Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.58 – [Hindi-final proofreading pending] – August 19, 1975, Bombay

Yasomatinandana: English or Hindi?

Audience: [Transl. Hindi will be good. Hindi is okay.]

Prabhupada: We are now discussing the story of Ajamila. He was a Brahmana boy with all brahmanical qualities. The qualities are described as, ayam hi sruta-sampanna. When he was in his childhood....This man was in his youth and married, sruta-sampannaḥ.

Sruta means 'Vedic knowledge'. Veda is called sruti and the knowledge obtained from hearing the Vedas that is called srotrayam and sruta. It is the Vedic knowledge heard from the spiritual master. It is a thing to be heard. First hear. We are having these satsahgs or spiritual meetings, the aim is that all of you should come and hear to this Vedic knowledge. By constant hearing you will acquire the knowledge. It is not necessary to read it even. If one does not know how to read and write then how will he acquire knowledge? By hearing! God has given him ears to hear. Actually, previously this Vedic knowledge was acquired by hearing from the spiritual master.

There were no written books. Vyasadeva wrote books at the beginning of Kali-yuga when he realized that the remembering power of human beings would decline in this yuga and so they will not be able to acquire knowledge only through hearing. There must be books to read and keep. That is why I am printing so many books. Just to come here and listen and then go away, this will not work. Read all these books. By reading these books you will acquire Vedic knowledge. Why this Brahmana boy Ajamila is in such a bad position today is being explained here by the messengers of Yamaraja. This person had all the brahmanical qualities. What are those qualities-sruta-sampannaḥ. He had heard Vedic knowledge throughly. Sampannaḥ means he had heard all the four Vedas till the end. And Sila-vrtta-gunalayaḥ, in his social dealings he was of good character, and endowed with good qualities. Sila-vrtta-gunalayaḥ. And dhrta-vrata means something done with a vow, in other words, full determination. Drḍha-vrata. The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita,

The word is Drḍha-vrata. Drḍha means definite. To get up at four o' clock in the morning is definite, there is no compromise on that. Someone gets up and someone doesn't, No! You must get up at four in the morning every day that is called dhrta-vrata or drḍha-vrata. Not that I occasionally get up at four o clock in the morning, No! Every day one must get up. That is the duty of a Brahmana. Dhrta-vrato mrdur, he should be of a very mild nature. Dantaḥ, to keep the senses under control, this is the duty of a Brahmana. Sama, dama, to keep the mind steady, to keep the senses steady. Sama, dama, titiksa, we must learn all this. So it is said, mrdur dantaḥ satya-vah. Satya-van means one who never tells lies. Satya-vah, mantra-vit, he knew all the Vedic mantras by heart. Suciḥ-very neat and clean, taking bath thrice, keep clothes and body very clean. And guru-agni-atithi-vrddhanam, to respect these three things. We must offer our prostrated obeisances on seeing the spiritual master, danḍavat. And fire, we must do fire sacrifices every day. And guests, we must serve the unexpected guests when they visit our home. And vrddhanam, And specially old man we must satisfy and honor the old persons very nicely. These are all the qualities. And then susrūsur anahahkrtaḥ, this Brahmana boy was doing all this and despite having so many good qualities he was not proud about this, anahahkrtaḥ sarva-bhūta-suhrt, and he was friendly to all living entities and was the well-wisher of all living entities, sarve sukhino bhavantu. These are the good qualities of a human being. And sadhu, each word here has got detailed meaning but I am explaining in short. So sadhu, sadhu means devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just like the Supreme Lord has said in the Bhagavad-gita, sadhur eva sa mantavyaḥ, Who is a sadhu?

For one who is a devotee of the Lord and who has no other business than serving the Supreme Lord, he is called a sadhu. All these sadhus are here. They do not talk nonsense. It is the duty a devotee of the to talk and chant Krsna's names only. Idle talk will result in loss of life span only, no benefit in that. That is why the scriptures say, vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane. If you talk then only talk about the Supreme Lord residing in Vaikuntha. Not about some cinema actresses. Sravanam kirtanam visnoḥ, [SB 7.5.23] if you want to hear about someone, hear about the topics relating to Lord Visnu. And if you want to talk about someone then talk about the topics of the Lord only. Sravanam kirtanam visnoḥ.

This is called Krsna consciousness, "Krsna-bhavanamrta. To keep the mind always engaged at the lotus feet of the Lord. And the Lord Himself says,

This is called Krsna consciousness, these four things. Always remembering the Lord, that is why we request everyone to chant Hare Krsna so that the mind will be engaged in the Supreme Lord. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, after all you have to hear Krsna's names. So when you hear this, your mind will be automatically engaged in that and that is meditation. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare. Man-mana, and who will do that? Mad-bhakta, man-mana bhava mad-bhakta. Without being a devotee why will he chant Hare Krsna?

"Worship Me." That is why the Supreme Lord has personally come to the temple. Decorate the Lord nicely, offer flowers to the Lord, offer foodstuffs to the Lord, honor prasadam. These are the injunctions given in the scriptures.

And if you can't do any of these then come to the temple at least once a day and offer your obeisances. It is a very simple process not difficult. But we do not want to do it! We say what is the use of going to the temple? Let us go to the restaurant and have a cup of tea, and smoke a biḍi. So why will we not suffer then? When we discard the laws given in the scriptures, so can we ever be happy? No!

Such a person will never achieve happiness. We will discard the scriptural injunctions and then expect to be happy, this is not possible. So this Brahmana boy who was about twenty to twenty-five years old, he had learnt everything. What is the advantage of taking birth in a Brahmana family? The others have to learn this but one can learn by seeing the behavior of the parents by virtue of his being born in a Brahmana family, he learns automatically. This is the advantage. But having been born in a family of Brahmanas and if the parents lack brahmanical qualities then how will the children learn? And these things are not taught in the schools and colleges. That is why there is degradation? So there are a number of reasons for this degradation and one of the reasons is being described here is, ekadasau. This Brahmana boy Ajamila once upon a time, vanam yataḥ, went into the forest. Actually not one day but it is the duty of the Brahmana to go into the forest or garden to collect flowers etc for offering to the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead says,

To worship the Supreme Lord does not require much money. Those who can afford to spend must do so nicely. For one who does not have the money and so cannot spend, the Lord is still ready to accept a little leaf or some flowers. The Lord does not say feed me luci, puri, kachori, in a golden plate, He has enough to eat of His own. There is no scarcity of food for Him. It is said,

In order to render service the Supreme Lord hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune are always ready. There is no shortage for the Lord. The Lord has come here to sit in Juhu, Bombay as if the poor Lord has nothing to eat and has come here to beg for some foodstuffs from you. No. This is not the case. He has appeared out of His causeless mercy...

He has given you the opportunity to serve Him. But you want that somehow or other this temple should not be built here and the Supreme Lord cannot sit here! That is your pledge! The poor Lord has kindly appeared to give you the chance and you are determind to make sure that no temple is built here. When kirtan is performed you give an application to the police and the police department declares that this kirtan is a nuisance! This is the situation. This is called Kali-yuga. The Lord says,

Whenever there is a decline in religious practices, then I descend Myself or I send one of My pure devotee just to deliver everyone. And the poor Lord has come but we do not let Him sit here! This is the situation. This Brahmana boy had acquired all the good qualities of a brahmana. But one day, ekadasau vanam yataḥ when he was going to the forest...Why does he go to the forest? pitr-sandesa-krd dvijaḥ.

The father of this boy was at home worshipping the Lord and ordered the boy to get flowers, grass etc from the forest. Being a Brahmana he did not have much money. But the Lord says, "Give me leaf or flower, what's there if you don't have money!" You can get a leaf or a flower anywhere, inside the house or outside the house. It is not that the Supreme Lord is satisfied only when we offer Him puri, halwa etc. No, the Lord says,

"I eat the offerings." And once the Lord eats the foodstuffs offered by you then what shortage will you ever have? Then you are the richest man! There are examples of this. Once the Lord eats out of the hands of someone, he will never face any poverty in his life. This is mentioned in the scriptures. Nowadays everyone asks me what is the use of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead? People are poor and the need to have food to eat. We advertise that people who do not have food to eat, clothes to wear and place to stay, please come to us. We are making big houses in Bombay, come and stay here but no one comes. I have to bring people from abroad to run the temple. Nobody comes! This is very sad indeed that for Indian culture no Indian comes forward. They go to the mill but don't come here. What can we do? We are requesting them to come and stay here, eat prasada of the Lord, chant the holy names and you will get everything. The Lord himself says,

Prabhupada: What is the first line?

Yasomatinandana:

If you keep your mind constantly engaged in the Supreme Lord, ananyas cintayanto, like this Krsna consciousness movement, we teach ananyas cintas, twenty-four hours of the day keep the mind engaged in the Lord. No other thoughts. Whatever is to be done must be done for the Supreme Lord. You can actually see this happening here. We do not just sit around or sleep. No! We clean the temple, decorate the Lord, offer the Lord foodstuffs and in order to cook the foodstuffs we maintain a good kitchen and we beg ingredients for offering from people for the kitchen, we write books about the Supreme Lord. Then we print the books, go to the press to check it, and once it is well done we try to sell them. So that is why twenty-four hours of the day we have got engagements. Twenty-four hours! We do not have a single minute to spare.

This is called ananyas cintayanto. No other thoughts, only about the Lord. Just like an ordinary person is thinking about the household affairs, how to maintain it, how to educate the children, how to earn money-these are their thoughts. We are also thinking but for the Supreme Lord! How will the temple of the Lord be built here, why are we fighting so much for it? We already have 108 temples and if this one here is not built then we will still have 107 temples for sure! So there is no loss for us in that but we think that Bombay is such a big city so why not have a grand temple here for the Lord? This is our thinking. But they are putting impediments- no, we will not allow you. Let these impediments be there but we will not stop thinking about it.

We will keep thinking, this is our duty! Whether we are successful or not, that is not our worry. If the Supreme Lord so desires we will be successful and if not then it is the Lord's mission and we were not allowed to implement. So there is no loss for us in this. This is man-mana bhava mad-bhakto. Who will endeavour so much unless he is a devotee of the Lord? Any other person would quit thinking why to take so much trouble? Forget it! We could spend this much time on speculation in the share market and earn some profit! Only a devotee can do this. That is why the Lord says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, become My devotee. Because his thoughts will always be with the Lord and he is the greatest yogi who by any means engages his mind in the Supreme Lord, yena tena prakarena. This is the philosophy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, yena tena prakarena manaḥ krsne nivesayet [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.4] Somehow or other engage your mind in the Supreme Lord. This is Krsna consciousness philosophy. So there is a variety of service available here, you can take up any and Krsna is the centre of that service. That is why, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, he becomes a devotee and the mind is always engaged at the lotus feet of the Lord. For this, the Lord Himself declares that this kind of a person who is always thinking of Me, will never be in want of anything. "I will personally look into his needs."

Whatever necessities they have got, Krsna is bringing personally, "Here you take it." And actually you can see we have got 108 temples all over the world and in each of them not less than 50 devotees but between 200, 250 to 300 devotees live. So you can estimate how many devotees are there in these 108 temples all over the world. We have a temple in London, New York. We have two temples in London. Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Boston have our temples. We have 40 temples in America. We have temples in Australia, Canada, everywhere. You can go to any temple and you will see that there is no scarcity of anything. Yoga-ksemam vahamy aham. This is practical. This is not theoretical that we bluff and say things. You can go and see. In Bombay you see that although we are under so much pressure, worship and service is going on uninterrupted. Even if we are not allowed to build a temple, still our worship and service is going on! There is no loss for us but the people who are obstructing will be at a loss, this is definite! This the Supreme Lord will never tolerate.

This must happen in India especially as this is India's heritage, devotional service to the Supreme Lord. Devotional service is especially available in India. That is why even the demigods pray to the Lord that they may take birth in the land of India. This is mentioned in the scriptures. India is such a sacred land that those who are born here they are 'naturally devotees'. He is forced to become a non devotee. Whenever we have performed this sahkirtan movement in any city, you would have seen like in Bombay, what is that place?

Yasomatinandana: Cross Maidan.

Prabhupada: ...Cross Maidan we have organized two or three times, around 30000 to 40000 people attended. Similar casees were in Calcutta, Hyderabad and Madras. So up until now, the people of India have not forgotten the devotional service to the Supreme Lord, but they are being forced to forget. Do not forget, do not neglect otherwise the purpose of human life will be a failure. If you want to be successful in the human life then we must accept devotional service.

For those who are devoid of devotional service to the Supreme Lord, their caste, and japas tapaḥ, austerity, tapasya and ritualistic activities is like, apranasya hi dehasya manḍanam loka-ranjanam, like decorating a dead body. What is the use of decorating a dead body? No gain for him nor for anyone else. Loka-ranjanam, people watching clap and say look how nicely they have decorated the dead body! But there is no gain from this. Similarly you may belong to a high caste, or become a great industrialist or some such thing but if you are not engaged in devotional service to the Supreme Lord then it is like decorating a dead body, that's all. Therefore devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead should not be given up.

This Ajamila who was following the instructions of his father, pitr-sandesa-krd dvijaḥ. This is the quality of a Brahmana. The father is performing worship of the Lord and he orders, "My dear son, collect some flowers and fruits so that I will offer them in the service of the Lord. Dvijaḥ: twice born, this is the duty of a dvijaḥ."

And according to the instructions of his father this boy was bringing flowers, fruits and samit means kusa grass etc from the forest. What did he see on the way? dadarsa kaminam kahcic, he saw a lusty man. Kami means sūdra. A sūdra is lusty. And a Brahmana is samyami: he controls the lusty desires. Samaḥ and Damaḥ, if a person cannot control his lusty desires then he is a sūdra and the one who can control is a Brahmana, he is a svami, he is a gosvami. Svami means master and gosvami means master of his senses. Normally we are the servants of our senses. The tongue is a sense organ and it tells me to smoke a biḍi, as the tongue is dry. So at that very moment I smoke a biḍi. This means that I am the servant of the tongue.

The tongue is asking for a biḍi, a cigarette and I am also giving it. This means that though I am thinking myself to be independent and master actually I am the servant of the tongue. And you will not the servant of the tongue then when the tongue tells you to give a biḍi but you will not give. Then you are not the servant of the tongue, go-dasa but the master of the senses, gosvami. Such a person is called a gosvami. Tongue is a sense organ and it is called 'go' and when you are the servant of your senses then you are 'go-dasa' and when you are the master of your senses then you are 'goswami'. Gosvami does not mean that for name sake you are called a gosvami but you are the servant of the biḍi. This is not acceptable. Gosvami means one who is the master of his senses. The title svami given to sannyasis means he is the master of his senses not servant. Therefore it is said,

kaminam. Lusty man. That means sūdra. He saw a sūdra. kaminam kancic chūdram. It is said, sūdra.

He saw a lady, sūdrani, both were drunk, madaghūrnita. Mad means liquor and the brain was puzzled because of this.

Even the eyes were rolling. It means they were totally drunk. Liquor. This kind of activity is encouraged nowadays, please come, here is a liquor shop! But these are all activities of a sūdra. This is not the activity of a Brahmana. This is the action of a sūdra!

Their clothes were also loosened.

And they were embracing and kissing each other on a public road, nirapatrapam, without any shame, shamelessly. Nirapatrapam. kriḍantam anugayantam. They were thus indulging in these kinds of activities and singing songs from the movies. In those days perhaps there were no cinemas, anugayantam, lust invoking songs they were singing. And hasantam, laughing and smiling and anayantike, there were no impediments to their activities. So he saw a sūdra and a sūdrani. This Brahmana boy was so qualified but despite his qualifications when he saw this scene in front of his eyes, his mind became perturbed. He is a youth and we shall see in the future verses how this boy will fall down just on account of seeing this scene. And we see this every day. If not in the streets. It is on the streets also and we can see it in the pictures and cinemas. How will the youth be able to remain fixed in the Brahmana family? Impossible! Just by seeing once Ajamila had such a fall down. He became a thief, a dacoit, a cheat and whatever else he could have become he became. Just by seeing once a sūdra and a sūdrani embracing each other and we watch this every day in the cinemas and how much we are fallen and how much we are going to fall further, please try to understand this. This is Kali-yuga. So our Indian culture and Vedic traditions, to protect them ordinarily is very difficult. So Kali-yuga...If there is a disease, there is also a medicine for that! The scriptures say, Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, so many faults. This is mentioned in the 12th canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. So what is the medicine for this? That is also mentioned. What is that medicine?

Maharaja Pariksit, the Kali-yuga is full of faults but there is one great benediction also. What is that?

Simply by Krsna kirtana, by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra one can be liberated from all our sins and go to Vaikuntha. This is the essence of the Hare Krsna movement. All this degradation that has taken place,

In Kali-yuga mostly people have short lives and it is further reducing. Slowly it will be so little that if a person lives for 20 years or 30 years he will be considered an old man. This is written in the scriptures. Now it is 50 or 60 years. In India the average age is 35 years or something like that. So, prayenalpayusaḥ, in this Kali-yuga men will have short lives. They will not endeavor for gaining spiritual knowledge and liberation. So in this situation...Therefore the scriptures say,

In Kali-yuga if you want any spiritual progress, liberated, liberated means that this birth, death, old age and disease is not natural phenomenon but unnatural. A living entity is nitya sasvatam. He is eternal, everlasting, he will never die. na hanyate hanyamane sarire, when this body is destroyed the spirit soul does not perish. [Bg 2.20] The soul gets another material body. Tatha dehantara-praptir. [Bg 2.13] So If me and you all are eternal and the Supreme Lord is also eternal, nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is also eternal and conscious and we are also eternal and conscious. So the Supreme Lord wants that, you are eternal and you do not have any birth and death but now you are entangled in the cycle of birth and death. So come out of it-this is called mukti or liberation.

This is the explanation of mukti. Now we have forgotten our original constitutional position. Our constitutional position is that we never die and now we are dying. We give up one body take another one then give that up, among 8,400,000 species of life. We keep moving about in them. This is our bondage and to get freed from this bondage is called mukti, sva-rūpena vyavasthitiḥ. Constitutional position means that we never die.

Therefore, The Supreme Lord says you have solved all other problems but your real problem is birth, death, old age and disease. Solve this! We get 10, 20 or 50 or 100 years maximum to live and then we have to die and accept another body, this is our real problem. And once we become liberated from this problem then we will not be born nor will we die again. One who is not born will not die either. No old age also. Only if we are born will we have these problems. This is Krsna consciousness movement, this is the teaching of Bhagavad-gita, that you can all be liberated from this birth and death. And how? Only understand Krsna, that's all! This is our only business.

And Krsna, ajo 'pi sann avyayatma [Bg 4.6] The Lord says, "Although I am unborn, I am Devakinandana, I am Yasodanandana. There is a reason for this." If we can understand this reason,

Why does the Supreme Lord take the human form and become Devakinandana, Yasodanandana and performs His pastimes-try to understand this! Janma karma is divyam [transcendental, this is not ordinary]. So if anyone understands this

So what is his advantage? He becomes liberated.

Such a person, after givind up this present body does not get another material body. Then where does he go? Mam eva, he comes to Me in Vaikuntha. Then once you go there,

Once one goes to Vaikuntha he does not have to take on another material body, nor does he come back to this material world. Then his life is eternal, full of knowledge and blissful, anandamayo 'bhyasat. [Vedanta-sūtra 1.1.12] So we should try to earn it. That is why we have been given a human body. The human form of life is not like dogs and sheep for eating, sleeping, enjoying and then dying. This is not human life. The human life is given so that we can understand God. One day someone was asking me, what is the aim of human life? The aim of human life is to surrender at the lotus feet of the Lord. That's all. Everything else will be fulfilled.

And what will be the benefit of doing this?

A person suffers because of his sins, and if one surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead then he has no suffering.

The goal of Krsna consciousness movement is that you somehow surrender unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. Then all your suffering will be removed and you will have no scarcity of anything. We are all working hard to remove our poverty.

To mitigate the poverty or wants we work with our mind and senses. Manaḥ- sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati. This will not work in the material world. Just like there is a man in the jail, if he pleases the jail superintendent his job will not be done. Until the Government passes his release order he will not be freed. So all this struggling we are undergoing in this material world

The Supreme Lord says the living entity is a part and parcel of Me, but they want to be happy in this material world with their mind and senses. Manaḥ-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati. Karsati, means struggling but he is not happy. How can he become happy? Not by using his intelligence to struggle and try to be happy. Then how will he be happy?

Those who by mental concoction plan to find ways to be happy, they will never be successful. Because that is the plan of the mind and not of the Supreme Personality of Godhead! And in the material world the plan of the Supreme Lord works. My plan or your plan will not work. I have planned that I will have a nice house, big bank balance and that I will never die and I will enjoy all these but the Lord's plan is you have to die and leave all this behind. So what plan can you make? No plan will be successful. Sarva- haram mrtyuḥ aham. [Bg 10.34] The Supreme Lord says that as death I will snatch everything away from you. That's all! Nothing will go with you. You came like this, you will go like this. You had one material body now and you will get another one, that's all. This is My plan.

This is the plan of the Supreme Lord's illusory energy. You cannot overcome it. It is insurmountable! It is not possible. You may try your best struggle but it is not possible!

Those who become devotees of the Lord, they no longer make any more plan. They leave everything to the Lord. Your plan alone works and now I have surrendered at Your lotus feet. Now You make plan as you desire, that's all!

Thank you very much! Hare Krsna!

Devotees: Haribol!