ŚB 2.2.5 Simple Living & High Thinking Part-2 | Rus-Split | 18.6.92 | Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja

Srimad Bhāgavatam, Canto 2, Chapter 2, Text 5. Ceraṇikim pati na śanti du śanti bhikṣāṁ. Ceraṇikim pati na śanti du śanti bhikṣāṁ. Nāivam grihpaḥ para-bṛtasya rītopīya-suśyaṁ. Nāivam grihpaḥ para-bṛtasya rītopīya-suśyaṇaṁ. Rudhāgvaḥ keṇmadhita-vāti no paśānanam. Rudhāgvaḥ keṇmadhita-vāti no paśānanam. Kasmat bhajanti kawayodhana dharmadandhan. Chiraniken patinasanti dushanti bhiksham. Naywangipaha parabritasritopiyashushyan. Rudhaghoake majitavati nopasanan. Kṛṣṇaḥ bhajanti kavyadhāna-dharma-dandana. Kṛṣṇaḥ bhajanti kavyadhāna-dharma-dandana. Cīrāṇikim patiṇaśanti deśānti-bekṣaṁ nāivāṅgri-pāha para-bṛhittas rito pīyaśuśyaṁ udhāgu ha kim jīto vṛddho paśānan. Kṛṣṇaḥ bhajanti kavyadhāna-dharma-dandana. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is continuing to emphasize the importance of simple living for a transcendentalist. People are endeavoring very hard to buy clothes. People have to spend so much money to buy food and buy other necessities of life, and they have to endeavor so hard to pay for the extra amenities that they need to maintain a high standard of living. So Śrīkantadeva Gosvāmī is pointing out that by the laws of nature, most needs of mankind can be supplied, and there's no need to artificially endeavor so hard. All we need is being provided by the agency of the Lord. Still, the scientists and the politicians will take, will take credit for providing them. For example, the trees give us all the fruits that we need. The earth gives us all the grains that we need. And the rivers and the oceans give us the water that we need for our survival. And the mountains and the earth also give us all the other minerals, diamond, gold, everything else that we use. Even the oil that you use is provided by the Lord under the— underneath the earth. So everything is being provided by the agency of the Lord. All that the modern-day scientists are doing is manipulating the resources being provided by God. Therefore, in the third, in the third chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, annād bahvanti bhūtani prajnanānā sambhavā. He says that food grains come from rainfall. Rainfall comes by sacrifice. Sacrifice means performing religious duties. Just like in your country presently, there's a big shortage of productivity, and the government is busy inviting consultants from America and other parts of the world to, to get some suggestions how to solve these problems. But the solution is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you perform religious duties, then material nature will cooperate. But if you don't perform, then material nature will go on strike. Mā dakṣinā prakṛtiḥ svīteṣācchirāccharam. This material energy of mine is working under my direction. So prakṛtiḥ is not independent of Kṛṣṇa, but prakṛtiḥ is subordinate to Kṛṣṇa. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we read the stories of King Vena and King Prithu. King Vena was godless, and as a result of his godless tendencies, material nature started withholding the supplies that was needed by his population, and in the end King Vena was cursed to die. When his son King Prithu became the king, the citizens came to the king and said, "King, it is your duty to provide us with the basic necessities of life." You must give us food to eat, place to stay, and clothing to wear. The king said, I am totally incapable of providing anything, but if you glorify the Supreme Lord, then all necessities will be provided. And the citizens glorify the Lord, and all the necessities were provided. So all necessities of life can be provided once we glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So if simple living is our guiding principle then one will always have time to glorify the Supreme Lord. Many times when we are preaching to people, even in countries like India, many people, they say, yes, yes, yes, what you're saying, Swamiji, is true, but we are so busy that there's no time for chanting or doing any religious duties. So, um, a simple living leaves one with enough time to concentrate on spiritual activities. Now, the two other important points that Śukadeva Gosvāmī is making in this verse. One is that the Lord always protects His surrendered souls. And the second point which Śukadeva Gosvāmī makes, that it is not the business of the spiritualist to flatter the materialist. Unfortunately, we see that even the so-called spiritualists, when they are in front of the gross materialist, they flatter them. Why? So that they can get some money out of them. Even in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we read that Śukracārya's sons were the teachers of Prahlāda Mahārāja. And Hiranyakāśipū was telling Prahlāda's teachers, "Make sure my son doesn't remember Kṛṣṇa." And they said, "No problem, we'll try our best." Because Śukracārya was just interested in money, in his comfortable living. So therefore, When he was given the assignment of brainwashing Prahlad to forget God, he gladly agreed. The word shukra means semen. So basically there are two classes or two categories of spiritual masters. One is by birth, the other is by qualification. So we in the Krishna Consciousness movement, in the Vaishnava sampradaya, reject bhikkha spiritual authority just on the basis of birth. Qualification has to be there. Just like in the material situation, just because the father is a doctor does not mean that the son will automatically become a doctor. So the business of the spiritualist is to always speak the truth but in a palatable manner. Just like the Bhagavad Gita says, the materialists are like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses. So that is, uh, And the Bhagavad-gītā says those who are like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses, they're busy glorifying others who are also like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses. So obviously when you go to preach, you don't tell the audience, dear Mr. Dog and Hogs, please listen to my message. You can tell them in a nice way that the activities are similar to the animals. So the point is that this, the genuine spiritualist presents the truth but in a palatable manner. And just for the sake of money, one doesn't go to a so-called rich man and flatter him to make him feel that what he's doing is right. You devotees may not have exposure to this, and you may be wondering why should the Bhagavatam mention things like a saintly person flattering a rich man. The Bhagavatam is mentioning this point because there are many so-called saintly people who are doing it. Like in India, it's not uncommon to see even prominent so-called big, big leaders of big, big so-called movements When they go to rich people, they just bless them and say, okay, everything you're doing is okay, just give me some, uh, pocket money. Um, so, and similarly, we also know when Prabhupada first went to America, at the time Prabhupada went to America, there was a boom in so-called swamis from India going over there and preaching some type of yoga. Those were the days when America was heavily involved in the Vietnam War, and there were many people protesting against the war and so on. So when Prabhupada arrived over there, the so-called bogus swamis approached him and said, Swamiji, don't tell these Americans to follow these principles and serve Vedic dhoti because no one's going to accept it. Instead, they were advising Prabhupada that even he should start wearing coat and suits and start eating with fork and knife rather than maintain his traditional Vedic dress. So we never deviate from the truth as it comes down in the parampara. Therefore Prabhupada called the Bhagavad-gītā that he translated as it is. So another thing, point that we touched upon earlier, which Śukadeva Gosvāmī is emphasizing, is that the Lord protects His surrendered devotees. So all those who are hoping to succeed on the spiritual path must be convinced about this, at this point, that if you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa is going to protect you. Just like you have the confidence that if you have a 100 ruble note and you go to a shop, then from that shop you can buy a commodity in exchange for that 100 ruble note. Similarly, you have the confidence that if you have an airline ticket and the appropriate visas, then you can get on the plane and reach your destination. So you must have confidence that if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is going to protect you. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, sarva-dharma-paritaja mām ekaṁ caṇnam rājā, aṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpi-bhayaḥ mokṣaṁ iṣmaṣu caḥ. The word maṣu caḥ in this verse is very important. Maṣu caḥ means do not worry. So Krishna is explaining in this important verse that summarizes the entire Bhagavad Gita is, give up all varieties of religiousness and just surrender unto me. And in return for your surrendering unto me, I will protect you. Please do not worry. In the material world, we have experienced politicians, dictators, and other leaders telling us, you just give us the vote and we will take care of you. But do they take care of us? They don't. They can't even take care of themselves. How are they going to take care of us? But when Krishna says surrender to me, he really means it. So what does surrender to Krishna mean? Different people have different understanding of what it means surrendering to God. Some people think just take the name of Jesus Christ, don't eat meat on Fridays, and you may go to the church for 5 minutes on Sunday, and that constitutes surrender to God. Some other people may think, uh, you can do all the nonsense you want, just don't eat meat on few days a week and just go to the temple sometime once a week, and that constitutes surrender. Surrender to Kṛṣṇa means that you accept in totality Kṛṣṇa's instructions. It will be your thought, word, action execute Kṛṣṇa's instructions as they're coming down to the parampara. You have to surrender to somebody. Either you surrender to Kṛṣṇa or you surrender to your contaminated mind. In the absence of spiritual knowledge, in the absence of spiritual guidance, one remains totally surrendered to one's polluted intelligence, polluted mind, and polluted senses. So spiritual knowledge wakes one up to the reality. Just like in the night, you may dream so many things, but in the morning when you get up, you understand, oh, that was such an illusion, and you reckon with reality. In the night, you can't see things clearly, but when the sun rises in the morning, everything becomes visible again. Surrender. So in the association of saintly personalities, one begins to understand what the meaning of surrender is, and one begins to recognize the foolishness of just following blindly the dictates of one's mind and senses. So spiritual knowledge is essential for helping us understand what is surrender. Two important elements in the principle of surrender are Ārya, jnāna, and vairāgya. Because surrender means, surrender has to be based on jnāna, knowledge. Therefore in the Bhāgavatam it is said, vāsadeva bhāgavati bhaktiyoga prayojitāḥ jñāñyate āśivairāgyam jñānam ca yad-ahītu-kam. That by rendering devotional service one develops causeless knowledge and detachment. So knowledge, knowledge that you receive from the spiritual master, knowledge that you receive from the sādhus, Knowledge that you receive from the scriptures helps us to understand what is one's constitutional duty. And then as you execute devotional service, there is a development of vairagya. Vairagya means renunciation. Renunciation from that which is unnecessary, not renunciation from those activities which are necessary. So as one proceeds, progresses on the path of devotional service, there must be the development of attachment to Kṛṣṇa and detachment from māyā. Prabhupāda gives the example: Just like a hungry man, as he puts the morsel of food in his stomach, he feels satisfaction. So similarly, as we execute devotional service, there must be the realization, the development of detachment from sex life and other activities of sense enjoyment. One must realize that Kṛṣṇa is the maintainer and the protector and the supreme enjoyer. Eka la Īśvara-kṛṣṇa-ārṣa-bhātaya. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states that Kṛṣṇa is the only master and we are all His servants. So we must recognize that Kṛṣṇa is the only master and our duty is to serve that supreme master. Thakura Bhakti Vinod in a very nice prayer has given us what surrender really means. Thakura Bhakti Vinod says, mana sa deha gea yo kichor mora, arplam tuya pade nanda kishora. My dear Lord, I place everything at the lotus feet— my mind, my body, my senses, my wife, my children, my house, my property. A devotee who acts with this mentality With every step, every breath is for the glorification of Krishna. He's a fully surrendered devotee, and Krishna fully protects such a devotee. In the purport, Prabhupada gives the example of Thakura Haridas, who was living in a cave. In the cave where Haridas Thakura was living, there was a snake, and Haridas Thakura, of course, was so absorbed in the holy name that he did not even notice the presence of the snake, nor did he have any fear of the snake. But many people would come to visit Haridas, and they were concerned about the snake getting out of hand. So they used to tell Haridas, "Please leave the cave and go away. Go to another cave. The snake may bite you at any time." But Haridas had no desire to move. But then when he saw that the visitors were constantly insisting, He agreed to move, but before he could move, the snake itself walked out of the cave and prevented Haridas from going through the trouble of relocating to another location. As Prabhupada explains, the Lord is in the heart of the snake also. So there's so many other examples to show how the Lord protects His devotee even at the cost of breaking His own promises. Just like before the commencement of the Battle of Kurukshetra, Kṛṣṇa had promised the two sides, especially the Kauravas, that He would not participate in the war. So the war had gone on for so many days and the Pāṇḍavas were all still alive. So Duryodhana was getting very worried because he knew that unless the Pāṇḍavas were killed, he would not be able to absorb their kingdom. So Duryodhana went to Bhishma Deva and said, "I know that you are being soft on Arjuna and the Pāṇḍavas because you have special weakness for them." Now Bhishma Dev was a Kshatriya, and you are Kshatriya, these type of insulting words are very, very serious. So Bhishma Dev decided that he will have to do something to show that he was not being sentimentally soft on the Pandavas. So he made 5 sharp arrows that he was going to use against the Pandavas. As I've said before, the Battle of Kurukshetra was fought on very gentlemanly terms. Was a gentleman's war, not like the present-day wars where they bomb in the night and warm, kill everyone, old people, women, children, without discrimination. They would only fight in the day, and in the evening they would eat and not attack each other. So Bhishma Dev had hidden these arrows, but Krishna had informed Arjuna where these arrows were hidden. Arjuna quietly stole the arrows in the night. So when Bhishma Dev saw the next morning that these arrows that he was going to use against the Pandavas were stolen. He could understand that no one except Arjuna could have discovered where these were hidden. And he could also understand that Arjuna could not have discovered it on his own, but his friend Krishna must have told him where these arrows are hidden. So Bheesmadev decided that he was going to fight next day very, very valiantly.. And he would fight in such a way that either Arjuna would die or Kṛṣṇa would have to break his promise. Actually, from the core of his heart, Bīṣma Deva was always a devotee of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, when he was leaving his body, Kṛṣṇa personally came there along with the Pāṇḍavas, the demigods, the great sages, etc. So next day, Bīṣma Deva was fighting so strongly that Kṛṣṇa, who was on the chariot, could see that Arjuna's life was in danger. So Kṛṣṇa ran from His chariot. And while Kṛṣṇa was running to rescue Arjuna's life, even His, the cloth fell down from His body. He was in so much anxiety. The Lord ran to save Arjuna. And when Bheesmadeva saw the Lord there to protect Arjuna, the battle for the day ended. And he said, "Oh, my heart's desire has been fulfilled now." Because Bhāsmādev, as a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, wanted to prove to the world that if you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord will protect you just like He protected Arjuna. Just like we see in the Bhāgavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa doesn't directly tell, but He tells Arjuna to declare to the world, "What? Kaunteya arjapratijānahi nama bhakta-pranarśati." That, "My devotee will never perish." He says, "Arjuna!" You declare to the world. He doesn't declare directly. He says, you declare to the world, you my devotee, that my devotee will never perish. So one important point to understand on this is that when Kṛṣṇa says that my devotee will not perish, does not mean that the devotee will never have to face difficulties. Sometimes people have the concept that if they surrender to God or if they adopt the process of devotional service, then everything they turn will touch into gold and there'll be no calamity, no distress. No, no bad news ever. But that is an incorrect understanding of surrender to God. Even if a devotee has to experience difficulty, the devotee enthusiastically accepts the difficulty, thinking that if it is a desire of the Lord that I have to go through this trouble, I'll go through it very enthusiastically, laughingly. And, uh, just like, uh, Parikṣit Mahājāna was cursed to die by the Brahmin boy But Parikṣit Mahārāja did not get discouraged at all. He just accepted it as an opportunity to free himself from the entanglement of material life. And how did Kṛṣṇa save the dying Parikṣit Mahārāja? He sent him Śukadeva Gosvāmī so Śukadeva Gosvāmī can enlighten him with the transcendental knowledge. And hence Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Parikṣit Mahārāja was liberated. So we have to surrender with full faith that Kṛṣṇa will protect us. And in the purport, Prabhupada also makes the point how a devotee of the Lord lives very simply. Gives the example of the Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, how they renounced everything for glorification of the Lord. So our philosophy is for the Lord we want all opulence, but for ourselves we want simple living. And if that is the principle, then we'll succeed on the spiritual path. We see the very wonderful story in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that when Sanatana Gosvāmī was running from the prison On the way he met his brother-in-law Srikanth who gave him a very expensive blanket. When Sanātan Gosvāmī met Chaitanya Mahāprabhu in Banaras, he could detect that Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is unhappy seeing that opulent blanket on his body. So Sanātan Gosvāmī went to the beach. He saw an old man with a torn blanket. He said, "You please take my new quilt and give me this old blanket in exchange." The old man said, "You must be joking." But Śrī Nārādhana Mahāprabhu insisted, and he changed his new quilt for an old blanket, new blanket for an old blanket. So when Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw this, he was very pleased. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu then said a verse which is very important for all Vaiṣṇavas and in line with the theme of the verses that we are studying. He said, a good physician, after curing a disease, does not let the symptoms of the disease remain so that the disease may reappear. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was saying that once you're coming on the spiritual path, you're renouncing everything. Why do you want to keep little attachment so that your spiritual progress will be retarded? So we're all coming to Krishna consciousness. So when you come to Krishna consciousness, you should gradually give up all your so-called desires of sense enjoyment. The faster you give it up, the better it is. Therefore, Rūpa Gosvāmī has said Whatever price, my dear friend, you have to pay for becoming Krishna conscious, please pay that price. Don't bargain. Krishna bhakti rasa bhāvita māti-kriyete mādhī-kutopi-lāvade. So we should not bargain with the price. Pay the price and surrender to Krishna. And surrendering to Krishna is beautiful. It gives one real pleasure. And always remember, if you don't surrender to Krishna, you'll have to surrender to Maya. And surrendering to Maya is very painful and bitter. So surrender to Kṛṣṇa and experience spiritual happiness. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.