"How To Act -- How not to Act"

74/04/06 Bombay, Bhagavad-gita 4.17


Pradyumna: Translation: "The intricacies of action are very hard to understand. Therefore one should know properly what action is, what forbidden action is, and what inaction is."

Prabhupada:

karmano hy api boddhavyam
boddhavyam ca vikarmanah
akarmanas ca boddhavyam
gahana karmano gatih

The same principle of working order is being discussed by Krsna again in this verse. The beginning was catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13]. We should remember the same principle always. Four classes are divided according to quality and karma. Therefore Krsna says, karmano hy api boddhavyam. What is actually work. Boddhavyam ca vikarmanah. Vikarmanah means forbidden. This is the human life's business. He should know what is actual work and what is forbidden work.

Just like a good citizen knows what is lawful work and what is unlawful work. Lawful work is executed knows what is lawful work and what is unlawful work. Lawful work is executed by intelligent citizens, and unlawful work is executed by the criminals. He has to suffer. You can cheat the man-made government by hiding yourself, so-called hiding. You cannot hide yourself from, any vikarma or unlawful work, from the eyes of the Supreme Lord. That is not possible. You can hide yourself from the eyes of the police, man-made law, but it is not possible to hide yourself from the eyes of the Supreme. That is not possible. Because the Supreme is sitting within your heart. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61]. And He is sitting as anumanta and upadrasta. He is simply seeing what you are doing, and He is giving sanction also. Even a thief who is going to act something criminally, without the sanction of the Supersoul, who is sitting within everyone's heart, he cannot do that.

That you have got experience. Suppose you are doing, going to do something which is not very good. The conscience is beating, "No, no, you should not do this. You should not do this." But because without the sanction of the Supreme, I cannot do anything, so if we persist to do something, then the sanction is given, "At your risk." That is going on. God does not give you sanction for doing anything criminal. But if we persist to do something criminal, then God gives sanction, "All right, do. Do it at your risk." That is going on. Karmana daiva-netrena [SB 3.31.1]. Now, when we act something on account of my persistence by the sanction of the Lord, then I become subjected to the fruits of such resultant action.

And we get a different type of body. That is going on. In the sastra it is said, karmana daiva-netrena jantur dehopapattaye [SB 3.31.1]. Jantuh, of the living entity.... We are getting different types of bodies. Just like we are sitting, so many people, ladies and gentlemen. Everyone's bodily feature is different from the other. So why there are different features? We are all human being. Why we have got different types of bodies? Not only in human society. The animal society, the bird society.... It is all karmana, by our personal fruitive action. Karmana daiva-netrena. This law we do not know. We work irresponsibly without knowing the result of our work. Therefore we are getting different types of bodies, different types of situation, different type of occupation, so many things. Therefore people should be trained, as Krsna said in the beginning, that catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13].

The four classes of men, according to quality, they should be engaged in different types of occupation, guna-karma. First of all, guna. Guna means quality. In the material world also, practically we see, if we want to work in a certain type of occupation, first of all it is examined whether I have got the quality. Suppose if I want to work as an engineer, so I must possess the quality first of all, whether I can act as an engineer. Similarly, if I want to work as a lawyer, then I must have the quality, qualification.

Similarly, different type of quality, different type of qualification, and then different type of work. Guna-karma-vibhagasah. So that requires guidance. And who is the guide? The father is the guide, the king, the government is the guide, the elderly, guru is the guide. There must be guide. Gurur na sa syat pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat. In this way.... Sva-jano na sa syat na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. These laws are unknown at the present moment in this age. There are so many gurus, so many fathers, so many relatives, so many husbands. There are so many guides, but they do not know what is the aim of life. Therefore sastra says that "If you do not know what is the aim of life, you should not become a guru, you should not become a father, you should not become a mother." Janani na sa syat.

So what is the aim of life? The aim of life... Na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. Samupeta-mrtyum. We have got this disease, mrtyu, we have to die. We are making so many plans for our happiness, but where is the plan for stopping your death? That is the ultimate goal of life, but they do not know it. Na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. Krsna says... Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gita.

Therefore we are repeatedly asking everyone to study Bhagavad-gita as it is. Don't become a learned scholar and interpret foolishly or differently from Bhagavad-gita. Everything is there.

So Krsna says that our real problem of life is janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam [Bg. 13.9]. That is the problem. Repetition of birth. Bhutva bhutva praliyate [Bg. 8.19]. We take one body according to karma. Karmana daiva-netrena jantur dehopapattaye [SB 3.31.1]. We get a body according to karma, daiva-netrena. That is not in your hand. Suppose if you are living like cats and dogs, the nature's way is that you get next life the dog's body, cat's body, or hog's body. And if you are working just like a god, godly, with good qualification, godly qualification, then you become next life demigod. You get your situation in the higher planetary system. These are all explained in the Bhagavad-gita.

How do you know? Urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah [Bg. 14.18]. If you act just like a qualified brahmana, sattva-stha, sattva-stha means brahmana -- then you get your promotion in the higher planetary system urdhvam. Urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah. If you act like a brahmana, then get your promotion to the higher planetary system, Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka, Siddhaloka. There are so many planets. The people do not know. There is no such education. But we have got this knowledge from the Vedic literature. Urdhvam gacchanti sattva-stha madhye tisthanti rajasah [Bg. 14.18]. If you have got the qualification of rajo-guna, creative energy, then you remain in the middle planetary system, Bhur, Bhuvah, Svah. Those who are brahmanas know gayatri-mantra, om bhur bhuvah svah.

And jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah. Tamasah, tamo-guna, jaghanya, abominable, nasty, unclean, eating nasty things... Then jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah. They go to the lower planetary system, Tala, Atala, Vitala, Patala, Rasatala, Talatala. There are so many planets. Or in the animal kingdom. So we are creating our next body, karmana, by our work. Therefore Krsna says, karmano hy api boddhavyam.

You must know, because you have to accept next body. You can talk foolishly, "No, there is no body." Bhasmi-bhutasya... That is the atheistic theory, that after the body is burned into ashes, everything is finished. Big, big professors, big, big learned scholars, so-called scholars, they say like that, "Oh, there is no life. Everything is finished after this body is finished." But that is not a fact. If we have to accept the authority of Bhagavad-gita... We have to accept it. If we don't accept, that is our foolishness.

Bhagavan says, tatha dehantara-praptih. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha dehantara [Bg. 2.13]. Dehantara-praptih is there. As we are getting dehantara. We have got experience every day. Just like in daytime we have got this body. At night, when we dream, we have got a different body. We go elsewhere; we're working differently, forgetting this body, and again, daytime, we forget our body which was seen in the dream. That is also dream; this is also dream. This is daydream, and that is night dream. But the seer, the soul, is permanent. He is in the daytime and he is also nighttime. So this is our position. We are changing our body.

Just like I was a child, you were a child, but that we have forgotten. But that does not mean I did not have. Similarly, in the past I had a body, in the present I have got a body, so why not in the future? This is common sense. In future you must have a body. Tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]. Krsna says, authority. I may say, "There is no body," but Krsna says, "There is body." And how this body is manufactured? Karmana, by your work. If you work foolishly in the tamo-guna, then you get the body of ignorance, ugly body, abominable body, poor body, without any education, without any knowledge. These things are there. And if you work sattva-guna, then you get better body. And rajo-guna, then in the middle-class body. These are stated in the sastra. You have to accept it.

Therefore Krsna says, karmano hy api boddhavyam boddhavyam ca vikarmanah. Vikarmanah means forbidden work, "You should not do this." Just like we are forbidding our students, no illicit sex. This is forbidden. No intoxication. This is forbidden in the sastra. Yatra papas catur-vidhah, four kinds of sinful activities. These are the basic pillars, four pillars of sinful activities: illicit sex life and intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. Striya-suna-pana-dyuta yatra papas catur-vidhah, the four kinds of sinful activities. So if we act sinfully, then we get a body which is result of sinful action. By pious activities, we get janmaisvarya-sruta-srih. Janma, first-class family, first-class nation, janma. That is very important thing, to get birth in first-class family, enlightened family, brahmana family. Sucinam srimatam gehe yoga-bhrasto 'bhijayate [Bg. 6.41]. These are all explained in the Bhagavad-gita.

Yoga-bhrastah. Suppose one has taken to Krsna consciousness, bhakti-yoga. So if he can execute properly, then

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva
visate tad-anantaram
[Bg. 18.55]

Then he will understand what is God, what is kingdom of God. And after death, he shall enter into the kingdom of God. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti [Bg. 4.9]. So this is the only shelter. If you take to bhakti-yoga, even if you fail to execute it properly, then still, you are guaranteed your next life, sucinam srimatam gehe, in the family of nice brahmana or very rich man. You will get birth. Sucinam means first-class brahmana, Vaisnava. Suci. Yah smaret pundarikaksam sa bahyabhyantara-sucih.

Suci means brahmana, and muci means cobbler. Muci means cobbler. There is a Bengali verse, suci haya muci haya yadi krsna tyaje. The first line is muci haya suci haya yadi krsna bhaje: "One who takes to Krsna consciousness, even he is born in the family of cobbler, muci..." Everyone knows, Indians. So muci haya suci haya, although he is born in the family of a muci, cobbler, he becomes suci, a brahmana, by, yadi krsna bhaje, if he is a devotee of Krsna, if he is in Krsna consciousness. And muci haya suci haya yadi krsna bhaje or suci haya muci haya yadi krsna tyaje: "If one is born of a brahmana family, but gives up Krsna bhajana, devotional life, he becomes a muci." Karmana. Because he's changed his karma.

Therefore catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13]. So this education should be introduced. Guna. First of all, everyone should be educated to accept the sattva-guna, sattvika, goodness. Everyone should be trained up, the first-class good man. Satyam samah damah titiksa arjava, jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam. Everyone should be taught.... [break] ...if he remains like an animal, eating, sleeping and mating and dying like cats and dogs, that is not right. Therefore Krsna says that what type of karma should one execute? Karmano hy api boddhavyam. One should learn, not foolishly do anything and anything.

Like the sudras. Sudras also have got their duty, particular duty. I have explained several times. But if we take to Krsna consciousness, it doesn't matter whether one is possessing the brahminical qualification or the ksatriya qualification or vaisya qualification or sudra qualification. It doesn't matter. If one is taken to the service of Krsna consciousness, he is above all these brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra. That type of karma should... Therefore it is called karma-yoga. Karma... You have certain type of tendency to work. So you work in that. Sva-karmana tam abhyarcya.

That is the recommendation, that according to your qualification, you work, but by the result of your work, you worship Krsna, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is required. That is Krsna consciousness. It is not that everyone is expected to become first-class brahminical culture. It doesn't matter.

The same example. This example are given in the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

mukha-bahuru-padebhyah
purusasyasramaih saha
catvaro jajnire varna
gunair vipradayah prthak

Vipradayo guna-prthak. If we understand what is the meaning of becoming brahmana, what is the meaning of becoming ksatriya, what is the meaning of become a vaisya, and what is the meaning of becoming sudra... That is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Mukha-bahuru-padebhyah. Mukha means the face, bahu means the arms, uru means the waist, and pada, these legs. So mukha-bahuru-padebhyah. These brahmana and the ksatriya and the vaisya and the sudra, it should be taken as the different parts of the body of the virat-purusa, Krsna. Of the virat-purusa.

So the brahmana's business you can understand -- the mouth. You have got the tongue. Brahmana's business is to eat and to chant Vedic mantras. Therefore to give eatables to the Supreme Lord, according to our Vedic principle, the brahmanas are called and they are given foodstuff, that "You eat. By your eating, Krsna will eat." But that has been misused now, but actually that is the meaning. In the Vedic literature they do not say that "For some pious activities you call some poor men." No. Brahmanas. Brahmana-bhajana. Because the brahmana is supposed to be the mouth of God. Similarly, ksatriya is supposed to be the arms of God, the vaisyas, the waist of God, and the sudras, the legs of God.

But God is Absolute. Therefore there is no distinction between mouth or the leg. If you offer flowers and tulasi on the lotus feet of God, Krsna, and if you decorate the mouth of Krsna, it is the same bhakti. Because there is no difference of the mouth and legs, provided the mouth is working as mouth and the leg is working as leg for satisfying the Supreme. Then there is no such distinction. As soon as Krsna consciousness is absent, a so-called brahmana is puffed up. ‘Oh, I am born in brahmana family. I am bigger than the sudras." That is falldown. The real purpose is that either you be mouth or hand or waist or leg, the real purpose is to maintain the body very perfectly. That is real purpose.

Similarly, either you become brahmana or you become ksatriya or you become sudra or vaisya, real purpose is how to satisfy Krsna. That is explained in Bhagavatam.

atah pumbhir dvija-srestha
varnasrama-vibhagasah
svanusthitasya dharmasya
samsiddhir hari-tosanam
[SB 1.2.13]

The real purpose is whether you are satisfying Krsna. If your, that aim is lost, that you do not require to satisfy Krsna, you simply satisfy your senses, then it has no meaning.

ya esam purusam saksad
atma-prabhavam isvaram
na bhajanty avajananti
sthanad bhrastah patanty adhah

Sthanad bhrastah... I claim... It is very simple to understand. Suppose this hand, my hand, but how long it is hand? So long it is attached to the service of the body. If this hand is cut off from this body, it may be called hand, but it has no meaning. Similarly, head also. The head is head so long it is attached to the body. If the head is cut off from the body, then what is the meaning of this head? It has no meaning.

Similarly, either you become brahmana or you become ksatriya or you become vaisya or sudra, if you are not attached to the service of the supreme whole, then you are useless brahmana, useless ksatriya, useless vaisya. This is the purpose. Therefore Krsna has begun that catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13]. Therefore one has to understand what is the meaning of these different types of activities. Karmano hy api boddhavyam boddhavyam ca vikarmanah. Vikarmanah means if you cannot work which will satisfy Krsna, that is vikarma. That is vikarma, forbidden. Because the real purpose of working is to satisfy Krsna. He is the center. He is the center of all activities. Sva-karmana tam abhyarcya samsiddhim labhate param. Simply by satisfying the central point, Krsna, then you get samsiddhi. It doesn't matter whether you are a sudra or a brahmana or engineer or lawyer. The real point is how to satisfy Krsna.

But that education is lacking. So our Krsna consciousness movement is teaching how to serve Krsna from any position. It doesn't matter. Whether you are a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, lawyer, engineer, or film actor or anything, it doesn't matter, but whether you are trying to satisfy Krsna. That is the point. If you have no such sense, "I have to satisfy Krsna," then it is srama eva hi kevalam.

dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam
[SB 1.2.8]

This is simply labor. It has no meaning, because you are creating, your own formation, next body, another body, that out of your responsibility, you are acting like a hog, you get the body of a hog. You are acting like a monkey, you get the body of a monkey. If you are acting like a god, demigod, you get your body. Karmana daiva-netrena [SB 3.31.1].

Therefore one should know, "What class of work I shall be engaged in?" So the easy process is... It doesn't matter... According to your qualification, you engage yourself in any work, but try to satisfy Krsna. Then your life is successful. Otherwise it is srama eva hi kevalam.

Therefore Krsna says, karmano hy api boddhavyam boddhavyam ca vikarmanah. Vikarmanah means sense gratification. I explained this verse from Bhagavatam last night. Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yat [SB 5.5.4]. What is that vikarmanah? Yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti. Anything which is done for sense gratification, that is vikarma. So people are engaged in vikarma. Everywhere, all over the world, the education, the scientific advancement, culture, everything.... Now culture means some dancing. Now it has become a culture. And what is that dancing? Sense gratification. Boys and girls, dancing ball dance, sense gratification. That is vikarma. But here, the same dancing before the Deity is bhakti. The same dancing. You dance in a theatrical performance, in a platform. That is also dancing. And here, in this stage, before the Deity, if you are dancing with Hare Krsna maha-mantra, then you are making bhakti, progress. And that dancing means you are becoming entangled in your karma. Because that dancing is sense gratification, vikarmanah. Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti [SB 5.5.4].
So Rsabhadeva says na sadhu manye: "This is not good." Yata atmano 'yam asann api klesada asa dehah. Asann api, this body is not permanent. Still, asann api, although it is not permanent, for a few years only, it [is] klesada, simply full of miserable conditions. Because you have committed, executed vikarma, therefore you have got this body.

It doesn't matter whether it is rich body or poor body. Everyone has to undergo the threefold miserable condition of life. When typhoid is there, it does not discriminate that "Here is a rich body. I shall give him less pain." No. When the typhoid is there, either your body is rich body or poor body, you have to suffer the same pain. When you are within the womb of your mother, you have to suffer the same pain, either you become in the queen's womb or in the cobbler's wife's womb. That packed up situation... But they do not know. Janma-mrtyu-jara. There are so many sufferings. In the process of birth. There are so many sufferings in the process of birth and death and old age. A rich man or poor man, when we are old, we have to suffer so many invalidity.

Similarly, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi [Bg. 13.9]. Jara, jara and vyadhi and mrtyu. So we are not conscious about the suffering position of this material body. The sastra says, "Don't accept again any material body." Na sadhu manye: "This is not good, that you are repeatedly getting this material body." Na sadhu manye yata atmanah. Atmanah, the soul is encaged in this material body. Yata atmano 'yam asann api. Although temporary, I have got this body. Klesada asa dehah.

So if we want to stop this miserable condition of getting another material body, then we must know what is karma, what is vikarma. That is Krsna's proposal. Karmano hy api boddhavyam boddhavyam ca vikarmanah. Akarmanas ca boddhavyam. Akarmana means there is no reaction. Reaction. Karma, if you do nice work, it has got reaction. It has nice body, nice education, nice family, nice riches. This is also nice. We take it as nice. We want to go to the heavenly planet. But they do not know that even in the heavenly planet there is the janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi.

Therefore Krsna does not recommend that you go to the heavenly body. He says, a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna [Bg. 8.16]. Even if you go to the Brahmaloka, still, the repetition of birth and... Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama [Bg. 15.6]. Yad gatva na nivartante. But we do not know that there is a dhama. If we somehow or other, if we can promote our self to that dhama, then na nivartante, yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama. In another place says, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti [Bg. 4.9].

So people have no information that Krsna, or the Supreme Lord, He has got His place and anyone can go. How one can go?

yanti deva-vrata devan
pitrn yanti pitr-vratah
bhutani yanti bhutejya
yanti mad-yajino 'pi mam
[Bg. 9.25]

"If one becomes devoted to My worship, My business, bhakti-yoga, he comes to Me." In another place He says, bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi [Bg. 18.55].

So therefore our only business is to understand Krsna. Yajnarthe karma. This is akarma. Here it is said, akarmana, akarmanah api boddhavyam, akarmanas ca boddhavyam. Akarma means without reaction. Here, if we act for our sense gratification, the reaction is.... Just like a soldier is killing. He is getting gold medal. The same soldier, when comes home, if he kills one man, he is hanged. Why? He can say in the court, "Sir, when I was fighting in the battlefield, I killed so many. I got gold medal. And why you are hanging me just now?" "Because you are have done for your own sense gratification. And that you did for government sanction."

Therefore any karma, if you do it for Krsna's satisfaction, that is akarma it has no reaction. But if you do anything for your own sense gratification, you will have to suffer the resultant action, good or bad. Therefore Krsna says,

karmano hy api boddhavyam
boddhavyam ca vikarmanah
akarmanas ca boddhavyam
gahana karmano gatih

It is very difficult to understand what kind of action you should do. Therefore we have to take direction from Krsna, from the sastra, from guru. Then our life will be successful. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 4.17 -- Bombay, April 6, 1974