Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.13.28
Moscow
1 February 2004

ity etad atmanah svartham
santam visritya vai puman
vicitram asati dvaite
ghoram apnoti samsritim

In this way the conditioned soul living within the body forgets his self-interest because he identi-fies himself with the body. Because the body is material, his natural tendency is to be attracted by the varieties of the material world. Thus the living entity suffers the miseries of material existence.

PURPORT

Everyone is trying to be happy because, as explained in the previous verse, sukham asyatmano rupam sarvehoparatis tanuh: when the living entity is in his original spiritual form, he is happy by nature. There is no question of miseries for the spiritual being. As Krishna is always happy, the living entities, who are His parts and parcels, are also happy by nature, but because of being put within this material world and forgetting their eternal relationship with Krishna, they have forgotten their real nature. Because every one of us is a part of Krishna, we have a very affectionate relationship with Him, but because we have forgotten our identities and are considering the body to be the self, we are afflicted by all the troubles of birth, death, old age and disease. This misconception in materialistic life continues unless and until one comes to understand his relationship with Krishna. The happiness sought by the conditioned soul is certainly only illusion, as explained in the next verse.

LECTURE

This verse is being spoken by a saintly personality to the sage Prahlada. Prahlada Maharaj as you know was a very great devotee of the Lord. Though being a king he was also a great devotee. These days you see if somebody is very rich or famous or powerful he generally tends to be materialistic. But Prahlada, though king, was a great devotee. He had the great fortune of having received spiritual knowledge when he was in the womb of his mother.

Once Prahlada went on the tour of the whole universe along with some of his confidential devotees and the purpose was to meet saintly people. There are many spiritualists who love to associate with saintly people but unfortunately they cannot discriminate who is really saintly who is pretending to be saintly. As he was traveling Prahlada found a great saintly personality was lying on the ground but his body was covered with dirt.

A saintly person is recognized not by how he looks but what he speaks. Here was a saintly personality who was lying down in the dust and his whole body was covered with dust and dirt. The saintly personality has adopted a python’s means of livelihood. Prahlada Maharaj of course was self-realized. Prahlada as you know is one of the twelve spiritual authorities or mahajanas.

svayambhur  naradah sambhuh
kaumarah kapilo manuh
prahlado janako bhismo
balir vayasakir vayam

There are twelve sources of spiritual knowledge and one of them is Prahlada. Prahlada could identify that this person though lying in dirt and his body is covered by dirt and dust, he is a very saintly, elevated personality. Prahlada Maharaj offered the saintly personality obeisances and began a dialogue with him. Prahlada asked him questions.

The nature of an advanced devotee is that he is interested in discussing Krishna katha and he is always inquiring how can I make spiritual advancement. This saintly personality was lying in dirt and his body was covered with dust but he was very elevated, fully fixed in the Absolute Truth. A saintly person is always anxious to inquire and a saintly person is always anxious to speak. When we get together with each other we should also follow this practice – of always inquiring about spiritual topics and obtaining answers about spiritual topics. This is the prime subject matter of inquiring – spiritual topics.

Prahlada Maharaj though he was self-realized, though he was fully aware of spiritual principles he still wanted to inquire from this saintly personality whose body was covered with dirt and dust. The scriptures are nothing but a dialogue – questions and answers. Lord Caitanya went on the tour of Southern India. He met a great devotee Ramananda Ray and He asked him many questions. We also see that when Bhishmadeva was lying on the bed of arrows about to leave his body the Supreme Lord and the Pandavas and the demigods all came to his bedside.

Bhishmadeva had received a benediction that he could chose his own moment of departure. After King Yudhishthira was installed on the throne he did not think it necessary to live any longer. In Satya-yuga also people had the freedom to chose their own moment of departure. If that benediction was given in today’s environment no one would ever chose his moment of death. Everybody would say, tomorrow. I am not ready today, come later. Even though we get warnings about death still we tend to think, no, it is not going to come…

Material nature is giving us so many warnings. Our hair is turning white, we are turning bald, the organs are not working properly but we don’t take these as notices for death. We are just thinking this is part of life. These are all notices of death. Just like Dhritarashtra, after the battle of Kurukshetra, he was offered a very opulent palace to live in by Yudhishthira. Dhritarashtra had lost all his children and grandchildren in the battle of Kurukshetra and when he got this very opulent place to live he thought, ‘Now, at last my royal ambitions have been fulfilled’. Then it was Vidura who came and pointed out how the symptoms of old age are visible and he was thinking, at last I can live like a king. Then by Vidura’s preaching he woke up and left his palace.

The great sage pointed out to Prahlada Maharaj that this human life that we have has various options. It can take you to the heavenly planets, it can take you towards liberation, to the lower species of life or to rebirth amongst human beings. Basically these are the four options, to take birth in lower species of life, or in the human form again, or to liberation, or to heavenly planets. It’s for us to decide in what direction you want to direct the human body towards.

The saintly personality is explaining to Prahlada Maharaj how the living entity gets entangled in material life. The saintly personality has explained what is real happiness. The saintly personality explains that real happiness is spiritual happiness. In other words, there are different types of happiness. In the Nectar of Devotion Rupa Goswami explains this point. He explains that there are three different sources of happiness. One is happiness derived by material activities. The nature of happiness derived from material activities is, this happiness can end at any time. Then the happiness attained by impersonal process and the happiness obtained by spiritual activities.

The saintly personality is telling us that real happiness is spiritual happiness and this can be realized when one gives up materialistic activities. In other words, as long as you are engaged in materialistic activities against the laws of God you cannot find real happiness. This is not the first time you are hearing this message. You heard this message in the First Canto, Second Canto, Third Canto. Almost in every Canto you get this message. Now you have the Seventh Canto and again you are being reminded. Why is this being done? Because this is our biggest obstacle. Srila Prabhupada explains how repetition is necessary to drive the point home.

Just like in the material world you see they repeat the same advertisement everywhere. You have this famous branch Sony. Wherever you go, any city you go you will see Sony billboards. Whether you go to a small city in Russia or big city, whether you go to the airport or anywhere you will see the advertisement. What is their philosophy? Keep reminding you that this is a good product, buy this product. The materialists also work on the principle, the repetition is necessary to drive the point home. That’s why you see in the scriptures the same point gets repeated by different personalities from slightly different angle. Here you have a saintly personality who was living like a python giving knowledge to the self-realizes Prahlada Maharaj.

The first point that the sage is making in this verse is that one who engages in activities of sense enjoyment is actually forgetting his real self-interest. When you identify with your body and the senses etc. and just cater to the material needs then you are loosing your real self-interest. This point is also explained in the Fifths Canto by Lord Rishabhadeva. Lord Rishabhadeva is considered to be an incarnation of Godhead. He had hundred sons and he gave all of them spiritual knowledge. Lord Rishabhadeva said,
nunam pramattah kurute vikarma
yad indriya-pritaya aprinoti

He said, one who engages in activities of sense enjoyment is actually a madman. He presently have a body that is giving him nothing but pain and by engaging in vikarmik activities, activities against the laws of God, you again become liable for another body that’s going to give you nothing but pain. Look at anyone’s body. The body is nothing but the source of trouble. Generally when our body is healthy we cannot even imagine it can be a source of trouble. Do the seven-fold miseries spare anyone? Do they spare people in Russia? Do you oligarchs get spared? No, no one can escape the effects of the seven-fold miseries.

Look at this from any angle, you can see that the material body is nothing but a source of trouble. There may be only some shades of happiness. One who is intelligent can see that the material body is nothing but a source of trouble and he should investigate what is a better solution. The sage explains that because this body is material there is a tendency to be attracted towards material activities. The sage is explaining in this verse, thus the living entity suffers the effects of material existence. The effects of material existence are experienced through the following seven mediums.

First is birth. Birth as you can see is a painful experience. You always see the child coming out of his mother’s womb crying. Then there is disease. Doesn’t matter how much discovery science may make you cannot avoid diseases. Even the scientists admit that there are more diseases today then ever before. I have talked to several doctors in your country and other parts of the world and these doctors say that today children are getting diseases that in one time only adults in their sixtieths would get. The diseases are not going down but are increasing.

Old age. Can old age be avoided? No. Nobody likes old age but it is unavoidable. In the Western countries they have this phenomenon, they have shops called Anti-aging shops. Anti-aging – what do they sell? Everything that makes an old man look young. Different hair-dyes, all the paraphernalia to look younger… And, of course there is death. But besides that there are three other miseries that you cannot avoid. Miseries caused by the mind. In fact, the miseries caused by the mind are rapidly increasing. The material statistics in the world today show that more and more people are getting mentally diseased. I read the studies somewhere that showed that last year mental diseases increased by 20%. Then miseries caused by other living entities and miseries caused by material nature.

That sage is telling Prahlada Maharaj that as long as you engage in material activities you will experience the results of material activities which is miseries. Whereas if you take to spiritual life then you can experience real happiness. The material happiness is an illusion and not the real happiness. Just like a deer. A deer because of ignorance that the water he is searching for is right next door but the thing is the well is just covered by grass. It is searching for water everywhere. Similarly, we are searching for happiness but real happiness can be found within by taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.

Prabhupada in the purport says that Krishna is always blissful. We, being His parts and parcels are also entitled to this blissfulness. Why is it that though we have this message so clear in black and white we still get misdirected? Why? The message is so clear, so why is it that we don’t accept this path? We don’t accept this due to the power of illusory energy or maya. The illusory energy is always trying to bewilder us and it is doing a very good job. You have to give it top grades because it is doing a great job. It has been doing this great job since time immemorial and in Kali-yuga it is doing a better job day by day.

Just like what is all this technology contributing to? Devotees use technology to serve the Lord but the materialists use technology to serve the senses. Look at these cell-phones. They are getting smaller and smaller with more and more facilities. Now you can have these cell-phones with cameras. You can take these pictures and even send them. You have the computers. Devotees use computers also because it can be a source of great help. But Internet is also loaded with pornography. You can see how technology is making maya more easily accessible and easier.

Even though the sages and the scriptures are reminding us about the value of spiritual life the power of illusory energy is so strong that it is always ready to distract us. Is there any hope for us or we should just surrender to maya and say, ‘Okay, I surrender!’ Is there any hope? What’s the hope? The message of the scriptures. The scriptures warn us about the pitfalls and at the same time advise how to avoid them. Just like in the material world, if some countries get some disease they give you a warning, that country has this disease or even if you go you take precautions.

The desire for unnecessary prestige and sense gratification contributes to our entanglement in the material life. Material life means full of lamentation, illusion. fear, anger, attachment, unnecessary labor. You can escape the influence of illusory energy by spiritual association. By the association of the sages and the scriptures and by our practicing the process one can escape the influence of illusory energy.

Bhagavad-gita for example in the Eighteenth Chapter says, that no one should give up three things. What are the three things one should not give up? Yajna, dana and tapasya. Krishna says in the fifths verse of the Eighteenth Chapter, no one should give up these three things, yajna, dana and tapasya. Even if you are self-realized you shouldn’t give it up. In the Third Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says,

saha-yajnah prajah
purovaca prajapatih
anena prasavisyadhvam
esa vo ‘stv ista-kama-dhuk

“In the very beginning of creation I told the living entities, be thou happy by the performance of sacrifices”. What does yajna mean? Sacrifice, spiritual discipline. When you follow spiritual discipline, what is the result? In the beginning it is bitter because we are so used to a material concept of life that when we have to practice some element of spiritual discipline it is painful. Krishna does not hide anything. He explains this point in the Eighteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Himself. Krishna says, happiness in the mode of goodness is, bitter in the beginning, sweet in the end and which is based on the principle of self-realization. When we take to spiritual life, the sage had told Prahlada Maharaj, that real happiness means being devoid of material activities.

Being devoid of material activities means we engage in spiritual activities. You have to have some activity. If you cannot engage your senses positively you have to engage them negatively but you cannot be idle. Krishna says, happiness in the mode of goodness is that which in the beginning is bitter, then becomes sweet and which wakes you up to self-realization.

What’s happiness in the mode of passion? Sweet in the beginning and bitter in the end and is derived due to contact of the senses with sense objects. You constantly have that choice either you go towards the path of goodness or the path of ignorance. Just like the sage explained, this body can either take you to the heavenly planets, or to the liberation, or to the birth in human life or give you birth in the lower species of life.

When you perform spiritual austerity what is the result? Spiritual austerity does not mean you don’t eat, doesn’t mean you don’t smile, doesn’t mean you don’t work, does not mean you have be a strict brahmacari all your life. It means you live according to religious principles whichever varna or asram you belong to. Just like in the Seventh Canto you read about Narada Muni’s instructions regarding different asramas. In this chapter we read about Narada Muni’s instructions about a sannyasi. But in the Seventh Canto Narada Muni also explains what are the duties of a householder, what are the duties of a brahmacari.
The point is performance of austerity means that in whichever asram you are but you live according to the religions principles and guidelines for that asram. What is the result of performing austerities? Lord Rishabhadeva explains this point. He says in this very famous verse, the first verse of the Fifths Canto,

nayam deho-deha bhajam nriloke
kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye
tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam
suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam
tv anantam

He says, ‘My dear sons, when you perform austerities for the pleasure of the Lord in return you can get unlimited spiritual happiness’. There is unlimited spiritual happiness in exchange for spiritual austerities. Just like Lord Caitanya in the first verse of His Siksastaka points out the glories of the holy name. In the eight verses of Siksastaka Lord Caitanya summarized the vast Vedic knowledge but the first verse, ceto darpana marjanam specifically points out the glories of the holy name. First of all it tells us what does the holy name do for you. What does the holy name do? Ceto darpana marjanam, cleanses the heart of the material misgivings. You all have the experience, when you chant the holy name it has a positive effect.

We also have experience that the effect of the holy name depends upon how seriously you chant the holy name. We know that there are three different stages of chanting the holy name. The first stage is the offensive stage. Then there is a stage of minimizing offences, namabhasa. Then is the stage of pure chanting, suddha-nama. Ceto darpana marjanam is guaranteed. Lord Caitanya guarantees that. But provided you chant the holy name at least of the namabhasa stage. The holy name is going to work wonders and can be effective in any case but it is more effective when you chant along with these prescriptions.

Just like the doctor’s medicine. The medicine is effective in any situation but if you take the medicine following the other dietary guidelines etc. then the medicine works better. The holy name cleanses the heart of material misgivings. Simple example, when a mirror is covered by dust it can be cleaned with clean cloth. Then ananda buddhi varadhanam – as a result of this chanting you get unending spiritual happiness.

Initially, it may sound a little theoretical to you. You may think, ‘Oh, that’s all theory. In reality it’s not’. But we experience it if we try the process. If the process did not have any effect why would all of you be here? You are all here because the process is having effect. We may be struggling with the illusory energy but we also know that if we follow the process the process is going to help us. So one of the gains of the holy name is that it gives you ever-increasing pleasure. And finally, param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam, it gives you freedom from the cycle of birth and death. Lord Rishabhadeva also explains in the Fifths Canto,

tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam
suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam
tv anantam

that if you perform austerities for the pleasure of the Lord in exchange for that you realize unending spiritual happiness. Prabhupada says in this purport that misconception continues till we establish our relationship with the Lord. The material happiness is an illusion, the goal of spiritual happiness is reality. The determination to stay on the spiritual path gets stronger as we execute the process of bhajana-kriya. As we execute this process our determination gets stronger and stronger. This is nicely explained by Rupa Goswami. And then he explains, as a result of steady execution you also realize nistha, determination.

You cannot give up something inferior unless you get something superior. We need some engagement. Therefore the scriptures are recommending, engage the senses positively. By engaging the senses in service to the Lord you purify, take away poison from the senses. A snake’s teeth contain poison. What does a snake charmer do? Knocks the teeth out. You see in India all the snake charmers they even put their hand in the mouth of that cobra, so that the layman will say, ‘Oh, this man is so brave!’ But he already have removed the teeth of the cobra and the real poison is in the teeth.

Unfortunately we have poison in all our knowledge-acquiring senses. We have poison in our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch. You have to purify all of them. And what’s the alternative? The process of executing devotional. This execution of devotional service is based on the principle of sravanav-kirtanam. The more intensive is our sravanam-kirtanam, the more intensive is our spiritual awakening. We can experience it. It is not just some theory.

So by the execution of devotional practices you develop the determination to stay on the spiritual path. And by continuing to execute the spiritual practices you develop the determination, nistha. And continunig to execute devotional service you eventually develop the taste or ruci. And if you still continuing on the process you eventually develop krishna-prema. Detachment from everything material and attachment towards what is positive.

Prahlada Maharaj himself has spoken on this topic in the Seventh Canto. Here you see Prahlada taking instructions from a brahmana. But Prahlada himself is a spiritual authority. For example on the same topic he has told us na te viduh svartha gatim sa visnum, the people do not know how real happiness can be found. In the association of devotees our spiritual determination also gets stronger. That’s why the scriptures say,

sadhu-sanga, sadhu-sanga, sarva sastra kahe

take advantage of spiritual association. We have experience that sometime due to some reasons we may be kept away from devotee association for some time. Don’t you feel maya is stronger when you are away from sadhu-sanga? But when we come to devotees, when we come to Bhagavatam class, when we take part in the kirtan we really think, ‘Yes, this is real life’. This spiritual association is very important. We look forward to getting association, we look forward to giving association.

We take advantage of associating with those who are more advanced and give our compassion towards those who are less advanced. We cannot be misers. What’s a miser? He has money but he does not know how to use the money. It’s not that we have knowledge and we don’t want to give the knowledge. You have knowledge and you should be anxious to give this knowledge. And we should be always anxious to learn. Here we see that Prahlada is learning from a simple saintly personality even though he is self-realized himself. Yudhishthira Maharaj asked Bhishmadeva about the goal of life right in the presense of all demigods and the Supreme Lord Himself. By being in devotee association our spiritual life progresses and we should be anxious for spiritual association.

The saintly personality has established that real happiness is devoid of material activities. In the association we get the knowledge of this path of spiritual happiness. Just like yesterday we were celebrating Lord Nityananda’s Appearance Day. Narottam das Thakur says, by taking shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda is just like taking shelter of the cooling light of millions of suns and moons put together. Our goal should be to keep practicing spiritual principles because unless you practice spiritual principles you cannot avoid the influence of maya. Our strength to fight maya comes from following spiritual principles. There is no other alternative.

No doubt, we need the mercy of guru, sadhu, sastra. But you also have to make your own effort based on the teachings of guru and sadhus. If you think that I am just going to get blessings and I don’t have to make the effort, that’s wrong. Isn’t there that famous saying God helps those who help themselves? When Krishna sees that we are trying to follow spiritual practices to save us from maya then Krishna in the heart gives us the ability to practice determination.

The saintly personality in today’s verse is telling us that one who forgets his real self-interest is one who is just identifying with the body and the extensions of the body. And why do we suffer the effects of material miseries? Due to identifying with the body and the extensions of the body. Someone may say, ‘Do you mean, Maharaj, a spiritualist does not care for his body, does not identify with the body?’ Is that a logical question? He surely cares for the body. The scriptures give us the following example. Material world is a big, turbulent ocean. The body is a ship, that will help us to cross this material ocean. The spiritual master is a captain of that ship and the instructions that see in the scriptures are the favorable winds.

When you are flying or sailing when the winds are favorable, in the same direction you move a lot faster. Sure we identify with the body but we identify with the body as a vehicle to serve the Lord. Sure, we take care of the body. Canakya Pandit says, three things should be take care of immediately: death, disease and fire. Sure, when the body gets diseased we take care of it because the body is a vehicle to serve the Lord. So the body can either be used as a vehicle to serve the Lord  or as a vehicle to serve the material senses. But the spiritual conclusion is use the body to serve the Lord.

In the association of devotees you get the incentive to stay on the spiritual path. And nasta prayesu abhadresu, by regularly hearing the Bhagavatam all that is inauspicious in the heart gets destroyed and loving service of the Lord gets established. Sravanam and kirtanam  are the keys to spiritual advancement. If we do this sravanam-kirtanam process then maya is going to say Good bye to you. And if we don’t do it properly then maya is going to be happy and is going to keep you in her company. The choice is ours. Hare Krishna.