How Can One Become Civilized

How Can One Become Civilized

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.12
Honolulu, May 13, 1976

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Prabhupada: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Devotees: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Prabhupada: So, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One, text number twelve. (devotees repeat)

nasnatah pathyam evannam
vyadhayo abhibhavanti hi
evam niyamakrd rajan
sanaih ksemaya kalpate
 [SB 6.1.12]

So Sukadeva Gosvami is explaining how to become perfect gentleman. That is culture. If we do not accept education, culture, then where is the difference between a man and dog? There is no difference. So the Vedic civilization means everything under rules and regulation. That is Vedic civilization. Animal cannot be brought under rules and regulations. That is not possible. Therefore that is the speciality of human society, that the more one society follows the rules and regulation, he is to be considered civilized. Just like throughout the whole history there are civilization, Aryan civilization, Aryan and non-Aryan. What is the difference? Aryan means progress. One who is progressing towards the perfection of life, they are called Aryans, and those who are degrading towards animal propensity, they are non-Aryans. This is the difference. Aryan culture.

So Krsna, when found Arjuna, that he was in the battlefield and Krsna Himself is guiding him and becoming the chariot driver, and He saw that "Arjuna is declining to fight?" He became surprised. So He chastised him, kutas te kasmalam idam visame samupasthitam anarya-justam. Aryan, arya, arya. "So this is not for a gentleman, business. You are behaving like non-Aryans." Non-Aryan. So this is the difference between culture and nonculture, that... There is a Bengali proverb that one girl was to dance on the stage. So in Indian civilization the girls or the woman, they cover their head with..., from superiors. So naste vase guntala(?). She has gone to dance on the stage, and she is pulling on the veil. "Now, where is the opportunity of here to become a household wife? You have come to dance." So similarly, Arjuna was chastised that "You have come to fight, and now you are becoming very nonviolent, atheist..., er, theist. What is...? So this is anarya. You have to do your duty in proper place." That is Aryanism. That is arya. Arya-samaj means one who knows his duty, how to do it in proper time. So ksatriya, his duty is to fight, to defend from the hands of the enemy. So he was declining to fight, so He chastised him, "Non-Aryans. You are not Aryan.

So here Sukadeva Gosvami says, "My dear king, if a diseased person eats the pure, uncontaminated food prescribed by a physician, he is gradually cured, and the infection of disease can no longer touch him. Similarly, if one follows the regulative principles of knowledge, he gradually progresses towards liberation from material contamination." This is the translation of the... Nasnatah pathyam. Pathyam. Pathyam means good foodstuff, not "Anything I can eat." That is the business of the hogs and dogs. Just like hogs have no discrimination. Anything, up to stool you give him: it will eat. That is not human civilization. Although it is the law of nature that ahastani sahastanam. Vegetables or animals who has no hand... Just like ordinary animals, they have got four legs, no hand. So these four-legged animals is the food for the two-legged animals. Ahastani sahastanam. Uncivilized men means two-legged animals. They are animals, but two-legged. There are four-legged animals; there are two-legged. Ahastani sahastanam apadani catus-padam: "And living entities who have no legs, just like the vegetables, grass, plants, trees..." They have no legs. They cannot move, but they are living entities. They are food for catus-padam, for the animals who have got four legs. Ahastani sahastanam apadani catus-padam, phalguni mahatam tatra: "And the weak is food for the strong." Phalguni... Jivo jivasya jivanam. This is the law of nature, that one life is meant for maintaining another life. That is going on. So sometimes they put forward this argument that "You are also eating vegetables. They have got life. Why you object that nonvegetarians who are eating four legged animals...?" No. We are not going to infringe to the laws of nature. That is not our business. You can eat four-legged animals because you are also animal. But when we speak of civilized animals... Civilized is not animal. That is human being. So long one is not civilized, he is animal. And the civilization begins when one understands that he is not this body. That is the beginning of civilization. Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke [SB 10.84.13]. So long one is in ignorance, the bodily concept of life, he is animal. When one knows that "I am not this body; I am... Aham brahmasmi," then civilization begins.

So here it is recommended that unless we follow the rules and regulations, then there is no possibility of curing our material disease. The whole process is we are in materially diseased. Otherwise we are as good as Krsna, but because we are materially diseased, we are in the difficult position of birth, death, old age and disease. Krsna says. This is real problem. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam [Bg. 13.9]. So if we want to be cured from this disease, then we have to follow rules and regulation, just like a patient, if he wants to be cured from the disease, he has to follow the rules and regulation prescribed by the physician. Therefore law, religion, Vedic scripture, they are all meant for human being, not for the cats and dogs. Even ordinary law, they are meant for human being. Just like on the street it is "Keep to the right." So this is for the human being. If the cats and dogs goes from right to the left or wrong, they are not prosecuted. The law is meant for the human being. If the human being does not follow rules and regulative principle, law, then he's animal. So civilized means to raise oneself from the animal status of life to the human status life. That means rules and regulations. Nasnatah pathyam evannam vyadhayo abhibhavanti hi, evam niyamakrd rajan [SB 6.1.12]. Niyama. Niyama means regulation. We have to follow the rules and regulation. That is compulsory. That is human. In the Caitanya-caritamrta you'll find this verse, anadi bahirmukha jiva krsna bhuli gela, ataeva krsna veda-purana karila. The purport is that our disease is that we have forgotten God. The more we are forgetful about God, the more we are animals. And the more we become advanced in understanding God, Krsna consciousness, then we are human being. And if we are more advanced, then you are devata, demigods. And when you more make advance, then you become fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. This is the process.

So real civilization is how to go back to home, back to Godhead. But that they do not know. Na te viduh. The materialistic persons, they do not know. Therefore there must be organization, institution, to teach the human society how to go back to home, back to... That is real civilization. Otherwise cats and dogs, they are also eating, sleeping, mating, getting children, and dying. That is not human civilization. In the next verse we'll find that human civilization can be attained. The first thing is, thirteeth verse, tapasa, "by austerity."

tapasa brahmacaryena
samena ca damena ca
tyagena satya-saucabhyam
yamena niyamena va
 [SB 6.1.13]

deha-vag-buddhijam dhira
dharmajnah sraddhayanvitah
ksipanty agham mahad api
venu-gulmam ivanalah

These are the different steps, how one person can become civilized. So first thing is tapasa. Tapasa brahmacaryena [SB 6.1.13], austerities. Therefore in the Vedic civilization the children, they are taught from the very beginning brahmacarya. Tapasa brahmacarya. A small boy, five-years-old boy... That is gurukula. Brahmacari guru-kule vasan danto guror hitam [SB 7.12.1]. This is a way of life, to teach the brahmacarya, brahmacarya, celibacy, to restrain from sex life. That is brahmacarya. So this is the beginning of civilization. The unlimited, unrestricted sex life like hogs and dogs, that is not civilization. Civilization, the first of all, to learn how to observe celibacy, to come to the point, no sex life. That is perfect civilization: no sex life. Therefore in the Vedic civilization you'll find the human society is divided into four orders and four spiritual or..., material and spiritual, varnasrama. Varna and asrama. Brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, sannyasa. (end)

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.12 -- Honolulu, May 13, 1976

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