BG 12.8 – Discarding the Miseries of Material Nature

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

[Bhagavad-gītā 12.8]

mayy eva mana ādhatsva
mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya
nivasiṣyasi mayy eva
ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ

TRANSLATION

Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.

PURPORT

One who is engaged in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service lives in a direct relationship with the Supreme Lord, so there is no doubt that his position is transcendental from the very beginning. A devotee does not live on the material plane – he lives in Kṛṣṇa. The holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent;

COMMENT

Shanti, Shanti. So later in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says (Gītā 14.26)

māṁ ca yo ‘vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

That one who engages fully in devotional service without deviation he can transcend the modes of nature and come to the platform of brahman. As long as we are under the mode of material nature, we have to suffer. There are three types of suffering. There are three types of miseries that every conditioned soul must suffer in the material world. One is adhyātmika suffering pertaining to one’s own mind and body. For example, I may get a headache, toothache, or stomachache. There are other diseases like dysentery, heart disease, blood pressure issues, and cancer. There are also miseries in the mind. Just like if our wife dies, our father dies, or our son dies, we will suffer so much in the mind. So practically every moment we are suffering one way or another.

Another type of misery is called ādibhautika klesa, miseries caused by other living entities. For example, someone may insult us, someone may cheat us, someone may steal from us, someone may file a case against us in court and we have to suffer. And some miseries are caused by living entities other than human beings. A dog may bite us or mosquitoes may bite us. Once Srila Prabhupada was in Caracas Venezuela in South America and there were so many mosquitoes, and they were biting all of the guests and devotees, causing them distress. But one devotee noticed that the mosquitoes were not biting Srila Prabhupada. So he said “Srila Prabhupada mosquitoes are not biting you? They are biting everyone else but they are not biting you.” He said “Yes Here, the mosquitoes have some respect, but in Calcutta, they make no distinctions.” So there are always so many miseries that come to us.

Another misery is called ādidaivika, miseries caused by acts of nature like floods, droughts, too much heat, or too much cold. Some time ago, there was an earthquake in Maharashtra and within a moment so many people died at one time, and those who did not die they may have been hurt. Even if they weren’t physically hurt, they suffered because their family members were killed, their friends were killed, or their house collapsed. So there are so many miseries, and we cannot control them.

Japan often suffers from earthquakes, and they had announced that they had built earthquake-proof buildings. In other words, they constructed buildings that would not be affected by earthquakes. Recently, there was an earthquake in Japan, and all the buildings that were supposed to be earthquake-proof collapsed. So we cannot control nature, nor can we protect ourselves from the miseries of material nature. The only way to get free from the miseries inflicted by material nature is to surrender unto Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī,mama māyā duratyayā that the Material nature, which consists of the three modes, is very difficult to overcome. But mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te one who have surrendered to Krishna can easily cross over maya. The personification of maya is Durga. So the material world is like a prison. And Durga is like the superintendent of the prison. She keeps us in the prison and she punishes us. You may have seen the picture of Durga devi riding on her lion carrier and she is holding one triśūla with three points. With the three points of the triśūla, she pierces the conditioned souls in the material world. The three points in triśūla represent the threefold miseries of material existence. So we are always being hit by these three types of misery, and Durga is very powerful, much more powerful than we are. We cannot defend ourselves from the attacks of Durga.

But Durga is the servant of Krishna. So, if we surrender to Krishna, Krishna can order Durga not to punish Him and let Him go free. Just like sometimes the governor or the king may give pardon to some prisoner, so the king will order the superintendent of the prison to release this prisoner. So if we surrender to Krishna and Krishna is pleased by our sincerity, He can order maya to release us. The superintendent of the prison does not have the authority to release the prisoner; only the king or the president has such power. So if we worship demigods like Durga, we cannot get liberation from the material miserable conditions. Just like if you are in prison and you bribe the jail keeper, you may get some little more facility in the prison. The warden may allow you to get some cigarettes or some magazine to read in the prison, but only the king or the governor has the authority to release the prisoners.

An intelligent person will not think about how I can be happy in prison. The prison is not a place of happiness; and Bhagavad-gītā also Lord Krishna says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, that the material world is a place of misery. But we are so foolish; we want to make duḥkhālayam into sukhālayam, but it is not possible. But There is another place where we actually can be happy, and that is with Krishna. We can go to Krishna and live with Krishna by the very easy process of hari-nāma saṅkīrtana. Sastra says

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

One should chant the hold name, chant the holy name, chant the holy name; there is no other way, no other way, and no other way for success in the modern age of Kali-yuga. By chanting the holy name, one gets the association of Lord Krishna. In the material world or the relative world, the name of a thing and the thing are different. For example, if I’m hungry and I chant “mango, mango, mango,” just by chanting “mango, mango,” I will not satisfy my hunger. Because the word “mango” and the thing “mango” are different. But in the spiritual world if I chant Krishna Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna is personally present. He is dancing on my tongue. And by associating with Krishna I take the same qualities as Krishna. For example, if I put an iron rod on fire, the iron rod will become hotter and hotter and finally become red hot then it will no longer remain as iron it will act like fire. If you touch it to something it will burn. And same way by chanting Hare Krishna we associate with Krishna, and we take on the same qualities as Krishna. Krishna is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha—eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. So by chanting Hare Krishna we become Krishnaite, we become just like Krishna eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. So we can become one with Krishna in quality but not in quantity. Just like a particle of sunshine has all the same qualities as the sun—heat and light—but it does not have the same quantity.

This is the sublime philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference. Living entity is one with the Lord in quality but different in quantity. because the Lord is infinite, and the living entities are infinitesimal. We can realize our original spiritual identity just by chanting Hare Krishna. We will actually feel how we are eternal, how we are full of knowledge, and how we are blissful. So now we will practically experience the original spiritual consciousness that can be awakened by chanting Hare Krishna.

So we request you all to join in the chanting now. The system is, for those of you who have come late, the system is that first I will chant, and you will hear. Then you will chant, and I will hear. In this way, we can go back and forth very nicely. So please repeat after me. “Hare Krishna.” When you say Hare Krishna, you should raise your hands. Just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to do.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Now all sixteen words at same time

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So do you all know the words to the mantra now? If you do not know the words to the mantra by memory, raise your hands. Okay, so we will practice for a few more minutes.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Now if you do not know the words to the mantra by memory, raise your hand. Okay. Now we will have an examination, whether you really know or whether you are well, so let us call on the young man with the green shirt.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Now this gentleman, with the white shirt and mustache, just here.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

And from little towards the back. Older man with gray hair and chasma. Yes, yes.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

So if somebody calls your name then definitely you will say yes what do you want? So if Hare Krishna or Radhe Krishna asks us, what do you want? What will we say? Do we say we want one lakh rupees or I want one crore Rupees? Or I want a beautiful wife? I want a rich husband? Or I want a VCR? So we will not ask Krishna for such material things? So when we call the Lord’s name and the Lord asks us, “What do you want?” We will say, “My dear Lord Radha- Krishna, I want only one thing. I want only to serve you". Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the same prayer. He says

na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye

He says na dhanaṁ I do not want wealth, na janaṁ I do not want Followers, na sundarīṁ I do not want to enjoy beautiful womens. Then what do you want?

mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi

That my dear Lord I want only one thing. I want to serve You life after life. Life after life means that he does not desire even liberation. He only wants devotional service bhakti. But as we discussed in the beginning of the talk tonight, one who is fully engaged in devotional service, he is already liberated automatically.

So Hare Krishna means, “Oh Hare Oh Radha Oh Krishna, please engage me in Your devotional service. Only Your pure devotional service will make me happy. Nothing else will satisfy me.”

So now we will chant Hare Krishna together. So far we have only discussed chanting. Now we must also say something about dancing. Because when we chant Hare Krishna, we naturally feel happy and we feel like dancing. And by dancing, we get more of the effect of chanting. So we will do both chanting and dancing.

So now I will show you how we dance. It is very easy. We raise our hand, and then we move our left foot in front of our right foot like this. Then we move our left foot back and move our right foot in front of our left foot. So it is very easy. Okay. And sometimes with the beat we jump up and down. Now everyone should stand up and we will do chanting and dancing. Now when I chant you can clap.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare