Intro To Srimad Bhagavatam

Srila Prabhupada

Excerpts

Disparity in human society is due to lack of principles in a godless civilization. There is God, or the Almighty One, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained and in whom everything is merged to rest. Material science has tried to find the ultimate source of creation very insufficiently, but it is a fact that there is one ultimate source of everything that be. This ultimate source is explained rationally and authoritatively in the beautiful Bhāgavatam,or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the transcendental science not only for knowing the ultimate source of everything but also for knowing our relation with Him and our duty toward perfection of the human society on the basis of this perfect knowledge. It is powerful reading matter in the Sanskrit language, and it is now rendered into English elaborately so that simply by a careful reading one will know God perfectly well, so much so that the reader will be sufficiently educated to defend himself from the onslaught of atheists. Over and above this, the reader will be able to convert others to accepting God as a concrete principle.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the definition of the ultimate source. It is a bona fide commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra by the same author, Śrīla Vyāsadeva, and gradually it develops into nine cantos up to the highest state of God realization. The only qualification one needs to study this great book of transcendental knowledge is to proceed step by step cautiously and not jump forward haphazardly like with an ordinary book. It should be gone through chapter by chapter, one after another. The reading matter is so arranged with its original Sanskrit text, its English transliteration, synonyms, translation and purports so that one is sure to become a God-realized soul at the end of finishing the first nine cantos.

The Tenth Canto is distinct from the first nine cantos because it deals directly with the transcendental activities of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. One will be unable to capture the effects of the Tenth Canto without going through the first nine cantos. The book is complete in twelve cantos, each independent, but it is good for all to read them in small installments one after another.

I must admit my frailties in presenting Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but still I am hopeful of its good reception by the thinkers and leaders of society on the strength of the following statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.11):

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo
yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api
nāmāny anantasya yaśo ’ṅkitāni yac
chṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ

“On the other hand, that literature which is full with descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, form and pastimes of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a transcendental creation meant to bring about a revolution in the impious life of a misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though irregularly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.”

Oṁ tat sat
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Dated at Delhi
December 15, 1962

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Srila Prabhupada Discusses Gita

The family relationship may be an impediment to spiritual advancement. 

Currently the family is being atomized. This states that the children are living with less than their true biological parents. The government is the extension of the family. With the trend of same sex marriage and in vitro insemination this will escalate.  It is easily seen that government is becoming a vehicle for privation and personal gain.

Such corruption does not create stability. It is a basis to use familial ties to divide the cultural support for collective security.

Atomization is more common in hedonistic western cultures while clan and tribal variations of the extended family exists in more traditional settings.

Osama Bin Laden had at least 5 wives and perhaps 11 children. The clash of culture that was focalized during the essentialist conflict between Reagan and Khomeini continues with the Obama – Gadhaffi conflict.

The fragmentation of our personal and social lives escalates as personal motivations displace more stable preferences.

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Purport of Narottama das Thakura

Srila Prabhupada in this lecture explains the concept of purity enabling a sadhaka to perceive Vrndavana within the heart.

The pleasing of Radha Krishna is also touched upon in this excellent class.

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Prabhupada Morning Walk

February 16, 1976 Mayapur

Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupäda: ...I am your friend, I am God, so you sleep, I shall do everything. In Russia like that. When Arjuna refused to fight He chastised him like anything. What is the anärya-juñöam? He's just like non-Aryans, talking foolish. People should clearly understand that we don't encourage laziness. We never encourage. According to your capacity, guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù [Bg. 4.13], you must work. Çaréra yäträpi te na prasiddhyed akarmaëaù, Kåñëa says, "By not working, even if you cannot put on your body and soul together." Kåñëa says like that.

Dayänanda: Isn't laziness one of the demonic qualities, Çréla Prabhupäda?

Prabhupäda: It is less than demonic. Demonic qualities, they have some activity and laziness is ignorance, darkness. Therefore too much sleeping is very, very bad. That is another part of laziness. Nidrähära-vihärakädi-vijitau **, one has to conquer over this sleeping and laziness. Eating, nidrä, ahära, vihära, sense gratification, vihära means sense gratification. One has to minimize these things up to the point of nil, that is perfect. When there is no more sleeping, no more eating, no more mating, and no more fearing, that is perfection of spiritual life. And that is not possible, but as much as possible. [break] ...they cannot sleep more that the culture (?) is very great gain, profit.

Hådayänanda: Consider a rich man. A rich man can sleep, a poor man must work.

Prabhupäda: Oh.

Hådayänanda: They're always making agitation to reduce what they call the work week. Formerly they were working so many hours per week, now they want to reduce it down to forty, thirty, twenty hours per week.

Prabhupäda: So why they're inventing machine? Machine means no work.

Hådayänanda: They think this is progress, everyone can lie down and the machines will work.

Prabhupäda: Yes, machine, inventing machine means one machine can work for fifty men. The banks are using this, what is that, computer?

Hådayänanda: Yes, everyone is using computers.

Prabhupäda: To save money. Machine means unemployment for many. Tractor, they're using, they're unemployment for bulls and plowmen and then they, bulls have to be killed. This is going on. Unemployment, then kill them. Vietnam, send all the men to fight and kill them. As soon as there is overpopulation, they declare war so that people may be killed.

Hådayänanda: Sometimes the soldiers became so disgusted that they would shoot their own officers.

Prabhupäda: Yes.

Hådayänanda: But they would do it in such a way so it appeared to be accidents. Sometimes they would take little bomb and throw it into the tent of the officers and they would all be killed.

Prabhupäda: What was the reason?

Hådayänanda: Well, because the officers, they were not qualified. They were simply foolish. They were directing them in such a way that they were all in danger.

Prabhupäda: Oh.

Hådayänanda: And they could not understand why they were there. It was a foreign... They were used to America and so they had to go to the jungle but they were, they could not see the point of fighting...

Prabhupäda: Mm. (indistinct)

Hådayänanda: So many times they would become so disgusted they would simply kill their own officers, shoot them or throw a bomb. Also in Vietnam, the majority of the soldiers were fighting intoxicated, marijuana and different drugs.

Dayänanda: Also I think people have no respect for authority any more.

Prabhupäda: No.

Dayänanda: There's... All over the world people are not respecting any kind of authorities.

Prabhupäda: No.

Dayänanda: There are so many false...

Prabhupäda: Especially the students. That means chaotic condition. [break] ...type of civilization, this material world.

Dayänanda: Tagore (?) is so nice that your divine grace was presenting the perfect authority, Kåñëa.

Prabhupäda: Yes. And one who follows His instruction, he also perfect. That we are pushing (indistinct) Kåñëa conscious, everything will be all right. Everyone is fallen, I asked this question to Kotofsky. "Sir, you have got a leader, we have got a leader, so where is the difference?" And then I said, "Only you have got a fool leader, we have got intelligent leader." Otherwise you cannot avoid leadership, authority. That is not possible.

Dayänanda: They want to avoid but they... Impersonalists are catering to that desire, they want to avoid authority and so the impersonalists are encouraging that. So they are rascals, the...

Prabhupäda: No, it is not possible to give up authority. That is not possible.

Hådayänanda: Your interview, those articles that you had spoken about, against Communism, are very, very brilliant. Actually we were struck with wonder to see the different arguments. Very, very important for South America because there the Communism is popular among the young students.

Prabhupäda: They read it?

Hådayänanda: Yes, we just published it in our magazine.

Prabhupäda: Oh. So they like that argument?

Hådayänanda: Yes, the argument was so intelligent that no one has ever thought of such intelligent arguments against Communism. Also the article on Freud, I think that book is very, very important. It will actually satisfy the students. No one else would dare to call these people fools. (laughter) (end)

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Bhagavad Gita As It Is

Chapter 15. The Yoga of the Supreme Person

TEXT 9

srotram caksuh sparsanam ca
rasanam ghranam eva ca
adhisthaya manas cayam
visayan upasevate

SYNONYMS

srotram--ears; caksuh--eyes; sparsanam--touch; ca--also;rasanam--tongue; ghranam--smelling power; eva--also; ca--and;adhisthaya--being situated; manah--mind; ca--also; ayam--this;visayan--sense objects; upasevate--enjoys.

TRANSLATION

The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.

PURPORT

In other words, if the living entity adulterates his consciousness with the qualities of cats and dogs, in his next life he gets a cat or dog body and enjoys. Consciousness is originally pure, like water. But if we mix water with a certain color, it changes. Similarly, consciousness is pure, for the spirit soul is pure. But consciousness is changed according to the association of the material qualities. Real consciousness is Krsna consciousness. When, therefore, one is situated in Krsna consciousness, he is in his pure life. But if his consciousness is adulterated by some type of material mentality, in the next life he gets a corresponding body. He does not necessarily get a human body again; he can get the body of a cat, dog, hog, demigod or one of many other forms, for there are 8,400,000 species.

 

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Sri Isopanisad

Mantra 4

TRANSLATION

Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.

PURPORT

Through mental speculation, even the greatest philosopher cannot know the Supreme Lord, who is the Absolute Personality of Godhead. He can be known only by His devotees through His mercy. In the Brahma-saàhitä (5.34) it is stated that even if a nondevotee philosopher travels through space at the speed of the wind or the mind for hundreds of millions of years, he will still find that the Absolute Truth is far, far away from him. The Brahma-saàhitä (5.37) further describes that the Absolute Personality of Godhead has His transcendental abode, known as Goloka, where He remains and engages in His pastimes, yet by His inconceivable potencies He can simultaneously reach every part of His creative energy. In the Viñëu Puräëa His potencies are compared to the heat and light that emanate from a fire. Although situated in one place, a fire can distribute its light and heat for some distance; similarly, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, although fixed in His transcendental abode, can diffuse His different energies everywhere.

Although His energies are innumerable, they can be divided into three principal categories: the internal potency, the marginal potency and the external potency. There are hundreds and millions of subheadings to each of these categories. The dominating demigods who are empowered to control and administer such natural phenomena as air, light and rain are all classified within the marginal potency of the Absolute Person. Lesser living beings, including humans, also belong to the Lord's marginal potency. The material world is the creation of the Lord's external potency. And the spiritual sky, where the kingdom of God is situated, is the manifestation of His internal potency.

Thus the different energies of the Lord are present everywhere. Although the Lord and His energies are nondifferent, one should not mistake these energies for the Supreme Truth. Nor should one wrongly consider that the Supreme Lord is distributed everywhere impersonally or that He loses His personal existence. Men are accustomed to reach conclusions according to their capacity for understanding, but the Supreme Lord is not subject to our limited capacity for understanding. It is for this reason that the Upanisads warn us that no one can approach the Lord by his own limited potency.

In the Bhagavad-gita (10.2) the Lord says that not even the great rsis  and suras can know Him. And what to speak of the asuras, for whom there is no question of understanding the ways of the Lord? This fourth mantra of Sri Isopanisad very clearly suggests that the Absolute Truth is ultimately the Absolute Person; otherwise there would have been no need to mention so many details in support of His personal features.

Although the individual parts and parcels of the Lord's potencies have all the symptoms of the Lord Himself, they have limited spheres of activity and are therefore all limited. The parts and parcels are never equal to the whole; therefore they cannot appreciate the Lord's full potency. Under the influence of material nature, foolish and ignorant living beings who are but parts and parcels of the Lord try to conjecture about the Lord's transcendental position. Sri Isopanisad warns of the futility of trying to establish the identity of the Lord through mental speculation. One should try to learn of the Transcendence from the Lord Himself, the supreme source of the Vedas, for the Lord alone has full knowledge of the Transcendence.

Every part and parcel of the Complete Whole is endowed with some particular energy to act according to the Lord's will. When the part-and-parcel living entity forgets his particular activities under the Lord's will, he is considered to be in maya, illusion. Thus from the very beginning Sri Isopanisad warns us to be very careful to play the part designated for us by the Lord. This does not mean that the individual soul has no initiative of his own. Because he is part and parcel of the Lord, he must partake of the initiative of the Lord as well. When a person properly utilizes his initiative, or active nature, with intelligence, understanding that everything is the Lord's potency, he can revive his original consciousness, which was lost due to association with maya, the external energy.

All power is obtained from the Lord; therefore each particular power must be utilized to execute the will of the Lord and not otherwise. The Lord can be known by one who has adopted such a submissive service attitude. Perfect knowledge means knowing the Lord in all His features, knowing His potencies and knowing how these potencies work by His will. These matters are described by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gita, the essence of all the Upanisads.

 

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Transcendental Book Distribution…

Aindra Prabhu's text Transcendental Book Distribution is available online in pdf:

http://prasadam.co.uk/files/aindra.pdf

Aindra’s Last Darshan

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