BY: ROCANA DASA
May 01, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6, given in Hyderabad on November 26, 1972. This is a very famous sloka from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, often quoted by the Acaryas:
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
When visiting places like Hyderabad, India, Srila Prabhupada tends to give very traditional classes wherein he focuses on explaining the sloka and the word-for-word meanings, elaborating on the classic explanations and analogies given by our Sampradaya Acaryas. His presentation is very scholarly and very much reminiscent of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's style.
During Srila Prabhupada's lila days we all tried to do as Srila Prabhupada did, of course in a very inadequate way. We would memorize slokas and quote verses and such, but when you study one of Srila Prabhupada's lectures, such as this one, there's absolutely no comparison. We were immeasurably less expert back then, and still are today. From what I've heard, most ISKCON sannyasis nowadays don't even attempt to come up to Srila Prabhupada's standard. In fact, they've strayed in the opposite direction.
Srila Prabhupada states here that everything we do is due to the fact that we're looking for peace of mind. Where we look and how we try to find this peace of mind depends on what state of consciousness we're in - either material or spiritual. The fact is that most people are, to varying degrees, materialistic, which means they're identifying with various designations. Srila Prabhupada points out that in India, the designation could be brahman, kshatriya or Indian, but either way it's still material consciousness. And within these designations, people are trying to find happiness and peace.
Srila Prabhupada points out this is our nature. It is the nature of the soul, to look for happiness. If you attempt to find happiness through your material designation, which essentially means sense gratification, then you'll be unhappy and unsatisfied.
We are presently observing and having to deal with the fact that the whole world has come to a serious crisis situation. This is essentially due to the fact that everyone is looking to achieve material happiness due to the bodily designation. This tendency provides the perfect scenario for, as the Sampradaya Acaryas put it, the cheaters and the cheated. It's easy for the cheaters to cheat those who are addicted to sense gratification. Today, we see that the cheaters have extended all sorts of access to credit and capital to the other conditioned souls, including those running the banks and institutions. The financial institutions, in turn, have extended all sorts of credit to the sense gratifiers, knowing full well that they would spend all this money on ultimately useless things and they'd never be satisfied. In other words, they'll always be coming back for more credit.
Of course, the cheaters are also being cheated by someone above them. For example, we see that the banks and the heads of these institutions are now being cheated by one another: hedge funds are suing investment banks, investment banks are suing ratings agencies, municipalities are suing hedge funds, etc. Ultimately, they are all being cheated by their own greed, consequently the entire world now faces a big economic crisis. This has happened time and time again historically, and it has all predicted by the Vedas and the great Acaryas like Srila Prabhupada.
As Srila Prabhupada mentions in this lecture, the only way to gain spiritual happiness is to have access to spiritual knowledge. That knowledge is coming through the Vedas, which Srila Prabhupada points out is just like a desire tree. Anything you want you can get from the Vedas. Even if you want material happiness, the Vedas can give you the best formula with the least reaction for getting such happiness. But as Vaisnavas, we know that the Srimad-Bhagavatam has rejected any form of material knowledge, and we come to it to access spiritual solutions.
In this class, Srila Prabhupada mentions the current media phenomenon at that time, which was astronauts going to the moon. They were spending all sorts of money and effort in order to supposedly escape the confines of this planet by going to the moon. But according to the Vedic knowledge, such escape is impossible, because each planet is equivalent to a prison cell that is expertly designed by Krsna. To escape that prison is impossible. Each one of the planets is completely different in its variegatedness. Srila Prabhupada gives the example of how different the whole atmosphere and climate in India is compared to Europe. So this indicates that on other planets, the same phenomenon exists. As the living entities have taken bodies suitable for this Earth planet, they can not simply go to another planet and adapt with their Earth body because of the different elemental nature found there.
Regarding the first line of the sloka -- sa vai pumsam paro dharmo -- Srila Prabhupada mentions that 'dharma' means religion, and that the Vedic meaning of dharma is actually the characteristic, not 'a religion'. Those who consider "Hindu dharma" to be some kind of reality have come to a very un-Vedic conclusion. Srila Prabhupada gives the classic example of how the characteristic of a chili is that it's hot, the characteristic of sugar is that its sweet, and the characteristic of the soul is that it is a devotee of the Lord. That devotion towards God is misdirected in the material world. We are all devotees of either the country or the society or our family, husband, or wife, but that essential characteristic of reposing our devotion in something or someone is abundantly obvious. It's just that in the material world, no one understands or is given access to the art of reposing devotion in God. That is what Krsna consciousness is all about.
In this verse, God (Krsna) is referred to as adhoksaje, which means 'beyond direct sense perception'. You cannot perceive God with the material senses, and that's one of the qualities of God. Krsna, which means "All Attractive", incorporates all these other names and qualities and characteristics of God which cannot be materially known.
In an incredibly expert way, Srila Prabhupada gives his listeners a very in-depth understanding of this verse, which ultimately means that you can't achieve happiness by engaging in sense gratification and that there's no love in the material world. You can't engage in any kind of devotional activity directed to anything on the material platform and successfully achieve any quality of happiness.
Srila Prabhupada then explains that in order to have pure devotion to God, there can't be any conditions. You cannot look for anything in return for your devotion. If you're looking for some material gain from your devotional activities, then you'll also be dissatisfied. So every devotee, after hearing this knowledge, has to practically apply it to their own circumstance and collectively, beyond our their own individual situation. We are all observing what is going on at the planetary level with the climate, the political turmoil, the so-called religious fighting and the 'war on terror', coupled with food shortages and financial meltdown. Of course, all the knowledge that we need to truly perceive this from the vantage point of a pure devotee can be found through the sastra, through lectures such as this one. It's still up to us to practically decide on how we're going to apply this knowledge.
Our bhakti has to be as steady as possible, constantly engaged in devotional activities. At the same time we have to navigate ourselves within this body through the material world, the material atmosphere, and somehow survive the turmoil that is caused by lust, anger and greed. At the same time, we have to see all the problems as an opportunity to serve Krsna and Srila Prabhupada.
The more evidence there is that the material world is hellish, that there is no real happiness to be found here and no solution to correct these problems other than Krsna consciousness, then the more ideal the situation is for preaching. Of course, this is he reason Krsna creates all this confusion and unhappiness in the material world -to show the spirit soul the truth of its spiritual identify. Those of us who have access to this absolute knowledge through the mercy of the pure devotee have the antidote, the medicine that will cure all this suffering. And it is incumbent upon us to distribute this knowledge in a manner that is directed by the Sampradaya Acaryas, and in our case, Srila Prabhupada.
All the answers can be found in Srila Prabhupada's writings what to speak of his audio lectures, which are inconceivably potent. They help us to comprehend and also demonstrate to us the best arguments, the best mood, the best way to convince the suffering conditioned soul that he has to give up his pursuit of material happiness and replace it with this Krsna consciousness.
