Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.4 Pradyumna: “When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his past misdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, is the cause of his misery. Actually the living entity should not have taken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body for sense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification, by which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another.” Prabhupada: nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti na sadhu manye yata atmano ’yam asann api klesada asa dehah [Bhag. 5.5.4] So it is recommended that mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimuktes. Mahat-seva, we have described the symptoms of mahatma. The sum and substance of mahatma is mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah [Bg. 9.13] That is mahatma. Otherwise duratma. Simply putting on a saffron dress and having a big beard, he’s not mahatma. Mahatma is he who is cent percent engaged in Krsna’s service. Mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim [Bg. 9.13]. He’s not in the control of this material nature. He’s completely under the direction of spiritual nature. Daivim prakrtim asritah. And what is the sign? What is the difference between a person under material nature and spiritual nature? The difference is that one who is under spiritual nature, he is cent percent engaged in the service of the Lord. This is the sign. mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah bhajanty ananya manaso… [Bg. 9.13] bhajate mam ananya-bhak sadhur eva sa mantavyah [Bg. 9.30] These things are there. So bhajana wanted. Bhajana means these nine kinds of activities: sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam arcanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam [SB 7.5.23] This is bhajan, bhajana-kriya. Atho bhajana-kriya. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango ’tha bhajana-kriya. Sadhu-sanga. So mahat-seva means sadhu-sanga. If you associate with devotees, that is called sadhu-sanga, mahat. Each devotee is mahatma. And the signs are given there: mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimuktes mahantas te sama-cittah prasanta, we have already discussed. And another mahatma is also ye va mayise krta-sauhrdartha. The main business is how far one is devoted to Krsna. That is wanted. It doesn’t mean that one has to become a sannyasi or one has to remain a grhastha. There are four asramas. You should accept whichever is suitable for you, but the business is how to serve Krsna. That’s If you find that remaining as a grhastha, you can serve more Krsna, that’s all right. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has accepted this. Sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir. Sthane, sthane means everyone has got some position. So it doesn’t require that you have to change your position. But the real business is you have to see how far you are making progress in Krsna consciousness. That is wanted. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, kiba vipra, kiba sudra nyasi kene naya yei krsna-tattva-vetta sei ‘guru’ haya [Cc. Madhya 8.128] He never says that only the sannyasis should be guru: krsna bhajanete nahi yati-uladi-vicara; or becoming Krsna conscious, there is no such distinction of caste, creed, position. No. yei bhaje sei bado abhakta hi cara krsna-bhajanete nahi yati-kuladi-vicara Anyone who is advanced in Krsna consciousness, he is great. Sei bado. Ara saba car. And others, they are all rotten. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s division. Simply we have to see how one is advanced in Krsna consciousness. The same thing as Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita: na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah mayayapahrta-jnana asurim bhavam asritah [Bg. 7.15] If one is not Krsna conscious, then he is either duskrtina, mudhah, naradhamah, maya-pahrta-jnana, asurim bhavam asrita. This is the test. Take this simple test. Just like test tube. A chemical analyzer examines chemicals in the test tube, a small nozzle, and he tests what it is. You can also test. Just like a big pot of rice boiling, you can test. Take one grain of the rice and press it. If it is properly boiled, then you can understand the whole thing is boiled. Similarly, there are, everything a test tube. So for us, Krsna conscious people, there is a test tube. What is that test tube? If one does not accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he should be rejected immediately. It is not sectarian. It is test tube. Krsna says that if you do not find anyone fully surrendered to Krsna, then he must belong to these groups. What is that? Duskrtina, simply sinful. That’s all. Always engaged Because nobody can become Krsna conscious cent percent unless he’s free from sinful life. Krsna said, yesam tv anta-gatam papam jananam punya-karmanam te dvandva-moha-nirmukta bhajante mam drdha-vratah [Bg. 7.28] This is the test: if one has taken to Krsna, that “Krsna is my only worshipable Deity…” Caitanya-caritamrta-kaj says, ‘sraddha’ sabde—visvasa sudrdha niscaya krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya This is sraddha. Adau sraddha. Beginning of spiritual life is sraddha. Just like you have come here. It is based on sraddha, a little faith. Otherwise, there are millions of people, why they are not coming? There is no sraddha. But anyone who comes, it means there is adau sraddha. This sraddha has been Sraddadhanah. Krsna said. So what is that verse? Asraddadhanah. Sraddha, and the opposite word is asraddha. So what Krsna said, if one has no faith, asraddadhanah purusa dharmasyasya parantapa [Bg. 9.3] What Krsna said… Krsna personally comes to enlighten us, that “This is your life. You should do like this. You should live like this. You should act like this. Why you are rotting in this material world?” So the same thing is repeated in different way in different places. Here also it is said, nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [Bhag. 5.5.4]. These rascals have become so mad, pramattah. Prakrstha rupena mattah. Mattah means mad, intoxicated. And one, another, pra. Pra means prakistha, sufficiently mad. So these materialistic persons, you will see everywhere. They’re running here and there. Especially in the Western countries, from the early morning, from five o’clock or still earlier, the whole street is full of motorcars. They are going to their work. Those who have gone to foreign countries, you have seen. In every big, big city of the Western countries they are always busy. They work. Now we are also imitating them. Our leaders are advertising, “Work hard. Work hard. That you are pulling on rickshaw, that is not sufficient. Still you have to work hard. You are pulling on thela? That is not sufficient. You have to still…” “What I can do more?” This is going on. This is material civilization, Mad. Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [Bhag. 5.5.4]. And what for they’re doing? Yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti. The aim is how to satisfy senses. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. That’s all. I get money, go to the restaurant, go to the liquor house, go to the prostitute house, and nightclub, and so on, so on, so on. Because they have no other business. They do not know anything more than that. Indriya-pritaya. A little sense gratification. So they are all mad. So nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [Bhag. 5.5.4]. And they are implicating so many sinful activities. Legally and virtually, they are becoming implicated. Yajnarthat karmano ’nyatra lokayam karma-bandhanah. If you don’t act only for yajna, then you become implicated. The evidence is, the proof is I am implicated that there are different varieties of life. You should know that “Why there are so many varieties of life.” That is explained here. The varieties of life is na sadhu manye yata atmano ’yam asann api klesada asa dehah [Bhag. 5.5.4]. Here, and anyone who has got this material body Material body means klesada, different degrees of klesada. Somebody is millionaire—but don’t think that his body is not klesada. His body is also klesada, giving some pain. Nobody is free from klesa. There was a very big rich man in Calcutta. So he could not eat. His appetite, there was no appetite. So he’s rich man. So he was given sufficient foodstuff, and simply show, he could not eat. But a big rich man. And one poor man was passing on the street, taking a fish and chanting very Not chanting; singing very jubilantly. So this gentleman saw. He said that “I have become so rich man, but I have no appetite inspite of so many nice foodstuff before me. And that poor man is carrying one fish. He’s thinking that he’ll go and cook it and eat it very nicely. He is so jubilant. So if I would have become a poor man like him I could have enjoyed some food.” He was wishing that. Because real business is sense gratification. So in spite of his becoming so rich he could not gratify his senses. But he was So this is the position. Everyone has got a certain type of body on account of different types of sense gratification. Otherwise why there are so many varieties? Why one is human being? Why one is a pig? Why one is a demigod? Why one is a tree? Why one is a fish? Why…? So many—8,400,000. This is all due to our desire for sense gratification. These varieties. Otherwise, one variety would have been there, existing. Why there are so many varieties? And that is not my creation. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ’rjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61]. Isvara, the Supreme Lord, Paramatma, is situated in everyone’s heart. And we are always praying. Even we do not pray, we are… “If I would have been like this, if I would have got this opportunity, then I would have eaten like this, I would have done like this.” This is going on continually. Continually. Indriya-pritaya aprnoti. We are simply desiring one after… And it is God’s business, thankless business, that He is noting down, “All right, I will give you facility like this.” isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ’rjuna tisthati bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya [Bg. 18.61] So His business is that “This rascal wants like this,” and still He’s so merciful, He asks maya, the material nature, “Give him a body like this. He wants like this.” So therefore we have got varieties. Because we have got varieties of desires we have got varieties of bodies. This is the explanation. Otherwise who will explain why there are so many varieties of bodies? The varieties of bodies means varieties of desire. So if you want to stop these varieties of body, then you should give up all these nonsense desires. Anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam [BRS 1.1.11] You are jnani, you are karmi, you are yogi, but your desires are all different. One yogi wants that “I shall fly in the sky.” One yogi wants, “I shall walk on the water.” One yogi thinks, “I shall create gold and show magic to the rascal people that I am God.” This is going on. One jnani, he is speaking something, one karmi… This is going on. Therefore there are varieties, varieties of desires. You have to stop these nonsense desires. That is wanted. Otherwise, you are implicated. You are implicated. So, therefore you can stop your desires only by becoming Krsna conscious. Otherwise, they will go on. Svamin krtartho ’smi varam na yace. This is Dhruva Maharaja said. He had desires, very, very great desires that “I shall have, I shall possess a kingdom greater than Brahma, greater than my father.” He was insulted by his stepmother. This is desire. This is We are Action and reaction. So he desired that “I shall have a great kingdom—greater kingdom than my father.” He went to the forest and he underwent very severe austerities, a five-years-old boy. He saw, Krsna came. So when He wanted to give him, fulfill his desires, he said, svamin krtartho ’smi varam na yace: “No, no, no, no. I have nothing to ask from You.” This is Krsna consciousness. No more desires. Otherwise, karmi, jnani, yogi, and bhakta. Akamah sarva-kamo va moksa-kama udara-dhih [Bhag. 2.3.10]. Moksa-kama, the jnanis they want moksa, to merge into the existence of Brahman. The yogis, they want siddhis, some perfection, material perfection, to show some magic. And the karmis, they want sense gratification. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that karmi jnani yogi sakali asanta. Asanta, they cannot be at peace because they are desiring. So long you want, you desire, there will be no peace. Krsna-bhakta— niskama, ataeva santa. So this is the recommendation, nunam pramattah kurute-vikarma [Bhag. 5.5.4] They are mad after sense gratification and doing everything nonsense which is forbidden in the sastra. You know, those who are too much after fulfilling desires, they even kill his own men. He’ll kill his own child. Because the mother desiring that “I have become pregnant. It is botheration. It will check my sense gratification. Kill.” Vikarma. Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [Bhag. 5.5.4]. He doesn’t see that what will be the result of it. Vikarma. Karma, vikarma, akarma. Karma means prescribed duties, according… Just like law. “You keep to the right,” this is law. And as soon as you keep to the wrong side, left, it is vikarma. This is karma and vikarma. But for sense-gratification we execute vikarma. So therefore we are implicating and we are preparing for the next life. Yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram: [Bg. 8.6] at the time of death these desires become prominent. Even without desire we get so many ideas and dream at night. So at the time of death, on account of our vikarma, we shall create a situation, and the next life we get a similar body. That’s all. Nunam pramattah kurute. Na sadhu manye yata atmano ’yam. I have got already one body which is klesada. Everyone has got experience. No one is here who can say that “My body is very nice. There is no klesa. There is no pains and pleasure. I am very perfect.” That is not possible. As soon as you get a material body, it must be subjected to so many sufferings: adhyatmika, adhibautika, adhidaivika. Tribulations there must be. Material body means klesada. Therefore the Vedic civilization is to stop getting this material body. That is Vedic civilization. Not that increase. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Two things are there. You must accept, you must get the service of Krsna. Otherwise you go on in this way. Mrtyu-samsara-vartamani. Asraddadhanan purusa dharmasyasya parantapa mam aprapya. If you don’t get Krsna, then there is no other way. There is no other alternative. The only alternative is mrtyu-samsara-vartmani. You get one body and again you die, again get another body. This will go on. Therefore we should not Na sadhu manye. Rsabhadeva, boys, said, “This is not good.” Na sadhu manye yata atmano ’yam asann api klesada asa dehah [Bhag. 5.5.4]. So this culture, this education, is practically nil. Especially in Kali- yuga, it is very regrettable. But the informations are there, the science is there. If one is intelligent, he can take advantage of this science, Krsna consciousness, and mold his life accordingly so that he can stop this process of accepting a body which is klesada. Klesada. That is the perfection of life. And that can be simply done very easily if you simply study Krsna, if you come in this temple and see Krsna. Very simple method. Mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah. These are not our manufacture; Krsna says. You come here. The temple is meant for this purpose: that you come, see Krsna, and be attached to Krsna. The more you become attached to Krsna, that is called bhakti-yoga. mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi… [Bg. 7.1] Then what will be the benefit? Suppose I understand you very perfectly. Then what will be the result? The result is, janma karma ca divyam me yo janati tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti [Bg. 4.9] Simply. If you simply know Krsna, then this business, repetition of birth and death, will stop. It is so simple thing. So we should take advantage of it and utilize our human form of life perfectly. Thank you very much. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Vrndavana, October 26, 1976