SB 6.1.53 – Our Natural Tendencies

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. We are reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One: “The History of the Life of Ajāmila,” Text Fifty-Three. Please repeat.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 53

na hi kaścit kṣaṇam api

jātu tiṣṭhaty akarma-kṛt

kāryate hy avaśaḥ karma

guṇaiḥ svābhāvikair balāt

TRANSLATION

Not a single living entity can remain unengaged even for a moment. One must act by his natural tendency according to the three modes of material nature because this natural tendency forcibly makes him work in a particular way.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The svābhāvika, or one’s natural tendency, is the most important factor in action. One’s natural tendency is to serve because a living entity is an eternal servant of God. The living entity wants to serve, but because of his forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord, he serves under the modes of material nature and manufactures various modes of service, such as socialism, humanitarianism and altruism. However, one should be enlightened in the tenets of Bhagavad-gītā and accept the instruction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that one give up all natural tendencies for material service under different names and take to the service of the Lord. One’s original natural tendency is to act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness because one’s real nature is spiritual. The duty of a human being is to understand that since he is essentially spirit, he must abide by the spiritual tendency and not be carried away by material tendencies. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has therefore sung:

(miche) māyāra vaśe, yāccha bhese’,
khāccha hābuḍubu, bhāi

“My dear brothers, you are being carried away by the waves of material energy and are suffering in many miserable conditions. Sometimes you are drowning in the waves of material nature, and sometimes you are tossed like a swimmer struggling in the ocean.” As confirmed by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, this tendency to be battered by the waves of māyā can be changed to one’s original, natural tendency, which is spiritual, when the living entity comes to understand that he is eternally kṛṣṇa-dāsa, a servant of God, Kṛṣṇa.

(jīva) kṛṣṇa-dāsa, ei viśvāsa,

karle ta’ āra duḥkha nāi

If instead of serving māyā under different names, one turns his service attitude toward the Supreme Lord, he is then safe, and there is no more difficulty. If one returns to his original, natural tendency in the human form of life by understanding the perfect knowledge given by Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Vedic literature, one’s life is successful.

COMMENT

So, this verse discusses our natural tendency. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna states that everyone must act according to his nature. What will repression accomplish? So, this idea that we should work according to our natures. What can repression accomplish? Sounds very easy and palatable. We can act according to our nature. But the truth is that we have two natures, we have two natural tendencies. Our original natural tendency is to serve Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. Our constitutional position is that we are eternal servants of Krishna. But somehow or other, we, fallen souls in the material world, have turned away from the service of Krishna and have come under the spell of the three modes of material nature, and are engaged in the service of maya.

And the result of these two different types of service is very different. When one engages in the service of maya, one is tossed by the ways of the three modes of material nature in the ocean of samsara; birth and death. Whereas when one engages in the service of Krishna, one is safe and secured, free from the miseries of material existence. 

So, if we consider carefully the results of the two types of service, the result of following the two different natural tendencies, we will conclude that it is in our interest to revive our natural tendency to serve Krishna, and not prolong the tendency to serve maya and suffer.

Now, Srila Prabhupada gave one talk in Seattle, Washington. And it was in the rather early days of the Krishna consciousness movement in America. And one young man in the audience said that he did not feel that he should have to bow down to anyone, that we are all equal. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You have to bow down because that is your nature to bow down. When you go to work, do you not bow down to your boss?” He said, “Yes, I do. But that’s material. I understand that materially, I have to bow down. But spiritually, I don’t think I should have to bow down to anyone because spiritually, we are all equal.”

Well, in a way, that’s true. Every living entity is the same, spiritually. But apart from the individual souls, the jīvātmās, there’s the Supreme Soul, Paramātmā, and we are meant to bow down to the Supreme Soul, to Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada explained that to the young man, and he concluded, “You have to bow down. And if you do not bow down to Krishna, then you will have to bow down to death, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham. You will have to bow down to the repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease.” 

And here, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the same instruction. Srila Prabhupada makes the same point in the purport, that if you don’t serve Krishna, you’ll have to serve maya. And serving maya means suffering, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, so many miseries. And success in life means to give up that natural tendency to serve maya, in favor to reviving our eternal service to Krishna, which is also natural to the living entities. 

And, there’s a process for doing so, and that process is called bhakti-yoga. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna also says, daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā, that the material nature, consisting of the three modes, is very difficult to overcome. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te, but one who surrenders to Krishna can easily cross over maya. And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says the same thing. This verse I’m going to quote, we used to sing every morning in the Boston temple. So, I’ll sing it.

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

The meaning is that the material world is like an ocean, and there is danger at every step. But one who takes shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, for him, that vast ocean becomes reduced to the size of a puddle in the hoof print of a calf. Although there is danger at every step, a devotee crosses right over it, because his goal is not to try to enjoy the material world, but his goal is paraṁ padaṁ, the Supreme abode, where he can engage in eternal service to Krishna.

So, given our condition in the material world, we should engage in devotional service, in bhakti-yoga, to reform our tendency to engage in speculative ideas and in sense gratification, and come back to our original position. 

And in the process of bhakti-yoga, there are some activities that are common for everyone; śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ. Everyone, no matter what your conditioned nature is, everyone should engage in these basic activities. Śravaṇam—hearing about Krishna from the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and other shastras. Kīrtanaṁ—repeating what one has heard, preaching, teaching, and also chanting the holy names of Krishna. And Smaraṇaṁ—remembering Krishna. If you engage very seriously in chanting and hearing about Krishna, then naturally, you will remember Him. Srila Prabhupada said, “If you just read the Kṛṣṇa book, then whatever you see will remind you of Krishna.” I’ve had that experience. So, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ. 

But in the conditioned stage, we are not able to engage exclusively in chanting and hearing about Krishna and remembering Him. We often need some practical engagement for our senses, some work. And according to Bhagavad-gītā, according to the present verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that work will be done according to our acquired nature under the three modes. And there is no use fighting that tendency to work in a particular way, because that natural tendency will force us to work in a particular way. So, there’s no point in trying to fight the type of work that we’re empowered to perform by the force of material nature. And there’s no reason to, because Krishna accepts any service that the living entity offers with love and devotion. 

In the material world, we might think, Oh, I have to become a learned scholar. I have to get my MA, BA, PhD. Or we might think, I have to become very popular and influential. I have to have some position in society, some position in some organization, some position in the government. Or we might think, I need to have money.

But, none of these things matter to Krishna. Krishna doesn’t care whether you’re learned or simple, He doesn’t care whether you have a powerful position in society, He doesn’t care whether you have lots of money and material opulence. He only cares if you want to serve Him with love, that’s the only thing that matters to Krishna. So, there’s no point in trying to change the type of work that you perform according to your nature because you will be forced to perform that type of work. And in any case, Krishna doesn’t discriminate between different types of service, He accepts all services equally. What He does consider is the mood of devotion, the purity of purpose. 

That said, there is a special service that Krishna appreciates especially, and that is the service of preaching. In the Bhagavad-gītā, He says that one who teaches the science of Bhagavad-gītā is the most dear servant, there will never be one more dear. And for such a person, devotional service is guaranteed. And in the end, he will return to Krishna. But that service can be done by anyone. It’s the same śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ, but instead of doing it alone, one does it with others, and that pleases Krishna more. And if one has a very strong desire and surrenders to Krishna, he can learn to do something that is not easy. He can learn to do something that does not come naturally to him.

I think of our dear godbrother, HH Sridhar Swami Maharaja. He had a sort of strong build, and when he came to India, to Juhu, and we were beginning the project here, Srila Prabhupada said that he should be in charge of the construction materials. He had a very strong build, and one would have thought that would be appropriate for him. But Sridhar Swami had the idea that he wanted to preach. And he set himself to that task, to study the books. He learnt scriptures, he met people, and he gradually became expert. He even learnt some Hindi. I used to preach in Pakistan, and once, I invited him, and he gave a whole talk in Hindi, or in Urdu, it’s almost the same. And people loved it. Then, I arranged another program, and he said, “What language should I speak tonight?” I said, “Well, Urdu, Hindi, will indeed be better.” He said, “Will the same people be coming?” I said, “Well, some of the same people might come.” He said, “Well, that could be a problem because I memorized one speech in Hindi. And that’s the only thing I can say in Hindi.” [laughter] But he did it. And many of our friends, very important people in Mumbai, he cultivated them. 

Before coming here, I was in England and observed Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day at Bhaktivedanta Manor. And one speaker was Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Dhananjaya dasa, and he told some wonderful stories that I’ve never heard before. He told how he met the devotees, and eventually, he met Srila Prabhupada. It was an informal setting, and Srila Prabhupada was looking and asking if anyone had any questions. So, he was completely new. He didn’t know what to say, but he did have one thing on his mind. So, that was the question he asked. And the question was, “When can I be initiated?” The first words he ever spoke to Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “That we shall see.” But of course, he was initiated. And eventually, Srila Prabhupada had him posted in Vrindavan. And the way the householders would live then, of course, we didn’t have much facility, but they looked pretty much like brahmacharis and brahmacharinis. And Srila Prabhupada told Dhananjaya and his wife it would be better if they had their own place to stay and had a source of income. So, he told Dhanajaya, “Someone from Bombay has donated some land to me with a house, so you can stay here.”

So, Dhananjaya went, and there was some land that was completely overgrown. There was a very small house, you could say, with no electricity, no plumbing, and there was no compound wall. And generally, people were coming to that place and doing their morning things. And so, he went back to Srila Prabhupada and he said, “I don’t know if I can live there.” [laughter] But anyway, that land was donated by one Mr. Taparia in Bombay. And Mr. Taparia had been met by HH Sridhar Swami. He said, “I have some land in Vrindavan, and I want to give it.”

And I was the temple president, and I dealt with the legal affairs. So, Sridhar Swami told me, and I went to meet Mr. Taparia and we worked out the legal documents, and now that land has been developed. That’s the goshala land in Vrindavan.

So, it doesn’t matter what one’s nature is, what matters is that we engage our natural tendencies in Krishna’s service. And then, the more we surrender to Krishna, the more Krishna gives us intelligence on how to serve Him. And we may go beyond our habitual type of work. 

So, this is a wonderful truth, that anyone can serve Krishna in any way, according to their capacity. You don’t have to become something other than what you already are; materially or spiritually. Spiritually, you’re already an eternal servant of Krishna. And whatever you are materially, you just serve Krishna according to your nature.

And Srila Prabhupada never discriminated against a person on the basis of his mode. Someone might think, I’m in the mode of goodness. I like to be with people in the mode of goodness. Well, I mean, that might be true. People generally like to be with people who are similar to them. But it doesn’t matter what your mode is, you can serve Krishna according to your nature, in the company of other people who are engaged in such service.

I’m thinking a lot about Sridhar Swami, so I’ll describe just a little bit about his background. He had told me the story of the first time he met devotees. They were chanting on the streets in Berkeley, California, which is a very hip place in the university town. And he approached a devotee who was at the book table. He had books, incense, posters, and even started to talk with him. So, Sridhar Swami was a bit of a rough person. I didn’t know this before, but by coincidence or some divine arrangement, I met a childhood friend of Sridhar Swami on a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas. And I don’t usually talk to people that much on flights because I chant. Somehow, going to the men’s room, I passed him and he was standing there, and he looked at me and I looked at him. And I said, “Hare Krishna,” and he said, “Hare Krishna,” and we started talking. So, it turned out that he was a childhood friend of Sridhar Swami, and he described Sridhar Swami’s life before he met devotees. He was a very tough person. And every weekend, he and his friends would go out and get drunk and fuss. [laughter] [Unintelligible 00:42:58].

But what Sridhar Swami told me was the first time he met the devotees. So, he went up to the fellow at the book table, and there was a poster of Krishna. And Sridhar Swami asked, “Who’s that?” So, the devotee said, “That’s God.” Sridhar Swami said, “That’s God?” He said, “Yes.” So, Sridhar Swami said, “So, what would you do if I took that picture of God and ripped it into pieces?” And the devotee replied, “Well, I guess I will have to kill you.” [laughter] And Sridhar Swami was very impressed. [laughter] He liked that answer, and he probably thought, Okay, I can relate to these people. I can join this organization. [laughter] So, birds of a feather flock together.

So, this is the point. It doesn’t matter what your nature is, you can serve Krishna. And it also doesn’t matter what your nature is because you can also preach and appeal to people of the same type of nature. One of my godbrothers used to say that when people look at devotees, they want to see someone who exemplifies what they are, but in perfection, with Krishna consciousness. And then, they feel, “I can do that. I can be like that. But be Krishna conscious, and then no anxieties and no moroseness. I can be happy and my future can begin in Krishna consciousness. So, I can be like him, because I’m already like him, but I’m not Krishna conscious. So, if I add Krishna consciousness, I can be like that devotee, and that will be my perfection.” And that’s the truth.

So, Krishna consciousness is completely universal and applicable to all people at all times. It’s like, the verse begins, na hi kaścit kṣaṇam api. Not a single living entity can be without engagement for even a moment. That’s a universal principle.

And what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is telling us, what Srila Prabhupada told us is that you can add Krishna, you can do what you’re doing for Krishna. And that is a universal principle. And that is what Srila Prabhupada came to tell the world. He traveled all over the world to deliver this same message, “You are the eternal servant of Krishna.” Rādhā-kṛṣṇa' bol bol bolo re sobāi, it is the beginning of a song by Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Just chant the holy names of Krishna, Radha and Krishna, Hare Krishna. Don’t be tossed by the waves of nature, but come to the secure protection of Krishna. So, that was his message, that was his mission. And for that purpose, he traveled all over the world, beginning at the advanced age of seventy.

Those of us who are getting up in years are just starting to understand what it means to be fifty, sixty, seventy. And Srila Prabhupada left India at the age of seventy, he went to a completely foreign country and began from nothing. And he reciprocated perfectly with everyone because he wasn’t in the bodily concept of life, he didn’t identify with any particular conditioned nature, but he identified only as Krishna’s servant, and he saw that everyone is by nature Krishna’s servant. And he drew out that natural tendency of people to serve Krishna. And then, he came back to India with some of his disciples from America and he preached here, and underwent so many difficulties. And now, we have all these facilities to help us become Krishna conscious. We may not even be aware of the effort that Srila Prabhupada made, the pains that he took to create these facilities. But whether we are aware or not, of course, we should be aware, but we should be aware that we are being tossed in the ocean of maya, sometimes drowning and sometimes struggling just to breathe, and that we can be delivered from that by engaging in our natural tendency to serve Krishna. And as Srila Prabhupada said, “Even a child can take part in this chanting, even a dog can. Anyone can take part and dance in ecstasy.”

So, when someone comes to the temple, we should see, “This soul is part and parcel of Krishna, this soul also had a relationship with Krishna, just like me. This person is my brother, or sister. Let me help this person revive his or her relationship with Krishna, and not waste this human life in the vain pursuit of speculative causes and sense gratification.”

Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So, are there any questions or comments? 

Devotee: Thank you for the wonderful class, very important topic. [Question summary:] Some people are very spiritual in all of their activities, and some are very material, even while performing their spiritual activities—we can understand that they are considering spiritual activities as material activities. How can they act differently?

Giriraj Swami: It’s a very good question, an important question. Everything depends on our desire. Two people can engage in the same activity, but according to their desire, their attention, they will get a different result. So, when we chant, when we hear, when we serve, if we have a genuine desire to come out of our material conditioning and our material consciousness and serve in that mood and pray in that mood, then Krishna will help us. Krishna is in the heart, He knows our desires, He knows our mentality. And if our desire is to serve Him, He will help us. You said you could tell the consciousness of different people chanting and serving, you tell the difference. So, what to speak of Krishna? He can tell. Anyone can tell.

Bhurijana Prabhu would give the example of chanting with different mentality. You go to Loi Bazaar in Vrindavan and the merchants say, “Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Come, come. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna, Prabhu.” Is he chanting Hare Krishna? Is he calling out to the Lord to be engaged in devotional service? He’s not chanting Hare Krishna, he’s trying to get business. So, that, “Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Come, come,” that’s not chanting Hare Krishna. Of course, he benefits, in a way. He’s not chanting Hare Krishna, “O Lord! O energy of the Lord! Please engage me in Your service. O Radharani! O Krishna! Please engage me in Your service.” But he’s really thinking, There’s a customer. Let me drag him into my shop and sell him my goods. That’s what he’s thinking.

So, we can tell that. So, what to speak of Krishna? He can certainly understand what our mentality is. But still, He is so kind that even if someone chants His name with some other motive, He will try to find some way to purify that person’s heart and bring that person to Him. So, somehow or other, if we approach Krishna, He will do whatever He can to purify us.

So, that’s the advantage of engaging in the activities of devotional service and associating with devotees. Even if we have some ulterior motives, Krishna will try to find some ways and means to purify us and bring us to Him.

This one here, and then. . .

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja, thank you for your wonderful class. Maharaja, my question is that in the Bhagavad-gītā, there is one sloka,

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

So, it is said that only the modes are working. And the ignorant person, or soul, thinks he is the doer of all activities. So, Maharaja, the question is that we are coming to the temple. . . And also, I heard from my Guru Maharaja Radhanath Swami, he said that the modes of nature have strings in their hands. When they want the soul to criticize someone, they just pull the string. If they want to eat somewhere out, they just pull the string, so that person will go.

So, the question is that we are coming to the temple, we are chanting, we are giving the lecture, sometimes we also go out, doing some material activity. Also, the modes are working. I’m not understanding everything. So, if we do some spiritual activity, then also the modes are working on us. And it is also said in the Bhagavad-gītā that we have to go beyond all the three modes of material nature. So, how can we come to know that we are working on it, or we are still bound with those three modes?

Giriraj Swami: Well, both are working with the devotee; the modes of nature are working, Krishna is working. And sādhana-bhakti means that we come out of the control of the mode of nature and come under the control of Krishna and the internal potency. Generally, it is a gradual process. So, the spiritual increases, and the material decreases. I mean, as far as when you know that you’re not under the modes of nature. I mean, you should always be afraid of maya. If you think, Now I am beyond maya. Now I can do anything, then you’re very likely to fall down.

So, we shouldn’t ever imagine that we are beyond maya, we should always think that we could fall down at any moment, and we should take desperate shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna. And if you feel maya is pulling you to go out and eat, then you just surrender to Krishna, surrender to Nityananda Prabhu, surrender to Srila Prabhupada, surrender to guru maharaja, “Maya is pulling me. Please help me. Please save me.” Because you can’t do it on your strength.

Devotee: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:02:17]

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Thank you for your association. Maharaja, my question is, we all have desires. I have my desires. We have a strong desire, and at the same time, we have material desires and spiritual desires as well—to serve Krishna. Krishna feels your heart. Whatever desire we have, we are trying to engage in Krishna’s service. And Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that unless we get the higher taste, we cannot give up the inferior taste. So, if we have some strong material desire and we are trying to serve Krishna, [Unintelligible 01:04:38]. 

Giriraj Swami: Can you repeat that last part so I’m sure I understand the question?

Devotee: If you have a strong desire for yourself, a material desire, at the same time, you have strong desires for Krishna, and Krishna sees your heart, [Unintelligible 01:05:05]. So, does that kind of desire finally takes  you to the  higher taste, progress in taste?

Giriraj Swami: You see, it’s a question of desiring, it's the question of sincerity. And our sincerity can be tested. So, we desire to serve Krishna and we have a material desire. So, will our desire to serve Krishna prevail? Well, ultimately, that depends on us, how we deal with the tests. Sometimes Krishna will test us by fulfilling our material desire. And then, if we get carried away with our success, materially, then we fail the test. If Krishna feels that fulfilling that desire will not be favorable for your Krishna consciousness, you may not succeed, and that’s also a test. You might think, Oh, I tried to be a devotee of Krishna and I have a strong desire, and my desire won’t be fulfilled. It doesn’t help to be a devotee of Krishna, let me try something else, let me go somewhere else.

So, it’s not automatic, but Krishna will act in such a way as to help the devotee progress, so that the devotee does experience the higher taste. But we always do have our free will. And it’s not automatic, but if we really are sincere and cooperate with whatever Krishna does and remain surrendered for Krishna, then the higher taste will prevail. All right, thank you all very much.