This transcription is by Uddhava Priya Prabhu, used with permission from lecture folio that you can download HERE

January 6, 2009

HH BVPS Maharaja:

Mantra 11

To achieve the goal of life one should be acquainted with both nescience and transcendental knowledge.

That’s the is the point being made, the thesis.

It is not possible to overcome nature by material endeavors. Even great materialists like Hiraëyakaçipu and Rāvaëa were not able to avoid death. What, then, can be accomplished by the tiny Hiraëyakaçipus and Rāvanas of today, whose plans are thwarted from moment to moment? 

The great demons of the past tried to overcome the material nature; most of the modern people happily conform to her cruel laws:

The path of avidyā, or advancement of material knowledge for sense gratification, is the path of repeated birth and death. As he exists spiritually, the living entity has no birth or death. Birth and death apply to the outward covering of the spirit soul, the body. Death is compared to the taking off and birth to the putting on of outward garments. Foolish human beings who are grossly absorbed in the culture of avidyā, nescience, do not mind this cruel process. Enamored with the beauty of the illusory energy, they undergo the same miseries repeatedly and do not learn any lessons from the laws of nature. (Śrī Éçopaniñad, mantra 11, purport)

It is not a popular concept, but there is no material solution to material problems, because material nature is very great. So our solution is that they all go away, there is no material problem, that would be proper. But if it din’t go away for Hiranyakasipu and Ravana it is not going to get away for us, there is no bigger demon than these two. 

Even Dantavakra and Sisupala they were big demons but compared to Hiranyakasipu. He would catch the planets and tie them up and put them on the stairs leading up to his seat for sitting in court, so he would walk on the backs on all the planets, that’s Hiranyakasipu. The modes of nature come to us through these planets, so he has got them in control, still it doesn’t go the way he wants it. 

The point is there are only spiritual solutions. Because even if we follow all the piety and Vedic culture and everything, still there is birth, death, old age and disease, because if you want to go to the heavenly planets having done all your auspicious rituals there you still have to die and have to go through death. Very few in the self-same form are just taken like that to heaven, some are. But it can also mean they are leaving the body here and they are taking them in a suitable form to the heavenly planets, but because it is the same soul and they are able to understand that continuity, because heaven is not going to mean anything if you don’t understand where it came from. You are going to be inspired if you saw that I did all this austerity and now I am going to the heavenly planets from that austerity. If it is like here that I don’t remember what is last life then I don’t know how I got what I got so I am not inspired to necessarily do good. Therefore there is no material solution, the only solution is Krsna consciousness, God-conscoiusness. By God consciousness you perform all the appropriate activities and by doing that one frees oneself from the clutches of material nature, that is the solution. There is no solution in material nature, the solution is to get out of material nature. 

Like you can be in the toilette, and set up a house in the toilette, but it is going to  smell. You can try different things, this that, so many things, but there is going to be times and it still smells. It is just the way it is. The best thing is to set up a house somewhere else, not in the toilette.

Instead of trying to overcome the Lord’s divine energy or conforming to it, the human beings should use the tribulations in the material world as an impetus to go home back to Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in his purport:

One is overcome by them by material energy and one loses one’s inspiration, that is one alternative. The other is one is very stoic, it is just the way it is, what can you do. Either way, both are useless, because one: action stops and without action you can’t accomplish anything, you lose your inspiration there will be no action. The other one is to performing action but the action they are performing even though they don’t mind all the difficulties it is still not going to solve their problems, it is not going to get them out of the material world, therefore either of them is not good. Just because one is able to put up with the tribulations that is not enough, you are putting up with the tribulations to go back to Godhead, that is the point.

The miseries of this material world serve to indirectly remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities generally take note of these reminders and engage themselves in the culture of vidyā, or transcendental knowledge. Human life is the best opportunity for the culture of spiritual knowledge, and a human being who does not take advantage of this opportunity is called a narādhama, the lowest of human beings …Everyone is struggling hard for existence, but the laws of material nature are so hard and fast that they do not allow anyone to surpass them. In order to attain a permanent life, one must be prepared to go back to Godhead.

We are trying to make a permanent solution here but there isn’t one, it has to be made for the spiritual world, there is not another alternative. Who does not take advantage of this opportunity is called a naradhama, that is what we discussed before how to define a naradhama: the opportunity is there to practice Krsna consciousness and they won’t, that’s a naradhama. A mudha doesn’t know, he is just very comfortable to go on in his miserable material existence, and just thinks that this is normal, just like an animal. The mayayapahrta-jnana has all kind of vast knowledge but none of it leads in the way of Krsna consciousness, so he is also not thinking of Krsna consciousness. The asura is just out to fulfill his plans and he is a good organizer so he can work very nicely towards that. This naradhama means he has the opportunity to perform service but he doesn’t take it.

The process by which one goes back to Godhead is described in the Vedic literatures and it is revealed by the Spiritual Master. In order to successfully follow this process one should restrict the material sense enjoyment as far as possible. The unrestricted sense enjoyment in the diseased material condition is the path of ignorance and death.

Restricted material sense enjoyment, unrestricted is the cause of rebirth in the material world. Here that doesn’t mean that the senses aren’t engaged. Unrestricted means one is just engaging the senses for sense enjoyment, that is its purpose. Restricted sense enjoyment, this is probably a major misunderstanding, it doesn’t mean that the senses are in any way less contacting the sense objects. 

Restricted sense enjoyment means the methods or environments in which they contact the sense objects. A devotee restricts his senses, the tongue and only eats prasada. Does that mean he eats less than the karmis? Much of the time we see he eats more, some of these brahmacaris what they can put away, the karmis would faint. I heard these stories of these brahmacaris in traveling sankirtana, there is one very skinny Russian brahmacari you could put away literally almost a bucket of pasta. This other guy he was really big, he was from Siberia, and he could eat and could do himself two full packets of pasta on his own, so one kilo he could eat himself and he is talking about this brahmacari with great reverence. He says I can eat this much but there was this brahmacari, he was like… 

So it is not that the senses are not engaged, that is a mistake, they are engaged according to regulative principles. But if we make this point too strong then it will be like this, means this is the sentence: Krsna consciousness doesn’t mean that the senses aren’t engaged in the sense objects, they are just according to regulative principles. This is what will be heard: Krsna consciousness doesn’t mean that the senses aren’t engaged in the sense objects, and then that’s it. They can be fully engaged, and then the part where it says but according to regulative principles. Then it is heard of mhmhmhmhm, like that. 

That was the problem with Mahabharata. Maha-Bharata is the full Vedic philosophy and culture being presented from a social or emotional perspective, so it will speak to everybody. Maha-Bharata is something everybody can read: Intellectuals are happy, children are happy, women are happy, people who are very busy with making money and all that they are happy, any kind of person is happy hearing Maha-Bharata. To write a literature that everybody would be happy to listen to that is very special, but in doing that the actual points that he is making become covered so much by the eloquence, the poetry and also by pointing out how they can properly engage these. Narada Muni says all they’ll hear is that they can do these things they won’t hear the restrictions, otherwise all we hear is, oh I can engage my senses I don’t actually have to control my senses, that will be the understanding. No, control means only apply them according to the rules given in the scripture. The difficulty will come that they say, oh no it’s ok, that is the problem. So therefore it’s presented like this. 

One must restrict the senses, then we will take it as penance, or austerity, that means they are pulled in, dried up, but that is for a vanaprastha, that is what a vanaprastha does consciously. But that is not what a grhastha does, a grhastha’s idea is engage the senses. You want to deal with that sense then engage it properly, see nice things, smell nice things, but connect them all to Krsna and here is the rules how to do it, that is a grhastha. Vanaprastha is I am not doing that anymore, now the fun is doing it the other way.

As one elderly Bengali lady from a very high-grade cultured family said to one of the devotees, she have come here long time before and she stayed for some time, so she would see how the whole community works, and they asked her what do you think? She said everything is very nice and Krsna conscious but she made the comment that socially you have a serious problem here. What’s that? Means from her because she is moving in a certain circle, she said one of the main problems is that your unmarried women act as if they are married and your married women act as if they are not. Therefore nothing is clear and there is no social harmony. Because no one actually knows what’s to be done and what’s not done, how to dress and not dress and everything like that. You see unmarried girls drees fabulous and the married ones dress like frumps, but it supposed to be the other way: grhastha means now it is when you buy all the fancy saris and dress up and everything. That is the whole thing here is that that engagement or that understanding, when you can’t engage it then you are trying to engage it and when you can engage it then you won’t engage it.

But it is the engagement that removes the attachment. As we said before is Prabhupada was making the point that by following the varnasrama system or the Vedic rules then one is able to come to the platform of naiskarmya, on that platform of naiskarmya then one is able to become freed from material entanglement, unless you are following how do you become freed? If you do nothing nothing happens if nothing is moving, the car is pointed in the wrong direction, you can’t correct that unless the car moves. 

It may seemingly be going in the wrong direction but you are trying to turn it around, so it is turning around though it may go for a little distance in the wrong direction but it comes around because your purpose is there. But if it just sits there then nothing happens, it is not going in the direction but it is pointing in the wrong direction, but it is not going in the right direction. 

Abhidheya is the only way that things become removed, you get knowledge that is your sambandha-jnana, but the idea is that sambandha-jnana will be applied in abhidheya. We were discussing in the kalyana-gunas: the knowledge is there in sambandha that is also then within abhidheya. The two qualities in Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, those 6 are all in abhidheya. Abhidheya is the complete manifestation of all the qualities, otherwise if that is not there you can’t address everything, it is only in action can you address everything else

Devotee (1): If a devotee is in the west his situation is not good, should we encourage such a person to move to the dhama even if we can see that he cannot stick it out for a long time, he is not on that level? Should we encourage such a person if his situation is not good where he is right now?

Maharaja: It is there, if they come for a visit and everything. Don’t recommend that they should sell their house and everything, otherwise the do that and then they have to go back and there is more trouble and they get more absorbed. If they can come and spend some nice time, come at kartika, at some nice time when devotees are there they will find the experience were enlivening and uplifting. But to move in a day by day, generally the dhama is taken as very special which is good. Very special but then from the angle of religion, because religion gives you economic development, facility, respect and nice social interaction, then the dhama must be the nicest. Therefore I can come to the dhama and don’t have to watch my kids because everything is perfect, they can run around without any supervision. No one will ever make any politics and nothng will ever go wrong. When something goes wrong then it is the dhama’s fault and all the devotees’ fault. If you are encouraging someone let them come for a short time when there is a lot going on that is very devotional, inspiring and uplifting so that they can appreciate actually the spiritual potency of the dhama. Then being here they can see whether they can adjust with the social environment, because everybody is not coming from a great position. Because everything outside the dhama is not a good position, it is just a matter of how good or bad. So everyone is coming with their baggage, and so many amazing and interesting things happen which one doesn’t expect. But it is not because of the dhama, it is just that when we come we bring our conditioned nature with us. But if we can stick it out and can take advantage of the association and we cannot offend devotees then the benefits are incredibly great. 

Devotee (1): Is it similar to encourage people to join the temple even though we know they won’t stay in the temple, they move? It is the next step in their development

Maharaja: It is the next step, it is, it would be good if in moving into the temple it is understood that whether you are going to continue, in other words, if they understand  in moving into the temple because it will be slightly different, means similar, means in principle it’s the same but slight detail is different, because you can be a brahmacari, a full-time devotee in the dhama or you can be a part-time in the dhama like that so that might not be afforded in the temple. 

But if they understand that moving into the temple is for one’s training and development. And you can continue like that and make a lifetime out of that commitment, or you can take advantage and do it for some time until you feel that you have that spiritual practice and determination that then one can continue in the community as a valuable member of the community. 

But if that is not presented which many temples don’t because they are trying to keep people in the temple so they say that community is bad, but then very few can stay in the temple so when they move out of the temple then they are bad. Because they know they are bad so someone who is bad doesn’t think I can become good. So you have hundreds of devotees who think they are bad and have nothing to do with the temple, all the 5 devotees in the temple. They don’t have anything to do with them. They do their own thin outside, that is the weakness, the temple is a place of education. 

Just like the naistika brahmacaris, gurukula is for education, but there are those persons who remain within the system. They just eternally stay that way, that would be your brahmacaris, or they graduate and they themselves open their own school, in any case education is their lifestyle. In the same way the temple is an educational institution technically, therefore some can stay in that environment always and some can just… everybody should go for some time and spend some time to get educated, however they can, by spending some time at weekends, moving in and spending time. But everybody should take advantage of what can be gained by the temple. But the temple should be geared that this is actually what it is. Otherwise if it is just people live in the temple and collect to maintain the temple so that people can live in the temple, that kind of arrangement you wouldn’t consider the most ideal. Education should be its main thing, in other words people who are learning about Krsna and practicing that. So people who want to know about that can see: someone who practices Krsna consciousness how do they live, what do they do, they can see that and be inspired and work that into their life.

One should regulate his sense gratification by a balanced program of spiritual and material knowledge. The activities for the maintenance of the body should not be stopped. Since the culture of spiritual knowledge necessitates the help of the body and mind their maintenance is required. 

Spiritual process is body, mind and words are engaged in the Lord’s service, that means if you don’t have one then hard to engage it. If you don’t maintain the body, the emotions and the intellect then very hard to engage.But these activities must be performed in connection with the ultimate goal of going back to Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes:

Human activities diseased by a tendency toward sense gratification have been regulated in the Vedas under the principles of salvation.

Sense gratification means that engaging the senses is for your satisfaction. The regulation of the senses means that you maybe still motivated that you want the benefit of your senses but you are doing it in a way according to authority, so actually there is the element of sacrifice there even if it is still sakama. You are trying to engage your senses according to higher authority so it is progressive, that then has the underlying element of naiskarmya, though your consciousness may still be sakama. You may still be fruitive, but at least you are regulating according to the rules. If you continue with that and the proper understanding and attitude, that then can come to actual naiskarmya. Because you are performing the correct activity, so now it is just a matter of bringing the mentality in line with it. Because the main difficulty is if the mentality is not there and action is not there, that is what you call a bad situation. But if you are performing the right activity but the mentality is not there that is not a bad situation, it is a bad understanding. 

Like you see many coming from these traditional Indian families their lifestyle is very conducive to Krsna consciousness, the problem is their mentality is not. They are performing the right activity but with fruitive motives, atheistic motives, non-God consciousness motives, sowhat you have to change is the attitude, then everything is very nice. The lifestyle and culture is already in place so their body, mind and words will be nicely engaged because they know how to engage them. 

When we say sense gratification it is regulated, because when it is regulated those are called devotional service. When the senses are engaged in the Lord’s service that is called devotional service. When it is not engaged in the Lord’s service then it is called sense gratification. 

So it is not that the sense isn’t engaged, but because we are so attached to engaging the senses therefore we break down too much this distinction, the tendency is just engage the senses and because I chant Hare Krsna I think I have already engaged it. Like the devotee says we just chant hare Krsna and we don’t care about the rules, where did that come from? Prabhupada once said, in places he’ll say that the devotee is above rules and regulations, means he is above the rules and regulations of the karma-kanda and jnana-kanda and that. He is not above the rules and regulations of devotional service. But when they say rules then anything that is a rule they throw it. 

Like let’s say Prabhupada goes through the Deity worship, or the yajnas, these traditional Vedic pancaratrika systems of ritual, and he reduces it down to something very simple. Then even that simple is more complex than the normal mleccha lifestyle in ritual, then we consider that, oh so many rules and someone who is following that is fanatic. That is not. 

Like somebody dies, having bathed them, dressed them nicely, properly burnt, taking your bath in the river. After 11 days you do some kirtana, you talk about Krsna, you talk about in relationship to the person and Krsna consciousness, you distribute some prasada, and haribol it is done, that would take 1/3 of a page even in an elaborate detail. Manu has a full chapter that probably goes on for 50, 60 pages on what to do for a sraddha ceremony, one sraddha ceremony. And you are supposed to do that every month on the titi the person disappeared for the first year and then every year on the titi they disappeared for the rest of your life, until you take sannyasa. 

Now the question comes is where are the rules that we are not caring about? If we apply that to Prabhupada that is foolish, but personally I have seen that to be extremely common. Don’t be fanatic we are just trying to do things that Prabhupada said, oh that is fanatic. May be a fanatic mentality but they are still not discerning between action and mentality and because of this it has a detrimental effect. 

There is a Bengali saying: you take a knife and you sharpen it on the tree and when it is sharp and to test if it is sharp then you cut the tree. Before Krsna consciousness how many did actually know about an acamana, or an aratik, or using water in the toilet, stuff like that who knw? Very few. So having learned that from Prabhupada and having sharpened our intelligence then once we get that intelligence then we use that on Prabhupada what he has said, that is the meaning of this Bengali phrase. 

We have to be able to clearly define because that is sambandha-jnana, being able to cearly define everything and know exactly their relationship. So the senses are engaged but according to the directions given by Krsna, then it works, if that is not understood then there is a problem. Better than just unrestricted sense gratification, better than that is restraining the senses not according sastra, but just not using them and not getting yourself into trouble, in that way devotees are then better situated. But because of that they develop so many social difficulties that they are unable to understand that these can be taken care of by simple social interactions. 

Now you have a fancy sari, and fancy this and that. Some people will only dress up if they are flying to Bombay or they are going to the forum in Calcutta, but if someone has a program at their house, a samskara then everybody shows up in even worse clothes than they wear on a normal day. But samskaras are there, that is the time to dress up and look fancy and get out all the stuff, eat nice things and interact with each other, that is the time but it doesn’t happen: O that is maya, but how is it that dressing up for going shopping is not. That is somehow or another pure unalloyed devotional service, it doesn’t make sense. 

That’s the whole thing is these things are there so that one can engage the senses, engage all those needs and desires, but in a regulated way, we are not interested why because it is regulated. If it is unregulated then we are doing it, because we are working on Western regulation. Ok when you are in this place or that place as long as you are not in America, then you look nice when you are in the airport. In America you should look like a slob, in any part of the world they generally dress a little better. So we will do that, everyone is dressing like that. But in here it is O it is fanatic, why is the Western thing not fanatic? 

Human activities diseased by a tendency toward sense gratification is corrected by engaging the same senses but according to regulation. Because as soon as there is regulation immediately the excitement about the thing is lost, that is the idea. But it is not whimsical but it is also according to whatever is the authority, so then one establishes that. So that excitement is lost because it is the excitement that clouds the vision, because even that overcomes the attachments. One may have more important attachments but they are regular daily attachments, but some excitement will overcome that. 

Like mother Yasoda, Krsna is out playing with his friends and she calls him for lunch but He doesn’t come because they are excited about the play, so they are playing there. But He is hungry but He doesn’t notice, so then she has to come out and say what, you are a street boy? You live out here? Get inside and take your bath. 

So the excitement will overwhelm, or if one focuses too much on the attachment that will overwhelm, then the activity doesn’t become right. So either way it doesn’t, so regulation means that the excitement and the attachment are controlled, therefore the activity will be done in a controlled way and that will give you the best result. But because it wasn’t spontaneous, the modern raga-marga, because generally what that is it’s generally the modern raga-marga versus the Vedic vaidhi. Just like in the Vedic the raga is against the vaidhi are always fighting, so there is a problem here. But if they can switch the raga from the modern to the Vedic that we will be doing okay, but generally it is not always like that

Devotee (1): A materialistically minded person will not get excited if there is rules and regulations because that kills the excitement

Maharaja: What is killed it the excitement not the activity, that’s why it is said one must perform one’s duties. Generally we do something because we are excited to do it, or we need to do it, one or the other, something is there to inspire, then we will act. If we remove that we won’t act. But the Vedic is not like that, because if you don’t act there is no purification. Means you have an attachment to sense gratification but that is not good so therefore I won’t do anything, but you don’t purify your senses, you don’t purify the heart. The Vedic is that you may not be excited but you still do the same activity. But now according to the rules and regulations and to please Krsna. Then from doing that you will then notice the actual underlying experiences that have some depths to them. The excitement may not be noticed but what is underneath it will be noticed. 

 It’s just like due to excitement a child notices the aspects of the party but what they don’t notice is that their parents went through a lot of trouble to arrange that. So if you work according to regulation you start noticing these deeper things that are actually relationship. But that is why then Krsna says you have to do your duty, because the tendency is if I am not excited about it or attached to it I won’t do it, that is the path of jnana. Jnana is I have knowledge it is not worth so I don’t act. In karma I will only act if I am getting the benefit. That is why buddhi-yoga is unique to any other system, despite your not having a interest in it you still act because it is your duty

Devotee (2): When the excitement is removed is then the higher taste the motivation?

Maharaja: The higher taste is there once it gets to taste. But in the beginning the first thing is intelligence, so it’s rules, because I am supposed to do this. Once it gets to taste then you spontaneously do it, that is spontaneous devotional service. But until the taste comes you are performing the same activity because you are supposed to, that is the vaidhi. So it is very important that I am supposed to do this, but to do that you must have the knowledge to do that. Because the other you are spontaneous, you got to do something, right or wrong, you are going to do something. But if you are not inspired you are only doing it becaue you have the proper knowledge how to do it, otherwise why would you do it?

Devotee (3): In the modern society you are forced to follow rules whereas in spiritual life we accept it voluntarily? 

Maharaja: That’s true. In the modern you are forced to because it is just the modes, whereas the Vedic it is voluntary. 

It’s like this one devotee astrologer made this point, many times people come and he will read the chart and say that there will be a loss in money. Then they work at how not to lose that money, what can I do? What ritual, what stone, what mantra? He has made the point that it is not that you can change it this is the situation you are going to be in. Like you are on the train from Delhi to Howrah. So you are going to end up in Howrah on that train, but they are thinking. But they are thinking what mantra or stone can I wear so that this train won’t end up in Howrah but end up in Madras? It won’t happen, so you have to change activity. So he said you are going to lose the money, so you lose the money so you don’t have it, and lament about it, you got no benefit from it. Since you know that you are going to lose the money give it away in charity, find something worthwhile to give it to. Then you have given it away you have lost it technically, because whether you give it away or it is taken away you don’t have it, so astrologically it is the same thing, so you don’t have you have given it away. And you got so much benefit by supporting the preaching mission and other things like that, that is intelligent. On the modern you are forced to act, the Vedic you are going to have to act in that way but you can volunteer to act according to the Lord’s directions in that. By the modes of nature you have to eat, now you can either just eat what you want or follow the rules and eat how Krsna says. Or by the modes you are going to have a family, or you can follow Krsna’s rules on how to interact with that family.

Devotee (3): Svayambhuva Manu was enjoying the material facilities in a spiritual mood. In the formula that you are talking about can we say that one element never forget Krsna is applied in this case and we have to follow the two elements of always remember Krsna and never forget Krsna?

Maharaja: These are fine points. Remember this is Third Canto. He was saying that in the Bhagavatam, the point was being made that Svayambhuva Manu was enjoying the material facilities from the spiritual platform. Third Canto we are starting with basically where we are at. Second Canto was the beginning of the discussion. First Canto is introducing what is the Bhagavatam, what will be gained by this Bhagatavam, what is there, why it is spoken, what is the benefit. 

So Second Canto we see the actual discussion starts, in there having explained the workings of the mechanical or metaphysical workings of the universe then one can understand that the Lord is involved anyway, but it is inferior here because of the aspect of dead matter, but everything is happening anyway by the Lord’s grace. If you engage all these things properly then you are actually happy. In other words, our principle is that you water the root of the tree and the leaves are happy, so if Krsna is pleased then he is pleased. So in here, another way of saying this is that Svayambhuva Manu and his wife pleased the Lord by their activities, when you get later in the Cantos that is what you will hear. But because we are starting off, because it is the beginning then this is where you are starting, Kardama and Devahuti. 

People are grhasthas and they have their needs, they want to know that they can engage those in Krsna’s service and still be happy. Otherwise we take up the impersonal concept that spiritual means opposite of material and that means I can’t be happy. A girl dresses up fancy to get herself a man and that is just being pragmatic, but when she has got a man then you shouldn’t be too involved, all this maya and all this stuff. Therefore she doesn’t bother dressing or looking nice and behaving nice, because anything nice would be maya. If the husband actually sat down and following the scriptures on being sensitive to each other’s needs and had a pleasant conversation where they actually enjoyed it that would be maya. 

But the point that is being brought out here is why is Svayambhuva enjoying because whatever it is everything is being done for Krsna and in line of Krsna’s rules. Just like we have a drama and it is about Krsna and everything like that. So the devotees didn’t enjoy the drama? But what where the facilities? Nice sitting arrangement, the lighting was good, the sound and acting was good, anything there was spiritual technically? It is all still material energy, gross and subtle. Proper combination of gross and subtle material energy being used in connection with the Lord the Lord is pleased, if He is pleased then the devotee is pleased. 

You bought that Italian pasta now you boiled it now offer it to Krsna. So it is spiritualized. Still is it not going to have the same taste? Is it now going to taste like rice because now it is being offered to Krsna? The spaghetti after you offer it is still going to be spaghetti. 

The point is the sense enjoyment will be the same, but now because it is connected to Krsna then you enjoy it from the spiritual platform. But we don’t have spiritual senses to engage we have material senses, that is why we use the terms spiritualize. It’s a material sense that has been connected to Krsna so it is spiritualized. 

Therefore it says the devotee enjoys with spiritual senses, because otherwise we think if I take this up there is no enjoyment, so why I should take it up? So they have to convince that even if you have material desires you still going to be happy being Krsna conscious. Third Canto is like. 

As we go then we come to Prahlada Maharaja. He is not so worried about the facilities, very rare it talks about the facilities. It doesn’t say now having been installed on the throne by Nrsimhadeva now he enjoyed the facilities of his father, his kingdom with spiritual senses,  it doesn’t say that. All you hear about is his interaction with the Lord, because by that time the devotee has come to that level of realization. But Third Canto we are dealing with what you are right now, how to engage that in Krsna’s service. Therefore that is brought out because that is the fact but the devotees miss the point, because if the senses engage that is maya, but what else to you have? 

That’s like saying I have these rupees they are made out of pieces of paper, and their funny colors and they got this weirdo guy’s face on it, therefore it is maya to use it. We don’t have any problem with that, why? Because we are coming from the bourgeois culture. And so money is important in the bourgeois culture, so we will finess (?) anything about money. Krsna consciousness or not Krsna consciousness as long as money is happening then everything is fine. Money somehow or another we don’t mind engaging, but the senses we can’t. This is the difficulty and it is stemming from the impersonal concept of philosophy. That’s why therefore there is the element that you have to combine the two: perform your duties with knowledge. Because generally someone will perform his duties in ignorance and if he has knowledge he won’t do them, because if he doesn’t have knowledge then he has material inspiration. So he will do the activity because of the fruitive result. If he has knowledge then he understand that that is not very good, therefore he will give up that activity. (end of lecture) (end)

(6th Jan 2009, Śrī Īśopaniṣad Lecture #27, Bhaktivedānta Academy, Śrīdhāma Māyāpura)

This transcription is by Uddhava Priya Prabhu, used with permission from lecture folio that you can download HERE

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