Spiritual Master
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Srimad Bhagavatam
4
22
57
Austin, TX, USA
6 August 2023
Sankarshan Das: Ecstatic adventure Srimad Bhagavatam. Srimad Bhagavatam 4th Canto, chapter 22, Text 57
Om Namah Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namah Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namah Bhagavate Vasudevaya
SB 4.22.57
durdharṣas tejasevāgnir
mahendra iva durjayaḥ
titikṣayā dharitrīva
dyaur ivābhīṣṭa-do nṛṇām
Synonyms
durdharṣaḥ — unconquerable; tejasā — by prowess; iva — like; agniḥ — fire; mahā-indraḥ — the King of heaven; iva — likened; durjayaḥ — insuperable; titikṣayā — by tolerance; dharitrī — the earth; iva — like; dyauḥ — the heavenly planets; iva — like; abhīṣṭa-daḥ — fulfilling desires; nṛṇām — of human society.
Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
Translation
Mahārāja Pṛthu was so strong and powerful that no one could disobey his orders, any more than one could conquer fire itself. He was so strong that he was compared to Indra, the King of heaven, whose power is insuperable. On the other hand, Mahārāja Pṛthu was also as tolerant as the earth, and in fulfilling various desires of human society, he was like heaven itself.
Purport
It is the duty of a king to give protection to the citizens and to fulfill their desires. At the same time, the citizens must obey the laws of the state. Mahārāja Pṛthu maintained all the standards of good government, and he was so invincible that no one could disobey his orders any more than a person could stop heat and light emanating from a fire. He was so strong and powerful that he was compared to the King of heaven, Indra. In this age modern scientists have been experimenting with nuclear weapons, and in a former age they used to release brahmāstras, but all these brahmāstras and nuclear weapons are insignificant compared to the thunderbolt of the King of heaven. When Indra releases a thunderbolt, even the biggest hills and mountains crack. On the other hand, Mahārāja Pṛthu was as tolerant as the earth itself, and he fulfilled all the desires of his citizens just like torrents of rain from the sky. Without rainfall, it is not possible to fulfill one’s various desires on this planet. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (3.14), parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ: food grains are produced only because rain falls from the sky, and without grains, no one on the earth can be satisfied. Consequently, an unlimited distribution of mercy is compared to the water falling from the clouds. Mahārāja Pṛthu distributed his mercy incessantly, much like rainfall. In other words, Mahārāja Pṛthu was softer than a rose flower and harder than a thunderbolt. In this way he ruled over his kingdom.
vande ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavams ca
sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa jivam
sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam
sri-radha-krishna-padan saha-gana-lalita- sri-visakhanvitams ca
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
This is a very nice example we heard previously, softer than a rose and harder than a thunderbolt. These are the qualities of Maharaja Prithu.
So unfortunately nowadays our leaders don't have the power nor do they have the mercy of Maharaja Prithu. Therefore there are so many horrible things going on with the sanctions of the government, abortions, cow slaughter, all these things are going on with the government sanctions. So it is a very pitiful situation. The real solution I described in thought for the day to day is we have to educate the people in general in the values of Krishna consciousness. So this is the day of democracy. People go to vote for who they want. You get your choice. You choose who you want to vote for. So unless the people are enshrined to be Krishna conscious, we are going to get rascals to vote, and they are going to vote for rascals, big rascals. So if we want to actually have good government we have to make the people Krishna conscious. It is a very simple thing. We have to make the general population Krishna conscious, otherwise we are not going to have good leaders. So how do we make them Krishna conscious? We have to be ourselves Krishna conscious. Like Rupa Goswami said,
vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ
sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
One who can conquer mind, words, anger, tongue, bely and genitals can make the whole world Krishna conscious. So that is what we have to do, my dear devotees. We have to control the beginning of our mind, the sixth sense. Robert was asking me how is the mind a sense? You don't perceive directly with your mind, you can see with your eyes, you can hear with your ears. How does the mind perceive? Well the mind can manufacture its own thoughts and remember previous experiences that you had, that you sensed with your senses. And keep those images in the mind. You can even invent new things, new fantasies. So the mind can also experience these things. It's like your senses can experience, the mind can also experience. So the first pushing or vegam, given by the Rupa Goswami, is the mind. We have a tendency to have our mind wander in the realm of sense enjoyment, contemplating sense enjoyment in various ways, remembering sense enjoyment, inventing sense enjoyment, contemplating sense enjoyment. So we have to realize that actually better than sense enjoyment is Krishna consciousness. Just think about it, consider it philosophically. What are those senses and what are you? We said many times you are seeing through your eyes, or are your eyes seeing. Are you hearing through your ears or are your ears hearing? We can study by simple psychological analysis, we can understand the self and the senses, 2 different things. So satisfying the senses is not actually satisfying you. It's like the example GuruMataji gave last night in the home program on Hutto you can polish the cage, if you don't feed the bird within you will die. So material sense gratification is simply polishing the cage. That's all it's doing, polish the cage very nicely. Give the cage all nice facilities, look very beautiful, be very nicely decorated, nice hanging nicely, well cleaned, no tarnish, kindly, very nicely polished cage. Oh, I forgot to feed that poor bird, you see he's dead in the bottom of the cage. So the most important thing is you feed the bird nicely. The second thing is you keep the cage looking nice. So this we have to understand, this we have to understand, we have to prioritize. My Krishna consciousness goes first. That's not a vacation in there, you have to keep the body fit for serving the Lord, but that's always secondary. The primary thing is to bring your mind back to Krishna.
yato yato niścalati
manaś cañcalam asthiram
tatas tato niyamyaitad
ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet
Wherever the mind wanders, it is flickering, unsteady in nature, one must only withdraw it and bring it back under control of the self. When you find your mind running off into sense gratification, say, OK, mind, now come back. You have to understand, my dear mind, your first business is to be absorbed in Krishna consciousness.
bhajahu re mana sri-nanda-nandana
abhaya-caranaravinda re
My dear mind, please now engage yourself in the devotional service of the divine Son of Nanda Maharaj. Our mind must think, well, devotional service later on, now let me enjoy thinking about this, thinking about that, let me enjoy a little bit, and then later on we'll think about devotional service. But I can guarantee you if you pamper your mind in that way, letting it have some sense enjoyment, it's going to keep you entangled more and more and more in the cycle of birth and death. You have to say, oh, my mind, this gets serious now. My dear mind, your only business now is to be absorbed in Krishna consciousness. You may have a desire to think about this type of sense gratification or that type of sense gratification. You may have the desire, but let me educate you, my dear mind, that those sort of contemplations will cause you to suffer perpetually in the cycle of birth and death. So my dear mind, kindly understand you now to bring your mind back to devotional service, back to Krishna. And then you can actually become liberated from all anxiety. Our anxieties are due to misidentification with this body. This body goes through birth, death, old age and disease. So any way that you misidentify or think yourself to be this material body, that is your cause of misery. So don't think that by gratifying the senses of your body you can become happy. You are not the body. Again, as follows the indication, not feeding the bird. You may give yourself very nice sense enjoyment, nice food, nice sleeping, nice sex life. You may give yourself so much facility for sense enjoyment, but you haven't taken care of the soul within, the bird within is dying because you haven't fed the bird. So our first business is Krishna consciousness. Then we can have some sense of gratification. We have to keep the body fit. We have to eat proper food, take proper rest. You can even have some children. You use sex in service of Krishna, having some children. But the primary thing is to be fixed in Krishna consciousness. I must remember my one truly own business is always remembering Krishna and never forgetting him. Krishna's Smaranam is my duty at every minute. I must remember Krishna. If I'm forgetting him, I have to notice, I have to be analytical, I have to analyze myself. This thought I'm having right now is it good for Krishna consciousness, or its bad for my Krishna consciousness? We have to always be introspective, analyzing our mental patterns. Is this thought in my mind good for my Krishna consciousness? If it is, keep going my dear mind, you are in good shape, you are on the right track. But if you are thinking about something that is detrimental for your Krishna consciousness, you have to say, okay mind, stop it right now, bring yourself back, bring yourself back, bring yourself back. Don't go wandering off. It's like that Bivalamangala Thakur. Previously before he became a great saint, he was a Brahmin, an aristocratic Brahmin, but he had a very attractive and prostitute girlfriend. Any girlfriend is illicit, they are all called prostitutes, whether professional prostitutes or just some loose girl, they are called prostitutes in Vedic culture. So he was very attached to having sex with this loose girl named Chintamani. So he was very attached to having sexual enjoyment with Chintamani. And one night it was raining like anything. And so he went to the river separating, it was very high, so he grabbed on to, I forget what he grabbed on to to get across the river, some kind of a disgusting thing or dangerous thing. He grabbed onto that to get across the river. Then he got to her house. There was a wall around the house and the gate was locked. She couldn't hear him knocking on the gate because the rain and thunder was so loud. So then he decided to crawl over the wall and grab it. He thought it was a vine, but it was a snake. He grabbed a hold of a snake and he got over the wall. Finally he got to his Chintamani. So now I can have sex enjoyement with Chintamani, ah, finally. She was a very Krishna conscious girl actually, even though she was engaged in these loose activities. She was very Krishna conscious. She said, "Oh my dear Bilvamangala, you are so much attached to having sex enjoyment with this body of mine. Why if you only had such attachment for Krishna, your life would be successful." So he realized, yes, she's right. I've been running after having sex enjoyment with this girl, but actually, if I just had that much attachment for Krishna as I do for sex enjoyment, that would be the perfection of my life. He said, "Yes, yes, I will go to Vrindavan, I will become renunciate of Vrindavan." So he was on his way to Vrindavan, but from his previous bad habit, you know, of looking after women, when can I, oh there is a beautiful woman, can I have sex with her, and I enjoy this woman, bad habit you see? He had that habit, he trained himself for so long to be a lusting man, lusting after women, seeing how he could enjoy their bodies. So, there was some very chaste woman actually. She was walking down the road. She was very beautiful, very, very beautiful woman. So, he followed her. His lust overcame his intelligence. His decision to go to Vrindavan, he renounced it. His lust overcame his intelligence and he followed this woman, being lusty. Oh, beautiful woman. Let me follow her home and see if I can enjoy her there. Then he got home. The husband was there. He saw this little rich Brahmin and he said, "Well, how can I serve this great Brahmin in person? And Bilvamangla said, "Well, can I have sex with your wife?" He was a little surprised, but he said, "Let me satisfy his desire. Yes, you can have sex with my wife." So he went to the bedroom, the wife was there, unwilling to have sex with him, and he was totally all excited.
And then he realized, Oh my God, what have I done? What have I done? I was on my way to Vrindavan and I renounced everything. He said, "Mataji, Mataji, can you please give me your hairpin?" And she said, "You want to have my hairpin?" He said, "Yes." He took the hairpin and poked out his eyes. Boom, boom, boom. He blinded himself. He said, never again I will be carried away by lust for a woman. Somehow with his blindness he made it to Vrindavan and he got there and he was so absorbed in Krishna consciousness that Krishna had personally come to him actually. He became a great, great devotee. So we have to learn this example of Bilvamangla Thakur. Even if we are carried away by lusty desires, we have to learn that if I just had that much attachment for Krishna, than for the sense enjoyment. Here I am so mad at the sense enjoyment. If I just had that intensity of desire for Krishna consciousness, how successful would I be? So we have to take that tendency for sense enjoyment, that desire, I must gratify my senses. As Prabhupada explains in the Krishna book, 'lust means a desire for sense enjoyment and love also means sense enjoyment, but not for my senses, but for the senses of Krishna.' So there is nothing wrong with sense enjoyment if you think, how can I get enjoyment for Krishna's senses? Instead of trying to enjoy my senses, how can I get enjoyment for Krishna's senses? So the whole Bhagavad Gita is there to explain that, how do you give enjoyment to the senses of Krishna.
patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
'If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit of water, I will accept it.'
So we like to eat, we need eating, it's enjoyable, no doubt it gratifies our senses. But we have to do it in such a way that it gratifies the senses of Krishna. So we offer our food first to the Lord and let Him enjoy and then if He leaves us some remnants, He is kind enough to leave us some remnants that He is eating and He always does, He is very kind. Because if He takes it all away that is a special mercy also. He puts it on the plate and it is all gone. Krishna, that is a very special blessing. I have never seen that happen in my life, but that would be a very special blessing. If Krishna ate it all, there was nothing left. So Krishna is very kind. He takes it, He eats it, He puts it back on the plate. He leaves it there so we can actually get His mercy, His remnant. So in this way we have to train ourselves how to always satisfy Krishna. This is the great quality of Prithu Maharaj. He had so much power, just imagine. So We want to be powerful persons, don't we? But if we engage in sense enjoyment, we lose our power. The more we engage in sense enjoyment of our own senses, the more we lose our power, our potency. It gradually just goes away. But if you engage in serving the satisfying the senses of Krishna, just like Prithu Maharaj, you become so powerful. What does it say? Says he was compared to Indra, the king of heaven. He was so strong. So we gain strength, we gain power, and also we become very tolerant, very saintly. A tolerant person can accept all offenses against himself. He doesn't think he is going to be attacked. Or you are more offensive than me, I will be more offensive than you. No. He can tolerate all offenses. He takes offense as a great blessing actually. To remind me of my position. I am lower than the straw in the street. So in this way one becomes very very tolerant. Of course if one offends a devotee, if one offends another devotee, the devotee is not tolerant. How dare you offend a Vaishnavi, he becomes very angry. You offend the Holy Name, you offend the devotee, the devotional service, the devotee is very very angry. That is proper utilization of anger. You have come to, you have made an offensive against the Lord's prashadam, against the Holy Name, against the devotional service, so one becomes very strong angered, very powerful strong angered, you should chastise such a rascal.
I have been rambling on for a while here, see if anybody has any questions yet. See how many of you are here today? We only have 47 people today. I don't know why. Maybe it is because Gurumataji is not speaking. I don't know. I am not sure. So what can I say?
Bhagavad Gita is there to train us. Actually as I said before, it is a very, very rare thing. Even among those people who come to Krishna consciousness,
manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ
"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth."
So that perfection means to come to the level of 'I am spirit', I have a realization, I am understanding that I am a servant of Krishna, then they have become perfect, almost perfect. They have proper realization of who they are, what their duty is. But yet, it's all bad. We have seen this in ISKCON. So many people have come. I remember I got initiated in Austin, 3 of us got initiated in that ceremony and the other 2 were gone. Somehow I'm holding on by the mercy of Guru, Krishna and Vaishnavas. Somehow I'm holding on by their mercy. The other 2 were completely gone. Within a short time they were finished. Within a year or 2 they were gone. So it's very rare, it's very rare when somebody comes to this movement. It's rare still. I'm going to get extinct with this movement through the whole life and become qualified to go back to home, back to Godhead. So my dear devotees who are listening today, now you've come to Krishna consciousness. You've gotten a great opportunity to come to Krishna consciousness. Now understand it's like a razor's edge. Walking in this pathway is a very dangerous thing, a little slip and you can be finished. The razor's edge is a very dangerous thing. You have to be very careful when you are dealing with a razor because you can easily cut yourself and even kill yourself if you cut in the wrong place. So you have to be very, very careful. This pathway is like a razor's edge. You need to be very, very conscious and very careful. You don't become diverted by the material energy, you become offensive towards the Vaishanavas, become lazy in following the regulated principles, these things can kill you.
So we have some questions rolling in now, let's see what we got.
Kirtan devi dasi : Due to past conditioning the mind is impure. I feel weak, is it possible to chant 100% cleanliness if one endeavors with responsibility and control.
Sankarshan Das : Yes, it is certainly possible to become a pure devotee, It is possible, but we have to understand sometimes it's easy, it's easy going, sometimes it becomes very difficult. Sometimes I'm doing very nicely, I'm in alignment, I'm going on my practice very nicely, but sometimes the previous dirt comes up, my previous sinful activities, that dirt comes up, my mind becomes fascinated by my previous sinful activities. So that pollution can come and if one is not careful, those dirts come up from previous sinful activities and when one is not careful, one will go back to those sinful activities. So when these sinful activities come up, remembrance of previous sinful activities come up, one should not be attracted by them, but should cut them off. It's like the Yāmunācārya Ālabandaru Previously there was a king enjoying so much sex pleasure with the palace maidens. The kings would have herons and they could enjoy sex life with the herons freely. So he became a great Vaishnava, a renounced person. Besides the memory of the sex pleasure of those beautiful girls in the palace come up.
yadavadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-pādāravinde
nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt
tadavadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne
bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu-niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca
He said " When I am engaged in the transcendental loving service of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, sometimes these memories come up, my lips curl with distaste and I spit at the thought." Some of these previous contaminations and these thoughts and previous sinful activities come up again to bewilder us and attract us. We have to throw them out. You are not welcome in my heart, get out of here. You are not welcome, get out of here you rascal thought. So in this way we are very determined like a little sparrow determined to drive the ocean even though it seems impossible sometimes we have so much dirt, so many sense gratification desires swimming around our hearts like an ocean of them. We are determined now I am going to get rid of this dirt, I am going to get them out of my heart, I am going to become a pure devotee, I am going to go through all of them, I am I must become the pure devotee, I've taken a vow to follow these principles, I must follow them even if my mind is attracted to break them, I must follow these principles, I must follow these principles, I'm determined, determined, determined, and keep pushing, pushing, pushing. Every time the mind goes away, bring it back, bring it back, bring it back. If we have that determination we can become a pure devotee. Absolutely, 100% pure devotee. We have to be determined, we have to battle it out sometimes with all these sinful desires circling around the heart. We have to be very, very determined, I must become now the pure devotee of Krishna. Because that's the only real pleasure. Why should I try to enjoy sense gratification which is simply miserable? Sense gratification, What does it do? It forces my identifying with this material body. That's what sense gratification does. It brings me back to thinking, I am this body, my enjoyment is to satisfy the senses of this body. So that's why we minimize sense enjoyment, as much as possible. Just take enough to keep body and soul together, we minimize sense enjoyment, we maximize Krishna consciousness. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. If you give yourself more sense enjoyment than you need to keep body and soul together, what are you doing? You're giving up this idea I'm a spirit soul and you're reinforcing this idea that I am this material body and my happiness is gratifying my senses. So therefore we have to be strict in following the regulative principles and take only as much sense enjoyment as is required to keep body and soul together. In this way we can become free from identifying with this lump of bones and blood and all these different organs of the body, we can become free from identifying with them. 'I am not this body, Aham Brahmasmi.' So it is very very important that we are strictly pulling our mind away from sense enjoyment and always bringing it back, bringing it back to the lotus feet of Krishna. Okay, let's see what we got out coming in here.
Bhaktin Pragya Nagpal : How can we control our senses in a positive or happy way instead of always thinking it as suppressing?
Sankarshan Das : It's a very important thing, very important question. I may have a desire for sense enjoyment. There is a very nice verse of Bhagavad Gita -
viṣayā vinivartante
nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
'Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.'
So one may feel, how can I give up sense gratification? I had a strong desire, I must gratify my senses, I must gratify my senses, how can I suppress it? I just feel like I'm suppressing my natural urges. How is it possible to suppress your natural urges? It seems very natural, I have all these desires, how is it possible to suppress them? Well, as Krishna says, you can get a higher taste. And one may think, well, here I am chanting, I follow principles, I don't taste anything, but I was taking a lot of pleasure in sense gratification. I was not taking any pleasure in chanting Hare Krishna. But just remember this example of a jaundice patient. What is the cure for jaundice? Sugar candy. How does sugar candy taste when you have jaundice? It tastes horribly bitter. The doctor says, my dear jaundice patient, you must take sugar candy every day. But doctor, it tastes horrible. I can't stand it. Don't tell me to take sugar candy. I just want to spit it out. It tastes so bad. The doctor says, no, my dear patient, this is the medicine that will cure you from your jaundice. So even though it's bitter, you must take it. And you say, okay, I have faith in the doctor. He said he's cured many jaundice patients. I even talked to some person who had jaundice and now he's enjoying sugar candy. So all right, I'll trust you, my dear doctor, and the testimony of various people who were formerly having jaundice and I'll do it. You know, this is austerity, oh my goodness. Alright, I'll take it. I can't stand it but I'll take it anyway. So in this way the natural taste comes back in due course of time. You become cured of your jaundice and now you really enjoy the sugar candy once again. So this chanting and these regulative principles seem very difficult but my senses want to be gratified, why should I suppress them? If you will take this process of chanting at least 16 rounds every day, and avoiding illicit sex, meat eating, intoxication, gambling, it seems very difficult at first, you may have a desire for these things, just put some faith. And those who have gone through this transition, and in the scriptures, the Vedic scriptures, and the words of the great sadhus, just put some faith and try it. And if you do that, you'll find, wow, I'm actually getting a little taste in this kirtan, the prasadam and all these things. I'm getting some taste and I'm not so attracted to sensory gratification anymore.
So the point is you don't give up taste. Experiencing taste is the natural quality of a living being. So my body is trying to deny taste but it doesn't work. They fall down eventually. You know, they become very austere because taste is acquired, they deny taste, they come back to material sense gratification once again. But eventually they fall down again from Brahman. But devotees are in a much better position. We don't think give up taste and get a better taste. You get a better taste. Instead of tasting sense gratification, taste Krishna consciousness. Instead of tasting this nonsense food, taste the prasadam. So what we do, we don't teach you to suppress taste, we teach you to get a higher taste. That's Krishna consciousness.
Bhaktin Sheela : Please enlighten, what does self compassion mean in Krishna consciousness? How to exactly apply in life?
Sankarshan Das : It's an interesting term I don't remember hearing it anymore but I can understand the meaning to be compassionate to yourself. What does self compassion mean in Krishna consciousness? It means to be kind to yourself. By engaging yourself in sense enjoyment you are being cruel to yourself by keeping yourself locked into bodily consciousness. If you are running after sense enjoyment, you become a dog, a camel, dog, ass, camel, hog, dog, camel or an ass, a similar situation. If you go after sense enjoyment, you are going to keep yourself. Gurumataji was giving a very nice example yesterday in the class, those who enjoy sex pleasure, thinking, ah, it feels so good, it's so wonderful, ah, it's wonderful, it's wonderful. They're compared to camels. The camel is chewing on the thorn and it's cutting his tongue and he's thinking, oh, this tastes so good, he's sucking his own blood, making it taste very nicely. And these people who want to pass semen and say, oh it's so wonderful feeling to pass semen, especially for a woman it feels so good, oh wonderful. They don't realize that one drop of semen is 40 drops of blood. It's one ejaculation, it's 1 third to 1 teaspoon of semen. It's like 1 third of a whole cup of blood they are giving up. So they are thinking it is very pleasurable and actually they are simply depleting their life energy. So in this way we have to understand that sense enjoyment is the road to hell, basically it is the royal road to hell. So you have to give up this desire for sense enjoyment and come to the platform of Krishna consciousness. So be kind to yourself means make yourself into Krishna's pure devotee, give up the desire for sense enjoyment which is simply cruelty to yourself. Don't be cruel to yourself in running after sense enjoyment, be kind to yourself in giving yourself the Holy Name of Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Amala Purana das : In the previous verse, 4.22.44, the purport read that dārāḥ , or wife, is not permitted to be offered to the Brahmins. Please make me understand how the person was offering his wife to Bilvamangala Thakur for enjoyment.
Sankarshan Das : Well, he must not have been familiar with the Vedic principle.
Gurumataji : Who did not know the Vedic principles?
Sankarshan Das : The man who was offering his wife to Bilva Mangala Thakura.
Gurumataji : No.
Sankarshan Das : How can you say that?
Gurumataji : He knows.
Sankarshan Das : Then why did he do it?
Gurumataji : He did it because when he is a Sudra, when a Brahmana asks for something, you offer him.
Sankarshan Das : Okay, there we got an answer from GuruMataji. Okay. Alright.
Devotee : Are avoiding the 10 offenses of the Holy Name enough to achieve pure love of Godhead ?
Sankarshan Das : Yes, you can avoid all the 10 offenses. It also means that one offense is to disobey the order of the spiritual master. So when you avoid the 10 offenses you have everything covered. The 10 offenses covers everything. Shudha-Naam and the pure love of God are non-different. Chanting the pure name and being a pure devotee is non-different.
Gurumataji : I would say, let us put it this way, instead of thinking of let me become a pure devotee, pure devotee and bind you in frustration, but let me become a human at least. I wonder if they heard it. Do you think they heard it?
Sankarshan Das : You have very clearly stated. I'm sure they heard it.
Devotee : How to be detached from unlimited materialistic desires?
Sankarshan Das By developing desire for pleasing Krishna and Guru. That's how. We have a desire. Desire is a natural function of a living being, so you have to replace your material desire with spiritual desire. That's key.
Sadhubhushan Das : Does Srimad Bhagavatam give any recommendation to be truthful and have integrity?
Sankarshan Das : The Srimad Bhagavatam teaches us to be engaged in pure devotional service and do what is actually beneficial for the devotees.
Okay let's see what we have here.
Devotee : Which canto should one read to kill ego and anger?
Sankarshan Das : Well, start with the first canto. If you follow the first canto appropriately, you got them covered. Every canto will help you do that, but you should start with the first canto. We have started our reading with the first canto, but now we are doing verse by verse and we are up to the canto 4, chapter 22, text 57 today. We've gone verse by verse. Start with the first canto and follow it very carefully and you'll be in good shape.
Gurumataji : I have a question. If somebody is offensive, why don't we avoid them?
Sankarshan Das : Why don't we avoid them? Actually, If we can correct them, that can be done, but if not we should avoid it.
Gurumataji : If it becomes more offensive, then what is the point?
Sankarshan Das : It depends if one is expert enough to give a powerful correction that stops their nonsense.
Bhaktin Sunanda : If we are doing only 16 rounds every day and attending Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita classes regularly, where do we find ourselves on the scale of bhakti? In spite of the fact that we are not initiated yet.
Sankarshan Das : That depends on how much taste you develop for hearing and chanting. To whatever degree of your level of advancement, how much taste you develop for hearing and chanting. Not your level of advancement, how much taste you have for hearing and chanting.
Okay, let's see here.
Gurumataji : I have to say something. There is a saying in the Vedas and that, as you said, we give them good answers, but if somebody is offensive, and we give them the answers, the poison increases. If we feed them, the person becomes sick. If you go on feeding them, they become more and more poisonous. Especially in the human case. So we should not think that they will rectify, but poison increases.
Sankarshan Das : That's a good point. Questions are finished. Anything else from Lithuania?
Gurumataji : So wouldn't it be better to avoid the offensive people?
Sankarshan Das : Well one can try to rectify them, if it doesn't work it's better to avoid them.
Thank you all very much. Here we go. Anger will also go away. First, if you follow the first canto perfectly, you become a completely pure devotee of Krishna. The point is, if you follow the first canto, all perfection will be yours. Get rid of all your nonsense. For detachment, for Everything you want to achieve to become Krishna's pure devotee, the first canto will give you everything. It's all there in the first canto. It becomes reinforced in each canto. First canto contains everything, the second canto, each canto reinforces and strengthens it even more and more and more. The first canto if you follow it perfectly you become absolutely perfect in every respect. Okay we will stop here. Thanks to all for tuning in.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare