Who Is Punishable?
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.39
San Francisco, July 20, 1975
download flash player
Take a testSan Francisco, July 20, 1975
download flash player
Nitai: What is the process of
punishing others? Who are the actual candidates for punishment? Are all karmis
engaged in fruitive activities punishable, or only some of them?
Prabhupada:
katham svid dhriyate dandah
kim vasya sthanam ipsitam
dandyah kim karinah sarve
aho svit katicin nrnam
[SB 6.1.39]
So first question was, bruta dharmasya nas tattvam yac ca adharmasya laksanam. When there is some vicara, judgment, it must be done very nicely. A criminal is judged before the magistrate. He is taken just to make proper judgment, "Whether this man is punishable? He committed some criminal activities." The circumstances, the condition of the mind -- everything should be judged. This is called judgment. So who is punishable? Desa-kala-patra. There is consideration, desa-kala-patra. Desa means situation, and kala, time, and patra, and the subject. Just like a child, he takes one fruit here. So he is not punishable. According to Vedic system, a child, a woman, a brahmana, a cow and a saintly person, they are not punishable. Cow, woman, saintly person, brahmana and child -- they are beyond all laws. Even they commit some... They do not do. They have no criminal purpose. Formerly the women were trained up in such a way, very chaste and obedient. So they had no chance to commit any offense. And brahmanas, they are also trained up. Samo damah satyam saucam... (children making noise)
Sudama: Take the children out.
Bahulasva: All the children should go out.
Prabhupada: No, that's all right. (some devotees say "Jaya!" and applaud) So, children are not punishable. (laughter, more applause) Neither the women. (more applause, laughter) Hm. But don't take advantage. (laughter) And here we have got these brahmanas, saintly persons, women and children. So who is to be punished? (laughter) Yes. Katham svid dhriyate dandah. So the judge must know who is to be punished. That is judgment. Katham svid dhriyate dandah sthanam. Desa-kala-patra: according to time, according to circumstances, according to the subject, everything scrutinizingly judged, not whimsically. Nowadays it is the time for emergency. Anyone can be punished without any judgment. But this is not good position.
Then dandyah kim karinah sarve. Karinah means fruitive actors, those who are working for getting some profit. So sometimes with getting profit we make some undesirable activities which is called black market. So that is punishable. There are system... Of course, I cannot quote from where, but it is the system that a merchant, highest profit he can take for exchanging -- not more than twenty-five percent. That is the highest. If one merchant takes more than twenty-five percent profit, then he is punishable. This was the system. So the karinah... So we are all workers. So somebody is working for his personal profit, and somebody is working for the profit of Krsna. It appears almost similar. A ordinary man is selling some newspaper, and our man selling the magazine. It looks the similar thing, but it is not similar; it is different. Therefore, if a newspaper seller creates some disturbance on the street, the police can punish, but when one is selling Back to Godhead, he is not punishable. (laughter) This is the difference. But nowadays these rascals, they do not know whom to punish, whom not to punish. They take, "All right, you are selling Back to Godhead. You must come police custody." So our are not punishable although doing the same thing. This is judgment.
Then the animals, they are also working hard day and night for their necessities of life. But if an animal steals something from your house or takes some eatables, he is not punishable. India you will find in the bazaars. There is crowd, and the cows enter there, and they eat the vegetables to their heart's content. But he is not punishable. Still the cow is not punishable. But if a man takes one potato without the permission, he is punishable. So the animals are not punishable. All the lawbooks are meant for the men, for the human being, not for the animals. Just like in your country the police law is: "Keep to the right your car." But if a animal goes, keep to the left, it is not punishable. So everyone not punishable. Then again, human being, all of them, not punishable. Those who are criminals, those who have violated laws, they are punishable. So therefore this question is "Whether and how they are punishable? What is dharma, and what is adharma? So if you are representative of Yamaraja, then you explain to us first of all whether you are actually representative."
So the Yamaduta, they are also servant of very exalted personality, one of the authority. So they are not lacking in knowledge by the grace of their master. So the first thing they said, veda-pranihito dharmo hy adharmas tad-viparyayah. Dharma and adharma, religious principle and not religious principle, nonreligious principle -- how to discern. The book is there, Veda. We have to consult the Vedas. There are so many Vedic literatures: four Vedas, then Upanisad, 108 Upanisad, then philosophy, Vedanta-sutra, all summarized. Then explanation of Vedanta-sutra, or Srimad-Bhagavatam. Bhasyam brahma-sutranam **. Then there is Ramayana, there is Mahabharata, immense literature, full of Vedic literature. So one should try to understand this literature. They are meant for the human being. Veda-pranihito dharmah. If one wants to be religious... Religious means that is the beginning of human life. If one is not religious, then he is animal. Dharmena hinah pasubhih samanah. So in order to make a person perfectly religious, there are so many Vedic literatures. So who is taking care of it? Nobody is taking care of. Therefore, at the present moment, kalau sudra-sambhavah. Sudra means equal to the animal. Tulasi dasa has classified, dhol gunar sudra pasu nari, ihe sab sasan ke adhikari.(?) So women will be sorry, but he has classified in that way. Anyway... So nobody is taking care of the Vedic literature. Therefore they do not know what is right, what is wrong. Dharma, dharma means right and wrong.
But Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic literature. Sarva-gavopanisadam.(?) It is the essence of all Vedic literature. Therefore Krsna says... What is the purpose of Vedas? You may be very learned scholar in Vedas, then what you have learned, Vedanta? Vedanta means the last knowledge of Vedas. So Vedanta is, Krsna is explaining in the Bhagavad-gita, vedanta-krd vedanta-vid eva caham.
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
[Bg. 15.15]
So the summary is there. Krsna is sitting, sarvasya ca aham, hrdi, within the heart, sannivistah, "I am seated there." Isvarah sarva-bhutanam [Bg. 18.61]. And He is giving intelligence and forgetfulness. Why one is forgetful of Krsna, and why one is conscious of Krsna? That is also due to Krsna. One who has tried to forget Krsna -- then Krsna is giving him opportunity to forget Krsna. One who is trying to know Krsna, then Krsna is giving intelligence to know Krsna. This is the process. Krsna is there. If you want to know Krsna, then Krsna will give you intelligence how to know Him. If you want to forget Krsna, then He will give you, mislead you in such a way that you will forever forget Krsna. Sarvasya caham hrdi sannivistah [Bg. 15.15].
That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Tan aham dvisatah kruran ksipamy ajasram andha-yonisu [Bg. 16.19]. Those who are asuras, demons, trying to defy the existence of God, Krsna, Krsna is putting him in such circumstances, in such family, in such society, in such community, in such country, that he will have no opportunity to know Krsna. Tan aham dvisa... Because he is envious of Krsna, wants to forget Krsna, so Krsna is putting him in such circumstances. And one who is little eager to know Krsna, then Krsna is giving the intelligence.
tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te
[Bg. 10.10]
Everything is said there. Tesam satata-yuktanam. Anyone who is twenty-four hours engaged in... How he is engaged? Bhajatam, simply for bhajana. Bhajana means worshiping, "How to worship Krsna?" Satata-yuktanam, and twenty-four hours anxious, "How to serve Krsna? How to serve Krsna?" To become mad after Krsna, such person... Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda-virahena me: "I see everything vacant being separated from Govinda." This is called love. So, of course, it is not possible to come to that position like Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is maha-bhava, maha-bhava. It is not for any human being to come to that stage. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu has shown how to become mad after Krsna by His life when He was in Jagannatha Puri, Caitanya. At night He would go out and fall down on the sea or somewhere. Nobody knows. The door was closed, and still, He would get out and go, and, "Where is Krsna? Where is Krsna?" Then His assistants, secretaries, would go out and find out Him. So for eighteen years He was in that way in Jagannatha Puri. That is called maha-bhava.
So it is not possible for human being. But at least, not maha-bhava but bhava, that we can... Bhava. Tato bhavah. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha rucis tatah, athasaktis tato bhavah [Cc. Madhya 23.14-15]. One can increase gradually to the stage of bhava. This bhava stage, that separation... Just like the Gosvamis, when they were in Vrndavana, they were feeling this bhava. He radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno kutah. And they were simply searching after in the Vrndavana forest. He radhe, "Radharani," vraja-devike, "all the gopis," he radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno: "O the son of Nanda Maharaja, Krsna." Kutah, "Where you are all?" This is bhava. "Where you are all?" Sri-govardhana-kalpa-padapa-
Therefore Narottama dasa Thakura says that we must follow the Gosvamis and their servant. Ei chay gosai janr -- tanr mui das: "I am not going to be a servant of anyone. But a person who has taken the six Gosvamis as his master, I become his servant." Ei chay gosai janr -- tanr mui das. "Why I shall become anyone's dasa? But if somebody is the servant of the Gosvamis, then I become his servant." Ei chay gosai janr -- tanr mui das, tan-sabara pada-renu mora panca-gras: "Their dust of lotus feet, that is my food." This is... Narottama dasa Thakura says. Ei chay gosai jabe braje koila bas, radha-krsna-nitya-lila korila prakas. What is the business of Gosvamis? From Vrndavana they tried to broadcast the pastimes of Lord Krsna, Krsna and Radha. Ei chay gosai jabe braje koila bas. So we should follow that principle, that we should not be packed up. Sometimes we find in Vrndavana they say, "No, no, I have taken vow. I am not going out of Vrndavana." Of course, the Gosvamis did not get out of Vrndavana, but they preached. Nana-sastra-vicaranaika-
So here, veda-pranihita, the Veda. The Vedic literature, that is dharma, no manufacturing. Nowadays it has become a fashion. So Vedas, that is beginning. Millions, nobody can give any description, since when the Vedas are coming down by the parampara system. But after this Vedic period, so many religious system has come out. Up to five thousand years before, the Vedas were accepted all over the world, Vedic civilization. Then later on, gradually, they, the Christianity has come, the Muhammadanism, Islamism has come, Buddhism come, and now there are so many other, this samaja, that samaja, this religion, this religion, this religion. Because that means people are getting out of the touch of the Vedic civilization. So this Krsna consciousness movement means we are trying again to bring them to this Vedic civilization. Here it is stated, veda-pranihito dharmah. If you take to the Vedic principles of life, then you become religious. And what is that Vedic principle? Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15]. Krsna says, "Vedic principle means to know Me, Krsna." Vedais ca sarvaih. Veda-pranihito dharmah. And what is Veda? Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah. So... "But there is Vedanta?" Yes. Vedanta-krd vedanta-vid aham: "I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I know what is Vedanta." So whatever Krsna says, that is Vedanta. And other so-called Vedantists, they are nonsense. They do not know what is Vedanta. Here is. Krsna says, vedanta-vit: "I know what is Vedanta." "Why You know?" Vedanta-krt: "I have compiled Vedanta." In the incarnation of Vyasadeva, Vyasadeva incarnation, Krsna-dvaipayana Vyasa... Maha-muni-krte. Maha-muni, the great sage, Vyasadeva, is incarnation of Krsna. So he has compiled Vedanta-sutra. Therefore he knows what is Vedanta. And because Vedanta is being misinterpreted by the rascals, therefore Vyasadeva personally has commented on Vedanta-sutra by writing Srimad-Bhagavatam. Therefore he begins Srimad-Bhagavatam with the first aphorism of Vedanta, janmady asya yatah anvayad itaratas ca arthesu abhijnah sva-rat [SB 1.1.1].
So this Krsna consciousness movement is Vedic movement, authorized. Veda-pranihito dharmah. If one becomes Krsna conscious, then he knows what is dharma and what is adharma. He knows who is punishable, who is not punishable. In this way, if you follow the principles of Krsna consciousness... It is in a different way. Not different way; Krsna name is there. When I registered this association, many friends requested me that "Why you are, nomenclature, this 'Krsna'? Make it 'God consciousness.' " And "No." As soon as I give "God consciousness," all the rascals will bring so many false God. Therefore it must be definitely stated, "Krsna consciousness." So try to follow Krsna consciousness movement. Then you will be situated in the Vedic civilization, and you will know everything properly. Kasmin tu bhagavo vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati. If you understand Krsna, then you understand everything. This is Krsna consciousness.
Thank you very much. (end)
>>> Ref. VedaBase =>
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.39 -- San Francisco, July 20,
1975
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
No comments:
Post a Comment