Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.17

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

I am Taha Praviśya mamavāciam imam prasūptam sanjīvaya takilashaktidara svadhamna anyam ścahasta-caranāśravanāt vāgādim pranannamā bhagavate purushāyatūbhyam swasyastuviśvāsya kalāh prasīdatam dhyantuputtāni śivam mitodiyam manasca badram vajatātta dokṣa jāvesyatam nāumatīrārbhyahaitukī yam pravrajanta manupeta mateta krityam dvajpayena viraha kata rajuhava putreti tanmaya tayotaravobinidus tam sarva bhuta hridayam munimana to smi Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.

It's very difficult to speak something worthwhile after Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada very nicely explained that in this prayer, Prahlada Maharaja very clearly shows the useless, hopeless attempts, pursuits to become happy in this world.

He says, in every birth which I take, sometimes there is the yoga, the separation, sometimes there is some yoga, the meeting with Priya and Priya. Sometimes in this life we meet something which is Priya, which is very dear to us, which is very pleasing to us. But then the yoga comes and we become unhappy. Or sometimes we meet something which is displeasing and we are unhappy. In any case we are unhappy. That's the point.

Whatever happens, if something is pleasing happening to us then after that we are separated with something which is pleasing and we become unhappy. Or we meet with something displeasing and then we separate it with this and we become little happy about this but then something displeasing again comes.

Yasmat priya priya vi yoga samyoga janma sokagnina sakalayonisu dahyamana it says sakalayonisu in every lifetime whatever I'm taking birth in whatever form I'm taking birth sakalayonisu dahyamana I am just burning. Dahya mana is present perfect. He says it's present participle. I am burning right now.

The problem is that we don't understand that even right now we are not happy. If you ask somebody, how are you? The standard answer is very well, very good. What's so good? What's so good? There's nothing good in this life. But the standard answer is that, oh, I'm okay, I'm well.

There is a story that one man, he had a car accident and he's in a hospital, he's in the stretcher, his head is here, legs are there, and he's stretched and his friend is coming to the ward and asking, how are you? He said, oh, I'm okay, I'm fine. I'm good.

So, the problem is that because of my, as Srila Prabhupada explains, because of this avaranatmika maya which covers our consciousness, we don't understand the tragic position in this material world because everywhere, in every yoni, sokagnina, We are just burning in this agni, in this fire of shock.

It's literally fire because, according to the modern science, all these neurotransmitters or whatever, like adrenaline, which are produced in this material life, the stressors which are there, they have the hot nature. So this Agni is there Shock Agni, the Agni of shock. Sometimes I have shock because I am separated with something, sometimes I have shock because I am meeting with somebody whom I don't like to meet. You always meet somebody whom you don't like to meet or sometimes you are separated with something which you don't like to be separated with. In any case, in any situation there will be some cause for sufferings. Sufferings are there, it's totally unavoidable and therefore even now I'm burning.

Sometimes people say you will be burning in hell, you know, there's no reason to wait for hell, you're already burning. And you know, of course now it's a cool weather but very soon you will be burning in Delhi just in one month the weather will be burning shock agnina and you will be unhappy. And of course during the winter you are unhappy because you are meeting with too cold weather and during the summer you will be meeting with too hot weather and in any case shock agnina this shock this dissatisfaction is there.

And Prahlad Maharaja says brahmami i'm wandering through this different yonis through these different forms of life. In any form of life the only constant position which i have, the only something which is constantly happening with me is that i'm looking for happiness. In any position of life i'm not meeting happiness. Every person have the hope for happiness, nobody has happiness but the hope is there. And the hope keeps us alive. If there was no hope, we would be dead long ago. But in any position, we hope for the better.

Like, recently there was New Year. And New Year means, you know, we hope that the next year will be better than the previous year. The next year is never better than the previous year. But the hope is there and hope keeps us going. Yes, happy new year, what's so happy about new year? Nothing happy about new year, so many turmoils, the war is going on, the problems will come, it's inevitable, it's the nature of this material world.

And therefore Prahlad Maharaja says and then he says yeah no no no problem because every time people are trying to find the solution for the problems. People are very ingenious. They are really good at finding solutions for the problems. But the problem is that the solution for problem is usually worse than the problem itself. People are famous for finding solutions which are worse than the problems.

Like one manager said for any problem for every problem there is a solution which is simple, clear and totally wrong. That's what they do. For any problem there is very simple and clear solution which is usually wrong because usually when people trying to find solution they don't understand the consequences of this solution. And therefore Pralat Maraj is very clear, many thousands of years back, hundreds of thousands of years back, he knows that practically every solution which we find is the cause of worse suffering than the problem itself. So the advice of people don't try to find the solution for problem just tolerate, that's what it is.

You know, usually we're trying to find the solutions, but the real solution is just to accept, to accept the reality that the sufferings will be there. And, you know, we know so many solutions which people invented to solve the problems which proved to be worse than any problem which they were trying to solve.

Like in the beginning of 20th century, everyone was very excited because the motor cars appeared. And in London, I recently read an article, one journalist, he was celebrating these motor cars are coming and now the horse carriages will be out of the city because there is so much horse dung in the streets of London because of these horse carriages. And now the motor cars will come. Of course, there is no horse down, but the air is totally polluted. And there is traffic jams, and there are so many other problems. So it's probably better to be when the horse carriages were there. It was much more peaceful than before.

And there is another peculiar solution, so many solutions are there which are worse than the problems themselves. Like in China there was this Mao Zedong the leader of China and there was a shortage of grain at that time. And why there is shortage of grain? He had a brilliant idea that the shortage of grain because there are too many birds, sparrows. They eat too much grain, and therefore we Chinese people don't have enough grains. So he declared a campaign against sparrows. And all these Chinese people, they were running behind sparrows, and they didn't let the sparrows to sit down, and the sparrows were flying, flying, and ultimately they would fall dead. You know, it was so funny. I saw this footage, video footage. You know, the whole village is running behind the sparrows because Mao Zedong said the sparrows are our main enemies which separate us from happiness. When we kill all the sparrows, then we will have enough grains.

So they killed all the sparrows in China. But the problem is that there was too much locust. And locust ate all the grains. The locust actually ate much more grains than the poor sparrows. And because of this solution, there was a famine and 25 million people died. 25 million people died because one genius man on the top decided that the sparrows are the problem and we have to solve this problem. Actually Mao Zedong was the problem, not the sparrows was the problem, he was the problem himself but he thought he knows the solution. And usually it is like this, we think we know the solution. The Koshadam Tadati Dukam.

Prahlad Maharaj is very clear about this, that the Oshadam for Dukha, Tadati Dukam, is much more troublesome than the initial problem. Why? He says why. He gives a very important reason why. Atat Diyaham.

Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains in this lecture, he said Atat means Asat. The problem is that I think Diyah, that Aham is Atat. We know that according to Upanishad's dictum Tat Tvam Asi you are that, you are spirit, you are eternal, you are the soul. But Pralad Maharaj says why the solution is usually worse than the problem itself? Because people don't understand the real problem. People usually try to solve not the problem which created the problem, not the root cause. They try to solve problem not at the root, but in some other stages without understanding the root cause.

But the root cause is Atadiyaham. People don't understand who they are. They don't understand the spiritual nature Atad. Atad means I am not spirit. I am this body. Let's try to solve the problem from the initial premise which is wrong. I am this body. Instead of solving the problem where it lies and the problem lays in the understanding that I am this body. That's the problem. Unless I solve this problem, I will never solve any other problem. But if I don't understand the problem, I try to solve the problems and the solution is always wrong.

Srila Prabhupada used to say that people make the mistake in the very first action. Like if there is some mathematical problem and you're trying to solve and you do everything right. But in the very beginning you made a little mistake which you didn't notice. And then everything, even if everything after that is right, the result will be wrong. Because there is a mistake in the very first state who I am.

Therefore, the real solution is to understand this, I am not this body. That's exactly what Krishna explains in Bhagavad Gita because Arjuna was in the same condition. He was trying to solve the problem. How to solve the problem? I should stop fighting. That's the solution of the problem. I should become very peaceful, I should become non-violent, I should become Gandhi follower, or whatever it is. He had so many different solutions for the problem he is facing. And Krishna says, you're fool. That's the first thing which he says. You think you're very intelligent, but you're fool because you don't understand the root cause of the problem.

The root cause of the problem is you think you're the body. Not that you have to kill Duryodhana, not that you have to fight for this, this is not the problem, the problem is that you don't understand the real problem, the problem is the first mistake, the wrong understanding, Diyah, Atat Diyah, I am not that, I am something which is temporary, whereas I am eternal, and I have to make the eternal solution for my problem. Unless I make the eternal solution, every other solution will prove to be wrong sooner or later.

You know, how you can solve the problem if the body is the problem? Once a disciple came to Srila Prabhupada and he said, Srila Prabhupada, I have a problem. Srila Prabhupada looked at him very sternly and said, you don't have a problem. You are the problem. The very notion that I have the problem is wrong because we don't have the problem, we are the problem. Our wrong understanding of who I am is the problem. That's the problem. And unless we understand this simple fact, we will never be able to solve the problems because the solutions will always bring us to more troublesome conditions when we are now.

So many solutions are there in this material world, but they're all wrong. And therefore, every new year is worse than the previous year because in every new year, there are new solutions. And new solutions are tadati dukham. They bring more problems to people. That's the way of progress, material progress, the solution are worse than this.

And therefore he says Bhuma, he says oh my dear lord you are all powerful because you're Bhuma. Bhuma means unlimited. Our problem is that we are limited and because we are limited our mind is limited, our intelligence are limited and our solutions are also limited. And therefore he says Bhuma you are unlimited, you are all powerful, you are all intelligent, you are you are unlimited and my problem is that I am limited. That's the point. The solution of the problem which is created by my limited condition and my limited nature is to be in contact with unlimited. Only when my limited intelligence comes in contact with the unlimited intelligence of the Lord all the problems can be solved.

And therefore he says Bhuma Brahmami oh my dear Lord I am always wandering in this samsara without end changing one body into another. And he says, what is the solution? Vadame Tava Dasya Yoga. Vadame Tava Dasya Yoga. He says, tell me that I am your servant.

It's a very interesting statement here because he says, Vadame Tava Dasya Yoga. You tell me that I am your servant and by telling me this, the yoga the connection will be established, the connection the proper connection between myself and the Lord. The proper connection is very simple because you are unlimited and I am limited, because you are complete and I am incomplete, because you are all powerful and I am powerless, because you are intelligent and I am not intelligent. The only proper solution and the only proper relationship between us two, between these two entities, is the service to you. Because if I serve to you, then I will be connected to you through the service and I'm part and you're the whole.

Jilu Prabhupada explains that the living entity is the part and the proper condition of the part is to serve the whole. If you have a car and you have a spare part, and the spare part, if the spare part is outside of the hole, and if the spare part all of a sudden thinks that I'm a very powerful spare part, and I can exist without this hole, this will be the beginning of all troubles. The spare part is only useful as long as it is in the whole.

Like if the parts of our body are in place they are okay. If the parts of our body are outside of our body they are completely useless. Like the hairs in our head are very nice, you know, people they like their hairs, especially women they use special shampoo for the hairs. But if you take the same hairs and you cut these hairs and put it there, are they nice or not? They're ugly. You know, the hairs on the head are very nice, but the same hairs which are very nice in the head, if they are now soup, they are not so nice. Because they are not in a proper condition. Because they are not the part of the whole.

So in the same way, when we are separated from the Lord, when we imagine ourselves to be separate from the Lord, when we don't understand what is the proper yoga between us and the Lord, that this yoga should be dasya yoga, should be the yoga of the service, that we should always serve the Lord, then we become separated and we become useless. Not useless, we become ugly. That somebody who is not connected with the Lord he becomes ugly because he is displaced, misplaced, he is not properly situated in his life.

And therefore he says this is the most beautiful point of this verse, this prayer is very beautiful but this is perhaps the most amazing point of this verse he says you tell me. Because when the Lord tells something, it becomes truth. When the Lord tells something, whatever the Lord tells, it's the truth by definition because he is the absolute truth. And if he tells, you're my servant, we become servant. And Krishna says this. Krishna says this in Bhagavad Gita. He tells us. The problem is that we don't hear what he says.

But as soon as we hear that Krishna says, Mama Iva Amsa Jiva Lokaya, Jiva Lokas Sanatana, Krishna says this very clearly, Mama Iva Amsa Jiva Lokaya, Jiva is my Amsa, and he's Sanatana, he's eternally the part and parcel of myself. He is my eternal part and parcel. As soon as we hear this, it becomes the truth. And therefore, Prahlad Maharaj says, you don't need to do anything else. You just tell me I'm your servant and I'll become your servant. All the obstacles will be removed.

That's the power of the proper sound. When the proper sound is being addressed to us and we hear the proper sound can pierce through the coverings of maya. And therefore the beginning of bhakti yoga or dasya yoga which Prahlad Maharaj is asking for, begging for the lord, the beginning of it is hearing. When we properly hear what Krishna has to say, what Krishna says or what Prahlad Maharaj says or what great devotee says then this becomes the truth established within our heart, that becomes the fact, that becomes the reality and we come in contact with this reality.

So the first thing which we have to be eager to hear we have to ask my dear like in this prayer, Guru Puja prayer the disciple asks his guru let the words which are emanating from your lotus mouth will become one with my heart. It basically means let I hear what you have to say. Let I open my heart to what you are to say and let I enter, let the words which are coming from your mouth enter my heart and become one with my heart and that will be the solution. That is the only solution, there is no other solution, there is only one solution to let the sound which is coming from the mouth of the Lord or from the mouth of a pure devotee enter within our heart and become one with this heart and everything else will be solved. And that will be the proper solution. That will be the only proper solution for all our problems eternally.

Because by letting the words emanating from the lotus mouth of a pure devotee, we will be established in this eternal connection between us and the Lord, Dasya Yoga. Whatever service it is there, it may be Vatsalya Ras, it may be Sakya Ras, it may be Madhuri Ras. We're all eager to get this Ras, but we don't understand that Ras means Das. Ras means the servant. Ras only comes, the amazing ecstatic feeling is only coming to our heart when we establish ourselves as the das. And therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, Jivara Svarupa Krishna Arnithya Das that's the Svarupa of every Jiva, I am eternal servant of Krishna. And Prahlad Maharaj says yes, I am eternal servant of you my dear Lord Nrisimkadev but please tell me about this so that I could remember and I could become a real servant of yours.

So that's the beautiful prayer and the beautiful explanation which Prabhupada gave. And therefore he says at the end that that after wandering throughout the universe the Bhagavan Jiva Guru Prasada Guru Krishna Prasada by Bhakti Lata Beach by the mercy of Guru and Krishna we get the seed of Bhakti Lata. In which form we get the seed of Bhakti Lata in the form of these words. We hear the words and somehow rather we are fortunate enough to really hear these words. And when we hear these words, we understand. This is how we get bhakti. This is how we get the seed of bhakti. Through hearing and letting the words to grow within our heart.

Because it's not enough to hear. Hearing is the first stage. The next stage is manan. You have to think about it. And by thinking about it, you will let the seed of bhakti to grow within your heart unless it reaches the lotus feet of the Lord and brings the fruit of Krishna Prema.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you. Finish before night. Maybe there is a question. Thank you.

Is that that easy or that immediate because the hearing becomes one or there are many things you have been carrying for many lifetimes. So how immediate is this?

Therefore, hearing is not an easy process. Sometimes we think that hearing is very easy, what's so difficult, I am sitting and it just automatically comes. Because it's so easy, I become very drowsy and ultimately sleepy. And because we heard it so many times, you know, yeah, yeah, very nice. Nashta prayashvabhadrisu nityam bhagavata sevaya. Everything which is troublesome within the heart is dissipated. And because nothing is troubling me, I am very happily sleeping in the lecture of Srimad Bhagavatam. That's no problem.

That's why we say, And therefore, Srila Prabhupada, if we take the first kent of Srimad Bhagavatam, especially the second chapter, he says, there is a spiritual art of submissive hearing. It's very amazing phrase or expression of Srila Prabhupada he says that hearing is an art and art means to do some art you have to be skillful in this art. So what's so artistic about hearing? What is so special? What kind of skill is there? The implication here is that you really have to master this art, you have to get some expertise in hearing, because usually what we do when we hear, we let the sound go through the covering of false ego, and the false ego distorts the sound. We only hear selectively. We only hear something which we like to hear. We like to hear jokes, that's always fine and that's the best way to wake somebody up, who is of course if he is deeply sleeping even joke will not wake him up. But the point is that we hear selectively, only something which we like goes through the covering of false ego the tamagun covering and something which we don't like we usually don't hear.

And we don't even understand how it works, how our ego selects something which we don't like and discards it. You know, if something which is really troubling to us, it just doesn't go in. But something which is pleasing, it's nice. And that's why because of this selective hearing we don't understand sometimes we don't understand the meaning and often times we don't understand the intention behind the meaning. Even if I understand the meaning it only touches the intellectual part of our mind. It doesn't go deeper.

Why Prabhupada says that this is the spiritual art of submissive hearing, he specifically says submissive hearing. It means that I submit myself to this hearing process or to the words which are coming from above. I accept them without questioning them. I accept them as the absolute truth. I accept them totally irrevocably within my heart. And if we accept in this way, if we hear in this submissive way, then the words go very deeply and they make lasting impression within our consciousness. And then we remember, and then when we remember, it's very easy to think about it and to make impression even deeper.

If we just hear, yes, yes, nice, nice, yes, very nice, nice lecture. What was it all about? I don't remember, but it was nice lecture. Very nice. But why? Because it doesn't go deep. Why it doesn't go deep again? Because it was intercepted by our false ego. When the false ego is non-existent in the process of hearing, then we are not really thinking about our self-interest. But if we think, this is the most important thing which I have to hear now. And we let this idea to go deep with the emotion which is attached. When Srila Prabhupada speaks he does not address only our mind or intelligence he addresses deeper, he wants to impress upon our soul. But to impress upon our soul he has to pierce even through the mind, the mind has to be pierced because the mind says oh I already know this, this is not a new information and therefore what's so special about this. But Srila Prabhupada he has the power and his power which is attached to his words it has the ability to go deeper if we let it go deeper and then the impression will be very low very strong and very deep and the deep impression will change the course of our life.

Because the impressions is something which chokes the course of our life. The samskaras which is there. When the words are coming deep and leave very deep impression within our heart then it's very easy for us to remember this and to remember in the critical situations in our life and when we remember it in the critical situations of our life then the solutions which we will make will be proper. So the problem is that we're hearing and we're not hearing. We should try to hear in such a way that it goes very very deep and then it will be no problem.

And that's why it's so important to be personally present, not just here from Zoom or from Internet. I already have so many lectures in my iPod or whatever. Sometime I will listen to them. It's never the same. When you listen, record that lecture, it's never the same. You don't get the same impact, the same impression from the same words which you have if you're personally present, if you're attentive, and if you're consciously trying to hear the message which is being given. Therefore, it's so important to be personally present, not to put just tape recorder. I will hear it later, no problem. That's the solution. Solution is to hear, but in a proper frame of mind.

Therefore, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati used to say that our path is Srauta Pantha, the path of hearing. But for this path to be effective, the path of Bhakti Yoga is the path of hearing, Srauta Pantha. But Srauta Pantha means that the speaker is powerful enough to produce the proper sound which is coming directly from the spiritual world and the hearer is humble enough to receive this sound which is coming from the spiritual world. If this doesn't happen then it's ineffective. If it's only living impression even on the level of intelligence it's not that impressive. It's not that effective.

Any other? Okay, I guess. Huh? Yeah.

But as Michael said, help me explain, right? Horse car and motor car. Horse car and motor car. So, Michael said, help me explain, right? Horse car and motor car. So my question is that when it is said, some people say that if motor car is creating problems, pollution, this, that, and it was so much peaceful, then why you people are using this type of water? So if you can explain it.

Yes, Srila Prabhupada gave a beautiful explanation. He says, if somebody is driving a car and he is over speeding, he is violating the rules, then police, which is chasing behind this car, which is going with the speed 200 kilometers per hour, which is against then police has to take the speed even more than this right? to stop him. So that's Prabhupada's explanation, we want to stop it but for that we have to go with the same speed or even more speed, that's why we're using motor cars. Yes, we want to stop but in order to stop we have to speed up even more, we are warning but we have to use the same technology because if we don't use the same technology who will hear us? Nobody will hear us. That's why we use zoom and we criticize zoom by using zoom and we criticize internet by using internet and we criticize cars by using cars but ultimately Absolutely, yes, that's the solution.

Okay, thank you very much, Hare Krishna.