Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.8
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Honolulu, May 9, 1976

Prabhupada: Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sixth Canto, Chapter Three…, Chapter One, verse number eight. (devotees repeat:)

tasmat pura eva asv iha papa-niskrtau yateta mrtyor avipadyatatmana dosasya drstva guru-laghavam yatha bhisak cikitseta rujam nidanavit [SB 6.1.8]

So there are different varieties of sinful activities, just like there are different varieties of diseases. To become diseased is not our normal life. To remain healthy is our normal life. When we become diseased, that is abnormal condition of life. Therefore we want to treat, get out of the disease. Similarly, this material life is the diseased condition of the living being. We are all living beings, but because we have accepted this material body, we are suffering. Matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah. Now we require this fan. Why? Because feeling some pains on account of heat. That heat is felt by the body, not the soul. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah. These material pains and pleasure, they are simply touching this body, not the soul. Soul is always aloof. Just like we are on a car. Suppose there is some accident: the car is broken, but not the person, the driver, is broken. The car is broken. But because the driver or the proprietor of the car is too much adhered to the car, when the car is broken, his heart fails. Actually the person has nothing to do with the car, but because he is too much attached to the car, when the car is broken, he thinks, “I am finished.” Heart is broken. Like that.

So we are part and parcel of God, every one of us. So we remain always pure, but on account of material attachment, we are suffering. This is the position. So therefore the diseased condition of our present life has to be treated. What is that treatment? To become detached. On account of attachment we are suffering. But… (aside:) You should… Outside. Detachment. So the detachment, there are many different processes of becoming detached: karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and many other processes. But the most perfect process is bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga. That is stated, vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yoga-prayojitah, janayaty asu vairagyam. If one is trained up to become devotee of Vasudeva, Krsna… Vasudeva means Krsna. Vasudeve bhagavati. Vasudeva is the Supreme Personality, Bhagavan. Bhagavati. Vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogam prayojitah. If we engage ourself in the bhakti-yoga process to Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then what happens? Janaty asu vairagyam. Then very soon one becomes detached. Vairagya. The bhakti-yoga means vairagya-vidya, how to become detached. That is the test. “Whether I am making progress in the bhakti-yoga?”—the test is within yourself. You haven’t got to take a certificate from others. How much you are becoming detached to this material world, that is the test. If you are still attached to the material pleasures, that means you are not making progress in bhakti-yoga. It is a test.

Just like bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktir anyatra syat [SB 11.2.42]. Vairagya-vidya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by His example of life, He was twenty-four years, young boy, and He had a very beautiful sixteen-years-old wife, very affectionate mother. In the family, two persons, the mother and the wife, if they are very, very good, then the happy life… In the Canakya Pandita therefore said,

mata yasya grhe nasti bharya capriya-vadini aranyam tena gantavyam yatharanyam tatha grham

At home if one has no mother and if his wife is not very, I mean, what is called, apriya-vadini, does not speak very well… Wife is meant for speaking very well to the husband. That is the husband and wife relationship. So Canakya Pandita says if the wife is not very attached and does not speak very well… Means does not like the husband on the whole. If such wife is at home and mother is not there… This is ideal Indian happy home. But in your country it is very rare, you see. But this is the standard of happiness. So if there is no mother and there is no good wife, then aranyam tena gantavyam, immediately he should give up that home. Aranyam: he should go to the forest. “Why forest? In the city, I have got very nice home, nice building.” No. For a person who has no good wife, neither mother, for him, yatharanyam tatha grham. For him either this home or the forest, it is same. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu had these two greatest attachment at home, very affectionate mother. You have read about Sacimata is… Because He was the only… Out of his (her) ten children, only Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the living child of Sacimata. So naturally she was very, very affection to his (her) son, and this Visnupriya, wife, very, very affectionate, beautiful, young—but He gave up. This is called vairagya-vidya, no attachment. Although there is reason of attachment, but He had no attachment.

tyaktva sudustyaja-surepsita rajya-laksmim dharmistha arya-vacasa yad agad aranyam maya-mrgam dayitayepsitam anvadhavad vande maha-purusa te caranaravindam [SB 11.5.34]

He left home for the benefit of the whole human society. This is vairagya-vidya.

Similarly, the Gosvamis, they were ministers. They were not ordinary men, Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami. Practically they were governing the whole affairs of government at that time, a very exalted post. So about them also, it is written by Srinivasacarya, tyaktva turnam asesa-mandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat. Asesa-mandala. Mandala-pati means big, big leaders, big, big leaders of the society. He was minister, so he was associating with big, big men, not ordinary men. But he gave up. He’s such a position, minister, drawing high salary, and association, all the big, big men of the country or the society. But he gave them up—sada tuccha-vat, that “What is the use of this?” This is called vairagya. Tyaktva turnam… Very soon. Tyaktva turnam asesa-mandala-pati-srenim. Not only one, many, many big men were flattering them. Tyaktva turnam asesa-mandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat. Then what he became? Bhutva dina-ganesakau karunaya kaupina-kanthasritau. They are so affectionate for the poor, suffering souls. Bhutva dina-ganesakau karunaya. So Vaisnava is very, very merciful. They are merciful to the fallen souls. Their only concern is how to deliver these fallen souls. They are under the clutches of maya, suffering. So various means adopting, just try to save them. This is Vaisnava business. Nana-sastra-vica ranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samsthapakau lokanam hita-karinau. These Gosvamis, they were studying so many books, Vedic literature and found out the cream, how to establish… Nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samstha… Sad-dharma, not cheating dharma. Dharma means religion. Real religion, sad-dharma. So the sad-dharma… As soon as we become addicted to sinful activities, then our real, constitutional position we forget, and we become mad after it and the disease increases.

So here it is suggested that “According to the disease…” Diseases, there are different types of disease. Some disease is very acute; some disease is not very important. So he suggests that tasmat pura eva ca iha papa-niskrtau yateta mrtyor avipadya atmana. You have to die. That is a fact. Nobody will live here. “As sure as death.” So before death we must finish the atonement of our sinful activities. This is recommended. Pura. Tasmat pura eva iha papa-niskrtau. But nobody knows. At the present moment they do not know what is papa and how to get out of it, what is next birth. Everything is unknown at the present moment. This is the modern civilization. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu took one thing, that ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12] They are in gross misunderstanding of life. So in order to cleanse their heart to understand what is the position where they are going, where they are actually, how things are going on… It is due to ignorance.

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that ceto-darpana-marjanam. Ceto-da… Bhava-maha-davagni-nirva… Unless we cleanse our hearts of all the dirty things that we have accumulated, then we have to continue the sufferings of this material world. But if we cleanse, we understand what is our position. The position is that we are part and parcel of God. If God is good, we are also good. Just like gold and particle of gold. If gold is valuable, the little particle, it may be less valuable, but it is valuable. It is not ordinary thing. Similarly, we living entities, mamaivamso jiva-bhuta. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that “These, all these living entities, they are My part and parcels,” means “as good as I am.” But thing is that manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani kars… He is concocting; he is manufacturing ideas to become happy. Manah-sasthanindriyani. And with the senses he is trying to satisfy himself. But because he has no information how to become happy, manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati [Bg. 15.7]. Karsati means that is struggle for existence.

That struggle for existence is explained by different scholars and philosophers in different way. But actually there is struggle for existence and they are trying to be happy manufacturing different types of struggle for existence. The other day who was saying that they have now discovered another way of happiness. Flying in the air? Yes. Now the sufferers, or what is called?

Devotee: Surfers.

Prabhupada: That is not sufficient. Now they want to fly. You see. Another discovery. This is going on. Manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati [Bg. 15.7]. Actually they are manufacturing different ways of suffering. And there is no happiness. Simply the business is going on, manufacturing different ways of suffering. So therefore that is disease. This is our material disease, and it is recommended here that before the next death, if we come to the right conclusion how we shall become happy, then this process of continuously dying and again taking birth and again disease and again old age, then it is not very good.

But they are so fools and rascals, they do not know how the life is going on, how nature is working upon us. Everything is in darkness. Therefore Krsna consciousness is the only hope for human society. Only hope. It is not story; it is fact. So those who have come to Krsna consciousness, I request that take it very seriously and read the books and make progress and simply try to understand Krsna. Then everything, all problems, will be solved.

Thank you very much. (end)