01--Bhagavad-gītā 2.59

[kirtana] [prema-dhvani] [obeisances]

Devotees: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Prabhupada: [prema-dhvani] jaya om visnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya astottara-sata sri srimad bhaktisiddhanta sarasvati gosvami prabhupada ki jaya. ananta-koti vaisnava-vrnda ki jaya. namacarya srila haridasa thakura ki jaya. premse kaho sri-krsna-caitanya-prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya. sri sri radha-krsna gopa-gopinatha syama-kunḍa radha-kunḍa giri-govardhana ki jaya. vrndavana-dhama ki jaya. navadvipa-dhama ki jaya. gahgamayi ki jaya. tulasidevi ki jaya, bhaktidevi ki jaya. samaveta-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya.

All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees.

Devotees: All glories to Sri guru and Gaurahga. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. [obeisances]

[08:12]

Prabhupada: So I shall speak some of the verses from Bhagavad-gita which deals in the yoga system. In your country, yoga process, at least this word yoga, is very popular. Yoga means connecting; viyoga means disconnecting. So yoga and viyoga. When we disconnect our relationship with this material world, then we connect our relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is yoga system. Param drstva nivartate [Bg 2.59].

Just like you are habituated to something-may be good or bad-but if you find out something better than that engagement, you accept it. That is our nature. For example, suppose I am being employed in the office. I am getting $500 per month. But if I get a better job, I can draw $1000 per month, I give up. Param drstva nivartate [Bg 2.59]. That is our nature.

So the yogi means he wants permanent happiness. He is yogi. Everyone is happy, searching after happiness, even birds, beast-everyone-is searching after happiness, because happiness… Our life… We are living soul, part and parcel of God. God is happy. You see Radha-Krsna mūrti, how happy They are. That is original happiness. Here also, we are trying to imitate Radha-Krsna. Young boys and girls, they intermingle, they also embrace, they also kiss. But where is happiness? That is to be understood. So the Bhagavad-gita gives indication that sukham. Sukham means "happiness." Sukham atyantikam yat tad [Bg 6.21].

Atyantikam, the highest, perpetual, eternal-non-ending. Sukham at... We want that. Anywhere happiness we find, we should continue. That happiness there. That is the standard of happiness. Eternal happiness is there in Krsna, or the Supreme Absolute Truth.

In the Vedanta-sūtra [1.1.12] it is said, ananda-mayo 'bhyasat. Ananda-mayo, always happy; there is no question of unhappiness. And we, being part and parcel of Krsna, our nature is also like that. It may be small-I may be very small-but my nature is the same. Just like this Pacific Ocean. You take a drop of the Pacific Ocean, the constitution is the same: salty taste. Similarly, we are part and parcel of God, Krsna. Krsna says, mamaivamso jiva-bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7]: "This, all these living entities, they are My part and parcel."

So how these part and parcel can be of other qualities? It is not possible. So gold and gold particles must be of the same quality. The value may be different, the quantity may be different, but the quality is the same.

Therefore we are searching after happiness. That is our nature. But Bhagavad-gita, Krsna says that if you want happiness, then you must be uncovered by… Uncovered means, without being covered by these material encagements, this body, encagement.

Atindriyam. Indriyam means "senses." We want happiness by using the senses, but the real happiness is atindriyam, means the purified condition of the senses. Just like if my eyes-one of the senses-the function is to see very beautiful things. That is natural. But if the eyes are diseased or covered by some lay of cataract, you cannot see; you cannot enjoy. The senses are there. Somebody is looking, a blind man covered with cataracts. You see their eyes are there. Why they cannot see? Because the cataracts are there. Therefore happiness is there, but because we are covered by this material senses, we cannot taste it. We try to taste it, but we are becoming baffled because it is covered.

So it should be uncovered. So this bhakti-yoga process is uncovering process of the senses. Not that killing the senses. Other philosophers, they stop the use of the senses-Buddha philosophy, impersonal philosophy. Because we have got very bad experience of personal relationships, personal love, we think sometimes that may be impersonal. No. That is not happiness, because by nature you are person. How you can become imperson? It is not possible. By force, if you try to forget yourself, impersonal, void, zero, that is artificial. Artificial. You cannot stay.

Therefore Bhagavata says,

The devotee says, "My dear Lord, Aravindaksa."Aravinda means "lotus"; aksa means "eyes." Just see how beautiful Krsna's eyes are, just like lotus flower petal. So Krsna is addressed, "My dear lotus-eyed, Aravindaksa."Anye-"others," because this is being addressed by a devotee. There are transcendentalists: the yogis, the jnanis, and the karmis are the lowest. Higher than the karmis are the jnanis. This karmis means ordinary worker. Just like ordinary man, they are also trying to find out happiness by a nice car, by nice road, by nice electricity, by nice restaurant, like that. Whole day and night, touring, wandering here and there, here, there. Why? Happiness.

That is karmis happiness. And jnani means when it is disgusted, that "Throughout my whole life I have driven motorcar and seen naked dancing and all these things, but what is that thing?"-when he becomes little sensitive than the ordinary man. He is also searching after happiness: "There is no happiness." So give up all these things-no more motorcar; lie down on the street; no more skyscrapers. That is another negation only. First of all of you try to enjoy the material world. When you become baffled, then make it zero. That is another attempt. That is called jnani-to make everything negative, zero, void, impersonal. Jnani. And yogi, yogi means "Know there is God within my heart. Find out by meditation, the yoga process. Then I will be happy." Yes, you will be happy; you will be, actually.

Īsvara, the Supreme Lord, He lives within your heart as Paramatma. If you can find out and be in trance, samadhi, to see Him, you will be happy. That practice is mentioned, how to become happy: yogi. That is mentioned. Krsna is advising Arjuna that "You can become happy by the yogic process," and He is giving it instructions here:

The first state is mentioned here, ekaki: alone. You cannot practice yoga with many. That is not possible. Disturbing. Not even in the city. We have got a history of yogis, so many yogis, in Indian literature. They go to Himalaya, secluded place. You never find a yogi is practicing in a city like New York. That's not yoga; that is a mere show, show-bottle. That's not real yoga. Somebody comes, "Here, I shall teach you yoga. You come to my yogic class and you pay me, and I shall teach you some pressing of nose and this and that." These are bogus. Here it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is teaching. He cannot say anything which is adverse. He says, first of all He says, ekaki. Ekaki means "alone." Yata-cittatma nirasir aparigrahaḥ. Nirasir means eating practically nothing. Nirasir, practically nothing. The yogis… Dhruva Maharaja practiced yoga simply by eating leaves of the trees for six months. Not six months; for one month. First of all he began yoga practice by eating leaves of the trees. Then simply water, then simply air, then practically no eating. Nirasir.

See Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, one of the direct disciples of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he practiced. He was a very rich man's son, so when he left home his father was observing that "My son is becoming unattached to this material world." He was a very rich man's son, landholder, and therefore his mother…, his father got him married with a very beautiful wife and gave him a nice building, garden, house, and "Live here." You see his father was trying to make him attached to this material life. But he was by nature renounced. He did not like. So one day the father and mother was consulting. Mother, she was very anxious: the only son, and so much property. They were observing that the son is unattached; he may go away at any day. So mother was advising that "You bind him with shackle so that he may not go away." The father said that "I have given him the best shackle-a very nice beautiful wife-and he is not attached. What these iron shackles will do?" You see? "It is not possible. This boy, I am sure that he is not going to stay at home." So he was very much guarded, so that he may not go away. But one day-he was also intelligent; the son of an intelligent father is also intelligent-but he slipped away. He slipped away one day, in early in the morning. He slipped from the home, and through the jungle he approached Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

So when the father saw that the son has gone away, he could understand that "He has gone to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so it is no use to search him out. It is a fact. So better to send him some money and some servants so that he may live there comfortably." So he sent four servants-very rich man, and five hundred years ago, four hundred rupees per month. He arranged that he should be sent four hundred rupees per month, and the four servants would serve him. So he wrote a letter, "My dear son, I know you do not like to stay, but I want to see that you live comfortably. Don't take too much pain. Do not become a mendicant; it will be very painful for your body-you are not accustomed." In this way.

So he consulted, consulted within himself, "All right, take this money." So how he was spending money? He was inviting all the sannyasis every month and giving nice feast. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was also being invited. So after some days Caitanya Mahaprabhu enquired from his secretary, Svarūpa Damodara, "Well, Svarūpa Damodara, nowadays I don't get invitation from Raghunatha, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami." There were six Gosvamis; one of them is Raghunatha dasa.

There are two Raghunathas. One was Bhatta Raghunatha, Raghunatha Bhattacarya, and another Raghunatha dasa. He was brahmana by caste; he was ksatriya by caste. So Svarūpa Damodara informed that "He has rejected his father's money. He has asked the servant to inform his father that 'You go home and ask my father don't send any money or anything. This is not vairagya. I am renounced. Why I shall live on the contributions from home? This is not proper. He rejected. I must depend on Krsna. If Krsna sends me some food I shall eat; otherwise not.' " So when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was informed that "He has rejected his father's money. Now for his livelihood he stands on the staircase of Jagannatha temple. At night when the pūjaris go away, if they give some prasadam he accepts," Caitanya Mahaprabhu immediately, "Ah, this is very nice. He has rejected his father's money. That's nice."

Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu was always guarding this Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, because Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He knew that this boy is very sincere, so "Gradually let him come to the highest perfectional stage." So one day He was asking His secretary that "I don't see Raghunatha standing on the staircase of the Jagannatha temple." So he said, "Yes, he has left this profession. He thought that 'This is the business of a prostitute.' " Just like a prostitute stands on the road, and he is thinking, "This man will come to me. This man will come to me. This man will come to me," so he thought that "To think that 'I'll get some food from this man, this man, this man'-no, I don't want." "Then how he is living?" "Now he is living, collecting some rejected rice in the kitchen." Because in the kitchen, however carefully you do, some foodstuff falls down on the floor, and when it is washed, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was collecting those refused foodstuffs and eating. You see? Vairagya.

In this way, after demise of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he went to Vrndavana. There also he practiced the same thing, and gradually he reduced the foodstuffs, say just this much quantity butter, every alternate day. Every alternate day.

Nidra-ahara-vihara. Nidra means "sleeping," sleeping; and ahara means "eating," or "collecting." Nidrahara. Vihara means "sense enjoyment." So nidrahara-viharakadi-vijitau: he conquered over these three things-sleeping, eating and sense enjoyment. This is called nirasi.

Sahkhya-pūrvaka-nama-gana-natibhiḥ. Sahkhya-pūrvaka means "numerical strength." He was not only chanting under certain numerical strength… Just like we have advised our students to chant at least sixteen rounds-that is the minimum, because we are not so advanced. But Haridasa Thakura was chanting three hundred thousand beads. Not sixteen. But sixteen rounds, it comes to twenty-five thousand. So if you increase, it can go at any amount. But Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was chanting not only beads on numerical strength, he was offering obeisances, so many times. Perhaps you have seen when we are in Radha-kunḍa-who was…,

Devotee: I have seen.

Prabhupada: You have seen?-one young man was offering obeisances. He was offering obeisances this way: he was putting one stone; again, this way; again... [break] [end]