19920424 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.24.33

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 24, 1992 in Muscat. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3rd Canto, Chapter 24, Verse 33.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami sings and everyone follows:

paraṁ pradhānaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntaṁ
kālaṁ kaviṁ tri-vṛtaṁ loka-pālam
ātmānubhūtyānugata-prapañcaṁ
svacchanda-śaktiṁ kapilaṁ prapadye

Translation: I surrender unto the Supreme personality of the godhead descended in the form of Kapila who is independently powerful and transcendental, who is the Supreme person and the Lord of the sum total of matter and the element of time, who is the fully cognizant maintainer of all the universes under the three modes of material nature and who absorbs the material manifestation after their dissolution.

Purport: The six opulences — wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation — are indicated here by Kardama Muni, who addresses Kapila Muni, his son, as param. The word param is used in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the phrase paraṁ satyam, to refer to the summum bonum, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Param is explained further by the next word, pradhānam, which means the chief, the origin, the source of everything — sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam — the cause of all causes. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not formless; He is puruṣam, or the enjoyer, the original person. He is the time element and is all-cognizant. He knows everything — past, present and future — as confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says, “I know everything — present, past and future — in every corner of the universe.” The material world, which is moving under the spell of the three modes of nature, is also a manifestation of His energy. (Sings) Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate: everything that we see is an interaction of His energies (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8). (Sings) Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis tathedam akhilaṁ jagat. This is the version of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. We can understand that whatever we see is an interaction of the three modes of material nature, but actually it is all an interaction of the Lord’s energy. Loka-pālam: He is actually the maintainer of all living entities. Nityo nityānām: He is the chief of all living entities; He is one, but He maintains many, many living entities. God maintains all other living entities, but no one can maintain God. That is His svacchanda-śakti; He is not dependent on others. Someone may call himself independent, but he is still dependent on someone higher. The Personality of Godhead, however, is absolute; there is no one higher than or equal to Him.

Kapila Muni appeared as the son of Kardama Muni, but because Kapila is an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kardama Muni offered respectful obeisances unto Him with full surrender. Another word in this verse is very important: ātmānubhūtyānugata-prapañcam. The Lord descends either as Kapila or Rāma, Nṛsiṁha or Varāha, and whatever forms He assumes in the material world are all manifestations of His own personal internal energy. They are never forms of the material energy. The ordinary living entities who are manifested in this material world have bodies created by the material energy, but when Kṛṣṇa or any one of His expansions or parts of the expansions descends on this material world, although He appears to have a material body, His body is not material. He always has a transcendental body. But fools and rascals, who are called mūḍhas, consider Him one of them, and therefore they deride Him. They refuse to accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead because they cannot understand Him. In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ: “Those who are rascals and fools deride Me.” When God descends in a form, this does not mean that He assumes His form with the help of the material energy. He manifests His spiritual form as He exists in His spiritual kingdom.

Thus, end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to text 33, chapter 24, Canto 3 of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in the matter of renunciation of the Kardama Muni.
Oṁ tat sat.

*Repeat translation* I surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead descended in the form of Kapila who is independently powerful and transcendental, who is the Supreme person and the Lord the sum total of matter and the element of time, who is the fully cognizant maintainer all the universes under the three modes of material nature who absorbs the material manifestation after their dissolution.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here it seems that the father is offering obeisances to his son. Kardama Muni knows who his son is.

Kardama Muni was practicing brahmacarya and doing meditation on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, chanting mantras and Visnu revealed Himself to Kardama Muni. And Kardama Muni expresses that before I will be able to renounce the world, I need to experience the world. There is still some desire in my heart, but I want to realize you and want to go back to you.

So, I am praying that I don’t act properly then material world can again entangle me. Therefore, I need proper wife who will help me in my journey through life and experience what is the material world. And also to help me prosecute or pursue my spiritual aspirations. He was very straightforward and sincere to the Lord.

The Lord blessed him and instructed him that the you get a proper wife, Devahūti. Kardama Muni was a very exalted brāhmaṇa. Devahūti was the daughter of Manu. She was practically born in a Kshatriya family. But that wasn’t a bar, she was highly qualified. Although there was not the same caste by birth because of the proper spiritual qualifications, material qualifications. It was recommended even by Lord Visnu as the proper match.

So Kardama Muni, later was approached by Svāyambhuva Manu. Svāyambhuva Manu who requested him to accept his daughter in marriage. So, he accepted that. And he had made some pact with his wife that I will stay with you until I give you a son. We will stay together for so many years but in the end of my life in the end, I will give you my son then I want to renounce. So Kardama Muni was very unique. He was a yogī.

In a Vedic culture, this system goes from brahmacari, then grhastha, then vānaprastha then sannyāsa. Kardama Muni was very powerful yogī devotee. He was very concerned that I will be entangled in the gṛhastha life.

So Visnu said that I will come as your Son. I will be your Son. In this way, he will be blessed by having the Lord as his Son. The Lord wanted to appear in the world to give the message of God consciousness. So, He inspired His devotees like this to enter into the grhastha-āśrama and have a child.

So, by following this process of bhakti-yoga, whether one is a brahmacāri, gṛhastha, vānaprastha or sannyāsa, everyone can achieve the perfection of life, but the goal is expressed in this verse, the process is, I surrender. That we do so acknowledging the supremacy of the Lord, accepting Him as our proprietor, as our protector, as the Supreme object of our worship.

In this way, one is not entangled in the material world even though one is living in it. So now we are at a later stage, just before the renunciation of Kardama Muni. He is already gone to grhastha-āśrama . He had daughters. He got daughters married. Now he has had Kapila Muni as his Son. Now he is offering his obeisances and surrender to Kapila Muni. Although Kapila appear as Son, but still he knew the actual position.

So Kardama Muni, he was in the mood of dāsya. In the confidential parts of the Vedas, it is described for the devotees they can have relationship with the Lord in five different rasas or mellows: śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya. The Sanskrit words I will give the translations. Śānta means neutral. Neutral is when one simply appreciates the Lord. Like great rṣīs in Vedas, glories to the Lord. Even you find in other religion Hallelujah (repeat). They just appreciate Lord’s greatness. If they just go this far just to appreciate the Lord. He is great. He is wonderful. Just appreciates Him, recognition, appreciation, is the neutral relationship. In the spiritual world, the cows, the trees, all liberated ātmās, they are in neutral relationship. (But)They are not actively doing service. The next level which is to do actively do service is dāsya or servitude.

Hanumān was a servitor of Lord Rāma. Service means there is some respect. There is some awe and reverence. So, the awe and reverence is there in neutral but there is also service. Hanumān was lifting the mandāra mountain or flying to Śrī Lanka to get Sītā or fighting with Rāvaṇa. So many pastimes are there. So, that service attitude is called dāsya and that includes awe and respect. Then, there is sakhya - friendship.

Just like Arjuna was the friend of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was driving his chariot in the battlefield of Kurushetra. Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna they were sometimes sitting together talking. They were friends. When… Normally, there was no awe and reverence. There was just familiarity, friendship, love, so there are two types of friendship one is friendship like a younger brother to old brother with little awe, little respect is there.

Another is when there is no such formality. Is just a spontaneous friendship also you see Kṛṣṇa and the cowherd boys like Subala, Sudama, Śrīdāma. They would play in the forest of Vṛndāvana together as friends. This is another rasa or relationship with the Lord.

Then, there is vātsalya - that is parenthood, where one has a parental relationship with the Lord like mother Yaśoda, Nanda Mahārāja, they had a parental relationship. They thought that I have to feed Kṛṣṇa otherwise he will die, if I don’t feed him. Mother Yaśoda catch Kṛṣṇa stealing butter like this: What are you doing. If you destroy all the butter, what will we eat, as Kṛṣṇa will give out the butter to the monkeys. So that where you take that Lord is dependent on you, the Lord is lesser than you or that is called vātsalya - parental.

In Caitanya’s pastimes, when Kṛṣṇa came as Caitanya Mahāprabhu as His devotee. So, the father of Lord Caitanya didn’t know that Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa. He thought that He is my son. So, I had to protect my son. I have to train Him. So sometimes he would scold Lord Caitanya -- you behave properly do this properly spare the rod, spoil the child.

From the age of 1 to 5, the Vedas advise different rṣīs advice the childhood should be really pampered, given all kind of love, give them whatever they want give all kinds of love. But from 6 - 16, they should be disciplined very strictly - no nonsense - they must follow the parents. And If they don’t, they can be disciplined.

At the age of 16, children should be treated as friends and not forced. After that you should do like this. Intellectually, not just like force. So as a parent, he was thinking I have to train Caitanya. I have to train my son Nimāi, Caitanya. He was known as Nimāi so he would chastise.

One night in his dream, one brāhmaṇa came said -- how you are chastising your son. You don’t know that your son is god. Your son is avatār, but then Jagannātha Miśra was saying that whatever my son may be, He is my son, I have to train Him. I have to see to His proper upbringing. But how you can chastise the Lord? Like this they are having arguments.

Finally, Jagannātha Miśra woke up from his dream. He was very bewildered what to do. Then he said that whatever my son may be, I have to take care of Him. So, he would completely go back again into this parental mood. He couldn’t maintain another vision.

So, how is this that the devotees, the parents of Kṛṣṇa, parents of Lord Caitanya, they always see the Lord as son. This is by yoga-māyā. This is not ordinary illusion. This is a special spiritual illusion, which is created so that they will remain fixed in their particular relationship. Just like when Kṛṣṇa pulled over the two trees - that were the two Arjuna trees - which were Nalakuvera and Maṇigrīva - the two sons of Kuvera who were cursed by Nārada Muni to become trees. Because they had performed illicit sex in the Ganges with the Apsaras in the Svarga Loka in the Mandakini Ganga.

So therefore, they were cursed to become trees - but Kṛṣṇa - but then they got a blessing to become trees in Kṛṣṇa’s garden. Kṛṣṇa when he was tied to the stone mortar. He pulled the stone mortar between the two trees and pulled the two trees down. Out from the trees came sons of Kuvera, offered their obeisances to Kṛṣṇa, circumambulated Kṛṣṇa, offered their prayers, begged Kṛṣṇa for forgiveness that now they have realized the purpose of life. They begged Him that we can serve you eternally without being deviated again. And they went back to Kuvera.

Meanwhile, the huge crash of the gigantic trees falling caused Nanda Mahārāja to come running to see whether Kṛṣṇa was alright. He saw that here Kṛṣṇa is crawling with the stone mortar tied to him and two trees are fallen. What have you done?

Call mother Yaśoda - what have you done?

You are putting my son in such a danger - foolishness. What have you done?

I just want to keep Him out of trouble and tied Him to the mortar. How did He get there I don’t understand. Then, they asked other children what happened. So, well Kṛṣṇa pulled this you know gigantic stone mortar and was pulling it and got stuck in between the two trees and pulled the trees down.

Out from the trees came these four handed figures very effulgent persons with helmets and so many jewels. They circumambulated Kṛṣṇa, offered prayers to Kṛṣṇa and then flew up in the sky. Nanda Mahārāja heard all this. Arey children you such imaginations [Devotees laughing] - where do you come up with all these things? Why can’t anyone tell me what really happened. Anyway, let me untie Kṛṣṇa and help Kṛṣṇa to his chair. The Lord has protected my son somehow, scolded mother Yaśoda again. You take care properly of the child. I go working in the day and you left the child and go here and there. You don’t watch.

Even Nanda and Yaśoda also have gṛhastha chit-chat all over Kṛṣṇa. So, they were fixed that they never thought that Kṛṣṇa was God until Kṛṣṇa lifted Govardhana hill then nobody could escape but see that Kṛṣṇa had supernatural superhuman powers.

At that time, all the residents of Vṛndāvana went to Nanda Mahārāja after the Govardhana lila. And they said that so many years so many things have been happening. We heard so many things but you always just avoided.

Now we saw with our own eyes, Kṛṣṇa lifted up the entire mountain for seven days with His little finger of His left hand. Now you want to tell us that Kṛṣṇa is just an ordinary boy. We won’t believe you. You have to tell us who is Kṛṣṇa. We want to know.

Nanda Mahārāja said that Garga Muni our family priest he told us by his astrological calculations that actually Kṛṣṇa has all the power of Nārāyaṇa. He has all the powers of the Supreme Lord.

So, in this way, he explained to them and they felt satisfied. But Nanda Mahārāja even though he said all these things, he could never himself really understand that Kṛṣṇa has all the powers of Nārāyaṇa, how could He have all the powers of Nārāyaṇa - only if you are Nārāyaṇa. (Laughs). That Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Nārāyaṇa. He is the original Lord.

So somehow Nanda Mahārāja, he would always remain in a parental mood. For a moment, he may go out and again. But here we say in this śloka today. Kapila Muni is offering (excuse me).

Kardama Muni is offering prayers to Kapila, but he is offering in awe and reverence. Actually Kardama, he was not able to enjoy the vātsalya-rasa. He was not able to enjoy the fourth rasa of parental relationship for very long. He was more here in the mood of awe, reverence and respect. May be for some time, Devahūti was in motherly mood. But at the end, she also surrendered to Kapila Muni and told him that you have now - when her husband took renounced order.

The Vedic system is that women should always be protected. It is different from the western system, where everybody is on their own. Vedic culture is that women are to be respected and should be protected in society.

When they are unmarried, the parents protect them. The father or the guardians. When they are married, then the husband is to protect them. When they are. When the husband is old, he can take vānaprastha. He can take sannyāsa and the older son maintains and protects the mother. In this way by whether by father, by husband or by older son that the mother, the lady is always protected. This is Vedic culture.

So Kardama Muni once he gave a son to Devahūti and once the son was grown, then he put the mother, his wife, under the care of Kapila and he left. Devahūti - she realized that Kapila was the Lord. So, this whole section of Bhāgavatam is very deep, very deep discussion between Kapila Muni and Devahūti. Devahūti is asking questions and Kapila is giving the answers.

So, although Kapila Muni came as a son but Kardama Muni was not bewildered. He knew that He is the Lord of all the Universes. He is in charge of the three modes of the material nature. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says that the sambhavāmi yuge yuge that I come in every yuga. He mentions that He comes out of ātmā-māyayā - out of My own internal potency.

The Lord is coming, not the same way we came. We come in the world because of laws of karma. We are born. We stay sometime. We get old. We produce. We produce some offspring. Then we go through some changes. We get old. We die. We take rebirth again. So, according to the modes of karma, we are given a different body. May be one time we are born in heaven, next time we are born in hell. Sometimes we are rich, we are poor. Sometimes we are brāhmaṇa, sometimes we are śūdra.

Sometimes we are animals, sometimes we are human. According to the stringent laws of nature, we have to take different births. Sometimes, we are born in the man’s body, sometimes we are born in a woman’s body. This way, we rotate around the universe. So externally, we always consider, whenever this body we have to be the only reality. Whatever we can see with our senses to be the reality.

But human beings have got advanced intelligence that through the eyes of the scripture, they can see beyond the immediate gross manifestation. They can see the consciousness behind the manifestation.

Just like one uneducated person, they may see that - just say that scientists are teaching may be one thing in one way but then we will see. Another person may say here is a wall. Scientists will say - Engineer they think that this is such and such plaster. This is the RCC structure. Chemist may think well this is gypsum board having chemical composition of lime and other things.

Physicists may consider these are all various states of elements and quantum particles moving around inside all the atoms in the wall. Whatever vision. One can have a vision and see one thing and see different thing. Someone may see tree and think that this is a nice tree but botanist may think, you know the Latin name, the gender, and the whole tree family and everything. So, knowledge gives us different vision of reality. So spiritual knowledge gives us the actual in-depth vision of what is reality. Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam are given to us so that we can see what is light. If we just see the superficial aspect that is only one of the levels of vision. It is not the ultimate understanding.

For instance, once there was a very great king called Suyajña - the king of the Uṣināra kingdom. He was a very great warrior. He had become victorious in many battles. He had expanded his kingdom. He was very good to his citizens. There was a proper legal system. He controlled the ministers.

So, they wouldn’t steal from the citizens. So, there would not be any undue taxation. He was a proper monarch in the old system. But he was being attacked by some enemies. And he went into the battlefield. And He fought very courageously. But although he was very determined. Although he was a very fierce fighter. He was very brave. He still - he was still killed in the battle. But He was never coward in any moment.

In fact, when he was - although he was fatally injured, he just did his lip in determination and fought to the last and finally the King’s body was there in the battlefield that so all the other generals and brave warriors - they came and paid respects to the fallen warrior. They saw his brave features and his determination.

But his wife - queens heard that he was killed. They came out in the battlefield and they were crying. Here was - They broke their ornaments and they were just hysterical crying. They say how could this happen. How can the providence be so cruel?

What is the - How is fortune so unfair?

Here is a brave king. He was ruling his citizens so nicely.

How are they going to survive without such a good ruler?

How are they going to tolerate the sufferings?

And we his queens, how can we live without him?

They were remembering all his good qualities. His kindness to them. His so many good qualities and they are saying that how could he leave us like this and we are all alone. And they are surrounding him and other relatives wanted to take the body to do the funeral before the sunset.

To burn the body, according to the Vedic ritual. But the queens surrounded and were crying and crying. They won’t let anyone go near. Finally, the sun is getting close to setting. And even Yamarāja could hear the crying of the queens so then Yamarāja took the form of a young boy. People like to hear spiritual and philosophical things from young children it is very attractive. Because normally children don’t speak such things. They are more frivolous. When they speak something philosophical, it is very enchanting to the elderly people. He came as a young boy and then there he saw all the queens are crying and he started to speak out loud.

What is this? I thought that older people were more intelligent than this. I find that they are just like we children - very foolish. How is it that these queens and such intelligent elders are acting so childishly? I am very surprised. I have seen my mother and father. They also have died. My grandfather died and my great grandfather also died. All died. Everyone in this world is born and naturally they have to die.

So here we see these people and they think like anything surprised that death has come. But don’t they know that everyone has to die. Why are they just making so much of a commotion and not facing the reality? The nature of this world is like that.

Then he gave a story. He said that just like that the story that there was this hunter. He was trying to catch two birds Kankachoos. Some kind of birds – kankachos  -- forget the name. He was trying to get some birds and he put some nets and traps in the forest. So there were two birds. They were very happy. Husband and wife bird with many children and the wife bird got caught in the trap of the hunter. And she was calling out and she was caught. So, the husband - he was really - the husband bird - he was really frustrated. What happened?

How cruel is the laws of nature?

Here is my good wife. I have so many little baby chicks - baby birds.

They don’t know how to fly yet. Who will take care of them?

Now the mother is caught. And she is such a good wife. How can I live without her?

What is the use of flying around if I don’t have my wife with me?

He just stayed there by the wife lamenting and saying all these things that weren’t of use. She is caught by this hunter. What a horrible thing. Why God is so cruel to have this happen? When he was lamenting, the hunter is sneaking. He shoots an arrow and kills the other bird - kills the husband bird. So, both are finished.

So, the Yamarāja is saying that you all are sitting here crying. You are lamenting that your husband is gone. That person you have known he is gone. The only person you are able your whole life see is this body. So, the body is still there - same helmet, same face, same heart, same torso. Same legs so you can speak to him why are you all crying?

The actual person has gone, that is why you are crying. You never saw the actual person. You were only seeing his shell. Just like somebody says someone sees the house. There is the prime minister’s house. They may say ohh this is prime minister’s not the prime minister. They see the house -- they say like that. You are seeing this body and you are saying this is the King. You never saw the actual ātmā. Now the ātmā is gone.

You can sit here crying all day and night for the rest of your life and never bring back the ātmā. Ātmā is gone and instead of wasting your time in this way, you should take necessary steps to save yourself. To see what are the dangers in life and to actually take precautions and allow the final rites for your husband to be done and you all prepare yourselves for solving the problems of life. Don’t make the same mistake like the bird who was shot by the hunter. This lamenting will not solve anything.

In the Vedic culture, the lamentation is of course everyone will feel sadness at the loss of near and dear ones. But with spiritual knowledge, we know that the person is not dead person never finishes. Soul always is living on.

So, the Vedic culture even after the deceased, even after the death of the relative we do śrāddha, we do piṇḍa, we do many ceremonies for the departed soul. Knowing that the soul is moving on. The body is no longer functioning. But the soul is moving from this body to some other body some other place.

So, we take precautions to help the soul - putra putrī in Hindi or Sanskrit - names of the children becomes. Pu means hell and tra means to deliver. So, the man who can deliver his parents from hell is called putra. And the daughter who can deliver her parents from hell is putrī. How we can deliver our parents from hellish conditions?

When we become properly situated in devotional service. If we are doing yajñas, if we are doing spiritual activities, that benefit will also go to the forefathers, that will go to the children. And after they depart, we can also offer various pujas for the welfare of the soul. So in this way, there is a blessing of the Lord given by having good children.

So, in Vedic culture what’s the first thing that the parents wanted to train their children would be the proper religious children. So that after they die, the children would do all these spiritual rites.

Now day people are not concerned they want children to get Phd, MA, Msc, and then when the parents die what’s this all hogwash, we don’t believe in all these things. It is only chemicals there so then they don’t do all those rites because they never saw that whether the children are trained in spiritual life. It’s alright to have MA, PhD, all these things but there should also be spiritual education side by side. That is the point.

Iṣopaniṣad says side by side one should know the material world, one should know the spiritual world. That is like Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that in India we are just imitating the west we have to be very careful to preserve our own culture and we take good things from the west and preserve good things of India.

In this way we can have a perfect situation. We shouldn’t give up the essential teachings of our own culture - the Vedic culture. It is not that the west has got a perfect system, they got good technology some economic formulas. Which are also mentioned in the Vedas as far as economic formulas, is nothing new.

But spiritually they are not they don’t have vision; they don’t know where the world is heading. They don’t know what the world situation should be that is why we are facing so many ecological problems - they had summit because so many imbalances. We can’t say we don’t know what is the proper way to lead humanity where humanity should what is the ideal situation ecological balance is automatically compared in the Vedic culture.

Anyway, that is another big topic, so here we are discussing about Kapila Muni, Kardama Muni. So Kardama Muni knew that who Kapila was he was not an ordinary child we should know that who we are. We are actually the ātmā - living in a body - someone has a female body or male body. They have to act externally according to the body they have actually they identify with that body. But spiritually they can see beyond that they have higher identity also. That is they are servants of the Lord so whatever situation we are in, we should our life for pleasing the Lord, that is a specialty of human life.

Animals are eating humans are eating animals are sleeping humans are sleeping’s animals are creating babies, humans are creating babies’ animals are fighting humans are fighting. That way it is not big difference, only the humans are doing in more complex way.

In fact, animals they are more regulated by nature. For instance, a cow or any animal they have a certain cycle when they feel some desire for sex. Once in a month the cow feels a sexual agitation, only at that time will she be calling for the bull. But human beings are not so regulated they are always very lusty so they have many desires all of the time. It is not by nature’s way animals are automatically regulated. Of course, they are also some very lusty animals like monkeys and pigeons and they are all the time having sex but apart from them most of the animals are very regulated. Even the tigers and lions they are only having sexual desires at certain times. Human beings have got so many active senses we want we can eat at any time some people are eating five times six times seven times a day always eating. You see in the west, people are very much focused on sex life, this is the main preoccupation. This is very visible.

There are so different agitations are there for the senses and they are pulling the senses all the time so what is human life meant for? That we have to since we are not regulated by nature, we have to regulate ourselves by intelligence. So by natural intelligence we bring ourselves, bring the senses under control through yoga through bhakti-yoga. We can engage the senses in proper spiritualized activities and regulate them and in this way become peaceful.

Otherwise, you see that animals are more peaceful than modern man. But human being is meant to be the Supreme peaceful entity, much more than animals. So that is only possible when a human being controls himself according to spiritual systems given by Kṛṣṇa.

But in material life we become very attached so we think that we can’t let go of anything if we let go of anything. i will suffer we think that we may suffer the story is once there was a man he was very tired he was very hungry hadn’t eaten for a long time. And he came by the side of ganges. And there was one temple and he just leaned against the column of the temple and he was very hungry. One rich man he came and he was doing puja in the temple he saw that I want to give some charity for feeding some in the name of deity a hungry person I want to feed some hungry person and he saw that this man here I want to give you this food, so please accept this.

The man said OK give me the food so he is leaning on the column and he puts hands around the two sides of the column and says you give me the food. The man says you come out of the column and the man says I am too tired and I am leaning. The man put a big bunch of puffed rice in his hands - khoi the fused rice and the man is there and he is holding the column on the two sides (laugh) and then he is looking he wants to eat the fused rice. But he tries to reach he can’t reach, he wants to let go if he lets go all the puffed rice would fall down. He is in a real fix he can’t let go he can’t eat, this is the situation in material life we don’t want to afraid if I let go of something I am going to lose.

At the same time we are not able to enjoy, we are not fully satisfied. We are not fully giving that happiness that we are hankering for. Same time we don’t want to let go whatever we have neither we can enjoy neither we can’t let go in this way we are in real fix. So that is why all the shastras tell us we should cut through this maya and regulate ourselves to engage in devotional service, everything is possible by the Lord’s mercy.

Actually Yamarāja also gave instructions to those queens that look at someone lose something on the street, sometimes he may go back and even after few hours this thing is still lying there. When the Lord desires he can get back even the lost thing if you lost on the street. But if the Lord’s protection is not there, even if you have big fortress treasure house, somehow people they rob the banks.

How to steal from the house secret place - may not be safe, so without the Lord’s mercy one cannot be secure. We just think that I will make very good arrangement and that will protect me that won’t protects one that is why dangers may be there. We need the only way we can cross over these dangers by the mercy of Lord. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam explains that we take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord and this will pass us over all the dangers of life.

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

(ŚB 10.14.58)

For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Kṛṣṇa. The lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa were shipping this human form of life. They are like the boat to take us over the ocean of birth and death and bhavāmbudhir - this ocean we can easily cross over.

Second Level Proofer: Karuṇāpati Keśava das

Second Level Proofed on: 16-Feb-2021