SB 2.3.23 – Realization through Repetition

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

I’ll just recite the Sanskrit. [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.3.23]

TEXT 23

jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ
na jātu martyo ‘bhilabheta yas tu
śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ
śvasañ chavo yas tu na veda gandham

TRANSLATION

The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

COMMENT

Please repeat. Everyone please repeat, the more you participate, the more you benefit. The more you give of yourself, the more you get, the more Krishna gives of Himself to you.

TRANSLATION

The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others.

COMMENT

According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the living entity, the living being, is a spiritual particle of Krishna. And when the living entity comes into the material world, he is covered by a gross material body and a subtle material body. The gross body is composed of earth, water, fire, air, and space; and the subtle body is composed of mind, intelligence, and false ego. So, all of our problems come because we identify with the body. Even if we understand theoretically that we are not the body, we may actually psychologically identify with the body. Thus, we suffer in so many ways.

People who regularly attend classes have heard the statement, “You are not the body.” I’ve been reading the same verse and purport for three days. People might think, I’ve already heard this, why do I have to hear this again? But as Srila Prabhupada says, “Repetition is necessary for understanding.” We’ve heard it, but have we realized it? If we actually realize just that one statement, “I’m not the body,” there would be a total revolution in our lives. So much of what we do is based on the conception of the body, although we may know in theory that we are not the body. So, you have to hear again and again until it actually sinks in, and then our life will change.

When at the time of death, the living entity leaves the gross body in the subtle body, that subtle body, the Bhagavad-gītā explains it, carries its conception of life, like the air carries an aroma. And that conception of life will carry us into our next body, but whatever body we get in the material world, we will have to suffer. There are different types of suffering, of course. And the Bhagavad-gītā mentions birth, death, old age, and disease. These are problems that we all face, and we cannot escape. We may think that we are making progress in medicine, but the fact is that we are unable to stop disease or any of these miseries by material means.

If we were actually curing disease, then the hospitals would be closing down, the doctors would be out of work, and nurses would be out of work. But to the contrary, we find demand for more hospitals, more doctors, more nurses, because disease is not decreasing, it’s actually increasing. Old age, we can try to cover it by cosmetic surgeries or whatever, but we cannot stop old age. And certainly, we cannot stop death, as sure as death.

Well, there are probably many, but there is a story about a very wealthy man in America, Walt Disney. Walt Disney, as I understand, put in his will that just before he would die, his family or whatever should put him into a deep freeze. His idea was that he would be kept in a deep freeze until medicine could discover a cure for the disease that was about to kill him. What happened was that the family members figured out that there was no certainty as to when there would be a cure, and that in the meantime, they would have their inheritance held up because he wasn’t dead. So, they decided to take him out of the deep freeze so he could die, and they could get their inheritance.

We often see, even in apparently decent families, that when it comes to inheritance, and it doesn’t matter how rich or poor the people are, but they want more. This is all due to the bodily concept of life.

At one time, Paul Getty was the richest man in the world, and some reporters asked him, “Can you tell us your philosophy of life in one word?” And he said, “Yes. More.” That was his philosophy of life, “More.” That means he was dissatisfied, he didn’t have enough or he felt he didn’t have enough, so he wanted more. That means he was actually poor. He felt he didn’t have enough, he wanted more. Then they asked him, “You are the richest man in the world, you have money to buy whatever you want, to do whatever you want, to go wherever you want. When you are all alone and you have nothing else to do, what do you think about?” And he replied, “I think about how to pay the bills,” just like any of us. His bill might be how to come up with two billion more dollars to acquire some company, and our bill might be how to come up with two hundred dollars to cover whatever we want, but it’s the same.

Therefore, in this Chapter of the Bhāgavatam, which maybe some other time I’ll speak on, basically, the verse says that people who do not glorify the pastimes of the Lord are like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses, and people who praise them are small animals. The small animals are eulogizing the big animals. Ordinary conversation, the news media, everything is full of the news of animals.

According to Vedic knowledge, anyone who identifies with the body is an animal. Say, he is a  gokhara, anyone who identifies with the body is an animal, dvipāda-paśu, two-legged animal. So, the whole society is basically these two-legged animals, and there is no peace. Srila Prabhupada said that if you take a bunch of animals, put them into a posh hall, and tell them to sit down and make peace, will they be able to make peace? No. Why? Because they are animals. That’s what we have in the United Nations, for example, they are all animals. You may have a very posh hall, nice chairs, and translation into various languages, but they are animals, there is no peace.

This one point, that we are not the body, is revolutionary. I mean, it can cause a revolution in our lives, and it can cause a revolution in the lives of the people in the culture of the world. So, in order to make our theoretical knowledge realized, we should repeat the knowledge. It’s a very simple process in a way, but when you repeat something, you get the realization of what you are saying.

One of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples had read that the moon was created by the churning of the ocean of milk, which seemed fantastic to her, and she asked Srila Prabhupada, “What does it mean?” And he said, “Just repeat, the moon is churned from the ocean of milk.” Then, he told her to repeat it and again repeat it, so she repeated it several times. Then, he said, “Now, do you understand?” And she said, “Yes, the moon is churned from the ocean of milk.”

By repeating our knowledge, by repeating what we’ve heard, we get realization. And therefore, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructed āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, “Everyone should become a teacher, a guru, an instructor.” How? “Wherever you go, whoever you meet, you just repeat the message of Krishna.” It’s actually very simple, and if you do it, you get tremendous results.

I mean, that’s what Srila Prabhupada did, he just repeated the message as he received it, the message of Krishna as received in the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and the Teachings of Lord Chaitanya received through paramparā, through his spiritual master, and he repeated it. And he compared himself to a postman, that the job of the postman is very easy, he just has to deliver the envelope. Personally, the postman may be relatively poor, but he can deliver you an envelope with a million dollars, and you’ll be very grateful. We may be whatever we are, but if we present a message of Krishna, which is so valuable, then people will appreciate it, Krishna will be pleased, and our hearts will be cleansed.

Given that all of you have been here before, we take it that you’ve heard the message before, but now it is a matter of really taking it into your heart, receiving it fully, and acting upon it. Then you will come again and again because you will want to be in the environment. Just imagine, if you had to live in a house, in a neighborhood, or in a city, where almost everyone was an animal, would you feel very comfortable? No. Frankly speaking, that’s the situation.

So, when you actually awaken your spiritual consciousness and understand the higher values of life, then you’ll want to associate with like-minded people, associate with them, speak with them, chant with them, discuss with them, serve with them, and that will be your natural element. It is a sign of advancement to feel attached to that association and to feel uncomfortable with people who are too materialistic. That will lead us to seek out the association of devotees.

Yes, we may have our studies, we may have our work, we may have to associate with ordinary people in the workplace, but our real relationships should be with devotees. And we should seek out that place where we can find devotees who are chanting and hearing the messages of Godhead, and then we will see a revolution in consciousness. Whenever we have time, we should chant Hare Krishna, read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Srila Prabhupada gave an example. Well, this may not suit the climate in Arizona, but there are some climates where people grow rice, so the rice field has to be flooded with water, and when the field is flooded with water, the rice grows and no weeds can grow. The two are accomplished by that water. And if somehow that water is drained out, the rice will become weak and the weed will grow and become strong.

Our consciousness is like that paddy field, our consciousness always has to be flooded with Krishna in the form of His holy name, qualities, pastimes, paraphernalia, and associates. And that will both nourish our spiritual consciousness and prevent weeds of material desire from growing. And if we allow that water to drain out, then our Krishna consciousness will become weak and the weeds of material desires will become prominent.

That Krishna consciousness can be achieved in the association of devotees. We cannot be Krishna conscious alone, it can be achieved in the association of devotees, and therefore, we have temples like this, we have venues where devotees meet and keep their consciousness flooded with Krishna. Again, by approaching people, yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, by repeating the message of Krishna, they can also come into the association, and that will make them happy. That is our desire, that was Srila Prabhupada’s desire, that people should be happy.

Just about fifty years ago, Srila Prabhupada left India, almost at the age of seventy years, and came to America by steamship, cargo carrier. Before leaving India, Srila Prabhupada was staying in Bombay, in Andheri, and he had arranged for Srimati Sumati Morarji, the chairman of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, to provide him a free passage on one of her cargo carriers. One of her staff was joking with Srila Prabhupada, “Why do you want to go to America at such an old age?” He said, “I know why you want to go. You want to go to enjoy there, everyone wants to go to America to enjoy.” Of course, the man was joking, but Srila Prabhupada was serious, and he replied, “What have I got to enjoy at this age? But there is a generation of frustrated youth, so I want to go and do something for them so that they can be happy.” That was us, for whom Srila Prabhupada came.

After fifty years, we were young, and now we are almost as old as Srila Prabhupada was when he came, some are even a little older. But he did exactly what he set out to do, to save us from that life, to give us happiness, to give us the process by which we could become happy. Of course, there were many from our generation. Because in 1969 was the Woodstock Festival in Woodstock, New York, and a lot of young people went, it was a music festival.

Twenty-five years later, I was in a dentist’s office, although I was living in India, but I had an uncle in Chicago who was a dentist, so I would come and have my dental work done by him. At that time, the dental facilities in India weren’t that developed. So, as I was waiting in his office, I saw this issue of Life magazine, the featured story was, “Twenty-five years after Woodstock.” They had interviewed a hundred people who had been at the Woodstock Festival, and it had a little paragraph about each one saying what they are doing now and what their thoughts about Woodstock were.

Probably at least ninety of the hundred became regular materialistic people, they thought, Oh, it was just something we did in our youth. And now, whatever, banking, executives, whatever, just regular materialistic people. There were maybe ninety-two. The other eight, almost all of them were sort of overgrown hippies. In other words, it’s like what the 90 percent wrote made sense, but it only made sense on the material platform, there was nothing spiritual. And then, say, the other ten, I won’t go into detail, they had some ideals, but they were sort of wacky, crazy, unrealistic, impractical.

And I was thinking how amazing it is what Srila Prabhupada did, that after twenty-five years, for some of us it’s almost fifty years, we could still have the idealism that we had in our youth. Finding real happiness, doing good for others, for the world, but without being wacky, with a very solid philosophy and practical results. What Srila Prabhupada did is unprecedented, it has never been done before, and it will never be done again. We can continue what he did, but crossing the ocean and introducing Krishna consciousness here? He alone did that, and we are the beneficiaries, we have benefited from that.

So, we should first accept the transcendental gift that he has given us, and then share it with others. That is part of receiving the transcendental gift, to share it with others, as Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master told him. It’s the same thing, you should just repeat the message of Krishna, and that will be good for you and for the people who hear you, the people who help you. There is nothing new, we are not manufacturing anything new, we are just repeating the same message, continuing the same activity so we can experience the results individually and collectively. Don’t miss this opportunity, that’s my humble prayer. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? Asking how we help each other. You are saying that when you feel alone, it’s hard to grow? Is that what you said? I couldn’t follow. [37:10 Unintelligible].

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:37:13].

Giriraj Swami: That’s true, we can help each other by taking care of each other in all respects, although we are not the body, and certainly the most important aspect of life is the spiritual aspect. But we have bodies and we have minds, and to fully serve a devotee, a person, we should help them in all aspects of their life to our capacity so that they can progress in Krishna consciousness. Mainly spiritually, but other aspects too. Of course, in a sense, ahaituki apratihatā, devotional service cannot be checked by any material condition, but still, if someone’s sick, Srila Prabhupada says we should be sympathetic. If someone is sick, we should try to help them, or if someone’s disturbed in their mind, we should try to help them.

The temples are meant to be places where we can find that association, but we also go out and extend ourselves. The whole thing is to give, like Srila Prabhupada is giving, giving, giving. He even said his motto was, “Everything for Krishna, nothing for myself. Therefore, I never complained because my motto is always everything for Krishna, nothing for myself.” In that way, we can follow Srila Prabhupada’s example and help others. Any other questions?

The Bhāgavatam says that no one should become a mother or a father unless they can deliver their child from the repetition of birth and death. Not like animals, just breed offspring, then get them educated materially, make them successful materially, and then they die like animals. It’s the parents’ responsibility to see that the children are never forced to take birth again. Srila Prabhupada said it’s a very responsible position, and the husband also. Husband is supposed to make sure that the wife never takes birth again. We have to be very mindful of the children, and we should have facilities whereby the children can be educated in Krishna consciousness, engage in devotional activities, have devotional teachers, devotional friends. It is a very important aspect. We have a lot of children, and we are having more, so take it very seriously.

Some people homeschool their children, some devotees homeschool their children, but now a lot of the women work. But whatever it is, somehow or other, the children have to get that example at home from the parents, and whenever they have time, associate with other devotee’s children to engage in spiritual activities. It’s very easy to get caught up in the waves of materialistic life, and really the only thing that will protect us from getting swept away is the association of serious, sincere devotees.

Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: Is there a difference in worshiping God formless and with form?

Giriraj Swami: Is there a difference between worshiping God with form or without form?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: How would you worship God without form?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 43:49].

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, but how? How do you do that? Actually, there are different Sanskrit words, saguṇa and nirguṇa, but there is a point that God has no material qualities. If you think that God or Krishna has material qualities, then that’s wrong. But to think that He has no qualities, no name, no form, that’s also wrong because He has spiritual qualities.

The other day, we discussed Krishna’s sixty-four qualities, His spiritual qualities. So, the impersonal idea that God has no name, He has no form, He has no qualities, it’s like a negation of the material, but it’s nothing positive, which is spiritual. So, Krishna consciousness goes beyond those speculations, and it gives a positive presentation, that yes, here is God, and He has name, but it’s spiritual, He has qualities, but it’s spiritual, He has activities, but it’s spiritual. That worship can give you satisfaction and pleasure. Worshiping something without form, there is no satisfaction, and people who do it don’t stick to it, generally. Does that answer your question?

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, māṁ ca yo avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate, “One who engages in undeviating devotional service (sa guṇān samatītyaitān) he transcends the gunas of material nature, and (brahma-bhūyāya kalpate) comes to the platform of Brahman.” That’s by bhakti, that comes from bhakti. Krishna is the Supreme Brahman, so to properly serve Krishna, we have to come to the Brahman platform, and that’s by avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti (Undivided, undeviating bhakti). That was a good question.