Srimad Bhagavatam, fourth canto, chapter twenty-five, text number twenty-one.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA PANCHASESAHINA PUPKUKTAM PATHIHARENA SARVATAH

ANVESHAM MANAMISHABHAM patihāreṇa-sarvataḥ

anvesham manam viśvabham apādam kama-rūpinaṁ Pancha, 5.

Pratyahrena, by a bodyguard, sarvatah, all around, eveshamanam, who knew the searching after, vishavam, a husband, apadham, not very old, kamarupinam, very attracted to fulfill lusty desires.

Translation in purport by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.

The woman was protected on all sides by a five-hooded snake.

She was very beautiful and young, and she appeared very anxious to find a suitable husband.

The vital force of a living entity includes the 5 kinds of air working within the body which are known as prana, apana, jnana, samana and udana.

The vital force is compared to a serpent because a serpent can live simply by drinking air.

The vital force carried by the air is described as the pratyahara or the bodyguard.

Without the vital force 1 cannot live for a moment.

Indeed, all the senses are working under the protection of the vital force.

The woman represents intelligence with searching after her husband.

This indicates that intelligence cannot act without consciousness.

A beautiful woman is useless unless protected by the proper husband.

Intelligence must be always very fresh, therefore the word pradham, very young, is used here.

Material enjoyment means utilizing intelligence for the sake of rupa, rasa, ganda, sabda and sparsha or 4 tastes, smells, sound and touch.

Vande ham sri-guru sri-jatapada-kamalam sri-gurun vaisnavams ca sri-rupam sagrajatam sahagana-ragadatam vidam tam sa

Rupaṁsāgrajātam, Sahagana-raghaṇatāṁ vidhaṁ tam, Sājīvam, Sādāyitam, Sāvadhūtam, Parījana-sahitam, Kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devam, Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-padāṁ, Sahagana-lalita-śrīviṣa-kaṇḍitamś ca, Namaḥ aum Viṣṇu-padāya, Kṛṣṇa-prasāya bhū-tale, So, this is a simile.

Namaś te sarasvate deve gauravāni pācāriṇe nirviśeṣu śuñjavādi paśyacchati satārīne So, this

As Palabhata explains, the woman represents intelligence and the man represents consciousness.

So in other words, you can't have intelligence without consciousness.

Consciousness means that consciousness is a symptom of the soul.

So wherever the soul is present, there is consciousness.

And once there is consciousness, then you have intelligence, you have the mind, you have senses, either spiritual or material, it's not senseless.

Now the modern day scientists, they want to negate consciousness.

They say there's really nothing there, just a combination of chemicals.

They foolishly try to negate consciousness.

The irony of it is this, with their consciousness they're negating consciousness.

So, it's very contradictory situation of the modern day scientists.

So, we don't take the instructions from those who contradict themselves, we take instructions from those who actually confirm scientifically and philosophically and logically confirm what they're saying.

That's who we take our instructions from.

It also mentions here the vital force, how the air is the vital force, and we certainly can see that.

It's like, how many of you can dream without drinking water for a while?

Air is the most vital thing we're consuming every minute.

So, without air we're really in bad shape.

You can go for water for many days and not die.

With air you cannot go very long without it.

It's very important to have air to breathe.

So, as far as the actual points are being made here, A beautiful woman is useless, that's protected by a proper husband.

Sometimes we see the husbands are rascals, they don't get proper protection.

The wife may be beautiful, but the husband is actually ugly, ugly consciousness.

So, does that mean the woman is now useless because her husband is not protecting?

No, if the woman is protected by the bona fide spiritual master and by Krishna, it's not that she becomes useless if her husband's a rascal.

So the real thing is taking shelter of Krishna.

Of course, in Vedic, in the civilized civilization, or actually if it's not civilized, it's not civilization, it's animalization.

In a civilization, actually, the women are protected by the men, because a woman can be raped, but men don't become raped, you see.

So women are weaker, they require, they're taken advantage of by unscrupulous men.

Therefore women are meant to be protected by proper men.

Sometimes they say women are less intelligent.

1 of my disciples wrote me about women being less intelligent.

I said, actually a woman is Krishna conscious, she's the most intelligent.

If she thinks she's a woman, then she's less intelligent.

So the whole point is we have to get free of this bodily consciousness.

Bodily consciousness, anyone who is bodily conscious, they're a fool and a rascal, number 1.

Anybody who realizes they're a spiritual being, they're actually the most intelligent person.

So it's very important that we cultivate this what's known as Krishna consciousness, this divine love consciousness, awaken our actual spiritual natures, our identities, is a very important thing.

Here we are in Vrindavan now, it's a very special facility to awaken our Krishna consciousness.

Actually, Rupa Goswami has described in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 5 different potent types of devotional service.

And the first 1 is to live in Vrindavan, Mahayapur Vrindavan, it's the first 1.

And the second 1 is to worship the deities.

The third 1 is to, let's see, worship the deities.

The third 1 is to, I'm forgetting 1 of them now, is living in a holy place, living in...

Reciting Bhagavatam also means hearing the Bhagavatam.

So, Living in Vrindavan or Mayapur, worshipping deities, Bhagavatam, serving the devotees.

If you have a chance to serve a devotee called Vaishnava seva, it's a great opportunity.

If you have an opportunity to serve a Vaishnava, take it.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

So, the amazing thing that Rupa Goswami says is this.

He says, even if you have a slight attachment for any of these 5 things, a slight attachment for any of these things, spiritual ecstasy can be aroused within even a neophyte devotee.

Spiritual ecstasy can be aroused even by the slight attachment for any 1 of these 5 items.

So you can analyze yourself, my dear devotees, well, am I relishing being in Vrindavan?

Or I like to speak or hear Bhagavatam, I like to serve devotees, I like chanting Krishna.

If you can do all 5, you're in pretty good shape.

Even 1 of them, if you're attached to any 1 of them, that 1 will expand into all 5 of them.

So, and sometimes we see devotees, we say, are you ecstatic?

They say, well, I say, you know, you really look like you're miserable.

But the thing is, being, Krishna consciousness doesn't mean being okay.

Krishna consciousness means being ecstatic, you see.

That's what it means to be Krishna conscious.

Somebody is miserable, they want to admit it.

I remember when I was in college, college student, I was really depressed in those days, before I found Krishna Consciousness.

So 1 of the co-students in the hall said, How are you today?

So in the material society it's considered not very proper to admit that you're suffering.

You're supposed to not admit that you're suffering.

Someone says, I'm okay, that means you're miserable.

People ask me how I'm doing, even non-devotees.

I say, well, because I'm chanting Hare Krishna, I'm pretty blissful.

To be Krishna conscious means to be blissful, not to be okay.

They say I'm okay, but they're not really okay.

To be actually okay means to be Krishna conscious, relishing the holy place, the deities, the Bhagavatam, serving Vaishnavas, the holy names, the pashadams, all these wonderful things the Prabhupada has blessed us with, you see.

They actually arouse devotional ecstasy, even for a neophyte.

Of course, Prabhupada does say at the end of the chapter, These might be exaggerations, they may not apply to everyone, he mentions at the end of the chapter.

But they are still possible for everybody, so we should take advantage of this.

Of course, we are not sick, the body is sick.

So even if the body is sick, if you're Krishna conscious, you can be in a state of bliss.

Just imagine Prabhupāda in his deathbed, he was very sick, but within his heart he was in a state of pure bliss.

Because he was connected with Kṛṣṇa.

I have to stop coughing to get some cough syrup today.

So anyway, I always say many times this process works if you work the process.

It's really an amazing thing, actually, if you consider Krishna consciousness.

Just like you consider this poetry by Rūpa Goswāmī.

The English translation is this very enlivening thing.

It's actually, it's called negative reverse psychology.

1 gopī is telling her gopī friend, she's a my dear friend, If you have any desire to enjoy society, friendship and love, when you're in this material world, then do not go to the bank of Jamuna to see Krishna at Geshigar.

He has a peacock feather, and he's wearing a peacock feather on his head, he's playing the flute very enchantingly, and his body is glowing in the moonlit night, so don't go there.

So, whether the gopīdūṣ are running, oh, who is this boy Govinda, With the body glowing in the moonlit night, playing the flute with a peacock feather in his head, an enchanting smile.

So, we're just hoping for that day when the whole world can shake it up.

I was just thinking this morning, we say, nāmaste sarasvate devī gauravāni pācāriṇe niviṣeṣu śuñjavādi pāśyati śatāni The Prabhupada is delivering the Western countries.

We pray every morning, you're delivering the Western countries.

So Prabhupada is physically here, that means we as Prabhupada's agents have to see that the Western countries are being delivered.

That's our duty as Prabhupada anugas to carry out his mission of delivering the Western countries.

Because Western countries deliver, the whole world will follow.

Right now, they're following India, they're following the West.

So it's our duty to deliver the Western countries.

I was thinking, what will be the symptom of our living in the Western countries?

Well I think when the US president is Krishna conscious then we can know we delivered the country, the Western countries are in good shape.

And we have devotees wearing Vaishnava tilak in the White House.

He was the President of the United States.

Let me know we made some progress in living in the Western countries.

The more we can progress within, the more we'll progress without, not automatically.

But here in this thing or here in this thing, they're related to each other.

So we have to go through these stages all the way up to that raga-bhakti.

There's a vahidi bhakti following the rules and regulations.

We have to work our way up through all these different sages who actually come to raga-bhakti.

We actually become awakened in pure love of God.

So, the more we actually can awaken pure love of God within ourselves, the more we can get rid of all these anarchists, the lust, the anger, the greed, the madness, illusion, and envy, the more we can weed out all this garbage polluting our consciousness.

Then we can actually have a powerful uplifting impact on the entire universe, the entire material existence.

You said something about consciousness, about modern philosophy.

But they know that when 1 is unconscious, they will say, that person is unconscious.

How can we understand this, that they don't know about consciousness?

Well, to them, consciousness is just the...

They think it's an activity on the material plane, some energy going through the brain.

They don't understand the consciousness beyond the body.

I take the consciousness of something going on within the physical body, the brain.

They don't understand it's beyond the body.

Then when the body is dead, the consciousness is dead.

They don't realize consciousness, 1 who takes one's consciousness, when he leaves the body, they don't realize that.

See, the body may die, but your consciousness is an eternal symptom of the soul.

So since you're going to have your consciousness eternally, why not perfect it?

It's like you have something, why not perfect it?

Let's say you got an inheritance of a piano.

You have a very nice piano, a beautiful piano, just sitting there.

And you're talking about, just sitting there, what are you going to do with it?

It's a beautiful piano sitting in your living room, why not learn how to play it?

So you can get some beautiful music out of it.

So we have consciousness, Why not learn how to utilize it properly?

You have a beautiful gift called consciousness.

Why not try to utilize it, learn how to utilize it properly?

By connecting the individual consciousness with the supreme consciousness, that's the key.

That connecting process is called bhakti or devotion.

Otherwise it's like using a beautiful piano just to, you know, when you cook you put your pots on the… Where do I put this?

I have this hot pot, where should I put it?

Take a hot pot off the stove, look for a place to put it, stick it on the piano.

So we ruin our consciousness by polluting it with lust, with anger, greed, madness, illusion and envy.

So instead of spoiling our consciousness, we should perfect our consciousness.

That's the process of Krishna consciousness.

So we understand the great science coming down from great Acharyas, evam paramparāptatam ram rāma-jāsā yo vidu.

There's a great science coming down from great realized personalities how to prevent consciousness.

So wouldn't it be intelligent to take advantage of their help?

Wouldn't that be an intelligent thing to do?

See, that's the modern day, they say, oh, I'm not interested.

I just want to know where can I eat, where can I have sex, where can I get some money, that's all they care about?

They're so fools, they're so rascals, they've come to love all the monkeys.

We saw the monkeys yesterday in the forest over here.

All they could do is eat, sleep, mate and defend.

So, we just wanted to eat, sleep, mate and defend.

But there's even a saying in America called monkey business.

So, these activities of eating, sleeping, mating, defending, that's simply monkey business, that's all nonsense.

However, we can take these things and perfect them by offering them in Krishna's service.

We can eat Krishna Pashadam, we can sleep, whatever is required to do our service nicely, we can make to have Krishna conscious children, and we defend ourselves from the attacks of the demons.

Just like that happened in our Miami temple, the demons came, but We protected them.

We used a gun and actually scared them away with a gun.

So we can use defense in Krishna's service.

Even the atom bomb can be used in Krishna's service.

The nuclear bomb can be used in Krishna's service to defeat the deities, demons, who are trying to conquer the godly civilization that we're establishing.

So let's see if we have any chats coming in here.

If you have any questions in the chat window.

Why Rupa Rasa, sense objects appear more attractive than Krishna?

Why these sense objects appear more attractive than Krishna?

Why are we more attracted to sense objects than we are to Krishna?

You know, some beautiful woman or some really looking good food, or why are we more attracted to these things than we are to Krishna?

We don't realize that these things are attractive.

A beautiful woman is attractive, there's no doubt about it.

A nice-looking plate of food is attractive, there's no doubt.

So why are we attracted to these things more than to Krishna?

There's Rishikesa, master of the senses, and there's the objects of the senses.

We're going after the objects of the senses instead of the master of the senses.

So, if we're intelligent, we'll see where all these attractive things come from.

That's why Krishna's called all attractive, you see.

Food is very attractive, a woman's very attractive, these things are attractive, but our nature is to be attractive, you see.

But let's find out, let's find the source of all attraction, you see.

You can get some satisfaction from a beautiful woman, for some food, you can get some satisfaction, But how much satisfaction you can get?

It's always a little satisfaction and then cut.

Why not find that place where I can get unlimited satisfaction?

That is Krishna, the all-attractive Personality of Godhead.

By learning how to relish that experience of Krishna consciousness, I get unlimited happiness.

So, do you want limited happiness or unlimited happiness?

Everything is emanating from Krishna, so everything is attractive.

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