Above Happiness and Distress
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.13
Bombay, November 13, 1974
download flash player
Take a testBombay, November 13, 1974
download flash player
Prabhupada:
(Hindi)
Nitai: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. (etc.)
Prabhupada: (Hindi)
Nitai: (leads chanting, etc.) "The Personality of Godhead answered: The yoga system which relates to the Lord and the individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate benefit of the living entity, and which causes detachment from all happiness and distress in the material world, is the highest yoga system."
Prabhupada:
yoga adhyatmikah pumsam
mato nihsreyasaya me
atyantoparatir yatra
duhkhasya ca sukhasya ca
[SB 3.25.13]
Everyone in this material world trying to mitigate or trying to become free from the distress. Duhkhasya. Atyantika-duhkha-nivrtti. Atyantika means supreme. The struggle for existence in this material world is everyone is trying to get some happiness and minimize the quantity of distress. This is called struggle for existence. Generally, yoga practice is executed for getting some material profit: anima laghima prapti isita vasita mahima. Anima... The yogis, they have asta-siddhi-yoga, eight kinds of perfection. One can become smaller than the smallest or lighter than the lightest, bigger than the biggest, whatever he likes, he can get immediately, vasita, he can control over, he can create a planet even. These are some of the yoga-siddhis. But here it is said that the supreme yoga system is not to aspire for material happiness, neither to become distressed by the material inconvenience.
This is perfection of yoga. Everyone is trying to get out of the material distress and get some happiness, but anything material-happiness, so-called happiness, or so-called distress... Just like here, the fireworks is going on. (loud sound of firecrackers, etc., occurring intermittently in background) It is happiness for somebody, but it is distress for us. Is it not? They are thinking they are enjoying, and we are thinking it is inconvenience. So that is material way, happiness, one side happiness, another side distress. So both the happiness and distress, they are illusion. Illusion. There are many examples. Just like water; in summer season it is happiness, and in winter season it is distress. But the same water. Some water, at one time, it is happiness, and the same water, at one time, it is distress. The same son, when he is born, it is happiness, and the same son, when he's dead, it is distress. But son is the same.
So this material world is duality. You cannot understand happiness without distress, and you cannot understand distress without happiness. Therefore it is called relative world. You cannot understand son without understanding a father, and you cannot understand a father without understanding the son. And spiritual happiness is above this duality. Spiritual happiness. So that is the perfection of yoga. Yoga adhyatmikah. Adhyatma, atmika, atma, the soul, the happiness of the soul, that is real yoga. The happiness of the soul can be possible when the soul, individual soul, is with the Supersoul, or the Supreme Soul. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam (Katha Upanisad 2.2.13). There is the Supreme Soul, or Supreme Being. Amongst... There are many living beings. We are many. We living beings, or living entities, we are many. But the principal living being is Krsna. The fire and the sparks: the sparks are illuminated when it is with the original fire. If the sparks fall down from the association of the original fire, it is extinguished, no more light. Similarly, our real happiness is when we enjoy with the Supreme Being. Supreme Being.
Just like Krsna. Krsna is not alone.
Krsna is always with His friends, either gopis or the cowherd boys, or with His
father, with His mother. You'll never find Krsna alone. Just like here is Krsna.
Krsna is not alone. Krsna is with His Radharani and with His devotees. Just like
a king. When we say that "The king is coming here," or "The president is coming
here," so it means that president is not coming alone, but he's coming with his
secretaries, with his ministers, with so many others. In England, the Queen has
bodyguards. So similarly, when we... Yoga adhyatmikah. Yoga means connection,
and atma, atma means this soul, actually, but sometimes atma means the mind,
atma means the body also. So body has nothing to do with the Supreme Being,
because Supreme Being is complete spirit. He has no material covering. One who
thinks that Krsna, the Supreme Being, has got a material covering, covered by
maya, as we are, covered by maya, this material energy... Krsna is not like
that. Krsna says, sambhavamy atma-mayaya [Bg. 4.6]. Krsna does not say that "I
come here as ordinary living being." Janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah
[Bg. 4.9]. One has to learn how Krsna takes birth. It is not ordinary birth. Had
it been ordinary birth, then why we should observe the Janmastami ceremony? It
is divyam, divine, transcendental. Everything of Krsna is divine. And if we
think Krsna as like us, then according to the statement of the Bhagavad-gita,
immediately we become a mudha. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam [Bg.
9.11].
So actually Krsna is the original Supreme Being, original spirit soul. We are simply minute part and parcel of Krsna. Exactly the same example: just like the fire and the small sparks. You can see. This fireworks is going on. The fire is there, and there are small sparks. So long the fire and the small sparks are together, they are illumination. Similarly, if we connect with Krsna, then we are illuminated. As Krsna is illuminated, we are also illuminated, although we are small. But if we fall down from Krsna, the original fire, we become extinguished. Our spiritual power, our spiritual illumination, becomes extinguished. Therefore yoga system means again connecting the link. That is called yoga. Yoga, the Sanskrit word, means connect, and viyoga means disconnect.
So here it is... Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is Bhagavan. Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhagavan has no mistake. Bhagavan... Narayanah parah avyaktat. Even Sankaracarya says that Bhagavan, Narayana, He does not belong to this material world. Narayanah avyaktat parah. So when we speak of Bhagavan, or the sastra says Bhagavan, Bhagavan means above material understanding, divyam, above material understanding, parah, above material understanding. So here it is said bhagavan uvaca. Even he does not say, Vyasadeva, that kapiladeva uvaca. No. Similarly, in the Bhagavad-gita also, Vyasadeva says... Krsna says actually. But Vyasadeva says, bhagavan uvaca. Bhagavan means above the defects of this material world. That is Bhagavan. Bhagavan is not subjected to the deficiencies of this material world. There are four deficiencies in the material world. Just like we are concerned, in the material world, we are not perfect because we commit mistake, bhrama. We are illusioned. Bhrama pramada. And vipralipsa, we try to cheat others. I have no knowledge; still, I become teacher or preacher. That is cheating. We have no perfect knowledge. Therefore our principle is to teach what Bhagavan says. We don't manufacture teaching. This is not our business. As they manufacture... They say, the ordinary, I mean to say, so-called scholars and learned men, they give their opinion... Especially in the Western world, there are so many philosophical speculations, each one giving his own mental gymnastics. That philosophy is not perfect. We have to take ideas from Bhagavan. That is perfect.
Therefore here it is said, bhagavan uvaca. If we take instruction from Bhaga... Why we are reading Bhagavad-gita? That is very common practice. Because it is perfect. There is no mistake, there is no illusion, there is no cheating, there is no imperfection of the senses. Just like in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, vedaham samatitani: [Bg. 7.26] "I know everything -- past, present and future." Mam ca veda na kascana: "But nobody understands Me." That is our position. God knows everything. Krsna knows everything. But we do not know what is God. That is our position. We do not know. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese arjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61]. Isvara, God, Krsna, is situated in everyone's heart. Sarvasya caham hrdi sannivistah: [Bg. 15.15] "I am entered in everyone's heart." Everyone's heart -- not only the human being, but also animals or anything. Andantara-stha-paramanu-
There is a parampara system, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gita, Fourth Chapter: evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [Bg. 4.2]. So our business, Krsna conscious people, our business is very easy. Because we don't manufacture ideas. We take the idea and the words delivered by the Supreme Person, Krsna, or His incarnation, or His representative. His representative does not say anything which the master does not say. Representative is very easy. You can become representative of Krsna if you do not interpret Krsna's words in your whimsical way. Krsna says, mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya: [Bg. 7.7] "There is no more superior authority than Me." And if you take it as it is, and if you speak to the people that "There is no more superior authority than Krsna," then you become guru. You become guru. You don't change. Then you become guru. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has instructed this. Amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. His, He was preaching. So He was preaching everyone, from country to country. Of course, He did not go outside India. Within India. And He was instructing that "You learn from Me and teach your people within this village, within this country." Amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Ei desa means "this country, or this place where you are living." Then? Amara ajnaya guru hana. You become guru. So one may think that "I am illiterate. I have no education. I am not born in very high family. How I can become guru?" So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that "It is not very difficult." Yare dekha tare kaha krsna-upadesa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Bas. You become guru. You simply speak whatever Krsna speaks. Then you become guru.
So anyone who does not speak what Krsna has spoken, he's not guru. He's a rascal. He cannot be guru. He is guru who speaks only what Krsna has spoken. This is the shastric injunction.
sat-karma-nipuno vipro
mantra-tantra-visaradah
avaisnavo gurur na syad
vaisnavah sva-paco guruh
This is the definition of guru, that one brahmana, born in brahmana family and very educated, mantra-tantra-visaradah, very expert in reciting Vedic mantras... That is the duty of brahmana, veda-mantra. So mantra-tantra-visaradah. But avaisnava, if he's not Vaisnava, or if he's not follower of the instruction of Visnu or Krsna, avaisnavo gurur na syat, he cannot become guru. And vaisnavah sva-pacah. Sva-pacah means the dog-eater. That is considered the lowest of the mankind, dog-eaters, means candala, bhangis. He becomes gu..., he can become guru. How? If he's Vaisnava, he is devotee of Visnu or Krsna. So Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu... That is His mission.
yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa
[Cc. Madhya 7.128]
So if we simply take the words of Bhagavan and preach, then it is very easy for us to become, each and every one, to become guru. Not to exploit. No. But to give knowledge. And what is that knowledge? What Krsna has spoken. That's all. So even one is not very learned scholar, Sanskrit scholar, everyone has got this ear. He can hear from Krsna and Krsna's representative and assimilate what is spoken by Krsna, and he can repeat the same. Then he becomes guru. That is the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He said,
bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara
[Cc. Adi 9.41]
To become guru means para-upakara. People are in the darkness, so they have to be enlightened. That is the Vedic injunction. Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata. Now, people, from animal kingdom we are getting this human body. So up to animal body we are sleeping, kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole, in the lap of this material nature. Now this human form of body is meant for getting out. So the mission is to awaken people to Krsna consciousness. To awaken people to Krsna consciousness. Jiv jago jiv jago, gauracanda bole. Gauracanda, means Caitanya Mahaprabhu, is speaking to everyone, "Oh, the living entity, get up! Get up!" Kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole: "How long you shall sleep?"
So the, here is the same thing. Yoga adhyatmikah pumsam. This is the prime business, to connect yourself again, again, your soul, with the Supreme. Yoga adhyatmikah pumsam mato nihsreyasaya me. He is giving... He says that "This is My instruction, that one should be awakened to Krsna consciousness and connect himself again with Krsna." That is adhyatmika-yoga. Not to show some gymnastic magic. No. This is the best yoga Krsna has also said in the Bhagavad-gita,
yoginam api sarvesam
mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam
sa me yuktatamo matah
[Bg. 6.47]
The first-class yogi is he... Who? Yoginam api sarve... There are many yogis. There are many different types of yoga system, and all the yoga systems are discussed in the Bhagavad-gita, hatha-yoga, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, raja-yoga, so many yoga systems. But the real yoga system, the first-class yoga system, is to revive your connection with Krsna. That is first class. Here it is also said, yoga adhyatmikah pumsam. Adhyatmika. We are living entities, soul. We are now... We are disconnected, but we have forgotten. Disconnection cannot be. That is not possible. But it is covered. Naham prakasah sarvasya yogamaya-samavrtah [Bg. 7.25]. There is yoga and there is a yogamaya. Yogamaya means forgetfulness. So Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is Bhagavan. He is advising, Bhagavan, that "This is first-class yoga." Adhyatmikah. Adhyatmikah, about the soul.
Soul... First of all you have to understand what is soul. At the present moment, people are so much in darkness, they do not understand what is soul. Therefore Bhagavad-gita teaches first to understand what is the soul. What is the soul? Dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Dehi, that soul. Dehi means the proprietor of the body. We are thinking, "I am this... I am this body." No, I am not this body; I am the proprietor of this body. That is real understanding of myself: "I am not this body." We say also, "This is my finger," "This is my head," "This is my leg." Nobody says, "I head," or "I finger." Nobody says. Everyone says, "My head." So I am the proprietor of this body. And then I am under the influence of maya. This body has been given by maya, the material energy.
prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate
[Bg. 3.27]
And we have got different types of body. I have got this body, you have got another body, the dog has got another body, cat has got another body.
Why there are so many bodies? Why not one kind of body? That is also stated in the Bha...Karanam guna-sangah asya. Karanam The reason is that the dehi within the body, the soul, he is associating with different types of the modes of material nature. Karanam guna-sangah asya sad-asad-janma-yonisu. Therefore he is getting different types of body. It is naturally going on. You haven't got to aspire for your next body, different... But it must be different body. Tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]. You have to change this body, but Krsna does not say what kind of body. That will depend on your qualification. Karanam guna-sangah asya. Qualification. If you associate with sattva-guna, then urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah [Bg. 14.18], then you are elevated to the higher planetary system. Madhye tisthanti rajasah. If you are associating with the modes of passion, then you will remain here. And jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah: and if you associate with the tamo-guna, then you go lower and lower, abominable family, lower family, animal family, or trees, plants, like that. So the 8..., 8,400,000 forms of life is due to karanam guna-sangah asya. And according to the body, there are distresses and happiness. You cannot expect in the dog's body the same happiness as a king or a very rich man is enjoying. Karanam guna-sa... He has got the dog's body, he has got the king's body. Karanam guna-sango 'sya [Bg. 13.22]. So this happiness or that happiness, this distress or that distress, they are all due to this material body. Therefore yoga means one has to transcend this happiness of body, distress or happiness. That is here said, that atyanta-uparatih yatra. If you connect yourself again with the supreme yoga -- that is called real yoga -- then you get rid of this so-called material happiness and distress, which is due to this body.
So that is wanted. That is adhyatmika. That is called bhakti-yoga, to reconnect our connection with Krsna. Krsna also comes to instruct that "You rascal, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. Just revive your connection with Me, you rascal. Give up all these manufactured so-called types of yoga and religion." Sarva-dharman paritya... That is Krsna's instruction. That is the differ... That is the proof. Krsna says the same thing, and Krsna's representative or incarnation or guru says the same thing. That is the qualification of guru. Here Kapiladeva, although He is the incarnation of Krsna, He's acting as the representative of Krsna, as guru. He's saying the same thing. He does not say another thing. Yoga adhyatmikah. Yoga adhyatmikah pumsam mato nihsreyasaya me. Nihsreyasa means the ultimate benefit. Krsna also says the same thing, that param guhyatamam: "I have instructed you so many things, but because you are My dear friend, I am just disclosing to you the most confidential thing." What is that? Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. If you accept this principle, then you become actually transcendental to this so-called material happiness and distress. That is yoga.
We should not be captivated by the material distress, or we should not be very much aggrieved by the material distress, and we should not be very much happy for material happiness. These are bondage. Material happiness is not actually happiness. That is through distress. Just like we are trying to be happy, trying to be very rich, get some money. That is not very easily obtained. We have to undergo so much distresses. So actually, it is distress, but with the hope of getting some false happiness, we accept this distress. Actually, there is no happiness. Sukham atyantikam yat tad atindriya-grahyam [Bg. 6.21]. So that atindriya means spiritual senses. If we purify our senses, come to the spiritual platform, sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam [Cc. Madhya 19.170], if we become purified, then when that senses are engaged, hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate, then that is real happiness. When we are engaged in the satisfying of the senses of Krsna, not these material senses, then that is called adhyatmika-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. So we have to learn bhakti-yoga from Kapiladeva. Gradually, He has begun the preliminary instructions.
Thank you very much. (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
No comments:
Post a Comment