Now, we can see in our front, there is a tree standing for many years, and he has to stand in scorching heat, torrents of rain, pinching cold. He cannot move an inch. And if we think seriously, "Suppose if I would have been put into that condition, that 'Stand up here for five hundred or five thousand years. You cannot move an inch, and you bear all the sufferings, scorching heat, storm,' " would I agree to do that? No. I will not agree. But the tree is also a living entity. He is a living being. I am also living being. So I am put in a different condition of life and the tree is put in a different condition of life. Why? Why this distinction? Is there any upper hand superior judgment that one is put in the condition of standing tree and one is put in the beautiful human body, freely moving? There must be, because we are all living entities. We are all soul, spirit soul. We are simply put in different dresses.

Therefore, in the beginning of the instruction of Bhagavad-gita, this lesson is the first lesson. We have to understand.

So we are experiencing in our this life. It is taking change so swiftly that we cannot understand how the body is changing, but it is changing. So similarly, this body will change. Tatha dehantara-praptih. And we have to change that body after death according to my mental condition because we have got two bodies, the subtle body and the gross body. This gross body is finished; it is no more working. Just like at night the gross body does not work. We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence, and egosubtle bodythat is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result. There is result. I cannot see what is the result, what you are dreaming. I am fool. I do not know. But the man who is dreaming, he is experiencing. Similarly, change of body means we are carried by the subtle body to another gross body. This is the process, nature's way. You cannot say that "I will not change body." No, you will be forced. Just like a young man can say, "I will not become old man." No, nature will force you to become an old man, or change your body. This is the law of nature. You cannot surpass the laws of nature. Similarly, change of body, that is forced by the nature. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah [Bg. 3.27]. Prakrteh, by the nature's law, we have to do. We are completely under nature's law. And we are declaring independence. This is our foolishness. This is our foolishness.

So in the Fifth Chapter, at the end of the Fifth Chapter, Sukadeva Gosvami has described the different sufferings, body in the hellish condition. We are, according to change of body, we are not only going through the evolutionary process of different types of body, as we have got experience here: the aquatics, the trees, the plants, the insect, the birds, the beast, then a human being. Similarly, after human being, if we do not work properly with our advanced consciousness, then we go down again in the hellish planet that are down this universe. And if we act piously, then you go to the upper planetary system. This moon planet is also one of the upper planetary system. But you cannot go by sputnik. That is not possible. It is all foolishness. The moon planet is situated above the sun planet. They are not going to the moon planet; therefore they have stopped their propaganda. So above that moon planet, there is Venus, there is Jupiter, there is Mars, and so many others. So in the sastra it is said, urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah [Bg. 14.18]. If you act very piously, in the mode of goodness, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system. And if you do not work in the modes of goodnessin the modes of passionthen you remain in this planet and become changed into so many bodies. And if you still work... Jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah. If you are so abominable that you do not work as a human being and just like animal, then you go to the hellish condition. This is nature's law.

So Sukadeva Gosvami has described all the planetary system, where and how they are situated, how many miles they are different from one another. The calculation of the whole universe is made there. The diameter is described: four billion miles up and down, this way and that. And where is the sun is situated and how far above the sun the moon is situated, how far above the moon the Mars, Jupitereverything is clearly described. And where the hellish planets are situated, and how in the hellish planets different sinful men are suffering. So Pariksit Maharaja, after hearing... That is Vaisnava. He did not take care of the other things. He immediately took care of the suffering planets, because that is the Vaisnava's nature. Vaisnava has no problem. He is servant of God, representative of God. But he is feeling the sufferings of the humanity. That is Vaisnava. He feels, "Oh, these people are suffering. Let us give some information from the sastra so that they can be relieved from the suffering condition."

So in this Kali-yuga, (it is) especially Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy that you are chanting and dancing before Caitanya Mahaprabhu... So He is so merciful that if you continue this process, you are guaranteed that you will never go to the hellish planet. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy. Very simple thing. If you simply chant and dance before Caitanya Mahaprabhu Kalau sankirtanaih yajnaih yajanti hi su-medhasah. This is the description of the sastra:

So if we follow this leadership and if we act very nicely, very easily... Sukham. There is one verse in Sanskrit, Bhagavad-gita, raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam, kartum avyayam. To perform this activity, it doesn't require much energy, much austerity. Simply you join the sankirtana movement, and ecstasy you dance, take prasadam. By this process you are guaranteed; you will never go to the hellish planet. So this sankirtana movement is so nice. Anyway, don't disbelieve. It is in the sastra. So there are hellish planet, hellish birth, 8,400,000 species of birth. So we have to take information from the sastra. Don't be foolish. You create your mental concoction. No, that will not help you, because you are not free. Nobody is free. Everyone is under the grip of material laws. Even if I think, "I am free," that is my foolishness. I will be forced to act. Even if I do not want to become old man, I will be forced to become old man. And if I, after this giving up this body, if I... Suppose nature is offering me a dog's body. If I say "No, no, I will not accept this," no, you will be forced to accept it. That is nature's law. But you can save yourself if you follow conscientiously. That is Krsna consciousness. If you keep yourself in Krsna consciousness and act accordingly, then you will be saved. Otherwise there is no saving. Tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]. You will have to accept another body. And what is that body? That is not stated. That will be decided at the end of your life, at the time of your death, at the condition of your mind and intelligence at that time. If, at that time, you are thinking of your pet dog, "What will happen to my pet dog? How he will live? Let me leave some of my property in his name," (laughter) then you can leave the dog with some property, but you are going to be dog. This is laws of nature. You may love your dog very nicely and leave some property, but where you are going, sir? That is under the nature's law. You cannot say that "I given so much property to the dog. Why shall I accept the...?" No. Because your mind is absorbed in the thought of dog, therefore you must take the dog's body. This is nature's law. Therefore we have to train up our mind. Instead of dog, you must train up your mind to think of God. Then you will be saved. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam [Bg. 4.9].

Anyway, so Pariksit Maharaja asked that "How these people can be delivered from this hellish condition of life?" That was his question to Sukadeva Gosvami. He asked,

So the punishments are different. So therefore Sukadeva Gosvami is informing, na ced ihaivapacitim yathamhasah. You have done something, sinful activity, and if you do not atone for it before your next death, krtasya kuryan mana-ukta-panibhih, the sinful activities which you have done with your body, with your mind, with your senses, that you have to atone for it. "Otherwise," dhruvam sa vai pretya narakan upaiti, dhruvam, "surely he will get the different types of hellish condition of life," ye kirtita me, "as I have already described," bhavatas tigma-yatanah, "before you how they are suffering." This is karma-kanda vicara, means for one sinful activities, another pious activity, counteraction. But this will be discussed in the next verse, that prayascittam. Prayascitta means atonement. That is the next verse here:

...decided in India still there is the system. Now everything is gone practically. But still the Vedic system is there that if one has committed... They are always conscious, the mass of people, not the so-called educated men, that "In the sastra it is said that this is sinful." So if he commits some sinful activity, he goes to a very expert brahmana. They are called bhattacarya. They are especial... Just like there are physicians for treatment of the disease, there are highly learned brahmanas who are called bhattacaryas. People go there: "Sir, I have committed this sin. What I have to do?" So they prescribe that "You do like this." So similarly, as we go to the physician, we have to go to consult an expert learned brahmana, that "I have committed..." But people used to understand that what is sinful and what is pious. Now people are so downtrodden, so dull, mandah, that they do not understand what is sinful, what is pious. They are going on, doing all nonsense without any care. And there is no question of consulting physician or learned brahmana.

So these things are all gone. In Caitanya Mahaprabhu's time there was misuse also of this... Just like sometimes the physician does not give him the proper medicine. Just to keep him under treatment and take money from him, he continues. Similarly, in this age things are being deteriorated. So even you go to a learned brahmana, he does not give you the proper instruction. He wants to exact some money from you. Therefore things have gone, everything, very bad. Even in Caitanya Mahaprabhu's time, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was there, one gentleman, he was made into a Muhammadan. This is a long story. The shortcut is he was very rich man, and the Nawab of Bengal, Hussain Shah, when he was a boy, he was his servant. Later on he became the Nawab, the king. So one day the Nawab was being massaged, and his wife saw that there is a stripe on the back. So (s)he asked the Nawab, "What is this?" So he stated that "When I was a poor boy, I was servant of Buddhimanta Khan, and I committed some wrong, so he whipped me with a cane." "Oh? Then it is a sign that you were a servant of Buddhimanta Khan sometimes before. If people will see and you will explain, that is an insult for you." "Oh, what is that? He was just like my father. He chastised me. I don't mind." "No, no, no, no. You should kill him so that he may not say to anyone that you were sometime his servant." So Nawab disagreed. Nawab said, "No, no. He treated me just like my son, and I accepted him as my father. It is not possible to kill him." Then the queen suggested that "At least you make him a Muhammadan. Then that will be the punishment." So the king, or the Nawab, said, "All right, I shall make him." Because in those days, to make a Hindu a Muhammadan, it was very easy. The Muhammadans they have got a pot, it is called badna. So if the Mohammedan takes little water from the badna and sprinkles upon a Hindu, then Hindu community will immediately reject him, "Oh, he has become Muhammadan." This was the Hindu community. Therefore so many Muhammadans were there in India, and ultimately, by the British policy, they divided. They were not actually Muhammadans coming from Turkey or from West. They were lower-class Hindus. But the Hindus were so foolish that if a Muhammadan sprinkled some water in this way, so he becomes Muhammadan and he is rejected, in this way the Muhammadan population was there.

Anyway, that was done in the case of Buddhimanta Khan. The Nawab called him one day and took little water from his pot and sprinkled, and it was the law, "He has become Muhammadan, he has become Muhammadan." So he went to a bhattacarya, "So what is the atonement? Now I have become Muhammadan." Just see the conception. And the bhattacarya said that "You drink one pound of molten lead." "How it is possible?" "That is the atonement." So in this way he was baffled. He went to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He was very respectable man. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu laughed, that "This the condition of the Hindu society." So He said that "I tell you that you give up your family life. You go to Vrndavana and chant there Hare Krsna. That's all. That will be the..."

So at the present moment that is the only atonement. Whatever we have done and whatever we are doing, the atonement is chant Hare Krsna mantra. So we haven't got to go to Vrndavana. We have got Vrndavana, Nabadwip, here in Hawaii, in this temple. So you take this process of atonement, but don't commit sinful life any more. Don't think that "Now I am chanting and I can go on committing all sinful activities." That is aparadha. That is offense. Namnad balad yasya hi papa-buddhih. If we think like that, that "We have got an instrument, chanting of Hare Krsna mantra, which nullifies or neutralizes all kinds of sinful activities. It is very good instrument. Then I go on committing all kinds of sinful activities, and sometimes I go in the temple and chant Hare Krsna and dance," no, don't take this policy. You must stop your sinful activities. Hare Krsna mantra has got the power to neutralize the resultant action of your all sinful activities. That's a fact. But don't accumulate again the sinful activities. Then you are safe. If you take it as an instrument: "Now let me commit sinful activities and chant Hare Krsna," then that is very dangerous. You will never be excused. Just like sometimes the Christians do. They go to the church, make some atonement, and again does the same thing next week, and again goes to the church, again atonement. This is not good. If you make atonement for your sinful activities by some processjust like we are prescribing this process, chant Hare Krsnasurely your sinful reaction is nullified. But don't commit it again. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He delivered Jagai-Madhai. They were very sinful. Sinful means they were born in a respectable brahmana family, but by bad association they became drunkard, woman-hunter, cheater, and plunderer, like that. That is sinful. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu delivered them. Then how delivered them? Caitanya Mahaprabhu made them promise that "You will not do any more all these things." They said, "Yes, we promise. We shall not do." "Then you are delivered." Similarly, by chanting Hare Krsna mantra, all the sinful activities are excused, but you don't commit it again. Therefore we are prescribing... Along with chanting of Hare Krsna mantra, we are asking our disciples, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling." If you save yourself from these four pillars of sinful activities and chant Hare Krsna mantranot very much, only sixteen rounds minimumthen you are saved from the hellish condition of life for which Pariksit Maharaja was so disturbed and he was asking, "How to save these people from this hellish condition of life?"

So this will be described more and more. The book is there, Bhagavata. You can read. We are... We have published so many Srimad-Bhagavatam edition, nicely explained in English. So they are being accepted even educated circle, school, college, and big, big professors. So you also try to read this Bhagavatam, and don't commit sinful activities, the four things, and chant Hare Krsna. Then your life is saved from hellish condition of life.

Thank you very much. (end)