SB 5.13.18 – Come and Enjoy! Come and Enjoy!

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Five, Chapter Thirteen, “Rahūgaṇa Converses with Jaḍa Bharata.”

TEXT 18

drumeṣu raṁsyan suta-dāra-vatsalo
vyavāya-dīno vivaśaḥ sva-bandhane
kvacit pramādād giri-kandare patan
vallīṁ gṛhītvā gaja-bhīta āsthitaḥ

TRANSLATION

When the living entity becomes exactly like a monkey jumping from one branch to another, he remains in the tree of household life without any profit but sex. Thus he is kicked by his wife just like the he-ass. Unable to gain release, he remains helplessly in that position. Sometimes he falls victim to an incurable disease, which is like falling into a mountain cave. He becomes afraid of death, which is like the elephant in the back of that cave, and he remains stranded, grasping at the twigs and branches of a creeper.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The precarious condition of a householder’s life is described herein. A householder’s life is full of misery, and the only attraction is sex with the wife who kicks him during sexual intercourse, just as the she-ass does her mate. Due to continuous sex life, he falls victim to many incurable diseases. At that time, being afraid of death, which is like an elephant, he remains hanging from the twigs and branches of the tree, just like a monkey.

[Pryaers]

First of all, I would like to welcome the book distributors who have gathered here at Sri Sri Radha-Radhanath Temple. They have done a great service to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by distributing the transcendental message of Krishna, and we are sure that Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya will bless them.

Here in this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we find the description of household life. Most people in the world are covered by the description here, and we can understand how unfortunate materialistic persons are and how much they suffer. Of course, maya appears very attractive, but when one allows himself to be attracted by maya, he suffers very greatly. Srila Prabhupada often gave the example of sex attraction or used the example of sex attraction to epitomize the attraction of maya in general. The she-ass emits a braying sound which the he-ass considers to be very beautiful. Actually, the she-ass is calling the he-ass for sex, and when the he-ass hears the braying of the she-ass, he immediately runs to her to enjoy. But as soon as he goes to her for sexual enjoyment, she immediately raises up her hind legs and begins to kick him very forcefully, and thus the poor male is punished. And why is he punished? She called him to enjoy, what wrong did he do? But when he went to enjoy, she kicked him like anything. So maya acts in the same way. She invites us to enjoy her, but as soon as we go to enjoy her, she kicks us, and we suffer.

Once, Srila Prabhupada was in the temple in Hawaii, and he was sitting with one disciple, and the ‘good humor’ man passed by. The ‘good humor’ man means the ice cream vendor. He has a cart, and the carts play some little musical jingle to attract the customers. So Srila Prabhupada was sitting with the disciple in the room, and suddenly the disciple heard the sound of the ‘good humor’ man, and Srila Prabhupada could see that he was attracted. So Srila Prabhupada said to him, “Would you like some ice cream?” And the disciple said, “No, no, Srila Prabhupada.” But Srila Prabhupada continued, “No, no, you can have, you can have.” But the disciple said, “No, no, I don’t want.” Then Srila Prabhupada explained that the living entities are always attracted by maya in some way or another. Maya invites the living entity, “Come on enjoy me, come on enjoy me,” like the music of the ‘good humor’ man invites the potential customers, “Come on, enjoy me, come on.”

So in the same way, maya calls the conditioned soul, “Come on enjoy me, come on enjoy me.” Srila Prabhupada explained that in different species of life, different senses are more prominent. In the material world, when a human being wants to capture an animal, he will take advantage of the animal’s attraction towards one of the objects of the senses and capture him, which reflects the same process of maya, how maya attracts and captures the conditioned souls. For example, we are all familiar with the fish. The fish is very much inclined to eat. In fact, Srila Prabhupada gave one lecture in Calcutta where he quoted, may be Manu-saṁhitā, that eating fish is equal to eating all other types of flesh combined because the fish eats everything. So eating the fish is as good as eating everything. The fish are very attracted to eat, and the fisherman, when he wants to catch the fish, will dangle some bait on the hook, and the bait will invite the fish, “Come on, enjoy me, come on enjoy me.” But as soon as the fish goes to eat the bait, immediately he is captured and killed.

The elephant is very much attracted by the opposite sex. How to capture an elephant? Srila Prabhupada explained that when the hunter wants to capture the elephant, he will dig a big pit, big enough for the elephant to fall in, and cover the pit with grass. Then, on the other side of the pit, he will place a she-elephant making the sound that indicates that she wants the he-elephant to come. As soon as the elephant hears the sound, “Come on, enjoy me, come on enjoy me,” he goes running to the she-elephant and falls in the hole and he is captured. The deer is very much attracted to the sound of music actually. Srila Prabhupada explained that hunters who want to capture deer, they play the flute, and the deer becomes enchanted by the sound of the flute, which is so inviting, “Come on, enjoy me, come on enjoy me.” When the deer goes to enjoy the sound of the flute, he is captured by the hunter and killed. So in every species of life, different senses are prominent, and maya calls the living entity in the different species by particular senses. But human beings, their senses, all become attracted, and therefore Prahlada Maharaja has compared the human being to a husband who has many wives. Generally, when the husband comes home at night, the wife will pull him in a certain direction. But if a man has many wives, then each wife will be pulling him in a different direction. Someone will be grabbing him by the hand, pulling in one direction; someone will be grabbing him by the ear, pulling him in the other direction. So the human being is constantly being dragged in different directions by the senses, by the call of maya to enjoy the senses, and thus he is pulled in so many different directions, and he suffers.

Maya will call us, and if we become attracted by the invitation to come and enjoy maya, we will be captured and punished. But if we don’t heed the call of maya, rather if we respond to the call of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to chant Hare Krishna and preach, then we will be saved from the call of maya. We all have experience: we engage in some service, but our minds are not on our service; our minds are somewhere else in the material world. So one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada that, “Yes, with his body he is doing some service, but with his mind he is wandering here and there. So what is his position?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “We are in the kingdom of maya, so we have to expect that maya will call us. “Come on enjoy me. Come on enjoy me.” But if we don’t heed the call of maya.” In other words, if we ignore the call of maya—eventually she will stop calling. She will give up, “Oh, I have called so many times, but the person is not answering. Let me try someone else.” So, as long as we continue our service and we don’t respond to the invitation of maya to enjoy, we will be safe. Eventually, maya will stop calling, and then we will be free to think of Krishna and Krishna’s service.

So, devotees have a very important mission. They have to save the poor conditioned souls from the deadly illusory attraction of maya. By working to enlighten the conditioned souls about the dangers of maya’s attraction, they themselves become freed from maya’s attraction, and thus they together achieve the supreme benefit. The greatest attraction of maya is the sex attraction. The sex attraction is necessary for the material world to continue because household life is full of miseries. So why should anyone enter household life to suffer? Srila Prabhupada explains that because of the sensational happiness of sex, people are drawn into household life. If it weren’t for the sensational happiness of sex, no one would enter household life because it is so full of suffering. And then, when he enters to enjoy, he suffers the consequences. Earlier in the Fifth Canto, Rishbha deva has given valuable instructions to his sons. One instruction is,

puṁsah striyā mithunī-bhāvam etaṁ
tayor mitho hṛdaya-granthim āhuḥ
ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair
janasya moho ‘yam ahaṁ mameti

Anyway, it basically says that when the man and the woman come together for sex enjoyment, their hearts become tied together with a hard knot, and they cannot become free from the hard knot. Although the initial attraction is there, when they actually unite, the attraction becomes stronger. Then they need gṛha; they need a house because, obviously, they need a house, ato gṛha-kṣetra, field. Previously, most of the population was engaged in agriculture, so field means they need a place to work and earn and maintain themselves. Suta, they want to have children. Apta, there must be relatives to enjoy with—vitta, and there must be wealth and material opulence. Thus, janasya moho ‘yam ahaṁ mameti, they enter deeper and deeper into illusion and think in terms of “I” and “mine.” “I am so and so, and this is my wife. This is my house. These are my children. These are my friends. This is my bank balance.” Thus, janasya moho ‘yam ahaṁ mameti, they fall victim to life’s illusion and think of “I” and “mine.” But the whole basis is sex life.

Once, Srila Prabhupada and the devotees were invited to one Indian man’s house for a program for prasāda. I don’t know how much you have the experience here, but in India, we have the experience of where all the family members come and the householder introduces them. So, the gentleman was introducing his family members to Srila Prabhupada: “This is my wife; she is from such and such family. This is my son, and he is an engineer. This is my other son, and he is studying in such and such place. This is my daughter. This is my brother. This is my sister and her husband. This is my mother. This is my father,” and so on. After introducing the family members, the gentleman left the room. As soon as he left the room, Srila Prabhupada commented, “This is my sex life.” So it expands and continues generation after generation. We read here in the Bhāgavatam that the children serve the parents, and after some time, the father dies, the mother dies, and they suffer. But to forget the suffering, they marry, and they themselves have children. They try to find happiness by absorbing themselves in their children. In due course of time, they also grow old, get diseased, and die. Then their children are left to lament, and they try to find solace in their children. Thus, the same process continues generation after generation; punaḥ punaś carvita carvaṇānām.

Prahlada Maharaja gives the example of chewing the chewed. You get some sugar cane, you chew it, and suck whatever little juice you could get out of the sugar cane. After you have chewed it, you discard it because it has already been chewed. Then again, if you pick up or someone else picks up the same sugar cane that is already been chewed, thinking, “Well, maybe there is juice in there,” and he tries to chew it some more to get some more juice out of it—that is called chewing the chewed. Prahlada Maharaja uses this very phrase, punaḥ punaś carvita carvaṇānām, again and again, chewing that which has already been chewed. Srila Prabhupada says that whatever little pleasure we could squeeze out of the body, we have already done it, but we are still not satisfied. So we try to squeeze a little more pleasure out of the body. It is chewing the chewed. Whatever we could get out of it, we already got, but we are not satisfied. So we have the vain hope we can get more out of it. Therefore, we make different arrangements for chewing the chewed. Srila Prabhupada says that whatever little pleasure the husband and wife could squeeze out of their bodies, they already did it, but they are not satisfied. So they go on, but there is nothing there. Whatever little was there, they already got, but they are not satisfied. They go on and on, chewing the chewed. The same principle is mentioned here: although the householder is in a miserable position, he can’t get out. He can’t get out; he is helplessly entrapped. And why is he helplessly entrapped? There is nothing there. Whatever little was there they already got but they are not satisfied, but they go on and on, chewing the chewed. And the same principle is mentioned here that although the householder is in a miserable position, he can’t get out. He is helplessly entrapped. And why is he helplessly entrapped? So bandhana, he is in bondage to the reaction of his own activities. He hasn’t been put there by anyone else except himself and his own activities.

Sometimes people try to blame God, saying, “He is put me in such a miserable condition.” But He didn’t put you in that condition; you put yourself in that condition by your activities. The Lord is equal to everyone, but according to your activities, you suffer the consequences. Just like the high court judge, he awards different sentences to different persons. He will condemn someone to death, and he will award someone else two million dollars. But the judge is not partial; the judge is equal. But because of your activities, you deserve to be condemned to death, and the other one, because of his activities, he deserves to get two million dollars. So the Lord is equal, and whatever position you are in, you are there because of your own activities. If we are so foolish as to be attracted by the call of maya to enjoy and, for the sake of enjoyment, engage in sense gratification, which is just the opposite of Krishna consciousness, then we will have to suffer. So the position of the conditioned soul is very precarious. Govinda dasa, a great Vaishnava poet also sung,

e dhana, yaubana, putra, parijana
ithe ki āche paratīti re
kamala-dala-jala, jīvana ṭalamala
bhajahū hari-pada nīti re

The conditioned soul wants to enjoy youthful life, wealth, and family, but all that youthful enjoyment and material prosperity—how long can it last? It is just like a drop of water on the leaf of a lotus flower. At any moment, there can be some little wind, some slight breeze, and the lotus flower will tilt, and that little drop of water will just slide off the lotus leaf or the lotus petal and shatter into millions of pieces. Nobody can put it back together. So whatever we are enjoying based on the body is just like a drop of water on a lotus flower. As soon as there is just a little change in the condition, it falls and shatters, and there are so many people with shattered lives. So it is only by the mercy of Krishna that we are existing. We should not place ourselves in such a precarious position where our lives can be shattered at any moment. Rather, bhajahū re mana śrī-nanda-nandana abhaya-caraṇāravinda re, we should take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, which is the only place of fearlessness.

People are generally placing their faith in material things: youth, wealth, wife, children. At any moment, their lives can be shattered. We have to approach them and inform them that this is not real life. You are placing yourself in a very dangerous position. Real life is Krishna consciousness. Instead of trying to take shelter of the wife and children and households, you should take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna. Then you will be safe and protected. Not only safe and protected, you will actually be happy. Devotees have a great responsibility to enlighten people about the real facts of life so that they can be saved from the miseries of material conditional existence and find safety and happiness at the lotus feet of Krishna. And how to take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna? Lord Chaitanya has made the whole process very easy in the modern age.

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

Simply by chanting the holy name of Krishna, one can achieve all success in the modern age of Kali. The conditioned souls are suffering in the forest of material existence, so they need some direction on how to get out of the forest. By giving them transcendental knowledge, by giving them Srila Prabhupada’s books, they will get direction on how to get out of the forest of material desires and come to the lotus feet of Krishna. The main process is chanting.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Are there any questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:38:10]

Giriraj Swami: Atmaram Prabhu comments that there are many people who consider us to be very pessimistic. They are young, they are happy, they are enjoying their family life, they are healthy. So they think we are pessimistic, always seeing the negative side. Is there any question or just a comment? What do we tell them?

Well, Srila Prabhupada gave the example of wet stool and dry stool, that cow dung in the beginning is wet, and the wet cow dung is quite safe. But when it dries, the ladies make it into cow dung patties and then they feed it into the fire; they use it as fuel for the fire. So the wet stool is thinking, “I am fine, I am fine, I don’t have any problems at all.” They see the dry stool being consumed in the fire, but they think, “We are wet stool, we have no problem.” They don’t think that in a few days or a few hours, they are also going to be dry and also going to be consumed in the fire. It is just a matter of common sense, really that it is just a matter of time. Actually, the verse of the Bhāgavatam that explains about the hard knot of material existence also explains how the hard knot can be slackened. It slackens when one associates with devotees and hears about Krishna consciousness. It also slackens when the reactions to one’s past fruitive activities start to subside. Of course, that comes from leading a regulated life when we don’t create further sinful activities and we gradually become free from the past sinful reactions. By the process of leading a regulated life and associating with devotees, the hard knot of material existence slackens. Then the conditioned soul can actually start to come out of the bondage of household life and take to the service of Lord Krishna. By giving them the chance to hear the holy name, hear the transcendental subject, giving them Krishna prasāda, and engaging them in service, they will be gradually, maybe even imperceptibly, loosening the hard knot. One day, they will become free enough that they can actually turn towards Krishna consciousness and engage in devotional service.

Question-note: He says in householder life we have duties, but sometimes householder life comes to the point where it is unbearable. So then what do we do?

Giriraj Swami: Actually, there are some very interesting verses in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra. As you know, Lord Ramachandra went into the forest with Sita devi, and Sita devi was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa. Lord Ramachandra was lamenting for the loss of Sita. Śukadeva Gosvami explains why Lord Ramachandra came into the world and suffered in separation from Sita. Śukadeva Gosvami gives the answer that he wanted to teach human society about the misery that one suffers when he becomes attached to his wife. That is the purpose of Lord Ramachandra’s pastimes. That is the main instruction: that one who is attached to a woman must suffer. Lord Ramachandra himself showed how a husband who is attached to a wife suffers. That is the primary instruction. But the other instruction is that although he was suffering, he did his duty. He looked for her, got her back, and took action against Rāvaṇa. So he also shows how the husband must do his duty towards the wife. Although there is so much suffering in household life, he is still taught that one must do one’s duty.

When we come to Krishna consciousness, we are not completely bound by the duties of material life. The Bhagavad-gītā speaks about detachment from wife, children, and the like. Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport that the best way to make the family happy is Krishna consciousness. The family members can come together morning and evening, chant Hare Krishna, discuss books like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, worship the deity, and take the remnants of prasāda. Thus, one’s family life can become very happy. Then there is no need to leave family life and accept renounced life. But then Srila Prabhupada says that if the family does not accept Krishna consciousness and if family life becomes unfavorable for Krishna consciousness, then one can leave the family. One should be ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of the Lord. Just like Arjuna, he was also attached to his family members, but when he understood that they were an impediment to his progressive Krishna consciousness, he was ready to fight and even kill.

The final conclusion is that one should be prepared to sacrifice anything for the sake of the Lord. Whether one remains in the family or comes out of the family is a detail. Of course, it is a very important detail. In difficult cases, because it is not always so easy to know whether one should leave the family or not, it is better to consult some experienced devotees. But generally, especially in Kali-yuga, one should stay in family life, but be detached, and try to practice Krishna consciousness. Although sometimes the situation develops such that one member is a devotee, another member is a demon, and they really are not compatible, so it has to be discussed and resolved.

Message on paper: Maharaja, devotees must leave for the festival in one hour. The word “one” is underlined twice. First, they must take prasāda.

Giriraj Swami: Must take prasāda. It is not optional. We need a lot of help there; there are no devotees there.

. . .

Giriraj Swami: This is like a sutra; it is just three sentences, but it is full of very deep meaning. Because we need a lot of help there, there are no devotees out there.

. . .

Giriraj Swami: In other words, we shouldn’t think, “Oh well, there are others there, let them do the work. I am just one person; I am not needed.” But no, what he is saying here is you are needed. There are no other devotees there, and unless you go, there won’t be. So we will end the class now, take prasāda, and leave for the festival site.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Jagannatha Ratha-yatra ki jaya!

Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!