Today we're studying Srimad Bhagavatam, Fourth Canto, Chapter 25, Text Number 19.

Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.

NANARANYAM RAGA VRATAYA ANABADHE MUNI VRATAY AHUTAMAN YATE PANTO anābhādhe muni-vṛttayi ahutamanyate panto datta-kokilakājī akujjitai kujjitai.

Nana, various aranya, forest, mrigha, animals, ratai, with groups, anabadhe, in the matter of non-violence, munivratai, like the great sages, ahutam, as if invited, manyate, thinks, pantam, passenger, yatra, where, kokila, of cuckoos, kujjitai, by the cooing.

Translation in Purple, by His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada.

In such an atmosphere, even the animals of the forest become non-violent and non-envious like great sages.

Consequently the animals did not attack anyone over and above everything, was the cooing of the cuckoos.

Any passenger passing along that way was invited by that atmosphere to take rest in that nice garden.

PURPUR A peaceful family with wife and children is compared to the peaceful atmosphere of the forest.

Children are compared to non-violent animals.

Sometimes our wives and children are called Svajanakya dasyu, burglars in the name of kinsmen.

A man earns his livelihood with hard labor, but the result is that he is plundered by his wife and children, exactly as a person in the forest is attacked by some thieves and burglars who take his money.

Nonetheless, in family life, the turmoil of the wife and children appears to be like the cooing of the cuckoos in the garden of family life.

Being by and by such an atmosphere, the person who is passing through such a blissful family life desires to have his family with him at all costs." Prabhupāda also explains this further on a lecture on the nectar of devotion given in 1972 here in Vrindavan.

He says, so this moral material world is like that.

Sādhīvyāya ca dehaya ratam kudumba bharaṇe na vā.

As soon as they get money, he wants to purchase.

The wife says, I want so much, so many, so much, so many dollars for my this purpose.

The children says, Therefore, in Bhagavatam they are called svajanākhyā-daśyū.

So the wife and children, they are legitimate burglars.

Somebody takes your money from the pocket, he becomes pickpocket criminal.

But if your wife takes it away, you're very much pleased.

She is taking, they are called svajanākya-dāśiva, it is taking his love.

How much my wife loves me, she is taking all my money from the pocket.

Sardevyāha-rājan, kudumba-baraṇena-vā.

This is the occupational All the village laughed.

Sardevyāḥ rājan kudumbhā parane navaḥ This is the occupational duties of the materialistic person, but a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is not like that.

So, vande ham śrī-guru śrī-jatā-parakamalam śrī-guru-vaiṣṇavaṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ Vandeham Shri Guru Shridataparakamalam Shri Guru Vaishnavamsha Shri Rupam Sagarajatam Sahagana Raghunatham Vittamtam Sajeevam Sadaitam Savadhootam Parijana Saitam Krishna Chaitanya Deivam Shri Rana Krishna Padam Sahagana Lalita daitam sava-dhutam parijana-sahitam krishna-chaitanya devam sri-rahana krishna-padam sahaganadaditashi vishakam vitam sthah namo om vishnupadaya krishna-presthayo bhutale shrimad-devaktive dantasmam anitya namane namaste sarasvate deve kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhūtale śrīmate bhakti vedānti svāminīti nāmane namaste sarasvate deve gauravāni pracāriṇe nivṛśeṣu śūnyavādi paśyati deśa-tāriṇe So, materialistic wife, she's called a legitimate burglar.

But the Krishna conscious wife, she's called the better half.

So the wives should become better halves and not legitimate burglars.

But the husband has to be Krishna conscious.

Not that, he says, well my dear wife, you must be Krishna conscious, but I'm not going to be Krishna conscious.

He should show the example of being Krishna conscious, so the wife is inspired to follow his leadership.

In this way, actually, the whole world can become happy.

If the leaders of the world become Krishna conscious, people will naturally follow that example.

Whatever the great man does, what do they say?

Whatever a great man does, the common people follow in his footsteps.

Whatever a great man does, the common people follow in his footsteps, whatever standard he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.

But the problem is, the present-day leaders are a bunch of rakshasas.

They're simply like man-eating demons, practically speaking.

They want their power hungry, they do whatever.

They don't care much if they have to lie and cheat.

In fact, the most, the leaders nowadays are the ones who are most expert at lying and cheating, they become the leaders.

It should be the most honest, non-cheating person to become a leader, but now you have the most dishonest most expert cheaters they become the leaders that's how they manipulate their ways to the top so we have to realize what is the actual peace formula bokta dam jagatapasam sarva-loka maheshpadam suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatvam satsvarishtati when who knows Me as the supreme enjoyer, supreme proprietor, and suhrdam, the best well-wishing friend of all living entities, he alone can achieve peace.

So we now have to bring, we actually bring actual peace of the world by spreading this Krishna consciousness movement.

They have to understand Krishna is the supreme enjoyer, the supreme owner and the best friend.

So what is this, If we're going to have Krishna consciousness later, we have to understand what is the science of Krishna consciousness.

That is required, that we have to understand the science.

Who are the actual leaders in the Vedic culture?

Those who know the science of God, the science of Krishna, they are known as the Brahmin class, and they are meant to...

The modern-day idea in India, you're born as a Brahmin, a Sudra, whatever, no.

Your class is not by birth, it's by qualification.

Śāma-dhāma-sthapāucaśaṁ caṁ tam eva ma jayaiva ca Peacefulness, self-control, equanimity, these are the qualities of the Brahmins.

So anybody, even less than a surya, can become a Brahmin if he becomes Krishna conscious.

So we have to develop these ramanic qualities to become equanimity, to be peaceful in all situations by becoming Krishna conscious.

Krishna conscious means automatically become a Brahman.

So we have to actually develop these qualities of Brahman, become peaceful, charitable, self-controlled, etc.

Vācā-vega-manasa-krodha-vegam jīvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam itan-vitañjyo viśaheta-dirāt svayam api me vrāśipiṁ śiṣuṣyāt So how do we develop these qualities?

We have to practice the science of Krishna consciousness very nicely.

Hearing about Krishna is where it all begins.

We hear the topics of Krishna from the pure devotees, not other things mixed in or subtracted, you don't add or subtract from these things.

You give it exactly as it's coming from the great Acharyas.

We're very fortunate the great Acharyas have given us this knowledge.

Devam paramparāptapramaṁ brahma ca sa yo vidu.

It's come down all the way through the thousands of years.

Lord Rama, Narada Muni, Śrīla Vyāsadeva.

You see, nowadays everybody must hearing this nonsense, this nonsense.

You have to find out where the actual pure sound vibration is coming, Shabda Brahman.

Where the spiritual vibration is actually coming.

If you hear from the proper source, that hearing actually unlocks the dimension of divine love of Krishna consciousness that is situated within you.

We all have Krishna consciousness within us.

It's just by proper association it becomes awakened.

By improper association it becomes more and more covered, more and more covered.

So we have to have the proper association with the bona fide spiritual master, the bona fide devotees of the Lord, because this actually helps us to come back to being who we actually are.

Would you like to be something you're not?

Would anybody like to be something they're not?

All we're really saying is you know who you are and be who you are.

Eternal spiritual being, qualitatively, but the Supreme Personality of God.

But yet, because we misidentify with these bodies, here we are trying to be, you know, a good-looking male, a good-looking female, or whatever, you see.

We have to stop misidentifying with these material bodies and come back to the actual nature of the self you know what body identification does it makes us miserable you know that because this body what's the situation the body it's getting old and sick and dying Jehudbadi wants to die, anybody feel like dying today?

but you're deathless, you know, that's your foolishness I'm

Voting may be very happy to quit the body, even when...

Acharya was praying like that, at the time of death I will lose all...

I lose my equilibrium, so Now I'm thinking of Krishna, let me die immediately.

Now while I'm Krishna conscious, I'm in a proper state of mind, let me die right now.

That's also there, that prayer from a great Acharya.

Our normal mentality is if somebody comes with a gun to shoot me, I'll try to avoid being shot.

If I'm riding in the car, I'll put on my seat belt and make sure I don't get killed in an automobile crash.

We all want to avoid death because our actual nature is we are deathless.

So the atheists should study, as we gave the argument the other day, the atheists say it's all over the time of death, then why do you want to live?

If your nature is to die, death is a natural thing, why do you have the tendency to want to live, my dear atheist friend?

Why do you have the tendency to want to keep living If death is a natural thing, it's going to happen at any second.

What difference does it make if I live an extra day or I live a day less?

Why do you want to live if your nature is to die?

Where is the tendency to have and want to keep living?

That's because the actual nature of the self, the soul within, is to live eternally.

But we miss doing the misidentification of the body and put ourselves into so many difficulties.

But when you put yourself back in your actual consciousness, jīvera svarūpa hayāk, kṛṣṇa hṛṇyacid-dāsa, you put yourself back in your actual consciousness, and all your difficulties go away, you see.

So, all we're saying in this Krishna consciousness movement is, why are you torturing yourself?

Eternal spiritual being, full of knowledge and bliss.

You may have the techniques how to do that.

Your nature is to be eternal, so right now by acting in terms of your eternal nature, instead of your temporary nature, you start...

See, right now we're misidentified with our material nature, which is not our actual nature.

Material nature is a covering of the self.

Because we're misidentifying for millions of lifetimes with the material covering, we're always thinking, speaking and acting in terms of the visual covering.

So, we're habituated to act to serve maya.

That's our habit, to serve maya or illusion.

For millions of lifetimes, even serving maya or illusion.

So, they say, as Zenet is saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

So, we're a bunch of old dogs here, doing all the stupid things, life-saving for a lifetime.

So, how do you teach an old dog new tricks?

Well, I know when I was a kid growing up in the house, The way my dad would train the dog to do things.

He would take the dog and stick his nose in the stool and the dog would learn how to do, how to, if he misbehaved my dad would stick his nose in the stool and he learned very quickly how not to do those things.

So we don't have such a harsh teaching here in the Krishna Gange movement.

What we do is we give it something better taste.

Prasadam, kirtan, nice enlivening classes.

Viśvāyāvinivartante neraḥ raścidahīna ravasu viṣaṁ raśopyaśrāp paramaṁ viṣvani bharta te What we do is we give you a higher taste.

You're habituated to serve your material body, your lust, your anger and your greed, that's your habit.

All right, well, how much pleasure are you getting from that?

Well, you get a little pleasure, but you get a lot of pain along with it, you see.

But we give you a pleasure that doesn't have any pain mixed in with it.

That's why we can wean you from your bad habits, because we give you something which is better than your bad habits.

Don't torture yourself, don't punish yourself.

Reward yourself by coming back to being who you actually are.

We have a whole system of bhakti yoga based on hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, going to holy places, taking jyotisha under the deities, there's a whole system, worshipping the Tulasi Devi, taking shelter, initiation of a bona fide spiritual master.

We have a whole very scientific system, very scientific, precise system that works.

It's not something invented, it's coming down from Krishna Himself.

The whole Bhagavad Gita is explaining this science in detail.

I mean, this science of how to revive our original identities is coming from God Himself.

Not like the science of the scientists, so-called scientists.

Today this is the theory, tomorrow is another theory, another theory, another theory, another theory.

We're not talking about theories here, we're talking about facts.

This term scientific theory is an English word, oxymoron.

Imagine if you hear that word, it's a very scholastic word.

Oxymoron is saying something that contradicts itself.

A term that contradicts itself is called an oxymoron.

So, scientific theory is an oxymoron, because it contradicts himself.

Theories are not scientific, facts are scientific.

Theory is in the realm of speculation, science is beyond speculation.

So, we talk about the science of bhakti, we talk about a science which is not subject to theories.

It's a science which has been practically, perfectly followed for thousands and millions of years, going way back, even to the time of, even the beginning of, even the beginning of the universe, many, many millions and trillions of years ago.

This science has been going on for trillions of years, quadrillions of years.

Actually, it's been going on since time immemorial.

You cannot trace in time how long this science has been taught and practiced.

So, it has certainly withstood this test of time.

If you embrace this process of self-realization given by Lord Krishna and the great ācāryas, you will get the results.

You can say, I've been doing it, but I'm not getting the results.

Well, if you're not getting the results, that means you're not doing it properly.

If you're not getting the results, that means you're not doing it properly.

If you're not getting the results, that means you're doing something wrong.

So, that's why a spiritual master is necessary.

That's why senior devotees are necessary, because they teach you how to practice properly this system.

Because when you do it properly, according to the faithfully followed instructions of the Bhandavayad spiritual master, the results come.

Some might say, yes, the spiritual master gave so many instructions.

Don't brush them off as, you know, so many instructions.

Even if you follow 1 instruction properly that 1 following will bring you the perfectional stage even 1 instruction properly if you follow it sincerely and dedicatedly even 1 thing will bring you the perfectional stage you see there's 9 different things hearing chanting remembering offering prayers if you can even 1 of them perfectly then all the others automatically become perfect.

So that's why we say, if you just chant Hare Krishna, shake your rounds very seriously, and chant Hare Krishna sincerely, with love, then everything else becomes perfect.

Your hearing becomes perfect, your remembering, your serving.

Everything becomes perfect if you just chant perfectly.

If you hear perfectly, then you'll naturally chant.

Everything comes, any 1 item perfected brings all perfection in every other aspect.

Not that you have to separately master each 1 thing, hearing, chanting, no.

But what if you haven't mastered 1 of them?

Right now you're hearing and I'm chanting.

So I have to become, try to perfect my chanting as I'm speaking to you.

And you have to try to perfect your hearing as you're hearing from me.

So whatever you're doing, when you're offering prayers, worshipping Tulsi Devi, or bowing down in the dust of Vrindavan, whatever you're doing, try to always do that in a perfect movement.

See embrace perfection is your only business.

My only business is to become perfect in devotional service.

Sometimes people are bewildered, well should I do this or should I do that, I don't know what's going on here, I'm totally confused.

That confusion comes by listening to your mind instead of Krishna.

So my dear devotees, do not follow the whims, the dictates of your mind.

That's called, what is called go-dās, you see.

So if you serve your mind, you're called a go-dāsa, a servant of the mind.

If you follow your mind, it'll take you on the pathway to hell.

So instead of becoming go-dāsa, servant of the mind, become go-svāmī, the master of the mind.

Krishna says, yato yato nischalati manas chanta namastaram tatas tato mayy agnathat atma yajna-prashamyat from whatever and wherever the mind wanders, due to its flicking and its steady nature, 1 will certainly bring it back under the control of the self.

So my dear mind, like that Vaishnava poet Govinda Das, bhaja ho re mana, sri Nanda Nanda na, Mabhaya charanaravindu de, Durlabha manavar janama satsangi.

My Dear mind, please engage yourself now in the service of the divine son of Nanda Maharaj." Why did he say Krishna instead of the son of Nanda Maharaj?

Krishna is very pleased when he's addressed in relation with his devotees.

He takes great pleasure in all the son of Nanda.

He's very pleased to be addressed in this way.

So, Krishna is very, very happy when he's addressed in relation to his dear devotees.

So therefore we sing, jaya vada madhava, kundubhi hari, gopi janabalava.

We sing all these songs and Krishna just loves these things.

Even Hare Krishna, it's in relation with Srimati Radharani.

Hare is there, indicating the energy of Kṛṣṇa, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

So we come to Kṛṣṇa through Rādhārāṇī.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

So we have to learn the art of how to approach Krishna.

Not coming in and complaining, Krishna why didn't you give me this, why didn't you give me that.

That is our, if we come to complain to Krishna We're fools and rascals, number 1.

You don't come complaining to Krishna, you come submitting to Krishna.

Krishna is the perfect lover of all living entities.

He gives nothing of pure love to every single living entity.

If you're complaining with Krishna, You don't understand who is Krishna.

You don't understand the all-unlimitedly merciful nature of Krishna.

That means if you come complaining to Krishna, that means you think that you're Krishna, and he's your servant.

My dear Krishna, now I bow down to your lotus feet.

Please now engage me in devotional service." This is the mood, how to approach Krishna.

And then, when you give your love to Krishna, then Krishna reciprocates 10 times more.

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SB 04.25.19 2024-01-28 Vrindavan.m4a