September 18

Prabhupāda: …nāmutra vināśas tasya vidyate, na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. Now, this verse we have been discussing last week, that one who falls down… “Suppose one has entered for spiritual cultivation of life. Some way or other, he is not successful to complete the course. Then what happens to him?” That was the question of Arjuna. This is very nice question, that “Suppose one enters for cultivation of spiritual life. Some way or other…” Sometimes we do not follow the rules and… Sometimes we are entrapped by some feminine attraction. These are impediments. So we may not be able to make complete progress. So Kṛṣṇa says, “My dear Arjuna,” na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatim: “Anyone who has attempted even one percent sincerely, culture of spiritual realization, he will never fall down. He will never fall down.” That sincerity. Because we are weak, and the material energy is very strong, so to adopt spiritual life is more or less declare war against the material energy. The material, the illusory energy, she is trying to curb this conditioned soul as far as possible. Now, when the conditioned soul tries to get out of her clutches by spiritual advancement of knowledge, oh, she becomes more stringent. Yes. She wants to test, “How much this person is sincere?” So there will be so many allurement offered by the material energy.

Prabhupāda: Eighty ninety years so two hundred years ago there was no provision? Karāndhara: Well two hundred years ago they had the revolution in this United States and they formed a separate country and a government and wrote a constitution. Prabhupāda: And before that there was no revolution? People are making their own arrangements just like we present history of India, thousands of millions of years. There was no revolution how the Vedic civilisation in India was being conducted? Still, the Vedic civilisation there was enough gold, enough jewels, enough silk, enough milk, grains everything. We don’t find in the Vedic history where people are making scientific research. But they do not accept the history of the Vedic civilisation. Eh? Then, then there was no human being? Say five thousand, ten thousand years ago that is their version?

Prabhupāda: So there are some important words in this verse. The first thing is dhīrāṇām. Dhīrāṇām mean sober, gentle. There are two ways, because there are two kinds of people in this world. One is called dhīra, and the other is called adhīra. Adhīra means almost animal. They cannot control their senses. The dhīra… One who can control sense, he is called dhīra. In the Rūpa Gosvāmī’s obeisances we find, kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī dhīrādhīra priya-karau. Kṛṣṇotkīrtana, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is appreciable by the both classes, dhīra and adhīra—those who are advanced by austerities, controlling the senses, and those who are not so, very fallen, both of them, dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau nirmatsarau. Another example of dhīra is there in Kumāra Sambhava. Kumāra Sambhava is a Sanskrit book which I think we read in our college I.A. class, by Kālidāsa, poet Kālidāsa. So this theme of that book is that the demigods, they wanted to fight with the demons, and it was necessary that a son should be begotten by Lord Śiva. So Lord Śiva at that time lost his wife in the dakṣa-yajña. He [she] gave up his [her] life.

Prabhupāda:

Go-kharaḥ. Go means cow, and kharaḥ means ass. Those who are living life the bodily concept of life, they’re simply go-kharaḥ, just like cows and asses. So at the present moment, it is a civilization of go-kharaḥ. They may be proud, advanced civilized man, but the śāstra says that “You are all asses and cows.” And we speak on the basis of śāstra. Don’t be angry upon… We see all the cows and asses. [break] [low level audio] “You are talking like a very nice, learned scholar, but no learned man talks like this.” That means “You are a fool.” [laughter] He’s friend, so He’s talking very mildly that “You are, you are trying to talk like a learned scholar, but actually no learned scholar speaks like this.” That means, “You are a fool.” Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Nobody knows. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ, from one body to another, we are doing that, every moment, but these rascals, they do not know. I was a child, I was a boy. Where is that body? It is gone. It is a fact. I am in a different body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Still they won’t believe that there is life after death. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ we are experiencing in this life. But they won’t believe that after this deha, there is another deha. That they won’t believe, such dull-headed. [Hindi] Are they dull-headed or are they intelligent scholar and scientist? What is your opinion? What is your opinion? You are practical man.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: It says that, er…, stated that the Lord’s pastimes in Vṛndāvana and Dvārakā are passing through the universe just as the sun passes over the face of the earth. Prabhupāda: Where is that? Hmm. Dhṛṣṭaketu: So, and each time they are the same. The same pastimes beginning from His birth up to mauṣala-līlā, they are the same each time. Prabhupāda: No. Dhṛṣṭaketu: No? They are different in different universes? Prabhupāda: Varieties. Dhṛṣṭaketu: Oh. So that means that we just get a glimpse of… Prabhupāda: [to passerby:] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Dhṛṣṭaketu: …Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited; His pastimes are unlimited.

These are the…, some of the practical examples. There are persons who criticize chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Nāmnād artha-vāda. Because the glories of the holy name are described here, that one can become free from the sinful reaction of life simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord, so sometimes those who are not in the line, they think, “It is too much. It is too much.” So the next verse, the… It is advised… Not it is too much. You can test it. Test it. What is that test? Patita. When you fall down from a high place… Suppose from the roof you may fall down, patitaṁ. Skhalita: you may slip and fall down. Bhagnaḥ: by falling down you may break your bones. Then sandaṣṭaḥ: you may be bitten by some animals—cats, dogs, a snake. There are so many, domestic. Then tapta: you may be burned. And āhata: you may be injured from others. Then during this time you can test, practical. What is that test? Harir ity avaśena aha. Try to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Pumān. If anyone does so, na arhati yātanāḥ. You’ll immediately feel that from the injuries you are not feeling pain. This is practical seen. Even a snakebite, you may be saved. The author says…, never says that you may be saved from death, but the suggestion is that you may not feel much pain. This is practical.

Saṁsṛta. This material world is called saṁsṛti, continuously suffering. That we cannot understand. This is called ignorance, continuously suffering. They are thinking, “We are very happy,” but this material world means continuously suffering. So one living entity is dying, and his gross body is left, and the subtle body—mind, intelligence, ego—carrying him in another body through the semina of the father to the womb of the mother. Then it is placed, and the body again forms, and when the body is formed, then he comes out. And within the womb of the mother there is so much suffering, we know that. Many times we have discussed. And coming, from the very moment the child is crying. There is inconveniences, so many things he cannot express. In this way, within the womb there is suffering, out of the womb there is suffering. Then growing, child or baby or boy, there are so many sufferings. Then young man—suppose he becomes family man—then earn for the family. That is also suffering. Then old man, disease, inability, many, many thoughts, that is also suffering. And again death is suffering. At the time of death nobody knows what will happen.