SB 7.6.1 – We Should Know Our Real Self-Interest

Giriraj Swami

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

[SB 7.6.1]

śrī-prahrāda uvāca
kaumāra ācaret prājño
dharmān bhāgavatān iha
durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam

TRANSLATION

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life — in other words, from the tender age of childhood — to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The whole purpose of Vedic civilization and of reading the Vedas is to attain the perfect stage of devotional service in the human form of life. According to the Vedic system, therefore, from the very beginning of life the brahmacarya system is introduced so that from one’s very childhood — from the age of five years — one can practice modifying one’s human activities so as to engage perfectly in devotional service. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (2.40), svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt: “Even a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.” Modern civilization, not referring to the verdicts of Vedic literature, is so cruel to the members of human society that instead of teaching children to become brahmacārīs, it teaches mothers to kill their children even in the womb, on the plea of curbing the increase of population. And if by chance a child is saved, he is educated only for sense gratification. Gradually, throughout the entire world, human society is losing interest in the perfection of life. Indeed, men are living like cats and dogs, spoiling the duration of their human lives by actually preparing to transmigrate again to the degraded species among the 8,400,000 forms of life. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is anxious to serve human society by teaching people to perform devotional service, which can save a human being from being degraded again to animal life. As already stated by Prahlāda Mahārāja, bhāgavata-dharma consists of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam/ arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. In all the schools, colleges, and universities, and at home, all children and youths should be taught to hear about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, they should be taught to hear the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā, to put them into practice in their lives, and thus to become strong in devotional service, free from fear of being degraded to animal life. Following bhāgavata-dharma has been made extremely easy in this Age of Kali. The śāstra says:

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

One need only chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Everyone engaged in the practice of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra will be completely cleansed, from the core of his heart, and be saved from the cycle of birth and death.

COMMENT

In this important verse and purport in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Prahlada Maharaja and Srila Prabhupada give the complete program for human life and complete program for human society. Unfortunately at present moment the majority of people are as we saw in the drama under the influence of modes of passion and ignorance. With hardly a touch of the mode of goodness. In other words, people are living almost like animals. Dharmena hina paśubhiḥ samana. That without dharma, or without following religious principles, a person is on the same level as an animal. So this has created a very serious situation. And consequently, people are suffering terribly. They themselves are suffering, and they cause others to suffer.

Within this verse, the phrase, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma, means that the human form of life is very, very cheap, or is achieved with great difficulty. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the living entity, or ātmā, is a spiritual particle, which is distinct from matter. As long as the spiritual soul is present in the body, we say that the body is alive. And as soon as the ātmā leaves the body, we say that the body is dead. Actually, the body is always dead, because the body is just a machine. And the soul is the person who is operating the machine. Now, all of the bodies in the material world are temporary. And the human body is also, as it is said, as sure as death. For one who has taken birth, death is certain. So whatever body we have, we will die. But the human form of life is a special facility, because in the human form of life, one can realize oneself, one can realize one’s eternal relationship with God, and one can get liberated from the cycle of birth and death. So this is a science. It is not Sentiment or fanaticism, it is a science. And this science should be taught from the very beginning of life, taught to people from the very beginning of life, and applied.

When Srila Prabhupada spoke at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he raised the question, what is the difference between a living body and a dead body? And nobody could give a proper answer. And he said where is the technology to bring a dead body back to life? So even in the most hallowed institutions of higher education, there is ignorance. When Srila Prabhupada went to Russia and met Professor Kotovsky, who is highly educated and respected, still, the learned professor said, Swamiji, when the body dies, everything is finished. He had no idea that apart from the body is the jiva-ātmā. And that the jiva-ātmā is eternal. It has no beginning and no end. And that is our actual identity. And if we understand this fact, we will create a revolution in our own lives to begin with. Of course, we may sit in the hall and hear the instruction, and even repeat the instruction that I am not the body, I am the soul within the body. But to what extent do we actually accept that principle in our lives? To what extent do we engage in activities that are in our real self-interest? Earlier, Prahlada Maharaja said, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ. That everyone is interested in his self-interest, which is natural. But we should know what our real self-interest is. And that will come if we know what our real self is. And our real self is not the body.

In previous generations, means in the last century, many immigrants came to America and they worked very hard just to make a living, to establish themselves, to give their children a chance to be educated. And as time progressed, another generation was born, and still another generation, who had more facilities. And these people did everything that they were told would make them happy. They got good material educations, good jobs, or perhaps they established their own enterprises, made good money, got a qualified spouse, had beautiful and talented children, and went on fabulous holidays. They did everything that they were told would make them happy. But, guess what? They didn’t become happy. And this phenomenon gave rise to a whole new field of psychology to study happiness, what actually makes people happy, because everyone wants to be happy.

And it was found that after a person achieves basic necessities of life, adding more money or material possessions or facilities does not really make them more happy. So it has been a revelation. And, of course, this knowledge was known to Srila Prabhupada and, of course, to the sages of India. And Srila Prabhupada said, if you have a hundred rupees or a hundred thousand rupees or a hundred million rupees, you can still only eat two chapati. So you have all that money in the bank, but what good is it to pay people? Or anyone? So, Prahlada is saying that this human form of life, arthadam, is meaningful, because in this human form of life one can engage in devotional service to Krishna, which actually satisfies the soul and brings us the happiness and peace that we are looking for. And if we don’t utilize this human form of life for its proper purpose, we can again be degraded into lower species of life.

We give the example that in high school, if you are doing college level work, you can be promoted to college. So, in the material world, if you are engaged in the activities of the spiritual world, which is this, Bhagavat-dharma, bhakti-yoga, you can be promoted to the spiritual world. But the converse is also true, that if in the human form of life you live like an animal, then in your next life you can take birth as an animal, or you will take birth as an animal, and that is a real possibility. When Srila Prabhupada first came to Bombay with his American and European disciples, one building contractor read in the newspaper that Srila Prabhupada had come, and somehow he got the address and he wanted to see who this person and what has he done. So he came to our temple in a rented premise just across from the sea, and eventually he met Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada asked him what you do in the morning when you get up? He said, he brushes his teeth, has a cup of tea, reads his paper, gets dressed, and goes to work.

And Srila Prabhupada said, this was the very first meeting, very first meeting, Srila Prabhupada said, what is the difference between you and a pig? And the man thought about it, and he said, true. What is the difference? There is no difference. But then he sort of, I would say, complained or shifted the responsibility. He said, but for me to have, you know, higher knowledge, and to act in a better way, I need association of devotees. I have no association of devotees, of saintly persons. Then Srila Prabhupada said, I will send devotees. Every, I think it was Sunday, you have, you organize a hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, chanting of the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra in the streets. And, and after that, you feed prasāda a feast of sanctified vegetarian food to all devotees. And then you will, you will get association, which he needed. And the building contract, his name was Mr. Sethi, he did it. And every Sunday the devotees would go early in the morning to hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana there be a big feast. And Mr. Sethi became a very strong devotee. But people don’t know. They don’t know they’re not the body. And they act like the body; at least as if they were the body, by technique.

Srila Prabhupada has a disciple named Ambarisa dasa, named after the great saintly king described in the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Ambarisha his original name is Alfred Ford. And he was the great-grandson of Henry Ford. So naturally in that life, or in that birth, he would have some bodily identification, maybe some post-prestige of being the great-grandson of Henry Ford. So, when Srila Prabhupada met him, he said, So, I understand you are the great-grandson of Henry Ford. He said, “Yes, I am.” And Srila Prabhupada said, and where is Henry Ford now? Now that was a very good question. First of all, it took Alfred Ford off the bodily platform. And it raised a very relevant question. Where is Henry Ford now? Is he an animal? Is he a human? Is he going to heaven? Is he going to hell? Where is Henry Ford now? So these are questions that any intelligent and thoughtful person should ask. And about his own self. Who am I? I am not. You are not the body. You are the soul within the body. And you are eternal.

So that means when the body is destroyed, the soul is not destroyed. So then what happens to the soul? So there is a chance that the soul can be degraded to a lower form of life. But if the person engages in bhāgavata-dharma, devotional service, and becomes perfect, which is what he is sent to do, then he can attain his eternal life in loving service to Krishna. And there are nine processes. Prahlada Maharaja has told to his father, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ. These first three are the most important; śravaṇaṁ, hearing. That is what we all do right now. You all are hearing. śravaṇaṁ. That is the beginning of bhakti-yoga or bhāgavata-dharma. Hearing. And after you hear, the next is kīrtanaṁ, which is chanting or repeating what you have heard. And of all types of chanting, the easiest and for most people, the most effective is chanting the holy name of Krishna.

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

And by that chanting, all misconceptions within the heart, all false identifications with the mind and body can be cleansed. And one can realize one’s eternal actual identity as God or Krishna. So Mr. Sethi, he ended up building a house near the land in Juhu, Bombay, where Srila Prabhupada was living. And he named his house Vrindavan. Vrindavan is the name of Krishna’s spiritual abode or spiritual site. But the same Vrindavan descends or is manifest on earth. And that Vrindavan, Bhauma-Vrindavan, exists near Delhi, maybe two and a half hours from Delhi, closer to Agra, maybe forty-five minutes from Agra. And what makes Vrindavan “Vrindavan” is that Krishna is the center. Everyone in Vrindavan loves Krishna and is always engaged in hearing about Krishna, speaking about Krishna, remembering Krishna, serving Krishna, acting for the pleasure of Krishna. And wherever devotees engage in those activities is Vrindavan. And this Mr. Sethi house really was Vrindavan. And anyone in this house can become Vrindavan by this method which anyone can follow. And certainly the temple is meant to be Vrindavan. So, we should realize how valuable this human form of life is and use it for proper purpose. And we should also realize how you could say shaky. As is mentioned adhruvam, it is impermanent, it is temporary. But it is really really fragile. Every day it seems I hear more tragic deaths of people, some very young, relatively young. Because unexpected things happen. And one poet has said kamala-bala-jala jīva-tala-bāla.

In fact, that song by Govinda dasa contains a similar message to this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because he says that one should engage in these nine activities in the association of devotees. But he says very beautifully kamala-bala-jala jīva-tala-bāla that this human life, or anybody in this material world, it is like a drop of water on a lotus flower, on the leaf of a lotus. And if there is even a slight disturbance, that drop of water can roll off of the leaf and shatter. So our lives are like that, very tenuous existence. When we go to sleep at night, we tend to assume that when we wake up everything will be the same. But sometimes it is not the same. Sometimes something unexpected happens, and what we took for granted, we don’t have. Or some of what we took for granted, we don’t have. So we should not take this human form of life for granted.

We should not take the association of devotees for granted. We should not take the opportunity to engage in bhāgavata-dharma for granted. But we should use every moment that we have, because we don’t know how much more time we do have. One of the devotees, this is a good example, his parents are devotees on the island of Mauritius, and this young man, I mean, now he is grown up, he was educated in the association of devotees, but in a way, he seemed like to be lost in life because he just didn’t know what to do with himself. His parents didn’t know what to do. So, they took him to Vrindavan, and in Vrindavan, one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples named Aindra dasa engaged this young man in playing the Vrindavan drum in the twenty-four-hour kirtan that they had there. And there is quite a quite a story of how he engaged him and smashed him. In fact, he smashed him and smashed him and smashed him until there was no more false ego left. Because you cannot really properly perform kirtan, you can’t properly glorify God if you have false ego. And this young man, his name is Madhava, said that at first he rebelled, his mind rebelled, his ego rebelled, but he stayed with it. And eventually Aindra Prabhu was able to pretty much smash his false ego into dust. And Madhava has become a really wonderful kīrtanīyā. And he can sit and chant for hours. One tune for hours. And pretty much just a slow melody for hours.

Once another great kīrtanīyā Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami asked Madhava because you sit and chant for hours on the same tune, no frills, no fancy maneuvers, just sitting and chanting. So what is in consciousness while you chant? And Madhava replied while chanting I think, each mantra that I sing could be my last. I sing as if it were my last mantra I will ever chant.

Now, if we were actually confronted with such a situation that you are going to die, you are going to leave your body, and you have one mantra left to chant and your whole future, your whole next life, depends on your consciousness how you chant that last mantra. How would you chant that mantra? You put everything into it; you will chant that your life depended on it. So that is his consciousness. And that should be our consciousness and in fact we don’t know when it will be our last mantra. One mantra will be our last mantra. So, we should really value the opportunity we have now and not misuse this for a moment that we can engage in bhakti-yoga and make this life successful and help others also like Prahlada, in another verse he prays to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that, “For myself I have no anxiety because wherever I am I can chant the holy name and glories and merge in the ocean of nectarean love, so for myself I have no anxiety but I do have one anxiety that I am concerned about all the He said vimudha, Srila Prabhupada translate as fools and rascals, I am concerned for them, because they are making elaborate plans to be happy in the material world, and they have no sense of Krishna Consciousness. So I am thinking about how to bring them under the shelter of your lotus feet. Because I know without coming to the shelter of the lotus feet, they cannot be happy. So that is our goal, to be happy, but it is also the goal of any decent person, of course, to seek a devotee, that others should also be happy. And this is the method, and that is what he provides us. He is always thinking of how to deliver them. It is not easy. So he is thinking about how to devise the ways and means by which they can be engaged in devotional service. And so there are so many programs. So, one last thought that comes to mind is how we engage people. There is one verse I probably don’t understand, but Srila Prabhupada often quoted as method dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya—I take straw in my mouth. In Vedic culture, that was how a person would present himself in a very humble mood.

I take a piece of straw in his mouth. dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya and he says, I take a straw in my mouth, and I fall back on my feet, and I say, Hey, sādhavaḥ, O noble person, you have all good qualities. You are intelligent, you are religious, you are charitable, you have all good qualities. And if you approach someone in that humble mood, appreciating their good qualities, or, could we say, flattering them, generally they will become very attentive. And all of this, this person has recognized my true greatness. He is very special. He is recognized who I am. And then he’ll say, Well, yes, so what do you want? What do you want to say? Please, tell me. And then, he sādhavaḥ sakala eva vihāya durāt, that whatever nonsense you have learned, kick it out, and gauraṅga-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam. just surrender to God. So, that is our preaching method that Srila Prabhupada said. He actually exemplified it. When Srila Prabhupada first came to Bombay, he was staying in the Seksaria Bhavan on Marine Drive, which is a very, it is right along the ocean. It is a very prestigious address. And this whole building belonged to the Seksaria, and a five-story building. And different, the ground floor was just a guest facility, so Prabhupada and the devotees stayed on the ground floor. And then there were maybe a couple of brothers, so each brother had his own floor, and then there was one floor, it had like a common kitchen, and a temple room, and it was amazing. I mean, for us, it was just coming from America, that culture was amazing.

So, after maybe two weeks, Mr. Seksaria arranged a program on the terrace of the building rooftop. It was very, you could say glamorous. Just facing the Arabian Sea, and nice breezes, and they set up nice lights, and it was just, and all the people of Bombay, all the rich families, and Srila Prabhupada was sitting on this, like a chair, vyāsāsana and these people, they were very pious, and very aristocratic, but they had that disadvantage of being wealthy, and with that disadvantage comes a certain property that makes it hard to transport the living. So, Srila Prabhupada, he quoted that verse, but he actually was speaking to them, from the side, that I am taking a straw in my teeth, and I am falling down at your feet. Please chant Hare Krishna begging to chant Hare Krishna, and they did it. They were so moved by him. Some of them actually chanted, and that was such a big thing, that this man couldn’t do anything. So this is, this is our method, and that is good for us, and it will help others become receptive to Krishna Consciousness, so they can be happy, ultimately, that is their only interest.

Before Srila Prabhupada left India to come to America, he had come, that is like fifty, a little more than fifty years ago. He approached the Scindia Steam Navigation Company to give free passage, Sumati Morarjee. So one of his secretaries was sort of joking with Prabhupada, Swamiji, you are seventy years old. Why do you want to go to America? I know why. You want to be a boy. You look like anyone else who wants to go to America. And Srila Prabhupada said what have I got to say? But I see there is a whole generation of young people who are disappointed and frustrated, and I just want to make them happy. I just want to do something for them. That was Prabhupada’s motive. That is Prahlada Maharaja Motive. And we are coming in that line. So we should chant Hare Krishna. And so Krishna will be happy and everyone will be happy.

Hare Krishna