BG 3.10 – Chant, Live Happily, and Go Back to Godhead

Giriraj Swami: So we shall read one verse from the Bhagavad-gītā which gives very important information for the guidance of our lives, and which also points to the importance of Sri Krishna Chaitanya whose appearance we shall celebrate on Saturday. We read from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is Chapter Three, “Karma-yoga,” Text Ten.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 10

saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā
purovāca prajāpatiḥ
anena prasaviṣyadhvam
eṣa vo ‘stv iṣṭa-kāma-dhuk

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home – back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: patiṁ viśvasyātmeśvaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (2.4.20) Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

śriyaḥ patir yajña-patiḥ prajā-patir

dhiyāṁ patir loka-patir dharā-patiḥ

patir gatiś cāndhaka-vṛṣṇi-sātvatāṁ

prasīdatāṁ me bhagavān satāṁ patiḥ

The prajā-pati is Lord Viṣṇu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all planets, all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety, and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, [the present age] the saṅkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Saṅkīrtana-yajña and Kṛṣṇa consciousness go well together. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the saṅkīrtana-yajña:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ

sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair

yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña.” Other yajñas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended in Bhagavad-gītā also (9.14).

COMMENT

So we living entities have forgotten our eternal relationship with God or Krishna, and thus we have fallen into the material world and are suffering the pangs of material existence. The Bhagavad-gītā says that one should always be conscious of the miseries of material existence, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi -duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. There are four miserable conditions that are unavoidable within the material world: birth, disease, old age, and death. And apart from those, there are so many miseries that we endure at every moment. And these miseries have fallen upon us, or come upon us, because we have forgotten our relationship with God. And no matter what material means we adopt to try to counteract the miseries, we cannot be successful.

Birth—there are so many miseries that the living entity suffers within the womb that are described in the scripture and we can just imagine for ourselves if we had to sit in that position, cramped in a tight space, surrounded by different fluids and gases, and it is a horrible situation. So the miseries of the unborn child are described vividly in the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then disease—we all know how much we suffer when we are sick and whatever we are suffering now gets worse as we grow older. Many of us who first came to Srila Prabhupada in our youth, in the 1960s or 70s are now in our sixties and seventies, and growing old is not fun.

One of my godbrothers, a wonderful devotee named Bhrigupati dasa, who distributes books in Los Angeles, gave a class when I was there, in which he mentioned Srila Prabhupada’s coming to America at the age of sixty-nine. Srila Prabhupada was a sannyasi, a traditional mendicant in India, and he received the order from his spiritual master to present the message of Godhead, the message of Krishna, in the English language to people throughout the world. And in pursuance of the order from his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada decided to come to the United States, to New York City. And he approached Srimati Sumati Morarjee, who owned the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, for free passage, and eventually she agreed to give him passage on one of her cargo ships. So her secretary Mr. Choksi, joked with Srila Prabhupada that, “Why are you going to America at this advanced age, almost seventy? You should retire to some holy place like Vrindavan or Jagannatha Puri. Why are you going to America? I know, you want to enjoy; you want to see the sights just like everyone else.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “This body is finished; what have I to enjoy?” So that was true. Srila Prabhupada certainly did not come to America to enjoy and see the sights, but he knew that there was a generation of young people who were confused and frustrated in life, and he wanted to give them guidance so that they could realize their full potential and become happy in life. But that statement, “This body is finished, what have I to enjoy?” That is true for all of us. As the body ages, you really cannot enjoy.

Just today I was listening to a lecture of Srila Prabhupada and he was making the point that you have to give the food to the stomach. You can’t put the food in the eyes, or the ears, or the nostrils; you can’t try to absorb the food directly through your fingers, you have to feed the stomach. The stomach is the central point and from the stomach, all of the nutrition is distributed through the body. So in the same way, we have to render service to Krishna. We have to sacrifice for Krishna, and the service is distributed to all the different living entities and demigods, by offering to Krishna. Krishna is the central point, and then as an aside, Prabhupada just mentioned, “I am an old man and when you get old you can’t digest very well,” just mentioned it in the course of making the philosophical point about the stomach being the central point of the body, just like Krishna is the central point of all existence. So you really can’t enjoy much when you get old. Afterwards I approached Bhrigupati Prabhu about the class and he spoke a little more, and he quoted Betty Davis who was an American screen actress as saying, “Old age is not for sissies.” In other words, you have to be pretty strong to face old age because it is not fun.

And then death—every living entity by nature is eternal. Just as Krishna is eternal, as God is eternal, the living entity is also eternal. And because we are eternal, we don’t want to die. Because the soul is eternal, he doesn’t want to die. And the same soul, the same quality of spiritual energy exists in every species of life. There are millions of different species of life; there are plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. But whatever the species, there is a soul inside of the body. And it is the soul that gives life to the body. And even a little ant, if you put your finger or a stick, the ant will try to go around it, the ant doesn’t want to die; no living entity wants to die because the soul within the different bodies is eternal by nature. So human beings, for thousands of years, practically from the beginning of time, have tried to devise means of avoiding death. But they have been unsuccessful because janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, these miseries cannot be avoided. We try to counteract them by material means but we cannot do so. The only way to avoid the miseries of material existence, is to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. And according to this verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord has given us sacrifices that will enable us to live happily and prosper in the material world. It doesn’t mean we won’t get disease or grow old or die, but relatively speaking, we will prosper and we will be happy. And even more important, at the end of life, we will be liberated from the cycle of birth and death and go back to our original home with Krishna or God.

So that is the whole program for the human being. And the performance of sacrifice can be fulfilled in the present age, not by the Vedic rituals mentioned for earlier ages, but in the present age it can be accomplished by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña, by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord.

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

Of course, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is recommended specifically in the Vedas, the Kali-Santarana Upanishad, and in other scriptures, but any name of God mentioned in any scripture of the world, can be chanted. There are Christian traditions in which devotees or practitioners chant the name of Jesus; they repeat the name of Jesus. And similarly, there are statements in the Hebrew scriptures, in the Muslim scriptures, all recommending singing or chanting the name of God. But these sixteen words of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra are especially recommended, and therefore if one is not chanting any other name of God, he or she can chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. And that chanting will cleanse all the dirty things from the heart that make us attached to the material world, and fill us with transcendental bliss. We have been chanting, some of us for more than forty years, and if we were not experiencing happiness from the chanting why would we continue to chant? And in fact, the happiness that we experience from chanting and from Krishna consciousness is so great, that any other happiness pales in comparison. And therefore, we lose interest in things that interest ordinary people.

In the beginning one might have to make a little effort to restrain one’s senses because one may have bad habits for taking intoxicants, or eating flesh, or whatever, but as one actually relishes the sweet taste of Krishna consciousness, one loses the taste for dead material things. And therefore, one just wants to chant more and more. One feels that twenty-four hours in a day is not enough; that one tongue and two ears is not enough. One great devotee, Srila Rupa Gosvami, prayed “What can I chant with one tongue and two ears? If I had millions of tongues and billions of ears, then I could begin to chant.” So, so much relish, so much taste. So that stage comes by practice, abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena. It is just a matter of practice. To be successful at anything requires practice. People practice playing the piano, people practice rolling chapattis and making chapattis, people practice taking their exams for university, people practice driving so they can get their driver’s license. Everything requires practice, but the benefit we derive from material efforts is limited and temporary, whereas the benefit we get from Krishna consciousness or God consciousness is unlimited and eternal. And it is not that you have to wait until you are completely perfect in Krishna consciousness to feel the results, you begin to feel the results from the very moment you begin, with sincerity, chanting:

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

So we have a few minutes left. Would any of you like to ask any questions or make any comments?

Devotee: (Unintelligible 00:30:30)

Giriraj Swami: The body is made of senses but basically the body is just a machine. It is really the soul that has consciousness. The soul is located in the region of the heart but the consciousness spreads throughout the body. Just like the sun is located in a particular place in the sky or in the solar system, but the sunshine pervades. So as long as there is consciousness in the body, in other words, as long as the soul is in the body, we experience pleasures and pains in the body. But basically, the soul is meant to enjoy pleasure in the spiritual atmosphere, with Krishna in relation to the Supreme Soul. The soul cannot really enjoy much through the physical body. The physical body is more for pain.

One Indian philosopher gave the example of the finger. Take your finger; now how many ways can your finger enjoy? Not much you can do with the finger to enjoy, but how many ways can the finger suffer? There is a lot of ways; it can be burned, it can be cut, it can be crushed, it can become too cold. So by this analysis, the same would apply to the body in general. The body is really meant for pain because there are so many ways that the finger can suffer, but there are very few ways that we can experience pleasure through the senses. But even the pleasure that we do experience through the senses is temporary. The body itself is temporary and it is limited. When you are hungry food tastes very good but as you become more full, the same pleasure you were getting out of eating decreases, and then in the end you don’t even want to eat anymore. The first taste of the food was so good but after eating for fifteen or twenty minutes when you become satiated, that same food you can’t eat anymore. So that is just the way the body is; that is the way material pleasure is. There is some sort of pleasure but it is very limited and temporary, and it is mixed with a lot of pain, so it is not a good deal. Srila Prabhupada said with reference to the body, we should make the best use of a bad bargain. It is a bad bargain but we should make the best use of it, which is to become Krishna conscious. That is the real utility of the human body. And then we get free from the repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease, and we can really enjoy eternally with Krishna, with God. There are any other questions or comments?

Devotee: (Unintelligible 00:35:22) that means the human beings, tiger, lion, crocodile, snake; all these types of living beings. When the living beings will be suffering that means when they encounter death, how do you know that if somebody is a human being when that human being encounters death, when that guy will come back to the world again, how do you know whether he will come back as a human being, or a monkey, or a snake, or a gorilla or a crocodile?

Giriraj Swami: In the lower species of life, one progresses gradually to the next species, the next species, the next species, and then finally to the human form of life. In the human form of life, you have added intelligence that the lower species do not have. And with the extra intelligence you also have more freedom and more responsibility. For example, a tiger is carnivorous; a tiger will eat meat. It is not a sin for a tiger to eat meat because that is the way that the tiger lives, according to nature. An elephant is vegetarian; it is not a virtue for an elephant to be a vegetarian, it is just the way the elephant body is made, that he lives by eating vegetable foods. So in the lower species of life there is no pāpa or puṇya, there is no sinful activity or pious activity, all of our karma is earned in the human form of life, both sinful reactions and pious reactions. And in the lower species of life, the living entities are just using up their karma; those who have gone down. And when a human being is pious, not God conscious, not perfect in Krishna consciousness but just pious in a material way, then he goes to a higher planet, say like a heavenly planet. But there too, there is no karma. He is using up his pious credits. It is just like someone saves money in the bank and then he decides to go on a holiday. So he goes to beautiful paradise, some Caribbean Island or the island of Fiji or some island paradise, but he is just spending the money that he has saved up. And when the money runs out, he can’t stay any longer. So it is like that. We amass some pious credits, we go to a heavenly planet but while we are there, we are using up our pious credits, and then we have to come back to earth. Similarly, if we have been very sinful and go into a lower species of life, it is like a prison term. You have to pass so many days in a particular lower species of life, but you are using up your time, you are using up the time of your sentence and when your time is over, you go to the next higher species.

So there is no karma in the lower species or in the higher strata of life. But in the human form of life, one can engage in pious activities, karma, and come back as a human being or be promoted in the material world, or one can engage in vikarma, which are prohibited activities and then one is punished and may go to a lower species. Or, one can engage in akarma; that means acts of pure devotion to God, and the result of akarma or pure devotional service or bhakti, is that one is liberated from material existence altogether and returns to the spiritual kingdom of God, where there is no birth, disease, old age, or death. So that is the real purpose of the human form of life; to engage in bhakti-yoga and put an end to this cycle of up and down, up, and down, up, and down, in the material worlds. Does that answer your question?

Devotee: Is it possible for one to get to know what his next life might be when he leaves this world? Is it possible to know in advance?

Giriraj Swami: No. Where we take our next birth does not depend on us; it depends on higher authorities. They will calculate all of our pious and sinful activities, and they will award us the body that gives us just the right amount of enjoyment and the right amount of suffering, and you have no control. And what you think of at the time of death, that will determine your next life. And so, any type of bodily identification is very risky. You might be, say an Indian, a Hindu, and hate the Muslims from Pakistan, but if by chance in your next life you might take birth as a Muslim in Pakistan and hate the Hindus in India. So what is the meaning of all this bodily identification and nationalism? It is all useless. We should identify ourselves only as eternal servants of Krishna. Any other self-conception or identification is illusion, maya, and it will just keep us in the material world. People who are very fond of killing animals and eating flesh, they will have to take birth as an animal. And someone will kill them and eat their flesh; it is just the law of nature, law of action and reaction. There is no escape other than Krishna consciousness, God consciousness, bhakti-yoga. Any other questions or comments? Yes, sir. What is your good name?

Devotee: Trivikrama is my name. I know that there are eight million, four hundred thousand species of life, and four hundred thousand of those are human species. You mentioned that there is no karma in the heavenly planets and in the lower planets, but there is on earth for humans. So, since there are four hundred thousand species of human beings; we are one species, the demigods are a higher form of human species, and monkeys are a lower form of human species, and you mentioned that in the heavenly plants there is no karma, so I guess the concept of karma applies to a certain middle level of human species. Is that right?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, it refers to the human beings on earth but wherever you are in the human species, you can become Krishna conscious. You may be enjoying on a tropical island and using up your life savings, and when you can’t afford to stay there anymore, you have to come back. But on the tropical island, you could meet devotees and become Krishna conscious; then everything changes. Then you don’t have to come back. Or, you could be serving a term in prison and meet devotees and take up the process of bhakti-yoga, then your life changes and you are not even in prison anymore, you are in Krishna.

Devotee: Now, earth being the middle planet, are there other planets at the same relative level where there are human beings in which the concept of karma applies, or is this the only planet where the concept of karma applies to human beings?

Giriraj Swami: Why are you asking this question?

Devotee: Out of curiosity. Because it is hard for me to believe; I have read from the scriptures that there are billions and billions of other planets where there are other human beings and so forth. I am getting the impression that you are saying that earth is the only planet where human beings are affected by the laws of karma, but it seems like I have read otherwise; that is the reason why I am asking.

Giriraj Swami: All right. So I have repeated what I have heard and read. So are you questioning whether I am repeating an authority properly or are you questioning the authority that I am quoting?

Devotee: I am not questioning anything of that, but I have read there are billions and billions of other planets like earth.

Giriraj Swami: All right, look. What is it to you? Whether there is karma on other planets that are similar to earth but not exactly the same earth where we live. What is it to you? It is nothing to you. There is a deeper issue that is at stake here, and I want to know what the deeper issue is. What could it matter to you? I want to know what does matter to you.

Devotee: I am just curious, that is all.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Well, I have answered according to the information I have and I can’t say more than that.

Devotee: Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Any other? Okay last.

Devotee: You mentioned earlier that the human life form is the only form where we can have good or bad credits. I wonder why, when someone is reborn as a human and the soul enters the baby, why is he or she not made aware of the fact that he or she has some good credits? Why is the soul so memoryless?

Giriraj Swami: We have to start with the basic point, which is that we have turned away from God. Once we turn away from God, we come in the grips of maya and we are punished. Now, instead of asking why are we punished for turning away from God, yes of course you are punished for turning away from God, you should rather ask, how can I rectify myself so that I don’t have to suffer the punishment. That is part of the punishment; you are born in ignorance. The Bhagavad-gītā says it. Everyone is born in ignorance. But the Lord does not forsake us; He gives us good instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā, and He sends His representatives and servants to give us knowledge. So we might complain, “Oh why are we reborn in ignorance.” Well, all right, you were. Why do you remain in ignorance? Whether you were born in ignorance or not, you have no control over that. And the fact is, we are all born in ignorance but we don’t have to remain in ignorance. So instead of asking why was I born in ignorance, why not ask how can I get knowledge so I don’t remain in ignorance? That would be more beneficial. You understand? It is just like saying, why was I born naked? Well, all right, you were born naked but you don’t remain naked, you put on clothes. So it is the same thing; why was I born in ignorance? All right, you were born in ignorance but you don’t remain in ignorance, you get knowledge.