19851120_Srimad_Bhagavatam_1.15.18-1_Life_Member_House_Mr.Patel_Bangalore The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on November 28th, 1985 in Bangalore, India. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam, 1st Canto, Chapter 15, Text 18 to 21. JPS: śayyāsanāṭana-vikatthana-bhojanādiṣv  aikyād vayasya ṛtavān iti vipralabdhaḥ sakhyuḥ sakheva pitṛvat tanayasya sarvaṁ  sehe mahān mahitayā kumater aghaṁ me Generally both of us used to live together and sleep, sit and loiter together. And at the time of advertising oneself for acts of chivalry, sometimes, if there were any irregularity, I used to reproach Him by saying, “My friend, You are very truthful.” Even in those hours when His value was minimized, He, being the Supreme Soul, used to tolerate all those utterings of mine, excusing me exactly as a true friend excuses his true friend, or a father excuses his son. so ’haṁ nṛpendra rahitaḥ puruṣottamena  sakhyā priyeṇa suhṛdā hṛdayena śūnyaḥ adhvany urukrama-parigraham aṅga rakṣan  gopair asadbhir abaleva vinirjito ’smi O Emperor, now I am separated from my friend and dearmost well-wisher, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore my heart appears to be void of everything. In His absence I have been defeated by a number of infidel cowherd men while I was guarding the bodies of all the wives of Kṛṣṇa. tad vai dhanus ta iṣavaḥ sa ratho hayās te  so ’haṁ rathī nṛpatayo yata ānamanti sarvaṁ kṣaṇena tad abhūd asad īśa-riktaṁ  bhasman hutaṁ kuhaka-rāddham ivoptam ūṣyām Translation: I have the very same Gāṇḍīva bow, the same arrows, the same chariot drawn by the same horses, and I use them as the same Arjuna to whom all the kings offered their due respects. But in the absence of Lord Kṛṣṇa, all of them, at a moment’s notice, have become null and void. It is exactly like offering clarified butter on ashes, accumulating money with a magic wand or sowing seeds on barren land.

Purport: As we have discussed more than once, one should not be puffed up by borrowed plumes. Prabhupada says: All energies and powers are derived from the supreme source, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and they act as long as He desires and cease to function as soon as He withdraws. All electrical energies are received from the powerhouse, and as soon as the powerhouse stops supplying energy, the bulbs are of no use. In a moment’s time such energies can be generated or withdrawn by the supreme will of the Lord. Material civilization without the blessing of the Lord is child’s play only. As long as the parents allow the child to play, it is all right. As soon as the parents withdraw, the child has to stop. Human civilization and all activities thereof must be dovetailed with the supreme blessing of the Lord, and without this blessing all advancement of human civilization is like decoration on a dead body. It is said here that a dead civilization and its activities are something like clarified butter on ashes, the accumulation of money by a magic wand and the sowing of seeds in a barren land. Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport and translations to the text 18-21, chapter 15 of the Canto 1, Srimad Bhagavatam, the chapter entitled, “The Pandavas retired timely” So as you might have understood from this, this was just after the departure of Krishna from the world, when Arjuna was protecting Krishna’s wife and different Visnuduta’s in the dress of cowheard boys came and stole away the wives and took them back to Vaikuntha where they belong, but Arjuna’s point of view, he was defeated by some ordinary farmers. So he could see that all of his powers were gone in a second. In fact Yudhistara advised him, “Why does you as well through your weapon in the water?, they are of no use.” Sometimes we feel, that our achievements are by our own endeavour. We fail to recognize or remember, that actually any achievement of any value can only be achieved, by the blessings of the Lord. So many civilizations have come and gone in the world, but they have left no lasting impact, but the Vedic civilization even though India has been under foreign rule for thousand years, still Vedic civilization, the impact could never be erased, in spite of their most dedicated endeavour on behalf of various types of yavanas and mlechas. And now by the divine will of Krishna, in His most merciful Avatar, as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, again the Vedic culture has extended to all parts of the world through the endeavour of His empowered representatives, His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda, you can see that, he does not as we say pull his punches, or mix his words. He very straightly said, that this civilization without God consciousness is a dead body, without a soul. Civilization means to make progress in life, otherwise what is the question of civilization, and what is progress if ultimately we are not making spiritual progress along with whatever economic development is achievement. If in this lifetime, I am very wealthy, very rich, famous, beautiful or educated but in my next life if I take birth as a pauper or diseased or ignorant or worse, then what is the value of all my work of this life. So civilization should be organized. God centric means that all the people will make progress. Whatever happiness I have in this life, the next life I will have more happiness, or I will have complete perfection, but I won’t not go back down, then that’s progress. Otherwise in these 60-70 years we can achieve some success, then again next life if we are in narak or in some horrible situation, in this planet or another, then what is the use? One Yogi, he wrote that one of our Prime Minister’s took birth in Sweden as a dog, his next life. He said that there was a millionaire there, who had two dogs, one black dog and one white dog, who were fed several kilos of meat every day and well groomed and cared for and the Prime minister took birth as the white dog. (laughter) Who can say, if it is your fault? Whether he is playing a joke or he is studying from his own insight?, but actually that could happen, if a person is wanting a comfortable life, then he may get such a life. No anxiety, no fear, plenty of servants and food, you don’t have to worry about anything. To be a Prime Minister is a big headache. All the time people are trying to take away your position, to get the chair. So if he desired like that he could be. You can say... what is that, is that progress? So Krishna consciousness, as you can see, Prabhupada wanted to actually inject life into the civilization. If we are offering fire sacrifice and we are offering the swaha, if some fool is there offering the..., you can ask our panditji or his assistants. If the fire has already gone out, and it is just the ashes, what does it do if you put ghee on the dead ashes? What a funny example, but actually this is the example given, that if the society has lost the spiritual objective, and we are going and saying now we have to give so much development work, just like this article came out, I was reading, “Reincarnation, Times Of India,”, illustrated whatever, illustrated weekly India, then can say reincarnation is it true or fake? Within a country a 80% people, ascribed to vedic culture or Hindu Dharma, which is the very first verse they quote is the Bhagavat Gita, they say janani that, just dehina smin yatha dehe, we are changing our bodies, dehanatara prapti dhiras tatra na muhyate, we are changing our body from one stage to next and finally from one life to the next. Then they say, in this country this is real or fake. That same title you can find in New York. But how India, that they have the journalist take such a cynical attitude, that they take the attitude that our Vedic culture is of no value, or it is ah..., or is it true or fake. In a country where 80% of the people ascribe to Bhagavat Gita, and the Bhagavat Gita says that there is reincarnation. Do they take an attitude, is it true or false? That means that the people are being programmed, they are being conditioned, they are being trained to doubt their own scriptures. No one can quote the Bible in America, and say, is it true or fake? No one can do that. Even if there is not a law against it, the people will ah.. burn that persons house or do something, they will become... they are more fanatical maybe, but we are more tolerant, but somehow or other they will make a protest, then how you can say that is it true or false. You can say, that if science has confirmed it or not ? But we are very happy that people will say, “well they are putting something about reincarnation, because it’s a pluralistic society, you have to write.” Of course there are so many scientific basises, but in a country like India where 80% of the people or more believe as a religious teachings, and where science has already proved that 90% of the people in the rest of the world accept reincarnation due to scientific basis. Even in America, which is very conservative, 50% of the people accept reincarnation. But there is not one university in the entire world which teaches what is the science of reincarnation. At least in India, the science of the soul should be a regular course. They teach Darwin. Darwin has never been proven, there is not one evidence that Darwin’s theory of evolution is factual. Rather many scientists say that it is a totally wrong, that scientifically there are many proofs against it. Scientists are saying without fighting among themselves. They say that this theory made in 1800 has got no basis. They are... they will come up with new theories now. So some 14.01 can go to the Galapagos island and see some ah... dogs and different turtles, and he can write some book, and in the book itself he says, “I don’t know this is true or false, but this is my speculation”, and that theory is accepted in all universities, colleges, even in India everyone knows Darwin’s theory. But Krishna speaks Bhagawat Gita, and for thousand of years ago, Buddha, whether the Mahavira, whether... whether.... jorastrian, or so many of great thinkers, even the greek thinker they all say, Aristotle, other, they all say, “that reincarnation is a fact, this is the actual thing about life.”, but there is not one college, high school, university, which is teaching as a regular course, what is the science, or as teachings as one of the...as a opposite or as a alternative to what is Darwin’s theory, the Law of reincarnation of transmigration of the soul. So the whole world is riding upon the, specially India having come from the British time, they are running on the British idea, that this life is a temporary, life, eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow you die, but you ask a common villager, he thinks that no what I do in this life will give me my next life, and if I suddenly suffer, this is due to my previous life, and if you are a little bit more intelligent like Arjuna, he could understand that where does my power come from, it comes from Krisha. Now suddenly my power is gone, Krishna has take it away. How is that all the ministers were there yesterday?, rath was standing, photos were taken, then after that, press people and everyone left, then suddenly the rath caves in, Krishna withdrew the power. (laughter) They had to go back and, when they heard it, they had to go back and take the picture. The second picture was taken after the people were gone, you can tell, there were no people left there. (laughter) So we shouldn’t think that the rath is running because of we are making it run. Rath is only being running because Krishna is giving me energy. In fact in Jagannath Puri, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was present, there was one time, that the Rath refused to move, and the King he brought in a thousand stout men, they all pulled, it wouldn’t move. They brought elephants, and the elephants were straining, umm...., wouldn’t move. So the Kind said, What to do, Jagannath refused to move. So then Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “You untie your elephants and untie your men, my ah... devotees will be chanting kirtan in the front and they will pull the rope and then we will see if Jagannath moves. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu went on the... they were chanting in the front and He went to the backside, and with his head to the rath, He just applied it, and the rath went forward chk...chk...chk So by the mercy of... because we were supposed to have Nita-Gaur on the rath, and they didn’t bring, and therefore this may also have been the... without Caitanya don’t move so easily before.... So another example giving you accumulation of money by magic wand. Everybody, they are going through this Godmen, with a hope that I will get some magic money, just by the wave of a hand he will give me one diamond ring, or Sico watch or something, but they don’t realize that by definition, Vedas are saying that such money they never sticks. If you actually get a blessing from Krishna, and you become ah... you see, you can become economically developed. That is something that will last not only one generation but for generations together, but something that comes by some dubious ah... way or simply by some magical way, it doesn’t stay, it is a type of illusion. Just like one man in England, he won lottery ticket, 500,000 pounds. He became so happy, he was a long short man, that means he was one of the kulies who loads the ships. So he became so happy, that he quit his job, now he is almost a millionaire you can say, ...half a millionaire. So he started having big parties for all of his other, those porters who load the ships and he started to spend money like anything, giving everyone huge parties and drinks, and he would give prostitutes money, 500 pounds, 1000 just like that. Within 3 months he had expended all his money. Within 3 months he had been so continuously drunk, from drinking ah... whisky, that he had not one time came to a common practical sense of mind. By the time all his money was gone, he was going to his friends begging that give me 20 pounds so I can get something to eat. So they saying, “What you just won half a million pound and now you are coming begging, What’s wrong with you?” He said that, “Well, if I had stopped drinking long enough to think about it, I might have spend it in some another way, but ah... I didn’t have the sense at that time.” Now he has no job, and no money, and all his friends are saying, “What you are doing just bumming off us?” So like this the people they get something on a tamasa, but if they don’t have the proper education, they don’t have the proper association and training and guidance, they may misuse it. So like that, society today, this big countries they got so much money, Russia, United States, that they could easily do enough to see that economically the entire world was well taken care of, but instead they are spending billions and billions of dollars on making ah... Star Wars, making atomic, nuclear weapons, and fighting all kinds of international wars. So there is no peace in this world without God consciousness. If everyone accepts that there one Lord is there, whether you call it Krishna, or Allah or whatever you call Him, there is one supreme bhagavan, and that everyone is his servant, then everyone accordingly acts in all humanity as a brotherhood, then there cannot be a world peace. All this ah... political ideas, they don’t create any peace. Even if you get one system in the whole world, then just as we sometimes we find, that during election time the party they all cooperate, but once they got in power, then the inner party ah... fractionalism begins and they start to fight. Party itself try to come and new... otherwise how India, from one or two parties, now we got hundreds of parties, regional, sub regional, local, communal, this, that, everything. So there is no peace without God consciousness. The society becomes a dead one. So if you have a body, once the person is dead, if you decorate just like, one muslim preacher came to Mayapur, we have a muslim village there, and he was lecturing, he used to be a Brahmin or some Hindu, and he became a Muslim preacher. He was preaching to the villagers, that I used to be a Hindu, but I found that those ah... the Hindus, when they die they burn the body. So when they burn the body, this is a horrible thing. I saw that my uncle, he was.. his body was being burned, what a terrible thing to do. Then I saw in Islam, they take a box and they dress the body with nice cloth, and they decorate everything and put inside the body in a very respectful way and they bury in the warm earth. Then I knew that I had to become a muslim because this was the only proper thing to do. (laughter), and the people they said this is a very good idea. (laughter) So there is no understanding, that you bury the body in the earth, what happens, they get all the worms inside the stomach, they eat the body, it becomes worms. What does the Vedas say, that after this body is dead what is the value, either like the parsees you feed to the vultures and the dogs, it becomes stool, blood and animal stool. They eat and digest it, comes out, or you burn it, becomes ash. At least then that soul is free, or you bury it and it becomes worms, and the worms eat it. The body is of no value, once the soul has left it. The real value if the soul, so in this life... if only the whole life we decorate the body, make a nice arrangement for the body, and we don’t take care of the soul, where will the soul go, what is the aatma’s destination, then what is the value of life? That is what we call non-Aryan, where they don’t understand the difference between the body and the whole world, even our leaders they are all going on this bodily concept of life, which is the most disheartening thing. They are not seeing that the real value of life is not only to get the economic development for the body, it is not a religious matter, it is a science. We are a combination of body and aatma. The atma has also to be developed, otherwise we are just like these foolish people who are decorating the dead body, and they think this is the perfection. Once the life is gone from the body, whether you put it a Toxido coat, or whether you put a silk saree, what is the use, life is gone. So while the life is there, we act in such a way that in this life we are progressing, we are peaceful, we are serving the Lord, helping being of benefit to others, and in the next life we are guaranteed that we have the highest destination possible. In this way Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada said that this whole culture, our actual purpose of Sanatan dharma, is this type of progressive civilization. Arjuna he could understand that, he was a true lover of Krishna, and he could realize it, at the end of... after everything was set and done, when Krishna withdrew the power, it was gone, and with Krishna’s power he could conquer the entire world. If you want success, India culture can sweep over the entire world if it simply... we get Krishna’s blessing, there is no difficulty for that. But then in India, 25.17 weekly itself we are questioning what is the validity of Indian culture, Indian philosophy, is it true or is it fake? You cannot say that Hazrat Mohammad said this, is it true or fake? You can’t say. Sometimes we are too tolerant. We don’t... because we are so philosophical, that if they say, that Bhagavat Gita says this, is it true or false, no one thinks anything. They don’t even think like that. They read it, and say Actually let them analyse from a scientific point of view, let them prove that it is not true, they cannot do it. All evidence is there that it is true, so now let us introduce this. You are all leaders of society, pressman, indrustrialists, leaders of society. Rajiv Gandhi, our local state leader, they are always saying, we want spiritual education, we want to build up the youth and so on, but how can you build up the youth unless we inject within them the faith, at least of the basic principle of what is life. That life is a combination of matter and spirit, then we can actually have a better world. If people start to think in a progressive way, God centred society, whatever their concept of God is, it should be God centred. So I think all of you, for being very active in our rath yatra festival, whose purpose is to make people more conscious of Krishna. Actually, people they think that ah...religion has to be very dry, or some type of ah...austere thing, no. Real spiritual life is a nitya mahotsava, it’s a daily festival. This chanting the Lord’s name. In fact Caitanya Mahaprabhu had given dharma in such a way, that you don’t think that you are doing dharma, you think that you are doing only festival. There is no austerity ah... that you feel that ah... there is something that I am missing in my life. The whole life you are going and you are thinking, “everything is compete, but same time you are taking, you are achieving the highest ah...perfection of religion, highest perfection of life. This is what we need. People are not willing today to do any spiritual practice if they think that by doing that my life is going to miss out on something. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s method is so perfect, that by practising this... this time even though we went to Udipi and we saw the... we had to go for so many days, two, three, four days we were there, pujas, and different people. I don’t think that the people who went there, they were thinking that I was missing my favourite TV show, or I missed the cinema, no there... we are not thinking about those things because ah... there were so many different... should be absorbed but if we can just have a... always some connection with Krishna, then our life becomes actually peaceful and spiritually progressive, and we don’t think that I am missing anything in my life. Rather we think that, “now I am got the real happiness that I was looking for.” So even in the fast world like the Western countries, there the people they find that by leading this Krishna conscious way of life, in their life they don’t miss anything, and actually they get happiness. So what to speak of India where the things are more spiritually connected, that here definitely people if they just allow themselves to be ah... engaged in various types of ah... devotional services, the will find that, “ah... this is very interesting, and this ah... very fulfilling and at the same time they will become great pundits, they will become very learned in all aspects of vedic culture and they become very happy, very blissful. One Christian Arch Bishop in South America, he asked me, “That why is that all your followers are always happy?” They donot mind. Same one Cardinal asked Prabhupada, “That why is that all your followers are always happy?” Even the... wife of the President of Ecuador, she said that, “one thing is I noticed that your Hare Krishna devotees, they are always happy.” Because wherever Krishna is there, he is anandamoyi vyasat, He is the origin of all happiness. So even though there was some crisis yesterday, still somehow or other the devotees were happy, by Krishna’s mercy. So the impersonlist, they think that we can only have, om shanti if there is no Jhamela, but the Krishna bhakti is such that in the midst of the huge of jhamela you can still be happy and peaceful. (laughter) (applause) Since life is always from one Jhamela to the next, this is actually the more practical method, unless you want to go to Himalaya and live in the cave, then you can practice the other form of yoga. But for the people who are facing the world, that mean one problem to the next is always there. So by practicing Krishna bhakti, then one can actually achieve peace even in the midst..... if Arjuna can have peace, mental peace while fighting Kuruksetra war, then we can have peace even while dealing with our daily problems, that is the purport, but if one Krishna withdraws His mercy, then even Arjuna who was the winner of the world war at that time, he couldn’t have peace. So connected like that, is a devotional service. Then one feels that the business itself is a devotional service. So when one is doing business with that type of dedication, then whether the business is successful or unsuccessful, ultimately we take it as Krishna’s ah.. mercy because we have dedicated it with that Krishna consciousness objective. So in this way, when one is doing one’s service in a consciousness, that it is for Krishna, that doesn’t mean that one won’t be careful, and wont be ah.. use all the techniques and things that one has to do, where one finds that he is being cheated or something like that, but he won’t deal with that properly. Just like in our body. Someone may say, “Why do we feel pain?”, but say that right now by accident, I am speaking, and I brush my hand against and I... If I didn’t feel the pain, then I will bleed to death. Pain is what, this body is a machine, and this ah... just like an bowing jet, you have the... when fuel is running low, some red light on, low fuel or pressure down or something like that. Our body is a machine, yantra rudhani mayaya, according to the Bhagavat Gita. Say if there is some damage in the body, we have to feel some pain to know that that place is sensitive, be careful. We get fever, we get feversore on our lips, because if we eat spicy food then it will be bad for our...our feverish body, so then we get some sore, so we have to eat only very gentle food. This are all build in mechanism, but a person when they have Krishna consciousness, they don’t because their happiness is not dependent upon the body, similarly their suffering is not also ah... body may be in some condition like that to warn us that, the body is week in condition, we have to build that up. But the consciousness is above that, it’s not ah... beco...doesn’t become depressed by that... neither if there is some temporary happiness, it doesn’t become overjoyed. Takes the things within stride. Its says.. the Gita says, “Just like so many rivers are going into the ocean, that for the self realized soul, so many desires they are coming in the mind but ah... the ocean doesn’t overflow, similarly the mind doesn’t change it’s ah... it’s status, it remains fixed in Krishna consciousness. So gradually when we develop this service attitude, that whatever I have, like Arjuna was, whatever I have is meant for the service of Krishna, ultimately when everything is set and done, when I get my final report card, like at the matriculation, what is my first division, second division, pass, fail, I want to see that in my life how much that I have been able to please Krishna. Is that first division, then other divisions are there. So when we have this objective, because we may please our family, that’s all right, but that’s still not enough to pass, because that we can take with us to the next life, that’s for this life. That’s a subsidiary duty we also have to do, not that we neglect the family, because they also help us in various ways and it is a team work, but ultimately that to get the... first division we have to become Krishna conscious. So when we have this type of consciousness, then it is very easy to be able to overcome, there may be some difficulties we face then we learn to depend more on Krishna for our inner strength, through chanting, through reading, through practical association. Then we see also that material world means that it is always... it’s a kamala jala dala, jivana tala mala, there is always some you see, like water on the lotus leaf, there is no fixed position. In the material world it is not fixed, that even within it is changing, our consciousness remains fixed, that our objective doesn’t change. That’s why Gita says, ekoha kurunandana, that Krishna conscious devotee is ekaha kuru nandana, that the Krishna conscious devotee is ekoha kuru nandana, he is one pointed, but the materialist is bahu sakha hy anantas cha, there is unlimited desires going in the various branches. So even if one front they are satisfied, the other front they are fearing...it’s always some problem is there... there is never any complete happiness. So a devotee becomes simplified in his ah... desires, that doesn’t mean that he becomes a simpleton, he becomes very expert in whatever he does because he is doing that and with the intention of pleasing Krishna. So some portion, if our Grihasta, they have to maintain their family and children, their economic thing, at the same time Krishna accepts that, he accepts that the responsibility is there, but the Grihasta’ working that.. over and above that they can want to do something for Krishna. So with that objective then everything becomes ah... effective. What do you say Krishna Swami ? If it was a good idea, that idea was inspired by Krishna, if that was not a good idea than that idea was inspired by Maya. So, our purpose is of course that we want to have ideas inspired by Krishna. Just like Arjuna he got his power from Krishna, then we know that whatever we do we are successful. So that we can that if there is any success it was because Krishna inspired the idea. So someone in the beginning stages, they don’t know what is ah.. to be done and what is not to be done. Therefore they need a spiritual master, and they go to the guru if they have an idea that I have this idea, can I do that, and then if the guru confirms that this is confirmed by Krishna, this is according to the sastras or this is a good idea, then we know that ah... we are very well situated. There are many examples of this, where many great sages due to not consulting with their spiritual master or due to not having a bonafide spiritual master, acting on their own intelligence, they got mislead. Do you have some more questions or should we end... Mr Patel, you have any question, You are happy with the functions? Transcribed by Sadananda Krishnaprem Das