There are three kinds of activities. First karma is prescribed duties. And akarma means to do act, but the result is not enjoyable by you. And there is vikarma. Vikarma means doing against. So this kāma karma . . . people are engaged in ritualistic ceremony for receiving some result for sense gratification. That is nindam. That is abominable. Nindam.
Sva-bhavata eva raktasya ragina puruṣasya dharma-kṛte, dharmārtham anuśāsas tataḥ mahān vyatikramaḥ: "So this is not good for you. It is most abominable." Kutaḥ iti utaḥ yasyeti vākyataḥ ayaṁ mukhya dharma: "Because they will accept it as authority, and they will think this is religion." They will not make further progress. They will stick to that principle. So therefore it is abominable. Yatasya kāma karmadi anyayena tattva-jñānena kriyamānāya.
Tattva-jñānena. When they'll be advised higher truths . . . just like those who are addicted to killing process under the shadow of religious rights, if they are said that "You don't kill. This is not good. After all, this living entity is as good as you are. As you are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, or God, similarly, this cow, or this animal, is also part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, but he has got a different dress only. That does not mean that you should kill . . ." If these things are instructed for higher elevation of life, they will not accept. They will not accept. They will say, "Oh, my religion says this. So I must do it." Tasya nivāraṇaṁ janaḥ.
Raktasya karma nivāram nivāraṇaṁ samatam etad na manyate kintu pravṛtti mārgam anuviyukta veṣan tada vidhi kalpa vidhi: "Because he has got already natural tendency. And if he is . . . there is sanction by religiosity, ritualistic, religious process, then he will stick to it. So you have not done very nice work." That is . . . na manyate tasya nivāraṇaṁ janaḥ. Vicakṣaṇo 'syārhati vedituṁ vibhor ananta-pārasya nivṛttitaḥ sukham: "Because actually, if anyone wants real happiness, that happiness is not by gratifying your senses."
In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said that sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). Real happiness, that is not perceived by this gratification of these material senses. So nivṛttitaḥ. One has to cease from this material sense gratification, and then he can enjoy the real happiness, which is transcendental to sense enjoyment. That is . . . that is the instruction.
In the . . . in the Padma Purāṇa also there is a verse, ramante yogino 'nante (CC Madhya 9.29) "Those who are yogī . . ." Yogī means transcendentalist, not the so-called yogī. Those who have contacted the Absolute Truth, they are called yogī. So yoginaḥ, actual a yogī, ramante, they enjoy. They also enjoy. Why they are, I mean to say, undergoing so much austerities and penances and regulative principles? Because they are trying for being elevated to the real platform of happiness.
So ramante yogino 'nante. Everyone is hankering after happiness, either materialistic or spiritualistic. But the difference is that materialistic . . . materialistic persons, they are satisfied with temporary happiness, and those who are transcendentalist, they are also seeking happiness, that is real happiness, spiritual happiness, eternal happiness. Therefore it is stated in the Padma Purāṇa that ramante yogino 'nante. Anante means unlimited happiness. They enjoy unlimited happiness. Ramante yogino 'nante.
And satyānande. And that is real happiness. Happiness does not mean it is for few minutes. No. Happiness should continue, eternally. One should be situated in that happiness so that other, temporary happiness will not attract him. So ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani. Cit, cit means that he's full of knowledge. That is not in ignorance. This material happiness is in ignorance, and spiritual happiness is śuddha-sattva. Śuddha-sattva means pure goodness.
In the material world there are three stages: ignorance, passion and goodness. The goodness platform is very nice in the material world, but there is another platform, which is called śuddha-sattva. Sattvaṁ viśuddham, viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam.
That is transcendental platform, and in that platform you can understand God. God is Vāsudeva, and in the vasudeva platform . . . so ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani. That is cid-ātmani. Cit means knowledge; ātmani means self. In that platform. Iti rāma-padenāsau paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate (CC Madhya 9.29). This is the description, this is the meaning of the word rāma. Rāma, this word, comes from ramante, ram. Ram-dhātu. Ram means enjoyment. And rāma means the full of pleasure. If you contact with Rāma, or Kṛṣṇa, the absolute attractive, then you are placed in the absolute platform for eternal enjoyment.
Enjoyment is the goal of everyone's life. But the difference is that the materialist is trying to hanker after flickering enjoyment, and the transcendentalist, they are hankering after the spiritual enjoyment, or eternal enjoyment. Enjoyment . . . Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Because the enjoyment is our life. We cannot be void. That is not possible.
Therefore the impersonalists . . . about impersonalists this Bhāgavata version is that although they rise up almost to the spiritual platform, but because they cannot enjoy . . . impersonalists means there is no enjoyment. There is simply light, a life of knowledge. But simply knowledge will not make me happy. I must enjoyment. I must have enjoyment. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), because my nature is to enjoy. That enjoyment cannot be done in the impersonal or void philosophy. That is not possible.
Therefore Bhāgavata says, ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ: "If somebody thinks that he has become liberated after undergoing the process of impersonal philosophy and austerities and penances . . ." The impersonalists, they also practice severe penances to attain to that Brahman stage. That is also nice thing.
But they cannot stay there, because there is no enjoyment. Therefore, as I was saying the other day, that many sannyāsīs, they say that, "This world is false; Brahman is truth." So in spite of their rising to that platform of Brahman understanding, they again come down.
That is described in the Bhāgavatam, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ (SB 10.2.32) "After undergoing severe penances and austerities, they may rise to the Brahman platform but again falls down." Why falls down? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: "Because they do not enjoy Your association." They have neglected the association of Kṛṣṇa and company. Therefore they have no, I mean to say, shelter.
The same example can be explained: just like if you go on a plane or sputnik very high, very high, that is void, all side void. If you go very high, 25,000 miles up, you'll see void. But that, there you cannot stay. You can travel for many years in that void, but if you don't take shelter in a planet, then you'll come back again to this planet. Similarly, the impersonalist, they cannot stay in their impersonal understanding. Simply they suffer some trouble. Kleśa . . . Bhagavad-gītā says, kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām (BG 12.5). Those who are attached, those who are attached to that impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth, they undergo greater trouble.
We transcendentalist, we personalist, we also, from the materialistic point of view, we are . . . our standard of living is not very opulent. We lie down anywhere. We are . . . our dresses are not so clean. Our rooms are not clean. So from the materialistic point of view, somebody comes, he says, "Oh. How wretched these people are living!"
That is also another kind of austerity they have adopted. But that is pleasing. Even they are in so-called wretched condition, they are happy. They are happy. So they're in both ways. But those who are simply attached to the impersonal feature, their trouble is more painful. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
So vicakṣaṇo 'syārhati vedituṁ vibhoḥ. So one has to cease. One has to make a stop of this material enjoyment. Then one can approach to the spiritual enjoyment. You cannot enjoy spiritual life if you stick to the materialistic way of . . . therefore we have got so . . . a little restriction, that "You cannot do this." Although those who are addicted to this life, this restriction is sometimes painful, but it is required.
Unless . . . just like to cure your disease, you have to follow some regulative principle of, prescribed by the physician, similarly, in order to cure yourself from this material disease, you have to accept. Nivṛtti. Nivṛttitaḥ means ceasing this process of material life. Nivṛttitaḥ sukham, pravartamānasya guṇair anātmanas tato bhavān darśaya ceṣṭitaṁ vibhoḥ.
So how it can be achieved, nivṛtti, ceasing this materialistic way of life? So Nārada Muni says that, "You simply describe the activities of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa, and by hearing simply the activities of Kṛṣṇa, one will be very easily able to cease from this materialistic way of life." Caitanya Mahāprabhu also recommended that people should be given chance to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or kṛṣṇa-kathā.
Kṛṣṇa-kathā means speaking or, I mean to say, narration about Kṛṣṇa. So Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also recommended that "Let them be situated in their own position. There is no necessity of changing his position. Give him chance. Give him chance to hear. Then gradually . . ." Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam (CC Antya 20.12). So our attempt is . . . we are opening so many branches. The idea is that people should get chance of hearing about the Supreme Lord, either by chanting this mahā-mantra or . . . this is also chanting. What I am speaking before you from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā, that is also chanting. This is also kīrtana. Kīrtana means describing. So you can describe the glories of the Lord either by musical instruments or by chant, singing, or you can describe the glories of the Lord by reading from authoritative scripture. Both of them are called kīrtana.
This, this Bhāgavata reading is also described as kīrtana by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Abhavad vaiyāsakiḥ kīrtane. Kīrtane. It is called kīrtana. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtana (SB 7.5.23). The process is śravaṇa and kīrtana, hearing and chanting. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he attained salvation and perfection simply by hearing. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī attained salvation and perfection simply by chanting. This chanting means describing the glories of the Lord from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.