'Isms' Are Sense Gratification
Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1-8
Stockholm, September 6, 1973
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Prabhupada: ...nice instruction by
Rsabhadeva. Rsabhadeva was incarnation of God. He was instructing His sons
before retirement. So he's instructing nayam dehah, this body, deha-bhajam
nrloke. Deha-bhajam means one who has accepted this material body. Actually this
body has no existence. It is simply a covering, therefore it is called maya.
Everyone, we have got experience, that at night we forget this body. We act in a
different body in dream. At night we feel there is no existence of this body,
and at night, dreaming, we get another body, walking in a different place,
creating in a different situation, acting in a different body. It is a fact,
every day, every night, we see it like this. And during the daytime we forget
that night body. So actually we are possessing the gross body and the subtle
body. When we act on the subtle body, the gross body is no longer existing, and
when we work in the gross body, the subtle body is not existing. But I am
existing. I am existing both in the subtle body and gross body. This day's body
is also a dream, but we are so foolish that we do not understand it. Mad, we are
mad after. Therefore this subtle body and gross body, and their vanishing at
daytime and night's time, the cats and dogs cannot understand. But a man, if he
has got cool brain, he can understand.
What is that sound? Nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye [SB 5.5.1]. This daytime, or nighttime, we work so hard, but what is the aim. Aim is to satisfy senses. Ask these people all over the world, especially in the western country. They are making so many plans. Yesterday, when we were coming by the plane, the whole two hours one man was working, making some calculation. So everybody is busy, very, very busy, but if you ask him, "Why you are working so hard? What is the aim?" The aim, he has nothing to say except sense gratification, that's all. He has no more aim. He may think that "I have got a big family, I have to maintain them," or "I have got so much responsibility." But what is that? That is simply sense gratification. Even we manufacture so many "isms", philanthropism, humanitarianism, nationalism, socialism, so many. But what are these "isms"? That is also sense gratification. I satisfy my senses. I want to see that the senses of my brothers, senses of my sisters, senses of my friends, or senses of my society people, or my nation, countrymen, they are satisfied. The business is sense gratification. Just like in our country we got Mahatma Gandhi. So he started, he is supposed to be father of the nation. There are many leaders in different countries. But if we, I mean to, take account of their business, it is sense gratification, that's all. Extended sense gratification. These are just like Marx, what is his name, full name?
Devotee: Karl Marx.
Prabhupada: Karl Marx. He is thinking how the laborer, the worker, their senses will be gratified. That is his philosophy. Is it not?
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupada: He's thinking that the capitalist, they are satisfying only their senses in luxuriously, why not the laborers who are actually working. That is his philosophy. The central point is sense gratification. Just try to understand. The whole world is busy in different labels, but the central point is sense gratification. That's all. Is anybody has anything to say against this, here present? But here Rsabhadeva says nrloke kastan kaman arhate, na arhate. Na ayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye [SB 5.5.1]. Such kind of hard work, it is done by the dogs and hogs also. So does it mean that we shall have to work, we have got this human form of body, and we have to work just like dogs and hogs. Actually they're doing so. Nothing more than that. The dogs and hogs, they're busy all day and night for the same thing: how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex life, how to defend. The man is also working in the same way, under different label only. Nationalism, socialism, this "ism" that "ism", but the action of the dog and hog and the human society, so-called civilized, the point is the same. So Rsabhadeva says that the dogs and hogs they are working so hard for sense gratification, but this human form of body is not meant for that. It is for different path.
That the modern civilization, they do not know that. Modern man, society, they do not know. They simply think that, "Yes, dog is sleeping on the street. We must have very nice building, very nice apartment, very nice bedstead. That is advancement of civilization. Otherwise it is primitive, if we remain in the same standard, sleeping anywhere, without any furniture, with..." But after all the subject matter is sleeping, nothing more than that. Similarly, you take eating also, or mating also. Then, the question will be, then what do you say the human life is meant for? The answer is tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhyed [SB 5.5.1]. Human life is meant for tapasya, tapasya. Tapasya means austerity. Denying this, denying. The cats and dogs are satisfied -- as they eat more, they think they're enjoying. Nowadays the human being also. They're using so many appetizer, drinking. We study this in the aeroplane. Before eating, they supply wine, make the appetite very strong, then eat so much, huge quantity. You have marked it?
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupada: Yes, so that is their enjoyment. But Rsabhadeva says, or the sastra says, "No, no, you should not eat at all. That is your perfection." Just see. These, these animal like men, they are eating so much, they are enjoying, but your business should be to decrease up to the point of need, no more eating. So are they prepared? No. It is very difficult. But that is the aim. Therefore, you will find, those who are for spiritual advan..., just like Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami. Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami belonged to a very rich man's, son. His father and uncle were very rich men in... Five hundred years ago, the income was twelve lakhs of rupees per annum. That one lakh, one hundred thousand of rupees, I think at the present moment, the value has increased one hundred thousand times.
Devotee: (indistinct)
Prabhupada: Within our life we see in our childhood, our boyhood we have seen rice was selling at three rupees four annas, first class rice. My father used to purchase, fifteen mounds of rice at a time, and the cost was three rupees four annas. Just like cumin seeds, so fine. First-class rice. Now that first-class rice, at least in India, no more available, because all first-class rice is exported. Indian government wants exchange, they want to get machine. So in exchange of machine, they are sending all nice foodstuff outside. Even killing the cows, they are sending meat, skin. With Russia, they have got agreement.
So Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami's father's income was one hundred thousand rupees per month. Now, I have heard that sometimes in one rupee, they were selling nine mounds of rice. So anyway, Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami, the point is, Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami was very, very rich man's son, only son, and had very beautiful wife. The father saw that this boy is a little restless, he's very much attracted with Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement, he wants to join, so he'll go away from home. So let him have a very beautiful wife, so that he may not go away. So rich man, to get a beautiful wife is not a very difficult thing, he got, and a special house, garden house, and with guard, so that the son may not go away. This was the position of Raghanatha Dasa Gosvami. So one day Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami's... At that time he was not Gosvami, Raghunatha, Raghunatha's mother was advising her husband or Raghunatha's father, "Why don't you shackle him?" As woman she was suggesting that better, just like in prison house they are locked up in iron chain, similarly you do for my son so that he'll not be able to go away. So the father was replying, "You mad woman, don't you see I have given such a nice wife, shackle, he's not attached at all. And what this iron shackle will do?" This was Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami.
After all, Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami, somehow or other, in spite of vigilance of the father and mother, he left home and joined Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Jagannatha Puri. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very glad that Raghunatha has come. So his father thought that "The boy has gone away, he's not inclined, so he may not suffer for want of money," so he sent four servants and four hundred rupees per month expenditure for Raghunatha. So Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami, in the beginning he was accepting that four hundred rupees, but what he was doing, he was spending by inviting all the sannyasis, including Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So gradually Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami said that all his men, father's men, "You better go home. I don't want your assistance. I don't want this money. You go away." The master..., so they went back. And there was no invitation. Caitanya Mahaprabhu inquired his personal secretary, Svarupa Damodara. So Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami was entrusted for training to Svarupa Damodara. He asked Svarupa Damodara, "We don't receive any invitation from Raghunatha nowadays, what is that?" "No, he has refused his father's money. He doesn't take. These men have gone back." Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu went, "Oh, that's very nice. He became a mendicant by taking help from home, it is not good. He has refused, that is very nice. But how he is eating nowadays?" "Now he is standing on the staircase at Jagannatha Temple. When the priests go home, they give him some contribution of the foodstuff. He is maintained."
Then after few days Caitanya Mahaprabhu inquired from Svarupa Damodara, "Oh, nowadays I don't find Raghunatha standing there, what he is doing?" Svarupa Damodara replied that "Raghunatha has given up that business standing on this. He thought that it is standing like prostitute. 'No, I don't want.' " Then, "How he's eating?" "No, he is collects some rice which is washed away from the kitchen, and he eats that." Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami was doing that. Caitanya Mahaprabhu one day went to his place and He was searching, just He was encouraging, He was searching. He saw that a small pot some rice is kept. So, "Raghunatha, what is this?" (He) began to eat, "Oh, (this) is very nice. You eat such nice things, you do not invite us?" (laughter). Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami said, "It is not for you, don't take it, don't..." "No, no, it is very nice!" In this way Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami increased, and later on, when after departure of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when he went to live in Vrndavana with the six gosvamis, he is also one of the gosvamis, he was taking three times bathing, but not eating. Every alternate day, he will little buttermilk. That's all. This is called tapasya, austerity. Coming to the point of nil, no more eating. No more sleeping, no more sex life, no more defense. This is perfection. Who will accept this? (laughter)
Therefore Rsabhadeva says nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke, to collect for eating, sleeping and mating, whole day and night working, this is not good. Then what is good? Tapah. Tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhyed [SB 5.5.1]. Sattvam means your existence has to be purified. Our existence, this existence is not purified, therefore we have got this material body. Now what is the decitement (?). Let us have this material, we are enjoying very nicely. What is this bad? But these rascals, they have no idea that we can avoid the, I mean to say, miserable condition of this body. We can avoid. This, in the Bhagavad-gita it is said that, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-
They are so callous, just like animal. They cannot think that there is possibility of not being slaughtered. When they are taken in the slaughter house, they agree to go because they know there is no other way. We have been made, meant for being slaughtered. Actually that is the position. The poor animals, they have no power to protest, neither combinedly they can give you fighting, to the human being. You will see one hundred cows are being driven by one boy or one man. They are so helpless. If they combine, with their horns they can immediately kill that man, but they have no intelligence. They do not know how to fight. Sometimes they fight, but this is position of the rascals and fools. Take the example, one cow or one bull is quite strong enough to kill ten men. He has got so much strength. But because he has no intelligence, because he is animal, hundreds of cows and bulls are being driven by one man to the slaughterhouse.
So the, this intelligence, that is difference between the animal and the man. If one hundred men was being taken away like that, immediately the man who was taking to kill them, immediate, why one hundred, ten men would have been sufficient, or two men would have been sufficiently stronger. They would not tolerate. Similarly we are also being driven by the laws of nature to accept these inconveniences, repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. But at the present moment, why at the present moment, always, these people, these rascal people, they do not know that we can be rescued from this repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. They have no idea. And that is civilization. How to get out of this birth, death, old age, and disease, that is civilization. But no one, nobody knows, scientists no, philosopher no, politician. They can concede that there is such possibility. In the Bhagavad-gita, therefore it is said,
yam hi na vyathayanty ete
purusam purusarsabha
sama-duhkha-sukham dhiram
so 'mrtatvaya kalpate
Amrtatva, amrtatva means no more births, no more death. No more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. That is called amrtatva. Amrta means eternity or immortality. Hiranyakasipu tried. Hiranyakasipu, you know Prahlada Maharaja's father, he was defeated by the demigods. Therefore he left home and went for tapasya, to become immortal. So he was a demon, so he was undergoing tapasya, other demigods, not Krsna, because he was against Krsna. Demons means against God. They'll never go to God. They'll go to somebody else for power. So Hiranyakasipu, when Brahma visited, that, "Why you are undergoing so serious tapasya that the whole world is trembling by your tapasya? What do you want?" So he said, "I want to become immortal." Lord Brahma said, "That is not in my power because myself is not also immortal? How can I give immortality?"
So he was a demon, he thought by cheating Brahma, indirect way, he took all the benediction, that "I shall not die by any, killed by any man, any demigod, any animal, or any living being. I shall not die in daytime, I shall not die at night, I shall not die in the sky, I shall not die on the land, I shall not die in water." In this way, as much as possible, by the definition of negation, no this, not this, not this, he thought, "Now I have become immortal." But he was also killed by Nrsimhadeva, keeping all the promises of Brahma. He was not killed daytime, neither at night. He was not killed on water, he was not killed in the sky. He was killed on the lap of the Lord. So in this way... Actually even the demons in those days they were thinking that "Why should we be subjected to these laws of birth, death and disease. We must rescue (?)." But the demons cannot. But there is possibility. But who knows? Ask anybody, ask any scientist, philosopher that, "Have you any process by which we can become immortal?" What they will answer? "Up to date we have no such process, but we are trying. In future." They will say like that. But no question of future. Immediately, you can have.
In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti [Bg. 4.9]. Krsna says, "Simply if somebody knows what I am, what is my activities, janma, why do I appear in this material world, janma karma." He appears like human being, not exactly, but it is supposed that He accepts one father and mother, and He appears. Devaki-vasudeva. But that is not ordinary thing. Here also it is said that "You undergo tapasya, but not like Hiranyakasipu, for cheating Brahma. Divyam, for understanding God." Just like Krsna says, janma karma me divyam, transcendental, yo janati tattvatah. Simply to understand Krsna, His transcendental position. If you try to understand, then Krsna says, "What is the result?" Janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah. Where is that verse? Find out. Where is Bhagavad-gita? Yo janati tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9]. Find it, yes, yes, read it.
Devotee: Translation?
Prabhupada: Yes. And one who does not take birth for him there is no old age, no disease. So here it is summarized that he does not take any more birth within this material world. What is the purport? Read.
Pradyumna: The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the Kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body. [break]
Prabhupada: Janma karma me divyam [Bg. 4.9]. How Krsna expands Himself, how He appears, what is the nature of His body, these things if you simply understand, then you become immortal. That is Krsna consciousness movement. Just to give the people a chance to understand Krsna then he becomes immortal. That is the mission of life. Not that to enjoy sense gratification in a polished way, but the business is the same as the dogs and hogs enjoy. That is being instructed here. Nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye [SB 5.5.1]. Vid-bhujam means the pigs who eat stool. They're also enjoying like that. They have got very free sex enjoyment. They do not care who is mother, who is sister, with anyone. We have seen, that is, nature has got example, everything, you can study. You'll find in Srimad-Bhagavatam that by studying nature you can get so many instruction, perfect. So one devotee made the nature his spiritual master, and studying nature and getting so much information. So if you study like that, here as it is given, the example, vid-bhujam ye. So vid-bhujam means the pigs or the hog. They are also eating nicely, getting fat, and having sex intercourse very freely, so does it mean that human being is also meant for this business, like the hogs and dogs. This is the point. This is the instruction. This body is not meant for such enjoyment for the senses, but this body is meant for tapah, austerity, as Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami showed example. He came to the point of neti. How to come to that point, tapasya. Why? By that process your existential position will be purified. And if you say, what is the use of purifying? There is use, because you want happiness, but your happiness is disturbed. You cannot have perpetual, uninterrupted happiness in this body. Therefore, if you really want happiness, then you purify your existence and you'll get continued eternal happiness of bliss and knowledge. This should be the aim of human life.
Thank you very much. (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
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