Wednesday, May 18, 2011

"Serving The Material World - FRUSTRATION" 74/02/20 Bombay, Bhagavad-gita 7.5

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.) Translation: "Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe."

Prabhupada:

apareyam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi me param
jiva-bhutam maha-baho
yayedam dharyate jagat

(loud Indian pop music in background) So last night we discussed about the material energy and came to the conclusion that life is not made out of matter. Matter is product of living force or living entity. (music grows louder) Hm. Today it will be little disturbing. Anyway, we shall explain. (aside:) No. That's all right. Let them go with their festival. Don't disturb.

Apara and para. Apara means inferior, or material, and para means superior, or spiritual. The spiritual force behind is moving the material world. Yayedam dharyate jagat. Jagat means gacchati iti jagat, which is moving or going forward. Everything is moving. All these planets are moving. Your earthly planet is also moving -- within twenty-four hours covering 25,000 miles, day and night. The whole material planets, earthly planets, you have 25,000 miles, and this is rotating. Similarly every planet is rotating. The sun is also rotating. Yasyajnaya bhramati sambhrta-kala-cakrah. The sun is also having a duration of life, and it will rotate, then it will be finished. Everything in the material world, it has got a date of birth, it lives for some time, it grows or changes the body, and produces some by-products, then dwindles, and then vanishes. This is called sad-vikara, six kind of changes of anything material. That is called jagat. Gacchati. But there is a moving force. Just like the motorcar is going, gacchati. But the motorcar is not moving without any driver. There is a machine, first-class machine, Rolls-Royce car, Cadillac car, good machine, but the machine is useless unless there is a driver. The aeroplane is moving, but without the pilot it cannot move. Therefore material elements, however, I mean to say, wonderful it may be, it has no value without the spirit soul. That is the explanation here. Apareyam.

Krsna has explained the material elements: bhumir apo 'nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca. But these material elements cannot work independently. It must be added with the superior energy, or the living energy, jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat. This Bombay city is important because there are so many living entities. Otherwise, where there are no living entities... Even in Bombay, there are some open land. What is the value? There is no value. Therefore the conclusion should be that material elements may be wonderful, but it has no value without the touch of living entities. The modern scientists, they cannot understand that there is living, spiritual energy behind this material energy. Therefore it is moving. They are... Just like a child cannot understand that the motorcar or the aeroplane is moving because there is driver and the pilot. Foolish children may think, "Oh, how the motorcar is going on?" The motorcar is not going on independently. That the child does not know. Therefore, those who have no information of the spiritual energy behind the material energy, they are children, foolish children. Mudha. They have been described as mudha.

na mam duskrtino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam asritah
[Bg. 7.15]

Therefore foolish persons who cannot understand that behind this gigantic material energy there is the spiritual energy, supreme spiritual energy, Krsna... They have no inform... Therefore in the previous verse, we have discussed,

manusyanam sahasresu
kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam
kascin mam vetti tattvatah
[Bg. 7.3]

Ordinary persons, they cannot understand that behind this gigantic, wonderful material energy, there is the supreme energy, spiritual energy, Krsna. They cannot understand. Just like the child cannot understand that the motorcar is not moving independently, but there is a driver. These foolish, materialistic persons, they cannot understand. Mam ebhyah param avyayam. They cannot understand. Tribhir gunamayair bhavaih. They are bewildered by the three modes of material nature, finding out. Big, big scientists, big, big philosophers, big, big workers, they are simply studying the material energy, but they have no information of the spiritual energy.

Here, from the Bhagavad-gita, you can understand that this material energy is inferior, apareyam. Apareyam. You cannot produce living force by combination of material energy. That is not possible. But they are... Because these foolish persons, they are missing the spiritual energy, they are thinking, "By chemical reaction or by combination of matter, some living force is coming out." Just like if you mix acid and alkaline, there is some reaction and there is some movement. They are thinking like that. No. It is not that. The material energy is being pushed forward by the spiritual energy. Jiva-bhutam maha-baho. Jiva, living force. Jiva-bhutam maha-baho. And because the spiritual force is there, the material world is working. This is the conclusion. Not that the material force is working independently. Apareyam itas tu anyam. Anya means it is different. It is not material energy. Anyam, completely. Prakrti. But it is prakrti, not purusa. Purusa means the worker. Purusa is Krsna. Purusa is Krsna. As it will be admitted by Arjuna after hearing Bhagavad-gita, purusam sasvatam. Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan, purusam [Bg. 10.12]. "You are purusa." Purusa means enjoyer, and prakrti means enjoyed. So here jiva, the living entities, they have been described as prakrti, not as purusa. The Mayavadi philosophers, they think that living entity is purusa, the Supreme, but that is, that is not the fact. Prakrti. Prakrti means subordinate. Energy acts under the direction of the Purusa. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah [Bg. 3.27]. Just like a machine is made by a person, and the machine is working. That machine is working, that is prakrti, but who has made the machine or pushing on the machine, that is purusa.

So prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah. When you set up the machine... Just like electricity. You set up, machine will work. But the setter, or who first sets the machine, pushes on the machine, that is a purusa. Similarly, the whole material world is working very nicely, wonderfully, but behind that machine, behind that working, there is Krsna. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram [Bg. 9.10]. Just like electric powerhouse. You see the machine is going on. Kat-kat-kat-kat-kat-kat, it is going on. But there is a supervising engineer. He's looking that whether the machine is rightly going on, if there is any defect. If there is oil required, he's putting some oil or something else. So the supervisor is the engineer. Similarly the whole machine of this material world... Or this material... You do not try to study the whole material world, but you study your own machine, this body. This body is also machine. Yantrarudhani mayaya.

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
[Bg. 18.61]

This is a yantra, this body. Just like somebody seats you... Just like a child is seated on the car, and the car is moving. There are many examples. Similarly, this body is given by material energy. Yantrarudhani mayaya. This body is given by maya, but within the body... Dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Dehi, within the body, the living spirit, or living soul, is sitting there. And because we are under the control of maya, we wanted it, such a, such a body, so Krsna has given. Anumanta. He has given order to maya, that "This living entity wants to enjoy this material world under certain body. So you give him this body." Just like a pig. He wanted to eat everything and anything, without any discrimination. So, by the order of the Supreme, anumanta, upadrasta..., He orders to the maya that "You give him a body, a vehicle, a machine of pig body, so that he can very nicely eat stool."

So this is karma, karma-vada, that I want to possess a certain type of machine, or body, and Krsna, Isvara, is within everyone's heart. He understands, "He's persistent to get this machine. All right. You get this machine." This is called janmada(?)... Tatha dehantara-praptih. In this way, we are desiring something in this life, and the next life is being prepared. And that next life or this life, it is just like machine. It is made by the material nature under the order...

mayadhyaksena prakrtih
suyate sa-caracaram
hetunanena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate
[Bg. 9.10]

This is the fact. So Krsna is the original purusa. Prakrti, the material energy is also prakrti, subordinate to Krsna, and the spiritual energy, the living entities, they are also prakrti, but they are superior prakrti. Inferior, not... Inferior matter. Just like we are handling matter, we are getting matter. We are getting cement, we are getting bricks, we are getting iron and combining them, and making a very, very high skyscraper building. So the material energy is also Krsna's, and the spiritual energy, the living entity, that is also Krsna's energy. So..., but they are working for satisfying their senses. Therefore superior, jiva-bhutam yayedam dharyate... They are handling the material energy. The same living entity, when he understands his constitutional position, that "I am part and parcel of Krsna," mamaivamso jiva-bhutah [Bg. 15.7], then he'll work for Krsna. Then the same energy spent for building skyscraper building will be utilized to build a nice temple for Krsna.

This is proper utilization of energy. When the energy of Krsna, the spiritual energy of Krsna or the living entity, works for Krsna, that is healthy condition. Just like part and parcel of my body, this finger. When this finger works for me... I want the finger: "Come here. Work some here." But if the finger is not in healthy condition, it is painful, it cannot work, that is not normal condition. The normal condition is the finger is to work for my body. Similarly, we, being part and parcel of Krsna, when we are engaged in Krsna's service, that is our normal condition, our healthy life. Therefore Krsna says that "These foolish creatures, mudhah, who are thinking that ‘We shall work for sense gratification,' they are mudhas." Na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah [Bg. 7.15]. The animals cannot understand this constitutional position of the living entity. Because this material world means all the living entities, they have come here for satisfying their senses. And in different grades of life they are satisfying their senses. Either as Brahma or the worm in the stool, they are satisfying their senses, different senses. That is material life. And when one understands that "I am part and parcel of Krsna. My duty is to serve Krsna," that is normal life. That is actually spiritual life. Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah. When we forget to serve Krsna, that is material life. And when we serve Krsna with love and affection, understanding that we are very intimately related, part and parcel, that is spiritual life.

This is the difference between material life and spiritual life. When one works for his own sense gratification, that is material life. And when works for Krsna's satisfaction, that is spiritual life. That is spiritual life. It is very easy to understand. We are working, we are servant of somebody. All these people who have gathered here, nobody can claim that "I am not servant." Everyone is servant -- servant of the society, servant of the family, servant of the country, servant of dog, servant of cat. Everyone is servant. That is misplacement. But actually he is servant of Krsna. When he forgets that he is servant of Krsna, he becomes servant of so many maya. But when he understands that "I am servant of Krsna, and, becoming servant of Krsna, I can become servant of others also," that is called Krsna consciousness. This is the movement of Krsna consciousness. Everyone is a servant, but he is serving wrongly. His service is misplaced. We are simply educating people that "Your service being misplaced; therefore you are not satisfied, neither your master is satisfied. Nobody's satisfied." For example... I have repeated this example many times. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the great servant of India He served India so nicely. Still, the master was not satisfied, and the master killed him. He wanted to serve his country, but the result was that his countrymen killed him.

So this service is frustration. If you go on serving the material world, you'll be frustrated, in this way or that way. But if you serve Krsna, the same service applied to Krsna, your life will be successful. That is Krsna consciousness movement, that ser..., you cannot avoid service, but service other than Krsna will be frustration. But you serve Krsna, you'll be satisfied, the Supreme Lord will be satisfied, and your life will be successful.

Thank you very much. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974

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