The Perfect Sympathizer
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.7
Honolulu, June 15, 1975
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Prabhupada: Om namo bhagavate
vasudevaya. (chants twice with devotees responding) (chants verse word for word
with devotees responding:)
na ced ihaivapacitim yathamhasah
krtasya kuryan mana-ukta-panibhih
dhruvam sa vai pretya narakan upaiti
ye kirtita me bhavatas tigma-yatanah
[SB 6.1.7]
So last week we discussed Pariksit Maharaja's sympathy with the suffering humanity. This is Vaisnava. The Vaisnava, or devotee, he is the perfect sympathizer for all suffering humanity. Others' sympathy is not perfect. They are planning so many things -- opening hospitals or charitable dispensaries, schools, lunatic asylum. These are all public sympathetic activities. But they are not... They are, of course, good to some extent. If a man is suffering from the bodily ailments, if he is given some relief in the hospital, or if the society is not educated, give him education, this is all good work undoubtedly. But the ultimate good work is not known to them. They are taking care of the external symptoms. Why a person, a living entity, is put into that condition? And if that condition is ended, that is real sympathy. A person is suffering from some disease. He goes to the doctor, physician. He gives some medicine -- immediate some relief from the pain. This is one sympathy. And there is another sympathy, that "Why the man is getting such disease and suffering? Why not stop the cause of the disease?" That is real sympathy.
Now, we can see in our front, there is a tree standing for many years, and he has to stand in scorching heat, torrents of rain, pinching cold. He cannot move an inch. And if we think seriously, "Suppose if I would have been put into that condition, that 'Stand up here for five hundred or five thousand years. You cannot move an inch, and you bear all the sufferings, scorching heat, storm,' " would I agree to do that? No. I will not agree. But the tree is also a living entity. He is a living being. I am also living being. So I am put in a different condition of life and the tree is put in a different condition of life. Why? Why this distinction? Is there any upper hand superior judgment that one is put in the condition of standing tree and one is put in the beautiful human body, freely moving? There must be, because we are all living entities. We are all soul, spirit soul. We are simply put in different dresses.
Therefore, in the beginning of the instruction of Bhagavad-gita, this lesson is the first lesson. We have to understand.
dehino 'smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
[Bg. 2.13]
Ninety-nine point nine percent, they do not understand this philosophy, especially in the modern age. Mandah sumanda-matayo [SB 1.1.10]. They are very, very dull rascals. This is the challenge. Mandah. Mandah means dull, no intelligence. A simple truth, Krsna is explaining to Arjuna. It is authoritative statement because Krsna says, and Krsna says not unreasonably, very reasonably, "I am giving very common example that smin dehe, within this body, the proprietor of the body or the spirit soul is there. And on account of this," dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13], "because the living entity is within this body, therefore the bodily changes are taking place." What is that changing? Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara. "The body is sometimes child, and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing." Who cannot understand this? The child, the small child, is dancing. Now, that child will get the body of a young man like you. Everyone knows it. This body will change. Where is the difficulty? And Krsna is giving this common example, tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]. As you are experiencing this change of body, similarly, you take it that this body also will change. An old man like me, the next body is there. Either farther old man or, after death, another body. This is to be understood. Tatha dehantara-praptih. Dehantara-praptih means to get another body.
So we are experiencing in our this life. It is taking change so swiftly that we cannot understand how the body is changing, but it is changing. So similarly, this body will change. Tatha dehantara-praptih. And we have to change that body after death according to my mental condition because we have got two bodies, the subtle body and the gross body. This gross body is finished; it is no more working. Just like at night the gross body does not work. We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence, and ego -- subtle body -- that is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result. There is result. I cannot see what is the result, what you are dreaming. I am fool. I do not know. But the man who is dreaming, he is experiencing. Similarly, change of body means we are carried by the subtle body to another gross body. This is the process, nature's way. You cannot say that "I will not change body." No, you will be forced. Just like a young man can say, "I will not become old man." No, nature will force you to become an old man, or change your body. This is the law of nature. You cannot surpass the laws of nature. Similarly, change of body, that is forced by the nature. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah [Bg. 3.27]. Prakrteh, by the nature's law, we have to do. We are completely under nature's law. And we are declaring independence. This is our foolishness. This is our foolishness.
So in the Fifth Chapter, at the end of the Fifth Chapter, Sukadeva Gosvami has described the different sufferings, body in the hellish condition. We are, according to change of body, we are not only going through the evolutionary process of different types of body, as we have got experience here: the aquatics, the trees, the plants, the insect, the birds, the beast, then a human being. Similarly, after human being, if we do not work properly with our advanced consciousness, then we go down again in the hellish planet that are down this universe. And if we act piously, then you go to the upper planetary system. This moon planet is also one of the upper planetary system. But you cannot go by sputnik. That is not possible. It is all foolishness. The moon planet is situated above the sun planet. They are not going to the moon planet; therefore they have stopped their propaganda. So above that moon planet, there is Venus, there is Jupiter, there is Mars, and so many others. So in the sastra it is said, urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah [Bg. 14.18]. If you act very piously, in the mode of goodness, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system. And if you do not work in the modes of goodness -- in the modes of passion -- then you remain in this planet and become changed into so many bodies. And if you still work... Jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah. If you are so abominable that you do not work as a human being and just like animal, then you go to the hellish condition. This is nature's law.
So Sukadeva Gosvami has described all the planetary system, where and how they are situated, how many miles they are different from one another. The calculation of the whole universe is made there. The diameter is described: four billion miles up and down, this way and that. And where is the sun is situated and how far above the sun the moon is situated, how far above the moon the Mars, Jupiter -- everything is clearly described. And where the hellish planets are situated, and how in the hellish planets different sinful men are suffering. So Pariksit Maharaja, after hearing... That is Vaisnava. He did not take care of the other things. He immediately took care of the suffering planets, because that is the Vaisnava's nature. Vaisnava has no problem. He is servant of God, representative of God. But he is feeling the sufferings of the humanity. That is Vaisnava. He feels, "Oh, these people are suffering. Let us give some information from the sastra so that they can be relieved from the suffering condition."
So in this Kali-yuga, (it is) especially Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy that you are chanting and dancing before Caitanya Mahaprabhu... So He is so merciful that if you continue this process, you are guaranteed that you will never go to the hellish planet. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy. Very simple thing. If you simply chant and dance before Caitanya Mahaprabhu Kalau sankirtanaih yajnaih yajanti hi su-medhasah. This is the description of the sastra:
krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah
[SB 11.5.32]
This is the method of worship in this Kali-yuga, in this age. What is that? That krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, descends as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, whose complexion is very beautiful." Tvisa. Tvisa means by the complexion; akrsna, not blackish. As Krsna is blackish, this incarnation is not blackish. It is just like golden, molten gold. So tvisakrsnam. And krsna-varnam, "He is Krsna," or "always chanting Hare Krsna." Krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam. And His associates, just like Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita Prabhu and Gadadhara and Srivasa and many others... So He is always in association of His assistants, who are assisting Him in propagating the sankirtana movement. Gaurangera sangi-gane, nitya-siddha bhoi mane. Anyone who is preaching the sankirtana movement is associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sangopangastra... Just like Advaita Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu helped, similarly, anyone, even up to date, who is trying to help the propagation of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission, preach this sankirtana movement all over the world, he is also associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Gaurangera sangi-gane nitya siddha boli mane. They are not ordinary human being. Nitya siddha, ever liberated.
So if we follow this leadership and if we act very nicely, very easily... Sukham. There is one verse in Sanskrit, Bhagavad-gita, raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam, kartum avyayam. To perform this activity, it doesn't require much energy, much austerity. Simply you join the sankirtana movement, and ecstasy you dance, take prasadam. By this process you are guaranteed; you will never go to the hellish planet. So this sankirtana movement is so nice. Anyway, don't disbelieve. It is in the sastra. So there are hellish planet, hellish birth, 8,400,000 species of birth. So we have to take information from the sastra. Don't be foolish. You create your mental concoction. No, that will not help you, because you are not free. Nobody is free. Everyone is under the grip of material laws. Even if I think, "I am free," that is my foolishness. I will be forced to act. Even if I do not want to become old man, I will be forced to become old man. And if I, after this giving up this body, if I... Suppose nature is offering me a dog's body. If I say "No, no, I will not accept this," no, you will be forced to accept it. That is nature's law. But you can save yourself if you follow conscientiously. That is Krsna consciousness. If you keep yourself in Krsna consciousness and act accordingly, then you will be saved. Otherwise there is no saving. Tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]. You will have to accept another body. And what is that body? That is not stated. That will be decided at the end of your life, at the time of your death, at the condition of your mind and intelligence at that time. If, at that time, you are thinking of your pet dog, "What will happen to my pet dog? How he will live? Let me leave some of my property in his name," (laughter) then you can leave the dog with some property, but you are going to be dog. This is laws of nature. You may love your dog very nicely and leave some property, but where you are going, sir? That is under the nature's law. You cannot say that "I given so much property to the dog. Why shall I accept the...?" No. Because your mind is absorbed in the thought of dog, therefore you must take the dog's body. This is nature's law. Therefore we have to train up our mind. Instead of dog, you must train up your mind to think of God. Then you will be saved. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam [Bg. 4.9].
Anyway, so Pariksit Maharaja asked that "How these people can be delivered from this hellish condition of life?" That was his question to Sukadeva Gosvami. He asked,
adhuneha maha-bhaga
yathaiva narakan narah
nanogra-yatanan neyat
tan me vyakhyatum arhasi
"I have heard you, my dear sir." Sukadeva Gosvami is the guru of Pariksit Maharaja. So he became very much anxious, "Oh, so many people are suffering in the hellish condition?" So he immediately asked his spiritual master, "Kindly let me know how these living entities who are suffering in this way can be saved, can be delivered from the severe pain of hellish condition of life." This was his question. So the answer is given that,
na ced ihaivapacitim yathamhasah
krtasya kuryan mana-ukta-panibhih
dhruvam sa vai pretya narakan upaiti
ye kirtita me bhavatas tigma-yatanah
"My dear Pariksit, if, before the end of the life..." We are committing so many sinful activities. We are committing so many sinful activities. Just like in the Western countries they are killing so many birds and beasts, especially cows, thousands and thousands. They are all becoming implicated. You have no right. Even Christ said, "Thou shalt not kill." (aside, to someone fiddling with tape recorder:) What is that business? Stop it. Who is making this "kut, kut"?
Devotee: This tape recorder.
Prabhupada: No, why this is...? Stop it. So we are responsible. Even if we kill one mosquito, we are responsible. It is not man-made law, that "If you kill a human being, then you are punished, and if you kill another animal, you are not punished." This is man-made law, according to our convenience. "We have to eat the animal; therefore there is no punishment for animal killing." But God is for everyone the same. Every living entity is part and parcel of God. So they have been given an opportunity to undergo the punishment or enjoyment. You cannot disturb him. You cannot disturb him. Just like you are living in an apartment according to your position, but if I forcibly I ask you, "Go out of this apartment," then I will be punishable by the law. I have no right to get you out from that apartment. Similarly, every living entity by the laws of nature, all laws of nature, is imprisoned or allowed under certain apartment, either in the body of a tree or a human being or demigod or cat or dog. These are all ordained. So you cannot get out the living entity, soul, by force from that body. Then you will be punishable. The living entity is never killed, but you have no right to get him out from that body. That is sinful. If you argue that "What is the harm if I kill one animal, because it is said, na hanyate hanyamane sarire: [Bg. 2.20] 'The living entity, soul, is never killed even after the annihilation of this body'?" that is all right. But you cannot force him. Just like if you get one person, by force, get out from his apartment -- he is not dying, of course, but still, it is criminal because you are forcing to go out of the apartment. So that is the law of nature. You cannot force anyone to get out of the body. Then you are punishable.
So the punishments are different. So therefore Sukadeva Gosvami is informing, na ced ihaivapacitim yathamhasah. You have done something, sinful activity, and if you do not atone for it before your next death, krtasya kuryan mana-ukta-panibhih, the sinful activities which you have done with your body, with your mind, with your senses, that you have to atone for it. "Otherwise," dhruvam sa vai pretya narakan upaiti, dhruvam, "surely he will get the different types of hellish condition of life," ye kirtita me, "as I have already described," bhavatas tigma-yatanah, "before you how they are suffering." This is karma-kanda vicara, means for one sinful activities, another pious activity, counteraction. But this will be discussed in the next verse, that prayascittam. Prayascitta means atonement. That is the next verse here:
tasmat puraivasv iha papa-niskrtau
yateta mrtyor avipadyatatmana
dosasya drstva guru-laghavam yatha
bhisak cikitseta rujam nidanavit
[SB 6.1.8]
So according to degree of sinful activities... So degree, the most sinful activity, according to Vedic information -- to kill a child, to kill a woman, to kill a brahmana, and to kill a cow. This is very abominable punishment. Child, brahmana, cow, and woman, they are to be given protection by the laws of Vedic instruction. They have to be protected. So this should be very carefully done. Stri-sudra-dvija-bandhunam [SB 1.4.25]. Stri, they are considered either as innocent as the child or as innocent as the animal. So they should be given always protection. So here it is said that tasmat puraiva asu iha papa-niskrtau. Very busy. We do not know when is, when we shall die. But we must know, we have committed so many sinful activities; therefore before the next death, yateta mrtyor avipadyatatmana. Mrtyu: we have to die. Before death, we have to make the atonement. "Otherwise," Sukadeva Gosvami says, "as I have already described the different position of hellish condition of life, one has to suffer." And how it will be done? Dosasya drstva laghu..., guru-laghavam yatha. There are degrees. The first degree sinful activity I have already said. There are different degrees. So as the physician The example is given that bhisak cikitseta rujam nidanavit. Bhisak means physician. You have got some pain, disease, ailments. He gives you Suppose you are suffering, so he sees that this suffering is not very serious. "All right, you take this tablet." What is called? Anacin? "And you will be relived." But if he has got a big boil, and it has got pus and bad [break]
...decided in India still there is the system. Now everything is gone practically. But still the Vedic system is there that if one has committed... They are always conscious, the mass of people, not the so-called educated men, that "In the sastra it is said that this is sinful." So if he commits some sinful activity, he goes to a very expert brahmana. They are called bhattacarya. They are especial... Just like there are physicians for treatment of the disease, there are highly learned brahmanas who are called bhattacaryas. People go there: "Sir, I have committed this sin. What I have to do?" So they prescribe that "You do like this." So similarly, as we go to the physician, we have to go to consult an expert learned brahmana, that "I have committed..." But people used to understand that what is sinful and what is pious. Now people are so downtrodden, so dull, mandah, that they do not understand what is sinful, what is pious. They are going on, doing all nonsense without any care. And there is no question of consulting physician or learned brahmana.
So these things are all gone. In Caitanya Mahaprabhu's time there was misuse also of this... Just like sometimes the physician does not give him the proper medicine. Just to keep him under treatment and take money from him, he continues. Similarly, in this age things are being deteriorated. So even you go to a learned brahmana, he does not give you the proper instruction. He wants to exact some money from you. Therefore things have gone, everything, very bad. Even in Caitanya Mahaprabhu's time, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was there, one gentleman, he was made into a Muhammadan. This is a long story. The shortcut is he was very rich man, and the Nawab of Bengal, Hussain Shah, when he was a boy, he was his servant. Later on he became the Nawab, the king. So one day the Nawab was being massaged, and his wife saw that there is a stripe on the back. So (s)he asked the Nawab, "What is this?" So he stated that "When I was a poor boy, I was servant of Buddhimanta Khan, and I committed some wrong, so he whipped me with a cane." "Oh? Then it is a sign that you were a servant of Buddhimanta Khan sometimes before. If people will see and you will explain, that is an insult for you." "Oh, what is that? He was just like my father. He chastised me. I don't mind." "No, no, no, no. You should kill him so that he may not say to anyone that you were sometime his servant." So Nawab disagreed. Nawab said, "No, no. He treated me just like my son, and I accepted him as my father. It is not possible to kill him." Then the queen suggested that "At least you make him a Muhammadan. Then that will be the punishment." So the king, or the Nawab, said, "All right, I shall make him." Because in those days, to make a Hindu a Muhammadan, it was very easy. The Muhammadans they have got a pot, it is called badna. So if the Mohammedan takes little water from the badna and sprinkles upon a Hindu, then Hindu community will immediately reject him, "Oh, he has become Muhammadan." This was the Hindu community. Therefore so many Muhammadans were there in India, and ultimately, by the British policy, they divided. They were not actually Muhammadans coming from Turkey or from West. They were lower-class Hindus. But the Hindus were so foolish that if a Muhammadan sprinkled some water in this way, so he becomes Muhammadan and he is rejected, in this way the Muhammadan population was there.
Anyway, that was done in the case of Buddhimanta Khan. The Nawab called him one day and took little water from his pot and sprinkled, and it was the law, "He has become Muhammadan, he has become Muhammadan." So he went to a bhattacarya, "So what is the atonement? Now I have become Muhammadan." Just see the conception. And the bhattacarya said that "You drink one pound of molten lead." "How it is possible?" "That is the atonement." So in this way he was baffled. He went to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He was very respectable man. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu laughed, that "This the condition of the Hindu society." So He said that "I tell you that you give up your family life. You go to Vrndavana and chant there Hare Krsna. That's all. That will be the..."
So at the present moment that is the only atonement. Whatever we have done and whatever we are doing, the atonement is chant Hare Krsna mantra. So we haven't got to go to Vrndavana. We have got Vrndavana, Nabadwip, here in Hawaii, in this temple. So you take this process of atonement, but don't commit sinful life any more. Don't think that "Now I am chanting and I can go on committing all sinful activities." That is aparadha. That is offense. Namnad balad yasya hi papa-buddhih. If we think like that, that "We have got an instrument, chanting of Hare Krsna mantra, which nullifies or neutralizes all kinds of sinful activities. It is very good instrument. Then I go on committing all kinds of sinful activities, and sometimes I go in the temple and chant Hare Krsna and dance," no, don't take this policy. You must stop your sinful activities. Hare Krsna mantra has got the power to neutralize the resultant action of your all sinful activities. That's a fact. But don't accumulate again the sinful activities. Then you are safe. If you take it as an instrument: "Now let me commit sinful activities and chant Hare Krsna," then that is very dangerous. You will never be excused. Just like sometimes the Christians do. They go to the church, make some atonement, and again does the same thing next week, and again goes to the church, again atonement. This is not good. If you make atonement for your sinful activities by some process -- just like we are prescribing this process, chant Hare Krsna -- surely your sinful reaction is nullified. But don't commit it again. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He delivered Jagai-Madhai. They were very sinful. Sinful means they were born in a respectable brahmana family, but by bad association they became drunkard, woman-hunter, cheater, and plunderer, like that. That is sinful. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu delivered them. Then how delivered them? Caitanya Mahaprabhu made them promise that "You will not do any more all these things." They said, "Yes, we promise. We shall not do." "Then you are delivered." Similarly, by chanting Hare Krsna mantra, all the sinful activities are excused, but you don't commit it again. Therefore we are prescribing... Along with chanting of Hare Krsna mantra, we are asking our disciples, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling." If you save yourself from these four pillars of sinful activities and chant Hare Krsna mantra -- not very much, only sixteen rounds minimum -- then you are saved from the hellish condition of life for which Pariksit Maharaja was so disturbed and he was asking, "How to save these people from this hellish condition of life?"
So this will be described more and more. The book is there, Bhagavata. You can read. We are... We have published so many Srimad-Bhagavatam edition, nicely explained in English. So they are being accepted even educated circle, school, college, and big, big professors. So you also try to read this Bhagavatam, and don't commit sinful activities, the four things, and chant Hare Krsna. Then your life is saved from hellish condition of life.
Thank you very much. (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
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