BG 14.20 Spiritual Happiness vs. Material Happiness | Rus-Split | 6.9.92 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Or is anybody starving? When we travel all over the world, many of our friends ask us, is there enough prasad for our devotees in Russia? So we tell them, yes, plenty. So we have to finish the lecture today by 8:20 because, because we have such limited space. This temple room is also used as a bedroom by the brahmacharis? So we just do very short kirtan then start the lecture. Very bad throat but still—

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaayaaahh...

Śrīmad Bhāgavad-gītā, Chapter 14, Text 20.

Gunāneta na detya trin. Gunāneta na detya trin. Dehi dehasamudbhavān. Dehi dehasamudbhavān. Jñānmām netiyujarādukhel. Jñānmām netiyujarādukhel.

Vemoktam netan āśṇote.

Vemoktam netan āśṇote.

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Before I start the lecture, I just want to know how many people in this audience are coming here for the first time?

Okay.

The reason I always ask this in a public lecture or in a lecture with a lot of guests is Because obviously if somebody's coming here the first time, he needs a little introduction to the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy. So the verse we just read is from the chapter entitled "The Three Modes of Material Nature." And the three modes of material nature are goodness, passion, and ignorance. Goodness is superior to passion, passion superior to ignorance. But nevertheless, Kṛṣṇa is explaining that we should become transcendental eventually the stage of goodness. Krishna is explaining in this verse that when the embodied being becomes transcendental to the three modes, then he become— he can become free from janma, mithya, jara, dukher. So janma, mithya, jara, dukher, these four are very famous Sanskrit words. And if you listen to Prabhupada's lectures, you will find that almost in every lecture he's mentioned these four words. So this means, janma-mṛtya-jara-dukhīr, means birth, death, disease, and old age. Kṛṣṇa has established in the Bhāgavad-gītā that material life means being accompanied by two principal characteristics. One is misery and the other is everything is temporary. In Sanskrit, the words are dukhālayam and aśāśatam. So very often people want to question How is this misery realized? So this misery is realized through sevenfold different processes. Four of these seven are janma-mithya-jaradukhe. Birth, for example, is a very painful experience. Our modern-day scientists can never tell us why the child comes out of the mother's womb crying. But Srimad Bhagavatam explains in the third canto how the child in the mother's womb is in a very, very uncomfortable position. It is explained that even if the child, even if we had to experience today for one second the uncomfortable position that we had to experience in the mother's womb, the living entity would die. So birth is painful. That's why we see the child always comes out crying. And even in his childhood, the child, but the child cries. Then there is disease. Nobody likes to get diseased. In some parts of the world, you have full medical coverage. That means a doctor is free, balnitsa is free, the medicine is free. But certainly the pain is not free, the pain you have to experience. So therefore, nobody likes disease because disease makes you uncomfortable and gives you pain. So our modern-day scientist friends keep assuring us that very soon these diseases will be conquered. But if you carefully analyze, you will see that there are more diseases today than ever before, and these diseases are getting more and more severe. At one time, cancer was the disease that everyone feared most. Now we have AIDS that's even more serious than cancer. So disease is there regardless of whether one is rich or poor, or regardless of whether one is living in a in a developed country or an undeveloped country. Then there is mithya, there is death. You can't avoid death and you can't avoid old age. Nobody likes to get old. If there was any— if there was ever any medicine or insurance company, insurance policy that told you pay this premium and you can avoid old age, I'm sure that everybody would subscribe to it. People do not like old age because it makes life inconvenient, uncomfortable. And we try our best to avoid old age. Therefore, people dye their hairs, put on artificial teeth when your natural teeth fall, do cosmetic makeup and surgery to make, to make the wrinkles fade, to hide the wrinkles of the face. They virtually do everything that they can to avoid the appearance of old age. If you ever want to flatter an old man, all you have to do is tell him how young he looks. And if you ever want to insult a young man, just tell him how old he looks, because nobody likes to look old. And as one progresses to an old age, one is constantly reminded about the death which is going to be coming soon. And ultimately, there is death. The atheist encounters God in the form of death. But now, besides these four former miseries that are mentioned in this verse, There are 3 other calamities that we have to be aware of. One is the misery caused by the mind. Regardless of where you are, the mind is always giving trouble, and it's giving trouble in so many different ways. You see somebody else making more progress than you, the mind bothers you. You see some new product in the market, your mind bothers you. Come on, you should make dangik by hook or crook and go and buy this product. You have a relative, a friend, a dear one who passes away, Your mind bothers you, see, your friend, relative has died. So the mind is constantly presenting obstacles, creating a disturbance. Then other living entities are bothering us. You have the other entities, you can include human beings in this category, and even the animals, even small creatures like the mosquitoes or the flies or the bugs.

Kamare.

You may buy a house in a very expensive area, but the fly reserves the right to make your life miserable at night. Like in Bombay, we have a temple in the Juh area. Very expensive area. One of the most expensive areas of India. But people build very big, big houses there. These houses cost millions of dollars. But still, the flies are very— the mosquitoes are very active in the night. So unless you take precautions, you can't sleep. Then the natural disasters like earthquake, floods, drought, and so on. So these are in brief the 7 different types of miseries that we all have to encounter. Further, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that everything is temporary. Ashashatam, that means temporary. You may be very beautiful today, but tomorrow with the passage of time, this beauty will disappear. You may, you may be very famous today, but tomorrow you can become the opposite. Just like in your country, at one time there was one personality who was very famous, but today, day by day, he's becoming unfamous, infamous. I won't tell you his name in public, but you can understand. So this is material life. You may be very powerful today, but tomorrow you can become weak. So Krishna says that this material world is nothing but a place of misery. So Krishna In this chapter, the 14th chapter, called the Three Modes of Material Nature, Kṛṣṇa is explaining to us how we should perform our actions in such a manner that we are even transcendental to the modes of goodness. In other words, this stage is called the stage of pure goodness. And this is described as that stage in which one learns to act strictly for the pleasure of the Lord. Now, as we said earlier, —amongst the material modes, goodness is superior to passion and ignorance. Kṛṣṇa has already explained in this chapter that the mode of goodness is illuminating. Just like the sunshine illuminates and darkness gets destroyed, similarly, with the help of spiritual knowledge, one becomes aware of one's constitutional position. The living entities who are conditioned by material nature are of various types. So in the mode of goodness, one becomes happy, happy that he's on the right path. In the mode of goodness, one is wiser than those in the other modes. So in the mode of passion, Krishna says, one is very, very active, and this mode is born due to unlimited desires and hankering, and hence the living entity engages in various fruitive activities. Then there is the mode of ignorance, also known as the mode of darkness. And primarily under the influence of this mode, one is lazy, inactive. So Krishna is saying that by the cultivation of transcendental knowledge, one can transcend the three modes. Now goodness, though superior to the other two, nevertheless, when one is under the influence of goodness There is still the desire for sense enjoyment. Just like we have seen, we see ourselves in India, the many people who perform, who follow Vedic rituals quite strictly, but the same individuals also engage in different types of sinful activities. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa has explained in this chapter that as long as one is under the influence of the modes, there's always competition going on between the modes for satisfaction. Sometimes the mode of goodness wins, sometimes the mode of passion, and sometimes ignorance. So goodness is also not the safest position to be in. Kṛṣṇa also explains, "The mode of goodness is realized when all the gates of the body are illuminated with knowledge." We have 9 gates in our body. These are the gates or the agencies through which one fulfills activities of sense enjoyment, or one executes activities of sense enjoyment. Is it two eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, genitals, and anus? And Krishna says goodness is experienced when all these nine gates are equipped with spiritual knowledge. In the mode of goodness, one can see things in the right perspective. So Pure goodness, however, is the stage where one learns to act for the pleasure of the Lord. One accepts directions as it comes down to the disciplic succession, and one realizes that what the, the instructions of the Lord are the only means by which the goal of life can be realized. In the stage of pure goodness, one realizes that the instructions of the Lord are the only means by which The goal of life can be realized. And Krishna says in this verse, then one can enjoy real happiness. He uses the word amritam. Amritam means nectar. So everybody is after some nectar. Doesn't matter whether one is in the human form of life or the animal form of life. Everybody is searching for nectar or happiness. Isn't the cat very happy when the cat finds milk in the kitchen? Dah? And don't you see sometimes the dogs walking on the street wagging its tail? And when you see the dog walking on the street wagging its tail, you know it's happy. And the human beings are also looking for happiness. Doesn't matter whether you're in a small village or a big city like Moscow, everyone's looking for happiness. But Krishna says in this verse that by taking to the stage of pure goodness, You can enjoy nectar even in this life. This is not the only verse of the Gita where this point is made, that spiritual execution, that by spiritual devotional service one can enjoy happiness. And in— there's so many verses in the Gita where this one point is made, that is, this is the path of real happiness. Many times Prabhupada said in his lectures, this movement is is designed to make everyone happy. When Prabhupada first went to America in 1965, at that time there was a very big hippie movement in America. So Prabhupada used to say, I've come here to convert the hippies into happies. And on numerous occasions Prabhupada said, this movement is designed to make everyone happy, otherwise why would all of you come here? Why would we— why would you come here again and again? Obviously, because there is some satisfaction. We are searching for satisfaction, but in the material world there is no satisfaction. Prahlad Maharaj was a young boy who had received spiritual knowledge when he was in the womb of his mother. He was the son of a very rich man. He is nāite. What was his father's name? Yātsudābuda. So all of you know Hiranyakāśipu only as a demon. But he was not just a demon. He was a millionaire.

He was a king.

Very rich man. So Prahlāda had all the material comforts that anybody could desire. So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he had received spiritual knowledge when he was in the womb of his mother. It's a long story for which we don't have time. But Narada Muni had instructed him when he was in the— Narada Muni actually had instructed his mother, but because he was in the womb, he also heard this knowledge. So Prasād RAVAL said, nāte vidhum svartagatim hi viśnuṁ dūrāsa ye bahair artha-māṇinā andhā yathāndeḥ rūpāṇiyā māṇast. The translation of this Sanskrit verse is as follows. He says, nāte vidhum, people do not know how real happiness can be found. So that's a fact. People do not know how real happiness can be found. And everybody is misguided. Is the blind leading the blind? Those who are unaware about the goal of life, how can they direct others towards the goal of life? I once saw a painting. There was a paint in a Back to Godhead magazine. They had reproduced a painting that is on exhibit at the French Museum in Paris. The painting showed a blind man leading all others who were also blind. And there was a big ditch in the front and they all fell in the ditch. So that is the result when the leaders are blind and the followers are blind. So that is the position in society today, blind leading the blind. Deva Prahlad Maharaj says, "Andha yathan de rupani aaman as." Andha, andha means blind. So that is the reality. That is the position in society today. There may be so many so-called educational institutions of learning. Just like in your country you have, in Moscow you have MGU. So in MGU University, I'm sure there's so many departments of knowledge, but is there any department that tells you what happens after death? In your country there's so many institutions of higher learning. Is there any institution that tells you what happens after death? Da? Da? Niyet? No. Da? Iskcon? ISKCON as an institution is also in your country, isn't it? Huh? So there's only one institution that tells you what happens after death. The other institutions don't tell you what happened after death. So this is exactly what Prasad RAVAL said. He said people do not know how real happiness can be found, and the blind are leading the blind. And because the leaders are blind The followers are also blind. None of them know what is the goal of life, what is the real identity, and what is the true means of happiness. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means philosophy that makes you happy. Happy now and happy tomorrow. And real happiness. Material happiness has a beginning and an end. You may be a powerful dictator, but when you're out of office, you become sad. Even the so-called pleasure of sex life is very, very temporary. So therefore, one who's intelligent searches for permanent happiness, not temporary happiness. Further, material happiness may give you some pleasure in the beginning, but in the end it becomes a source of entanglement. You realize this entanglement in two forms. One is when you violate the laws of God and engage in sinful activities, you experience material misery in the form of disease. If you smoke, you can get cancer. Even eating meat gives cancer. You have free sex, you want to live in a society of free sex, fine, go ahead and get hit by AIDS. You want to take a lot of vodka, take vodka and then get disease. Plus for all these things you need Manoga Dengitosa. It's not free. Plus it's not that the suffering ends with your getting diseased. Because of all the sinful activities you perform, then in the next birth take birth in the lower forms of life. So what's the value of the so-called material pleasure? Now, as opposed to material pleasure, there is the opportunity in the human form of life to experience spiritual pleasure. Caitanya Mahāprabhu in a Sikṣāstraka verse has told us the nature of spiritual pleasure. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ananda-bhūdi-vardhanam pratīpadaṁ pūm-nām rataḥ svādhanaṁ sarvataḥ sarvaḥ sarvasnapampanam vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṁ-kīrtanam. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that the nature of spiritual pleasure is, it is always increasing. In the material world, we all have experience of oceans, isn't it? And when you go and stand on the side of the ocean, you can see the waves of the ocean. But you can see the waves of the ocean, even when they get high, there's a limit to the height of the waves. Because if there was no limit to the height of the waves of the ocean, all the earth would be covered by water and we would all be drowned. So there's a limit to the height of the waves of the material ocean. But spiritual ocean, there is no limit. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu says it is always increasing, increasing. Bolshoi, bolshoi, bolshoi. So the next question is, how do you get this spiritual nectar? Now, how many people in this room want spiritual happiness versus material happiness? Hands up. Everyone. See here. Kṛṣṇa. Really. So for this spiritual happiness you have to pay a price. We are also capitalist. Now in your country everyone is a capitalist, isn't it? Therefore all the streets have become bazaars now. Especially when you go to Leningrad, you really see the bazaars in action. So we also give nothing free. Now should we charge you in currency or rubles? Okay, we won't charge you either in currency or in rubles, but you have to give something else. And what is that something? It's those knives. Your time. You have to use your time to understand this philosophy and to practice the instructions of the Lord. So if you want to have spiritual happiness, you have to pay the price. You can't say, oh, I want spiritual happiness, I want love of God, I want Krishna, but I I don't want to pay the price. You see this in India all the time. They all want love of God. But when you ask them, are you ready to pay the price? Then they just smile. So you have to pay the price. Krishna says in the 18th chapter, sarva-dharmaam paritajyam aamekam shanam rajaam tu aam sarva-papebhyam mokshyami ma asuchaha. Krishna says, I will protect you from all sinful reaction. But I will only protect you if you surrender to me. So we have to surrender to Krishna. Since times immemorial, we have been surrendered to our mind and senses, and therefore we only want to do what the mind says. But next minute, Gourm says it is bad, plokha, you reject him.

So we have to recognize that the mind and the senses are not our friends, they are our enemies. The uncontrolled mind, the contaminated mind, the polluted mind is your enemy, but the purified mind is your friend. And the purified mind was reflected by Vyāsadeva.

So Vyāsadeva compiled the Vās Vedic literature, and the spiritual master acting as the representative of Vyāsadeva is reminding us about Vyāsadeva's teachings.

So just like a diseased man becomes healthy by taking medicine, we can become healthy, free from our diseased condition, by taking spiritual medicine. Spiritual medicine is very tasty. But even though it's tasty, in the beginning you may not experience the taste. Rupa Goswami, a great devotee of the Lord, gives an example. He gives the example of a jointless patient. He says that if when you're suffering from jointless, then even when you taste sugar, you can't taste the sweetness of sugar. You have jointless disease in your country? Okay. So those of you who have had jointless may remember that when you were sick with jointless, you could not even appreciate the sweetness of sugar. But as you recover from the disease, the tastiness of sugar begins to be appreciated. And when you become healthy, you can appreciate it fully. So similarly, in the very beginning, you can't appreciate the, the transcendental sweetness of the Holy Name. But as you go on chanting, you will go on getting purified, and the dirt from the heart will begin to melt. And gradually you'll appreciate the sweetness of sugar more, more, more.

So the holy name is sweet.

The message of the Lord is sweet. The philosophy you hear is sweet. The deities you see on the altar are beautiful. But unfortunately, we cannot appreciate the beauty or the sweetness. So that is why we take to the process of devotional service, which is a means to purify our mind and senses. So by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, reading the Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, associating with devotees, we have the opportunity to cleanse the heart and to become spiritually happy. So this is the true path of happiness, the path of Krishna consciousness. So if many of you are taking to this process in your country and around the world, it is because you, all of you, are the most intelligent people in society. The most intelligent individual in society is one who accepts teachings of the Lord to be the absolute truth and the means to happiness. Those who have PhD degrees or who have a nice car, a nice house, drive a Mercedes car, they're not necessarily the most intelligent people of society. You all are the most intelligent and the most fortunate. You may say, that's what you say, Swamiji, but in society they don't think we are intelligent. How can you expect a blind man to identify the different colors? So those who are blind. How can they tell you, whoa, who is really intelligent? We have to examine things through the eyes of the scriptures. This is known as shastra chakshush. So our request to all of you have assembled here is to please take to this Krishna conscious process very seriously. This is a genuine process, it's a genuine product. We are not selling you some concocted product. Krishna is real, the Vedic philosophy is real, the Hare Krishna mantra is real. And it is only because you're experiencing the satisfaction are you still continuing with the process. And the prasad you had was also real, isn't it? So everything is real. So those who have come here for the first time or the second time, our request is please start coming here regularly. This philosophy is for entire humanity. This philosophy is eternal, and this philosophy will give you real happiness. Prabhupada said Krishna is all attractive. So we are all looking for something to focus on. So focus on Krishna's teachings. And those of you who are regular visitors to the temple, our request is please practice Krishna consciousness as seriously as you can. There is always room for improvement, so try hard to perfect your Krishna consciousness. And regular association with devotees is also very necessary because spiritual association reminds you of what the goal of life should be. So these Krishna conscious temples which Prabhupada has opened all over the world, these are spiritual balityas. So come here and become spiritually happy. So we want to request all of you to chant the Hare Krishna mantra every day without fail. Read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Associate with devotees as much as you can. And come and have darshan of the Deities. And by this simple process, make your life happy. And you don't have to pay dengue or currency—tolka wasa re money—only your time! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Kṛṣṇa-kṛṣṇa!

Hare Hare! Hare Rāma! Hare Rāma! Rāma-rāma!

Hare Hare! O vasiyasva prasadaḥ. Yes.

Can you please tell us, uh, can we just skip the other modes of material nature, just, you know, to go directly from ignorance to pure goodness, or is it a gradual process?

No, you can go directly from ignorance to pure goodness. If you can touch your nose directly, why should you place your hand behind your head to touch your nose? So this Krishna, if there's a tall building and you have the lift available Why should it take the staircase?

Can you please explain to us the mechanism by which these three modes of nature force the spirit soul to act in some other way? Huh? Can you please explain to us the mechanism, the process by which these three modes of material nature force the spirit soul to act in one or other way?

Just like the rainwater, when it falls on the ground, it gets contaminated. The living entity, when he comes in contact with the material world, he comes in contact with the three modes.

How can you understand this, uh, these gates, these nine gates are made by knowledge? What does it mean?

When you don't misuse these gates, these nine gates are the medium through which we engage in sinful activities. So when you refuse to use these gates for sinful activities because he has spiritual knowledge, then one is acting correctly.

If the person realized Paramātmā inside himself, does it mean that he transcended three modes of material nature?

If he is realized Paramātmā? Yeah. Inside? Yes.

Does it mean that he is above the three modes of nature?

Yes, but you cannot determine on your own whether you are Paramātmā realized. You need a doctor to tell you that. Because everybody in Kali Yuga thinks he is self-realized.

He's asking, but he is, you know, engaged in devotional service. Krishna gives him blessings and he can realize Paramātmā inside himself. Does it mean that he is above this mode in this case?

Well, you should be on the path of Bhagavan realization. Is that just the first step? Well, it's, it's a long discussion. I can't give a one-second answer. So I should let you all go. Are all of you—

how many people in this audience chant the Hare Krishna mantra every day at home?

Okay, I want to ask the question a different way. How many people in this audience don't chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra every day? Niyatmanoga. So those who don't chant, our request is you please start chanting. Those who do chant, our request is you can always chant more. And those who are chanting, those who are chanting 16 rounds at least every day, our request is purify your chanting. There's always room for improvement. So keep improving, and the more you surrender to Krishna, the greater will be the degree of spiritual happiness you encounter. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I'll see you all tomorrow. Give a lecture tomorrow evening.