SB 2.3.17 – Proper Utilization of Time

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you to Hare Krishna Land for the association of devotees in the service of Sri Krishna. We shall read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is very appropriate to the occasion. So please, listen very attentively because the verse and purport will give you good directions how to live the rest of this year, and the next year, and the rest of your life. So, please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So, we read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Seventeen, Sloka Seventeen. [laughter]

TRANSLATION

Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service.

COMMENT

This first sentence of Srila Prabhupada’s purport alone contains the entire philosophy of the Bhagavad-gītā. The living entity is the ātmā or jīvātmā, and is distinct from the physical body. And as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, that when the body dies or is destroyed, the soul continues to live, it is not destroyed. So, all of us are going to die sooner or later. And we should be intelligent and consider, “Where do I want to go after I leave my body? The amount of time I have in the body is very limited.” Perhaps in a hundred years, not one of the people here will still be living in the same body. We will have left our present bodies and gone somewhere else. So where will we go? Where do we want to go?

So, the Bhagavad-gītā explains that, according to our activities and our thoughts at the time of death, we will get our next body or attain our next destination. According to our activities, we can take our next birth on a lower planet or in a lower species of life, or we can come back again into a human body, or we can attain to a higher planet, a heavenly planet, and retain the body of a demigod. But as long as we remain in the material world, we are forced to suffer. The Gītā says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, that every living entity, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, from the highest planet of Lord Brahma down to the lowest, every planet is a place of misery where the repetition of birth and death takes place, and we should always be conscious of these defects of material existence; the repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. And no matter what we do materially, we cannot become free from these miseries.

For example, disease. Nobody wants disease, but no matter how much advancement we make in medical science, we cannot stop disease. If disease were being stopped, all the hospitals should become empty, all the doctors should go home. So, we may temporarily cure one disease, but then another disease will come, or the same disease will come back. And therefore, there is always demand for more hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses, more medicine. Similarly, no one wants old age, but we are forced to suffer so many inconveniences with old age. And certainly, nobody wants to die. We are generally ready to do anything to avoid death, but ultimately, we cannot avoid death. And therefore, it is said, “As sure as death.” Of course, in America they say there are only two sure things, death and taxes. Here, maybe you are a little more clever and you can avoid taxes. But still, you cannot avoid death. But that is actually not a problem, because there is no such thing as death, there is only a change of body, which we call death. But for the ātmā or jīvātmā, there is no death. The ātmā will continue to live somewhere. So, where? That is the question.

If you are living in a house, and you are told that the government is going to take over that place, and you will have to ship to some other place, then you will think, Where am I going to go to? You won’t be busy decorating the apartment that you will have to give up soon, but you will be looking to find another place, the best place you can get. So we are in that situation. We have been given notice that we will have to vacate this home, this body, so where do we want to go? So as I mentioned, from the material world, from the highest planet of Brahma to the lowest planet, all are places of misery where the repetition of birth and death takes place. But there is another world, spiritual world, the abode of Krishna, and there is no birth and death, disease, or old age. There is no misery or suffering of any kind. And we can go there, we just have to prepare ourselves. So, in the verse that I just read, āyuḥ harati vai puṁsām, “By rising and setting of the sun, the duration of life of everyone is reduced, except for one who utilizes the time for chanting and hearing about Krishna.”

Now, someone may raise the question that, yes, by rising and setting the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, but it also decreases the duration of life even for those who utilize their time in chanting and hearing about Krishna. Someone could raise that argument, but the Bhāgavatam says that it does not decrease their duration of life. How is that so? Because chanting and hearing about the glories of the Lord prepares one for eternal life with Krishna. And the rising and setting of the sun does not decrease the devotee’s duration of life, but it brings him closer to his eternal life with Krishna. So this is how we should use our time. Everyone likes to talk. Even when there is discussion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, some people like to talk. So, everyone likes to talk about something or someone, and everyone likes to hear about something or someone. So, we don’t have to do anything very extreme like stand on our head for ten years. We can do the same things that we are already doing, speaking and hearing, we have only to change the subject. Instead of speaking and hearing about ordinary people and ordinary events, we can speak and hear about God and His extraordinary activities, and that one change will make all the difference; the difference between a miserable life in the material world, and a blissful life in the spiritual world. But this change can bring us eternal happiness, even in this lifetime, even in this very body, because the devotee can relish his relationship with Krishna even in the material world, even in the present body. And therefore, for him, living and dying are the same.

Once, a newspaper reporter asked Srila Prabhupada that, “You are doing everything for Krishna. You are speaking about Krishna, hearing about Krishna, eating food that is offered to Krishna, associating with devotees of Krishna, but what if in the end there is no Krishna?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Even if there were no Krishna, I would still do the same things, because I enjoy chanting Krishna’s name, I enjoy eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda, I enjoy living with Krishna’s devotees. I wouldn’t do anything different.” So, we don’t have to wait to until we leave our body to experience the blissful life of Krishna consciousness. We can experience it in the present body. Srila Prabhupada told a story about a sadhu, who gave different blessings to different types of people. Many people want blessings. So, a butcher approached the sadhu, and the sadhu blessed him, mā-jīva, that, “You should not live. So, mā-jīva, “You should not live.” And a prince, rāja-putra, a prince he gave the blessing, “You should not die.” Because generally, people born in wealthy families, they have a lot of money, they enjoy a lot of sense gratification, and they indulge in many sinful activities. Now, these four principal sinful activities of eating meat, taking intoxicants, having illicit sex, and gambling, are very common, and perhaps even more so, among the rich.

One of the elders in one of the most prominent aristocratic industrial families of India confided in me that she was having a very hard time finding a boy for her granddaughter because all of the boys, even from the very wealthiest families, had already enjoyed with other women, and she felt that she had some standards, she couldn’t marry her daughter to a person, even from a very wealthy family, who had lived that kind of life. So, the raja kumara, or any wealthy person who’s enjoying sense gratification and indulging in sinful activities, parties, intoxicants, eating flesh, and other such things, so to that person, the sadhu gave a blessing, “You should not die, because now you are enjoying sense stratification, but after you leave your body, you will have to suffer the reactions for all of your sinful activities. You will enter into a hellish condition. So you should not die.” Of course, everyone will die, but he said, “You should not die, because as soon as you die, you will have to suffer the reaction.”

Then, there was muni-putra, a brahmachari living a very strict life of tapasya and celibacy. And to the muni-putra, he gave a blessing, “You should die immediately because you have performed so much tapasya and become so purified, there is no reason for you to continue to live and undergo such difficult austerities, but you should die and go back home, back to Godhead.” And to the devotee he gave the blessing, jīva vā māra vā, “You can live or you can die, it does not make any difference, because in your present life, you are serving Krishna and relishing transcendental bliss, and when you die, you will continue to serve Krishna and relish transcendental bliss in the next life. So, for you it doesn’t matter whether you live or die.” So in that condition, in that state of consciousness, Krishna consciousness, one has no fear of death, and one has no desire to die. One simply wants to continue to serve Krishna and relish transcendental pleasure in the Lord’s pleasure.

So, one person we were fortunate to have met personally, not just met but heard from and tried to serve, is His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. For him and for all of our acharyas, liberated souls in the paramparā, disciplic succession, there is no difference for them between living and dying because uttama-śloka-vārtayā, they were engaged in topics of Krishna. And although they left physically, apparently they left, but they blessed us with their teachings. Our recent acharyas, Srila Prabhupada, his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and his father and first spiritual master Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, left hundreds of books, and we can learn from those books and we can also become immortal. You may know that in the month of December devotees all over the world make a special effort to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. Why? Uttama-śloka-vārtayā, to give people the opportunity to engage in topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead, so they can achieve their eternal life with Krishna.

So, it is not too late, you can still buy books until the rising of the sun tomorrow, and you should also read the books, study the books, discuss the books. That will purify your heart and enable you to relish transcendental bliss. You are fortunate to be observing the end of the year and welcoming the new year here, in the association of devotees in Hare Krishna Land. And I request you to make the best use of your time here, and the best use of the next year, and every year thereafter. Don’t make it the social excursion, but make it a real spiritual experience where you absorb yourself in topics of Krishna. There are many devotees here who are well-schooled in the books, and if you have questions, you can ask them, they will be happy to answer. So, everything can go on just as it was. As it is, people are always asking questions, “What is the price of this commodity? Who won the vote?” So many questions, and so many answers. We have only to change the topic, everything can remain the same, but just change the topic from ordinary people and ordinary affairs, to Krishna. And then, Srila Prabhupada’s labor and the efforts of his disciples who assisted him in creating Hare Krishna Land to be a facility for uttama-śloka vārtayā, then that effort will have more fruit.

So, thank you very much. [applause] We will conclude by once chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra responsively. Please repeat.

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