SB 1.16.5 – Krishna Consciousness Is the Only Cure

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Sixteen, “How Parīkṣit Received the Age of Kali,”

TEXT 5

śaunaka uvāca
kasya hetor nijagrāha
kaliṁ digvijaye nṛpaḥ
nṛdeva-cihna-dhṛk śūdra-
ko ‘sau gāṁ yaḥ padāhanat
tat kathyatāṁ mahā-bhāga
yadi kṛṣṇa-kathāśrayam

TRANSLATION

Śaunaka Ṛṣi inquired: Why did Mahārāja Parīkṣit simply punish him, since he was the lowest of the śūdras, having dressed as a king and having struck a cow on the leg? Please describe all these incidents if they relate to the topics of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Śaunaka and the ṛṣis were astonished to hear that the pious Mahārāja Parīkṣit simply punished the culprit and did not kill him. This suggests that a pious king like Mahārāja Parīkṣit should have at once killed an offender who wanted to cheat the public by dressing like a king and at the same time daring to insult the purest of the animals, a cow. The ṛṣis in those days, however, could not even imagine that in the advanced days of the Age of Kali the lowest of the śūdras will be elected as administrators and will open organized slaughterhouses for killing cows. Anyway, although hearing about a śūdraka who was a cheat and insulter of a cow was not very interesting to the great ṛṣis, they nevertheless wanted to hear about it to see if the event had any connection with Lord Kṛṣṇa. They were simply interested in the topics of Lord Kṛṣṇa, for anything that is dovetailed with the narration of Kṛṣṇa is worth hearing. There are many topics in the Bhāgavatam about sociology, politics, economics, cultural affairs, etc., but all of them are in relation with Kṛṣṇa, and therefore all of them are worth hearing. Kṛṣṇa is the purifying ingredient in all matters, regardless of what they are. In the mundane world, everything is impure due to its being a product of the three mundane qualities. The purifying agent, however, is Kṛṣṇa.

COMMENT

The sages were only interested in hearing the discussion related to the subject of Krishna consciousness; otherwise, they had no interest. As devotees, we should also follow the same principle. We should take interest in any subject or any activity only if it has relation to Lord Krishna; otherwise, we are not interested. Why? Actually, the material world is a diseased place or a contaminated place, and when one is diseased or contaminated, there is no question of good and bad, moral or immoral, sociology, politics, economics, culture, and so on. Suppose you are infected with some deadly disease and you are lying on the bed on the verge of death, what is the use of discussing sociology, politics, economics, culture, and so on? There is no use. You are infected; you are going to die. The only thing that matters to you, or the only thing that should matter to you, is to become disinfected, to become cured of the disease.

So everyone in the material world is infected with the three modes of material nature, and we are all on the verge of death. In fact, the planet is called martya-loka, or the place of death. So we are all infected with a deadly disease, and we are all about to die. The only thing that matters, or the only thing that should matter, is to become cured of the infection. Otherwise, nothing else has any significance. Only to be cured of the infection, and the only thing that can cure us is Krishna consciousness; is Lord Krishna. Therefore, we are not interested in sociology, politics, and economics unless Krishna is there. If Krishna is there, we are interested because Krishna can cure us from the material disease, and Krishna can save us from death. So the same principle applies everywhere in the devotee’s life. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. If something has relation to Krishna, if something can be engaged in the service of Krishna, we are interested. But the same thing, if it has no relation to Krishna’s service or Krishna consciousness, we reject it.

Just like the microphone. Sometimes people say that you condemn the advancement of modern civilization, but you use the products of modern civilization. But Srila Prabhupada explains that we do not condemn the advancement of modern civilization. We only say that all advancement should be engaged in the service of the Lord, and if it is engaged for sense gratification without Krishna consciousness, it is the cause of bondage. But the same thing, if it is engaged in the service of the Lord, opens the door to liberation. So we don’t condemn modern advances like the microphone if the microphone is used in the service of the Lord for the glorification of Lord Krishna. But if the microphone is used for mundane political speeches or mundane modern music, then it does not help us. So the devotee’s principle is that he accepts whatever is favorable to Krishna consciousness, and he rejects whatever is not favorable. So ordinarily, hearing about a sudra dressed as a king torturing a cow or a bull is not interesting to a devotee because there are so many political affairs, but the devotees are not interested. But if the affair has some relation to Lord Krishna, then the devotee can take interest. Therefore, devotees generally do not even read newspapers because there is so much news, but there is no connection to Krishna. And every day, more or less, the same news is there. Somebody is killed, somebody is robbed, there is a fire, there is a disaster, this politician said this, and that politician said that, and everything is the same every day. Everything is the same, and there is no relation to Krishna. So why should we read the newspaper? Once in Juhu, Srila Prabhupada commented, “What the fools and rascals are saying, that is newspaper.” That was Srila Prabhupada’s definition. So we don’t read the newspaper if there is no connection with Krishna.

But Maharaja Parīkṣit was a great devotee. He was on a world tour. Why was he on a world tour? Not for personal aggrandizement, not for sense gratification, but for the service of the Lord. Therefore, when he saw the sudra dressed as a king in the act of torturing a cow, he thought in relation to Lord Krishna because the devotees think of everything in relation to Lord Krishna. What would Lord Krishna want? What would he want me to do? And the king is also responsible for the citizens, so the king is always thinking, “What would Lord Krishna want me to do, and what would Lord Krishna want the citizens to do?” Therefore, in the activities of great devotees like Maharaja Parīkṣit, there is always connection with Lord Krishna, and therefore the sages thought, If there some connection with Lord Krishna, please tell us more. But if there is no connection with Krishna consciousness, we are not interested.

Another important word in the verse is nṛdeva. nṛ means man, and deva means God. The king is called nṛdeva because he is a man, but although he is a man, he is acting on behalf of the Lord as the representative of the Lord, and therefore he is given the same respect as the Lord Himself. Just like the spiritual master also. Every time, we sing, sākṣād-haritvena samasta-śāstrair yuktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ, that the spiritual master is worshiped on the same level as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Why? kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya, because he is rendering the most confidential service to the Lord. He is preaching Krishna consciousness. Trying to bring the people to Krishna consciousness. So the king also has the same duty, to bring the people to Krishna consciousness, and when he does so, he is actually nṛdeva. He is actually a human being acting as a representative of God, and as a representative of God, he is given the same respect as God, and the same with the spiritual master. But here we see Kali. He was simply taking the dress of the king without doing the duties of a king, or in other words, he was cheating. He was pretending to be a king without really acting as a king, and therefore he was punishable. So the real king or the state government should punish anyone who falsely poses as a representative of God, as a king or as a guru.

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada said that the government should check people who falsely dress as gurus or falsely pose as gurus. He said that just as the government licenses a medical practitioner or a lawyer, he has to pass the test, he has to be qualified. Then he is given a license that you can practice as a doctor or you can practice as a lawyer. So Srila Prabhupada said that similarly the government should also check the brahmans or the gurus, whether they are actually qualified to give spiritual knowledge. And the government should approve them if they are actually qualified, and if they are not actually qualified, they should be disapproved and they should not be allowed to practice. Just like if someone is not licensed to practice medicine, but if still he practices medicine, he is punishable. So similarly, if someone poses as a spiritual master without being qualified, he should be punished. So Kali actually had the qualification of the sudra, but he was adopting the dress of the king, and therefore he was punishable. He was cheating, and the real king was not supposed to allow such cheating in the state. And the crime was considered so serious that the sages were surprised. Why did Maharaja only punish him? Why did he not kill him?

Sometimes, Srila Prabhupada once after a morning walk on Juhu Beach, he was walking back to Hari Krishna Land. So he commented that if we capture the government, then we will approach everyone and tell them either you chant Hare Krishna or we will kill you. Of course, sometimes we have a material sentiment about being non-violent, so maybe I was like that. So when Srila Prabhupada said that we will approach everyone and say either you chant Hare Krishna or we will kill you, maybe he thought I wasn’t completely in the same mood. So then he turned to me and he said, “So Giriraj, what do you think? Is it a good idea?” So of course, I had to say it was a good idea, but then Srila Prabhupada turned to the others and said, “Our Giriraj is non-violent.”

So again, we come back to the same point that in the material sense, we might think that Oh, violence is bad and non-violence is good. But the real question is not violence or non-violence; the real question is Krishna consciousness. Just like Arjuna wanted to be non-violent, but why did he want to be non-violent? For his sense gratification. He didn’t want to fight with his relatives, he didn’t want to fight with his superiors, he didn’t want to kill them. He wanted to enjoy life with them. Generally, people are on the bodily platform, and they are attached to the bodily relations, and they think, I will enjoy life with my brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and so on. So we don’t want to kill them because we think, How can we enjoy life without them? So Arjuna was acting on the bodily platform, and he didn’t want to kill his family members, he didn’t want to kill his elders or his teachers. He wanted to enjoy life with them, and material enjoyment means sense gratification. So for the sake of his sense gratification, he didn’t want to fight. But in the end, when he understood that Krishna wanted him to fight and kill, he accepted what Krishna wanted. He gave preference to what Krishna wanted, and that is Krishna consciousness.

So even non-violence, when it is opposed to what Krishna wants, we should reject it. We have no interest in non-violence, and even violence, when it is exactly what Lord Krishna wants, we accept it, and it becomes devotional service. So nothing is good in the world and nothing is bad in the world, or everything in the material world is bad, and the only thing that is good is Krishna consciousness. And if something has relation to Krishna consciousness, it becomes good; otherwise, everything in the material world is bad. So every subject matter—sociology, politics, economics, culture, and so on—they are all bad, in the material world, all bad. But if they have some relation to Krishna and Krishna consciousness, they can become good. Just like when Srila Prabhupada came to the West, he said, “You Americans have everything. You have wealth, good education, strong bodies, beautiful features, but whatever you have are all zeros, and zero plus zero plus zero plus zero equals zero. But if you put a one in front of all the zeros, you get a thousand or a million, and the one is Krishna.” So everything in the material world is zero, but if we put one in front of everything, if we put Krishna in front of everything, then it becomes valuable and things have value. So for a devotee, anything without Krishna is zero. Zero zero zero zero zero zero zero—all zeros, and they all add up to zero. But if we put a one in front of the zeros, however many, then there is value— ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion, a trillion. Everything becomes valuable with Krishna.

So we have the opportunity, not only do we have the opportunity, but we have begun to take advantage of the opportunity to add Krishna to our lives, to make Krishna the center of all we do. And when one actually desires to serve Krishna only, only to serve Krishna, then he is considered liberated; īhā yasya harer dāsye karmaṇā manasā girā. īhā means desire. If we simply have the desire to act only for the service of the Lord, karmaṇā manasā girā, with our activities, with our minds, and with our words, jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate, he is liberated even in the body. He doesn’t have to wait for the time of death; he is already liberated. So karmaṇā, how do we work for Krishna? So many activities—cleaning the temple like Maharaja Ambarish, so many activities—cleaning the temple, somehow or other, working to spread Krishna consciousness. And manasā, the mind, we think of Krishna’s service: “What does Krishna want me to do? How can I make my service to Krishna better?” And girā, speech; when we preach Krishna consciousness, we are engaging our speech in the service of the Lord.

So we have already learned, everyone in this room has already learned, how to engage the body in working for Krishna, how to engage the mind in thinking of Krishna’s service, and how to engage the speech in preaching Krishna consciousness and glorifying Lord Krishna. And if we do everything in relation to Krishna and nothing for sense gratification, we are liberated. Even if we only desire to do so, even then we are liberated. Of course, we do have to be careful because we are coming from the conditioned state or from the diseased state of material existence. And although in principle we can use everything in the service of the Lord, in practical application, if we are not very strong in Krishna consciousness, when we come in contact with some object which can be used in the service of the Lord, we may fall down into the mood of enjoying and exploiting. But if we are firmly situated in Krishna consciousness like Srila Prabhupada was, then we can use material things in Krishna’s service, and we should.

So in our own lives, generally, we should live simply. We should not become entangled with material possessions and material complexities. But for the sake of Krishna consciousness, for the sake of preaching, for the sake of serving Lord Krishna, we can accept material things, and we should. And if we do, that is called appropriate renunciation, yukta-vairāgya. And if we reject something that can be used in Krishna’s service because we think it is maya, we think it is something material, that is phalgu-vairāgya, false renunciation or artificial renunciation. So without being attached, we should accept anything and everything which is favorable for Krishna consciousness, and that is yukta-vairāgya, perfect renunciation. That is complete renunciation. So here the sages also, they didn’t reject the topic of Maharaja Pariksit and Kali because it involved politics. They wanted to know if it had some relation to Krishna, and if it had some relation to Krishna, they were ready to hear. Only if it had no relation to Krishna, they would reject the subject.

So, as described earlier in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there are different classes of persons. In every species of life, there are different classes. There are different classes of birds also, and some persons are compared to crows. The crows take interest in dirty places; they go to dirty places and taste garbage. So, people who are like crows take interest in topics without any relation to Krishna. Those who are like swans, swans like to swim in clear lakes filled with lotus flowers, nice gardens, surrounded by nice gardens, fruit trees, flowers, and chirping birds. So, devotees take interest in the topics of Krishna, and they are like swans. Others who take interest in topics without Krishna are compared to crows. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is compared to nectar, which is appreciated by swans, and other literature or other topics without Krishna are compared to garbage, which is appreciated by crows. Srila Prabhupada said that he created ISKCON to be a society of paramahamsas, for swans, and definitely, you are all swans. So, you should stay in the pure, clear, cool lakes of kṛṣṇa-kathā and avoid the dirty places where sense gratification is discussed and where crows flock in their pilgrimage. Tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham, Bhāgavatam says that literature without Krishna consciousness is a place of pilgrimage for crows. We have our yatras, which are meant for swans, and the materialists have their places of pilgrimage, which are meant for sense gratification. So, we always keep the company of the swan-like devotees and take shelter in the transcendental topics of Krishna, and thus we enjoy life happily.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: It is said that spiritual life is like walking on a razor’s edge. Could you please explain?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, spiritual life is like walking on the razor’s edge. In other words, there is a fine line, which is Krishna consciousness, and if we go to one side or the other, we leave the path of Krishna consciousness. So, we have to be careful not to stray from the path, not to deviate. In other words, we have to be careful in what we think, what we say, and what we do that is in relation to Krishna, what Krishna wants. We should always think, I am doing this. Does Krishna want me to do it? I am thinking this. Does Krishna want me to think this? I am speaking something. Does Krishna want me to say it? Then we will always stay on the line. If we go too far to one side or the other, either we go on the side of enjoyment or on the side of renunciation, phalgu-vairāgya, then we are off the path. If we take something and use it for sense gratification, we are off the path. If we reject something which is favorable for the service of the Lord, again, we are off the path. So, it is a fine line. We have to accept material things only for the service of the Lord without attachment, and that is Krishna consciousness. Rejecting material things which could be used in the service of the Lord, we are off the path. Accepting material things for sense gratification, even in the name of devotional service, again, we are off the path. So, we have to be careful, but we should expect, or we can expect, that we will go a little this way or that way. When we go a little too far this side, we have to come back, and we may go too far that side; then we have to come back.

And Srila Prabhupada did it with us. He would encourage us to go out and distribute literature in the beginning, but then we became too concerned with money. Then Srila Prabhupada said, “Okay, you cannot charge any price for the literature, mainly BTGs. You have to give them free and ask for a donation.” The devotees used to stay out very late, come back at midnight. We were quite new and enthusiastic. In one temple, which was one of the main temples then, San Francisco, they used to come back at twelve o’clock at night or later, and then they would have a big feast and then take rest and get up maybe six or seven in the morning. They would go out, and they were really collecting a lot. But Srila Prabhupada saw that we had gone too far in one direction. So he said, “You don’t charge money for the literature. You give the literature free and ask for a donation, and whatever they give, you accept.” He said that everyone must come back by six in the evening, take bath, attend the evening program, and so on, because we had gone too far. So, he brought us back. Sometimes in our own lives, we may perceive we have gone too far one way or another, and so we have to try to keep on the path, keep in the line. Therefore, we have the association of other devotees; they can help us. If we have any doubt, we can consult. But we have to be careful. Like Srila Prabhupada said that a pure devotee does not engage any of his senses without first taking the permission of the Lord.

Perhaps I told the story that in London, Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture and he said, “I cannot fall down. You can fall down, but I cannot fall down.” Then after the lecture, he came before the deities, and he was praying. One disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “What were you praying?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “I was praying to the deities that I may never fall down.” The disciple said, “But Srila Prabhupada, you just said that you can’t fall down.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, because I am always praying that I may never fall down. Therefore, I can never fall down.” So, Srila Prabhupada was instructing us that we should be careful. We should always be aware of the dangers of maya, of the traps of maya, sense gratification, and always pray to Krishna that we may not fall down. Always confirm whatever we are thinking or planning with mature devotees who can help us understand whether it is really favorable for Krishna consciousness or not. As devotees, you ask for the sake of others, for the instruction of others.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!