We're Taking Death As Life
Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.7
Vrndavana, December 9, 1975
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Harikesa: Translation: "In tender
childhood age, when everyone is bewildered, he passes ten years. Similarly, in
boyhood, being engaged in sporting and playful things, another ten years. In
this way twenty years are wasted. Similarly, in old age, when a person becomes
invalid and he is unable to execute even material activities, he passes another
twenty years wastefully."
Prabhupada:
mugdhasya balye kaisore
kridato yati vimsatih
jaraya grasta-dehasya
yaty akalpasya vimsatih
[SB 7.6.7]
So fifty years out of one hundred years, fifty years wasted by sleeping. And then balance fifty years, twenty years in childhood and youthhood, sporting, playing; another twenty years in old age... Jaraya grasta. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi [Bg. 13.9]. These are inevitable. As birth is inevitable, death is inevitable, similarly, old age is inevitable. So in this way our time is wasted because we do not know how valuable this human form of life is. There is no such education. They think human life is as cheap as dog's life, but factually it is not. Bahunam janmanam ante [Bg. 7.19]. One gets this human form of life, 8,400,000 species of life, especially advanced life, the Aryan civilization... Aryan means advanced, advanced in spiritual knowledge. The materialists, they claim Aryan only from the bodily conception, but that is not the fact. Anyone who is advanced in spiritual life, they are called Aryans. Anarya-justam. Arjuna was chastised by Krsna that "You are talking like non-Aryan." Anarya-justam. So non-Aryan and Aryan, what is the difference? The Aryan civilization means this varnasrama-dharma, four varnas, four asramas. And non-Aryan means there is no division. Everyone is one or equal. That is advocated now at the present moment. In India also, they think of casteless society, no caste. But it is not caste. It is division of culture. Brahmana means advanced in culture, ksatriya means less advanced than the brahmana, and vaisya means less advanced, and sudra is less advanced, and the pancamas, fifth grade, sixth grade, kirata-hunandhra-pulinda-
So without being culturally advanced, they do not know the value of life. They waste their life. The advanced persons, they try to reduce waste of time. We have already discussed that the Gosvamis, they were ministers. They came to Vrndavana not for begging but for advancing the spiritual culture of life. Vrndavana is not meant for making a solution of the economic condition. One who has no, nothing to eat outside, they should come and beg capati and roti from door to door. The Rupa Gosvami did it, madhukari. Rupa Gosvami used to beg. Not beg, collecting twenty capatis. And only one or two, that's all. Not to collect the capatis and sell it in the market and get some money and purchase bidi. This is not Rupa Gosvami. And just to have a loin cloth, imitating Rupa Gosvami, and having so many illicit connections, this is spoiling. Rupa Gosvami came on the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to rejuvenate, re-excavate this land of Vrndavana. And they were engaged in the service of Lord Caitanya for preaching work. Whatever we are preaching now, it is based on the principles laid down by the Gosvamis. Narottama dasa Thakura has sung, rupa-raghunatha-pade, haibe akuti, kabe hama bujhabo sri-yugala-piriti. The loving affairs of Radha and Krsna, that is not ordinary material things as we conceive. Generally people are very much interested in painting picture of Radha-Krsna's love. These pictures are very popular because they think, "Krsna is like us. He is after young girls. So He's a great support for us. We are also after young girls, so Krsna has done. So we are doing that." So Krsna affairs -- different. Narottama dasa Thakura says,
rupa-raghunatha-pade, haibe akuti,
kabe hama bujhabo sri-yugala-piriti
It is not so easy to understand the loving affairs of Radha and Krsna. It is meant for the most advanced spiritually. That is not ordinary thing. Not only the loving affairs of Krsna and Radharani, but everything... They are not material. They are all spiritual. It has nothing to do.
So how it is spiritual, that we have to understand through the teachings of Rupa Gosvami, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Nectar of Devotion. Without reading all these books, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Bhagavad-gita, if we jump over Srimad-Bhagavatam to understand Radha-Krsna, that is not good, and therefore it is not effective. Nana-sastra-vicaranaika-
Harikesa: Navapnoti...
Prabhupada: Navapnoti siddhi na sukham na param gatim. So in the beginning, neophyte stage, not that "Because we have come to Vrndavana, immediately we have become advanced." No. Vidhi-bhakti must be followed, regulative principle, by the injunction of the sastra and the order of the spiritual master. Vidhi-bhakti. Krsna Himself says, yah sastra-vidhim utsrjya. Rupa Gosvami has said also, sruti-smrti-puranadi-
sruti-smrti-puranadi-
pancaratriki-vidhim vina
aikantiki harer bhaktir
utpatayaiva kalpate
[Brs. 1.2.101]
If you do not follow the vidhi as they are given in the Vedas, sruti, and smrti, as in the Bhagavad-gita, sruti-smrti-puranadi, and the Puranas, Padma Purana, Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Agni Purana, Sattvika-Purana... So sruti-smrti-puranadi and pancaratrika, Narada-Pancaratra.
sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate
[Cc. Madhya 19.170]
This is Pancaratrika. Our... In this age, Pancaratriki-vidhi, not Vaidic. Vaidic is very very strict. Unless one is born by a brahmana father, he is not given the advantage of becoming a brahmana. That is Vaidic vidhi. But Pancaratriki-vidhi means although he is not born of a brahmana family, if he has got a little tendency to become a brahmana. Brahmana means brahma janati iti brahmanah. One who is inquisitive to understand Brahman -- brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate [SB 1.2.11] -- he should be given chance. Just like there is a little fire. Fan it. Fanning, fanning, fanning, and it becomes a big fire. So our process is that. Anyone, we pick up anyone, kirata-hunandhra-pulinda-
Now, just like people protest because we are giving the position of a brahmana to the mlecchas, yavana. Yavanah khasadayah. Khasadayah means Mongolians, the Chinese, Japanese and the Philippines. So they are khasadaya. The Manipuris, Assamese, they are considered as khasadaya. So there is no distinction. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given open declaration: krsna-bhajanete nahi jati kuladi vicara. Anyone who is desirous of becoming Krsna conscious, it is open. Anyone can come. By proper training by the expert spiritual master everyone can be raised to the brahminical platform and then Vaisnava platform. sudhyanti. So how sudhyanti? Sudhyanti. So how sudhyanti? The general process is that unless one is born in brahmana family, he is not suddha; he is impure by birth. That is fact. But the devotee can change. This is new birth, undoubtedly. Just like these, our European, American students. They are new birth. They have given up their old birth practices. So birth is changed. Punar janma. So that is possible only by Krsna consciousness. If one has to change his body without changing body... The body is changed, but we see that the same body..., but it is not the same body. It is cin-maya. The same example, that the iron rod put into the fire, it becomes red hot, so it is no longer iron; it is fire. Similarly, if we constantly keep ourself in touch with Krsna consciousness, then the body is no longer material; it is spiritual. Therefore a spiritual body is not burned. They are kept, samadhi. Just like in Western countries they give samadhi to any, everyone, tomb, entombing. In India the tomb is offered to a very advanced spiritually person. You'll find many tombs in Vrndavana because their body is spiritual. No, no... This is the idea.
So there are so many things to be done for cultivating spiritual life in the human form of life. So Prahlada Maharaja is giving account that "Fifty years in sleeping and twenty years in playing and twenty years in old age and ten years, simply being absorbed, 'What to do?' -- then life is spoiled." Don't do this. Don't do this. You have got the... There is a Bengali song, payecha manava janma, emona janam ara pabe na(?): "Fortunately, you have got this human form of life. You'll not get this opportunity." Don't spoil. So let us follow. We have come to Vrndavana. Let us follow the Gosvamis. Rupa raghunatha pade haibe akuti. We should be very, very anxious to follow the principles laid down by the six Gosvamis.
rupa-raghunatha-pade, haibe akuti,
kabe hama bujhabo sri-yugala...
rupa-raghunatha-pade, rahu mora asa
prarthana karaye sada narottama dasa
Prarthana karaye sada narottama dasa. The Narottama dasa, he has sung so many Vedic songs. Narottama dasa's song, although it is written in Bengali, it is considered as sruti, Vedic. Srinivasa Acarya has eulogized Narottama dasa Thakura that "Your songs are Vedic evidences." Whatever Narottama dasa Thakura has said in simple Bengali song, they are all Vedic injunction. Therefore Narottama dasa Thakura's Prarthana are very popular and famous amongst the Vaisnava, Gaudiya Vaisnava, and others also. So we should not waste our..., mugdhasya, bewildered, befooled or illusioned, mugdhasya. Don't be illusioned. Even balye, in childhood, they should not be because there is no question of balya or vrddha. Any, at any moment the life can be finished. You know. There is no guarantee, "Because a child is a child, oh, he has got hundred years' age, so let him play now." No, that is not. He should be trained up. This is the duty of the father and mother. Na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. "One should not become father, one should not become mother, if he is not very careful to save the child from the imminent death." The imminent death does not mean motor accident. Imminent death means we are in the cycle of birth and death. It is the duty of the father and mother, the duty of the guru, the duty of the relative, to save one another from the cycle of birth and death. This is real upakara, to save from the cycle of birth... Na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. This life, we are thinking that "I am eighty years old or ninety years old." But it is not eighty years, ninety... It is mrtyu. Mrtyu. You are dying every moment. It is the life of mrtyu. Therefore one has to save. Na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum. A child is grown up, five years old. Suppose he'll live hundred years. So that means he has already died five years. Therefore it is mrtyu. Or we have grown eighty years old. That means... Suppose I live hundred years. Still, I have already died eighty years. Therefore it is mrtyu. The whole life is mrtyu. Every moment you are dying, dying, dying, dying, from the very birth. Suppose a child is born one hour before. So one hour passed means he has died one hour out of hundred years, the beginning of death. This is called mrtyum. So we are thinking, "We are growing. We are living." This is all mugdha, bewildered. Where you are growing, you are living? You are dying every moment.
So dying, death is going on. It is called mrtyu-loka. So long you are in the material world, you are simply dying. That's all. At the end, when the balance of life, it becomes finished, we take, at that time, it is mrtyu. But no, from the very birth there is mrtyu, always, dying, dying, dying, dying. So mugdha. We are thinking, "We are living and growing, young. We are getting strength." But he does not know that he is dying. Therefore it is explained, mugdhasya: "illusioned." He is taking death as life, mugdhasya. So one should not be so bewildered, mugdhasya, and waste time by playing. Human life is not meant for... Similarly, jaraya grasta-dehasya. Akalpasya. This is also very important. Generally the old man does not know what is going to happen. He is in the hands of the nature. Ask anybody, any big, big man, old man, "What you are going to do?" I met some very important old man in London, one... He was Lord...
Hamsaduta: Brockway. Lord Brockway?
Prabhupada: Brockway, I think. I asked him, "What you will do? What is the end of your life?" "No, I shall die peacefully." That's all. He does not know that what is going to happen. Because the Christians, they do not believe in the next life; they think this life is finished, everything is finished. But that is not the fact. Because they cannot find out the soul. But that requires expert knowledge. Just like gold mine, apparently it appears that it is a stone. But one who is expert, soil expert, he can understand, "Here is gold." Just like when I was in South Africa, even in the city Johannesburg there are so many gold mines within the city, gold mines. So ordinary man, how it will... How he'll know that there is gold in the soil? He must be expert. To find out the soul within this body, it is not the business of rascals and fools. He must be very expert, exactly like the soil expert. And then, by analysis... This is called neti neti, na iti. It is very easy. If you think, study your body, take this finger, so you'll say, "My finger." Nobody will say, "I finger." Just like we sometimes examine little child, "What is this?" "Finger." "So a finger, which finger?" "My finger." "Head?" "My head." "Leg?" "My leg." Everything, "my, my." And where is "I"? This is intelligence. Everything, he is studying, "my," and who is "I"? This very question will establish the fact, dehino 'smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13], that "I" is within this body. Therefore I am speaking, "my."
So if one is expert in understanding, in analyzing this body, neti neti -- "This is blood. This is skin. This is this. This is this. This is urine. This is stool" -- then whole body we analyze. Then where is that "I"? We cannot see. But why you cannot see? As soon as the "I" is off, then whose stool, whose skin, whose bone? So in this way, if we analyze, then we can understand that asmin dehe, within this body, the "I" is there. And what is this "I"? Again, aham brahmasmi. This is further advancement. But these rascal -- "Aham brahmasmi means 'I am God.' " No. Take, consult Bhagavad-gita what is this aham. Aham means the part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman. Krsna is Parabrahman. Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bg. 10.12]. So Krsna says, "These Brahmans, these living entities, they are My part and parcel." That is aham understanding, "I." What I am? I am part and parcel of Krsna.
So one has to study the body, where is the "I," then what is the relationship of the "I," what is the position of the "I," "What I am?" This is intelligence. This is intelligence. Caitanya Mahaprabhu begins from here to teach Sanatana Gosvami that this "I," I, you, we are -- jivera svarupa haya nitya krsna dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. This is the beginning of Caitanya's teachings. Therefore, rascals, they cannot understand what is the movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They think that "This crazy fellow, unnecessarily chanting and dancing," because they cannot understand what is this movement. This movement starts when one can understand what is "I." From that point it starts. So what they will understand? Unless one comes to the understanding point what I am, what he will understand Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement? That is the defect. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so kind that without understanding, being a fool number one, if he simply joins Caitanya Mahaprabhu's chanting and dancing, he understands immediately, ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12], immediately, and he understands "What I am."
So we should not waste our time, mugdhasya balye kaisora, and foolish old man, full with disease and invalidity. No. We should immediately begin our spiritual life, aham brahmasmi. That is called brahma-bhutah. If we come to this point, aham brahmasmi, "I am Brahman; I am not this body," that is very fortune, good fortune. But people are... All men, whole, throughout the whole world, they are under this bodily concept of life, and they cannot find out where is the soul, "Where I, where I am." So they are all fools and rascals. So if one comes by cultivation of knowledge, spiritual knowledge, comes to understand that "I am within this body," that is called brahma-bhutah, brahma-jnana, aham brahmasmi.
brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param
[Bg. 18.54]
In this way the beginning of devotional life is there. Take advantage of Krsna consciousness and make your life perfect.
Thank you very much.
[break] ...of decreasing distress. And those who are trying for going to the heavenly planet for enjoying life more and more, increasing happiness, they are also wasting time. And the whole system of dharma is like that, increasing happiness and decreasing distress. So Krsna says both these processes, increasing happiness or decreasing distress, this is sarva-dharman parityajya: [Bg. 18.66] "Avoid these two ways of life. Simply surrender unto Me." Then shall I go on suffering? Due... "When there is happiness, it is all right. Then I shall go on suffering without any attempt to minimize it?" "Yes. Yes." That is said in the Bhagavad-gita. Tams titiksasva bharata: "My dear Arjuna, even if you think there is some distress, still, you should tolerate."
matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino anityah
tams titiksasva bharata
[Bg. 2.14]
Just like nowadays it is very cold. It will not stay. Say for two months, three months, it will stay, and again there will be summer, and that is also very unbearable. And that will also not stay. Say for two months. So agamapayina. These things, seasonal changes, they come and go. Don't be bothered about these things. So long you have got this body, this sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah... The same thing: sometimes it is distressful, sometimes it is very pleasant. Just like water. Water now is distressful. If you have to take your bath, you have to make it hot; otherwise it is very distress. And similarly, same water in the summer season, it is very pleasing. The water is there, but it is sometimes distressful, sometimes pleasant. So they are agamapayino. In touch with the skin it is sometimes pleasing, sometimes distressful. So this distress and happiness will be possible... Sukham aindriyakam daitya deha-yogena dehinam. As soon as it is in touch with the body, such kind of distress and happiness will be fact. But don't be agitated. Your real purpose is that you must increase your Krsna consciousness in any circumstances. And that is your business, human life. Don't waste your life. Don't be misguided.
He is advising to the sons of the demons because the demons, they cannot understand. But it is the duty of the Vaisnava to preach, although Krsna advises that "You don't preach the truth of Bhagavad-gita to the demons." He said, "Those who have not undergone austerities, those who are not very serious, don't speak about these lessons of Bhagavad-gita, sarva-dharman parityajya [Bg. 18.66]." Means they'll not understand. But still, the devotees, they take the risk that "All right, let me try to convince this person that 'Take to Krsna consciousness.' " Even Krsna says that "Don't try, because they will not be able to understand," still, they try. That is a devotee. Therefore devotee is more merciful than Krsna. Devotee is more merciful. Even there is no hope to understand, still, he goes door to door: "Please take to Krsna consciousness. Please take to Krsna, and you'll be happy." It is not always... Just like you are trying to spread Krsna consciousness with so much endeavor. It's not that cent percent people of the world will take. That is not possible. Ei rupe brahmanda bhramite kono bhagyavan jiva [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. Only the fortunate persons will be able to take it. So we should not be disappointed that "Nobody, majority of people, do not take this. What is the use of? Let me sit down in Vrndavana and chant Hare Krsna mantra." No. The Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He also did it. He never sat down tightly in Vrndavana. He also did it. He traveled all over the India and took so much trouble. So preaching is very important, and you should engage. That will help you. Every one of you should be pure in your activities and try to preach Krsna consciousness as far as possible. If you remain pure, then your preaching will be successful and you'll get encouragement. That is the instruction of all Vaisnavas.
Thank you very much.
Devotees: Jaya! (end)
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.
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