Verse: Srimad Bhagvatam 4.22.23
Date: September 14th, 2017
Place: ISKCON Ujjain, India
Transcription: HG Sevanandini Mataji
Edited: HG Jahnava Mataji and HG Amitabh Krishna Prabhu
arthendriyārāma-sagoṣṭhy-atṛṣṇayā
tat-sammatānām aparigraheṇa ca
vivikta-rucyā paritoṣa ātmani
vinā harer guṇa-pīyūṣa-pānāt
WORD FOR WORD MEANINGS
artha — riches; indriya — senses; ārāma — gratification; sa-goṣṭhī — with their companion; atṛṣṇayā — by reluctance; tat — that; sammatānām — since approved by them; aparigraheṇa — by nonacceptance; ca — also; vivikta-rucyā — disgusted taste; paritoṣe — happiness; ātmani — self; vinā — without; hareḥ — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; guṇa — qualities; pīyūṣa — nectar; pānāt — drinking.
TRANSLATION
One has to make progress in spiritual life by not associating with persons who are simply interested in sense gratification and making money. Not only such persons, but one who associates with such persons should be avoided. One should mold his life in such a way that he cannot live in peace without drinking the nectar of the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari. One can be thus elevated by being disgusted with the taste for sense enjoyment.
PURPORT
In the material world everyone is interested in money and sense gratification. The only objective is to earn as much money as possible and utilize it for satisfaction of the senses. Srila Sukadeva Goswami thus described the activities of the materialistic persons:
[SB 2.1.3]
nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ
vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ
divā cārthehayā rājan
kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā
This is a typical example of materialistic persons. At night they waste their time by sleeping more than six hours or by wasting time in sex indulgence. This is their occupation at night, and in the morning, they go to their office or business place just to earn money. As soon as there is some money, they become busy in purchasing things for their children and others. Such persons are never interested in understanding the values of life — what is God, what is the individual soul, what is its relationship with God, etc. Things are degraded to such an extent that those who are supposed to be religious are also at the present moment interested only in sense gratification.
The number of materialistic persons in this Age of Kali has increased more than in any other age; therefore, persons who are interested in going back home, back to Godhead, should not only engage in the service of realized souls but should give up the company of materialistic persons, whose only aim is to earn money and employ it in sense gratification. They should also not accept the objectives of materialistic persons, namely money and sense gratification. Therefore, it is stated, bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca (Bhāg. 11.2.42): to advance in devotional service one should be uninterested in the materialistic way of life. That which is the subject matter of satisfaction for the devotees is of no interest to the non-devotees.
Simple negation, or giving up the company of materialistic persons, will not do. We must have engagements. Sometimes it is found that a person interested in spiritual advancement gives up the company of material society and goes to a secluded place as recommended for the yogīs especially, but that will also not help a person in spiritual advancement, for in many instances such yogīs also fall down. As far as jñānīs are concerned, generally they fall down without taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. The impersonalists or the voidists can simply avoid the positive material association; they cannot remain fixed in transcendence without being engaged in devotional service.
The beginning of devotional service is to hear about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is recommended in this verse: vinā harer guṇa-pīyūṣa-pānāt. One must drink the nectar of the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this means that one must be always engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. It is the prime method for advancing in spiritual life. Lord Chaitanya Mahāprabhu also recommends this in the Chaitanya-caritāmṛta. If one wants to make advancement in spiritual life, by great fortune he may meet a bona fide spiritual master and from him learn about Krishna.
By serving both the spiritual master and Krishna he gets the seed of devotional service (bhakti-latā-bīja), and if he sows the seed within his heart and waters it by hearing and chanting, it grows into a luxuriant bhakti-latā, or bhakti creeper. The creeper is so strong that it penetrates the covering of the universe and reaches the spiritual world and continues to grow on and on until it reaches and takes shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, just as an ordinary creeper also grows on and on until it takes a solid shelter on a roof; then it very steadily grows and produces the required fruit. The real cause of the growing of such fruit, which is here called the nectar of hearing the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to water the creeper of devotional service by hearing and chanting. The purport is that one cannot live outside the society of devotees; one must live in the association of devotees, where there is constant chanting and hearing of the glories of the Lord. The Krishna consciousness movement is started for this purpose, so that hundreds of ISKCON center may give people a chance to hear and chant, to accept the spiritual master and to disassociate themselves from persons who are materially interested, for in this way one can make solid advancement in going back home, back to Godhead.
LECTURE
A SIMPLE INSTRUCTION: GIVE UP THE ASSOCIATION OF MATERIALISTIC PEOPLE
Sanat Kumar is instructing Prthu Maharaja. These instructions are actually meant for everyone and especially for those who want to make spiritual advancement. They are simple instructions actually, but they are full of meaning. We should not think that well, we can just read Bhagavatam and listen to the lectures in Bhagavatam class. No, the purpose of studying Srimad Bhagavatam is to apply the instructions in our own life — then only can the objective of Srimad Bhagavatam be achieved. This is a simple instruction: in order to make spiritual advancement we should give up the association of materialistic people. Who are materialistic people? Those who are simply interested in women and money — stri sanga, asat sanga.
Materialistic association has been described in the scriptures as asat sanga. Chaitanya-caritamrta is saying, vaisnava acara is to give up the association of asat sanga. Asat sanga means association of materialistic people. asat-saṅga-tyāga, ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra (Cc. Madhya 22.87). The same point is being made here by Sanat Kumar. Actually, this is how we find that all the saintly personalities are giving the same instructions. Again and again, we are hearing the same instruction. But the question may arise, in ISKCON we are associating with materialistic people — we are going out, making life members, and going out to preach. That is the purpose: the devotee will go to the materialistic people in order to benefit them spiritually. It is not that we should not go to them, but we should not associate with them. What is the difference between association and meeting? The difference is that when we associate, then we get involved with them and take their qualities. That should not be the case. Rather we should give them our qualities. We should not go to materialistic people and think, ‘Oh he is so rich, I wish I could become as wealthy as he is, he has such a beautiful wife. I wish I had such a beautiful wife like that, or he is so famous I wish I had such fame and so many followers.’ No, the devotee should look to them with compassion.
LOOKING UPON THEM WITH COMPASSION
Looking with compassion means to feel pity upon them and seeing what they do not have — not to become greedy to have what they have but to give them what they do not have. Actually, our mood should be that we do not need any of those things. When these things come by Krishna’s mercy, we engage them in Krishna’s service. Of course, the householders’ situation is different, as they have to maintain their family. But it should be just the least amount of involvement, just for the maintenance of the family. Not divā cārthehayā rājan, the days are spent by earning money. Unfortunately, that is what is happening today. The whole situation, due to the influence of Kali, has become so degraded that even to maintain the family becomes such a difficult job. As I was saying the other day, one has to work from morning till night, not only morning till night, but one has to have his wife also go and work from morning till night just to maintain the family. And the result is there is no family, no family in the sense that the husband is out working; the wife is out working, and the children are left out. What kind of family life is this? Why have children then? If the mother cannot take care of the children, then why have children?
These are things that we have to seriously consider. If we want to really make spiritual progress, then we have to take up the responsibility. Unfortunately, that is not happening. The mother is getting pregnancy leave for one month before the child birth, and one month after the child birth, what happens? The child is one month old and has no mothers’ care. Somehow, I don’t know how, they maintain that. In the early days there used to be joint families — there used to be aunts, grandmothers, and other female members in the family to take care. Even though the mother didn’t go out to work, still there were so many other members in the family who used to take care of the children, who used to help the mother with the child. But now it’s a very, very unfortunate state of affairs. Now the only hope actually is the proper establishment of Krishna consciousness. That is why there have to be Krishna consciousness communities. And in order to have these Krishna consciousness communities properly structured, we need varnaasrama.
Prabhupada gave us the ideas that this is how we have to go forward. In order to do that, we have to reduce our needs. We have noticed how, especially in the Western world, we have farm communities, with large farms of 300 to 400 acres of land, but no one is there. They started off nicely: the devotees were living on the farm, but then they started to feel the pressure that even while being in the farm, they have to maintain the family, and they were not interested in farming. While they were doing the farming, they saw that the produce cost less outside than the produce on our own farm. When we produced our own wheat in our own farm or vegetables in our own farm, they cost more than buying from outside, so they felt, ‘Why produce in the farm, let’s buy it from outside.’ Then they have to earn money.
There were not enough resources within the farm, so they would go out and sell some things, and with that they would maintain. There was no proper business structure that would be sustained with time. It was just a one-man show. They would go out and sell different items, and then they would bring the money. Then they felt, ‘Why live outside; why live on the farm where I have to drive one to two hours from the city, so let’s go and live in the city.’ So, this is how our farm communities failed to become successful in the West.
Anyway, these are the challenges that we are facing. The sincere, capable householders have to start thinking of how to actually create the situation where our community can grow. The householder’s community is essential. When it is a community of just brahmacaris and sannyasis, then it’s easy because their needs are very little. Sannyasis and brahmacaris don’t need much. Sannyasis are maintained by others. They travel and preach, and people take care of them. Brahmacaris living in the temple need very little, just a place to sleep and some prasadam. But the trouble starts when we have to maintain the householders. How to do that? That is the big challenge that we have, and we have to face that challenge. And I would suggest that charity begin at home — the house holders themselves have to consider how to make this happen, how to face these difficulties and challenges.
This is how we have to take the instructions of the scriptures to heart. Thousands of years ago, this advice was given, which is applicable even in today’s world. We should consider this is how we have to mold our lives — asat-saṅga-tyāga, ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra the same thing has been said, nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ divā cārthehayā rājankuṭumba-bharaṇena vā, (SB 2.1.3) Just in one verse, the materialistic life has been explained. At night, these people spend their time, nidraya, by sleeping, or vyavayena ca va vayaḥ, in sex indulgence. At night, this is their occupation. Diva carthehaya rajan, and their days are spent in just earning money, kutumba bharanena va, for the sake of maintaining their family. What should the devotees do? Should the devotees’ lives be the same? No, rather, their lives should be molded in such a way that their time can be utilized by hearing and chanting and cultivating spiritual life.
BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL LIFE – SURRENDER TO KRISHNA
Spiritual life begins by being surrendered to Krishna. That surrender takes the proper shape when one surrenders to a representative of Krishna and is guided by him. Then, through this process, he receives the bhakti lata bija, the seed of devotional service. Then, he cultivates that seed by watering the seed with hearing and chanting. A normal seed needs water, but the seed of bhakti lata needs the water of hearing and chanting to be sustained. As we have seen in Brhad Bhagavatamrta, by chanting the mantra one actually gets more and more purified. Proper chanting will purify our hearts in such a way that we will be able to get out of this material nature. So let us take this process seriously.
Prabhupada is pointing out that simple negation of the association of materialistic people will not do. It needs the positive impetus, and the positive impetus comes from association: rejecting one, accepting the other — or by accepting one, we reject the other. Once we accept spiritual life, material life is automatically rejected. In Krishna consciousness, we are finding a process whereby materialistic life can be spiritualized. That is the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw the very degraded condition of the people of this age of Kali. What to do? As I was saying, the condition of today’s world is that everybody has to work so hard. Previously, going to the office meant to use the expression, 9 to 5. Those who used to work in the office we used to call them 9 to 5 business men because the work schedule was from 9 to 5 or 10 till 5. But now we are seeing that they have to work till 12 o’clock at night — if not 12 o’clock, then at least till 10 o’clock at night, 10 till 10 or 9 till 10.
And then they come home, and there also, they have to work. In some ways, especially in America, they are developing a culture that they can carry their work back home. That is a nice thing actually. They can do their work at home. Because they are interested in getting the work done, so as long as the work is done, they are happy. Of course, they have another objective; they need so many people, and the offices are costing so much money, so if they work at home, they don’t have to pay for the office setup. Anyway, it’s kind of a tug of war — who can exploit whom the most. The employers, especially, are trying to exploit the employees to the maximum extent.
At least one thing I would suggest is for those who are in household life, make it a point that your wife doesn’t have to go to work. Make this a point. And if at all she has to go to work, when she becomes a mother, she has to quit her job. When you become a father, you have to take the responsibility. If you need more money then you go and work double shifts. So, this is how one has to become responsible, not to just enjoy and take no responsibility — that is not right. And as much as possible, try not to be affected by the wrong association. When you go to work, if at all you have to mingle with them, preach to them. If they don’t like you preaching then you know who they are, so then you don’t talk to them. Go to your work, get your job done, and come back home. You are getting all the instructions in the scriptures, so now you have to consider how you are going to apply them in your life.
Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Gaura premanande Hari Haribol.
BCS: Does anybody have any question?
Dayananda prabhu: Dear Maharaja, thank you for speaking the truth as delineated by Srila Prabhupada, especially the issue of women leaving their babies at one month old to work for another man. This is how varna sankara is produced. This is the point Srila Prabhupada and the sastras state many times. Unfortunately, I have heard many people encourage women to leave their homes and become a servant of materialistic persons. How can we counter act this bogus propaganda within ISKCON.
BCS: I don’t know who is doing that. Let’s not get into that. Let’s present the facts. That’s all we can do. If somebody is saying something wrong, then deal with him directly and personally because speaking about them here is not going to help anyone. Rather, if anyone is saying that no, women should go out and work, that is not right. Unfortunately, that also happened in ISKCON, in the sense that they sent women out to collect money, first in the form of book distribution. Prabhupada didn’t mind women going out distributing books. But Prabhupada didn’t want the mothers to go out and leave their babies and go out and distribute books. But then what happened is they felt they are distributing books but are not bringing in so much money, so they can sell records.
Even more profitable is to sell paintings, and this is how it started. Unfortunately, we used our mothers to go out and collect money, and their children were neglected. And that’s why most of that generation of children has turned against ISKCON today. We can’t blame them because we made a blunder. Let us at least try to follow the point that mothers have to take care of their children. That is the business of the mother. Even the animals do this. We see how animals take care of their babies, but why should human beings not? Thank you Dayananda prabhu.
Shubam: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja, thank you for the wonderful class. Actually, I am guilty of working from 9 to 1 or 2 am every day.
BCS: I thought you were working just 9 to 1 pm, and I thought, ‘Oh, what a fortunate soul.’ (Maharaja chuckles.) So, it is 9 to 2 am every day.
Shubam: I am realizing that maybe I am wasting my life. I find myself unable to give up this very prestigious sort after job as a corporate lawyer. This is because I have always been a high achiever. Even the devotee community is very proud of me. My temple leaders encourage me to keep working like that because we need top professionals to support the financial affairs of the temple.
BCS: So, are you giving the money to the temple? All the money?
The thing is, you are single you know, so how should you rather use your time? If you are really an achiever, then why not do things? If you are really that competent then why don’t you use your talent and become a consultant? Instead of being a servant of somebody, you become the advisor, become the guru. Right? If you’re that good, a lawyer then has an independent occupation. When you go back do that, all right? (Maharaja chuckles.)
Subham: I am confused as to what to do?
BCS: Are you still confused? Okay.
Shubham: Whether to take a simple job with lower pay check and focus my time on devotional life or keep working like currently I am? Please guide.
BCS: Don’t take up a job of lower salary, but have an independent occupation. If you’re so good, maybe initially you won’t have such big success, but if you are good, people will come to you.
Aparajitha Radhika: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja, dandavat pranam. Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of your lotus feet. Guru Maharaja, my question is from yesterday’s Bhagavatam class. When I suffer any kind of disease, at that time, attachment towards my body increases and also sadhana gets affected, so how can I overcome this condition?
BCS: That is true, when the body undergoes difficulties and suffers like that, the consciousness becomes focused to the body. That tendency is natural, that one becomes too obsessed with the body and the spiritual activities suffer. But at least when the body is healthy, then use the consciousness in practicing Krishna consciousness properly because if you do that, then you will make spiritual advancement. And when you make spiritual advancement, then these urges of the body or the body consciousness will be reduced. You will see in Brhad Bhagavatamrta, when a devotee practices Krishna consciousness properly, he develops a spiritual body. It is not that a devotee always remains in this body.
He feels that now his body has become free from the five elements. That means he has developed his spiritual body. That will happen if you practice properly. And if we can’t, then we should pray to Krishna with all sincerity because a time will come when we will become old, we will have disease, and we will have to die. Those are the difficult times. Even King Kulashekar, a very great devotee is saying:
[Mukunda Mala: 33]
prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te
Prana-prayana-samaye, at the time of leaving my body, kapha vata pittau, my throat filled with mucus, bile, and air will get choked. How will I chant Your holy name at that time? He is also perceiving and foreseeing that this is going to happen. How will I remember you at that difficult time? So that is the prayer — I may forget You, but You please don’t forget me. This is how we have to pray to the Lord. Please don’t forget me, please, when even I forget you, don’t forget me. Even when I am not able, you please come to my help and rescue me.
Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!