Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.3 , Paris , 1974-06-12

Nitāi: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [devotees repeat]

[break] [02:12]

Prabhupāda: So this is our civilization. At night also, we waste our time, and in daytime also, we waste our time. How? Now, nidrayā hriyate naktam. At night, we sleep. Everyone sleeps. The dogs sleeps, the cat sleeps. We may sleep in a very nice apartment, skyscraper building, and the dog may sleep on the street, but the pleasure of sleeping is the same. It does not mean that because you are sleeping in a very nice apartment, a skyscraper building, your sleep is better than the dog's sleeping. How it is sleep...? Sometimes you may dream something very ferocious, and the dog may sleep without any agitation, he sound..., sleeps sound. Sometimes you have to take tranquilizer pill for sleeping. So impartially studying, your sleep is not as nice as dog's sleep. Is it not? The dogs sleep without any anxiety, and I go to sleep with so many anxieties that the sleeping is disturbing unless I take one pill. At least, in America we have seen. In your country, in Paris, you do not? You sleep without pill? Is it? That's good credit. Anyway, every one of us, we sleep at night. And another our, means, advantage is that at night we enjoy sex life. Sleep or sex life. Nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena. Vyavāyena means sex. Vyavāya.

In this way, this human form of life is very valuable. The more we are engaged in these animal propensities, more we waste our valuable life. That we should know. The more we decrease these animal propensities... The animal propensities means eating, sleeping, sex life and defense. So just see, the whole human civilization, how they are wasting their time in animal civilization. It is very serious thing, to be thought of by serious, thoughtful men, that "What we are doing as human being? Eating, sleeping and sex life and defending, that is done by cats and dogs. What extra things we are doing?" That is thoughtfulness. The extra thing is here, worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. This is wanted. This is extra thing. Therefore, those who are intelligent and fed up with this eating, sleeping, sex life and defense, they take Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously. They get something, "Yes, there is some..."

So this is our night's business. And day's business is to earn money. Without earning money, the night's business will not go very nicely. Therefore money we must have. Divā cārthehayā rājan. And as soon as we get money, kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā, then those who are responsible, householders... But at the present moment, the civilization has so advanced that even though..., even they have no responsibility for maintaining family. This is advancement. Even formerly, although they were engaged in eating, sleeping, mating, still, they had some responsibility to maintain family. Family means to get one's self married and take charge of the wife and children and... That is gṛhastha life. All gṛha... Even the gṛhamedhis, they used to do that. But at the present moment, because it is Kali-yuga, that if he can maintain a family, namely, wife and some children, he'll be considered as great hero. He's a big hero = "Oh, he's maintaining in a family."

In America, when I was first there in New York, so one lady, she had a son. So according to our Indian method, I asked her, that lady, elderly, that "Why don't you get your son married?" She said, "I have no objection. If he can maintain his family, let him marry." Then I could understand that he..., although America is so rich, that they are not even main..., able to maintain the family. This is civilization. Although they are advertised so much, becoming very, very rich, but they're unable to maintain the family. I was surprised. I thought that in India, although, still, although they are very much advertised as poverty-stricken, still, they maintain their family. Even a worker, ordinary worker... I have seen in Ahmedabad one, what is, ṭhelā man. What is called, who pushes that hand cart?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Ṭhelā-wala.

Prabhupāda: Ṭhelā-wala? You call also here? No. Here? You have no such thing here. You have got your motor truck. There is no question of ṭhelā-wala. But in India, there are ṭhelā walas---means a human being takes a cart and loads it to the best capacity, and he pushes like an ass. You see? This is Kali-yuga. A man has to work like an ass simply for bread. Simply for bread. This is Kali-yuga. So I saw that one side there is the wife, and the other side there is the husband, pulling on that ṭhelā, and they have got a child. On the top of the loaded articles the child is sat down. So he's sitting very comfortably. And the father and mother, they are pulling on ṭhelā.

My point is that even a man, very poor, who has to work just like an ass, still, he has got family and he's maintaining him. That is my point. Still. You'll find the poorest man---he has got his wife, he has got his children, he has got..., anyway, some home. Although it is not very nice apartment, but he has got home. That means even in material life, if one has got peaceful home, then he..., there is something. But even that is now not possible in the modern, artificial civilization. Nobody has family. Nobody has got home. So how they are happy? So anyway, it is going on. Divā ca artha īhayā. Artha means money. So... Rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. So in this way, everyone is going on.

Then the next verse says,

So these family men---may be a big man or a ṭhelā-wala, it doesn't matter---everyone has got family. Even the dog has got family. Dog has got also wife, and some cubs also. What is called?

Devotees: Pups.

Prabhupāda: Puppies. And the mother is helping the puppies by giving breast milk. So family you will find everywhere. Even the birds, they have family, two birds, always together, the husband and wife. They have got a nest, and some eggs also. And they are also trying to, I mean to say, manufacture some nest. As soon as the lady bird is pregnant, they, immediately their attempt will be to find out some straw and make a nest. You have seen it perhaps, studied it. You see? So long the lady bird is not pregnant, there is no question of nest. But... This is natural. You'll find everywhere. Even the ants and the birds, beasts, everywhere. So this kuṭumba-bharaṇam is a duty of living entity. It doesn't matter whether he's a human being or a dog or a bird or a cat. That is natural. That is not very great credit. But the present yuga, Kali-yuga, if one can maintain his family and maintain an apartment, he's to be understood as a very great, successful man. He does not see that this success is there even in the ants and the birds and the beasts. What is this success? And he's happy. And he's happy.

How he's happy? Now, deha. Deha means this body. He thinks, "I have got this strong body, very stout and strong body. By exercising, by yogic practice, I have become very strong." So what is that strength? Will you not die? "Yes, I'll die, but after few years." So he is very much fond of his deha, śarīra, deha. And apatya... [aside:] Why don't you...? It is working or not? Why this big humbug? [laughter] [laughs] If it is not working...

Nitāi: It's working, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Deha means body, and apatya means children. Apatya. So those who are family men... Those who are not family men, their question is different. They are not even living beings. Ordinarily, the Vedic process is that first of all you try to remain without family, alone. Be independent---no cares, no anxiety. You can lie down here, or whatever you can eat, that's all. But be spiritually advanced. That is called brahmacārī life. Brahmacārī means... Brahma means Absolute Truth, and cārī means who is..., whose business is only with Brahman, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, with spiritual advancement of life. That is called brahmacārī. And he has no interest with anything material. He's, at least, educated in that way, that "Actually, you have no interest with these material things. You are..., you should be interested only for your spiritual advancement. This is the opportunity."

There Prahlāda Mahārāja said to his class friends... Prahlāda Mahārāja was a great devotee. He learned spiritual knowledge from Nārada from the womb of his mother. So he decided that "I shall live a spiritual life." So although he was king's son, a very powerful king's son, he was not interested anything with spiritual, er, material. He decided. So from the childhood, he was trying to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Where he should get opportunity? He was a child of five years old, and king's son, locked up within the palace. So he was taking opportunity in the school. As soon as he go to the school, and the teachers are out, he'll stand up on the bench and speak of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A five-year-... You have seen the picture. So he was advising, "My dear friends"---they were all five years, four years old---"now take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha [SB 7.6.1] = "This kaumāra, this age, from the very beginning of life, you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." He was advising. They, they were all asuras. They were asking, "Why Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Let us play now, jump like monkey." So he was not... "No, no. Let us take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." "Now, why we should take Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" Now, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma: "Oh, it is very valuable. This human form of life is very valuable." Because in this life only you can become Kṛṣṇa conscious, not in the body of cats and dogs. That is not possible. Or trees.

Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja advising, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha. Dharma... "So we are, we are pursuing some kind of dharma---Hindu, Muslim or Christian." No, dharmān bhāgavatān. That dharma which teaches you how to love God. That dharma. That is first-class dharma. Otherwise, you stamp over "I am Christian," and do all nonsense; "I am Hindu," and do all nonsense. This will not help, simply by stamping. So many Christian gentlemen I meet, they cannot understand even Christianity that Lord Jesus Christ said, "Thou shalt not kill," and they are very busy simply in killing business. And still, they're Christians. First of all, let us see who is a Christian. Similarly, every religion, simply by rubber stamp, "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," but they do not know what is religion. They do not know.

Therefore the Bhāgavatam you'll find religion, religious person, who is a religious person, first-class religion. Religious person means who has learned to love God. That is religious person. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, ahaituky aprati... [SB 1.2.6]. And this religion is universal. To love God, you don't require any education, don't require any rubber stamp. God is one, and you are part and parcel of God. You try to love. You have got the loving propensity. You love God, and you'll be satisfied, you'll be happy. Everyone is trying to love God, somebody else. Love is not alone. Love must be two. So that two, Kṛṣṇa and myself, that is called love. Not that...

Impersonalists, they do not know what is love. Because he's one. Their philosophy is oneness. So how there can be love, one? Is it possible? Have you got any such experience, love means one? No. Love means two. There must be two = the lover and the beloved. So lover... Kṛṣṇa is already lover. He's so lover of you that He's trying to get you back. That is Kṛṣṇa's attempt. "Please, My dear boy," or "My dear friend," "My dear servant..." Any way, as we are related, He's after us.

He's situated within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg. 18.61]. Just see how much He loves you. He's trying always to get you back to home. And He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66] = "You rascal, why you are engaged in such nasty things, material life? You come to Me, you'll be happy. I shall give you all protection." "No, Sir, I am not going. I shall become a hog, and I shall eat stool. That, that is my advancement of material civilization." You see.

Hog means he has no discrimination of food. That is hog. You have seen, a hog can eat up to the stool. So anyone who has no human brain, has no discrimination of food, anything he can eat, he's a hog. "Anything, anyone, never mind, mother, sister or anyone, let us have sex life"---that is hog's life. You'll find the hog's life is practical like that, to eat anything and have sex life with anyone. That is hog's life. Is it not? What is the hog? You have seen hog? They have no discrimination of sex and no discrimination of food. That is hog's life.

So therefore śāstra says that "This human life is not meant for becoming a hog." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye [SB 5.5.1]. You are working so hard, day and night, very busy, going this side, that side, this side, that side, and getting money, and leading a life like hog. What is this civilization? This is not civilization. Then what is civilization? That is also said, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam [SB 5.5.1]. This is Ṛṣabhadeva's instruction to His sons. "My dear boys, this life, this human form of life, is not meant for wasting like hogs and dogs, but tapasya, just have little restraint. Don't become hogs and dogs." What is that restraint? Just like we are prescribing, no illicit sex. No illicit sex. Sex is not stopped. Sex is there. But no illicit sex. Illicit sex---unnecessary sex life. Sex life is meant for human being. There is regulation. Sex life is meant for producing nice children, that's all, not for sense enjoyment. Therefore one is trained as brahmacārī from the very beginning.

The brahmacārī means no sex life. No sex life. Even the guru... Sometimes guru... Mostly in a school, the teachers, they were householders. It is restricted, "If the guru has a young wife, you should not go to carry out her order." It is restricted. This is brahmacārī life, voluntarily accepting hardship for making life successful. That is brahmacārī life. And then married life. Married life. When the... Brahmacārī is meant for the boys, not for the girls. Girls, they are to be married. A brahmacārī may remain unmarried for life, but according to Vedic civilization, a girl must be married. As soon as... Before the age of attaining puberty, it is the duty of the father, or if she has no father, it is the duty of the elder brother to get her married somehow or other. [laughter] Yes. Give her in responsibility to another young man. This is the duty. Yes. This is the duty. So therefore... Female population is always bigger than the male population. Then you can ask, "Where so many husbands?" Therefore polygamy was allowed. And the kings, the kṣatriyas, who had money and who had very nice strength also, they used to marry more than one wife. You'll find all the kṣatriyas... Even Kṛṣṇa, the best kṣatriya, He married 16,108 wives. Wholesale. [laughter] Yes.

So Kṛṣṇa, as kṣatriya, proved how much strong He was, how much able He was, that He married 16,000 wives, and for each wife, separate establishment, separate servants, separate house, separate palace. Everything separate. Not that "I marry only. Therefore I have no responsibility." Not like that. That is Kṛṣṇa, ideal. He married 16,108, but He had 16,108 palaces, big, big palace. And palace all made of nice, what is called, marble, and decorated with jewels. The... Kṛṣṇa's house, there was no need of this light. The jewels were glittering. These are description in the Bhāgavata. And the furnitures were made of ivory. That is Kṛṣṇa's house. And the garden, compound, pārijāta flower. Then is that sufficient? A woman will be satisfied simply with this palace, nice palace, and...? No. He expanded Himself into 16,108 Kṛṣṇa, so each and every wife is able to receive her husband individually. So anyway, you cannot imitate Kṛṣṇa, neither you can do like that, neither you can marry 16,000, but you can marry---that is Vedic civilization---more than one wife. Because every female must be married, so where are so many husbands? So therefore polygamy was allowed, but the man who marries, he must be able to maintain the wife very nicely. That is Hindu, or Vedic, civilization. That is kuṭumba, kuṭumba-bharaṇa, maintaining the family.

Anyway, even though we are able to maintain a very nice group of family members, then I may be puffed up, that "I am maintaining such a nice family," but that is also not very good situation. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu. I am thinking, "Now I have got good home, good wife, nice children, nice bank balance. So I am safe now." No, sir, you are not safe. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣu [SB 2.1.4]. This world is struggle for existence. You should not think that because you have got nice wife, children, and nice nationality, or everything nice---still, you are not safe. This is to be understood. Yes. Just like Napoleon in your country, he had many soldiers. He was fighting. He was conquering all over. And because he had very, very good military strength, he was thinking he is safe. But he was also defeated, and he had to die also, leaving all the opulences he created. So nobody's safe. You must always remember that.

So here it is said, dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api. Although I know that this national strength, or this material strength, the bank balance strength and good wife and everything is there, but they'll not be able to save me. This is the intelligence. They'll not be able to save me, because when death will come, nobody will be helpful to me. I'll have to go. I cannot say, "Now I have got my children, I have got so much duty, I have got this to do, this to do, this to do." No. Now your time is over. Your so-called arrangement for material happiness is now over. Now you must get out. Is it not?

So the fools, the rascal, they cannot see it. Therefore teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanam. A intelligent man will see that "What they'll do me? I will also annihilated, and they will be also annihilated. I cannot save them, neither they cannot save me." But this is intelligence. But those who are not intelligent, for them it is said, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanam. Pramatta, because we are mad, we are thinking that these things will save me. Pramatta. Therefore mad. So because we are... Madman cannot see. Just like a madman lies down on the street. He does not see, "Immediately I may be killed by the motorcar driving." But he's thinking he's safe. He is thinking, "I have ordered. Nobody can come here." A madman. We have seen in India, a madman lies down on the street. That is not in your country? But he thinks that he's safe. He's not safe.

Similarly, we are, because we are mad, by the influence of māyā, we are not safe. We are unsafe because at any moment we have to die, and we have to accept a body. That also we do not understand, the modern civilization. That is the first beginning of spiritual understanding, that "I am not this body; I am the soul. Within the body, I am living, and after giving up this body, I'll have to accept another body." This is the beginning of knowledge. One who does not understand these plain, primary principles of knowledge, he's animal. He's animal. It is not my manufactured word. It is stated in the śāstra that yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13].

Kuṇape. Kuṇape means a bag. This body is a bag. What it is made of? Now, it is made of flesh, bone, marrow and nerves, and stool, urine and so many things, blood. So I am not this blood, I am not this urine, I am not this stool. This is the composition of the body. But one is thinking, "I am this body. I am stool. I am urine. I am blood. I am flesh. I am this and that." So there are so many big, big scientists. Take these ingredients and make an intelligent man like Napoleon or Professor Einstein. The ingredients are there. But thinking that "I am this blood, I am this flesh, I am..." Where is the scientist? If I am combination of these material things---blood, flesh, bone and urine, stool... You, you just dissect your body, what you'll find? You'll find there is blood, there is flesh, there is nerves, there is intestines, there is stool, there is... Is that the ingredient of your so much intelligence? Who was telling that they're trying to make intelligent man in the scientific laboratory? Who was saying in the morning? Yes. So take these ingredients and make an intelligent man. Is it possible? Then how they will do it? They are thinking like that, that this blood, this flesh, this bone and this urine and the stool can be, by careful combination, they can produce a very intelligent man. That is their intelligence. So therefore śāstra says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke. If one is thinking this body is the man or the living entity...

This body's nothing but combination of these things. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu [SB 10.84.13]. Here, just like dehāpatya-kalatrādi. Kalatra means wife, and thinking this body, "I am..., I am this body." And thinking also that "These my soldiers, these my wife, children and friends and nationals, they will save me." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. And the land where he has taken birth... Just like everyone is thinking, "I am Frenchman," "I am Englishman," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." So, so "This is my land. I must decorate this land, this Paris city, very nicely. I shall bring something from Egypt and put it here. Then..." [laughter] These nonsense things are going on, even big, big men like Napoleon and others. And what to speak of others? So...

But śāstra says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ. A little advanced than..., than these fools and rascals, they are religious. What is that religion? "Let us go to the holy place." The Christians are going to the Jordan, and the Hindus are going to the Ganges or Yamunā. They think, "If I take my bath in this river, Jordan, or in this Ganges or this Yamunā, then I become immediately perfect religious." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma..., yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Salila means water. So they go to take bath in the water. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Tīrtha means place of sanctuary. So tīrtha-buddhiḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ. Real tīrtha is to find out a Kṛṣṇa conscious person. That is the business. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu. Janeṣu. Tīrtha means in the holy places many saintly persons live. So if one goes to the holy place, they must find out a holy man who is living there and take lesson from him. And that is purification. Not that I go and take bath in the water, and I become...

So these classes of men who are doing like this, that "I am this body, and this birthplace is my worshipable land, yat-tīrtha, and my this wife and children, they are my protectors," in this way, everyone is thinking. "And whatever sinful activities I am doing, I shall take one bath in the Ganges or Yamunā or Jordan, then I'll be purified." In this way, the people who are thinking, the śāstra says, "You are no better than the ass and the cow." This is the certificate. Sa eva go-kharaḥ. This class of thinking is simply for the animals.

So we should not think like animals. We should think like human beings. That is required. That thinking is, "How to awaken my dormant love for God." That is required. That is human activity. That is there already. It is not artificial. Now, in this temple, you are all citizens of Paris city. Four or five years ago, you had no idea what is Kṛṣṇa. But now you are dancing, chanting in Kṛṣṇa. Why? Have I..., have I given you some bribe? I brought Kṛṣṇa from India, and I am making you to dance, giving you some bribe? Is it a fact? What do you think? And where is my money? I came to Western country with seven dollars. Also I have got now money, enough money. That is your money, of course. [laughs] [laughter] But why you are dancing in Kṛṣṇa's name? What bribe I have given you? Can you answer, any one of you?

French devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

French devotee: Because in reality we are conscious of Kṛṣṇa without knowing.

Prabhupāda: What is...?

French devotee: And in your presence, and..., we take conscience.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, it is to be understood that Kṛṣṇa was within you. I have simply tried to awaken that consciousness. That's all.

French girl: [French---asks for French translation]

French devotee: [French, tells her "After."]

Prabhupāda: After. [laughter] So therefore it is to be taken that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya [Cc. Madhya 22.107]. It is not by artificial means one awakens his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No. Kṛṣṇa is God, and God consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is there, dormant in everyone. Just like you, you love a man or woman. That is not artificial thing. That is already there. It is a gift of God. That is already there. So when the time comes when you become young, you try to love a boy or you try to love a girl. But the love is there. The propensity is there. Similarly, the love for Kṛṣṇa is there. That love for boy and girl, that is Kṛṣṇa's love. Kṛṣṇa is a boy. Rādhārāṇī is a girl. You see? But it is now covered. On account of our material association, it is covered. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be awakened as soon as you are purified. Immediately, you will have Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as soon as you are purified.

So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to purify the covering, the material covering. That... What is that purification? Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. First of all, you have to be purified with the sense that you are neither American nor a Frenchman nor Englishman nor Indian nor brāhmaṇa nor kṣatriya---nothing of the sort. You have to... These are all designation, outward dress. You have to become free from it. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. You'll have to forget. Actually, that is happening in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Those who have joined, they never think that "I am American," "I am Frenchman," "I am Englishman." They are always thinking that they are servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is called purification. As soon as you learn that you are neither American nor Indian nor this or not that---you are eternally servant of Kṛṣṇa---this is purification. The more you are fixed up on this knowledge, the more you are purified. That's all.

So how this can be done? This is the process = śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam [SB 7.5.23]---to hear about Kṛṣṇa, to chant about Kṛṣṇa, to think about Kṛṣṇa, to worship Kṛṣṇa, to give everything to Kṛṣṇa, like that. If you practice, then you become purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat... [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. Then you become nirmala, without any dirty things. Then when there is no dirt, then your senses... We are not going to kill your senses. It is not possible. You have got senses. Because you are living being, you must have senses. But our process is not to stop the sense action, but to purify the sense action. So when you are purified, then, with your senses you can engage yourself in serving Kṛṣṇa instead of serving this māyā. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu [SB 2.1.4]. Just like here is also family. Here the Kṛṣṇa conscious family means they are not families like cats and dogs. They are family, making Kṛṣṇa center. They're also family. They have got husband, wife, children, but the whole attention is to Kṛṣṇa. Even a child, he is also dancing, he's also chanting, he's offering obeisances. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So this movement, we should understand very clearly, that there is no question artificial negation. The question is purification. As soon as you become purified and you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your life is successful. That is wanted.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]