How to Overcome the Enemies of Spiritual Life? SB 2.5.18 | Rus-Split | 22.9.92 | Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī

Srimad Bhāgavatam, Canto 2, Chapter 5, Text 18. Sākṣma-dvajastamā iti nirguṇasya gunāstrayaḥ sthiti-sārgāṇerābheṣu grahita-māyām eboḥ. Tvatam rajas tamasi tamah iti nirgunasya gunatra ya siddhi sarga nirodheṣu prihita māyā vibhu. So Lord Brahmā in this verse is describing that the nature of the Supreme Lord's personality is purely transcendental. This chapter is called The Cause of All Causes, and in this chapter Lord Brahmā establishes that Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes. So the Supreme Lord has a form that is purely transcendental, as Brahmaji is describing. That means it is transcendental to material qualities. What are the material qualities? Goodness, passion, and ignorance. So Krishna is completely transcendental to the material modes, and this is confirmed in many places in other, in other parts of our Vedic scriptures. Janma karma cha me devyam Krishna says, my coming and going is both transcendental. Now, even though Krishna is transcendental, Krishna doesn't get affected even when he comes to this material world. No one should think that Krishna gets conditioned when he comes to the material world. He does not get conditioned. And in the purport, Prabhupada gives the example of the cloud., that is created in the sky. The cloud is created by the sun, but this— the cloud which is covering only a part of the sun does not in any way affect the sun. Now, the material modes that we are all accustomed to and that we hear about, read about— goodness, passion, and ignorance— this is a creation of the external energy of the Lord. The Lord has innumerable energies, but the great sages have summarized them into three: antaranga shakti, bahiranga shakti, and titashta shakti. Antaranga means internal, bahiranga means external, titashta means marginal. So broadly speaking, actually it is said, parashakti vivedhya, the energies of the Lord are unlimited, but you can divide them into these three broad headings. The creation of the spiritual world is the result of his internal energy, his internal energy at work. The creation of the material world, which is influenced by the modes, is the result of the external energy of the Lord. And the living entities, they belong to the tisthashta shakti of the Lord, which means the marginal energy of the Lord. It is marginal energy means You can either associate with the superior energy or with the inferior energy. You, you have the freedom to move either towards spiritual life or towards material life. The internal energy of the Lord is also known as the superior energy of the Lord. The external energy of the Lord is also known as the inferior energy of the Lord. So under the influence of the material modes the living entity is under the influence of the inferior energy of the Lord. But the Lord and the genuine devotees of the Lord are canvassing, please elevate yourself from associating with the inferior energy to the superior energy. The Lord is eternal and the living entity is eternal, but still there are differences between the two. One difference is pointed out in the Katha Upanishad as follows: Nityo nityanam chetan chetananam ekobhaunam vidati kaamam. That the Lord is nitya, eternal, and the living entity is nitya, eternal. But the difference is one nitya is maintaining all other nityas, and that is Krishna, the Supreme Nitya, who is maintaining all other nityas, the living entities. One nitya never gets conditioned, never forgets anything. He remains infallible. The other nitya constantly gets conditioned, even forgets what he did few hours ago. In the Bhagavad Gita, we see that Krishna, when he told Arjuna that he imparted this knowledge to the sun god, Vivasvan, Arjuna was totally bewildered. Arjuna said, how can I believe that you imparted this knowledge to the sun god Vivasvan when he is senior to you by birth? To which the Lord replied that many, many times both you and I have appeared, but I can remember all my previous births, but you cannot. So just like rainwater, when it hits the earth, it becomes muddy. The living entity, when he comes in contact with the material world, he gets affected by the material modes. But the Lord does not in any condition get affected by the material modes, even though he's the creator of the modes. The modes— goodness, passion, ignorance— are created by him, but Krishna does not get affected by the modes. Now why is it that when the Vedic scriptures are clearly stating that Krishna does not get affected by the modes, Still, there are so many so-called religious individuals who claim that when Christian descends to the planet, he becomes like one of us. This is due to the presence of what is known as irreligion. In Sanskrit, it is known as chala-dharma. According to the Srimad Bhagavatam, 5 types of irreligion are being practiced in society today. Religion means dharma amtu sakshat bhagavadpanitam. Religion means the words of God. If something is not the words of God, we don't accept it as religion. About this, there is no confusion. Now, even irreligion is— it takes place due to different factors. So there are 5 factors or 5 different types of irreligion. So, um, the 5 types of irreligion are as follows. One is called paradharma. Paradharma means religion that is not introduced by God but introduced by other entities. Both you and I know that very few people really follow the words of God today. There are so many religious organizations on this planet. Even in your country, now that there is freedom of religion, you see so many religious groups operating. But a religious process that is not introduced, that is not based on scriptures, it is paradharma. This is false religion. Then there is vidharma. The vidharma is a religious process that obstructs one, obstructs one from surrendering to Krishna, the Supreme Lord. One doesn't understand the real purpose of the scriptures. The Bhagavad Gita says, phalena parechit, the result, the purpose of religion is to develop love of God. Then there is upadharma. Upadharma means that one becomes very proud and he doesn't really follow the conclusion of the Vedas. He becomes very proud, he doesn't follow the Vedas, And in, in opposition to the Vedas, he starts a new religion. You see many of these so-called organizations in India. That is, you see many people criticize the Vedas, they want to find fault, find the Vedas, and instead they start their own religious groups. Then the fourth category of irreligion is when you interpret the scriptures to suit your own convenience. Why did Prabhupada call the Bhagavad-gītā kakānayas? Because Prabhupada was very disturbed by so many presentations in which the translator had presented his own nonsense viewpoint rather than Krishna's. So when you take the words of God and give your own interpretation rather than presenting it in the spirit of Krishna, then that is called chala dharma. Isn't this what is happening all over the world today? People have taken the Bible and presented their own interpretations, taken the Vedic scriptures and presented their own interpretation. The genuine process of religion has been completely watered watered down. So this is chala dharma. Then another type of irreligion is the fifth type, is abhasa. Abhasa is that in which one neglects the duties of his varna and ashrama. He neglects the duties of his varna and ashrama and just makes a show of being religious, but he's not really following religious process. So in Sanskrit, this is called abhasa. So due to the presence of these five types of irreligion People accuse the supreme position of Krishna, and they undermine Krishna's transcendental position. They will claim that they are incarnations of Krishna, but when they're asked to kindly repeat the activities that Krishna has repeated, then they fail. Now Krishna knew that in future many imposters will appear who will claim to be incarnations of God. Why do you think Krishna showed his universal form to Arjuna? There was no need for Arjuna to be convinced about Krishna's supreme position. Arjuna is a constant companion of the Lord. He knew the transcendental position of Krishna. But Krishna wanted to show the universal form so that in future when imposters appear, their genuineness can be verified. Krishna not only showed the universal form, but right from the beginning of his stay on this planet, he performed superhuman activities. When Krishna was a young boy, He killed so many powerful demons. How he showed the whole universe to his mother in his mouth as a young child. How Krishna lifted the Govardhan Hill. How when Lord Brahma had kidnapped the cowherd boys and the cows, and the how Krishna expanded himself into unlimited cows, calves, and cowherd boys. So Krishna does all this so that in future when these false incarnations appear, their genuineness can be verified. So the devotees, they accept Krishna in his transcendental position. To them, in every situation, Krishna is transcendental. One who is fixed on the spiritual path, one who is fixed in executing devotional service, he is not disturbed by the dualities of material existence. The Bhagavad-gītā gives a nice example. The Bhagavad-gītā says that just like when you're wearing shoes, when you're wearing shoes, you can very easily walk on stones and even raw road. So similarly, just like you can walk with shoes on any type of ground without disturbance, one who's fixed on the spiritual path in serving the Lord, he doesn't get affected by the dualities of material existence. Material world is always full of duality. There's honor, dishonor, loss, gain, victory, defeat, pleasant, unpleasantness. But one who is situated on the spiritual path, he doesn't get affected by the dualities. Therefore Krishna says, mata sparsha te kante ashitoshna sukha dukhada.— that one who is transcendently situated, he becomes a dhīra. Nārada Muni explains in the Bhāgavatam that a sage is happy in just getting enough water to drink, whereas the materialist who is driven by the pa— the tongue and the genitals is never happy. Doesn't matter how much he obtains. Therefore, Nārada Muni has said, a greedy man can never be satisfied. You can satisfy an angry, an angry man. You can satisfy a hungry man. You can satisfy a thirsty man, but it cannot satisfy a greedy man. So Narada Muni gives us some valuable advice how to overcome the, the enemies of spiritual life. Lust, anger, greed, envy, hatred— these are described as the enemies of spiritual life. So these enemies of spiritual life, they can be given up by following these spiritual instructions. Nārada Muni says that with determination one can give up lust. Just like sometimes on a fast day, let's say you're fasting for Janmasmi, you feel like eating, but you control yourself. How do you control yourself? Because you tell yourself, no, no, today is a fast day, I'm not going to eat. Just like it may be in a kārasi and you see some samosas, you feel like eating, but you control yourself, say, no, no, no, today is a kārasi, I'm not going to eat grains. So similarly, now the muni says, just like on a fast day you may feel like eating, but with determination you manage to carry, execute the whole fast. Now the muni says that with determination one can overcome the influence of lust. So Rupa Goswami has therefore said, uttaha nishtaya dhariya tat tat karma pravartanat sangatyage satavrete. Rupa Goswami has given us 6 valuable guidelines how to execute devotional service. And one of those guidelines includes determination. Rupa Gosvāmī has also stated elsewhere, kāmadīnam kathināpaliṭha dhūrṇī deṣa. I've been trying to satisfy my senses since times immemorial, but the senses really are getting no satisfaction at all. So with determination and spiritual knowledge, it is possible to give up lust. Then there is lamentation and illusion. We are lamenting Oh, I had this, now I've lost this. And the illusion identifying with the body. So now the muni says that with spiritual knowledge you can give up illusion and lamentation. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, you hear, you read about many stories. One of them is the story of Chitraketu. Chitraketu was a very powerful king. He had thousands of wives, but he did not have any children. So even though he had all the wealth, everything, he was still always very sad. So one day a great sage passed by his palace and asked him what was the cause of his unhappiness. The king replied, "I don't have a child to succeed me." So the sage blessed him and said, "You'll have a child, but this child will be the cause of your happiness and also the cause of your distress." So Maharaj Chitraketu was so absorbed in the thought of having a child that the thought of any distress coming from the child did not even strike him. So little later, the child was born. And when the child was born, the king was very happy. He gave away so much charity, and he started spending all the time with the child and, and his mother. But he started ignoring his other co-wives. So as a result, the co-wives became envious. And on the first anniversary of the child, one of the co-wives poisoned the child. So when the king realized that the son had died, he became mad. And he started crying and lamenting. This great sage who had blessed him to have a son again appeared on the scene and asked him why was he crying. He said, my son's died. And by his mystic power, the dead child was made alive. So the child said, my dear father, why are you crying for me? One year ago, I did not even know you. You did not even know me. You are eternal, and I'm eternal. So the son gave the father such powerful spiritual instructions that the father realized that his lamentation for a dead child was useless. So Narada Muni is making exactly this point. It's a long story, I have just summarized it. Narada Muni says you can give up lamentation, you can give up illusion only with the power of spiritual knowledge. Because when you have spiritual knowledge, You realize the flickery nature of events that take place in the material world. Now, Nārada Muni tells us how to give up greed. He says you can give up greed when you learn about the disadvantages of accumulating wealth. As you accumulate wealth, you make more and more enemies. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there's a story of a miserly man. He was very miserly. He would not even give one kopek to his wife, children, relatives, friends, anyone. He was very attached to his money. All day he would just count his money. So his family members, they were very frustrated with him. So one day they all made a plan and they stole all his money and kicked him out of the house. So when he initially got kicked out of the house, he was lamenting. Then he met a great sage, and the great sage told him how fortunate he was that he got kicked out of the house. And the great sage told him about the disadvantages of accumulating unlimited wealth. And then the— that devotee very happily executed devotional service. So to give up greed in the absence of spiritual knowledge is impossible, but with the assistance of spiritual knowledge, you can give up greed by understanding the disadvantages of accumulating wealth. Just like one who understands the Krishna conscious philosophy, he's not greedy for his accumulating assets because he realizes that everything belongs to Krishna. Therefore, everything should be used in the service of Krishna. So devotee is not greedy for his own realization, for his own benefit, but for Krishna he can use the whole world. In India there are many Mayavadi sannyasis who don't touch money. They say the world is mithya, false, and everything in the world is false. So they renounce everything. But Prabhupada said this is ridiculous. God is real, so His creation is also real, but it is temporary. So Prabhupada used to say, give me everything, all the wealth, I'll use it for Krishna. Then how do you give up pride? Many times devotees say, almost every day some devotee will ask, how do I develop humility? Prabhupada, bol shaye problem, huh? How to develop humility? Pride is a big— because everyone has pride. Everyone thinks I'm right, I'm right, I know what I'm doing is right, don't tell me anything. So Narada Muni says you give up pride by serving an advanced Vaishnava. When you serve an advanced Vaishnava, your pride gets destroyed, because in the process of service you have to do everything menial also. And by constant association, one is able to give up pride. So these enemies of anger and envy— how do you give up anger and envy? Again, by cultivating spiritual knowledge. In the absence of spiritual knowledge, everyone is envious of everybody else. The human beings are envious even of the animals. Therefore they say animals have no right to live. In the Bhagavatam, it is explained how in the name of religion innocent animals are sacrificed. We were discussing, we presented to you the 5 types of irreligion, and due to the 5 types of irreligion, people are offering animals also in the name of religion. Because chala dharma, interpretation of scriptures, is very common, therefore innocent animals to the envy are being slaughtered. So today we have so many religious traditions in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, in which killing of animals are justified. The Christians regularly sacrifice animals There's a— the Muslims have one festival called Bakra Eid, and on that festival day, it is said the whole town in these Muslim cities is full of blood because so many animals are slaughtered. In America, they have one day in November which is observed as Thanksgiving Day. That's the day that they thank the God for giving all the gifts to the American nation. But you know how they thank God? By killing turkeys. They kill turkeys and say, this is our way of thanking God. So killing of animals, the Bhagavad Gita says is also due to the spirit of envy. It is not that we kill animals only for our taste. The human being thinks, what right do these animals have to live? Like in India, if you tell people to give up meat, they say, oh, if you don't eat the animals, the animals will eat you. There'll be no place left for us to move. So this is due to envy. We are envious of the animal's right to live. We are envious of the child's right to live, so we kill through the medium of abortion. So envy towards other living entities can be destroyed. Nārada Muni says, with the weapon of spiritual knowledge, by developing goodness— Nārada Muni says you can destroy passion and ignorance. As we were discussing, the Lord created the three modes of nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. So passion and ignorance are subordinate to goodness. So by developing the quality of goodness, you can overcome passion and ignorance. But goodness is also not the ultimate destination. The ultimate destination is suda-sattva, or pure goodness. So Narada Muni says, by developing goodness, you can overcome passion and ignorance, and then by developing pure goodness, you can overcome the influence of goodness. Your devotees want to know how to control sleep? No, you don't want to know how to control sleep? Yes, you should know. Sleep means ignorance. So Narada Muni says you can control sleep By regulating your eating habit. If you eat to keep your body and soul together, then your sleep will also be regulated. But if you eat to please your tongue, then you'll eat unlimitedly and get— then get affected by the different sense desires. So lust, anger, greed, envy, hatred— the six enemies of spiritual life have to be overcome. These enemies of spiritual life can be overcome if you follow the advice as given by Narada Muni that we have just explained to all of you. And our misunderstanding the supreme position of Krishna can be corrected if we abolish the— if we stay away from the 5 types of irreligion. Krishna's position as the Supreme Lord is compromised due to the presence of irreligion, and irreligion can be corrected by association with a, with a genuine devotee who can teach you the meaning of real religion. So to summarize the verse that we're discussing today, Lord Brahma is continuing to establish that Krishna is the cause of all causes. Some of you may say, why is it necessary for Lord Brahma to speak through so many verses just to make one point? Because Lord Brahma has actually already made the point in the previous verses that Krishna is the cause of all causes. But through— so repetition is necessary to drive a point home. So Lord Brahma, from different angles, is repeating the point. How Krishna is the supreme cause of all causes. And once again we see Brahmaji establishing that Krishna is the cause of the creation including the material modes. But even though he's the creator of the material modes, he does not get affected by the modes. And there's a nice example given. The example is of the clouds created by the sun. The sun creates the clouds, but the clouds don't have the power to affect the sun. So material modes are created by Krishna, but material modes cannot touch Krishna. Krishna is always transcendental, and as we purify ourselves by the execution of devotional service, we will be able to better understand the transcendental position of Krishna. With contaminated eyes, you can't understand the transcendental position of Krishna. Therefore, the process of devotional service is a means to purify our mind, intelligence, and senses, and as these get purified, you'll be convinced about the supreme position of Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I'll take on questions for a few minutes. You all should ask questions related to the Bhagavatam verse, okay, first. Then you can ask anything. Vaprasad Raaval. Otherwise I'll ask you all questions afterwards. Yes.

In the purport, Srila Prabhupada says that it's Krishna who creates both the material and spiritual world. But we know that Krishna is self-satisfied and was Uh, have ever, ever been such a time, such a point when Krishna was so self-satisfied that he didn't create anything?

The material world is not created for Krishna's enjoyment. Please understand that Krishna is self-satisfied in all situations. The material world is created because we, the conditioned souls, wanted to rebel against God. It is like the child who tells the mother, okay, 'Give me the moon,' and the mother gives a mirror, and the child sees the reflection of the moon on the mirror, and he thinks, 'Now I have the moon in my hand.' So material world is a false— material world is an imitation of the spiritual world, but there's no real happiness in the material world.

He means not only material world, but he is asking about the creation of spiritual world.

The spiritual world is existing always. In today's class, there was a lot of philosophy. I thought you all would ask some questions related to the philosophy that we present.

How important is the mercy of Guru and Vaishnavas in overcoming these 5 enemies of spiritual life? And in what proportion should the endeavors of student and mercy of Guru be correlated?

First you must understand how you realize mercy of Guru. Because many times devotees want to say, what does it mean mercy? How are you going to measure that mercy? Is there like a 1 ounce of medicine that you have to drink or something. So Prabhupada explains in the Bhagavad-gītā that mercy of spiritual master and sadhu means that you get blessed by them. So as a result of that blessing, you develop determination, determination to fight Maya.

Can we defeat Maya by knowledge, by transcendental knowledge, or by realization of this transcendental knowledge?

First you must have knowledge, then you can realize the knowledge. Realization of knowledge means putting the knowledge into practice. Therefore, development of knowledge is the first step. So when you hear the Bhagavad Gita class every day, Bhagavad Gita every day, you get knowledge how to fight Maya. Was this your question? The impersonalists say that matter doesn't exist, and it will only be because of ignorance we accept everywhere there is only spirit, and we see matter instead of spirit. And what is the difference What is the difference between this realization and the realization of an Uttama Adhikari who sees only Krishna everywhere? What is the difference? Say that again. What does the impersonalist say? Impersonalist, they don't— I mean, they say that matter doesn't exist and we see matter only because of our ignorance. The Uttama Adhikari sees the presence of the Lord everywhere. So if he sees anything he sees, how can I use it for Krishna? He doesn't think, "How I can enjoy it?" The impersonalist, he doesn't accept the form of God, nor does he accept the creation of the Lord to be real. To him, everything is false. Yes, then, Mataji?

How can we make sure that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not chala-dharma?

Chala-dharma. By now you should know that this is not chala-dharma. It's the real thing. That is why it satisfies those who take to this path. Aren't you satisfied by practicing Krishna consciousness? Those who are not satisfied are not satisfied not because there's something wrong in the medicine, but because they're not taking the medicine properly. This Krishna consciousness is the real thing.

What's the best way to develop, uh, mercifulness and compassion? I'm sorry, compassion and, uh, submissiveness?

You develop compassion by spiritual association and by having faith in the spiritual instructions. Just like a new bhakta joins the Krishna Consciousness movement, he has very little understanding of the philosophy, but he has faith in what I'm being told is the right thing. So because of that faith, he goes and does book distribution. He doesn't understand from his heart that book distribution is the highest welfare activity, but he just has faith in the instructions. That execution of activity because of faith will give him the intelligence and strength to develop compassion. Okay, I want to take question. Issue one minute.

Yeah, what is the relation between, uh, nama bhāsa and abhāsa-dharma?

Nama bhāsa, that's the offenses to the Holy Name. These two, we are talking about completely separate things. We're not talking about apples. You're talking about apples and oranges. Nama bhāsa is 10 offenses, is offenses on the chanting of the Holy Name. Abhāsa is When you don't execute the duties of the Varnashrama according to scriptures, or when you start up a religion that imitates the real religion. Okay.

How can we know how much we should eat in order to keep life and soul together?

Well, I'll give you the Vedic formula. As much hunger as you have, fill 50% of that hunger with food, 25% with water, and 25% with air. Then you will never go wrong. Then the producti problem in your country will be over. This is a Vedic formula. Anyway, your devotees can eat as much prasad as you want.

Does the technique of compelling take place in Krishna Consciousness, as a Krishna Consciousness process, to compel somebody to eat?

Yes, a certain amount of compelling has to be there. When you are a young child, when he is sick, he doesn't want to eat. Didn't your parents force you to eat when you were young and you didn't want to eat? Young child doesn't want to take medicine, parents force the child to take medicine. So this is bogus philosophy. Don't compel me to do anything, I'll do what I want. There's no need to compel if you voluntarily understand I need direction. Compelling is only there when we don't voluntarily understand that we need direction. Krishna consciousness is not hippie life. Hippies believe in philosophy, do what you want. We don't believe in that. We are in the material world because we never wanted to be told what to do. They opened a new Gurukul yesterday and second café in the city. Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama Hare Ramana Maharshi! Lama lama halle hale!