Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.13.30
Moscow
3 February 2004

dehadibhir daiva-tantrair
atmanah sukham ihatah
duhkhatyayam canisasya
kriya moghah kritah kritah

The living entity tries to achieve happiness and rid himself of the causes of distress, but be-cause the various bodies of the living entities are under the full control of material nature, all his plans in different bodies, one after another, are ultimately baffled.

PURPORT

Because the materialist is in gross ignorance of how the laws of material nature act upon him as a result of his fruitive activity, he mistakenly plans to enjoy bodily comfort in the human form of life through so-called economic development, through pious activities for elevation to the higher planetary systems, and in many other ways, but factually he becomes a victim of the reac-tions of his fruitive activities. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is situated as the Supersoul within the cores of the hearts of all living entities. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (15.15):

sarvasya caham hridi sannivisto
mattah smritir jnanam apohanam ca

"I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forget-fulness." The desires and activities of the living being are observed by the Supersoul, who is the upadrasta, the overseer, and who orders material nature to fulfill the various desires of the living being. As clearly stated in Bhagavad-gita (18.61):

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrid-dese 'rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrudhani mayaya

The Lord is situated in everyone's heart, and as one desires, the Lord gives one various types of bodies, which are like machines. Riding on such a machine, the living entity wanders throughout the universe, under the control of material nature and its modes. Thus the living being is not at all free to act, but is fully under the control of material nature, which is fully under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

As soon as a living entity is victimized by material desires to lord it over material nature, he is subjected to the control of material nature, which is supervised by the Supreme Soul. The re-sult is that one again and again makes plans and is baffled, but as foolish as he is he cannot see the cause of his bafflement. This cause is distinctly stated in Bhagavad-gita: because one has not surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he must work under the control of material nature and its stringent laws (daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya). The only means of becoming free from this entanglement is to surrender to the Supreme Lord. In the human form of life, the living entity must accept this instruction from the Supreme Person, Krishna: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saraлam vraja. "Do not plan to achieve happiness and drive away distress. You will never be successful. Simply surrender unto Me." Unfortunately, how-ever, the living entity does not accept the Supreme Lord's clearly stated instructions from Bha-gavad-gita, and thus he becomes a perpetual captive of the laws of material nature.

Yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah: if one does not act for the satisfac-tion of Krishna, who is known as Visnu or Yajna, he must be entangled in the reactions of frui-tive activities. These reactions are called papa and punya-sinful and pious. By pious activities one is elevated to the higher planetary systems, and by impious activities one is degraded to lower species of life, in which he is punished by the laws of nature. In the lower species of life there is an evolutionary process, and when the term of the living entity's imprisonment or pun-ishment in the lower species is finished, he is again offered a human form and given a chance to decide for himself which way he should plan. If he again misses the opportunity, he is again put into the cycle of birth and death, going sometimes higher and
sometimes lower, turning on the samsara-cakra, the wheel of material existence. As a wheel sometimes goes up and sometimes comes down, the stringent laws of material nature make the living entity in material existence sometimes happy and sometimes distressed. How he suffers in the cycle of happiness and dis-tress is described in the next verse.

LECTURE

The brahmana is continuing to explain to Prahlada Maharaj about the nature of the living en-tity. The purport of this verse was very long. This shows how much importance Prabhupada at-tached to this verse. When Prabhupada would write these purports he would have in front of him the commentaries of the previous acaryas. He would take the essence of their commentaries on the same verse, add on what is necessary and present each verse in a simple manner. These pur-ports are the realizations of great sages about the statements being made by the Lord. When we are studying the Bhagavatam we should study the translation and the purport. The purports help us to understand Lord's explanation better.

Prahlada Maharaj has a great fortune of meeting this great sage, the brahmana. Prahlada Ma-haraja looking at the brahmana could identify that this person is self-realized and a very ad-vanced spiritual personality. Prahlada Maharaj asked him questions about the purpose of human life. It's not that Prahlada did not know the purpose of human life. He had a fortune of knowing it when he was in the womb of his mother. But the nature of a devotee is he always wants to be reminded about the purpose of human life. He always wants to be reminded about Krishna's pas-times and Krishna's teachings. And the nature of spiritual subject matters is you can never get tired because it's spiritual in content.

The sage brahmana has already explained what is real happiness and what is false happiness. He's explained that real happiness is spiritual happiness. Prahlada Maharaja says in the Seventh Canto, na te vidum svartha gatim sa visnum - people do not know what is the real path of happi-ness. To the gross materialist taking to Krishna consciousness, chanting Hare Krishna, following spiritual standards like we do - these are probably the cause of distress. I have had situations where our guests being informed about our spiritual standards would say, 'What is the use of liv-ing if you cannot do these things and get up early in the morning'. They do not understand that there is a higher avenue of happiness

Then further the sage also pointed out that actually real happiness can be found by under-standing the body and the soul. Once you understand the eternal nature of the soul and perishable nature of the body and you indulge in spiritual activities then you are searching for happiness within. What is that example that he gave? We discussed that example at great length yesterday. Of the well that's covered by grass. The deer is standing right next to the well. It is thirsty, goes searching for water not realizing, oh it was standing right next to the well, the only thing, the well was covered by grass. Similarly, there is an easier path of happiness by turning to the Lord in the heart and understanding our true identity. But instead we endeavor in so many materialis-tic activities hoping to find happiness.

In today's verse the brahmana is making another very interesting point. He says that every-body is trying achieve happiness. When you have happiness what do you feel free yourself from? From distress. Everybody is trying to achieve happiness to defeat distress. But did they succeed? They did not succeed. Why is that that you cannot defeat distress permanently? Because it is all under the stringent laws of material nature. The stringent laws of material nature make sure that you cannot escape the seven-fold miseries of life.

As the sage has said, materialistic activities are all subject to the influence of adhidaivika, adhibhautika, adhyatmika klesas. In addition you
have birth, death, disease, old age. Even though we make big-big plans to find happiness, we make big-big plans to defeat distress, the unfortunate reality is the laws of material nature are so stringent that do not let you enjoy for long. The brahmana is saying, all our bodies are under the stringent control of material nature. What does this mean? It means that does not matter how powerful a personality you become, how rich a person you become, how famous a person you become, you cannot defeat the laws of material nature.

Let's say you become Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. Can you use your money to defeat the laws of material nature? In India· there was the richest man of India. He was a very big businessman. Once somebody asked him, do you believe in the Bhagavad Gita? He said, 'My Bhagavad Gita are my shareholders of my company. I must make profit for them'. He was a self-made man. He was a poor man but then he ended up becoming the richest man in India. He was always proud of his success story from wrecks to riches. He was the richest man, the most influential man. But about two years ago he died and before death he was in coma for many weeks. He had all the money.
Could the money save him from coma?

Under the power of illusion we forget how severe the stringent laws of material nature are. Does not matter how powerful or famous or influential you are you cannot avoid old age, you cannot avoid disease, you cannot avoid death. The brahmana is saying, all our ambitious plans get baffled. They get defeated by what? By the laws of material nature. Who does material na-ture work under? What does Krishna say in the Bhagavad Gita in that famous verse? This mate-rial nature is working under My direction.

The material nature does not work under the control of the politicians or the scientists. It ul-timately works under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Just like sometimes countries experi-ence drought. There is no technology as yet how to defeat drought. Nine years ago some Ameri-can scientists boasted that we have the technology to produce artificial rain. And they had a little success in some areas. But overall they had more failures then successes, so they gave up the ex-ercise.

The laws of material nature work under the Lord and are very stringent. What does that mean, understanding that the laws of material nature are very stringent. Someone may say, okay, we agree the laws of material nature under the Lord are very stringent. Now what do I do? You act as per what is conducive for the goal of life. In this purport Prabhupada quotes many famous verses of the Bhagavad-gita. It's obligating for the speaker to touch on the points raised in the purport. Because if great Acarya has commented something about the verse, obviously his suc-cess is to appreciate that point.

In the fifteenth chapter of the Gita Krishna says, sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto mattah smritir jnanam apohanam ca - I am seated in everyone's heart and from me comes remembrance and forgetfulness, smaranam and apohanam. The Lord is in everyone's heart and He guides us accordingly. If you want to remember the Lord, He guides us accordingly. If you want to forget the Lord, He guides accordingly.

Prabhupada says, that desires and activities of the individual are being observed by the Su-preme Lord. Another name of the Lord in the heart is upadrasta. Upadrasta means the overseer, controller and sanctioning authority. The Lord is upadrasta, He is the overseer and sancioneer of all our activities. In the Bhagavad-gita in the second chapter we see Arjuna admits he is confused about his duty and begs for direction. Then Krishna begins the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita. And in the eighteenth chapter Krishna said, 'Is your illusion gone?' What did Arjuna say? 'Yes'. And the Lord said, 'Now you do as you see fit'. Krishna has given all of us freedom, freedom in regards to what degree we want to take shelter and degree to which we want to be independent.

Should one desire to serve the Lord then as Rupa Goswami explains one comes in associa-tion with a devotee of the Lord. Just like Rupa Goswami says, adho sraddha tatha sadhu-sanga. First there is sraddha. Sraddha means desire. When the desire is there that you want to achieve the goal of life then the Lord somehow or other brings  you in the association of a transcendental personality. This transcendental personality may be in the form of individual or a Bhagavata devotee or in the form of a book also known as a Bhagavatam.

Just like there are countless devotees around the world who got introduced in Krishna con-sciousness just through the medium of getting a book. And when we come in contact with the Bhagavata book or devotee what do you understand? You get instructed about the process of pu-rification. Devotional service is nothing but the process of purification. All these rules and regu-lations that we follow are meant to purify us our impure condition. By following the process of bhajana-kriya Rupa Goswami says, there is the positive development of anartha-nivritti.

These anarthas are the cause of our rebelling or being independent of the teachings of the Lord. If you continue with the process of bhajana-kriya then there are future developments like getting attached to the process of devotional service, getting a taste for the process, namely ruci. The reality is in the initial stages our taste is not for spiritual activities but for material activities. One has to endeavor to get a taste for spiritual activities. Nothing comes without endeavor. Ei-ther materially or spiritually. If you want some material success you have to endeavor. You want material success you have to endeavor to get a good degree, become a doctor or lawyer or what-ever. Now when people are getting in school or college and are planning their carriers they are trying to figure out, 'Okay, which carrier is going to give me more money?' And then they go in that direction.

Just like in many countries like America and India it is very hard to get admission in the medical school. Unless you get top-top-top grades you cannot get in because everyone wants to become a doctor to make good money later on. Even in material life you have to endeavor if you want some result. You also have to endeavor spiritually if you want the ultimate result. Some-times we want the ultimate result but we don't want to endeavor. We want an easy way out. But unfortunately there is no easy way out. Krishna says, ye yatha mam prapadyantae - all of them as they surrender unto Me I reward them accordingly. Bible says, as you saw you shall reap. As you saw you shall reap is nothing but a confirmation of Krishna's statement, 'All of them as they surrender unto Me I reward them accordingly'. As you execute the process you find the anarthas get weaker, you get the taste for the holy name and ultimately you can achieve Krishna-prema.

Now Krishna says, 'I am also the cause of forgetfulness', apohanam. Apohanam means 'to forget'. Just like you in a material situation, the
air-conditioner, the cooling or the heating, the power is derived from the same source. In summer you use the same socket as you use in the winter. Krishna is the source of remembrance and forgetfulness. Why does Krishna become the source of forgetfulness? Just like sometimes people say, 'Why did God create maya? If there was no maya then spiritual life would be so easy!' Wouldn't it be easy if there were no maya? Spiri-tual life would be so easy!

But maya is there on purpose. We wanted to have maya. Krishna gave us the choice. Of course maya is the energy of the Lord. Maya makes sure through the agency of material nature that we can never be happy for long. You may be a Mr. or Ms. World today but material nature will make sure your beauty does not last too long. You take all the make-up to keep appearing attractive but eventually old age will catch up and you will get tired.

The Lord causes one to forget based on his desire. Sometimes you see people come to Krishna consciousness and then they gradually go away or becoming weak in Krishna con-sciousness. It is not that when you come to Krishna consciousness there is no danger of being influenced by maya. The danger is always there. Why? Because we are living in maya's king-dom. Krishna Himself is saying, daivi hy esa guna maya mama maya duratyaya. Prabhupada quotes this verse in the purport, Krishna Himself says, this illusory energy of Mine is very diffi-cult to overcome.

Then you may say, 'What are we doing, wasting our time here? We surrender to maya.' But then Krishna says something important in the next lines. What did He say in the next line? 'One who surrenders unto Me, he can overcome the influence of the illusory energy'. Therefore Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita in the eighteen chapter and Prabhupada quotes the verse, sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja - 'Give up all varieties of religiousness and just surrender unto Me!!'

The Bhagavad-gita and the scriptures direct us towards surrendering to the Supreme Lord. In the third chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says, yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanam - that one must act in such a manner that as a result of one's action one gets liberated and not bonded. What does that mean to surrender to the Lord? Obviously, surrender means following the instructions of the scriptures as explained by the sages. Sometimes people misunderstand the Bhagavad-gita. They think that reading the Bhagavad-gita, following Bhaga-vad-gita, living by the Gita means leading an inactive life. But actually it is the opposite. Bhaga-vad-gita preaches to be active but active for the service of the Lord. Just like Krishna told Arjuna, tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya ca - 'Hey, Ar-juna, with you mind and intelligence dedicated unto Me, take part in this battle'. Now what is the result of our living a life according to the directions of the Lord. Prabhupada gives an example in the Third Canto of the mouth of the cat. The mouth of the cat for the kitten is a source of shelter. And for the mouse what is it? Death. The mouse sees the mouth of the cat and says, 'Now here is my death!' And the kitten, he feels protected.

If you understand the Krishna consciousness philosophy and you apply the philosophy then you can live in the material world but in the spirit of detachment. There is a very famous exam-ple that Krishna gives in the Bhagavad-gita on this point. Who remembers that example? Of lo-tus leaf in water that is not touched by the water. I think you don't have the privilege of seeing lotus leaves in Moscow. Maybe in the Botanical Garden, I don't know. But in tropical countries, even in Uzbekistan you can see lotuses growing. In Southern part of Russia you can see the lotus leaves. The climate is a lot warmer then here.

A lotus leaf is inside the water but does not touch the water. It is always above the water. Krishna says, one who understands this philosophy, he lives in the material world but lives in the material world in the spirit of detachment like a lotus leaf is in the water but not touched by the water. Understanding Krishna consciousness means seeing things in the right prospective. Seeing things in the right prospective, acting in the right manner. In the Bhagavatam it is said that the very action that is the cause of distress becomes the cure if applied properly. Just like milk gives you bad stomach but when consumed in the form of yogurt cures the bad stomach. The Srimad Bhagavatam, the Gita and the Vedic texts, they are elevating us from ignorance to light. Prabhupada, when he started the Back to Godhead
magazine, he gave us the following logo. He said, 'Godhead is light. Ignorance is darkness'. And what was the magazine called? Back to Godhead. It shows how one goes from darkness to light. This is exactly what is Krishna consciousness movement is doing, taking us from ignorance to light. Being in light means acting according to scriptural injunctions. Those who are intelligent should give up activities that en-tangle one. Those who are intelligent should understand the true nature of this human body and act accordingly.

In this verse the brahmana is enlightening all of us that the laws of material nature are so strict that you will not be able to defeat them if you want to defeat unhappiness. You cannot de-feat distress by trying to find material happiness. The real cause of distress is forgetfulness of our relationship with the Lord. And if we rectify this mistake then you will live a life of bliss. Just like Krishna says in the Gita, brahma-bhuta prasannatma - one who is in the transcendental platform is full of bliss. One should not think that taking to a principle of austerity or spiritual life will be the cause of distress. Just like Krishna explains in the eighteenth chapter three differ-ent types of happiness. Happiness in goodness, happiness in passion, happiness in ignorance.

We should understand this very carefully because once you understand the three different types of happiness then hopefully you can make the right decision. What is Krishna says the happiness in the mode of goodness? That is bitter in the beginning, sweet in the end and which wakes you up to self-realization. And what's happiness in the mode of passion? The opposite. Sweet in the beginning, bitter in the end and which is derived from contact of the senses with sense objects.

Naturally when you take to spiritual life in the beginning it may appear a little bitter. But we should remind ourselves, this is happiness in the mode of goodness. The brahmana is very con-vincingly telling us that does not matter how hard you try you cannot defeat the laws of material nature. Just like people are endeavoring so hard to find the cure for diseases. And they often do find partial cure for diseases. But then so many new diseases come up. Twenty-five years ago some scientist was saying, 'Very soon we are going to manufacture medicine in outer space and that's going to cure diseases that medicine produced on this earthly planet cannot cure'. So far there is no news about their plans.

Prabhupada used to say the scientists are always giving us post-dated cheques. You know what is post-dated cheques. They give you a cheque in your hand today but the date on that date is not 3/2/2004 but the date on the cheque will be 3/2/2025. Someone told me they don't have the system of post-dated cheque in Russia. Cheque may be there but you cannot cash it for another twenty-five years. So what do I do with that? The scientists are always promising us a bright fu-ture and freedom from distress.

The real cause of distress is forgetfulness of our relationship with the Lord or forgetfulness about spiritual life. The real cure of distress is
taking to spiritual life. And the incentive to take to spiritual life gets stronger in the association of devotees and by following the process of
regula-tive principles of chanting and hearing. We all have experience that we take advantage of the process the process works and you can live in the material world but be detached. We should not think this is some theoretical philosophy that is not workable. This is a practical philosophy that works. You can experience the results yourself. All over the world we see that those who follow the process are progressing spiritually. They live in the material world, they may be doing jobs, businesses, studies whatever but still they live in the material world and they make spiritual pro-gress. So we should take to this process with utmost seriousness. If we take to it seriously and we endeavor then Krishna will help. The great sage Rupa Goswami said, 'Whatever price you have to pay please pay but become Krishna conscious in this life'. Just like if something happens to some important part of your body you are ready to pay any price to save it. So pay any price but become Krishna conscious.

To summarize the verse, the brahmana is continuing to speak to Prahlada Maharaj. Prahlada Maharaj very submissively offers his obeisances to the brahmana who is lying on the ground with his body covered by dirt and submissibely inquires from him about spiritual topics. The whole purpose of the brahmana's instruction is to remind us, to convince us that material life cannot give you permanent happiness. If you want real happiness then take shelter of the Lord. And in association of devotees that opportunity gets stronger. Hare Krishna.