hard struggle for existence

In other form of life... We are changing our form of life from one body to another, but if we want to understand God... That is essential. So long we do not understand God, so long we do not go back to home, back to Godhead, our struggle for existence will continue. Manaḥ sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati [Bg 15.7]. They struggle. Everyone struggles hard to become happy. But that is not possible. Simply searching after, searching after happiness, when time comes: "Finished. Your business is finished. Now get out." That is called death. So death is also Krsna. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, mrtyuḥ sarva-haras caham [Bg 10.34].    (More...)

And there is strong stringent laws of nature, exactly... Karanam guna-sahgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yonisu [Bg 13.22]. These things are all explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Why one is put into one type of body, and why one is put in another type of body? One body is enjoying very nicely. Not enjoying; he is also suffering. He is enjoying for a limited time. He is also suffering. But he... Comparatively, one is situated in a very nice, comfortable position, and the other is not. Therefore other is envious, that "Why this man is in a comfortable situation and I am put into...? So let us become Communist or revolt against this person or this group of person." In this way the struggle for existence is going on, and there is no solution. How there can be solution? Because they are all uneducated, not educated.    (More...)

So if you want to be educated, make the solution of all the problems of the world, then you must take to this Krsna consciousness movement. This is the only solution. It will educate people the real identity, real position. And as Arjuna is trying to understand what is prakrti, what is purusa, what is ksetra, what is ksetra-jna, what is knowledge, what is knowable-these question are posed; gradually we shall discuss-that is wanted. In ignorance if we fight, there is no solution. In darkness if we fight, we may wound. I may wound you, you may wound me, but there will be no solution. So the whole world is in darkness. Therefore there is struggle. One is capitalist, one is Communist, one is this, one is that, and there is struggle, because everyone is in ignorance, maya andhakara, in darkness of ignorance. And Krsna is light.    (More...)

We get information from sastra, there is a fish which is called timihgala which swallows big, big whales, just like big fish swallows a small fish. This is struggle for existence. Jivo jivasya jivanam. Phalgūni mahatam tatra jivo jivasya jivanam [SB 1.13.47]. The natural law is that ahastani sahastanam: "The animals which has no hands"-that means four-legged animals; they have got legs, no hand-"so they are food for animals with two legs and two hands." That means human being. Human being is also animal, more powerful, more intelligent than the lower animals. So the sastra says ahastani, "The animals who hasn't got hands, they are food for the animals with two hands." Ahastani sahastanam and apadani catus-padam: "And the animals or the living entities which cannot move, apadani..." Pada means legs. Just like the trees, plants, grass, they cannot move; they have no leg. They have got leg, but they cannot move. They are eating through the legs. Therefore they are called padapa, means "collecting waters through the leg." Just these trees, they are drinking water from within the earth with their legs. Therefore they push their roots very deep to find out where is water. And if you put little water on the root of the tree, they live. They drink water. They are standing on the riverside drinking water and becoming very flourished. But although they are drinking the same water, still, they are differently constituted the different fruits, different flowers. This is God's creation, we have to understand that.    (More...)

So apadani sapadanam, apadani catus-padam. Apadani means those who cannot move-these trees, plants, grass-they are eatables for the four-legged animals, catus-padam. Catuḥ means four. Similarly, nūnam mahatam tatra. Those who are weak, they are food for the strong. That is going on. "Might is right," in the human society also. Just like you Europeans, Americans..., Europeans, they have come. You come this land of America. Because you are strong, you have eaten up all the original inhabitants. [laughs] So this is going on. This is called struggle for existence.    (More...)

Therefore Prahlada Maharaja said, tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam: "My dear father, or the best of the demons, you are asking me, so I say I have learned this. What is that? That these people who are always full of anxiety," asad-grahat, "because they have accepted this material world," tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat [SB 7.5.5], "these persons, either in human being or animal or bird and beasts-full of anxieties." If you bring one bird... He is free. You give some grains, he will come to eat, but he will look like this: "Nobody is coming to kill me. Nobody coming to kill me." Similarly, our position is... Even President Nixon, he is also full of anxieties: "When I shall be dethroned? When I shall be dethroned? Let me take protection. Let me take..." Anyone, beginning from Lord Brahma down to the small ant. You... There is ant is going. You stop it by your finger, he will struggle: "Why you are stopping? Why you are stopping, stopping?" This is the way. You will see the ants. When there is water, they carry their eggs on the head and they go on the wall, up. They have also got the same feeling, affection and anxiety, everything. And the human being or the best human being is Lord Brahma in the topmost planet, whose life is millions and millions of years, he is also full of anxiety.    (More...)

Therefore education should be in such a way planned that he should be nirvrtti-marga. Pravrttir esa bhūtanam nirvrttes tu maha-phalam. These are general tendency for the conditioned soul. But if anyone can control by training, by education, these things-vyavayamisa-madya-seva: sex life, intoxication and meat-eating-then he's called niratam. He becomes qualified. Vyasadeva preferred to teach Srimad-Bhagavatam to his son Sukadeva Gosvami, because he was niratam, nivrtti-niratam. He was engaged. From the very beginning of his life, as soon as he was... It is said for sixteen years within the womb of his mother, he did not come out purposefully, so that he may not be materially attached. Because a small child, the baby, comes out from the mother's womb. Within the womb, when he's in suffering, he prays to God, "This time kindly release me. Now I shall begin bhagavad-bhajana." One who is little advanced in his previous life... Because it is very, very terrible condition within the womb of the mother. We have forgotten. But we can imagine, if you are packed up in a bag and put hand and legs tightly knotted, just imagine. You cannot live even for three minutes. They say if you are airtight packed-up like that, as we are put into the womb of the mother, we cannot exist more than three minutes. But we existed by the mercy of Krsna. Only by the mercy. That is also nowadays very dangerous. In that packed-up condition, he's there, he's already suffering, and the mother is planning to go to the doctor and kill the child. Just imagine how precarious condition in the womb of the mother. And if we do not try in this life that "I shall not again enter into the womb of the mother," then what is the value of this life? We have to learn it from the sastra. You cannot see actually, but the medical science explains that a child is placed in this way. In Bhagavata also it is stated how the child grows his body, how it is put into that precarious condition.    (More...)

So here, everywhere simply danger. But if we take shelter of the Vaikuntha, Krsna... Samasrita ye pada-pallava-plavam [SB 10.14.58]. It is just like the boat for crossing over a furious, dangerous ocean. Krsna's lotus feet is compared with very sound, secure boat. And boarding it, you can cross over the ocean of nescience. Bhavambudhir vatsa-padam. Bhavambudhiḥ. Ambudhi means sea, and bhava means repetition of birth and death, birth and death. Just like in the ocean you are struggling. Sometimes you are drowning, and somebody helps you, saves you from being drowned, and again he throws you in the ocean. Then again struggle. So our life in this material world is like that. We are struggling from the beginning, very beginning of our life. We are simply struggling.    (More...)

In reality I am a part and parcel of God, a spirit soul. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself is saying, mamai-vamso jiva-bhutah. The living entity is My part and parcel. manaḥ-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati [Bg 15.7]. The living entity is trapped in this material world and by being covered with the mind and senses, prakrti-sthani karsati he fights in this material world to become happy. This is struggle for existence. All day we work hard, we get one motor car, and beyond that we may get another motor car. We work hard whole day. What is the reason? It is struggle for existence. Here everyone knows that they cannot stay here. One day everyone has to die, but they want to live here forever and not die. All karmis think like this and therefore they are not worried about death. They are trying to forget death which is imminent thinking that I am not going to die. In the scripture also Canakya Panḍit has also written in Niti-sastra, that a karmi should not think that he will die, rather he should think that he will live perpetually then he can work very nicely. And one who is a jnani and a devotee, he should think that I have to die at any moment, I may die now. This is the difference. And before I die I should prepare myself in such a way that I do not get a body of a street dog and bark. This is the consideration of a jnani and a devotee. In future one is bound to get a body tatha dehantara-praptir [Bg 2.13], I will be forced to accept it. For example, as I was saying earlier that a young man is thinking I will not grow old, because in old age there are many difficulties, just like I have become old. He doesn't want to become old. By taking some medicine, applying cosmetics and make up he wants to remain young. But material nature compels him to grow old. Just like by force you have to accept the body of an old man. If I say I don't want it, nobody will listen. Similarly, when I will leave this body, I will have to accept another body tatha dehantara-praptir [Bg 2.13] we cannot stop this, and what type of body we will get we should be concerned about that. But this is certain that I must accept a body. Foolish people say that after death everything is finished. bhasmi-bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar agamano bhavet-"Once your present body is burnt to ashes, where is the question of your having come from a previous life or of your going to a next life?" This is what the atheists say who do not have knowledge. We are not interested in acquiring knowledge from the fools. We should accept knowledge from the spiritual master. And who is the spiritual master of all? Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the spiritual master of all.    (More...)

Sometimes it was quarrel between father and son. Sometimes the father would call, "My dear Prahlada, all right, let me know what you have learned, the best thing, from your teachers." So he replied that sadhu manye 'sura-varya. Asura-varya. He did not address him as "father"; he addressed him, "the best of the asuras," asura-varya. Tat sadhu manye. Sadhu, again. Tat sadhu manye asura-varya dehinam. "So far I have understood, that dehinam, those who are embodied..." Dehinam. Not dehanam. Dehinam, he has said. Dehinam means we are dehi, we are proprietor of this body. I am not this body. So because we accepted this body, we are always in miserable condition. Sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat [SB 7.5.5].    (More...)

Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. Just like distress comes upon me without endeavor, similarly, according to my destiny... Destiny means to some extent we suffer, and to some extent we enjoy. Actually, there is no enjoyment, but we take it for enjoyment. The struggle for existence, the struggle for mitigating suffering, we take it as happiness. Actually there is no happiness in this material world. So anyway, even there is happiness and distress, two relative terms, the one can come without any endeavor; the other also will come without any endeavor. That is a fact.    (More...)

Because I am spirit soul, I have nothing to do with this material atmosphere. Asahgo 'yam purusaḥ. This spirit soul has nothing to do. But on account of his material association by different processes, we have, I mean to say, grown this body, material body, and we are now... That is entangled. Just like a fish becomes entangled within the network, similarly, we are, we living entities, we are entangled with the network of this fabrication of this material elements. So very difficult position. Just like the fish caught up in the net of the fisherman, or maya, similarly, we are now caught up within the network created by the material nature. Prakrteḥ kriyamanani gunaiḥ karmani sarva... [Bg 3.27].    (More...)

So our endeavor should be, instead of being attached to this false enjoyment like cats and dogs, like the animal is running after the false water, the human life is meant for understanding that "The animal is running after false water. Why I shall go there? I am not animal." That is human life. If one, like the cats and dogs and deer, animal, runs after the false water and he dies, struggle for existence... "Survival of the fittest," they say. Nobody will survive. So there is no question. If you take the word in a real sense, survival of the fittest, one who has understood that he is not this body, he is spirit soul, he is fit to survive. Otherwise, bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19], you will run after this false thing, and this body will be finished, and again you will have to accept another body, and again you will run after, bhūtva bhūtva praliyate. This is going on. After false thing. Therefore the sastra says that this human form of life is not meant for running after this false thing. They must understand what is reality. And how to attain that reality? Exactly in the same way: intelligent man knows that "This is my diseased condition. How to get out, achieve that healthy condition? Because I am eternal," na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg 2.20].    (More...)

Real... Here it is said that mat-sarvasva-padambhojau radha-madana-mohanau. One should take shelter of the lotus feet of Krsna. Instead of taking shelter of the lotus feet of Krsna, he will take shelter of the lotus feet of some bogus. That's it. They are called manda-matayo, manufacturing something new: "This is our process of religion." They do not know that religion cannot be manufactured. Religion is eternal. Religion... Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam [SB 6.3.19]. Religion means the law given by God. The God is eternal; therefore His law is eternal. So how we can manufacture? You cannot manufacture religion. God is eternal, and His law is also eternal. Therefore God personally comes, and He says that "You have manufactured so many religions, but that is not religion. You give it up. You give them up." Sarva-dharman parityajya [Bg 18.66]: "Give up all this nonsense." Then what should be my religion? Mam ekam saranam vraja, that's all. This is eternal religion. Mam ekam: "Only unto Me."    (More...)