Bhagavad-gita 5.22

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Nārāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ āśvāyaṁ 21st or 22nd? 21st. Huh? 22nd, okay. Ye hi samsparśaja bhoga dukkha yonaya eva te adi Anta Vantaha Kaunteya Na Teshu Ramate Buddhaha Yehi sam sparshaja bhoga Dukkhyo naya evate Adhyantavanta kaunteya NATE SHU RAMATE BUDHA NATE SHU RAMATE BUDHA EHISAM SPARSHAJA BHOGA DUKHAYO NAYAEVATE Adyantavantakonteya Nateshu Ramate Buddha Somebody else? Ye dos He, certainly, sparsha-ja, by contact with the material senses. Bhogaha, enjoyments. Dukha, distress. Yonayaha, sources of. Evah Certainly Te They are Adi Beginning Antah Vantah Subject to end Konteya Osan of Kunti Na Never Teshu in those Ramate take delights Buddha the intelligent person translation and purport by his divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada an intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to the contact with the material senses. Of son of Kunti, such pleasures have the beginning and end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. PURPORT Material sense pleasures are due to the contact of the material senses, which are temporary because the body itself is temporary. A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary. Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure? In the Padma Purana it is said, Ramate yoginonante Satyanande chidatmani Iti Rama Padeyna So Param Brahma Bidhyate The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasure from the absolute truth and therefore the supreme absolute truth the personality of Godhead is also called Rama. In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is also said My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure, while in this human form of life such pleasures are available to the stool eaters. rather you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified and as a result you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss therefore those who are true yogis or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped in material miseries. Namo Viṣṇupadāya Kṛṣṇa-preṣṭāya-bhūtale Śrīmāte Bhaktivedanta Svāmīni Dhināmīne Namaste Sarasvāti Deve Gauravānipracārene Nirviseśa-sūnyavādi Pāścatiādeśatārene He Krishna Krona Sindho Dina Bandho Jagatpate Gopesa Gopika Kanta Radha Kanta Namostute Taptakanchan Gaurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari Vrishabhanu Sute Devi Pranamami Hari Priye Vāñca Kalpāta Rubyaśca Kripā Sindhu Bhavacā Patitanam Pavanabhyo Vaiṣṇavebhyo Namāna Mahā Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Prabhūnītya Nandā Shri Advaita Gadadhara Shri Vasadigora Bhaktavrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Yantakh praviṣṭhīm amavācim imam prasūptam sanjīvāyāt akilashaktidaraḥ svadhamnā anyam ścahāsta-caranāśravanāt vāgādīn pranānāma bhagavate purushāyatūbhyam swasyastu viṣvāsya kalāk prasīdatam dayantu bhūtāni śrivām mitodīyā manasca badram bhajatātadau kṣacet aveṣyatam no matīr atbyākaitukī Hare Krishna. Again, I am very happy to address all of you this evening on the occasion of opening this center. And we are reading Bhagavad Gita, written, sweated, labored by Srila Prabhupada, with the only purpose, to make people happy. actually any saintly person or any avatar any transcendental personality come to this world and acts in this world with sole purpose in mind to help people find happiness and for this purpose they labor hard Srila Prabhupada and he is 69 years old 70 years old that went through this arduous journey to America and preached in undertaking unlimited difficulties. What is the reason? What is the purpose? What is the goal which he has in mind? Only one, to make people happy. The pain which saintly person experiences when he sees The mistaken ideas which people take in this world and think that this is the happiness, actually is the greatest pain which is there. When people like Srila Prabhupada or Krishna himself see how people make this mistake, they think this is happiness. as it is said in this particular verse of Bhagavad Gita, and Krishna speaks Bhagavad Gita with the same purpose, to make us happy, to give us understanding which ultimately will make us happy. To change the system of judgment. Now we have particular system of viewing this world and this is a mistaken system and by using this mistaken system we again and again and again encounter sufferings. Again and again and again we suffer and we cannot understand that the mistake is in the very first action. Mistake is hidden very deeply. We think everything is logical. You know, what is happiness? Happiness means that I need to enjoy my senses. It's so logical, it's so natural. and therefore the more enjoyment I have, the more happy I become. And people act armed with this idea, but in reality what happens, the more enjoyment they have, the more unhappy they become. You know, there are so many big, great personalities in the history of humanity which proved it without any trace of a doubt that by amassing the quality and quantity of sense enjoyment, they become more and more miserable. You know, all these stars, music stars or whatever, rock stars or all these cinema stars, they're miserable. They're totally, completely miserable. I don't know how about Bollywood, but in Hollywood, it's definitely so but I believe in Bollywood the same thing is happening so people they have enjoyment but they suffer why? because enjoyment is not happiness this idea this foolish idea although seems to be very rational idea but actually mistaken idea is the source of miseries is the main source of miseries in this material creation. And Krishna here speaks very clearly. He says, unfortunately, foolish people cannot understand this. He very clearly says that only Buddha, only people who are awakened, who have the ability to discriminate between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, Only those people can understand this. You know, you need to have little brain to understand this. Of course, if you are like a child, you know, if you tell this little child, you know, don't take pleasures in the sweets, the child will only cry. The child will say, no, no, ma, give me some sweets. and ultimately you'll give him some sweets, because he doesn't have the ability to discriminate. He can only be appeased by giving him what he wants. But those who can think rationally, those who can really see the consequences of their actions, they can understand that this is a mistaken notion, This is a mistaken idea. The problem is that when Krishna says Buddha, he means person who can foresee what is going on in the future. And for that you need certain causal horizon. You have to have some broad enough intelligence to foresee or to see the consequences of your action at the present moment. Unfortunately, what happens with the people, why people, most, majority of people, especially nowadays, especially in Kali Yuga, everywhere in the world, including India, unfortunately, people, they lost their ability to see the consequences. They only see immediate cause and effect. You know, who is wise in this world? You call somebody wise, you call somebody Buddha. Buddha means enlightened person, Buddha means wise person. You call somebody Buddha because he can see the cause and effect relationship to a greater extent. if you are not very farsighted if you are very short sighted and of course nowadays everyone is more or less short sighted and therefore all these glasses are sold so nicely all over the place but short sightedness in the sense that the intelligence doesn't allow you to see what's going to happen You only see the immediate gratification. Actually, it's not the modern phenomena. People are like this. People are generally childish. But those people who develop discrimination, with the discrimination they can see further away in a chain of cause and effect. And by looking at this chain of cause and effect, they can foresee what's going to happen. Actually, commanding in this verse, very interestingly, some of the acharyas, they make a very interesting point. I will share this point with you. They say, why Krishna says here, Buddha? They say because Buddha is a particular kind of a person who can be totally unhappy and miserable in the midst of enjoyment. It's a very special kind of person because normal people when enjoyment is going on, they are enjoying it and they usually don't think too far. And the comparison which they make is very interesting. They say that in our body we have different organs which have different degree of sensitivity. You know, the skin is sensitive but to make the skin pain you really have to work hard. You know, you really have to pinch the skin so that you feel the pain. But they say that the most sensitive organ in our body is our eyeball. Eyeball, you just press it a little bit and it's already pain and you feel uncomfortable. So eyeball, the ability of eyeball, the specialty of eyeball is that eyeball can see. Skin cannot see. So they say Krishna speaks here about Buddha because Buddha can see and he is like eyeball. he can see what is going to happen and therefore he is miserable when there is no cause for misuris and the example which they make is that you take the cobweb this very little strands of cobweb and the cobweb when it touches your eyeball it makes you completely uncomfortable you know if the cobweb touches your skin you know no problem but eyeball becomes immediately uncomfortable and they say in the same way if you develop your discrimination your reaction to this environment will be completely different you will be miserable in the midst of enjoyment and you will be enjoying by doing tapasya you know this may sound very strange but that's the sign of intelligence and the sign of intelligence is very simple you can see the consequences actually most of the acaryas Srila Prabhupada does do this but most of the acaryas commanding on this verse they immediately remember some sutra from Yoga Sutra there is a famous sutra from Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Muni which explains this phenomenon how the enjoyment is the cause of suffering The sutra goes something like this, Parinamathapa, samskara, dukhai, guna, vritivirodha, dukhai, vivekina. Something like this, you know, I may miss one word in Sanskrit, but basically it's the idea that vivekina or buddhaha in this verse. It's the same. Vivekina is the one who has the ability to discriminate. Buddha, again, somebody who has developed intelligence and can foresee what is going on. So, specifically, Patanjali Muni in Yoga Sutra explains why Vivekina or Buddha is so sensitive to the enjoyment. He is so sensitive to enjoyment because of three reasons. Parinama, Tapa and Samskara he is sensitive to enjoyment because of Parinam, because of result of enjoyment, because he knows that inevitable 100% case result of enjoyment is suffering you know, you enjoy pizza you know, on the way here I saw domino you know, nice you know, what is the result of this enjoyment? pure suffering. You know, and pizza is much more enjoyable than dal. But when you eat dal, you know, you don't enjoy, but you don't suffer as a result. But when you eat nice pizza with all this, you know, cheese and everything, then the result is coming. It's the law of nature. You know, the more you enjoy anything which is totally enjoyable, you know, intelligent people know, watch out. Something bad is happening, is going to happen. Parinam. Parinam means the result. The result of enjoyment is either immediate or remote suffering. It can come immediately, it can come in one hour, in two hours, in one week, but ultimately because the very act of enjoying is exploiting the abilities of this body it ultimately causes suffering it actually drains your vital energy you know if you're enjoying too much your vital energy goes into this act of enjoyment and ultimately you're being drained of energy you lose your energy The best example is, of course, sex. You enjoy this enjoyment, so-called enjoyment, but what is the result? Your vital energy is completely drained. And according to Ayurveda, you have to restore the energy which you completely wasted in this act of so-called enjoyment for, you know, 48 days or whatever. You need to restore this by very arduous process of taking food and digesting this food and ultimately bringing it back into this vital fluid, semen or whatever. So the first reason why enjoyment is not good is Parinam. Because it always brings the opposite result. This is the law of nature. if you want to study the law of nature this is one the enjoyment brings about at the end suffering the second is tapa tapa means that those people who enjoy at the moment when they enjoy they think it will come to an end they cannot really enjoy so much because of this simple reason because they know it will end. Srila Prabhupada actually bases his whole purport on this particular point. You know, how you can enjoy something if you know that this happiness will end? You know, you may be in a very nice relationship, you may be completely in love, you may be very happy, but then you know it will end. You know, somebody whom you love will die or will... you will get some separation with him or whatever. So the very thought of the impending and inevitable separation or end of this enjoyment is also the cause of suffering. And then the third cause of suffering is samskara. The intelligent person knows that I enjoy now, and what is the result? the result is that I will suffer as a result. I will lose this enjoyment. That's inevitable. But in the meantime, I develop the habit of this enjoyment. Samskara. I develop this craving to repeat this enjoyment again and again and again. And I will suffer when there is no availability of this enjoyment. You know, I will suffer because I already attached and because this enjoyment is not coming, I cannot repeat it, I will suffer. You know, of course, the best example is drugs. People take drugs or they smoke marijuana and it gives them enjoyment. Yes, it gives... I mean, I cannot speak with authority because I never took any drug or smoked marijuana, but I have disciples who know this. so on the authority of their experience I can say it gives you some sort of mental excitement which is being interpreted by our soul as enjoyment but what is the result? the result is that craving you know I want to repeat it and repeat it and ultimately it becomes complete obsession you cannot peacefully sit you cannot meditate you cannot be peaceful for a moment you want to get another portion of this so called enjoyment samskara so these three reasons are good enough for intelligent people to understand that one should not be too much attached to these enjoyments one should try to find the source of happiness in something else it is very clearly Krishna is very clear here he says this so-called enjoyment this enjoyment which is basically born from the touch from the touch of the senses to the sense objects you know basically all the so-called enjoyment in this world has this nature the senses are touching the sense objects and you know they say oh, great, this is my success. This is the best thing which happened with me. So Krishna says, they are the sources of miseries. They will bring misery. And you shouldn't even doubt it. Krishna himself says, and he knows what he is saying. He is the creator of this world. He is the creator of the senses and sense objects. And he says, don't go into this trap. You know, it's like some time ago, I saw a little cartoon on the internet. And the cartoon was showing a mouse. And the mouse sees a big piece of cheese in the mouse trap. and the mouse comes closer to the strap and sees this nice, very juicy piece of cheese. And the mouse says, oh, and the mouse starts singing, you know, I believe in miracles, I believe in miracles, I believe in miracles, that this cheese is there for me. this little stupid mouse doesn't understand that this is a trap that this is something for you to do to make you miserable but he sings this nice song I believe in miracles goes into this trap takes this cheese and then suffers in this trap so Krishna himself says this is the trap I made this trap I made this senses and sense objects in such a way that it creates some sort of illusion of enjoyment but actually it's a source of miseries and therefore why it is the source of miseries because it has beginning and end adi anta vanta because all this enjoyment, all this experience ultimately has beginning and end and by the fact that it will end by the fact that it is temporary you cannot really call it enjoyment because we are entitled to have eternal enjoyment we are craving for eternal enjoyment you know there is this you know nice movies or whatever eternal love there is no eternal love in this world or eternal spring there is no eternal spring the summer is already coming so the suffering is coming but because we are eternal and because we are happy deep inside the nature of our consciousness, the nature of our soul is enjoyment, we want enjoyment but we want first class enjoyment, we want the enjoyment which does not have end because of the very nature, we feel that this is our entitlement that this is something which we are meant for, to have the enjoyment which doesn't have an end. But because we cannot find it, or because it's not so easy to obtain, we go for second, third, fourth, fifth class of enjoyment, which actually doesn't last long. You know, some more intelligent people take more lasting material enjoyments. They are more intelligent, you know, like Sattvic people. They are also into material enjoyment. But at least they choose the material enjoyment which are more lasting. They value relationship. They, you know, they have nice families. They have nice children. They behave nicely. and it lasts for some time. You know, the very stupid people, they take immediate enjoyment. In Upanishad it is said, shreyas and prayers. You know, the stupid people, people who don't have discrimination, they go for prayers. Something immediately gratifying, something immediately pleasing, something which you immediately like. But intelligent people, they go for shreyas, for something which has long-lasting effect. And Prabhupada explains that ultimately you can find happiness only when this happiness is eternal. And he says, therefore, real yogis, real intelligent people, people with real discrimination, they find happiness in Ram. Because the very word Ram means eternal enjoyment. Ram is somebody who gives you pleasure, gives you pleasure eternally. That's why we established this Lord Ram in Ayodhya, because he is the source of eternal happiness. All other things in this material world are sources of miseries, because the illusion of happiness which they give cannot satisfy us. It's like, you know, you are in desert. You are somewhere in the middle of desert. I don't know, in Rajasthan or whatever. And then you get one drop of water. You are completely thirsty and you want to drink. And you get one drop of water. And for a split second you feel, oh, so nice. But for how long it will last? Will this one drop of water satisfy you? Another example which is very good in this regard is that you are in the middle of the sea and you are in a ship and there is no water. You know, the water is all over you, but it's not drinking water. And you try to quench your thirst by drinking this salty water because you are so thirsty. And you're drinking this salty water, but what will be the result of drinking salty water? What will happen with the thirst if you drink salty water? For a split second, it will give you an illusion. Yes, I have relief of my quench or of my thirst. But then the thirst will become stronger. And ultimately it will kill you. In the same way people, they want, as Prabhupada put it very beautifully, he said, by nature all living entities are pleasure-seeking entities. We want pleasure. We want happiness. There is no doubt about it. But the problem, the mistake which we make is that we try to find pleasure when there is no pleasure. There is no water in the mirage. There is no water in the desert. But we are running like this stupid deer who is running after the mirage of water in the desert. And ultimately he dies. it's actually the metaphor comparison from Srimad Bhagavatam in the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that living entity in this world is like a deer in the desert he sees the mirage, he runs after this mirage, he comes to this mirage, there is no water and he dies, so this is what we are doing, we are trying to find happiness where the happiness is not we are trying to find happiness which you are entitled for in the material pleasures. And Prabhupada being so compassionate, he says, no, no, no, this is not the way to become happy. Try to become happy by connecting your soul with the super soul, by connecting your little atma with paramatma, by engaging your atma in the pastimes of Bhagavan, which are the embodiment of complete bliss. Try to find happiness in chanting this holy name. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram, Ram, Hare Hare. You know, we were chanting this holy name, this kirtan of mantra. And you know, how many times we chanted it? How many times we chant this Hare Krishna mantra? Actually, that was my story because I started chanting this Hare Krishna mantra and I thought, you know, I don't believe that you can become happy by repeating the same words again and again and again. My friend told me, you try it. And I said, okay, I'll try it, but the moment I will get bored, I will stop this chanting. I'm still chanting 44 years later. So, this is the proof. you know this is the proof that this holy name can sustain you in a very happy state of mind this is actually how Srila Prabhupada preached his movement by showing how you can become happy you know and Prabhupada was very proud he said all these people they came to me and they were hippies but I made hippies happiest they were hippies and they were not happy they were looking for happiness but they were dirty they were into these drugs and into free sex and free love and what not but Prabhupada says I made these hippies into happiest how? by showing how you can become eternally happy how you can find the source of of eternal happiness, in what the real happiness is. The real happiness is in God. And God is not different from His name. God is Satchitananda. He is not Ananda. He is concentrated Ananda. He is Ananda personified. He is Ananda gone. He is very concentrated, very thick Ananda. You know, there is some little, not so thick, thin Ananda in Brahman or some other spiritual kind of experiences. But God is concentrated Ananda. And when you come in contact with Him, initially in the form of His Holy Name, even the Holy Name itself is the source of happiness, you can feel it. Sometimes you chant the holy name and you cry. Cry of happiness. You're so happy you cannot contain yourself. You're just crying and crying and crying. Why without any reason? You know, I remember I like to tell this little story. We had Janmashtami celebration sometime back in Moscow. And there was this last kirtan before midnight. You know, very powerful kirtan. and there were probably around 1,000 people still there in the temple. And I was going through the crowd because it was a big bundle and the people were not, it was not very packed. So I was going and checking and I was really, I mean, happy to see how people are enjoying this holy name and it was really amazing. it was such a concentrated happiness and bliss and I was going and I was so happy after this day of festivities Janmashtami and fasting and everything else and of course I was happy because soon I will break the fast and eat something but all in all I was very happy and all of a sudden somebody tapped me from the back and I turned away and I saw a young man and this young man said please can you explain to me what's happening with me you know I'm for the first time here I came for the first time I don't know how I ended up here but I heard that there will be some festival I'm here and I'm you know I'm singing together with all these people and I'm crying and crying and crying something is wrong with me and I looked at him and I said you're completely right something is wrong with me because I'm not crying you're crying so this is the proof he doesn't know anything he's for the first time he doesn't know who is Krishna he doesn't know who is Rama but he chants this holy name and while chanting this holy name he experiences such degree of happiness that he starts crying and he says you know I never was so happy so that's what Krishna is trying to tell us Please don't make this mistake. He's begging us. Please, you will suffer. Don't do this. Become little more intelligent. Try to see the cause and effect relationship between what you're doing now and what you will be experiencing in the future. Whatever you're doing now, the results you will experience in the future and not so remote future. So try to find the source of happiness which we need. We all need happiness. We are entitled to be happy. But the happiness really is. Not in the mirage of happiness. Not in the illusion of happiness. Try to find happiness in God. In relationship with God. In relationship with saintly people. In the practice of meditation. In the practice of this chanting of Hare Krishna mantra. and ultimately you will never regret because because as Prabhupada he quotes this fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam verse that that brahma-sokyam that brahma-sokyam the happiness of brahma happiness of spirit the real spiritual happiness is ananta you know the material happiness is there but it's ananta It's adi-anthavanta. It has the beginning of and end. But brahma-sukyam, too, ananda. There is another kind of happiness which doesn't have any end and that's brahma-sukha. This is brahma-ananda. Or in the real sense of this world, it's ananda of your eternal relationship with Bhagavan. so that's basically the essence of this verse which which calls us to rethink what is good and what is bad in this world which calls us to think little deeply little more deeply of what we are supposed to do in this world and not to remain childish foolish living entities which are prone to get this cheap and tedious material enjoyments. So thank you very much. That's this is it. Now you can have real happiness of prasada. Hare Krishna.