"Lower Planets Or Liberation"

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.33
Vrndavana, August 14, 1974

Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Prabhupada:

amayo yas ca bhutanam
jayate yena suvrata
tad eva hy amayam dravyam
na punati cikitsitam

Is very important verse. Actually, this is the essence of Krsna consciousness movement. What is that? People become diseased by sense gratification. Everyone knows. Too much sense gratification means creating disease. For example, some nice eatable. But if you, because it is very nice rasagulla, therefore I shall devour one dozen, that's not very good. That will create indigestion immediately. So in this material world, people are so much enthusiastic in the matter of sense gratification. Whole world. Not only now, this is the place for competition of sense gratification. Advancement of civilization means, the so-called civilization, material civ..., means how much you are able to gratify your senses. That is civilization. How much you are given facilities to gratify your senses. This is the modern idea, hedonism. More eat, more drink -- eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy. Sense gratification.

This is not only new. Formerly the Carvaka Muni, he also advocated, rnam krtva ghrtam pibet. In India, they want to eat very nice foodstuff prepared from ghee. So he advised that rnam krtva ghrtam pibet: if you have no money, then beg, borrow, or steal, get ghee and eat very nice. Rnam krtva, the word is... Suppose one has no money, then how to get money? Either cheat somebody, beg, or beg. But begging for grhastha is not very good thing, but sometimes they do so. Beg, borrow, or promising, "Give me now money, I shall pay you." And when credit is lost, then steal, pickpocket. This is as theory. Similarly, Carvaka Muni, rnam krtva ghrtam pibet, never mind. "No, I will have to pay." "No, that we shall see later on, never mind." "No, I will be sinful, I will have to pay next life." This is within the blood of every Indian that if I cheat you or if I take some money from you without your benefit, without repayment, then I will have to suffer. Still in India they believe this. There are some incidences that a man, father took some loan from some gentleman and his father died, and his son came to pay the money to the creditor: "Sir, my father took so much money from you. Now my father died without payment. So I have got money, you kindly take it." He says, "Let me see my book whether your father took it." So he said, "All right, consult." So after consulting the books, he said, "I don't find any item that I gave loan to your father." "No, sir, I know, my father said at the time of death that 'I owe so much money to that gentleman, I could not pay; you pay it.'" So the trouble was the man says "I don't find any debit to your father's name. How can I take your money?" And he is insisting, "Yes, my father took money from you, kindly take." This was India. This was India. They knew that "I cannot cheat you." Karmi, in the karma-kanda, if I cheat you, then I will have to pay you four times this life or next life. That is the law of karma. Therefore, we are collecting money, we should not cheat. Every paisa should be spent for Krsna; otherwise we shall be liable to pay. If we use one farthing for our sense gratification, then we will have to pay for it. This is the law of karma. The charity is given, why? Why charity is given to the brahmana? Nowadays they have manufactured charity to the daridra-narayana, poor man, ganja smoker, bidi smoker. But in the sastra, it is not. Sastra says tasmin deha, those who are devotee, those who are brahmana, they should be given, he should be given, he should accept. Why? Because if a brahmana takes some money from you, if a Vaisnava takes money from you, he everything will employ in the service of the Lord. This is utilization.

So at the present moment, people are becoming more and more poor, and they are simply educated to gratify senses. So the whole world becoming chaotic, diseased condition. Even in the topmost level, the President of United States, he was also caught dealing very unfavorably, and he was forced to resign. And what to speak of others? He is not a poor man, he is not uneducated, the topmost man, elected President of USA, but there is cheating even there, just see. And what to speak of others? Yad yad acarati sresthah, in the Bhagavad-gita it is, tat tad eva itarah janah, sa yat pramanam kurute lokas tad anuvartate. If a person, president, cheats his countrymen somehow or other, and why not others? They will also do that. "Oh, president does it. What I am? What can I know?" In this way, the more we are inclined to sense gratification, the more we are becoming sinful. And more we are becoming sinful, the more we must suffer. That is the law of nature. Amayo yas ca bhutanam jayate yena suvrata.

So by this karma... vikarma rather. Karma means when you act according to the sastra, that is called karma. Lawful activities. The lawful activities is very good. But unlawful activities, you are punishable. So the business of sense gratification is unlawful activities. You cannot gratify your senses more than necessity. Everywhere that is the stringent laws of nature. Daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya duratyaya [Bg. 7.14]. You cannot surpass it. Duratyaya. If you surpass, then you will be punished. There is simultaneous law of nature. The example is that you can eat, say, four ounce or eight ounce foodstuff. If you eat ten ounce, then there will be suffering, indigestion, you cannot eat, there will be dysentery, so many things. That is nature's law. So people are becoming entangled in karma. Yajna sa karma, one should work for Yajna, for Krsna. But they are not doing that. They are doing for sense gratification. Ye pacanty atma-karana. Bhunjate te tv agham papam ye pacanty atma-karanat. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. If you live only for sense gratification, then you become entangled in the law of karma.

So here it is suggested that amayo yas ca bhutanam. In the previous verse Narada said, karma brahmani bhavitam. Karma, your activities, should be dovetailed in the matter of satisfying the Supreme Lord. That is the way of devotional service. But how karma can be engaged, that is prescribed in this verse, that amayo yas ca bhutanam jayate yena suvrata. You get disease. Suppose you have taken too much milk and you become diseased, dysentery, could not digest; have taken too much sweet rice or rabri, so there is dysentery. That must be there. Too much eating will cause. So amayah, amayah means mucus or disease. So there is mucus, yas ca bhutanam, due to eating too much milk preparation. Tad eva hy amayam dravyam na punati cikitsitam. So cannot be cure it even by that milk preparation. The same milk preparation which has caused your mucus, disease, it can be cured by the same milk preparation, cikitsitam, but it should be medically treated. The same milk. The milk is the cause of your dysentery, but the same milk, when it is medically treated, can cure it. This is the secret. How? One milk preparation. Milk is the origin. Rabri, you take too much and there is dysentery. And cikitsitam, the same milk converted into yogurt, add little black pepper, little salt and lime, it will cure. The origin is the milk. So one way you become diseased and the other way you become cured, but the preparation is the same -- milk. Similarly, our activities in this material world with these material elements, when we violate the laws, we become entangled. But the same material activities, when it is turned into Krsna prasadam, dovetailed with Krsna for hearing and chanting Hare Krsna maha-mantra, what we are doing? We are also doing the same thing. Here is the temple. What is this temple? The same ingredients, the same cement, same brick, same stone, same worker, same plan as the skyscraper. But what is the difference? Because it is cikitsitam, it is for Krsna. You spoil your energy by the same purchase of cement, bricks, and other things for sense gratification -- a theater hall, a dancing hall. The same energy spent for dancing for Krsna, the same hall, you become liberated. By one dancing hall you go to hell, and by another dancing hall you become liberated. This is the secret.

So people have got the tendency for sense gratification. That is the material disease. So instead of satisfying your senses, try to satisfy the senses of Krsna. Then you become liberated. This is called cikitsitam. There is sense gratification. Here when you chant and dance, this is not your sense gratification; this is Krsna's sense gratification: "Oh, these devotees, they are glorifying Me, they are dancing. Blessed they are." Immediately you draw attention of Krsna, because it is bhakti.

sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam...
[SB 7.5.23]

Bhagavaty tan manye adhitam, this is the best thing. The Mayavadi, they do not know this. They simply stop dancing. They do not know that this ball dancing may lead one to hell, but the chanting Hare Krsna mantra is not like that. They do not know it. They simply take the negative side: stop dancing. We say "No. No stop it. We shall dance for Krsna, we shall eat for Krsna, we shall print books for Krsna, not newspaper. We shall secure money for printing for Krsna." The same thing, the same printing, same working, same dancing, same eating, but for Krsna. This is Krsna consciousness. Simply you have to change the, what is called, interest. Everyone is acting for self interest, but bhakti-marga, devotional service of Krsna's interest, that is real interest. Same example. If somebody is working hard securing foodstuff, for whose interest? He is walking, the leg is walking, the hand is collecting, the eyes are seeing, and so many things they are done. Now what is to be done now? Do everything, cook everything nicely, and put it into the stomach. Not that the leg will say, "I have worked so hard," the hand will say, "I shall eat." No. You cannot eat. The stomach will eat; you simply work. But if the stomach is allowed to eat, then automatically the hands and legs will be happy.

So this is cikitsitam. Don't work for sense gratification or personal interest. Real interest is how to satisfy Krsna. That is real interest. But they do not know. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31]. Everyone is, "I have got my interest." But you do not know what is your interest. Your interest is to satisfy Krsna. But the rascals, they do not know. They say, "Why Krsna? Myself, I shall enjoy everything." This is karma and bhakti. When karma... Karmi means they are working for their so-called interest, and bhakti means they are working for Krsna's interest. They..., superficially, the activities are the same. Same means superficially, not in essence. So our senses are so trained up that we want to satisfy the senses. Now these devotional activities means instead of satisfying my personal senses, if we want to satisfy Krsna's senses, this method is called bhakti. So the activities of the senses should not be stopped, it should be repaired or reformed. That is cikitsitam, "properly treated." Cikitsitam, this is the word. Cikitsitam means properly treated, under the direction of physician. The physician is guru, and guru's business is to instruct the disciple, "My dear son, you do not work for your so-called sense gratification, you try to satisfy Krsna's senses, then your life is perfect. This is the physician's duty, and this is the patient's duty. Cikitsitam. Cikitsitam is purification. You have got disease, purify yourself.

So this process, this changing of, transformation... To work for Krsna's sense gratification and to work for one's own sense gratification, this transformation change, this changing process, is called bhakti. Process is the same, simply account should be changed. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah [SB 7.5.31]. Everyone is working, daridra-narayana seva or this community seva, the country seva, nationally seva, this seva, that seva ... Nobody is for Krsna seva. Nobody will be happy, sir. Go on with your so-called seva. It will never be successful. You will be more and more entangled in diseased condition. Karmana daiva-netrena jantur deha upapattaye [SB 3.31.1]. Simply by your so-called activities you will be entangled in the law of karma. And according to your karma, you will get a different type of body and you will live for some time, again you will die, again you will get body, again you will... And you do not know what kind of body you are going to get. This is the entanglement. Yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah [Bg. 3.9]. So if we want to be free from the entanglement of this karma, then we must work for Krsna. Krsna's another name is Yajna, Yajnabhuja, Visnu. Yajnarthat karmanah. This is the cikitsitam. The material activities you are becoming entangled, and you are becoming more and more diseased. So you should be treated. How? The same thing. Milk is... Rabri is also milk preparation and dahi is also milk preparation. So you are becoming diseased by this process. Now you take this process, you will be cured. Then you will be happy. Therefore it is said, tad eva hy amayam dravyam na punati cikitsitam. Cikitsitam. We should handle everything material properly treated, properly treated. Not to work for anyone. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given us lesson that you are jivera svarupa haya nitya-krsna-dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. Every living entity is eternally the servant of Krsna. So instead of becoming servant of your senses, just try to become the servant of Krsna, then your life will be successful.

Thank you very much. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974