You are eternal. You cannot be zero. That will be explained, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), that we are giving up this body, but immediately I have to accept another body, immediately. Then where is your question of dismantling? By nature's way you will get another body. Because you want to enjoy, you have come here in this material world. There is no question of asking. Everyone knows that "I am in this material world. I must enjoy to the fullest extent." One who is unaware of the fact that "I am going to take another life," he is thinking, "This is a combination of this matter—earth, water, air, fire. So when it will be broken, then everything will be finished. So so long I have got this opportunity, let me enjoy to the fullest extent." This is called material mentality, atheist, atheist, who does not know that we are eternal soul, we are changing body only.
Unaware (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
The Vedānta-sūtra says, "Everything, whatever we see within our experience, we cannot experience anything if it is not in Kṛṣṇa." That is Kṛṣṇa. He was stealing, which we consider not very good business. That stealing is also in Kṛṣṇa. He's, He's famous as Mākhana-cora, the stealer of butter. So this is Kṛṣṇa. So everything is there. Whatever our dealings in this material world we find, that is only perverted reflection of our dealing with Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world. But those who are unaware of the spiritual world, impersonalists, they have no information that Kṛṣṇa is always busy. Jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-bihārī. He's always busy. He's person. But He is simply dear to the gopījana. Gopījana-vallabha. He wants to please the gopījanas. The gopīs, the cowherd boys and the gopīs, constant companion of Kṛṣṇa.
So unfortunately, God is canvassing Himself personally, and still we are unaware of Him. Why? Because there is one verse which you will see in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Caitanya-caritāmṛta... Here two honorable Justices are present, and I can recite that verse. It is in Bengali. It is said that caitanya-dayā katha karaha vicāra. The author is placing the quantity of mercy as given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu to the judgment of the public. Caitanya-dayā katha karaha vicāra. It is not something we have accepted blindly as faith. No. It is a fact. It is a science. It is an authority.
Unless you become liberated, mukta, you have to accept a material body. Mukti means to stop accepting this material body. That is called mukti. To remain in a spiritual body. But they do not know even what is spiritual body, what is material body. Simply like cats and dogs, they are engaged in sense gratification, eating, sleeping, mating. And this Bhagavad-gītā is the ABCD, preliminary knowledge of spiritual understanding. People are unaware of... And misleaders, they give misinformation, mal-interpretation.
So people are unaware, and they are not interested what is vimokṣāya, what is nibandhāya. Exactly like cats and dogs, they are after these four principles of material body. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying little bit. Success or no success does not matter. As we are servant of Kṛṣṇa, it is our duty to present the real thing. Now you accept, not accept. That is not my business. I can request you that you accept this principle and be liberated from these sufferings of material life.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So we have got this mystic power, but we do not know. The example is given like that. The, the deer who has got musk in the navel and the flavor is very nice, so he is jumping here and there, here and there, here and there. Where is this flavor? He does not know the flavor is in his navel. You see. The flavor is there in him, but he is finding out, "Where it is? Where it is?" Similarly we have got so many dormant mystic power within us. We are unaware. But if you practice the mystic yoga system, some of them you can evolve very nicely. Just like the birds are flying, but we cannot fly. Sometimes we desire, "Had I the wings of a dove..." There are poetry: "I could immediately go." But that mystic power is also within you. If you develop by yogic practice, you can also fly in the air. That is possible.
So "I am not this body," that is the whole scheme of Vedic knowledge. Apaśya... This is the important point. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). Because they do not know what is the necessity of life, therefore they have created so many news. Just like big, big newspaper, bunch of papers, full of rubbish news only, advertisement, cinema. But you won't find anything talking about the necessity of the... (break) So to become a gṛhastha is not bad. But to become unaware of the necessity of the soul, oh, that is bad. The Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they are sannyāsīs. They have also renounced gṛhastha life. But they have no idea what is the goal of life.
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, after discussing that there are many subject matter for the materialistic persons who are unaware of self-realization... The very word used: apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2), those who are looking forward for self-realization. That is the only business for human life, but our education system is so defective that there is no program for self-realization. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommended that we should not be bewildered by the occupation of our materialistic life.
Either as Kṣīra-corā Gopīnātha, or as a taunter to the gopīs, or any way in the material world which is abominable. But when Kṛṣṇa does it, because He is absolute, it is good. That is absolutism. You cannot accuse Kṛṣṇa that "Oh, You have done like this." Whatever He has done, it is right. So just last evening one boy was criticizing Kṛṣṇa that "Why Kṛṣṇa makes this distinction stri-śūdra-vaiśya as pāpa-yoni?" So this is Godlessness, that we dare to criticize Kṛṣṇa. We should not criticize Kṛṣṇa. But those who are unaware of Kṛṣṇa's position, they do, we have to inform them rightly what is the right thing. So actually Kṛṣṇa says that even the stri-śūdra-vaiśya, they are also elevated to the highest position if they take the shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
There are two kinds of strong avidyā, ignorance, unawareness. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa is covering. Tamo-guṇa is very densely covering, and rajo-guṇa little open, and sattva-guṇa means prakāśa, there is illumination, brahminical qualifications. When one is in the sattva-guṇa then he can understand that "I am not this body. I am different from this body." For them, those who are in the sattva-guṇa, for them it is easier. So therefore the process is Human civilization means not to drag somebody who is already in the sattva-guṇa or in the family of sattva-guṇa, to drag him down to the tamo-guṇa. The modern civilization is like that.
Everyone is thinking... The kupa-manduka is thinking that "This is the whole water, within this well, this three-feet span of water. That is final." And if you say to the kupa-manduka, "Oh, I have seen another vast water, Atlantic Ocean," he cannot imagine. So these rascals, those who are unaware of the potency of God, they think that "God may be like me. I am so little powerful. He may be little more powerful." Therefore they cannot understand what is God because they are thinking in their own terms. And somebody is thinking that "I am God." So this misconception should be given up.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we are preaching the cult of Bhāgavatam. It is a scientific method. So there were many discussions, and in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is a chronological description of people suffering due to different kinds of sinful activities. Unfortunately, at the present moment people are unaware. They are kept in darkness. Therefore each and every sinful activity, there is punishment. They do not believe in the next life, but they can see practically in this life that if you violate a little laws of nature, you'll be punished immediately.
Knowingly you are committing sinful activities. You know this is sinful activity, but you are thinking on the strength of chanting that "Even if I commit this offense, sinful activities, it will be counteracted by my chanting." That is offense. That offense was not there in the case of Ajāmila. He was young man. He was being trained up by his father in the Nārāyaṇa philosophy, Nārāyaṇa life. But due to bad association he became a victim to all kinds of sinful activities, and that was not offense. You can fall down by, I mean to say, unaware the association. But if you are offenseless, then you'll be saved. But if you purposely think that "Because I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, it can counteract my sinful activities," that is the greatest offense, knowingly. Ajāmila did not know. He was a boy. He fell a victim to bad association, but he was not offender. He did not do it purposefully. Therefore he was saved.
You have all come here early in the morning, and... So does it mean that you are all fools? You have come to see a brass idol is being worshiped here? So anyone who considers the Deity as arcye śilā-dhīḥ, made of stone, made of brass, made of wood, that is nārakī-buddhiḥ. Arcye śilā-dhīḥ. Śilā. Śilā means stone. So those who are unaware of the Vedic knowledge, they consider that this is idol worship. It is not idol worship. It is directly worshiping the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord has, by His mercy, descended to accept your service.
You are Hindu; you are doing your Hindu ritualistic ceremony or religious rules and regulations. Or a Christian is doing nicely, or a Muhammadan is doing... That's all right, but we are interested—those who are followers of real Vedānta—to see the result. Phalena paricīyate. Phalena means "by the result." So what is the result? The result is by executing one's particular type of religious system, he must develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness. That is the test. If you are unaware of what is God, what do you mean by God, and you are very, very religious, that is useless. One must know God. So therefore, those who are in the lowest grade of human life, they cannot understand. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Narādhama ... Nara means human being, and adhamāḥ means the lowest. So one who is in the lowest grade of human society, they are called the śvapaca. Śvapaca. Śvapaca means those who are the dog-eaters. So in this way there is description.
One who has come to challenge the guru, so he will simply waste time. He will not accept. But a disciple who has surrendered, he will accept. Therefore talking is recommended between guru and disciple, not outsider. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). This is essential. And guru trains the disciple according to the Vedic principle. Therefore there are division of varṇa and āśrama. So these are very scientific things. The whole world is unaware of these scientific things, this animal civilization; and this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to elevate to the standard of human being.
Anyone who is completely, I mean to say, unaware of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is to be taken as child. Doesn't matter one who has got age. It doesn't depend on the age. It depends on the knowledge. So not only young children, but anyone who is unaware of the science, he is also child. And anyone who knows this science, he is old. Vṛddhatvaṁ vāyasā vinā. There is a Sanskrit word that "One man has become old even without age." This is contradictory. How one can become old without age? Suppose a man, a boy, is sixteen years old, just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He was teaching Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when he was only sixteen years old, but he was so learned that when he entered the assembly, all the great sages, including his father, stood up to receive him.
The first-class position is one who is aware of the Absolute Truth, he is in the goodness. Less awareness is the kṣatriya, or in the modes of passion. Less awareness is the vaiśyas, the mercantile class of people. They are in the third position. And the śūdra, they are in the fourth position, in the darkness, unawareness. And again, the degree of unawareness makes more and more abominable condition of life. Just like animal life. So here Prahlāda Mahārāja says that you have nothing to be disturbed by these people because they are in the modes of goodness. Therefore if we can produce population in the modes of goodness, there will be no problem in this material world even.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
So material means when we do not understand Kṛṣṇa, when we do not appreciate His creative energy or when we are in ignorance . That is called material life. So all these fools and rascals who are unaware of Kṛṣṇa's energy, they are all fools and rascals. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Therefore we have taken it very easily.
So people are unaware of Kṛṣṇa and His position. Therefore one should go to the guru-tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12)—eva, "must," in order to learn Kṛṣṇa. That is... The example is being shown by Sanātana Gosvāmī, the minister. He is not ordinary man. He is trying to know from guru what is his actual position. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu knew Sanātana Gosvāmī, intelligent, advanced. So he doesn't require to be educated by teaching Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is the ABCD of spiritual life, preliminary study. Bhagavad-gītā is not meant for persons who are advanced. They know Kṛṣṇa.
General Lectures
We are very much serious about the nonpermanent things, the body which will not exist, which will be vanquished after certain period of years, but we do not take care of the eternal consciousness, which is changing from one body to another. This is the defect of the modern civilization. And so long we are unaware of the presence of the spirit soul in the body, so long we do not inquire what is the spirit soul, so long our all activities are simply wasting our time. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that parābhavas tāvad abhodha-jātaḥ. The foolish person or the foolish living entity... Anyone who has accepted this temporary body is understood to be foolish.
When the body gets old like the old garments and is no longer usable, then the soul accepts another body just like we accept a new suit of clothes. The modern civilization is practically unaware of this truth. They do not care about the constitutional position of the soul. There are different departments of knowledge in different universities and many technological institutions to study and understand the subtle laws of material nature—medical research laboratories to study the physiological condition of the material body—but there is no institution to study the constitutional position of the soul.
The nature is working, but we are not so expert to understand. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. We are thinking it is taking automatically. No. It is not. It is taking very perfectly, and we are so ignorant that we cannot understand. We should always know our position, how much we are ignorant. I am claiming I am the... "It is my body." How your nails are growing, can you explain? Why there is no sensation in the nail? So many things you are unaware, even of your body. So how you can be aware that how your body is changing? You have to learn, therefore, from authorities, "It is being done." Just like Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāra... (BG 2.13). That is the process of knowledge. You have to know from the authorities how things are there.
A person may be materially very qualified, but if he does not know what is God, what is his relationship with God, he has no qualification. That is stated. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). Those who are unaware of God and His service, he cannot, one cannot have any good qualification. That is not good qualification. So therefore it is said here that guhyaṁ viśuddhaṁ durbodham, very confidential. The activities of dharma, very guhyam, very confidential. Guhyaṁ viśuddham. Viśuddham means... Dharma does not mean any material activities. Dharma means spiritual activities, viśuddham, pure, pure of the contamination of the material qualities.
| Page Title: | Unaware (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 15 of Aug, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=24, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 24 |