is the ultimate goal. We should act in such a way that ultimately we will become happy. However, if we want immediate happiness and disregard the future, we want preyas. Preyas is for unintelligent people and children.
  • The śāstras instruct us to aim for śreyas and not be captivated by preyas. The supreme śreyas is bhakti-yoga.

SB 2.10.19 – 2/22/22

When the Supreme desired to speak, speeches were vibrated from the mouth. Then the controlling deity Fire was generated from the mouth. But when He was lying in the water, all these functions remained suspended.

The peculiarity of the gradual development of the different senses is simultaneously supported by their controlling deities. It is to be understood, therefore, that the activities of the sense organs are controlled by the will of the Supreme. The senses are, so to speak, offering a license for the conditioned souls, who are to use them properly under the control of the controlling deity deputed by the Supreme Lord. One who violates such controlling regulations has to be punished by degradation to a lower status of life. Consider, for example, the tongue and its controlling deity, Varuṇa. The tongue is meant for eating, and men, animals and birds each have their different tastes because of different licenses. The taste of human beings and that of the swine are not on the same level. The controlling deity, however, awards or certifies a particular type of body when the particular living entity develops a taste in terms of different modes of nature. If the human being develops taste without discrimination, as does the swine, then the controlling deity is certainly certified for the next term to award him the body of a swine. The swine accepts any kind of foodstuff, including stools, and a human being who has developed such indiscriminate taste must be prepared for a degraded life in the next life. Such a life is also God’s grace because the conditioned soul desired a body like that for perfectly tasting a particular type of foodstuff. If a man gets the body of a swine it must be considered the grace of the Lord because the Lord awards the facility. After death the next body is offered by superior control, not blindly. A human being, therefore, must be on his guard as to what sort of body he is going to have in the next life. An irresponsible life of indiscrimination is risky, and that is the declaration of all scriptures.

People have no idea of what is going on in the universe. People are taught to be irresponsible. 

Example Atkins diet and Atkins died by walking and slipping but later discovered that he had heart attack and he helped the meat industry grow..

We are susceptible to dying. We may die at any moment. We are like a drop on a slippery leaf.. 

Example – A devotee father driving and someone knocks you down and you die.. 

TEACHINGS OF LORD KAPILA  – TEXT 43

The yogīs, equipped with transcendental knowledge and renunciation and engaged in devotional service for their eternal benefit, take shelter at My lotus feet, and since I am the Lord, they are thus eligible to enter into the kingdom of Godhead without fear.

One who wants to be liberated from the entanglement of this material world and go back home, back to Godhead, is actually a mystic yogī. The words explicitly used here are yuktena bhakti-yogena. Those yogīs, or mystics, who engage in devotional service are first-class yogīs. They are described in Bhagavad-gītā as constantly thinking of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. These yogīs are not without knowledge and renunciation. To become a bhakti-yogī means to automatically attain knowledge and renunciation. That is the consequent result of bhakti-yoga. In the Bhāgavatam, First Canto, second chapter, it is also confirmed that one who engages in devotional service of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, has complete transcendental knowledge and renunciation, and there is no further explanation for these attainments. Ahaitukī – without reason, they come. Even if a person is completely illiterate, the transcendental knowledge of the scriptures is revealed unto him because of his devotion. To anyone who has full faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual master, all the import of the Vedic literatures is revealed. One doesn’t have to seek separately; the yogīs who engage in devotional service are full in knowledge and renunciation. If there is a lack of knowledge and renunciation, it is to be understood that one is not engaged in full devotional service. The conclusion is that one cannot be sure of entrance into the spiritual realm – in either the impersonal brahma-jyotir effulgence of the Lord or the Vaikuṇṭha planets within that Brahman effulgence – unless he is surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. The surrendered souls are called akuto-bhaya. They are doubtless and fearless, and their entrance into the spiritual kingdom is guaranteed.

Revelation theology – surrender, regulated life, chanting in brahma muhurta, mangal arti, eating only prasadam, hearing class.. Now you are ready to face the world. You are now vaccinated with transcendental knowledge. 

Devotional service is most important because there is danger in every step in this material world. At any moment our life can be finished. We may be walking along very nicely, but at some moment we may slip and break our neck; therefore this planet is called Martyaloka, the planet of death, the place where death is a certainty. Regardless of how strong or healthy one may be, one cannot avoid death. One may exercise on the beach daily, but one may die at any moment. There is no guarantee. Everyone wants health and security, but actually there is no security. There is simply a struggle for existence. People are struggling for security, but in reality this is all foolishness. People are always fearful because they have forgotten or rejected Kṛṣṇa. We have forgotten that we are Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servants, His eternal parts and parcels, and that we have a most intimate relationship with Him. In the material world we are situated in asat, a nonpermanent situation. When a child has lost his father and mother, he is always in a fearful condition. He cries in the street, “Where is my father? Where is my mother?” If we no longer want to be in such a fearful condition, we have to take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is begging us to come to Him because we are all His sons. He says, “You are rotting here by repeatedly committing sins. You are changing from one body to another, and you are thinking that you are a human being, an American, this or that. The next moment you may become a dog or an insect.” People are always thinking that they are secure, and this is called māyā, illusion.

Everyone is struggling – competing for sense gratification, competing for jobs.. struggle for existence..

People suffer because – they forgot their relationship with Krsna 

The purpose of life is to become an IT guy.. That is what kids are learning and they want to right away start to earn 140k..  – Failure of education

The goal is to be a devotee.. And I might earn my living by doing IT but that is not the purpose of my life.. 

Knowledge, jñāna, means understanding our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. A wise man asks, “What is my duty to Kṛṣṇa?” Once we understand our relationship with Kṛṣṇa and our duty to Him, we naturally become reluctant to engage in material activities. This is called vairāgya, detachment from material activities. Jñāna and vairāgya can be awakened by bhakti-yoga. Bhakti means surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. Without surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, we cannot understand our situation. Kṛṣṇa reserves the right of not being exposed to fools and rascals. He is simply meant for the devotees. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa without becoming devotees.

Material life means sex. People work hard all day in order to have a little sex at night. In the material world everyone is suffering from the sharp arrow of Cupid. Madana, Cupid, shoots his arrow into men and women to make them mad after one another; however, when one actually sees Kṛṣṇa, he sees Madana-mohana, the charmer of Cupid. Then one is no longer pierced by Cupid’s arrow. This means that one actually becomes fearless. One can then enter into bhakti-yoga and renounce this material world. According to the śāstras, there is śreyas and preyas. Śreyas is the ultimate goal. We should act in such a way that ultimately we will become happy. However, if we want immediate happiness and disregard the future, we want preyas. Preyas is for unintelligent people and children. A child enjoys playing all day; he does not want to be sent to school to be educated. Education is śreyas, the ultimate goal. No one is interested in this. The śāstras instruct us to aim for śreyas and not be captivated by preyas. The supreme śreyas is bhakti-yoga.

Posted on

SB 2.10.17 Notes – 2/20/22

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.17:

  • The supreme cause of all generation is not impersonal or without desire. The desires for all kinds of sense perception and sense organs exist in the Supreme, and thus they take place in the individual persons. This desire is the nature of the supreme living being, the Absolute Truth. 
  • Lord Kṛṣṇa, assures Arjuna that he was born with the divine qualities.
  • Those who are born with divine qualities follow a regulated life; that is to say they abide by the injunctions in scriptures and by the authorities. One should perform duties in the light of authoritative scripture. This mentality is called divine. One who does not follow the regulative principles as they are laid down in the scriptures and who acts according to his whims is called demoniac or asuric. There is no other criterion but obedience to the regulative principles of scriptures.
  • Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them.
  • The demons do not know the scriptural rules, nor do they have any inclination to follow them.
  • Modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society.
  • The social condition of women is thus not very good now, although those who are married are in a better condition than those who are proclaiming their so-called freedom.
  • The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social condition of the demoniac people is very miserable.
  • Knowledge of the Absolute Truth is not very easily understood by ordinary, less intelligent men; but if the spiritual master is kind enough to the disciple, however unintelligent he may be, then by the divine grace of the spiritual master everything is revealed.
  • If one is interested in advancing in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu advises that one be humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the trees. One should not be very proud of his intelligence but should give all respect to others. In this way, one can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa offenselessly.
  • We have to please the spiritual master by service, and the entire bhakti process depends on the attitude of service. The transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa is not possible to understand with our blunt material senses. Kṛṣṇa’s name, form, qualities and pastimes are all divya, divine.
  • Our present material senses have to be purified by engagement in the Lord’s service, and our first engagement begins with the tongue. It is with the tongue that we can chant the transcendental names of the Lord. This is not very difficult, and this path is open to everyone – even women, vaiśyas and śūdras.
  • “There is one special advantage about this age of Kali-yuga, and that is that people can attain liberation and return home, back to Godhead, simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:
    “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no other way, no other way at all in Kali-yuga.”
  • We should try to avoid the ten offenses in chanting the holy name, but anyone who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa sincerely is purified.
  • If Kṛṣṇa sees that someone is sincerely chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, He will help. He is within everyone, and He can understand whether one is sincere or not. Kṛṣṇa helps a sincere devotee internally and externally. Internally He helps as Paramātmā by giving intelligence from within. Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. Externally He helps as His representative, the spiritual master.
  • Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. “By the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one gets a bona fide guru, and by the grace of the guru, one gets Kṛṣṇa.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.151) Thus the śāstras have given us a very easy way to appreciate our transcendental life. That is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

SB 2.10.17 TRANSLATION:

The living force, being agitated by the virāṭ-puruṣa, generated hunger and thirst, and when He desired to drink and eat, the mouth opened.

The process by which all living beings in the womb of the mother develop their sense organs and sense perceptions appears to follow the same principles in the case of the virāṭ-puruṣa, the sum total of all living entities. Therefore the supreme cause of all generation is not impersonal or without desire. The desires for all kinds of sense perception and sense organs exist in the Supreme, and thus they take place in the individual persons. This desire is the nature of the supreme living being, the Absolute Truth. Because He has the sum total of all mouths, the individual living entities have mouths. Similarly with all other senses and sense organs. Here the mouth is the symbolic representation of all sense organs, for the same principles apply to the others also.

Unless we learn the science of Krsna, the nomenclature of Krsna, His emanations, His expansions – plenary, partial plenary, partial plenary, living beings, material world, We remain incomplete in our knowledge and we become atheists. Acintya bheda and abedha tattva exists everywhere even in the spiritual world, we cannot understand lord otherwise. The creation starts with the desire of the lord. When a husband and a wife desire to have a child.. they will want to expand..their happiness. Ofcpurse they do not know if their child is going to cause happiness or not. 

Example – Dhritarastra’s son – Duryodhana destroys whole kingdom 

Astrology – pure devotees are not influenced by astrology, non devotees are. 

Initiated and Non Initiated Devotees – 

Initiated devotees, disciples should not do anything without the asking spiritual master..

Everything is judged by the motive. 

Devotee and demon 

Devotee is regulated and follows the rules and regulations

Devotee always considers the pros and cons before he acts.

Tadviddhi pranipatena. Pari prasnena sevaya.. 

Gangadevi is picking the goats, Sita rani & Radharani is is picking

BG 16.5 

The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of Pāṇḍu, for you are born with the divine qualities.

Lord Kṛṣṇa encouraged Arjuna by telling him that he was not born with demoniac qualities. His involvement in the fight was not demoniac, because he was considering the pros and cons. He was considering whether respectable persons such as Bhīṣma and Droṇa should be killed or not, so he was not acting under the influence of anger, false prestige or harshness. Therefore he was not of the quality of the demons. For a kṣatriya, a military man, shooting arrows at the enemy is considered transcendental, and refraining from such a duty is demoniac. Therefore there was no cause for Arjuna to lament. Anyone who performs the regulative principles of the different orders of life is transcendentally situated.

BG 16.6

O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called divine and the other demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac.

Lord Kṛṣṇa, having assured Arjuna that he was born with the divine qualities, is now describing the demoniac way. The conditioned living entities are divided into two classes in this world. Those who are born with divine qualities follow a regulated life; that is to say they abide by the injunctions in scriptures and by the authorities. One should perform duties in the light of authoritative scripture. This mentality is called divine. One who does not follow the regulative principles as they are laid down in the scriptures and who acts according to his whims is called demoniac or asuric. There is no other criterion but obedience to the regulative principles of scriptures. It is mentioned in Vedic literature that both the demigods and the demons are born of the Prajāpati; the only difference is that one class obeys the Vedic injunctions and the other does not.

BG 16.7

Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them.

Sometimes kids are caught telling lies, even very young ones.. that is coming from past lives. Therefore it is very essential to train them from when they are very young. If dogs can be trained, why not humans..?

In every civilized human society there is some set of scriptural rules and regulations which is followed from the beginning. Especially among the Āryans, those who adopt the Vedic civilization and who are known as the most advanced civilized peoples, those who do not follow the scriptural injunctions are supposed to be demons. Therefore it is stated here that the demons do not know the scriptural rules, nor do they have any inclination to follow them. Most of them do not know them, and even if some of them know, they have not the tendency to follow them. They have no faith, nor are they willing to act in terms of the Vedic injunctions. The demons are not clean, either externally or internally. One should always be careful to keep his body clean by bathing, brushing teeth, shaving, changing clothes, etc. As far as internal cleanliness is concerned, one should always remember the holy names of God and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The demons neither like nor follow all these rules for external and internal cleanliness.

As for behavior, there are many rules and regulations guiding human behavior, such as the Manu-saṁhitā, which is the law of the human race. Even up to today, those who are Hindu follow the Manu-saṁhitā. Laws of inheritance and other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu-saṁhitā it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean that they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions, and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However, this has not improved the social condition of the world. Actually, a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by the father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grownup sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu-saṁhitā. But modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. The social condition of women is thus not very good now, although those who are married are in a better condition than those who are proclaiming their so-called freedom. The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social condition of the demoniac people is very miserable.

What would be better for a woman than to marry a good man who follows KC, follows rules and regulations, protects the wife.. raise  kC children… 

Mother makes the home a home. Home science is very important. 

How to keep the man happy 

How to raise the children so that they can be good devotees

How to keep the home clean, cook nice food.. 

Dating before marriage, women smoking, divorce.. 

Introducing artificial equality is going to create more hatred.

Equality is not based on the bodily concept of the lord.

With all these so called advancements happening is it making people happy and peaceful….? NO 

Teachings of lord Kapila – 13 

My dear son, Kapila, after all, I am a woman. It is very difficult for me to understand the Absolute Truth because my intelligence is not very great. But if You will kindly explain it to me, even though I am not very intelligent, I can understand it and thereby feel transcendental happiness.

Knowledge of the Absolute Truth is not very easily understood by ordinary, less intelligent men; but if the spiritual master is kind enough to the disciple, however unintelligent he may be, then by the divine grace of the spiritual master everything is revealed. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura therefore says, yasya prasādād, by the mercy of the spiritual master, the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavat-prasādaḥ, is revealed. Devahūti requested her great son to be merciful toward her because she was a less intelligent woman and also His mother. By the grace of Kapiladeva it was quite possible for her to understand the Absolute Truth, even though the subject matter is very difficult for ordinary persons, especially women.

In this verse Devahūti shows us the process for understanding transcendental subject matters. It is not by challenge but by submission. The entire bhakti process is a process of submission. That is also Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s teaching:

If one is interested in advancing in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu advises that one be humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the trees. One should not be very proud of his intelligence but should give all respect to others. In this way, one can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa offenselessly. Although Devahūti was the mother of Kapiladeva, she presented herself as a humble woman. It was not that she considered herself superior because she was His mother.

We have to please the spiritual master by service, and the entire bhakti process depends on the attitude of service. The transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa is not possible to understand with our blunt material senses. Kṛṣṇa’s name, form, qualities and pastimes are all divya, divine. Our present material senses have to be purified by engagement in the Lord’s service, and our first engagement begins with the tongue. It is with the tongue that we can chant the transcendental names of the Lord. This is not very difficult, and this path is open to everyone – even women, vaiśyas and śūdras. After describing all the faults of Kali-yuga, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.3.51) states:

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann

asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ

kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya

mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet

“There is one special advantage about this age of Kali-yuga, and that is that people can attain liberation and return home, back to Godhead, simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

“Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no other way, no other way at all in Kali-yuga.”

We should try to avoid the ten offenses in chanting the holy name, but anyone who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa sincerely is purified. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (Śikṣāṣṭaka 1). This is the easiest process by which the mirror of the mind can be cleansed. If Kṛṣṇa sees that someone is sincerely chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, He will help. He is within everyone, and He can understand whether one is sincere or not. Kṛṣṇa helps a sincere devotee internally and externally. Internally He helps as Paramātmā by giving intelligence from within. Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. Externally He helps as His representative, the spiritual master. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. “By the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one gets a bona fide guru, and by the grace of the guru, one gets Kṛṣṇa.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.151) Thus the śāstras have given us a very easy way to appreciate our transcendental life. That is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Devahūti has submissively accepted her son as her guru. She wants to understand Kṛṣṇa perfectly, by the grace of Kapiladeva. It is very important to receive the causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. By Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, we receive a spiritual master, and by the spiritual master’s mercy, we receive Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has greatly stressed the mercy of the guru, and it is an actual fact that if we satisfy the guru by our service, he will give us his blessings. This is a very great opportunity, for the guru is the confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa. The guru never claims that he is Kṛṣṇa, although he is worshiped as Kṛṣṇa: sākṣād dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ (Gurv-aṣṭaka 7).