Cleansing Away Our Criminality
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.6
Nellore, January 5, 1976
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Take a testNellore, January 5, 1976
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Prabhupada:
adhuneha maha-bhaga
yathaiva narakan narah
nanogra-yatanan neyat
tan me vyakhyatum arhasi
[SB 6.1.6]
This is from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sixth Canto. This is our latest publication, Srimad-Bhagavatam. Therefore I am taking advantage of this publication to present before you. So in the Fifth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam Sukadeva Gosvami has given a vivid description of the naraka planets or the hellish condition of life. Fifth Canto, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sukadeva Gosvami has given a vivid description of the naraka planets, or the hellish planets. So this verse I am quoting from the First Chapter, Sixth Canto, that Pariksit Maharaja is asking Sukadeva Gosvami "How the people suffering in hellish condition of life can be delivered?" [break] Let him... [break] This is the beginning of the Sixth Chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
At the end of the Fifth Chapter, Srila Sukadeva Gosvami has given description of the hellish planets. You have seen in the sky. There are millions and millions of stars or planets, and they are divided into three groups. Everything is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. So as it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah [Bg. 14.18]. [break] ...sattva-sthah, meaning that those who are in the sattva-guna, modes of goodness, they are promoted to the higher planetary system. Madhye tisthanti rajasah: "Those who are under the influence of passion, they remain in the middle planetary system." And those who are in the lowest grade of tamo-guna, adho gacchanti tamasah. So Pariksit Maharaja, after hearing the pitiable condition of persons in the hellish planets, he became sympathetic. Therefore he is putting the statement before Sukadeva Gosvami. Adhuneha maha-bhaga yathaiva narakan narah: "My dear sir, you have described about the hellish condition of the suffering persons. Now kindly give me any enlightenment how they can be delivered."
This is the symptom of a Vaisnava. Vaisnava cannot tolerate the sufferings of the humanity. Just like Prahlada Maharaja. He said before Nrsimhadeva, naitad udvije paro duratyaya-vaitaranyah: "My dear Lord, I have no problem how to get delivered from this material world," because a devotee is already on the transcendental platform. It is said in the Bhagavad-gita,
mam ca (yo) vyabhicarini
bhakti-yogena yah sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuya...
[Bg. 14.26]
Means anyone who is engaged in devotional service, he is already on the Brahman platform. Therefore a devotee means he is already in the Brahman platform, or spiritual platform. So Pariksit Maharaja became very anxious how this suffering humanity can be saved. Here it is said, nana ugra yatanat neyat tan me vyakhyatum arhasi: "Kindly give me some enlightenment how these people can be saved from this severe type of suffering." So at the present moment in this age of Kali people are so fallen low that they do not know what is going to happen in the future. They are dismissing the whole problem by saying that there is no next life. This is very precarious condition of the modern civilization. So as there are comfortable life, we can see there are discomfortable life also. So there is understanding of papa and punya. Especially in the human form of life one should know what is papa and what is punya. The human life is responsible life.
You have got practical experience that if you violate the law of the state you become criminal and punished. But if the cats and dogs or animals, they violate the law, they are not punishable. Therefore human life must be very responsible. Yes. So Sukadeva Gosvami says, "My dear king, if before one's next death whatever impious acts one has performed in this life with his mind, words, and body are not counteracted through proper atonement according to the description of the Manu-samhita and other dharma-sastras, one will certainly enter into the hellish planets after death and undergo terrible sufferings as I have previously described." So just like in our ordinary life if we commit some sinful activity and if we plead in the court, "My dear judge, I did not know the law," so this kind of pleading will not help him. Ignorance is no excuse. Therefore human life is distinct from animal life. If we live in human life without caring for the supreme laws, then we are destined to suffer.
Therefore in the human society there is a system of religion and scripture. It is the duty of the human being to understand the laws of the nature, the injunction in the sastras and live very honestly according to their direction. In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says,
yah sastra-vidhim utsrjya
vartate kama-karatah
na siddhim sa avapnoti
na sukham na param gatim
[Bg. 16.23]
"Anyone who does not follow the instruction of the sastras and live whimsically as very free to act, such person never gets perfection of life, no happiness, and what to speak of going back to home, back to Godhead." Especially in India, who are born as Indians, they have got a special facility to get this transcendental knowledge from sastras. Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised or ordered to every Indian that "You make your life perfect by going through the sastras and distribute this knowledge throughout the whole world for welfare activities." The exact words in Bengali is like this,
bharata bhumite manusya-janma haila yara
janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara
[Cc. Adi 9.41]
Means anyone who has taken birth in this holy land of Bharatavarsa must make his life successful by going through the sastras and distribute the knowledge throughout the whole world. Therefore I am appealing to my Indian brothers to take up this missionary work as ordered by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, especially my appeal is to the people of South India. Because all our acaryas, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Nimbarka, Visnu Svami, Sankaracarya, they came out from South India, so I especially request gentlemen present here to take up this Krsna consciousness movement very seriously and join with us. [break] ...says that before our next death comes... Death will come. We say generally, "As sure as death." For our next life. Sukadeva Gosvami advises according to our Vedic principle, before death there is a ceremony which is called prayascitta or atonement. He advises that when a diseased man goes to a physician, the physician, after diagnosing the disease, he gives the suitable medicine. If the disease is very serious, sometimes very expensive medicine is recommended. There is some example in the Caitanya Mahaprabhu's time. One gentleman, he was a big zamindar, landholder. He was converted into a Muslim. In those days, five hundred years ago, it was not very difficult to convert a person into Muslim religion. If a Muslim would take some water from his water pot and sprinkle on the body of a Hindu, he would become Muslim. In this way, so many people were converted into Muslims. So I am quoting these instances in this respect because when in those days people would go to the brahmana to take advice for atonement they would give so severe type of atonement that it was impossible to perform.
So there was the king in Bengal at that time. He was known as Nawab Hussein Shah. Formerly he was a Mohammedan servant to a big Hindu landlord. So this boy servant committed some theft so the master punished him by striking with a cane. So the striking mark of the cane was there on his backside. So one day the Nawab's wife, Begam, saw the mark and inquired from her husband, "What is this mark?" So the Nawab described that in his childhood, when he was a servant of that Hindu gentleman, Buddhimanta Khan, he beat him with that cane and that mark is there. So the wife of the Nawab, Begum Sair(?), she requested that "You kill this man. Otherwise people will blaspheme you." The Nawab, however, declined. "No, no, this cannot... This is not possible. He was my master, just like my father. He chastised me. There was no fault." So the wife then requested, "At least make him a Mohammedan." So the Nawab, to satisfy his wife, he agreed, "Well, that is not very difficult task." So one day he called Buddhimanta Khan and sprinkled the water on his body.
So Buddhimanta Khan took it that he has now become a Mohammeddan, so he went to the brahmana for consultation. So when Buddhimanta Khan went to a bhattacarya, he said that "The," what is called, "prayascitta is that you melt one kilogram of," what is called, "lead, and drink it." So he, being helpless, he went to consult another brahmana bhattacarya. He said, "All right, if you cannot drink molten lead, then you can drink one kilo of melted ghee." So in this way, when he was helpless, he went to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu knew the situation of the then society. He therefore advised him that "You better give (up) your family life. You go to Vrndavana." So He advised him that "Go to Vrndavana, live there and chant Hare Krsna." So the difficulty is, in the sastras there are atonement for prayascitta of so..., not like that -- you drink hot ghee or hot lead -- but there are prayascittas. So one has to execute that.
So when Sukadeva Gosvami recommended, "My dear King, you are very anxious for these persons suffering in the hell. They have to perform prayascitta." So Sukadeva Gosvami, after recommending this, could not satisfy Pariksit Maharaja. He was king, ksatriya. He knew the nature of the citizen. Therefore he said,
drsta-srutabhyam yat papam
janann apy atmano 'hitam
karoti bhuyo vivasah
prayascittam atho katham
[SB 6.1.9]
The Maharaja Pariksit said, "One may know that sinful activity is injurious for him because he actually sees that a criminal is punished by the government and rebuked by people in general, and because he hears from the scriptures and learned scholars that one is thrown into hellish condition in the next life for committing sinful act. Nevertheless, in spite of such knowledge one is forced to commit sins again and again, even after performing acts of atonement. Therefore what is the value of such atonement?" [break] Pariksit Maharaja was ruler, the king. He knew everything practically, that so many citizens committing criminal act were imprisoned and punished. Still, they, after coming back from the jail, prisonhouse, again committed. So on the whole, Pariksit Maharaja did not like, the process of prayascitta is ultimately beneficial to the people.
We get experience by two methods, by seeing and by hearing. Just like a criminal, thief, he has seen that previously a man who stole, he was arrested by the police and punished and he has heard also from authorities, from lawyers, that "Stealing is bad. If you are arrested you will be put into the prison." So this is the defect of the modern civilization. They are enacting so many laws to stop criminal but the criminality is increasing. The practical example is, when you go to the airport there is security checking. So all gentlemen, whoever he may be -- sometimes they excuse me -- but they are checked thoroughly. So the authorities check everyone means that everyone is dishonest. So what is the value of this education if everyone is criminal and dishonest? So Pariksit Maharaja is intelligent devotee. He therefore protested against this so-called atonement. Therefore he describes like this, drsta-srutabhyam yat papam janann apy atmano 'hitam [SB 6.1.9]. Everyone knows that "I am stealing; it is not good for me," but even though he is put into the jail as prayascitta, again he comes back and does the same thing. Then what is the meaning of this legal punishment or prayascitta? Therefore Pariksit Maharaja says that
kvacin nivartate 'bhadrat
kvacic carati tat punah
prayascittam atho 'partham
manye kunjara-saucavat
[SB 6.1.10]
He gave very good example, that "This prayascitta or legal punishment is like kunjara-saucavat." Kunjara means elephant, and sauca, taking bath. So kunjara, the elephant, dips itself into the water and takes bath very thoroughly, and as soon as it comes on the land, it takes some dust and throws over his body. The purpose is that unless one is fully convinced that "Sinful activities are very, very abominable for me," he cannot give it up. Therefore one has to cleanse his heart. That is real prayascitta. Otherwise, even being imprisoned or giving fine or suffering one cannot cease from sinful activity. So this Krsna consciousness movement is thoroughly wholesale process of cleansing the mind.
Therefore Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given His own version, ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam sreyah-kairava-candrika-
Therefore our request is that you take to this chanting method. It is very easy, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, and gradually you shall become free from all sinful reaction of life. But one thing we must be very careful, that we should not commit again sinful life. If you chant Hare Krsna mantra, you become free immediately from all sinful reaction. But if you commit again sinful life, that is your responsibility. This is warned very... Amongst the ten kinds of offenses, one offense is very grievous offense -- namnad balad yasya hi papa-buddhih -- if one thinks that "I am chanting Hare Krsna; therefore whatever sinful acts I am doing, it is becoming counteracted." If you keep yourself on the platform of chanting Hare Krsna mantra and do not commit willfully again sinful life, then you are liberated. So not only mukti-marga, if you keep yourself always pure, do not commit any sinful activity and chant Hare Krsna mantra, then your life is successful. Don't commit the mistake of the elephant that take bath thoroughly and again come and throw dust on your body. I think I shall end tonight this here. Thank you very much. (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
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