Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.26
Vladivostok
4 August 2004

bhaktya puman jata-viraja aindriyad
drista-srutan mad-racananucintaya
cittasya atto grahane yoga-yukto
yatisyate rijubhir yoga-margaih

Thus consciously engaged in devotional service in the association of devotees, a person gains distaste for sense gratification, both in this world and in the next, by constantly thinking about the activities of the Lord. This process of Krishna consciousness is the easiest process of mystic power; when one is actually situated on that path of devotional service, he is able to control the mind.

PURPORT

In all scriptures people are encouraged to act in a pious way so that they can enjoy sense gratification not only in this life but also in the next. For example, one is promised promotion to the heavenly kingdom of higher planets by pious furtive activities. But a devotee in the associa-tion of devotees prefers to contemplate the activities of the Lord-how He has created this uni-verse, how He is maintaining it, how the creation dissolves, and how in the spiritual kingdom the Lord's pastimes are going on. There are full literatures describing these activities of the Lord, especially Bhagavad-gita, Brahma-samhita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. The sincere devotee who associates with devotees gets the opportunity to hear and contemplate this subject of the pastimes of the Lord, and the result is that he feels distaste for so-called happiness in this or that world, in heaven or on other planets. The devotees are simply interested in being transferred to the per-sonal association of the Lord; they have no more attraction for temporary so-called happiness. That is the position of one who is yoga-yukta. One who is fixed in mystic power is not disturbed by the allurement of this world or that world; he is interested in the matters of spiritual under-standing or the spiritual situation. This sublime situation is very easily attained by the easiest process, bhakti-yoga. Rijubhir
yoga-margaih. A very suitable word used here is rijubhih, or "very easy". There are different processes of yoga-marga, attaining yoga perfection, but this process, devotional service to the Lord, is the easiest. Not only is it the easiest process, but the result is sublime. Everyone, therefore, should try to take this process of Krishna consciousness and reach the highest perfection of life.

LECTURE

This verse is being spoken by Lord Kapiladeva. This chapter is entitled "The glories of devo-tional service". We are all engaged in devotional service or at least we are aspiring to get en-gaged in devotional service. So it is nice to hear about glories of devotional service, isn't it? In this chapter there are many wonderful verses that tell us how we can progress on the spiritual path. In this verse for example it is being explained how one can get a distaste for sense gratifica-tion. Isn't that our biggest problem? Our biggest problem is a deep attachment to sense gratifica-tion.

Many times when people hear the philosophy they say, 'Yes, I am agree'. But what's the ob-stacle? What is the single biggest obstacle? Taste for sense gratification. Most things in life you have to learn from somebody. You want to learn a language you have to go to a school. You want to learn driving you have to go to a school. But sense gratification, you don't need a guru or a teacher. You just learn naturally as you get older. Our attachment to sense gratification gets stronger in the association that we live in the present day environment.

The scriptures very strongly remind us again and again and again that this activity is not for your benefit. In the First Canto it is said,

kamas nendriya-pritir
labho jiveta yavata
jivasya tattva-jijnasa
natrho yas ceha karmabhih

That human life should not be used for sense gratification but rather it should be used for jivasya tattva-jijnasa - to inquire into the goal of life. In the Bhagavatam the following example is offered. How different animals meet their destruction by being attached to sense gratification. The fish is very fond of eating. How does the fish fall in the net of the fisherman? The fish is tempted into eating. The fish sees the hook, goes to eat it and then it gets trapped.

Then the moth. I don't think you have moths in your Vladivostok but if you go to Mayapur you see a lot of them. The moth is very attracted to light. In the night when the moth sees the light burning it says, 'Oh, this is what I was waiting for all day. Let me go and satisfy my eyes'. The moth is very attracted, it's eyes are very attracted to light. So the moth goes near the light to embrace the light but when it goes near it gets burned by the heat of the light and dies.

The dear is very attracted to a particular melody that is produced by the rubbing of horns. The dear when it hears the melody it gets into ecstasy. Otherwise the dear is a very hard animal to capture because it is always moving very fast. The cunning hunter plays the particular melody that the dear is very attracted to. So the dear stops to search where is this melody coming from. And when it stops it gets shot. So the dear gets shot while trying to satisfy it's ears. The moth dies while trying to satisfy it's eyes. The fish gets captured while trying to satisfy it's tongue.

Then you have the bee. The bee is very attracted to satisfying it's nose. The bee is very at-tracted to the lotus flower. Do you have lotus flowers in Vladivostok? The lotus flower by the arrangement of the Lord closes in the evening. The bee keeps looking for flowers, finally it finds the lotus flower and says, 'Ah, this is samadhi'. It goes and relaxes in the lotus flower, 'This is my heaven'. But in the evening the lotus flower closes and it gets trapped to death.

Then the elephant. He-elephant is very hard to capture. The hunter trains up the she-elephant that tempts the he-elephant to follow her for relationship. The hunter has dug a hole, a big hole which is covered by grass. The he-elephant follows the she-elephant and while following he falls in the ditch because the ditch is covered by grass. The moment the he-elephant steps there he falls in the ditch and gets trapped in trying to satisfy his sex urge.

So the Bhagavatam gives us these examples to show how the different animals meet their end in trying to satisfy their senses. What's the difference between the four-legged animal and the two-legged animal. You know what I mean by two-legged animals. You understand what I mean? The human being. The difference is that in these animals it is usually one sense that's predominating but in the two-legged animal all the senses are predominating. Or in other words we are trying to satisfy all our senses at the same time. In human life you have to be careful.

The sages and the Lord are very kind in that in order to pursue spiritual life they identify our enemies and they tell us how to tame the enemy. Just like when you are fighting a battle you need to know where your enemy is hiding. Hiding in the jungle, hiding in the mountain tops, where are they hiding - that's what you want to know. Similarly, on the spiritual path you need to identify your enemies and you need to know where the enemy is situated.

Where is the enemy situated? Mind, intelligence and the senses. That's where the enemy is shooting from. You have to take care of these locations. Prahlada Maharaj gave us many won-derful instructions in the Seventh Canto of the Bhagavatam. Prahlada Maharaj had a great for-tune of receiving spiritual knowledge when he was in the womb of his mother.

Prahlada Maharaja said, punah punas carivita carvananam. He says, material life simply means chewing the chewed. Do you know what it means, chewing the chewed? You have tried everything, again you try the same thing in a slightly different form thinking that it is going to satisfy you. Like in your country you see these cigarette advertisements everywhere. Every six months they come up with a new brand. New faces in the advertisement. It is obviously the same stuff, just in a different brand. But people think, 'Oh, the previous cigarettes did not satisfy us. But this new brand is going to satisfy". They are simply chewing the chewed - that is material life. Simply chewing the chewed but that does not really satisfy one.

Andha yathandhair upaniya manas  - This is Prahlada Maharaja's statement where he says they are simply blind leading the blind. What happens when a blind is leading the blind? They all fall into ditch. Actual in a French museum· there is a very famous museum in France called la Louver  - it is a world famous museum. In this museum they have a painting where they show a blind leading the blind and they are all falling in the ditch. They must have got that idea from the Srimad Bhagavatam. When the blind is leading the blind they all end up falling in the ditch - that's the position of the society today.

Lord Kapiladeva is giving us an idea in this verse how we can give up this taste for sense gratification. Kapiladeva is an incarnation of the Lord. This Srimad Bhagavatam gives us infor-mation on the various incarnations of the Lord. It is not uncommon these days for people to claim to be incarnations of God. But we accept only genuine incarnations and not the false.

There are six categories of incarnations of the Lord. One is called purusa-avatara category. That's when the Lord appears as Garbhodakasayi Visnu, Ksirodakasayi Visnu, Karanadakasayi Visnu. He creates the universe and he enters every universe, every living entity and maintains it. Then there are lila-avataras - these are different incarnations of the Lord in which the Lord per-forms His pastimes. Then there are guna-avataras, manvantara-avataras, saktyavesa-avataras and yuga-avataras.

Lord Kapila is the son of Devahuti and He is a bona-fide incarnation of the Lord. And Kar-dama Muni. Kardama Muni was a mystic yogi who performed great austerities. He was such a powerful yogi that he built a whole palace that was floating in the sky. The whole palace with gardens and mountains was floating in the sky. Someone may say, 'Oh, this is not possible! How is that possible?' The materialists have created this plane, Boeing 747 which is a two-decker plane.

Now they are coming up with a new double-decker plane. Just like there are double-decker buses they are coming up with a double-decker plane now. They have bars inside. They have gambling casinos inside planes now. Now they have seats on the fist class which recline like a bed. It is not unusual. If the modern-day scientists can create all this why cannot the mystic yogis have something far more powerful.

Kapiladeva is a genuine incarnation and he was asked by His mother Devahuti a very realis-tic question. His mother knew that her son is a genuine incarnation of the Lord. She said, 'You are the ax that can cut the tree of entanglement'. Just like with an ax you can cut a tree, she said, 'You are an ax which can cut this tree of entanglement'. She asked her son, how one can become free from the entanglement of birth and death. This is a question we should all be asking. This is a question that gets asked many times in the Bhagavatam.

Pariksit Mahraj inquired what should one do who is about to die. Devathuti is asking· Lord Kapiladeva was very pleased by this question from His mother. Just like Sukadeva Goswami was very pleased by Parikshit Maharaja's question. Sukadeva Goswami said that the answers to these questions would benefit the entire human society. Lord Kapiladeva explained to His mother that 'Mother, you can be free from the entanglement by taking to the process of devotional service'. And how do you take to devotional service? In the association of devotees.

Now, in this verse Lord Kapiladeva is emphasizing the execution of devotional service in the association of devotees. We all know how much easier it is to do devotional service in the asso-ciation of devotees then doing it alone. When you are in the association of devotees it is so much easier to serve then when you are all alone. Sometimes our devotees are living in isolated cities and they miss devotee association like anything. But when they have the opportunity to associate they feel a lot more enlivened.

Prabhupada created this International Society for Krishna Consciousness in order to give devotees an opportunity to associate together, to serve the mission of the Lord. Rendering devo-tional service in the association of devotees is an easy way to advance and get a distaste for sense gratification. Scriptures say,

sadhu-sanga, sadhu-sanga, sarva sastra kahe

That we take advantage of spiritual association, specially even if you have the opportunity to associate with and advanced soul for lava-matra, for fraction of a second, you still will make ad-vancement. Lava-matra is one-fourteenth of one second. Do you have a watch that times one fourteenth of one second? Even if you get a one-fourteenth of a second opportunity to associate with an advanced devotee you can benefit spiritually.

In the association of devotees one can serve. In the association of devotees we chant. In the association of devotees we hear the philosophy. In the association of devotees we eat Krishna-prasadam. Just like Prabhupada instituted this system of every temple having morning and eve-ning Bhagavatam and Bhagavat-gita classes. When we sit and hear together it is far more easier and powerful that when you are reading or hearing all alone. Prabhupada in the Upadesamrita talks about six types of rasas that can be practiced amongst devotees. Rupa Goswami gave us many wonderful pieces of literature but Prabhupada translated two of his main works. Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu and Upadesamrita. I was with Prabhupada in Los Angeles in 1971 when he released the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu from his Vyasasana. Prabhu-pada held the book Nectar of Devotion like this and he said, 'This is a law book of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Every devotee must read this book!" He also translated the Upade-samrita under the title 'Nectar of Instructions'.

In this book, Nectar of Instruction, Rupa Goswami is giving us only eleven verses. But every verse has a purport of eight to eleven pages. Prabhupada when he would write these purports he would very carefully dictate every word. Once Prabhupada's secretary asked him, 'Prabhupada! Why are you dictating the purports so slowly?' Prabhupada would speak few words, then pause, then again speak few words and then pause. Prabhupada said, 'Every word that I put in these books will be read for the next ten thousand years. So I have to be very careful about everything that I put in these books'.

So when Prabhupada's purports are long you can imagine that he must have spent a lot of time dictating them. Narottam Das Thakur gave us very wonderful poems glorifying Lord Caitanya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In one of his prayers, gauranga bolite habe, he says,

rupa-raghunatha pade hoibe akuti
kabe hamo herabo se jugala piriti

When will the day come when I will be able to read the wonderful works of Rupa Goswami? We should be reading these books, especially the two that Prabhupada gave us. In Upadesamrita there is this famous verse, dadati pratigrihnati, where Rupa Goswami says that one can have six types of rasas amongst devotees. What are the six rasas? Reveal your mind to those who are more advanced. Take instructions. Serve prasadam. Eat prasadam. Give charity. Accept charity. Prabhupada in his purport says the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is formed to facilitate these six rasas amongst devotees.

These six rasas amongst devotees are very important. First is reveal your mind to those who are more advanced, take instructions from them. Just like when you go to a medical doctor. You have to reveal your problem if you want proper advice. So reveal your mind to those who are more advanced. We see in the Bhagavad Gita that Arjuna reveals his mind. Arjuna was confused about what he should do in the battle. On the one hand he and his brothers were being cheated by their cousins. The were entitled to the kingdom that they were deprived of.

Krishna was telling him, 'You must take part in the battle'. On the other hand he was seeing on the opposite side all the personalities that he
respected all along. In his mind he was reason-ing, 'How can I shoot arrows in the people I respected all along?' Further he was thinking, 'Even if I win the battle, what's the use? Who will I show off to? Nobody will be left. They will all be dead'. He was bewildered, confused. And then what did he do? He revealed his heart to Krishna. He asked Him, 'I am a soul surrendered unto you. Please instruct me'.

Parikshit Maharaj got cursed. He could have easily counteracted the curse if he wanted. But he took this as a blessing of the Lord and he thought, 'Here is an opportunity for me to retire from worldly affairs'. But he was not quite sure how exactly he should prepare for death. So he invited many sages, thousands of sages came to give him advice. As the dialogue progressed Parikshit Maharaj had several doubts that he clarified by asking Sukadeva Goswami questions.

To have doubts is nothing unusual. To get doubts is nothing unusual. Especially in today's environment where maya is on the supermarathon. We go on marathons two or three or four times a year, book marathons. But maya, the illusory energy, is on the marathon 365 days a year. It is natural that some of us fall victims, some of us become doubtful about the spiritual path. Then reveal your mind to those who are more advanced. By revealing your mind to those who are more advanced and then accepting their instructions, this will help us remove our doubtful condition. Why do the saintly people travel? To help individuals on the path of self-realization.

In the Fourth Canto of the Bhagavatam you read about Prithu Maharaja's becoming a king and ruling over the subjects. The Kumaras came to his palace. Prithu Maharaj received the Ku-maras with great respect. He said, 'Sages like you travel to free conditional souls like us from the blazing fire of material existence'. Just like with the rising of the Sun our fear of being robbed by a thief goes down. You are walking on the road in the night in anxiety when will someone catch you from behind. But in the morning as the Sun rays come the fear of being attacked by a bandit goes down. Similarly when one is in association of an advanced devotee one can reveal one's mind and get information as a result of which he can conquer the illusory forces.

One should take the opportunity to reveal one's mind to those who are more advanced and then take instructions. There is no point of revealing your mind if you are not going to take in-structions. You go to the doctor and give him the list of complaints. But you don't take your medicine. What good is that? So reveal your mind to those who are more advanced and take in-structions.

Then serve prasadam, eat prasadam. Prabhupada encouraged us to do prasadam distribution. His real desire was that anyone who comes to ISKCON temple be served prasadam. We serve prasadam and we eat prasadam. Some devotees love stealing prasadam, some devotees are mag-nanimous, they give their prasadam away. I remember in the early days of our movement one devotee asked Prabhupada this question. He said, 'Some devotees, they love to give their prasa-dam away and some are so attached to prasadam, they will see where they can steal prasadam'. He asked Prabhupada which is better or which is worse. Prabhupada said, that both are okay. At least they are attached to prasadam and nothing but prasadam. Our platform is eat but only Krishna prasadam.

Just like in many of our temples they have pizza prasadam, Italian prasadam. You go to our Hong-Kong temple, they serve you Chinese prasadam. In Russia they have the famous Russian cake prasadam. The point is you can virtually spiritualize anything except meat, fish and eggs. We don't say, you cannot have your famous traditional pizza or whatever as prasadam, sure. Pre-pare it properly, offer to Krishna and then eat it as prasadam. So serve prasadam and accept prasadam.

Give in charity and accept charity. What do you have to give in charity? Do you devotees have big bank balances? What are you going to give in charity? Knowledge. We give in charity transcendental knowledge. We distribute Prabhupada's books. We give people the knowledge that we have heard. This is what we give in charity. And we receive in charity. We receive in charity some donations. Devotees are encouraged to engage in six rasas in dealing with each other. Just like businessmen flock together where? In the Chambers
or Commerce. Businessmen have clubs, business clubs. The gamblers flock together where? In casinos. The drunkards flock together in bars. And devotees flock together in our temples. In temples or some other situations where they can sit together to progress spiritually.

Lord Kapiladeva is saying, if you consciously sit down in the association of devotees and en-gage in devotional service then that devotional service will give you a superior taste. And when you get the superior taste then you can give you your inferior taste. You don't give up something till you get something better. Let's say you are doing a job that pays you ten thousand rubles a month. You won't give it up till you get something better. So to give up material sense gratifica-tion you will have to get a higher taste. Just like are being able to give up their eating habits be-cause they are getting a higher taste of eating Krishna prasadam.

By rendering devotional service in the association of devotees you get a higher taste. And then you can give up your taste for sense gratification. And an important element in getting a higher taste is, as Lord Kapiladeva says here, to think about the transcendental activities of the Lord. Just like in few weeks you are going to celebrate Janmastami, the Appearance Day of Lord Sri Krishna on the planet. You can prepare yourself by seeing how Krishna appeared in His tran-scendental form. Four-handed form, and then on the request of His parents He transformed Him-self to an ordinary child.

So this process of Krishna consciousness as Lord Kapiladeva is saying is the easiest process of mystic power. Compared to the other means of self-realization the process of devotional ser-vice is definitely easy. You can chant, you can dance, you can eat, you can live as a grihastha, you can live as a brahmacari, as a sannyasi, all according to the religious principles. It is a very practical process. When you are situated on the path of devotional service, fully engage in devo-tional service, then you mind will also come in control. Control of the mind is an important ele-ment of self-realization. Prabhupada said, you can conquer the whole world but if you haven't conquered your mind you have conquered nothing. If you conquered the mind then even under the tree you are sitting and chanting, you are peaceful. If you haven't conquered the mind you may have billions in the bank but you will not be satisfied. You need to control the mind and that is possible by engaging the mind in activities of devotional service.

Mind needs engagement. Mind cannot be idle for a minute. Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita de-scribed the austerities of the mind. One of the austerities of the mind is simplicity. Gravity. Grav-ity means seriousness. Be serious about the goal of life. Then purification of one's existence. Pu-rify your existence by chanting the names of the Lord. Prabhupada used to give us a simple ex-ample, if the glass is full of water then you cannot add any milk in it. If you are thinking about the activities of the Lord, the desires of the Lord, the instructions of the Lord then there will be no room besides this.

On the path of devotional service the important element is the ability to control the mind. It may appear difficult but with practice of the process of bhakti-yoga it becomes feasible. Lord Kapiladeva's advice is, execute devotional service in the association of devotees. This will give you a distaste for sense gratification. This process is very easy. This process will help you to control the mind. Is there anything else any of you guys want? All your problems will be solved in this one verse. So follow it. Hare Krishna.