He says, Kṛṣṇa says, that "This body, either dead or alive, has nothing to be lamented." Dead body, suppose when the body is dead, it has no value. What is the use of lamenting? You can lament for many thousands of years, it will not come to life. So there is no cause of lamenting on dead body. And so far spirit soul is concerned, that is eternal. Even it appears to be dead, or with the death of this body, he does not die. So why one should be overwhelmed, "Oh, my father is dead, my such and such relative is dead," and crying? He's not dead. This knowledge one must have. Then he'll be cheerful in all cases and he'll be interested simply in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is nothing to be lamented for the body, either alive or dead. That is being instructed by Kṛṣṇa in this chapter. Go on.
Cheerful (Lectures and Conversations)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Devotee: (leads chanting, etc.)
- kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
- sarva-kāma-dughā mahī
- siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
- payasodhasvatīr mudā
- (SB 1.10.4)
"During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: So due to good king, in... There is a maxim in Bengali: rājera doṣe rāja naṣṭa, rājya naṣṭa, gṛhiṇī doṣe gṛhastha naṣṭa(?). This is very important instruction. If the king of the state is an impious man, sinful man, that kingdom will never be happy. Naṣṭa. Everything is spoiled. As much as in a family, if the housewife is not good, contaminated, then there is no good life in the family. In Western countries especially, and in this country also, nowadays, there is no peace between husband and wife, and there is no, practically, no family life. In Western countries there is divorce. Here also the divorce law is introduced. And no family is happy. Gṛhiṇī doṣe gṛhastha naṣṭa. So king must be very pious.
Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)
- kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
- sarva-kāma-dughā mahī
- siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
- payasodhasvatīr mudā
- (SB 1.10.4)
Translation: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: Kāmam. Dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣa (SB 4.8.41). In the human society, to make everything very regulated, the prescription is dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa. Dharma means to be situated in one's position. That is called dharma. Dharma is not a kind of faith. Faith is sometimes blind. That is not dharma. Just like we say, varṇāśrama-dharma. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). Varṇa. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsī. This combination of eight makes dharma, constitutional position. Everyone is animal. So if one is not trained up in these eight principles of human society, so that is not dharma; it is sentiment. But that does not stand very long. It will vanquish. But if dharma is accepted on the principles of this varṇāśrama-dharma, that is... For material purpose. That is not for spiritual purpose. Although there is hint of spiritual life, still, they are prākṛta.
Kṛṣṇa you will never find... You have seen the picture of Kṛṣṇa. He is fighting with the Kāliya serpent. He is dancing. He is not afraid of the serpent. He is dancing. As He is dancing with the gopīs in rāsa-līlā, similarly, He is dancing with the snake. Because He is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. He is ānandamaya, always jolly. Always. You will see Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa... Just like in Kurukṣetra the fighting is going on. Kṛṣṇa is jolly. Arjuna is morose because he is living entity, but He is not morose. He is jolly. That is the nature of God. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. This is the sūtra, in the Brahma-sūtra, that "God is ānandamaya, always jolly, always cheerful." So you can become also cheerful when you go back to home, back to Godhead. That is our problem.
Therefore how we can go there? The first thing is we must hear. Śrotavyaḥ. Just try to hear what is God, what is His kingdom, how He acts, how He is cheerful. These things are to be heard. Śravaṇam. Then as soon as you are convinced, "Oh, God is so nice," then you will be eager to demonstrate or to broadcast this news to the whole world. This is kīrtanam. This is kīrtanam.
There are respectable terms for the different classes of men. So this bhakti, it is not simply sentiment, but it is to understand actually what is God. It is science of God. Otherwise how it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā that brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā? One who has understood the Supreme, the Absolute, he is called brāhmaṇa, brahma-bhūtaḥ. And the symptom is that... How can I understand that he is a brāhmaṇa and has understood Brahman? The immediate answer is brahma-bhūtaḥ. The test is, one who is completely in knowledge of Brahman, the symptom will be prasannātmā: he will be always cheerful. There is no question of anxiety for him. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ. Prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). There is no lamentation; there is no desire. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. There is no desire.
General Lectures
And how that solution is made, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
This Bhagavad-gītā is the science of God. Just like in your Christian Bible or any other scriptures, Muhammadan or Christian or Jews or Buddhists... So ahaṁ brahmāsmi means that "I am spirit soul," this realization. As soon as this realization is there, then the other things immediately follow. What is that? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Immediately one becomes cheerful. So long we have got this bodily concept of life, we cannot be cheerful. Full of anxiety. And as soon as we understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," the next moment you will be cheerful. There will be no anxiety. I am full of anxiety because on account of this bodily concept of life. Just like one man has got very costly motorcar, and he is running the car on the street. He is very careful so that there may not be any accident in the car, the car may not break. So much anxiety. But a man who is walking on the street, he has no such anxiety.
So there are Santa Fe centers also.
In other words, the indigenous, the importation of a very strange oriental form, almost a hard-shelled Baptist oriental form, in the sense of its traditionality and its fundamentalism, its reliance on ancient texts and interpretation of ancient texts by long tradition of teachers—it's strange it's so far-out and ritualized an Indian form should take root in the United States a little more naturally than the more Protestant Vedānta Society or the extremely rigorous Zen groups that have taken root. I think partly it's due to the magnanimity or generosity or the old-age charm, wisdom, cheerfulness of Swami Bhaktivedanta, his openness of heart, his willingness to come down on to the street, and his sense of his own divinity and the divinity of others around that it's been possible for the bhakti-yoga cult of India to be planted very firmly here in America so that now there are communes, or ashrams, functioning on the basis of the Kṛṣṇa rituals, which are, in some respect, a model for all those anarchists and political people who are interested in establishing indigenous American communes.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Pradyumna: "Translation. During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: This was the position of the kingdom, that the cows felt secure. At the present moment, the cows are very unhappy. I have seen. They are almost crying. Because they can understand that "After some time, we'll be killed."
Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: They can understand that. So during Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's time, the cows were happy, and because they were happy, they were producing so much milk that when they were on the pasturing ground, the pasturing ground became moist with milk. Milk was dropping. So much milk supply. And kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ: (SB 1.10.4) There was regular rainfall and ample production of food grains, other things also. Just like jewelry, they are also produced by the rainfall and certain constellation of the stars. That we understand from the astrological books.
Śrutakīrti:
- kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
- sarva kāma dughā mahī
- siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
- payasodhasvatīr mudā
- (SB 1.10.4)
"During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: Now here is economics, politics and everything. So by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we want to see that everyone is getting nicely the necessities of life. That is economic. Is it not?
Reporter: It is economic in a very, in a very...
Prabhupāda: Brotherhood. Actually, we develop economics for getting the necessities of life. Is it not? That is economics.
Pradyumna:
- kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
- sarva-kāma-dughā mahī
- siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
- payasodhasvatīr mudā
- (SB 1.10.4)
"During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag, and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: Now, happy attitude. Now the cow are going to be killed. They know it, that "We are going to be killed." They're also intelligent living entity. So how they can be happy? If some human being concentrated in a camp, and they know that "We are going to be killed," can they be happy? So if one is not happy, if the cow is not happy, can she supply sufficient milk? No. No. Therefore just they were happy. Therefore milk was supplied so much that the grazing ground became wet with milk. Muddy. With milk, not with water. So we, we have no intelligence how to live.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dharmādhyakṣa: Nowadays they're actually realizing their error and they're studying death more, trying to prepare people for death more. But the only thing they can tell them is, "Accept it." The only thing they can do is say, "You are going to die. So just accept it with a cheerful attitude."
Prabhupāda: But I do not wish to die. Why shall I be cheerful? You rascal, you say, "Become cheerful." (laughter) "Cheerfully, you become hanged." (laughter) The lawyer will say, "Never mind. You have lost the case. Now you cheerfully be hanged." (laughter)
Dharmādhyakṣa: That is actually... The whole goal of modern psychology is to make people adjust to the fact that they must stay in this material world and that if you have some desire to leave the material world, they will tell you you are crazy. "No, no. Now you must adjust more again to the material condition."
Bahulāśva: They teach you to accept the frustrations of life.
Prabhupāda: Why frustration? You are big, big scientist. You cannot solve?
Dharmādhyakṣa: They cannot solve because they have the same problems.
Prabhupāda: The same logic, "Cheerfully be hanged." That's all. As soon as there is some difficult subject, they give up. And they speculate on some nonsense thing. That's all. This is their education. Education means atyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti, the ultimate solution of all unhappiness. That is education, not that after coming to some extent, "No, you can die happily." And what is duhkha, unhappiness? That is presented by Kṛṣṇa: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). These are your unhappiness. Try to solve it. And that they are carefully avoiding. They cannot stop death, neither birth, nor old age, nor disease. And during the short period of life, birth and death, they are making big, big buildings, and next time he is becoming one rat within the buildings. (laughter) Nature. You cannot avoid the nature's law. As you cannot avoid death, similarly, nature will give you another body. Become a tree in this university. Stand up for five thousand years. You wanted to be naked. Now nobody will object. You stand here naked.
Bahulāśva: They do that also. They have a fad now. It's called streakers.
Prabhupāda: (aside:) The windows this side cannot be opened?
Satsvarūpa: "... all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bags and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: You can open this, these windows. There is no window? Just hear this.
Nara-nārāyaṇa: Close?
Prabhupāda: No, open this glass window so ventilation may come. Ah. So? Yes, so read the translation.
Satsvarūpa: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhisthira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: That's all. Because the cows were very cheerful, the milk was dropping from the milk bag so that the grazing ground became muddy. It was muddy not with water but with milk. So how much milk was being delivered by the cows. Because, the reason is... Why? They remained cheerful. What is that? Second line?
Satsvarūpa: "Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude,..."
Prabhupāda: "Cheerful attitude." If cows know. They have got intelligence that "We will be killed." Therefore they are not supplying sufficient milk. They cannot, just like if your mind is full of anxiety, you cannot work fully. So because they are denied this cheerfulness, you are getting less milk. If you keep them cheerful, they will give more milk. This is nature's economic development. Artificially you cannot increase the production of milk. But according to the instruction of scripture, if you keep them cheerful without any fear, they will deliver double milk. So therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is recommended that cows should be protected in the human society. If you want to eat meat, you can kill insignificant, small animal, but don't kill cows.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: What is that picture?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "Handicapped though, these foursome make a cheerful group as they paddle along on three wheelers every day from their homes in the King George Memorial Infirmary on Jagtap Marga, Maha-Lakshmi." Some invalids. "Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan in a statement on Sunday came out strongly against the attempts of some people to lobby through him for personal favors and advancements from the Janata party government center." He doesn't like it. Everyone is going to him now. (pause) "The aim and object of the 42nd constitutional amendment was stated to be to establish the supremacy of the legislature, but in fact it was designed to establish the absolute authority of the executive as personified by the Prime Minister, according to Mr. C. K. Dapteri, former attorney general of India. Mr. Dapteri said, 'Everyone knows that misuse to which the power of preventative detention has been put in the last eighteen months. It is not necessary to recall or relay instances. But the power itself is so easily capable of being put to wrong use that it is unsafe to leave it in the hands of the executive government.' "
Prabhupāda: This will be amended now.
Girirāja: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the cloud showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Now read the purport.
Lokanātha: "The basic principle of economic development is centered on the land and cows. The necessities of human society are food grains..."
Prabhupāda: About the land and cows, this is Bhagavad-gītā, mentioned, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Never recommends factory. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). So there is no question of giving protection to the cows if it gives milk only. No. Go-rakṣya. There must be protection to the cow. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Even the cows pass urine and stool, that is beneficial. And if it gives milk, then there is no question. Hm. What is that?
Yaśomatīnandana: "Kāmam—everything needed." Translation: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man profusely. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."
Prabhupāda: Introduce this, rascal. This party government, that party government, big, big belly, big, big monkey, eating cows and hogs and dogs, and they have become big, big minister. What they can do? That is not... This is the secret. What is the second line?
Yaśomatīnandana: Nadyaḥ samudrā girayaḥ...
Prabhupāda: No, no, no.
Yaśomatīnandana: Siṣicuḥ sma vrajān (SB 1.10.4).
Prabhupāda: Ah. Let them remain happy and automatically... Just like in our Philadelphia. Oh, such a big... Giving him thousand pounds. Yes, we are doing this, fatty. Cans of milk. Even the cat is happy. The dog is happy. There is no fight. Cat is so happy, stroking on the back of the cows. Similarly, the dog is... There is no "Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" barking. I have seen it. Only through the medium of milk. These are not stories. I have seen. And who is Satyabhāmā's husband?
| Page Title: | Cheerful (Lectures and Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, RupaManjari, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 03 of Oct, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=10, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 17 |